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 has 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.
Brian Robert Setzer is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In 1987, he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba.
Marcia Ball is an American blues singer and pianist raised in Vinton, Louisiana.
Albert Gene Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style. He was noted for his powerful playing and his use of altered tunings and a capo. His long association with the Fender Telecaster led to the title "The Master of the Telecaster".
The Edmonton Blues Festival is an annual blues music festival in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, which was first held in 1999. The festival runs for three days in mid-August at the Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park. In 2008, the festival was the recipient of the 'Keeping The Blues Alive Award' from the Blues Foundation, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Due to renovations that will close Hawrelak Park until 2026, the festival is moving to Edmonton's RE/MAX Field.
Morris Holt, known as Magic Slim, was an American blues singer and guitarist. Born at Torrance, near Grenada, Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers, he followed blues greats such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf to Chicago, developing his own place in the Chicago blues scene.
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.
Joseph Benjamin Hutto was an American blues musician. Influenced by Elmore James, Hutto became known for his slide guitar playing and declamatory style of singing. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame two years after his death.
Roomful of Blues is an American jump blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 50 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, "Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision". Since 1967, the group’s blend of swing, rock and roll, jump blues, boogie-woogie and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and many other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards. Billboard called the band "a tour de force of horn-fried blues…Roomful is so tight and so right." The Down Beat International Critics Poll has twice selected Roomful of Blues as Best Blues Band.
Dion Payton was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer, who gained popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Chicago clubs.
Aron Burton was an American electric and Chicago blues singer, bass guitarist and songwriter. In his long career as a sideman with Freddie King, Albert Collins and Junior Wells and released a number of solo albums, including Good Blues to You. His recorded work was nominated four times for a Blues Music Award in the category Blues Instrumentalist—Bass.
Michael James Henderson was an American singer-songwriter. In addition to his solo career, which included five studio albums, Henderson was a member of the country band The SteelDrivers from 2005 to 2011 and was a songwriting collaborator of his former SteelDrivers bandmate Chris Stapleton.
Earwig Music Company is an American blues and jazz independent record label, founded by Michael Frank in October 1978 in Chicago.
Selwyn Birchwood is an American blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter from Tampa, Florida. He was the winner of the Blues Foundation’s 2013 International Blues Challenge, as well the winner of the Albert King Guitarist of the Year award, presented at the same event. To win, he bested 125 other bands from around the world. Birchwood plays electric guitar and electric lap steel guitar. His live performances feature his original songs. Living Blues magazine said, "Selwyn Birchwood is making waves, surprising people and defying expectations. Be on the lookout. He revels in the unexpected." The Tampa Tribune said Birchwood plays with "power and precision reminiscent of blues guitar hero Buddy Guy. He is a gritty vocalist [who is] commanding with his axe." Rolling Stone said "Birchwood is a young, powerhouse guitarist and soulful vocalist. Don't Call No Ambulance is a remarkable debut by a major player." The Washington Post said, "Selwyn Birchwood is an indelibly modern and original next-generation bluesman; his tough vocals, guitar and lap steel touch on classic Chicago blues, Southern soul and boogie."
Andrew "Blueblood" McMahon was an American Chicago blues bass guitarist, singer and songwriter. McMahon played bass guitar in Howlin' Wolf's backing ensemble for over a decade. He also backed a number of other Chicago-based blues musicians on record. His own best known tracks are "Lost in the Jungle", "Special Agent", "Potato Diggin' Man", and "Worried All the Time", which have appeared on several compilation albums.
What You See Is What You Get is an album by the American musician Lil' Ed Williams, released in 1992. He is credited with his band, the Blues Imperials. Williams supported the album with a North American tour. Following the tour, Williams temporarily broke up the band to concentrate on solo work.
Heads Up! is an album by the American musician Lil' Ed Williams, released in 2002. It was his fifth album for Alligator Records. He is credited with his band, the Blues Imperials. Williams supported the album with North American, European, and Asian tours. Heads Up! debuted at No. 14 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart.
