Vocals | All About Blues Music

LITTLE MILTON

Always known as Little Milton, Mississippi singer and guitarist Milton Campbell walked the Soul/Blues borderline over a long career, but his broad spread of material may have counted against him, as he was not an easy man to pin down to a single genre. He started off playing guitar in Delta juke joints around his…

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY

Little Brother Montgomery was a little known but hugely influential Blues pianist from Louisiana. He learned to play piano just after he learned to walk and talk, and his endless stories of his long life on the road and on the club scene made him an invaluable source in the oral history of the Blues.…

TOMMY JOHNSON

The Dockery Plantation, just a few miles from Clarksdale Mississippi, was home to the giants of early Delta Blues. The folk music played by the country people there formed the origins of The Blues, and it spread out from that district all over The South, all over the country and all over the world. Tommy…

BOBBY PARKER

Bobby Parker was a great Blues all-rounder, with a superb voice, a stinging guitar style and a talent for songwriting. His big 1961 hit, ‘Watch Your Step’ influenced Little Milton, Santana and even The Beatles, leading to a big following in Europe. Bobby was a long-term resident of Washington DC, and a popular act on…

LUTHER ‘SNAKE BOY’ JOHNSON

There are no less than THREE unrelated Luther Johnsons that play guitar and sing the Blues, and all of them were born in the South around the same time. Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson was also known as ‘Georgia Boy’, referring to his home-town of Davisboro; Luther ‘Guitar Junior’ Johnson hails from Itta Bena MS, and…

JAMES WHEELER

This Georgia Blues guitarist made it in Chicago where, after backing Billy Boy Arnold for while, he formed his own band The Jaguars, who backed BB King, Millie Jackson and Otis Clay. When they disbanded, James toured with Clay for three more years, and after a period of retirement he joined Otis Rush for another…

ARTHUR’ BIG BOY’ CRUDUP

Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup was a powerful and dynamic singer who wrote, ‘That’s Alright Mama’, the song which demolished the racist idea that music had a colour. His reward was small and late arriving, but Arthur’s singing and songwriting talents deserve to be much more than a footnote to the Story of the Blues. Born…

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.…

CURTIS JONES

Curtis Jones was a melodic, Texas Blues pianist with a distinctive light touch, who enjoyed a successful recording career in Chicago before WWII, and then had a revival on the 60s Blues scene. He developed his style in Dallas and the club circuit in Kansas City before moving to Chicago in 1936. During the next…

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…