Delta Blues, named for the Mississippi Delta area that nourished it, was often sung with just an acoustic guitar or piano accompaniment. Masters of the Delta Blues included Robert "Crossroads" Johnson, Eddie J. "Son" House, and Muddy Waters. Songs of the Delta Blues that continue to bring down the house are Johnson's "Cross Road Blues," House's "My Black Mama" and Waters' "I Got my Mojo Workin'." Cream's rendition of "Cross Road Blues," titled "Crossroads," was popular in the late 1960s and continues to get a lot of radio play in 2011.
Musicians, like Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf settled in Chicago and began singing into microphones and pumping their blues through electric amplifiers and P.A. systems. Drums, horns and electric guitars became the hallmark of the Chicago Blues sound. No Chicago Blues set list would be complete without a rendition of Howlin' Wolf's "Backdoor Man" and "Goin' Down Slow" and Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle" and "Hoochie Coochie Man."
Blind Lemon Jefferson, the father of Texas Blues, brought jazz-influenced improvisation to the blues, leading the way for other legendary guitarist-singers, like T-Bone Walker, and much later, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Texas Blues songs that endured the test of time and became blues standards are Jefferson's "Jack of Diamonds," "See that my Grave is Kept Clean" and "Matchbox Blues," T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday" and "Cold Cold Feeling" and Vaughan's "Texas Flood." Though Vaughan was a solid songwriter, the title song to his breakout album was written by an obscure Houston bluesman, named Larry Davis.
W.C. Handy's 1912 song, "Memphis Blues," was the first published song with "blues" in the title. Though some musical historians consider Handy's style too polished and sophisticated to be blues, his songs, "Saint Louis Blues," "Beale Street Blues" along with "Memphis Blues" are included in many blues compilations and were inspirations for blues songs that came after, including the song widely considered to be the first blues song ever recorded, Mamie Smith's 1920 release, "Crazy Blues."