Chicago Breakdown, by Mike Rowe. London: Eddison, 1973; New York: Drake, 1975. Reprinted as Chicago Blues: The City & the Music, New York: DaCapo, 1981. Chicago Breakdown chronicles the city's storied blues history from the [...]
Robert Johnson's 1936 recording of 'Cross Road Blues' has become a central element in the story--real, imagined, or fabricated--of Johnson selling his soul to devil at the crossroads, as depicted on the big screen in [...]
Juke' was the groundbreaking instrumental that established Little Walter Jacobs as a national recording star and brought unprecedented prominence to the harmonica as a prime instrument in the blues. Untold numbers of blues performers took [...]
Although Tommy Johnson left behind only a small body of recorded work, he was one of the most influential blues artists in Mississippi. Born in Hinds County, Mississippi, between Terry and Crystal Springs, in January [...]
The legacy of Huddie William Ledbetter looms large in the course of American folk music, thanks to the unparalleled repository of songs he was able to record and to several classics he contributed to the [...]
The hottest of a bevy of guitarists to emerge from a veritable hotbed of blues guitar in Houston, Texas, Albert Collins was also the “coolest.” His searing, stinging guitar attack came to be marketed with [...]
Manish Boy' was one of a series of Chess singles that featured Muddy Waters convincingly touting his own virility ('spelled M-A-N, that represent man, no B-O-Y') ably (and verbally) assisted by an all-star crew with [...]
Ice Pickin' was the album that sparked Albert Collins' belated rise to blues stardom, 20 years after the 'Master of the Telecaster' recorded the first of his incendiary 'cool' instrumentals, 'The Freeze.' Collins' trademark guitar [...]
Willie Dixon’s reputation rests primarily with his incomparable catalogue of compositions and secondarily with his outstanding work as a producer. During his early recording career he made some sides as a vocalist, with the Big [...]
Live Wire--Blues Power captured a crucial moment in blues history when the music was captivating a new counterculture audience under the spell of a master bluesman who could not only bend the guitar strings beyond [...]