b. Valerie Eileen Hall, 14 November 1959, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 2 January 1993, Maywood, Ilinois, USA. Wellington trained as an opera singer at Chicago's American Conservatory of Music for three years. She learned piano as a youngster and played…

b. 14 March 1914, Zachary, Louisiana, USA, d. 31 December 1980, Rosedale, Louisiana, USA. Although he had been playing and singing blues since he was a young man, Williams first came to wider notice when he was recorded in 1958 by folklorist Harry Os…

b. 30 July 1940, Lambert, Mississippi, USA. Johnson's father led a local band and at the age of 13 Jack was sitting in on acoustic guitar. He was inspired by B.B. King's records to switch to electric guitar five years later, and in 1962 he sat in wit…

Music Makin Mama Ann Rabson played a considerable role in helping to revive acoustic blues in the post-Stevie Ray Vaughan era both as a solo artist and with Saffire -- the Uppity Blues Women the group she co-founded in 1988 Although shes best known a…

One-off recording project combining three of Texas finest tenor saxophonists Sil Austin Slow Walk Mark Kazanoff Guitar Johnny The Rhythm Rockers and a mainstay of Austins Antones Blues club and Grady Fats Jackson Cub Koda All Music Guide

Although Juanita Williams may seem like a new face on the blues scene one listen to her brilliant debut album on the Big Mo label Introducing Juanita Williams and you realize this woman is a pro In fact shes spent the last 20 years as lead vocalist f…

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…

Grammy Award-winning guitar great Robert Cray fuses blues and Memphis-style R&B in his music, often evoking the funky soul sounds of O.V. Wright in the process. Cray is justly praised for his understated approach; the subtlety of his singing and play…

Led by Gus Cannon, the Jug Stompers were the finest and most blues-orientated of the Memphis jug bands, recording for Victor from 1928 to 1930. The permanent members were Cannon himself (playing rushing, syncopated banjo and a fruity, ribald jug) and…

b. 16 September 1931, El Campo, Texas, USA. By the age of 16, Littlefield was emulating his hero Amos Milburn, shouting the blues and hammering the pianos of nearby Houston's Dowling Street clubs. He made his recording debut the following year for th…

Blues Flavored Rock with Pop influences

b. Ida Prather, 25 February 1896, Toccoa, Georgia, USA, d. 10 November 1967, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Like many early blues vocalists, Cox's origins are vague and details of the date and place of her birth vary widely. One of the classic blues sing…

Koko Taylor came in on the tail end of Chess Records' heyday, but she managed to score the legendary blues label one of its last big hits with her 1966 version of the Willie Dixon-penned "Wang Dang Doodle." Taylor's raw, gritty, soulful vocal style w…

While a longtime fixture of the Pacific Northwest blues community singerharpist Curtis Salgado ironically earned his greatest notoriety as the reputed inspiration behind John Belushis character in The Blues Brothers Born in Everett Washington on Febr…

Elvin Bishop was born in Glendale CA on October 21 1942 He grew up on a farm in Iowa with no electricity and no running water His family moved to Oklahoma when he was ten Raised in an all-White community he had no exposure to Blacks or their music ex…

b. 17 April 1956, West Helena, Arkansas, USA. From some of his statements, it would be easy to cast Shields as a reluctant bluesman. His early musical experience centred around the church, although he never joined his church's choir. He was 11 when h…

b. Kathryn Jewel Thorne, 9 January 1939, Houston, Texas, USA, 5 September 1999, League City, Texas, USA. Webster learned to play the piano as a child, playing hymn tunes when her mother was within earshot and Fats Domino and Chuck Berry tunes when sh…

Madeleine Peyroux is helping to keep classic jazz vocals alive in the new millennium, and while her voice and delivery owe a supreme debt to the legendary Billie Holiday, Peyroux puts her own hip spin on Lady Day's musical tradition. As much an Ameri…

b. 21 July 1917, Marianna, Arkansas, USA, d. 19 December 1989, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Brought up in the Mississippi Delta, Jones had been playing guitar for some years by the time he settled in Chicago around 1945. He soon became part of a seminal g…

b. 15 July 1950, New York City, New York, USA. James took up his father's guitar when he was 12 and a few years later was playing bass in a rock 'n' roll band. When the blues boom brought Muddy Waters and Mississippi John Hurt to town, he moved from …

"Beautifully moody, or riotously rocking, Allison Crowe creates piano-based music of transcendent quality."

b. Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp, 12 October 1929, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Brown began his career as a gospel singer, but moved to R&B when an appearance in Newark, New Jersey, led to a recording contract with Savoy Records in 1954. A deep-voic…

b. 23 September 1935, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA. Although held in high regard by both his peers and audiences, Robinson's mellow voice and jazz-orientated guitar-playing remains a rare pleasure. Robinson took an interest in guitar on hearing T-Bone…

b. Joe Willie Perkins, 7 July 1913, Belzoni, Mississippi, USA. A barrelhouse blues pianist who has been playing piano since the age of 12, prior to that he played guitar. Perkins travelled through Mississippi and Arkansas, and north to St. Louis and …