chicago blues
15 Greatest Blues Guitarists of All Time: The Definitive List
Ranking the greatest blues guitarists of all time invites argument, and that is exactly the point. However, any honest list has to…
Blues Harmonica History: The Powerful Untold Story
Blues Harmonica History: From European Toy to America’s Most Powerful Voice The Night That Changed Blues Harmonica History Blues harmonica history took…
Great Migration Blues: How 6 Million People Changed Music
Great Migration Blues: How 6 Million People Changed Music Great Migration blues began with moments like this one: in 1943, a young…
Blues Music Timeline: African Roots to Today
Blues Music Timeline: 25 Moments That Built America’s Most Powerful Sound This blues music timeline tracks the key moments that forged one…
Bobby Rush: The Remarkable King of the Chitlin’ Circuit
Bobby Rush: The Remarkable King of the Chitlin’ Circuit Bobby Rush got the call on a Tuesday. Ryan Coogler needed a harmonica…
Laura Chavez: Latina Blues Guitarist Breaking Barriers
Laura Chavez walked into JJ’s Blues in San Jose at eighteen years old. She was too young to legally be there. She…
Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials: Chicago Slide Lives On
Early Life: Chicago’s West Side and Uncle J.B. Lil’ Ed Williams was twelve years old when he decided he wanted to play…
Bernard Allison: The Remarkable First Son of Blues Royalty
Early Life: Chicago Roots and a Father’s Gift Bernard Allison picked up his first guitar at ten years old. He grew up…
Ronnie Baker Brooks: Carrying His Father’s Chicago Blues
Ronnie Baker Brooks learned guitar from Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, and B.B. King. His Alligator debut Blues In My DNA won three…
Toronzo Cannon: Chicago Bus Driver by Day, Blues Star
Toronzo Cannon drove a Chicago CTA bus for 27 years while building a fierce blues career. Now full-time on Alligator Records, he…
Blues Music History: 1920s Through Today, Decade by Decade
How Blues Music Shaped a Century: A Decade-by-Decade History (1920s–2000s) Blues music history is not a straight line. It is a century…
Elmore James: ‘Dust My Broom’ and the Birth of Slide Rock
Elmore James: The King of the Slide Guitar In August 1951, Elmore James walked into a small recording studio in Jackson, Mississippi,…
Little Walter: He Amplified Harmonica and Changed Blues
Little Walter: The Daring Stunning Truth of Blues Harmonica On May 12, 1952, a twenty-two-year-old harmonica player walked into Universal Recording Studios…
Freddie King: ‘Hide Away’ and the Texas Sound He Defined
Freddie King: The Texas Cannonball Who Bridged Two Blues Worlds On a summer night in 1961, a young guitarist from Texas walked…
Willie Dixon: He Wrote the Songs That Built Chicago Blues
Willie Dixon: The Untold Architect of Chicago Blues In January 1954, Willie Dixon handed Muddy Waters a set of lyrics backstage at…
Blues Sidemen: The Amazing Forgotten Sound of American Music
Blues Sidemen: The Amazing Forgotten Sound in American Music On January 7, 1954, Muddy Waters walked into Chess Records’ studio at 4750…
Origins of Blues Music: From Field Hollers to Records
Origins of Blues Music: A Complete History On a sweltering night around 1903, a traveling bandleader named W.C. Handy fell asleep waiting…
Pinetop Perkins: The Startling Truth of a Blues Piano Life
Pinetop Perkins: The Startling Truth of a Blues Piano Life In a Clarksdale, Mississippi juke joint sometime around 1943, a woman pulled…
Howlin’ Wolf: The Voice That Shook Chess Records
Howlin’ Wolf: Chicago’s Most Powerful Voice in Blues History Sam Phillips had heard plenty of talent by May 1951. However, nothing set…
10 Amazing Essential Blues Records You Need to Know Now
10 Essential Blues Records That Belong in Every Collection In 1961, a Columbia Records producer pulled together twenty-nine songs by a Mississippi…
Buddy Guy: The Guitarist Hendrix and Clapton Called King
Buddy Guy: The Daring Fire That Ignited Chicago Blues Three days without food. No money. No contacts. No plan. Buddy Guy stood…
Muddy Waters: The Man Who Electrified Chicago Blues
Muddy Waters: The Powerful Hidden New Voice of Chicago Blues In August 1941, a folklorist named Alan Lomax drove a government sedan…
Big Bill Broonzy: The Fearless Life That Sparked New Blue
Big Bill Broonzy: Chicago’s Bridge Between the Cotton Fields and the Electric City In 1951, a fifty-something son of Arkansas sharecroppers walked…