The boy was Billy Boy Arnold, a pure Chicagoan born in the Windy city in 1935. Four years later, in 1952 at only seventeen, he recorded his first 78-rpm single, "Hello Stranger"/"I Ain't Got No Money", for the obscure Cool label with the Bob Carter's Orchestra. Meantime, Arnold was playing on street-corners with a guitarist friend named Ellas McDaniel.
Here is what I wrote about him in November 2021 : «His discography counts at least three or four times more compilations, collections and other "Best of" than "real" original albums. Why ? Because Earl King put out a good number of singles, and above all, because he certainly had more fun playing live than being locked in a recording studio, be it with excellent musicians.
From his father though, Hammond Jr. undoubtedly inherited a gift for getting acquainted with still unknown but promising musicians with whom he performed and recorded. Among many others : Hendrix , Clapton, Tom Waits, Mike Bloomfield, Duane Allman or Levon Helm (future member of The Band, the group Hammond recommended to Dylan)...
There are similarities between both men, starting by their sound signature and amazing technical virtuosity, but we won't enter the endless quarrel about which one influenced the other, though the truth might just be found in their age difference (Wilson being born twenty years earlier).
The jug, the kazoo and the early blues
There's here a lot of things inherited from early rural folk tradition and even bluegrass. James' guitar is coupled to Danny Barnes' banjo and Rubin' stand-up bass reminds the times when a simple broomstick equiped with a single string attached to a washtub was used as a bass (remember the front cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Willy and the Poor Boys" ?). Primich' harmonica complete this 100% Texan line-up.
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The Bohemian bluesman
Golden fingers and tortured soul
The late Kelly Joe Phelps disappeared last may 2022 after being affected for several years by a nerve disorder in his right arm, called "ulnar neuropathy", resulting in partial or total incapacity to use his right hand and preventing him to play. Of all, this rare disease had to fall on him, one of the most brilliant acoustic guitar players ! Did this tortured man commit suicide ? The rumor has circulated since the public announce of his death didn't mention any precise cause.
Gate, the old Texas swing crocodile
This album starts with "Here Am I", a swinging title carried by horns and showing his typical unusual finger attack on the strings of his fetish 1966 Gibson Firebird guitar. The following "Tippin' In" sees Don Buzard's pedal steel guitar coming in accompanied by an unusual flute (Bobby Campo). On the blues "Song For Renee (Gate's Tune)", Gate demonstrates his skills on violin while Rod Roddy's piano rolls down, along with Campo's flute again.
Born in September 1893 in a small rural community around Streetman, Texas, near Wortham, about 120 km south east of Dallas, Lemon Henry Jefferson led the classic early life of many country bluesman at that time : learning to play guitar in his teens, playing at picnics, parties and other gatherings, later busking in Dallas, where he met and played with Leadbelly (before he went to jail) in the early 1920s. Though Leadbelly was the elder, he was impressed by BLJ's virtuosity on guitar and later wrote the tribute song "Blind Lemon's Blues". It is almost certain that BLJ traveled to the Mississippi Delta and Memphis, and probably further.