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I am moderately new to the Blues world. I actually got into blues because of John Mayer and then have recently become very obsessed with Stevie Ray Vaughan. Where do I go next? Who should I listen to? I’m very into gritty, electric blues. Any suggestions help!
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Don’t forget Albert King. Also Mike Bloomfield, Super Sessions is a good place to start. Gary Moore’s blues releases. Luther Allison. Buddy Guy, Sweet Tea might be up your ally. Clapton From the Cradle. All pretty accessible and dynamic.
Sweat Tea is great , gritty . It’s slow and stripped down .. not sure if OP is wanting something a little faster though. Great album
Hey, ya don’t know till ya try. I love opera and Zappa, piedmont style blues, big band, avant garde jazz and a hundred other things. It’s not that far out of his zone.
I’m down , hope he reports back
I'm totally not a Clapton guy, but "From The Cradle" rips pretty good.
Buddy Guy. Incredible singer, guitarist and artist
Derek Trucks
Don't forget Susan! Damn that girl can play some slide!
Susan definitely isn't a slouch!
I love the whole damn band! Just saw Tedeschi Trucks in Durham in March, what a great show!
Different setlist every night. Even on back to back shows. Caught them 5 times last year (retired) and have tix for 2 this year. 12 piece band full of talent.
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram is a great young guy from Clarksdale who’s blowing up right now, and for good reason. Albert King, specifically stuff like “Born Under a Bad Sign” might be up your alley. Taj Mahal too. Also what a cool way to get into the blues, I never thought of John Mayer as a blues guy until seeing him live- but he’s got the sauce. Hope you enjoy xx
I saw Kingfish live and he brought down the house, and he was the opener. I really want to see him again.
Kingfish is the man
Johnny Winter - Captured Live: Highway 61, It’s All Over Now, Bony Moronie. Johnny and Floyd Radford destroy the Oakland Coliseum in front of 40k people. Also check out Johnny Winter And Live.
Check out Tab Benoit. Great music! Not discussed as much as the other guys out there.
Listen to Hendrix Blues album! Lots of other great suggestions on here. Don't forget about Roy Buchanan and Gary Moore!
My first Roy Buchanan album was Live in Japan. From that point I was hooked.
Definitely Albert and Freddie King. Mike Bloomfield is also one of the most severely underrated guitar players ever. And my personal favorite Chicago blues artist, Magic Sam
Excuse my ignorance, but are Freddie and Al related?
No, none of the Kings are. No ignorance at all though my friend!
So many great players to consider and already mentioned, here are some more. For gritty electric I suggest Muddy Waters, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Elmore James, Hound Dog Taylor, Gatemouth Brown, Lightnin Hopkins, Billy Gibbons, Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside. Both Christone Ingram and Derek Trucks are younger players who can be ferocious.
Albert started using "Albert King" because he wanted people to associate him with BB King early on hahah
No.
Albert King's real last name was Nelson. He started as a drummer.
Albert King's real last name was Nelson.
they both are blues Royalty
Warren Haynes. Come for the guitar skills, stay for the phenomenal blues covers.
Heavy load blues is an amazing cd
I’m disappointed no one said Muddy Waters, or Howling Wolf yet
Wolf wasn't a very good guita player, mostly he played harp.
But you should still listen to Wolf anyway, because he is awesome, and his guitar player, Hubert Sumlin, was one of the all-time greats.
Buddy guy. Son Seales. BB King’s live stuff is great. Gary Moore. Kenny Wayne Shepard, especially if you love SRV. I really dig Gary Clark Jr’s new album so far. Jeff Healey. Recently discovered Magic Slim from this place and he has some good stuff. Another guy to look into if you like SRV is Melvin Taylor, he has a lot of stuff up on YouTube to check out. And I suppose this is a goto suggestion but Jimi Hendrix. A deep dive into his work and you will find a lot of great blues stuff.
Trust me, you can't go wrong with Gary Clark Jr. He's still fresh but been around awhile. Modern take on a classic American art form. Great energy and voice too as well as cool sounding guitar.
Clapton, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Jimi, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Colin James, Sue Foley, Samantha Fish, Freddie King, Gatemouth Brown, Keb Mo, Johnny Lang, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Healey, Robert Johnson, BB King, Albert Collins, some of the Zep stuff, Howling Wolf, Otis Rush, Jeff Beck, Long John Baldry, Ledbetter, Bo Diddley, Big Mama Thornton, Big Bill Broozny, Freddy Mac, Rita Chiarelli, Elmore James, Lightning Hopkins, Rosetta Tharpe, Eric Gales, old ZZTop,
Did I miss anybody?
There ya go. This list will get it done
The Bluesbreakers should be in there 2 or 3 more times, otherwise you're good.
Some love for Samantha Fish !
Johnny Winter
Damn, and I have three of his albums. D'oh.
I'll take that list!
Tab Benoit, RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough
Yes. Derek Trucks.
Look up Derek Trucks on Youtube. NOW!
T-Bone Walker. Hubert Sumlin (of Howlin Wolf’s band.)
How about Alvin Lee?
'Slow blues in C' to name one
Howling Wolf in London. It's very aggressive blues. He recorded it with a bunch of British 60s stars. It's funny how he chastises them from time to time.
GARY Moore 🤘🏿🤘🏿Still got the Blues
I haven't seen anyone mention Rory Gallagher.
Albert King Freddie King Otis Rush Jimi Hendrix
The three kings. Albert,B.B. & Freddie
Rory Gallagher. Try Against the Grain first
I'm a fan of Joe Bonamassa!
Im surprised it took me this far down on the list for someone to call out Bonamassa. He is great.
I started with Muddy Waters. It was once said "Muddy Waters invented electricity" and that speaks about his influence on electric blues. Originally an acoustic blues guitarist (He has an album on that called Folk Singer. I 100% recommend it.) then moved to Chicago to set the blueprint for Chicago blues, which is the most popular electric blues subgenre. His early work (40s - early 50s. e.g. Rollin' Stone, Still A Fool, I Can't Be Satisfied, Rollin' And Tumblin', etc.) was played on an electric in the style of how one would play an acoustic, and to little accoompaniment. His work later (50s onwards) incorporated a band with many famous and influential blues musicians, most famously harmonica player Little Walter, bassist and songwriter (arguably the greatest songwriter in blues history) Willie Dixon, and guitarist Johnny Winter. Muddy Waters is a master of blues riffs and the one behind the most memorable riffs in blues history (e.g. Mannish Boy and Hoochie Coochie Man, Rollin' Stone)
Another great and influential bluesman is the guitarist B.B. King. Though his style may be lighter than what you said you prefer, he is considered one of the most important electric guitarists of the previous century. They say that when the electric guitar appeared, the first person to squeeze the value out of every note was B.B. King, with his soulful bends and vibratos. Check him out if you ever feel like it. Some essential tracks are "The Thrill Is Gone", "Rock Me, Baby", "3 O'Clock Blues" and "Paying The Cost To Be The Boss".
And now for some flaming wild guitar work, we have Buddy Guy. Buddy has one of the most diverse discographies in blues history, varying wildly from his album debut with his harmonicist Junior Wells on Hoodoo Man Blues to his blazing lead fills on "Stone Crazy" to wonderful acoustic blues on the album Blues Singer. He is also one of the greats of th mid 20th century that are still alive and performing, playing over 120 shows a year in his Legends Club in Chicago!
If B.B. King is the most influential electric bluesman, this one is the most influential bluesman ever (and he makes for a rather interesting story to boot). Robert Johnson is an acoustic delta blues guitarist from the 30s. Very little is known of his life, but the legends surrounding him are very famous. Legend has it that he was a dreadful player until he made a deal with the devil to gain god-tier skills in the instrument. There seems to be a trilogy in his discography that inspired this legend; "Cross Road Blues" (famously covered and rearranged by Cream as "Crossroads") tells of how he made a deal with the devil on the crossroads, "Hell Hound On My Trail" how he has to keep on traveling or else hell hounds will catch up to him, and finally, "Me and the Devil Blues" about when the devil comes to take his soul. Johnson lived traveling from town to town, playing his music during the Great Depression, gaining enough popularity to get a recording deal. He recorded 59 song in these sessions, however 17 of them were lost. He was poisoned by a jealous husband and died at 27, making him one of the first members of 27 Club which would later include other famous musicians such as Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. His album King of the Delta Blues Singers is considere by many to be the essential blues (or at least Delta blues) album.
Try Walter Trout; traveled with John Mayall, played with Coco Montoya...much better known in Europe than the US. Great heart/sound...
Mississippi John Hurt has been a favorite of mine lately. He’s a really unique musician, very different pace than a lot of other delta blues.
✨Junior Kimbrough✨
Doyle Bramhall II & Eric Gales are both high octane and heavily blues influenced.
Otis Rush, Eddie Taylor, Magic Sam, Earl Hooker.
Ally Venable is a terrific young guitarist
Tab Benoit
Derek Trucks, Samantha Fish, Ally Venable, Susan Tedeschi,Christone Kingfish Ingram, great bass guitarist Danielle Nicole
Magic Sam.
I don't think anyone mentioned John Lee Hooker. One of the all time great blues boogie players.
Feel very lucky to have seen him about 2 years before he died at the Washington State Fair. Was just an improptu visit with a friend in Seattle and we were looking for something to do that weekend. Booker T and the Mgs opened the show. Hardly anyone there besides us, so I'm so glad some younger folks are discovering the blues. My dad was a huge blues fan, so I grew up with it and made sure my kids did, too. :-)
Oh, man...I'm jealous. My wife and I just made a pilgrimage to Clarksdale MS this spring. He was from around there.
We had a similar experience with Magic Slim. Saw him at the Big Muddy Blues Festival right before he died and he was in pretty bad shape. They helped him on and off stage and sat him in a folding metal chair, but when they put a guitar in his lap, it sure didn't sound like he lost a step!
Aw, I'm glad to hear you had that experience. It took Mr. Hooker more than a few minutes to shuffle across the stage to the chair they set up for him. He did it alone, but it took a while. But exactly as you say about Magic Slim, once that guitar was in his lap, he seemed just fine!
Lots of good suggestions here. I'm going to add Albert Cummings. I dont see him mentioned much. He's blues, and country, but he rips. And he sounds like he's enjoying himself, like buddy guy does. I love him. He's recorded with Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon too, so you can get that stevie vibe too. I'd check out the albums True to Yourself and Working Man, but there are a bunch.
If you love Stevie, look into who he idolized - Hendrix and Albert King especially.
Eric Gales!
Roy Buchanan. The greatest blues player you've never heard of. Go park your car down by the river and put on his rendition of Down By the River, and turn up the volume. You will laugh, you will cry, you will play it again. Then check out his catalog, then watch the strange old documentary about him on YouTube. You're welcome. ;)
Jeff healy cover to cover is one awsome CD
Elmore James
Hound Dog Taylor
Snooks Eaglin
Earl King
Clarence Gatemouth Brown
I feel like Josh Smith doesn't get enough love
If you want to see someone who is young for blues guitarist. And see them live. Marcus King. If you are a blues guitarist there is a 50% your last name will be King lol.
Shocked to get this far and not see Marcus, he's killing it lately
Gary Clark jr
Some early Allman Brothers when Duane was alive. Robin Trower, “Bridge of Sighs.” Pretty much anything by Ry Cooder.
Buddy Guy
Taj Mahal
Peter Green
Joe Bonnamassa
Skip James. Lightnin Jackson. Howlin Worlf + Hunert Sumlin. Muddy Waters.
Albert King and Roy Buchanan are my favorites, along with Johnny Winter for some blues with a Texas flair.
Marcus King
Tinsley Ellis.
Highly suggest checking out yahoo/belzona compilations for pre war greatness. Some amazing recordings from 78’s that would’ve been lost to time if it wasn’t for nick perls collecting and putting them back on vinyl.
Some of my favorites are blind Willie Mctell, jb lenoir, Bo Carter, earl hooker, blind boy fuller, t bone walker, Henry Thomas. There’s so many greats from different eras and styles!
For gritty electric check out muddy waters electric mud and “the howlin wolf album”. Earl hooker has some great electric wah wah blues as well.
Stevie and Double Trouble were who got me into playing guitar. My biggest recommendation is finding out who HIS favorite guitarists were, and go from there.
Go on Spotify or Pandora and search for SRV. They both will give you plenty of SRV but also similar style artists. From there it’s down the blues rabbit hole you go.
Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, BB King
Here’s a link to the greatest live album ever. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLowQCq3Ss89gIvZYl2xUx2nZbiFBtPCgX&si=VAGtVBxwLCQwyP0X
Go get Live at the Filmore East
Sue Foley
East West by the Paul Butterfield Blues is a classic and also is Mike Bloomfield. Any recordings with Duane Allmam.
Eric Bibb if you want some acoustic stuff
If you haven't heard it, find the SRV and Albert King session CD. Great music and the conversation is fantastic
Roy Buchanan
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a brilliant musician and he did some great covers of blues songs. I was in your spot a few decades ago and searching out who played those songs before SRV has been a joy filled musical journey! I just recently heard the version of Texas Flood played by Larry Davis. 6 months ago I didn't know who Larry Davis was. Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Lighnin Hopkins, Lonnie Mack, etc. etc. so much wonderful music.