Blues Music Artists
BEN HARPER
Modern Blues players find appreciative audiences all over the world, and Ben Harper has travelled a long way from his local club scene in the last two decades singing his incisive, modern songs. He uses traditional Folk and Blues forms to address contemporary issues in his songwriting, and his guitar work, especially when he plays…
Read MoreBOOZOO CHAVIS
When accordion player and singer Boozoo Chavis came out of ‘retirement’ in the 80s, he brought with him a primitive zydeco style that took the music back to its roots. His rowdy, knockabout stage act and hypnotic single notes and triples on the accordion showed the world, through films and Festival appearances, what a joyful…
Read MoreLESLIE WEST
Blues-Rock was one of the musical products of the sixties, when Blues music was at something of a crossroads, going on to form a cornerstone of modern rock music. The tectonically heavy sound of Leslie West’s band Mountain helped to give the genre a solid foundation. With a great vocal style and a trademark guitar…
Read MoreSTEVE CROPPER
Steve Cropper, often hailed as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, has left an indelible mark on the world of music. Born on October 21, 1941, in Dora, Missouri, Steve developed an early passion for music that would shape his remarkable career. Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, he became captivated by the…
Read MoreCHRIS THOMAS KING
Chris Thomas King was born to the Blues. He built a career in the 80s as an electric Blues guitarist and talented songwriter; introduced hip-hop beats and rapping fusions to his work in the 90s; and gained worldwide fame as ‘Tommy Johnson’ in the film ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?’ Further feature film and TV…
Read MoreJAMES ‘Son’ THOMAS
James ‘Son’ Thomas was a Mississippi Bluesman to the core. His guitar playing, with its vigorous boogies and delicate fingerpicking passages, and his sweet-toned but heartfelt vocals, he left us with some of the deepest, dirtiest Blues of the modern era. A talented sculptor, whose work featured some macabre subjects and used items like skulls…
Read MorePAUL ‘Wine’ JONES
In the juke-joints of Northern Mississippi, up in the hills above the Delta, people played a raw-boned, good-time Blues which lay almost undiscovered until the 90s, when labels like Fat Possum and High Water began to record the fantastic, high energy Blues player they found in the small towns up there. Paul ‘Wine’ Jones was…
Read MoreIRY LeJEUNE
Iry LeJeune is the man most responsible for making the accordion the lead instrument in modern Cajun music. In the 40s, when Western Swing music had led this regional variation of the Folk/Blues tradition in the direction of fiddles and banjos, Iry’s soulful virtuoso accordion playing took the music back to its 19th Century roots.…
Read MoreCLARENCE WILLIAMS
New York was the centre of Blues Recording in the early 20s, as the new ‘Race Music‘ market opened up recording opportunities for black singers and musicians. Writer, producer, publisher and session pianist Clarence Williams was a big noise in the New York industry during those early years, marrying a star singer, recording with the…
Read MoreSMILEY LEWIS
Smiley Lewis was a big-voiced New Orleans guitarist who put out some great R&B records in the early 50s that sold well for him, but went on to provide worldwide hits for other artists. With Fats Domino sharing top billing with him at Lew Chudd‘s Imperial Records, the company used the pair as a ‘one-two…
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