MickeyV | All About Blues Music

CHUCK BERRY

Chuck Berry is a pioneer of rock and roll, who crossed the colour line and showed that this powerful new blast of youth culture had its roots deep in black music. His distinctive boogie-woogie flavoured double-string guitar riffs, charismatic ‘duckwalking’ stage act and witty lyrics showed young people all over the world that rock and…

BLUES AT THE CROSSROADS

The Summer of Love swept a warm wind of change through the music industry in 1967. When the Beatles issued Sargeant Pepper then disappeared to India with their guru, it seems everyone was wafted away in a psychedelic haze. When the acid wore off at the end of the 60s, Rock music was in quite…

BOOM, BOOM. BRITISH BLUES

In 1962, four guys from Liverpool were playing R&B tunes in the Star Club and the Indira Club on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg’s red light district. They played mostly covers of black American music they had copied from records brought back from the USA by merchant sailors returning to Liverpool. They adapted and incorporated this…

SON HOUSE

When Son House was ‘rediscovered’ in 1964, he was a prized example of what the Folk/Blues revival fans had been searching for. The power and conviction of this old man as he slashed down on his battered resonator guitar, rolled back his eyes and gave out a big lungful of his Blues, left no doubt…

HOWLIN’ WOLF

Howlin’ Wolf was a scary man on stage. Six foot three and weighing over three hundred pounds, he would jump around, throw himself on the floor, twitch like he was having an epileptic fit and generally act as if he was in the grip of furious demons. His deep bass voice sounded like sandpaper on…

ELMORE JAMES

Elmore James was a genius of the slide guitar. His influence is heard in the work of almost every post-war bottleneck player, and the source of his inspiration is a classic example of ‘artistic transmission’. The 18-year old Elmore was already an accomplished guitar player gigging around his home area of the southern Delta when…

JOHN LEE HOOKER

The Blues player sits alone, his heavy right shoe stomping out a relentless beat that makes the bottle of Chivas Regal dance on the boards by his feet. He rips out vicious guitar lines full of bitterness and pain, while keeping up a solid, throbbing rhythm. His voice is rich, deep and weatherbeaten, dripping with…

THE DEATH OF BESSIE SMITH

It is 3a.m. in the middle of a sultry, moonless Saturday night in late September 1937. A Packard car is cruising south down Highway 61 in Coahoma County, Mississippi. At the wheel is Richard Morgan, a well-known Chicago club owner and ex-bootlegger: the passenger is his girlfriend Bessie Smith. She is still a star of…

CHARLEY PATTON

Charley Patton liked to put on a show. He could make his guitar sound loud and rough, playing it between his legs and behind his back. He leapt about the stage clowning around, sometimes beating the back of his guitar like a drum. His raw earthy voice reflected his hard living, his heavy drinking and…

MEMPHIS

Memphis gave birth to Rock’n’roll in the 50’s and in the 70’s it was known as Soulsville USA, but before WWII, Memphis was the centre of the Blues world. Situated on the Mississippi river, just above the Delta, it was a port and a railhead as well as a rich cotton town, which made it…