Bluesman | All About Blues Music

JAMES ‘THUNDERBIRD’ DAVIS

This gospel sounding Blues singer from Pritchard AL got started in 1957 as an opening act for Guitar Slim, who gave him the ‘Thunderbird’ tag after a drinking contest. Duke Records of Houston signed James up and his emotive style on ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Your Turn to Cry’ were great examples of the current Blues…

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON

Willie Johnson was from Texas, and his haunting slide-guitar playing didn’t slash and rage like some of his Mississippi Delta counterparts, but had a stylish, vocal quality that perfectly complimented his gruff, bass voice. Growing up playing for change on street-corners in East Texas towns, Willie became a Baptist preacher and all his life he…

JOHN CAMPBELL

John Campbell was a quiet man who played a dark and haunting acoustic Blues, combining a unique, percussive slide-guitar style with a modern songwriting ethic. The result is an authentic kind of Texas Blues that takes a familiar form, but sounds fresh and new, even when covering the classics. John died before he gained wide…

GLADYS BENTLEY

A ‘Drag King’ who sings the Blues is a rare item! Gladys Bentley was a male impersonator who sang and played piano on the New York gay club scene in the late 20s in places like The Clam House and The Ubangi Club. She was a big woman who wore a tuxedo and top hat…

JUNIOR KIMBROUGH

David ‘Junior’ Kimbrough was over 60 years of age when he made an impact with his album ‘All Night Long’ in 1992, where his hard-driving juke-joint style showed that down-home country Blues can still rock the room. Junior’s archaic style has the same hypnotic pulse as John Lee Hooker‘s boogies and employs a complex poly-rhythmic…

KID RAMOS

David Ramos was given a guitar and amp when he was eight years old by his opera singing parents, which they bought from a passing customer at their gas station! The Kid made a lot of noise and played around teenage parties until he got more serious and joined James Harman’s band in 1980. After…

ISHMON BRACEY

Delta guitarist Ishmon (often spelled Ishman in older sources) only recorded a few tracks, but they were of consistently good quality, using variations on the usual verse structure, and his original 78s are much sought-after rarities today. As a teenager Ishmon was playing guitar on streetcorners, hoping for invitations to play at parties and fish-fries…

CYRIL DAVIES

Cyril Davies was a fine singer and an authentic electric harp player, and a Blues afficionado who did a great deal to foster the British Blues Boom of the early 60s. Cyril learnt guitar and banjo as a kid, but when he heard Little Walter on records, he switched to the harp. He joined Chris…

KIM WILSON

Best known as the frontman, singer and harp player with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Kim also leads his own band The Blues Revue. Born in Detroit but raised in California, Kim was a Blues disciple as a youth, following and learning from the great original Bluesmen who were still gigging in the 60s and 70s. Kim…

SPECKLED RED

Speckled Red was a boogie-woogie pianist who was a fixture on the club scene in Memphis and St. Louis in the 30s and 40s. His proto-rap ‘The Dirty Dozens’ was a hit in 1929, and he recorded many versions and updates over the years. Rufus Perryman was the birth name of Speckled Red. He and…