Often regarded as Delta blues king Charley Patton's masterpiece, the two-part 'High Water Everywhere' is a dramatic account of the flooding that inundated parts of the Mississippi Delta and Arkansas in 1927 (and perhaps later). [...]
Guitarist Tampa Red and pianist Georgia Tom joined together in a playful vocal duet to rework a hot street slang phrase of the 1920s into a genre-crossing national hit. 'It's Tight Like That,' a prime [...]
Milk Cow Blues' (Decca 7026), a solo performance by slide guitarist James 'Kokomo' Arnold, was one of the biggest blues hits to come out of Chicago in the 1930s. Decca kept it in print with [...]
As a counterpoint to the boogie woogie piano craze of the era, trumpeter-bandleader Erskine Hawkins turned pianist Avery Parrish loose to wax a slow, atmospheric instrumental blues on a June 10, 1940, session in New [...]
Delta blues guitarist Robert Petway helped establish an enduring downhome blues theme with his March 28, 1941, recording of 'Catfish Blues' in Chicago (Bluebird B8838). Many other bluesmen have since sung their own renditions of [...]
How Many More Years -- Howlin' Wolf (Chess, 1951) 'How Many More Years' introduced the startling voice of Chester Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf, to the record-buying public at the end of 1951, and its impact [...]
Canned Heat Blues' is in one sense a Prohibition-era period piece, a lament by Mississippi blues guitarist Tommy Johnson on the evils of drinking concoctions made from canned heat (Sterno) in place of liquor. Johnson [...]
'Let the Good Times Roll,' Louis Jordan's buoyant invitation to party, became a standard show opener for countless blues artists over the years, from B.B. King to Koko Taylor. Recorded with his Tympany Five combo [...]
On his way to becoming one of the biggest blues stars of the 1950s and '60s, Little Junior Parker rocked out some classic blues at Sun Records in Memphis. 'Mystery Train,' recorded in October 1953, [...]
Memphis Minnie was one of the popular blues acts in Chicago when she recorded 'Me and My Chauffeur Blues' there on May 21, 1941. Accompanied by her husband, Ernest 'Little Son Joe' Lawlers on second [...]