blues musicians. [blues]

there is nothing that i love more than blues music. it all started when i most randomly stumbled across a youtube video of mississippi john hurt which sparked first an interest, then a deep appreciation and finally a full blown obsession with all things blues. 

#1 mississippi john hurt

mississippi john hurt's voice has one of the most wonderful tone of all the voices i have ever heard if not the most wonderful of all. i could listen to his music all day, every day. his life story is quite exceptional as well and even tough i am very happy that he was rediscovered after all those years being a farm hand and finally got the appreciation he deserved i am inconsolable that this great musician's talent was in a way wasted and if i only think of what could have been... in a better world, things would have been different and we would have much more musical output of this true genius to look back on and so many more grand songs to listen to. <3


#2 skip james
i first started to listen to skip james's music after i fell in love with a few of his songs on a recording of a radio show where he and mississippi john hurt both were guests. 
i love the unique way he sings, i love his fingerpicking style and just about everything else about his music. again, i think it is unbelievable  that for most of his life he was not more successful. 
here the link for the radio recording with mississippi john hurt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX908Qi-7DE


#3 elizabeth cotten
her way of playing the guitar is just stunning (cotton picking rules!). apparently she taught herself to play when she was just a little girl by sneaking into her older brother's room to practice on his self-made banjo and eventually earned herself the money she needed to buy a guitar. when she wrote "freight train" she was eleven or twelve.
i also think it is cool that she kept using a normal guitar even though she was left-handed and just flipped it around.
love her always. 

#4 john lee hooker
john lee hooker. well, the first blues record i bought on a rainy afternoon in a tiny secondhand bookstore near the railway club in vancouver along with a book about living in a newfoundland outport is the john lee hooker, coast to coast blues band, any where / any time / any place record. 
oh memories. 
to this day that record is my most listened record because it is just perfect in every regard. and that voice. he is just pure awesomeness. period. 

#5 alberta hunter
now, she was just the coolest lady in the entire world (she returned to singing, being well over eighty, because she was bored by retirement). looking through old videos of her performances, it just seems like she always enjoyed being on stage, having an absolute blast, and her connection to the audience must have been extraordinary. 
best entertainer ever. 
if only i had a time-machine to go see her live. 

and yes, she wrote the downhearted blues.