This Week In The Blues: Jan 05 - Jan 11, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of Jan 05 – Jan 11, 2025.

Some of the highlights include Fabulous Thunderbirds founding member and harp maestro Kim Wilson, Chicago blues slide guitar master Tampa Red, and the recording of “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters.

We just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:
https://bigtrainblues.com
https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Photo credits (if known) and past episodes are posted on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@BigTrainBlues

Here are links to a few of the artists or songs we've referenced in this week's episode:

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - "Tuff Enuff" - https://youtu.be/EcXT1clXc04?si=rr48mp2sLpiq-D8N

Tampa Red - "It Hurts Me Too" - https://youtu.be/34VJzHT9nuk?si=kyOg9pr1CZolK4rt

Join me every weekday from 12:15pm-12:45pm CT to watch a live stream on Facebook of the longest running blues radio show program. https://www.facebook.com/DeltaCulturalCenter

We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!

ARE YOU A FAN OF BLUES HISTORY? US TOO!

If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:

https://bigtrainblues.com

https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Transcript

 This Week In The Blues: Jan 05 – Jan 11 2025

Libby Rae Watson is one of my favorite traditional blues musicians! She was born January 5, 1954 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Her distinctive voice, storytelling, and finger picking style has attracted fans worldwide. In addition to performing, she has dedicated her musical life to educating the world about Mississippi’s musical history. Libby Rae has performed at many festivals over her career...the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, King Biscuit Festival in Helena, AR, the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, MS, as well as in Europe. She is a genuine musical treasure and if you have a chance to catch her live or buy a CD, don’t pass it up.

blues and folk singer/songwriter Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was born January 5, 1893 to a musical family near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was a self-taught left-handed guitarist, playing a guitar strung for a right-handed player. This position meant that she would play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".

Fabulous Thunderbirds founding member and harp maestro Kim Wilson was born January 6, 1951 in Detroit, Michigan. He started with the blues in the late 1960s and was tutored by people like Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Albert Collins, George "Harmonica" Smith, and Pee Wee Crayton. Wilson continues to perform at blues festivals and clubs all over the world, both as leader of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and with Kim Wilson's Blues Allstars.

Bobo Jenkins was born January 7, 1916 in Forkland, Alabama. In addition to being one of the top blues men in Detroit he also built and set up his own recording studio and record label there. Jenkins is best known for his recordings of "Democrat Blues" and "Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night". His sharecropper father died when Jenkins was not yet one year old. He left home before the age of 12, and arrived in Memphis, Tennessee. He had a wife at the age of 14, the first of ten marriages.

blues singer Ethel Finnie was born January 7, 1898 in New Orleans. She recorded eight songs in 1923 and 1924, including "You're Gonna Wake Up Some Morning, but Your Papa Will Be Gone". Finnie graduated from New Orleans University and was employed as a schoolteacher. Finnie married the pianist and composer Porter Grainger and they performed together. after the birth of their daughter, Finnie basically stopped her music career, she remarried, and later owned a beauty shop, restaurant, and grocery.

On January 7, 1954, Muddy Waters recorded “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” with Chess Records in Chicago. It was the first of numerous Willie Dixon songs to be recorded by Muddy Waters, one of a series that built on Muddy's already-established charisma to build him an even more powerful macho image. The recording featured Muddy Waters on vocal and guitar, Little Walter on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Otis Spann on piano, and Elga Edmonds on drums. 

Chicago blues slide guitar master Tampa Red was born January 8, 1903! He is best remembered as a blues guitarist who had a distinctive single-string slide style. His songwriting and his bottleneck technique influenced other leading Chicago blues guitarists, such as Big Bill Broonzy, Robert Nighthawk and Muddy Waters. In a career spanning over 30 years, his best-known recordings include "Anna Lou Blues", "Black Angel Blues", "Crying Won't Help You", "It Hurts Me Too", and "Love Her with a Feeling".

Delta blues guitarist Ishmon Bracey was born January 9, 1889 in Byram, Mississippi. Alongside his contemporary Tommy Johnson, Bracey was a highly influential bluesman in Mississippi, and was one of the area's earliest figures to record blues material. Bracey's recordings included "Trouble Hearted Blues" and "Left Alone Blues".

Chicago Blues guitarist Kenneth "Buddy" Scott was born January 9, 1935 in Goodman, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago when he was seven, and later joined the doo-wop group ‘The Masqueraders.’ Buddy formed a group called Scotty and the Rib Tips and recorded several singles late in the 1960s. They played locally in Chicago blues clubs for over a generation. In 1993 Scott signed a recording contract with Verve, and released his debut major-label release, Bad Avenue, that year. Not long after the album’s release, Scott died of stomach cancer in Chicago.

Chicago Blues guitarist Eddy Clearwater was born January 10, 1935 in Macon, Mississippi! he was a cousin of the blues harmonica player Carey Bell. He’s been called one of the blues' finest songwriters." He began playing guitar at age 13, teaching himself left-handed and upside down. He began performing with gospel groups, including the Five Blind Boys of Alabama.

blues maestro Slim Harpo was born January 11 in 1924 in Lobdell, LA! After his parents died, he worked as a longshoreman and construction worker in New Orleans in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Influenced in style by Jimmy Reed, he began performing in Baton Rouge bars using the name "Harmonica Slim", and accompanied his brother-in-law Lightnin' Slim in live performances.

Blues singer and pianist Katie Webster was born January 11 in 1936. A piano-pounding institution on the Southern Louisiana swamp blues scene during the late ’50s and early ’60s, Katie Webster later grabbed a long-deserved share of national recognition with a series of well-received Alligator albums. She had to deal with deeply religious parents who did everything in their power to stop their daughter from playing R&B. But the rocking sounds of Fats Domino and Little Richard were simply too persuasive.

Well blues fans, we just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to follow our social media pages or visit our website at Big Train Blues.com. We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!