Chicago | All About Blues Music

WILLIE DIXON

In June 1960, Willie Dixon went into the studio with Howlin’ Wolf to play bass on some songs he had written for the gravel-voiced Blues icon. They cut ‘Wang-Dang Doodle’, ‘Back Door Man’ and ‘Spoonful’, all Blues classics that would have guaranteed their writer legendary status if they were produced in one lifetime, not one…

ROBERT ‘JR’ LOCKWOOD

Robert Jr. Lockwood learned guitar from Robert Sr.- the Senior in this case being the legendary Robert Johnson. Around 1930, Johnson became romantically involved with Esther Lockwood after her divorce, when her son was about 15. The lad had been learning music on the family pump-organ, but his mother’s new boyfriend encouraged him to play…

MEMPHIS SLIM

Barrel-house and Boogie-woogie pianists don’t come much bigger than Memphis Slim. Standing six-six with a distinctive streak of white hair, this handsome and urbane figure knew how to cut a dash. His command of the 88s and his clear articulate vocals gave him an unmistakable musical style too, which he used to great effect in…

JIMMY REED

The secret of Jimmy Reed’s music was that this simple, bare-bones, laid-back style of Blues was just so easy to listen to. Jimmy’s laconic but rock-steady shuffle sound out-sold every other Blues artist from 1955 to 1961, scoring a dozen entries into the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts and selling many millions of records. His…

LONNIE JOHNSON

Guitar maestro Lonnie Johnson didn’t thrash his axe like a Delta field-hand or finger delicate chord patterns like a Piedmont rag-picker, but the early guitar stylists like Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker and the Three Kings, BB, Freddie and Albert would all recognise the trail that Lonnie blazed. His single-string style was precise and thoughtful, giving…

MEADE ‘LUX’ LEWIS

This ace ‘Boogie-Woogie’ pianist rose to national fame in the late 30’s when his rocking keyboard music was the current dance craze. Boogie-woogie had enjoyed some popularity in Chicago ten years earlier when Lux’s tune, ‘Honky Tonk Train Blues’ was a hit and became a piano standard, but when the style went nationwide, ‘Lux’ lived…

BUDDY GUY

Buddy Guy has probably played the Blues live for more people than anyone else. His expressive, footloose, unpredictable guitar lines, his tortured vocals and his mastery of dynamics make him an impressive artist on record, well worthy of his six Grammys, but his half-century of live performances have given him a special place in the…

LITTLE WALTER

Big swooping notes blasted out into the studio when Little Walter’s harp wailed into his closely held microphone, as the band set up to record Muddy Waters ‘Country Boy’ on the July 1951 Chess session. That soulful sound cemented in place a big stone in the foundations of modern Chicago Blues. The huge distorted electric…

BIG BILL BROONZY

Big Bill Broonzy was a John the Baptist figure in the scripture of the Blues: a charismatic fore-runner of greater things to come. He took the sound of early Chicago Blues Bands out of the Windy City, across the country, and eventually to Europe where he planted a seed that came back in The British…

HOWLIN’ WOLF

Howlin’ Wolf was a scary man on stage. Six foot three and weighing over three hundred pounds, he would jump around, throw himself on the floor, twitch like he was having an epileptic fit and generally act as if he was in the grip of furious demons. His deep bass voice sounded like sandpaper on…