Browsing: C.C. Rider

It was 1969, Zeppelin recorded a track for their album Led Zeppelin II. A song they took credit for writing, called “Bring it On Home.” You may know it. Goes like this. Great song. One problem though – they didn’t write it.

It all started with a flat on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit and an 800 dollar loan. Former boxer and Korean War Vet Berry Gordy had a dream…to create a place where a black kid could quote “walk off the street into the studio and leave a polished performer.”

You may not know her name, but if you know the blues on Beale Street, you know Hattie Hart. Remembered now for her work with the Memphis Jug Band in the 1920s.

The blues is all about gettin’ through tough times. About surviving. Surviving poverty, inequality, and hard labor.

In the early ‘20s a Vaudeville guitar player named George Beauchamp paid a visit to a stringed instrument shop. His complaint: no matter how loud he played, his guitar just couldn’t compete with the rest of the instruments in the orchestra.

So, the owner of that shop, John Dopyera, developed the idea of fitting a guitar body with aluminum cones. Discs of fine-spun aluminum that vibrate to amplify sound. Make the body out of metal, and you’ve got a National guitar.

Black Hat. Dark Sunglasses. Sound like a Blues Brother to you? It is. The original Blues Brother. Inspiration to Jake and Elwood. Master songwriter, electric guitar titan, best-selling bluesman…John Lee Hooker.

In the 1950’s, Big Bill Broonzy was one of the first Bluesmen to tour all over the U.S. and throughout Europe. He was a leading figure in what they called the Folk Revival.

CC Rider Venerates Jimmy Rogers, one of THE legendary Head Cutters, a “band” who’s other two members were Muddy Waters and Little Walter

Everyone from Leadbelly to the Grateful Dead has performed “C.C. Rider,” but the question remains: Who was C.C. Rider?