Muddy Waters

August Wilson's words came straight from his soul

2013-05-19 07:00:00

Stage and film legend James Earl Jones once said, "It's hard for an actor to go wrong if he's true to the words that August has written." As an actor and writer, I have found that statement to be true of only a few playwrights. There is usually at least...

PASSINGS: Magic Slim, Cleotha Staples, Lou Myers, Donald Rutledge

2013-02-25 00:00:00

Magic Slim Singer of Chicago blues Magic Slim, 75, whose ragged voice and punchy guitar riffs made him a symbol of Chicago blues, died Thursday in Philadelphia after surgery for a bleeding ulcer, according to his family. A younger contemporary of...

Los Angeles bands swing into an old-school music revival

2012-12-09 06:00:00

A nine-piece band replete with tuba, washboard, accordion, fiddle, mandolin, trumpet and guitar joyously pumped out early 20th century standards such as "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," Muddy Waters' deep blues and original tunes that would...

Levon Helm dies at 71; drummer and singer with the Band

2012-04-20 00:00:00

Levon Helm is most widely known for the songs he sang that found their way onto the pop charts during his long tenure as drummer and singer for the Band: "Up On Cripple Creek," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Don't Do It," earthy and infectious...

David 'Honeyboy' Edwards dies at 96; Chicago bluesman

2011-08-30 00:00:00

David "Honeyboy" Edwards, the son of a sharecropper, the grandson of a slave and — for an extraordinary 80-plus years — the voice of the Delta blues, died Monday at his home in Chicago, said his longtime manager, Michael Frank. He was 96 and...

Album review: Jack White's 'Blunderbuss'

2012-04-24 16:36:19

Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith dies at 75; blues musician

2011-10-01 00:00:00

At 17, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith left the Arkansas farm where he was raised to travel to Chicago, where he first heard Muddy Waters when his mother took him to a club. Inspired by the great bluesman, Smith never went home. Instead, he taught himself to...

PASSINGS: Doyle Bramhall, Winston C. Doby, Bruno Rubeo, Cargill MacMillan Jr.

2011-11-16 00:00:00

Doyle Bramhall Bluesman collaborated with Stevie Ray Vaughan Doyle Bramhall, 62, a blues singer, drummer and songwriter best known for his collaborations with the late guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, died Saturday at his home in Alpine, Texas, the Houston...

Live: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers bring a rebel spirit

2011-10-30 21:36:02

A long time coming for Joe Ely

2011-11-14 16:35:45

Pinetop Perkins dies at 97; Mississippi Delta blues piano player

2011-03-22 00:00:00

Pinetop Perkins, a regal piano player who was one of the last of the original Mississippi Delta blues musicians, died Monday of cardiac arrest at his home in Austin, Texas. He was 97. "He was absolutely the premier blues piano player," said Bruce...

Book review: 'Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World' by John Szwed

2011-01-16 00:00:00

Alan Lomax The Man Who Recorded the World John Szwed Viking: 438 pp., $29.95 Alan Lomax was a titanic figure whose ambitions were even greater than his formidable energies. Beginning his career as a folklorist in the 1930s with field recordings of...

One of the icons and creators of the sound we know as Chicago blues, Guy has inspired artists like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He played as a house musician for Chicago record label Chess and was a member of Muddy Waters' band to boot. Also, he gave the world (rapper) Shaunna.

2013-04-23 11:53:11

He wasn't a native Chicagoan but may as well have been for his development of the Chicago blues sound and subsequent legendary status in the city and the blues community. His historic 1981 performance with the Rolling Stones at the Checkerboard Lounge on the South Side is available on DVD.

2013-04-22 12:29:11

The McAninch Arts Center's Blues at the Crossroads series pays tribute to blues legends Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) and Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett).

2013-01-23 14:21:00