MickeyV | All About Blues Music

ANA POPOVIC

Ana Popovic didn’t come from Central Casting’s idea of what a Blues-Rocker should be. A pretty woman with wild hair and a sparkly mini-dress is not the everyday leader of a Blues band, especially when this one has a great voice and a talent for guitar breaks on her Stratocaster. Add to that her Central…

GUY DAVIS

Guy Davis is a Blues singer, guitarist and harp player who has deep roots in Delta history that inform his playing and writing as he goes about his work of preserving acoustic country Blues. Travelling the world playing clubs and Festivals, Guy is an accomplished actor as well as a musician, and his writing includes…

KANSAS JOE McCOY

Kansas Joe McCoy did not have a long life, but it certainly was an eventful one. He was an excellent slide-guitar player from the Delta, who was also a fine baritone singer; he played with and married Memphis Minnie in Memphis and when they relocated to Chicago they were pioneers of ‘urban Blues’; Joe became…

ERIC BURDON

Eric Burdon’s primitive, gut-wrenching vocals were a revelation to American youth when his band The Animals followed The Beatles as pioneers of The British Invasion of American music in 1964. With his great Blues growl, Eric took his shot at world music stardom with the band; enjoyed an association with some original Blues legends; then…

FRANKIE LEE SIMS

Frankie Lee Sims was a Texas Blues guitarist with a rocking, roughed-up style that gave him some early regional popularity and one national hit record in the 50s. He lived a rough life too, and got into the kind of trouble that scared record companies away, so he didn’t figure in the Folk/Blues revival ten…

A C REED

Sax playing, singing bandleaders are not common, but AC Reed pulls it off in style as his laid-back vocals and swinging sax fronted his Chicago based band the Spark Plugs. Having gained a solid apprenticeship backing a series of Blues Legends, AC’s late solo career showed a performer and songwriter with a sense of humour…

BUMBLE BEE SLIM

The Blues is a cruel mistress, and a man who sold millions of records can disappear into the footnotes of Blues history. Bumble Bee Slim was certainly not a one-hit-wonder, but he is not well remembered today. He came from the Piedmont area to make a name for himself in Chicago, as country Blues transformed…

MICKY WALLER

During the British Blues Boom of the 60s, a lot of music superstars got started in bands of young players who got together to explore American Blues and R&B with a distinctly local flavour. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, John Mayall and The Stones rubbed shoulders with Rod Stewart and Elton John as they played in…

HOMESICK JAMES

James Williamson claimed to have been born in 1905, but as he performed at a British Blues Festival more than a century later, that date is in doubt, and 1910 is a more likely vintage. What is not in doubt was his skill at ripping out a Blues riff on his strangely tuned slide guitar.…

LINK WRAY

Link Wray may not be a major Blues player, but in 1958 he took the dirty sound of distorted electric Blues guitar and came up with the ‘power chord’ that a new generation of guitarists incorporated into their music in the 60s to give us ‘Blues Rock’. Like many pioneers, Link took a simple idea…