This Week In The Blues: August 31 - September 6, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of August 31 - September 6, 2025

Some of the highlights include Chicago-based blues singer and guitar player Joanna Connor, blues guitar player Freddie King, and blues piano player Sunnyland Slim.

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:

Joanna Connor - "Walkin' Blues" (LIVE) - https://youtu.be/KTHMXiTbssQ?si=k3S7uIwbjibQDeIx

Freddie King - "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" - https://youtu.be/mE9H1bW-zQ4?si=8zmeehibSrpBpm9s

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

Chicago-based blues singer and guitar player Joanna Connor was born August 31, 1962. Connor was born in New York City, and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. After moving to Chicago in 1984, she was drawn to the Chicago blues scene. Since then she’s played with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Sammy Lawhorn, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Magic Slim, Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks, Koko Taylor, just to name a few. Connor has signed endorsement deals with Gibson Guitars, Victoria Amps, LaBella Strings, Mesa Boogie Amps, and Orange Amps. We’ll have a link to some of her work on YouTube in our show notes.

Blues singer and occasional guitar player Nelson Wilborn born on August 31, 1907. Better known as Red Nelson or Dirty Red, his recording career lasted well over a decade. Two of his standout songs are "Crying Mother Blues" and "Streamline Train" both recorded in 1936. Musicians who accompanied Nelson include Cripple Clarence Lofton, Blind John Davis, Black Bob, Kansas Joe McCoy, Papa Charlie McCoy, Big Bill Broonzy and Lonnie Johnson.

Piedmont blues guitar player & mandolin player Floyd Council was born on September 2, 1911. He was known as "The Devil's Daddy-in-Law". Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the late 1920s and early 1930s he and Blind Boy Fuller played on street corners in the area. Council recorded twice at sessions with Fuller in the mid-1930s. One bit of trivia, an English band got their name from the liner notes of a 1962 album by Blind Boy Fuller. Credited there are the names of South Carolina bluesman Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. And Pink Floyd was born.

Memphis Slim was born on September 3rd, 1915!  He was an amazingly prolific artist who ranks with the greatest blues piano players of all time. He was smart enough to take Big Bill Broonzy’s early advice about developing a style to call his own, instead of imitating that of his idol, Roosevelt Sykes. Sometime in the late ’30s, he moved from Memphis to Chicago and began recording in 1939 for several local labels.

Blues guitar player Charley Booker was born September 3 in 1925. He was mostly   active around central Mississippi, in the 1940s and early 1950s and learned to play guitar from his uncle, who had played with Charley Patton. In 1947 he moved to Greenville, Mississippi, where he worked with the pianist Willie Love and also met or worked with Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Milton, Ike Turner and Houston Boines. 

Blues guitar player Freddie King was born Sept 3 1934. He is one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and B.B. King). His soulful and powerful voice and distinctive guitar playing had a major influence on electric blues music and on many later blues guitar players. He got his break with the single and eventual blues standard "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" which reached number five on the Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart in 1961. 

Texas blues guitar player "U.P." Wilson was born September 4, 1934 on a farm near, Shreveport, Louisiana, and lived in the Dallas Fort Worth area. He learned the blues from Cat Man Fleming and Frankie Lee Sims. Never a full time musician, from 1967 onward he raised his family and worked as a school janitor. At night, Wilson performed as a sideman in local nightclubs where they attracted crowds of Texas blues fans. By 1987, Wilson had begun solo recording and touring around Texas. 

Boogie woogie piano player Meade "Lux" Lewis was born September 4 in 1905. Along with piano players Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, they helped start the boogie-woogie craze. He played regularly in Chicago in the late ’20s and his one solo record of the time, “Honky Tonk Train Blues” recorded in 1927 is still considered a classic. Over time Lewis slipped into obscurity. Record producer John Hammond found Lewis washing cars for a living in Chicago. Soon, Lewis was back on records and was able to work steadily. 

September 5, 1923 marks the birthday of Texas blues guitar player Zuzu Bollin who was born in Frisco, Texas. The name 'Zuzu' is believed to refer to a brand of ginger-snap cookies popular at the time. In 1951 Bollin recorded "Why Don't You Eat Where You Slept Last Night" and "Headlight Blues", and variously worked alongside Duke Robillard, Doug Sahm, Booker Ervin, Percy Mayfield and David "Fathead" Newman.

On September 5, 1977 Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry were shot into space, never to return to earth. Well, at least their music was. Voyager 1 space probe launched by NASA included a variety of world music and samples of the human voice. The Blind Willie Johnson song included was "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground". The inclusion of Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was controversial, with some claiming that rock music was "adolescent", to which Carl Sagan replied, "There are a lot of adolescents on the planet." 

Blues piano player Sunnyland Slim was born on September 5 in 1906 in the Mississippi Delta. He adopted his colorful stage name from the title of one of his best-known songs, the mournful “Sunnyland Train.” After entertaining at juke joints in the Delta, Slim made Memphis his home base during the late ’20s, playing along Beale Street and hanging out with the likes of Little Brother Montgomery and Ma Rainey. Sunnyland Slim moved to Chicago in 1939 and set up shop as an in-demand piano man, helping to make that city a center of postwar blues. Slim was the one that introduced Muddy Waters to the folks at Chess Records.

September 6, 1925 is the birthday of the great Jimmy Reed in Dunleith, Mississippi. His particular style of electric blues was popular with a variety of audiences in the 50 and 60s. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do", "Baby What You Want Me to Do", "Big Boss Man", and "Bright Lights, Big City" appeared on both Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues and Hot 100 singles charts. He had a singing style like no one else because when he sang, he would slur his words.

September 6, 1926 is the birthday of blues drummer Frederick Below, Jr. He is best known for his work with Little Walter and Chess Records in the 1950s. Below was a creator of much of the rhythmic structure of Chicago blues, especially its backbeat. In 1955, he started working as a session musician for Chess Records. He played on hit records for Little Walter, Junior Wells, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Rogers, Elmore James, Otis Rush, Howlin' Wolf and others. Among his more famous work, he played on Chuck Berry's recordings including "Roll Over Beethoven", "Rock and Roll Music", and "Sweet Little Sixteen".

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!