Page 70 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2017

Reverend Billy C. Wirtz's

List of Gotta-Hear,

Game-Changing

Blues Originators

From the editor: You may know him as a boogie- you some players, singers and personalities that I love. By no
woogie/blues pianist, comedian, radio personality means a master list, here are a few of the originators, game
or writer, but here at the Blues Festival Guide, we changers and wig-flippers of the blues style.
praise the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz as a connoisseur of all
things blues. Whether you’re new to the blues or GUITAR
a well-weathered fan, follow the Rev’s teachings
and know you are in good hands. If you’re a fan of Stevie Ray or Eric
Clapton, dig deep on the following six-
Blues is the coolest music in the Universe, an existential string heart stoppers:
view of life in song form that surfaced in the South during Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones)
the early twentieth century. It first became popular in rural Style: guitar blues, Louisiana R&B
communities and then, thanks to the efforts of W.C. Handy Guitar Slim, the wild man from Louisiana,
and other trained musicians, written and introduced to a mass was an enormous influence on Hendrix,
audience. The first commercial release, “Crazy Blues” by Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck and anyone else who
Mamie Smith, came in August 1920, and soon the market ever blew the speakers in an amp. He’d
was flooded with all styles of blues. For the next twenty years, arrive at gigs in a red Caddy, dressed in a red suit, playing a
it enjoyed immense popularity, giving way to rock ‘n’ roll in red guitar, hair dyed red, often escorted by two women dressed
the ‘50s, resurrected by “The British Invasion” of the ‘60s, and in… His recordings on Specialty all feature unhinged solos that
mainstreamed with the “second blue wave” of the ‘70s and redline the studio levels and actually distort the recordings. The
‘80s. Artists like B.B. King and Muddy Waters have become original “alpha guitar male,” enjoy his four-barrel killer tunes
household names, and the music has endured into the digital played with horns and a young Ray Charles on piano. Pick up
age. his album Sufferin’ Mind.
Blues lays the foundation upon which much of popular
music is based. Country, jazz, hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll all Johnny “Guitar” Watson
began with the blues. The worldview of songs like “Crazy, Style: experimental, guitar, funk blues
Mixed Up World” by Little Walter ring all too true these days, Etta James called him one of the great geniuses of music.
and a new generation of listeners enjoy the music that offers a Featuring stunning guitar and an incendiary, slashing style
graduate course in “keeping it real.” of playing on blues tracks, Johnny “Guitar” Watson evolves
If you’re at a typical blues event, you’ve likely heard a into funk and beyond, and is sampled to death by the hip-hop
lot of guitar playing, a few harmonica players and several crowd. He also wrote the soundtrack for American Pimp. Pick
singers. While you’re waiting your turn at the porta-potties up The Very Best of Johnny “Guitar” Watson on Rhino CD; it’s
or for the spouse to finish texting the pet sitter, I present to out of print, but still easy to find.

68 Blues Festival Guide 2017