The Tennessee guitarist spent years bouncing between bar gigs, legal setbacks and second chances. Now he’s telling the story on ’15 Seconds of Fame.’
Author: Jack Austin
Jack Austin
Jack Austin is a Chicago-based music journalist covering blues and American roots music. He is a radio DJ (Electric Chicken) and co-founder of Crossroads Chicago Radio. A poet and bad guitar player, he writes with an ear for regional scenes, musical lineage, and the people who keep the blues alive.
R.L. Burnside’s grandson reflects on heritage, migration, and carrying Hill Country blues forward.
A son’s campaign to restore the name—and the meaning—of his father’s music
“It’s the most honest music we have,” Jesse Cotton Stone says of the blues. Survival, lineage, and a cross-traditional musical vocabulary inform his work.
Lightnin’ Malcolm on juke joints, Hill Country blues, and a career built from the road up.
Left-handed and fiercely dedicated, Paul Kaye turned early obstacles into a lifetime pursuit of the ‘big sound,’ making one guitar carry rhythm, bass, and melody all at once.
Growing up, Stud Ford was no stranger to gritty blues clubs with dim lighting, smoke filling the room, and loud music in the air. As a child, Stud would sleep on the floor of blues clubs like Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale, Mississippi, as his grandfather, the Hill Country legend T-Model Ford, played from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. T Model Ford, born James Lewis Carter Ford, was the primary parental influence in Stud’s life and began teaching him music when he was about six years old. Stud said the two were very close, and that his grandfather was the “only…
Crate digging, Mississippi masters, and Chicago rhythm — Carter’s blues reflects a singular journey.
How the filmmaker, provocateur, and Panther Burns founder documented North Mississippi blues and forged his own art-action response in Memphis.
Hill Country blues as inheritance and trance: Kinney Kimbrough, Kody Harrell, and Eric Deaton share the rhythm, lineage, and joy behind North Mississippi’s hypnotic sound.