Apple pie and Chevrolet. Baseball and…the blues. Few things are truly as American.

One of the country’s only entirely original art forms, the blues can be traced back hundreds of years. Although musical historians may argue whether the style is a descendant of Native American verse or a combination of African and European influences, no one debates this: the blues are wholly American, its earliest incarnation rising from the voices of slaves in the rural South during the 19^th and 20^th Centuries. Eventually, the words were set to paper and mixed with music, and the musical style known as the blues was born.

While the trademark 12-bar pattern and vocal improvisation has remained largely untouched, the blues as an art form has undergone a number of transformations throughout the years, branching out into electric blues, country blues, East Coast blues, harmonica blues, Chicago blues, Louisiana blues, Texas blues, St. Louis blues, acoustic blues, and piano blues. More than 100 forms have been acknowledged.

Whatever the form, there is no doubt that the blues exist in Harrisburg…but where do the blues live? And who brings it to life?

If names like Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and W.C. Handy spring to mind when talking about the blues, so should bands like Krypton City Blues Revue, Miss T and the Mosquitoes, Jimmoe Blues Riot, Steve Creter, Beulah Mae, Sal B, the B Block Blues Band, and the Chris Waller Blues Band, the latter of which are numbered among Harrisburg’s most popular blues acts.

On its search for the blues in Harrisburg, MODE went right to the source: the players. We caught up with a sampling of the area’s blues artists to learn the specifics of the blues scene in Central Pennsylvania, how and where it is played, and just how the audiences respond to their music.

If you’ve seen him, you haven’t missed him. He’s the tall guy with the guitar. Mitch Ivanoff formed the Krypton City Blues Revue 12 years ago as an outlet for the music that "spoke to him" like no other did. Krypton City plays Mississippi-Chicago-style blues with a touch of the West Coast style thrown in for good measure — and the method has worked. Alongside drummer Dale Wise, bass guitarist Pete Netznick, Nate Myers on harmonica, and Trent Peechatca on keyboards, Ivanoff has formed a successful bond with area audiences, as one of the most popular live acts of any genre in the area.

Ivanoff believes the Harrisburg area is more than just a hot bed for rock ’n’ roll; it is also a beacon for blues artists, with audiences turning out night after night to see and hear artists like himself.

"Central Pennsylvania is the land of milk and honey for blues around here," he said. "Bands come from all around to work here."

And why do they come? "I think the demographic is right," he said. "Blues music, for one thing, really offends no one. It’s deeply engrained in every form of American music, and if you look at all American music together — if you take country, blues, and jazz, which are American forms — the elements are all the same."

More than just the right demographic and the sound of the music, factors like receptive fans and accommodating club owners also account for the success of blues in the area, according to James "JimMoe" Mulholland, frontman of JimMoe Blues Riot.

"The Harrisburg area in general is really an incredible area for the blues," said Mulholland, who is backed by "West Coast" Tony Ryder on bass, W. T. Phillippy on drums and harp, and Mr. K. J. on guitar. "It’s really up and coming, and I think a lot of the club owners are really starting to recognize and get more involved."

A number of local clubs and restaurants host weekly blues nights (see sidebar), there is an active organization of blues musicians and enthusiasts — the Blues Society of Central Pennsylvania — and, according to a regional blues website, there are nearly 100 Pennsylvania blues artists currently performing in the Commonwealth.

Not bad for a style of music that is often misunderstood.

"It’s not what everybody thinks," said Misty Akers of Miss T and the Mosquitoes, an Ephrata-based band that has been playing in Central Pennsylvania for more than six years. The band — Akers, Randy Martin (bass guitar), Fred Eberly (keyboards), Bob Lausch (guitar, blues harp), and Jamie Hess (drums) — has just recently branched out into the Harrisburg area. "The blues is fun, danceable, good-times music. If you listen to the lyrics, it’s just a different way of expressing all the heartbreak and all the things that typically seem to be associated with the blues in a very up-tempo way."

While Steve Creter, frontman of Steve Creter and the Pirates of the Road (the Pirates being Jeff Shoop on percussion and Bob Grimwood on rhythm bass), admits that the musical style may not be for everyone — "I would think if you’re into the art and culture of music, you wouldn’t want to miss a blues or a jazz show, but if you’re just out to drink beer and pick up chicks, it’s really not that kind of music; it’s more for the listener," he said — he agrees that there is an untapped bed of blues fans unaware of what they’re missing.

"There’s definitely a blues scene in Harrisburg, and it’s starting to spread," he said. "There’s a really good pocket of it in Mount Joy. We play at Bube’s Brewery, and that’s a real good blues audience there, but there are so many others who have yet to give it a listen."

Akers continued, "It’s one of those genres that’s really difficult to get people to come out and see because they have this stereotype about what the blues really are. And, generally speaking, when somebody comes out and actually hears us, the most common reaction is, ‘Wow, I didn’t know the blues could sound like that.’ If we can get people to come out and hear us, they stick around for awhile."

So the blues live. It thrives in the music of area artists and reverberates off of the walls of area clubs. Far from being at its creative peak, the blues scene in the Harrisburg area is still undergoing a process of growth and change, gaining one listener at a time.