Blues and '50s R&B
Fats Domino: The Man Who Sang Rock Before Haley
Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, January 1963
HIS first million-seller was named after himself. Until last year he had more million-sellers than Elvis, who finally caught up with him after a hard ...
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, November 1963
THE OPENING night of the Duane Eddy/Little Richard/Shirelles tour was a lot better than most people expected at the Regal Edmonton, 2nd performance on Saturday. ...
1963: Rhythm And Blues Made The News
Overview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, December 1963
THIS HAS been THE year for rhythm and blues fans. There is no doubt about it. At the beginning of the year the R & ...
1963: Year Of Rhythm & Blues #2
Overview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, December 1963
Part two of a series spotlighting all the important events in the R & B world this year. ...
Overview by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, June 1964
WITH THE emergence of interest in blues recordings after the war, with its resultant popularity, it was only natural that there should be a multitude ...
Long John Baldry, John Lee Hooker: Long John meets John Lee Hooker
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, June 1964
THEY COULD hardly have been a bigger contrast in background and appearance: the young, very tall, bright white Englishman Long John Baldry, and the mature, ...
Profile by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, September 1964
From Blues Unlimited compendium, Nothing but the Blues, ed. Mike Leadbitter (Hanover Books, London, 1971). Edited version of article, first published Blues Unlimited, 15, September ...
Report and Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, October 1964
Long John Baldry talks to RM's David Griffiths about the Folk-Blues Festival ...
Little Walter Arrives For First British Tour
Profile and Interview by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, October 1964
From Blues Unlimited compendium, Nothing but the Blues, ed. Mike Leadbitter (Hanover Books, London, 1971). Edited version of article, first published Blues Unlimited 16, October ...
Howlin' Wolf: The Marquee, London, November 26, 1964
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, January 1965
FOLLOWING HIS performances at Croydon and elsewhere, Wolf's first visit to an English club was eagerly awaited by local blues enthusiasts, He was accorded a ...
Groundhogs, The, Jimmy Reed: Jimmy Reed: The Ricky Tick, Guildford
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, January 1965
14th November 1964 ...
John Lee Hooker: The Ricky Tik, Guildford
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, June 1965
Witnessed by John J. Broven, May 14th '65 ...
Jimmy Rogers (blues): Walking by Myself: a Commentary on Jimmy Rogers
Profile by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, June 1965
MANY ERSTWHILE modern blues recordings are perhaps shrouded in a greater veil of mystery today than many of their earlier counterparts. That this is so ...
Report and Interview by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, September 1965
THE SOUL of today's music, the place "where it's at" is rhythm and blues. The type of music, this "soul", has been around the U.S. ...
Charles Keil: Urban Blues (University of Chicago Press)
Book Review by Charlie Gillett, New Society, October 1966
MOST WRITERS on popular music and the blues have approached post-1955 music with discomfort, concluding their books with despondent remarks about the commercialised depravity called ...
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, March 1967
...especially it seems, at the Saville. Chuck Berry talks to RM's Norman Jopling for this in-depth interview ...
Chuck Berry: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, March 1967
Rockers Dominate Saville Again ...
Fats Domino & His Orchestra: Saville Theatre, London
Live Review by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, May 1967
LEGENDS ARE built with comparative ease in the anonymity of a recording studio. And how easily such myths are destroyed in the harsh reality of ...
John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac: Peter Green – The Guitarist Who Won't Forsake The Blues
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, August 1967
ANYONE WHO in a year has built up the reputation of being Britain's best blues guitarist, must have some interesting things to say, and therefore ...
John Mayall: O, Come And Join All Ye The Blues Faithful Crusade
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, October 1967
ROLL UP! Get your Bluesbreakers masks here. Peter Green 2s 6d, Eric Clapton five bob... ...
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1968
From Harlem in the '50s to London in the late '60s: Clyde McPhatter on Billy Ward and the Dominos, The Drifters, Atlantic Records, Alan Freed and the usual trials and tribulations of an R&B artist.
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 40.1meg, total interview length: 43' 48" sound quality: ***
Retrospective by Charlie Gillett, Freedom Anarchist Weekly, August 1968
That's All Right (Xtra 5051)Blues From New Orleans, Vol. 1 (Storyville 670119) ...
Albert King: Steve Paul's Scene, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, October 1968
Albert King, Guitarist, Gives Loud Support to Blues Power ...
Report by Charlie Gillett, Shout, October 1968
IF YOU HAD 35/- to spend on the 1st week-end of September, and more than a passing interest in popular music, there was what seemed ...
Canned Heat Adds Blues to Its Rock: Band at the Fillmore East Performs With Power
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, November 1968
CANNED HEAT is a soulful rock group that escaped from the psychedelic badlands of California and now is working hard to become the top blues ...
Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo: Slim Harpo and Lightnin' Slim: Steve Paul's Scene, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, November 1968
Slim Harpo Offers Authenticity In Country Blues at the Scene. Harmonica Player Joined by Lightning Slim, Guitarist, in Low-Key Performance ...
John Mayall: Blues From Laurel Canyon (Decca)
Review by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, November 1968
THIS IS John's least interesting album for a long time, and the reason is quite simple, and explained best in his own words on the ...
Fats Domino, Amos Milburn: Jump Boogie and Shuffle
Retrospective by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 1969
IT WOULD BE nice to be able to point to a man, a record, a year, and say, "There! Rock and roll started with him, ...
Johnny Winter: The Making Of A Superstar
Report and Interview by Mike Jahn, New York Times, 1969
THERE WAS THE Fillmore East, the East Coast's major rock palace, located ingratiously in a heap of garbage, drunks and weekend freaks on Second Ave. ...
Charlie Musselwhite: The Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band: The Scene, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, January 1969
Group at The Scene Shows It's Together. Gutsy Sound Delivered With Rock Excitement ...
Johnny Winter: Blues Guitar Sound of Johnny Winter Comes North
Profile and Interview by Mike Jahn, New York Times, January 1969
JOHNNY WINTER has spent years playing bars and lounges in the South and now, with fingers that fly across his guitar like a Texas tornado, ...
Interview by Penny Valentine, Disc and Music Echo, January 1969
BLONDE, GRITTY Christine Perfect not only bears the distinction of being lead singer of the famed Chicken Shack blues band, but is also married to ...
John Mayall, Ten Years After: Ten Years After, John Mayall: Fillmore East, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, March 1969
10 Years After and John Mayall Present Blues at Fillmore East ...
Mississippi Fred McDowell: Church House, Farnham
Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Melody Maker, March 1969
"I'M NOT a rock and roll singer. The only way you make me rock is by putting me in a rockin' chair. But if you ...
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, March 1969
Poet-Singer Draws Throng With Band at Philharmonic ...
Taj Mahal: At Last — A Welcome New Voice
Profile by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, March 1969
A NEW VOICE on the music scene and a very welcome one, belongs to Mr Taj Mahal a young blues singer and guitarist from Massachusetts. ...
Howlin' Wolf: The Dave Godin Column: Howlin' Wolf
Essay by Dave Godin, Blues & Soul, April 1969
I RECENTLY READ a most scathing and critical review of the new Howlin' Wolf album which has been issued in the States on Cadet-Concept (the ...
Review by Ed Ward, Rolling Stone, May 1969
TAJ MAHAL may not be the most authentic, the most technically proficient, or the most emotionally cathartic practitioner of the blues today, but he certainly ...
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, July 1969
THIS ARTICLE mentions a lot of singers you've never heard of. Why haven't you heard of them? (They're all very good, very important, and have ...
Review by Mark Williams, International Times, July 1969
THE ONLY OTHER record I possess on English Monument, is Ray Steven's single, 'Mr Businessman', which is beautiful and so is this album by Mr ...
Muddy Waters: Museum of Modern Art, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, July 1969
Easy Does It as Muddy Waters Plays Blues at Outdoor Concert ...
Johnny Winter: Forest Hills Music Festival, Queens NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, July 1969
Agility Marks Blues By Johnny Winter At Forest Hills Fete ...
Little Richard: Schaefer Music Festival, Central Park, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Post, August 1969
Little Richard Rouses Crowd At Central Park Rock Concert ...
Review by Loyd Grossman, Fusion, September 1969
FOR SOME reason Cream seems to have become the standard against which all other rock trios are judged. Not only is this unfair, it is ...
Little Milton and The New Black Blues
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, September 1969
THROUGH THE 1950's, men with loud voices, amplified guitars and a few noisy accompanists made a modest but sufficient living out of singing the blues ...
Graham Bond: Commissar Bond Is Back In Business
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, October 1969
"WE DON'T want any of that around here," threatened an elderly lady shaking a palsied fist from one of the ancient alleys of Cambridge, as ...
Big Mama Thornton: Stronger Than Dirt (Mercury)
Review by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, November 1969
ANYBODY WHO has ever seen Big Mama Thornton perform will vouch for the fact that she is a consummate entertainer. So good, in fact, that ...
Johnny Otis: The New Johnny Otis Show
Review by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, November 1969
"I'm gonna lay right here on this wall, And drink this beer, And watch her walk. You heard me call a while ...
Screamin' Jay Hawkins: What That Is! (Phillips)
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, November 1969
THE KEY TO this album is its honesty. Producer Milan Melvin has been faithful to Screamin' Jay and his music right down to the picture ...
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Oz, 1970
MUDDY WATERS has been my favourite singer since I was twelve years old, and since that time one of my primary objectives has been to ...
Mississippi Fred McDowell, Johnny Winter: Johnny Winter And... Mississippi Fred?
Live Review by Rick McGrath, Georgia Straight, The, April 1970
WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTED to go to every bloody concert that comes to town and try to reach a critical judgment (or something like that), sometimes ...
Savoy Brown Start Another Chapter
Report and Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, July 1970
NOT LONG home from their third exhausting tour of America, the Savoy Brown band were enjoying a necessary break – they have kept their British ...
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 1970
From Little Esther to Big Mama, "The Duke Ellington of Watts" takes us back to Central Avenue: the shysters, the talent, the clubs and record labels; the hits, the misses and the rip-offs.
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 45.6meg, total interview length: 49' 49" sound quality: ***
Retrospective by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, August 1970
THE MOST influential singer of the last 25 years was Roy Brown. ...
Archibald: 'Ballin' With Archie'
Profile by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, October 1970
DUE TO OUR tight schedule we had only one more day in New Orleans. It was all systems 'go' on Saturday from first light (almost) ...
Son House (part 1): Living King of the Delta
Retrospective and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
IT WAS the final day of Eddie "Son" House's final sortie away from America. Outside, the rain was pouring down; inside the car sat Son, ...
Rick Derringer, Johnny Winter: Johnny Winter: On Music, Hype and Happiness
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, October 1970
FOR TOO long there, it seemed to Johnny Winter like he would never be known for his music as much as he would be known ...
Muddy Waters: The Man Who Urbanised The Blues
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
TOP CHICAGO bluesman Muddy Waters, still crippled from a car crash nine months ago, will be wearing a smile when he returns to England in ...
Son House (part 2): Robert Johnson Overshadowed Son and the Whole Delta
Report and Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
SINCE 1966 Son House had only recorded once, a very poor performance for Roots which had failed to capture any of the emotion and lyricism ...
Homesick James: Homesick Finds a Home From Home
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, October 1970
HOMESICK JAMES is a likeable faintly extrovert character whose first British visit seems to have made a mockery of his nickname. For homesickness seemed to ...
Champion Jack Dupree: Travelling North
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1971
AROUND 1920, Champion Jack Dupree left the Coloured Waifs Home for Boys, New Orleans, and started walking. He had nobody. His father and mother were ...
Interview by James Johnson, NME, February 1971
SIXTY-FIVE year old blues-man Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, whose songs 'That's Alright Mama' and 'My Baby Left Me' were hits for Elvis Presley back in ...
Various: British Blues Archive Series Vols. 1 And 2
Review by Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, March 1971
IT ALL SEEMED TO happen quite suddenly when in late 1966 and 1967 the United States’ record stores were deluged with a staggering number of ...
Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker: John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, New York Times, April 1971
Hooker Performs With a Pop Group He Helped Inspire ...
B.B. King: Background To A Living Legend
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1971
B.B. KING is the undisputed King of the Blues – fact! Every press release in existence on B.B. will tell you that he is a ...
Taj Mahal: The Real Thing (CBS)
Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, July 1971
FOR SOME reason it all seems to have gone wrong for Taj Mahal. ...
Obituary by Michael Lydon, Fusion, October 1971
MAYBE THIS should be a collection of unrelated notes. I’m not sure how the things I’m thinking about fit together. King Curtis is dead. That ...
Johnny Otis: Doin' That Hand Jive With His Feet
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, November 1971
When the Johnny Otis Show appears on stage, it brings years and years of rhythm and blues history with it. ...
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, November 1971
DESCRIBING Larry Williams as a "great unknown" might raise a few eyebrows for he had a hit with 'Bony Moronie', a rock 'n' roll classic, ...
Howlin' Wolf, Junior Parker, B.B. King: Memphis Blues: Sun Rise
Overview by Colin Escott, Record Mirror, November 1971
IN 1950 WHEN Sam Phillips gave up his job as band promoter for the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and opened the studio of the Memphis ...
B.B. King: 'I Owe My Popularity To The Beatles. They Started The People Towards Really Listening...'
Interview by Danny Holloway, NME, November 1971
GUITARIST-SINGER B. B. King, at 45 the toast of many young musicians, arrives at London Airport next Friday (19) to appear in London and Bristol ...
Interview by John Pidgeon, unpublished, November 1971
This is a straight transcription of John Pidgeon's interview with Alexis Korner from November 1971 ...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, December 1971
PERHAPS MORE than any other single entertainer, B.B. King has contributed a good deal to "opening the doors" for the blues and for making it ...
Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon: Sleepy John Estes: Sleepy, Getting Sleepier
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1972
THE ROAD stops at Sleepy John's house, at the top of a ploughed field, outside Brownsville, Tennessee, where the earth is thick and unyielding as ...
Willie Dixon: It's Not the Singer, It's the Song
Report and Interview by Jim Esposito, Rock Magazine, 1972
2013 NOTE: Hard to imagine today but even as late as 1972 the contributions of the old black blues masters were still not recognized by ...
Junior Parker: Junior's Last Stand
Obituary by Charlie Gillett, Cream, January 1972
WHILE I WAS in New York for a short time last April, I noticed some billposters up near Columbia University on the upper West Side, ...
B.B. King: Will Success Spoil B.B. King?
Comment by Tony Russell, Cream, January 1972
ANY ARTIST who becomes noticeably successful soon has the more inquisitive, the harder-to-satisfy, of his followers asking ‘What’s he going to do now?’. Some sit ...
Big Mama Thornton: The Hound Dog Howler Who Inspired Janis
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1972
IN THE DEEPEST depths of Transatlantic's Marylebone High Street (London) headquarters there's a wire cage which looks like Death Row in your favourite neighbourhood prison. ...
Rory Gallagher: Music For Belfast: Rory Gallagher
Report and Interview by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, January 1972
BELFAST GOT A rock'n'roll concert on New Year's Day in the City's notorious Ulster Hall. Heading the bill was Rory Gallagher. It was the first ...
Jefferson Airplane, Papa John Creach: Papa John Creach: Papa John Makes It With Rock
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1972
THE ONE-TIME phenomenon of young white rock musicians playing on records by old black blues musicians has become a commonplace thing. ...
Review by Tony Russell, Cream, March 1972
EACH OF THESE bluesmen began to make his name soon after World War II, most of them profiting from the new urban audiences of blacks ...
Savoy Brown: Kim Simmonds Makes Savoy Brown A New Group
Interview by Danny Goldberg, Circus, April 1972
SAVOY BROWN is an oddity in the rock pantheon. Never really disappearing, yet never really together they can be compared most easily to John Mayall. ...
Dr. John From Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
Interview by Danny Holloway, NME, April 1972
DR. JOHN'S contributions to pop music have been highly original and creative. Even if he claims that all the credit is due to the music ...
Rory Gallagher: Travelling Full Circle
Interview by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, May 1972
RORY GALLAGHER admitted this week, that his new year European tour had been a tremendous morale booster.... reinforcing old favourites like 'Laundromat' and 'Sinner Boy' ...
Fats Domino: Walking To New Orleans
Profile by Martin Hawkins, Record Mirror, May 1972
IN RECENT years the music of New Orleans in the 50's has been well documented on albums, but maybe now is the time to be ...
Clyde McPhatter, Drifters, The: Clyde McPhatter: A Personal Tribute
Obituary by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, June 1972
CLYDE McPhatter is dead. I would be a liar if I said I was surprised because Clyde has been 'lost' for quite a few years. ...
Alexis Korner: Kornering The Market
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, July 1972
ALEXIS KORNER has been for so long at the heart of rhythm and blues in Britain, and touched off so many groups who have gone ...
Johnny Otis: The Godfather of R&B
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, July 1972
I THOUGHT Johnny Otis was suffering from over-exposure Dave Wolf who has drained his life savings to bring over Johnny's entire package thinks not. So ...
Bo Diddley: Hey! Bo Diddley: The Man Whose Sexuality Was Too Much For America
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1972
Diddley Freak Charles Shaar Murray, in the presence of the main man... ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, August 1972
PEOPLE ALWAYS ask why Ike Turner is content to stand in the background, playing those fine guitar riffs to an audience totally oblivious to him ...
Profile by Ben Edmonds, Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival program, November 1972
"Howlin' Wolf, man...he's the guts of America spilling out on the floor, that's all."Greil Marcus/CREEM ...
Hound Dog Taylor And The House Rockers
Profile by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972
CONTRARY TO whatever stereotypes have been created to cover the contemporary bluesman, there is a side to the blues that has absolutely nothing to do ...
Profile by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1972
"LUTHER ALLISON come into the picture about the middle of 1957. I needed a bass player and I met Luther Allison walkin' on Ogden Avenue ...
Interview by Nick Tosches, Oui, January 1973
THREE OF Oui's finest encountered Muddy Waters in his hotel room one recent afternoon, and an interview took place. Here it is: ...
Mance Lipscomb: Portrait of a Texas Bluesman
Profile and Interview by Harold Bronson, Music World, February 1973
MANCE LIPSCOMB is one of those bluesmen who has been promulgated by the blues revival. It's really too bad that his status is not one ...
Ten Years After: Alvin Lee & Company
Interview by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, February 1973
ONE OF THE most eagerly awaited albums lately was Alvin Lee & Company. "That's old material that was recorded a long time ago," Alvin stated ...
Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, February 1973
TALK ABOUT a programmed response: why is it that every time you pick up a new Savoy Brown album, the first thing you do is ...
Clyde McPhatter: Atlantic Masters (Atlantic)
Review by Charlie Gillett, NME, March 1973
WELL, IS SINGING coming back or not? The signs are, maybe yes. Billy Paul, for instance, and the Chi-Lites, Stylistics, and Detroit Emeralds. ...
Coasters, The: The Coasters: Atlantic Masters (Atlantic).
Review by Charlie Gillett, NME, March 1973
HOW CRUEL fate is. At the very moment that Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are proving themselves to be perfectly tuned in to 1973, with ...
Profile by Danny Holloway, NME, April 1973
IF YOU asked someone who, apart from Elvis, has contributed the most to rock and roll, he'd probably say Chuck Berry, Little Richard or Jerry ...
Report and Interview by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, May 1973
2013 NOTE: A big Savoy Brown fan back in the day, much as I loved the group's transformation which produced Street Corner Talking I was ...
Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew, Coasters, The: Behind The Sun: New Orleans
Report by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, June 1973
FLY ME, NATIONAL ...
Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, August 1973
Valerie's torrid flesh sings with the lyrics of passion and singes with the heat of burning desire ...
Johnny Winter: Still Alive And Well
Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, Spring 1973
BY NOW EVERYONE must know the reason it took Johnny Winter such a long time to get around to recording this album was not simply ...
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard: The Man Who Twisted Himself
Profile by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1974
COVER VERSIONS have long been the bane of the rhythm and blues field of music. During the 'Fifties, the major record companies kept their ears ...
Retrospective by Roger St. Pierre, NME, January 1974
SOUL MUSIC and the blues have boundaries which are largely indefinable — a factor which has allowed many artists to straddle the two. ...
Marshall Sehorn: We Had Some Good Times
Interview by John Broven, Blues Unlimited, February 1974
Marshall Sehorn of Sansu talks to John Broven about his start in the business ...
Canned Heat: One More River To Cross
Review by John Swenson, Zoo World, March 1974
CANNED HEAT is one of those groups who hang on by the skin of their teeth, jumping over a spate of mediocre albums from success ...
Johnny Winter: Saints And Sinners
Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, March 1974
YOU'D THINK that anyone who's paid as many dues as Johnny Winter would just wanna sit back and collect residuals, now wouldn't you? Not Johnny, ...
Review by John Morthland, Phonograph Record, April 1974
IT'S A SAD DAY indeed for guitar freaks when two of the best in the business turn out the spottiest albums of their careers. But ...
Profile by Cliff White, Black Music, April 1974
IN 1965 Nina Simone strengthened her newly-won acclaim as the High Priestess of Soul with a dramatic reworking of a unique echo from the fifties. ...
Graham Bond: The Death Of Graham Bond
Obituary by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, May 1974
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS before his death two weeks ago, Graham Bond phoned the NME offices. He sounded purposeful, optimistic, enthusiastic, and full of energy. ...
John Mayall: Empty Rooms/The Turning Point
Review by Bob Woffinden, NME, September 1974
WHAT WE HAVE here is a shrewd exercise in marketing. Two deleted albums reissued as one double package for the apparently reasonable price of £2.99. ...
Howlin' Wolf: All The Man Wants To Do Is Sing The Blues
Report by Jim Esposito, Gainesville Sun, September 1974
Born Chester Burnett on June 10, 1910 on a plantation near Tupelo, Mississippi, Howlin' Wolf is a legendary black bluesman, ranking with the likes of ...
John Hammond: Singin' The Blues
Interview by Jim Esposito, Gainesville Sun, October 1974
JOHN HAMMOND is sitting on a black wooden box hunched over his guitar, which is balanced on a two-by-four suspended between two wooden chairs in ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1974
IN WHICH two culture heroes find themselves well and truly on the artistic skids. ...
Bo Diddley - Bo's a Lumberjack!
Essay by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1975
THE WHOLE THING about Bo Diddley was that he was by far the weirdest and craziest musician ever to come out of either blues or ...
Alexis Korner: Why Alexis Won't Join The Stones
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, February 1975
ALEXIS KORNER laughed, his suntanned face creasing up into laughter lines, his body rocking very gently back and forth. "Oh," he said. "No way." ...
Albert King: I Wanna Get Funky
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1975
I WANNA GET Funky is the best album I've heard all year. ...
Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker and Otis Spann: Super Black Blues
Review by Bob Fisher, Cream, June 1975
IT'S TAKEN Phillips a long time to get around to issuing this superb album, probably the only genuine spontaneous blues jam ever commited to wax. ...
Koko Taylor: I Got What It Takes
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1975
ANYONE WHO maintains that blues is a dead or dying form must not be aware of Alligator Records. This tiny, dedicated company has been operating ...
Review by Bob Fisher, NME, July 1975
ELVIN BISHOP'S place in the scheme of post-Beatles US Rock has been pretty much undervalued over the years. This is probably owing to his uncanny ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, July 1975
MY H.A.L. PRINT-OUT on Ron Wood sez that his guitar-playing veers from the sublime to the ridiculous (i.e., his playing on Rod Stewart's solo albums ...
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, August 1975
HOWEVER ERIC CLAPTON spent his couple of years in isolation from the world, he returned to active performing refreshed and revitalised. ...
Jive Bombers: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, NME, September 1975
THERE'S ALWAYS A good time to be had at the 100 Club. ...
Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson: Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter
Review by Don Snowden, Pasadena Guardian, November 1975
Howlin' Wolf: Change My Way (CHV 418)Sonny Boy Williamson: One Way Out (CHV 417)Little Walter: Confessin' The Blues (CHV 416)Chess Vintage Series (Chess/Janus Records) ...
Freddie King: New Victoria, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, NME, November 1975
A NIGHT TO remember. "It's Blues time, ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome Freddie King." ...
Report by Cliff White, NME, November 1975
TEN YEARS AGO Britain was set to become the R&B capital of the world. Between 1962 and '67 we were visited by so many legendary ...
Climax Blues Band: Stamp Album
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, December 1975
I'M SICK AND tired of bloody good bands. ...
Review by Max Bell, NME, December 1975
OVER ONE HUNDRED Santana fans coughed up the full twenty pounds for this triple live album when it first appeared on import. ...
Fats Domino: Rockin' in Your Seat
Profile and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 1976
FATS DOMINO is relaxing among his half-unpacked luggage, his glass-heeled shoes, his address-book, his diamonds and his Gideon Bible. ...
Louis Jordan: The Best Of Louis Jordan/Choo Choo Ch'Boogie
Review by Cliff White, NME, May 1976
SUFFERING FROM HEAVY metal fatigue? Bunions on your disco feet? Are you too pooped to pop, too puked with punk rock, rasta'd rigid by reggae ...
Chuck Berry, 49, Denies Knowledge of the Previous 48
Interview by Mick Farren, NME, May 1976
Chuck (Crazy Legs) Berry, top ten contender for the title "King of rock and roll", has been referred to as the greatest black folk poet ...
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, July 1976
Vivien Goldman explains why she's been drooling over Johnny 'Guitar' Watson for the past month. ...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, August 1976
Been stood up by your girl? Low on cash? Behind with your payments? Then you must know the blues. They'll be around as long as ...
Luther Allison: Luther Dusts His Broom
Report by Cliff White, NME, August 1976
HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW that Motown had a blues man on their books? Yeah that's right, blues. Amazing, is it not? Luther Allison's his ...
B.B. King: Keepin' The Blues Alive
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, September 1976
THE WORD "blues" has become almost synonymous with the word "king", be it Albert, Freddie or B.B. The blues as a musical form has existed ...
Rory Gallagher: Calling Card (Chrysalis)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, October 1976
His first venture into the land of overdub and experimentation – and an unqualified success ...
Lowell Fulson: 40 Years Of Playing The Blues
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, November 1976
THOUGH his name may not be as familiar as B.B. King’s, Ray Charles’, or T-Bone Walker’s, Lowell Fulson (with an n, not an m) has ...
James Booker: A Winner Never Quits, A Quitter Never Wins
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, November 1976
'THE BLACK LIBERATCHI' That's what it says on the card and you can tell that it's going to be one of those interviews when you ...
Country Joe: 69 years young, an' the fire's still burnin'!
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, December 1976
THE ONLY reason that the Blues is dying out is that the young folk simply don't want to know about the Blues. Even Blues legends ...
Muddy Waters: The Blues Had A Baby… And They Called It Rock 'N' Roll
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, April 1977
"THE KIND OF BLUES I play there's no money in it. You makes a good livin' when you gets established like I did, but you ...
John Mayall: Falkshaus, Zurich
Live Review by Tony Stewart, NME, May 1977
AS A TALENT scout John Mayall is a shrewd, calculating operator with few equals. Now with 26 albums to his credit and almost as many ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, June 1977
Taj Me In The Morning ...
Darts, The: Darts: Darts (Magnet)
Review by Cliff White, NME, November 1977
THEY PROBABLY won't thank me for saying so, but there's no getting around the fact that there are marked – if only coincidental – similarities ...
ZZ Hill: ZZ and The Making Of A Soul Classic
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, January 1978
'Love Is So Good When You're Stealing It' is one of '77's most soulful sides. David Nathan talks to ZZ Hill about his earlier days ...
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, March 1978
HALFWAY through, this chaotic gig had all the makings of one of the Great Disasters Of Our Time. ...
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, April 1978
FATS DOMINO is and always has been the most unlikely looking bona fide Fifties rock and roller you can imagine. Where Elvis, Eddie and Gene ...
Muddy Waters: I'm Ready (Blue Sky)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, May 1978
IT ISN'T JUST the natural process of attribution and the creative stagnation afflicting his competitors that have made Muddy Waters the premier master of his ...
Darts, The: The Darts: Gaumont Cinema, Southampton
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, May 1978
CLIFF WHITE CRIPPLES THE STARS! (No. 3 in an exciting, if tasteless, new series) ...
Rory Gallagher: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, June 1978
RORY GALLAGHER'S return to London, with two shows at the Hammersmith Odeon at the weekend, emphasized the sway the eternally youthful Irish guitarist holds over ...
Buddy Guy, Junior Wells: Buddy Guy and Junior Wells: Why Are These Guys Grinning?
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1978
...They've been 'between contracts' since 1969, there's hardly any such thing as a black audience for their music and on their recent visit to London ...
Smiley Lewis: I Hear You Knocking
Review by Cliff White, NME, August 1978
WHEN FATS Domino first bounced out of the bayou with his bronze voice, gold rings, pumping piano and infectious grin, half a pace behind him ...
Etta James: Soul Punk Etta: Superstardom the Hard Way on a Dollar a Day
Profile and Interview by Cliff White, NME, August 1978
"THANKSGIVING DAY in November will be my silver anniversary: 25 years since I cut my first record and I haven't become a superstar yet. It ...
Live Review by Cliff White, NME, August 1978
AT ABOUT 3 pm the Sunday before last, one American rhythm 'n' blues pioneer and six British beer 'n' peanut-circuit musicians got together for the ...
Profile and Interview by Cliff White, Black Music, October 1978
Etta James, a star of this year's Montreux Jazz Festival, visited London after her show there en route for her American home. While here, she ...
B.B. King: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Max Bell, NME, October 1978
IF ONLY B.B.King had let his fingers, and not his likeable but oversized ego, do the talking then I would have enjoyed his return to ...
B.B. King: BB King: The Las Vegas Tax Deductible Blues
Interview by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, October 1978
PETE WINGFIELD played with B.B.King seven years ago, on one of the guitarist's less celebrated albums. They met up again last week – only this ...
B.B. King: An Audience With The King
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, November 1978
The King in question is Mr. B.B. King and in this exclusive interview he talks to John Abbey about the future of the blues as ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: Move It On Over
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1978
THE BOTTLENECK that ate Delaware returns to your hearts and turntables: no steps forward, no steps back. Move it On Over is this or any ...
Roy Brown: Cheapest Price In Town
Review by Cliff White, NME, November 1978
ALTHOUGH AT 53 going on 25, Roy Brown is relatively young for an R&B star who first recorded just after the war, there's no getting ...
Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters: City Hall, Newcastle
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, December 1978
THE OLD Testament followed by the New (also written some while ago you will recall). For once there was hardly a vacant seat by half ...
Muddy Waters: Dingwalls, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, December 1978
FAST TALK/hard bargain: as Mr Muddy Waters was spending a few days of his 64th year in Great Britain in the faintly congruous role of ...
Lloyd Price, Dr. John: Ace Records: Dealing Aces Vols. 1 and 2
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, January 1979
THESE TWO volumes, together with the indispensable Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns collection in the same series (Ace CH 9) represent the first time ...
Albert Collins: Ice Pickin' (Sonet)
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, March 1979
IN THE game of guitar-hero one-upmanship during the blues boom days of the mid-late Sixties, Albert Collins' was the name to zap 'em with. Through ...
Inmates, The: The Inmates: City Rhythms and Jailhouse Blues
Interview by Max Bell, NME, March 1979
BILL HURLEY, lead singer with The Inmates, was definitely built for the job. Bill Hurley clocks in six foot solid from the ground, a hard ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Albert Collins: Thoroughly Bluesy George
Live Review by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, March 1979
George Thorogood, Albert Collins: Electric Ballroom, London ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: George Thorogood: The Delaware Destroyer!
Profile and Interview by John Tobler, ZigZag, April 1979
IF RECENT REPORTS are to be believed, Beserkley Records may be in some kind of difficulties, at least as far as their English office is ...
B.B. King: B.B King: Reds and Blues
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, July 1979
"I learnt the true meaning of freedom...But I also believe that music is the international denominator for bringing people together" ...
B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters: Muddy Waters, BB King, Chuck Berry: Woke Up This Mornin'…
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, July 1979
...Blues Giants All Round My Bed. NICK KENT meets the Three Wise Men of the Blues. ...
Taj Mahal: Recycling the Blues
Interview by Max Bell, NME, August 1979
"I'm goin to the river goin to sit down on the ground/I'm goin to the river goin to sit down on the ground/And let the ...
New Orleans: Crescent City's Other Legacy
Report by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1979
NEW ORLEANS IS widely recognized as the birthplace of jazz, but the Crescent City has also played a part in rock 'n' roll. Its rhythm ...
Overview by John Pidgeon, Melody Maker, December 1979
Okay, so there isn't an R&B revival around the London clubs – but there are certainly a whole lot of bands borrowing their material from ...
Queen Ida: Zydeco Is Her Realm
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 1980
IN THE LAST 18 months, zydeco musician Queen Ida Guillory has spent more than 250 days on the road. Contributed some background music to Francis ...
B.B. King: B B King: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, April 1980
THE QUALITY of B. B. King is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven...and I only wish Bill Shakespeare (what a fine ...
Billy "The Kid" Emerson: Billy 'The Kid' Emerson: Red Hot And Still Rocking
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, July 1980
MARTIN HAWKINS talks to the 'resurrected' Billy 'The Kid' Emerson, a blues legend in his own lifetime. ...
Ry Cooder: Vinyl Choice: Ry Cooder
Interview by Mick Brown, Sunday Times Magazine, November 1980
RY COODER was once described as a "curator of American music". A fair assessment, but it hardly captures the joy and affection of his modern ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, History of Rock, The, 1981
Crude, powerful, loud… and the racing pulse of rock ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: George Thorogood Cuts Through The USA
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Creem, February 1982
YOU COULD see it coming. About a hundred yards off, an old Checker Marathon cab was roaring along the asphalt, eating up the broken white ...
Eric Clapton: Farther Up The Road
Interview by John Hutchinson, Musician, May 1982
FEW MUSICIANS have been more misunderstood, more overburdened with great expectations and more erroneously worshipped than Eric Clapton. ...
B.B. King: Love Me Tender (MCA)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, June 1982
"HE HAS one musical ambition as yet unfulfilled: to make a series of classic albums. These consist of one album with a big band, one ...
Bobby 'Blue' Bland: Bobby Bland: The Best Of (MCA)
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, June 1982
FIRST time I've heard Bobby Bland and it's obvious – the man's a star. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, June 1982
THE BLUES speaks haltingly at first, haltingly and quietly in a darkened room. The curtains are drawn to shut out whatever passes for daylight during ...
Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Guitar Greats (BBC Books), 1983
IN CONSIDERING the dozens of potential candidates for this book, one essential ingredient was a representative of the blues/R&B heritage, for without the inspiration of ...
T-Bone Walker: Rare Blues and a Worldwide Reputation
Retrospective by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1983
T-BONE WALKER, had he been that sort of man, might have carried a chip on his shoulder the size of the Chrysler Building. ...
Lightnin' Hopkins: Lightnin' Strikes
Retrospective by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1983
When the great bluesman Big Bill Broonzy died in 1958 there were some who obituarised him as the last of the blues singers. ...
Profile by Tony Russell, History of Rock, The, 1983
Riley King was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on 16 September 1925. For a young black boy growing up amid the poverty and racial segregation ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds: They're Tearing It Up Again!
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, July 1983
THIS IS WHAT we call the irresponsible rock crit at his worst, enjoying the company of the band he's talking to so much he doesn't ...
Clifton Chenier: Club Lingerie, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, August 1983
CHENIER GETS THE LINGERIE ON ITS FEET ...
Albert King: Full Circle For Albert King
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1983
Albert King is no stranger to passing pop fashions. ...
ZZ Hill: Z.Z. Hill Is Happy He's Got The Blues
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1983
Z.Z. Hill's most recent blues albums have surpassed the sales of those recorded by bigger names. ...
Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell: Robert "Bumps" Blackwell
Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 1983
Songwriter and producer 'Bumps' Blackwell looks back at his illustrious career in pop and R&B: on Sam Cooke and 'You Send Me', Specialty Records and the West Coast indie scene, and at great length about his major discovery Little Richard.
File format: mp3; file size: 41.3mb, interview length: 45' 08" sound quality: ****
James Booker: R&B's Invisible Great
Obituary by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, December 1983
The late James Booker fit comfortably into the New Orleans R&B piano tradition of Fats Domino but he also was a contemporary equivalent of the ...
Alexis Korner: Blues For Mr Korner
Obituary by Bob Fisher, NME, January 1984
BOB FISHER, who worked with Alexis Komer on a TV history of rock, pays tribute to the man who was the chief architect of British ...
Lee Dorsey, Irma Thomas: New Orleans R&B Hits The Club Lingerie
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, January 1984
Bill Bentley and Harold Battiste hope to trigger renewed local interest in New Orleans music at Club Lingerie. ...
Big Mama Thornton: Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton 1926-1984
Obituary by Cynthia Rose, NME, August 1984
One of the founding careers in rock and roll ended on Wednesday, July 25, when a heart attack took the life of Willie Mae ‘Big ...
Bull Moose Jackson: A Bull Moose Party
Profile by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, December 1984
Personnel: Jackson, vocals, backed by the Flashcats: Cindy Sotak, vocals, guitar; Dave Kent, vocals, guitar; Pete Loria, trumpet; Phil Brontz, saxophone; Jim Fanning, bass; Carl ...
Magic Sam: Bluesman Magic Sam: His Legend Lives On
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, January 1985
WHAT IF HE HADN'T died so young? Among rock fans, that kind of speculation usually centers on icons like Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Holly. Among ...
Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Eric Clapton: Can Blue Boys Play The Whites Revisited?
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, March 1985
ANYONE WHO TAKES the crapped-out lethargy of his recent output as proof positive that Eric Clapton never played a worth while lick in his life ...
Otis Rush Singing The Blues About Obscurity
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, April 1985
THE IMAGE OF THE under-appreciated blues artist laboring in obscurity has almost become a cliche, but Otis Rush genuinely fits that description. ...
Linda Hopkins Sticks To The Gospel Truth
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1985
GOING FROM the glitzy glamour of opening four shows for Joan Rivers to the down-home atmosphere of the Long Beach Blues Festival this Saturday afternoon ...
Robert Cray Bringing The Blues Up To Date
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1985
YOU CAN UNDERSTAND why Robert Cray felt uncomfortable about the stir he created among blues fans two years ago. The arrival of an accomplished young ...
John Lee Hooker: King of the Boogie
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Buzz, November 1985
JOHN LEE Hooker is a prideful man. When he looks back over his lengthy blues career – more than five decades old now – he ...
Johnny Winter: The Bluesman Do Play Rock and Roll...
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar World, November 1985
...and Cajun-style, and country ...
Dr. Ross: Blues – What The Doctor Ordered
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, January 1986
SAM PHILLIPS' Sun Records has a special place in rock history as the musical birthplace of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny ...
Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King: Various Artists Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950 — 1956
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1986
"The blues is a chair, not a design for a chair, or a better chair… it is the first chair. It is a chair for ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, March 1986
GEORGE THOROGOOD & the Destroyers have added a few wrinkles, but the quartet hasn't changed much since Thorogood first danced on local tabletops seven years ...
Nick Cave, Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Screamin' Jay Hawkins: The Man Who Ate Nick Cave
Interview by Lynden Barber, NME, July 1986
The bats screech, and inside a rockin' coffin, something stirs...up fly the nails and out pops SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS, longtime voodoo swamp beast back to ...
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, July 1986
"THE BARRELHOUSE used to be right down there on the northeast corner of Wilmington," Johnny Otis said Saturday afternoon, referring to the nightclub – a ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Tuff Enuff, Were They Actual Meat
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, August 1986
THE FABULOUS Thunderbirds have been something of a musical anomaly; their current well-deserved success, after four albums and roughly 12 years of playing steel-packed, blues-drenched ...
Jimmy Johnson: Johnson At Peace With His Music
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1986
LARGE EGOS are common in the music world, but Jimmy Johnson is one performer who doesn't believe in loudly trumpeting the virtues of his music. ...
Little Milton: Long Beach Blues Festival, Long Beach
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1986
IF SOMEONE HAD distributed a checklist following Little Milton's set Saturday afternoon – rating his performance for singing, instrumental solos, arrangements, set pacing, use of ...
Joe Louis Walker: Blues With A Gospel Tint
Profile by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, January 1987
Band: Joe Louis Walker & the Boss Talkers.Personnel: Walker, guitar and vocals; Kevin Zuffi, keyboards; Henry Oden, bass; Sieve Griffith, drums. ...
Robert Cray: New Twist On The Blues
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, April 1987
"IT'S REALLY FUNNY now, because when you're really down and out, nothing comes to you," reflected Robert Cray. "But when things start going for you, ...
Snooks Eaglin: The Eclectic Blues Of Unpredictable Eaglin
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1987
WHAT DO WASHINGTON'S Go-Go masters Trouble Funk, California instrumental rockers the Ventures and New Orleans R&B singer Smiley Lewis have in common? ...
Little Milton: Touring Little Milton Still Big On The Blues
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1987
LITTLE MILTON'S set was the clear highlight of the 1986 Long Beach Blues Festival, and it turns out that performance was just as memorable for ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, i-D, December 1987
With the highest charting blues album ever under his belt, soulful Robert Cray is laughing as he brings "my parents' music" into the '80s, and ...
Clifton Chenier: Remembering Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco
Obituary by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, December 1987
THE ONLY WAY Angelenos could get a true glimpse of the musical world of Clifion Chenier, who died last weekend at 62, was to attend ...
Buckwheat Zydeco Happily Plays to the Younger Set
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, May 1988
STANLEY (BUCKWHEAT) DURAL Jr. played organ with Clifton Chenier from 1976 to 1978 – a stint that left more than a musical mark on the ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1988
An avuncular (if occasionally inaudible) John Lee talks about making The Healer, doing Iron Man with Pete Townshend, his roots, and the state of the world today
File format: mp3 File size: 24.9mb Interview length: 27 minutes 12 seconds Sound quality: ***
Robert Johnson: Demons on the Delta
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, August 1988
Standing at the crossroadsI tried to flag a rideNobody seemed to know meEverybody passed me by.– 'Crossroads Blues' by Robert Johnson ...
Bo Diddley: The Note For Note Interview
Interview by Steve Roeser, Note For Note, Summer 1988
IT IS A Monday morning in March, in the coffee shop of a hotel located on Highland, near the Hollywood Bowl. ...
Jeff Healey Band: Jeff Healey: Have Guitar, Will Sit
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, March 1989
JEFF HEALEY is the most unorthodox guitarist since Stanley Jordan. He plays seated, most of the time, with his guitar flat on his lap. As ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1989
Etta James tells Barney Hoskyns about her struggles with addiction, meeting Billie Holiday, making Seven Year Itch and staying contemporary.
File format: mp3 File size: 40.4mb; Interview length: 44 minutes 5 seconds Sound quality: **
Charles Brown: The Rebirth Of Charles Brown And His Blues
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, July 1989
A resurgence of interest in a big man of the post-World War II era ...
B.B. King: Mississippi Homecoming
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, November 1989
RILEY B. KING, a son of the Mississippi Delta and by everyone's admission but his own the King of the Blues, stands by a two-lane ...
John Lee Hooker: The Voodoo Guru
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, February 1990
ON 74TH & BROADWAY, the Gotham fog freezes your lungs with every breath, but inside the Beacon Theatre, Van Morrison has just spent something under ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, April 1990
ROBERT PLANT'S ALBUM Now And Zen was one of 1988's more delightful surprises: whilst quoting in jest from his own proud past in Led Zeppelin ...
Muddy Waters: Chess Records Round-Up
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, April 1990
THE NAME OF Chess Records spells "Chicago Blues" just as clearly as Levi's spells jeans, Zippo spells lighters and Special Brew spells headaches. ...
Albert King: An Old Blues Artist Is Easing Away
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, June 1990
"It's Time to Quit," Says Famed Guitarist Albert King, 67 ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 1990
British Blues legend John Mayall looks back to the start of the Blues Boom; on his guitar players Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor; revisits the Flamingo in Wardour Street; harp lessons from Sonny Boy Williamson and through to living in the USA and that house fire.
File format: mp3; in 4 parts, total file sizes: 102.2meg, total interview length: 1h 51' 38" sound quality: ***
Sleevenotes by Barney Hoskyns, Charly, July 1990
LITTLE WILLIE JOHN's is one of the saddest stories in the book of soul. A pintsized hipster from the Motor City, he notched up 14 ...
Robert Johnson: Peter Guralnick: Searching For Robert Johnson
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, September 1990
THE POWERFUL FASCINATION which the legend of Robert Johnson still exerts over virtually all blues fans is derived, in almost equal proportion, from his genius ...
Koko Taylor: A Blues Belter Bounces Back From Adversity
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1990
Pop music: Koko Taylor was injured in a van accident and then suffered the death of her husband-manager. ...
Robert Cray: Wedded Bliss Blues
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, September 1990
Mark Cooper asks, can contented men sing the blues? I do, says Robert Cray ...
T-Bone Walker: The Complete Recordings of T-Bone Walker, 1940-1954 (Mosaic)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1990
The Complete Recordings of T-Bone Walker, 1940-1954 display the bluesman's seminal influence on the genre ...
Charles Brown: His Blues Get a New Audience
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1990
Comeback: The low-key, urbane music of veteran singer-pianist Charles Brown fell out of favor during the rock era, but he is winning new fans opening ...
Robert Cray: The Robert Cray Band: Midnight Stroll
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, October 1990
ANOTHER ROBERT CRAY album: we all know what to expect by now, right? ...
Obituary by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, October 1990
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN has died, and with him goes the spirit of Jimi Hendrix once again. Vaughan was linked to Hendrix throughout his playing life. ...
Rolling Stones, The: Bill Wyman: Stone Alone
Book Review by Mat Snow, Q, December 1990
UNTIL HE WAS 26, Bill Perks was a suburban South Londoner, married with a kid and a secure job, having done his National Service rising ...
Robert Johnson: Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, December 1990
And the days keeps on worryin' me There's a hellhound on my trail ...
Robert Lockwood Jr.: Blues From The Delta
Profile by John Sinclair, Detroit Metro Times, Summer 1990
THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA, that fertile strip of silt-rich land stretching south from Memphis to Jackson on the east and Vicksburg on the river, has for ...
Albert King, Otis Rush: Albert King/Otis Rush: Door To Door
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess Records, Fall 1990
CERTAINLY IT made sense for Chess to release an album combining the handful of songs recorded by Albert King and Otis Rush during their short-lived ...
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess Records, 1991
HUNG DOWN HEAD was a profoundly shocking record when it was first released in 1970 as Chess LP 408. ...
Professor Longhair: Mardi Gras In Baton Rouge (Rhino)
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Rhino, 1991
AHH, YES, THE virtues of the repertoire.Admittedly, it's a foreign concept these days, when artists are almost universally expected to write and perform fresh material ...
Koko Taylor: What It Takes - The Chess Years
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1991
IT'S ALTOGETHER FITTING that Koko Taylor's first Chess single was ‘I Got What It Takes’. Nearly three decades in the blues business--years punctuated by a ...
T-Bone Walker: The Complete Imperial Recordings, 1950-1954 (Imperial/EMI)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Guitar World, 1991
CONTEMPORARY BLUES guitar starts here. True enough, everything has its origins in something else: Aaron Thibaux "T-Bone" Walker (1910 – 1975) had hung out in ...
Birth of the Blues: Touring the Mississippi Delta
Guide by Ira Robbins, unpublished, 1991
"YOU MAY BURY MY BODY DOWN BY the highway side...so my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride." ...
Various Artists: The Blues Guitar Box
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, January 1991
FORTY-THREE tracks featuring 39 guitarists for over three hours of music: if this bouncing, bulging blue box demonstrates anything other than the blues' current high ...
Rory Gallagher: In The Midst Of A Blues Boom, Rory Gallagher Roars Back
Interview by Susan Whitall, Detroit News, March 1991
WHEN RORY Gallagher decides to take a flyer, he doesn't mess around. After years of soul-numbing touring up and down the American continent, the Irish ...
The Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Collection (Alligator)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock and Roll Disc, May 1991
REMEMBER THOSE Lowery Organ displays that were once a staple of every suburban shopping mall in North America? The ones where some weenie in a ...
Albert King: An Interview with Albert King
Interview by Alan Paul, Guitar World, July 1991
2003 note: Just days after I became the Guitar World Managing Editor in February 1991, I sat at my desk listening two of my colleagues ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, October 1991
TALK ABOUT COOL: it's as if John Lee Hooker is so relaxed he can afford to be late for his own album. ...
Howlin' Wolf: Live and Cookin' at Alice's Revisited
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1992
BY 1972, HOWLIN' WOLF was on the downhill side of his fabled career as one of the twin titans of Chicago blues. ...
Bobby 'Blue' Bland: Bobby “Blue” Bland: I Pity The Fool – The Duke Recordings, Vol. 1
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA Records, 1992
AN ENDURING IRONY of the periodic blues revivals that rear their heads is that each and every one has managed to pass by the ...
King Curtis: Blow Man, Blow! (Bear BCD 15670)
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1992
"BLOW MAN, BLOW!" The big man with the glittering horn sent showers of squeals and shrieks out over the heads of his ecstatic shouting audience, ...
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1992
JOHN GREER, one of the forgotten men of rhythm & blues, had all the talent necessary to succeed, and a few extra advantages besides. ...
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1992
A LINE OF golden saxophones held carefully aslant over the showy blue and white "BJ" bandstands catches the eye first. Arrayed behind are trombones flanked ...
Ray Charles: Rapping with Ray Charles
Interview by Robert Gordon, Interview, 1992
IN THE 1950s, Frank Sinatra tagged Ray Charles "Genius," an appropriate nickname for one of American music's most innovative figures. Charles brought a sophistication to ...
Buddy Guy: The Complete Chess Studio Recordings
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess Records, January 1992
THE BEST measure of Buddy Guy's talents as a bluesman could well be the fact that he's been presiding over the most distinguished fan club ...
Review by David Sinclair, Q, March 1992
IN 1990, IN A REGULAR feature called "The Experts' Expert", The Observer canvassed a cross-section of guitarists (David Gilmour, Hank Marvin, Brian May and others) ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Q, April 1992
MONDAY IS TRADITIONALLY a slow night in the music calendar, especially the first Monday in January in clubs like the Sweetwater, a small but chic ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, October 1992
BOOM BOOM boom boom – gonna shoot you right down… The blues is always the blues, even when it's advertising copy. Right off your feet. ...
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1993
FOR TEN of the most crucial years in the history of American black music, Louis Jordan was the main man, the solid sender, the hep-est ...
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Rhino, 1993
HE LOOKED LIKE he just stepped off the top of a wedding cake – a dapper, smooth-faced little man in a tailored suit topped off ...
Little Walter: The Essential Little Walter
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess/MCA, 1993
LITTLE WALTER was a singular figure among the Chess artist roster by virtue of the fact that he was the only one whose popular appeal ...
Otis Rush, Magic Sam: Various Artists: The Cobra Records Story
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Capricorn Records, 1993
STRANGE THAT The Cobra Story marks the first time that these late '50s recordings culled from three short-lived Chicago labels run by Eli Toscano have ...
B.B. King: Uneasy Lies The Head That Wears The Crown
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, February 1993
From the no-horse town of Ita Bena, Mississippi, to the planet's most prestigious culture palaces, Riley "Blues Boy" King has spent half a century as ...
Billy Boy Arnold: Back Where I Belong (Alligator)
Sleevenotes by Kirk Silsbee, Alligator, August 1993
SPEAK FACE to face with bluesman Billy Boy Arnold and you have the feeling that something about him doesn't quite add up. He looks to ...
Paul Rodgers: Muddy Waters Blues (Victory)
Review by Mat Snow, Q, August 1993
Whoever declared that new art is created when somebody gets old art wrong may well have had blues-rock in mind. ...
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard: A Talk With Mr. Twister
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, August 1993
If you not movin' your hips, it just ain't happenin'. – Hank Ballard on dancing ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, October 1993
The 'Louie Louie' man looks back at his youth in Los Angeles, cutting his first records, the crooks and the rip-offs, and his battle to regain the rights to his most famous song.
File format: mp3; file size: 42.1mb; Interview length: 45' 56"; sound quality: ****
James Booker: The Unsung Piano Genius with Star-spangled False Teeth
Profile by Ben Thompson, MOJO, January 1994
"IF ALL AMERICAN PIANO PLAYERS LINED UP IN A ROW, each knowing the other’s abilities and talents, all would take a step back to recognise ...
The Platters: Four Platters and One Lovely Dish
Sleevenotes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, March 1994
GOING FROM complete unknowns to classics of American pop music took the Platters only two short years. ...
Retrospective by Colin Escott, Goldmine, April 1994
B.B. KING'S misfortune is that we too often take him for granted. He has been there as long as most of us can remember, and ...
Duke Henderson: Get Your Kicks (Delmark)
Sleevenotes by Kirk Silsbee, Delmark Records, May 1994
ASK THE handful of remaining African-American performers and entertainers who were active during Los Angeles' Central Avenue heyday in the 1940s about blues singer Duke ...
Leadbelly: The Long Goodbye: Huddie Ledbetter’s Living Will
Essay by Carol Cooper, L.A. Weekly, November 1994
According to their most recent videos, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and Madonna all aspire to the power, wisdom and durability ...
Obituary by Chris Welch, Independent, The, June 1995
RORY GALLAGHER was the People's Guitarist. Unassuming, but tenacious, the Irish blues man devoted his life to touring and playing his beloved Fender Strat to ...
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, July 1995
WHEN BLUES PEOPLE WAS PUBLISHED in 1963, LeRoi Jones became the first black American to have written a book about the blues. It did not ...
Excello: It Came From the Swamp
Overview by Kirk Silsbee, Huh, September 1995
ONE OF the hallmarks of a great regional record label is the ability to define a time and place in the mind's ear. Think of ...
Profile and Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Southland Blues, January 1996
GUITARIST LUTHER Allison, after a long apprenticeship in the clubs of Chicago's West Side, first came to national prominence with electrifying performances at the Ann ...
Profile and Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Los Angeles View, February 1996
FOR A MUSICIAN with a Grammy nomination for best traditional blues album of the year, pianist/vocalist Charles Brown is quick to say he is more ...
Archie Edwards: Jumpstartin' the Blues: Piedmont Bluesman Archie Edwards
Profile and Interview by Jerry Zolten, Living Blues, April 1996
Talks About Roots, Rights, and Rhythms ...
Bo Diddley: Godfather Back On The Beat
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, Daily Telegraph, May 1996
If guitar rhythms could be copyrighted, Bo Diddley would be a millionaire. As it is Mark Cooper finds him warily hitting the comeback trail again ...
Jimmy Witherspoon: 'Ain't Nobody's Business': The No Rollin' Blues of Jimmy Witherspoon
Retrospective and Interview by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, May 1996
"I'D RATHER open up a show than to close it," Jimmy Witherspoon said emphatically. "'Cause I know whoever follows me is gonna have to sing." ...
Keb' Mo': Kevin Moore Makes A Name For Himself As Blues Singer Keb' Mo'
Interview by Charles Bermant, Mr Showbiz, August 1996
JUST LIKE YOU, the second album from singer-songwriter Keb' Mo', raises a question: why is a forty-four-year-old, who's been playing music all his life, just ...
Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac: The Shape I'm In: Peter Green
Profile by Johnny Black, MOJO, September 1996
IT'S MID-WINTER 1968. The five members of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac are huddled together, holding hands on the floor of the Gorham Hotel on West ...
Billy Boy Arnold: Back Where Billy Boy Arnold Belongs
Retrospective by Bill Wasserzieher, Southland Blues, December 1996
WHAT TO MAKE of one Billy Boy Arnold? First there's that nickname "Boy." Has anybody, other than John-Boy on The Waltons, ever liked being called ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: My Lunch with the Blues Guys
Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, unpublished, 1997
IT'S NOT NEWS that Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds is a good harmonica player. But he also cuts it as raconteur with stories about ...
Tracy Nelson, Mother Earth: Down So Low: Tracy Nelson's Long Hard Climb Into Obscurity
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Carpenter, Goldmine, 1997
EVERYTHING ONE should do to get a big name in showbiz seems to be the opposite of what Tracy Nelson does. No fancy duds to ...
Buddy Guy: The Complete Chess Studio Sessions
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, Chess, 1997
THE BEST measure of Buddy Guy's talents as a bluesman could well be the fact that he's been presiding over the most distinguished fan club ...
Interview by Bill DeYoung, Goldmine, February 1997
ELLAS BATES McDaniel, a.k.a. Bo Diddley, has lived the life of a rural squire in North Florida since 1983, when a dentist, making small talk, ...
Review by Tony Russell, MOJO, April 1997
CHICAGO IN THE FIRST DECADE after World War II spawned record labels like a salmon on fertility drugs. Many of them dealt with blues, some ...
Alan Lomax: Outstanding In His Field
Profile by Matt Hanks, Memphis Flyer, July 1997
I AM AN American citizen," he muttered, glaring around. "These Memphis cops call me vagrant, but I'm a musician. These Southern laws don't recognize a ...
King Cotton: Bad Acid, the Bonedaddys and the Blues! King Cotton Has Lived Through 'Em All
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, BAM, July 1997
IF YOU happen to find yourself at B.B. King's at the Universal Citywalk on a Sunday night, you'll encounter an unusual musical aggregation. ...
Bumble Bee Slim: A Rough Rugged Road: From Georgia to Chicago to Hollywood with Bumble Bee Slim
Retrospective by Jerry Zolten, Living Blues, September 1997
MY ENTREE into the world of bluesman Bumble Bee Slim came not by choice, but by chance. It happened a few years ago in the ...
Live Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, September 1997
Dr John: organic groover ...
Ruth Brown Keeps Deep R&B's Fire Blazing
Profile and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, October 1997
MISS RHYTHM is on stage working the blues, and she's got the audience on a string. Sashaying up to the microphone in the ballroom of ...
Dick Heckstall-Smith: Sax Blue
Interview by Harry Shapiro, Blue Print, December 1997
DICK HECKSTALL-Smith is one of the greatest R&B saxophonists in the world. His musical career started at university, in Cambridge, and he has played with ...
Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf: Hubert Sumlin: The Wolf’s Man
Interview by Alan Paul, Guitar World, 1998
INTRODUCTION: I had heard that Hubert Sumlin was a genuinely nice guy. But before I ventured uptown to a Manhattan club to interview him, there ...
Chess Set Still Sings The Blues: Marshall Chess and Chess Records
Interview by James Maycock, Daily Telegraph, 1998
JUST OVER 50 YEARS AGO, brothers Phil and Leonard Chess, two industrious Polish immigrants in Chicago, tentatively established what would become the most famous blues ...
John Lee Hooker: The Sound of Teardrops: John Lee Hooker
Profile and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, January 1998
HOW DEEP IS John Lee Hooker's blues? "You can't go no deeper than me and my guitar," he says. "I open my mouth, and it's ...
B.B. King, Robert Lockwood Jr., Lowell Fulson: B.B. King: Bright Lights Big City
Report and Interview by Paul Trynka, MOJO, May 1998
Fifty years ago B.B. King arrived in Memphis, Tennessee, and found himself in the eye of a musical hurricane. Today he celebrates the giants who ...
Honeyboy Edwards: Delta Delight: Honeyboy Edwards, Country Bluesman
Profile and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, May 1998
THE BLUESMAN Honeyboy Edwards got arrested in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 1936. His crime was being a black man. ...
Down-home delights: The soulful blues of Malaco Records
Report by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, June 1998
THIRTY OR 40 YEARS AGO, the Jackson-based Malaco Records would have been called a "race" label. That was the tag for outfits like Specialty, King, ...
B.B. King: The Day B.B. King Went to Jail
Retrospective by James Maycock, Independent, The, September 1998
ON A SUBLIME autumn day in 1970, B.B. King performed for 2,117 prisoners in Cook County Jail. Against the sound of B.B. King's musicians ...
Rory Gallagher: Ballad of a Thin Man
Retrospective by Colin Harper, MOJO, October 1998
"HE SUFFERED A LOT. His health was bad. He had a problem with drink. His relationships with women were all messed up because of his ...
Taj Mahal: The Birth Of His Blues: Taj Mahal
Review and Interview by Ben Edmonds, MOJO, November 1998
Tracks: Leaving Trunk / Statesboro Blues / Checkin' Up On My Baby / Everybody's Got To Change Sometime / E Z Rider / Dust My ...
Gary Moore Goes Back to the Blues
Profile and Interview by Ian Fortnam, bol.com, 1999
CURIOUSLY UNDERVALUED, and rarely lauded in similarly hushed tones to the likes of Clapton, Beck and Page, Belfast-born Gary Moore is unequivocally one of the ...
Eyewitness: March 1952 — The First Rock'n'Roll Concert
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, February 1999
10,000 people smashed down the doors to get in, none of the bands were paid and one man was stabbed in the arse. After the ...
Geoff Muldaur: Nightstick: Geoff Muldaur
Profile by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, February 1999
AN UNSUNG GIFT from a bygone era, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band had many things to recommend it: Kweskin's anachronistic, roughhouse vocals; Mel Lyman's stirring, ...
Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings: Roy Rogers: King of the Console (Production, That Is)
Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, March 1999
IT'S NIGHT TIME and a yellow moon is up over nearby Mexico. There are perhaps 20,000 people jammed into a cordoned off section of San ...
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Repackaging Stevie Ray Vaughan
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, April 1999
YEAH, HE NEVER played alternative rock, and to him hip-hop was something the Easter bunny did. He also wore his influences like a neon suit. ...
Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green: Peter Green: The Man of the World Returns
Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, July 1999
THERE IS A FILM from the late 1960s called The Hallucination Generation that purports to be, as the poster declared, the "Shocking Story of a ...
Rick Holmstrom: Gonna Get Wild (Tone Cool)
Sleevenotes by Kirk Silsbee, Tone Cool, October 1999
IF YOU'VE partaken of the thriving blues scene in Los Angeles in the last 15 years, you've probably crossed paths with guitarist Rick Holmstrom. ...
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Paul Butterfield's Better Days: Bearsville Anthology
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Rhino Bearsville, 2000
PAUL BUTTERFIELD was a legend long before he ever set foot in Woodstock. Perhaps the first authentic white voice in the blues, his legendary '60s ...
It Don’t Matter if You’re Dead … as Long as You’re Keepin’ the Blues Alive!
Report by Bill Wasserzieher, musicblitz.com, 2000
IT’S A HOT NIGHT in Memphis, the humidity thick enough for similes about wading neck-deep through steamy water, but inside the grand old Orpheum Theatre ...
Otis Rush: Peoples is Peoples: The Otis Rush Interview
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, House of Blues Online, January 2000
THERE WERE three young guitarists in 1960s Chicago who moved the blues forward to new areas of expression: Buddy Guy, the late Magic Sam (Samuel ...
Hall-of-Fame Hitter: Drummer Earl Palmer gets his due
Retrospective and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, January 2000
LIKE ANY GOOD GRANDFATHER, Earl Palmer has tried to find interests to share with his grandkids. So far, coin collecting has been a favorite. It's ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, unpublished, March 2000
"WHY NOT BE at London Airport to welcome Jay?" That was the invitation in the late Roger Eagle’s R & B Scene. And so, on ...
Holy Toledo: The Hines Farm Blues Club
Retrospective by Paul Gorman, MOJO, May 2000
Midnight movers, Ohio players, Gypsy Angels and Atomic Pirates gathered at the Hines Farm juke joint. Paul Gorman pays a visit. ...
Interview by Harry Shapiro, Blue Print, June 2000
"I've never been on a plantation but I have been on a kibbutz." Peter Green completes the Robert Johnson songbook, tours with John Mayall and ...
Retrospective by Mick Farren, MOJO, July 2000
ON JANUARY 7, 1980, THE BODY OF LARRY WILLIAMS WAS FOUND lying in a pool of blood on the garage floor of his Laurel Canyon ...
Lonnie Johnson: The Unsung Blues Legend (Blues Magnet)
Review by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, July 2000
SO THOROUGHLY has the myth of the hell-bound Mississippi Delta bluesman captured the public's imagination that it's narrowed the definition of just what constitutes a ...
Elvis Presley and the Impulse Towards Transculturation
Essay by Rob Bowman, Crawdaddy!, Spring 2000
ELVIS WAS A hero to most but he never meant shit to me/You see straight out racist the sucker was simple and plain/Motherfuck him and ...
Buddy Guy: A Bluesman for All Seasons
Profile and Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, January 2001
FOR THE SOUTHERN rail traveler, The City of New Orleans runs from the Crescent City on the Gulf up through the Mississippi state capitol of ...
Purple Prose From The Many Voices Of The Blues
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Independent, The, February 2001
David Dalton: Been Here And Gone: A Memoir Of The Blues (Methuen, 386pp; £10.99) ...
Chicken Shack: Stan Webb: What Can A Poor Boy Do?
Interview by Harry Shapiro, Blue Print, March 2001
Stan Webb has every right to be cynical about the music business and how the sharks in suits come on strong as your best friend ...
Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield: Mike Bloomfield: Bloomfield's Doomed Field
Memoir by Al Kooper, Gadfly, March 2001
FOR SOME strange reason, we referred to each other by our "proper" names, Michael and Alan. To everyone else, it was Mike Bloomfield and Al ...
North Mississippi Allstars: Shake Hands with Cody: North Mississippi Allstars
Interview by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, April 2001
Josh Rinkoff meets one o’ the Dickinson boys ...
Rudy Ray Moore: 'I Ain't Lyin'!'...The Unexpurgated Truth about Rudy Ray Moore
Retrospective and Interview by Jerry Zolten, Living Blues, May 2001
2008 Prologue: RUDY RAY MOORE, a.k.a. "Dolemite," the "Godfather of Rap," the "World's Greatest X-Rated Comedian," and "Blaxploitation" filmmaker, passed away at age 81 in ...
Charley Patton: The Definitive Charley Patton
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, June 2001
THERE'S 'DEFINITIVE', and then there's definitive. This complete collection – 58 performances on three CDs – of the recorded works of Charley Patton certainly earns ...
John Lee Hooker: Goodbye Boogie Man
Obituary by Cleothus Hardcastle, Rock's Backpages, June 2001
"Woke up this morning..." ...
Ike Turner: The Redemption Of Ike
Review and Interview by Andria Lisle, Stereotype, July 2001
ROCK AND BLUES trailblazer Ike Turner celebrates a new outlook, new album and his 50th year in music. ...
John Lee Hooker: The Boogie Man
Obituary by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, August 2001
JOHN LEE HOOKER DIED peacefully in his sleep on June 21, 2001, two months and one day short of what would have been his 84th ...
Interview by Harry Shapiro, Blue Print, August 2001
Dick Heckstall-Smith: the unbearable lightness of being...or how one of the great unsung giants of jazz inspired a blues album, by Harry Shapiro ...
Andre Williams: Bait and Switch (Norton)
Review by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, August 2001
R & B LEGEND Andre Williams first achieved acclaim the mid-'50s on Detroit's Fortune Records with classics like 'Bacon Fat' and 'Jail Bait' on which ...
Charley Patton, Skip James: The Spooky Blues Of Skip James
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, October 2001
Mystical, otherworldly sounds from the '30s ...
Charley Patton: Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues (Revenant)
Review by David Dalton, MOJO, December 2001
HIS PEERS weren’t exactly trying to flatter him when they called him a rascal, a drunkard, a clown, a squabbler, a glutton, and hustler of ...
AUDIO: Dick Heckstall-Smith (2001)
Interview by Steve Roeser, Rock's Backpages Audio, Spring 2001
Tenor-man Heckstall-Smith takes us on a trip through the Brit blues boom with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, Alexis Korner, Graham Bond and Cyril Davis, through to Colosseum.
File format: mp3; file size: 38.7mb, interview length: 42' 18" sound quality: * (phoner)
Jerry McCain: Absolutely the Best – The Complete Jewel Singles
Review by Andria Lisle, Oxford American, The, Summer 2001
BLUES HARMONICA fans beware: Jerry "Boogie" McCain's harp-blowing is anything but conventional, and this collection, featuring material cut a decade into his career, during the ...
B.B. King: King Of The Road: On The Road With B.B. King In The Mid-1950s
Sleevenotes by John Broven, Ace Records, 2002
First published in the book accompanying the box set B.B. King: The Vintage Years (Ace Records), 2002. ...
Mel Brown: Whaddya Mean You've Never Heard Of… Mel Brown?
Retrospective by James Maycock, MOJO, 2002
"WITH THE GUITAR outselling all other musical instruments today," declared a Down Beat editor confidently in 1967, "it's good to have Mel Brown around to ...
R.L. Burnside: R. L. Burnside: Burnside On Burnside (Fat Possum)
Review by Andria Lisle, Living Blues, January 2002
IN THE LAST decade R.L. Burnside, the best-known purveyor of Mississippi hill country blues, has become almost an anti-hero of the blues scene. His label, ...
North Mississippi Allstars: North Mississippi All Stars: 51 Phantom (Tone-Cool)
Review by Andria Lisle, Living Blues, January 2002
EARLIER THIS YEAR, the North Mississippi All Stars received a nomination for a Grammy (Best Contemporary Blues Album), the LB Critics' Awards for Best Debut ...
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown: The Lion in Winter: Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown
Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, January 2002
IT IS 10:15 on a Saturday morning, and I am banging on a motel room door in San Juan Capistrano, having driven down from Los ...
Lazy Lester: Blues Stop Knockin’
Review by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, January 2002
ONE OF THE LAST of that great fraternity of Excello bluesmen – and a throwback to the days when harp-blowers like Little Walter Jacobs, Jimy ...
Ike Turner: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, February 2002
IF YOU didn't know Ike Turner was 70 before this show, you certainly did within minutes of his swaggering entrance. ...
Muddy Waters: Robert Gordon: Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters (Jonathan Cape)
Review by Tim Clifford, Rock's Backpages, September 2002
MUDDY WATERS STANDING at a mike hollering "I’m a man", giving those three simple words a world of meaning – invitation, warning, primal statement and ...
Retrospective by Paul Gorman, MOJO, October 2002
FOR MANY A PUNK CHANCER, CRED comes with claims of attending the Sex Pistols' brace of gigs at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall in the ...
Sleevenotes by Colin Escott, Bluebird/RCA, 2003
"DOWN IN TUPELO," Elvis Presley famously remarked in June 1956, "I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, ...
Ray Charles: 10 Questions for Ray Charles
Interview by Bill DeMain, MOJO, January 2003
Meeting Nat Cole, crafting genius songs on the spot and tips on sartorial cool. Bill DeMain gets the word from the emperor of soul. ...
Roy Gaines: Backside of the Blues: Roy Gaines at the Chalkboard
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Senior Life, March 2003
IF EDUCATORS WERE to design a college course on the history of the blues, they could do a lot worse than study Roy Gaines. ...
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Guitar World Acoustic, June 2003
"WHEN I FIRST heard of the electric guitar, I thought somebody was bullshittin' me," says George "Buddy" Guy. "We lived so far in the country ...
Memoir by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, August 2003
Tracks and artists: Mississippi John Hurt: Candy Man/Coffee Blues/Stagolee. Brownie McGhee: Long Gone/Key To The Highway. Rev. Gary Davis: Samson And Delilah/I Won't Be Back ...
Review by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, August 2003
B.B. KING ALREADY had a career dating back 20 years - first playing to chitlin circuit audiences and then at the Fillmores and other psychedelic ...
Overview by Charles Shaar Murray, Observer Music Monthly, November 2003
In September 2002, the US Congress officially designated 2003 as 'The Year Of The Blues.' Why this year of all years? ...
Omar & the Howlers: Omar: Last of the Miss'ippi Howlers
Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Southland Blues, December 2003
TOO BAD "road warrior" has been done to death as a descriptor for every long-haul job-wrangler on Earth because it works so well for musicians, ...
Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson: Memphis Slim & Sonny Boy Williamson: Live In Europe
Sleevenotes by Bill Wasserzieher, Reelin' in the Years/Hip-O/Experience Hendrix DVD, 2004
MEMPHIS SLIM AND Sonny Boy Williamson - even their names, their performing aliases, have a bigger-than-life aura. And though both passed away decades ago, time ...
Robert Johnson: Elijah Wald: Escaping the Delta - Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
Book Review by Anthony Heilbut, Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 2004
WHOSE BLUES is it anyway? On his first trip to the Mississippi Delta, Elijah Wald found himself performing a Robert Johnson song at the Mt. ...
Buddy Guy Brings It All Back Home
Report and Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, January 2004
LEGEND HAS IT that when novelist William Faulkner, who sometimes did hack work in Hollywood, was writing the screenplay for Land of the Pharaohs, he ...
Essay by Adam Blake, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com), February 2004
FOR THE RECORD, I would like to state that my favourite bluesmen are Sonny Boy (Aleck 'Rice' Miller) Williamson and Professor Longhair, neither of whom ...
Elijah Wald: Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson And The Invention Of The Blues
Book Review by Tony Russell, New Humanist, May 2004
FOR A MUSIC that has always been resolutely secular, the blues has attracted a remarkable crowd of hierarchs and hierophants. Scholars, musicians, record collectors and ...
Taj Mahal: A Living Edifice To The Blues
Live Review by Andy Gill, Independent, The, June 2004
Taj Mahal/Tinariwen, Barbican, London **** ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: George Thorogood & the Destroyers: Raiders of the Lost Axe
Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, September 2004
Bluesman George Thorogood is celebrating 30 years of 12-bar brilliance with a new Best Of… and a global tour. He talks to Terry Staunton. ...
Ray Charles: I Believe to My Soul
Essay by Dave Marsh, Harp, September 2004
One of these days, and it won't be longYou gonna look for me, and I'll be gone ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, September 2004
THE 1967 departure of BB Band axedude Mike Bloomfield provided fellow Windy City man Elvin Bishop with the chance to come in and revamp Paul ...
Jimbo Mathus, Squirrel Nut Zippers: Jimbo Mathus Is No Longer a Squirrel Nutter
Profile and Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, October 2004
"JIMBO MATHUS is a link in what I call the 'crazy Mississippi white boy' chain of music that goes all the way back through Elvis ...
Report by Michael Gray, Daily Telegraph, October 2004
Michael Gray follows the trail of some great American musicians who moved from the rural South in the early 1900s. ...
Robert Johnson: Travelling Riverside Blues (Clarksdale, Mississippi)
Book Excerpt by Graham Reid, Random House, 2005
Travelling Riverside Blues is a chapter in Graham Reid's Postcards From Elsewhere collection of travel stories (Random House) and is available through his website: www.elsewhere.co.nz ...
Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac: The Making of Then Play On
Retrospective and Interview by Toby Manning, unpublished, 2005
IN 1969, FLEETWOOD Mac's prime mover had begun acting very strangely. First of all this East End Jew found Jesus, and began trying to convert ...
Al Kooper: Al’s Big Deal/Unclaimed Freight
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, February 2005
Unsung hero's anthology of solo work and collaborations ...
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, February 2005
THE BAR AT THE RITZ-CARLTON in South Pasadena has hand-rubbed wood on the walls and a copious amount of plush sofas and chairs. Bookcases ...
Ray Charles: O-Genio: Live In Brazil 1963
Film/DVD Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, March 2005
AFTER LAST YEAR'S duets album became the best-selling release of his career, coupled with the Oscar buzz surrounding the new biopic, it was inevitable that ...
Cream: Royal Albert Hall, London, 5 May 2005
Live Review by Richard English, Rock's Backpages, May 2005
THIRTY SEVEN YEARS ago my Mum wouldn't let me go to the Cream Farewell Concert. She didn't want me to mix with all those ...
White Stripes, The: The Truth In Red And White: The White Stripes' Romanticised Reality
Comment by Stevie Chick, Stranger, The, August 2005
"I SAW THIS documentary about a classical guitarist," Jack White told me recently. "He was playing Bach and Mozart, these really ridiculously complicated pieces, but ...
Dion: The Wanderer Walks with the Blues
Interview by Gene Sculatti, ICE, Winter 2005
IT'S A SHAME that, these days, a singer this good needs a qualifier. Until the arrival of Celine, there was only one Dion — Dion ...
North Mississippi Allstars: The Real Deal
Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, Spring 2005
EVEN GOOD BANDS play bad shows. Equipment malfunctions, guitars don't stay in tune, somebody has a cold or a hellacious hangover. Maybe the vibe is ...
Overview by John Sinclair, Honest Tune, Spring 2005
WHEN YOU hear the word "blues" you're bound to think of Mississippi. The phrase "Mississippi blues" leads at once to thoughts of Clarksdale and Greenwood ...
Blues In The Bottle: American Vernacular Music and the Medicine Show
Book Review by Tony Russell, Catalyst, May 2006
A review of the compilation Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937 (Old Hat Records) ...
This Be an Empty World Without the Blues – So Clifford Antone filled it
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, May 2006
THE FIRST TIME I met Clifford Antone, he sold me a sandwich. He had opened a shop on Guadalupe, right around the corner from the ...
Fleetwood Mac: The Return of Jeremy Spencer
Interview by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, October 2006
This the complete interview with (ex-Fleetwood Mac) Jeremy Spencer. The edited version will be published by Blues Revue in October 2006 ...
Obituary by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, October 2006
CLIFFORD ANTONE liked to say he was "the blues in Austin." He was and then some. From 1975, when he opened his namesake club, until ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Richard Williams, Guardian, The, December 2006
A mogul who nurtured the careers of stars such as Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield ...
Robert Lockwood Jr.: Remembering Robert Lockwood Jr.
Obituary by Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Revue, February 2007
WHEN ROBERT LOCKWOOD JR. passed away at age 91 on Nov. 21, the obituaries in the major daily press made much of his connection to ...
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, August 2007
FUNNY HOW things change. A little over a decade ago, Ike Turner was rock'n'roll's terminal pariah. Damned by 1993's What's Love Got To Do With ...
Interview by Graham Reid, elsewhere.co.nz, June 2008
AT 46, JAMES Hunter from Colchester in Essex is an overnight soul-singing sensation who took a couple of decades to get to where he is. ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, Guardian, The, June 2008
American pioneer of rock'n'roll who influenced the Beatles and the Rolling Stones ...
Jerry Wexler: Appreciating Jerry Wexler, the Supreme Atlantic Record Man
Memoir by John Broven, Now Dig This, October 2008
AS SOON AS Jerry Wexler's death was announced on August 15, 2008, daily newspapers and rock magazines had their already-written obituaries ready to go in ...
Robert Johnson: The Death of Robert Johnson
Book Excerpt by Tom Graves, DeMers Books, October 2008
Excerpt from the book Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson (DeMers Books) ...
Seasick Steve: I Started Out With Nothing And I Still Got Most Of It Left
Review by Mick Middles, Quietus, The, October 2008
ORGANIC TO the foot of every blue soaked note. Here we meet the real deal. 40 years in a hobo hell (well, mostly) this 60-something ...
Rolling Stones, The, Cyril Davies: The Rolling Stones at the Ricky-Tick, January 1963
Memoir by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
THE FIRST TIME I hear Cyril Davies blow his harmonica is January 1963 at Leo's Jazz Club in Windsor. As I approach, shoulders hunched against ...
Cyril Davies, Blues Incorporated, Alexis Korner: Blues Incorporated: How British R&B Trashed Trad
Retrospective by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, September 2009
ALEXIS KORNER'S Parisian birthplace, Austro-Greek parentage, noble features and languid growl endowed him with an aura of exoticism unreflected in his musical partner Cyril "Squirrel" ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Pidgeon, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
THE FIRST PUBLIC appearance of what would one day be touted as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" was hardly headline news, ...
Delbert McClinton: Tarrytown Music Hall, New York
Live Review by Kris DiLorenzo, Rock's Backpages, May 2010
IT'S BEEN A WAAAY too long time, but I'd be stupidly remiss if I didn't rave about Delbert McClinton's show at the Tarrytown Music Hall ...
Black Keys, The: The Black Keys: The Ongoing Adventures Of Two Complete Knuckleheads
Interview by Johnny Black, Rock'n'Reel, July 2010
"WE DIDN'T KNOW what the hell we were doing," laughs the Black Keys' frontman Dan Auerbach, in a not entirely successful attempt to sum up ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Broven, Now Dig This, July 2010
WHEN BOBBY Charles recorded 'Later Alligator' for Chess at Cosimo Matassa's J. & M. Studio in New Orleans in autumn 1955, he was not only ...
Black Keys, The: The Black Keys: 'It's ridiculous to say that we play the blues'
Report and Interview by Andrew Purcell, Guardian, The, July 2010
FOR EIGHT MONTHS NOW, since the end of a relationship, the Black Keys drummer Pat Carney has been living in New York's Lower East Side. ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmie Vaughan: Beacon Blues: Jimmie Vaughan's Lifelong Song
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, July 2010
THE ONE KNITE was an oasis of soul. The room was a little box, sitting at the corner of Red River and Eighth Street. Cut ...
Bobby 'Blue' Bland: For Members Only: Bobby Bland on Malaco
Sleevenotes by Barney Hoskyns, Malaco Records, October 2010
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, searching for the extant spirit of southern soul, I made my way to a former Pepsi-Cola warehouse in a decidedly unlovely industrial ...
Blazers, the: The Blazers: East Side Soul
Sleevenotes by Don Snowden, New Rounder, October 2010
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA – the first weekend of March, 1995. Mudslides wiped out nine homes in a town near Ventura while OJ trial junkies debated the ...
Belated Props: Arhoolie Records at 50
Comment by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, March 2011
DON'T IT FIGURE that Arhoolie's 50th anniversary just happened to overlap with the publication of John Szwed's biography of Alan Lomax? An unfortunate but appropriate ...
Benny Spellman: New Orleans R&B stalwart Benny Spellman
Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, July 2011
BENNY SPELLMAN, the New Orleans R&B singer, died of respiratory failure on June 3, 2011, in Pensacola, Fla., at the age of 79. He was ...
Gregg Allman: Low Country Blues
Review by Larry Jaffee, Audiophile Review, Fall 2011
BEFORE YOU EVEN HEAR a note, the coupling of Gregg Allman produced by T-Bone Burnett seems like a match made in heaven. ...
Bobby 'Blue' Bland: Bobby "Blue" Bland: Two Steps From The Blues (Soul Jam)
Review by Mike Atherton, Echoes, 2012
WHEN BOBBY BLAND'S debut LP Two Steps From The Blues crept out over here on Vogue in the early '60s, one reviewer, whether through bitchiness, ...
Various Artists: 100 Years Of The Blues (Universal)
Review by Mike Atherton, Echoes, February 2012
BLUES HAS BEEN an integral part of popular music for decades, and this new 4CD set celebrates its birth, its growth and its ever-widening influence. ...
Retrospective by Ted Drozdowski, Guitar World, August 2012
NOTE: This is an expanded version of a piece that was in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's induction program in 2012: the lengthier ...
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Times, The, September 2012
RIPLEY... EPSOM... WALLINGTON. The names hardly resonate in the way that Clarksdale or Greenville or Natchez do. Yet in their way these Surrey towns are ...
ZZ Top, Black Keys, The: Billy Gibbons and Dan Auerbach
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Guitar World, October 2012
MISSISSIPPI FRED McDowell's haunted, woody voice sails through the air as the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach nurses a cup of coffee and flips through a ...
Alvin Lee: Finally Going Home: Alvin Lee
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages, March 2013
This tribute piece is based on an interview conducted on the release of Alvin's 2012 album Still on the Road to Freedom, a sequel of ...
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