Bluesman | All About Blues Music

LITTLE MILTON

Always known as Little Milton, Mississippi singer and guitarist Milton Campbell walked the Soul/Blues borderline over a long career, but his broad spread of material may have counted against him, as he was not an easy man to pin down to a single genre. He started off playing guitar in Delta juke joints around his…

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY

Little Brother Montgomery was a little known but hugely influential Blues pianist from Louisiana. He learned to play piano just after he learned to walk and talk, and his endless stories of his long life on the road and on the club scene made him an invaluable source in the oral history of the Blues.…

SUNNYLAND SLIM

Albert Luandrew began pounding the keyboard in Delta juke-joints in the 20s, and when he moved to Memphis and recorded ‘Sunnyland Train’ in 1928, he got a new Blues name. He made the journey to Chicago, where he became a session pianist and bandleader, recording at least 250 tracks. Slim had a heavy left hand…

ETHEL WATERS

Ethel Waters a.k.a. ‘Sweet Mama Stringbean’ was an early Blues Diva who went on to a long career as a jazz singer in vaudeville, in nightclubs, then in movies and eventually as a stage actress. With a gift for phrasing that gave her songs a distinctive swing, Ethel was a rival to Bessie Smith as…

DAVID ‘Honeyboy’ EDWARDS

One of the few authentic Delta Blues players to bring the music into the present day, Honeyboy Edwards recorded a Grammy winning album in 2008 and was still performing almost until the day he died. Honeyboy reported that he was with his friend, the legendary Delta Bluesman Robert Johnson on the night he drank the…

JOHNNY ‘Big Moose’ WALKER

Shy, retiring characters don’t get called ‘Big Moose’, and loud barrelhouse pianist Johnny Walker got his tag from wearing his hair long and shaggy, but also for his wild personality. He was hugely popular with his fellow musicians for his energy and humour, and onstage he sometimes performed wearing a gorilla mask. When on tour…

WILLIE MAE FORD SMITH

Born into a Baptist family in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1904, Willie Mae sang everything from hymns to work-songs and Blues, but when she joined with her three sisters they were a sensation in the world of Gospel music. She was discovered as a teenager at The Baptist Convention and was later taken up by…

Ruby Turner

Ruby’s warm and emotional voice lends itself to Gospel and Soul as well as the Blues. Capable of depicting such extremes of joy and pain in her performances, she engages with her audience to produce a very special kind of empathy. Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica but a brought up in Birmingham, England she is…

ROBERT FRANKLIN PALMER

This son of Little Rock, Arkansas was a respected music writer and journalist, a contributing Editor for Rolling Stone magazine and the first Rock Correspondent for the New York Times. He taught at the Universities of Mississippi and Memphis State, at Yale and the Smithsonian; he produced Blues albums for RL Burnside among others and…

CLARENCE CLEMONS

The Big Man was best known for blowing the saxophone that powered Bruce Springsteen’s East Street Band to unbelievable heights of energy, but he had a solo career as a musician and actor. He fronted the Red Bank Rockers and owned the Big Man’s West Club. He guested on countless recordings from Ringo Starr to…