MickeyV | All About Blues Music

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

Charlie Musselwhite and Paul Butterfield were the two white kids who took Chicago Blues across the colour line to a new younger generation. The authentic sound of wailing amplified Blues harp, as developed by Little Walter and Sonny Boy II, gave a focus to their self-named Blues bands and showed that this music is relevant…

Professor Longhair

New Orleans is famous for funky music, and Professor Longhair played a big part in bringing that funky feel to the clubs where he banged out his Afro-Cuban rhythms after WWII. Fats Domino, Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, Dr. John and Allen Toussaint all cite the Professor as a major influence on the characteristic ‘rhumba-boogie’ piano music…

SLEEPY JOHN ESTES

Sleepy John Estes was an important and influential re-discovery of the Folk/Blues revival of the early 60s. His guitar work was never more than rudimentary, but his clear piercing voice conveyed his authentic and personal country Blues to a new generation of fans and performers, and his songs live on in the work of many…

‘GEORGIA TOM’ DORSEY

The Rev. Thomas A Dorsey was the founder of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs, composer of ‘Precious Lord’, mentor of Mahalia Jackson and a wonderful singer and pianist in his own right, but as ‘Georgia Tom’, he had a great early career in the Blues. He was a talent-scout, accompanist, arranger and songwriter in…

SNOOKS EAGLIN

‘The Human Jukebox’ Snooks Eaglin was a major figure in post-war New Orleans Blues and R&B circles. From his beginnings as a blind street singer to a long career as a ‘must-see’ artist for visitors to the bars around the French Quarter, to a late series of brilliant albums on the Black Top label where…

JANIS JOPLIN

With a voice capable of conveying excruciating pain and heartbreaking tenderness, Janis put herself out there in every performance, lost in the music and with raw emotion bleeding from every note. Some Blues Divas go on for ever, and some just aren’t meant to make old bones. Janis Joplin was one of the latter, joining…

BUDDY MOSS

Buddy Moss was at the heart of a group of gifted musicians that defined early Piedmont Blues. A harp player who became a leading exponent of fingerstyle guitar, Buddy’s career was interrupted when he went to jail for murder but his greatest problem was his spiky character that made him extremely difficult to work with. Born…

RACE MUSIC

Blues, jazz, R&B, funk, rap and hip-hop are all examples of the Black music that helped to shape our culture today, but this music grew and developed in a historical context. From the beginning of the 20th Century, African music’s rhythms and tradition of improvisation have dominated popular music, but in the early days this…

EARL HOOKER

There are few more accomplished guitar players in the history of the Blues than Earl Hooker. Renowned as a slide player, his clear, eloquent single-string runs didn’t bludgeon the listener, and his use of standard tunings meant he could quickly slip back into using the frets. He mastered new gizmos like the wah-wah pedal and…

ALLEN TOUSSAINT

The Godfather of funky New Orleans R&B, Allen Toussaint’s talents as a singer, pianist, songwriter, producer and arranger shaped the sound of The Crescent City for decades. As a solo artist Allen had a worldwide best-selling record with Southern Nights in 1975, but arguably his most important work was the vision he employed in the…