Author: C.C. Rider

This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the crooked highways of this singing country to resurrect the voices of the past. With the dirt of the Delta on her hands, she sleeps in the shadow of the giants on whose shoulders popular music now stands. Josh White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) While other Bluesmen were fighting for women and whiskey, Josh White was fighting for equality. A large portion of his recording time was devoted to direct pleas to the government to end segregation. The House of…

Growin’ up in New Orleans, Lonnie Johnson learned to play music alongside his brothers and sisters. His dad, a violin player, brought up the family to play together. But after he lost all his kin to the Spanish Flu, Lonnie was on his own…

Little Willie John was just five feet tall and seventeen years old when he walked into the office of a New York record company in a borrowed suit way too big for him…

Jamesetta Hawkins was born to a Los Angeles prostitute, brought up by an abusive preacher, tossed around foster homes. And was just a teenager in 1954 when she scored her first chart-topping hit. It all moved pretty fast after that…

He was born Huddie Ledbetter, on a Louisiana plantation. A big man, terribly strong. And all that strength was matched by a fiery temper. A combo that got him in trouble…

So one of my favorite music books is called the Language of the Blues. Written by a badass blues rock musician named Debra Devi…

He was born Otha Ellas Bates McDaniels…but you know him as Bo Diddley. Still can’t picture the man? Well, have ya ever heard this sound before? Call that the Bo Diddley beat. Once he came out with it, everybody followed suit…

This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the crooked highways of this singing country to resurrect the voices of the past. With the dirt of the Delta on her hands, she sleeps in the shadow of the giants on whose shoulders popular music now stands. Pops Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000) There’ve been many important guitarists – blues, jazz, rock. But when we’re talkin’ gospel guitar there’s one name that shines. Roebuck “Pops” Staples. His tremolo heavy open chords defined the gospel sound—and made a seamless transition…

When you got the Blues, it don’t matter the season. They head on down the chimney anyway. But Christmas brings a special kinda feeling. A lump-of-coal kind of blues delivered by Old Saint Nick…

When James Milton Campbell Jr. was a kid growing up in Greenville, Mississippi, he was drawn to all kinds of music. He loved the country and western radio programs beamed out from the Grand Ol’ Opry. And he was steeped in the sounds of his Delta home: field hollers, gospel songs, the deepest blues…