Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated 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.
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live. Belushi and Aykroyd were lead vocalist 'Joliet' Jake Blues and harmonica player and vocalist Elwood Blues, respectively, donning black suits with matching trilby hats and sunglasses. The band was composed of well-known musicians and debuted as the musical guest in a 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live, opening the show performing "Hey Bartender" and "Soul Man".
Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
Earl Zebedee Hooker was a Chicago blues guitarist known for his slide guitar playing. Considered a "musician's musician", he performed with blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker and fronted his own bands. An early player of the electric guitar, Hooker was influenced by the modern urban styles of T-Bone Walker and Robert Nighthawk. He recorded several singles and albums as a bandleader and with other well-known artists. His "Blue Guitar", a slide guitar instrumental single, was popular in the Chicago area and was later overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters as "You Shook Me".
The Graham Bond Organisation (GBO) were a British jazz/rhythm and blues group of the mid-1960s consisting of Graham Bond, Jack Bruce (bass), Ginger Baker (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith and John McLaughlin (guitar). They recorded several albums and further recordings were issued when the group's members achieved fame in progressive rock and jazz fusion. The spelling of the band's original name varied between releases, often depending on the intended audience. The British English spellings were "Organisation" or "ORGANisation", while in some other countries outside the UK it was spelled "Organization".
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.
Charles Douglas Musselwhite is an American blues harmonica player and bandleader, one who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal figure in helping to revive the Chicago Blues movement of the 1960s. He has often been identified as a "white bluesman".
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." In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.
The Bluesmobile is a 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan that was prominently featured in the 1980 Universal Pictures film The Blues Brothers. The car is described as a decommissioned Mount Prospect police car, purchased by Elwood Blues at an auction after he had traded a previous car for a microphone. The Bluesmobile is equipped with a "440 Magnum" engine and squad car package, an option offered by Dodge for the Monaco in 1974. It bears an Illinois license plate reading "BDR 529", a tribute to the Black Diamond Riders motorcycle club of Toronto, Canada. Dan Aykroyd, co-writer of the film, stated that he chose the 440 Dodge Monaco because he considered it to be the hottest car used by police during the 1970s.
It's got a cop motor, a 440-cubic-inch plant. It's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas.
Christian Alexander Maria Graf Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche und Camminetz was a German-born American record label executive and record producer. He was the founder and president of Arhoolie Records, which he established in 1960 and which became one of the leading labels recording and issuing blues, Cajun, norteño, and other forms of roots music from the United States and elsewhere in the world. Strachwitz despised most commercial music as mouse music.
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 American musical action comedy film directed by John Landis. It stars John Belushi as "Joliet" Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as his brother Elwood, characters developed from the recurring musical sketch "The Blues Brothers" on NBC's variety series Saturday Night Live. The script is set in and around Chicago, Illinois, where it was filmed, and the screenplay is by Aykroyd and Landis. It features musical numbers by rhythm and blues (R&B), soul, and blues singers James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, and John Lee Hooker. It features non-musical supporting performances by Carrie Fisher, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, Kathleen Freeman and John Candy.
Isaiah Ross, known as Doctor Ross, was an American blues musician who usually performed as a one-man band, simultaneously singing and playing guitar, harmonica, and drums. Ross's primal style has been compared to John Lee Hooker, Blind Boy Fuller and Sonny Boy Williamson I.
Briefcase Full of Blues is the debut album by the Blues Brothers, released on November 28, 1978, by Atlantic Records. It was recorded live on September 9, 1978, at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, when the band opened for comedian Steve Martin. The album consists of covers of blues and soul songs from the 1950s to 1970s.
Mississippi Heat is an American blues band based in Chicago, led by harmonica player Pierre Lacocque. Formed in 1991, the band has toured in the United States, Canada, and Europe, with occasional performances in South America and North Africa.
Eden and John's East River String Band are an American, New York City-based duo, who play country blues from the 1920s and 1930s. The members are John Heneghan and Eden Brower. The duo often have other musicians sit in with them, including Dom Flemons, Pat Conte and Robert Crumb.
The Cash Box Kings is an American blues band from Chicago, Illinois, United States, specializing in Chicago-style blues from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as Delta blues style music from the 1920s and 1930s.
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer. Another common formation is a vocalist who does not play an instrument, electric guitarist, bass guitarist, and a drummer. Instrumentally, these bands can be considered as trios. Sometimes, in addition to electric guitars, electric bass, and drums, also a keyboardist plays.
The Little Village Foundation was founded in 2014 by Jim Pugh as a 501(c)(3) organization based in Solvang, California. Pugh is a veteran keyboard player who has toured the world with Robert Cray and Etta James. Little Village Foundation (LVF) is non-profit company in the music industry that produces and distributes what it considers to be culturally significant recordings made by individuals and groups that might otherwise not be heard beyond the artists' community or family. The label serves an access point for previously overlooked artists who retain their intellectual property and album sales through their work with the organization. The artists come from widely varied and sometimes non-traditional backgrounds. Pugh and his find and secure talent to sign and record, and several of the musicians have roots that extend to other nations, including Mexico, India, Russia and the Philippines.
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram is an American blues guitarist and singer from Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States, who became a well-known performer as a teenager. His debut album, Kingfish, was released in May 2019. In addition to his own albums, musicians he has recorded with include Eric Gales, Buddy Guy and Keb Mo. He has shared the stage with well-known blues artists and younger blues musicians such as the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Samantha Fish, Bob Margolin, Eric Gales, Mr. Sipp, Rick Derringer, Guitar Shorty and Buddy Guy.
