Blues Suggestions

Walter Trout, John Mayall, Ana Popovic, and and any Stevie Ray Vaughn would all be good to listen to for some rockin' blues tunes. Walter and Ana are still very current, so you can even catch them in concert. Mayall's last recording, "Tough", is a great newer recording of his. And for all-time greats, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, Freddy King, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, and Canned Heat are all great blues music to listen to. Enjoy!

 

A current fave of mine is Michael Burks.

 

Or, if you want a blues guitar player, there's his brother, Jimmie Vaughan.

 

Scroll through my >500 links below and you'll find a section on the blues with quite a few links that will guide you to lots of blues musicians and their music.

 

Joe Bonamassa, a freaking monster with a killer band. Some of his newer stuff has some heavy Zep influence.

 

Melvin Taylor is a great player ... and extremely underrated (IMO).

 

Allman Brothers, Johnny Winter, Joe Bonamassa.

 

Modern Chicago/Midwest guys rock
Ronnie Baker Brooks
Lonnie McCray
Lucky Peterson (older better)
Luther Allison
Bernard Allison
Robben Ford
Albert Cummings
Hayden Sears
Pistol Pete
Nick and Joe Moss
John Lee Hooker Jr
Tommy Castro
Buddy Guy of course and all his disciples
Chris Cain (kills)

Start at Alligator records catalog and you can't go wrong.

 

Jimi Hendrix's stuff is pretty darn bluesy. And pretty darn rocky.

 

A7-A7-A7-A7 D7-D7 A7-A7 D7 E7 A7-A7

Did I make the cut?

 

All the suggestions above are great. I'll add Joanne Shaw Taylor, who is a great guitarist and has a fantastic, smokey blues voice. Ansley Lister is another guy that I'd check out if I were you. Another great guitarist and he rocks it pretty hard. No ne has mentioned Robert Cray, he's one of the best ever, IMO.

I'll add a +1 to Michael Burks, who isn't really well known, but who, in my opinion, is as good as anyone out there.

Don't forget some of the oldies. Listen to Free and Robin Trower if you haven't. Great stuff.

And if you go back a little further, there's T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

Oh, yeah, check out Hound Dog Taylor, too. In fact, go to the Alligator Records and Blind Pig Records web sites for all kinds of interesting stuff.

 

Chris Thomas King
Tommy Johnson

 

I saw this on PBS and liked it so much I ended going to Amazon to buy the "Deluxe" DVD/CD Combo set:

Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan

That's Mr. Albert King and Mr Stevie Ray Vaughn in Studio - high quality recording. And Gus Thorton on bass is laying back a bit in the background but is always right there in the recording.

 

Johnny Winter, Gov't Mule, Allman Brothers

 

Oh yea, and Scott Henderson's Dog Party and Well to the Bone.

And a local favorites, the nighthawks and The Kelly Bell Band

 

I think you're probably looking for something faster, but I tend to like an older, slower style of blues. I have been listening to a lot of B. B. King lately since I am going to see him next month. Albert King is another favorite, I think I prefer the expression of a few notes to a lot of really fast playing. I love the session he did with SRV, and his version of "Ask Me No Questions" has a fun bass line.

 

Willie Dixon Chess box set

 

Sue Foley
Debbie Davies
Roy Buchannan
Rory Gallagher
Derek Trucks and his wife
Bonnie Raitt
Indigenous
Keb Mo