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The Latest Breaking News from Muddy Waters

“You can only imagine the effect this had on the young Keith Richards and Eric Clapton”: 9 must-hear albums that fueled the British blues guitar boom

The essential records that chart blues music’s epic journey – from its Delta roots through to the masterpiece that launched the heavy rock movement

Guitar World

“The Yardbirds had no need to worry about Clapton’s departure – they had Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page onboard”: The history of the ’60s British blues boom –the movement that carried a tidal wave of guitar heroes across the Atlantic

With the death of John Mayall in July, we lost one of the architects of the '60s blues boom that transformed Britain’s music scene and restored America’s blues guitar pioneers to their rightful place. Here's how a grassroots scene changed the world

Guitar World

“When we finished playing, Bill Clinton came up and introduced himself – with the Secret Service all around. A couple of weeks later, I got this envelope in the mail from the White House”: Jimmy D. Lane was raised among blues greats, but found his own way

The Strat-wielder’s religious moment with Hendrix’s Hey Joe compelled him to spend all his money on a pawn shop guitar… which led to him performing for Bill Clinton, guesting with B.B. King, working with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble and much more

Guitar World

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“Even when Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf went electric, people were saying, ‘This isn’t blues.’ It’s the artist’s job to push boundaries”: Samantha Fish on the past, present and future of blues

Signed up for Slash's all-star S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival, Fish is one of the players who has found her voice in taking blues out of its comfort zone. Here she salutes her blues heroes – especially the rule breakers

Guitar World

A guide to harmonica blues in five essential albums

Blues just wouldn’t be the same without the wailing of the harp. Here we celebrate the people who blew the hardest

Louder

“The album took off like a rocket ship. It sold 100,000 right away, it was the biggest Muddy Waters album to date”: how Chess Records and Muddy Waters invented psychedelic blues with Electric Mud

In the late 60s, Chess Records persuaded legendary bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf to hop on the psychedelic bandwagon – with mixed results

Louder

"When you're cold-calling musicians, some of whom you don’t even know, it doesn't matter who you are. It's a hard gig": How Slash organised Orgy Of The Damned

With his recent album Orgy Of The Damned – a selection of classics, each sung by a different guest singer – Slash is the latest rock superstar to take the blues road

Metal Hammer

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Runnin' with the devil: The stories behind the songs on Slash's Orgy of the Damned

From Robert Johnson to Lightning Hopkins, The Temptations to Stevie Wonder: The original versions of Slash's Orgy Of The Damned songs

Louder

“I’m funny with amps. I love Marshalls, but I also love old Fender Deluxes. Dumble built one for me just before he passed away. I think it was the last one he ever built”: With Strats, Magnatones, and plenty of all-star guests, Slash embraces the blues

Turning to spontaneity, and changing habits both gear and playing-wise, Slash's new record is a laid-back, charming tribute to an ever-lasting strain of guitar playing

Guitar World

"I've always loved Little Feat": Bonnie Raitt hooks up with Little Feat for a steamy cover of a Muddy Waters classic

The collaboration appears on Little Feat's first album in a dozen years, Sam's Place

Louder

Muddy Waters is a blues guitar icon who pioneered the sound of electric guitar in popular music – and invented a new soloing language as he did it

In the smoky clubs of Chicago, Muddy Waters turned up the volume on blues guitar, electrifying it, and then the audience – and his slide and open-tuning approach to Chicago blues was integral to his early success

Guitar World

10 legendary blues guitars, from Lucille to Lucy and the ‘Loch Ness Monster of Les Pauls’ – a priceless Gibson that has been missing for more than 50 years

Named and famed! Behind every great blues player is a great guitar, and they don’t come more iconic than this...

Guitar World

Cyril Davies was a grumpy, balding panel beater who "drank bourbon like a fish": He also inspired a generation of rock musicians – and has been all but airbrushed out of history

What do The Kinks, Stones and The Who all have in common? For one thing, a harmonica-playing bluesman nicknamed 'Squirrel'

Louder

"The first one's not necessary": Why Peter Green dismissed his greatest blues-rock Fleetwood Mac song as a mere intro to a greater piece – one that would later intimidate even David Gilmour

The late guitar great believed his superior work was Oh Well Pt. 2 – an instrumental Fleetwood Mac never played live but the Pink Floyd legend honored decades later

MusicRadar

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“In the flesh, he was earth-shattering. His style on every level was fantastic… playing with his teeth, his feet, and behind his head": When Buddy Guy rewrote the blues rulebook with a Strat and blew the collective minds of Clapton, Beck and Page

The inspirational playing of the last living American blues legend: "I was bringing it up to Eric and Jimmy – ‘Have you heard this stuff!?'"

MusicRadar

"He showed me some things that Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson had taught him – he knew those people": Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf and their legendary blues legacy

Legendary Howlin' Wolf guitar sideman on his hard blues road

Louder

"He was absolutely the best guitar player of his generation. Dylan thought he was. Hendrix thought he was. Clapton thought he was": The sensational story of Mike Bloomfield, from prodigy to tragedy

A 60s guitar prodigy who shaped Bob Dylan's sound and blew Eric Clapton away, Mike Bloomfield had the world at his feet before his demons came calling

Louder

Long John Baldry helped found the British blues scene, inspired Eric Clapton, discovered Rod Stewart, and gave his name to Elton John: He was also the voice of Sonic The Hedgehog's Dr Ivo Robotnik

A homage to Long John Baldry, a man whose influence on the bands and musicians of the British blues boom made him a pivotal figure in UK music

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The Independent UK

Jeffrey Wright, shape-shifter supreme, sees some of himself in 'American Fiction'

Jeffrey Wright has played Jean-Michel Basquiat, Martin Luther King Jr. and Muddy Waters

Louder

"We actually took it to a musicologist because we didn’t want to get sued": the story behind George Thorogood & The Destroyers' Bad To The Bone

George Thorogood’s ode to brawlin’ and heart breakin’ Bad To The Bone was inspired by The Rolling Stones and almost recorded by Bo Diddley

Chicago Sun-Times

Blues drummer Willie ‘The Touch’ Hayes, who played with B.B. King, the Temptations and Muddy Waters, dies at 73

Mr. Hayes, a prodigy on the drums from a young age, began touring with professional musicians at 16.

The Guardian - UK

‘Fela Kuti was always in his pants’: legendary music photographer Val Wilmer’s greatest shoots

She ate fried chicken with BB King, gave Jimi Hendrix a lift home from a gig and accidentally worked for MI6. The pioneer recalls her favourite subjects – and the ones like Miles Davis she’d rather forget

Cinemablend

32 Classic Songs Featured In Goodfellas

Scorsese is a master at using music in his movies and his pinnacle is Goodfellas. It's classic banger after classic banger in the iconic mob film.

Guitar World

“He’s real tough, and when he’s liquored up, he can really play!” Pat Hare influenced Stevie Ray Vaughan, beat Cream and Led Zeppelin to the blues-rock punch, and recorded an eerily prescient guitar knockout called I’m Gonna Murder My Baby

A remarkably gifted, but equally volcanic, guitarist who played with Howlin’ Wolf, James Cotton, Muddy Waters, and Bobby Bland, Hare made a seismic (and largely forgotten) impact on the development of blues-rock, before receiving a life sentence in prison

Louder

"Sometimes Jimi Hendrix's girlfriend would go and buy us breakfast because we had no money": what happened when Bryan Adams interviewed Rod Stewart

Sir Rod Stewart tells Bryan Adams about his music, being on tour, trying to get paid when he was in the Jeff Beck Group, his model-railway passion, being “one of the lucky ones”, and more

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