Blues Records 1943-1966, by Mike Leadbitter and Neil Slaven, London England: Hanover Books Ltd., 1968. British discographers Mike Leadbitter and Neil Slaven, both key figures in promoting and documenting the blues in the 1960s, illuminated [...]
George 'Buddy' Guy was a guitar hero and an inspiration to blues and rock guitarists alike long before he finally achieved success in the pop market with his 1991 album 'Damn Right I've Got the [...]
Chester Burnett A.K.A. Howlin' Wolf was one of the three double albums issued by Chess in 1972 (under the new ownership of G.R.T. in New York) that have been elected to the Blues Hall of [...]
This eponymously titled album is known to Howlin' Wolf aficionados as 'the rocking chair album', after the cover photo of an acoustic guitar resting against a rocking chair. But listeners expecting a comfy, quiet set [...]
Boogie Chillen set the nation rocking and put John Lee Hooker's name on the map with his very first release in 1949. Although recorded up north in Detroit, it was a guitar boogie of the [...]
Of the many legendary “swamp blues” artists to emerge from the bayou country of south Louisiana, none was more distinctive than Slim Harpo, who was also by far the most popular and influential outside the [...]
Chuck Berry's greatest fame came as a rock 'n' pioneer, but his blues roots go deep. Born October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Berry combined blues, country, and boogie-woogie with a lyrical flair keenly attuned [...]
Joseph Benjamin Hutto's potent slide guitar and blustering roar made him a favorite with national and international boogie-blues audiences after he broke out of Chicago's South Side ghetto. Hutto started as a gospel singer in [...]
Although this often considered the record that crossed B.B. King over into the pop market, Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 reveals that it actually marked the 19th B.B. entry on pop charts dating back [...]
The Wolf's quintessential howling cry rode a hypnotic pounding beat all the way the Top Ten of Billboard's rhythm & blues charts on the 1956 single 'Smoke Stack Lightning,' often spelled 'Smokestack Lightnin'' on subsequent [...]