The first English-language magazine devoted (almost) wholly to blues, Blues Unlimited, was founded as The Journal of the Blues Appreciation Society in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England, in 1963. Society co-founders Simon Napier and Mike Leadbitter enlisted [...]
London and New York: Quartet Books, 1989. The multifaceted story of Willie Dixon--songwriter, producer, bassist, music publisher, singer, promoter, and more--is told by an equally wide-ranging and impressive cast of musicians (primarily Dixon himself), studio [...]
Although Tommy Johnson left behind only a small body of recorded work, he was one of the most influential blues artists in Mississippi. Born in Hinds County, Mississippi, between Terry and Crystal Springs, in January [...]
The legacy of Huddie William Ledbetter looms large in the course of American folk music, thanks to the unparalleled repository of songs he was able to record and to several classics he contributed to the [...]
Mississippi John Hurt was one of the heroes of the 1960s folk-blues revival and a much-loved 'patriarch hippie' in the words of his former booking agent Dick Waterman. Hurt's gentle, finger-picked blues -- so unlike [...]
Little Milton Campbell remained a top name in the soul and blues field for more than four decades after scoring his first national hit in 1962. Milton was an influential bluesman even by the 1950s [...]
Comfortably situated right at the juncture of blues and jazz, both stylistically and geographically (in Kansas City), Jay McShann carved out a distinguished career as a master of both idioms. Coming out of the swing [...]
Louis Jordan was the most popular African American entertainer of his day, when his comic blues, jump and novelty routines not only put his records atop the charts but also entertained movie audiences in a [...]
Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey not only deserved the title she earned as 'Mother of the Blues', she also claimed to have named the music the blues. She recalled first hearing it sung by a young girl [...]
Big Walter Horton was widely regarded as one of the most brilliant and creative musicians ever to play the harmonica. Born near Horn Lake, Mississippi, on April 6, 1921 (the date officially confirmed by Mississippi's [...]