Samuel Maghett - his name was corrupted to Magic Sam by his bass player Mack Thompson - was born in Mississippi in 1937, and learned to play the blues from listening to Muddy Waters and Little Walter records. He moved to Chicago when he was 19, and rapidly gained a reputation and began recording for Cobra between 1957 and 1959, developing his distinctive tremolo-based style. Along with the likes of Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, he established a new direction for the genre. After imprisonment for deserting the US Army, he returned to playing in the '60s touring with Charlie Musselwhite and recording for Delmark, and made a big impact at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival. he seemed set for international stardom when he died suddenly of a heart attack aged 32 in 1969. He was immortalised in The BLues Brothers when Jake Blues dedicates the band's performance to the "late, great Magic Sam". Acrobat does not have any Magic Sam recordings on catalogue - however, it does have an interesting collection of recordings by American bluesman Ron Thompson, which for years were passed off as Magic Sam recordings, done in his style - for details click here.