Let's Play Some Blues

Blues Radio

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:22:00 +0700

Live 365
You can listen to the blues in 24 hours a day, and 365 days in a year...

AOL Blues Radio
Online Radio - Free Internet Radio Stations

Classic Blues Radio
Your guide to classic, modern and traditional American and British Blues and music webcasts streaming

"Blues from Skae's Corners"
Show is AKA "The Steven C. Barr Wireless Hour

Howlin' Wolf

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:53:00 +0700

Chester Arthur Burnett was born on June 10, 1910 in White Station, Mississippi, near West Point, he was named after Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the United States, and was nicknamed Big Foot Chester and Bull Cow in his early years because of his massive size at 6 feet, 6 inches (198 cm) and close to 300 pounds (136 kg). He explained the origin of the name Howlin' Wolf thus: "I got that from my grandfather (John Jones)." His Grandfather would often tell him stories about the wolves in that part of the country and warn him that if he misbehaved, the howling wolves would "get him".

Buddy Guy

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:49:00 +0700

George "Buddy" Guy was born on July 30, 1936and raised in Lettsworth, Louisiana, Guy began learning guitar on a two string diddley bow he made. Later he was given a Harmony acoustic guitar, which, decades later in Guy's lengthy career was donated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His earliest influences included T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Slim and Lightnin’ Hopkins - blues musicians who were all uniquely expressive stylists and showmen.

Buddy Guy’s high-energy showmanship also owed a debt to Guitar Slim (a.k.a. Eddie Jones), of “The Things That I Used to Do” fame.

Jamming Lesson with Stevie Ray Vaughan

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:18:00 +0700

Jamming Lesson with Stevie Ray Vaughan

Get The Lesson Now

Part 6 Part 3 Part 1 Part 4 Part 2 Part 5

The Rolling Stones

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:19:00 +0700

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart (piano), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica, guitar), and Keith Richards (guitar, vocals). Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up. R&B and blues cover songs dominated the Rolling Stones' early material, but their repertoire has always included rock and roll. Critic and musicologist Robert Palmer attributes the Rolling Stones' endurance and relevance to having been "rooted in traditional verities, in rhythm-and-blues and soul music" while "more ephemeral pop fashions have come and gone". The Rolling Stones have been credited for the greater international popularity of the primitive urban blues typified by Chess Records' artists such as Muddy Waters, who "Rollin' Stone" the song from which the band its name.

Little Walter | Blues Harp Master

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:20:00 +0700

Little Walter or Marion Walter Jacobs was an American blues harmonica player who born in Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana on May 1, 1930 and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana, where he first learned to play the harmonica whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix for innovation and impact on succeeding generations. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica. Little Walter was inducted to the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 making him the first and only artist ever to be inducted specifically for his work as a harmonica player.

Charlie Musselwhite

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:04:00 +0700

Charles Douglas Musselwhite was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States on January 31, 1944.

He has said that he is of Choctaw descent, and he was born in a region originally inhabited by the Choctaw. However, in a 2005 interview, he said his mother had told him he was actually Cherokee. His family considered it normal to play music, with his father playing guitar and harmonica, his mother playing piano, and a relative who was a one-man band.

At the age of three, Musselwhite moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

When he was a teenager, Memphis experienced the period when rockabilly, western swing, and electric blues and other forms of African American music were combining to give birth to rock and roll.

Taj Mahal Blues

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:34:00 +0700

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. born on May 17, 1942 in Harlem, New York, and grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Taj Mahal, his stage name, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India, and social tolerance. He started using it in 1959 or 1961—around the same time he began attending the University of Massachusetts. Despite having attended a vocational agriculture school, becoming a member of the National FFA Organization, and majoring in animal husbandry and minoring in veterinary science and agronomy, Taj Mahal decided to take the route of music instead of farming. In college he led a rhythm and blues band called Taj Mahal & The Elektras and, before heading for the West Coast, he was also part of a duo with Jessie Lee Kincaid.

Curtis Salgado

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:57:00 +0700

Curtis Salgado born on February 4, 1954 in Everett, Washington. His family moved to Eugene, Oregon when he was one and he grew up there listening to jazz, and to his father, an aspiring singer of classical music.

His ambitions coalesced when, at age 12, he saw Count Basie’s band perform in Eugene. Curtis became a part of the burgeoning Northwest blues scene starting in 1972 with a band called Three-Fingered Jack.

Eventually he hooked up with up-and-coming guitarist/vocalist Robert Cray, and recorded the album “Who’s Been Talking.”

Mississippi John Hurt

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:53:00 +0700

John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt born in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi July 3, 1893 or maybe on March 8, 1892 was an influential country blues singer and guitarist. Raised in tiny Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine. John's father was Isom Hurt and his mother was Mary Jan McCain. Mississippi John Hurt was one of 3 children. He and his wife, Jessie, had 14 children. Singing in a loud whisper, to a melodious finger-picked accompaniment, he began to play local dances and parties while working as a sharecropper. Mississippi John Hurt first recorded for Okeh Records in 1928, but these were commercial failures, and Mississippi John Hurt drifted out of the recording scene, where he continued his work as a farmer.

Muddy Waters

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 10:40:00 +0700

McKinley Morganfield known as Muddy Waters, usually said that he was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1915, he was actually born at Jug's Corner in neighboring Issaquena County, Mississippi in April 4, 1913. His grandmother Della Grant raised him after his mother died shortly after his birth. His fondness for playing in mud earned him the nickname "Muddy" at an early age. He then changed it to "Muddy Water" and finally "Muddy Waters".

He started out on harmonica but by age seventeen he was playing the guitar at parties emulating two blues artists who were extremely popular in the south, Son House and Robert Johnson.

Big Mama Thornton

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 09:38:00 +0700

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was born December 11, 1926 on the rural outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. She was one of six siblings. Her father was a minister and her mother sang in the church choir. Willie Mae grew up singing in church and learned drums and harmonica, perhaps from a brother who was an outstanding player, later known as "Harp" Thornton.

Thornton left Montgomery at age 14 in 1941, following her mother's death. She joined Sammy Green's Georgia-based Hot Harlem Revue. Her seven-year tenure with them gave her valuable singing and stage experience, and enabled her to tour the South. In 1948, she settled in Houston, Texas, where she hoped to further her career as a singer. She was also a self-taught drummer and harmonica player, and frequently played each instrument onstage.

James Cotton

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sat, 9 Apr 2011 18:16:00 +0700

Born on the first day of July, 1935, in Tunica, Mississippi. He is an American blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter who is the bandleader for the James Cotton Blues Band. He also writes songs alone, and his solo career continues to this day. His work includes the following genres: blues, delta blues, harmonica blues, and electric harmonica blues.

He was the youngest of eight brothers and sisters who grew up in the cotton fields working beside their mother, Hattie, and their father, Mose. On Sundays Mose was the preacher in the area's Baptist church. Cotton's earliest memories include his mother playing chicken and train sounds on her harmonica and for a few years he thought those were the only two sounds the little instrument made. His Christmas present one year was a harmonica, it cost 15 cents, and it wasn't long before he mastered the chicken and the train. King Biscuit Time, a 15-minute radio show, began broadcasting live on KFFA, a station just across the Mississippi River in Helena, Arkansas. The star of the show was the harmonica legend, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller). The young Cotton pressed his little ear to the old radio speaker.

Bill Broonzy - Guitar Blues

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:54:00 +0700

William Lee Conley Broonzy, "Big Bill" or "Big Bill Broonzy" was one of Frank Broonzy and Mittie Belcher's 17 children. His birth site and date are disputed.

The Mississippi Blues Commission states that while he claimed birth in Bolivar County, Mississippi, Broonzy was actually born in Lake Dick, Arkansas.

Broonzy claimed he was born in 1893 and many sources report that year, but after his death his twin sister produced a birth certificate giving it as 1898, the currently accepted date.

Soon after his birth the family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where Bill spent his youth. He began playing music at an early age.

Fred McDowell - Guitar 'Mississipi' Blues

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:09:00 +0700

“Mississippi” Fred McDowell, as he was usually billed, was actually born and raised in Rossville, Tennessee. He never knew his birth date–January 12, 1904 is often cited, although census and Social Security documents point to 1906 or 1907. His parents, who were farmers, died when McDowell was a youth. He started playing guitar at the age of 14 and played at dances around Rossville. Wanting a change from plowing fields, he moved to Memphis in 1926 where he started to work in the Buck-Eye feed mill where they processed cotton into oil and other products.

Son House

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:57:00 +0700

Eddie James "Son" House, Jr born was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music. Born in Riverton, two miles from Clarksdale, Mississippi. Around age seven or eight, he was brought by his mother to Tallulah, Louisiana, after his parents separated. The young Son House was determined to become a Baptist preacher, and at age 15 began his preaching career. Despite the church's firm stand against blues music and the sinful world which revolved around it, House became attracted to it and taught himself guitar in his mid 20s, after moving back to the Clarksdale area, inspired by the work of Willie Wilson. He began playing alongside Charley Patton, Willie Brown, Robert Johnson and Fiddlin’ Joe Martin around Robinsonville, Mississippi, and north to Memphis, Tennessee, until 1942.

Robert Johnson - Guitar Blues

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:34:00 +0700

Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, possibly on May 8, 1911, to Julia Major Dodds (born October 1874) and Noah Johnson (born December 1884).
Julia was married to Charles Dodds (born February 1865), a relatively prosperous landowner and furniture maker with whom she gave birth to 10 children. Dodds had been forced by a lynch mob to leave Hazlehurst following a dispute with white landowners.
Julia herself left Hazlehurst with baby Robert, but after some two years, sent him to live in Memphis with Dodds, who had changed his name to Charles Spencer.

Charlie Patton

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 16:47:00 +0700

Charlie Patton, better known as Charley Patton (Between April 1887 & 1891 – April 28, 1934) is best known as an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues" and therefore one of the oldest known figures of American popular music. He is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man (Palmer, 1995). Musicologist Robert Palmer considers him among the most important musicians that America produced in the twentieth century. Many sources, including musical releases and his gravestone, spell his name “Charley” even though the musician himself spelled his name "Charlie."

Stevie Ray Vaughan

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:24:00 +0700

Stephen Ray Vaughan was born on October 3, 1954, in Dallas, Texas to Martha Jean and Jimmie Lee "Big Jim" Vaughan. James Lawrence "Jimmie" Vaughan, his brother, was three years older. Vaughan had ancestors who performed in bands with Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, as well as Western swing groups in the Dallas area. Big Jim was an asbestos worker, switching from one construction site to the next, and leaving the family filled with uncertainty. After settling in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff, Vaughan attended Lenore Kirk Hall Elementary.

After observing Jimmie, Vaughan initially played his brother's guitars before receiving one of his own.

Big Walter "Shakey" Horton

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:44:00 +0700

Walter Horton better known as Big Walter Horton or Walter "Shakey" Horton born on April 6, 1917 in Horn Lake, Mississippi, but his mother soon moved to Memphis Tennessee where Walter taught himself how to play the harmonica at five years of age and claimed that his earliest recordings were done there in the late 1920s with the Memphis Jug Band, although there is no documentation of it, and some blues researchers have stated that this story was most likely fabricated by Horton. (He also claimed to have taught some harmonica to Little Walter and the original Sonny Boy Williamson, although these claims are unsubstantiated, and in the case of the older Williamson, somewhat suspect).

John Mayall

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:54:00 +0700

John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) in Macclesfield, is a pioneering English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His musical career spans over fifty years, but the most notable episode in it occurred during the late '60s. The eldest of three from humble working class origins, and in the shadow of WWII, this skinny English lad grew up listening to his guitarist father's extensive jazz record collection and felt drawn to the blues. Strongly influenced by such greats as Leadbelly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith, and Eddie Lang, from the age of 13 he taught himself to play and develop his own style with the aid of a neighbor's piano, borrowed guitars, and secondhand harmonicas.

The Blues Brothers

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:27:00 +0700

Saturday Night Live skit at January 17, 1976 was the genesis of the Blues Brothers. In it, "Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band" play the Slim Harpo song "I'm a King Bee", with Belushi singing and Aykroyd playing harmonica, dressed in the bee costumes they wore for the "Killer Bees" sketch.

Following tapings of SNL, it was popular among cast members and the weekly hosts to attend Aykroyd's Holland Tunnel Blues bar, which he had rented not long after joining the cast. Dan and John filled a jukebox with songs from many different artists such as Sam and Dave and punk band The Viletones. John bought an amplifier and they kept some musical instruments there for anyone who wanted to jam. It was here that Dan and Ron Gwynne wrote and developed the original story which Dan turned into the initial story draft of the Blues Brothers movie, better known as the "tome" because it contained so many pages.

Sonny Terry

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 23:13:00 +0700

Terry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and lost his sight by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work himself. In order to earn a living Terry was forced to play music. He began playing in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died he began playing in the trio of Piedmont blues-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died in 1941, he established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and the pair recorded numerous songs together. The duo became well-known among white audiences, as they joined the growing folk movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This included collaborations with Styve Homnick, Woody Guthrie and Moses Asch, producing Folkways Records (now Smithsonian/Folkways) classic recordings.

In 1938 Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals to Swing concert, and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress. In 1940 Terry recorded his first commercial sides.
Read more »

Jimi Hendrix

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Wed, 5 Jan 2011 04:20:00 +0700

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (Johnny Allen Hendrix) born on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, Washington, the first of five children to James Allen "Al" Hendrix and Lucille Jeter.

Hendrix had two brothers, Leon and Joseph, and two sisters, Kathy and Pamela. Joseph was born with physical difficulties and was placed in foster care at age three. His two sisters were also both placed in foster care at a young age. Kathy was born blind and Pamela suffered lesser physical difficulties.

Hendrix was particularly fond of Elvis Presley, whom he saw perform in Seattle, in 1957. Leon Hendrix claimed in an early interview that Little Richard appeared in his Central District neighborhood and shook hands with his brother, Jimi. This is unattested elsewhere and vehemently denied by his father. Hendrix's early exposure to blues music came from listening to records by Muddy Waters and B.B. King which his father owned. Another early impression came from the 1954 western Johnny Guitar, in which the hero carries no gun but instead wears a guitar slung behind his back.
Read more »

Eric Clapton

noreply@blogger.com (D 7070 CH) — Sat, 1 Jan 2011 21:01:00 +0700

Eric Patrick Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey in 30 March 1945, and brought up by his grandparents after his father returned home to Canada. After leaving school in 1961, Clapton studied briefly at the Kingston College of Art before taking up guitar playing in pubs around Surrey. He joined his first band, "The Roosters", in 1963. He founded Crossroads, a facility to help substance abusers recover.

He is an English guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream.
Read more »