Guitar | All About Blues Music

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.…

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…

LUTHER ALLISON

Luther Allison was born in Arkansas in 1939, and relocated to Chicago when he was 12. He learned guitar and would hang around outside the clubs in the hope of being invited in to play. One day his dream came true and Howlin’ Wolf, no less, invited him onstage. Luther often played behind harp legend…

MAGIC SLIM

Magic Slim had a career spanning nearly 60 years and three dozen albums, as the leader of legendary Chicago band The Teardrops. Schooled in the ‘second wave’ of Chicago Blues coming out of the West-side clubs in the late 50s, Slim’s heavy vibrato guitar, roaring deep voice and commanding stage presence made him a formidable…

WILLIE BROWN

When Robert Johnson sang his seminal ‘Crossroads Blues’, in the last verse he tells how he is running away, but asks for ‘my friend Willie Brown’. That line immortalised Willie for future generations, but in truth he did enough in his own right to gain a page in Blues History, despite having recorded only three…

MEMPHIS MINNIE

The classic period of Blues recording in the 20’s was the era of the Blues Diva, glamorous women who the radio stations and record companies could promote as stars, like Hollywood did with its yound actresses. Memphis Minnie shattered that mould as a guitarist, singer and songwriter as steeped in country Blues as any Delta…

SHANNON CURFMAN

‘Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions’ was the debut album of this 14 year-old girl from Fargo, North Dakota in 1999. Shannon had already opened for Steve Miller and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, heralding the arrival of a major young talent. She toured with Buddy Guy and George Thorogood and released a second album, ‘Fast Lane Addiction’ in 2007 on her own…

MIKE BLOOMFIELD

Mike Bloomfield got his Blues guitar education as a kid in the clubs on Chicago’s Southside with some of the true ‘originators’, occasionally jumping onstage to join in with them! He ran a folk club when he left school, where he would book the old Blues players he had played with. Mike joined Paul Butterfield’s…

LIGHTNIN’ SLIM

Otis V Hicks from St. Louis found fame in Baton Rouge, Louisiana playing his guitar in local bars with Big Poppa’s band, where Buddy Guy would later learn his chops. He signed for Feature Records in 1954, billed as ‘Lightnin’ Slim’ and recorded his ‘Bad Luck Blues’ for them before beginning a fruitful 12 years…

CARLOS SANTANA

If “Blues is the roots and other music is the fruits”, (to quote Willie Dixon) then Carlos Santana’s music might be a strawberry/melon/mango hybrid; a rich blend of flavours with plenty of juice. From the heyday of experimental 60s San Francisco Blues bands to jazz-fusion, devotional music, Latin grooves and monster selling collaborations, Carlos has…