Robert Johnson is the most legendary of Delta blues singers, and while the facts of his real life are scarce, tall tales abound--most commonly that he sold his soul to the devil in order to master the guitar. Johnson invested his music with frighteni…

The warm, amiable sound of Mississippi John Hurt is one of the earliest and most powerful influences in country blues. The organic ease of his singing belied an innovative level of craft along with an astounding fingerpicking guitar technique. Born i…

One of the most influential of all Delta bluesmen, Mississippi-born Eddie James "Son" House was a direct inspiration to Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, having shown both of them some of his guitar techniques. His vibrant, aggressive style was captur…

The embodiment of the link between folk and blues, Lousiana-born Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) possessed a powerful voice and the creative fervor to fashion his observations and heartfelt passions into riveting songs. An itinerant singer/guitarist, he…

Skip James is one of the most revered Delta blues artists of the 20th century. His high, haunted vocal style and bone-chilling acoustic guitar work gave him a sound that set him apart from his peers. The recordings he made in the early 1930s are amon…

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…

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…

The original tough-mama prototype for nearly every female blues singer to come, hard-living, big-voiced Bessie Smith was also the first blues singer with a mega-hit recording career, achieved in part via collaborations with some of the most notable m…

b. 1964, Kent, England. This respected UK blues keyboard player has carved out a niche as a session player backing artists from a diverse range of genres, in addition to maintaining a low-key solo career with his funk band the Absolute Monster Gentle…

One of the first recorded blues artists, Blind Lemon Jefferson was also one of the genre's most influential musicians. His dexterous, percussive guitar style, and haunting vocals set the standard for country blues artists. Were it not for the fact th…

Some artists are influential because so many followers try to imitate them; others are influential precisely because they cannot be imitated. Lightnin' Hopkins was of the latter variety. With a career that stretched from the 1920s through the '70s, t…

Charley Patton's gruff vocals and maniacal guitar style set the pace for Mississippi Delta blues in the 1920s, inspiring a generation of bluesmen that included Son House, Bukka White, and Robert Johnson. Patton died prematurely of heart failure in 19…

Blues guitarist Big Bill Broonzy was born in Mississippi but is considered the granddaddy of the Chicago sound. One of the first rural blues musicians to merge southern country flavor with the grit of the urban north, Broonzy was an influence on gene…

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…

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 …

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…

b. 24 August 1905, Forest, Mississippi, USA, d. 28 March 1974, Nassawadox, Virginia, USA. During the 40s and early 50s Arthur Crudup was an important name in the blues field, his records selling particularly well in the south. For much of his early l…

This Los Angeles, California, USA-based band was formed by Grant Lee Phillips (b. 1 September 1963, Stockton, California, USA; vocals/12-string guitar), Paul Kimble (b. 24 September 1960, Freeport, Illinois, USA; bass/keyboards) and Joey Peters (b. 9…

Bob Dylan began as a Woody Guthrie acolyte, imitating the dust-bowl balladeer as faithfully as a baby boomer from Hibbing, Minnesota, could. It wasn't long before he found his own voice, spearheading the early-1960s folk revival as well as the singer…