Chicago blues

Our tune today was recorded live in Japan in 2015.

For this week's Bullfrogs Roadhouse Long Song from it, what a night it must have been for John Mayall and the Blues Breakers when Memphis and Chicago Blues legend join the British blues icon John Mayall and his Blues Breakers on stage for one special night in June 1982 at New Jersey's Capitol Theatre.

Now this concert turned out to be a summit gathering of some of the greatest names in blues music.

We had Albert King, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and singers Etta James and Sippy Wallace.

That I consider to be a real high watermark.

Dan Aykroyd came and saw us when we had an album release show at Chicago Blues in New York City years ago, and he came and saw the band.

I didn't know it.

I didn't know it until I got a phone call the next day

Although Delaney made only a handful of recordings himself, his remarkable songwriting shaped blues and jazz for generations, securing his place among the music's pioneering composers.

Born on September 15, 1921, Snooki Pryor was a pioneering Chicago blues harmonica player whose innovations transformed the sound of post-war blues.

He helped popularize the technique of cupping a microphone with his harmonica to produce a powerful amplified tone.

Though early acclaim often favored Little Walter and Junior Wells, Pryor's groundbreaking influence is now widely recognized, inspiring generations of blues harmonica players.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, he became one of the most influential guitarists in music history, inspiring artists across blues, rock, jazz, and beyond.

Known for his tireless work ethic, King continued touring into his 70s, including an incredible 342 performances in 1956 alone.

Eddie Burks was born on September 17, 1931, and overcame extraordinary hardship to become a respected figure in Chicago blues.

Raised in a Mississippi sharecropping family, he survived the racial violence that claimed one of his brothers before moving to Chicago as a teenager.

You saw You're so mean and evil You do things you ought not to You're so mean and evil You do things you ought not to You've got my brand of honey Guess I'll have to put up with you

Count Basie recorded Going to Chicago Blues on OK Records, April 10, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois.

Jimmy Rushing, a co-writer of that song, and one of Jimmy's greatest vocal blues hits.

Mr. 5x5 himself, Jimmy Rushing.

¶¶ Thank you. . . .

Thank you.

920 Special, Count Basie and his orchestra, the B-Side, to go into Chicago Blues.

This is the Make-Believe Ballroom.

It's got a theater and music scene.

You've probably heard about Chicago Blues.

There's a reason the Blues Brothers is set in Chicago and it's blues music.

And the Wizard of Oz actually sort of initially plays there.

G'day there.

How you going? A wonderfully cool show coming up for you this week, as I chat with one of the true ambassadors of Chicago blues, Billy Branch.

There are artists in the blues who carry with them more than just a sound...

They carry a legacy, a responsibility, a history that stretches back through generations of players, storytellers and cultural guardians.

The harmonica became his voice, his passport, his calling card.

And the city of Chicago, with its clubs, its characters, and its legends, became his classroom.

It's fair to say Billy was mentored by the giants, not just respected musicians, but the architects of the Chicago blues sound.

Men like James Cotton, Junior Wells, Willie Dixon, and Big Walter Horton.

Because that's the thing.

The Chicago Blues guys, they came over on 80 and hit all the college towns, Iowa City, Columbia.

So I saw all kinds of cats in Boulder that you don't see here.

I mean, Muddy Waters, you know, John Hammond, you know, see Moe's Allison, A.C. Reed, all kind of cats like that, you know, that second and third level guys like that.

And I realized this isn't going to make my family happy, but I don't think I can stay here.

Now, weren't there some Chicago, I mean, there's Chicago Blues, right?

Well, yeah, there were Chicago Blues, but it was mostly a jingles town.

Everything was jingles.

Oh, okay.

This came out on the Meteor label in 1953.

This great early Chicago blues track here.

And following Western Union Man, we're gonna hear the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band.

This band is made up of some of Garcia's old bluegrass friends from his early pickin' days.