Contemporary blues guitarists, part 3

[Don D.]

Here are 15 more contemporary blues musicians, many are pretty young, all are living and long may they live. I’ve posted a couple of them before (but different songs).

Thanks to Jontavious Willis and his recent Facebook post, I became aware of seven of the nine “new bloods.” Jontavious is featured in part 2. He has a new website (click here); he rotates the performance videos on the Media page. He’s only 20 and not only a musician but also a student. If life allows him to become a full-time musician, we will be lucky.

Here are parts one and two if you missed them (please click on respective brown type).

************************ OLD STAND-BYS ************************

First off are four established players you’ve probably already heard or heard of.

Taj Mahal, “Blues With a Feeling,” recorded Wednesday, October 6th, 1993; released 1996
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQOJQHJ8Sg

Corey Harris, “Special Rider Blues” (Skip James). He does instructional videos of this song; they’re available on YouTube at present.

Alvin Youngblood Hart, “Illinois Blues” (Skip James), Tuesday, October 27, 1998

Shemekia Copeland “It’s My Own Tears,” 2000

*********************** NEW BLOOD ***********************

I think all the recordings in this section were made in the last five years or so.

Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, “Mississippi Bottom”

Marcus Cartwright, “Hey, Baby, Don’t You Wish You Had a Man Like Me?”

Marquise Knox (vocal, guitar) Blues Band, “Sweet Sixteen,” Edwards Anderson (keyboards), Eugene Johnson (bass), Gerald Warren (drums), Saturday, May 22, 2010

Marquise Knox (vocal, guitar) Blues Band, “The Sky is Crying,” Wednesday, March 23, 2011 ★★★★

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, “Catfish Blues,” Saturday, January 16, 2016

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, “Don’t Waste My Time,” 2014. Mix is unbalanced, which makes it all that much easier to hear what he’s playing. Nice hand close-ups too. ★★★★★

Jamiah Rogers Band, “Cissy Strut,” Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Jamell “Melly Mel” Richardson. The editing is a little erratic but his playing is engaging. ★★★★★

Jamell Richardson, “Lost Without You”

Homemade Jamz Blues Band, “Gotta Bad, Bad Feeling”

Dwight Sojournier Hawkins, “Chesterfield Blues,” Thursday, August 29, 2013

Sharde Thomas Fife Band, “My Babe,” Sunday, September 6, 2015

************************** ALL-STAR HARPS **************************

Going to have to get to ALL the harp players one of these days. For now, here are two old-timers who are still touring.

James Cotton Band, 100% Cotton (1974)
James Cotton (vocal, harp), Little Bo (sax), Matt Guitar Murphy (guitar), Charles Calmese (bass), Kenny Johnson (drums)

Boogie Thing
One More Mile
All Walks of Life
Creeper Creeps Again
Rocket 88
How Long Can A Fool Go Wrong
I Don’t Know
Burner
Fatuation
Fever

Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s Southside Band—Stand Back! (1967)
Charley Musselwhite (vocals, harp), Harvey Mandel (guitar), Barry Goldberg (piano, organ), Bob Anderson (bass) Fred Below, Jr. (drums)

Baby Will You Please Help Me
No More Lonely Nights
Cha Cha The Blues
Christo Redemptor
Help Me
Chicken Shack
Strange Land
39th And Indiana
My Baby
Early In The Morning
4 P.M.
Sad Day

“Chicken Shack” kicks in at 18:39, what did you think of it?

Charlie Musselwhite, “Finger-Licking Good” (1974)

Don D.

[Tim Lee]

Don,
Man, these guys are great players and singers. Love that muffler guitar played by Homemade Jamz band! Kingfish is also a lightning quick player. Great stuff. They all play with real feeling.
Tim

[Don D.]

Hi Tim, thanks for checking this out, there were several other guys who Jontavious posted who played blues-rock, so I didn’t include them. Good players but not blues. Several of these guys play blues-rock on other songs, and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Jamiah Rogers come close here, but I’d still call it blues.

I still like blues-rock and I still listen periodically, but on different terms. My point in posting these videos (and they represent just a small fraction of the 300-some active blues musicians) is that the blues isn’t dying, not even sick. I also want to show that it isn’t only young white players appropriating the form, many young black musicians are consciously claiming their heritage (which anyone can listen to and enjoy).

Saying all this to add that grandstanding blues-rockers don’t need to make the claim they’re “keeping the blues alive.” It just confuses things when the main offender doesn’t even play blues most of the time, yet he name-drops major blues musicians’ names all over the place.

When there are this many great blues musicians around, we don’t need a white rocker to claim he’s “saving” anything for anybody.

Don D.

[sunjamr]

Very nice collection. Thanks for gathering those. I wonder if James Cotton is any relation to Elizabeth Cotton, one of my blues heroes. And Blind Boy Paxton’s career has gotten a boost since he’s been on several of the Playing For Change videos. Good luck to all of them – they give me hope for the future.

Sunjamr Steve

[Don D.]

Thanks for listening, Steve. Plenty of reason to be optimistic about the blues (far more optimistic about the blues than the world in general, but I haven’t written that off either). Who knows? It may even become popular music again. I’ll try to present 10 or so youngish players every week or two. There are a few people in my area who are just about ready to step onto the stage; that will make 303.

Never heard that James Cotton is related to Elizabeth Cotten; they spell their names a little differently. That wouldn’t rule it out, they might have a common ancestor.

Don D.

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