b. Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA. Having spent more than a decade as one of Los Angeles' foremost session singers, in recent years Evans has taken firm steps towards a solo career. As a teenager, he sang with a high-school vocal group, the Knights, who…

b. 25 December 1949, San Francisco, California, USA. Although born in the city and raised during the era of "flower power", Walker had a strong and realized sense of the blues tradition. Nevertheless, he abandoned blues in the mid-70s to sing with go…

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 …

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. West Memphis, USA. One of blues maestro B.B. King's 15 children, Shirley King was raised on the family smallholding, initially unaware of her brothers or sisters. From an early age she aspired to emulate her father and become part of the entertain…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

b. 15 April 1906, Big Stone Gap, Virginia, USA, d. 1978. Like his father, the multi-instrumentalist Martin played in a string band, although he is also known for his work in the blues field. In his teens he met Howard Armstrong and, in 1930, the two …

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…

The most successful and influential purveyor of saxophone-driven jump blues, Louis Jordan was also one of the crucial transitional figures between the swing era and R&B. Although he started out mainly as a saxophonist with bandleaders such as Bessie …

b. John "Peter" Chatman, 3 September 1915, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 24 February 1988, Paris, France. One of the most popular performers of the blues idiom, Memphis Slim combined the barrelhouse/boogie-woogie piano style of the pre-war era with a s…

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…

b. 25 February 1924, Woodville, Virginia, USA, 25 February 2002, Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Born into a musical family, Jackson began to play guitar at around five years old, learning from a convict who worked on a chain gang. He played at parties and d…

b. 30 March 1948, Heswall, Cheshire, England. Dave Hole's family moved to Perth, Western Australia, when Dave was four years old. The music of the Rolling Stones inspired him to pick up the guitar, and through them he discovered Muddy Waters and Howl…

Brown was an associate of the Tennessee musicians who accompanied Sleepy John Estes, and whose guitar is heard on Brown's first record. Jimmy Rogers recalled him as an irascible paranoid, and Hammie Nixon, who last saw him in the late 60s, recalls th…

b. 17 November 1904, Bentonia, Mississippi, USA, d. 9 February 1997. Along with Skip James and the unrecorded Henry Stuckey, Owens was one of the originators of the distinctive blues style developed in Bentonia after World War I, featuring "deep" lyr…

Bobby "Blue" Bland is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the blues world. Growing up in Memphis, he was influenced by gospel and country as well as blues, and his style has always shown a broader scope than that of most bluesmen. Early on he …

b. Arthur Jackson, 18 December 1911, Jonesville, South Carolina, USA, d. 27 October 1977, Jonesville, South Carolina, USA. Also known as Peg Pete, Jackson learned to play the harmonica when he was 10 years old by listening to local men, Butler Jennin…

b. Coleman Pettis Jnr., c.1935, Alabama, USA, d. April 1988. Pettis worked under a variety of pseudonyms including Daddy Rabbit, Alabama Junior, and Junior Pettis. He learned to play guitar at the age of eight and moved to Chicago in 1952. He was str…

b. 6 October 1908, Honey Grove, Texas, USA, d. 14 April 1992, New York City, New York, USA. After studying alto horn and piano at schools in Texas, Price won a dancing contest. Arising from this he was invited to tour with the Alphonso Trent band. Ba…

b. 6 March 1951, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. This highly talented and experienced blues guitarist finally formed and recorded with his own band in 1989 after a lengthy spell with John Mayall and Canned Heat. With a line-up of Jim Trapp (bass), Le…

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. Arthur Blake (or possibly Phelps), c.1890s, Jacksonville, Florida, USA, d. c.1933. One of the very finest of pre-war blues guitarists, Blind Blake is nevertheless a very obscure figure. Almost nothing is known of his early years, but it is reputed…

b. 1959, New Orleans, USA. As an amateur blues singer he discovered plenty of musical opportunities in the region, occasionally adding guitar and sometimes clarinet accompaniment to impromptu bar-room sessions. The city's music circuit of that time d…