The Story of the Blues, by Paul Oliver. London: Penguin, 1969. Reprinted with revisions by author: Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998. Paul Oliver's comprehensive history of the blues became an essential reference work after its [...]
Big Road Blues was one of the most influential recordings of early Mississippi blues, a song many bluesmen learned either from the record or from seeing Crystal Springs blues legend Tommy Johnson in person. 'I [...]
For a strong-willed bluesman known for his rough and rowdy ways, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) was certainly not afraid to show vulnerability when it came to pleading with women in his songs. “You got [...]
Percy Mayfield was one of the premier composers of blues songs, but his most enduring hit, 'Please Send Me Someone to Love,' was actually a prayer in ballad form. Inspirational messages were at the core [...]
Percy Mayfield was a popular recording artist in the early 1950s when he had a No. 1 R&B hit with “Please Send Me Someone to Love,” but after a disfiguring injury in an auto accident [...]
Often cited as the greatest and certainly most famous of the acoustic blues harmonica players, Terry was also famed for the exuberant whoops and hollers he worked into his blues numbers, fox chase imitations, and [...]
When you're talking about the patented Jimmy Reed laconic shuffle sound, you're talking about Eddie Taylor,' wrote blues critic Bill Dahl in All Music Guide. 'Taylor was the glue that kept Reed's lowdown grooves from [...]
Hide Away, a 10-track compilation of Freddy King's early singles and album tracks from his King/Federal sessions of 1961-63, is not the most comprehensive reissue of the Texas-born singer-guitarist's work for the label, but it [...]
Bobby 'Blue' Bland was riding high in 1961, hitting both the R&B and pop charts with his singles, headlining at clubs around the country, and making the ladies swoon, when Duke Records issued his first [...]
Leroy Carr was arguably the most popular blues recording star of his era (1928-35) and by some accounts the most influential among other bluesmen as well. Although latter-day blues audiences came to prefer Delta and [...]