Blues Music Artists

JAYBIRD COLEMAN

The first country Blues often featured the harmonica, or mouth harp. This cheap and portable instrument was a favourite with wandering musicians, or ‘footloose bards’ as they were known, and the wailing sound of the harp was a distinctive feature of their music, with it’s breathy quality of human speech. ‘Jaybird’ Coleman was one of…

MONETTE MOORE

Monette Moore was a talented theatre pianist with a good voice, who was picked up by ‘Ink’ Williams‘ Paramount label and persuaded to sing the Blues on record. Like many Blues Divas during the expansion of ‘Race Music‘ in the early 20s, Monette was one of the many vaudeville singers who took up the Blues…

TAJ MAHAL

Taj Mahal was never going to be a Blues purist, but on the other hand just about everything he plays is deeply rooted in the Blues. Music from the East, West, North and South has been absorbed and incorporated in Taj’s work from the earliest days, and he continues to cross musical boundaries like a…

LARRY JOHNSON

Larry Johnson is a Piedmont guitarist who incorporated many elements of Blues styles from all over the South into his playing. Learning from some of the old originators, Larry was a man out of time when the Blues went electric and his fine interpretations of country Blues classics have been largely overlooked. Larry was born…

JACK BRUCE

Jack Bruce is best known as the thunderous yet delicate bass player and singer in the 60s ‘Supergroup’ Cream whose short career laid a huge foundation stone in the basement of Blues-Rock. A gifted multi-instrumentalist and composer, Jack was at the heart of the London jazz and Blues scene before setting up Cream to form…

DONALD ‘DUCK’ DUNN

Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn played bass for everybody from Muddy Waters to Elvis by way of Otis Redding, Albert King, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan. As part of the Stax house-band he contributed some memorable bass-lines to hundreds of hit records and of course he is remembered for playing himself in both the Blues Brothers films.…

ANA POPOVIC

Ana Popovic didn’t come from Central Casting’s idea of what a Blues-Rocker should be. A pretty woman with wild hair and a sparkly mini-dress is not the everyday leader of a Blues band, especially when this one has a great voice and a talent for guitar breaks on her Stratocaster. Add to that her Central…

GUY DAVIS

Guy Davis is a Blues singer, guitarist and harp player who has deep roots in Delta history that inform his playing and writing as he goes about his work of preserving acoustic country Blues. Travelling the world playing clubs and Festivals, Guy is an accomplished actor as well as a musician, and his writing includes…

KANSAS JOE McCOY

Kansas Joe McCoy did not have a long life, but it certainly was an eventful one. He was an excellent slide-guitar player from the Delta, who was also a fine baritone singer; he played with and married Memphis Minnie in Memphis and when they relocated to Chicago they were pioneers of ‘urban Blues’; Joe became…

ERIC BURDON

Eric Burdon’s primitive, gut-wrenching vocals were a revelation to American youth when his band The Animals followed The Beatles as pioneers of The British Invasion of American music in 1964. With his great Blues growl, Eric took his shot at world music stardom with the band; enjoyed an association with some original Blues legends; then…