Guitarist Tampa Red and pianist Georgia Tom joined together in a playful vocal duet to rework a hot street slang phrase of the 1920s into a genre-crossing national hit. 'It's Tight Like That,' a prime [...]
Milk Cow Blues' (Decca 7026), a solo performance by slide guitarist James 'Kokomo' Arnold, was one of the biggest blues hits to come out of Chicago in the 1930s. Decca kept it in print with [...]
Dick Shurman is widely recognized in the blues community not only for the quality and care evident in his record productions and writings but also for his love for the music and the artists who [...]
Don Robey built one of the most formidable entertainment empires in the independent music business with his Duke and Peacock labels, Buffalo Booking Agency, Lion Music publishing company, nightclubs, and other associated activities. His hardnosed [...]
Mike Kappus has been the kind of manager and booking agent any musician would want, and the blues world is filled with musicians who wish they could have been represented by The Rosebud Agency. The [...]
Big Jay McNeely became the act no one wanted to follow during the 'honkers and shouters' era of rhythm & blues that preceded rock 'n' roll, when the gunslingers of the trade wielded saxophones, not [...]
R.L. Burnside was a champion of Mississippi Hill Country blues who was able to energize rock audiences just as he did local juke joint revelers. He achieved crossover success by attracting a cult following among [...]
Eddie Shaw had an unparalleled career as a Chicago blues saxophonist/bandleader in a city where guitar, harmonica and piano players have long ruled the roost. A multiple Blues Music Award winner and perpetual nominee in [...]
Earl Hooker was the 'blues guitarists' guitarist,' the most respected six-string wizard in Chicago blues musicians' circles during the 1950s and '60s. A cousin of John Lee Hooker and a protege of slide guitar master [...]
Jody Williams, one of the hottest and most creative guitarists in Chicago during the 1950s, put his guitar down in disgust with the music business in the ’60s. His return to action some three decades [...]