Muddy Waters was the most important link between his urban black audience in the nightclubs of Chicago and the young white fans who came to know him as a result of the folk music craze beginning in the early to mid ’60s. Blues fans have heard his story time and time again. Here’s some things you may not have heard.
Author: Don Wilcock
Don Wilcock
Now into his second half century as the warrior music journalist, Don Wilcock began his career writing “Sounds from The World” in Vietnam, a weekly reader’s digest of pop music news for grunts in the field for the then largest official Army newspaper in the world, The Army Reporter. He’s edited BluesWax, FolkWax, The King Biscuit Times, Elmore Magazine, and also BluesPrint as founder of the Northeast Blues Society. Internationally, he’s written for The Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards program, Blues Matters and Blues World. He wrote the definitive Buddy Guy biography 'Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues,' and is currently writing copy for a coffee table book of watercolor paintings of blues artists by Clint Herring.
Decades of conversations reveal the full measure of John Hammond — the man who once had a young Jimi Hendrix as his sideman, and who loved doing it all his way. Don’s remembrance carries the weight of history, and the clarity of someone who truly understood the man behind the legend.
“I’ve taken flak all my career about being the wrong color, the wrong this or the wrong that,” Hammond once told him. “But listen, I love to do what I do… This is my life.”
Lived, learned, mastered: Tinsley Ellis translates decades of blues into acoustic brilliance on ‘Labor of Love.’
“That timeless place in music is what I live for”: In three interviews with American Blues Scene’s Don Wilcock, Bob Weir discussed mysticism, intuition, and the lived experience behind the Grateful Dead’s long, strange trip.
With humility, hard work, and a fierce love of the blues, Samantha Fish charts her own path — guided by collaborators, the road, and the music that came before her.
Pierre Lacocque: intellect, history, and the harmonica at the heart of a life bridging continents and the Chicago blues.
Jim Weider of The Weight Band discusses new music, touring, and the state of America, including his upcoming song ‘Why Are You Sleeping?’ and the challenges inspiring his creativity.
Billy Branch didn’t hear the blues until 18, but decades of experiences, influences, and collaborations make ‘The Blues Is My Biography’ (Nov. 7, Rosa’s Lounge Records) a fitting reflection of his life in music.
Tom Rush at 84: still writing songs and working on four books. Boston Symphony Hall, take note—this guy plans to play your stage on his 100th birthday. Connection > perfection, every time.
Mark Wenner has led The Nighthawks for over 50 years, delivering rootsy, heart-on-the-sleeve blues that never waver. In our latest conversation, he talks music, motorcycles, and why he’s still playing as much—and as well—as ever.