Results for "guitar, electric"

Little Milton

Born: September 7, 1934

Little Milton Campbell was an accomplished blues musician. A performer known for his extraordinary technique, soulful voice, and unique blend of musical styles, Milton was also admired for his staying power. A talented musician and shrewd businessman, he recorded and performed consistently for over 50 years. While Milton may not have developed the clearly identifiable sound of some of his peers, which may explain why he never became a "top forty" favorite, he managed to use his extraordinary musical skills to change with the times. Until his death in 2005, Milton provided his audiences with contemporary music while staying true to his Mississippi Delta roots

Lightnin' Slim

Born: March 13, 1913

Lightnin’ Slim - Blues guitarist, vocalist Highly regarded as a Louisiana Swamp Blues legend, Otis Hicks aka Lightnin' Slim, was born March 13, 1913 on a farm outside St. Louis, Missouri. At an early age, Hicks left Missouri and moved to St. Francisville, Louisiana where he worked outside of music. Hicks learn to play the guitar from his brother Layfield Hicks during the 1930's. In the late 1940's Hicks worked the bars of Baton Rouge, Louisiana with other local bluesmen like Arthur Kelly. During the 1950's Hicks often worked with his brother in law Slim Harpo, and they performed together occasionally in the 1960's. He recorded for Excello from the mid-50's to mid-60's, and under the production of Jay Miller established his reputation in the Bayou State with the release of his classic “Rooster Blues.” Slim’s recording fortunes waned in the mid-60s and he left Louisiana for Romeo, Michigan, where he worked as a laborer

Sammy Lawhorn

Born: July 12, 1935

Samuel David Lawhorn was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on July 12, 1935, to J. C. and Estella Lawhorn. Soon afterward, his parents separated and his mother remarried. His stepfather's name was Ferman Gilbeit and in his early years, Gibeit was the only father that Sammy knew. The couple later moved to Chicago, leaving young Sammy behind to be raised by his grandparents in Arkansas. Little Rock proved to be an inspiring locale for Sammy, as he became interested in the Blues music that he first heard being played by blind street musicians. Well-known musicians from Texas such as Lightnin' Hopkins, T-Bone Walker and Lowell Fulson would also pass through the city on occasion, catching the ear of the youngster

Shawn Lane

Born: March 21, 1963

Shawn Lane (March 21, 1963 - September 26, 2003) was an American musician, composer and polymath. He quickly became a noted player in underground guitar circles and joined Black Oak Arkansas when he was just fourteen years old. He is best known for his solo album Powers of Ten and his long stint with former John McLaughlin bassist Jonas Hellborg. Shawn Lane was born in Memphis, Tennessee. At the age of eight he accompanied his sisters on the piano, but did not play guitar seriously until he was ten. Lane progressed very rapidly on the guitar, and he found it to be his natural instrument. At thirteen, he began to practice heavily, developing his technical abilities

Eddie Kirkland

Born: August 16, 1928

Born on a cotton plantation in Jamaica, Eddie Kirkland got his start in the music business at the age of 12 as part of the Sugar Girl’s Medicine Show. After a short stint with the show, Eddie landed in Indiana, moved on to New Orleans where he frequently appeared with the Louisiana Six, and finally settled in Detroit. Eddie worked at the Ford Motors plant in Detroit and played small clubs and house parties on the side. It was at one of these house parties that Eddie met John Lee Hooker, an event that had profound effects on both of their careers. For seven years, Eddie Kirkland and John Lee Hooker toured and made many recordings together

Earl King

Born: February 7, 1934

Earl King - Blues Guitarist, vocalist (1934 - 2003) Earl King, a native of New Orleans, was a flamboyant performer, singing with bluesy ease and playing guitar solos that curled and sliced across the rolling New Orleans beat. He recorded hundreds of songs that were rooted in both the 12-bar blues and New Orleans lore, with lyrics that could tell wry, compressed stories or come up with wild-eyed imagery. While Earl King performed widely, his songs also traveled by way of other musicians: Jimi Hendrix, who recorded King's ''Come On'' as ''Let the Good Times Roll,'' the Meters, who recorded ''Trick Bag,'' and Professor Longhair, who played piano and had the performer credit on the original 1964 version of King's ''Big Chief,'' although it featured King's vocals and whistling

Freddie King

Born: September 3, 1934

“The Texas Canmonball”

Freddie King was one of the kingpins of modern blues guitar. Along with Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam, King spearheaded Chicago's modern blues movement in the early '60s and helped set the stage for the blues-rock boom of the late '60s. His influence helped preserve a legacy characterized by searing, aggressive guitar solos and the welding of blues and rock into one cohesive sound.

Although Freddie King was born and raised in Texas, he matured as a musician in Chicago. His guitar style combined country and urban influences. As a child, King grew up on the music of such legendary country blues guitarists as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Arthur "Big Boy"Crudup. After he and his family moved to Chicago in 1950,King began hanging out in clubs where the stinging, city-hot guitar work of such Mississippi Delta- rooted blues men as Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, and Eddie Taylor filled the air.

B.B. King

Born: September 16, 1925

“King of the Blues” Born on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi in 1925, Riley B. King would start from very humble beginnings. His family moved around the area, and the young Riley experienced early a life of constant motion. As a youngster he was a farm laborer, but drawn to music, he took up the guitar; he played on street corners, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. In 1946, he hitchhiked to Memphis, to pursue his music career. Memphis was a large musical community where every style of music could be found, a good place for a young man who wanted to play the blues

Albert King

Born: April 25, 1923

Bluesman Albert King was one of the premier electric guitar stylists of the post-World War II period. By playing left- handed and holding his guitar upside-down (with the strings set for a right-handed player), and by concentrating on tone and intensity more than flash, King fashioned over his long career, a sound that was both distinctive and highly influential. He was a master of the single-string solo and could bend strings to produce a particularly tormented blues sound that set his style apart from his contemporaries. King was also the first major blues guitarist to cross over into modem soul; his mid- and late 1960s recordings for the Stax label, cut with the same great session musicians who played on the recordings of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave,Eddie Floyd, and others, appealed to his established black audience while broadening his appeal with rock fans. Along with B.B

Barney Kessel

Born: October 17, 1923

Legendary musician, guitarist, influential jazz artist, composer, arranger, session player, record producer, one of the leading figures in West Coast jazz, later delving into hard bop, Barney Kessel is now generally considered by fans, critics and fellow musicians around the world to be arguably one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Barney Kessel was truly everywhere as a musician. People, who had never heard of him, heard him play. If you listened to the popular radio shows in the 1950's you heard his guitar. When you saw a movie in the 1950's or 1960's you probably heard his guitar