Blues Music Artists

JUNIOR WELLS

Junior Wells’ wailing harp lines became one of the iconic sounds of Chicago Blues, following the example of the men he most closely emulated, John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson and ‘Little Walter’ Davis. Junior had several spells in Muddy Waters‘ band and a long informal partnership with Buddy Guy confirming his place in the top rank of Chicago Blues harp…

BIG WALTER ‘SHAKEY’ HORTON

Shakey Horton was a giant of the Chicago Blues harp, a.k.a. ‘The Mississippi Saxophone’. His broad honking harp really did sound like a horn section, and the sense of space he created around his fluid, soulful solo lines was unique. Unlike his peers Little Walter and Rice ‘Sonny Boy II’ Miller, Shakey had little interest…

BLIND JOHN DAVIS

Blind John Davis was an accomplished session pianist who played on many seminal records in Chicago in the 30s and 40s and who was later a missionary of the Blues as it took root in Europe. John went blind at nine years of age and began playing piano in his father’s Chicago ‘speakeasy’ in the…

LITTLE RICHARD

If you took a Gospel shouter, some pounding New Orleans piano R&B, some very cheeky lyrics and an outrageous stage personality, you still wouldn’t quite have the phenomenon that is Little Richard. As R&B and jump-blues transformed into Rock’n’Roll in the mid-50s, Richard was at the cutting edge, all over the radio, the juke-box and…

HUBERT SUMLIN

For more than 20 years Hubert Sumlin’s guitar was right behind Howlin’ Wolf on stage and on record. ‘Killin’ Floor’, ‘Smokestack Lightnin’, ‘Spoonful’ and ‘Ain’t Superstitious’ all had Hubert’s razor-sharp guitar lines behind Wolf’s rumbling vocals. Hubert played the diddley-bow back in Greenwood MS when he was a kid and he teamed up with local…

‘COW COW’ DAVENPORT

‘Cow Cow’ Davenport was a little known Alabama ragtime pianist who made a lasting impression on piano Blues when he incorporated walking bass figures into his left-hand style and played them with a verve and pace that became known as boogie-woogie. A self taught player, Charles Davenport left home as a teenager to accompany singers…

MERCY DEE WALTON

Born in Waco Texas, Mercy Dee took the Sunset Route to play his piano in California just before WWII. His first disc was ‘Lonesome cabin Blues’ for the Spire label, but he soon had a national hit for Specialty with his song ‘One Room Country Shack’, later made even more famous by Mose Allison. Equally…

GEORGE THOROGOOD

George Thorogood is not a great innovator, but he knows how to rock and he knows how to boogie and the fans love it. George and his band The Destroyers helped to kick off the eighties Blues boom that gave us Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray, and his steady Blues-rock output over the decades…

MAGIC SAM

Magic Sam was a pioneering guitar virtuoso on the club scene on the West-side of Chicago in the late 50s, where a new generation of Blues guitarists like Freddie King, Otis Rush, Luther Allison and Buddy Guy were tearing up the rule book. Sharp-edged guitar phrasing, honking saxes and hysterical vocals were the hallmark of this…

PAPA GEORGE LIGHTFOOT

When producer Steve LaVere discovered that Papa George was still blowing his harp in his native Natchez MS in 1969, he whisked him into Malaco’s new Jackson studios to record some real down-home country Blues harp. Papa George’s habit of singing through his harp-mic gave his already rough voice a ragged edge, but his instrumental…