This Week In The Blues: October 19 - October 25, 2025

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of October 19 - October 25, 2025

Some of the highlights include R&B guitar legend Steve Cropper, blues harmonica player Sonny Terry, and "Doctor Ross the Harmonica Boss".

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:

Steve Cropper - The AMAZING Story Behind "Green Onions" - https://youtu.be/o1emR12qb_Y?si=WT-XbnHBTWpY8M7x

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - "Talkin' Harmonica Blues" live - https://youtu.be/iBh9eSS00jA?si=NQ-KAyweB5GAbS2d

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

Blues guitar player Buddy Henderson better known as "Bugs" Henderson, was born on October 20, 1943. He was popular in Europe and from the 1970s, was based in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, where he was known as a local blues guitar legend. Henderson got his first guitar, a Montgomery Ward Airline, one year at Christmas when he was just six years old. Henderson played with blues musicians such as B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, as well as with rhythm and blues saxophone player Don Wise and rock guitar player Ted Nugent.

R&B guitar legend Steve Cropper was born October 21, 1941! Sometimes known as "The Colonel" he was the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. He also acted as the producer of many of these records. He was later a member of the Blues Brothers band. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 39th on its list of the 100 greatest guitar players of all time.

"Doctor Ross the Harmonica Boss" was born October 21, 1925 in Tunica, Mississippi. Ross's blues style has been compared to that of John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson I. His recordings for Sun Records in the 1950s include "The Boogie Disease" and "Chicago Breakdown". Within the lyrics of "The Boogie Disease", Ross notably sang "I may get better / but I'll never get well". In the early 1950’s Ross's records began to get airplay in Mississippi and Arkansas. 

Blues guitar player Elvin Bishop was born October 21 1942 in Tulsa, Oklahoma! He first came to prominence alongside fellow Blues Hall of Fame guitarist Michael Bloomfield as a member of the influential Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the 1960s. Since then, he has carved his own niche both as a hit making roadhouse rocker, and as a multiple Blues Music Awards recipient. He grew up on an Iowa farm and in Tulsa, and his persona and music reflect his rural roots, wit and humor, and an appreciation of a wide range of sounds, including blues, rock, soul, gospel, and country.

Chicago blues guitar player L. C. McKinley was born October 22, 1918. He worked with Eddie Boyd and Ernest Cotton and his major output was as a session musician on recordings made mostly in the 1950s. He also released a number of singles on various record labels. His best-known tracks include "Weeping Willow Blues" and "Nit Wit." His guitar playing was influenced by T-Bone Walker.  

Blues and boogie-woogie piano player and singer Speckled Red was born October 23, 1892. Born Rufus George Perryman he is best noted for his recordings of "The Dirty Dozens", exchanges of insults and vulgar remarks. “Playing at the Dozens” or “Putting in the Dozens” is a folk game in which two or more participants hurl insults and boasts at one another and are invariably obscene, frequently pornographic, and always aim to disparage an opponent’s genealogy. 

Acoustic blues harmonica player Sonny Terry was born October 24, 1911. He was noted for the exuberant whoops and hollers he worked into his blues numbers. Born in Greensboro, N.C., the blind harp virtuoso first recorded with Piedmont blues star Blind Boy Fuller in 1937, and did much of his best work with longtime partner Brownie McGhee, whom he met in 1939. He took his blues into such varied settings as Carnegie Hall, Broadway theater, commercial television, and even classical music.

Chicago blues guitar player “Jimmy” Dawkins was born October 24, 1936! He was a practitioner of the "West Side sound" of Chicago blues, which is considered smoother and somewhat less hard-edge than the South Side style of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Jimmy Dawkins was an unusual kind of bluesman. As a guitar player, he was intense without being dramatic; as a singer, he was expressive without shouting; as a performer, he was, by choice, not much of a showman.

R&B singer, songwriter and piano player Willie Mabon was born October 24, 1925. He moved from Memphis, Tennessee to Chicago in 1942.There he formed the group the Blues Rockers, and in 1949 began recording for Aristocrat Records and then Chess Records. His biggest success came in 1952 when his debut solo release, "I Don't Know", topped the Billboard R&B chart for eight weeks. It was played on Alan Freed's early radio shows and also sold well to white audiences, crossing over markets at the start of the rock-and-roll era.

Mississippi native Tommy Bankhead was born October 24, 1931. This Delta blues guitar player and singer played with Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Elmore James (who was his cousin), Joe Willie Wilkins, Robert Nighthawk, and Joe Hill Louis. In addition to all this, he also released a few albums under his own name. In addition to guitar, he sometimes played the bass guitar and harmonica.

One of the inventors of Rock and Roll, Wrecking Crew drummer Earl Palmer was born October 25 1924. Palmer was one of the most prolific studio musicians of all time and played on thousands of recordings, including nearly all of Little Richard's hits, all of Fats Domino's hits, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers, and a long list of classic TV and film soundtracks. According to one obituary, "his list of credits read like a Who's Who of American popular music of the last 60 years".

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 include stories about Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green and a notable day for blues and gospel legend Sippie Wallace. It’s going to be a great show so, we’ll see you then!