#bluesmen

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969).

Jimmy Reed was the first blues artist I became aware of as a youngster. I’d sneak into my older brother’s room when he was out & listen to his records, being real careful to put them right back exactly where I found them. There were healthy doses of Elvis & Chuck Berry, “Hi-Heel Sneakers”, & a really cool song called “Baby What You Want Me To Do” by Jimmy Reed. 

Once I got a little older & I started idolizing British groups like The Rolling Stones & The Yardbirds, eventually I started delving a little deeper & discovered Bo Diddley & bluesmen like Muddy Waters & Howlin’ Wolf. 

Then I came back to Jimmy Reed, & after repeated listenings over the years, somewhere along the way I decided maybe Jimmy was my favorite. There was just something about those repeated rhythms & his nonchalant delivery that just felt right & spoke to me...

Wake Up at Daybreak · Jimmy Reed 

ROSY-CHEEKED KING OF THE BLUES.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on the late, great B.B. King (1925-2015), American blues guitarist/vocalist/singer-songwriter and all around legendary bluesman, artwork by William Stout for his "Legends of the Blues" (2013) portrait series.

MINI-BIO: "Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925 in Itta Bena, Mississippi. After his father left the family, Riley grew up in his mother’s and grandmother’s homes. He worked as a sharecropper and sang gospel, then moved to Indianola, Mississippi, in 1943. Country and gospel were his first influences, followed by the music of T-Bone Walker, Lonnie Johnson, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. In 1946, he studied guitar for ten months in Memphis under his cousin, bluesman Bukka White. After months of hardship, Riley returned to Indianola.

King came back to Memphis in 1948, working at radio station WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, gaining the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy,” (hence, “B.B.”; not “B. B.”, by the way). Upon first hearing T-Bone Walker, he promptly purchased an electric guitar. King cut tracks for Bullet, then began recording for RPM with (famed Elvis Presley) producer Sam Phillips. King’s first R&B #1 was Lowell Fulson’s “Three O’Clock Blues” (1951).

In the mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing at an Arkansas dance, a kerosene stove got knocked over during a fight, setting the place ablaze. B.B. raced outdoors with the crowd. Realizing he had left his beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside, he rushed back in to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. After finding out the brawl had been over a woman named Lucille, he named his guitar “Lucille” as a reminder never to be so crazy as to fight over a woman. Since then, each of his Gibson guitars has been named Lucille. The original Lucille was stolen from his car’s trunk in Brooklyn. He offered a $20,000 reward but no one ever came forward. He eventually had an open offer of $100,000 for the return of that beloved guitar."

-- WILLIAM STOUT, slightly revised B.B. bio from WS's "Legends of the Blues" book

(Left to right) Robby Krieger of The Doors, Joe Bonamassa, and Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top playing at The Billy Gibbons Birthday Jam; The Troubadour; West Hollywood, CA (12-15-22). @BillyFGibbons @OfficialKrieger @JBONAMASSA @ZZTop @TheDoors

A change of pace from a different body of work. Mississippi Blues - a week with the old bluesmen of Clarksdale, MS. This is JC Holmes.⁠ ⁠ More images in this series to come!

Me encuentro a una semana

de nuestra despedida,

la tercera.

Es media noche

y estoy borracha,

llorando sobre tu recuerdo

en una habitación con eco.

Me quito las lágrimas

para poder escribir esto:

Que te extraño,

que duele extrañarte,

que ya no respiro con seguridad,

que no salgo con frecuencia

por temor a verte por las calles,

que mis ojos están tristes,

que mi cuerpo te anhela,

que necesito un abrazo tuyo,

que quiero escuchar mi nombre con tu voz,

que quiero ver tu sonrisa,

que extraño ver tus ojos

que me gustaría más tiempo, mucho tiempo a tu lado.

Me encuentro a una semana

de nuestra tercer despedida,

con los ojos hinchados

y el corazón hecho polvo,

con tantas cosas que no te digo

y que quiero decirte,

con canciones tristes

y un montón de papel usado.

Estúpido bluesman.

st louis blues vs la kings