Blues Music Artists

J MAYO WILLIAMS

Brown University Graduate J Mayo ‘Ink’ Williams is the only man to be inducted into both the National Football Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame. As well as being one of the first Black pro-footballers, playing for a Chicago team in the first season of the NFL, he is also remembered as…

MAMIE ‘GALORE’ DAVIS

This feisty Mississippi lady knew she wanted to be a Blues singer, even as a schoolgirl. As soon as she was old enough, Mamie joined touring shows with Little Milton and Ike & Tina Turner before picking up her own deal with St. Lawrence Records in Chicago. Her soulful 1966 hit ‘It Ain’t Necessary’ was…

ALBERT AMMONS

Chicago pianist Albert performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall in the 1938 ‘From Spirituals to Swing’ Concert. This event led directly to the ‘Boogie-Woogie Craze’ that lasted beyond WWII and spread this up-tempo piano Blues all over the world. Along with Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis and Pete Johnson, both of whom also played at that show,…

BOBBY RADCLIFF

When Bobby was 17 he made a pilgrimage from Washington to the hospital bedside of Magic Sam in Chicago. The two became friends and Bobby determined to play Blues guitar in the style of his hero. He certainly rips out those ferocious West-side riffs on the four albums he recorded in the 90s. Bobby had…

CURLEY WEAVER

Atlanta in the 20s had a thriving Blues scene and Curley and his boyhood friend Barbecue Bob Hicks, playing their country Blues guitars, were at the forefront. With Eddie Mapp on harmonica, they played many parties and bar gigs, as well as playing on streetcorners. The loose collective known as The Georgia Cotton Pickers included…

FAYE ADAMS

Faye Adams started young as a singer when she performed in her father’s Gospel choir on the radio in their hometown of Newark NJ at the age of five. By the late 40s she was a regular on the New York club circuit, and Atlantic recording artist Ruth Brown recomended Faye to Joe Morris, trumpeter…

JIMI HENDRIX

Jimi Hendrix was a Rock God. Fantastically talented and supremely self-confident, his iconic poster on a zillion bedroom walls, Jimi invented new sounds for the electric guitar and used them to illustrate his passionate songs in a spectacular career. Jimi took the music industry by storm when he arrived in London in 1966, made a…

WYNONIE HARRIS

Wynonie’s Blues-belting, hip-swivelling, suggestive stage act in the late 40s made him a role model for many Rockers who followed him. He scored big hits with ‘Good Rockin’ Tonight’, ‘Lollipop Mama’, and ‘All She Wants to Do is Rock’ all making the top of the R&B charts, but he could not ride the wave of…

SNOOKY PRYOR

Mississippi born James Pryor learned to play Blues harp from listening to records, despite the objections of his devout father. During Military service, Snooky played bugle, and after blowing his ‘calls’ through the PA at his camp, he would blow his harp too, making him an early exponent of ‘electric harp’. Snooky was discharged from…

CHARLES BROWN

Charles Brown is another Texan who made it on the West Coast, this silky voiced pianist with The Three Blazers took ‘Drifting Blues’ to the top of the R&B charts in 1946. Going solo two years later, he had a series of Number 1 hits, with ‘Trouble Blues’ and ‘Black Night’ both staying at the…