Black Magic follows in the same vein as Magic Sam's first Delmark LP (and first Hall of Fame album), West Side Soul, combining burning West Side blues with heartfelt touches of soul. Again, most of [...]
Perfect,' was the one word Folk music archivist Alan Lomax penned in his journal the night he recorded 'Mississippi' Fred McDowell. McDowell's bottleneck style of guitar playing exhibited a beautiful touch and resonating voice-like phrasings [...]
Paul Butterfield ranks among the most influential harp players in the Blues. Born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, he began playing classical flute as a child. He also grew up listening to his father's Jazz [...]
Little Johnny Taylor (1943-2002) enjoyed popularity on the soul-blues circuit in the 1960s and '70s but today his songs seem to be better known than his name. His biggest hit, one since performed by many [...]
Leroy Carr was arguably the most popular blues recording star of his era (1928-35) and by some accounts the most influential among other bluesmen as well. Although latter-day blues audiences came to prefer Delta and [...]
Founder of the Delta Blues -- Charley Patton (Yazoo, 1970) 'Charlie [sic] Patton was the most powerful blues recording of artist of all time, as well as the most subtle,' wrote Stephen Calt in the [...]
Blind Willie Johnson was a Texas 'guitar evangelist' who performed in a style that has recently come to be described as 'holy blues' or 'gospel blues.' Those terms may not have been appreciated by some [...]
Hell Hound on My Trail' was among the deepest and darkest of Robert Johnson's legendary blues masterworks. Together with 'Me and the Devil Blues' and 'Cross Road Blues,' it provided future generations with a disturbing [...]
The Blues had a baby,' the Muddy Waters song title declares, ' and they named it 'Rock and Roll.'' Most books on Blues and Rock seem to lead their readers to believe that Rock came [...]
Walter Brown 'Brownie' McGhee was born November 15, 1915 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Because family records of his birth were lost, he believed for years that he had been born in 1914. It was only when [...]