Blind willie johnson, blind willie mctell, blind lemon jeffersonin fact, just scroll down the blues hall of fame list and every third musician seems to be preceded with the word blind. Further it will examine and compare the lives of many historic female blues singers and the impact they had on the music industry. Tim gracyks phonographs, singers, and old records the. Female blues singers in the 1920s and 1930s such as ma rainey, bessie smith and alberta hunter represented a more sophisticated style of blues than acoustic country blues artists such as charlie patton, blind lemon jefferson and blind willie johnson. He was blinded by a shotgun blast to the face in louisiana in the mid to late 1920s, which resulted in the physical loss of his eyes. Jimmie rodgers 18971933, the great american singer, was just a lad working as a water boy on the railroad when he first heard a version of the blues from african american section gangs laying and straightening rails along the railroad track. Blues, secular folk music created by african americans in the early 20th century, originally in the south. Jones approaches this musical genre from a sociological, historical, and political standpoint, starting with the early slave trade in america. Top 40 blind and visually impaired american musicians.
Did robert johnson sell his soul to play the blues. Talking book and innervisions that would prove to be the cornerstone of his career and, in many ways. Location recording and the early traditions of the blues. List of blues musicians with name, birth year, death year, origin, primary style, and references name birth year death year origin primary style refs mozelle alderson. This list is intended for those guitarists who exhibited a clear blues thread throughout their careers. The blues hall of fame honors those who have made the blues timeless through performance, documentation, and recording. There are a lot of blues musicians with blind in their name. On top of this, the book is very poorly edited, often stopping a sentence in the middle. The simple but expressive forms of the blues became by the 1960s one of the most important influences on the development of popular music. A furniture company recorded all of the top africanamerican blues and jazz performers of the 1920s. Paramount records book of the blues, in its biography for blind lemon jefferson, wrote can anyone imagine a more horrible fate than to find that one is blind. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians.
See more ideas about singer, blues music and jazz blues. The book offers a historically grounded consideration of african american performers and their audiences, and the. Winner of the 2016 living blues award for blues book of the year since the early. Frank surge brief biographies of seventeen singers and musicians who helped develop the blues style and became legendary performers during their lifetime. Blind lemon jefferson, for example, became the blues darling of paramount records. This urban blues singer recorded 180 sides for columbia records and was notably called the empress of blues. Blind bluesmen willie johnson, willie mctel, willie. List of blues musicians with name, birth year, death year, origin, primary style. Blind folks had a hard timehe cant get in the hospital. Shortened over time to the blues, it came to mean a state of agitation or depression. Despite its rosters firepower, the label folded after just 15 years in business. A lot of thought should be given to the importance of the gospel blues. Despite his impoverished life, johnson did record 30 songs in his career and left a rich blues legacy.
The following list of nicknames of blues musicians complements the existing list of blues musicians by referring to their nicknames, stage names and pseudonyms, thereby helping to clarify possible confusion arising over artists with similar or the same nicknames. Charterss first book, the country blues, was published at the tail end of the 1950s, the rural southern blues of the preworld war ii period was a largely ignored genre. His song dark was the night, cold was the ground was included as one of the 27 samples of music sent to space in 1977 as part of the voyager golden record. This started as a list of acoustic or acousticbased blues artists with an informed mostly guess at the make of the instruments they used during the acoustic era, i.
Mississippi blues rare cuts 19261941 reynolds real name was joe sheppard. Records artists papa charlie jackson, blind lemon jefferson, and blind blake, the king. Blind john davis gained a big european following after touring with big bill bronzy, and sonny terry, a blind bluescumcountry singer, went on to star in steven spielberg s the color purple. The songs of blind folk the university of michigan press. Not the strongest of their partnership but still very good, i could.
Here is a list by no means definitive of some of the more noted blind blues musicians. Gary davis, blind boy fuller, sleepy john estes, blind willie johnson, blind blake, blind willie mctell. Abstract this paper will examine the history of the blues and the role that many female blues singers played in the development of the blues during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Blues book of the year 2016 living blues critics poll. Blues musicians are musical artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording blues music. The figure of the blind country bluesman became so iconic that when eddie lang, a sighted jazz guitarist, wanted to choose a black pseudonym for purposes of recording blues records with lonnie johnson, he naturally settled on blind willie dunn. Blues hall of fame aboutinductions blues foundation. He had a pronounced southern accent and reportedly worked in south georgia, kentucky, along the east coast, and in bristol, tennessee, before landing in chicago. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. Hence, in olivers book edith johnson lists fa mous blues singers. Simply the most powerful, most original and best blues artist of all time.
In praise of blind willie johnsons dark was the night. They come from different eras and include styles such as ragtimevaudeville, delta and country blues, and urban styles from chicago and the west coast. But as writer luigi monge also points out, blindness also gave these musicians a certain degree of musical freedom. We therefore can not but assume that blind melon simply nicked its name from blind. Perhaps more than any other artist, big bill broonzy brought the blues to chicago. Historically, many blind musicians, including some of the most famous, have. The songs of blind folk university of michigan press. Winner of the 2016 living blues award for blues book of the year. The book offers a historically grounded consideration of african american.
Originating in the deep south, the blues has greatly influenced jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll. They were called gandy dancers, partly because of their dancelike moves while working and singing. The world is known to have people of all kinds and varied opinions. Blind lemon jefferson, blind blake, blind willie mctell, blind willie johnson. Blues vocals have a different feel and timbre than other forms of popular music. The genre goes all the way back to the start of the 20th century. The 100 greatest blues singers 3920 the 100 greatest blues singers 191 so here it is, a celebration of the 100 greatest blues singers, from the founders of the genre to the 60s bluerock revolution, right up to the new voices keeping the scene alive. Learn more about blues, including notable musicians. The list is arranged in alphabetical order by nickname rather than surname. King and billie holiday as well as mahalia jackson who was widely considered a gospel singer but was influenced by and certainly influenced other blues singers and little richard, who grew out of a blues background to invent rock n roll. But probably in terms of hours i spent listening with pleasure to a performer, it would be sonny terry. Gettin a handle on those monikers origins of blues artist names by alan white. Email me if you have any comments on the list or if you want to know how i compiled it. Here is my ranking of the 300 most important recorded blues artists.
The type of music known as the blues, was first recorded in 1920 by mamie smith crazy. Two of the unreleased songs are takes from irene scruggs and blind blakes married man blues tk 2 and 3. He and his brother edgar are among the elite blues guitarist of the 20th. Here komara and johnson answer the question of not only what is a blues book, but which ones are worth owning. Okehs san antonio location proved to be very successful, giving the field units access to the many barrelhouse blues pianists of the logging camps and to numerous blues singers who lived closer to houston. Although many blues singers traveled north to record in chicago and new york, there.
The name of this great american music probably originated with the 17thcentury english expression the blue devils, for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. There are so many blues artists that had nicknames or had adopted alternate names that i thought it would be interesting to list some of them and identify where their nicknames came from. In the jazz and soul worlds, there wasnt anywhere near as. Negro music in white america in 1963, and it is still one of the definitive texts about the blues. Blind blues musicians and their troubled, thrilling lives. Known as the empress of the blues, bessie smith was the best and most famous female singer. Bessie smith charley patton, blind lemon jefferson, and. The songs of blind folk explores the ways that the lives and careers of blind and visually impaired african american musicians and singers have mirrored the changes in americas image of african americans and the social positioning and possibilities of the entire black community. Handy himself went blind at the age of 30 due to an accidental fall from a subway platform in new york city.
Only artists that began recording under their own name by no later than 1975 are included. Blind musicians are singers or instrumentalists, or in some cases singeraccompanists, who are legally blind. Top 10 blind bluesmen from before you were born listverse. Lester profiles 10 blues, or bluesinspired, legends including bessie smith, muddy waters, b. The 50 best blues clubs in the best music cities in america.
They influenced other bluesmen plus elvis presley, bob dylan, and jimi hendrix 01. Blind lemon jefferson was the largestselling africanamerican blues singer in the. Since its inception in 1980, the blues foundation has inducted new members annually into the blues hall of fame for their historical contribution, impact, and overall influence on the blues. Handy, named the father of the blues, described the musicians he saw around clarksdale as blind singers and footloose bards. In the last several decades, blues music has developed a less regional character and has been influenced by rhythm and blues. History of rock n roll music experience 152 flashcards. Its a good package and if you dig old blues imagery the calender is pretty good and it has a bunch of bluesjazz singers birth and death dates on the calender part. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock.
Robert johnson robert leroy johnson was an american blues singersongwriter and musician. The essence of chris thomas kings versatile, heavily bluesinfluenced music can perhaps best be hinted at with a quick sample of his album titles. Pill blues and panther squall blues is arthur blind blake, which strengthens the case for blake being his given name. Blindness as a rhetorical trope in blues discourse jstor. His life, his death, and his legacy uzzel, robert l. In praise of blind willie johnso ns dark was the night. Blind musicians seem to be generally blues and jazz musicians, so country singer ronnie milsap is a bit of an oddity. It reflects their impact, influence within their genre, and musical expression in addition to technical ability on the instrument. David dicaire profiles the lives and musical careers of fifty blues singers born before 1940. This is a list of the top blind and visually impaired american musicians of the electrofied era, 1940 to the present.
Blues is a music genre and musical form which was originated in the deep south of the united states around the 1870s by africanamericans from roots in african musical traditions, africanamerican work songs, and spirituals. When i finished the book, i had a desire to further learn about each musician. A collection of early blues sides by black blind musicians is an odd way to approach a blues anthology, but it works very well for this twodisc, 50track set, which not only delivers classic blues takes from the likes of ray charles, rev. He was blinded by a shotgun blast to the face in louisiana in the mid to.