Blues Music Artists

GUITAR SHORTY 1

There has been more than one Blues player called Guitar Shorty, but something they have in common is a talent for showmanship. Jimi Hendrix‘s brother-in-law is still using that name over on the West-coast for his backflipping, flash-guitar stage act, and others may have used it too, but an older Bluesman with an similar ‘larger-than-life’…

Rev. ROBERT WILKINS

Blues and Gospel music share a lot of common roots, and it is not unusual for performers to cross the line in both directions. The renowned Delta Bluesman Son House was a ‘Hellfire Preacher’ before the Devil’s music took his soul, and the Rev. Gary Davis belonged to a rollicking Blues scene in Atlanta before…

ROD PIAZZA

There is a long tradition of ‘cultural transmission’ in Blues music, where a young player learns tunes and techniques from an established artist, so that many brilliant young stars are almost literally ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’: Robert ‘Jr.’ Lockwood learned from his ‘stepfather’ Robert Johnson, just as Robert had learned some slide-guitar tricks…

BLIND JOE HILL

There is a long tradition of one-man-bands in the Blues. In 1924, the wandering songster Daddy Stovepipe was one of the first men to make a Blues record, and he usually managed to play three or four things at once. Joe Hill Louis continued the trend after WWII and Bluesmen like Dr. Ross, Jesse Fuller,…

SMOKIN’ JOE KUBEK

Texas ‘Roadhouse Blues’ is always a popular form of music, and while it rarely breaks new ground, it always makes for a good night out! Smokin’ Joe Kubek and his side-kick Bnois King have formed a very ‘complimentary’ guitar partnership that is far more than the sum of its parts. They have been pounding the…

FENTON ROBINSON

Sometimes a great blues talent slips through the net, producing their best work when our music is going through a slow time, and having their best songs made famous by other people. Fenton Robinson was called a “mellow guitar genius” by Japanese fans, and his sparkling, Jazz-flavoured guitar and smooth baritone voice made him a…

KENNY NEAL

When you’re born in New Orleans, the son of Buddy Guy‘s harp player, and then the great Slim Harpo hands you a battered ‘Mississippi Saxophone’ when you are just three years old, there are good odds that you will end up playing the Blues. Kenny Neal rose to the challenge, playing harp, bass and scintillating…

JOHNNY ‘Geechie’ TEMPLE

With a laid-back, ‘worldly-wise’ vocal style and a talent for clever lyrics, Johnny ‘Geechie’ Temple recorded dozens of his good-selling Blues songs in the 30s and 40s. Although he was never a big star, Johnny had a long career that stretched from his origins in the Delta to the early days of Chess records in…

BLUE SMITTY

The Blues is a hybrid animal, absorbing elements and influences from all around and incorporating them into new and progressive styles of music. Individual musicians absorb the influences of others, consciously or otherwise, and sometimes they even openly steal others work to present as their own. This is just the way it has played out…

AMÉDÉ ARDUIN

The records made by Amédé Arduin in the 30s are at the very heart of the Creole French music of Louisiana. Played by white folks, it is called ‘Cajun’ and played by black folks it is known as ‘Zydeco’, but everyone who hears it knows that it is superb, French-based dance music. Amédé was a…