Delta River Mudcats
Hawkins Field, MSFollow us on
The Great Players
Son House–Eddie James “Son” House, Jr. (March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988) pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar. His singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music. House was an important influence on Muddy Waters and perhaps also on Robert Johnson. A seminal Delta blues figure, he remains influential today. The middle of three brothers, House was born in Riverton, two miles from Clarksdale, Mississippi. Around age seven or eight, he was brought by his mother to Tallulah, Louisiana, after his parents separated. The young Son House was determined to become a Baptist preacher, and at age 15 began his preaching career. Despite the church’s firm stand against blues music and the sinful world which revolved around it (it was, after all, the “devil’s music”), House became attracted to it and taught himself guitar in his mid-20s, after moving back to the Clarksdale area, inspired by the work of Willie Wilson. He began playing alongside Charley Patton, Willie Brown, Robert Johnson, and Fiddlin’ Joe Martin around Robinsonville, Mississippi, and north to Memphis, Tennessee, until 1942.
After killing a man, allegedly in self-defense, he spent time at the famed and ignonimous Parchman Farm prison in 1928 and 1929. The official story on the killing is that sometime around 1927 or 1928, he was playing in a juke joint when a man went on a shooting spree. Son was wounded in the leg and shot the man dead. He received a 15-year sentence at Parchman Farm prison.
Son House recorded for Paramount Records in 1930 and for Alan Lomax from the Library of Congress in 1941 and 1942. He then faded from public view until the country blues revival in the 1960s when, after a long search of the Mississippi Delta region by Nick Perls, Dick Waterman, and Phil Spiro, he was “re-discovered” in June 1964 in Rochester, New York, where he had lived since 1943. House had been retired from the music business for many years, working for the New York Central Railroad, and was completely unaware of the international revival of enthusiasm for his early recordings. He subsequently toured extensively in the US and Europe and recorded for CBS records. Like Mississippi John Hurt, he was welcomed into the music scene of the 1960s and played at Newport Folk Festival in 1964, the New York Folk Festival in July 1965, and the October 1967 European tour of the American Folk Festival along with Skip James and Bukka White. Son House can be seen in the documentary “The Howling Wolf Story”. House and Howlin’ Wolf had been close early in Wolf’s career. Ill health plagued his later years and in 1974 he retired once again, and later moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he remained until his death from cancer of the larynx. He was buried at the Mt. Hazel Cemetery. Members of the Detroit Blues Society raised money through benefit concerts to put a fitting monument on his grave. He was married five times.
Robert Johnson-Born Robert Leroy Johnson May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938. Robert Johnson is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skill, and songwriting talent that have influenced generations of musicians. Johnson showed an endless list of guitar tricks, including boogie rhythms, dancing triplets, syncopated turnarounds, masterful slide phrases, along with melodic changes in tone and texture. He was the first blues artist credited for taking country Delta blues and transforming it into marketable music that was popular with a wider audience. Unlike many of his predecessors, such as Son House, who more spontaneous in their playing, Johnson practiced his craft and was methodical in putting together his songs. ”He came out with such compelling themes,” Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones said. “They were actual songs as well as just being blues.” Johnson’s songs, vocal phrasing, and guitar style have influenced a broad range of musicians. Eric Clapton has called Johnson “the most important blues singer that ever lived”. Johnson was among the first musicians to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “early influence” category in 1986. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Johnson’s finest work was performed during his San Antonio recordings and includes many gems, including songs that were later recorded by many artists, including “Terraplane Blues”, “Love in Vain, “Kindhearted Woman Blues”, and “Hellhound on My Trail”.
Johnson’s records were greatly admired by record collectors from the time of their first release, and efforts were made to discover his biography with virtually no success. A relatively full account of Johnson’s brief musical career emerged in the 1960s, largely from accounts by Son House, Johnny Shines, David Honeyboy Edwards, and Robert Lockwood.
Very little was known of Johnson’s early life with any certainty. Despite all the hours researchers have devoted to putting together the biographical sketch of Johnson’s life, many details still elude us. Even his untimely, early death is shrouded in mystery. Johnson was never known to stay in one place for long and apparently went by many aliases, thus further clouding his story of where he might have performed. Johnson’s love of whiskey and women eventually did him in–the story of his death is that he was poisoned by a jealous lover at a jukehouse gig on August 13, 1938. Johnson became sick and was taken back to where he was staying. According to Sonny Boy Williamson, who visited Johnson shortly before his death, Johnsonwas crawling on the floor like a dog, howling in agnoy–perhaps a sign to some that the devil had come to take his due. David “Honeyboy” Edwards claims that when he visited Johnson on Tuesday, that the guitarist was heaving and bleeding at the mouth–unable to talk. Johnson died later that day on August 16, 1938. Blues researcher Mack McCormick allegedly tracked down the killer in the 1960s. After initially encountering a shot gun on his visit to the house, the alleged murder apparently confessed to McCormick. McCormick reported the information to the authorities, but they were in no mood to open up the case nearly 30 years after Johnson’s death.
The noted blues researcher Mack The two confirmed photo images of Johnson were located in 1973 in the possession of the musician’s half-sister Carrie Thompson and were not widely published until the late 1980s. A third photo, purporting to show Johnson posing with fellow blues performer Johnny Shines, was published in the November 2008 edition of Vanity Fair magazine. The same article claims that other photographs of Johnson, so far unpublished, might exist.
Howlin’ Wolf - Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976), better known as Howlin’ Wolf, had a booming voice and looming physical presence. At 6 feet, 6 inches and close to 300 pounds, he was an imposing presence with one of the loudest and most memorable voices of all the classic bluesmen. Rockabilly star, Ronnie Hawkins, described Wolf’s voice as “stronger than forty acres of crushed garlic.” Howlin’ Wolf learned his craft in the Delta in the 1920’s and played along many of the great bluesman of the Delta in the 1930’s. Wolf ended up serving time in the U.S. Army in World War II, but he didn’t handle his military service well and was released in November 1943 with an honorable discharge. Wolf ended up in West Memphis in the late 1940’s and began tearing it up with his band, the House Rockers. In the words of critic Robert Plamer, “Wolf molded his musicians into themost awesome electric blues band the Delta had seen”. Wolf finally got his break in 1951 and embarked on a recording career at age 40.
Wolf made his way to Chicago in 1954 and began recording for Leonard Chess. In some of his more fanciful lyrics, Wolf tell his audience in Evil Is Going On of a jealous husband to beware that “Evil is going on wrong” and that “another mule is kickin’ in your stall.” Many songs popularized by Wolf—such as “Smokestack Lightnin’,” “Back Door Man” and “Spoonful”—have become standards of blues and blues rock.
When Wolf arrived in Chicago, most blues acts played on stage while sitting down. Muddy Waters and his band, for example, played while sitting on highback chairs. But Wolf and his band changed that and discarded the chairs. Wolf would prowl the stage and even on top of the bar passinately hollerin’ and moanin’ for the crowd. With a cord attached to his microphone that reached the entire length of whatever bar or juke joint he would play, he dazzled audiences with his showmanship and wit. Wolf was known to push the extremes of sexual innuendo and would sometimes take a willing female fan on his back for a ride on his back. Musician and critic Cub Koda declared, “No one could match [Howlin' Wolf] for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.”
Hubert Sumlin played guitar for Wolf. And although the two oftentimes had a tempestuous relationship, Sumlin would prove to be close to Wolf until his final days. Sumlin influenced many of the great rock guitarists of the time in the 1960s, including Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Jimi Hendrix reportedly told Sumlin, “You’re my favorite guitar player.”
Muddy Waters-McKinley Morganfield: born April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983. Muddy Waters is generally considered “the Father of Chicago blues”. Blues musicians Big Bill Morganfield and Larry “Mud Morganfield” Williams are his sons. A major inspiration for the British blues explosion in the 1960s, Muddy was ranked #17 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Albert King-Born April 25, 1923-December 21, 1992. One of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar” (along with B. B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6′ 4″ (192 cm) and weighed 250 lbs (118 kg) and was known as “The Velvet Bulldozer”. He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church. He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys, in Osceola, Arkansas. He also briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed’s band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, but also interestingly Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V, which he named “Lucy”.King was a left-handed “upside-down/backwards” guitarist. He was left-handed, but usually played right-handed guitars flipped over upside-down so the low E string was on the bottom. In later years he played a custom-made guitar that was basically left-handed, but had the strings reversed (as he was used to playing). He also used very unorthodox tunings (i.e., tuning as low as C to allow him to make sweeping string bends). Some believe that he was using open Eminor tuning (C-B-E-G-B-E) or open F tuning (C-F-C-F-A-D). A “less is more” type blues player, he was known for his expressive “bending” of notes, a technique characteristic of blues guitarists.
B.B. King - Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925). Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at #3 on its list of the “100 greatest guitarists of all time.” According to Edward M. Komara, King “introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed.”
King was born on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, a small town near Indianola, Mississippi. His parents were Alfred King and Nora Ella King. While singing in a local gospel group, at the age of twelve Riley bought his first guitar for $15.00. In 1943 King left Indianola to work as a tractor driver.
King went to Memphis, Tennessee in 1946, looking for a cousin, Bukka White, who took him in for the next ten months. However, after a few months of hardship he returned to Mississippi, where he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit and returned to Memphis two years later. Initially he worked at the local R&B radio station WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, where he gained the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy”, later shortened to “B.B.” It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker. “Once I’d heard him for the first time, I knew I’d have to have [an electric guitar] myself. ‘Had’ to have one, short of stealing!”, he said.
In the 1950s, B.B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music, amassing an impressive list of hits including “You Know I Love You,” “Woke Up This Morning,” “Please Love Me,” “When My Heart Beats like a Hammer,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “You Upset Me Baby,” “Every Day I Have the Blues,” “Sneakin’ Around,” “Ten Long Years,” “Bad Luck,” “Sweet Little Angel,” “On My Word of Honor,” and “Please Accept My Love.” In 1962, King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records, and then his current label, Geffen Records. In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois.
King won a Grammy Award for a tune called “The Thrill Is Gone”; his version became a hit on both the pop and R&B charts, which was rare during that time for an R&B artist. It also gained the number 183 spot in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. He gained further visibility among rock audiences as an opening act on The Rolling Stones’ 1969 American Tour. King’s mainstream success continued throughout the 1970s with songs like “To Know You is to Love You” and “I Like to Live the Love”.
King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. In 2004 he was awarded the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists “in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music.”
Buddy Guy–Born in Lettsworth, Louisiana, Guy grew up in Louisiana learning guitar on a two string diddley bow he made. Later he was given a Harmony acoustic guitar, which he later donated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the early ’50s he began performing with bands in Baton Rouge. Soon after moving to Chicago in 1957, Guy fell under the influence of Muddy Waters. In 1958, a competition with West Side guitarists Magic Sam and Otis Rush gave Guy a record contract. Soon afterwards he recorded for Cobra Records. He recorded sessions with Junior Wells for Delmark Records under the pseudonym Friendly Chap in 1965 and 1966.Guy’s early career was supposedly held back by both conservative business choices made by his record company (Chess Records) and “the scorn, diminishments and petty subterfuge from a few jealous rivals”. Chess, Guy’s record label from 1959 to 1968, refused to record Buddy Guy’s novel style that was similar to his live shows. Leonard Chess (Chess founder and 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) denounced Guy’s playing as “noise”. In the early 1960s, Chess tried recording Guy as a solo artist with R&B ballads, jazz instrumentals, soul and novelty dance tunes, but none were released as singles. Guy’s only Chess album, “Left My Blues in San Francisco”, was finally issued in 1967. Most of the songs belong stylistically to the era’s soul boom, with orchestrations by Gene Barge and Charlie Stepney. Chess used Guy mainly as a session guitarist to back Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor and others.
While Buddy Guy’s music is often labeled Chicago blues, his style is unique and separate. His music can vary from the most traditional, deepest blues to a creative, unpredictable and radical gumbo of the blues, avant rock, soul and free jazz that morphs at each night’s performance.
Guy is known for his showmanship, playing his guitar with drumsticks, or strolling into the audience while playing solos. He was ranked thirtieth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.
Stevie Ray Vaughn–Born Stephen Ray Vaughan; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990. Stevie Ray Vaughn was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Eighteen albums of Vaughan’s work have been released. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Stevie Ray Vaughan #7 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, and Classic Rock Magazine ranked him #3 in their list of the 100 Wildest Guitar Heroes in 2007. Vaughan is widely seen as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time.Vaughan’s sound and playing style, which often incorporated simultaneous lead and rhythm parts, drew comparisons to Hendrix. Vaughan covered several Hendrix tunes on his studio albums and in performance, such as “Little Wing,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” and “Third Stone from the Sun.” He was also heavily influenced by Freddie King, another Texas bluesman, mainly in the use of tone and attack; King’s heavy vibrato can clearly be heard in Vaughan’s playing. Another stylistic influence was Albert Collins.
He holds no other artist in higher esteem than Robert Johnson. In 2004, Clapton released a CD and DVD entitled Sessions for Robert Johnson, featuring Clapton recording Robert Johnson covers with electric and acoustic guitars. He performs these tracks live and in the practice space on the DVD, as well as gives brief interviews explaining the huge influence Robert Johnson had on him. Doyle Bramhall II assists Clapton on the acoustic tracks of the CD and the DVD.
In his book, Discovering Robert Johnson (which he co-authored with several other writers), Clapton said of Johnson, that he was “[T]he most important blues musician who ever lived. He was true, absolutely, to his own vision, and as deep as I have gotten into the music over the last 30 years, I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice, really. … it seemed to echo something I had always felt.” Clapton persuaded Freddie King to sign with his record label, RSO in 1974. Clapton has recorded more than six of J. J. Cale’s originals and has put out an album with him. Clapton has also collaborated with Frank Zappa, B.B. King, George Harrison, Santana, Ringo Starr, Roger Waters, John Lennon, and The Plastic Ono Band. Clapton also collaborated with singer/songwriter John Mayer on his 2006 album release, Continuum. Mayer cites Clapton in his liner notes: “Eric Clapton knows I steal from him and is still cool with it.” Clapton inspired Mayer to write “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)”, resembling characteristics of Clapton’s musical and fashion style.
Tab Benoit – (born November 17, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) plays a style of cajun blues that is infectious and makes you want to move. He plays Fender thinline ’72 Telecaster electric guitars and generally plays through Fender or his signature line of amps made by Category 5. He writes much of his own music. He’s been known to hold his own on the drums, too, sometimes taking over the drum kit at one of his shows while the rest of the band takes a break.A guitar player since his teenage years, he hung out at the Blues Box, a music club and cultural center in Baton Rouge run by guitarist Tabby Thomas. Playing guitar alongside Thomas, Raful Neal, Henry Gray and other high-profile regulars at the club, Benoit learned the blues first-hand from a faculty of living blues legends. He formed a trio in 1987 and began playing clubs in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He began touring other parts of the south two years later and started touring more of the United States in 1991, and he continues to this day.
Tab is also featured in the IMAX film, Hurricane on the Bayou.