Journey through the heart of the blues with profiles of legendary artists. Uncover the techniques of masters like Muddy Waters, the fiery passion of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the soulful depth of John Lee Hooker. Explore their signature guitar styles, delve into their gear setups, and discover essential album recommendations that shaped the genre.
Discover how multi-instrumentalist Kenny Neal preserves and modernizes the Baton Rouge legacy, blending raw harmonica phrasing with the heavy, slow-burn pocket of traditional Louisiana swamp blues.
Smokey Hogg was the commercial king of post-war country blues, famous for his loose relationship with music theory and his infectious, foot-stomping grooves. Rejecting rigid 12-bar structures in favor of instinctual, erratic rhythms and sharp staccato fills, Hogg delivered a masterclass in pure emotional honesty. His prolific catalog remains a vital blueprint of beautiful imperfection for roots guitarists worldwide.
Thorbjørn Risager is the roaring, deep-voiced engine driving the modern European blues revival. By pairing an aggressive, fingerstyle electric guitar attack with a massive, 7-piece horn-driven band, Risager delivers a masterclass in dynamic rhythm and big-band pocke
While the Delta blues is often celebrated as a historical relic preserved on scratchy vinyl, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes" stands as a living, breathing defiance against time. Operating out of the…
Mississippi Fred McDowell is the definitive voice of North Mississippi Hill Country blues. Rejecting the commercial polish of his era, McDowell used a raw bottleneck slide and an ironclad thumb-thump rhythm to create a hypnotic, trance-like groove
The musical footprint of Clyde "Judas" Maxwell exists almost entirely within a single afternoon: September 3, 1978. On his farm in Madison County, Mississippi, folklorists Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and…
Discover the incredible journey of Jonny Lang, from his 15-year-old platinum debut Lie to Me to becoming a Grammy-winning force in modern R&B and soul.
If Jackie Venson is the "Electric Queen of Austin," then Ally Venable is the reigning heiress of Texas Blues. Hailing from Kilgore, Texas, Venable has spent her 20s proving that…
Jackie Venson is the future of blues-rock. By combining Berklee-trained musicality with a "tech-addicted" approach to gear and looping, she has created a sound that is entirely her own. In 2026, as she headlines major festivals across the globe, Venson remains the definitive example of a modern guitar hero who isn't afraid to break the rules.
John Hammond Jr. is the definitive bridge between the Mississippi Delta and the modern stage. By combining the "barrelhouse" rhythmic attack with a screaming slide technique on his signature steel-bodied National guitar, he transformed traditional blues into a high-octane art form. In 2026, Hammond remains the ultimate blueprint for any guitarist seeking to master the raw, percussive intensity of solo acoustic blues.