The blues is a typical and indigenous African American genre which is meant to express everyday individual pain and relief. The Negro performance of the blues is especially intriguing to me, because I have developed a strong feeling of sympathy for African Americans. When slavery took Africans from their land, they were separated from the rich musical and oral traditions native to each country and region. While working as slaves, Africans recognized they had two places where they could use these musical traditions freely: the fields where they worked and the churches where they prayed. The field hollers, spirituals, and work songs they invented were designed to lighten the load of the work. They were also a means of telling stories, passing along news, plotting escapes, and releasing frustrations. The early blues carried on the tradition of voicing black aspirations and experiences. I am going to examine how this tradition relates to the blues regarding the expression of pain and relief.