Earl Silas Johnson IV, known as Earl King, was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, most active in blues music. A composer of blues standards such as "Come On" and "Big Chief", he was an important figure in New Orleans R&B.
The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a performer, before launching his solo career. Golson is known for co-founding and co-leading The Jazztet with trumpeter Art Farmer in 1959. From the late 1960s through the 1970s Golson was in demand as an arranger for film and television and thus was less active as a performer, but he and Farmer re-formed the Jazztet in 1982.
Freddie King was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar". Mostly known for his soulful and powerful voice and distinctive guitar playing, King had a major influence on electric blues music and on many later blues guitarists.
The Blind Boys of Alabama, also billed as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama, is an American gospel group. The group was founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama, and has featured a changing roster of musicians over its history, the majority of whom are or were vision impaired.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, also called Moanin', is a studio album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers recorded on October 30, 1958 and released on Blue Note later that year.
"Spoonful" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded in 1960 by Howlin' Wolf. Called "a stark and haunting work", it is one of Dixon's best known and most interpreted songs. Etta James and Harvey Fuqua had a pop and R&B record chart hit with their duet cover of "Spoonful" in 1961, and it was popularized in the late 1960s by the British rock group Cream.
Music Maker Relief Foundation is an American non-profit, based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Music Maker Relief Foundation was founded in 1994 by Tim and Denise Duffy to "help the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs. Music Maker presents these musical traditions to the world so American culture will flourish and be preserved for future generations."
Sam Collins, sometimes known as Crying Sam Collins, was an early American blues singer and guitarist. His style has been described as "South Mississippi", rather than Delta blues and "The Jail House Blues" is his best-known recording.
Cornelius Green III, known professionally as Lonesome Sundown, was an American blues musician, best known for his swamp blues recordings for Excello Records in the 1950s and early 1960s.
James Gary Harman was an American blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter. The music journalist Tony Russell described Harman as an "amusing songwriter and an excellent, unfussy blues harp player".
Little Freddie King is an American Delta blues guitarist. Despite the name, his style is not based on that of Freddie King, but is more influenced by John Lee Hooker and his approach to electric blues is original.
Freddy King Sings is an album by blues singer and guitarist Freddie King. Released in 1961, it was King's first album and includes four singles that appeared in Billboard magazine's R&B and Pop charts. In 2008, Freddy King Sings was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category.
Samuel Moore, who performs and records as Ironing Board Sam, is an American electric blues keyboardist, singer and songwriter, who has released a small number of singles and albums. His musical career, despite several low points, has spanned over fifty years, and he released a new album in 2012. "I'll tell you one thing, it's the blues," he stated. "That's why I look like a blues man now."
Moanin' the Blues is the second and last studio album by American country musician Hank Williams, released on MGM Records in 1952.
Robert Finley is an American blues and soul singer-songwriter and guitarist. After decades of performing semi-professionally followed by time away from music, Finley made a comeback in 2016. He released his debut album, Age Don't Mean a Thing, later in the year, which was met positively by critics.
Lightnin' Wells is an American Piedmont blues multi-instrumentalist and singer. He is a proficient musician and regularly plays various instruments in concert including the guitar, mandolin, harmonica, ukulele and banjo. At times he has performed as a one-man band. His style encompasses elements of the blues, country, gospel, old-time, bluegrass and folk. Mark Coltrain stated in Living Blues that, "You won't find a more versatile musician around – able to move deftly between country blues, old-time banjo, and novelty tunes with a single pluck. Lightnin' Wells changes the past..."
Ardie Dean is an American electric blues drummer, audio engineer and record producer. In a varied career over fifty years, Dean has worked with the Giddens Sisters, Alabama Slim, Homesick James, Little Freddie King, Lee Gates, Ernie K-Doe, Bo Diddley, Gregg Allman, Sweet Betty, Guitar Gabriel, Adolphus Bell, Jerry McCain, Macavine Hayes, Beverly Watkins, Lightnin' Wells, Taj Mahal, Cootie Stark, Sam Frazier Jr., Ironing Board Sam, Captain Luke, Cool John Ferguson, and Robert Lee Coleman, among others.
James Arthur "Boo" Hanks was an American Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. He was billed as the last of the Piedmont blues musicians.
