Blues & Roots

After writing about this picture a couple of weeks ago, I heard via e-mail and Facebook from several authoritative readers who deny that it is indeed Robert Johnson and Johnny Shines.  Some questioned...

I heard “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats only once before I bought it, but the two events were separated by almost a decade. It’s an understatement to say that music wasn’t as readily...

Sammy Price Pianist, Texas Bluesician, and Harlem Ward Heeler I first heard Sammy Price at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston in 1985. He was around 77 by then, but still a commanding presence at the...

I first learned of Sister Rosetta Tharpe when I read Tony Heilbut’s landmark book, The Gospel Sound, in the early 1970s. It was an eye-opener for me about gospel music, and the culture he illuminated...

Mississippi Delta Blues Legend in Rochester Son House; photo by Dick Waterman I remember the exact moment during my junior year in high school when I first heard Muddy Waters, but I’ve forgotten just...

Sonny Boy Williamson, circa 1963 Extra! Extra! Hot off the YouTube press, a slice of blues history on film that I’d never caught the slightest hint of, but here for all the world to see is color footage of...

The legendary Claude Jeter made one of his final appearances as leader of the Swan Silvertones at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival. The Silvertones founder was 52 at the time, and he would live another...

T-Bone Walker with Johnny and Shuggie Otis, probably at the Monterey Jazz Festival, 1970 I found impeccable footage of T-Bone Walker two weeks ago and have been on the search for more ever since. T-Bone’s...

I’ll take issue with at least one assertion of Stephen Holden’s in his New York Times review of Paul McCartney’s new release, Kisses on the Bottom, where he says that Paul’s voice is “almost as youthful...