Originally a Delta bluesman in the vein of Son House, Muddy Waters moved north in the 1940s and became the leader of the first--and greatest--electric Chicago blues band. Waters' abrasive guitar, impassioned singing, and commanding stage presence ins…

Sometimes known as Sonny Boy Williamson II, bluesman Rice Miller took his musical moniker from another blues singer who used it first, though Miller was the best-known Sonny Boy Williamson. He began performing in the 1920s, but the Mississippi singer…

Little Walter invented the overdriven, reverb-soaked harmonica sound that came to epitomize Chicago blues. Beginning in the late 1940s and early '50s, first as Muddy Waters' sideman and later as a soloist, Little Walter altered the role of the harmon…

Chicago blues legend Willie Dixon was both house bassist and songwriter for the seminal Chess label in the 1950s through the early 1960s, providing material and/or accompaniment for Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Koko Taylor, et al. His songs have left …

b. James A. Lane, 3 June 1924, Ruleville, Mississippi, USA, d. 19 December 1997, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Self-taught on both harmonica and guitar, Rogers began working at local house parties in his early teens. He then followed an itinerant path, per…

Howlin' Wolf's menacing, guttural vocals are among the blues' most distinctive sounds. His repertoire, much of which flowed from the pen of Willie Dixon, is equally classic. Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Sonny Boy Williamson make up the Holy Trinity of Chi…

Elmore James built a blues career largely around one milestone slide-guitar lick, but what a lick it was! Copped from Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom," James's frantic trademark run can safely be cited as one of the cornerstones of rock & roll, from …

Eric Clapton once called Buddy Guy "the greatest blues guitarist ever." Guy, along with contemporary Magic Sam, took the sounds of Chicago blues of the 1950s and ratcheted them up a notch, in the process creating a new form of controlled blues mayhem…

John Lee Hooker is the most elemental of the electric blues giants. His spooky musical minimalism--plaintive yet powerful vocals coupled with guitar work alternately haunting and toe-tapping--has inspired countless artists, from contemporaries like S…

Delta bluesman Johnny Shines is most famous for having traveled and performed with Robert Johnson in the '30s, but his career extended several decades beyond Johnson's. He eventually wound up in Chicago, where he recorded for Job Records, but like ma…

Though Otis Rush was born in Mississippi, he was no Delta blues guitarist. Seemingly a city boy at heart, he journeyed to Chicago, where he quickly became one of the most highly regarded urban blues players of the '50s and '60s. The left-handed guita…

One of the true giants of blues harmonica, Junior Wells is regarded--along with Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson--as a definitive post-WWII figure. Wells rose to prominence after replacing Little Walter in Muddy Waters's band, then reached the …

b. 24 October 1936, Tchula, Mississippi, USA. Dawkins taught himself to play blues guitar in the early 50s and moved to Chicago in 1957, forming his own band two years later, while also working club dates with bluesmen such as Jimmy Rogers and Magic …

Koko Taylor came in on the tail end of Chess Records' heyday, but she managed to score the legendary blues label one of its last big hits with her 1966 version of the Willie Dixon-penned "Wang Dang Doodle." Taylor's raw, gritty, soulful vocal style w…

b. Walter Williams, 29 April 1937, Osceola, Arkansas, USA, d. 7 September 1993. Dizz was taught the rudiments of music by his father, after the family had moved north to Kankakee, Illinois, and he has been a stalwart of the Chicago blues scene since …

Blues guitarist James Wheeler was born in Albany GA on August 28 1937 His earliest musical influences were the big bands of the time especially Glenn Miller Duke Ellington and his first idol Louis Jordan Following his older brother Golden Wheeler mov…

An enormously influential gospel bluesman, Blind Willie Johnson played slide guitar with a haunting intensity that rivals Robert Johnson. His brief recording career ended with the onset of the Depression, but he continued performing up until his deat…

While several women rose to fame as blues vocalists in the early 1930s, few succeeded as instrumentalists. Memphis Minnie was a notable exception. A forceful guitarist who once reportedly beat Big Bill Broonzy in a guitar picking contest, Memphis Min…

b. 24 February 1936, Sunflower, Mississippi, USA. Kent was brought up in Shelby, Mississippi, and was influenced by the blues he heard on the radio. He settled in Chicago in 1952 and was soon able to hear the top blues artists live in the clubs, alth…

b. 17 August 1939, Mayflower, Arkansas, USA, d. 12 August 1997, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Born into a family where he was the fourteenth child of 15, the young Allison worked with his siblings in the local cotton fields. In his youth, guitarist Alliso…