Bman's Blues Report

Smithsonian Folkways has been the ultimate vault for American roots music since 1948 , when founder Moses Asch started capturing raw, unvarnished sounds that mainstream labels ignored. Asch made it his mission to document the blues as living history, tracking legendary artists across decades. When the Smithsonian took over the catalog in 1987, they promised to keep every single recording permanently available, preserving the foundational DNA of American music. For years, their absolute gold-standard blues anthology was a 26-track CD from 2003 called Classic Blues . It packed 50 years of music—from the 1940s to the 1990s—into one masterclass collection, covering everything from gritty Delta styles to smooth Chicago electric tracks. It became a massive hit for the label, but vinyl fans had to wait more than twenty years to finally get it on wax. That wait ended in the summer of 2026 when Folkways finally dropped Classic Blues as a gatefold double-LP vinyl reissue . The remastered 2-LP ...

J.D. Simo Born: Chicago, Il. April 25, 1985 Genre Style: Blues-rock, roots rock, acid jazz, hill country blues J.D. Simo is the kind of guitar player who feels less like a modern musician and more like a time-traveling conduit for raw, unfiltered American music. Born in Chicago in 1985 and later cutting his teeth in the trenches of Nashville’s lower Broadway , he first blew minds taking dizzying, late-night solos with the legendary Don Kelley Band before steering his own psychedelic power trio, SIMO , through most of the 2010s. He’s a total gearhead and a master of vintage tone, blending heavy doses of acid rock, hill country blues, and greasy instrumental funk into something that feels completely alive and unpredictable on stage. When he’s not fronting his own band or touring the country with buddies like Luther Dickinson, he’s the guy music royalty calls when they need a serious player. He’s quietly stacked up session credits with everyone from Jack White and Beyoncé to Do...

John Dawson Winter III, known to the world as Johnny Winter , was an American blues-rock guitarist, singer, and music producer. Growing up in Beaumont, Texas with his younger brother Edgar, both boys were born with albinism and quickly found comfort and purpose in music. Immersed in the regional sounds of the American South, Winter crafted a raw, high-energy guitar style featuring lightning-fast solos and a fierce slide technique. His career completely took off in the late 1960s after Rolling Stone magazine highlighted his incredible talent. This breakthrough led to a historic contract with Columbia Records and a highly memorable performance at the 1969 Woodstock festival . Behind the scenes, however, Winter’s life was darkened by severe exploitation. For nearly two decades, his infamous former manager, Teddy Slatus , allegedly abused his power by isolating Winter from his own brother and deliberately pumping him full of alcohol, anti-depressants, and methadone . This med...

Todd DelGiudice is a heavy-hitting woodwind player who can glide between a smoky jazz club and a classical symphony hall without breaking a sweat. Originally a standout player in the legendary South Florida jazz scene, he’s shared the stage with absolute icons—think Ray Charles, Red Rodney, and Maria Schneider—and even clocked time with the world-famous Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. When he’s not busy blowing minds on stage or shaping the next generation of players as a jazz professor at the University of North Florida, he’s pushing the boundaries of his own music. With his latest release, Más Alto , he takes the ultimate musical tightrope walk by diving into a chordless saxophone trio format. The album's title plays a clever double game—Spanish for "higher," or "more alto." It's a bold move that shifts the spotlight away from the usual tenor-heavy trio sound to let the alto sax really stretch its legs and talk. Backed by a killer rhythm section, DelGiudice chan...