The 40s and 50s post-war migration brought tough working conditions in Chicago which offered stability over the miserable sharecropper existence of the Delta.  Both were fodder for the some of the very best in classic blues. The production lines of Detroit and other cities on the Eastern seaboard were models of a different kind of work that the Industrial Age had to offer. But the West Coast wasn’t the place you’d expect to find the blues: shipyards, agriculture, and urban sprawl would aggregate so many different styles that rhythm and blues was a fusion of the many different sensibilities that were brought with both performer and listener alike westward from east of the Mississippi. Having the hub of the world of entertainment in the Southland didn’t hurt either. We’ll be browsing the sounds of some of the greats: McCracklin, Fulson, Otis, Mayfield, and (of course) T-Bone Walker in the Deeper Roots morning show today. West Coast Blues led to blues-based rock in large part because of the exposure to the many different styles of the mid-century blues bands and solo rockers. West Coast Blues Roots is the name of our show this morning on KOWS-LP Occidental.