Blind Willie Johnson
Blind Willie Johnson never recorded the blues, but the Texas guitar evangelist’s music has enraptured a multitude of blues fans and musicians for nearly a century. His genre has come to be called “holy blues” [...]
William Bell
William Bell, best known for his pioneering work at Stax Records in Memphis, has kept that honored legacy alive during his long career as soulful singer, songwriter, producer and label owner. Bell’s music has also [...]
Bob Stroger
Bob Stroger, still actively touring at the age of 94, is reaping the rewards for his decades of laying the foundation for countless blues bands. No performer has ever been inducted into the Blues Hall [...]
“Why Don’t You Do Right?” – Lil Green (Bluebird, 1941)
“Why Don’t You Do Right?” was a pop hit for Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman and his Orchestra in 1942 and the song originated as “Weed Smoker’s Dream” on a 1936 record by the Harlem [...]
“Driving Wheel” – Junior Parker (Duke, 1961)
“Driving Wheel” was one of several older blues successfully reworked by Junior Parker with his smooth vocal expertise. Based on Roosevelt Sykes’ “Driving Wheel Blues” from 1936, the title equated the powered wheel of a [...]
“Key to the Highway” – Jazz Gillum (Bluebird, 1940)
“Key to the Highway” becomes the first song elected to the Blues Hall of Fame twice—first by Big Bill Broonzy in 1941 and now by a Broonzy colleague, Jazz Gillum. Broonzy was better known than [...]
“Okie Dokie Stomp”- Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (Peacock, 1954)
Gatemouth Brown’s instrumental prowess was on full display on his 1954 classic “Okie Dokie Stomp.” Brown’s nonstop guitar masterpiece was recorded with hot backing by the Pluma Davis Orchestra in Houston in May 1954. Bandleader-trombonist [...]
“I Ain’t Got You”- Billy Boy Arnold (Vee-Jay, 1955)
Vee-Jay Records first recorded “I Ain’t Got You” by its star, Jimmy Reed, in July 1955, but Billy Boy Arnold recalled in his autobiography that writer-producer Calvin Carter wanted a “swingin’, upbeat” version—which Billy Boy [...]
Here’s the Man!!! – Bobby Bland (Duke, 1962)
Here’s the Man!!!, Bobby Bland’s second full LP on the Houston-based Duke label, was loaded with the kind of first-rate blues and R&B that made Bland such an idol in his time. In common with [...]
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, by Angela Davis (Pantheon, 1998)
In Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, Angela Davis, controversial activist, author, and professor widely known for her revolutionary politics, argues against some conventional views of women and their songs in the blues. The lyrics sung [...]