Tuesday Tunesday: Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears “Sugarfoot” Austin band Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears is a tour de force mashup of James Brown and American blues that takes the listener to places modern bands fear to treat: the past. In a mainstream world where “old” music somehow became “bad” music, Black Joe Lewis found...
Tuesday Tunesday: Pokey LaFarge
Pokey LaFarge NPR Music Tiny Desk Session Pokey LaFarge is one of the greatest folk revivalists around. His full voice and great demeanor pour out of his work like headlines from a newsboy. Not only him, but his accompanying players each bring their own sense of subtle charm steeped in old-time two-stepping. LaFarge will make...
Tuesday Tunesday: T-Bird and the Breaks
T-Bird and the Breaks “Monkey Wrench / Plenty of Soul” Perhaps one of the most quintessentially cool bands still around, T-Bird and the Breaks is the ideal modern rhythm and blues group insofar as you’re seeking that true roots sound. The thumping bass, the punctuating brass, the melodic backup singers, the crunching guitar, and the effortless...
Tuesday Tunesday: Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters “Manish Boy” When anyone who knows what’s what compiles a list of the all-time greatest blues musicians, Muddy Waters (birthday McKinley Morganfield) is guaranteed to be near the top. Rolling Stone put Muddy Waters at the #17 greatest musician of all time in any genre, not just the blues. Muddy Waters is known as the...
Tuesday Tunesday: Son House
Son House “Grinnin’ in Your Face” Son House is one of the most genuine bluesmen in American history. In his youth, he set out to begin his career as a preacher. Despite his church’s prohibition against the blues, he learned how to play the guitar in his twenties. Inevitably, his music has a tinge of...
Tuesday Tunesday: Odetta
Odetta “The Times They Are A-Changin'” The opera-trained Odetta was one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement. Using her booming voice and overwhelming passion in song, she sang for human rights and equality. She influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan (whose song...
Tuesday Tunesday: Freddie King
Freddie King “Going Down” While being the youngest “King” of electric guitar (alongside Albert King and B.B. King), Freddie King is certainly not lacking in emotional power. Also referred to the “Texas Cannonball,” because he was a big man from Dallas, Freddie’s music certainly smashes into your chest like a cannonball breaching the hull of a ship....
Tuesday Tunesday: T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker “Woman You Must Be Crazy” and “Goin to Chicago Blues” Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker is one of the most influential guitarists in American blues. In his later years he would often play with a large backing brass band to give his work a full and complex sound. T-Bone grew up eating dinner with...
Tuesday Tunesday: John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker “Boom Boom” First and foremost, it breaks my heart that Chili’s used this song in their commercial. I cringe every time it comes on. That said, we can’t disavow everything awesome in the world whenever popular culture catches up to it, unless you’re just totally cool. John Lee Hooker created his own...
Tuesday Tunesday: R. L. Burnside
R.L. Burnside “Jumper on the Line” Robert Lee (R. L.) Burnside is the epitome of Mississippi delta blues. Learning from Mississippi Fred McDowell, Junior Kimbrough, and his cousin-in-law, the immortal Muddy Waters, Burnside became a force of his own, eventually becoming one of the most well-known blues artists around. Burnside, similar to Kimbrough, has a common...
Tuesday Tunesday: Howlin’ Wolf
Howlin’ Wolf “Smokestack Lightning” Howlin’ Wolf was born under the name Chester Arthur Burnett 1910, but quickly changed to his moniker to reflect his gristly, whiskey-riddled, soft-as-a-chainsaw singing voice. Howlin’ Wolf is bar far one of the top tier popular blues musicians, influencing literally everyone who came after him even if they weren’t aware of...
Tuesday Tunesday: Junior Kimbrough
Junior Kimbrough “All Night Long” Junior Kimbrough is one of those true blues artists who spent most of his life playing at his local juke joint. In fact, it wasn’t until he was 62 years old that he recorded his first album. Junior Kimbrough [spent] nearly his entire life in the Hill Country, born in nearby...
