SUGARAY RAYFORD

Sugaray Rayford has been the featured vocalist of the Award-winning Mannish Boys for several years now, and they have again been nominated for three Blues Music Awards in 2015. However Sugaray is the frontman for his own band, and he has also been nominated as Best Traditional Male Artist and as BB King Entertainer of…

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JOE WILLIE WILKINS

Joe Willie Wilkins was born to the Blues. His Daddy, Papa Frank Wilkins, was a friend of Charley Patton and he played guitar himself, so it was inevitable that the young kid was going to play too. Although mainly famous for a long career as a side-man who played on many great Blues records in…

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DUSTER BENNETT

There is a long tradition of one-man-bands playing the Blues which reaches back to Daddy Stovepipe in the 20s, Jesse Fuller, Joe Hill Louis right up to Doctor Ross in the 90s. Over in Britain, a young man inspired by the British Blues Boom put together an act that expanded that tradition, but his high,…

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DON COVAY

Don Covay wrote dozens of R&B hits from the 50s to the 70s, with a range that incorporated Blues, Soul and Gospel roots. From the early days on the road with Little Richard to a long career as an executive, Don kept performing his own songs, with his fine voice taking many solo singles into…

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JESSE FULLER

The Blues comes out of hardship, poverty, sour relationships and despair, but it’s true power is its capacity to generate inner strength, resilience and resourcefulness. Jesse Fuller was an abandoned child and many of his songs give clues to a desperate early life, but he was a bright soul and his life is a parable…

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WILLIE WALKER

Piedmont Blues guitar style, with its jaunty folk and ragtime tunes and quick, elaborate fingerpicking formed the backbone of a lot of music that emerged in the late 20th century. Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller passed away before WWII but their legacy, and the playing of Blind Willie McTell, Rev. Gary Davis and Brownie…

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SAMANTHA FISH

The Blues used to be dominated by ‘old/dead black guys’, but if you look around the scene today, there are an awful lot of ‘young blonde women’, which says a lot for how our music has broadened its appeal. Susan Tedeschi, Anna Popovic, Shannon Curfman and Joanne Shaw Taylor are being followed by younger Blues…

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JOHN PRIMER

The story of the Blues might be summed up by the tale of a kid who sits twanging a ‘diddley bow’ in some rural Delta backwater, who fulfils his dreams by moving to the big city and playing alongside the biggest Blues Legends. Surprisingly, there are still one or two of these characters around, and…

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JB Long

It is a cliché that old-time Blues players got ripped off by their managers, and it’s true that some were bullies and monsters who exploited their musicians mercilessly. JB Long was a Carolina businessman who managed some big Piedmont Blues players in their early days, and while he may have helped himself to some publishing…

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King King

The King King was a famous LA Blues Club that burned to the ground, and a fine album by their house-band The Red Devils, but King King is also the name of a British Blues Rock band that has been building a big reputation on the European club and Festival scene. After taking the Best…

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