Texas blues master Albert Collins was known for his unique Telecaster style, typified by extensive use of reverb, staccato picking, unconventional minor-key tunings, and a percussive, trebly quality. For four decades, from the 1950s on, his "cool" so…

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…

In the 1980s, many assumed blues rock was left for dead, but Stevie Ray Vaughan helped breath life back into it. More than a straight-ahead bluesman, Texas-native Vaughan was influenced as much by Jimi Hendrix as he was by Otis Rush, and the singer/…

Texan blues guitarist Johnny Winter, surely the first albino blues guitar hero, was already a convincing artist in the '60s when still in his teens. At the dawn of the '70s, he embraced the sound of the time, adopting a louder, more frenetic blues-ro…

They're known as the founding fathers of Southern rock, but the Allman Brothers were actually much more progressive than the musical school they inspired. They reclaimed the US-influenced blues-rock of Cream et al. and brought it back to America, add…

Over the course of four decades, Eric Clapton has carried the British blues legacy into the mainstream of pop music. From his mid-1960s days with the Yardbirds and John Mayall, through his years as guitar god with Cream and Blind Faith, and eventuall…

The great Memphis guitarist and singer B.B. King has been the most high-profile figure in blues since the 1960s, ever since his LIVE AT THE REGAL album established him as a superstar. King has collaborated successfully with everyone from Bobby Bland …

Along with Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, guitar legend Jeff Beck first made his mark with English blues-rockers The Yardbirds in the 1960s. And like the others, he gained greater popularity after he left the band. One of rock's great instrumentalists,…

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…

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…

Of all the artists to emerge in the late 1960s, none inspired greater awe than Jimi Hendrix. After touring with numerous R&B bands, the guitarist moved to London in 1966 and assembled the Jimi Hendrix Experience. His U.S. return at the Monterey Pop F…

Albert King is one of the most important post-war blues guitarists. His influence was even more profoundly felt in the rock world than in blues, though he earned iconic stature in both. His unusual style came from playing pickless, upside-down, and l…

b. 4 April 1952, Belfast, Northern Ireland. This talented, blues-influenced singer and guitarist formed his first major band, Skid Row, when he was 16 years old - initially with Phil Lynott, who left after a few months to form Thin Lizzy. Skid Row co…

Originally part of the early 1960s British blues/R&B scene, the Rolling Stones rapidly ascended the heights of fame with a perfect combination of hit singles and media-grabbing scandals. By the '70s, Keith Richards had become a bona fide guitar hero,…

Like most British blues fanatics in the early '60s, John Mayall took his cues primarily from the stars of Chicago's electric blues scene. Both with the Bluesbreakers and later on his own, Mayall played a large role in introducing white audiences to e…

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…

Three Kings--B.B., Albert, and Freddie--ruled the electric blues guitar world of the 1960s. Freddie King was perhaps the rawest, most visceral player among them. His style earned him the eternal admiration of guitar legends Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, a…

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. 20 March 1951, Dallas, Texas, USA. Vaughan began playing rock music as an adolescent and worked with several local bands, moving nearer to the blues with each one, finally establishing a formidable reputation as a guitar player. In 1968 he saw Mud…

b. Michael Bernard Bloomfield, 28 July 1944, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 15 February 1981, San Francisco, California, USA. For many, both critics and fans, Bloomfield was the finest white blues guitarist America has so far produced. Although signed to…