Acoustic Blues Artists Recommendations?

[thechariot1x]

Hi all, so I was thinking to myself that my blues education is lacking. So, can anyone suggest some good artists for acoustic blues that I should listen to (so far I know John Fahey and a little bit of Mississipi John Hurt).

[reeve21]

Anybody with "Blind" in their name!

Lightning Hopkins.

For more modern players, Scott Ainsle, Toby Walker, Woody Mann, Stefan Grossman, Rory Block, Tom Feldman....it is a pretty long list and one will lead you to others....

[TeleBluesMan]

Son House. Blind Blake. Robert Johnson.

[ChuckS]

Pat Donohue
Phil Heywood
Tim Sparks
Eric Lugosch
Mary Flower
Mike Dowling
Dave Van Ronk
Reverend Gary Davis
David Bromberg
Roy Bookbinder

[stephenT]

If you're talking actual Blues, start here. Then go to the guys who heard these guys on records and tried to emulate. Let me add,..

Blind Willie McTell, J.B. Lenoir (his Vietnam Blues album is exceptional), Robert Lockwood Jr, Skip James,..

and then more Mississippi John Hurt.

Originally Posted by TeleBluesMan

Son House. Blind Blake. Robert Johnson.

[Glennwillow]

Toby Walker, a member of this forum, does a great job with blues and is an excellent instructor. He does a lot of videos with Homespun Tapes and he has a fair number of CDs out that are all excellent. Toby is a good guy, too.

Stefan Grossman is also an excellent teacher and has a series of instructional DVDs from his company, Vestapol. He grew up getting instructions from the Rev Gary Davis.

These are two instructors I can personally vouch for.

- Glenn

[Willie_D]

Also check out the album Muddy Waters: Folk Singer (Muddy and Buddy Guy on acoustics, Willie Dixon on upright bass.)

If you can get your hands on a copy of Smoke and Mirrors by Martin Simpson, it's fantastic.

[colder]

If you haven't worn out every Robert Johnson track, do that first.

[pjmacd]

A couple more to look for: John Hammond and Geoff Bartley.

[Kerbie]

Some of my favorite music! If you want to listen to the originals, I like Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Blind Blake, Libba Cotten, Etta Baker, Big Bill Broonzy, Son House, Brownie McGhee, Blind Willie McTell, etc.

For more modern artists, my favorites are probably the AGF's Toby Walker, Scott Ainslie, Steve James, Mary Flower, Stefan Grossman, John Fahey, Rolly Brown, Guy Davis.

Great stuff.

Mance Lipscomb is criminally underappreciated.

[jaymarsch]

Another blues artist that gets overlooked is Rory Block. She plays a lot of the blues masters' songs as well as having a great catalog of her own songs - like this one.



Best,
Jayne

[Mr. Paul]

My first acoustic blues recommendation is always Folk Singer by Muddy Waters. Mid 60s with Muddy, Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon.

[S-10Ken]

I always like Jorma Kuakonen. He has an extensive list of instructional videos too.

[Goat Mick]

I recommend that you start with Robert Johnson and work your way forward from there. As far as recorded blues it pretty much began with Robert Johnson and evolved from there. Mississippi John Hurt would probably be a good second step from Robert Johnson, but there are a bunch of really good Delta Blues artists from the early 1900's you can listen to.