Male.Pioneer/Legends
Gallery
The Blues
is very simply the purest form of Art that I have yet witnessed on this
earth. Its meaning and history are something that are very nearly evidence
of divine intervention. For such beauty from such pain, is magic, is glory
to the human spirit. How strong it is, how it can find joy in misery, how
it always has hope. Glory to the powers of creation and the reasons for
it. Glory to the men and women that gave it to us. Men and women that you
will see on these pages. Special men and women that should never be forgotten,
for their example is a needed one.
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Robert Johnson
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Jimi
Hendrix
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Muddy Waters.
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Elmore James
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Leadbelly
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Gary Davis
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John Lee Hooker
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Son House
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Mississippi John
Hurt
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Ronnie Earl
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Buddy Guy
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Tab Benoit
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Bo
Diddley
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Bob Dylan
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Robert Johnson,
King of the Delta Blues. Rumors and Tales swirl with the name. Even today,
over 50 years after his death controversy still surrounds this Delta Blues
Hero. Take away all the hype, and very simply... He's da' man!
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 Although
Jimi
Hendrix will be remembered as rock's most innovative and revolutionary
guitarist, he had the natural instincts of a bluesman and in fact built
much of his early repertoire from the blues. Live, Hendrix played plenty
of blues his sets were almost always filled with long, extended jams based
on blues chord progressions heard in such gems as Red House and California
Night.
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Muddy Waters.
His voice rings injustice. His rhythm rings eternal. They say  that
Muddy
invented electricity. He took the meaning and soul of Delta Blues, plugged
it into the wall, and went to Chicago..
Elmore
James
King of the Slide Guitar
- Elmore was born in Richland, Miss. and first learned to play a "diddley
bow" by the mid '30s his family had moved to the Belzoni area. It was there
that Elmore met Robert Johnson and Rice (Sonny Boy Williamson II) Miller.
Robert's "Dust my Broom" lick (Johnson got the lyrics from
Kokmo Arnold's 1934 "Sagefield Woman Blues") became Elmore's signature.
After a stint in the Navy, Elmore started gigging with Rice Miller and
Willie Love around Memphis in the late '40s and did his first sessions
backing Sonny Boy on "Eyesight to the Blind" in 1951
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Let's not forget Huddie . Leadbellycaptured
the hearts and spirits of his day, to save them. Today, he remains the
most meaningful musician. Known as the King of the 12 String Guitar, it
was his version of Gallows Pole that inspired Led Zeppelin.
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This fine man personalized a style of his
own. He could play blues, gospel, rag and country. Gary
Davis, subtly recognized, is in a class of his own, and has influenced
plenty a musician.
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The only man with more feeling than Muddy.
John
Lee Hooker leaves the complexity to the young hot shots. He has
mastered rhythm and feel. One of the most admired living blues men there
is today. Everyone wants to play with him, but he won't leave San Francisco.
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One of the Forefathers of Delta Blues, Son
House has been around since the beginning. He was known to play
with the Likes of Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson.
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This handsome fellow is Mississippi
John Hurt. Listening to his music will make you wonder why I think
Robert Johnson is so good. He made fingerpicking famous.
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Ronnie Earl
Ronnie Earl is one
of those exceptions that prove the rule. He is not an African American
from the Delta or Chicago. He is not a Texan whose first guitar was placed
in his playpen. Ronnie Earl is a New Yorker who happened to be attending
college in Boston where a friend took him to a Muddy Waters concert. Immediately
after this show he took up the guitar and in only a couple of years he
was playing before appreciative audiences. Not content to rely on his innate
talent he has continued his intense study of his instrument
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Buddy
Guy
Buddy Guy's Legends
has built a reputation as the nation's premier blues nightclub. Mr. Guy's
personal reputation as the crowned king of Chicago's electric blues scene
and his 40 years in the music business have made Buddy some close friends,
the sort of friends who like to drop in every now and then. Buddy plays
to sold out houses at the club every January. Buddy's Grammy Award for
"Feels Like Rain" is proudly displayed, as are many of the other award
that Buddy has earned.
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Tab Benoit
Everything Tab does, he does on the spot.
He rarely rehearses, making each performance a new experience for both
the band and the audience. He likes things simple, and approaches life
with a laid-back reverence. Whether it's his uncanny ability to fix things,
his winning performances racing dirt track stock cars, or his emotional,
yet restrained, approach to playing music, Benoit believes in spontaneity
and the importance of the moment. Benoit just does what comes naturally.
Even though Tab has been compared to some of the greatest bluesmen and
guitarists of all time, he doesn't aspire to be the "next" anybody, but
there's one thing he does know...he'll always have a job.
Bo
Diddley was born Ellas Bates on December
30,
1928, in McComb, Mississippi. At only 8 months of age, he went to
live with his mother's cousin Gussie McDaniel, who served as his mother
from that time forward. The family moved to Chicago when Ellas was
6 or 7 years old, where he was exposed to the blues.
 Bob
Dylan was born as Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1941.
In the 1960s he gained recognition through his lyrics, capturing the alienation
of American youth, and his harsh, insistent delivery. Influenced by Woody
Guthrie, among others, Dylan exercised a profound influence on folk and
Rock Music, his style evolving from folk to folk-rock to country. Enigmatic
and reclusive, he became something of a cult figure.
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Now check the Blues
Festivals page
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