Pete Welding
Pete Welding, one of America's foremost blues authorities, made major contributions to the documentation of the blues both as a writer and as a record producer. Little of his work as a critic, annotator and [...]
Sonny Payne
John William 'Sonny' Payne was the genial host of the legendary King Biscuit Time program on KFFA radio in Helena, Arkansas, for more decades than most of his listeners have even been alive. Payne, a [...]
The Bluesmen, by Samuel Charters
Sam Charters' groundbreaking research on the blues in the 1950s and '60s resulted in several books that helped fuel the blues revival, bringing to light a musical and cultural history that no previous books had [...]
Strong Persuader by Robert Cray (Mercury LP/CD, 1986)
Strong Persuader was a breakthrough album both for Robert Cray and the blues, and its success is often cited as one of the key forces in reviving interest in the blues in the 1980s. The [...]
Hung Down Head by Lowell Fulson (Chess LP, 1970; CD, 1996)
A 1970 entry in the Chess Vintage Series, Hung Dead Head contains some of Blues Hall of Famer Lowell Fulson's finest work, most notably the standard 'Reconsider Baby' from a 1954 Dallas session. The other [...]
I Hear Some Blues Downstairs by Fenton Robinson (Alligator LP, 1977; CD, 1991)
Fenton Robinson (1935-1997) was heralded as one of the most progressive guitarists in Chicago as well as one of the true intellectuals on the scene--a Tolstoy and Kafka reader also known as 'The Mellow Blues [...]
The Country Blues, by Samuel Charters
New York: Rinehart and Co., Inc., 1959. Reprinted with new introduction by the author: New York: Da Capo Press, 1975. The publication of The Country Blues by Sam Charters in 1959 was a major landmark [...]
Blues With a Feeling Newport Folk Festival Classics (Vanguard 2-CD set, 1993) – Various Artists
The Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, played a crucial role in introducing the music of Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, Robert Pete Williams, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt, and [...]
Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer's extensive knowledge of music, ranging from blues and jazz to rock and folk to various genres of world music and the interconnectedness of all those idioms, made him a respected critic at Rolling [...]
Roy Brown
One of the premier shouters of the jump blues era, Brown has been called 'the first singer of soul' (in John Broven's Walking to New Orleans), 'one of the great blues lyricists of all time' [...]