Free Blues Music
You don’t need to spend money — or even leave the comfort of your home — in order to access more blues music than you could listen to in a lifetime.
Madison Public LIbrary:
Recordings on CDs, vinyl LPs, and cassettes are available at the Madison Public Library. Your library card will give you access to 3,475 recordings (many of which were donated by the Madison Blues Society).
Online Music:
YouTube has videos and a great audio recordings that deserve your attention.
Slow Blues Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Gt46aX9Z4&list=PLjzeyhEA84sQKuXp-rpM1dFuL2aQM_a3S&index=2
TOP 100 Greatest Blues Songs of All Time:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFjmckBbDlzSE47xD0FivigDOARiLJl61
Dirty Blues – Chillout Whiskey Blues Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADS_xeHBCQA&pp=ygUceW91dHViZSBtdXNpYyBibHVlcyBwbGF5bGlzdA%3D%3D
Blues Radio Stations
An enormous list of blues stations: internet-radio.com
Live365 has dozens of online stations. https://live365.com/listen/search?query=blues
AccuRadio https://www.accuradio.com/blues
Links to several stations, including several with a specific focus, e.g., female singers, pre-war, acoustic, etc.
WORT archive: http://archive.wortfm.org/
Shows from the previous two weeks, available on-demand. Look for “Two for the Blues” and “Blues Cruise”.
Wednesday Blues Drive: https://www.wmse.org/program/the-blues-drive/
Broadcast on WMSE 91.7 (Milwaukee) from 3:00-6:00 PM.
It is NOT an online stream, but has shows going back as far as 2014 archived as mp3 files (with playlists!) and available for streaming.
WXPR, a Rhinelander-based station, has two blues-oriented shows.
Select the “All Streams” link in the corner of this page to listen “live”.
- Blues Friday live (6:00-9:00PM). Online archives.
- Friends of the Blues live (Friday, 9:00-11:00PM).
- Online archives: The archives contain the past TWO YEARS of programs, so you don’t actually need to listen “live”.
LiveOne.com lists both music stations and playlists
They have four stations (Blues, Traditional Blues, BB King, and Modern Blues).
However, each station has a published (and evidently static) playlist, so you are able to play individual songs if you prefer.
Podcasts
Podcasts are an alternative to radio stations. You can listen to them live, but recordings of podcasts are usually available soon after broadcast, accessible at your convenience. The format is typically more like traditional programming, with a host, perhaps a theme, etc.
