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Eric Clapton
The weight of becoming a guitar god in the '60s never seemed to slow Clapton's creativity, though he has had some close calls while overcoming addiction and other tragedies. Originally lauded for his lightning-fast guitar licks, it's arguably Clapton's soulful blues playing that merits the "Clapton is God" refrain. After performing in a slew of influential and certifiably Classic Rock bands in the '60s -- and chumming around with guitar greats like Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and John McLaughlin -- Clapton launched a successful, provocative solo career, quickly finding his own voice as a singer and ballad writer. Borrowing heavily from Freddie King, Clapton's playing continues to find new styles worthy of a blues injection: he's recorded R&B crossover hits, unplugged singer-songwriter fare, and even incognito trip-hop projects (as x-sample).
- Jessy Terry
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Ray Charles
Heaven and earth battle it out in the music of Ray Charles, who combined gospel with the best of secular music and helped give birth to soul, rock, and hard bop. His early work showed the silky influences of the Nat "King" Cole trio and the piano blues great Charles Brown. Charles combined their sophisticated styles with R&B and gritty gospel to create his signature sound: hard, snappy piano combined with exquisite vocals that fall somewhere between a preacher gone bad and a yearning romantic balladeer. Charles absorbed styles like a sponge: big band jazz, country and pop were all added to his musical arsenal, and he built up a musical empire that kept him in the public eye for decades up until his untimely death, at the age of 73, in June 2004. Just prior to his passing, Charles cut his first duets record with such fans as Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, and Elton John, which illustrates a multi-generational sampling of the artists who list him as a prime influence. An American institution, Ray Charles' rendition of "Georgia on My Mind" has even become that state's anthem. If only the other 49 states could be as fortunate.
- Nick Dedina
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Stevie Ray Vaughan
The loss of Stevie Ray Vaughan in a 1990 helicopter crash was a rock (and blues) death on par with the loss of Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding, so deeply was the public moved. Vaughan had been the catalyst for a massive blues revival in the 1980s, with a distinctive guitar tone and a string of singles that managed to cross over to mainstream rock radio. This was somewhat detrimental to his image, as Vaughan was at heart a pure blues guitarist, and his mainstream success did more to damage any authenticity he might have enjoyed as an obscure axeman, especially with purist blues fans. But in the years since his death Vaughan's music has come to represent a pinnacle of Texas or Modern Blues, and no longer seems like the call to arms for beer-swollen George Thorogood fans that it did at the height of his popularity. All his early studio albums are worth checking out (they're certainly better than Robert Cray's), but the real fun begins with Vaughan's live recordings, on which he repeatedly goes wholly over the top.
- Mike McGuirk
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Leo Dyer
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Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt's mellifluous voice, accomplished guitar playing and classic catalog of blues, folk, R&B, and pop songs have made her one of the most acclaimed artists of her generation. Though she made her debut in in 1971, it was not until 1989's Nick of Time and 1991's Luck of the Draw that Raitt achieved the enormous commercial success fans and critics had been predicting for decades.
The daughter of Broadway star John Raitt, Bonnie Raitt began playing guitar at age 12 and was immediately attracted to the blues. In 1967 she left her L.A. home to enter Radcliffe, but dropped out after two years and began playing the local folk and blues clubs. Dick Waterman, longtime blues aficionado and manager, signed her, and soon she was performing with Howlin' Wolf, Sippie Wallace, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and other blues legends. Her reputation in Boston and Philadelphia led to a record contract with Warner Brothers.
Raitt's early albums were critically lauded for her singing and guitar playing (she is one of the few women who play bottleneck) as well as her choice of material, which often included blues as well as pop and folk songs. Most of Raitt's repertoire consists of covers, and she has gone out of her way to credit her sources, often touring with them as opening acts. Her sixth album, Sweet Forgiveness (Number 25, 1977), went gold and yielded a hit cover version of Del Shannon's "Runaway" (Number 57, 1977). The Glow (featuring her first original tunes since three on Give It Up) (Number 30, 1979) was produced by Peter Asher, but it did not sell as well as its predecessor.
A Quaker, Raitt has played literally hundreds of benefits over the course of her career. She was a founder of M.U.S.E. (Musicians United for Safe Energy), which in September 1979 held a massive concert at Madison Square Garden, with other stars such as Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and the Doobie Brothers. It was later commemorated on a three-LP set. In 1982 she released her eighth LP, Green Light (Number 38, 1982), a harder-rocking effort aided by her backup band, the Bump Band, which included veteran keyboardist Ian MacLagan (of the Faces and the Stones) and Raitt's longtime bassist and tuba-player, Freebo, remained a constant sideman through her various backup bands. They toured with Raitt in mid-1982, greeted by the usual critical acclaim. Her work also appeared on the platinum 1980 Urban Cowboy soundtrack, with the country song "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance."
When Nine Lives (Number 115, 1986) flopped, Raitt lost her deal with Warner Bros. Prince reportedly produced an album's worth of tracks with her, but they were never released. Instead, Raitt reemerged in 1989 on Capitol with her Don Was–produced breakthrough album Nick of Time, which smoothed out her rough bluesy edges yet avoided crass commercialism. It topped the charts, sold 4 million copies, and won an Album of the Year Grammy (one of four awards won by a thunderstruck Raitt at the 1990 gala; one was for her duet with Delbert McClinton, "Good Man, Good Woman").
The pattern held with Luck of the Draw (Number 2, 1991), another Was production, which included the hit singles "Something to Talk About" (Number 5, 1991) and "I Can't Make You Love Me" (Number 18, 1991). It sold over 4 million copies and netted three more Grammys, for Album of the Year, Best Female Rock Vocal, and Best Pop Vocal Performance. Raitt earned another in 1990, for Best Traditional Blues Recording, for "In the Mood," a duet with John Lee Hooker on his album The Healer. Her former label Warner Bros. capitalized on Raitt's high profile by releasing The Bonnie Raitt Collection (Number 61, 1990), which included live duets with Sippie Wallace and John Prine.
In April 1991 Raitt married actor Michael O'Keefe (they divorced in 1999). Raitt also cofounded the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, dedicated to raising awareness and money for influential musical pioneers left impoverished in their old age by unfair record deals and lack of health insurance. Raitt once again found success working with producer Don Was, as 1994's Longing in Their Hearts topped the chart and went platinum shortly after its release; it sold over 2 million copies. It included "Love Sneakin' Up on You" (Number 19, 1994) and "You" (Number 92, 1994). Around this time, Raitt had a hit with "You Got It" (Number 33, 1995) from the film Boys on the Side, and a minor hit with "Rock Steady"(Number 73, 1995), a duet with Bryan Adams. Road Tested (Number 44, 1995) is a live album.
In 1995 Raitt became the first woman guitarist to have a guitar named for her. All royalties from the sale of Fender's Bonnie Raitt Signature Series Stratocaster go to programs to teach inner-city girls to play guitar.
Her next effort, Fundamental (Number 17, 1998), produced by Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake, was a less polished collection that some viewed as a return to the fine roots- and blues-based work of her earlier, hitless days. Raitt called 1982's Green Light the album's "true predecessor." Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, Raitt continues to perform for and speak out on a wide range of issues, including nuclear power, reproductive freedom, and the environment. In 2002, Raitt issued Silver Lining (Number 13, 2002) followed by a greatest hits compilation, The Best of Bonnie Raitt on Capitol 1989-2003 in 2003. The self-produced (with Tchad Blake) Souls Alike (Number 19, 2005) followed in 2005. In 2006, Bonnie collaborated with Norah Jones, Alison Krauss, Keb' Mo', and Ben Harper on the DVD/CD project Bonnie Raitt and Friends.
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Etta James
From the mid-1950s to the present, Etta James' powerful, soul-charged voice has become deeper and rougher, with a rich texture and heartfelt inflections. It goes without saying that the woman known as "Mama" is aging like California wine, and she can still open wounds in her songs and come out standing strong. When she was five years old, Jamesetta Hawkins amazed the congregation of her church choir. When she belted out Gospel songs with absolute spiritual fervor, it was clear that the child was a musical prodigy. Her career as a singer began when she recorded "The Wallflower" with Johnny Otis in 1954 for Modern Records. A year later, the song topped the charts. In 1960, she moved to Chess Records and soon began cranking out hits such as the driving, jiving, southern soul smash "Tell Mama," which Janis Joplin covered later that decade. Since then, she has recorded for Island and Elektra, experimenting with rock and jazz, but always returning to her Gospel-soaked roots and southern soul.
- Eric Shea
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B.B. King
The undisputed king of the blues, B.B. "Blues Boy" King will go down in history as one of the most important electric guitarists and blues singers ever. King's vocals are smooth and rich as they emote wailing cries and good-hearted humor, while every sound he plays on the guitar is instantly recognizable by his distinct vibrato, vocal guitar style and authorship of hundreds of the most classic blues riffs. Drawing on the single-note playing of T-Bone Walker, King's style has influenced several of the greatest rock, blues and jazz artists of the latter half of the twentieth century, including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others. Most important is the fact that, with one note, B.B. King can tell a story that touches the deepest roots of your soul.
- Jessy Terry
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Keb' Mo'
Keb' Mo's unique style lies somewhere between the soul of Delta Blues and the melodic feel of contemporary folk, bundled in a story-like framework. Whether delivering a sparse solo song or fully arranged bluesy pop, Mo's rich vocals and earthy acoustic plucking attract both newer and older blues audiences, as evidenced on his stunning self-titled debut Keb' Mo'. His songwriting style occasionally disturbs purists; like Robert Cray, Keb' Mo' has found ways to write a blues tune without remaining in the traditional twelve-bar format. Nonetheless Keb' Mo' has made quite a niche for himself on many adult alternative radio stations, due in part to the polished, warm sound of his compositions.
- Jessy Terry
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Taj Mahal
Here is a man who has closely studied and preserved the roots music of African Americans since he began playing the Boston folk scene in the 1960s. He studied the history and formulas of Caribbean, West African, Zydeco, rock, jazz, and R&B. In fact, it was always the music of Country Blues that has influenced most of his own music. After learning how to play a multitude of instruments, Taj Mahal moved to Los Angeles and teamed up with Ry Cooder to form the Rising Sons, who split after one single was released (more songs from these sessions were released in the 1990s). Taj Mahal finally recorded his first solo album in 1968, shortly before playing an incredible performance of the Banks/Parker hit, "Ain't That a Lot of Love" on the Rolling Stones' Rock & Roll Circus with the late, great Jessie Ed Davis on lead guitar. Following what his fans believe to be his prime years, Taj Mahal went on to experiment with whatever music genre he was infatuated with at the time, and also wrote some scores for the stage as well as television and film. Those who know his music well can testify that when he played Country Blues, the Taj was at his best. His rich soulful singing has an ultra-deep dynamic range that fits perfectly with the driving shuffle-beats and bass bounce of this particular blues subgenre.
- Eric Shea
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Joe Bonamassa
A blues guitarist first but also a lover of great rock riffs, Joe Bonamassa is liable to pull out just about anything in live performances. Sections from Yes' "Starship Trooper" are well documented but Bonamassa also tosses in the "mosh" part from Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers" at times, a riff any rock fan hears in his or her sleep. Often cited as the best guitarist of his generation, Bonamassa tends toward the chorded lead asides of Billy Gibbons and bears an almost uncanny resemblance to Cream-era Clapton more than Stevie Ray Vaughan or B.B. King, although those two influences are still very much present in Bonamassa's playing. They're just not the first names that come to mind when he takes a solo. Like many of his peers -- Kenny Wayne Shepherd, "Monster" Mike Welch, etc. -- Bonamassa was sitting in with bands and playing live shows before he was a teenager, and his first album, A New Day Yesterday, came out when he was just 23 years old, in 2000. Subsequently Bonamassa steadily toured and released records, with eight under his belt thus far, Live From No Place In Particular being the most recent.
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Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters was one of the few key players of the postwar Chicago Blues scene who actually influenced the music that influenced him. His swollen, grandiloquent vocals were an instrument unto themselves and his beefy electric slide playing breathed new life into music heavily influenced by the Delta Blues. Waters, who grew up on the Mississippi Delta in Clarksdale listening to the music of Son House, moved to Chicago in 1943. In 1948, he recorded "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel like Going Home." The former became his first national R&B chart topper, and influenced the Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No Satisfaction," and his 1950 song "Rollin' Stone" inspired the band's name. Waters assembled one of the meanest bands in blues history, the Headhunters, comprised of Little Walter, Baby Face Leroy Foste, and Jimmy Rogers. In 1951, Waters cranked out four hits, "Louisiana Blues," "Long Distance Call," "Honey Bee," and "Still a Fool" which rapidly climbed the charts and prompted Leonard Chess (founder of Chess Records) to play on the 1952 hit, "She Moves Me." Waters' renditions of "You Shook Me" and "I Just Wanna Make Love To You" turned on a sea of blues-obsessed British musicians who made him their new God. The Stones couldn't believe their eyes when they went to visit the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis only to find their God painting the ceiling. They put together an intimate gig and jammed with Waters on "I Just Wanna Make Love to You." By his death in 1983, Waters was already a legend in music. He had influenced the sound of Chicago Blues, as well as anyone who ever picked up on the music to which he lent his King Midas touch.
- Eric Shea
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Dr. John
Before making his name as a major New Orleans pianist, Dr. John was known as Mac Rebennack, a successful session guitarist who was forced to find a new instrument after being accidentally shot in the hand. As Dr. John, he garnered a reputation for performing in all-out Mardi Gras regalia, bringing a theatrical aspect to his shows that surprisingly never detracted from his soulful music. His hearty vocals have a thick Louisiana twang filtered through deep, earthy grit, while his rollicking keyboard and piano playing travel from home-style New Orleans R&B and jazz to spaced-out psychedelia, mixed into a secret musical gumbo that no one has quite figured out. He's probably best known for his '70s classic "Right Place, Wrong Time," a song that reached new levels of stripped-down voodoo Funk and was boosted by the help of supreme Cajun groovers, the Meters.
- Jessy Terry
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JJ Grey & Mofro
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Dinah Washington
A great jazz and pop vocalist who excelled at the blues, Dinah Washington had a sharp, powerful voice that she wielded with knife-like precision. Washington's open and direct (yet smartly controlled) style was extremely popular throughout the 1950s with black audiences, and by the late-'50s she had crossed over to the white pop market with big hits such as "What A Diff'rence A Day Makes," which combined a jazz and blues feel with Nashville-style arrangements. Washington loved after hour jam sessions, and also released a stellar series of jazz albums on Mercury (now Verve Records) that included many of the greatest musicians of the day. Known for her full figure, strong personality, hard-living lifestyle, and multiple marriages, Washington was something of an Elisabeth Taylor/Marilyn Monroe for the African-American community: always in the news, she was almost as famous for newspaper headlines, funny quips, and her fun fashion sense as she was for her music. She died of an accidental overdose while going on a crash diet in December 1963. Washington rightly remains extremely popular in jazz and vocal circles, and she's a major influence on R&B in general and artists such as Ray Charles, Etta James and Aretha Franklin in particular.
- Nick Dedina
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Fats Domino
With more than 65 million record sales to his credit, New Orleans singer and pianist Fats Domino out sold every 1950s rock & roll pioneer except Elvis Presley leaving an indelible and profound impact on subsequent generations of musicians.
Born into a musical family, Antoine Domino began playing piano at nine and a year later was playing for pennies in honky-tonks like the Hideaway Club, where bandleader Bill Diamond accurately nicknamed him Fats. At 14 Domino quit school to work in a bedspring factory so he could play the bars at night. Soon he was playing alongside such New Orleans legends as Professor Longhair and Amos Milburn. He also heard the stride and boogie-woogie piano techniques of Fats Waller and Albert Ammons. He mastered the classic New Orleans R&B piano style — easy-rolling left-hand patterns anchoring right-hand arpeggios. By age 20 he was married and a father, had survived a near-fatal car crash, and had almost lost his hand in a factory accident.
In the mid-1940s Domino joined trumpeter Dave Bartholomew's band. It was soon apparent, however, that Domino was more than a sideman, and Bartholomew helped arrange his contract with Imperial and became his producer. Their first session in 1949 produced "The Fat Man," which eventually sold a million and whetted the national appetite for the "New Orleans sound." Bartholomew and Domino co-wrote most of Domino's material.
By the time the rock & roll boom began in the mid-1950s, Fats was already an established R&B hitmaker ("Goin' Home," 1952; "Going to the River," 1953), his records regularly selling between half a million and a million copies apiece. His pounding piano style was easily adapted to the nascent rock sound, although he proved less personally magnetic than contemporaries like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, or Jerry Lee Lewis, all of whom recorded Domino material.
Domino's big breakthrough came in mid-1955, when the Top 10 "Ain't That a Shame" (quickly covered by Pat Boone and revived in the late-1970s by Cheap Trick) established his identity with white teenagers. For the next five years Domino struck solid gold with "I'm in Love Again" (Number Three), "Blueberry Hill" (Number Two), and "Blue Monday" (Number Five) in 1956; "I'm Walkin'" (Number Four, 1957); "Whole Lotta Loving" (Number Six, 1958); and many others. He eventually collected 23 gold singles. His last million-seller came in 1960 with "Walkin' to New Orleans." He left Imperial for ABC in 1963 and subsequently switched to Mercury, Warner Bros., Atlantic, and Broadmoor, all with less success.
In 1968 Domino revived public interest in his ongoing career with a rollicking cover of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna. The Beatles consistently sang the Fat Man's praises, noting that "Birthday" on The Beatles did little more than sort through the old Domino-Bartholomew bag of riffs and tricks. Through the mid-1970s Fats played six to eight months a year. In 1980 he performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Domino continues to tour sporadically. In 1993 he released his first major-label album in 25 years, Christmas Is a Special Day, to critical acclaim but middling sales. Domino was feared to be dead in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 (his mansion was in the middle of the devastated Ninth Ward), but he had been rescued by the Coast Guard via helicopter; the family had lost nearly everything in the storm. In early 2006 Domino released Alive and Kickin', a benefit CD for the local Tipitina's Foundation.
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Buddy Guy
Eric Clapton calls Buddy Guy his favorite blues guitarist. Put his amazing guitar playing together with a singing voice that is its equal and you have pure blues heaven. Guy went to Chicago in 1957 and hung out with legends such as B.B. King. He put out a series of impressive records on the Cobra label but it is his '60s work that still knocks your socks off to this day. His guitar jams and tortured vocals are so dynamic it makes one wonder why anybody ever bothered with Blues Rock. Guy's career went through a hard stretch in the '70s and '80s, but it came back with a vengeance in the '90s. Buddy Guy's music is as strong as ever and his wild, onstage energy has earned him capacity crowds at venues all over the world.
- Eric Shea
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John Lee Hooker
Blues musician John Lee Hooker helped define the post-World War II electric blues with his one-chord boogie compositions and his rhythmic electric guitar work. His deep voice was inimitable. Historically, he was one of the great links between the blues and rock & roll.
Hooker was one of 11 children. He sang at church in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His first musical instrument was an inner tube stretched across a barn door. In his adolescence he was taught rudimentary guitar technique by his stepfather, William Moore, who often performed at local fish fries, dances, and other social occasions in the late '20s; another early influence was Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1931 Hooker went to Memphis, where he worked as an usher at the Daisy Theater on Beale Street. He moved to Cincinnati in 1933 and sang with gospel groups like the Big Six, the Delta Big Four, and the Fairfield Four.
His career eventually took root in Detroit in the late '30s. He began recording in the late '40s. Hooker was exclusively a singles artist for his first few very prolific years. His first release, "Boogie Chillen," issued on the Modern label, was an instant million-seller and a jukebox hit. "I'm in the Mood" sold a million copies in 1951; the blues-record market was soon saturated with Hooker material on myriad labels, often released under such pseudonyms as Birmingham Sam, John Lee Booker, Boogie Man, John Lee Cooker, Delta John, Johnny Lee, Texas Slim, and Johnny Williams. His only pop chart entry was with "Boom Boom" (Number 60, 1962), later recorded by the Animals. In 1959 he cut his first album for Riverside Records and made his debut performance at the Newport Folk Festival. He toured Europe extensively in the early '60s. In the mid-'60s he toured and recorded frequently with Britain's Groundhogs.
By 1970, Hooker was living in Oakland, California. He teamed up with Canned Heat for Hooker 'n' Heat (Liberty), which made inroads on the American charts (Number 73) and abroad. Charlie Musselwhite and Van Morrison joined Hooker in 1972 for Never Get Out of These Blues Alive, the release of which roughly coincided with Fantasy's double-LP Boogie Chillen, a compilation of early material and previously unreleased tapes from 1962. Hooker continued to tour and record in the '70s and '80s, often opening for rock acts like Canned Heat and Foghat. In 1980 he appeared in The Blues Brothers film.
The late '80s brought a renewal of interest in Hooker. British and American rockers, including the Spencer Davis Group, the J. Geils Band, Canned Heat, and George Thorogood, had covered his songs. He sang the title role on Pete Townshend's 1989 album The Iron Man, which was based on a children's book. The same year he joined the Rolling Stones for their concerts in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Healer (Number 62, 1989), which featured guest appearances by Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, Los Lobos, George Thorogood, Canned Heat, and others, was his biggest commercial success. The album spent 38 weeks on the chart. Hooker earned his first Grammy Award for "I'm in the Mood," the album's duet with Bonnie Raitt. In October 1990 New York's Madison Square Garden hosted an all-star concert celebrating Hooker's music. Raitt, Joe Cocker, Huey Lewis, Ry Cooder, Gregg Allman, Willie Dixon, and others joined the bluesman for the occasion. That year he also joined Miles Davis on the Grammy-nominated movie soundtrack The Hot Spot. (Davis reportedly called Hooker "the funkiest man alive, buried up to his neck in mud.")
In 1991 Hooker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; he was nominated for another Grammy for 1991's Mr. Lucky, which featured tracks recorded with the Robert Cray Band, Keith Richards, Ry Cooder, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Johnny Winter, Carlos Santana, and others. His 1992 release Boom Boom featured guest guitar work by ex–Fabulous Thunderbird Jimmie Vaughan and blues great Albert Collins.
In early 1995 Hooker announced that he would lighten his touring schedule. Van Morrison, who played on 1995's Chill Out, produced 1997's Don't Look Back, which features appearances by both Morrison and Los Lobos. The Best of Friends rounds up Hooker's numerous superstar collaborations. The first biography about the bluesman, Boogie Man, was published in Europe in 1999, and in America the following year. In 2000 Hooker won a Grammy for lifetime achievement. He died in his sleep at the age of 83.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
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Robert Johnson
The story of Robert Johnson meeting the devil at the crossroads has been told so many times that we are all in danger of becoming honorary Ralph Macchios. Luckily, this legend is backed up with incredible music. The truth is that Johnson became the undisputed master of Delta Blues so quickly after taking up the guitar that fellow musicians joked that ol' Scratch must have had something to do with it. Johnson was a deeply troubled man who poured his mental anguish into intoxicating music and vivid lyrics. His style, songs, tortured life and murder at the hands of a jealous woman have made him an American icon. Robert Johnson only recorded a handful of songs but has left a vast musical legacy.
- Jon Pruett
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Louis Prima
Every generation seems to re-discover Louis Prima. Disney fittingly turned him into a jovial primate for The Jungle Book in 1967, David Lee Roth did a note-for-note cover of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" in 1985 and most recently, Brian Setzer and other Swing revivalists have used his sound as a template. Prima was a longtime veteran of the jazz scene who struck gold in the 1950s by mixing his Louis Armstrong influences with swinging jazz, throbbing Jump Blues, early R&B and Neapolitan zaniness. Just by itself, his music was unforgettable; but when combined with his hilariously brash sense of showmanship, Prima became unstoppable. Backed by saxophonist Sam Butera's band and a succession of straight-faced female foils (the finest being the angelic Keely Smith, who went on to achieve major success as a solo artist), Prima literally had "the wildest show in town" while also penning such standards as "Sing Sing Sing," and "A Sunday Kind of Love." His bawdy act excited the sex-starved masses of the Eisenhower era, earned respect from jazz hepcats, and was studied and appreciated by greasy-haired teenagers growing up on rock 'n' roll. While Prima's recorded output suffered when he left Capitol Records for supposedly greener pastures, he remained a very popular live act well into the '60s.
- Nick Dedina
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Derek Trucks
Child prodigy Derek Trucks is a fiery guitar slinger whose slow-burn slide style owes a lot to the legends of the blues. Like a younger version of Stevie Ray Vaughan (sans the been-at-the-bottle-too-long growl), Trucks' jams duplicate the dips and twists of Buddy Guy and Al King. A kid no more, Trucks now fronts his own band, a formidable blues unit deeply rooted in Southern Rock soil.
- Chad Driscoll
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Howlin' Wolf
Delta bluesman Howlin' Wolf was one of the most influential musicians of the post-World War II era, and his electric Chicago blues — featuring his deep, lupine voice — shaped rock & roll.
Chester Arthur Burnett, named after the 21st president, was raised on a cotton plantation in Ruleville, Mississippi, and learned guitar as a child. In the Mississippi Delta area he began studying with the rural masters, notably guitarist and vocalist Charley Patton, his biggest single influence, and his half sister's husband, harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller).
As Howlin' Wolf, he played his first gig in the South on January 15, 1928, and throughout the '30s frequently performed on street corners. He formed his first band, the House Rockers, in Memphis in 1948 with pianist Bill Johnson, lead guitarist Willie Johnson, and drummer Willie Steele. Later personnel included at various times harmonica players James Cotton and Little Junior Parker, pianist Ike Turner, and guitarist Willie Johnson.
In 1951 Turner, a freelance talent scout, had Wolf record for Sam Phillips' Memphis-based Sun Records. Those masters were then leased to Chess Records, and in 1957 one of them, "Moanin' at Midnight," became his first R&B hit. In 1952 Wolf moved to Chicago, where his music was well received. Some consider the recordings he made for Chess during the '50s and '60s his best. Among them were the 1957 R&B hit "Sitting on Top of the World," "Spoonful," "Smokestack Lightnin'," "Little Red Rooster," "I Ain't Superstitious," "Back Door Man," "Killing Floor," and "How Many More Years." His songs, many of them written by Willie Dixon, have been covered by American and English rock acts like the Rolling Stones (with whom Wolf appeared on the Shindig! TV show in 1965), Grateful Dead, the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, the Doors, Cream, the Electric Flag, Little Feat, and Led Zeppelin.
Wolf, who stood an imposing 6-foot-3 and weighed nearly 300 pounds, frequently appeared at blues and rock festivals in the late '60s and early '70s. His 1971 album, The London Sessions, featured backup support from Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Steve Winwood, and Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. That same year Wolf received an honorary doctorate from Columbia College in Chicago. He lived the last years of his life in Chicago's crumbling South Side ghetto. He suffered several heart attacks in the early '70s and received kidney dialysis treatment, but he continued to play occasionally; one of his last concerts was in November 1975 at the Chicago Amphitheatre with B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and Little Milton. He entered a hospital in mid-December and died at age 65 of complications from kidney disease. Howlin' Wolf was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
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Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Picking up a guitar at age seven and mastering Stevie Ray's moves by the time he was 13, Kenny Wayne Shepherd was hyped, pushed and packaged for mass consumption on a major league scale in the early 1990s. His arrival came almost simultaneously with fellow youngster guitar hotshots Jonny Lang and Zakk Wylde. The result was total over exposure and widespread dismissal by the majority of blues purists. Shepherd's debut album, Ledbetter Heights, however, was surprisingly genuine, forcing folks to take a closer look at the kid. Through the next several albums, Shepherd's once-ubiquitous TV appearances petered out, and he was allowed an opportunity to grow both physically and musically. After a trio of heavy duty blues rock LPs, where he played more like Jimi than Muddy, Shepherd returned to Delta blues (as well as jump and good ol' electric blues) with 2007's 10 Days Out (Blues From the Backroad), a refreshingly under-polished collection of live cuts featuring all sorts of guest appearances, from Hubert Sumlin to B.B. King.
- Mike McGuirk
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Susan Tedeschi
Billboard Magazine has called Susan Tedeschi "honest-to-God great." She spins out steaming, cinematic blues with her smoking hot guitar. Think of a passionate and sultry mix of Etta James and Bonnie Raitt.
- Nick Dedina
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Jonny Lang
Jonny Lang rocketed out of his adopted hometown of Minneapolis at the age of 13, astonishing the world with his splashy guitar playing and a grizzled bluesman's voice that seemed to belong to someone five times his age. The tow-headed boy had dreamed big, obsessively learning how to play guitar, then convincing his parents that he should forgo school and take to the road. "My mom eventually was okay with it, and just told me to 'Be safe and call home a lot.'"
The risk paid off, and Lang quickly shot to the top of the blues charts, earning his first platinum record by the time he was sixteen for Lie To Me. He picked up his second platinum album for Wander This World in 1998 -- the same year he opened for the Rolling Stones. In 1999, he performed at Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura's inauguration, then traveled to the White House to perform for Clinton (where he presented the president with an autographed Fender Guitar). The next month he was personally invited to perform at Mick Jagger's 56th birthday party at the musician's estate in the South of France, where he jammed with Jagger, Bono, Elton John and Ron Wood. But then the wunderkind seemed to drop off the face of the earth, not releasing any more albums for five years.
Lang was not idle during that time. He gigged sporadically with the likes of B.B. King, Aerosmith, and Jeff Beck; got married to actress Haylie Johnson; quit his two-pack a day cigarette habit; gave up drinking; moved to Los Angeles; and all but turned his back on his beloved blues. When his third album, Long Time Coming, appeared in mid-2004, the musician was not only sampling Eminem, but had also cut down on his trademark guitar pyrotechnics and eliminated any blues laments. Instead, his songs now explored the space between rock and seductive soul.
"I'm not a blues singer," he explained unapologetically, "and I'm not really a blues writer either, or anything. I just feel like I love singing things that take a journey melodically." The journey this still-young musician is currently taking seems to follow a much more spiritual path. He not only became a committed Christian, but began penning lyrics for many of his own songs -- something he hadn't previously done, and something that made Long Time Coming a more coherent and fully-realized effort than his earlier albums.
- Jaan Uhelszki
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Albert King
Albert King's 6'4" stature was dwarfed only by the massive sound he made when he wrapped his huge hands around a Flying V guitar, pulling rather than pushing on the strings due to his left-handed, upside-down approach. King's trademark wailing blues guitar complemented his deep, heavy vocals, either one of which could touch your soul. Among his greatest admirers were Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and especially Stevie Ray Vaughan, each of whom pilfered many of King's famous licks and passed them on to new generations. The imitation didn't faze King, who confidently reassured his followers that he could outplay any one of them on any given night. On his classic hit "Born Under a Bad Sign," King was backed by Booker T. and the MG's, who provided a Stax Soul foundation that he drew upon for many of his later hits. Though King is somewhat underappreciated, the majority of rock and blues guitar players know the man's riffs, if not his name.
- Jessy Terry
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Robert Cray
Finding a modern audience has earned Cray some criticism he wouldn't get if he was a struggling club performer. He has a clean, singing guitar, strong songwriting abilities, and a soul voice more Sam Cooke than Muddy Waters. His unique mix of blues, rock, and soul has taken another turn of late: Cray's latest album celebrates that glorious Stax Records sound of the '60s. While their styles are different, Cray could arguably be compared to Ray Charles, another performer who ably crossed blues, soul and pop barriers.
- Eric Shea
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Bobby
One of the few bluesmen who's solely known for his singing, Bobby "Blue" Bland has been a major player in blues since the mid-1950s. Often working with B.B. King, and always showcasing a voice that can be as smooth a silk one minute and deeply tortured the next, Bland had a string of hits in the '50s and '60s. Early on, his work was straight-up Texas country, but as he aged his music and singing style laid much of the groundwork for what's called "soul blues" today.
- Mike McGuirk
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Gary Moore
Moore has always enjoyed a devout following among guitarists, from his early swashbuckling days as Thin Lizzy's lead guitarist to his many rock, Fusion, and blues solo projects. Moore's balance of technically savvy licks and raw, emotional soul keeps the fans rabid. It was Still Got the Blues (1990) that finally solidified Gary Moore's reputation as a top-flight guitarist, achieving critical and commercial success with a back to the basics approach that put Moore's fiery Blues Rock guitar front and center. Later albums continue with that approach, including After Hours (1992), which featured heavy-hitting guests including B.B. King and Albert Collins.
- Jessy Terry
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Bettye LaVette
The often unrecognized, bottomless soul of Bettye LaVette's voice, and the lack of acknowledgment she receives as one of the genre's pioneers, ranks her among the most underrated artists ever. Brought up in Detroit, LaVette's talent wasn't cultivated from the city's deep gospel influence like many of her Motown peers, but rather from the blues. At 16, she recorded her first single, "My Man, He's a Lovin' Man" with Detroit man-about-town Johnnie Mae Matthews, who sold the rights to Atlantic Records and made the song a hit on the soul charts. Shortly afterwards, she recorded her biggest success, "Let Me Down Easy," which turned out to be a bit of a career prophecy. The song became her standard, but didn't break the Billboard's Top-100. Instead, the singer's music lived among the shadows of giants. She toured with iconic performers like Ben E. King, Otis Redding and James Brown, but failed to receive the accolades these artists did. After several disappointments with the industry, she left for a leading role in the Broadway show Bubbling Brown Sugar opposite Cab Calloway, and stayed in the Broadway circuit for several years before returning to the record business during the disco-era. That produced another small hit "Doin' the Best I Can." Going largely unnoticed through the '80s and '90s, the songstress toured Europe's soul circuit for the next decade, but her fortunes didn't change until 2000, when music connoisseur Gilles Petard discovered a shelved LaVette recording from 1972 and released it, reawakening an interest in the artist's canon. Approaching her sixties, with a voice bigger than ever and a massive will to succeed, the singer gained another flicker of the spotlight in 2005, when she released the Andy Kaulkin-produced I've Got My Own Hell To Raise.
- Jeremy Stanifer
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Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway led one of the top bands of the Swing era and became one of America's first black superstars. Calloway ruled the Cotton Club, was featured in cartoons, had movie roles, and even played Sportin' Life, the very character that Gershwin based on him in Porgy and Bess. Calloway was a master showman with fine musical instincts who nurtured such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Doc Cheatham and Milt Hinton and paved the way for the Jump Blues style. Calloway's orchestra didn't survive the end of the Big Band era, but the man himself endured well into old age. Still decked out in his trademark white tuxedo and wild hairdo, Calloway saved the day at the end of The Blues Brothers by singing his signature song, "Minnie the Moocher."
- Nick Dedina
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Blues 
