Browsing: C.C. Rider

Little Willie John was just five feet tall and seventeen years old when he walked into the office of a New York record company in a borrowed suit way too big for him…

He was born Huddie Ledbetter, on a Louisiana plantation. A big man, terribly strong. And all that strength was matched by a fiery temper. A combo that got him in trouble…

So one of my favorite music books is called the Language of the Blues. Written by a badass blues rock musician named Debra Devi…

He was born Otha Ellas Bates McDaniels…but you know him as Bo Diddley. Still can’t picture the man? Well, have ya ever heard this sound before? Call that the Bo Diddley beat. Once he came out with it, everybody followed suit…

This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the…

When you got the Blues, it don’t matter the season. They head on down the chimney anyway. But Christmas brings a special kinda feeling. A lump-of-coal kind of blues delivered by Old Saint Nick…

When James Milton Campbell Jr. was a kid growing up in Greenville, Mississippi, he was drawn to all kinds of music. He loved the country and western radio programs beamed out from the Grand Ol’ Opry. And he was steeped in the sounds of his Delta home: field hollers, gospel songs, the deepest blues…

If Big Mama’s body was big, her talent was cosmic. Big Mama Thornton is one of the most bad-ass women in blues…

At first, they called themselves Snoopy and the Sopwith Camels. A trio from Worcester, Mass. Three college students who played acoustic blues. A bassist, Danny Klein, a harmonica player, Richard Salwitz, and a guitarist, John Geils. They took the names Dr. Funk, Magic Dick, and—yep—J. Geils…

He was born Robert Lee, his friends called him Rule. But we know him as R.L. Burnside…