Blues Music Artists

WILLIE LOVE

During the 30s and 40s, Willie played his piano around the Delta juke-joints and the clubs of Memphis and Helena, before starting on a short-lived solo career in the early 50s. He had learned to play as a youth in Duncan MS, and drifted around the region, picking up work wherever he could. He met…

LONNIE DONEGAN

The Scottish singer born Anthony James Donegan was a fan of Blues and Country music, and played guitar around the London clubs in the early 50s. He joined Chris Barber‘s Band as they brought new kinds of American music to Britain, but he was drafted into the Army and sent to Germany where he met…

SIPPIE WALLACE

Sippie Wallace knew about the Blues because she was part of its roots. She was one of the original Blues Divas; a talented young songwriter, a riveting performer and a most respected artist who became a best-seller in the early days of ‘race music‘, but she also knew about the suffering and loss that gives…

EVA TAYLOR

Irene Gibbons was born in St. Louis, but by the time she recorded her first Blues songs for the Black Swan label in New York in 1922, she had already had a long career. She toured with vaudeville troupes in the USA, Europe and the South Pacific beginning as a 3-year-old child. When she got…

DAVE MYERS

Dave played his guitar alongside his harp and guitar playing brother Louis in The Aces, one of the most influential backing bands in the classic period of Chicago Blues. The brothers came from Mississippi, where they had played local dates with Robert Nighthawk, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Memphis Minnie. They moved to the Windy…

LOWELL FULSON

Lowell Fulson was a pioneer of West Coast Blues, a laid-back singer who wrote many classic songs and played his smoking guitar lines for a worldwide audience for half a century. He adapted his music for the times, playing hard Blues, Funky Soul and driving R&B, but never compromised his fluid yet penetrating style. Born…

HENRY TOWNSEND

St. Louis was a big Blues town in the 20s and 30s, and Mississippi born Henry was at the epicentre of the scene there. A fine singer, he recorded with his open-tuned slide guitar for Columbia in 1929 and Paramount in 1931. He taught himself to play piano and became one of the city’s most…

WILBERT HARRISON

When Wilbert Harrison left the Navy in 1950, he played calypso guitar and his first recordings for Rockin’ Records had a decidedly country feel. His switch to the Savoy label in 1954 did not bring any hits, but that situation changed in 1959 when his version of Leiber and Stoller’s ‘Kansas City’ was a big…

ROSIE LEDET

When the pretty 16-year-old Mary Rozella Bellard went to a dance in Lawtell, Louisiana to see Boozoo Chavis perform, it changed her life big-time. She was blown away by the good-rockin’ Zydeco music and was inspired to learn how to play accordion. That night she also met her husband Morris Ledet, who went on to…

SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE McGHEE

Blind harp wizard Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, a spectacular guitar picker, had a 35-year-long partnership that helped to define Folk/Blues. Their Piedmont style Blues has a very different feel to Delta Blues and its effect on modern music has a very different genesis to the route through Chicago that gave us Blues-rock. New York…