Blues Music Artists

LUTHER ‘SNAKE BOY’ JOHNSON

There are no less than THREE unrelated Luther Johnsons that play guitar and sing the Blues, and all of them were born in the South around the same time. Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson was also known as ‘Georgia Boy’, referring to his home-town of Davisboro; Luther ‘Guitar Junior’ Johnson hails from Itta Bena MS, and…

JAMES WHEELER

This Georgia Blues guitarist made it in Chicago where, after backing Billy Boy Arnold for while, he formed his own band The Jaguars, who backed BB King, Millie Jackson and Otis Clay. When they disbanded, James toured with Clay for three more years, and after a period of retirement he joined Otis Rush for another…

CHARLIE BURSE

Charlie Burse was a wild-living, hard-drinking, bad-tempered man whose redeeming feature was an extraordinary skill on guitar, banjo, mandolin and ukelele, the latter giving rise to his stage-name, the ‘Uke Kid’. It was his good fortune to meet up with the level-headed, business-minded multi-instrumentalist Will Shade, who managed and played with his Memphis Jug Band.…

ARTHUR’ BIG BOY’ CRUDUP

Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup was a powerful and dynamic singer who wrote, ‘That’s Alright Mama’, the song which demolished the racist idea that music had a colour. His reward was small and late arriving, but Arthur’s singing and songwriting talents deserve to be much more than a footnote to the Story of the Blues. Born…

SISTER WYNONA CARR

Wynona Carr had everything a girl needs to be a big star; a great voice with range, colour and dynamic control; a pretty face that looked good on publicity material; stage presence; songwriting talent; a powerful sense of ambition: and yet she lacked the vital ingredient of Dumb Luck! She was not the first to…

HENRY ‘SON’ SIMS

Some Bluesmen acquire legendary status without appearing in front of an audience of more than a couple of hundred, never making a single broadcast or selling any records at all. One of these is Henry ‘Son’ Sims, a fiddle-playing plantation worker who made some seminal recordings with founding fathers of the Blues; who made a…

TARHEEL SLIM

Tarheel Slim is the nom-de-Blues of the incredibly versatile Alden Bunn, who recorded Blues, Gospel, R&B, Soul, pop and Rockabilly songs under a bewildering variety of names. He was part of the vocal groups The Larks, The Wheels and The Lovers, where he recorded several hit duets with Anna Sanford, who was to become Mrs.…

BOBBY SHEEHAN

Bobby Sheehan is best known as the hard-rocking bass player from Blues Traveler, and he was a founder member of the band when the four high-school friends got together in New Jersey in 1987. They were hooked on the idea of playing a continuous stream of music without defined tracks and became known as a…

CURTIS JONES

Curtis Jones was a melodic, Texas Blues pianist with a distinctive light touch, who enjoyed a successful recording career in Chicago before WWII, and then had a revival on the 60s Blues scene. He developed his style in Dallas and the club circuit in Kansas City before moving to Chicago in 1936. During the next…

ERIC BIBB

Eric Bibb is a master of the fusion between Blues, folk and gospel music. His warm, cultured voice and considerable skill as a Piedmont style picker show how the older forms of Blues music can be renewed and refreshed to give us incisive and relevant music for today. From his early appearances on the Greenwich…