The International Blues Challenge

Memphis, Tn - It's the beat that's guaranteed to make you move your feet, a beat that's at home from Boston to Bangkok and all points in between. A beat that's as old as the hills, but lets you feel as young you want. Yeah, the 28th edition of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis is musical proof, all over the world, "the blues is alright!"

"Everybody loves the blues. Everybody's been down and had the blues. It just feels good to be part of somebody else singing it and you know she understands. It is. It's very universal," said blues songstress Tullie Brae.

Though she's not competing, Brae and her bandmates are content to assume the role of enthusiastic supporters of the more than 200 world-wide acts lighting up Beale Street from now through Saturday night's finals competition. Diversity of styles, countries, ethnicity, ages and showmanship are on stage in a town where the roots of blues are firmly planted and continue to run deep.

"As an old guy told me when I started playing 100 years ago. He says after the doctor spanks you on the butt that first day on the face of the earth...you know about the blues," said Robert "Nighthawk" Toombs.

Speaking of youth, the Blues Challenge has it's share of competitors a lot younger than B.B. King's socks. Yet, that doesn't inhibit them from reaching those gut-bucket depths of pain, passion and joy only the blues can evoke.

"To see these young fellas doing it. I think it's great...and it's amazing how good they are coming up and we're at the hub of it," said musician Mike Forest.

Yet, as one generation of bluesmen and women eventually give way to another, it doesn't seem like the genius-ness of the musical art form ever suffers. That's because the great talents of the genre all share a common thread.

Blues musician Gordon Caldwell put it all in perspective, "Life. You just gotta live life, you know. What do they say? It's not about when you fall as how you get back up. That seems to be the blues right there so."