MickeyV | All About Blues Music

THE GREAT MIGRATION

It took a long time for The Blues to move from its rural heartlands to the big cities of America and from there out across the world, but it took that journey embedded in the memories and emotions of the people who loved the music. Fifty years after the end of the Civil War and…

Chantel McGregor

Chantel is a sweet girl’s name, of French origin, which is associated with ‘song’ but an older meaning links it to a mountainous area and means ‘rock’, so the omens are good for Chantel McGregor, because that is just what she does. With her long blonde hair and a taste for evening dresses, it’s hard…

BABY TATE

Piedmont Blues is not as dark and brooding as its Delta cousin, often featuring delightful ragtime melodies and delicate fingerpicking and tricksy embelishments. There was an upsurge in interest in this style during the Folk/Blues revival of the 60s, with players like Rev. Gary Davis and Josh White filling clubs in New York, but back…

GUITAR SHORTY 1

There has been more than one Blues player called Guitar Shorty, but something they have in common is a talent for showmanship. Jimi Hendrix‘s brother-in-law is still using that name over on the West-coast for his backflipping, flash-guitar stage act, and others may have used it too, but an older Bluesman with an similar ‘larger-than-life’…

TOMMY TUCKER

Tommy Tucker is a nursery-rhyme name that has popped up several times in musical history, from rappers to Swing Band leaders, but it was also the name of a gravel-voiced R&B singer from the 60s. With deep roots in jump-Blues himself, Tommy played organ and piano on his great, boozy party records, and he is…

Rev. ROBERT WILKINS

Blues and Gospel music share a lot of common roots, and it is not unusual for performers to cross the line in both directions. The renowned Delta Bluesman Son House was a ‘Hellfire Preacher’ before the Devil’s music took his soul, and the Rev. Gary Davis belonged to a rollicking Blues scene in Atlanta before…

ROD PIAZZA

There is a long tradition of ‘cultural transmission’ in Blues music, where a young player learns tunes and techniques from an established artist, so that many brilliant young stars are almost literally ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’: Robert ‘Jr.’ Lockwood learned from his ‘stepfather’ Robert Johnson, just as Robert had learned some slide-guitar tricks…

BLIND JOE HILL

There is a long tradition of one-man-bands in the Blues. In 1924, the wandering songster Daddy Stovepipe was one of the first men to make a Blues record, and he usually managed to play three or four things at once. Joe Hill Louis continued the trend after WWII and Bluesmen like Dr. Ross, Jesse Fuller,…

SMOKIN’ JOE KUBEK

Texas ‘Roadhouse Blues’ is always a popular form of music, and while it rarely breaks new ground, it always makes for a good night out! Smokin’ Joe Kubek and his side-kick Bnois King have formed a very ‘complimentary’ guitar partnership that is far more than the sum of its parts. They have been pounding the…

FENTON ROBINSON

Sometimes a great blues talent slips through the net, producing their best work when our music is going through a slow time, and having their best songs made famous by other people. Fenton Robinson was called a “mellow guitar genius” by Japanese fans, and his sparkling, Jazz-flavoured guitar and smooth baritone voice made him a…