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…

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…

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…

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. Joshua White, 11 February 1915, Greenville, South Carolina, USA, d. 5 September 1969, Manhasset, New York, USA. A grounding in church music stood Josh White in good stead, as it was something to which he returned at various points in a long career…

Slim Harpo's laid-back, sensual style of singing and harmonica playing made him a key figure of Louisiana swamp blues in the 1950s and 1960s. His catchy grooves and sly, subtle vocals found him crossing over from the blues market to the greener pastu…

Blind Willie McTell would be remembered today if only because Bob Dylan immortalized him in song, but McTell's legacy (recording from the 1920s to the 1950s) extends well beyond a single cut. A masterly 12-string guitar player, McTell came to epitomi…

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…

Formed in New York, USA, in 1958, the Greenbriar Boys were one of the leading exponents of urban bluegrass. The original line-up comprised John Herald (guitar, lead vocals), Bob Yellin (banjo, tenor vocals) and Eric Weissberg (banjo, mandolin, dobro,…

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…

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…

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…

Guitarist Jimmy Reed's laid-back style remains one of the friendliest entry points into the blues. His low-volume electric approach, though relatively quiet, was rhythmically relentless; in the 1950s he was one of the prime architects of the style kn…

b. 26 March 1917, Cayce, Mississippi, USA, d. 15 December 2001, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. A singer, dancer and entertainer, Thomas learned his trade as a member of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a vaudeville-inspired touring group. By the late 40s he was …

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…

In the 1930s, the Delmore Brothers popularized the close-harmony style of bluegrass singing with such hits as "Brown's Ferry Blues," "Nashville Blues," and "Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar." The Louvin Brothers and Doc Watson are among the many artists …

A popular bluegrass group which, when founded in 1978, consisted of Dudley Connell (b. Dudley Dale Connell, 18 February 1956, Scherr, West Virginia, USA; guitar, banjo, lead vocals), Richard Underwood (b. 14 July 1956, Seabrook, Maryland, USA; banjo,…

Though J.B. Lenoir hailed from Mississippi and eventually became part of the Chicago blues scene, his music was atypical of either area's noted blues style. He sang with a high, almost effeminate voice a la Delta giants Skip James and Robert Johnson,…