This Week In The Blues: September 14 - September 20, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of September 14 - September 20, 2025

Some of the highlights include Chicago blues harp maestro, Snooky Pryor, "The King of the Blues", B.B. King, and up and coming blues guitarist Hector Anchondo .

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:

Snooky Pryor 1988 Topanga Blues Fest (Live Video) - https://youtu.be/qZb4Ph_JyR0?si=d1YIv7x4lsjwaYw_

B.B. King - The Thrill Is Gone [Crossroads 2010] (Official Live Video) - https://youtu.be/SgXSomPE_FY?si=Z5Ap882yywtoWHHF

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

Harmonica wizard and singer Darrell Nulisch was born September 14, 1952, in Dallas, Texas. Growing up in Dallas, Nulisch was surrounded by blues and soul music at an early age. “My Dad and Mom used to take me to these honky tonks sometimes when there would be live bands on Sunday afternoons,” he recalls. Jimmy McCracklin and Freddie King were early favorites, along with a kid in the neighborhood named Jimmie Vaughan. “One of his first bands, the Chessmen, used to practice down in the park about three blocks from my house,” says Nulisch. “I would ride my bicycle down and watch those guys play.”

Chicago blues harmonica player “Rhythm Willie”, born September 15, 1910. Rhythm Willie appeared on 16 issued recordings between 1939 and 1950. Willie was first advertised in Chicago newspapers in October 1938, where he was often touted as "King Of The Harmonica" or "The Harmonica Wizard." He uses the harmonica in it’s simplest, cleanest form that is strongly influenced by clarinet intonations.

Another Chicago blues harp maestro, Snooky Pryor, was born on September 15, 1919! Pryor helped pioneer the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica. While overshadowed at first by some of the other higher profile Chicago harp players like Little Walter and Junior Wells, Pryor has finally begun to receive full credit for the mammoth role he played in shaping the amplified Chicago blues harp sound during the postwar era.

Chicago blues harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold was born September 16, 1935. He is self-taught harmonica player and has worked with blues legends such as Johnny Shines, Otis Rush. Earl Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and others. In the early 1950s, he joined forces with street musician Bo Diddley and played harmonica on the March 2, 1955 recording of the Bo Diddley song "I'm a Man" released by Checker Records. In 2014, he was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the "Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year" category.

"The King of the Blues", B.B. King, was born on September 16, 1925.  King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato and staccato picking that influenced many later blues electric guitar players. King performed tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts per year into his 70s. In 1956 alone, he appeared at 342 shows.

Chicago blues harp player Eddie Burks was born September 17, 1931 near Greenwood, Mississippi. Burks was the 14th and youngest child in a family of sharecroppers. When he was a child one of his brothers was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan. After moving to Chicago in 1946 he worked in a steel mill, and at first didn’t play the blues because of religious beliefs. He played frequently on Maxwell Street Market in the late 1960s and 1970s, and also worked as a sideman with the likes of Eddie Shaw and Jimmy Dawkins.

Up and coming blues guitarist Hector Anchondo was born on September 18, 1979.  He won the International Blues Challenge in 2020 in the solo/duo category. He’s been nominated for a variety of awards, including for a BMA for best acoustic blues album; a Blues Blast award for best acoustic guitarist and best acoustic album, and for an Independent Blues Award for best acoustic blues, all in 2021. And his most recent album, “Let Loose Those Chains,” debuted at 11 on the Billboard Blues.  

Blues maestro Louis Myers born was born on September 18, 1929! Myers co-founded The Aces who backed both Little Walter & Jr Wells. Though he was certainly capable of fronting a band as both a remarkably versatile guitarist/harpist, Myers will forever be recognized first and foremost as a top-drawer sideman and founding member of the Aces. After a few years with The Aces, Louis Myers left in 1954 and he played with Otis Rush, Earl Hooker, and many more.

blues saxophonist Gene Dinwiddie was born in Louisville, Kentucky on September 19, 1936. in 1967, he joined the Butterfield Blues Band and remained until 1971. It also was during the 1960s that he was a member of the James Cotton Blues Band and worked in the 1970s as a session musician for B. B. King, Gregg Allman, Melissa Manchester and Jackie Lomax. In the 1990s, his work as a session musician continued and can be heard on Etta James' track Stickin' to My Guns.

Blues and jazz piano player Jelly Roll Morton was born on or around September 20, 1890. This bandleader and composer was of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was one of the first published jazz compositions. He also claimed to have invented the genre. At the age of fourteen, Morton began as a piano player in a brothel. He often sang smutty lyrics and used the nickname "Jelly Roll", which was slang for female genitalia.

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 brand new episode next week and we’ll cover Blind Lemon Jefferson and Junior Wells among several others. You won’t want to miss it so… we’ll see you then!