Blues Music

A Janis Joplin Musical Boosts the Pasadena Playhouse Box Office

One Night With Janis provides some nostalgic comfort food

One Night With Janis Joplin

Artist Hudson Marquez: 'Anybody Who Talks About Their Own Art Is, Like, Full of Shit'

"I can talk about the people in the paintings or the things in the paintings, but as far as talking about art, I think you just look at it," says L.A.-based artist Hudson Marquez, whose new series of paintings depicts people like Jayne Mansfield, Lee Harvey Oswald, Sophia Loren and Ray Charles and t ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Tomorrow Night: Mississippi Blues

KCRW Broadcast #185 for Saturday, October 13, 2012 See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! The Failings of Music Writers Fanatics! In Mississippi tonight. We thought it would be a good idea to lay some Blues on you. Blues music comes all kinds of ways and is there to be taken any way you want. If y ... More >>

Top 5 Blues Rock Bands That Don't Totally Suck

The 20 Worst Hipster Bands Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre Top 20 Sexiest Female Musicians of All Time Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time One common theme recurred again and again about our 20 Worst Hipster Bands list: People are amazed that we don't like the B ... More >>

Phil Upchurch Introduced Muddy Waters to the Hippies

If he had to pick a number, guitarist Phil Upchurch estimates he has played on over 2000 recordings. Based on the frequency with which his name arises, he's probably right. Asking him to recall some of those dates can be like asking a fisherman about a particular fish he caught 40 years ago. "I'll ... More >>

Deathmatch: Which Is Better, Pub Rock or Garage Rock?

[Editor's note: Deathmatch pairs two artists who have something in common, and determines who is better. It's a concept we sort-of ripped off from MTV, except that instead of claymation it's the printed word!] Every couple of years, garage rock rears its head again, whack-a-mole-style. Garage per s ... More >>

Etta James Is Dead

See also: R&B Legend Etta James Has Dementia, Reveals Sordid Riverside County Money Lawsuit Etta James passed away today at the age of 73 at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside. James, born Jamesetta Hawkins, suffered a number of health problems at the time of her death, including leukemia an ... More >>

L.A. Woman: Track List

L.A. Woman Was the Doors' Bluesy Masterpiece, and Jim Morrison's Kiss-Off to L.A.

Johnny Otis Is Dead: R&B Godfather Was 90

By Kirk Silsbee Rhythm and blues giant Johnny Otis passed away on Tuesday in Altadena. He was 90. At times a bandleader, talent scout, club owner, and broadcaster, among other titles, his caravan tours in the 1950s helped popularize R&B throughout the country. His influence on the genre is incalcul ... More >>

Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre: #10-6

See also: *Top 20 Musicians of All Time, In Any Genre: #20-16 *Top 20 Musicians of All Time, In Any Genre: #15-11 *Top 20 Musicians of All Time, In Any Genre: #5-1 10. Guido D'Arezzo Simply put, the writings of Guido D'Arezzo (above) laid the foundations for Western music. This medieval theorist ... More >>

Warren Hayes

Feel Like Going Home

RIP Cornell Dupree

Cornell Dupree​Famed jazz and R&B guitarist Cornell Dupree passed away Sunday, May 8, in his hometown of Fort Worth, TX. He was 69 years old. At 19, the blues musician joined King Curtis and the Kingpins, playing alongside a young Jimi Hendrix. In the 1960s, he became one of Atlantic Records ... More >>

An Evening with Henry Butler

Music to Pick Up/Download

Most Legendary Blues Recordings Ever Get the Super Deluxe Treatment

​Variety announces that the Robert Johnson recordings from 1936-1937, without a doubt the most legendary set of blues recordings ever, will be re-released in a super-deluxe "Centennial Edition." These are hallowed recordings that have changed the lives of Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Bob Dyl ... More >>

Sweet Mama String Bean: A Celebration of Blues Woman Ethel Waters

A Whole Messa Bessie

MONDAY BECOMES ELEKTRA

Swingin' With Ray

Love That Dirty Water

Movie Reviews: Exit Through the Gift Shop, Handsome Harry

Also, Letters to God, The Joneses, Who Do You Love and more

Redemption Songs: Mose Allison Live @ Largo at the Coronet (1/17)

Mose Allison has always been a misfit. Not a misfit in the sense of a James Dean or even a Chet Baker (I mean, if Bruce Weber does a documentary on your meaningful junkie wrinkles, you've found some kind of "fit"), but a true unclassifiable. After all, the blues are rumored to be something the devil ... More >>

SONGSTRESS-MUSICIAN SUNNY WAR

She's going to blow your mind

Meet Sunny War: A Country Blues Singer Who Transcends Time

Sunny War In this week's print edition, LA Weekly presents an introduction to singer and guitarist Sunny War, who maybe you've seen busking at Venice Beach or at the Sunday morning Hollywood Farmer's Market. War, who draws on country blues and folk music to create her uniquely American sound, is yo ... More >>

The Dead Weather at the Roxy: Jack White and Alison Mossheart vs. The Cream of the Blues-Rock Canon

The Dead Weather, the new supergroup featuring Jack White of the White Stripes/Raconteurs, Alison Mossheart of the Kills, Dean Furtita of Queens of the Stoneage, and Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs and Greenhornes, arrived at the Roxy last night to make the case whether a blues rock band in the 21st ... More >>

Rock Picks: Mark Eitzel, Wanda Jackson, Dan Deacon, Heartless Bastards

Plus, Hecuba, James Pants, Angus & Julia Stone and others

Chalk It Up

Chalk One Up

Sevens the Key Number Here. Think About It. Seven Doors. Seven-Eleven. Seven Little Chipmunks Twirling on a Ranch, Eatin' Lots of Sunflowers on my Uncle's Ranch. Seven. (Pt. 1)

I really don't do the Meme thing, but seeing as though it's the illustrious Alfred Soto doing the asking, how can I possibly I say no? Per the Lord. “List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be so ... More >>

Bo Knows Death

Like many people my age, I learned about Bo Diddley not from any unremembered nostalgia for British Invasion swipes of the ancient bluesman's slippery guitar technique, but from the myth-making "Bo Knows" Nike commercials of the late 80s. See the above YouTube clip and marinate on the '88 cameos f ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Beautiful Scenes

Jazz bakery cooks, Back Room closes

Rock Picks: Lucy Lawless, The Dagons, Big Daddy Kane and more

For the week of Jan. 25-31

The Beat That Kills

The Revelators

Martin Scorsese’s blue Christmas

How To Play a Mountain

Mojo Man

Muddy Waters was a rollin' stone

High Water Blues

The life and times of Charley Patton

Shake ’Em On Down

Peppermint Twist

The White Stripes’ blues in the red zone

Cantos del Corazón

Home, the world and Huayucaltia

Give the Drummer Some

Earl Palmer, rock & roll's heavy hitter

Hot Dates

A guide to summer fetes and flights of fancy

Big Boss Man

Charles Brown, 1922–1999

Minstrels at the Crossroads

To live and love the blues

Honk if You're Hungry

Pair o’ Dice and the Blues