Last month, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted a night of blues music as part of the PBS "In Performance at the White House" series.
In welcoming the crowd to the White House, President Obama talked about the origin of the blues:
"This is music with humble beginnings -- roots in slavery and segregation, a society that rarely treated black Americans with the dignity and respect that they deserved. The blues bore witness to these hard times. And like so many of the men and women who sang them, the blues refused to be limited by the circumstances of their birth.
The music migrated north -- from Mississippi Delta to Memphis to my hometown in Chicago. It helped lay the foundation for rock and roll, and R&B and hip-hop. It inspired artists and audiences around the world. And as tonight's performers will demonstrate, the blues continue to draw a crowd. Because this music speaks to something universal. No one goes through life without both joy and pain, triumph and sorrow. The blues gets all of that, sometimes with just one lyric or one note."
See Gary Clark, Jr. performing 'Catfish Blues' below!
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