MickeyV | All About Blues Music

BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO

The biggest star in modern Zydeco carries the torch lit by his mentor Clifton Chenier as he plays his accordion into the new century and brings this good-rocking dance music to the mainstream. Buckwheat Zydeco performed at both of President Clinton’s Inaugurations and, after playing to a TV audience of three billion at the 1996…

BOOKER T JONES

Memphis was ‘Soulsville USA’ in the 60s, and the band behind that world-changing music was Booker T and the MGs. The MGs had big solo hits of their own in the Stax days, including their most famous track, ‘Green Onions’, and their ‘Soul Limbo’ is the unlikely theme tune for TV coverage of cricket all…

LaVERN BAKER

LaVern Baker was a Chicago singer with a lot of R&B hits during the early 50s, who was so incensed when a squeaky-clean white singer took an exact copy of her first big R&B hit to the top of the Hot 100, she took her to Court and when that failed she took the matter…

BOBBY RUSH

Bobby Rush is best known as an outlandish Soul singer on the nightclub scene, but his roots are deep in the Blues. He started out playing guitar and harp with some Chicago legends, and after a long time on the road, getting on for thirty albums and a lot of funky music, his later records…

CAROLYN WONDERLAND

Carolyn Wonderland carries the torch for modern Texas Blues in fine style. With an excellent slide-guitar technique, a talent for perceptive songwriting and a voice that recalls a young Janis Joplin, she is a multi-instrumentalist with a social conscience. Carolyn has played Blues clubs for more than twenty years and at many Blues Festivals in…

KOKOMO ARNOLD

Kokomo Arnold is not well known today, but in Chicago in the mid-30s, he was a big player. The song that gave him his name, ‘Kokomo Blues’ was adapted by Robert Johnson as ‘Sweet Home Chicago’; ‘Dust My Broom’ came from another Kokomo song; and his ‘Milk Cow Blues’ has been covered by many artists.…

BLACK ACE

Black Ace was the recording name of BK Turner, a Texas Bluesman with a melodious voice and a fine slide-guitar style, who took his Blues name from his only popular record. He was a well known radio personality in Fort Worth before WWII, when his records sold well across the South, but he was never…

CLIMAX BLUES BAND

The Climax Chicago Blues Band rode the late-60s wave of popularity in Britain, as the vital new sounds of bands like The Stones, Fleetwood Mac and Cream placed new music at a crossroads, with paths leading to Hard-rock, Progressive music, Jazz-Fusion and Heavy Metal as musicians used the language of the Blues to speak to…

STUDEBAKER JOHN

Searing slide-guitar and howling electrified harp are the hallmarks of Chicago Blues, and Studebaker John is a home-town boy who is taking that tradition into the future. Inspired by Hound Dog Taylor and JB Hutto, John can thrash out a boogie while playing a lead-guitar line on top; he has a light but penetrating voice;…

SONNY RHODES

Sonny Rhodes, resplendent in his bejewelled turban, is famous for playing his own brand of Texas Blues on a lap-steel guitar. After a long apprenticeship on the club scene building up a following, both at home and in Europe, Sonny made his mark in the 90s with some great albums and Festival appearances. He continues…