Best artists to start into the blues?

[Nai Noswad]

Whisky music....

Hound Dog Taylor - Ain't Got Nobody.

 

[dr wu]

I'm sure by now they have all been mentioned but ....
Robert Johnson, BBKing, Albert King, Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters to start the core but there are so many more in that league...Albert Collins, Paul Butterfield Blues band, John Lee H**ker.... As far as later bands: Allman Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayall BLuesbreakers (the early lps), Derek and the Dominoes , Rory Gallagher,,,etc...many more.

 

[E-Z]

Personally I prefer the white British blues & blues/rock guitar players and bands from the late 1960s such as Cream featuring Eric Clapton, Taste featuring Rory Gallagher, Ten Years After featuring Alvin Lee, Savoy Brown featuring Kim Simmonds, Chicken Shack featuring Stan Webb along with Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and The Groundhogs featuring Tony McPhee and Free featuring Paul Kossoff and with regards to American blues and blues/rock guitar players mainly Johnny Winter and his 'rock period' between 1970-1975 and Michael Bloomfield Chicago type blues guitar style.

 

[Vehicle]

Well, if you want to start at the beginning, start with Robert Johnson. (that's just my opinion)

However, I can only tell you how I got into it.

I stumbled upon Stevie Ray Vaughan, and from there, the show was on. It was instant love. Lol. I spent the next couple years getting all his stuff, combing the buy and sells for bootlegs, etc. Couldn't get enough.

SRV opened up a whole new world for me. I spent a couple years darting off in different directions within the blues genre, discovering long standing artists I'd always heard of, known about, but never bothered to listen to because it was the 'blues'.

But, I always come home to roost with my boy SRV. He's tops for me.

Enjoy your journey!!!

 

[E-Z]

Yeah SRV up to a point but I never much cared for his 'clean guitar tone' on all of his studio and live recordings it's not biting enough for me and his vocals are a bit dead or flat sounding in my humble opinion but I do still have all his studio albums and I like Texas Flood from 1983 especially.

 

[dr wu]

My favorite blues rock band ever......I think if Duane had not died at age 24 he would have been recognized as the greatest blues rock guitarist of all time eventually. And Betts was not bad either

 

[Magic]

The blues is a state of mind. It’s a feeling. It can bring you up. It can let you down. In other words, it is everything you could ever want music to be.

As the 20th century emerged, the blues took a more distinctive shape with its center located in the Mississippi Delta. As the popularity of the genre grew, variations emerged, many of which are distinguished by geographical differences.

Here are a few blues artists of note, most of which are from Mississippi…

1900-1950​

• W.C. Handy
• Charley Patton
• Robert Johnson
• Lead Belly
• Son House
• Mississippi John Hurt
• Muddy Waters
• Howlin' Wolf
• T-Bone Walker
• Blind Lemon Jefferson
• Skip James
• Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
• Willie Dixon
• Sam Chatmon
• Big Joe Williams

1950-1980​

• Sonny Boy Williamson I & II
• Elmore James
• B.B. King
• John Lee Hooker
• R.L. Burnside
• Othar Turner
• T-Model Ford
• Albert King
• Freddie King
• Buddy Guy
• Bobby Rush
• Junior Kimbrough
• Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
• Taj Mahal
• Buddy Guy
• Earl "Little Joe" Ayers
• Charlie Musselwhite
• Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
• Little Milton

1980-2000​

• Robert Cray
• George Thorogood
• Stevie Ray Vaughan
• Bonnie Raitt
• Tab Benoit
• Keb'Mo'
• Johnny Winter
• John Mayall
• Paul Butterfield
• Melvin Taylor
• Marcia Ball
• Billy Branch
• Kenny Neal

2000-2020​

• Cedric Burnside
• Trenton Ayers
• Christone "Kingfish" Ingram
• Jarekus Singleton
• Larkin Poe
• Jonny Lang
• Selwyn Birchwood
• Marquise Knox
• Blind Boy Paxton

 

[Magic]

Women & Blues
Some of the most influential women in the blues include:

• Sister Rosetta Tharpe
• Big Mama Thornton
• Jessie Mae Hemphill
• Ida Cox
• Sippie Wallace
• Bessie Smith
• Memphis Minnie
• Ma Rainey
• Koko Taylor
• Mamie Smith
• Bonnie Raitt
• Ruthie Foster

Women today taking center stage:

• Shemekia Copeland
• Susan Tedeschi
• Samantha Fish
• Lisa Mills
• Larkin Poe
• Joanne Shaw Taylor
• Ana Popović

 

[Nai Noswad]

A fave of John Lennon, from Belzoni?
Just short of 100 years - he passed.
Some man to play that 'pianer'...

Pinetop Perkins - Chicken Shack.

 

[Slipn]

Oh Shit!!! I feel a thread merge coming on..