When the Leavee Breaks- Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie (Columbia, 1929) Millions of listeners heard “When the Levee Breaks” when Led Zeppelin recorded it in 1971, inspiring some to search for the original version recorded [...]
Vicksburg Blues- Little Brother Montgomery (Paramount, 1930) Little Brother Montgomery’s classic “Vicksburg Blues”—the first of his many versions—derived from a piano anthem known as “The Forty-Fours” played by a number of Deep South musicians. Montgomery, [...]
Honky Tonk Train Blues -- Meade Lux Lewis (Paramount, 1927) Although now regarded as a seminal classic of boogie woogie piano, “Honky Tonk Train Blues” didn’t have much impact when first released in 1930—two and [...]
Feelin' Good- Little Junior, Parker's Blues Flames (Sun, 1953) Little Junior's Blue Flames’ “Feelin’ Good” was a wailing, electrified reinvention of John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen.” Recorded at Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording service on June [...]
Black, Brown and White- Big Bill Broonzy (Vogue, 1951) In Big Bill Broonzy’s lifetime it was rare or a Black artist to be as outspoken about topics such as job discrimination and Jim Crow as [...]
Howlin' Wolf-The Chess Box While Howlin’ Wolf’s incomparable music has been documented on dozens of reissue compilations, The Chess Box package from 1991 still stands out. Produced by Andy McKaie as a 5-LP or 3-CD [...]
Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs", and the Dark Parkway to Blues and Jazz Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff Ragged But Right takes its place in the Blues Hall of Fame alongside The [...]
Syd Nathan founded the powerful King label in 1943 and ruled the operation in autocratic fashion until his death in 1968, leaving a wealth of influential records by James Brown, Little Willie John, Hank Ballard [...]
Marcia Ball, Induction into the Blues Hall of Fame is only the latest in a series of honors bestowed upon Marcia Ball, already a member of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, Museum of [...]
Barbara Lynn burst on the national scene as a 20-year-old ingenue in 1962 when her self-penned R&B ballad “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” peaked on Billboard magazine’s charts as No. 1 in R&B and No. [...]