Bluesman | All About Blues Music

RUTH BROWN

Ruth Weston sang Gospel in her father’s church before she joined Lucky Millinder‘s band while still a teenager. On the road, she married trumpeter Jimmy Brown, but a couple of years later she was fired from the band over an alcohol related incident. Ruth was one of Atlantic Records’ first signings, but her debut was…

ANSON FUNDERBURGH

White Blues guitarists like Anson’s fellow Texans Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan made the point that you don’t have to be Black to play the Blues, which was a moot point among music critics back in the day. Listening to classic Blues records and seeing Freddie King, Jimmy Reed and Albert Collins playing in…

SUSAN TEDESCHI

Susan Tedeschi was destined for a career in music. She was on the Broadway stage as a six-year-old and preferred Baptist churches to her Italian family’s Catholic kind, because the singing was more fun! Susan started her first band at 13 and when she was 18, she formed Smoking Section to perform original material before…

DOUG SAHM

Little Douglas Wayne Sahm got started by playing steel guitar on a San Antonio radio station when he was just five years old. As a teenager Doug recorded for various small Texas labels and formed a gigging band called The Pharoahs, and in 1965, producer Huey Meaux encouraged him to form The Sir Douglas Quintet,…

IKE TURNER

Years before he met Tina, Ike Turner was a big noise on the Memphis R&B scene. As a bandleader, session musician and talent scout, he was involved in recording BB King, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Johnny Ace and Junior Parker for Sam Phillips‘ Memphis Recording Service, which later became Sun Records, and for the Bihari…

WILLIE LOVE

During the 30s and 40s, Willie played his piano around the Delta juke-joints and the clubs of Memphis and Helena, before starting on a short-lived solo career in the early 50s. He had learned to play as a youth in Duncan MS, and drifted around the region, picking up work wherever he could. He met…

LONNIE DONEGAN

The Scottish singer born Anthony James Donegan was a fan of Blues and Country music, and played guitar around the London clubs in the early 50s. He joined Chris Barber‘s Band as they brought new kinds of American music to Britain, but he was drafted into the Army and sent to Germany where he met…

EVA TAYLOR

Irene Gibbons was born in St. Louis, but by the time she recorded her first Blues songs for the Black Swan label in New York in 1922, she had already had a long career. She toured with vaudeville troupes in the USA, Europe and the South Pacific beginning as a 3-year-old child. When she got…

DAVE MYERS

Dave played his guitar alongside his harp and guitar playing brother Louis in The Aces, one of the most influential backing bands in the classic period of Chicago Blues. The brothers came from Mississippi, where they had played local dates with Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Memphis Minnie. They moved to the Windy…

HENRY TOWNSEND

St. Louis was a big Blues town in the 20s and 30s, and Mississippi born Henry was at the epicentre of the scene there. A fine singer, he recorded with his open-tuned slide guitar for Columbia in 1929 and Paramount in 1931. He taught himself to play piano and became one of the city’s most…