AUDIO: Clyde McPhatter (1968)
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 ...

Snooks Eaglin
Retrospective by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, August 1968
That's All Right (Xtra 5051)
Blues From New Orleans, Vol. 1 (Storyville ...

Talking The Blues
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 like ...

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 rock ...

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. and ...

A Perfect Marriage: Christine Of Chicken Shack And John Of Fleetwood Fame
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 ...

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 progressive-underground ...

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 it's ...

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 of ...

Johnny Winter And... Mississippi Fred?
Live Review by Rick McGrath, The Georgia Straight, 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 the ...

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 bookings ...

AUDIO: Johnny Otis (1970)
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; ...

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 burned ...

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 recordings ...

Larry Williams and Johnny Guitar Watson: The Two Who Weren't 'Revived'
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, and ...

B.B. King
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 "respectable" ...

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, advertising ...

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. ...

Blues reissues: Muddy Waters/John Lee Hooker/Little Walter/Smokey Hogg/Frankie Lee Sims
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 not ...

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 on ...

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 "Echoes" ...

Ike Turner: Blues Roots
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 while ...

Howlin' Wolf
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 ...

Hound Dog Taylor
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 with ...

Muddy Waters Rarely Eats Fish
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 of ...

Fats Domino: The Fat Man
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 Lee ...

Screamin' Jay Hawkins
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 ...

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 open ...

Johnny Winter: Saints and Sinners/Roy Buchanan: That's What I Am Here For
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 both ...

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. ...

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 Muddy ...

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 rock ...

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 ...

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." ...

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. The ...

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 on ...

Ronnie Wood - Now Look
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 and ...

Eric Clapton: E.C. Was Here
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 ...

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 ...

Rory Gallagher: Against The Grain
Review by Chas de Whalley, NME, November 1975
DO YOU REALISE that Against The Grain is Rory Gallagher's seventh album since he split ...

European Blues and R&B Festival
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 characters, ...

Climax Blues Band: Stamp Album
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, December 1975
I'M SICK AND tired of bloody good ...

Santana: Lotus
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 ...

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 or ...

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 influenced ...

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 don't ...

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 between ...

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 idiom. ...

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 they ...

Skip James: I'm So Glad
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, October 1978
SKIP JAMES scares me. ...

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 time ...

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 other ...

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 around ...

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 Eric ...

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 Green, ...

Thoroughly Bluesy George
Live Review by Bill Millar, Melody Maker, March 1979
George Thorogood, Albert Collins: Electric Ballroom, London ...

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 concerned. ...

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. ...

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 & ...

Basil Brush Didn't Write 'Boom Boom': The R&B Revival in London
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 Howlin' ...

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 Coppola's ...

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 punky ...

Rhythm and Blues
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1981
Crude, powerful, loud… and the racing pulse of rock ...

Talkin' Blues: John Lee Hooker/B.B. King/Bobby 'Blue' Bland
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 a ...

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 on ...

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. ...

B.B. King
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 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 this ...

B.B. King: King Of The Blues
Profile by Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 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 of ...

Lightnin' Hopkins: Lightnin' Strikes
Retrospective by Tony Russell, The History of Rock, 1983
When the great bluesman Big Bill Broonzy died in 1958 there were some who obituarised him as the last of the blues singers. ...

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 Mama’ ...

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 some ...

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 is ...

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 would ...

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 black ...

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 half ...

Johnny Otis: Blues, R&B, Jazz
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 block ...

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 dynamics, ...

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, ...

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, everything's ...

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? ...

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 the ...

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 one ...

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 musician: ...

AUDIO: John Lee Hooker (1988)
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 ...

Robert Johnson: Demons on the Delta
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, August 1988
Standing at the crossroads
I tried to flag a ride
Nobody seemed to know me
Everybody passed me by.
– 'Crossroads Blues' by Robert Johnson ...

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 ...

Chess Records Round-Up
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, 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. ...

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 90 ...

Robert Plant: Manic Nirvana
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 – ...

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 ...

Little Willie John: Fever
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 R&B ...

AUDIO: John Mayall (1990)
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 ...

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 and ...

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. ...

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 for ...

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? ...

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 to ...

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 a ...

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." ...

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 rather ...

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 satchelful ...

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 marketing ...

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 polyester ...

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 (at ...

John Lee Hooker: Mr Lucky
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 ...

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 immense ...

Big John Greer
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. ...

Buddy Johnson
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 by ...

Jeff Beck: Beckology
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) on ...

John Lee Hooker: Mannish Boy
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 roadhouse ...

Little Willie John
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 with ...

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 rested ...

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 ever ...

Louis Jordan
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 of ...

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 be ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 Henderson ...

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 of ...

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 postwar ...

The Return of Luther Allison: A Prodigal Son of the Blues Comes Back to His Native Land
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 Arbor ...

Good Grief: Charles Brown's Up for a Blues Grammy, but He's Not Really Playin' the Blues
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 a ...

Jumpstartin' the Blues: Piedmont Bluesman Archie Edwards
Profile and Interview by Jerry Zolten, Living Blues, April 1996
Talks About Roots, Rights, and Rhythms ...

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 now ...

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 55th ...

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 that? ...

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 the ...

Muddy Waters: Electric Mud; Sonny Boy Williamson: Bummer Road; Little Walter: Blues With A Feelin’
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 were ...

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 man ...

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. ...

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 least ...

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 the ...

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 was ...

The Day B.B. King Went to Jail
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, 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 tuning ...

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 Broom ...

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 Diego's ...

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 Generation ...

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 the ...

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 aggregations ...

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 Maghett) ...

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 ...

Peter Green: Now Play On…
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 spends ...

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 John ...

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 Jackson ...

Purple Prose From The Many Voices Of The Blues
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, The Independent, February 2001
David Dalton: Been Here And Gone: A Memoir Of The Blues (Methuen, 386pp; £10.99) ...

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 while ...

'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 October, ...

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 the ...

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 birthday. ...

Dick Heckstall-Smith
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 ...

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 women ...

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, Fat ...

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 Angeles ...

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 Reed, ...

Ike Turner: Ronnie Scott's, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, February 2002
IF YOU didn't know Ike Turner was 70 before this show, you certainly did within minutes of his swaggering entrance. ...

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 more ...

Blues Explosion
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 summer ...

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup: Rock Me Mama: 22 Original Hits By The Godfather Of Rock & Roll
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, and ...

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. The ...

Buddy Guy, Blues Singer
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 I ...

Last Night A Record Changed My Life - Bonnie Raitt on Blues At Newport - Recorded Live At The Newport Folk Festival 1964
Memoir by Phil Sutcliffe, Mojo, July 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 No ...

B.B. King: Reflections
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 palaces ...

Cryin' the Blues
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: 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, especially ...

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 has ...

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 asked ...

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. Zion ...

Talkin' 'Bout A Spoonful
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 were ...

Taj Mahal: A Living Edifice To The Blues
Live Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, June 2004
Taj Mahal/Tinariwen, Barbican, London **** ...

The Butterfield Blues Band: The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw/In My Own Dream
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 Butterfield’s ...

Rail Good Lesson in the Blues
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. ...

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 everyone ...

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 long-haired ...

The Truth In Red And White: The White Stripes' Romanticised Reality
Comment by Stevie Chick, The Stranger, 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 he ...

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 just ...

North Mississippi Hill Country Blues
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 and ...

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 ...

Clifford Antone: 1949-2006
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 his ...

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 legendary ...

Ike Turner
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 It?, ...

James Hunter
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. But ...

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 ...