Blues Artist of the Week - Elmore James
Elmore James (1918-1963), known as the King of the Slide Guitar, was born in Richland, Mississippi. James was known for his loud amplification and his harsh, rousing voice.
Early Life
Trained as a radio repairman, James used these skills to rework his guitar amplifiers in his spare time. The result was his raw, distorted sound. Not until the heavy rock era of the 1960’s did this sound resurface.
Listening to Robert Johnson inspired Elmore at an early age.
James was a military veteran, and during WWII, Elmore was a Coxswain and participated in the invasion of Guam.
Like many Blues and Jazz greats, he was part of the mass migration from the South to Chicago. He was a fundamental artist transforming and evolving the electronic technology within the music industry.
Blues Career
Elmore James played alongside Sonny Boy Williamson in the ’30’s and then Rice Miller before migrating to Chicago.
After his Chicago migration, James established a beachhead in Chicago’s clubs as one of the most popular live acts and regularly broadcasting over WPOA. He had a productive professional relationship with disc jockey Big Bill Hill.
Utilizing his amplified technology created his unique blues style. Raw is how it is best described. Loud and raw were essential for Elmore. Not only did he deliver raw blues with his guitar his compelling voice was a great compliment. A hollow body modified guitar finalized this unique sound. Once again a sound that wasn’t popular until the rock era.
He did play a wide variety of Blues that was similar to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
Elmore died of a heart attack in Chicago in 1963 at the early age of 45.
Influenced
Like many of the Blues greats, Rock and Roll can credit James as a prominent influencer and creator of the songs that became the bedrock of that genre.
Numerous rock musicians, including Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, adopted his hard-driving style and often recorded his songs. Also, a significant influence on Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac.
Awards
Blues Hall of Fame in 1980
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992
Start Your Listening Enjoyment:
I recommend two albums to start with.
The Sky Is Crying: The History Of Elmore James
The Rollin’ & Tumblin
Blues Artist of the Week - Robert Cray
Robert Cray (1953 – Present) was born in Columbus, Georgia, the son of a military veteran who was stationed at Ft. Benning. He started his music career in a band called One-Way Street while in High school in Newport News, Virginia.
Robert’s playing genre is a combination of Blues and Jazz. He plays an immaculate guitar style which seems rather “new”. You can contrast this when he is playing blues. His Blues style is considered old-school without any smoothness of a traditional jazz guitarist.
He was influenced by Albert Collins, Freddie King, and Muddy Waters. After seeing these great artists live, he formed the Robert Cray Band in the ’70s. You may recognize Robert from the big screen. In the 1978 film National Lampoon’s Animal House, Cray played bass in Otis Day and the Knights band.
Robert was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011. Robert still actively tours.
Listening Pleasure
If you are a new fan, you need to start with the album Strong Persuader.
Robert’s Home Page
Viewing and Listening Pleasure in YouTube
Robert Cray - Smoking Gun
Sweet Home Chicago" (Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Hubert Sumlin...)
Robert Cray - Right Next Door (Because Of Me)
B.B King, Robert Cray Band, Jimmie Vaughan, Hubert Sumlin (Paying the cost to be the boss)
Blues Artist of the Week - Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon (1915-1992) was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and like many other Blues artists, moved to Chicago in the 1930s.
He is self-described as the “poet laureate of the blues” and “the father of modern Chicago Blues.” At a young age, he sang gospel.
Willie was a bassist, guitarist, singer, arranger, musician rights activist, and producer, but most prolific as a songwriter. He has over 500 song titles to his name. He penned A classic, The Red Rooster, covered by numerous bands, including The Rolling Stones “Little Red Rooster” in 1964.
Like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who I featured earlier in this series, Dixon left Mississippi for Chicago in 1936.
Willie was a towering man at 6 feet 6 inches tall and over 250 pounds when he moved to Chicago. He was a successful boxer with this frame and won the Illinois State Golden Gloves Heavyweight Championship (Novice Division) in 1937. For a short time, he was also a sparring partner for Joe Louis. He left boxing after a money dispute with his manager and focused solely on music.
Along with Muddy Waters, he was a force in the Chicago Blues scene. As a songwriter, he penned many great songs for Muddy Waters.
Dixon became a relentless advocate for the blues and a major voice for its practitioners in his later years. To help preserve the Blues legacy, Willie Dixon founded the Blues Heaven Foundation.
This Foundation works to preserve the blues’ legacy and secure copyrights and royalties for blues musicians previously exploited.
Willie was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1994- posthumous) and the Blues Hall of Fame 1980.
Listening Pleasure
I recommend starting with Willie Dixon – I am the Blues.
Willie’s Home Page
Blues Artist of the Week - Robin Trower
Robin Leonard Trower (1945 – Present) is a Blues Rock musician born in Catford, London, England. He is known for playing a “heavy strings” style of guitar with a lot of reverberation. He has been favorably compared to Jimi Hendrix.
Robin came to popular fame with his late ’60 early 70’s band Procal Harum.
Following Procal Harum, in 1973, he started The Robin Trower Band.
Robin is an ardent fan and user of the Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Robin still actively tours and, as of 2021, is not a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Listening Pleasure
Start your Robin Trower listening experience with what is probably his most popular album Bridge of Sighs.
Bridge of Sighs is a classic bluey rock album.
Personal Website
Robin’s personal website is Robin Trower
Popular YouTube videos
Robin Trower Live - Bridge of Sighs
Robin Trower Live Too Rolling Stoned
Robin Trower on how he gets his psychedelic blues tone
ROBIN TROWER - Bridge Of Sighs (1974 UK TV Appearance) ~ HIGH QUALITY HQ
Enjoy!
Blues Artist of the Week - Buddy Guy
George “Buddy” Guy (1936 - current) is an American blues guitarist and singer born and raised in Lettsworth, Louisiana. He was a sharecropper’s son whose early influences were from across the river in Mississippi. Guys you’ve heard of like B.B. King, Guitar Slim, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker.
Like many Blues artists, Buddy moved to Chicago. His move in 1957 came after he was working at Louisiana State University as a utility man. Chicago was providing him an opportunity to follow his dream of working on his music. Early on, he befriended fellow Mississippians Otis Rush and Muddy Waters, who encouraged and pushed him forward.
His signing with Chess Records also marked a bit of an impediment and slowdown in his career as they refused to record Buddy, with Leonard Chess, Chess Records founder, denounced Guy’s playing as “just making noise.”
As Wikipedia describes Buddy’s style as “…varied from the most traditional, deepest blues to a creative, unpredictable and radical gumbo of the blues, rock, soul and free jazz that changes with each performance.”
Buddy continued to perform and hone his Blues ear and was part of the Blues revival of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The highlight came when Eric Clapton requested Buddy be part of the His “24 Nights” all-star blues guitar lineup at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Buddy also started to have commercial success with his breakthrough album of Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues in 1991. This was the first of his many albums to reach the Billboard charts. His CDs Sweet Tea, his first to hit No. 1 on the Billboard blues charts in 2001, and Blues Singer, both laced with Guy’s renditions of Mississippi blues, were recorded in Oxford, Mississippi. The cover of The Blues Is Alive and Well, another No. 1 blues CD in 2018, pictured Buddy back in Lettsworth, showing he never forgot his roots.
Like many Blues greats, he has influenced many in rock and roll, including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr., and John Mayer.
Eric Clapton and B.B. King help induct Buddy into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
Buddy still actively performs and tours.
Top 10 Albums
1. Left My Blues in San Francisco (1967)
2. A Man & The Blues (1968)
3. This Is Buddy Guy! (1968)
4. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues (1972)
5. Stone Crazy! (1981)
6. Damn Right, I've Got the Blues (1991)
7. Feels Like Rain (1993)
8. DJ Play My Blues (1982 British Release only)
9. Blues Singer (2003)
10. Live at Legends (2012)
Select YouTube Videos
Sweet Home Chicago" (Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Robert Cray, Hubert Sumlin...)
Rock Me Baby-BB King/Eric Clapton/Buddy Guy/Jim Vaughan
Buddy Guy - What Kind Of Woman Is This
Skin Deep featuring Buddy Guy | Playing For Change | Song Across America
Complete Discography
Here is the current discography for Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy’s Official Site
Blues Artist of the Week - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Rosetta Nubin, better known as Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973), was born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. Sister Rosetta is a Gospel and Blues Singer, songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist. Sister Rosetta is often referred to as the Original Soul Sister.
Sister Rosetta gained fame as a well-known church gospel singer, where she sang, played guitar and piano.
In the 1920’s she and her mother moved to Chicago. They were part of the significant African American mitigation to the North that brought Jazz from New Orleans and Blues from the Mississippi Delta.
Here is where her virtuoso guitar skills were on display. In the early 20th century, the guitar was a stereotypical sign of masculinity, and most professional guitarists were men; Sister Rosetta held her own artistically and technically on the guitar.
In the 1930’s she moved to NYC, which also signaled her move from Gospel to Jazz and the Blues. She continued to perform and make her mark in the Jazz and Blues scene.
She credited with significantly influencing the creation of Rock and Roll.
In 1957 Sister Rosetta was quoted in the London Daily Mirror as saying, “All this new stuff they call rock’ n’ roll, why, I’ve been playing that for years now”
She was a significant influence on:
• Little Richard
• Jonny Cash
• Carl Perkins
• Chuck Berry
• Elvis Presley
• Jerry Lee Lewis
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
Her albums include:
• Gospel Songs (Decca, 1947)
• Blessed Assurance (Decca, 1951)
• Gospel Train (Mercury, 1956)
• The Gospel Truth (Mercury, 1959)
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe (MGM, 1960)
• Spirituals in Rhythm (Promenade, 1960)
• Sister on Tour (Verve, 1961)
• The Gospel Truth (Verve, 1962)
• Precious Memories (Savoy, 1968)
• Gospel Keepsakes (MCA, 1983)
• Live in 1960 (Southland, 1991)
• Live at the Hot Club de France (BMG/Milan, 1991)
Start your listening exploration with her 1957 album Gospel Train, which is considered her best album.
Blues Artist of the Week - T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux Walker (May 28, 1910 — March 16, 1975) was an American blues guitarist, singer, pianist, and songwriter born in Linden, Texas, of African American and Native American (Cherokee) descent.
T-Bone is regarded as the first blues musician to use an electric guitar. He was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues and electric blues sound. According to Wikipedia, Jump Blues is “is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll.”
He was ranked #47 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Chuck Berry, B.B. King, and Jimi Hendrix were a few artists that credited T-Bone Walker as a guiding influence.
Stormy Monday is his most famous song. T-Bone’s Stormy Monday was cited by BB. King as the inspiration for him to get an electric guitar and was covered by The Allman Brothers Band, Jethro Tull, and even Eva Cassidy. Jimi Hendrix and Steve Miller credited T-Bone with teaching them how to play the guitar with their teeth!
I recommend you start your listening and exploration of T-Bone Walker with T-Bone Blues (1959).
Blues Artist of the Week - Albert King
A blues player I’m currently enjoying is Albert King. Albert King (1923-1992) was the stage name for Albert Nelson. By some accounts, he was born in Indianola, Mississippi, and others (his Social Security application) Aberdeen, Mississippi.
Albert was known as the Velvet Bulldozer given his towering size (6’4” and over 250 LBS) coupled with the fact he drove a bulldozer early in life.
He played a big triangular Gibson Flying V-shaped like a rocket ship named Lucy. He played it upside down, left-handed and didn’t reverse the strings. His style is described as powerful string-bending, with soulful, smoky vocals.
He is a member of both the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A great album to start enjoying Albert with is considered his trademark album - Stax singles “Born Under a Bad Sign. Also, Live Wire/Blues Power, recorded at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and the,” “Cross Cut Saw,” “The Hunter,” and “I’ll Play the Blues for You” albums are great.
