Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Reprint: New York: Da Capo Press, 1987. Musicologist Dr. David Evans drew on his extensive research in south Mississippi and Louisiana dating back to 1965 to discuss the processes [...]
One of the most colorful characters to emerge from the psychedelic 1960s was Dr. John the Night Tripper. The mastermind behind the mystical voodoo funk of the 1968 album Gris Gris was Malcolm John 'Mac' [...]
Eddie 'Guitar Slim' Jones helped drive the electric guitar to new levels of power and intensity during his brief career in the 1950s. Jones was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, on December 10, 1926, according to [...]
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of the foremost African-American celebrities of the 1940s and early 1950s, an exhilarating performer with an impressive fingerpicking guitar style. She sang gospel music for most of her career, but [...]
Arthur N. 'Art' Rupe has left an indelible mark on American music thanks to his recordings of Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Percy Mayfield, Guitar Slim, Roy Milton, Joe Liggins, the Soul Stirrers, and many other [...]
Ahmet Ertegun, a Turkish immigrant with a love for African-American music, co-founded one of America's premier record companies, Atlantic Records, in 1948. Atlantic's earliest success was with Blues and R&B artists such as Ruth Brown, [...]
Three harmonica players from different parts of the country - Glover from Minnesota, Dirks from Chicago, and Gaines from Washington, D.C. - joined forces to pay tribute to their idol in Blues With a Feeling: [...]
James Cotton came up under the masters Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2 (Rice Miller), Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters, and emerged in the mid-1960s with his own hard-hitting blues style, one that came to epitomize [...]
Probably the most-played set-closing instrumental in the repertoires of blues bands around the country for more than 50 years has been the Freddy King smash 'Hide Away,' a Top 10 R&B hit on the Federal [...]
As the founders of Modern Records, the Bihari Brothers, Jules, Joe, and Saul, formed the base of one of the most influential R&B labels in Pop history. John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Hadda Brooks, Lightnin' [...]