I Can't Quit You Baby' kicked off the recording career of Otis Rush, then in his early twenties, and launched a new Chicago label, Cobra, in grand fashion. Although both Rush and Cobra came up [...]

Born Under a Bad Sign' was one of the signature hits of Albert King that started to win the left-handed string-bender a crossover following in 1967, as he began to break out of the chittlin [...]

'Wang Dang Doodle' was the last Willie Dixon-produced Chicago blues single to make the Billboard charts, achieiving the No. 4 R&B and No. 58 Hot 100 positions in the spring of 1966. It became Koko [...]

Amos Blackmore had barely shaken the dust of his native Memphis' streets from his pants cuffs when he began to make a name for himself in Chicago Blues. Soon after the pugnacious 12-year-old moved north [...]

One of a number of cautionary warnings recorded by the suspicious and distrustful Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), “Don’t Start Me Talkin’” was his biggest hit on the Billboard R&B charts. Sonny Boy had been [...]

'Going Down Slow' has become an oft-recorded blues standard over the years since its author, James 'St. Louis Jimmy' Oden, first recorded it in 1941. Oden, a songwriter of note, was not the most dynamic [...]

James Moore AKA Slim Harpo Born: January 11, 1924 in the parish of West Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As a figure in the post-war rural blues, his music is often described as Louisiana swamp blues. As [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]