Folks often ask me how I’ve come up with subjects for the Secret History of Chicago Music month after month. I have lots of answers, all of them true, including digging in record bins, falling down Internet rabbit holes, and cultivating knowledgeable friends. I’m tight with experts in several genres well represented in Chicago: big-city […]
Tag: Sonny Boy Williamson II
Posted inMusic
The Aces helped invent the sound of electric Chicago blues
The Aces are best known as a backing band, but they took the lead when it came to the future of the blues.
Posted inMusic
George ‘Wild Child’ Butler breathed new life into raw, old-fashioned blues
This stubbornly idiosyncratic harmonica player had lousy luck with recordings, but he thrived for four decades onstage.
Posted inMusic
No less a bluesman than Muddy Waters called Forest City Joe a ‘great harp player’
Blues harpist Forest City Joe might be a legend today if he’d recorded more—or lived long enough to enjoy the 1960s blues revival.