Blues

There are three artists with the name Blues: A.) A defunct hardcore/rock band from Tucson, Arizona B.) A rapper from Sweden C.) Founding member of The Cherry Blues Project A.) Blues (originally known as Blues for the Martyrs) formed in 2004 in Tucson, Arizona. They released one full length record and two EP's, and toured several times across the country. The band went through several line up changes over the years, while also continuously evolving their sound.

There are three artists with the name Blues: A.) A defunct hardcore/rock band from Tucson, Arizona B.) A rapper from Sweden C.) Founding member of The Cherry Blues Project A.) Blues (originally known as Blues for the Martyrs) formed in 2004 in Tucson, Arizona. They released one full length record and two EP's, and toured several times across the country. The band went through several line up changes over the years, while also continuously evolving their sound. In 2006, the band traveled to Louisville, KY to record their debut EP "Death & Taxes" (Rome Plow Records) with Chris Owens (LORDS), touring back home with LORDS & Ed Gein. The band followed up their EP with a full length record, "Snakepit" (Corrosive Recordings) and toured around the country in support of the release. The band continued to develop their own heavy sound with their "Heavy Sci-Fi" EP, which was released online for free via the band's MySpace.

The band's line up continued to go through changes, including several performances as an instrumental group. Eventually, the remaining members re-formed under a new name and have since gone on hiatus, as of Fall 2009. You can now hear much of the band's catalog online: http://myspace.com/bluesforthemartyrs B.) Blues is a Swedish rapper that emerged as one of the first big names in the upswing in popularity that the swedish hip-hop scene experienced during the late 90's. His first and most popular hit single featured a sample of the eponymous song "Under ytan" by Uno Svenningsson, which was already before widely considered a classic by many swedes. Many found this move to be higly original as Swedish rap often was, and still is, highly focused on American styles and samples.

Others accused Blues of riding on the success of the original songwriter. Whether this was true or false, his first album "Samhällstjänst", released in spring 1999, was never a great commercial success. Possible cause of this lack of success might have been lack of exposure from the label possibly combined with the effect of Blues' low key attitude. Probably the great simultaneous success of fellow Swedish rappers Ken Ring and Petter added to this effect. As Petter appealed largely to ethnical Swedes, Blues and Ken were perceived as spokespeople of the growing group of first and second generation immigrants.

As such, the much controversial Ken was often much more interesting than the pensive and laid back Blues. Blues released two more albums, "Ny tid, ny strid" (2001) and "Den där Blues" (2002), both with even lesser success than his first. C.) Blues is one of the founding members of the Argentine duo The Cherry Blues Project User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..