Bman's Blues Report

Snooky Pryor (September 15, 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica, although on his earliest records in the late 1940s and early '50s he did not utilize this method. James Edward Pryor was born in Lambert, Mississippi and developed a Delta blues style influenced by both Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II. He moved to Chicago around 1940. While serving in the U.S. Army he would blow bugle calls through the powerful PA system, which led him to experiment with playing the harmonica that way. Upon discharge from the Army in 1945, he obtained his own amplifier, and began playing harmonica at the outdoor Maxwell Street market, becoming a regular in the Chicago blues scene. Pryor recorded some of the first postwar Chicago blues records in 1948, including "Telephone Blues" and "...

Jones was born in Earle, Arkansas, United States, on 8 April 1908. Raised in the church, he developed an interest in music at an early age and learned to play guitar after his brother bought an old broken guitar for $3. When he was proficient enough he started playing for country dances, and by 1939 had arrived in Chicago. In Chicago he became one of a number of musicians, performing on Maxwell Street and in non-union venues, who played an important role in the development of the post-war Chicago blues sound, often performing with his first cousin, singer and guitar player Floyd Jones. By the late 1940s he was capable of playing any kind of music requested, and had learned to play piano, banjo and bass (including a home-made bass made out of a wash-tub, a broom-handle and a clothes line), in addition to guitar. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the best guitar player on the Chicago scene, and was warned by noted slide guitar player Muddy Waters not to “fool with that slide” when...

Homesick James (d. December 13, 2006) was an American blues musician.He was born in Somerville, Tennessee, the son of Cordellia Henderson and Plez Williamson Rivers, who were both musicians. He developed a self-taught style of slide guitar through playing at local dances in his teens. Little is known about his early life. He claimed to have played with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller and Big Joe Williams, among others, and to have been acquainted with Robert Johnson. He also claimed to be the older cousin of Elmore James, to have bought James his first guitar, and to have taught him how to play slide. However, some of these claims are unconfirmed. By the mid 1930s he was based in Chicago, and working with Horace Henderson's band at the Circle Inn, and with pianist Jimmy Walker at the Square Deal Club. He may have first recorded for RCA Victor in 1937, but this is also unconfirmed, and by 1938 may have begun playing electric guitar. His first known recordings were ...