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Scott Joplin releases the song "Maple Leaf Rag", which is ragtime style. Ragtime will soon have a key influence on blues.
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Blues music events
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Musician W.C. Handy sees an unknown bluesman playing guitar with a knife at a train station in Mississippi.
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W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues" and recorded as sheet music.
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Mamie Smith records "Crazy Blues" for Okeh Records. This becomes the first blues hit, starting the business of "race" recording.
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Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey make their record debuts for classic blues.
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Ralph Peer makes his first field recordings in Atlanta, Georgia, marking the recording debut of new folk blues.
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Blind Lemon Jefferson will become the first star of folk blues, and the dominant figure of the blues of the late 1940's.
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Charley Patton, an early delta bluesman is first recorded.
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The Great Depression begins, causing economic ruin. This causes sales of records and phonographs to plummet, which is very bad for the recording industry.
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Eddie Durham records first song with electric guitar.This will help transform the sound of blues.
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B.B. King's first major rhythm and blues hit with a version of "Three O'Clock Blues.
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"The Country Blues" published by Samuel Charters. This helped add the blues element to the revival of folk music
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The first US tour of the Rolling Stones marks the invasion of British blues-rock groups.
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Recently rediscovered bluesman Son House and Skip James perform at the Newport Folk Festival
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2003 is declared the year of the blues, celebrating the 100th anniversary of when W.C. Handy encountered an unknown blues man at a train station in Mississippi.
