News & Updates — blues

I never personally knew Jack Rose (although several of my friends did), but I always dug his playing. It brings me back to my fondness for John Fahey and Robbie Basho. I used to listen to his noisy group Pelt back in the '90s as well. It was still a shock to hear of his passing in 2009 at just 38. There have been many tributes to him, rightfully so, and on his date of birth we'll share a few videos here too. His music mostly pulled from country blues, ragtime and Indian ragas. "A lot of people, when they...

Part Mexican-American and part Santee-Dakota Sioux, the inspired poet/musician/actor/activist John Trudell grew up on a reservation in Nebraska and became heavily involved in the Red Power & American Indian Movements and was also a hemp advocate (alongside Willie Nelson). In '69 he was the spokesman & broadcaster for the All Tribes Occupation of Alcatraz Island, which put him right in the FBI's crosshairs. His entire family (including his children) all died in a suspicious fire the day after Trudell burned an American flag on the steps of the FBI building in '79. Soon after, his poetry career started. His first...

James "Kokomo" Arnold may be the source of three famous blues songs: "Milk Cow Blues", "Sweet Home Chicago" was arranged by Robert Johnson from "Kokomo Blues", and "Dust My Broom" was rooted in "Sagefield Woman Blues". He was quite popular in the '30s and played a mean left-handed bottleneck slide guitar in his own time signatures and presented a dynamic voice. He was originally from Georgia but moved north to Buffalo, Pittsburgh and then Chicago in the late '20s, where he was involved in the bootlegging game. He went to Memphis in '30 to make his first recording (under the name...

Sam Maghett aka Magic Sam! Not just the best barbecue on Chicago's West Side, but also one of my very favorite blues guitar players and singers! From his first record "All Your Love" (as Good Rockin' Sam, for the Cobra label) in 1957 until his early death in 1969 (just 32!), his rockin' sound and pleading voice was a staple on the blues circuit. Born in the Mississippi Delta into a family of sharecroppers, he built his own cigar-box guitars as a kid and when the family moved to Chicago in 1950 he had his eyes on the prize and...

The activist singer Josh White got his start as a homeless teenager, recording his own blues and gospel sides, and cutting sessions for other singers before a period of inactivity due to a serious hand injury. Healed, he starred on Broadway, became FDR's closest friend and was a well-loved country-blues artist in the '40s. One of the most popular artists of the day, he also made some movie appearances at a time when blacks were rarely seen starring onscreen. In fact, White's career was full of "firsts" for black artists...until McCarthyism damaged his reputation with the American public and he...