A Month of Blues History
September
This is the history of the blues – one month at a time.
September 1
1954 – On September 1, 1954, Muddy Waters recorded “I’m Ready” at Chess Records in Chicago. The song was a hit, spending nine weeks on the Billboard R&B chart where it reached number four. The song became a blues standard and has been compared to “Hoochie Coochie Man”, the standard also written by Dixon that Waters recorded earlier in 1954.
1954 – Muddy Waters recorded Willie Dixon’s “I’m Ready” at Chess Records on September 1, 1954. Inspired by a playful exchange with harmonica player Willie Foster, the song echoed the swagger and stop-time structure of “Hoochie Coochie Man.” Featuring Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers and Otis Spann, it reached No. 4 on Billboard’s R&B chart and became a blues standard.
1956 – On September 1, 1956 a 19 year old Jerry Lee Lewis arrived at Sun Records and recorded some demos that Phillips would hear when he returned from vacation. The entry documents a date-specific milestone in the subject’s blues career and biography.
1935 – Herman Guidry, better known as Sticks Herman, was born on September 1, 1935, and emerged as part of the vibrant Louisiana blues and R&B scene of the 1950s. Based around Lake Charles, he became associated with the influential Goldband Records label, founded by record producer Eddie Shuler. Which helped launch numerous regional blues, swamp blues, and Cajun artists.
September 2
1914 – Memphis blues pianist and singer Lawrence “Booker T. ” Laury was born September 2, 1914, in Memphis, Tennessee.
1914 – Booker T. Laury, born September 2, 1914, was a Memphis barrelhouse blues pianist who grew up playing alongside Memphis Slim. Despite losing a finger, Laury remained a Beale Street fixture for decades; Wider recognition came late through recordings and appearances in Great Balls of Fire; and Deep Blues; He died September 23, 1995.
1951 – Johnny Nitro, born John Lawrence Newton; September 2, 1951 – February 19, 2011 was a blues vocalist, guitarist, and band leader in the San Francisco Bay Area. He served as a longtime entertainer and community figure in the North Beach district. He regularly played at local venues, such as The Saloon and Lou’s Pier 47, with his band, Johnny Nitro & the Doorslammers.
1927 – Louis Armstrong And His Hot 5 recorded “Put ’em Down Blues” for the OKeh label., OKeh 8503. The entry documents a date-specific milestone in the subject’s blues career and biography.
September 3
1915 – Blues piano powerhouse Memphis Slim was born John Len Chatman on September 3, 1915, in Memphis, Tennessee. Raised around music, he admired Roosevelt Sykes and developed into a commanding pianist with a booming left hand, rolling bass lines and a voice built to cut through a noisy club.
1915 – Memphis Slim, born September 3, 1915, was a powerhouse pianist whose rolling bass lines and commanding vocals helped define Chicago blues. Known for “Every Day I Have the Blues,” he made more than 500 recordings before settling in Paris. Slim died February 24, 1988, and entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989.
1919 – Delta blues singer and guitarist Charley Booker was born September 3, either in 1919 or 1925, on a plantation between Moorhead and Sunflower, Mississippi. Booker himself claimed 1925, while Social Security records and the Mississippi Blues Trail give 1919.
1989 – Delta bluesman Charley Booker, born September 3, either 1919 or 1925, carried the influence of Charley Patton into postwar Mississippi blues. He recorded with Ike Turner for Modern Records and later for Sam Phillips before moving to South Bend, Indiana. His scarce recordings became prized examples of raw Delta blues; Booker died September 20, 1989.
September 4
1934 – Texas blues guitarist and singer Huary Perry “U.P.” Wilson was born September 4, 1934, near Shreveport, Louisiana. Raised in West Dallas, Wilson soaked up the hard Texas blues of ZuZu Bollin, Frankie Lee Sims, Mercy Baby, Cat Man Fleming and Nappy “Chin” Evans.
1934 – Texas blues guitarist U.P. Wilson, born September 4, 1934, built a reputation with his rhythmic, gospel-inflected guitar and colorful stage show. A longtime Fort Worth fixture, he worked with Robert Ealey and Cornell Dupree before gaining wider recognition through recordings and international touring; Wilson died in Paris in September 2004.
1905 – Boogie-woogie piano giant Meade “Lux” Lewis was born September 4, 1905, in Chicago. Along with Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson, Lewis helped turn hard-driving, eight-to-the-bar piano blues into a national craze.
September 5
1923 – Texas blues guitarist and singer A.D. “Zuzu” Bollin was born September 5, 1923, in Frisco, Texas, though many music references list 1922. As a boy, he soaked up records by Blind Lemon Jefferson and other bluesmen played by two guitar-playing uncles; His sweet-toothed nickname reportedly came from Zu Zu ginger snaps.
1923 – Texas bluesman Zuzu Bollin, born September 5, 1923, blended T-Bone Walker-inspired guitar with blues and swing. After recording for Torch Records, he left music in the 1960s, only to be rediscovered decades later. His comeback produced the acclaimed “Texas Bluesman” album before his death on October 19, 1990.
1906 – Blues piano powerhouse Albert “Sunnyland Slim” Luandrew was born September 5, 1906, near Vance, Mississippi. He learned on a pump organ and, when he couldn’t get near the real thing, reportedly drew piano keys on a shoebox so he could practice his fingering. That’s determination, Delta-style.
1906 – Born September 5, 1906, Sunnyland Slim became a towering figure in Chicago blues, backing countless greats and helping Muddy Waters get his start at Aristocrat Records. Known for his pounding piano, booming voice and remarkable resilience, Slim remained a club favorite for decades. He died March 17, 1995, at age 88.
September 6
1925 – Chicago blues great Jimmy Reed was born Mathis James Reed on September 6, 1925, in Dunleith, Mississippi, in a sharecropping family. Childhood friend Eddie Taylor taught him his first guitar licks, starting a partnership that lasted decades.
1926 – Chicago blues drummer Frederick Below Jr. was born September 6, 1926, in Chicago, and grew up, as he put it, “around nothing but music.” At DuSable High School he formed a jazz group with future stars Johnny Griffin and Eugene Wright. After Army service in 1945-46, Below studied at Chicago’s Roy C. Knapp School of Percussion, then re-enlisted and joined the 427th Army Band in Germany.
1926 – Born September 6, 1926, Fred Below brought jazz chops to Chicago blues and helped create its driving shuffle and backbeat. He powered classics by Little Walter, Chuck Berry and countless Chess artists, helping lay the rhythmic foundation for rock ’n’ roll. Below died August 13, 1988, and entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 2018.
1947 – Soul-blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Jay Owens was born Isaac Jerome Owens on September 6, 1947, in Lake City, Florida. His mother was a church minister, and Owens first learned to sing in church. At 11 he received his first guitar, with blues-playing uncle Clarence Jenkins helping steer him toward the music; By high school, he was already playing professionally.
September 7
1934 – Blues and soul powerhouse Little Milton was born James Milton Campbell on September 7, 1934, near Inverness, Mississippi, and grew up in Greenville. His father, “Big Milton,” farmed and played blues locally. Young Milton first made a guitar by nailing wires to the family house, then picked cotton and worked odd jobs to buy a $14 mail-order guitar; His mother wanted him to send it back.
1934 – Born September 7, 1934, Little Milton blended scorching blues guitar with soul and R&B, scoring hits including “We’re Gonna Make It” and “Grits Ain’t Groceries. ” From Sun and Chess to Stax and Malaco, he remained a blues force for five decades. The Blues Hall of Famer died August 4, 2005, at age 70.
1936 – Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holley was born September 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.
1939 – Benjamin William Lattimore, born September 7, 1939, known professionally as Latimore, is an American blues and R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. In 2017, Latimore was inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame.
September 8
1927 – Harmonica Fats was born Harvey Blackston on September 8, 1927, in McDade, Louisiana, near Shreveport. Raised by his grandparents on a cotton farm, he began playing harmonica around age four and later cited Sonny Terry as his biggest influence.
1934 – Guitar Shorty was a blues showman, a guitarist who could tear through a solo while doing somersaults, backflips or standing on his head. Born David William Kearney on September 8, 1934, in Houston, Texas, he grew up in Florida and gigged as a teenager. Older sources often list 1939, but NAMM and his label, Alligator Records, give 1934.
1898 – Cat Iron left behind only one album, but it is a slice of Mississippi blues history. Born William Carridine on September 8, 1898, in Roxie, Mississippi, near Natchez, he became a singer and guitarist whose music mixed country blues, spirituals and older folk traditions.
1911 – Washboard Doc could turn household hardware into a rhythm section. Born Joseph Doctor on September 8, 1911, on Johns Island near Charleston, South Carolina, he became one of New York blues’ most distinctive percussionists, armed with a washboard, thimbles, cymbals, pots and pans.
September 9
1906 – Hersal Thomas packed a remarkable legacy into less than 20 years. Born September 9, 1906, in Houston, Texas, he was one of thirteen children in the musical Thomas family. His brother George Washington Thomas Jr. was a pianist and composer, his sister was blues star Sippie Wallace, and his niece Hociel Thomas was a singer.
1906 – Hersal Thomas, born September 9, 1906, was a teenage piano prodigy who helped shape early boogie-woogie. His “The Fives” influenced giants including Albert Ammons and Meade “Lux” Lewis, while he recorded with Sippie Wallace and Louis Armstrong. Thomas died June 2, 1926, in Detroit at just 19.
1941 – Otis Redding, born September 9, 1941, packed a lifetime of soul into just 26 years. From Stax classics like “Try a Little Tenderness” to his explosive Monterey Pop performance, he became a soul legend. Redding died December 10, 1967, days after recording “, Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay.”.
1966 – Tutu Jones carries Dallas blues in his blood and Texas grit in his guitar. Born John Jones Jr. on September 9, 1966, in Dallas, he grew up surrounded by music. His father, guitarist Johnny B; Jones, worked the local R&B circuit, and family visitors included Freddie King, Little Joe Blue and Ernie Johnson.
September 10
1920 – Roy Brown helped light the fuse that became rock ’n’ roll. Born Roy James Brown on September 10, 1920, in Kinder, Louisiana, he grew up singing gospel before developing a soaring, pleading style that brought church emotion into rhythm and blues. Some sources list 1925, but census and Social Security research supports 1920.
1920 – Roy Brown, born September 10, 1920, helped lay the foundation for rock ’n’ roll with his 1947 classic “Good Rockin’ Tonight. ” His gospel-powered R&B influenced B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Little Richard, while Elvis Presley carried his sound into rockabilly. Brown died May 25, 1981.
1951 – September 10 – Johnny Rawls, 1952; – Johnny Rawls, born September 10, 1951 is an American soul blues singer, guitarist, arranger, songwriter and record producer. He was influenced by the deep soul music of the 1960s, as performed by O. V; Wright, James Carr, and Z; Z; Hill, although his styling, production and lyrics are more contemporary in nature.
September 11
1904 – Jazz Gillum . Harmonica player. William McKinley “Jazz” Gillum, September 11, 1902 or 1904 – March 29, 1966 was an American blues harmonica player.Gillum was born in Indianola, Mississippi; He ran away from home at age seven and for the next few years lived in Charleston, Mississippi, working and playing for tips on street corners; The artist died March 29, 1966.
1940 – Delta bluesman Robert “Wolfman” Belfour was born September 11, 1940. The entry documents a date-specific milestone in the subject’s blues career and biography.
1946 – John “Juke” Logan was born September 11, 1946, in downtown Los Angeles. He grew up in North Hollywood hooked on Chicago blues, especially James Cotton and Little Walter. He played Little Walter’s instrumental “Juke” so relentlessly that friends hung the nickname on him, and it never came off.
1946 – John “Juke” Logan, born September 11, 1946, turned a love of Little Walter into a remarkable harmonica career. He played with blues legends, contributed to Crossroads, La Bamba, Roseanne and Home Improvement, released his own albums, and co-hosted KPCC’s Friday Night Blues Revue. Logan died August 30, 2013, at age 66.
September 12
1883 – Gus Cannon was born September 12, 1883, or possibly 1884, near Red Banks, Mississippi. Even Cannon’s tombstone complicates matters by giving 1874, proof that blues history occasionally comes with its own fog machine.
1900 – Alger “Texas” Alexander was born September 12, 1900 in Jewett, Texas. Some sources claim that he was the cousin of Lightnin’ Hopkins, but no direct kinship has been established. It has also been asserted that he was the uncle of the Texas country blues guitarist Frankie Lee Sims.
1900 – Texas Alexander, born September 12, 1900, was a powerful Texas blues singer who never played an instrument but recorded dozens of sides with musicians including Lonnie Johnson, Little Hat Jones and King Oliver. Once rumored to have served years in prison, later research challenged the story. He died in 1954 at age 53.
1908 – Texas blues pianist “Black Boy Shine” was born on September 12, 1908. Little is known of his life outside of his recording career.
September 13
1922 – Charles Brown was born September 13, 1922, in Texas City, Texas, and became one of the smoothest architects of postwar blues. His relaxed vocals, elegant piano and after-hours sophistication helped create the West Coast blues sound and influenced Ray Charles, Amos Milburn and Floyd Dixon.
1922 – Charles Brown, born September 13, 1922, helped shape West Coast blues with smooth vocals and sophisticated piano. His hits included “Drifting Blues,” “Trouble Blues” and “Merry Christmas Baby. ” Championed by Bonnie Raitt during his comeback, Brown entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996 and Rock Hall in 1999.
1947 – On September 13, 1947, T-Bone Walker entered Radio Recorders in Hollywood and cut a record that would permanently change electric blues guitar: “Call It Stormy Monday, But Tuesday Is Just as Bad. ” Recorded for Black & White Records under producer Ralph Bass, the session paired Walker’s silky voice and electric guitar with a first-rate jazz crew.
1947 – T-Bone Walker recorded “Call It Stormy Monday” on September 13, 1947, creating an electric blues landmark that influenced B.B. King and generations of guitarists. Later versions by Bobby “Blue” Bland and the Allman Brothers expanded its reach, while Walker’s original earned honors from the Blues, Grammy and recording halls of fame.
September 14
1889 – Blues and jazz songwriter Thomas Henry Delaney was born September 14, 1889, in Charleston, South Carolina. Although his own recording career was tiny, his songs traveled everywhere, becoming part of the vocabulary of early blues and jazz.
1889 – Tom Delaney, born September 14, 1889, was an influential blues and jazz songwriter whose own recording career was brief. He wrote standards including “Jazz Me Blues” and Ethel Waters’ “Down Home Blues,” while his songs were recorded by Bix Beiderbecke, Earl Hines and others. Delaney died in 1963 at age 74; BigTrainBlues.
1952 – Darrell Nulisch was born September 14, 1952, in Dallas, Texas, and grew up with blues and soul practically spilling out of the neighborhood. His parents took him to Sunday-afternoon honky-tonks, where he heard Jimmy McCracklin and Freddie King. A few blocks from home, Jimmie Vaughan rehearsed with the Chessmen in a park, and Nulisch would pedal over on his bicycle to watch.
1952 – Darrell Nulisch, born September 14, 1952, is a Dallas-raised blues and soul singer and harmonica player. A founding member of Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, he later worked with Ronnie Earl and James Cotton before launching a solo career. More than four decades later, Nulisch remains an active performer; https://www.facebook.com/darrell.nulisch.7.
September 15
1941 – “Cross Cut Saw Blues” was already floating through Delta blues circles before anyone could pin an owner’s name on it. Tommy McClennan put his version on wax in Chicago on September 15, 1941, recording for Bluebird with guitar and Joe McCoy on imitation bass. Its double-entendre was subtle as a saw blade.
1941 – Tommy McClennan recorded “Cross Cut Saw Blues” on September 15, 1941, but the song’s Delta roots and authorship remain tangled. Albert King reinvented it at Stax in 1966 with an Afro-Cuban groove, creating a blues standard later covered by Eric Clapton, Otis Rush and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
1910 – William Hood, better known as Rhythm Willie, was born around September 15, 1910, although some researchers place his birth closer to 1905. His dates remain uncertain, but his harmonica is unmistakable: blues played with the phrasing of a jazz horn.
1910 – Rhythm Willie, born around September 15, 1910, was a mysterious Chicago harmonica virtuoso whose jazz-influenced, horn-like style set him apart. He recorded with Peetie Wheatstraw, Lee Brown and Earl Bostic and cut inventive instrumentals of his own. Only 16 issued recordings survive from his career before his death in 1954.
September 16
1931 – Little Willie Littlefield was born September 16, 1931, in El Campo, Texas, and grew up in Houston, where he became a teenage sensation on Dowling Street. Inspired by Albert Ammons, Charles Brown and Amos Milburn, Littlefield developed a rolling triplet piano attack that helped bridge boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues and early rock ’n’ roll.
1931 – Little Willie Littlefield, born September 16, 1931, was a Texas boogie-woogie piano sensation whose triplet style helped shape early rock ’n’ roll. His hits included “It’s Midnight,” and he made the first recording of “Kansas City” as “K.C. Loving.” After a European comeback, he settled in the Netherlands and performed into his later years.
1935 – Billy Boy Arnold was born William Arnold on September 16, 1935, in Chicago, one of the first major postwar bluesmen actually born and raised in the city. Fascinated by John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, 12-year-old Arnold tracked down his hero in 1948 and received a few informal harmonica lessons. Williamson showed him how to “choke” the harp and recommended Marine Band harmonicas.
1935 – Billy Boy Arnold, born September 16, 1935, learned harmonica from Sonny Boy Williamson before helping shape 1950s Chicago blues. He played on Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man” and recorded classics including “I Wish You Would” and “I Ain’t Got You. ” Now in his 90s, Arnold remains one of the last living links to that golden era.
September 17
1931 – Eddie Burks was born September 17, 1931, near Greenwood, Mississippi, the 14th and youngest child of sharecroppers. His childhood carried a horror he never forgot: one of his brothers was lynched by the Ku Klux Klan. Burks later recounted the killing in the Oscar-nominated documentary Blues Highway, giving the film one of its most powerful moments.
1931 – Eddie Burks, born September 17, 1931, went from Apostolic minister and steelworker to a fixture of Chicago’s Maxwell Street blues scene. Known as “Jewtown Eddie,” he recorded Vampire Woman, toured widely and appeared in the Oscar-nominated Blues Highway. Burks died in a 2005 car accident at age 73.
1906 – Blind James Campbell, born September 17, 1906, led Nashville’s wonderfully old-fashioned Street Band, mixing blues, country, jazz and pop on downtown street corners. Field recordings led Arhoolie’s Chris Strachwitz to record the group in 1962-63, preserving a rare link to Southern street-band traditions.
1906 – Blind James Campbell was born September 17, 1906, in Nashville, Tennessee, and preserved a style of American street music that already sounded like another era when record collectors discovered him in the 1960s. The entry documents a date-specific milestone in the subject’s blues career and biography.
September 18
1979 – Blues guitarist Hector Anchondo was born September 18, 1979, in Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up on a Missouri farm. He picked up guitar at 16, hit the road young, and returned to Omaha in 1999, where years of clubs, busted vans, overnight drives and sleeping on floors turned him into a road-tested bluesman.
1979 – Born September 18, 1979, Hector Anchondo went from Missouri farm kid and road-weary guitarist to one of Omaha’s blues standouts. After IBC semifinal and finalist runs, he won the 2020 Solo/Duo title and Cigar Box Guitar Award. His “Let Loose Those Chains” hit No; 11 on Billboard’s Blues Albums chart and earned major blues award nominations.
1929 – Blues guitarist and harmonica player Louis Myers was born September 18, 1929, in Byhalia, Mississippi. He became one of Chicago blues’ great sidemen, equally handy with guitar or harmonica.
1929 – Born September 18, 1929, Louis Myers helped shape electric Chicago blues as guitarist and harmonica player with the Aces. He backed Little Walter on classics including “Mean Old World” and “Off the Wall,” worked with Otis Rush and Earl Hooker, toured Europe with the reunited Aces, and completed his final album after suffering a serious stroke.
September 19
1921 – Willie James Foster was born September 19, 1921, near Leland, Mississippi, reportedly right on a cotton sack when his mother went into labor while working in the fields. Poverty arrived early. By seven he was helping his sharecropper parents, sometimes wearing sacks for shoes, but he scraped together 25 cents for a harmonica by pumping water.
1936 – Charles Eugene “Brother Gene” Dinwiddie was born September 19, 1936, in Louisville, Kentucky, and became one of those musicians whose name may hide in the credits while his horn jumps right out of the speakers. A saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and arranger, Dinwiddie spent years working the blues and jazz circuits before landing on a much bigger stage.
1931 – Leon Blue, September 19, 1931 is an American pianist. He has played with Ike & Tina Turner, Lowell Fulson, Albert Collins, B.B. King, Albert King, Roy Milton, Little Joe Blue, and many others. Blue also recorded as a member of the Manish Boys.
1931 – Leon Blue was born the second of four children in Wichita Falls, Texas on September 19, 1931. At the age of 11, Blue began taking piano lessons with the local piano instructor Miss grimes. After hearing the song “Honky Tonk Train Blues” by Meade Lux Lewis, Blues was inspired to play boogie-woogie, which he learned by ear.
September 20
1962 – Curley James Weaver died September 20, 1962, leaving a great Georgia blues guitar legacy. Born near Covington, Georgia, in 1906 and raised on a cotton farm, Weaver learned guitar from his mother, Savannah “Dip” Shepard Weaver, a musician who also taught Barbecue Bob and his brother Charlie Lincoln. That was one heck of a neighborhood guitar school.
1962 – Curley Weaver, the “Georgia Guitar Wizard,” learned from his mother before helping define Atlanta blues with Barbecue Bob, Buddy Moss and Blind Willie McTell. A master of fluid picking and slide, he recorded from 1928 into the postwar era. Weaver died September 20, 1962, at the age of 56.
1902 – John “Jack” Erby was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 20, 1902, and remains one of the more obscure figures connected to the early Texas blues tradition. The entry documents a date-specific milestone in the subject’s blues career and biography.
1902 – Born September 20, 1902, in Fort Worth, Texas, John “Jack” Erby was an early Texas blues musician whose life remains largely undocumented. Though no known recordings survive, his inclusion in blues reference works recognizes his role in the state’s formative blues tradition. His date of death is unknown.
September 21
1948 – Henry Butler, born September 21, 1948, was a powerhouse New Orleans pianist who conquered blues, jazz, gospel and boogie-woogie despite being blind since infancy. Katrina destroyed his home and piano, but not his music. He was also an accomplished photographer; Butler died July 2, 2018, at the age of 69.
1944 – Guitar maestro Jesse Ed Davis was born September 21, 1944, in Norman, Oklahoma, and grew up in Oklahoma City. An enrolled Kiowa citizen with Comanche, Muscogee and Seminole ancestry, Davis became one of rock and blues’ great secret weapons, the guitarist stars called when a song needed fire without fuss.
1964 – Bo Carter, born Armenter Chatmon on March 21, 1893, near Bolton, Mississippi, died September 21, 1964. A prolific 1930s country blues artist, Carter was a guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who also played violin, banjo, bass and clarinet. He came from the astonishingly musical Chatmon family, where his parents and all 12 siblings reportedly played or sang.
September 22
1951 – Bobby Radcliff, born Robert Radcliff Ewan on September 22, 1951, was raised in Bethesda, Maryland, and started guitar at 12 with classical lessons. Then his teacher played him some blues, and the kid was hooked. Washington’s clubs exposed him to Bobby Parker, while records by Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Freddie King, Buddy Guy and Magic Sam pointed him toward Chicago.
1951 – Bobby Radcliff, born September 22, 1951, turned a teenage obsession with Magic Sam into a lifelong blues career. After studying Chicago’s West Side sound firsthand, he became a fixture in New York clubs, recorded acclaimed Black Top albums and mixed blues with soul and funk. He was inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.
1896 – Memphis blues and country blues guitarist and songwriter Dan Sane was PROBABLY born September 22, 1896, in Hernando, Mississippi. There is uncertainty over his date of birth; most sources state September 22, 1896, but others suggest October 23, 1892.
1896 – Dan Sane, probably born September 22, 1896, helped shape Memphis blues alongside Frank Stokes in the Beale Street Sheiks. His intricate flatpicking powered their 1927-29 recordings for Paramount and Victor. Even Sane’s birth and death dates remain disputed, though the Mississippi Blues Trail places his death in 1965.
September 23
1937 – Larry “Big Twist” Nolan was born September 23, 1937, in Terre Haute, Indiana. At 6-foot-4 and more than 300 pounds, with a booming voice to match, Twist was impossible to miss. He began singing in church at six, later playing drums and singing blues, R&B and country in rough Southern Illinois bars, where some stages reportedly needed chicken wire between the band and the customers.
1937 – Big Twist Nolan, born September 23, 1937, brought a booming voice and larger-than-life presence to Chicago R&B. With the Mellow Fellows, he mixed blues, soul and horn-driven party music, recording for Flying Fish and Alligator. Nolan died March 14, 1990; In 2024, Murphysboro honored him with a historical marker.
1907 – Myron Carlton “Tiny” Bradshaw was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer. His biggest hit was “Well Oh Well” in 1950, and the following year he recorded “The Train Kept A-Rollin'”, important to the later development of rock and roll; he co-wrote and sang on both records. The artist died November 26, 1958.
1927 – Mighty Joe Young, born September 23, 1927, traded amateur boxing for a guitar and became one of Chicago’s top blues sidemen and bandleaders. He recorded with Magic Sam, Otis Rush and Tyrone Davis, ruled Wise Fools Pub and made a remarkable comeback with Mighty Man after surgery nearly ended his career.
September 24
1934 – Blues guitarist and singer Robert Lee “Chick” Willis was born September 24, 1934, in Cabaniss, Georgia. Known as “The Stoop Down Man,” Willis built a career that stretched from 1950s R&B road shows to modern Southern soul-blues, with one naughty jukebox smash following him everywhere.
1934 – Born September 24, 1934, Chick Willis turned risqué carnival rhymes into the underground jukebox smash “Stoop Down Baby. ” The guitarist worked with Chuck Willis and Elmore James, recorded extensively for Ichiban and won two Living Blues Best Live Performer awards. He died from cancer in 2013 at the age of 79.
1923 – Guitarist and singer Allen Rathel Bunn, better known as Tarheel Slim, was born September 24, 1923, in Bailey, North Carolina. Gospel, blues, doo-wop, R&B, pop and rockabilly all ended up in his toolbox.
1923 – Born September 24, 1923, Tarheel Slim jumped effortlessly from gospel and doo-wop to blues and rockabilly. He sang with the Larks, recorded with wife Little Ann and cut the scorching “Wildcat Tamer” and “Number 9 Train. ” Rediscovered in the 1970s, he returned to acoustic blues before his death in 1977 at the age of 53.
September 25
1910 – Mississippi hill country blues singer and guitarist Rosa Lee Hill was born September 25, 1910, in Como, Mississippi. The daughter of bandleader Sid Hemphill, she grew up in one of North Mississippi’s great musical families. By the age of ten, Hill was already playing guitar at dances with her father.
1959 – Folklorist Alan Lomax captured Hill on September 25, 1959, her 49th birthday, at Fred McDowell’s home in Como. The session produced “Bullyin’ Well,” “Faro” and “Rolled and Tumbled.” Not a bad birthday present for blues history. Her performances became part of Lomax’s celebrated Southern Journey recordings.
1910 – Born September 25, 1910, Rosa Lee Hill carried the hypnotic North Mississippi hill country blues tradition she learned from her father, Sid Hemphill. Alan Lomax recorded her on her 49th birthday in 1959. Though she lived in poverty and recorded little, songs like “Bullyin’ Well” and “Rolled and Tumbled” preserved her haunting sound.
1936 – Mississippi juke joint legend Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes was born September 25, 1936, in Longwood, Mississippi. He learned harmonica as a boy, soaked up Howlin’ Wolf’s influence, and was soon working the rough clubs of Greenville’s Nelson Street. Wolf reportedly nicknamed him “Little Wolf,” and Barnes later joked that people said he sounded more like the Wolf than Wolf did.
September 26
1926 – Lee Jackson was born on September 26, 1926, according to several blues almanacs, although most modern reference sources identify Chicago blues guitarist and bassist Lee Jackson, born Warren George Harding Lee as having been born on August 18, 1921, in Gill, Arkansas. The discrepancy reflects the incomplete documentation that surrounds many early blues musicians.
1926 – Lee Jackson, whose birth is variously listed as September 26, 1926, or August 18, 1921, was a respected Chicago blues guitarist and bassist. Best known as a session musician, he played with Johnny Shines, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, and others. Jackson died on July 1, 1979.
1931 – George Chambers was born in Flora, Mississippi, on September 26, 1931, and became the eldest member and bassist of the influential The Chambers Brothers. Raised in a deeply religious sharecropping family, George and his brothers, Willie, Lester, and Joe, developed their harmonies singing in the choir at Mount Calvary Baptist Church.
1931 – Born September 26, 1931, in Flora, Mississippi, George Chambers was the bassist and eldest member of The Chambers Brothers. Rooted in gospel and blues, he helped shape the group’s groundbreaking blend of soul, rock, and psychedelia, highlighted by “Time Has Come Today. ” He died on October 12, 2019.
September 27
1927 – Chicago blues harmonica player George “Earring” Mayweather Jr. was born September 27, 1927, in Montgomery County, Alabama. A Christmas present changed his life at the age of six: a harmonica, reportedly accompanied by an apple and an orange. He taught himself by listening to John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson records, then headed for Chicago in September 1949.
1927 – Born September 27, 1927, Earring George Mayweather learned harmonica from records before Little Walter sharpened his skills in Chicago. He recorded with J.B. Hutto and Eddie Taylor, reportedly turned down a spot with Muddy Waters, and finally released his only solo album, Whup It; Whup It., in 1992.
1956 – Bob Corritore was born September 27, 1956, in Chicago, and few people have worn more blues hats without needing a bigger head. Harmonica player, producer, radio host, historian and club owner, Corritore first caught the bug at 12 after hearing Muddy Waters on the radio. He bicycled into Wilmette and bought Sail On, then started haunting Chicago’s South and West Side clubs.
1954 – Larry “Mud” Morganfield was born September 27, 1954, in Chicago, the eldest son of Muddy Waters and Mildred Williams. He was raised mostly by his mother and seven uncles and saw his father only occasionally, but the family voice was hard to miss. Morganfield’s deep baritone is so close to Muddy’s that he has called the resemblance a “double-edged sword.”.
September 28
1928 – Blues Queen Koko Taylor was born Cora Walton on September 28, 1928, on a sharecropper’s farm outside Memphis, Tennessee. Nicknamed “Koko” because she loved chocolate, she grew up singing gospel with her brothers and sisters, sometimes making their own instruments. In 1952, she and future husband Robert “Pops” Taylor headed to Chicago with, as she remembered it, 35 cents and a box of Ritz crackers.
1928 – Born September 28, 1928, Koko Taylor rose from a Tennessee sharecropper’s farm to become the Queen of the Blues. Her million-selling “Wang Dang Doodle,” booming voice and ferocious live shows brought 29 Blues Music Awards and a Grammy. In 2025, Alligator celebrated her legacy with the remastered collection Crown Jewels.
1951 – Phillip Jackson, better known as Norton Buffalo, was born September 28, 1951, in Oakland, California, not 1958 as some listings claim. He grew up in Richmond and became a harmonica obsessive early, eventually mastering diatonic and chromatic harps with a fluency that made other players stare at their instruments like they had missed a memo.
1951 – Born September 28, 1951, Norton Buffalo became one of America’s great harmonica virtuosos, recording on more than 180 albums and spending over three decades with the Steve Miller Band. His work with Bonnie Raitt and Roy Rogers showed dazzling range. Buffalo died October 30, 2009, at the age of 58.
September 29
1937 – Texas blues guitarist Joe Maurice “Guitar” Hughes was born September 29, 1937, in Houston. Raised around the Fourth and Third Wards, he started playing professionally at 15 and soaked up lessons from a ridiculous neighborhood faculty: Lightnin’ Hopkins, Albert Collins, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Johnny “Guitar” Watson. T-Bone Walker was another major influence.
1937 – Born September 29, 1937, Joe “Guitar” Hughes helped forge Houston’s electric blues sound alongside Johnny Copeland. After years backing Bobby Bland and others, Europe revived his recording career in the 1980s. His gritty Texas style powered albums including If You Want to See the Blues and Texas Guitar Slinger.
1935 – Jerry Lee Lewis was born September 29, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, where gospel, country, boogie-woogie, R&B and Delta blues all found their way into his piano. His nickname was “The Killer,” and subtlety was never really part of the job description.
1935 – Born September 29, 1935, Jerry Lee Lewis mixed gospel, blues, country and boogie-woogie into explosive rock ’n’ roll. After scandal nearly ended his career, “The Killer” roared back as a country star with 34 Top 20 hits. He entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022, just days before his death at the age of 87.
September 30
1940 – James Yancey Jones, better known as Tail Dragger, was born September 30, 1940, on a farm near Altheimer, Arkansas. Raised by his grandparents, he secretly burned through batteries listening to blues on the family radio, sometimes leaving too little juice for Sunday gospel. He also slipped into Pine Bluff juke joints to hear Sonny Boy Williamson II, Boyd Gilmore and Elmore James.
1940 – Born September 30, 1940, Tail Dragger carried Arkansas juke-joint blues into Chicago’s West Side. Mentored and nicknamed by Howlin’ Wolf, he became famous for crawling through club crowds and singing with a ferocious growl. His final public appearance came at Delmark’s Rockwell Stroll just nine days before his death in 2023.
1935 – Arzell J. “Z.Z.” Hill was born September 30, 1935, in Naples, Texas, and grew up singing gospel before turning toward the blues and soul sounds of B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Sam Cooke. He moved to Dallas in 1954, sang with the Spiritual Five and began working local clubs; His stage name was a nod to B.B.
1935 – Born September 30, 1935, Z.Z. Hill carried gospel and soul into the blues, then helped ignite a Southern soul-blues revival at Malaco. His Down Home album reportedly sold 500,000 copies and stayed on Billboard’s soul chart nearly two years; Hill died in 1984 at the age of 48, just as his influence was exploding.