Masters of the Blues Harp
Blowin' the blues with Little Walter, Sonny Boy II, Lazy Lester, Big Walter Horton, Slim Harpo, Annie Raines, Rod Piazza, Kim Wilson, etc.
A Brief History of American Roots Music
From W.C. Handy to The Black Keys: A quick look at how American roots music evolved in the 20th Century. Footnotes available upon request.
Sonny Boy II: The Chess Years
America’s greatest musical export? That’s easy – Chess blues and rock ‘n roll. New Orleans R&B might be a close second, and you can’t deny the lasting, global impact of jazz greats like Miles [...]
Chess Blues Rarities
A few months ago, my blogging buddy April asked me what I thought about the movie “Cadillac Records,” a glossy look back at the birth of modern electric blues at Chicago’s Chess label in the ‘50s [...]
The Box Set is Dead… Long Live Our Favorites
Remember the box set? Actually, in a year or two we might be asking ourselves, remember compact discs? I came fairly late to the CD party – which is probably a good thing, because a research team [...]
American Folk Blues Festival
Nephew Dan is a busy man – touring the world and all – but he wanted us to check out this awesome clip of Otis Rush in his prime, playing in front of a polite but reverent audience [...]
Great Moments in Modern Music
How’s that for a blowhard title? The operative word being “moments”… which speaks to one of several fundamentally different ways that we experience music. Some folks like it in the [...]