Birth of the Blues: T-Bone Walker

Birth of the Blues: T-Bone Walker

By: Hunter60

In 1955, Walker made the move to Atlantic Records where he stayed for 5 years working with Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun. It was during this period that Walker produced the flawless 'T-Bone Blues' record that is often called one of the best, if not the best, of the modern day blues recordings. Around this time Walker began to employ the strategy of touring with pickup bands at the various locations rather than taking a band with him on tour. Although the quality of the back up band was never really known until show time, Walker still managed to amaze audiences with his guitar work.

With the rock and roll beginning to replace the rhythm blues in the American marketplace, Walker opted to tour Europe with the American Folk Blues package in 1962 which allowed him to build a major following there. Walker returned to Europe many times during the sixties to play a variety of festivals in England, France and Switzerland. In the later sixties, he began to play American blues festivals having become one of the blues acts that was resurrected during the blues revival period of the sixties. He also continued to record during that period culminating with a Grammy for 'Good Feelin'" in 1970.

However a chronic stomach problem and an inability to quit drinking took their toll on Walker. In 1974 Walker stopped performing and suffered a stroke. On March 16, 1975, he died from complications from bronchial pneumonia at his home in Los Angeles, California.

It's difficult to really nail down the scope of T-Bones influence. His employment of chord substitutions, stinging single string melody lines and a wicked vibrato has influenced just about every major blues and rock guitarist to come along since. Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Michael Bloomfeld, Peter Green and Jimmy Page have all paid tribute to T-Bone Walker. Although Chuck Berry, one of rock and rolls forefathers, is remiss in acknowledging most who came before him, even he will admit that he learned "a lot" from listening to and modifying some of T-Bone's licks.

If the blues are a living thing, Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson taught it how to walk; Muddy and Howlin' Wolf taught it to run and Stevie and Eric may have made it rock but it was T-Bone Walker who made it electric.