Maxwell Street

The blues are a foundational American art form that speak not only to the U.S. experience but to all of humanity's.

Need proof? Just ask a European -- especially a European who's making a sentimental journey to the sacred shrines of the blues, with obligatory sojourns in Memphis, New Orleans, Chicago and the Dockery Plantation in the Mississippi Delta.

That's the traveling itinerary followed by writer Manuel Recio in the Madrid newspaper El Pais titled "La ruta del 'blues,'" published Nov. 5 in the paper's travel section. In his article, Recio sets out on Highway 61,...