At the end of the 19^th century, African American communities from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, also known as the deep south of the United States, fused traditional African music, European folk, spiritual work songs, field hollers, shouts,  chants, and simple rhymed narrative ballads. We have come to know this musical fusion as “The Blues”. The term has been known to be used as early as 1912 when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first-ever copyrighted blues composition. During the first part of the last century, as white American audiences started to embrace the blues, the genre was not considered reputable and was blamed for inciting violence and misbehaviors, just like many other popular young and innovative genres.  During the decades of the ’60s and ’70s, the blues gained acceptance in American popular culture. In 1980, after the release of the film “The Blues Brothers”  this music form received worldwide attention mainly due to the participation in the film of musicians like Ray Charles, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, and John Lee Hooker. In 1998 the sequel “The Blues Brothers 2000” included even more legends, one of them was singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer Riley B King known as the king of blues, BB King who after many years of battling diabetes passed away peacefully in his sleep earlier this week. He was 89 years old.  With his death, another mythical legend of this genre sadly leaves us not without having inspired many musicians and fans around the globe since 1948. As with everything else in life, new generations of bluesmen will have the privilege, honor, and challenge to carry on with traditional sounds and contemporary new trends. Among this new wave of talented musicians, we find pioneer Colombian bluesman Carlos Elliot Jr. A self-advocated activist, who plays the guitar and fife, and who while trying to find rock & roll’s true musical roots discovered and fell in love with the Mississippi Hill Country Blues, and along with the late Big Jack Johnson’s band The Cornlickers, released his debut album Mystic Juke-Joint Blues in March 2013. Last year, he released his second album Raise the Fire AMERICA, which recently received six nominations and won the album of the year category during the 9^th annual Colombian indie rock association, “Subterranica Awards”, during this ceremony, Carlos Elliot Jr. also won the prestigious award for “Artist of the year”.

Colombian Accents caught up with the bluesman in his hometown of Dosquebradas, Risaralda, and had the pleasure to talk about among other things, how a few years back he was just captivated by the sounds, spirituality, and mysticism of this type of music. He also shared with us details about his musical creative process, some of the names that influenced his own playing and singing style, as well as the name of his upcoming 2015 new album.