Singer | All About Blues Music

COUSIN LEROY

Cousin Leroy was a singer, harp player and guitarist from rural Georgia whose R&B records in the late 50s put the emphasis squarely on the Blues half of the equation. He was part of the Post-WWII club scene in New York, and his regular associates included Champion Jack Dupree and Larry Dale, who graced all…

CHARLEY BOOKER

Charley Booker was born and raised in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi Delta, with the sound of original Blues music all around him. The plantation where Charley grew up is just east of Indianola, where Charley reported seeing Charley Patton play. Charley’s uncle played with Patton and the kid was playing guitar in local juke-joints…

FLOYD COUNCIL

Floyd Council was a superb Piedmont guitarist, mandolin player and singer, whose records appeared under the names ‘Dipper Boy’ Council and ‘The Devil’s Daddy-in-Law’. These tags were the work of his manager J D Long, who loved to give his acts memorable names: he called Fulton Allen ‘Blind Boy Fuller‘, harp player Saunders Terrell became…

LADY BIANCA

A woman who can sing the Blues with an authentic growl a smooth, seductive contralto and a big, sweet toned range will always be in demand, and West-coast star Lady Bianca fills that bill perfectly. She is not well known around the world, or even across the nation, but her big, rounded voice has been…

JOE HILL LOUIS

There is a long tradition of one-man-bands playing Blues music on street-corners. Strumming a guitar, blowing a harp in a neck-rack and beating drums and crashing cymbals with some combination of feet, knees and elbows, a street entertainer could make a living from this talent for multi-tasking. Daddy Stovepipe was the first one-man-band to make…

FRANKIE FORD

After WWII, New Orleans rocked to the sound of up-tempo Jump Blues, soon to be called R&B, driven by pounding piano riffs, funky drumming and light, clipped saxophones. Young men like Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis and Roy Brown laid the foundations for Rock’n’Roll when the music crossed over into the mainstream in the mid-50s. Frankie…

ROY MILTON

Sometimes known as ‘The Godfather of R&B’, Roy Milton’s big 1946 crossover hit ‘RM Blues’ was the first post-WWII success for the fledgeling Specialty label. It set the tone of good-time party music that was to dominate radio, juke-boxes and the charts for the next decade, and was the first of a long string of…

WASHBOARD WILLIE

You often see a one-man-band called Washboard Willie spreading fun and frollicks around the Piedmont area of the east coast, but he borrowed his name from an older Blues player who carved a niche for himself in Detroit in the 50s. This Washboard Willie also spread good vibes, thrashing his board alongside some accomplished Blues…

FLOYD JONES

In the early days of electric Blues in Chicago, a lot of young musicians from the South were trying to get their songs recorded, but it was made difficult by the ‘Petrillo Ban’ on recording, which lasted for over two years as musicians fought for royalty payments for their music when it was played on…

BUSTER BENTON

Even when The Blues is going through one of its slow spells, some performers still come to the fore who have something powerful and urgent to communicate. Buster Benton was one of those guys who put his body and soul into his music: his emotive vocals and heartfelt guitar lines gave his slow Blues an…