Recommend some Blues music to a newbie

i saw Roy Buchanan open for Lowell George and little feat.
I think it cost a buck, with a college ID.
I like all these recommendations.
let's not forget gary moore and still got blues.
love that album jacket.

Blues covers a range of music, as reflected in some of the posts made here so far. Joey B. is electric blues reminiscent of Clapton in the formative years (although Joey has gotten too hard rock for me, still love him, and have seen him a bunch of times). John Lee Hooker is old school and lasted a long time. Here are a few recommendations, off the top of my head:
HooDoo Man Blues- Junior Wells and Buddy Guy- if you are a vinyl guy, go for the audiophile 45 rpm pressing. You can smell the cigarette smoke in the room, this album has all of the vibe of a blues bar in the early 60's. (not that I was spending time in them then);
Muddy Waters- find a collection of his earlier stuff from the Chess era. Ditto on Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter. If you like harmonica, Sonny Boy Williamson II (there was a Sonny Boy Williamson I).

Early Stuff, acoustic, delta, country blues: Skip James, Big Bill Broonzy, Son House, Blind Willie Johnson ("Dark was the Night" and "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine"); Bukka White ("Shake 'em on Down"), just to name a few (and there were many who are just as good, I am leaving out the obvious, R Johnson, but you will know Crossroads, at least, which is attributed to him). The early stuff, at least on the early recordings, is not sonically spectacular, but hugely musical.
Female Vocal: Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Big Mama Thornton, some Etta James, Janis Joplin.
Almost every electric blues artist from the 60's either 'borrowed' or acknowledged their direct influence by earlier artists, so you can work through Cream, Jimi, early Peter Green Fleetwood Mac, Led Zep, Johnny Winter, and get solid harder edged blues that has antecedents. For example, Junior Kimbrough was a big influence on Black Keys, so if you like them, you'll probably like Junior.
Jimi's Red House on Concert in the West is brilliant.
Try creating a blues channel on Pandora and you'll be exposed to alot.
There is also alot of literature to read and if you are interested, I can recommend some books.

Ruston, looks like we overlapped.:)

Just heard Johnny W. about a month ago at the Turning Point in Piermont
NY. He was totally on top of his instrument- he is a legendary player who
can still play well. The room holds maybe 100 people if you include the
folks sitting at the bar. I highly recommend this venue to anybody in the
greater NY metro area.
Another great, great player, although not a blues guy, per se, is Johnny A,
out of Boston, who does these Wes Montgomery style jazz licks then
layers hard, ripping rock leads on top (His bass player is also phenomenal).
We were in Memphis a few months ago, and I guess being a tourist, I was
disappointed that there was very little in the way of old style country or
delta blues. There was one guy playing hard rock style blues who was first
rate, though.
Did catch an old timer a few years ago named Satan. He was a street
musician, who, with a little help from a blues harp player, put together a
very solid stage act. The harp player was first rate. Best though, was the
guy helping them load in and out. He had a T-shirt that said: "Satan's
Roadie."

Good call on T-Bone. When i first started listening to him as a teenager, i thought he was this old blues guy. Little did i know he was a huge entertainer back in the day, with band, show and dance moves.
His style is often imitated, but...

There is also a rendition of First Time i met the Blues by Buddy Guy that
was recorded live, and is included on the soundtrack of a movie about the
Chicago blues that was produced a long time ago. The soundtrack is
available as a download, and a CD, i'm not sure about the vinyl- doubt it
was reissued. I don't have that Chicago Blues today three record set, so i'm
not sure if this track is on there. The movie it was in, and the soundtrack it
is from is called "Chicago Blues." It is a really good version of that tune, and
Buddy is happenin'.
He's coming soon to Tarrytown Music Hall, near us, hope to catch him.
Sabai- i agree- T-Bone is the best. That whole 1/2 step up-down diminished
chord thing,
and those single note lead lines so define him. I bought my first T-bone
record when i was still barely out of high school; i also have that Mosaic set
on vinyl that is easily 15 years-oops, just checked- 22 years old.
I always hear players doing a Tbone kinda thing.

yea, Mapman. That whole UK blues movement that started in the early 60's and recognized what most American listeners didn't or couldn't at the time, from their own music legacy (maybe due in part to the fact that the music didn't typically cross racial lines on mainstream stations) and brought us a slew of great performing artists and recordings from the UK. You are gonna make me pull out some of these and listen to them later tonite.