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MUDDY WATERS McKinley Morganfield, 4 April 1915, Rolling Fork, Mississippi, USA, d. 30 April 1983, Chicago, Illinois, USA. One of the dominant figures of post-war blues, Muddy Waters was raised in the rural Mississippi town of Clarksdale, in whose juke-joints he came into contact with the legendary Son House . Having already mastered the rudiments of the guitar, Waters began performing and this early, country blues period was later documented by Alan Lomax . Touring the south making field recordings for the Library Of Congress, this renowned archivist taped Waters on three occasions between 1941-42.
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| JOHN LEE HOOKER b. 2 August 1917, Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA d. 21 June 2001. Born into a large family of agricultural workers, Hooker's first musical experiences, like those of so many other blues singers, were in church. A contrivance made from an inner tube attached to a barn door represented his first makeshift attempts at playing an instrument, but he subsequently learned some guitar from his stepfather William Moore, and they played together at local dances. At the age of 14, he ran away to Memphis, Tennessee, where he met and played with Robert Lockwood . A couple of years later he moved to Cincinnati, where he stayed for about 10 years and sang with a number of gospel quartets. |
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BB KING Riley B. King, 16 September 1925, Indianola, Mississippi, USA. The son of a sharecropper, King went to work on the plantation like any other young black in Mississippi, but he had sung in amateur gospel groups from childhood. By the age of 16, he was also playing blues guitar and singing on street corners. When he was 20 years old, he temporarily quit sharecropping and went to Memphis, where he busked, and shared a room for almost a year with his second cousin, Bukka White . However, it was not until 1948 that he managed to pay off his debts to his former plantation boss. After leaving farming, he returned to Memphis, determined to become a star.
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| ROBERT JOHNSON Robert Leroy Johnson, 8 May 1911 (sources for this date vary), Hazlehurst, Mississippi, USA, d. 13 August 1938, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA. For a subject upon which it is dangerous to generalize, it hardly strains credulity to suggest that Johnson was the fulcrum upon which post-war Chicago blues turned. The techniques that he had distilled from others' examples, including Charley Patton , Son House and the unrecorded Ike Zinnerman, in turn became the template for influential musicians such as Muddy Waters , Elmore James and those that followed them. Credited by some writers with more originality than was in fact the case, it was as an interpreter that Johnson excelled, raising a simple music form to the level of performance art at a time when others were content to iterate the conventions. |
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BUDDY GUY George Guy, 30 July 1936, Lettsworth, Louisiana, USA. An impassioned and influential guitarist, Buddy Guy learned to play the blues on a rudimentary, home-made instrument, copying records he heard on the radio. By the mid-50s he was sitting in with several of the region's leading performers, including Slim Harpo and Lightnin' Slim . In 1957 Guy moved north to Chicago. He initially joined the Rufus Foreman Band but was quickly established as an artist in his own right. The guitarist's first single was released the following year, but his career prospered on meeting Willie Dixon . This renowned composer/bassist brought the young musician to Chess Records where, as part of the company's house band, he appeared on sessions by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.
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| LIGHTNIN HOPKINS Lightnin' Hopkins was a texas blues great whose career spanned six decades and who, in all probability, made more recordings than any other blues artist. He was a prolific songwriter, a master raconteur, and a convincing performer. His guitar style, with its ragged rhythms and carefree collection of meter and structure could never be considered conventional. But it did possess a remarkable and authenticity, and it almost always seemed the ideal vehicle to carry his and complement his dry, sagebrush-scratched vocals. |
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| ELMORE JAMES b. 27 January 1918, Richland, Mississippi, USA, d. 23 May 1963. Although his recording career spanned 10 years, Elmore James is chiefly recalled for his debut release, 'Dust My Broom'. This impassioned, exciting performance, based on a virulent composition by country blues singer Robert Johnson , was marked by the artist's unfettered vocals and his searing electric slide guitar. James's formative years were spent in Mississippi juke joints where he befriended Rice Miller ( Sonny Boy Williamson ), a regular performer on the US radio station KFFA's King Biscuit Time show. Elmore accompanied Miller for several years, and through his influence secured his initial recording contract in 1951. |
| JUNIOR WELLS Amos Blackmore, 9 December 1934, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 15 January 1998, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Having eschewed parental pressure to pursue a career in gospel music, Wells began playing harmonica on the streets of west Memphis, inspired by local heroes Howlin' Wolf and Junior Parker . Having followed his mother to Chicago in 1946, the young musician won the respect of senior figures of the blues fraternity, including Tampa Red , Big Maceo and Sunnyland Slim . Wells formed a trio, initially known as the Little Chicago Devils, then the Three Deuces, with Louis Myers (guitar) and David Myers (bass). |
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| T-BONE WALKER Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born in northeast Texas in 1910 to Rance and Movelia Walker. Movelia chafed under her strict, church-going parents and left for Dallas with her baby a year later. From his mother (to whom he was always close), T-Bone inherited his wanderlust and love of music. While in grade school, he left one summer with Dr. Breeding's medicine show. His freshman year he ran away to join Ida Cox's troupe, touring the state until the authorities finally caughtup with him. As a boy he lead legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson around the streets of Dallas; T-Bone would take Jefferson's tin cup, shaking it in time with the music then passing it around. He could also be seen listening outside the window of a local church as the choir sang and the preacher called upon God, "my pulse ... racin'". |
| Freddie King b. Billy Myles, 3 September 1934, Gilmer, Texas, USA, d. 28 December 1976, Dallas, Texas. Freddie (aka Freddy) was one of the triumvirate of Kings (the others being B.B. and Albert ) who ruled the blues throughout the 60s. He was the possessor of a light, laid-back, but not unemotional voice and a facile fast-fingered guitar technique that made him the hero of many young disciples. He learned to play guitar at an early age, being influenced by his mother, Ella Mae King, and her brother Leon. Although forever associated with Texas and admitting a debt to such artists as T-Bone Walker he moved north to Chicago in his mid-teens. In 1950, he became influenced by local blues guitarists Eddie 'Playboy' Taylor and Robert Lockwood. King absorbed elements from each of their styles, before encompassing the more strident approaches of Magic Sam and Otis Rush. Here, he began to sit in with various groups and slowly built up the reputation that was to make him a star. |
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| Willie Dixon (bass, vocals; born July 1, 1915, died January 29, 1992) Willie Dixon has been called “the poet laureate of the blues” and “the father of modern Chicago blues.” He was indisputably the pre-eminent blues songwriter of his era, credited with writing more than 500 songs by the end of his life. Moreover, Dixon is a towering figure in the history and creation of Chicago blues on other fronts. While on staff at Chess Records, Dixon produced, arranged, and played bass on sessions for Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, and others. In no small way, he served as a crucial link between the blues and rock and roll. |
| Skip James Born June 21, 1902, in Yazoo City, Mississippi, died October 3, 1969, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Skip James was raised on the Woodbine Plantation, fifteen miles south of Yazoo City and a mile and a half from nearby Bentonia. James developed his three-finger picking style, a style practiced by Charley Patton, Mississippi John Hurt, and Jackson native Bo Carter. James's trademark sound came from his E-minor tuning, which he called "cross-note tuning." |
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| OTIS RUSH Rush grew up on a farm in Mississippi, but moved to Chicago as a teenager. Though his first recording brought him a good deal of fame, his recording career is a bit checkered. The temperamental southpaw's live performances are worthwhile though, every one of them. International blues guitar legend. Headlined the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival with an amazing mainstage set, and was nominated for several "Best Traditional Blues Album" Grammy (including at least 1996, 1998), and Contemporary Blues - Male Artist of the Year (1996). The New York Times calls him "One of the best living bluesmen." The Chicago Reader concurs, saying "when he's on there's still no better blues guitarist in this city." |
| JOHN MAYALL John Mayall was the paternal guardian of British blues in the 1960s. His band the Bluesbreakers was something of a blues college for young musicians, who, under Mayall's guidance, got a first class education in American blues. Everyone from guitarists Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor to bass players Jack Bruce and John McVie to drummers Mick Fleetwood and Aynsley Dunbar spent time in the Bluesbreakers. Mayall, a competent singer, keyboards player, and harmonica player, gave the band and its long line of musicians a blues vision that was vital to the growth and popularity of the English blues scene in the '60s. |
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| Johnny Winter Born in Beaumont, Texas on February 23, 1944 John Dawson Winter III grew up surrounded by the blues, country and Cajun music. Johnny Winter is an American music legend. Since his first appearance on the pages of Rolling Stone in 1968, Johnny has epitomized the fiery and flamboyant rock and roll guitar hero. Yet Johnny has continually returned to the blues roots from which his music sprang. |
| ERIC CLAPTON b. 30 March 1945, Ripley, Surrey, England. The world's premier living rock guitarist will be forever grateful to his grandparents, for they gave him his first guitar. The young Eric was raised by his grandparents Rose and Jack Clapp when his natural mother could not face bringing up an illegitimate child at the age of 16. He received a 㾺 acoustic guitar for his 14th birthday, then proceeded to copy the great blues guitarists note for note. His first band was the Roosters, a local R&B group that included Tom McGuinness, a future member of Manfred Mann , and latterly part of the Blues Band. |
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| PETER GREEN Having served an apprenticeship in various semi-professional groups, Peter Green became one of several guitarists who joined John Mayall 's Bluesbreakers as a temporary substitute for Eric Clapton during the latter's late 1965 sabbatical. When Clapton returned, Green joined Peter Bardens (organ), Dave Ambrose (bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums) in a short-lived club band, the Peter B's. The quartet completed one single for Columbia Records : 'If You Wanna Be Happy'/'Jodrell Blues' in February 1966. The entire unit subsequently formed the instrumental core to the Shotgun Express , backing singers Rod Stewart and Beryl Marsden , but the guitarist found this role too restrictive and left after a matter of weeks. |
| STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN 3 October 1954, Dallas, Texas, USA, d. 27 August 1990, East Troy, Wisconsin, USA. This blues guitarist was influenced by his older brother Jimmie (of the Fabulous Thunderbirds ), whose record collection included such key Vaughan motivators as Albert King , Otis Rush and Lonnie Mack . He honed his style on his brother's hand-me-down guitars in various high school bands, before moving to Austin in 1972. He joined the Nightcrawlers, then Paul Ray And The Cobras, with whom he recorded 'Texas Clover' in 1974. In 1977 he formed Triple Threat Revue with vocalist Lou Ann Barton. She later fronted Vaughan's most successful project, named Double Trouble after an Otis Rush standard, for a short period after its inception in 1979. |
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| Rory Gallagher b. 2 March 1949, Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, Eire, d. 15 June 1995. Having served his musical apprenticeship in the Fontana and Impact Showbands, Gallagher put together the original Taste in 1965. This exciting blues-based rock trio rose from regional obscurity to the verge of international fame, but broke up acrimoniously five years later. Gallagher was by then a guitar hero and embarked on a solo voyage supported by Gerry McAvoy (bass) and Wilgar Campbell (drums). He introduced an unpretentious approach, which marked a career that deftly retained all the purpose of the blues without erring on the side of excessive reverence. Gallagher's early influences were Lonnie Donegan, Woody Guthrie, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters and he strayed very little from those paths. The artist's refreshing blues guitar work, which featured his confident bottleneck playing, was always of interest and by 1972 Gallagher was a major live attraction. |
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