10 Early Performers Who Defined The Blues

Over the decades many artists possess helped to define the musical genre known as the blues. Each contributed to the music, through their instrumental skills-generally on the guitar-or vocal talents. Their early recordings and performances influenced the cultural impact of the blues and the generations of performers who followed. Great guitarists videos as "The Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith was the best and most famous feminine singer of the 1920s. A strong, independent woman and a powerful vocalist who could sing in both jazz and blues styles, Smith was probably the most commercially successful of the era's singers. Her records sold tens of thousands, if not thousands, of copies, an unheard of level for those days. Sadly, the public's curiosity in blues and jazz singers waned through the early 1930s and Smith was dropped by her label. Perhaps a lot more than any various other artist, Big Expenses Broonzy brought the blues to Chicago and helped define the city's sound.

Born on the banks of the Mississippi River, Broonzy moved with his parents to Chicago in 1920, picked up the guitar, and discovered to play from older bluesmen. Broonzy began documenting in the mid-1920s, and by the early 1930s he was a commanding physique on the Chicago blues scene, alongside talents including Tampa Crimson and John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. With the capacity of playing in the older vaudeville style (ragtime and hokum) and the recently developing Chicago design, Broonzy was a soft vocalist, accomplished guitarist, and prolific songwriter. The best of Broonzy's early function can be found on "The Youthful Big Bill Broonzy," nevertheless, you can't go wrong with virtually any collection of his music. Arguably Guitar Players and Guitar Luthiers founding father of Texas blues, Blind Lemon Jefferson was probably the most commercially effective artists of the 1920s and a significant influence on more youthful players including Lightnin' Hopkins and T-Bone Walker. Born blind, Jefferson trained himself to play your guitar and was a familiar body busking on the roads of Dallas, earning enough to aid a wife and kid.

Although Jefferson's recording career was brief (1926-29), he recorded more than 100 tunes, including such classics as "Matchbox Blues," "Black Snake Moan," and "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean." Jefferson continues to be a favorite among musicians who value the artist's simple country blues. The largest star in the 1920s Delta firmament, Charley Patton was the region's E-ticket attraction. A charismatic performer with a flashy style, talented fretwork, and flamboyant showmanship, he influenced a legion of bluesmen and rockers, from Child Home and Robert Johnson to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Patton lived a high-flying lifestyle filled with liquor and females, and his performances at home parties, juke joints, and plantation dances became the stuff of legend. His noisy voice, in conjunction with a rhythmic, percussive guitar style, was groundbreaking and designed to entertain a raucous market. Patton began recording late in his profession but composed for lost time by laying down 60 songs in under five years, including his best-selling first one, "Pony Blues." Although many of Patton's earliest recordings are just represented by inferior-quality 78s, "Founder of the Delta Blues" offers a solid assortment of two dozen tracks with varying audio quality.

Born Huddie Ledbetter in Louisiana, Leadbelly's music and tumultuous life had a profound effect on blues and folk musicians alike. Like the majority of performers of his period, Leadbelly's musical repertoire prolonged beyond the blues to include ragtime, nation, folk, pop criteria, and gospel. Leadbelly's temper frequently landed him in big trouble, however, and after eliminating a man in Texas, he was sentenced to the notorious condition prison in Huntsville. A couple of years after he gained an early discharge, he was convicted on an assault charge and sentenced to a term in Louisiana's Angola Penitentiary. While in Angola Leadbelly met and documented for Library of Congress musicologists John and Alan Lomax. After his launch, Leadbelly continued to execute and record and finally moved to New York City, where he discovered favor on the city's folk picture spearheaded by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. After his death in 1949, Leadbelly tracks including "Midnight Unique," "Goodnight, Irene," and "The Rock Island Line" became hits for performers as diverse as the Weavers, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Money and Ernest Tubb.