<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> <P> Scholars disagree as to whether there is a substantial musicological difference between blues that originated in the Mississippi Delta and blues from other parts of the country . The defining characteristics of Delta blues are instrumentation and an emphasis on rhythm and "bottleneck" slide guitar; the basic harmonic structure is not substantially different from that of blues performed elsewhere . Delta blues is a style as much as a geographical form: Skip James and Elmore James, who were not born in the Delta, are considered Delta blues musicians . Performers traveled throughout the Mississippi Delta, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Tennessee . Eventually, Delta blues spread out across the country, giving rise to a host of regional variations, including Chicago blues and Detroit blues . </P> <P> Delta blues songs are typically expressed in the first person and often concern love, sex, the traveling lifestyle and its tribulations, sin, salvation and death . Several blues musicians were imprisoned in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm, which is referred to in songs such as Bukka White's "Parchman Farm Blues" and the folk song "Midnight Special". </P> <P> In big - city blues, women singers such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith dominated the recordings of the 1920s . However, women rarely recorded Delta blues and other rural or folk - style blues . In Delta blues female performers often had some romantic connection to more notable male performers: Geeshie Wiley was reportedly linked with Papa Charlie McCoy, whose brother Kansas Joe McCoy was married to Memphis Minnie, and the seminal Charlie Patton sometimes played and recorded with his wife, Bertha Lee . It was not until late in the 1960s that women began to be heard in recorded performances at the level they had previously enjoyed . It was then that Janis Joplin arrived as the first female performer to achieve both accolades from her peers as a blues performer and crossover commercial success, reaching diverse audiences with a powerful and emotive vocal delivery . Other women influenced by Delta blues, who learned from some of the most notable of the original artists still living, include Bonnie Raitt, Rory Block, and Susan Tedeschi . </P>

What is not a characteristic of delta blues style