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Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm DougJohnson. This week ... the second of our two programs about thehistory of blues music.

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If you listened last week, you heard that song. It's called "SoonForgotten." It is one of thousands of great blues songs. You mightremember that we said it was sung by McKinley Morganfield. Who isthat?

McKinley Morganfield was muchbetter known as Muddy Waters, one of the greatest blues musicians ofall. He died in nineteen eighty-three. He left a lasting influenceon blues music.

Muddy Waters grew up in the American South, in the area by themouth of the Mississippi River called the Mississippi Delta. Bluesalso grew up in the Mississippi Delta. Muddy Waters learned bluesguitar from Robert Johnson there. Robert Johnson was another biginfluence on this kind of music. We talked about him last week.

Muddy Waters left Mississippi and moved north to Illinois innineteen forty-three. It was in Chicago that the American publiccame to know him. It was in Chicago that Muddy Waters put togetherbands of several musicians. These bands played a kind of music thatwas soon called Chicago Blues.

Muddy Waters made Chicago Blues famous. And Chicago Blues helpedmake Muddy Waters famous. His first big hit was with a recording ofan old Mississippi Delta blues song called "I Can't Be Satisfied."

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The great guitar work you heard was also Muddy Waters. Soon afterhe recorded that song, he began playing electric guitar. Theelectric guitar became another strong voice for blues music.

With an electric guitar, blues musicians could add more to theirmusic. The electric guitar permitted them to create sounds that werenot really possible before.

For a moment, we would like you to listen to the man who isperhaps the best-known blues guitarist today, B.B. King. Listen tohim and Lucille. Lucille is what he named his electric guitar. Thesong is called "How Blue Can You Get?"

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B.B. King makes Lucille almosttalk. She seems to speak a language. You might not understand thewords, but you can understand the meaning. B.B. King and Lucillecreate all of the feeling and emotion that is the tradition of bluesmusic.

The human voice was the first blues instrument. It still is.Lucille can get very close, but you still need the human voice forblues.

The words in blues music almost always tell a story. The wordsare usually simple and easy to remember. Usually, the opening lineof a song is repeated and then followed by a third line that rhymes.It's like a poem.

That B.B. King song we just played begins with these lines:

"I've been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met.

"I say, I've been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met.

"You know our love is nothing but the blues. Baby, how blue canyou get?

Those words were meant to be sung by someone who really knows howto sing the blues.

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To feel "blue" is to feel sad or disappointed. The HistoricalDictionary of American Slang says this term was in use by the lateseventeen hundreds.

To "sing the blues," however, meant to complain, especially inthe kind of sing-song voice of a child unhappy about a rainy day.The expression "singing the blues" goes back at least to nineteeneighteen.

Today a lot of people pay good money to hear musicians sing theblues. But what about the future?

Many blues musicians are playing and recording today. One of themis a young woman named Shemekia Copeland. She was born in nineteenseventy-nine. Shemekia Copeland grew up listening to blues. Herfather is the famous blues musician Johnny Copeland.

Listen as Shemekia Copeland sings a song from "Wicked," one ofher albums. The name of the song is "The Other Woman."

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Some people will try to tell you that blues music is sad. Thewords may be sad. But the music has always been a way to lift thesoul, a kind of medicine for dealing with hard times.

Blues music came from the Mississippi Delta. It came from thecotton fields of North Carolina. It came from the red dirt farms ofGeorgia.

Blues music began as very much a part of the black experience inAmerica. The beat and the vocal tradition came with the slaves fromAfrica. But, years later, it grew into an American form of musiclike no other.

Today, blues music comes from everywhere. Johnny Lang, a popularartist, is not even from the South. He is from North Dakota. Hisfirst album came out in nineteen ninety-seven. He was immediatelyrecognized as a top blues performer. And Johnny Lang was onlysixteen years old.

We end our program with the modern sound of blues music asperformed by Johnny Lang. The song is called "Lie To Me!"

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Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I'm DougJohnson. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Join usagain next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English.