The kicker being that Sonny Boy II, who also became much more famous, was much older than Sonny Boy I.
I endorse almost every name mentioned so far.
I love another Chicagoan: Luthor Allison, whose guitar playing was incendiary!
I love Big Bill Broonzy, but would consider him more folk than blues. Same with Josh White (not previously mentioned).
Most posts here focus on guitar with a few prominent harp players. I would like to nominate Joe Williams (not the same as Big Joe Williams), a classy jazz singer who performed many blues songs.
Sorry, no links.
James Cotton Blues Band, “Good Time Charlie”, a frequent spin on WBCN (Boston) when it used to be good.
Memphis Slim, “Sassy Mae”, remake of an older song of his, done Memphis soul style.
And why has no one mentioned the greatest 6 finger blues guitarist Hound Dog Taylor? Or the rest of the Alligator Label artists? Or teh Malaco Label artists including ZZ Hill, Latimore, etc
And where is Big Mama Thorton?
Mississippi Fred McDowell, who’s You Gotta Move was covered by the Stones.
For the Chicago greats, did I miss mention of Elmore James, Jimmy Reed or James Cotton?
For cross overs that started in the Blues, don’t forget Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Nor that Hendrix played a mean blues. I’d rather not go into all the rock n rollers and brit invasion folks that did some blues or had some serious roots.
There are loads and loads more. I was a blues DJ at a University radio station for 4 years back in the 1980’s. I was fortunate to have seen several of the tail end of the big blues festivals with the originals still playing. This included Muddy twice, once with Robert Cray as one of the openers. Bo Diddley headlined the Sacramento Blues Festival as did Little Milton.
Clarence Gatemouth Brown and a buncha Texans been overlooked on this thread as well.
I’ve hung out with John Lee Hooker, Little Milton, Bo Diddley, Gatemouth.
Booker White, “Fixin’ to Die Blues.” I loved this right from the first listen.
Known as Bukka White but his real name was Booker T. Washington. I read that he didn’t like “Bukka” and that the name came about because someone misunderstood the Southern pronunciation of “Booker.”
Don’t think Willie Dixon has been mentioned yet. Not only a musician, one of the greatest blues songwriters. He wrote a number of songs that became blues classics, covered many times by other blues musicians and rock bands.
Here:
He not only wrote all those classics, he produced, arranged and played bass on almost every Chess recording.
Oops, sorry I overlooked your post, EH. And I usually pay special attention to your posts in musical threads.
Johnny Shines
Homesick James
Paul Geremia, who was the best guitar player I’ve ever seen.
Bobby “Blue” Bland: probably most familiar to younger people as the featured sample in the chorus of Jay-Z’s “Heart of a City (Ain’t No Love)” he was a unique artist with a singular style that transcended the blues.
This is my favorite of his songs, “I’m Too Far Gone (to turn around)”:
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, mentioned above, was fantastic. A multi-instrumentalist, the man could play just about any instrument you could put in front of him. While his musical career and output spanned many different genres, he always maintained a love of big-band swing and horns.
“Depression Blues”:
Danny Gatton: Not sure any one video can really capture the virtuosity and just pure talent of this man. Had the honor of meeting him several times. When I was a teenager I had a friend who worked at a little hole-in-the-wall club in Wheaton, MD called “Tornado Alley.” Gatton had a regular gig there and my friend would sneak me in every now and then to see him. Not purely a blues artist, but the raw talent alone earns him a place here, I think. No idea when or where this is from but he appears to be fairly young:
Guitar Slim: I’m not sure how well known he is, but he’s a personal favorite of mine. Died young at 32 way back in 1959 so his output is all from the 1940s and 50s and very limited in quantity, but he penned at least one hit blues standard, “The Things That I Used to Do.” This is another of his more well-known tunes, “Letter to My Girlfriend”:
Memphis Minnie: a very old act, mainly active in the 1930s. Penned over 200 songs, the most well-known probably this one, “Me and My Chauffeur Blues”:
T-Bone Walker: No discussion of Texas bluesmen can be complete without the inclusion of this man. This is from late in his career, when he had taken on a bit of a funkier sound.
“Every Day I Have the Blues”:
Not to throw shade, but Willie Dixon may have been the first to record and get the authorship rights to the music. There is some speculation that Willie might have plagiarized quite a number of the classics.
None of that should detract that Willie was a force of nature. 300 Pounds of Joy
Speaking of force of nature, Chester Burnett aka Howlin’ Wolf would have been the bluesman I would have least wanted to be in a bar fight with. Although, by second hand accounts, he was quite the nice guy. If you haven’t heard it, check out Howlin’ Wolfs The Rockin’ Chair album. It is a total gateway to the blues album
I’d have been more concerned with Lead Belly, who spent time in prison for killing a man in a fight and later for stabbing another.
A story I heard was of Lead Belly being heckled in a club (probably in the 30’s when the mostly white folk community adopted him) and leaning into the audience and announcing “I don’t play games, boy”, which silenced the crowd as they suddenly remembered what he was capable of.
I met Pinetop Perkins when he performed in Pittsburgh just a couple of years before his death in 2011. Born on a Mississippi plantation, he began his career playing guitar. Then one day a woman (he was cheating on) attacked him with a knife during a performance. Unable to play the guitar after she sliced some tendons, he switched over to piano.
He was a very cool guy. We sat while he ate ice cream and I drank beer. He told me some amazing stories from the road.
Cool. Pinetop Perkins played with Muddy at the Sacramento Blues Festival in 1980. Man, that was an incredible show. Muddy, Pinetop, Robert Cray and the rest of the band were just having a grand time playing on stage.
Aussie Mike McClellan is mostly in the folk genre but sometimes gets into a blues groove. His cover of Blind Willie Johnson doesn’t seem to be online anywhere so here’s this: