Blues birthday of the week - Big Bill Broonzy   26th June 

Big Bill Broonzy (26 June 1898 - 14 August 1958) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played Country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century.

Broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs.

Broonzy's own influences included the spirituals, ragtime music, hokum and country blues he heard growing up, and the styles of his contemporaries, including Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Blake, Son House, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Broonzy combined all these influences into his own style of the blues that foreshadowed the post-war Chicago blues sound, later refined and popularized by artists such as Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon.

Although he had been a pioneer of the Chicago blues style and had employed electric instruments as early as 1942, his new, white audiences wanted to hear him playing his earliest songs accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar, since this was considered to be more "authentic".

A considerable part of his early ARC/CBS recordings have been reissued in anthology collections by CBS-Sony, and other earlier recordings have been collected on blues reissue labels, as have his later European and Chicago recordings of the fifties.

Since Broonzy was never a spectacular electric guitarist in the manner of others of his early-1950s contemporaries, he is not as well known as others of that period, and was not extensively covered during the "British Blues Revival" of the 1960s; however, he did gain some popularity, with "Key to the Highway" featured on Derek and the Dominos' album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. He was an acclaimed acoustic guitar player, and a major source of inspiration to men like Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim, and Ray Davies.

In Q Magazine (September 2007) it is reported that Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones claims that Bill Broonzy's track, "Guitar Shuffle", is his favorite guitar music. Wood said, "It was one of the first tracks I learnt to play, but even to this day I can't play it exactly right".

Previous 'Blues Birthdays of the Week' include - BB King,  Ray Charles, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie' Harmonica' Smith , Sherman Robertson , Bonnie Raitt , Eddie Boyd Sonny Boy Williamson II , Paul Butterfield , Jo-Anne Kelly ,Big Joe Williams , Bobby 'Blue' Bland  Magic Sam 'Fats' Domino  Scrapper Carr ,'Muddy Waters' , Bessie Smith  Little Walter  T-Bone  Walker Howli' Wolf and Slim Harpo.

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Michael’s A-Z of the Blues ©

A Aaron ‘T-Bone’ Walker- The King of West Coast Swing; innovative blues guitarist.

B- Bessie Smith – the ‘Empress of the Blues’; raunchy and regal.                                               'Slowhand'

C Chess Records -the Chicago label that defined blues-as-we-know it; Wolf, Waters ‘n’ more. *

D Delta Blues – down home country blues, often featuring acoustic slide guitar.                                              

E Eric Clapton - the epitome of a white blues guitar hero                                                                               

F Freddie Below – possibly the greatest blues drummer ever.

    'Father of British Blues' -an accolade fiercely contested by the supporters of Cyril Davis, Alexis Korner and John Mayall
G Gospel Music -the spiritual sister music to the secular blues*                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                'Rory'

    Buddy Guy – longstanding guitar hero idolised by GB bluesmen.

      Rory Gallagher - move over Mr Morrison this was Ireland's greatest-ever bluesman.        

H Howling Wolf – primeval life-force was Muddy’s greatest rival.

I Illinois – Chicago was the ‘promised land’ for black musicians from the southern USA.

   Ike Turner – Tina’s revelation of marital strife have masked his huge contribution to R’n’B music.

J Jimmy Reed - the ‘Big Boss Man’ was a ‘one-trick-pony’ but an extremely popular one in the 1960s.

K King; BB, Freddie & Albert – three influential electric blues guitar namesakes

   Keb Mo – Grammy-winning popular contemporary singer/songwriter bluesman *

L ‘Lemon Jefferson’ – this blind Texan wrote the blueprint for acoustic bluesmen. Hugely influential.

M Memphis Slim – urbane piano bluesman.                                                                                      '                                                                                                                                                                                                Muddy'

     Muddy Waters - from sharecropping to King of Chicago, the original Hoochie Coochie Man.*    

N Nu Blues – modern UK blues-rock-sample hybrid. It’s new but is it blues?

O Otis Rush - baritone-voiced bluesman with blistering guitar talent did his best work with 'Cobra' in the 50s

      Otis Redding ; not a bluesman? Listen to the self-penned ‘Hawg for You’

P Paul Jones – from pop singer to UK blues guru; to appear on his show is to have ‘arrived’ in the UK

Q ‘Queen of Soul’ – Aretha Franklin’s blues tracks, such as 'Dr. Feelgood', are a revelation.

R Ray Charles – much feted singer/ pianist credited with the invention of soul-music. *

     Robert Johnson – the most covered Delta bluesman artist ever?

S Soul Music - what urban blues became in the 1960s

    Sonny Boy Willamson II – ‘Rice Millar’ was a harp player extremely influential on the ‘British Blues Boom’.

T Twelve Bars - that's all a classic blues verse needs!

U Underground sound – Blues/ R’n’B was the hip music for the 60’s in crowd.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             'Willie'

V Victoria Spivey – top singer-songwriter-pianist of the St Louis jazz-blues era.

W Willie Dixon – Chicago bass-man and songwriter without equal

X Crossover Hit - to have a hit record in the ‘White Chart’ was a crock of gold for artistes on the ‘chitling circuit’.

Y  'Yancy Stomp' – Early hit for Chicago-born blues pianist, Jimmy, in the first decade of 20^th C.

Z Z Z Top – 12 bar blues-rock with beards. Blues for rednecks?

 *= beginners start here!

See a review of this book (published 2006) about Jimmy Reed on 'Reviews Page'.

Now for 6 Facts that blues fans DO agree on.....well, nearly!

1. Blues music originated amongst the 'Afro-American' communities of the segregated southern states of the USA in the early 20th century.                                                                                

2.It developed in those communities whilst absorbing influences from outside such as church music, country music and European folk music.

3. It spread from those segregationist states (sometimes called, in music terms, 'the Delta',) to big cities and other areas of the USA offering opportunities to black people. Different styles of blues music then developed -Chicago Blues, St Louis Blues, West Coast Swing....

4.Big cities were noisier, had bigger crowds and had electricity. Hence the need and the opportunity for electrified blues.

5. Blues was known as 'Race Music' and not only had artists specific to that style but had separate record labels, record outlets, radio stations, charts, cinemas. Most white Americans were completely unaware of blues music.

6. The 'British Blues Invasion' of the 1960s brought blues music to the attention, in the USA, of white (particularly young) record-buyers for the first time. Groups like the Animals, Manfred Mann, the Rolling Stones, Them and, of course, the Beatles brought back the black music they had absorbed and presented it to a primarily white audience . American blues/r'n'b names such as Muddy Waters, Arthur Alexander, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker and Howling Wolf emerged from the 'musical ghetto' to influence generations of 'white bluesmen' such as Stevie Ray Vaughan.

"nation shall sing blues unto nation....and to a new generation"