MickeyV | All About Blues Music

BOB KOESTER

Bob Koester set up Delmark Records over sixty years ago, and his Jazz Record Mart in Chicago is the biggest Jazz and Blues record store in the world. A music lover and collector of classic Jazz and Blues records from an early age, Bob’s labour of love became a thriving business as he progressed from…

TOMMY RIDGLEY

Tommy Ridgley was a big noise in New Orleans in the early 50s when the music coming out of the Crescent City was making the whole world dance. The swinging vocals Tommy put over those driving sax and piano melodies and Big Beat rhythms caught the mood of the time. Many of his contemporaries went…

HADDA BROOKS

In the years after WWII, when Jump-blues and Boogie-woogie were transforming popular music, Hadda Brooks was a glamorous West-coast pianist who could thump out a boogie or croon a Blues ballad with the best of them. She went on to a career in film and TV, then staged a comeback in the 80s that earned…

BEN HARPER

Modern Blues players find appreciative audiences all over the world, and Ben Harper has travelled a long way from his local club scene in the last two decades singing his incisive, modern songs. He uses traditional Folk and Blues forms to address contemporary issues in his songwriting, and his guitar work, especially when he plays…

CLIFFORD ANTONE

Clifford Antone made a massive contribution to contemporary Blues, with his world-famous club in Austin, his record label of the same name, and his huge enthusiasm for Texas roadhouse Blues. When he was a kid, Clifford listened to a lot of Chicago Blues but he loved living in Texas, so the idea of bringing the…

BOOZOO CHAVIS

When accordion player and singer Boozoo Chavis came out of ‘retirement’ in the 80s, he brought with him a primitive zydeco style that took the music back to its roots. His rowdy, knockabout stage act and hypnotic single notes and triples on the accordion showed the world, through films and Festival appearances, what a joyful…

LESLIE WEST

Blues-Rock was one of the musical products of the sixties, when Blues music was at something of a crossroads, going on to form a cornerstone of modern rock music. The tectonically heavy sound of Leslie West’s band Mountain helped to give the genre a solid foundation. With a great vocal style and a trademark guitar…

STEVE CROPPER

Steve Cropper, often hailed as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, has left an indelible mark on the world of music. Born on October 21, 1941, in Dora, Missouri, Steve developed an early passion for music that would shape his remarkable career. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, he became captivated by the…

MOE ASCH

Moe Asch was a strong-minded label owner who released music from all over the world and from many minority ethnicities. Managing his Folkways catalogue he refused to delete any album, saying “Just because the letter J is less popular than the letter S, you don’t delete it from the dictionary.” He also said “The real…

CHRIS ALBERTSON

Chris Albertson is a writer, broadcaster and record producer whose work in Jazz and Blues, especially in his interviews with leading figures, has opened a window on the character of the people that have made the music great. His knowledgeable and unsentimental approach allows real insight to emerge from the hype, and his biography of…