I've been a Blues fan since I first started listening to blues music in my room at night while in high school in Indiana. At night, I could pick up WCKY, Cincinnati, OH. I lived 90 miles east of Chicago but that big AM signal they had came in clearly at night. We're talking late 1950s - early 1960s. That's where I first heard the Delta blues, but my tastes broadened to include the electric blues when that came around.
This article was right on about the nature of the Blues. I used to have a shirt I bought in Dallas at the Too Blue Festival in 2000 that just about sums it up. It said "Not Black...Not White...Just The Blues". I do still have the concert shirt; the acts included Bo Diddley, Ruth Brown, Blind Boys of Alabama, The Staples Singers, Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, Irma Thomas, Charlie Musselwhite, and many more. It was obviously a mix of blues, soul, rock and roll and gospel. In my opinion, the Blues is meant to be experienced in live performance.
I could go on and on, but I won't. Suffice it to say that when the Blues gets in your blood you are hooked for life.