Who are your favourite blues artists ?

Rigsby

Hi guys,

I'm curious to know your favourite blues bands or artists.
The very first album I ever bought was by John Mayall. I still listen to him a lot. Among many others I like Johnny Winter, Alexis Korner, Paul Butterfield, Clapton, Buddy Guy, Freddy King, Fleetwood Mac (w. P.Greene) and Ten Years After.

Let's hear yours !

'Ol Jack Chance

id be more old skool; muddy waters, blind willie mctell, john lee hooker and leadbelly are all gods imo clapton is deadly, fleetwood mac can be good too

Music4life

bb king,clapton,johnny winter are mine

mox54

muddy waters, muddy waters + muddy waters, brilliant and funny, v funny for a blues man!!:o

Blackhorse Slim

I haven't heard any Alexis Korner, although I've heard of him. Other than that I'll see all yours, and I'll raise ya Furry Lewis, Memphis Slim and Hubert Sumlin.

I've been listening to Rory Gallagher's BBC sessions album recently, really good.

I followed your recommendation on the Crusade album (Bluesbreakers), and yes, it could be the best. If you haven't heard it, I'd recommend The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw by Paul Butterfield, that was one of the first blues albums I really liked. Also the earlier Allman Brothers albums (with Duane) and the later ones with Trucks and Haynes on guitar, especially Hittin the Note (2003). I don't much like the Dicky Betts-influenced stuff in between.

Rigsby

Blackhorse Slim wrote: »

I haven't heard any Alexis Korner, although I've heard of him. Other than that I'll see all yours, and I'll raise ya Furry Lewis, Memphis Slim and Hubert Sumlin.

I've been listening to Rory Gallagher's BBC sessions album recently, really good.

I followed your recommendation on the Crusade album (Bluesbreakers), and yes, it could be the best. If you haven't heard it, I'd recommend The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw by Paul Butterfield, that was one of the first blues albums I really liked. Also the earlier Allman Brothers albums (with Duane) and the later ones with Trucks and Haynes on guitar, especially Hittin the Note (2003). I don't much like the Dicky Betts-influenced stuff in between.

Yeah, Alexis is worth a look. He was a common denomonator for a lot of bands . Jack Bruce, Clapton, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards among others played with him and some met for the first time this way.

I'm a Paul Butterfield fan. Only yesterday I bought an excellent album by him - "The Lost Electra Sessions". Will check out his other one you mentioned.

hypnosisdublin

My faves would be:

Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter, Albert King, Freddie King, Peter Green, Eric Clapton, and Rory Gallagher.

I also like Aynsley Lister a lot - I was very impressed with him when I saw him support Robben Ford in Dublin at a blue festival years ago.

leninbenjamin

i'd have listened to pretty much all of the names listed here, but my preference is for the Delta/Country blues. i'd say my all time favourite bluesman would be Mississippi John Hurt. he just has a much more relaxed approach that appeals to me.

gracehopper

Mine would be Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Son house, Cream, Rory Gallagher, Buddy Guy, Hendrix, Canned Heat. Don Baker(Blues is a bit flat and boring but his harp is the best in the world)

invincibleirish

Canned Heat are my gods.

Shooter_McGavin

Buddy Guy, Skip James, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Blind Willie Johnson, Charlie Parr, Mississippi John Hurt, Lightnin' Hopkins.

Savman

Albert Collins, love his groove. Plus all the usual.

Beanstalk

Blind willie johnson has the coolest blues voice ever methinks, and he was a mean guitar player too. Son house, mississippi john hurt, skip james, leadbelly, ahh too many to mention really, old delta blues all the way!

boycey

I love all the 'British Blues Invasion' guys, Ill have to check out Alexis Korner though, dont know his stuff.
BTW for the John Mayall fans I picked up Blues from Laurel Canyon a while back- a strange one. Some great tracks and some not so great (but never bad!).
Though Im not a huge Jimi Hendrix fan Ive always thought he was at his best playin blues- stuff like Red House and Hear My Train a Coming are just blues guitar master classes. I can take or leave a lot of his 'psychadelic rock' stuff though.

PS just thought of "The Business"- they play round Dublin a lot-theyre absolutely fantastic to catch live, especially if Gerry Hendricks is playing with them.

Killaqueen!!!

Love all those listed already, especially Peter Green. Saw him live when he was playing with the Splinter Group. Truely is the guitarists guitarist.

Rigsby

boycey wrote: »

I love all the 'British Blues Invasion' guys, Ill have to check out Alexis Korner though, dont know his stuff.
BTW for the John Mayall fans I picked up Blues from Laurel Canyon a while back- a strange one. Some great tracks and some not so great (but never bad!).
Though Im not a huge Jimi Hendrix fan Ive always thought he was at his best playin blues- stuff like Red House and Hear My Train a Coming are just blues guitar master classes. I can take or leave a lot of his 'psychadelic rock' stuff though.

PS just thought of "The Business"- they play round Dublin a lot-theyre absolutely fantastic to catch live, especially if Gerry Hendricks is playing with them.

I agree about "The Buisness". They are an under rated national treasure IMO. I love "Laural Canyon". One or two tracks are below par alright. I always liked Mick Taylor's tone, and he's great on that album.

Do check out Alexis Korner.

boycey

Any Alexis Korner recomendations for the un-initiated?

Love all those listed already, especially Peter Green. Saw him live when he was playing with the Splinter Group. Truely is the guitarists guitarist.

Im nearly sure the Splinter Group played up home (Donegal) in the middle of nowhere in a wee pub, and I never heard about it till afterwards. Nearly sure. I could be imagining this!! He truly is THE MAN though. (I should qualify by saying my short term memory is not what it used to be, was worth every penny though;))

.

invincibleirish

boycey wrote: »

Any Alexis Korner recomendations for the un-initiated?



Im nearly sure the Splinter Group played up home (Donegal) in the middle of nowhere in a wee pub, and I never heard about it till afterwards. Nearly sure. I could be imagining this!! He truly is THE MAN though. (I should qualify by saying my short term memory is not what it used to be, was worth every penny though;))

.

Peter Green is also a hero, he still comes over and plays JJ Smyths regularly no?

boycey

Really?? I'll have to keep an eye on JJ's so. Does he play upstairs in JJ's? To be in the same room as the man would be a thrill and and an honour.

Actually just thinking- Ive played on that little stage upstairs on jam nights--therefore I can now claim to have played on the same stage as Peter Green :D:D

Killaqueen!!!

Where's JJ Smyths? Yeah, I was in front row right up close when I saw him. (at The Helix of all places...it was great for me at the time, but he should've been playing bigger venues). Was only like 12 though but believe me I appreciated it. Was blown away...it was that concert that got me into all that old blues/rock n roll. The rest of the Splinter Group were great as well..dunno why they split up.

invincibleirish

JJ Smyths is on Aungier St.

Rigsby

boycey wrote: »

Any Alexis Korner recomendations for the un-initiated?

.

"Red Hot from Alex"

boycey

Thanks Rigsby. He's one of those names Ive known for years but have never got round to checking out.

By the way can I add ZZ TOP to my list of faves. I know they strayed regularily but they have some terrific blues scattered around on different albums. Billy Gibbons is another living legend.

hypnosisdublin

Another great Irish blues guitarist is Graham Hynes. His main band is The Hi Tones, though he seems to have a dozen bands he plays with! He is a real student of the blues and his influences are diverse, way beyond the usual SRV & Albert/BB/Freddie King licks you hear from most blues bands. Lovely guy too. :cool:

Velvet Vocals

I've noticed that there's a bit of a lack of females in this list.... here's some of my fav female blues singers.... but I do love all the people previously mentioned too
Etta James/Billie Holiday/Bessie Smith/Mini Riperton/Aretha Franklin/Sarah Vaughan

Rigsby

Saint Something wrote: »

I've noticed that there's a bit of a lack of females in this list.... here's some of my fav female blues singers.... but I do love all the people previously mentioned too
Etta James/Billie Holiday/Bessie Smith/Mini Riperton/Aretha Franklin/Sarah Vaughan

Apart from your list there are not many more female blues singers that I know of besides our own Mary Coughlan and Christine Perfect/McVie from "Chicken Shack". Also from your list, apart from Holiday and Smith the others (I dont know Riperton ) would not be pure blues.

Why there are so few would make an interesting discussion.

Velvet Vocals

Well actually, I really think it depends on your definition of blues, because you take someone like Billie Holiday, she wasn't a real blues singer, she was much more of a jazz singer, if you look at her repertoire as a whole she had way more American song book tunes in there as opposed to blues, apart from Black Coffee and Stormy blues I can't really think of that many other total blues songs she did. She just seemed to get labeled with the blues, possibly because of the tone of her voice. Like if you listen to her version of "All of me" a classic jazz standard compared to Ella Fitzgerald's version, one is a blues and the other is jazz (the blues being Billie and the jazz being Ella obviously)

But then if you look at someone like Sarah Vaughan, who I would always class as a jazz singer (even though she does have some blues in her repertoire) she said her self that she was much more of a blues singer then a jazz singer as she felt she "aways put the blues into every song she sang"
But from what I understand about Etta James, she regards her self as a blues singer and certantly if you listen to any of her albums, even the r&b stuff she does (of course I mean real r&b) it has real blues overtones, this surely is coming from her voice.
I my self am a jazz singer but I love blues and used to be in a blues band and I can't help adding a bit of a blues tone to most things I do. So what I'm trying to say is maybe the blues isn't just the song type, but a vocal quality. Like a lot of times when I'm assessing a vocal student I'll describe their voice as a blues voice no matter what they've been singing from an Irish ballad to a jazz standard. Thats why I put Mini Riperton in there, she would be more r&b I guess but her voice has such a blues quality that she can't be discounted.

But to get back to your question Why there are so few female blues vocalists on this list? Just my personal opinion, but it does seem to be a male dominated genre, this could be due to it having more of a male appeal or something (not being a male I don't really know) but from a singers point of view the blues can be very hard to achieve, I hate to say this but in most cases you're either born with it or not. I get a lot students coming to me wanting to sing the blues and they just don't have the voice. You can teach range extension, power, how to breath correctly and many other things that combine to make a good blues singer but if you don't have the quality it'll still sound weak. I see a lot more good blues singers that are men then I do that are women. But then that is just my experience, maybe there are other vocal teachers out there who've had a different experience.
Obviously I my self am a fantastic blues singer and I'm a girl... but then there's always an exception to the rule :D

boneless

When he plays slide Ry Cooder is hard to beat. Stevie Ray Vaughan was fantastic. I shed tears when he went...

Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James etc... they paved the way!!

Rigsby

Saint Something wrote: »

Well actually, I really think it depends on your definition of blues, because you take someone like Billie Holiday, she wasn't a real blues singer, she was much more of a jazz singer, if you look at her repertoire as a whole she had way more American song book tunes in there as opposed to blues, apart from Black Coffee and Stormy blues I can't really think of that many other total blues songs she did. She just seemed to get labeled with the blues, possibly because of the tone of her voice. Like if you listen to her version of "All of me" a classic jazz standard compared to Ella Fitzgerald's version, one is a blues and the other is jazz (the blues being Billie and the jazz being Ella obviously)

But then if you look at someone like Sarah Vaughan, who I would always class as a jazz singer (even though she does have some blues in her repertoire) she said her self that she was much more of a blues singer then a jazz singer as she felt she "aways put the blues into every song she sang"
But from what I understand about Etta James, she regards her self as a blues singer and certantly if you listen to any of her albums, even the r&b stuff she does (of course I mean real r&b) it has real blues overtones, this surely is coming from her voice.
I my self am a jazz singer but I love blues and used to be in a blues band and I can't help adding a bit of a blues tone to most things I do. So what I'm trying to say is maybe the blues isn't just the song type, but a vocal quality. Like a lot of times when I'm assessing a vocal student I'll describe their voice as a blues voice no matter what they've been singing from an Irish ballad to a jazz standard. Thats why I put Mini Riperton in there, she would be more r&b I guess but her voice has such a blues quality that she can't be discounted.

But to get back to your question Why there are so few female blues vocalists on this list? Just my personal opinion, but it does seem to be a male dominated genre, this could be due to it having more of a male appeal or something (not being a male I don't really know) but from a singers point of view the blues can be very hard to achieve, I hate to say this but in most cases you're either born with it or not. I get a lot students coming to me wanting to sing the blues and they just don't have the voice. You can teach range extension, power, how to breath correctly and many other things that combine to make a good blues singer but if you don't have the quality it'll still sound weak. I see a lot more good blues singers that are men then I do that are women. But then that is just my experience, maybe there are other vocal teachers out there who've had a different experience.
Obviously I my self am a fantastic blues singer and I'm a girl... but then there's always an exception to the rule :D

An interesting post. I agree that while Billie Holiday was classed as blues she leaned more towards jazz. It's like what we were discussing on the other thread - "Why are jazz and Blues always thrown together". IMO it's because they are so closly related. My idea of "pure" blues would be names such as J.B. Lenoir, Sonny Boy Williamson, Son House, Robert Johnson ect. You hardly ever hear woman singing their kind of acoustic material. I also regard electric blues as "pure",(eg Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal ect) but just using the modern instruments of the day.

With regards to singers, regardless of gender it has to come from the heart especially with blues. The blues band I'm in are auditioning for a new singer at the moment. Interestingly three out of the four replies we've had so far have come from women. So maybe things are starting to change.

Setun

boneless wrote: »

When he plays slide Ry Cooder is hard to beat. Stevie Ray Vaughan was fantastic. I shed tears when he went...

Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James etc... they paved the way!!

Yep Couldn't Stand the Weather is one of my all time fave blues albums. Great record.

Blackhorse Slim

Just to add a couple more female artists to the list; Ana Popovic is an excellent blues singer/guitarist heavily influenced by SRV, and Rory Block is a very good American blues slide/acoustic player and singer, although a little technical rather than gritty/soulful for my tastes.