The Blues Store 4: Classic Blues and Legendary Bluesmen

The blues were the fountainhead of 20th century popular music.

On This Page: Lightnin’ Hopkins,Blind John Davis, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker. And see Blues Roots on our Jazz Pages

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Origins of The Blues continued

We strongly suggest that you review the information provided on Amazon carefully before selecting your choices. Artists develop and draw upon their own repertoires of standard numbers which appear, in various interpretations, on a succession of albums. It is worth studying the available information to avoid unwanted duplication (although the variations are often interesting in their own right). On the other hand, compilation albums and sets can be of varying degrees of comprehensiveness, a factor that is often reflected in a wide range of prices. Where appropriate, we have tried to give choices that cater to every budget.

Artists on our Blues Legends pages are arranged in order of their dates of birth.

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Lightnin’ Hopkins

1912-1982. Born Sam Hopkins in Centerville, Texas.

At the age of eight Sam Hopkins met and played with legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson and acted as his guide for a short time. Hopkins went on to partner his cousin, Texas Alexander, but the early pairing was broken up when Hopkins spent a little time on the County Prison Farm at Houston in the 1930s. In 1946 Hopkins was taken up by talent scout Lola Anne Cullum, who put him together with piano player Wilson ‘Thunder’ Smith – the Lightnin’ sobriquet was an obvious wordplay - and Lightnin’ went on to record a series for Alladin. Many more labels followed, ranging from the largest to obscure one-man outfits where Hopkins played for upfront payment in makeshift studios.

Hopkins’ career had begun to fade when he was rediscovered by folk collector Mack McCormick, who promoted him as a ‘folk artist’. A milestone was the solo album recorded by Sam Charters in his living room for Folkways Records in 1959, after which Lightnin’ was picked up by Prestige, Verve, Bluesville and many more classic labels.

Lightnin’ evolved a personal style out of playing without a backing band. Essentially he used the guitar to combine lead with bass, rhythm and percussion in support of his own vocals. This style was a major influence on many Texas musicians in the 1950s and 1960s, including Townes Van Zandt, and on Pigpen, the keyboard player of the Grateful Dead. Jimi Hendrix was first attracted to the blues after listening to Lighnin’ Hopkins records in his youth.

The Complete Prestige/Bluesville Recordings / Lightnin’ Hopkins et al

Format: 7 Disc Box Set. 120 Tracks.

The Very Best of Lightnin' Hopkins / Lightnin’ Hopkins

Format: 1 Disc. 16 Tracks.

Lightnin' Strikes / Lightnin’ Hopkins

Format: 1 Disc. 14 Tracks.

Fishing Clothes: the Jewel Recordings 1965-1969 / Lightnin’ Hopkins

Format: 2 Disc Set. 43 Tracks.

Bring Me My Shotgun / Lightnin’ Hopkins

Format: 1 Disc. 16 Tracks.

Remember Me: the Complete Herald Singles / Lightnin’ Hopkins

Format: 1 Disc. 26 Tracks.

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Blind John Davis

1913-1985. Born John Henry Davis in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Years before the Depression and the great migration of black workers from the fields of the south to the industrial north, the father of three-year-old John Henry Davis moved his family to Chicago. And with the onset of prohibition, John Wesley Davis opened a number of speakeasies and sporting houses, paddling bootleg spirits and his own home brews. John Henry, blinded at the age of nine, learnt piano when he was fourteen and, through playing at his father’s houses, gained entry to the heady alternative world of 1930s Chicago. By 1933 he had put together his first band, Johnny Lee’s Music Masters, and was playing in white venues in the downtown area and the suburbs.

Through the mid-1930s he developed into one of the best pianists and arrangers in the city and in 1937 was hired as an in-house session musician by Lester Melrose’s Wabash Music Company. He was a frequent accompanist of his friend Tampa Red and also recorded with Memphis Minnie, Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson. He continued with Lester Melrose through the war years while touring the West and Midwest with the Johnny Davis Rhythm Boys. John Henry recorded with MGM in 1949 and 1951 with his John Davis Trio, which was disbanded in 1951. In the following year he toured and recorded in Europe, along with Big Bill Broonzy, as part of the earliest blues invasion. Europe was to assume new importance twenty years later.

Through the remainder of the 1950s, and through the 1960s, John Henry recorded very little, restricting himself mainly to live Chicago venues. He made Library of Congress recordings in ’58 and ’59, but these were never released; Riverside put out a session in 1961; and in 1964 Davis played the Newport Folk Festival. His career revived through European interest, and from 1973 onwards he travelled to Europe regularly to perform, and to record for German and Dutch labels. The 1970s also saw him playing at festivals in the Midwest and Canada, and much of the decade was spent looking after his old friend, the now impoverished Tampa Red, who was installed in Chicago’s Sacred Heart Nursing Home. His last recordings were for the Red Beans label in 1985. He died in Chicago in the same year.

Blind John Davis 1938 / Blind John Davis

Format: 1 Disc. 13 Tracks.

Blind John Davis 1938-1939 / Blind John Davis

Format: 1 Disc. 18 Tracks.

Moanin' the Blues / Blind John Davis

Format: 1 Disc. 18 Tracks.

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Sonny Boy Williamson

1914-1948. Born John Lee Williamson in Madison County Tennessee.

Not to be confused with the better known Sonny Boy Williamson II, who adopted John Lee Williamson’s alias in the early 1940s to capitalise on the success of the popular harp man!

Sonny Boy was given a harmonica as a Christmas present when he was eleven and began playing along to records between milking cows and chopping cotton. Within five years he was accompanying guitarist Sleepy John Estes and mandolin master Yank Rachell around Tennessee and Arkansas. Sonny Boy was developing a distinctive style, bending and squeezing notes, that was to attract many imitators. He was already a mature and experienced performer when he moved to Chicago in 1934.

Chicago was ripe for new talent. Williamson moved quickly from backing artist to headliner, playing his own compositions. His first record was the much-covered Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, for Victor’s Bluebird label, and he stayed with Bluebird and Victor until 1947. For many of the Bluebird sessions he partnered guitarist Big Joe Williams, and by the time of the Victor releases, from 1945 onwards, there had been a discernible shift from raw country blues towards an invigorating urban sound. Strong on tempo and dynamic vocals, Sonny Boy contributed more than a few classics to the blues canon.

Sonny Boy died from a beating outside a Chicago nightclub in 1948. He was buried in Jackson, Tennessee. His grave remained unmarked until 1990, when RCA Records (who had absorbed Victor and Bluebird) donated a gravestone to mark the final resting place of the original Sonny Boy Williamson.

The Bluebird Recordings 1937-1938 / Sonny Boy Williamson

Format: 1 Disc. 24 Tracks.

The Blues: Chicago 1937-1945 / Sonny Boy Williamson

Format: 2 Disc Set. 36 Tracks.

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Muddy Waters

1915-1983. Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

After first learning harmonica Muddy Waters went on to the guitar and by the age of seventeen was playing at parties and fish fries around Clarksdale. His vocal style followed Son House, but his guitar technique was closer to Robert Johnson, with slide and rhythmic embellishments underpinning the rich solid voice. In the early 1940s he ran his own gambling and juke joint, selling moonshine and giving live performances. In 1941 Alan Lomax came south to record blues artists on behalf of the Library of Congress. Lomax was searching for Robert Johnson, unaware that he had died three years earlier. Instead he discovered Muddy Waters and recorded him in his house on Stovell’s Plantation, returning in 1942 to record a second session. Spurred on by the results of the Plantation sessions Waters headed for Chicago, intent on become a professional musician. The Chicago scene was well established, with Big Bill Broonzy taking top billing. Broonzy took Waters under his wing, giving him the opener slot in his gigs. Ironically, Broonzy’s good turn would rebound: in 1948 Waters took up the electric guitar so that he could be heard in the noisy clubs. His amplified blues style increased in popularity into the 1950s, forcing Broonzy to look for new audiences across the Atlantic.

In 1946-47 Muddy Waters cut some trial sides for Columbia and Aristocrat (soon to become Chess Records). In 1948 I Can’t Be Satisfied/I Feel Like Going Home was a success; Waters was in demand in the clubs; and Chess’s release of Muddy’s signature tune Rollin’ Stone was a smash hit. By 1950 Muddy had brought together one the best blues bands ever, with Little Walter Jacobs, Otis Spann, Elgin Evans, Jimmy Rogers and Big Crawford. The group was to dissolve by the mid-1950s, but not before leaving a legacy of classic tracks. Waters took his amplified sound to Britain in 1958 but afterwards went back to a purer form of Delta blues for the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, not returning to electric guitar until 1964. The association with Chess produced some questionable album themes in the 1960s and 1970s, but in 1977 Johnny Winter’s Blue Sky label took an ageing Muddy Waters back to his Chicago blues roots with some blasting releases in the years before his death in 1983.

Muddy Waters has had a long and lasting influence on rock ‘n’ roll. In the 1950s he helped Chuck Berry get his first recording contract and he was one the major influences on British blues rockers like Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones (who took their name from his signature tune). Covers of his songs have been recorded by too many artists to mention. Since his death his influence has persisted. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese featured Waters’ music in The Colour of Money (1986 qv) and Goodfellas (1990 qv). His live performance of Mannish Boy is one of the highlights of the farewell concert of The Band, filmed by Scorsese as The Last Waltz (1978 qv). All movies are available from our Film Store.

The Complete Plantation Recordings / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 20 Tracks.

The Best of Muddy Waters 1947-1955 / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 20 Tracks.

The Anthology: 1947-1972 / Muddy Waters

Format: 2 Disc Set. 74 Tracks.

The Essential Collection / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 20 Tracks.

At Newport 1960 / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 9 Tracks.

Mojo / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 14 Tracks.

The Woodstock Album / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 9 Tracks.

Hard Again / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 10 Tracks.

I'm Ready / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 12 Tracks.

King Bee / Muddy Waters

Format: 1 Disc. 12 Tracks.

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John Lee Hooker

1917-2001. Born in Coahoma County, Mississippi.

John Lee Hooker’s earliest influences were the church music and spirituals that were the usual fare of his Baptist home, and the guitar technique of his stepfather, blues singer William Moore. At fifteen he ran away from home and severed all connection with his immediate family. The 1930s saw him in Memphis, where he worked on Beale Street, and played at house parties. Hooker drifted from factory to factory through the war years and finally found himself working at the Ford plant in Detroit in 1948. Post-war Detroit’s East Side boasted a vibrant music scene that at the time was dominated by piano blues. The guitar-playing Hooker found a niche and soon took up electric guitar (in the same year as Muddy Waters and for the same reason). 1948 was also the year of his first release (and first hit) Boogie Chillen, for Modern Records. The producer of his early solos was Bernie Bessman, but through the 1950s Hooker frequently avoided the obligations of his various recording contracts by playing for a number of studios under a succession of pseudonyms. His status was maintained by the release of more than 100 songs on the Vee Jay label during the 1950s and 1960s.

John Lee Hooker found a new, white, fan base in the 1960s (when he was able to give an opportunity to a young Bob Dylan). His music was introduced to an avid British audience by such emerging artists as John Mayall, the Animals and the Yardbirds. During the 1970s and 1980s Hooker toured through the USA and Europe and worked with Van Morrison, Canned Heat, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana and BB king, among others: he has frequently crossed the line into more mainstream popular music, but as frequently returned to his Delta roots. His career has seldom flagged, being marked by a series of events that kept him in the public eye. He put in a telling appearance in The Blues Brothers (1980 qv, available from our Film Store) and performed with The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton during the 1989 Steel Wheels tour. John Lee’s 1989 collaboration with Keith Richards, Santana, Canned Heat, Los Lobos and Bonny Rait on The Healer won a Grammy award. A tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in 1990 found John Lee alongside a modern galaxy that included Ry Cooder, Robert Clay, Joe Cocker, Santana and John Hammond. John Lee Hooker fell ill while preparing for a European tour in 2001and died at the age of eighty-three, the last of the early Delta bluesmen.

The Best of John Lee Hooker / John Lee Hooker

Format: 1 Disc. 19 Tracks.

Legend - The Best of John Lee Hooker / John Lee Hooker

Format: 1 Disc. 24 Tracks.

The Classic Early Years 1948-1951 / John Lee Hooker

Format: 4 Disc Box Set. 100 Tracks.

The Complete 50's Chess Recordings / John Lee Hooker

Format: 2 Disc Set. 31 Tracks.

Testament / John Lee Hooker

Format: 3 Disc Box Set. 61 Tracks.

Free Beer and Chicken / John Lee Hooker

Format: 1 Disc. 12 Tracks.