He ended up in Los Angeles and recorded more singles under his various stage names, and eventually created a following in a city not previously known for harmonica players. Though he did not lack in originality in either style or songwriting, he was called on to do a set of Little Walter tunes for his first album in , backed primarily by the Muddy Waters band which he had rejoined in , only to resign so he could take care of his large family at home.

Thereafter, his albums, most recorded in L. Despite heart trouble and financial struggles, he never gave up, and recorded his final album in Tempe, Arizona, just a few months before his death on October 2, Johnson, who joins his older brother Jimmy in the Blues Hall of Fame, was born into a blues family in rural Benton County, Mississippi on July 1, Their surname was Thompson, but when Syl recorded under the name Johnson in Chicago in , Jimmy followed suit.

Their brothers Mac and Grundy and their father Sam Thompson also played. Johnson also teamed with Billy Boy Arnold and played on recording sessions with him in and The resulting income—some of it by litigation—allowed Johnson a comfortable lifestyle he never earned through his own record sales and performance fees.

Along the way she was a theater pianist, movie star, comedienne, bandleader, manager, church organist, record label owner, historian, and an inspiration to Bob Dylan and many others. Spivey was born on October 15, or November 12 in one official document in Houston, Texas, where her father and brothers had a string band. Louis to pursue a singing career like her lifelong friend from Houston, Sippie Wallace. She also led an orchestra and became wife and manager to famous tap dancer Billy Adams.

Like her idol Ida Cox, she continued to work theaters and nightclubs during and after the Great Depression, which put many other blues women out of business. After living in Moberly, Missouri with her sister Addie and their mother, she moved to Chicago and then New York, buying a home in Brooklyn. In the s she sang at jazz clubs and played in church, but only embarked on a career comeback in the s with the support of jazz and blues buff Len Kunstadt, who became her companion and manager of the label they launched, Spivey Records.

In Spivey also recorded for Prestige Bluesville. As befitting her professional endeavors, collections of her business and personal papers and memorabilia are archived at Emory University and the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies. He recorded music from the plantations, farms, mountains, swamps, backwoods, and city streets, and generated a treasure trove of recordings of blues, country, and other genres from the many American folk traditions. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in A businessman, not a folklorist, Peer was intent on producing records that would sell, by publishing the songs for profit through his Southern Music firm and, later, Peer International.

But in the process of doing so, he created a historical, artistic, and cultural legacy of incalculable importance. His interests also included horticulture, a passion he shared with another Blues Hall of Fame record maker, H. Peer, who was born on May 22, in Kansas City, Missouri not Independence as has also been reported , died in Hollywood on January 19, French writer, producer, and translator Sebastian Danchin, who played guitar with blues bands in Chicago in the s, was a few years too late to spend time with Earl Hooker, who had died of tuberculosis in Musicians who knew the colorful Hooker always had stories to tell, whether about his awesome guitar skills, his incessant tra v eling, or his penchant for pilfering equipment.

It is also the sixth Hall of Fame compilation by Wolf Chester Burnett and in fact is loaded with songs also issued on the pre v ious fi v e, along with some pre v iously unreleased gems. It was the first record to amply capture the emerging brilliance of both his singing and guitar playing talents, which audiences across the country soon disco v ered as he embarked on a nonstop touring career.

Willie Brown may be best known in blues lore as a sidekick to the legends of Delta blues — Charley Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson — but he was regarded as a top-notch guitarist, and could ha v e achie v ed more fame had he been offered more opportunities to record on his own. While not a big seller, the record originally Paramount had an extended life when it was re-released on the Champion label, and Paramount also slotted it on its Broadway subsidiary under the pseudonym Billy Harper.

The third of fi v e Ruth Brown No. El v is then co v ered it on his first record for Sun in Syl Johnson. Different Strokes. I Hate I Walked Away. I'm Talkin' Bout Freedom. I Hear The Love Chimes. Concrete Reservation. Soul Heaven. That's Just My Luck. Take Me To The River. Don't Do It. Come Together. Anyway The Wind Blows. Fine Brown Frame. Sexy Wayz. Right On. Black Balloons. Johnson is a brother of the blues guitarist and singer Jimmy Johnson and the bassist Mack Thompson.

He and his family appeared on the American reality television series Iyanla: Fix My Life , by the request of his daughter Syleena , to help her mother and the alcohol addiction. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately , especially if potentially libelous or harmful.

Fine Brown Frame Boardwalk "Ms. Retrieved February 16, University of Illinois Press — via Google Books. May 1, Retrieved February 27, — via robertchristgau. Fine Brown Frame " — via www.