New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2000. This saga of Chess Records and the brothers who ran it, Leonard and Phil, ranks as one of the most probing histories ever written about the independent record business. [...]
The second landmark live album recorded by B.B. King in Chicago, six years after 'Live at the Regal,' 'Live in Cook County Jail' generated spectacular sales and publicity. It is still the only B.B. King [...]
The old Yankee Stadium in New York was called “The House That Ruth Built” in tribute to slugger Babe Ruth's accomplishments. Another New York institution, Atlantic Records, later shared the nickname thanks to its own [...]
Jim O’Neal, a cofounder of Living Blues magazine and Rooster Blues Records, worked on the committees that launched the Chicago Blues Festival, the King Biscuit Blues Festival, the Sunflower River Blues Festival, the W.C. Handy [...]
'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 [...]
Big Maceo Merriweather was one of the most prominent blues recording artists of the 1940s, famed not only for his powerful piano work but for his expressive singing on hits such as Worried Life Blues. [...]