MickeyV | All About Blues Music

GARY CLARK Jr.

Texas has played an important rôle in the story of the Blues, with old timers like Blind Lemon Jefferson, innovators like T-Bone Walker, stars of the Blues Revival like Lightnin’ Hopkins and modern guitar heroes like Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan. A young man who has absorbed some of the magic of his Lone-Star…

ROBERT McCOY

Robert McCoy was an Alabama pianist who was active on the Birmingham Blues scene for over four decades from the mid 30s. He is easily confused with Robert Lee McCullum, who used the name McCoy while playing slide-guitar in St. Louis before moving on to Chicago to find fame as Robert Nighthawk. He is unrelated…

ROCKIN’ DOPSIE

Rockin’ Dopsie is the man most responsible for popularising Zydeco in Europe, thrilling audiences with his infectious dance music, infused with a heavy dose of R&B. Dopsie (pronounced “Doopsie”) got a big break with his appearance on Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ album, and good-selling records of his own on the De la Soul label. He passed…

JACK OWENS

Jack Owens, along with his friend Skip James was one of the players from their home town of Bentonia who used minor key tunings in their guitar playing, which gave it quite a different feel to the dark tones of the classic Delta Blues heard further north in Clarksdale. Jack didn’t use falsetto vocals like…

CATFISH KEITH

Back in the day, a Blues man might pick up his guitar or harp and set off down the road, looking to play for some folks in a bar or juke-joint for a few drinks, a square meal or a crib for the night. Nobody embodies that spirit today more than Catfish Keith, touring the…

EARL KING

During the 50s, New Orleans was a hot-bed of new, exciting, funky dance music, and some of the songs from that era have come down to us as classics, usually as cover versions made by world-class artists. Earl King was one of the great R&B singer/guitarists from those days, who had some big hits of…

ALEX HARVEY

All kind of music gushed from the well-spring of the Blues when British kids got hold of it in the early 60s. Starting off playing the songs of Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed, young guys with guitars and drums picked up the beat and sang about their own lives, and few sang with more drama…

WALTER VINSON

Walter Vinson is best known as a member of the renowned string-band The Mississippi Sheiks, and as co-writer of their huge 1930 hit ‘Sitting on Top of the World’. However, Walter’s career had begun long before that and was to go on into the 1970s, like many of the originators of the Blues who enjoyed…

CLARA SMITH

Clara Smith was one of the first of the Blues Divas, who dominated the market for ‘race music’ in the early 20s, when recording opportunities first opened up for African American artists. Known as the ‘Queen of the Moaners’, Clara’s voice was actually light and sweet, but she first used it to express her inner…

PETE SEEGER

Pete Seeger was part of a politicised, multi-cultural music community in New York after WWII, that played a important rôle in the popular fight against injustice, not just in America, but all over the world. His live and recorded performances, his songwriting and his political activism made him famous and his collaborations with other musicians,…