85 articles
Mustang Sally (song)
"Mustang Sally" is a 1965 R&B song written and first recorded by Mack Rice (originally "Mustang Mama") and made famous by Wilson Pickett's 1966 FAME Studios recording, a Top Ten R&B hit covered by hundreds of artists.
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
"One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" is a 1953 blues drinking song by Rudy Toombs, first recorded by Amos Milburn and later famous via John Lee Hooker and George Thorogood.
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield (1942-1987), Chicago blues harmonica player and singer, led the racially integrated Paul Butterfield Blues Band; debut album 1965, East-West 1966, backed Dylan's electric Newport debut.
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green, born Peter Allen Greenbaum (1946 to 2020), was an English blues-rock guitarist who founded Fleetwood Mac and wrote Albatross, Black Magic Woman, and Oh Well.
Robben Ford
Robben Ford (born 1951, Woodlake, California) is an American blues-jazz electric guitarist, five-time Grammy nominee, Yellowjackets founder, and Miles Davis 1986 touring guitarist, known for the Dumble amp sound.
Robert Cray
Robert Cray (born 1953, Columbus, Georgia) is an American blues guitarist and singer leading the Robert Cray Band since 1974; five-time Grammy winner whose 1986 album Strong Persuader and hit Smoking Gun drove the 1980s blues revival.
Rocket 88
Rocket 88 (1951), by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, recorded at Sam Phillips' Memphis studio, released on Chess 1458; five weeks at No. 1 on the R&B chart and often called the first rock and roll record.
Roy Buchanan
Roy Buchanan (Leroy Buchanan, 1939–1988), American blues-rock guitarist and Telecaster master known for pinch harmonics and volume swells; 1972 debut "The Messiah Will Come Again", 1985 Alligator comeback, died in Fairfax, Virginia.
Samantha Fish
Samantha Fish, born 1989 in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American blues singer-guitarist known for Live Bait (2009), Runaway (2011), Grammy-nominated Death Wish Blues (2023) with Jesse Dayton, and Paper Doll (2025).
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, born Jalacy J. Hawkins (1929–2000), was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and pianist whose "I Put a Spell on You" and coffin-and-skull stage act anticipated shock rock.
Seasick Steve
Seasick Steve, born Steven Gene Wold (also documented as Steve Leach), is an American blues musician famous for homemade instruments and a 2006 Jools Holland Hootenanny performance that launched a late-blooming career.
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck Miller, Rice Miller, c. 1912–1965) was a Delta blues harmonica great of King Biscuit Time radio and Chess/Checker records, distinct from the original Sonny Boy Williamson.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan (Stephen Ray Vaughan, known as SRV) was an American blues guitarist and singer who led Double Trouble, igniting the 1980s blues revival before dying in a 1990 helicopter crash.
Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit is the 1939 anti-lynching protest song written as a poem by Abel Meeropol (Lewis Allan), made famous by Billie Holiday at Café Society and on Commodore Records, her best-selling record and a civil rights landmark.
Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi is an American blues singer and guitarist who co-leads the Tedeschi Trucks Band with her husband Derek Trucks and won a 2012 Grammy.
T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker (Aaron Thibeaux Walker, 1910–1975), Texas-born blues guitarist and singer who pioneered electric blues guitar, recorded "Stormy Monday" in 1947, and won a 1970 Grammy for Good Feelin'.
Taj Mahal (musician)
Taj Mahal, born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks in 1942, is an American blues musician and multi-instrumentalist who fused blues with Caribbean, African, Indian, and Hawaiian traditions, led the Rising Sons with Ry Cooder, and won multiple Grammys.
Texas Flood
Texas Flood: 1983 debut album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble on Epic Records, named for the Larry Davis and Joseph Scott blues song it covers; reached No. 38 on the Billboard 200.
The Blues (film series)
The Blues (2003) is a seven-part PBS documentary series executive produced by Martin Scorsese, with films by Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Clint Eastwood, Charles Burnett, Mike Figgis, Marc Levin, and Richard Pearce on blues music history.
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are a rhythm-and-blues band created by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as SNL characters Elwood and Joliet Jake Blues, debuting April 22, 1978; Briefcase Full of Blues went double platinum and the 1980 John Landis film launched a lasting franchise.
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Austin blues-rock band formed in 1974 by Jimmie Vaughan and Kim Wilson, known for the 1986 platinum hit "Tuff Enuff"; Wilson remains its only original member.
Twelve-bar blues
Twelve-bar blues: the standard blues chord form of twelve 4/4 measures in three four-bar phrases over I7, IV7, and V7, with AAB lyrics and a turnaround; basis of much blues, jazz, and rock and roll.
W. C. Handy
W. C. Handy (William Christopher Handy, 1873-1958), the "Father of the Blues," was an American composer, bandleader, and publisher who popularized blues through "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues" and founded Handy Brothers Music Co.
Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon (1915-1992), Chicago blues bassist, songwriter, and Chess Records producer, wrote "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Spoonful," and "Little Red Rooster"; sued Led Zeppelin over "Whole Lotta Love"; founded Blues Heaven Foundation.
Zydeco
Zydeco is the accordion-led, washboard-driven dance music of Louisiana's Black Creoles, evolved from la-la and modernized in 1940s-50s Houston, notably by Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco.