Earl Hooker
Earl Hooker was the 'blues guitarists' guitarist,' the most respected six-string wizard in Chicago blues musicians' circles during the 1950s and '60s. A cousin of John Lee Hooker and a protege of slide guitar master [...]
Jody Williams
Jody Williams, one of the hottest and most creative guitarists in Chicago during the 1950s, put his guitar down in disgust with the music business in the ’60s. His return to action some three decades [...]
Otis Clay
Otis Clay, who has carried the banner of deep soul music in Chicago since the 1960s, has never been a blues singer in the traditional sense, but he became a favorite on the blues circuit [...]
Joe Louis Walker
Joe Louis Walker's heralded artistry has kept him at the forefront of the blues ever since his remarkable debut album, Cold is the Night, was released in 1986. A San Francisco native, born on Christmas [...]
Louis Jordan’s Greatest Hits (Decca 1969)
Louis Jordan's big hits for Decca Records were massive in their day (1942-1951), when his infectious brand of good-humored jump blues and jive made him the top star in black music. (Just one Jordan hit [...]
More Real Folk Blues — Howlin’ Wolf (Chess 1967)
By the time Chess issued its fourth Howlin' Wolf album, More Real Folk Blues, the bulk of the most familiar and influential songs from his 45s and 78s had been used on his other LPs. [...]
Complete Recorded Works/Texas Worried Blues — Henry Ragtime Texas Thomas (Herwin 1975/Yazoo 1989)
Henry Thomas' name may not be familiar to many modern listeners, but he was an important and unique historical figure, a songster whose broad repertoire included reels, rags, spirituals, minstrel tunes, pop and folk songs, [...]
Cosimo Matassa
The audio artisan who engineered most of New Orleans' great blues and R&B hits from the late 1940s through the 1960s was Cosimo Matassa. Crescent City legends Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Roy Brown, Guitar Slim, [...]
Henry Glover
Henry Glover, a multi-talented producer, arranger, songwriter and trumpeter, was responsible for a multitude of blues and R&B hits of the late 1940s and '50s on King Records and associated labels by Little Willie John, [...]
Dave Clark
Dave Clark played many roles during a distinguished career but was best known as 'the dean of black promotion men,' or even 'the dean of black music,' period. Clark once traveled the country looking for [...]