Harmonica player Paul Butterfield and his Blues Band were the pioneers of blues rock in America. Their performance of "Born In Chicago" at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 did as much to introduce white America to electric Chicago blues as the bands spearheading the British invasion, opening doors for many hitherto unappreciated black musicians. The band's eclectic style, and the work of guitarist Mike Bloomfield in particular, is said to have influenced guitar legends as disparate as Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana and Duane Allman.
Canned Heat were as deeply immersed in the blues as Paul Butterfield, but their sound veered towards boogie, presaging ther glossier sound of 1970's bands like ZZ Top, The Doobie Brothers and the Allmans, although less so the funkier Little Feat or the straight-ahead blues rock of Johnny Winter or southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd.
After veering towards boogie in the 1970's blues rock made a comeback, returning to it's roots in the 1980's in the hands of Stevie Ray Vaughan in particular. But after after his death in 1990 the blues influence diminished to some extent, although it is still very evident in the sound of The Black Crowes and The White Stripes, amongst others.

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