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Category: Blues
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John Lee Hooker
About John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he developed in Detroit. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie…
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Big Joe Turner
About Joseph Vernon “Big Joe” Turner Jr. was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, “Rock and roll would have never happened without him”. Turner’s greatest fame was due to his rock and roll recordings in the 1950s, particularly “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, but his career as a performer…
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Big Mama Thornton
About Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, was an American singer and songwriter of the blues and R&B. Albums/Songs: Big Mama Thornton and the Chicago Blues Band They Called Me Big Mama Big Mama Swing Big Mama the Queen at Monterey Partnership Blues The Essential Recordings Hound Dog: The Peacock Recordings In Europe Big Mama Thornton…
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Muddy Waters
About McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the “father of modern Chicago blues”. His style of playing has been described as “raining down Delta beatitude”. Albums/Songs: McKinley Morganfield A.K.A. Muddy…
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Mamie Smith
About Mamie Smith was an American singer. As a vaudeville singer, she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings. Willie “The Lion” Smith described the background of these recordings in his autobiography Music on My Mind (1964). Albums/Songs:…
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Blind Lemon Jefferson
About Lemon Henry “Blind Lemon” Jefferson was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s and has been called the “Father of the Texas Blues”. Albums/Songs: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 3: 1928 Moanin’ All Over That Black Snake Moan Black…
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Robert Johnson
About Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Although his recording career spanned only seven months, he is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta…
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Ma Rainey
About Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was an American blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Dubbed the “Mother of the Blues”, she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a “moaning” style of singing.…
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Bessie Smith
About Bessie Smith was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues”, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era…