Blues Music Artists

FRANKIE LEE SIMS

Frankie Lee Sims was a Texas Blues guitarist with a rocking, roughed-up style that gave him some early regional popularity and one national hit record in the 50s. He lived a rough life too, and got into the kind of trouble that scared record companies away, so he didn’t figure in the Folk/Blues revival ten…

A C REED

Sax playing, singing bandleaders are not common, but AC Reed pulls it off in style as his laid-back vocals and swinging sax fronted his Chicago based band the Spark Plugs. Having gained a solid apprenticeship backing a series of Blues Legends, AC’s late solo career showed a performer and songwriter with a sense of humour…

BUMBLE BEE SLIM

The Blues is a cruel mistress, and a man who sold millions of records can disappear into the footnotes of Blues history. Bumble Bee Slim was certainly not a one-hit-wonder, but he is not well remembered today. He came from the Piedmont area to make a name for himself in Chicago, as country Blues transformed…

MICKY WALLER

During the British Blues Boom of the 60s, a lot of music superstars got started in bands of young players who got together to explore American Blues and R&B with a distinctly local flavour. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, John Mayall and The Stones rubbed shoulders with Rod Stewart and Elton John as they played in…

HOMESICK JAMES

James Williamson claimed to have been born in 1905, but as he performed at a British Blues Festival more than a century later, that date is in doubt, and 1910 is a more likely vintage. What is not in doubt was his skill at ripping out a Blues riff on his strangely tuned slide guitar.…

LINK WRAY

Link Wray may not be a major Blues player, but in 1958 he took the dirty sound of distorted electric Blues guitar and came up with the ‘power chord’ that a new generation of guitarists incorporated into their music in the 60s to give us ‘Blues Rock’. Like many pioneers, Link took a simple idea…

BIG MAYBELLE

Big Maybelle lived her life at double speed, packing an awful lot of living into a few years. A big voice, with a big personality and a big woman all round, Maybelle had dozens of R&B chart hits and some successful crossover singles in the 50s, and made the charts as late as 1967, but…

REV. GARY DAVIS

The Folk/Blues revival of the 50s brought many original Blues players to prominence, from old field hands like Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James, to mad characters like Furry Lewis and hidden treasures like Libba Cotten, but perhaps the most influential of all was Rev. Gary Davis. This gruff old ‘guitar evangelist’ had a fantastic…

J B LENOIR

J B Lenior was a uniquely talented musician. Born in Mississippi and surrounded by the Blues from an early age, he often used African polyrhythms which he would beat out on the sound-box of his guitar as he played his delicate Blues. His high, sweet voice and his taste in stage costume might have made…

HOP WILSON

Lap-steel guitar player Hop Wilson was Texas born and bred, and almost unknown outside his home state, but through his influence on Johnny Winter and Jimmie Vaughan, his sound still echoes today. Ronnie Wood is another fan of Hop’s guitar licks, because Hop could also play a mean slide on a conventional guitar. A contemporary…