The Robert Cray Band, already a West Coast favorite when "Bad Influence" was released in 1983, broke through to the national blues circuit on the strength of this fresh and original blend of blues and [...]
Chicago Breakdown, by Mike Rowe. London: Eddison, 1973; New York: Drake, 1975. Reprinted as Chicago Blues: The City & the Music, New York: DaCapo, 1981. Chicago Breakdown chronicles the city's storied blues history from the [...]
Mike Bloomfield was one of the top entrants in the battle for blues-rock virtuoso honors in the psychedelic '60s. Bloomfield drew kudos for his guitar prowess with the Butterfield Blues Band and played an important [...]
Bessie, by Chris Albertson, New York: Stein and Day, 1972; revised edition: New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Bessie was hailed as the best biography ever written about a black performer when it was first [...]
Buddy & Ella Johnson formed one of the most successful brother-sister teams in the history of rhythm & blues and big band music. Although their music is unfamiliar to many blues and R&B fans today, [...]
Furry Lewis was one of the foremost figures in Memphis blues, both during the 1920s when he made his first recordings and again during the blues revival of the '60s and '70s. Lewis was born [...]
Frank Stokes, a muscular blacksmith, singer and guitarist, is often regarded as the seminal figure in Memphis blues history. His duets with guitarist Dan Sane, his partner in the Beale Street Sheiks, laid a bold [...]
Pervis Spann, "The Blues Man" of Chicago radio, has been a major force in promoting the blues over the past four decades. Spann started as a DJ, promoted concerts at the Regal Theater, co-owned one [...]
Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau promoted concerts of all sorts in Europe beginning in the 1950s, but they left their mark in blues history with the groundbreaking American Folk Blues Festival tours of the '60s. [...]
Doc Pomus was one of the foremost songwriters of rhythm & blues, pop, and rock 'n' roll in the 1950s and '60s, when his resume included hits by Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Elvis Presley, [...]