MAMIE SMITH Born in 1883, Mamie Smith was the first vocalist to ever record a blues song. A vaudville and cabaret singer, her version of composer Perry Bradford's "Crazy Blues" was a national hit in 1920. The astounding success of the single sent record companies rushing to tap the new "race" market. Though she was not a true blues singer, she set the stage for other female vocalists and she also set the trend with her stylish look. Nearly every other female blues singer of the '20s copied her appearance.
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BESSIE SMITH Born in 1894, Bessie Smith was the greatest and most influential blues singer of the 20s. With her talent, her excessive personality and her wild ways, she became a huge black cultural symbol. Her enormous success represented triumph over the white domination of the entertainment industry. Her death in 1937 was at the prime of her career. She died after an auto accident that left her too badly injured to recover. The lore surrounding her death at the time was that she was taken to a white hospital and refused treatment, instead letting her bleed to death. Apparently what really happened was that she was taken to a colored hospital where she recieved treatment that included amputation of one arm. She died the next day. Although there were 7,000 people at her funeral, she went without a headstone until one was purchased by Janis Joplin.
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WILLIE DIXON Born in 1915, Willie Dixon did more to shape Chicago Blues than nearly anyone else besides perhaps Muddy Waters. He was the ultimate all-around blues man, working as a bass player, compser, producer, arranger and bandleader..to name a few. He initially began a career as a boxer, even sparring with Joe Louis, but it only lasted four fights after an altercation with his manager ended his pro career. In 1939 he formed The Five Breezes which played until 1941 when he was arrested for refusing to serve in the armed forces. During his term and after he got out, he continued writing, playing and producing music all the way until his death in 1992. He was and still is a major influence in his field.

MUDDY WATERS Born in 1915, Muddy Waters was the king of Postwar Chicago Blues. One of 10 children and the son of a sharecropper, he got his nickname because he loved to play down by a muddy creek as a child. He learned to sing out in the cotton fields he worked in and started playing the guitar when he was 17. Inspired by Son House and Robert Johnson, he began to build his style. Waters left his mark on untold numbers of bluesmen and blues rockers, both American and British. He was responsible for the melding of the Mississippi Delta Blues and the urban Chicago Blues. To many blues fans, he IS the blues. His first recording was in 1941. Muddy Waters died of a heart attack in his sleep in 1983.
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ELMORE JAMES Born in 1918, Elmore James was the single most important slide-guitar musician in the Postwar period. Like Muddy Waters, he was from the family of a Mississippi Delta sharecropper. He taught himself guitar on a one-stringed instrument he made himself. He met Robert Johnson only a year before Johnson died. It was a short aquaintance, but it made an enormous impression, and he made Johnson's slide guitar techniques the trademark of his style. In 1952 he recorded the redone Robert Johnson tune Dust My Broom and it catapulted him into the spotlight. He was still at the peak of his career when he died in 1963 of a heart attack.
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JOHN LEE HOOKER Born in 1920, John Lee Hooker owns one of the most distinctive voices in blues. Known as the father of the boogie, his sound is deep, sexy and layered with innuendo. His sounds inspired an entire generation of blues-rockers like the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac and the Animals. Unlike many other Blues musicians, Hooker made his mark in Detroit. He was from Clarksdale, Mississippi but left at the age of 15 for Memphis where he worked as an usher in a theater and played his guitar on the corner for spare change. Later, he made his way to Detroit where he worked as a janitor, playing in clubs and house parties in his spare time. His recording career began in 1948 and hasn't let up since. He remains one of the seminal ambassadors of the Blues.
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