Guitar | All About Blues Music

BAYLESS ROSE

Bayless Rose was a Kentucky guitarist and singer who recorded several Ragtime-style Blues tracks for the Gennett label in 1930. His articulate, ‘Piedmont’ picking got him some session work, and his occasional use of a slide is reminiscent of the Memphis guitarist Walter ‘Furry’ Lewis, who had been recording since 1927. Not much is known…

FREDDIE ROULETTE

Freddie Roulette is one of the very few Blues musicians who has made the lap-steel guitar their instrument of choice. From his early classic albums with Earl Hooker and his work with some legendary Chicago characters, through an enduring friendship with Charlie Musselwhite to a long career on the West-coast, Freddie always brings a heart…

‘SMOKEY’ HOGG

‘Smokey’ Hogg was an old-school Texas Blues guitarist and pianist who moved to the West-coast after WWII and had a couple of good R&B chart hits with a smooth piano Blues sound, alongside his dozens of country-style, guitar based records. His down-home delivery and eccentric sense of timing sounded old-fashioned in an era of frenetic…

LONESOME SUNDOWN

Lonesome Sundown was given his Blues name by Jay Miller, the legendary producer at Excello Records who also gave new names to Lightnin’ Slim, Lazy Lester and many more. Lonesome’s particular brand of ‘swamp Blues’ had strong echoes of the hard-edged sound of Chicago Blues rather than the usual one-chord boogies or the more lyrical…

TOMMY CASTRO

With a hat-full of Blues Music Awards and a dozen good-selling albums, Tommy Castro is a consummate modern Bluesman. He sings like a 60s Soul star, plays guitar riffs that would not be out of place in a 50s Chicago club, and he has taken those talents around the world. Tommy remains a modest character,…

LOWELL GEORGE

Lowell George was a slide-guitar player of such exquisite skill, good taste and influence, he is one of an élite group of musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Duane Allman and Ry Cooder, who can be said to have changed the sound of modern Rock music with their mastery of lyrical ‘bottleneck’ technique. Lowell Thomas George was…

MICK ABRAHAMS

Mick Abrahams is a British Blues-Rock guitarist who was a founding member of stadium band Jethro Tull, in their first incarnation on the late 60s club scene. His desire to follow a path towards progressive Blues led to a split with Ian Anderson, the formation of Mick’s band Blodwyn Pig, and a lifetime of touring…

BLIND JOE REYNOLDS

Blind Joe Reynolds was the nom-de-Blues of Joe Sheppard, an early Blues singer and guitarist who lived a surprisingly long life, mostly outside the law. Disputed reports of his origins put his birthplace as Tallulah LA in 1904, although others cite somewhere in Arkansas in 1900, and a nephew claims he was actually called Joe…

ROBIN TROWER

Blues-Rock lost a unique and masterful talent when Jimi Hendrix left us, but one man who picked up the banner and held it high was Robin Trower. He turned down the fuzz-box and cranked up the reverb, but the sounds that Jimi pioneered were championed in the 70s by Robin’s power trios, and his work…

CEPHAS & WIGGINS

Piedmont Blues is the rather lesser known cousin of Delta Blues, and while the Mississippi players went to Chicago and generated electric Blues, the Piedmont artists gravitated to the New York club scene, inspiring a generation of post-WWII protest singers, including a kid called Bob Dylan, and a whole different kind of music. Cephas and…