...and what you particularly like about the song, the artist, and the impact you're able to make on the audience with those songs - also, whether you picked it (or parts of it) up easily, or it was a struggle....whether particular lines or solos just 'knocked you out' and why

You are asking about covers?

I was in a blues band back in the 90s, playing bars. My favorite song of the night was always "All your Love (I miss loving)", a song originally done by Otis Rush I believe, but we did the version from the John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers album with Eric Clapton on guitar (the Beano album). I like the switch from the slow minor key groove to the uptempo major key section in the middle. Plus that main riff is a great hook.

As far as solos go we (myself and the other guitarist in the band) almost always played our own solos, different every night.

As a career bedroom musician myself, my gigging never went much further then open mics and friends house parties.

That being said, learning Layla from Clapton's unplugged is still probably one of my fondest accomplishments.

When I first started dabbling into blues, one of the first songs I learned was Malted Milk by Robert Johnson and really opened up what blues feels like on the guitar.

I have always loved the blues - but never listened through enough of the roots of the genre to begin picking out favorites....using this thread as a head start to discovering some great stuff. I'm particularly interested in trying to mix it up - I'm aware of some of the different categories - Delta, Mississippi, Texas, Chicago, Jazz Blues...very different feels - but all of it 'the blues'....I'm sure I missed some very important categories. I'm trying to get a little more immersed in the roots - I realize 'almost everything'...or at least - really, really a lot of music, comes from the blues....lol - I always try to qualify my statements to avoid debates or counter-arguements in this forum lol

There's some really cool answers here so far! Can't wait to read more.