Blues-L devoted to the discussion of the Blues in all of its forms—from predecessors of blues music to contemporary performers. Discussions have been very wide-ranging, branching into a variety of topics, but always should include a definite, direct connection to the Blues. Subscribers and contributors include professional musicians, producers, radio programmers, and authors as well as average, everyday lovers of the music.

          The mail list was originally created by Jake Haller at Brown University and functions by listmembers submitting messages in email form to a central server than in turn distributes those messages to each member independently as email. The server is located at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. The program on the server that controls the mailing list is Listserv 1.8b. The server also feeds messages to a newsgroup, bit.listserv.blues-l. 
 
          Currently, hundreds of people (from countries all over the world) subscribe to the mail list, and countless others read the list through the newsgroup mirror. In order to send messages to the Blues-L mailing list, a person must first become a member. There are no fees or forms to to fill out, just send one simple email. Read the Quick Start section of this web site to learn how to become a member. It is possible to receive Blues-L in digest form, in index form or configure settings to not receive email so that it can be read on the newsgroup feed while still being entitled to post.