Bman's Blues Report

Little Mack Simmons December 1998 with Blues Special Band: Roberto Porzio & Omar Itcovici (guitars), Fernando Tejero (keyboards), Mauro Diana (bass), Adrian Flores (drums) Little Mack Simmons (January 25, 1933 — October 24, 2000) was an African American, Chicago blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter.Malcolm Simmons was born in Twist, Arkansas. In his youth he befriended James Cotton, and they grew up learning to play the harmonica. Simmons relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, at the age of 18 and worked on the railroad. At this time Simmons made his stage debut with Robert Nighthawk. In 1954 he moved again to Chicago, put together his own backing band, and had a five year residency at Cadillac Baby's. He commenced recording in 1959, issuing records on a number of labels including Chess. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Simmons recorded several more obscure singles, often simply billed as Little Mack (or Mac). Simmons went on to provide the opportunity for others talents t...

Born March 16, 1960, Lil Ray (Raful Neal III) the third eldest of ten siblings, has long been regarded as one of the finest blues guitarists in the business. Raised in Ervinville, Louisiana, he started playing at Spooner's, a country store/club owned by his grandfather when he was about 12 years old. His father played at that store with his band and during the break he would let Ray and his brothers get up to play. Ray learned much with the likes of Buddy Guy and Harpo Slim hanging around but it was two of his school teachers that gave him the incentive to want to hone his craft as a guitar player. In the days leading up to summer break he would take his guitar to school and persuade Mr. Ronald Young and Mr. Edward Yearby to play. "Both were hell of a guitar players and I learned from just listening..you really didn't want to play, you just wanted to listen", Lil Ray recalls. In 1976 the Neal family moved to Baton Rouge and within a few years Ray was playing regu...