Living Blues #284 (May/June 2023) features bluesman Albert White, who is among the last of the great Atlanta blues artists. His 60-plus-year career, which he kicked off as a member of one of the city’s most popular 1960s blues bands, Dr. Feelgood and the Interns, has made White a local legend. Robbin Kapsalis and Vintage …
Living Blues #282 features Chicago bluesman Jimi “Primetime” Smith. His first gig at age 13 was backing his mother, Chicago drummer Johnnie Mae Dunson’s, friend Jimmy Reed at the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival. Smith’s journey in the blues has certainly been atypical. Now, at age 63, he has absorbed all of the …
Living Blues #281 features the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas. It has been 26 years since Thomas has graced the cover of Living Blues. We sat down with her earlier this year and talked about her career, Katrina, and life at age 81. Chicago drummer Merle Perkins has played behind everyone from Freddie …
Living Blues #280 features the Mississippi Blues Child, Mr. Sipp. In 2013 Mr. Sipp seemed to come out of nowhere and reached the IBC finals in Memphis. But Castro Coleman was already a well-established name in the gospel scene in Mississippi; he was just rebranding himself as a blues artist. Over the past decade he …
Six with UM ties among 2022 award winners The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters honored several University of Mississippi alumni and faculty members as part of its annual awards to accomplished individuals in various creative fields. UM alumni and faculty receiving 2022 awards from the MIAL are William Dunlap and Kenneth Holditch, recipients of the …
Living Blues #278 features bluesman Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne on the cover. Wayne is one of the few remaining piano-playing frontmen in the blues. He talked with Living Blues earlier this year about his journey on the keyboard into, out of, and back to the blues. Iowa may not be known as a hotbed of …
Living Blues #277 features bluesman Zac Harmon on the cover. Harmon’s life has had many seasons: from his early years in Jackson, Mississippi, to his middle years as a session guitarist in California and New York, to the present days living in Texas as one of the top blues artists on the scene today. Memphis-born …
Living Blues #276 features vocalist Sugaray Rayford on the cover. Texas-born former Marine Rayford stands 6’5” and has a commanding stage presence. His career has been ascending for the last 20 years and, with a new CD about to drop, he is ready to hit the ground running post-COVID. Eighty-two-year-old Alabama Slim has been part …
Living Blues #275 features Toronzo Cannon on the cover. After 20 years of grinding, South Side bluesman Toronzo Cannon has honed his stage act and is now one of the top proponents of modern Chicago blues. Alex Dixon was raised by his grandparents—his grandfather just happened to be the legendary Willie Dixon. The young Dixon …
Living Blues #274 (September/October 2021) is an Old School Southern Soul special. Mississippi bluesman Sam Mosley has spent his life making music. Now 75, Mosley looks back on his long career, which includes multiple bands with his partner, Bob Johnson, and their decades of successful songwriting for Malaco Records. Billy Ray Charles has been singing …