This Week In The Blues: Jan. 26 – Feb 1, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of Jan. 26 – Feb 1, 2025.

Some of the highlights include my favorite Clarksdale, MS resident, harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite, blues guitarist Samantha Fish, and the "King of the Slide Guitar" Elmore James.

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:

Samantha Fish Live at the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival 2023 - https://youtu.be/S1e3K9siNDg?si=j-zWh91kqJkhLtBh

Elmore Jame - "Dust My Broom" - https://youtu.be/Ng9XmfebKBY?si=jKAF2cMot6894Jfe

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!

NOW AVAILABLE AS A PODCAST! If you would prefer to listen to this as a podcast, "This Week In The Blues" is now available on all major podcast platforms.

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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 26 – Feb 01 2025

Blues harp and guitar player Terry W. "Harmonica" Bean was born January 26, 1961 in Pontotoc, Mississippi. He has released several albums since 2001, and appeared in three film documentaries charting present day blues experiences. Bean has dedicated himself to promoting older blues stylings, such as Delta blues and Hill country blues. He is a versatile and engaging performer and appears regularly at blues festivals across the region. When we head to the Delta every summer I always try and catch his show. It’s Delta blues at its best.

Blues guitarist Elmore James was born January 27, 1918! Known as "King of the Slide Guitar" he was inducted into the Rock & Roll HOF in 1992 and his song "Dust My Broom" into the Grammy HOF in 1998. No two ways about it, Elmore James was the most influential slide guitarist of the postwar era. Although his early demise from heart failure kept him from enjoying the fruits of the ’60s blues revival James left a wide influential trail behind him. His signature lick is a part of the essential part fabric of blues guitar. Check the show notes for a link to it.

Blues vocal legend Bobby "Blue" Bland was born January 27, 1930, in the small town of Barretville, Tennessee. Bland was first discovered by Ike Turner, who helped Bland start his performing and recording career. This continued through the 50s with a short interruption for a stint in the US Army. 1957 saw Blands first charting single with “Farther Up The Road”, with many to follow over the following decades. Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. 

Blues musician, teacher, and philosopher D.C. Minner was born January 28, 1935.  Born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, he performed with O. V. Wright, Freddie King, Chuck Berry, Eddie Floyd and Bo Diddley. He started the 'Down Home Blues Club' in Rentiesville, and with his wife and bass player Selby Minner founded a long-running annual blues festival, the 'Dusk 'til Dawn Blues Festival'. The couple had won an international “Keeping The Blues Alive” award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis for their “Blues in the Schools” work with children.

Blues guitarist Drink Small was born January 28, 1933, in Bishopville, South Carolina. And yes, that’s his REAL name. He is known as The Blues Doctor and has been influenced by a variety of musical styles including gospel and country music. His musical style has been described as "drawn from the Piedmont blues tradition but also includes gospel, rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, and Delta and Chicago style of blues". Small has toured nationally and internationally, including performances at well-known festivals such as the Chicago Blues Festival and the King Biscuit Blues Festival, as well as at three international World's fairs.

Blues and gospel singer and guitarist Blind Arvella Gray was born January 28, 1906, in Somerville, Texas.  He spent the latter part of his life performing and busking folk, blues and gospel music at Chicago's Maxwell Street flea market and at rapid-transit depots. In the 1960s, he recorded two singles for his own Gray label, including "Freedom Rider" backed with "Freedom Bus."

Blues, and rock singer and guitarist Jonny Lang was born January 29, 1981, in Fargo, North Dakota. He has made several albums that have charted on the top 50 of the Billboard 200 chart, and has won a Grammy Award for Turn Around. In his many years on the road, Lang has toured with the Rolling Stones, Buddy Guy, Aerosmith, B.B. King, Blues Traveler, Jeff Beck and Sting.

Delta blues singer, guitarist Hayes McMullan was born January 29, 1902, in Tallahatchie County, MS. He was also employed at various times as a sharecropper and as a deacon and was a civil rights activist. His musical talents were unearthed following a chance encounter in 1967 between McMullan and historian Gayle Wardlow. Wardlow, discovered that McMullan had played alongside Charley Patton in the 1920s. This was at a time when McMullan had drifted from his Mississippi Delta homeland to perform the blues in juke joints across the Deep South.

Blues guitarist Samantha Fish was born on January 30, 1989.  Fish grew up in Kansas City and started out playing the drums, but when she was 15, she switched to guitar. She continues to win awards for her recordings including Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year. She is still actively recording and touring, and hopefully will be for many decades to come. So if you have a chance to go out and catch her live somewhere, don’t pass it up.

Grammy Award nominated blues and soul singer Janiva Magness born January 30, 1957. The Blues Foundation named Magness the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year in 2009, becoming only the second woman, after Koko Taylor, to be so honored. The award was presented by B.B. King himself and Bonnie Raitt. Studying to become an engineer, she worked in a recording studio in Saint Paul, Minnesota, when she was coerced into doing some backing singing, which later included backing Kid Ramos and R. L. Burnside, which eventually let to her singing career.

Blues singer and songwriter Harold "Chuck" Willis was born January 31, 1926, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was known as The King of the Stroll for his performance of the 1950s dance “the stroll”. There were two distinct sides to Chuck Willis. In addition to being a convincing blues shouter, Willis harbored a vulnerable blues balladeer side. In addition, he was a masterful songwriter who penned some of the most distinctive R&B numbers of the 1950s. Willis had suffered from stomach ulcers for many years, most likely the result of heavy drinking. During surgery in Chicago, Willis died of peritonitis on April 10, 1958, at the age of 32.

My favorite Clarksdale MS resident, harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite was born January 31, 1944. Early in his career in Chicago, Musselwhite would sit in with Big Joe Williams and others in the clubs. There he forged a lifelong friendship with Detroit bluesman John Lee Hooker; and the two often visited each other. Hooker even served as best man at Musselwhite's wedding. Musselwhite was reportedly the inspiration for Elwood Blues; the character played by Dan Aykroyd in the 1980 film, The Blues Brothers.

Blues and boogie-woogie pianist Roosevelt Sykes was born January 31, 1906. Nicknamed “Honeydripper”, he was a pioneering piano pounder responsible for the seminal pieces “44 Blues,” “Driving Wheel,” and “Night Time Is the Right Time.” Sykes began playing while growing up in Helena, Arkansas and his lengthy career spanned the pre-war and postwar eras with no interruption whatsoever. Sykes’ romping boogies and risqué lyrics characterize his monumental contributions to the blues genre. 

Chicago blues singer, drummer and guitarist "Baby Face" Leroy Foster was born February 1, 1923. He was a significant figure in the development of the postwar electric Chicago blues sound, notably as a member of the Muddy Waters band during its formative years. While he played guitar and drums competently, the talents for which he was popular have been described as "drinking, singing and clowning".

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!