Happy 95th Birthday to Elmore James
On this day in 1918, a blues legend was born in Mississippi by the name of Elmore James. The illegitimate son of a 15 year old field hand, he grew up in impoverished Holmes County, Mississippi. He picked up the diddley bow (a one-stringed instrument often played in rural areas) at the age of 12,...
Tuesday Tunesday: Paul Pena
Paul Pena “Good Horses” Paul Pena was born with congenital glaucoma, and was totally blind by the age of 20. However, this didn’t stop him from becoming extremely adept at the guitar and music in general. While he had a very good career as a blues guitar player, his most interesting story comes in his...
Tuesday Tunesday: Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup “If I Get Lucky” On this day in 1941, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup recorded this track, “If I Get Lucky,” and it became one of his most famous songs of his career. Crudup was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, which he exemplifies in his music that chugs along like...
Tuesday Tunesday: Lead Belly
Lead Belly “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” Huddie William Ledbetter, AKA Lead Belly, is a legend in blues history. Lead Belly has his hands in virtually every rock, blues, or country band since the Great Depression–whether they know it or not. However, the most interesting part of the Lead Belly legacy is perhaps not...
Tuesday Tunesday: Patrick Sweany
Patrick Sweany “Them Shoes” I’m not sure what’s in the water in Ohio, but the blues are definitely alive and well up there. Patrick Sweany, along with The Black Keys, is one of the best modern bluesmen still living. In fact, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys helped produce Sweany’s 2007 album and used to...
Tuesday Tunesday: Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues” The man in black, the philosopher-prince of country music. Johnny Cash. How can someone start to explain the life, career, and impact of Johnny Cash? Cash, much like Merle Haggard, is often regarded as a pioneer of “outlaw country” given his history with barbiturates and crimes. In fact, he was the...
Tuesday Tunesday: The Tallest Man on Earth
The Tallest Man on Earth “Where Do My Bluebird Fly?” Kristian Matsson, otherwise known as his stage name The Tallest Man on Earth, is one of the more interesting modern musicians who draws on folk and blues and makes it his own. Swedish-born Matsson began listening to Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger at an early...
Tuesday Tunesday: The Fendermen
The Fendermen “Mule Skinner Blues” When Jim Sundquist and Phil Humphrey met as students at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1950s, they became friends and ultimately formed a two-man band which they called “The Fendermen” because, well, they both played Fender guitars. They connected their instruments to the same amplifier, and it really...
Tuesday Tunesday: Dr. John
Dr. John “Kingdom of Izzness” Dr. John is a New Orleans born and bred musician with a focus on bluesy zydeco boogie woogie in a style all his own–like Tom Waits met Captain Beefheart and the Temptations in a Louisiana swamp and had a voodoo curse placed on him. Dr. John rose to prominence in...
Tuesday Tunesday: Skip James
Skip James “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” If you love the roots of the blues, you love Skip James, the Edgar Allan Poe of American blues. Skip was born in 1902 in the Mississippi Delta, smack dab in the heart of the blues. He grew up working as a laborer who built levees, and he...
Tuesday Tunesday: Mississippi Fred McDowell
Mississippi Fred McDowell “Louise” Born onto a Tennessee farm in 1904, Mississippi Fred McDowell is the essence of the blues. You can hear the pain from his life in his guitar just as easily as his voice. McDowell was largely unknown until Alan Lomax discovered him in 1959 when Lomax was preserving history through recordings....
Tuesday Tunesday: Fats Domino
Fats Domino “Blue Monday” Fats Domino is one of the happiest bluesmen of all time, as shown by his ear-to-ear smile in nearly every video and photograph taken of his performances. Domino’s effortless skill and vocal rhythms are truly legendary, particularly in his hometown of New Orleans. Fats Domino enjoyed huge success when he was...
