A Month of Blues History
December
This is the history of the blues – one month at a time.
December 1
1956 – on December 1, 1956, Muddy Waters recorded his version of “Got My Mojo Working” and it shows a slight shift to more of a doo-wop rhythm style. The session captured the artist at a documented point in a developing blues career. The recording remains useful evidence of the sound, personnel, and repertoire of its period.
1956 – Waters recorded the song on December 1, 1956, for Chess Records in Chicago. Both Little Walter and James Cotton have been mentioned as supplying the harmonica parts. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
1919 – Contralto singer Lurlean Hunter was born December 1, 1919, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. She built her reputation as a sophisticated jazz and popular vocalist, recording albums for RCA Victor and other labels during the 1950s and 1960s. Hunter died March 11, 1983, leaving a catalog noted for its warm tone and polished phrasing.
December 2
1953 – Cool John Ferguson, born December 2, 1953, in Beaufort, South Carolina, was a dazzling left-handed guitarist who played a right-handed guitar upside down. A gospel prodigy rooted in Gullah culture, he crossed blues, jazz, funk and rock with ease, became a key Music Maker collaborator and earned lavish praise from Taj Mahal. He died August 12, 2025, at 71.
1971 – blues singer and guitar player Taj Mahal performs a special show for the prisoners on death row at Wilmington State Penitentiary. The musician’s career developed within the blues and related roots-music traditions. The surviving work provides a record of that contribution.
1968 – Texas blues singer, guitarist, harmonica player, and songwriter Guy Forsyth was born December 2, 1968, in Denver, Colorado. After growing up in several cities, he settled in Austin in 1990 and became known for a wide-ranging roots style built around blues, Americana, slide guitar, harmonica, and strong original songs. Forsyth toured extensively and shared bills with artists including Ray Charles, Robert Cray, Dr. John, B.B. King, and Jimmie Vaughan.
December 3
1927 – Blind Willie Johnson, Billiken Johnson, and Coley Jones are recorded in Dallas, Texas. The recordings turn Johnson into one of the most popular musical acts of his time and capture his immortal “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground.”. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
1939 – December 3, 1939 = Garibay, Ramiro Beltran [Randy] .Ramiro Beltrán, Randy Garibay, the “Chicano Bluesman,” was born in San Antonio’s Palm Heights neighborhood on December 3, 1939. He was the son of Isidro and Feliz Garibay. His parents were Mexican immigrants, and the family divided its time between home in the San Antonio barrio and a life as migrant workers traveling throughout the American Midwest.
1968 – Sleepy John Estes began the sessions for Electric Sleep in Chicago on December 3, 1968, with additional recording on December 5. Delmark’s Bob Koester placed the Tennessee country-blues veteran with an electric band featuring Carey Bell, Sunnyland Slim and Jimmy Dawkins. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
December 4
1936 – Bluesman Larry Davis was born December 4, 1936. This Texas blues guitarist is best known for co-writing the song “Texas Flood”, later recorded to greater commercial success by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Anyone who associates “Texas Flood” only with Stevie Ray Vaughan has never listened to Larry Davis’ version which was released in 1958.
1964 – Blues singer/guitarist “Little” Jimmy King, was born December 4, 1964. The musician built a career within the blues and related African American roots-music traditions. That work helped preserve the sound and performance practices associated with the artist’s generation.
1948 – Southside Johnny, born John Lyon on December 4, 1948, in Neptune, New Jersey, is celebrated as the “Grandfather of the New Jersey Sound.” His blend of R&B, soul, and rock helped shape the Jersey Shore scene that also produced Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt. The musician’s career developed within the blues and related roots-music traditions. The surviving work provides a record of that contribution.
1939 – Electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter Sonny Rodgers was born December 4, 1939, in Hughes, Arkansas. He worked in the Minneapolis blues scene and developed a direct, modern electric-blues style that brought him wider recognition late in his career. Rodgers died May 7, 1990, and his single “Cadillac Baby” was honored with a W.C. Handy Award.
December 5
1912 – Blues harmonica master Sonny Boy Williamson II is commonly associated with a December 5 birthday, although reliable sources disagree about both his birth date and birth year. Born Aleck Miller in Mississippi, he became a commanding singer, songwriter, harmonica player, and radio personality whose work for Trumpet and Chess helped define postwar blues. His recordings, including “Help Me,” “Nine Below Zero,” and “Don’t Start Me Talkin’,” remain central to the blues repertoire.
1938 – Chicago blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter Willie James Lyons was born on December 5, 1938. His sound carried the unmistakable stamp of B.B. King, Freddie King, T-Bone Walker, and Lowell Fulson; Born in Alabama, Lyons moved to Chicago by the mid-1950s, where he became a respected figure on the city’s vibrant West Side scene.
1932 – Singer and pianist Little Richard was born December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia, as Richard Penniman. His explosive singing, pounding piano, gospel intensity, and deep grounding in rhythm and blues helped transform Black Southern musical traditions into the emerging sound of rock and roll. Recordings such as “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” and “Lucille” carried blues and R&B language to an enormous international audience.
December 6
1925 – Robert Daniel Ealey was born December 6, 1925. This electric blues singer is noted for a couple of albums for Black Top Records in the 1990s, having earlier formed a duo with U.P. Wilson; Ealey also worked with Tone Sommer, Mike Buck, and Mike Morgan.
1937 – Toni Lynn Washington, born Dorothy Helen Leak, December 6, 1937, Southern Pines, North Carolina is an American blues singer. The musician’s career developed within the blues and related roots-music traditions. The surviving work provides a record of that contribution.
1949 – Folk-blues singer, songwriter, and twelve-string guitarist Lead Belly died December 6, 1949, in New York City. Born Huddie Ledbetter in Louisiana, he carried a vast repertoire of blues, work songs, spirituals, ballads, and folk material into recordings and performances that reached audiences far beyond the South. Songs associated with him, including “Goodnight, Irene,” “The Midnight Special,” and “Rock Island Line,” became standards interpreted by generations of blues, folk, and rock musicians.
December 7
1913 – Blues and boogie-woogie pianist Blind John Davis was born December 7, 1913, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. After moving to Chicago, he became a prolific session pianist and accompanied artists including Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, and Washboard Sam. His own recordings, including “A Little Every Day” and “Everybody’s Boogie,” show the rolling piano style that made him an important figure in prewar and postwar Chicago blues.
1965 – Willie Dixon brought Koko Taylor to Chess Records where she recorded “Wang Dang Doodle”. Gene Barge and Donald Hawkins were on saxophones, Lafayette Leake on piano, Buddy Guy and Johnny “Twist” Williams on guitars, Jack Meyers on bass guitar, Fred Below on drums, and Willie Dixon singing with Taylor. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
1903 – The blues pianist Roosevelt Thomas “Grey Ghost” Williams was born December 7, 1903. This Texas blues pianist had a 70-year career spanning from the 1920s through the 1990s. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
December 8
1947 – The Midnight Rider, Gregory Allman, was born December 8 in 1947. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman Brothers Band fused it with rock music, jazz, and country at times. He wrote several of the band’s biggest songs, including “Whipping Post”, “Melissa”, and “Midnight Rider”.
1939 – Rhythm and blues drummer Soko Richardson was born December 8, 1939. His career spanned almost fifty years, and played with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1981 – Blues harmonica master Big Walter Horton died December 8, 1981, in Chicago. Born in Mississippi and raised partly in Memphis, Horton became one of the most admired amplified harmonica players in postwar blues and worked with Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Johnny Shines, and many others. His huge tone, precise phrasing, and understated personality made him a musician’s musician whose influence can still be heard in modern blues harp.
December 9
1934 – Harmonica blues legend Junior Wells was born December 9, 1934. He is best known for his signature song “Messin’ with the Kid” and his 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues, described as one of the truly classic blues albums of the ‘60s. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1932 – Louisiana blues singer and songwriter Jessie Hill was born December 9, 1932. He’s best remembered for the classic song “Ooh Poo Pah Doo”. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1909 – Blues guitarist Blind Roosevelt Graves was born December 9, 1909 in either Rose Hill or Summerland, Mississippi. On all his recordings, he played with his brother Uaroy Graves who was also nearly blind and played the tambourine. They were credited as “Blind Roosevelt Graves and Brother”.
December 10
1909 – Slide guitarist Casey Bill Weldon is often listed with a December 10, 1909, birthday, although important details of his early life remain disputed. He became one of the most distinctive guitarists of the 1930s, using a lap-style slide approach and recording prolifically for Bluebird and Vocalion. Weldon was also associated with Memphis Minnie, and records such as “We Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town” helped secure his place in prewar blues history.
1926 – Eddie Lee ‘Guitar Slim’ Jones was born December 10, 1926, in Greenwood, Mississippi. After moving to New Orleans he became an electric-blues pioneer, famous for extreme volume, distortion, outrageous stagecraft and the Ray Charles-arranged hit ‘The Things That I Used to Do.’. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1939 – Piedmont blues guitarist and singer Virgil Childers died December 10, 1939, in Shelby, North Carolina. The South Carolina musician had recorded six sides for Bluebird in Charlotte in 1938, leaving a small catalog distinguished by blues, ragtime touches and a swinging guitar approach. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
December 11
1926 – Blues singer and songwriter Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was born December 11, 1926, in Ariton, Alabama. Her enormous voice and commanding stage presence made her a major force in postwar blues and R&B, and her 1952 recording of “Hound Dog” became a landmark performance years before Elvis Presley recorded the song. Thornton also wrote and recorded “Ball and Chain,” another enduring blues standard that later reached a wider rock audience through Janis Joplin.
1897 – Delta Stories: Osceola’s own “Sweet Man” Willie Bloom Willie Bloom was a musician, who began his career about 1918 along the mighty Mississippi River near Memphis. In addition to recording songs like “Osceola Blues” he played with legends such as W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie; After living briefly at Memphis, Bloom eventually moved to Osceola, Arkansas.
1985 – Chicago blues guitarist and singer Andrew Brown died December 11, 1985. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Brown moved to Chicago as a child and learned important guitar lessons from Earl Hooker before becoming a fixture in South Side and suburban clubs. Although he was under-recorded for much of his career, his singles and later albums preserved a fluid, economical guitar style and a strong blues voice.
December 12
1943 – Allman Brothers Band guitarist, singer, songwriter Dickey Betts was born December 12, 1943. The musician built a career within the blues and related African American roots-music traditions. That work helped preserve the sound and performance practices associated with the artist’s generation.
1928 – Cornelius Green III was born December 12, 1928, but you probably know him as Lonesome Sundown. He’s best known for his recordings for Excello Records in the 1950s and early 1960s. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
2010 – Southern blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter James Peterson died December 12, 2010, in Alabama. Raised around gospel and his father’s juke joint, Peterson developed a gritty style influenced by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, B.B. King, and Freddie King, and later operated the Governor’s Inn House of Blues in Buffalo. His recordings included “The Father, the Son, the Blues,” made with producer Willie Dixon and featuring his young son Lucky Peterson on keyboards.
December 13
1958 – Blues guitarist and singer Lurrie Bell was born December 13, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. His father was renowned blues harmonica player Carey Bell. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1931 – Blues guitarist Wayne Bennett was born December 13, 1931, in Sulphur, Oklahoma. He became one of the finest supporting guitarists in modern blues, most notably through his long association with Bobby “Blue” Bland and his ability to combine jazz sophistication with hard blues phrasing. Bennett’s tasteful fills, chord work, and solos helped shape the elegant sound heard on many of Bland’s classic performances.
2022 – British blues guitarist Kim Simmonds died December 13, 2022. He founded Savoy Brown in 1965 and spent decades carrying American blues vocabulary into the British blues-rock movement with a tough, expressive guitar style. Through constant touring and a long recording career, Simmonds kept Savoy Brown closely tied to its blues foundation.
December 14
1899 – Harmonica pioneer DeFord Bailey was born December 14, 1899, near Bellwood, Tennessee. He became the first Black star of Nashville radio station WSM and one of the earliest featured performers on the program that became the Grand Ole Opry, bringing country blues, train imitations, and folk harmonica traditions to a national audience. Bailey died July 2, 1982, after a career whose importance to both blues and country music was recognized more fully in later decades.
1899 – A grandson of slaves, Bailey was born on December 14, 1899, near the Bellwood community in Smith County, Tennessee. His mother died when he was about a year old and he was then taken in by his aunt Barbara Lou. He learned to play the harmonica at the age of three when he contracted polio; Bailey was confined to bed for a year and could only move his head and arms.
1924 – Blues and gospel singer Linda Hopkins was born December 14, 1924, in New Orleans as Melinda Helen Matthews. Inspired by Bessie Smith, she developed a powerful theatrical voice and built a career that moved between blues clubs, concert stages, Broadway, and touring productions. Hopkins died April 10, 2017, after decades of keeping classic blues singing connected to American musical theater.
December 15
1929 – Chicago blues singer, harmonica player and songwriter Golden “Big” Wheeler was born December 15, 1929. He released two albums in his lifetime and is best known for his recordings of the songs “Damn Good Mojo” and “Bone Orchard”. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
1936 – Chicago blues singer and songwriter Andrew “Big Voice” Odom was born December 15, 1936. He is best known for the close resemblance of his singing style to that of Bobby Bland and B.B. King.
1969 – Chicago blues guitarist, singer, and bandleader Nick Moss was born December 15, 1969, in Chicago. He learned the music from veteran players including Jimmy Dawkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Jimmy Rogers before establishing his own bands and recording career. Moss became known for muscular traditional Chicago blues, strong songwriting, and a commitment to the sound of the city’s postwar masters.
December 16
1925 – Blues, R&B and jazz pianist Billy Valentine was born December 16, 1925, in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1948 he replaced Charles Brown in Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, carrying the sophisticated West Coast piano-blues tradition into the group’s post-Brown years. The artist’s career helped preserve the piano-blues tradition for later listeners.
1949 – Blues harmonica virtuoso Sugar Blue was born December 16, 1949, in New York City. After working with Louisiana Red and other blues artists, he became internationally known for his piercing amplified harp, later recording for Alligator and winning a Grammy as part of the Blues Explosion project. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
1951 – Blues and jazz guitarist Robben Ford was born December 16, 1951, in Woodlake, California. His career has crossed electric blues, jazz and fusion, with important work alongside Jimmy Witherspoon and a long solo career built on a polished but deeply blues-rooted guitar vocabulary. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
December 17
1930 – On December 17, 1930, one of the classic female blues singers Lucille Bogan first records “Black Angel Blues” on Brunswick Records. It became a blues standard and has been recorded by numerous other artists as “Sweet Black Angel” or “Sweet Little Angel”. Bogan recorded it as a mid-tempo, twelve-bar blues, featuring her vocal with piano accompaniment.
1942 – Blues harp player and band leader Paul Butterfield was born December 17, 1942. This blues harp player had early training as a classical flautist, but later developed an interest in blues harmonica. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1932 – Texas blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter Joey Long was born December 17, 1932, in Zwolle, Louisiana, as Joseph Earl Longoria. He became a respected Gulf Coast musician whose sharp guitar work appeared with artists including Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and other Texas and Louisiana performers. Long spent much of his career around Houston, where his playing connected regional blues, R&B, and roots music traditions.
December 18
1914 – Blues guitarist and singer “Pee Wee” Crayton was born December 18, 1914. It is thought he was the first blues guitarist to use a Fender Stratocaster, playing one given to him by Leo Fender. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1933 – Lonnie Brooks was born December 18, 1933. Having forged a unique Louisiana/Chicago blues synthesis unlike anyone else’s on the competitive Windy City scene, charismatic guitarist Lonnie Brooks long reigned as one of the town’s top bluesmen. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1917 – a real original, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson born this day in 1917. This jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter was nicknamed Cleanhead after an incident in which his hair was accidentally destroyed by lye contained in a hair straightening product, necessitating shaving it off. He was enamored of the look, and Vinson maintained a shaved head thereafter.
1911 – Country blues harmonica player, singer, and comedian Peg Leg Sam was born December 18, 1911, in Jonesville, South Carolina, according to several modern music references. Born Arthur Jackson, he lost a leg after a hoboing accident in 1930 and later became a colorful medicine-show performer known for harmonica tricks, comic routines, and Piedmont blues. His music was finally recorded extensively in the 1970s, preserving a style rooted in the traveling shows and rural entertainment traditions of the early twentieth century.
December 19
1918 – New Orleans piano legend Henry Roeland Byrd, better known as Professor Longhair, was born December 19, 1918, in Bogalusa, Louisiana. His rolling piano figures, rhumba-inflected rhythms, and unmistakable vocals created a uniquely New Orleans approach heard in classics such as “Mardi Gras in New Orleans” and “Tipitina.” His influence reached generations of Crescent City pianists and helped make him one of the essential architects of New Orleans R&B and blues.
1989 – He died in Chicago on December 19, 1989, and was buried at Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens, in Willow Springs, Illinois. The musician left behind recordings and performances that document a life in the blues. That body of work continues to connect later listeners with the artist’s regional and stylistic tradition.
1929 – Texas blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson died December 19, 1929, in Chicago. His high voice, intricate guitar work, and commercially successful Paramount recordings made him one of the defining country-blues artists of the 1920s and a foundational figure in Texas blues. Songs such as “Match Box Blues” and “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” helped establish a recorded legacy that influenced generations of blues musicians.
December 20
1902 – The blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist, guitarist and singer Walter Roland was probably born on this day in 1902. The date remains uncertain because like so many of his time, record keeping was dodgy at best. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
1943 – New Orleans bluesman Walter “Wolfman” Washington was born December 20, 1943, and spent his life blending the soul of blues with the fire of funk and the smooth swing of R&B. His guitar tone, raw but refined, carried the unmistakable heartbeat of the Crescent City. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1937 – Blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter Lee Gates was born December 20, 1937, in Pontotoc, Mississippi. A cousin of Albert Collins, Gates spent most of his performing life in Milwaukee and eventually recorded three albums for the Music Maker label. He died April 15, 2020, after a career of nearly six decades rooted in electric blues.
1907 – New Orleans blues and jazz singer and pianist Pleasant Joseph, known professionally as Cousin Joe, was born December 20, 1907, in Wallace, Louisiana. He became a vivid storyteller and pianist whose career included work with Sidney Bechet, Mezz Mezzrow, and many leading New Orleans musicians. Cousin Joe died October 2, 1989, leaving recordings that capture the conversational humor and rhythmic swing of the city’s blues tradition.
December 21
1905 – The blues guitarist known as “Black Ace” was born on December 21, 1905. This was the most frequently used stage name of the Texas blues musician born Babe Kyro Lemon Turner. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1902 – He who called himself “The Devil’s Son In Law” Peetie Wheatstraw and was born on December 21, 1902 in or near Cotton Plant, Arkansas. His real name was William Bunch and there is only one known photograph of this influential figure among 1930s blues singers. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1934 – Texas country-blues and R&B harp player Harmonica Slim was born December 21, 1934. The real name of this harmonica player, singer and songwriter name was Travis Leonard Blaylock. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1927 – Chicago blues slide guitar master Joe Carter carved out a distinctive place in the city’s electric blues tradition with a style that fused Delta roots with the sophistication of a seasoned ensemble player. Born on December 21, 1927, in Mississippi, Carter grew up immersed in the sounds of country blues before joining the wave of musicians who carried that music north, eventually making his mark in Chicago. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
December 22
1919 – Chicago blues singer and songwriter Lil Green born December 22 in 1919. She was among the leading female rhythm and blues singers of the 1940s, with a sensual soprano voice. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1946 – Mississippi delta bluesman and mentor, Josh ‘Razorblade’ Stewart, was born December 22 in 1946. The musician built a career within the blues and related African American roots-music traditions. That work helped preserve the sound and performance practices associated with the artist’s generation.
1959 – Blues singer and guitarist Del Rey was born December 22, 1959. She developed a specialty in early blues, ragtime, and jazz, using intricate fingerpicking and syncopation to revive guitar styles associated with the first half of the twentieth century. Rey also created educational programs on women in American music, connecting performance with historical interpretation.
December 23
1976 – We lost the Delta blues singer Boyd Gilmore who died on this day in 1976. Among the songs he wrote were “All in My Dreams”, “Believe I’ll Settle Down”, “I Love My Little Woman” and “If That’s Your Girl”. Gilmore also recorded a version of fellow Delta bluesman Robert Johnson’s track, “Ramblin’ on My Mind”.
1976 – After his brief recording career, Gilmore performed in juke joints in the Delta, in St. Louis, Missouri, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he lived in a boarded-up abandoned house. During his time in Pine Bluff, Gilmore and Houston Stackhouse performed together, as they had previously, in the early 1950s; In the late 1960s, Gilmore settled in California and lived there until his death on December 23, 1976.
1908 – One of the modern connections to the early blues styles was Sonny Boy Nelson who was born on December 23, 1908. Nelson was a multi-instrumentalist, playing the banjo, guitar, harmonica, horn, mandolin and violin. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1892 – Blues, jazz, ragtime and boogie-woogie pianist Will Ezell was born December 23, 1892. He regularly contributed to recordings made by Paramount Records in the late 1920s and early 1930s and was a technically brilliant pianist, showing the strong influence of jazz as well as blues. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
December 24
1909 – Blues guitarist Leroy Dallas was born December 24, 1909. Amongst his more notable numbers were “Good Morning Blues” and “Jump Little Children, Jump”, both 1948. He performed with Brownie McGhee and with Frank Edwards and recorded eight tracks in his own name between 1948 and 1962.
1904 – Piedmont blues guitarist, singer and harmonica player Daniel Womack was born December 24, 1904 on a Pittsylvania County tobacco farm. The musician built a career within the blues and related African American roots-music traditions. That work helped preserve the sound and performance practices associated with the artist’s generation.
1918 – Dave Bartholomew, a true New Orleans legend who helped build the bridge from big-band swing to rock ’n’ roll. He was born Davis/David Louis Bartholomew on December 24, 1918. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
December 25
1946 – Chicago blues guitarist and singer L.V. Johnson was born December 25, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois, into the vibrant musical landscape of the Windy City. Growing up immersed in blues and soul, he developed a powerful, husky vocal style and became a respected guitarist rooted in Chicago blues and soul-blues traditions.
1905 – Blues singer and songwriter Joseph E. Pullum was born December 25, 1905. Pullum, an Alabama-born nightclub singer, was one of the more obscure blues stars.
1944 – Blues singer Eb Davis was born December 25 in Elaine, Arkansas, although published sources disagree on whether the year was 1944 or 1945. He grew up in the Arkansas Delta and later developed a career that carried Southern blues and soul traditions into clubs and festivals in Europe. Davis became especially associated with the Berlin blues scene, where his deep voice and traditional repertoire earned him a lasting following.
December 26
1922 – Blues innovator Tyler Dee “T.D.” Bell was born December 26, 1922 in Lee County, Texas. His musical roots ran deep. His grandfather was a journeyman musician.
1902 – Delta blues guitarist and harmonica player J.D. Short was born December 26, 1902. He had a distinctive vibrato-laden singing voice and early in his career recorded under a number of pseudonyms, including Jelly Jaw Short; His noteworthy works include “Lonesome Swamp Rattlesnake” and “You’re Tempting Me”.
1980 – Chicago blues guitarist Willie James Lyons died December 26, 1980, after spending most of his career on the city’s West Side. He worked with musicians including Luther Allison, Jimmy Dawkins, and Bobby Rush, while developing a style shaped by B.B. King, Freddie King, T-Bone Walker, and Lowell Fulson; Lyons recorded the solo album “Chicago Woman” in France in 1979, leaving a small but respected body of work.
December 27
1930 – Electric blues bass guitarist Bob Stroger was born December 27, 1930. He has worked with a who’s who list of blues musicians, including Eddie King, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Eddy Clearwater, Sunnyland Slim, Louisiana Red, Buster Benton, Homesick James, Mississippi Heat, Snooky Pryor, Odie Payne, Fred Below, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Billy Davenport. The artist’s work reflects the guitar-centered blues tradition of the period.
1927 – the “King of the Piedmont Blues” Is none other than Cootie Stark, He was born Johnny Miller on December 27, 1927, in Abbeville, South Carolina. His easy, finger-picking style and warm, talk-singing voice made him one of the last true masters of that Carolina blues sound. The career remains part of the broader history of American blues and roots music.
1996 – Electric blues multi-instrumentalist Johnny Heartsman died December 27, 1996, in Sacramento, California. He was a gifted guitarist, organist, pianist, flutist, singer, songwriter, and arranger whose work helped define the Bay Area blues sound. His best-known recording, “Johnny’s House Party,” became an R&B hit in 1957, and he remained musically active until late in his life.
December 28
1956 – Texas blues guitarist Buddy Whittington was born December 28, 1956, in Fort Worth, Texas. The musician built a career within the blues and related African American roots-music traditions. That work helped preserve the sound and performance practices associated with the artist’s generation.
1921 – Bandleader, drummer, producer, songwriter, and talent scout Johnny Otis was born December 28, 1921, in Vallejo, California, as Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes. He became one of the central figures in West Coast rhythm and blues, discovering or promoting artists including Etta James, Big Mama Thornton, and Little Esther Phillips while leading influential bands of his own. Otis died January 17, 2012, after a career that also included radio, writing, ministry, and civil-rights advocacy.
1893 – Country blues guitarist and singer Freddie Spruell was born December 28, 1893, according to Social Security records, and was probably born in Lake Providence, Louisiana. Often billed as Papa Freddie or Mr. Freddie, he recorded “Milk Cow Blues” in Chicago in 1926 and is frequently described as the first Delta-style blues musician to make commercial records; His small catalog for Okeh, Paramount, and Bluebird preserves an early link between Delta guitar traditions and the urban recording industry.
1929 – Matt “Guitar” Murphy was born December 28, 1929, in Mississippi. He became a celebrated blues guitarist through his work with Memphis Slim, James Cotton, Howlin’ Wolf, and many other major artists. Murphy later reached a wider audience with the Blues Brothers and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012.
December 29
1933 – Blues guitarist and singer Kennis Kidd was born December 29, 1933, in Decatur, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago during the 1950s and became part of the city’s working blues community, balancing music with other employment rather than building a large commercial recording career. Kidd is remembered as one of the many regional musicians whose club work helped sustain Chicago blues beyond the best-known stars.
1944 – Blues saxophonist, singer, songwriter Terry Hanck was born December 29, 1944 in Chicago and took up playing the saxophone shortly before his 21st birthday. In 1967, Hanck relocated to California ending up in San Francisco. There he started his own band, the Grayson Street Houserockers, and the line up briefly included the guitarist Luther Tucker.
1976 – Texas blues guitarist and singer Freddie King died December 29, 1976, at the age of 42. Born in Gilmer, Texas, and later based in Chicago, King developed a clean, aggressive guitar style that produced enduring instrumentals such as “Hide Away,” “San-Ho-Zay,” and “The Stumble.” His combination of Texas attack, Chicago electricity, and melodic phrasing made him one of the three celebrated Kings of blues guitar and a major influence on later blues and rock players.
December 30
1928 – Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bo Diddley was born December 30, 1928, in McComb, Mississippi, and grew up in Chicago. Drawing on blues, gospel, African-derived rhythms, and street performance, he created the instantly recognizable Bo Diddley beat and recorded a string of influential songs for Checker and Chess. His rhythmic guitar approach helped carry blues language into rock and roll and influenced generations of musicians on both sides of the Atlantic.
1918 – Here’s a little bit of a Mississippi Ghost Story. Don’t know much about him but I’ll tell you want I know. Blues singer and harmonica player Houston Boines was born on December 30, 1918 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi.
1952 – Delta blues guitarist Willie Brown died December 30, 1952, in Tunica, Mississippi. Brown performed and recorded with Charley Patton and Son House, and his playing belonged to the first generation of musicians who shaped the classic Delta blues sound. His surviving recordings are few, but his reputation among fellow musicians and his influence on later Delta artists were substantial.
December 31
1961 – Blues bassist Hank Van Sickle was born December 31, 1961, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He became known for his work on electric and upright bass, including a long association with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and extensive work in the Los Angeles blues community. Van Sickle built his reputation as a supportive, groove-centered player comfortable in traditional and modern blues settings.
1930 – Texas blues guitarist, singer, and drummer Goree Carter was born December 31, 1930, in Houston, Texas. Deeply influenced by T-Bone Walker, Carter recorded for Houston’s Freedom label and developed a forceful electric-guitar style heard on records such as “Rock Awhile.” His sharp single-string attack anticipated elements that soon became central to early rock and roll guitar. Those recordings remain an important part of the artist’s documented blues legacy.
1938 – Blues and Southern soul singer, guitarist, and songwriter Roy Lee Johnson was born December 31, 1938, in Georgia. He worked in the fertile Atlanta and Southern R&B scenes, wrote “Mr. Moonlight,” and later recorded blues-oriented material that highlighted his guitar playing and gospel-rooted voice; Johnson’s career connected blues, soul, and early rock and roll through both his own performances and songs recorded by other artists.