News & Updates — blues

The pioneering rockabilly artist Gene Vincent whooped things up with the mighty "Be-Bop-A-Lula" in 1956 with his band The Blue-Caps, which was originally intended as a b-side. Other '50s hits included "Race With The Devil", "Bluejean Bop" and "Lotta Lovin". He became an ex-pat in '59 and lived in and toured Europe for several years, at one point his band included a young Ritchie Blackmore. Beset by medical problems from injuries sustained in two road crashes (a '55 crash of his brand new Triumph motorcycle and a '60 taxi crash that killed Eddie Cochran), and his subsequent self-destruction through drink...

A pioneering guitarist and violinist (and a popular singer) in blues and jazz, Lonnie Johnson came from a musical family in New Orleans and learned to play several instruments. He toured the UK for two years and returned home to find that nearly his entire family, save his brother, were killed by the flu epidemic of 1918. The two brothers worked the riverboat scene and Lonnie married blues musician Mary Johnson. In the '20s he recorded several sides for Okeh and toured with Bessie Smith. In 1927 he recorded with Louis Armstrong and with Duke Ellington the following year. His...

Houston-born Johnny "Guitar" Watson was a solid blues guitarist in the '50s and '60s before he re-invented himself as the funk god that George Clinton surely studied the style of. Early on he played with Albert Collins, Amos Milburn, Johnny Otis and others. Around '67 he made a very hip record with his friend Larry Williams and the US psych band The Kaleidoscope! ("Nobody"). He recorded with Frank Zappa and then David Axelrod in the mid 70s before his huge funk hits "Ain't That A Bitch" and "A Real Mother For Ya". The Gangster of Love also recorded with Dr...

Happy birthday to vocalist Jeanne Lee! From NYC, she was not only a vocalist but a choreographer for classical, modern and jazz settings. She formed a musical partnership in the early '60s with Ran Blake, but the duo had more success across the pond. In the mid-'60s she was collaborating in avant-garde, sound-art, poetry and Fluxus happenings and in the late '60s/early '70s was contributing to work by Archie Shepp, Marion Brown and Carla Bley (Escalator Over The Hill), as well as with her husband Gunter Hampel (Galaxy Dream Band, etc). She has also appeared with Anthony Braxton, John Cage,...

One of the infamous Beale Streeters of Memphis (along with BB King, Johnny Ace, Junior Parker and others), Bobby "Blue" Bland was an incredible singer dubbed "The Sinatra of the Blues". As he never went to school and never learned how to read, his illiteracy found him signing contracts at cut-rate royalty deals early in his career. Nevertheless he found great chart success in the late 50s/early 60s with "Farther Up The Road", "I Pity The Fool", "Cry Cry Cry" and "Turn On Your Lovelight". He had a nice comeback during the 70s with His California Album and Dreamer. Despite...