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Sitting On Top Of The World’s Best Blues Album Covers
We live in an age where the consumption of music is increasingly defined and dominated by digital music, and because of that the importance of album covers seems to be diminishing – at least for a...
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Roots Of The Blues: Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Spoonful’ Of Love
In 1960, Chicago-based Chess Records released a single that became one of the most influential and much-covered recordings in its catalogue. It was called ‘Spoonful’ and was delivered by a singer who,...
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Why The Psych-Blues ‘The Howlin’ Wolf Album’ Is More Than A Novelty Record
The acclaimed bassist Phil Upchurch played with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Jimmy Smith, with blues legends BB King and John Lee Hooker, and even starred on Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall. But he...
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Three Vinyl Editions Celebrate Blues-Rock Kings George Thorogood & The...
Powerhouse blues-rock favourites George Thorogood & the Destroyers will be honoured with three special vinyl LP releases from Capitol/UMe on 30 March. They are their 1982 major label debut Bad To...
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Watch uDiscover Music’s Chess Records Mini-Documentary
Chess Records’ place in history is secure. Founded by Polish immigrant brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, Chess started in Chicago as an independent record label and grew to become one of the most...
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Ramblin’ On: The Birth, Life And Rebirth Of Southern Rock
If you find the birth certificate for rock’n’roll, you won’t see Dartford written on it. Nor Liverpool. Not even Pennsylvania, where the pioneering Bill Haley grew up. No sir… Rock’n’roll is from the...
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John ‘Jabo’ Starks, Drummer For James Brown, BB King, Dies At 79
John ‘Jabo’ Starks, the drummer who helped anchor some of James Brown’s biggest hits, and who later kept the beat for BB King, died on Tuesday, according to reports in the New York Times reports. He...
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Pop Music: The World’s Most Important Art Form
There’s a brilliantly funny scene in Tom Stoppard’s play The Real Thing, where the character of Henry, an intellectual playwright, is invited to select his favourite music for BBC Radio 4’s Desert...
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Sound Matters: A History Of Legendary Recording Studios
When The Beatles were photographed in August 1969, striding over a zebra crossing in St John’s Wood, London, for the cover shot of their album Abbey Road they were celebrating a building that had...
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Howlin’ Wolf Remembers The Natchez Fire Of 1940
The fire in Natchez, Mississippi that took the lives of more than 200 people in 1940 was observed several times on record soon afterwards. But it was on 19 July 1956 that Howlin’ Wolf recorded his own...
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Remembering Chess Records First Hit: Gene Ammons’ ‘My Foolish Heart’
“The Blues is at the heart of popular music and Chess Records are at the heart of the Blues.” – Buddy Guy In the early 1947 two Polish-born, nightclub-owning brothers, Leonard and Philip Chess (real...
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DIY Music: How Musicians Did It For Themselves
From cave tunes to thrash punk, cotton-field blues to the early days of hip-hop, the urge to make music, using whatever is at hand, is a constant in human behaviour. Percussion instruments created from...
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The Rolling Stones Handpick Tracks For New Compilation ‘Confessin’ The Blues’
Rock icons The Rolling Stones have personally handpicked the tracks for a new, in-depth blues collection entitled Confessin’ The Blues which they have curated with Universal Music Group and BMG. The...
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When Cream Were On Fire
Four months before The Beatles made their bid for the best double album of 1968, Cream made theirs. Wheels Of Fire, the record that introduced the classic ‘White Room’ and other great performances by...
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reDiscover Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Moanin’ In The Moonlight’
He was born Chester Arthur Burnett (and named after the 21st President of the United States) but took the name Howlin’ Wolf when he became a professional singer. Blues legend John Lee Hooker said of...
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Chairman Of The Boards: How Producers Shaped Our Sounds
The story of the recording studio can roughly be divided into two time periods: before and after the 60s. As to exactly where the year dot is, opinion is divided. But during a few phenomenally...
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The Most Influential Blues Songs Of All Time
The great blues artists talked, the savviest rockers listened. Without the blues there’d be no rock’n’roll, but certain tracks were especially pivotal. Either they were famously covered, or the licks...
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The Devil Has All The Best Tunes: How Musicians Discovered Their Dark Side
More than a century ago, Jelly Roll Morton was thrown out of the house by his grandmother for playing “the Devil’s music”. But Jazz was by no means the last form of popular music to be labelled as...
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On The Eve of Destruction: Music Of The Vietnam War
At the dawn of the new documentary age ushered in by Ken Burns’ Civil War series in 1990, America was coming to the end of the heavily jingoistic era, a time when backlash to the 1960s peace movement...
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The Songs That Influenced The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are steeped in the blues. So who better to handpick a selection of the greatest blues tracks than the band who have championed the music for the past five decades? Across two CDs or...
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Vinyl Reissue For Howlin’ Wolf’s Legendary 1959 Debut ‘Moanin’ In The...
Just in time for the 60th anniversary of its release, the legendary debut album from Howlin’ Wolf, Moanin’ In The Moonlight, is receiving a special vinyl edition of the original mono album which is out...
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When The Rolling Stones Ruled The Roost
Three days after playing a gig at Bournemouth’s Gaumont cinema and three days before beginning their fourth UK package tour, The Rolling Stones were back in the studio to record a new single. At the...
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‘Little Red Rooster’: The First Blues Record To Top The UK Singles Chart
On Friday, 13 November 1964, The Rolling Stones released their fifth UK single. It would go on to become their second UK No.1 and, less than a month later, on 5 December 1964, become the first blues...
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Memphis Recording Service, Aka Sun Studio, Opens
A building that helped to facilitate the very birth of rock ‘n’ roll, and is now one of the prime musical landmarks and tourist attractions in America, opened for business on 3 January 1950. That was...
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Steve Miller’s Mighty Blues-Rock Legacy
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Miller is now into his second half-century at the helm of the Steve Miller Band. The man from Milwaukee goes from strength to strength, especially after the...
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‘Dust My Broom’: The Origins Of The Blues Classic
Trying to recall where you first heard the quintessential electric blues riff that opens ‘Dust My Broom’ is difficult. It may have been the early 50’s version by Elmore James or Fleetwood Mac’s late...
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Willie Dixon – The Greatest Blues Songwriter
Born in Vicksburg, deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, on 1 July 1915, Willie Dixon was a fixer, arranger, talent scout, boxer, performer and songwriter who did more to shape the sound of...
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Roll Over, Beethoven: Chess Records And The Rock’n’Roll Revolution
One of the most-repeated stories about Chess Records sees The Rolling Stones, on their first visit to the US, arriving at Chess’ studios to record, only to find their hero, Muddy Waters, at the top of...
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The 50 Best Chess Singles Of All Time
How can anyone select the Top 50 best Chess Records singles and not upset at least a few devotees? Eliminating singles from among hundreds of worthy candidates from the entire Chess roster is bound to...
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The Secret History Of Rock And Pop
The annals of rock and pop are full of artists who had the good sense and the timing to take existing material and give it a wider audience with their own interpretation. To mark Black History Month,...
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Best Chess Blues Records: An Essential Top 10
Chess Records, founded in Chicago in 1950, is one of the most significant record labels of all time. The company was started by Leonard Chess and his brother, Phil, who were both Jewish immigrants from...
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Marshall Chess’ Introduction To Chess Records
Founded in Chicago, in 1950, by two Polish immigrants, Leonard and Phil Chess – formerly Czyz – Chess Records quickly became home to some of the world’s most important blues and rock’n’roll artists,...
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The 25 Best Chess Albums To Own On Vinyl
What makes an album great? Consistency of quality certainly helps, and to take it a step further, some sort of coherence or unity from start to finish, or a unifying concept. Satisfy those conditions...
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‘Keeping The Blues Alive’: Watch Exclusive Interview With Muddy Waters’ Daughter
He was born McKinley Morganfield and known to the world as blues legend Muddy Waters, but to his family, he was just “Daddy”. Over the course of his decades-long career, Muddy Waters – along with his...
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The Amazons Reveal New Single And Detail Album ‘Future Dust’
UK rock outfit The Amazons have dropped the single ‘Doubt It’ and announced their new album Future Dust, set for release on 24 May. Since their breakout in 2017, the Reading rockers were praised as the...
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A Change Is Gonna Come: How Gospel Gave Birth To Soul
Two hundred thousand fans came to pay their respects to Sam Cooke at a memorial service in Chicago after his death, shot at the age of 33 by a frightened night manager in a cheap motel after an...
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Taking Notes: How Musical Nostalgia Creates Future Sounds
The 1960 movie Breathless was a landmark in modern culture, not least for its stunning jazz soundtrack by French-Algerian pianist-composer Martial Solal. The film was directed by Jean-Luc Godard, who,...
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Mojos Working: A History Of Recorded Blues
We will never know who wrote the first blues song – even using the term is a misnomer. The blues developed through the complex oral tradition of African-based music, changing rapidly during the last 40...
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Watch Part One Of The Docu-Series About The Amazons’ New Album, ‘Future Dust’
Fast-rising UK rockers The Amazons have shared a docu-series on YouTube wherein they chronicle the making of their new album, Future Dust, which was released via Fiction Records on 24 May. You can...
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Best Howlin’ Wolf Songs: 20 Essential Blues Classics
He howled like a hungry wolf, though on many of the best Howlin’ Wolf songs his voice sounded like a roar from a very edgy bear. He grew to be a big man, standing six feet three inches, and in one song...
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Steve Miller Releases Another ‘Welcome To The Vault’ Taster, ‘Say Wow!’
The build-up to the release of Steve Miller’s career-spanning rarities box set Welcome To The Vault continues, as the blues-rock great shares another previously unreleased track. ‘Say Wow!’ was...
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New Documentary ‘The Torch’ Celebrates Blues Titan Buddy Guy
The Torch, a new documentary on blues figurehead Buddy Guy directed by Jim Farrell, received its world premiere as the closing gala screening at the 55th Chicago International Film Festival last night...
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Howlin’ Wolf’s 1991 ‘Chess Box’ Inducted Into Blues Hall Of Fame
The definitive 1991 anthology Howlin’ Wolf: The Chess Box has been chosen as 2020’s Classic of Blues Recording: Album for the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame. The 41st edition of the flagship...
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Blues Foundation To Replace Showpiece Occasions With Virtual Events
The Blues Foundation has announced that its cancelled Blues Hall of Fame induction ceremony and the 41st Annual Blues Music Awards will be replaced with virtual events, which it is now working on...
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Howlin’ Wolf
Howlin’ Wolf even if he had had a more normal-sounding name would have still been a Blues legend, for no other reason than he was a one-off – a performer of great power and magnetism. He was looked up...
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Psychedelic Blues: When The Blues Turned On And Tuned In
After psychedelia came to a boil in the late 60s, the blues and rock heroes of the 50s took a brief but thrilling walk on the wild side, with fuzz guitars, wah-wah effects, and epic jams to the fore....
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The 100 Greatest Blues Albums
The definitive list of the 100 greatest blues albums ever? We’ve set ourselves another, almost, impossible challenge. As usual, we haven’t just dreamed up this list; we have trawled the net and looked...
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Watch ‘I Didn’t Know’ From John Lee Hooker’s 1983 Montreux Performance
John Lee Hooker’s 1983 performance of “I Didn’t Know” is now available to view as the first video and instant grat track from Eagle Rock’s John Lee Hooker Live at Montreux 1983 & 1990. As reported...
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‘Born In Chicago’ Documentary Is Now Available Digitally
Born in Chicago, the soulful documentary that chronicles a uniquely musical passing of the torch is now available to buy on all digital platforms. Born in Chicago is the story of first-generation blues...
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100 Of The Best 50s Songs: Essential Tracks From A Decade That Changed Music...
The best songs of the 50s. It wasn’t easy to construct such a list, we’ll admit. And we must begin by sayings that this list is not the definitive top 100 songs of the 50s. What we’re trying to do...
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