I’ve hung out with Norman. We are both prototypical stoners. He plays/composes every damn day. 
I’m going to go a slightly different route and name a couple who haven’t been mentioned yet. RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough are the gold standard for North Mississippi Hill Country Blues. I grew up in this area and when I think blues greats they have to come up in the conversation.
RL Burnside was awesome. And also notable for his willingness to experiment.
Like Keith1 said, so many to pick from, so I choose four of the very greats of early delta blues who haven’t been mentioned before, Charley Patton, Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt. All four had their own distinctive styles and were heavily influential. I love all these guys. And that’s just the cream of the crop, there have been more guys like them (Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sleepy John Estes, Fred McDowell, Blind Willie McTell…).
I just noticed that Chicago Blues hasn’t been mentioned much before. You can’t write a history of the Blues without Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Buddy Guy and the mastermind behind all their Chess recordings, Willie Dixon. The Stones, Led Zep and thousands of other rock bands milked this stuff endlessly.
Absolutely. While Chicago blues, in its heyday, didn’t have a huge audience in the US, even among Black consumers of popular music, just about every musician who became part of the “British Invasion” started out wanting to be a Chicago-style blues band. Maybe not so much the Beatles, but the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, Led Zeppelin, the Pretty Things, the Yardbirds, Cream, and about a zillion other less famous acts.
Basically they imported, then exported back to America, a uniquely American form of music. So most Americans came to know the music through British interpreters.
I remember reading somewhere that Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy and other original Chicago blues artists loved the Rolling Stones, et al., because all of a sudden they started getting royalty checks.
I saw Buddy Guy in Austin, I think it was 2000 give or take a year. One of my first blues album was Sonny Terry and Brownie Magee. I was 14 when I bought it. The blues is in my blood. I was born in Mississippi. Some of my best memories are my childhood there.
Outstanding choice’s y’all bring to this thread. Thank you! I’m learning some bluesmen I’ve never heard of! I love the new music, the history of different places and information. Keep your stories coming!
Hopefully this Blues Music and the men who are and we’re the foundation of Rock and Roll as we and the generation’s after us will discover this thread and carry the blues on for eternity. It would be ashame for the history and culture to be forgotten.
I’m right fond of Sonny Boy Williamson myself–really, it’d be awfully rough to find a bluesman I DON’T like listening to.
Isn’t that the truth!
We’ve gotten this far and no one has brought up John Lee Hooker?
There’s so many of them!!;
I will say that my goodness, RL Burnside has got a mouth on him!
Bring it on home to me. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=BW09IAs5GpI&feature=share
God and Man
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CjrxoqdiCEk&feature=share
I know the OP is on Blues MEN, but my goodness, let’s not forget:
Let’s do it!
Jimmy Dawkins - “Beetin’ Knockin’ Ringin’”
Robert Lucas (Luke and the Locomotives) - “Feel Like Going Home”
Johnny Winter - “Be Careful with a Fool”
Love this. That whole album is great.
Another great pair was Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.
This is Sonny Boy Williamson II, i.e. Aleck “Rice” MIller. He took the name after the original Sonny Boy Williamson was killed by a mugger.
Well then, I dig 'em both!