Devin Shamel is Bringing Back the Blues

“Grab a seat, and let me play the blues for you,” invites Devin Shamel at the start of his TikTok videos. Often found with his resonator guitar, Shamel is dedicated to spreading the influence of an obscure genre of music that has recently found a place in the mainstream scene: Delta blues.

Devin Shamel | Photo by Devin Shamel

Born and raised in Atlanta, the 28-year-old musician started his career as a rapper; his first song

was a Drake cover at age 13. “The reason I started [rapping] was because I wanted to have a certain image,” Shamel said. “You don't hear about people playing blues or anything in Atlanta, especially growing up.” With rap stars like Ludacris, Future, Gucci Mane, Childish Gambino, Playboi Carti, and Lil Yachty all being from Atlanta, it makes sense why Shamel started that way. But once he learned how to play guitar, his exploration into new genres began.

After a stint playing R&B, he finally found his place in the blues sphere–specifically, delta blues. The difference, Shamel said, “is the instrumentation. The slide guitar is the root behind it. Whereas you have other kinds of blues, like you have Texas blues, which was Stevie Ray Vaughn with fast-paced electric guitar. Delta blues is simpler and stripped down. It’s all about hearing the guitar and telling the story.” 

Delta blues originated in the Mississippi Delta region in the early 1900s. Not coincidentally, Ryan Coogler’s 2025 box-office hit “Sinners” takes place in Clarksdale, Mississippi. “Sinners” has effectively returned blues music to the mainstream, and Shamel is making the most of its newfound popularity. “It’s a movie that highlights the cultural aspect of the music. It puts black music and culture at the forefront,” Shamel said. “For a lot of people, it was probably their first time ever seeing someone play slide guitar. [The movie] highlights it in such a beautiful way to where people actually want to learn the songs.” Shamel’s comment sections are often flooded with stills from “Sinners” as positive reaction images. 

Shamel has been a long-time player of the blues, but was reluctant to upload videos of his music until “Sinners” exploded. “At first, I was like, ‘Man, who wants to see me play slide guitar?’ But “Sinners” exposed a lot of people to the genre, and then people just realized that this is an old style that was kind of forgotten about. It’s something new but old; the wheel has come back around on it.” 

Blood Moon Rising art | By Devin Shamel

His newest single, “Blood Moon Rising,” came out in September 2025, and it’s the first Delta blues song Shamel has released. “A lot of my other music is a lot more rock-centric. I never thought that slide guitar would be something that gets me a lot of attention,” Shamel said. “But just me and the guitar, stomping, playing–that stuff was resonating with people a lot.” And it resonated with record labels as well; three Nashville labels reached out to Shamel in one week after he posted a snippet of “Blood Moon Rising.” 

Despite Delta blues having originated far from Atlanta, the city has its own history of blues that Shamel wants to carry on. Rap and R&B exploded in Atlanta in the 1990s, but further back in time, Georgia was one of the biggest blues hotspots in the 1920s and ‘30s. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Little Richard, and Ray Charles all hail from the Peach State. “With Atlanta being such a culture-rich city and with the music scene, especially, having such a history behind it, I think I’m just taking all those things and seeing how I can best contribute to it. I want to represent for the city a little bit.”

With a new Delta blues project in the works, Shamel is hoping to play shows around Atlanta soon. His previous music required a full band, but with Delta blues, all Shamel needs is himself, his voice, and his trusty resonator. Despite blues being one of the oldest styles of American music, Shamel sees a bright future for the genre. “I think that it would have to have a unique and more modern spin on it. I don’t want to just rehash what the guys in the 20s and 30s already did because then you can just listen to them; you don’t have to listen to me do it,” Shamel said. “I know it's [a genre] from the past, but I want to make it something fresh.”