Click on an artist’s image to read about their lives,
then click on the song title to hear a sample of their music.
W.C. Handy
Born William Handy in Florence, Alabama
November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
William Handy is known as the “Father of the Blues” and is credited with the popularization of the blues in the early 1900s. Though other musicians were playing this distinctly American form of music, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form. Classically trained, one of his earliest ventures was a traveling brass ensemble. He said he first heard the blues on train platform in Tutwiler, MS. In 1909, he wrote his first song, “Mr. Crump.” Though initially written for a candidate for mayor of Memphis, it later became the hit “Memphis Blues” and was one of the first commercially published blues songs. Where Handy had sold the rights to that song, he went on to establish a sheet music firm and independently publish his next successful piece, “St. Louis Blues.” The song was based on his early struggles living in that city. Of it The New York Times wrote, “Upon that melancholy composition a whole new school of popular music writing was based. From its simple, sobbing lyric of frustration grew scores of songs that later were to become the ‘torch numbers’.”
W.C. Handy’s statue presides over a park in his name in the City of Memphis and musicians from around the world come to play at its foot.
Bessie Smith
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee
April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Bessie Smith was nicknamed “The Empress of the Blues.” She was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s and is known as one of the greatest singers of her era.
By the age of 9, she had lost her father, mother and brother. In effort to earn money for the family, Smith and her brother Andrew began performing as a duo on the streets of Chattanooga. In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, left home to join a small traveling company owned by Moses Stokes. She was too young at the time to accompany him, but in 1912, he returned and arranged for her to have an audition. She was hired as a dancer because the company already had Ma Rainey as its singer. Smith eventually started singing vocals with the group. In 1923, she began her recording career and soon became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day.
She died tragically in an auto accident near Clarksdale, MS. Eastern newspapers reported that she was turned away from the white hospital, which was untrue. Smith actually died in the small blacks-only hospital in Clarksdale.
Sippie Wallace
Born Beulah Thomas in Houston, Texas
November 1, 1898 – November 1, 1986
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
As a young girl, Sippie Wallace sang and played the piano at Shiloh Baptist Church, where her father was a deacon. In the evenings, Wallace and two of her brothers would sneak out and attend tent shows. By her mid-teens, they were playing in the shows which led to her building a following as a spirited, blues singer.
In 1923, Wallace followed her brothers to Chicago where she worked her way into the jazz scene. Her first recorded songs, “Shorty George” and “Up on the Country Blues,” sold well enough to make her a blues star. In the early 1930s, she left show business and found comfort in religion at Leland Baptist Church where she sang and played the organ. She did little in blues for forty years until she made a comeback in 1966.
Tampa Red
Born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia
January 8, 1904 – March 19, 1981
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
In 1928, Tampa Red was the first black musician to play National’s steel-bodied, resonator guitar. This was the loudest and showiest guitar available at the time (before amplification). This guitar allowed him to develop his trademark bottleneck style of playing single string runs instead of block chords. His slide work earned him the nickname “The Guitar Wizard.” Tampa Red was one of the most recorded blues artists of his era. It has been estimated that he recorded 335 songs on 78 rpm records, under a variety of names including “Tampa Red’s Hokum Jug Band” and “Tampa Red and the Chicago Five.” Although the bulk of his singles were released before Billboard Magazine began tracking blues, Red had four singles that placed in the R&B top ten between 1942 and 1951.
Robert Johnson
Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi
May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
Robert Johnson has influenced many musicians and their music, but outside of his own time. During his life, he mostly played on street corners, in juke joints and at Saturday night dances. For over two decades after his death, few people would recognize who Johnson was. In 1961 however, Columbia Records released an album with a compilation of his few recordings named “King of the Delta Blues Singers.” This album introduced his work to a much wider audience and caught the attention Eric Clapton and others in the “British Invasion.” Johnson’s influence on the rock and roll genre can be heard in songs of his like “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Love in Vain” and “Cross Road Blues,” which were all written at least a decade and a half before rock and roll was even introduced.
Lead Belly
Born Huddie Ledbetter in Mooringsport, Louisiana
January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Lead Belly was an iconic American folk and blues musician, and multi-instrumentalist, noted for his strong vocals and his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar. His songbook has been covered by artists from Frank Sinatra to the Grateful Dead.
Lead Belly’s volatile temper often found him in trouble with the law. In 1918, he was sentenced to thirty years in the state prison after fighting and killing a man. In 1925, he wrote “The Midnight Special” asking Governor Pat Neff for a pardon. Though at his election, Neff had promised to never pardon a prisoner, after receiving the song he broke his promise and set Lead Belly free. In 1930 though, he was again sentenced to another prison term after getting in a fight at a party. While in prison he was discovered by John and Alan Lomax. The two folklorists, who were recording prison songs for the Library of Congress, ended up bringing Lead Belly to New York. In August of 1934, he played on college campuses and was received with great acclaim. He would continue to gain popularity in the U.S. and tour Europe. In 1949 he succumbed to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Muddy Waters
Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi
April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Muddy Waters is generally considered to be the father of modern Chicago Blues. Playing in his band proved to be a springboard to a solo career for many of his band members, including Jimmy Rodgers, Little Walter, James Cotton, and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Water’s tour of England in 1958 was credited as a major inspiration for the British Blues explosion of the 1960s. This tour marked the first time the music of amplified, modern, urban blues was heard in England. It is reported that one critic retreated to the toilets to write his review because he found the band so loud. Muddy Waters was ranked No. 17 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Howlin’ Wolf
Born Chester Arthur Burnett in West Point, Mississippi
June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
At 6 feet, 3 inches tall and close to 300 pounds, Howlin’ Wolf took charge of a crowd with one of the loudest and most memorable voices of all time. Like many other popular blues artists of the 1950s, Wolf had a difficult start as a child. Because his parents broke up when he was young, his mother left him in the care of his Uncle Will, who treated him harshly. When he was 13, he ran away to join his father, claiming to have walked 85 miles barefoot to join the happy home. In January, 1928, his father bought him his first guitar. It was around this time that he convinced Charley Patton (a local blues musician) to give him lessons. He then learned how to sing by listening to his idols, including: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Tommy Johnson, the Mississippi Sheiks, Jimmie Rodgers, Leroy Carr, Lonnie Johnson and Blind Blake.
Louis Armstrong
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana
August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
At age 11, Louis Armstrong dropped out of school and joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets of his hometown, New Orleans. He developed his cornet playing in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency. Throughout his late teens, he played in local brass bands and learned all he could from New Orleans’ great musical community above all, his mentor and father figure Joe “King” Oliver. In 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago to join Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, which was known as the best and most influential hot jazz band in Chicago. Armstrong would go on from there to forge a musical style of his own and is now considered one of the most influential artists in jazz history. He is now known for his charismatic stage presence, his voice, his trumpet playing and his impact on both jazz and popular music. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, which can be described as vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics.
Though arguably “the” giant of jazz, “Satchmo” (as Armstrong was known) would record many blues songs and in 1962, created an album solely of blues material.
Billie Holiday
Born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Billie Holiday (who borrowed her name from film star Billie Dove and her biological father, Clarence Holiday) remains one of the most influential jazz singers of all time. She found solace from her troubled early life singing along to the records of blues legend Bessie Smith and jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong. In her mid-teens she began singing in night clubs and soon was performing with some of the great musicians of the era including Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Artie Shaw.
Her career was disrupted by drug abuse and arrests, and her life was tragically cut short as a result of her addiction. Her recordings however, have had a lasting impact on the interpretation of the modern song. They include “God Bless the Child,” “Lover Man,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and the powerful “Strange Fruit” about the lynching of African-Americans in the South. Saxophonist Lester Young gave her the name “Lady Day” because of her style and elegance, and her autobiography “Lady Sings the Blues” was made in to popular film starring Motown legend Diana Ross.
Duke Ellington
Born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, D.C.
April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Duke Ellington’s mother and father, Daisy and James Edward, were both pianists, and at the age of 7, young Edward started taking lessons. His mother was careful to reinforce his good manners and taught him to live life elegantly. His childhood friends noticed that his politeness, easy grace and dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman, and for this reason they began calling him Duke.
Ellington composed his first song by ear in the summer of 1914 while working as a soda jerk. He titled it “Soda Fountain Rag” and would play the tune as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango and fox trot; because of this, listeners never knew it was the same piece. Ellington would go on to write over 1,000 compositions and is revered as one of America’s greatest composers. Though known as a giant in the history of jazz, his music incorporated many genres including blues, gospel, popular and classical. Some of Ellington’s famous pieces include: “Mood Indigo,” “Take the A-Train,” "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," “Solitude” and "Black, Brown and Beige.” Appropriately, his last words were, “Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered.”
Dizzy Gillespie
Born John Birks Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina
October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
Dizzy Gillespie is known as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time. His father was a local bandleader, which meant that instruments were readily available to him growing up. At the age of 4, he started playing the piano; by the age of 12, he had taught himself how to play the trombone and trumpet. He credited Roy Eldridge as his idol and the reason he dreamed to becoming a jazz musician. He was mostly known for his “swollen cheeks,” his bent trumpet and for popularizing bebop. According to his autobiography, the bent trumpet was a result of dancers falling onto his trumpet stand on stage. He later had his trumpets made for him with an upturned bell at a 45-degree angle because it caused an altered tone of the instrument which he liked.
Though known as a seminal figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz, Gillespie occasionally incorporated blues as an initial foundation of his music. This can be heard in his songs like “The Bluest Blues,” “Blues After Dark” and “Cognac Blues.”
Robert Johnson
Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi
May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Robert Johnson was a young man with a burning desire to become a great blues musician. According to legend, Johnson was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Farm at midnight. It was at this crossroad that he was met by the Devil in the form of a large black man who took his guitar and tuned it. The Devil then played a few songs. When the Devil returned the guitar to Johnson he had also passed along mastery of the instrument. This deal with the Devil mirrored the legend of Faust, and Johnson never claimed the story, although his blues lyrics often bespoke of dark, disturbing forces.
Skip James
Born Nehemiah James in Bentonia, Mississippi
June 9, 1902 – October 3, 1969
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Skip James’ guitar playing is noted for his intricate fingerpicking and the dark, minor sound, often played in open D-minor tuning. He first recorded for Paramount Records in 1931. Sales were poor because the Great Depression struck just as James’ recordings were hitting the market, and he ultimately gave up the blues to become the choir director in his father’s church. For the next thirty years, James did not record anything. He flew under the radar until 1964 when blues enthusiasts John Fahey, Henry Vestine and Bill Barth discovered him singing in a hospital in Tunica, Mississippi. In July of 1964, James performed with other rediscovered blues artists at the Newport Folk Festival. For the remainder of the decade, James recorded for different labels and played various engagements until his death in 1969.
Freddie King
Born Frederick Christian in Dallas, Texas
September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
At the age of 16, Freddie would sneak into clubs to listen and watch the great blues players of Chicago perform. One night he bet his friends that he could sit in with the house band and play his box guitar. After noticing Freddie sitting in with the band, the club owner realized how young Freddie was and immediately ordered staff to escort him out of the club. Howlin’ Wolf was impressed by the way Freddie had been picking his acoustic guitar, so he told the owner that Freddie was with him. Wolf took Freddie under his wing, and it was the beginning of a great friendship.
Freddie King is often mentioned along with Albert King and B.B. King as one of the Three Kings of the electric blues guitar. He is nicknamed the “Texas Cannonball” as his guitar style is based on both Texas and Chicago influences.
B.B. King
Born Riley B. King in Berclair, Mississippi
September 16, 1925 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
King grew up singing in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael, Mississippi, where he was raised by his maternal grandmother; his mother was too poor to raise him herself. At the age of 12, he purchased his first guitar for $15. In 1946, he followed his cousin Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee. After returning to the Delta, he crossed the river to Arkansas, where he performed for Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM and developed a local audience.
Over the next few years, King earned a spot on the legendary Memphis radio station WDIA where he was a singer and a disc jockey. The station is where he gained the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which later shortened to “Blues Boy” and finally to B.B.
Son House
Born Edward James House, Jr. in Riverton, Mississippi
March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
As a young boy, Son House developed a passion for the Baptist Church. At age 15, he delivered his first sermon, and within five years he became a pastor at a small church just south of Lyon, Mississippi. He had a fall-out with the church after having an affair with a woman ten years his senior. He did not teach himself the guitar until his early 20s, because of the church’s belief that blues music was sinful. He established an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms often played with the aid of the slide guitar. His powerful baritone combined elements of southern gospel and spiritual music. He moved to Lula, Mississippi, where he met Charlie Patton, Willie Brown and Robert Johnson. He was a great influence on the Delta School of Musicians.
Hubert Sumlin
Born in Greenwood, Mississippi
November 16, 1931 – December 4, 2011
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
When Hubert Sumlin was 10-years-old, he snuck out of the house to a local juke joint where he stood on a pile of Coca-Cola crates stacked against a window so he could watch Howlin’ Wolf perform. He was so captured by the music that he fell through the window and landed right on the stage.
A few years later, Howlin’ Wolf brought Hubert to Chicago as a member of his band. After asking Hubert to step down from the bandstand because he was playing over his voice, Wolf suggested that Hubert lose the guitar picks so that he could play softer with more expression and tone. Although Hubert was embarrassed and hurt, he worked to develop a new guitar style without the pick. Hubert is best known for his shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic suspensions.
John Lee Hooker
Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi
August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
It is said that John Lee Hooker embodies his own unique genre of the blues. Although his trademark was his talking blues style, he also incorporated the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his guitar playing and singing. Despite being illiterate, Hooker was a fantastic lyricist, writing many of his songs from scratch. In the 1950s, because recording studios would barely pay black musicians, Hooker would often spend the night wandering from studio to studio. He would come up with new songs or create variations of songs for each studio. He would record the songs under obvious pseudonyms in order to circumnavigate his recording contract. He recorded under the names John Lee Booker, Johnny Lee, John Lee, John Lee Cooker, Texas Slim, Delta John, Johnny Williams and The Boogie Man.
J.B. Lenoir
Born in Monticello, Mississippi
March 5, 1929 – April 29, 1967
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
J.B. Lenoir was a unique, one-of-a-kind artist. He was known for his high-pitched tenor voice that could fool a trained ear into thinking it was coming from a woman. In 1949, Lenoir moved to Chicago where Big Bill Broonzy helped introduce him to the local blues community. He began performing at local nightclubs with various blues artists including Memphis Minnie, Big Maceo Merriweather, and Muddy Waters. It was at this time that Lenoir evolved into an important member of the Chicago blues scene. His lyrics were often a cut above the rest, both in terms of sensitivity and willingness to tackle controversial substance. In 1954, his politically controversial song, “Eisenhower Blues” created such a storm that it was temporarily taken off the shelves and renamed “Tax Paying Blues.”
Mahalia Jackson
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana
October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
At the age of 16, Jackson moved to Chicago, Illinois where at her first day of Sunday service she gave an impromptu performance of her favorite song, “Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet, Gabriel.” After the service was over she was invited to join the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir. In 1929, Jackson met the Father of Gospel Music, Thomas A. Dorsey. In the mid-1930s Dorsey and Jackson began what came to be 14 years of touring. Although Jackson refused to sing anything but gospel, she listened to and was heavily influenced by blues artists including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Mamie Smith. She was offered money to sing secular music, but she took her pledge seriously throughout her career. In 1941, she divorced her husband Isaac because of his unrelenting pressure to sing secular music. Jackson’s gospel styling made a lasting impact on blues and soul artists, including Aretha Franklin.
James Cotton
Born in Tunica, Mississippi
July 1, 1935 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
After receiving his first harmonica for Christmas, James Cotton fell for “King Biscuit Time,” a 15 minute radio show whose star was the harmonica legend, Sonny Boy Williamson. Cotton would press his ear to the speaker and learn to play Sonny Boy’s tunes. When he was 9-years-old, both of his parents had passed away and Cotton was taken to Sonny Boy Williamson by his uncle. When they met, Cotton began playing Sonny Boy’s theme song on his harp, note for note. From then on, the two harp players were like father and son. Sonny Boy adopted Cotton as an opening act, but because he was too young to go inside the various juke joints, he would play on the steps for tips. Ironically, Cotton would sometimes make more money in tips outside than Sonny Boy did at the gig inside.
Bo Diddley
Born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi
December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008
Artist: George Borum
Bo Diddley, was a rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter (usually as Ellas McDaniel) and rock and roll pioneer. As a young child in Chicago, he was an active member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he studied the trombone and the violin. He became proficient enough on the violin for the musical director to invite him to join the orchestra, with which he performed until the age of 18. His early influences included bluesmen John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. Diddley was known as “The Originator” because of his key role in the transition from blues to rock. He introduced a hard-edged electric guitar sound on a wide-ranging catalog of songs. He influenced acts such as Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and The Beatles. He adopted the stage name Bo Diddley (reputedly an inversion of the single stringed instrument known in the rural delta as a ‘Diddley Bow’) in the early 1940s.
He died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida, where he lived the last 13 years of his life.
Koko Taylor
Born Cora Walton in Shelby County, Tennessee
September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Koko Taylor, also called as the “Queen of the Blues,” is known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues styling. In 1965, Taylor signed with Chess Records, where she recorded “Wang Dang Doodle,” a song written by Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf. The song sold over a million copies and reached No. 4 on the R&B charts. Taylor continued to record for the next few years, but she was never able to reach her initial chart success until she signed with Alligator Records in 1975. She recorded nine albums under Alligator Records, eight of which were Grammy nominated.
Etta James
Born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California
January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Etta James was born in Los Angeles, California to a 14-year-old unmarried mother. She was raised by foster parents, but then moved to San Francisco with her mother when she was 12. It was in San Francisco that Etta teamed up with two girls to form a doo-wop singing group, known as “The Peaches.” When the girls were only 14-years-old, they were discovered by band Leader Johnny Otis. They sang for him an answer to Hank Ballard’s Song “Work with Me, Annie” called “Roll with Me Henry.” Otis liked the song and in 1954, without her mother’s permission, Etta and the duo traveled to Los Angeles to record it. When the song was released in 1955 as “The Wallflower,” it climbed the rhythm and blues charts to be the Number 2 song in the nation.
After “The Peaches” and Etta parted company, Etta’s career continued to flourish. In 1961, Etta released what was to become her signature hit “At Last,” which reached number two on the R&B charts. She can be found in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
Ruth Brown
Born Ruth Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia
January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
In 1945, inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Dinah Washington, Brown (age 17) began to sing in bars and clubs with her husband, trumpeter Jimmy Brown. While she was performing at a nightclub in Washington, D.C., she was noticed by a local disc jockey who recommended her to Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson of Atlantic Records. The two were duly impressed but wanted her to audition. While en route to audition in New York, Brown was involved in a serious car accident, which landed her in a Philadelphia hospital for nine months. She ended up signing with Atlantic Records in her hospital bed. After recovering, she began her successful tenure at Atlantic with the recording of “So Long” in 1949. Brown’s two dozen hit records secured Atlantic’s footing in the record industry, the young label was often referred to as “The House That Ruth Built.”
Junior Wells
Born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr.
in Memphis, Tennessee
December 9, 1934 – January 15, 1998
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
By his mid-teens, Junior Wells was playing in a trio known as “The Three Deuces.” The trio became “The Three Aces” and then, with the addition of a drummer, “The Aces.” His work with “The Aces” brought him to the attention of Chicago’s lead bluesman, Muddy Waters. At the age of 18, Junior Wells was recruited to replace Little Walter in Muddy Waters’ band. After leaving Muddy Waters’ band, Little Walter went on his own, enlisting the remaining Aces as his backing group.
Wells worked with Buddy Guy in the 1960s and they both supported the Rolling Stones in the 1970s. Shortly before his death from lymphoma, he appeared in the sequel to the popular Blues Brothers movie.
Big Mama Thornton
Born Willie Mae Thornton in Montgomery, Alabama
December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
Willie Thornton was called “Big Mama” for both her size and her boisterous, powerful voice. She is best known for her 1952 rhythm and blues recording of “Hound Dog.” Although “Hound Dog” sold more than two million copies and held down the top slot on Billboard’s R&B charts for seven weeks, she only made $500 off the hit. Elvis Presley’s refined version of the hit brought him fame and considerable fortune few years later in 1956. In a similar occurrence, Thornton wrote and recorded “Ball ‘n’ Chain,” which turned out to be a greater success for Janis Joplin in the late 1960s. Both of these occurrences are great examples of the inequity that often existed when a black original was covered by a white artist.
Elvis Presley
Born Elvis Aaron Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi
January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
When Presley was a teenager he frequented blues venues and listened to the regional radio stations that played “race records.” At Sun Records in Memphis, he found the African-American musical style of Rufus Thomas and Big Boy Crudup combined with the influences acquired from his gospel background, gave him a unique sound. Presley was so captivated by Freddie Bell and The Bellboys rendition of “Hound Dog” by Big Mama Thornton that he decided to make it the closing number of his act.
Throughout his impressive career, Presley popularized rock and roll music in the United States. He has also been recognized for his contributions in country and gospel genres.
In 1998, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and a few years later into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Globally, Presley has sold over one billion records… more than any other artist. In his career, he had 18 No. 1 singles, including “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Good Luck Charm” and “Suspicious Minds.”
Chuck Berry
Born Charles Anderson in St. Louis, Missouri
October 18, 1926 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Chuck Berry is celebrated as one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. He is credited for developing and refining rhythm and blues into the major elements that make rock and roll music distinct. Many credit his success to his ability to articulate the concerns and attitudes of his audience. Dubbed the “Eternal Teenager,” Chuck Berry’s knowledge of the pop market helped him break cultural barriers and appeal to an integrated audience.
In 1955, Chuck Berry went on a road trip to Chicago to watch his idol, Muddy Waters, perform. Although Chuck Berry arrived late and only heard Muddy’s last song, he was able to get Muddy’s attention after the show. It was at this time that Chuck asked Muddy who to see about making a record. Muddy directed Chuck to Chess Records, where he ended up signing that summer. His first hit, “Maybellene,” reached No. 5 on the pop charts and No. 1 on the R&B charts.
James Brown
Born in Barnwell, South Carolina
May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
James Brown was a major figure of the 20th Century for popular music and dance. He is profoundly noted for his influence in the development of different musical genres and is also credited as being the originator of funk music.
Influenced by his own troubled childhood, which included being forced out of seventh grade for wearing insufficient clothing, James Brown grew to be a respected social and civil rights activist. Brown was a fierce advocate for educating young people and the need for them to stay in school. In 1966, Brown released “Don’t Be a Drop-Out” then donated the royalties to a charity used for drop-out prevention programs. Brown eventually left a majority of his estate to creating the I Feel Good, Inc. Trust to benefit disadvantaged children and provide scholarships for his grandchildren.
The day after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Brown performed a televised live concert in Boston in attempt to prevent rioting. Because young Bostonians stayed home to watch the concert on TV, his effort succeeded and the city largely avoided violence.
I Got You (I Feel Good)
Fats Domino
Born Antoine Dominique Domino in New Orleans, Louisiana
February 26, 1928 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
New Orleans born and raised, singer, songwriter, pianist Fats Domino’s father was a well-known violinist. His uncle was the jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett and taught Domino to play the guitar. His first recordings, “Detroit City Blues” and “Hide Away Blues,” show the early influence the blues had on his style. It was however, rock and roll songs like “Blueberry Hill” and “Ain’t That a Shame” that brought him his greatest fame. Over the course of his career, Domino has had 35 Top 40 American Hits and Rolling Stones Magazine ranked him No. 25 on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.” In 2007, various artists including Paul McCartney, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Elton John came together to create an album titled “Going Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino.”
Following Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward where Domino lived, there was an initial rumor he had perished, but thankfully he had been rescued and taken to a Baton Rouge shelter. Later President George W. Bush visited Domino in Louisiana to replace the 2004 National Medal of the Arts that President Clinton had awarded him but that had been lost in the devastation of the storm.
Following Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward where Domino lived, there was an initial rumor he had perished, but thankfully he had been rescued and taken to a Baton Rouge shelter. Later President George W. Bush visited Domino in Louisiana to replace the 2004 National Medal of the Arts that President Clinton had awarded him but that had been lost in the devastation of the storm.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Born Stephen Ray Vaughan in Dallas, Texas
October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Stevie Ray Vaughan began playing guitar at the age of 7. By the age of 12, he was playing in garage bands, and at the age of 17, he dropped out of high school to concentrate on playing music. In 1971, Stevie formed his first blues band, “Blackbird,” and then moved to Austin, Texas with them. After a few jumps to different bands, he joined “Paul Ray and The Cobras” in 1975. His solo guitar, featuring heavy strings to impart a meaty, funky sound was distinctive. In 1976, they were named Austin’s Band of the Year, but in 1977, he left and formed “Triple Threat Revue,” which became “Double Trouble” when vocalist Lou Ann Barton left the band in 1979. On August 26, 1990, during “Double Trouble’s” tour, they concluded a concert in Alpine Valley, WI with an encore jam featuring Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Eric Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan. After the concert, Vaughan boarded a helicopter to Chicago which crashed and killed him and the four passengers on board. Vaughan was only 35 at the time.
Jimi Hendrix
Born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle, Washington
November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Despite his mainstream exposure being limited to four years, Jimi Hendrix is widely considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in music history. Hendrix explored the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar creating a new musical style combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion. The music he created over his short career embraced the influence of blues, ballads, rock, rhythm and blues and a collection of various jazz styles.
In early 1967 the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first single, “Hey Joe,” spent ten weeks on the UK charts. The single was then followed by the release of a full length album “Are You Experienced,” which has remained one of the most popular rock albums of all time. Though a success in Britain, it wasn’t until he returned to the United States in June of 1967, that he became one of the most popular and highest grossing touring acts in the world.
Hendrix would die tragically from drug-related causes at age 27. He had said electric blues artists including Muddy Waters, Elmore James and B.B. King influenced him during the beginning of his career. Indicative of that, an album of eleven recordings of blues material he had made, “Hendrix: Blues,” was released posthumously.
Janis Joplin
Born Janis Lyn Joplin in Port Arthur, Texas
January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Janis Joplin first became known in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later as a solo artist. As a teenager, she befriended a group of outcasts and one of them had albums by African-American blues artists, such as Bessie Smith, Lead Belly and Ma Rainey. Joplin credited these musical pioneers with influencing her decision to become a singer. At the height of her career, she was known as "The Queen of Rock and Roll." She performed at the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock and the Festival Express Train Tour and was one of the most popular acts at each show. Throughout her adult life Joplin battled addiction to drugs and alcohol, and at age 27, died of a heroin overdose.
Robert Cray
Born in Columbus, Georgia
August 1, 1953 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Blues guitarist and singer Robert Cray is a five-time Grammy Award winner. He is most known for leading his own band, as well as being a solo act. Cray began playing the guitar in his early teens. He originally wanted to be an architect, but not too soon after he started studying he formed the band “Steakface.” The band performed covers of Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, The Faces and many others, and Cray played guitar and sang lead vocals. In the late 1970s, he moved to Eugene, Oregon and, influenced by his heroes Albert Collins, Freddie King and Muddy Waters, formed “The Robert Cray Band.” In November, 1986, he released his third studio album, Strong Persuader, for which he won his first Grammy Award for. To this day, he still continues to record music and tour.
Buddy Guy
Born George Guy in Lettsworth, Louisiana
July 30, 1936 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Buddy Guy is a six-time Grammy Award-winning blues guitarist and singer. He began learning to play guitar on a two-string diddley bow he made. In the early 1950s, he began to perform with bands in Baton Rouge, and later moved to Chicago in 1957. In Chicago, he fell under the influence of Muddy Waters. Between 1959 and 1968, Guy’s record company, Chess Records, refused to allow him to record music that was similar to his live shows. The founder of Chess Records, Leonard Chess, denounced his playing as “noise.” Chess used him mainly as a session guitarist for Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and others. His career took off during the late 1980s and the early 1990s when the blues were in a revival period.
Ranked 30th in Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, Guy has had a powerful influence on some of rock’s giants. Eric Clapton said of him, “Buddy Guy was to me what Elvis was for others, and is by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive… [Guy] changed the course of rock and roll blues.” In 2012 Guy was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors from President Obama.
Leon Redbone
Born Dickran Gobalian in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August 26, 1949 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
While living in Canada in the early 1970s, Leon Redbone began performing at Toronto area nightclubs and folk music festivals. His career first gained momentum when Bob Dylan sought him out at the Mariposa Folk Festival. Dylan was so impressed by Redbone’s performance that he mentioned him in an interview with Rolling Stone. He told Rolling Stone that if he ever started a label, Redbone would be the first artist he would record. Rolling Stone went on to do a feature article on Redbone a year before he even had a recording contract. Most people were introduced to Redbone during his network debut on Saturday Night Live in 1976, where he showcased his version of “Walking Stick.
Bonnie Raitt
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York
November 8, 1949 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy
Singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt is an important force in keeping the blues tradition alive in American popular music, while also shining light on the legacy of the blues pioneers who have preceded her. The daughter of legendary Broadway star John Raitt, she entered Radcliffe College as a freshman in 1967. It was there in Cambridge, Massachusetts that she met Dick Waterman, a blues promoter who was instrumental to the blues revival of the 1960s. During Raitt’s sophomore year, Waterman relocated to Philadelphia with a number of local musicians. Because Raitt had become so close to Waterman vand company, she decided to take a semester off and join them in Philadelphia. After the move, Raitt began performing at rhythm and blues clubs with established blues legends such as Howlin’ Wolf, Sippie Wallace and Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Raitt released her first album in 1971 and as of 2013 has received 10 Grammy Awards for her recordings. In 1988, she co-founded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which works to improve royalties, financial conditions, and recognition for a whole generation of rhythm and blues pioneers to whom she feels we owe so much. Raitt is also well-known for her political activism on a number of issues.
Willie Green
Born Willie Grant Green in Pine Level, AL
October 14, 1935 – Present
Artist: Robert Ponzio
Singer, guitarist and harmonica player Willie Green is a beloved regionally-based Delta style bluesman. He worked as a migrant farm worker from 4th grade to the age of 40 and has also made a living as a truck driver, pipe layer and lawn maintenance man. Throughout his life though, music was always there as a source of creative expression. Green learned the blues in his early teens when he would hitchhike or hop a freight train to hear the old blues masters playing in juke joints in other towns. He is self-taught on both harmonica and guitar. Now a widely respected artist, he has opened shows for John Hammond, Jr. (who calls Green "the real deal"), Tommy Castro, Charlie Musselwhite, Maria Muldaur, John Lee Hooker, Jr., James Cotton, Eddie Kirkland, Joey Gilmore, JJ Grey & Mofro and many others including the legendary Eric Clapton. Green now resides in Ocala, FL and plays regularly at the Yearling Restaurant in Cross Creek, FL.
B.B. King
Born Riley B. King in Berclair, Mississippi
September 16, 1925 – Present
Artist: Ty the Portrait Guy and George Borum
For longer than half a century, King has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. He has released over fifty albums since he began recording in the 1940s. While performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, two men got in a fight over a woman named Lucille. In the midst of the fighting, a kerosene stove was knocked over, setting fire to the building. After racing outdoors to safety, King realized that he left his beloved guitar inside. He rushed back into the building to retrieve it, only narrowly escaping death. He then decided to name his guitar Lucille, to remind him to never do something so crazy like fight over a woman. Ever since the fight in the mid-1950s, each one of King’s Gibson guitars has been named Lucille.
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© 2013 City of Gainesville Parks Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department