I'll grant you Hooker has some unparalleled songs, yet I would ask you to listen to "The Bluest Blue" by Alvin Lee(of Ten Years After ). It's on a compilation disc through BMG Music Service. It may be available elsewhere, I don't know. I like cream johnny lee hooker
bb king Bobby Bland,Johnny Lee Hooker,BBKing,Stevie Ray Vaughn,Eric Clapton,and Canned Heat.Many more. hak, they are a highschool band but they are very good and original Buddy Guy
Elmore James
John Lee Hooker
Howlin Wolf
BB King
Etta James
Robert Cray
Roy Rogers(no,not the singing cowboy)
Matt"Guitar"Murphy John Lee Hooker
Albert King
Hubert Sumlin
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Anthony Gomes
Etta Baker
B.B. King
Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters
Jenn
www.steelstringblues.com B.B. King
Buddy guy and Junior Wells (Probably my favorite team up)
Sonny boy Williamson 2
Howlin' Wolf
Jimmy Reed
Paul Butterfield, James Cotton
Oh God there are too many and its really hard to choose favorites. Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Lightning Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, SRV john lee hooker hands down man. My favorite is the BLUEST Blues song ever ever made in the history of all Blues.......................and here it is........... the last verse really rips my heart out and smashes it under a steam roller. Wow... what an illistration.
Artist: John Lee Hooker
Song: Hard Luck Blues
The lyrics start off with ............
Well..... rocks is my pillow
The cold ground is my bed
The highway is my home
Lord, I might as well be dead
And end with.............
Well........ I'm gonna get religion
and learn how to pray...
I need help so bad..
Lord I might be on my wayyyyyyy...
I've been walking and walking
Seems this road ain't got no end
But I'm gonna find my mothers grave....
fall on her tombstone and die..... Muddy Waters
Howlin' Wolf
Little Walter
Sonny Boy II
Reverend Gary Davis
Otis Spann
-All well known
John Hammond, in my opinion, is one of the most powerful, authentic, exciting performers playing the blues today. I've seen him perform more than fifty times.
Rod Piazza/The Mighty Flyers-fortunately they live in my area, so I've had the chance to see them perhaps a hundred times or more. Rod has an ENOURMOUS ego, but he may be the true heir to Little Walter. Miss Honey is an incredible pianist, and the band has had a succession of great guitarists-Junior Watson, Alex Schultz, Rick Holmstrom, etc.
Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan-based out of Santa Barbara, they are near enough for me to see regularly. Tom plays harp like no-one else. Think John Popper if he could actually play passages that made sense musically. He also plays guitar (mainly 14-17 centuries) as well as he plays harp. Kenny is a master of various fingerpicking styles. To see them at Cold Springs Tavern-an old stagecoach stop-on a Sunday afternoon, with several hundred bikers, a cold beer in one hand, and a tri-tip sandwich in the other, is pure bliss. Here is a poem I wrote for a friend about my favorite blues artists.
Life, Love, And The Blues
for Viola a 9 year old feminist from Oakland, CA
I was in a local music store recently
browsing the anthologies of music
and there
amongst the tomes
of recordings
of the musical legacy
of this great nation
I saw a particular article
I would like to bring to your attention.
This particular article
is entitled 鈥淭he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need.鈥?
Now on this particular compilation
were such luminaries
as; Johnny Copeland,
Eric Clapton,
Buddy Guy,
Wilson Pickett,
Howlin鈥?Wolf,
Lightnin鈥?Hopkins, Lightin鈥?Slim,
Robert Cray, Robert Johnson,
Albert Collins, Albert King,
and B.B. King.
NowI will confess
that men have had the blues
at 3 O鈥檆lock,
in the midnight hour,
and after midnight.
And it is also true
that EVERY little red rooster
born under a bad sign
with a bad case of love
has got their mojo workin鈥?
I SAID has got their mojo workin鈥?
But it JUST won鈥檛 work on me
because I have SEEN the light
and there is a wrong we must right
so I am here tonight to tell you
that 鈥楾he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need鈥?
is a sin!
I say it鈥檚 a SIN!
The record executives,
the editors,
the compliers of
the only blues album
you or I or any of us will ever need
did not SEE the need
to include the person
who
for over 40 years
with a slide guitar has been gnawin鈥?on it.
You KNOW I鈥檓 talkin鈥?鈥榖out Bonnie Raitt!
And as I stand here tonight
with a six string as my witness,
I tell no you that
no true blues enthusiast,
I tell you NO true blues enthusiast
would EVER
step over the strings of Memphis Minnie
or Sister Rosetta Tharpe!
And yet
鈥楾he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need鈥?
did not see the need
to feed us the cries and sighs,
laughs and loves,
moans and bemoanful brays,
of Marcia Ball,
Hadda Brooks,
Ruth Brown,
Bessie Smith,
Big Maybelle,
and Big Mama Thornton
whose original hound dog
was a HOWL against the very CHEATIN鈥?
and DECEITIN鈥?
men who are all over 鈥楾he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need鈥?
鈥楾he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need鈥?also so fit
to omit
such experienced voices as
Irma Thomas,
Ma Rainey,
Mamie Smith,
Maria Maldaur,
Shemeika Copeland,
Sunpie DeSanto,
Susan Tedeschi,
and that two-fisted mama,
the Swamp Boogie Queen herself
Katie Webster
who has been stood up SO many times,
I SAID
has been stood up SO MANY TIMES
by SO MANY crawlin鈥?king snakes
you would
SWEAR-
men were giving her a standing ovation!
And so I ask you ladies and gentlemen,
I ask you how?
How can a king appear without his queen,
the queen,
Koko Taylor?!
She鈥檚 got what it takes,
I say, YOU KNOW she鈥檚 got what it takes.
But 鈥楾he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need鈥?
doesn鈥檛 give a WANG DANG DOODLE!
So I鈥檓 askin鈥?you,
and you,
and you,
and you,
and you,
and you
and all of you to rise up
and tell mama鈥?
tell your pa鈥?br>
I鈥檓 gonna send you back to Arkansas,
I鈥檓 gonna send you over there to Mississippi,
up on in there to Illinois
and way down there to Louisiana and Texas.
I鈥檓 gonna send you east,
west,
north, and south
to testify that the truth has NOT BEEN TOLD
And I would rather go blind
than listen to
鈥楾he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need鈥?br>
which is not the only blues album I will ever need
and which has not given the blues its dues
without Etta James point of view.
And so-
until 鈥楾he Only Blues Album You Will Ever Need鈥?sees fit
to rectify this grave injustice.
I said sees fit
to rectify this grave,
gross,
heinous,
hideous,
and erroneous injustice,
DON鈥橳 YOU
EVER-
talk to ME about life, love, and the blues!
Bear 2007 I would say me I'M Satan Handy
couldn't resits the other choice is Sonny Boy Williams in no particular order (except of number 1)
John Lee Hooker
Robert Johnson
BB King
Lightning Hopkins
Son House
Sonny Boy williamson 1 and 2
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Bo Diddley
Elmore James
Muddy Waters
Willy Dixon
Howlin Wolf
T bone Walker
And so many many more Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Jimmie Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, BB King, Albert King, Hubert Sumlin, Kim Wilson, Sue Foley, Bonnie Raitte, Lightnin' Hpkins, Blind Blake, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Keith Richards, Johnny Copeland, Eric Bibb, Tyrone Vaughan, Derick O'Brien, Cab Calloway, Robert Johnson, W.C Clark, all of them....and then some.... Muddy Waters
BB King
Luther Allison
T Bone Walker
Gatemouth Brown
Albert Collins
Albert King
Freddy King
Brownie McGhee
Sonny Terry
Little Walter
James Cotton
Otis Spann
Sunnyland Slim
Rev. Gary Davis
Mance Lipscomb
Professor Longhair
Tuts Washington
Junior Parker
Big Joe Turner
Pete Johnson
Frank "Sweet" Williams
Fats Waller
Magic Sam
Mighty Joe Young
Buddy Guy
Junior Wells
Ronnie Earl
Pinetop Perkins
Babe Stovall
Ma Rainey
Bessie Smith
Ida Cox
Billie Holiday
Cannonball Adderly
Eddie Harris
Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Lightnin' Hopkins
Bukka White
Snooks Eaglin
Guitar Slim
Percy Mayfield
Bullmoose Jackson
LaVerne Baker
Wynonie Harris
Tampa Red
Howlin' Wolf
Sonny Boy Williamson (both of them)
Charlie Patton
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Big Bill Broonzy
Leadbelly
Josh White
Elmore James
John Lee Hooker
Keb Mo
Johnny Winter
Mike Bloomfield
Johnny Copeland
Son House
Sam Chapman
Rory Block (best white female blues artist for me)
(and more I can't remember) blind lemon johnson muddy waters kenny wayne shepperd bb king led belly robert johnson B.B. King, Magic Sam, Hound Dog Taylor, R.L. Burnside,Junior Kimbrough, Cream, The Yardbirds,The Allman Brothers.
My FAVORITE blues of all time is Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. Blind Blake, Blind Lemmon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Lonnie Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins ....
Just goes on and on. John Lee Hooker, Howlin Wolf, Robert Johnson, Hound Dog Taylor, Albert King, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Muddy
Waters Bonnie Raitt
Jeff Pitchel
Jimi Hendrix
Janice Joplin
B.B. King LITTLE TOBY WALKER......BLIND WILLIE MCTELL.....SLEEPY JOHN ESTES.....BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON.....ELMORE JAMES.....JOHN LEE HOOKER.....CANNED HEAT.....JANIS JOPLIN....BESSIE SMITH....REVEREND GARY DAVIS////////// LASTLY....THE GREATEST BLUES PRODIGY EVER IS THE CURRENT BLIND 12 YEAR OLD CONRAD OBERG WHO TAUGHT HIMSELF HOW TO PLAY PIANO @ AGE OF 2 & GUITAR @ AGE OF 10 AND HAS A CD AND IS ON YOU TUBE !!!!! - HI SPITTING.....THINK YOU'D LIKE LITTLE TOBY WALKER WITH HIS STEEL NATIONAL GUITAR DOING " ON-LINE RELIGION " ?? AS FAR AS CONRAD IS CONCERNED HE HAS PLAYED OR RECORDED WITH BUDDY GUY, JOHN HAMMOND, HOUND DOG TAYLOR, JERRY LEE LEWIS, DR. JOHN, RAY CHARLES & A HOST OF OTHERS + I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH MORE TORE UP YOU CAN BE THAN BEING BLIND ??--- ALTHOUGH THE BLUES IS A TOUGH FIELD TO CRACK TODAY - I AM HOPING THAT TOBY & CONRAD DON'T DISAPPEAR LIKE POPPA CHUBBY DID A FEW YEARS AGO ?? Stevie Ray Vaughn
Albert King
Johnny Winter
Buddy Guy Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Jeff Beck
Stevie Ray Vaughan
John Lee Hooker
Howlin Wolf
BB King
Buddy Guy
Elmore James
Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters
Alvin Lee A start is all that I can give you. There are so many.
Eric Clapton
Johnny Winter (Progressive Blues Experiment)
Mike Bloomfield
Roy Buchanan (Second Album)
Savoy Brown (Getting To The Point or Blue Matter)
Muddy Waters (Fathers And Sons with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield)
Howlin Wolf
Albert King
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Buddy Guy
Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown) Robert Johnson
Hound Dog Taylor
Elmore James
John Lee Hooker
Howlin' Wolf
BB King
Elvin Bishop
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jonny Lang
George Thorogood (yeh- listen to his blues stuff)
Ten Years After
Allman Brothers
Johnny Winter Muddy Waters
Howlin' Wolf
Robert Johnson
R.L. Burnside
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Corey Harris
Albert King
John Lee Hooker
Son House
Buddy Guy
Skip James
Junior Kimbrough
Elmore James
Johnny Winter
Eric Clapton
Chris Thomas King
Freddie King
BB King
Hound Dog Taylor Wow. The blues. I grew up in the delta, and got to meet and hang with some of the greats. I lived near Sun records in Memphis for a while, and ran a station there, the Ardent engineers would occasionally bring over pre-mastered disks so they could hear them transmitted into their car radios:) great fun.
not liking the blues is like not liking fish... there are so many kinds to choose from that one HAS to appeal.
corrosion has a great list, and has lots of my favs on it, like Gary Davis. but I'd add a bunch of texas folks. Johnny lang, kenny wayne shepherd, the winters brothers, Janis, even zztop in the old days. the vaughns, McClinton, thorogood.
Did we get Butterfield into the list?
Gary Morse is great.
I respect and love all those mentioned, but probably my favorite, and mentioned nowhere, is Captain Beefheart on The Spotlight Kid. "i'm gonna booglerize you baby" is amazing. Lots of his stuff is kind of inaccessible, but this and Doc at the Radar station are pretty easy to get into. Trout Mask Replica is hard to listen to in a sitting, but it has some good blues cuts on it, and one of my all-time favorite lines "a squid eating dough in a polyethlyne bag is fast and bulbous, got me?" And his sound-poems on Bongo Fury are pretty amazing. "we listened to music from the other side of the fence, opaque melodies that would bug most people". whew,
But i digress:)
Hey rebop, thanks for the lead to Conrad.. a great budding talent, but I respectfully submit that until he gets his heart tore out and stomped on real good a few times he won't really feel it. I get no pain listening to him, and the blues freakin HURT.
like fleetwood mac's "oh well". what a song. SRV is my all time favorite but I also like:
hendrix, Albert king, B.B., Ray Charles, Indigenous, KWS, Jonny Lang, Doyle Bramhall, Doyle Bramhall II, Clapton, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy Bessie Smith, you fools! ;-)
Billie Holiday
Muddy Waters
Jelly Roll Morton You are right, you should be ashamed that nobody mentioned John Mayall... We toured with and backed John Lee, Sonny Boy, and T Bone before most of you were born !!
Roger Dean (Bluesbreaker 1964)
PS. No offence intended. |
