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From a Texas roadhouse to the Mississippi delta to big city Chicago these guys and gals got soul...
Bessie Smith
Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters
Buddy Guy
B.B. King
22 yr old Session Guitarist Duane Allman on Boz Scagg's 'Loan me a Dime'
Roy Buchanan
and my personal favorite, Stevie Ray
more please...
I'd like to add
blind snooks eaglin'
lightnin' hopkins
Howlin' wolf
taj majal
bo diddley (though truly rock n roll)
some of my favorite classic blues artists just off the top of my head (as well as some listed above)
Sonny Boy Williamson and the King Biscuit Time Show without a doubt.
Otis Taylor
R.L. Burnside - there's some cool remixed stuff...
I'm gonna throw these two out. The first is a cool little jam session. The second is a three song trilogy by a dude I just hear today -- Eric Gales and his wife on drums.
I just dig that all so so much!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS7x27PcomU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXGddxDbOSU
Don't overlook this cat
Saw Shemekia Copeland.
Dayumm. Tight band. Great pipes. Solid blues.
https://youtu.be/gAedo8fcIWY
Will be seeing her this weekend
This thread is mediocre. A blues lesson in 10 songs:
Muddy was playing electric blues in the 40's but nobody wanted to record. This is when he had his best band: Otis Spann, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, Willie Dixon. By the time Muddy was allowed to record the way he wanted the other guys had moved onto solo careers. The genesis of electric music basically wasn't recorded. But the acoustic blues they did record is the best ever. Muddy took the elements of Delta blues and had harmonica and guitar playing off each other like counterpoint in a fugue by Bach.
Jimmy was excellent, but the best thing about his recordings is young Little Walter. Marion "Little" Walter Jacobs is the originator when it comes to using distortion and overdrive to enhance amplified music. Yes, he was before all the guitar players. When it comes to harmonica playing he is Babe Ruth. He invented an entirely new way of doing things, and decades later he is still unmatched. His playing on this one illustrates this well as turns that harmonica almost into a percussive instrument during his solo. You can also hear that blues-counterpoint that originated with Muddy
Along with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, Little Walter is one of the great improvisors of all time. There are enough riffs in this one song to make a career's worth of songs. This is probably the greatest work of genius in the entire blues canon. Walter drank too much. Much too much. And he died from getting into one too many fights in 1968 when he was 37.
Chester Burnett, AKA Howlin' Wolf has the biggest voice you'll ever hear. But like Muddy, you owe it to yourself to listen to him sing with a high quality pair of headphone. The subtlety that hides under the intensity is otherworldly.
There were two harmonica players named Sonny Boy Williamson. This song is by Sonny Boy II. Sonny Boy II was a huge man with a knack for violence. He basically stole Sonny Boy I's identity and forced him to leave town. Sonny Boy II had too much clowning in his act, but when he was serious he was terrific.
People who know say that blues isn't defined by any pattern or scale or a set of rules. It's a feeling. When you listen to blues for thousands of hours this starts to make sense. If you want to accelerate your learning curve listen to Muddy sing, Little Walter play harmonica, and Otis play piano.
BB King is great. BB is also overrated. His guitar playing is good, but lacks variety and is derivative of T-Bone. His songs lack variety. "The Thrill is Gone" is shitty blues pop song resented by those of us who love the genre (I'm glad he made some money). But young BB had an incredible voice. One of the best. By the time he became famous, his voice wasn't the same anymore. BB Was also a terrific guy. He was more educated than his contemporaries and helped them out tremendously. Muddy Adored BB.
Sam has one of the most distinctive voices you'll ever hear, and this song shows it off as well as any. He also has an extremely distinctive guitar style. His songs don't like sound like anybody else's (Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, both great in their own rights, borrowed a lot from Sam). They called it the "West Side Sound." Unfortunately he only had one album that was recorded well and he died of a heart attack at age 32 in 1969.
Freddie King (sometimes Freddy King) was perfect. Perfect guitar playing. Perfect voice. Perfect band. He was 6'5" and 300 lbs and had hands so big that he made his great big semi-hollow body guitar look like a ukulele. In the early 70's was pushing blues to new places, but it was still clearly the blues. He died from ulcers and pancreatitis and too many Bloody Mary's when he was only 42.
Koko isn't that famous but she is one of the greats. Like most of the names above she was the child of southern sharecroppers who moved to Chicago. Great band. Along with Buddy guy, she recorded some of the last great blues albums.
Are you a fan of Albert Collins? I think he’s one of if not the best Telecaster player. The music just seems to flow out of him with no pretense. He’s so relaxed that it sometimes seems routine for him. The same could be said for Chuck Berry.
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[QUOTE=MagnificentUnicorn;7095130]Are you a fan of Albert Collins? I think he’s one of if not the best Telecaster player. The music just seems to flow out of him with no pretense. He’s so relaxed that it sometimes seems routine for him. The same could be said for Chuck Berry.
QUOTE]
He was great:
Albert Collins, AKA The Iceman, AKA the Master of the Telecaster was Lightnin' Hopkins' Cousin. Hopkins declared himself the greatest guitar player that ever lived. He wasn't. But you can't mistake his style for anyone else's:
If you got time look up Jim Oblon for some contemporary blues rock. He’s got some great stuff on youtube. Check out his set on Highland Park TV