- Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1915 - April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues". He is also the actual father of blues musician Big Bill Morganfield. Muddy Waters is generally considered one of the greatest bluesmen of all time, and in 2004 he was ranked #17 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". - B. B. King
Riley B. King, better known as B. B. King or "The King of Blues" (born September 16 1925 in Itta Bena, Mississippi), is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, widely considered one of the best and most respected blues musicians of all time. He was also ranked 3<sup>rd</sup> on the Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. - Ray Charles
Ray Charles was the stage name of Ray Charles Robinson, a pioneering American pianist and soul musician who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues. He brought a soulful sound to country music, pop standards, and a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradley of "60 Minutes" called the "definitive version of the song, an American anthem - a classic, … - Albert King
Albert King (April 25, 1923 - December 21, 1992) was an influential American blues guitarist and singer. - Little Milton
Milton "Little Milton" Campbell, Jr. (September 7, 1934-August 4, 2005) was a blues vocalist and guitarist best known for his hits "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Going to Make It." Most popular in the sixties, he became one of the lesser known greats of the genre, combining traditional lyrical structure with smoother production. Born in the Mississippi Delta town of Inverness and raised in Greenville by a farmer and local blues musician. - Etta James
Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938) is an American blues, soul, R&B, and jazz singer and songwriter. In the 1950s and 60s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer. She is best-known for her 1961 ballad "At Last", which has been classified as a "timeless classic" and has been featured in many movies and television commercials since its release. - Dr. John
Dr. John is the stage name of Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (born November 21, 1940), a colourful pianist, singer, and songwriter, whose music spans, and often combines, blues, boogie woogie, and rock and roll. - Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 - January 10, 1976), better known as Howlin' Wolf or sometimes, The Howlin' Wolf, was an influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. - Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan and later called Lady Day, was an American jazz singer. - John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 - June 21, 2001) was an influential American post-war blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter born in Coahoma County near Clarksdale, Mississippi. From a musical family, he was a cousin of Earl Hooker. John was also influenced by his stepfather, a local blues guitarist, who learned in Shreveport, Louisiana to play a droning, one-chord blues that was strikingly different from the Delta blues of the time. - Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 - August 16, 1938) is among the most famous Delta Blues musicians. His exceptional guitar skills and his death at the age of 27 have given rise to much legend. Considered by some to be the "Grandfather of Rock-and-Roll," his vocal phrasing, original songs, and guitar style influenced a range of musicians, including Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers Band, The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes and Eric Clapton, … - Little Walter
Little Walter (born Marion Walter Jacobs) (May 1 1930 - February 15 1968) was a blues singer, harmonica player, and guitarist. Born in Marksville, Louisiana, Jacobs is generally included among blues music greats: Ry Cooder's opinion is that Jacobs was the single greatest blues musician ever. His revolutionary harmonica technique has earned comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix in its impact: There were great musicians before and after, … - Ike Turner
Izear Luster Turner (born November 5, 1931) is an African American musician (piano, guitar), bandleader, talent scout and record producer, best known for his work with his former wife Tina Turner. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2001 was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. - Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues and rock guitarist and singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and other 1960s blues and rock legends, Guy is considered an important exponent of Chicago blues. He is the father of female rapper Shawnna. Guy is known for his showmanship; for example, he plays his guitar with drumsticks, or strolls into the audience while jamming and trailing a long guitar cord. - Otis Rush
Otis Rush (born April 29, 1934 in Philadelphia, Mississippi) is a blues musician, singer and guitarist. His distinctive guitar style features a slow burning sound, jazz-style arpeggios and long bent notes. With similar qualities to Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy and Albert King, his sound became known as West Side Chicago blues and became an influence on Michael Bloomfield, Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Stevie Ray Vaughan. - James Cotton
James "Jimmy" Cotton (born July 1, 1935 in Tunica, Mississippi), is an American blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter who is the bandleader for the James Cotton Blues Band. He also writes songs alone, and his solo career continues to this day. His work includes the following genres: Blues, Delta Blues, Harmonica Blues, Electric Harmonica Blues. - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 - August 27, 1990), born in Dallas, Texas, was an American blues guitarist. His broad appeal made him one of the world's most influential electric blues guitarists. In 2003, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan #7 in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan. - Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926 in Overland, Missouri) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Chuck Berry is an immensely influential figure and one of the pioneers of rock & roll music. Cub Koda wrote, "Of all the early breakthrough rock & roll artists, none is more important to the development of the music than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, the main shaper of its instrumental voice, one of its greatest guitarists, … - Elmore James
Elmore James (January 27, 1918 - May 24, 1963) was an American blues singer and guitarist. He was known as The King of the Slide Guitar. - Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (born February 26, 1928) is a classic R&B and rock and roll singer, songwriter and pianist. He was the best-selling African-American singer of the 1950s and early 1960s. Domino is also a pianist with an individualistic bluesy style, showing stride and boogie-woogie influences. His congenial personality and rich accent have added to his appeal. - Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon (July 1, 1915 - January 29, 1992) was a well-known American blues bassist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. - Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 - January 30, 1982) was a country blues guitar musician, from Houston, Texas. - T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux Walker or T-Bone Walker or Oak Cliff T-Bone (May 28, 1910 - March 16, 1975) was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, who is believed to have been the first bluesman to use an amplified acoustic guitar. - Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington (August 29, 1924 - December 14, 1963) was a blues, R&B and jazz singer. Because of her strong voice and emotional singing, she is known as the Queen of the Blues. Despite dying of a drug overdose in 1963, Dinah Washington became one of the most influential vocalists of the twentieth century. - Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (24 October 1911, Greenboro, Georgia - 11 March 1986, Mineloa, New York) was a blues musician. He was most widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts. - Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner (born Joseph Vernon Turner Jr., May 18, 1911 - November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. - Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician and songwriter who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as The King of the Jukebox, Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the later years of the swing era. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #59 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. - Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley (born December 30, 1928) aka "The Originator" of Rock 'N' Roll, is an influential American rock and roll singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is often cited as the key figure in the transition of blues into rock and roll, by introducing more insistent, driving rhythms and a hard edged guitar sound. He is also remembered for his characteristic rectangular-shaped guitar. - Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III (born on 23 February, 1944 in Beaumont, Texas) is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. He is the first son of John and Edwina Winter who were very much responsible for Johnny's and his younger brother's, Edgar Winter's, early musical awareness. Both Johnny and Edgar have albinism. - Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1893 or 1898 - August 15, 1958) was a prolific United States composer, recorder and performer of blues songs. "Big Bill" was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in Scott County, Mississippi on June 26, 1893 or 1898 (the exact year is unclear). While Broonzy himself claimed to be born in 1893, another source claims that Broonzy had a twin sister named Lannie Broonzy who had proof they were born on June 26, 1898. - Freddie King
Freddie King (September 3 1934 - December 28 1976) was an influential American blues guitarist and singer, best known for his recordings "Hide Away", "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" and "Going Down". - Sunnyland Slim
Albert "Sunnyland Slim" Luandrew, was a blues pianist born on a farm near Vance, Mississippi. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1925, where he performed with many of the popular blues musicians of the day. In 1942 he followed the great migration of southern workers to the industrial north in Chicago. At that time the electric blues was taking shape there, and through the years Sunnyland Slim played with such musicians as Muddy Waters, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Little Walter. - Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis (born Ioannis (Yannis) Veliotes on December 28, 1921 in Vallejo, California) is an American blues and rhythm and blues pianist, vibraphonist, drummer, singer, bandleader, and impresario. Johnny Otis was one of the most prominent white figures in the history of black R&B. After playing in a variety of swing orchestras, including Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders, … - Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell (May 5 1908-August 15 1959), born William Samuel McTell, was an influential American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was a twelve-string finger picking guitarist, and recorded from 1927 to 1955. One of his most famous songs, "Statesboro Blues", has been covered by artists such as Taj Mahal and The Allman Brothers Band. - Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown was an American R&B singer. Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia, Brown brought a popular music style to rhythm and blues in a series of hit songs for fledgling Atlantic Records in the 1950s. Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the eighties, Brown used her influence to press for musicians' rights regarding royalties and contracts. - Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie McCoy was an American Blues musician - Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes called 'KoKo Taylor' (born Cora Walton, 28 September 1935, in Shelby County, Tennessee) is an American blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She is known primarily for her rough and powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings. Taylor left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois in 1954 with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor and in the late 1950s began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, … - Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed (September 6, 1925 - August 29, 1976) was an American blues singer notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries. - Dick Waterman
Dick Waterman (b. 1935) is an American writer, promoter and photographer who has been influential in the development and recording of blues music since the 1960s. Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, he studied journalism at Boston University in the 1950s. He moved on to write for "Broadside Magazine" and became its feature editor. In 1963, he began to promote local shows with blues artists including Mississippi John Hurt and Booker "Bukka" White. - Junior Parker
Junior Parker (May 27, 1932-November 18, 1971) was a Memphis blues singer and musician. Junior Parker was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi as Herman Parker, Jr. He played on the various blues circuits beginning in his teenage years, playing with artists like Sonny Boy Williamson (his mentor) and Howlin' Wolf. Parker was discovered by Ike Turner in 1952, who signed him to Modern Records. He put out one single on this record label, …
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