between rock and a hard place

The Blues and Blues/Rock is in a sad state right now.  Keep in mind that Blues rock WAS the heavy metal of it's day.  Blues is a truely American artform and unfortunately as all great art has periods when it's in fashion and out of fashion.  Blues was not very popular in it's debut and quickly dismissed as Devil's music and sinful.  Eventually it caught on like wildfire, partly due to it's slightly taboo nature at the time and legends of guys like Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil for unbelievable guitar prowess.  Then it seems that the blues took a break, but still remained relevant in the 40's-50's.  Well as we all know there was the British blues/psychedelic blues explosion of the 60's that carried well through the 70's as well influencing a lot of the rock bands during that timeframe.  Again the blues took a break towards the mid-late 70's probably due to guys like Eddie Van Halen coming on to the scene just mauling up everyone with his flashy style. 
              So that became the new fad thus putting blues on the backburner for about 10 years.  Then came a huge resurgance partly due to Eric Clapton's career revival and of coarse the guy who probably made the biggest dent ever...SRV.  SRV pretty much resurrected the blues during the 80's making it cool to not play the guitar like a typewriter (I do love EVH though!)  Sadly the blues died with Stevie in 1990 and we've been patiently waiting its next strong resurgance. 
           Well IMO Joe Bonamassa is the guy who is going to be the next "blues messiah".  Joe's popularity has exploded in the last few years here and I think we are witnessing the next revival.  Joe's influence is spreading very quickly to many musicians much like Clapton, Hendrix, SRV, and others have done in the past.  To answer you question, yes it is hard to get a blues rock band together these days.  Especially if you are young and are looking for other young guys to play with.  I have said this before and I'll say it again, I feel that the blues is only being kept alive by younger/middle aged white guys who play guitar.  I think it's very sad and disappointing that the VAST majority of the youthful African American culture has forgotten perhaps one of the most important and proud pieces of it's history.  Hip hop, rap, and electronic "music" has shrouded the passing on of Jazz and Blues to it's younger generation. 
           I'm 22 years old and I'm the only person I know that's my age that listens to anything thats over 10 years old.  I have tried to get some people together to play old school rock and blues that were my age...no luck.  It's just not popular, and may never be.  The future can only tell.  I say work on your chops and become as versitile as possible so you can play with ANYONE.  Sorry for the essay, but I feel very passionate about this topic.  I love the Blues, always will.

         -Justin

Good points about BB King, Clapton, and Buddy guy.  The did have some later in their career success but again they have had their success for many years before the '90s.  Walter Trout is a smokin' guitar player but he is far from being a household name.  I agree perhaps me saying that "the blues died with SRV" was not entirely accurate but I think that a lot of the passion and fire that Stevie had, when he died, took a lot of wind out of the proverbial sails of the Blues.  I agree with most of your points and will also add what Joe Bonamassa has said in multiple interviews about the Blues.  He believes that the blues needs to change with the times and the blues of yesteryear need not be the blues of today.  He gets grilled from time to time for the shreddy licks, rock tone, and "borrowing" from the greats.  I think that Joe is coming into his own and I'm hearing less and less of his influences in his playing.  The blues does not have to be BB King/Albert King/Freddie King with horns and cleaner guitars.  The Blues can be just as relevant through a '62 Stratocaster and Super Reverb as a Jackson Soloist w/EMGs and Line 6 Spider.  The purists need to ease up a bit by appreciating that there are a few younger guys out there trying to carry the torch and accept that things will ultimately have to change.  As far as getting a band together, I find it much harder to find bass players and drummers period, no less ones who don't want to play death metal.  I live near the Orlando area and I'd say that guitarists probably outnumber drummers/bass players 50:1.  My goal is to find my own unique niche and style that will take the blues somewhere new and exciting.  Good luck getting a band together!  Keep fighting the good fight!

Firstly thanks for the replies to this post, I thought it might be a little esoteric so was worried no one would reply.

Stevie did put the blues in the public eye the most, that is true (I mean MTV unplugged and all!) so yes, with him around for longer maybe the ball could have kept rolling a bit longer. SRV wasn't my first hero (Buddy Guy was) but SRV probably made me more determined to become a better guitarist than anyone else did and he's often the first person I show people if they are new to the blues, since, well he's amazing.

I prefer when Joe doesn't do too much shredding, etc. but yes, it for one gets the guitar crowd interested in the blues and although us guitarists say "tone and feeling over speed" ad finitum lots of us have a soft spot for it now and then. Yes, Joe's blues has moved on from some of the stuff before it and that can only be good with regards to getting new audiences.

Regarding bands, sometimes I can find drummers who like jazz drums, but yeah, bassists and especially singers I find hard to come across. I know some guitarists just sing even if they can't, but there are limits as to just how weak singing you can get away with and I would pass them!

Sometimes I just wish I liked bloody indie so I could form yet another lame Radiohead or Coldplay wannabe band in a flash!!!

You too, hope you both get some luck getting into or forming bands that are what you really want to do, keep me posted!

Move to Pittsburgh.  You can find a Blues Band on every corner.  First, I love the blues....when played well.  However it seems that as soon as a kid learns a blues scale or pentatonic scale he feels he can play the blues.  Hence, on every corner is a mediocre at best band playing for $200.  They bring there beer drinking buddies and fill the place and the club owner is happy cause he's selling a ton of beer and only paying a band less than a decent DJ would charge.
I actually was invited to play an open stage "jam" night.  The singer was an established local Blues singer.  Old school all the way...great bluesman.   The singer called the next tune which he simply said "slow blues in Am".  The guitarist in charge actually whispered in my ear "How do you play an Am"
"Sit this one out" I said.  Geez.