Vocals | All About Blues Music

BLIND JOHN DAVIS

Blind John Davis was an accomplished session pianist who played on many seminal records in Chicago in the 30s and 40s and who was later a missionary of the Blues as it took root in Europe. John went blind at nine years of age and began playing piano in his father’s Chicago ‘speakeasy’ in the…

LITTLE RICHARD

If you took a Gospel shouter, some pounding New Orleans piano R&B, some very cheeky lyrics and an outrageous stage personality, you still wouldn’t quite have the phenomenon that is Little Richard. As R&B and jump-blues transformed into Rock’n’Roll in the mid-50s, Richard was at the cutting edge, all over the radio, the juke-box and…

MERCY DEE WALTON

Born in Waco Texas, Mercy Dee took the Sunset Route to play his piano in California just before WWII. His first disc was ‘Lonesome cabin Blues’ for the Spire label, but he soon had a national hit for Specialty with his song ‘One Room Country Shack’, later made even more famous by Mose Allison. Equally…

GEORGE THOROGOOD

George Thorogood is not a great innovator, but he knows how to rock and he knows how to boogie and the fans love it. George and his band The Destroyers helped to kick off the eighties Blues boom that gave us Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray, and his steady Blues-rock output over the decades…

MAGIC SAM

Magic Sam was a pioneering guitar virtuoso on the club scene on the West-side of Chicago in the late 50s, where a new generation of Blues guitarists like Freddie King, Otis Rush, Luther Allison and Buddy Guy were tearing up the rule book. Sharp-edged guitar phrasing, honking saxes and hysterical vocals were the hallmark of this…

PAPA GEORGE LIGHTFOOT

When producer Steve LaVere discovered that Papa George was still blowing his harp in his native Natchez MS in 1969, he whisked him into Malaco’s new Jackson studios to record some real down-home country Blues harp. Papa George’s habit of singing through his harp-mic gave his already rough voice a ragged edge, but his instrumental…

PEG-LEG SAM

This Carolina harp virtuoso spent most of his life travelling the South with carnivals and medicine shows. As a teenager, Arthur Jackson lived the life of a hobo, ‘riding the blinds’ on the railroads between South-Eastern towns where he would play his harp for tips. On his one journey North to Buffalo NY, he almost…

LEROY CARR

At a time when record companies were scouring the Delta for country Blues talent, Leroy Carr of Indianapolis came along with his sophisticated piano Blues that was rooted in an extremely different urban setting. His measured and melodic style and crooning vocals, especially in the company of his guitarist Scrapper Blackwell, introduced a new, more…

EDDIE BOYD

Born in Clarksdale MS, Eddie was a self-taught pianist who learned his trade around the Delta juke-joints before moving to Memphis when he was 22 years old. Eddie formed The Dixie Rhythm Boys to play in the Beale Street clubs and in 1941, he caught the train to Chicago where he played with John Lee…

ALBERT COLLINS

Albert Collins was at the forefront of the Blues revival of the mid-80s, along with fellow Texans Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Copeland and with Robert Cray. Known as ‘The Ice-Man’ for his sparse, ringing guitar tone, he would often wander into the audience while playing. Albert took a while to get famous and left…