Blind Willie McTell was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many East Coast, Piedmont blues players. Like his Atlanta contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also adept at slide guitar, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. He sang in a smooth and often laid-back tenor which differed greatly from the harsher voices of many Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. He performed in various musical styles including blues, ragtime, religious music, and hokum and recorded more than 120 titles during fourteen recording sessions.
Country blues is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in the early 20th century. It stands in contrast primarily to the urban blues style, especially in the pre-war era.
Willie Lee Perryman, usually known professionally as Piano Red and later in life as Dr. Feelgood, was an American blues musician, the first to hit the pop music charts. He was a self-taught pianist who played in the barrelhouse blues style. His performing and recording careers emerged during the period of transition from completely segregated "race music" to rhythm and blues, which was marketed to both white and black audiences. Some music historians credit Perryman's 1950 recording "Rocking With Red" for the popularization of the term rock and roll in Atlanta. His simple, hard-pounding left hand and his percussive right hand, coupled with his cheerful shout, brought him considerable success over three decades.
Georgia's musical history is diverse and substantial; the state's musicians include Southern rap groups such as Outkast and Goodie Mob, as well as a wide variety of rock, pop, blues, and country artists such as the late Ray Charles, Otis Redding, James Brown, and The Allman Brothers Band. The music of Athens, Georgia is especially well known for a kind of quirky college rock that has included such well-known bands as R.E.M., The B-52's, and Pylon.
Yazoo Records is an American record label founded in the mid-1960s by Nick Perls. It specializes in early American blues, country, jazz, and other rural American genres collectively known as roots music.
Robert Hicks, known as Barbecue Bob, was an American Piedmont blues musician who played 12 string guitar which was popular in the Atlanta, Georgia area at the time. A record talent scout gave him his nickname because he worked as a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the two existing photographs of him shows him playing his guitar and wearing a full length, white apron and cook's hat.
"Lord, Send Me an Angel" is a song by Blind Willie McTell of which two versions were recorded on September 19, 1933 in New York City, with Curley Weaver on second guitar. Accompanied by his wife, Kate, McTell re-recorded it as "Ticket Agent Blues" in 1935, albeit with some alternate verses. This was used as the B-side to his single "Bell Street Blues" on Decca Records. The song was covered by Detroit, Michigan garage rock band, The White Stripes, which was released as a single in October 2000.
Joshua Barnes Howell, known as Peg Leg Howell, was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, who connected early country blues and the later 12-bar style. He was one of the first recorded artists of the Atlanta blues scene during the pre-war period, and he was also one of the first blues musicians to ever make a race record.
Curley James Weaver was an American blues musician, also known as Slim Gordon.
Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by The Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 2018. Document Records is the only UK-based recipient of the award.
Eugene "Buddy" Moss was an American blues musician. He is one of two influential Piedmont blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's debut in 1935. A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Barbecue Bob, Moss was part of a coterie of Atlanta bluesmen. He was among the few of his era whose careers were reinvigorated by the blues revival of the 1960s and 1970s.
Charley Lincoln, also known as Laughing Charley, was an American country blues musician. He often recorded with his brother Robert Hicks, who was billed as Barbecue Bob.
Eddie Mapp was an American country blues harmonicist. He is best known for his accompaniment on records by Barbecue Bob and Curley Weaver.
Atlanta has a thriving music industry and is considered to be a capital of hip-hop including crunk, of R&B and its offshoot neo-soul, and of gospel music - in addition to a thriving indie-rock and live music scene. Classical, country and blues have historically been well represented. From the 1920s through 1950s the city was a major center for country music.
Fred McMullen was an American blues singer and guitarist known to be active in the 1930s. He recorded with the guitarists Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss in 1933, after which there is no definitive documentation of his life or whereabouts.
Cora Mae Bryant was an American blues musician. She was the daughter of another American blues musician, Curley Weaver. Bryant released two solo albums in her lifetime on the Music Maker label.
Ed Tigner, Jr., better known as Eddie Tigner, was an American blues pianist, keyboardist, singer, and songwriter. He recorded two albums, both released by Music Maker, and continued to perform on stage each week, despite being in his nineties. He performed standing up at the keyboard latterly, noting "Most keyboard players sit; I can’t anymore. If I sit down to play, I'll go to sleep."
Willie Baker was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He recorded eight tracks, playing a twelve-string guitar to back his own strong vocals. All of his recordings took place in January and March 1929 in Richmond, Indiana, United States. Details of his life outside of his recording career are sketchy.
