Browsing: The Bluesmobile

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…

Green is certainly not the first color that comes to mind when you think about the blues. But you wouldn’t be so crazy if you did…

Born in Louisiana, Lloyd Price made a killing from the start. His very first recording for Specialty Records in 1952 became an instant hit. Piano intro courtesy of another New Orleans treasure, Fats Domino. Thanks to “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Price was an r&b superstar before he could even vote. And the hits kept coming…

You might say Irma Thomas had a lot to sing about. She was born Irma Lee in Pontchatoula, Louisiana. She went to school and sang in a gospel quartet at her local church. Then she got pregnant, married, pregnant again and divorced. She remarried and gave birth to two more children. Oh, and this is all by the time she’s 19…

If you’re lucky enough to travel to Clarksdale, Mississippi, you’ll see some super cool, super weird guitars hanging around. They’re made of car parts, wood salvage, glass and glue, and they’re painted up beautifully. These super individual axes are the work of Clarksdale’s own treasure, Super Chikan…

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…

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…

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…