This Week In The Blues: Feb 23 - Mar 01, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of February 23 - March 1, 2025.

Some of the highlights include Texas Blues Legend Johnny Winter, Chicago blues singer, bassist and songwriter Willie Kent, and Bo Diddley receives a Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Grammys.

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:

Johnny Winter - "Be Careful With A Fool" (original 1948 version) - https://youtu.be/8Tyg5SJDpiQ?si=FyyKFzhRpZBun_gf

Willie Kent & His Gents live@ Belgium Banana Peel 2004 - https://youtu.be/Zx9m1ViLNNg?si=uIPB0S96vKFWa0IL

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: Feb 23 - Mar 01, 2025

Texas Blues Legend Johnny Winter was born February 23 in 1944! Winter was best known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. Winter produced three Grammy Award-winning albums by Muddy Waters and several of Winter's own albums were nominated for Grammy Awards. 

February 24, 1950 is the Birthday of the Delaware Destroyer, none other than blues and boogie woogie guitarist George Thorogood!  His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Alone". He has also helped to popularize older classics like "Move It on Over", "Who Do You Love?", and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". Thorogood and his band continue to tour extensively and in 2024 the band celebrates their 50th anniversary of performing.

February 24, 1936 marks the birthday of Chicago blues singer, bassist and songwriter Willie Kent!  Kent was born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in Inverness, Mississippi. Although he had played the bass guitar in Chicago's clubs since the 1950s, Kent worked full-time in careers other than music until he was over 50 years old. Following heart surgery, he stopped work as a truck driver, and formed a band. In 1971, Kent took up residence as the house band at Ma Bea's Lounge in Chicago. 

blues and R&B guitarist Freddy Robinson was born February 24, 1939. He was born in Memphis, raised in the state of Arkansas, and moved to Chicago in 1956. In 1958, he began touring with Little Walter. After seeing a jazz band perform was inspired to learn music formally at the Chicago School of Music. He also began working with Howlin' Wolf, recording with him such notable blues classics as "Spoonful", "Back Door Man" and "Wang Dang Doodle". 

Clarksdale, Mississippi bass player Heather Crosse was born February 25, 1974. Her band Heavy Suga‘ & the SweeTones has appeared frequently at the world-famous Ground Zero Blues Club and has performed at major festivals, opening for B.B. King, Robert Plant and others. Her sound is all blues – with a soul twist. She says that “I grew up singing Motown and a couple of my blues mentors did a lot of 70s soul. So that tends to come out in the songs that I'm writing".

On February 25, 1998 Bo Diddley receives a Lifetime Achievement Awards at the Grammys. The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is a special Grammy Award to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording." Other notable blues recipients include B.B. King in 1987; Bessie Smith in 1989; and Muddy Waters in 1992.

February 26 marks the birthdate of “The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues” Ida Cox who was born in either 1888 or 1896. After the success of Mamie Smith's 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues", record companies became aware of a demand for those types of recordings, and the classic female blues era had begun. Cox caught the attention of talent scouts and secured a contract. Between September 1923 and October 1929, Ida Cox recorded 78 titles for the Paramount label.

Chicago born boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons born March 1 in 1907. His parents were pianists, and he had learned to play by the age of ten. Ammons has had wide influence on countless pianists, such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Dr. John, just to name a few. In the mid-1920s Ammons and boyhood friend Meade Lux Lewis both worked as taxi drivers. Soon the two players began working as a team, performing at club parties. Ammons version of "Swanee River Boogie" sold a million copies, and his 1936 recording of "Boogie Woogie Stomp" has been described as "the first 12-bar piano based boogie-woogie”.

March 1, 1911 marks the birthday of blues singer and pianist Walter Davis who recorded from the early 1930s to the early 1950s. Davis was born on a farm in Grenada, Mississippi. He ran away from home at about 13 years of age, landing in St. Louis. He started singing with pianist Roosevelt Sykes and guitarist Henry Townsend. Davis made his first recordings in 1930, as a singer. He was self-taught pianist, and increasingly accompanied himself as he became more proficient.

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 that will include stories about Irish Guitarist Rory Gallagher and country blues maestro Mississippi John Hurt. You won’t want to miss it, so we’ll see you then!