This Week In The Blues: June 08 - June 14, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS

Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of June 08 - June 14, 2025.

Some of the highlights include the blues slide guitar master Derek Trucks, Clarksdale Mississippi blues guitarist Anthony "Big A" Sherrod, and jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor Les Paul.

Keep in mind that there's so much more that happened this week in the blues. 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 MASTER of Blues Slide Guitar - Derek Trucks - https://youtu.be/3I2jnA8L4xU?si=Yy40fet7KqzbC8p4

"Big A" - Anthony Sherrod w/"Tail Dragger" @ Red's Juke Joint - Clarksdale, MS - https://youtu.be/xzMQkqCnbD0?si=h_k3tySN7A7tVFH7

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

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 June 08 – June 14 2025

 Blues harmonica player James Harman who was born on June 8 in 1946.  Born in Anniston, Alabama, Harman began taking piano lessons at the age of four. Harmonicas owned by his father were stored in the piano bench, and James tried playing them after his piano lessons ended. In time, he learned to play several other musical instruments, including the guitar, electronic organ, and drums. By the age of 16 he had launched his own band and subsequently recorded a number of singles and albums with various ensembles, including Soul Senders, Snakedoctor, King James And The Royals, the Icehouse Blues Band and Icepick James And The Rattlesnakes.

 Slide guitar master Derek Trucks was born June 8, 1979. He displays a command of slide guitar styles running the gamut from blues to classic R&B and early rock & roll to classic jazz. He is the nephew of longtime Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks. Trucks began playing guitar when he was nine, and shared stages and sat in with the likes of Buddy Guy and the Allman Brothers Band by the time he was 12. Trucks later married blues guitarist Susan Tedeschi and the pair continue to record and perform as the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

 Skip James, the best-known proponent of the so-called Bentonia school of blues players was born on June 9, 1902.  He is among the earliest and most influential Delta bluesmen to record. His guitar playing is noted for its dark, minor-key sound, played in an open D-minor tuning with an intricate fingerpicking technique. Coupling an oddball guitar tuning set against eerie, falsetto vocals, James’ early recordings could make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. After his 1931 recordings sold poorly, he drifted into obscurity, until being rediscovered in the blues revival of the 1960s.

 Clarksdale Mississippi blues guitarist Anthony Big A Sherrod was born on June 9, 1984. “Big A” performs regularly in Mississippi but also can be found touring internationally. He’s a natural showman that uses the stage not as a border, but as a suggestion as he will jump up on the nearest bar and play from there. He moves and plays with a bit of a mischievous nature and he personifies the authentic music in Clarksdale today. Anthony is also an example of the success of the blues music education after-school program at the Delta Blues Museum. He was not only a student there, but later a teacher, passing on his skills and knowledge to the Clarksdale youth, solidifying the next generation of blues players.

 Jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor Les Paul was born on June 9, 1915! Not only was he a pioneer of the solid-body electric guitar, in the 1950s, he and his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford, recorded numerous records, selling millions of copies. In 1940, Paul created a prototype instrument called the Log, which was one of the pioneer solid-body guitars. He approached Gibson Guitar Corporation with his guitar idea in 1941, but it wasn’t until Fender began marketing its Esquire and Broadcaster guitars in 1950 that they showed interest. The guitar was dubbed the Gibson Les Paul and released for sale in 1952.

 The one and only Howlin Wolf was born on June 10, 1910. In the history of the blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin' Wolf. Six foot three and close to 300 pounds in his salad days, the Wolf was the primal force of the music. No one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits. Over a four-decade career he was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chicago blues, In 1980 he was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1991, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A couple of years later, his face was on a United States postage stamp. 

 Blues musician Little Laura Dukes was born June 10, 1907. She was a singe  r, dancer, and mandolin, banjo and ukulele player. She was often billed as "Little Laura" or "Little Bit", in reference to her 4'7" height. She performed and recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, from the 1920s to the 1980s. She grew up in North Memphis, where her father had been a drummer in W. C. Handy's band. She first recorded in 1934, playing mandolin on recordings made by the Memphis Jug Band.

 "The Sweetheart of the Blues" Bonnie Lee was born June 11 in 1931. With her powerful sweet voice, Bonnie Lee was a longtime fixture of Chicago's contemporary blues scene as well as one of the last surviving links to its postwar heyday. She is best remembered for her lengthy working relationships with Sunnyland Slim and Willie Kent becoming a legend on the North Side blues circuit. She was one of the last of her genre, the big-voiced woman blues singer fronting a Chicago band.

 June 12 marks the Birthday of blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd!! The Shreveport native began playing at age seven, figuring out Muddy Waters ’ licks from his father’s record collection despite never taking a formal lesson. Signed to a major-label record deal at the age of 13, he’s been nominated for five Grammy Awards, has received two Billboard Music Awards, two Blues Music Awards, and two Orville H. Gibson Awards.

 Charley Patton recorded “Pony Blues” on June 14 in 1929. Patton wrote "Pony Blues" sometime around the age 19. With the help of record store owner H. C. Speir, Patton obtained his first recording session, for Paramount Records. He cut 14 sides, including "Pony Blues", "Banty Rooster Blues" and "Down the Dirt Road". "Pony Blues" was also the first song to be released by Patton on the Paramount label. He would record another rendition of this song as "Stone Pony Blues" in 1934.

 Here's our New Releases section. On June 13th, several items are dropping. The first is Terry Hanck - Grease to Gravy. Second is Aki Kumar - God Bless The U.S.A. And on June 13 Ruf Records will reissue a vinyl version of the album “On The Jimmy Reed Highway” by Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughan.

 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 and we’ll cover blues guitarist Memphis Minnie and blues keyboardist Lafayette Leake – we’ll see you then!