Blues Artist Suggestions?

I have 0 Blues in my collection and I am looking for artist suggestions.

I've decided to begin the Blues tutorials, so I'd be looking for good stuff to play to. I am thinking of more "popular" blues along the lines of George Thorogood and SRV.

Any suggestions?

That's a good place to start but there are tons and tons of blues artists out there in a lot of different styles and tastes. Sounds like you're a blues-rock guy so I would add maybe The Yardbirds, John Mayall, Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and some early Johnny Lang. Here are a few of my favorites (I tend to like the early blues a great deal) :

John Lee Hooker
Johnny Winter
Z.Z. Top (you have to check out some of their straight blues pieces)
Muddy Waters
Son House
Blind Willie McTell
Robert Johnson
Elmore James
Lightnin' Hopkins
Howlin' Wolf
Buddy Guy


and the list goes on and on...

The nice thing about the blues is that one artist leads to another to another...

Good luck.

Originally Posted by: RazboI have 0 Blues in my collection and I am looking for artist suggestions.

My personal fave blues guy is the one and only Johnny Winter. That guy is a monster. A good intro to him might be, "Be Careful With A Fool", "The Illustrated Man", "Mississippi Blues", "Sweet Papa John", "Rock Me Baby".

I highly recommend anything by Joe Bonamassa. He Played his 1st gig with B.B. King at the age of 14. B.B. also states that Joe is the heir to his throne as "King of the blues". Any of his discs are good, but "Live From Nowhere In Particular" would probably be a good place to start. It's the best live recording I've ever heard, & it will give you an excellent idea of what to ecpect on his other stuff if you decide you dig it.

Thanks folks! iTunes is a great way to sample tunes, so I have sampled most of those listed here. I really like the classic stuff, but think I will pick up some Joe Bonnamassa & some Kenny Wayne Sheppard to get started. ...Maybe some Johnny Winter just to get some class ;-).

Hopefully the stores have some in because I dislike buying music from iTunes. =P

Originally Posted by: RazboHopefully the stores have some in because I dislike buying music from iTunes. =P

If you like having CDs instead of just digital audio, consider amazon.com. You can typically find old CDs at really cheap prices. Often the shipping is more than the product!

http://www.amazon.com/Johnny-Winter/e/B000AQ29N0/

Looks like you can get "Serious Business" for about $6.

http://www.amazon.com/Serious-Business-Johnny-Winter/dp/B0000009YA/

They're more modern, but the Black Keys are a cool blues/rock band.

stevie ray vaughan

Warren Haynes

Muddy Waters
Leadbelly
Howlin' Wolf
BB King
John Lee Hooker
Robert Johnson
T-Bone Walker

There is a little known street performing dude from So Cal named Brother Yusef who is freaking awesome. He has a few albums, I highly recommend them. There is also a Jimi Hendrix blues album that is great. If you just look around at a lot of rock it is full of blues too, especially guys like Led Zeppelin (ie: Can't Quit You Baby), Allman Bros, The White Stripes, and any band Clapton ever had his hand in. Even Muse has a couple of blues tracks.

I really agree on the Jimi Blues Album. That is just great! A great mix of some classic blues covers and some of Jimi's own. This is one of my favorite CDs.

Mannish Boy, Catfish Blues, Hear My Train 'A Comin' (acoustic and electric), Red House, Born Under A Bad Sign, they're all great!

I suggest you go to last.fm.com. There you can use a few of the suggested names to create "your own radio station". The way it works is you type in the name of an artist or a genre, and they start playing things they think are similar. Sounds like it could be pretty lame, but I tried it with some jazz people, some fusion artists, some rockers and even some 20th century serious composers. It came up with excellent playlists, including some of my favorites, but introduced me to some new great artists as well. (I guess I should be an affiliate, but unfortunately I'm just a fan). Hope you like it.

All good suggestions here. As far as "modern" blues artists, definitely look at the works of Gary Moore. He is one of my favorites, and has a bit of a harder edge in his playing. A good start would be "Still Got The Blues" and "Blues For Greeny". The later is his tribute to Peter Green.

For three years of my life the only song I listened to was the live version of Texas Flood by SRV. It got to where people refused to ride in my truck with me. Now I listen to other songs, but that one will always be special to me.

Modern blues is great. It is the culmination and distillation of the blues tradition and it rocks pretty hard. You should pay some attention to the old blues guys and gals so you can have an understanding and appreciation of where the modern version comes from.

I would start with Charley Patton about 1923 and work my way forward chronologically from there.