Paul Vaughn Butterfield was an American blues harmonica player, singer and band leader. After early training as a classical flautist, he developed an interest in blues harmonica. He explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he met Muddy Waters and other blues greats, who provided encouragement and opportunities for him to join in jam sessions. He soon began performing with fellow blues enthusiasts Nick Gravenites and Elvin Bishop.
The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June, that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and always occurs in early June. Until 2017, the event always took place at and around Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, adjacent to the Lake Michigan waterfront east of the Loop in Chicago. In 2017, the festival was moved to the nearby Millennium Park.
Kim Wilson is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for the Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s, "Tuff Enuff" and "Wrap It Up." Wilson wrote "Tuff Enuff," the group's only Top 40 hit.
James Henry Cotton was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many of the great blues artists of his time and with his own band. He played drums early in his career but is famous for his harmonica playing.
Notodden Blues Festival (NBF) is one of the largest blues music festivals in Europe and the largest in Scandinavia. The festival is held in Notodden, Norway, usually in early August. It has been running annually since 1988.
Victoria Regina Spivey, sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer and songwriter. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, Lonnie Johnson, and Bob Dylan. She also performed in vaudeville and clubs, sometimes with her sister Addie "Sweet Peas" Spivey (1910–1943), also known as the Za Zu Girl. Among her compositions are "Black Snake Blues" (1926), "Dope Head Blues" (1927), and "Organ Grinder Blues" (1928). In 1962 she co-founded Spivey Records.
Carey Bell Harrington was an American blues musician who played harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass guitar for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s before embarking on a solo career. Besides his own albums, he recorded as an accompanist or duo artist with Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Lowell Fulson, Eddie Taylor, Louisiana Red and Jimmy Dawkins and was a frequent partner with his son, the guitarist Lurrie Bell. Blues Revue called Bell "one of Chicago's finest harpists." The Chicago Tribune said Bell was "a terrific talent in the tradition of Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter."
Leslie Johnson, better known as Lazy Lester, was an American blues musician who sang and played the harmonica and guitar. His career spanned the 1950s to 2018.
The history of blues in New Zealand dates from the 1960s. The earliest blues influences on New Zealand musicians were indirect – not from the United States but from white British blues musicians: first the R&B styles of Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, The Animals and The Rolling Stones, and later the blues-tinged rock of groups such as Led Zeppelin. The first American blues artist to make a big impact in New Zealand was Stevie Ray Vaughan in the early 1980s. Other blues-related genres such as soul and gospel almost completely by-passed New Zealand audiences, except for a handful of hits from cross-over artists such as Ray Charles.
The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, United States, was established in full in 1980, and was one of the largest blues festivals and was the second oldest on the West Coast. It was held on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. For many years it was held on the athletic field on the California State University, Long Beach campus. The 2009 festival, the 30th annual, was held at Rainbow Lagoon in downtown Long Beach. The Festival went on hiatus in 2010, and has not been held since.
Debuting in 1973, the San Francisco Blues Festival was one of the longest running blues festival in the United States. Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the blues festival to educate the public about the history and evolution of the blues. Many of the performers at the early concerts were the pioneers and originators of the West Coast blues sound.
Springing the Blues is an annual blues festival held in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. It is one of the largest and oldest blues festivals on the East Coast of the United States. It was first held in 1990 and has been held yearly on the first weekend of April.
Mark Hummel is an American Grammy Award nominated and Blues Music Award winning blues harmonica player, vocalist, songwriter, and long-time bandleader of the Blues Survivors. Since 1991, Hummel has produced the Blues Harmonica Blowout tour, of which he is also a featured performer. The shows have featured blues harmonica players such as James Cotton, Carey Bell, John Mayall and Charlie Musselwhite. Although he is typically identified as performing West Coast blues, Hummel is also proficient in Delta blues, Chicago blues, swing and jazz styles. Hummel also plays with the Golden State Lone Star Revue, Mark Hummel & Deep Basement Shakers, as well as the current edition of the Blues Survivors.
"Blues fiddle" is a generic term for bowed, stringed instruments played on the arm or shoulder that are used to play blues music. Since no blues artists played violas, the term is synonymous with violin, and blues players referred to their instruments as "fiddle" and "violin".
The Blast Furnace Blues Festival is a blues music festival, started by ArtsQuest in 2011 in conjunction with Michael Cloeren Productions. The festival is held at the Yuengling Musikfest Cafe and the Fowler Blast Furnace Room. Both venues are located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Blast Furnace Blues Festival was founded to showcase the best in contemporary and traditional blues, acoustic and electric blues, soul, zydeco and gospel music. Performers featured include national recording artists as well as local and regional performers. There was no festival held in 2013. It was removed due to the introduction of several smaller music and arts festivals, but made its return in 2014 with a completely revamped setup.
Bob Corritore is an American songwriter, blues harmonica player, music producer, blues radio show host and owner of The Rhythm Room, a music venue in Phoenix, Arizona. Corritore is a recipient of several industry honors, including a Blues Music Award, Blues Blast Music Award, Living Blues Award and a Keeping The Blues Alive Award and more. His accomplishments include producing one album that was nominated for a Grammy Award and contributing harmonica on another.
Terry W. "Harmonica" Bean is an American blues harmonicist, guitarist and songwriter. He has released seven albums since 2001, and appeared in three film documentaries charting present day blues experiences.
Alexis P. Suter is an American blues, and soul blues singer and songwriter, best known for her nomination in the 'Koko Taylor Award' category at the 33rd Blues Music Awards in 2015. She and her backing band have released six albums to date.
Lonnie Shields is an American electric blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His primary influence was B.B. King. He has released six albums to date, and one publication described his music as "bewitching, funk-influenced variations on the oldest country blues".
Regina B. Higginbotham known professionally as Teeny Tucker is an American electric blues and new blues singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of the late blues musician Tommy Tucker. AllMusic noted that "Teeny Tucker is among a growing number of female blues belters taking different paths to stardom or wider recognition, but she's one of the very best..." She has released six albums to date.
