It's not a joke; these are real blues musicians, some of them (Joe Louis Walker, Donald Kinsey, David Honeyboy Edwards, Otis Clay, Pinetop Perkins) quite well known. And yes, the blues has often had to struggle and compromise to reach a wider audience.
At its peak, the program offered up to 99 weeks of coverage. It's been scaled down gradually ever since. Two states with high unemployment, Illinois and Nevada, had offered 73 weeks of benefits. California had offered 63 weeks, and most others offered 43 to 63 weeks.
Illinois Unemployment. You were unemployed during that week. You were paid $1,600 or more in wages during your base period for insured work. You were paid at least $440 of your base period wages at any time during the base period outside the calendar quarter in which your wages were highest.