Blues Licks and Country Licks

[Bandit]

I have be going through www.guitarplayertv.com and noticed that there are a lot of standard type blues licks. But there aren't a lot of standard country licks.
Why is that?

[jamesbookert]

i would imagine that it is because there are few country players/listeners. I know more serious musicians than i know non musicians, and out of them i know two country guitar players besides myself. just a though.

[ddewerd]

It may also have to do with the simplicity of the blues.

OK, this is a real generalization, but much of blues is based around a standard 12-bar format, and the licks tend to be focused around minor (and also major) pentatonic licks. Although there are many 3 chord country tunes as well, there is probably a lot more variety in chordal makeup of country songs.

So there tend to be many "standard" licks for blues, because many blues songs are based on the same 12-bar format. It's easy to play blues if you know your minor pentatonic - of course it's hard to play WELL if that's all you know.

I also think that country licks tend to imitate melody lines more closely than in blues, hence more variation (and harder to be "standard").

There's probably something here about the history and birth of each, and the players and circumstances from where each came. Maybe blues had more common styles early on because everyone was copying each other. I don't know enough about this aspect, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Cheers,
Doug