I was listening to Radio 3s Jazz Record Requests last week and a track called ‘Hideaway’ a blues guitar instrumental was played … and it blew me away , but then presenter Alan Shipton announced that it was from a recent recording by an 18 year old English guitarist called Toby Lee ! Well why…

Ma Rainey Blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett in 1886 and died aged 53 in 1939 . She first began performing as a teenager in the First African Baptist Church, and in black minstrel shows. She claimed that she first heard blues music around 1902.In 1904 she married Will “Pa” Rainey and…

albert king This weeks featured blues artist is left handed guitarist Albert King , who along with BB King and Freddie King was one of the ‘three kings’ of blues . The 3 Kings were unrelated , but bizarrely Albert once maintained he was the half brother of ‘BB’ although there is no truth in…

DOCTOR CLAYTON Sept 7  Peter Joe ‘Doctor’ Clayton was born in Georgia in 1898 but he always claimed to have been born in Africa …. though I suspect that was more of a philosophical or political stance than a statement of fact . His parents moved to St. Louis when he was a child .…

OTIS RUSH (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) Otis Rush was an American blues guitarist, singer & songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featuring a slow-burning sound and long bent notes ,   became known as West Side Chicago blues and is considered to be the major influence on many ’60s blues guitarists, including Mike…