Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, jew's harp, and comb and tissue paper. The term jug band is loosely used in referring to ensembles that also incorporate homemade instruments but that are more accurately called skiffle bands, spasm bands, or juke bands because they do not include a jug player.
Lizzie Douglas, better known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being "When the Levee Breaks", "Me and My Chauffeur Blues", "Bumble Bee" and "Nothing in Rambling".
The Memphis blues is a style of blues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in the Memphis area, such as Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine shows and was associated with Beale Street, the main entertainment area in Memphis.
"When the Levee Breaks" is a country blues song written and first recorded by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929. The lyrics reflect experiences during the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
The Legendary Shack Shakers are an American rock band from Murray, Kentucky that was formed in 1995 by J.D. Wilkes. The original line-up formed the band out of a shared interest in rockabilly, blues and Western swing. Subsequently, the band gained prominence in the alternative country scene with a sound that encompassed rockabilly, blues, country and punk rock and a lyrical focus on Southern Gothic themes. Over time, the band's sound shifted to emphasize country music.
The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late-1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. They played slow blues, pop songs, humorous songs and upbeat dance numbers with jazz and string band flavors. The band made the first commercial recordings in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded more sides than any other prewar jug band.
Jason Ricci is an American harmonica player and singer. In addition to his solo albums, Ricci has appeared as a guest harmonica player on albums with Johnny Winter, Terence Blanchard, Nick Curran, Ana Popović, Walter Trout, Cedric Burnside, The Mannish Boys and Joe Louis Walker among others. Ricci was named "Best Harmonica Player" at the 2010 Blues Music Awards, and also performed on Grammy winning 2014 Johnny Winter album Step Back. In February 2015, Ricci played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Paul Shaffer Band, Tom Morello and Zac Brown to induct The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Ricci also continues touring with his band Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind as well as with other bands such as: "Harmonicon", "JJ Appleton and Jason Ricci" and "Mark Hummel's Harmonica Blowout". In 2017, Jason Ricci and The Bad Kind signed a record deal with the Eller Soul label and released their new album Approved By Snakes released on June 16, 2017.
Michael Robert "Mojo" Webb is a multi-instrumentalist blues musician, based in Brisbane, Australia. On 8 February 2007, Mojo Webb was awarded the Australian Blues Music Chain Award for 'New Talent of the Year'.
Johnny Lee Schell is an American guitarist and songwriter. In the late 1960s, he first recorded with producer Norman Petty in Group Axis. In the 1970s, he joined the Amarillo, Texas-based southern rock band, Baby. Since his professional debut, he has played with dozens of well-known recording artists. His inclusion on albums such as Bonnie Raitt's Green Light (1982) and Nick of Time (1989) has lent him his bearing in American pop music culture. Yet, Schell's works had already journeyed from North America to Australia, when he worked with Australian soul singer Renée Geyer on her album So Lucky (1981). As a member of Bonnie Raitt's road band, Schell backed the Australian Geyer while recording So Lucky at Shangri La studios in Malibu, California. Other members included Ian McLagan and drummer/producer extraordinaire Ricky Fataar.
Victor Lawton Wainwright, Jr. is an American blues and boogie-woogie singer, songwriter, and pianist. Wainwright's musical style was described by the American Blues Scene magazine in 2013 as "honky-tonk and boogie, with a dose of rolling thunder. Wainwright's playing is simply beautiful madness."
HowellDevine is an American blues trio, formed in 2011, and based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have released four albums: Delta Grooves (2012), Jumps, Boogies & Wobbles (2013), Modern Sounds of Ancient Juju (2014), and Howl (2017). Both Jumps, Boogies & Wobbles and Modern Sounds of Ancient Juju were released by Arhoolie Records. Jumps, Boogies & Wobbles was the first time Arhoolie had chosen to release a blues album in almost three decades. After Smithsonian Folkways Recordings acquired Arhoolie's catalog in 2016, the label stopped issuing new recordings, and seeking to stretch the boundaries of their sound, the band signed with the Little Village Foundation label in 2017 and released Howl, recorded at Kid Andersen’s Greaseland Studios.
Southern Avenue is an American five- to six-member blues and soul blues band from Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Formed in 2015, they took their name from a street in Memphis running from the easternmost part of the city limits to "Soulsville", which was the original home of Stax Records. Rock 103 described them as "the most talked about band in Memphis." Southern Avenue reached the finals of the International Blues Challenge in 2016.
Jackson Delta are a Canadian blues musical group from Peterborough, Ontario. They are two-time Juno Award nominees for Best Roots and Traditional Album, receiving nods at the Juno Awards of 1991 for Acoustic Blues and at the Juno Awards of 1993 for I Was Just Thinking That.
GA-20 is an American blues band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band is named after the guitar amplifier manufactured by Gibson from 1950 to 1961. They primarily play Chicago blues.
Matthew Prozialeck, also known as Matt Charles and Matt Prozialeck is an American blues harmonica player. He is best known for being a member of Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers and also for his solo and session work. He has performed with many different blues artists and has appeared on several charting releases.
Brandon Santini is an American roots rock and blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. Several of his releases have made the national Billboard Blues Chart. He has been nominated for multiple Blues Music Awards and multiple Blues Blast Music Awards. Blues Blast magazine called him "one of the best harp players in the blues scene today." His music is featured in the CBS original television series, “Fire Country,” and The NBC Peacock Network’s original television series, “Poker Face,”.
Chicago/The Blues/Today! is a series of three blues albums by various artists. It was recorded in late 1965 and released in 1966. It was remastered and released as a three-disc album in 1999.
John Paul Soars and known professionally as J.P. Soars, is an American blues singer, guitarist, songwriter and record producer. In 2021, he was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Contemporary Blues Male Artist' category. A 2009 winner of the International Blues Challenge, Soars has released six albums, including 2019's collection, Let Go of the Reins. His backing band are known as the Red Hots.
Ghalia Vauthier, known professionally as Ghalia Volt, is a Belgian blues rock singer, guitarist, drummer and songwriter. She has been involved in the release of five albums since 2016, including Mississippi Blend (2019) released on Ruf Records. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Top Blues Albums Chart.
