b. 7 December 1913, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA, d. 12 October 1985, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Davis taught himself piano after being blinded in 1923, and led his own six-piece band for 15 years from 1938. He professed not to care for blues, but his …

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…

b. South Carolina, USA. A high-quality soul singer whose limited output is legendary, particularly among lovers of the "deep" style. Anderson's first records came in the pre-soul era of 1959 with "The Home Fires Are Brighter After All" for Derrick (l…

Cutting his teeth on New Orleans session work while still a teen in the 1950s, pianist and singer Dr. John (born Mac Rebennack) emerged in the late 1960s with GRIS-GRIS, a blend of snaky rhythms, Crescent City funk, and swampland voodoo flair. Since …

Songwriter Steve Seskin has written a large percentage of chart toppers and award winners Dont Laugh at Me recorded by Mark Wills was named Song of the Year in 1999 by the Nashville Songwriters Association It also received a Country Music Association…

b. 28 June 1915, Shaw, Mississippi, USA. Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta country, Edwards played with and learned from such important blues figures as Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Big Joe Williams. His first recordings were made for th…

b. Eugene Moss, 26 January 1914, Hancock County, Georgia, USA, d. October 1984, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It was as a harmonica player that Moss first appeared on record, in 1930, as one of the Georgia Cotton Pickers with Barbecue Bob and Curley Weaver.…

b. 9 July 1955, Blyth, Northumberland, England. Lamb's initial interest in blues came from listening to John Mayall's records; he then discovered the music of Sonny Terry, in whose style he thoroughly immersed himself for 12 years. He played in folk …

After many years as a sideman to singers like Betty Everett Donny Hathaway Gene Duke of Earl Chandler Brook Benton and many other prominent classic RB singers guitarist and singersongwriter DC Bellamy released his debut album for the Rooster Blues la…

This group was formed by Dr John keyboards guitar vocals David Newman sax flute and Art Blakey drums Bob Porter All Music Guide

b. 31 March 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, d. 6 March 1999, Los Angeles, California, USA. Blues guitarist Lowell Fulson (whose surname was often mistakenly misspelled Fulsom) recorded steadily from 1946 onwards, and performed regularly on the US and Eur…

The line-up of this popular blues band originally comprised Rick Estrin (b. 5 October 1950, San Francisco, California, USA; vocal/harmonica), "Little" Charlie Baty (b. 10 July 1953, Birmingham, Alabama, USA; guitar), Jay Peterson (bass) and Dobie Str…

b. James Williamson, 3 May 1914, Somerville, Tennessee, USA, although 1905 and 1910 have also been claimed. Williamson's father was a drummer and by the age of 14, he was playing guitar at local dances and taverns. Williamson developed a "bottleneck"…

b. Chicago, Illinois, USA. Gravenites grew up on Chicago's south side. He entered university in 1956 and was immediately drawn to its bohemian circle. Having discovered several blues nightclubs, including Frader's Jukebox Lounge, Gravenites joined a …

b. 15 March 1929, Galveston, Texas, USA. A self-taught blues piano player, Clarence "Candy" Green performed on radio and in the numerous clubs of Galveston, a naval town known as the "Playground Of The South". His first record was "Green's Bounce", m…

b. 24 August 1915, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, d. 14 June 1969, Los Angeles, California, USA. This stylish, flamboyant blues shouter enjoyed several R&B hit singles in the immediate post-war period. As a youth Harris played drums in and around his home tow…

b. 5 October 1959, Sumner, Washington, USA. Spending his youth moving across genres, travelling from blues to rock to folk to be-bop to "free" music, Phelps underwent a Damascene conversion at the age of 30 when he heard a record by Mississippi Fred …

b. Theodore Hawkins Jnr., 28 October 1936, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA, d. 1 January 1995, Los Angeles, California, USA. Hawkins was more of a modern-day "songster" than a bluesman, his repertoire encompassing pop hits, country and folk standards, soul …

Once dismissed by purists as a Chuck Berry imitator and an accurate one at that tall lean and lanky Chicago southpaw Eddy Clearwater is now recognized as a prime progenitor of West Side-style blues guitar Thats not to say he wont liven up a gig with …

b. 31 December 1931, New York City, New York, USA, d. 28 October 2004, Malibu, California, USA. Abandoned by his natural parents at the age of two, Mellé was raised by a family friend. He showed precocious talents as a painter and musician, teaching …

b. Lillian Theresa Boutté, 6 August 1949, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. After singing in a church choir and studying music, Boutté became a professional singer in her early 20s. Initially, she sang R&B but her striking personality and wide-ranging mus…

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. Joseph Benjamin Hutto, 26 April 1926, Elko, near Blackville, South Carolina, USA, d. 12 June 1983, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Hutto's family moved to Augusta, Georgia when he was three years old, and he later sang in the Golden Crowns Gospel Singers,…

b. John Paul Hammond III, 13 November 1943, he is the son of jazz and rock producer John Hammond Jnr. The younger Hammond took up blues guitar and harmonica while at college and joined the New York coffee-house scene in 1962. In the same year he reco…

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…