Lightnin’ Hopkins was recording at a furious pace for various companies in the early 1960s, utilizing his uncanny ability to improvise new songs and adapt old ones on the spot. He had no bigger fan [...]
Bob Geddins produced a treasure trove of records that defined the down-home blues and gospel sounds of the San Francisco/Oakland area in the post-World War II years. While West Coast blues is often associated with [...]
Jessie Mae Hemphill cut a unique and colorful figure as queen of the North Mississippi Hill Country blues scene. A three-time winner as traditional female blues artist of the year in the 1987, 1988 and [...]
Henry Townsend, a key contributor to the St. Louis blues sound of the pre-World War era, enjoyed one of the longest careers in blues history. He recorded in every decade from the 1920s through the [...]
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, 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, 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?” 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” 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” 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 [...]