b. 29 March 1968, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Foley fields a strong sense of rhythm which puts an interesting spin on a Texas shuffle. She took up the guitar at 13, encouraged by her father and three brothers. Two years later, she saw James Cotton and s…

b. David William Kearney, 8 September 1939, Houston, Texas, USA. A penchant for acrobatics disguises Shorty's real talent as a blues guitarist. He grew up in Kissimmee, Florida, where his uncle Willie Quarterman introduced him to the guitar. At 17 he…

b. 17 November 1967, Baton Rouge, California, USA. Benoit started out playing classic rock cover versions in local bands. A gifted young guitarist, he was satisfied with this kind of music until a friend played him a copy of a Buddy Guy record. His m…

b. 18 April 1924, Vinton, Louisiana, USA (some sources give Orange, Texas, where he was raised from the age of three weeks). Brown's father was a musician who taught him to play guitar and fiddle, and during his youth he heard the music of Tampa Red,…

b. Kevin Moore, 3 October 1951, Los Angeles, California, USA. Although he was born on the west coast of America, Kevin Moore's parents came from Texas and Louisiana, instilling in him an appreciation of blues and gospel. At 21, his band Zulu was hire…

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…

b. 19 May 1953, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Raised in Washington, DC, blues-rock guitarist Thackery is a raw live player who has earned favourable comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan. With Mark Wenner he formed the blues-based Nighthawks in 1972, re…

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…

b. 3 October 1956, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA. Blues guitarist Coleman eschewed early stardom, either by accident or fate. She raised a daughter and supported her family with jobs as a nurse and electrician well before recognition as a major blues art…

b. Ronald Earl Horvath, 10 March 1953, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. Ronald Horvath was inspired to play blues guitar after seeing Muddy Waters at a club in Boston, Massachusetts. Listing his influences as Robert Lockwood, B.B. King, Magic Sa…

b. 1938, Rolling Fork, Mississippi, USA. Dyer took up the harmonica when he was seven and as a teenager sat in with Smokey Wilson in a local club. He moved to Los Angeles in January 1958 and formed his own band, the Blue Notes, backing visitors such …

b. 30 November 1956, Grove City, Pennsylvania, USA. Having grown up in Irving, Texas, Kubek was playing in Dallas clubs at the age of 14. Three years later, he took a deeper interest in blues, prompted by Eric Clapton and Peter Green, and formed his …

b. Judge Kenneth Peterson, 13 December 1964, Buffalo, New York, USA. Peterson was an exceptionally gifted musician as a child, and this has left him with the problem of harnessing his natural gift to a definable personality. His father James owned a …

b. 23 September 1939, Ozark, Alabama, USA, d. 14 August 1988. The son of a preacher, Buchanan discovered gospel music through the influence of travelling revivalists. This interest engendered his love of R&B and, having served an apprenticeship playi…

From the beginning, singer/guitarist Taj Mahal had an interest in/gift for rural blues, and has since embraced everything from electric and psychedelic-tinged blues to reggae and calypso. A tireless performer, he's recorded in many settings, with his…

According to all the press and hype and hoopla Tommy Castro is pegged as the next big star of the blues Long a favorite among Bay Area music fans Castro -- in the space of two album releases -- has taken his music around the world and back again with…

b. Johnny Jones Jnr., 9 September 1967, Dallas, Texas, USA. Given his nickname while still a baby by his guitar-playing father, Jones began his musical career at the age of six, playing drums for his uncle's band, L.C. Clark And The Four Deuces. Ente…

b. Leslie Johnson, 20 June 1933 (or 1923), Torras, Louisiana, USA. Blues harmonica player and vocalist Lazy Lester recorded numerous singles for Excello Records in the late 50s and early 60s. Forming his first band in 1952, the musician's first signi…