Louisiana native Lonnie Brooks has captured every major regional Blues sound and made it his own.  Influenced by time spent in the Bayou, Texas and Chicago, Lonnie mixed them all up together and gave us his own brand of funky guitar-driven Blues.  Discovered by Zydeco legend Clifton Chenier, Lonnie found himself at one point couch crashing at Sam Cooke’s mother’s home.  A gig as Jimmy Reed’s sideman placed him in a national spotlight and his appearance in the Alligator Records Living Legend series catapulted him to Grammy nominations and critical accolades.  For proving that Blues gumbo takes a pinch of everything, we honor Lee Baker, Jr., better known as Lonnie Brooks.

Junior Kimbrough

One of the last true Mississippi Hill Country Bluesmen, Junior Kimbrough brought his own blend of country as well as fife and drum blues to the masses.  Schooled by Mississippi Fred McDowell, he got his first taste of fame in the sixties playing with a rockabilly band. He flipped the script a few years later and opened his own juke joint. A series of strokes and heart attacks took Junior in the nineties, but we honor him for doing it his way…

Self-proclaimed “Disciple of the Blues”, lap steel guitar hero Sonny Rhodes has recorded over 200 songs in his thirty-five-plus-year career.  With nearly a dozen Blues Music Award nominations, he has donned his trademark turban and taken the blues to fans around the world.  As a collaborator, he’s been the catalyst for the likes of Freddie King and Albert Collins.  On his own…he is magic.  

Fats Waller

Born in 1904, Fats Waller discovered his talent by playing at his father’s church.  Best known as a stride and ragtime piano player, he had the Harlem scene in the twenties and thirties jumpin’!  Some of his best known songs attributed to him include Honeysuckle Roseand Ain’t Misbehavin’. Hundreds of other songs are believed to be his work, but were claimed by others when he sold them for pennies.  Pneumonia claimed his life in the forties, but his talent lives on! 

Son Seals

Getting his start in his own father’s club, Son Seals later became a staple on the Chicago Blues scene courtesy of Alligator Records.  Having won multiple WC Handy awards, he strummed his way through more than a dozen albums, collaborating with others and writing most of the music himself. His tunes have been covered by contemporary bands like Phish and Government Mule. Complications from diabetes took him from us far too early, but we’ll remember his passion for the Blues every time we hear his tunes.