Mabel Louise Smith, known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.
The Memphis Horns was an American horn section, made famous by their many appearances on Stax Records. The duo consisted of Wayne Jackson on trumpet and Andrew Love on tenor saxophone. An "offshoot of the Mar-Keys", they continued to work together for over 30 years. They lent their sound to 83 gold and platinum awards and over one hundred high-charting records, including Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", Al Green's "Let's Stay Together", and Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds".
Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Robert William Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards.
Shoulda Been Home is a 2001 album by blues musician Robert Cray consisting of 12 fresh tracks, seven of them written or co-written by Cray. It was released with Rykodisc Records.
William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter. As a performer, he is probably best known for his debut single, 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water"; 1968's top 10 hit in the UK "Private Number", a duet with Judy Clay; and his only US top 40 hit, 1976's "Tryin' to Love Two", which also hit No. 1 on the R&B chart. Upon the death of Otis Redding, Bell released the well-received memorial song "A Tribute to a King".
James David Walker Jr., better known by his stage name Jimmy McCracklin, was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter. His style contained West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career that spanned seven decades, he said he had written almost a thousand songs and had recorded hundreds of them. McCracklin recorded over 30 albums, and earned four gold records. Tom Mazzolini of the San Francisco Blues Festival said of him, "He was probably the most important musician to come out of the Bay Area in the post-World War II years."
King & Queen is a studio album by American recording artists Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. It is Thomas' fourth album and Redding's sixth and the final studio album before his death on December 10, 1967. Influenced by Marvin Gaye's duets, the album features ten covers of soul classics and the eleventh finishing song co-written by Redding.
Mr. Lucky is a 1991 album by American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist John Lee Hooker. Produced by Ry Cooder, Roy Rogers and Carlos Santana under the executive production of Mike Kappus, the album featured musicians including Keith Richards, Blues Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Winter; and three inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Van Morrison, Booker T. Jones and Johnnie Johnson. And also Chester D. Thompson, who once played with Santana, on keyboards, has collaborated on writing a song on the album. Released on Virgin Records, including on its imprint label Classic Records, Mr. Lucky peaked at #101 on the "Billboard 200". Chester D. Thompson should not be mistaken with Chester Cortez Thompson, a drummer who also played with Santana, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Weather Report, Genesis and Phil Collins.
Showdown! is a collaborative blues album by guitarists Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland, released in 1985 through Alligator Records. The album is mostly original material, with cover versions of songs like T-Bone Walker's "T-Bone Shuffle", Muddy Waters' "She's into Something" and Ray Charles' "Blackjack". Collins, Cray and Copeland were supported by Johnny B. Gayden and Allen Batts, who at the time were members of Collins' Icebreakers, and Alligator's household artist Casey Jones. In the album's sleeve notes, producers Bruce Iglauer and Dick Shurman wrote that Copeland and Cray were both supported by Collins early in their careers, and how the three musicians often crossed paths since, making this collaborative effort a "thirty years in the making" project. Showdown! was one of Alligator's most successful albums, peaking at #124 on the US charts and selling over 175,000 units worldwide. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Recording in 1986. It was re-released on CD by Alligator in 2011.
I Was Warned is a blues album by Robert Cray. It was released in April 1992 through Mercury Records. Like Cray’s previous album, it features his regular backing band playing alongside the Memphis Horns.
Midnight Stroll is a blues album by Robert Cray and featuring the Memphis Horns. It was released in June 1990 through Mercury Records.
Take Your Shoes Off is a blues album by Robert Cray, winning the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000. It was released on April 27, 1999 through the Rykodisc label. The album won a Grammy Award not just for Cray, but also for drummer and composer Steve Jordan as producer. Jordan, and his wife, Meegan Voss, also contributed to the album, with a composition they wrote together, entitled "It's All Gone".
Time Will Tell is a blues album by Robert Cray. It was released on 1 July 2003, through Sanctuary Records.
Some Rainy Morning is a blues album by Robert Cray, released in 1995 through Mercury Records.
Live from Across the Pond is a live blues album by Robert Cray. It was released on September 12, 2006, through Vanguard Records. It is his first live album release.
Shame + A Sin is an album by the American musician Robert Cray. It was released in 1993 by Mercury Records.
Otis Ray Redding Jr. was an American singer and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriters in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. Nicknamed the "King of Soul", Redding's style of singing gained inspiration from the gospel music that preceded the genre. His singing style influenced many other soul artists of the 1960s.
Blues Summit is the thirty-third studio album by B.B. King released in 1993 through the MCA label. The album reached peak positions of number 182 on the Billboard 200, and number 64 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart. The album won a Grammy Award in 1994 for Best Traditional Blues Album.
Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, or simply Dictionary of Soul, is the fifth studio album by American soul singer-songwriter Otis Redding and his last solo studio album released before his death. The successful Otis Blue and the following performance at Whisky a Go Go led to his rising fame across the United States. The first side of the album mainly contains cover versions, and the second songs mainly written by Redding.
