MickeyV | All About Blues Music

JIMMY WITHERSPOON

Jimmy Witherspoon was a Blues Shouter in the Kansas City tradition, but his versatility gave him the chance to excel in other settings, notably with jazz and swing bands as well as in soulful and funky styles. He explored the borderlands between jazz and the Blues so successfully over such a long career, his genre…

MAGIC SLIM

Magic Slim had a career spanning nearly 60 years and three dozen albums, as the leader of legendary Chicago band The Teardrops. Schooled in the ‘second wave’ of Chicago Blues coming out of the West-side clubs in the late 50s, Slim’s heavy vibrato guitar, roaring deep voice and commanding stage presence made him a formidable…

WILLIE BROWN

When Robert Johnson sang his seminal ‘Crossroads Blues’, in the last verse he tells how he is running away, but asks for ‘my friend Willie Brown’. That line immortalised Willie for future generations, but in truth he did enough in his own right to gain a page in Blues History, despite having recorded only three…

JERRY WEXLER

Jerry Wexler was a man who knew how to make an impact. As a journalist he is credited with inventing the term ‘R&B’; as joint head of Atlantic Records he helped a lot of Black artists cross into the mainstream; as a shrewd businessman he made a lot of money; as an A&R man his…

LOUIS ARMSTRONG

‘Satchmo’ was arguably the greatest Jazz player of the 20th Century. His offbeat vocal style crossed over to Blues singers as well as mainstream acts in the 20s when record companies discovered the ‘race‘ market. As the Blues migrated from the Delta and other country sources to cities like Chicago and New York, there was…

MEMPHIS MINNIE

The classic period of Blues recording in the 20’s was the era of the Blues Diva, glamorous women who the radio stations and record companies could promote as stars, like Hollywood did with its yound actresses. Memphis Minnie shattered that mould as a guitarist, singer and songwriter as steeped in country Blues as any Delta…

MARK NAFTALIN

Pianist and keyboard player Mark Naftalin has played on over 100 albums by Legends like John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush, Lowell Fulson and dozens of others. Mark started out in The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, appearing on their first four albums before settling in San Francisco in the late 60s. He led his own band,…

SHANNON CURFMAN

‘Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions’ was the debut album of this 14 year-old girl from Fargo, North Dakota in 1999. Shannon had already opened for Steve Miller and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, heralding the arrival of a major young talent. She toured with Buddy Guy and George Thorogood and released a second album, ‘Fast Lane Addiction’ in 2007 on her own…

KEN BURNS

This renowned American documentary film-maker has produced many important cultural reports on the elements that have come together to form modern American society. He has addressed The Civil War, Baseball, Prohibition, Jazz and in 2012, a look at the American Justice system based on the case of The Central Park Five. Ken uses archive film…

MIKE BLOOMFIELD

Mike Bloomfield got his Blues guitar education as a kid in the clubs on Chicago’s Southside with some of the true ‘originators’, occasionally jumping onstage to join in with them! He ran a folk club when he left school, where he would book the old Blues players he had played with. Mike joined Paul Butterfield’s…