Few records can match the raw exuberance of the Baby Face Leroy Trio’s two-part “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” on Parkway, a small and short-lived Chicago label. Muddy Waters and Little Walter join singer-drummer Leroy Foster on [...]
Red River Blues was hailed as the definitive study of traditional blues from the Southeastern states when it was published in 1986, and it remains so today thanks to the thoroughness of author Bruce Bastin’s [...]
Eddie Boyd, a proud, outspoken artist, channeled the injustices and mistreatment he experienced and witnessed into memorable songs that embodied the heartaches and outrage of the blues. During his years singing and playing piano in [...]
Billy Branch, once hailed as a leader of “the New Generation of Chicago Blues,” now finds himself a respected elder of the scene following many of his idols into the Blues Hall of Fame. One [...]
Syl Johnson parlayed a background steeped in blues and a streetwise sensibility for soul and funk into a hitmaking career that turned even more profitable when hip-hop artists began sampling his vintage records. Johnson, who [...]
Bettye LaVette had a hit singing blues as a teenager on her first record, “My Man” on Atlantic in 1962, and though her repertoire has evolved into one of the most eclectic imaginable, blues audiences [...]
George “Harmonica” Smith is often rated by hardcore blues fans and musicians in the top tier of harmonicists ever to play the blues—not as widely known as others who have entered the Blues Hall of [...]
A belle of the blues with a head for business and a visceral gift as a songwriter, Victoria Spivey enjoyed a long career that took her from the role of ingenue to that of queen [...]
Ralph Peer was the foremost champion of roots music in the early days of the American recording industry. In his vision, there were untapped markets beyond the record companies’ targeted audience for classical music and the mainstream popular [...]
French writer, producer, and translator Sebastian Danchin, who played guitar with blues bands in Chicago in the 1970s, was a few years too late to spend time with Earl Hooker, who had died of tuberculosis [...]