4 Extremely Important Bluesmen

Well, I believe it’s important to know each day more and more about the blues artists. Studying their history you can better understand the history of blues itself. Listed here are artists who were very important in forming the blues history.

• B.B. King – Originally Riley B. King, he is one of the few who made such great success. Known for his unique guitar style of playing, with single-note solos, and unforgettable singing, he is perhaps the most widely known bluesman.
  

  B.B. King

  His nickname goes back to 1948, when he was working as a disc jockey and singer at WDIA radio, at Memphis. There, he gained the nickname Beale Street Blues Boy, which was shortened to B.B. later. While playing in a concert at Twist, Arkansas, in mid-1950’s, two men started a fight, knocking over a kerosene stove, being used to warm the place. It caught fire, and when B.B. King got outside, he realized he left his $30 guitar inside. He rushed in to retrieve it, luckily getting out alive. Later, he found out the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille, so he named his guitar after that, to remember never to do such a thing as fight over a woman. The original guitar got stole from the trunk of his car in Brooklyn, NY, and he put ads on the papers offering $20.000, but no one ever claimed it. Now days, he says he would give $100.000 for the original one. His playing influenced great guitarists, including Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon.

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  John Lee Hooker

  John Lee Hooker - Born in Coahama County, Mississippi, he ran away from home at 15 and went to live in Memphis, working at the New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street, and occasionally performed at parties. He would later move to Detroit at 1948, and feel at home on Hastings Street, main place for black entertainment at Detroit. Playing on blues venues and saloons, his popularity quickly grew. On that same year Hooker recorded a single with the Bihari Brothers, called “Boogie Chillen”. Since in the 1950’s studios paid very little to blacks, he did various works at different studios, using more than obvious pseudonyms, such as “John Lee Booker” and “Johnny Hooker”. Died June 21, 2001, at the age of 83, but his classics songs will live on forever, such as “Boom, Boom” and “Boogie Chillen”.

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  Sonny Boy Williamson playing "Good Morning, School Girl"

  Sonny Boy Williamson – One of the most influential blues harmonica player ever to live, he first recorded, at 1937, the single “Good Morning, School Girl”,wich became an instant hit. His style influenced several players, including Little Walter and Sonny Terry. Even non-harmonica players like Muddy Waters were influenced by him. He was hugely popular in the late 30’s and all throughout the 40’s, dying on 1948, aged 34. Another player named Alex “Rice” Miller, in the 40’s, started calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson II, for being a fan of the original. It is known Sonny Boy Williamson I once confronted him about it, but nothing came out of it. Since Alex Miller never recorded anything during Williamson’s lifetime, no lawsuits were made. He was buried at Jackson, Tennessee, and until this day he is influencing new harmonica players all around the world.

• Robert Johnson – He is certainly one of the most interesting bluesman of all time. In 1929, as a young man living in Robbinsville, he use to follow great bluesman around, like Son House and Willie Brown, but they used to mock him for his lack of experience.
  

  Robert Johnson

  He goes away, and reappears after a few months, with a miraculous improvement on his playing. Impressed with that miraculous improvement, along with other weird things, like Johnson playing faced to the wall, it was created a legend Johnson had sold his soul to the devil to play like that. He himself mentions that legend on many of his songs, including “Cross Roads Blues”, “Hellhound on My Trail”, “Me and the Devil Blues” and more. His incredible playing have influenced many of current and past artists, including Eric Clapton, Led Zeppeling, Jimi Hendrix, and more.

  

  Johnson's second known photograph.

  His song “Stop Breaking Down Blues” is said to have directly influenced the Chicago Blues. There are only two known photos of him, but some claim they have found a third. Unfortunely, he died at only 27, on 1938. The cause of his death is not exactly known, but widely beleived to be Strychnine poisioning wich later succumbed to pneumonia, that was given to him inside a whisky bottle by a jealous husband of a woman he had been having an affair with. His burial place is also a mystery. Two places have been stated as where he is buried, including Mount Zion Missionary Baptist church near Morgan City, Mississippi, and under a big pecan tree in the cemetery of the Little Zion Church north of Greenwood along Money Road. Both of the places have some kind of mark stating Johnson is buried there. Today, you can hear all of his songs buying the cd box “Robert Johnson : The Complete Recordings”.

Well, there are thousands of blues artists that deserve a space in this post, but unfortunaly I just can talk about them all. Do you know any more important artists?

References (check for citations): B.B. King¹, B.B. King², B.B. King³, John Lee Hooker¹, John Lee Hooker², Sonny Boy Williamson¹, Sonny Boy Williamson², Robert Johnson¹, Robert Johnson².