Awesome Blues

Musician Justin Johnson is a blues guitar master. This captivating 43-minute video features a series of classic rock songs he arranged and performed on a beautiful Gretsch slide guitar, including tunes from ZZ Top, The Beatles, The White Stripes, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones, and more.

There’s no question that Jack White’s music features a heavy blues influence. Musician Justin Johnson took things to their logical conclusion by performing The White Stripes’ anthemic Seven Nation Army on a steel guitar with a slide, giving it that classic Mississippi Delta Blues sound. (Thanks, Jennifer!)

It’s hard to get a cat to do anything on command, so we’re impressed that this musician managed to train his cat Badu to meow along whenever he snaps his fingers and points. Now that we think about it, it’s really Badu that’s in charge and making his human perform on command.

When I hear that disco whistle blowin’, I hang my head and cry. There I Ruined It destroys yet another classic tune. This time they transformed Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues into an awful disco tune, and in the process, they provoke a prison riot.

Postmodern Jukebox and vocalist Cortnie Frazier perform a truly unique rendition of Pearl Jam’s 1991 grunge classic Black. Scott Bradlee’s smoky blues arrangement is perfectly executed through Frazier’s silky smooth vocals and the band’s rich orchestral sounds.

A rare performance from a one-shot supergroup comprised of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Mitch Mitchell, as they rock out a rough-hewn track that’s as good as any garage blues we’ve ever heard. Bonus points for the silly chat between Lennon and Mick Jagger.

Blues legend Riley “B.B.” King passed away in his sleep on 5/14/15. He was 89 years old. B.B. pioneered techniques and styles that have become blues standards, shared the genre to a wider audience and kept performing until 2013.

The music video for first track from Jack White’s upcoming solo album Lazaretto – an instrumental that combines blues and intense electric riffs, set against the backdrop of non-newtonian fluids and sand vibrating to the track’s frequencies.