John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson’s first record, “Good Morning, School Girl” (with “Sugar Mama Blues” on the flip side) was also his best remembered and most influential release. Williamson brought the lowly harmonica (never previously [...]
Worried Life Blues' was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in the first year of balloting in the Classics of Blues Recordings category. It was also the first song ever recorded by singer-pianist Major [...]
One of Sonny Boy Williamson’s specialties was his way of singing not just about the sadness of lost love but also about how cruel and unjust it all seemed to him. In the case of [...]
Statesboro Blues' may be best known as an Allman Brothers electric guitar showcase from their 1971 Fillmore East album, but the original recording by Georgia street musician Blind Willie McTell was a lithe acoustic rendition [...]
Elmore (Elmo) James recorded many classics after hitting the charts with “Dust My Broom” in 1952 and “I Believe” in 1953, but only with New York producer Bobby Robinson did Elmore get his name back [...]
Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues & Rock 'n' Roll, by Peter Guralnick, New York: Outerbrdige & Dienstfrey, 1971. Feel Like Going Home was the first in an impressive line of highly acclaimed books [...]
Henry C. Speir, a music store owner in Jackson, Mississippi, was responsible for launching the recording careers of most of the greatest Mississippi bluesmen in the 1920s and '30s. In the job he referred to [...]
London: Cassell, and New York: Horizon Press, 1965. British author Paul Oliver wrote authoritatively on the blues in a number of contexts, ranging from historical surveys and examinations of the music’s African roots to biographical [...]
For a strong-willed bluesman known for his rough and rowdy ways, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) was certainly not afraid to show vulnerability when it came to pleading with women in his songs. “You got [...]
Percy Mayfield was one of the premier composers of blues songs, but his most enduring hit, 'Please Send Me Someone to Love,' was actually a prayer in ballad form. Inspirational messages were at the core [...]