African blues
African blues is a genre of popular music, primarily from West Africa. The term may also reference a putative journey undertaken by traditional African music from its homeland to the United States and back. Some scholars and ethnomusicologists have speculated that the origins of the blues can be traced to the musical traditions of Africa, as retained by African-Americans during and after slavery. Even though the blues is a key component of American popular music, its rural, African-American origins are largely undocumented, and its stylistic links with African instrumental traditions are somewhat tenuous. One musical influence that can be traced back to African sources is that of the plantation work songs with their call-and-response format, and more especially the relatively free-form field hollers of the later sharecroppers, which seem to have been directly responsible for the characteristic vocal style of the blues.Albums such as African Blues by Ali Farka Toure have a noticeable African and American Blues influence. The death of Malian guitar legend Ali Farka Touré has inspired a new round of speculation about the roots of the blues in Africa. Touré famously argued that the beloved American genre was "nothing but African", a bold assertion. The question has received extensive scholarly attention in Gerhard Kubik's book Africa and the Blues, and in Paul Oliver's Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues.

Notable artists
Ali Farka Toure
Boubacar Traoré
Ramon Goose
Corey Harris
Vieux Farka Toure
Ry Cooder
Taj Mahal
Robert Plant
Rokia Traore
Baaba Maal
Nuru Kane
Justin Adams

References
Further reading
Kubik, Gerhard (2008). Africa and the Blues. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-728-8.
Oliver, Paul (1970). Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues. London: Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-79828-0.

External links
Article on African Blues