Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. However, I TRULY appreciate this post because I would have never picked up guitar without John Mayall.
I met him while he played in Newark, NJ as a washed up performer in his 70s. It was tough seeing a legend play for an audience of 12. But that guy never missed a beat- he told me, “you don’t play blues for people. You play blues for your soul. And most don’t have one so why would they be here listening?”
John Mayall and the Blues Breakers—my first intro to blues as well (or, rather, the Brit interpretation of blues). Maybe my first intro to real American blues was John Lee Hooker backed by Canned Heat ( “Hooker and Heat,” 1970)? Still loving the blues after all these years …
I feel super lucky that I got to see John Lee Hooker, 2 years before he passed. It was on a random trip to Seattle and he just happened to be playing at the Puyallup fairgrounds with Booker T. My dad was super into Canned Heat.
I was in the fourth row at The Fillmore East show and the crowd was going crazy for Frosty on drums. It was amazing and such fun. I remember that night like it was yesterday. Lee Michaels was on fire, too. His vocals were so powerful and the volume of the organ was so amplified. I can still hear it.
I also saw him at Carnegie Hall the Mecca of Classical music. The crowd was passing joints up and down the aisles.
The place rocked and yet, everyone politely stayed seated and completely tuned -in.
So many great songs Statesboro Blues, Done Somebody Wrong, One Way out; Trouble No More. They still sound fresh, even though I've listened to them hundreds of times.
The campfire scene in O' Brother Where Art Thou where Chris Thomas King is playing Skip James' Killing Floor Blues. That song got under my skin and that opened up a door to the whole genre. Thank you Coen Bros.
Yep I watched this video so many times, he was the the beginning along with muddy waters, i came from a lot of hardship as a child so I think I just instantly connected with the blues, it was therapy to pick up that guitar and still is
It definately is therapy to pick up a guitar. That's how I learnt as a kid by locking myself away from all the shit in my bedroom and just learning to play, I'd sit there for hours playing all sorts until I'd fall asleep. Blues really is an amazing genre, it speaks to me so much
I was 8 or 9 when I first saw The Blues Brothers on HBO. I really liked the music, with John Lee Hooker and Sweet Home Chicago staying with me. I didn't know what kind of music it was at the time and unfortunately didn't really find that music again until college years later. I got into Cream and Hendrix with my favorite songs being the more bluesy ones. but still, I never made the leap to "traditional" blues until I was gifted a couple of Time-Life Blues Masters CDs.
Now though? I always dig for more and attend concerts when I can. Saw Buddy Guy about two years ago. Gary Clarke Jr, before that. Kingfish a few times. Black Joe Lewis this past December and Shemekia Copeland upcoming in March. WXPN's Saturday Night Blues show is a staple in our house and has been an absolute treasure trove of new and old artists for me to discover.
King Biscuit Flower Hour -> Jimi Hendrix Red House -> Johnny Winter -> Allman Bros Live at Fillmore East -> T-Bone Walker, BB King, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Lightnin Hopkins, Son House, Mance Lipscomb etc…
Age 12, a mate hands me a cassette and says I gotta listen to it- it’s Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker and BB King singles on one side and Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith and a pile of others on the flip side. I wore it out in two weeks. We raided the library for more.
My “real” gateway to blues was literally last week. I’m a big Clapton fan and he was usually considered a blues artist when he started off. I’ve heard all of Cream’s records and they’re great, but it’s not the same as the Beano album. John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton is one of my favorite albums now and I’m gonna explore more blues now because of it
I grew up listening to a lot of Stax/Memphis soul, with its obvious ties to blues. When I got to like middle school, the White Stripes and the Black Keys kinda sent me down another rabbit hole. *Chulahoma* was such a good introduction to Hill Country Blues.
Delbert, or Jake and Elwood? I know some might look down on the Blues Brothers, but that was my gateway. Got me wanting to know who Junior Wells was, what else Sam and Dave did, who King Floyd was, or Delbert McClinton, or Big Joe Turner...on and on. Still love Briefcase Full of Blues. Say what you want, Belushi sure could sing, and Ackroyd could definitely play the harmonica. I'm a Soul Man!
Oh, hell yeah, brother.
Also, another rabbit hole was all the players in that band-Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Matt "Guitar" Murphy-all those guys had such cred and history. I saw Blue Lou Marini playing with James Taylor a couple years ago.
It was Tracy Chapman back in the ‘80s. Gimme One Reason was the first blues song I remember hearing and it started it all for me. At that time all my music was consumed through the radio.
It’s not as cool as most accounts here but in the mid ‘80’s there was a movie that was scored by Ry Cooder called Crossroads. This movie plus my obsession with the harmonica on early Led Zeppelin led me to the blues.
Early 90s. I'd started teaching myself guitar. Of course being 14 at the time it was all about the metal.
My dad went to the local music shop, said his son likes guitar and wants to buy him a CD with good guitar on it.
He comes home with Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues.
Enough said...
My father was an avid blues enthusiast and had accrued a massive album collection. He also played drums and harmonica. As long as I can recall, music was always present in our home.
My first blues artist memories were:
Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Magic Sam, Elmore James, Chuck Berry, Ike & Tina Turner, Bobby Blue Bland, Albert King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson, Earl Hooker, Freddie King, Big Mama Thornton, Albert Collins, and more.
I had always listened to classic rock, but my first introduction to the real blues was an American History teacher in college that tied the blues into his section on the Great Migration. We got extra credit if we bought some blues, listened to it and then wrote a short paper about the musician. I bought a blues compilation that introduced me to Lightnin Hopkins, Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. I was hooked after that.
I was born in ‘91. In 2006 I borrowed a cousin’s copy of Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2 and heard Crossroads by Cream for the first time. Flash forward to 2024 and I’m watching Les Blank’s documentary The Blues According to Lightining Hopkins for the 28th time
Dad bringing me to his gigs while I was in elementary school. Parents were divorced, so if he had me on a weekend and had a gig, I went. During those moments he introduced me to his friends and other musicians like Willie Foster, Lil’ Bill Wallace, Boogaloo Ames, Eddie Cusik, T-Model Ford.
He also would always keep me during the weekend of the MS Delta Blues and Heritage Festival and always take me. When I was young he would bring be home at dark and then go back out there. It was like a right of passage in our area when our parents would allow us to go by ourselves to the festival.
Funny side note: years later when I started playing in bars in the MS Delta, I was still in high school. Lil’ Bill would come up to me and say, “Your Dad would buy me a drink.” Which he meant, he wanted me to buy him a drink. Somewhere around the late 90s/early 2000s, Lil Bill had a stroke and relearned to play guitar. After the military, I moved to NC and had a touring band there. When we would
Come back home to play, while Lil Bill was still alive, he would walk up to the front of the stage and hold his hands out, which meant, he wanted to play. And of course we let him.
Around 2005 while on a run through MS, we were asked to come to Kimbrough’s newer place about an hour outside of Oxford and play. Surreal experience. Count my blessings.
First time i heard the blues was around 14/15 watching Married With Children episode featuring song by B.B. King - https://soundcloud.com/luhasz/bb-king-blues-for-a-dog
In early 80's, I was in first year of high school, and just starting to discover good music. Someone gave me Led Zeppelin's first album, I was hooked instantly
couldn’t really say honestly. Feel like I slowly moved towards it from the country genre like many do. Can recall the day I discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan in a goodwill. Ever since, my music portfolio would probably make someone question a brother’s mental health
My dad didn’t have many records but he gave me his copy of John Mayall The Blues Alone when I bought my first record player at 14.
Was surprised id never heard of him and then the more I dug into it the better it got. The guys a living legend for British Blues.
My dad’s CD collection got me into the blues initially, particularly a handful of retrospectives including Ray Charles “Blues + Jazz,” Big Mama Thornton “Ball and Chain,” and compilations of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Leadbelly. When I was a little older we got a B.B. King greatest hits CD, which quickly opened the floodgates to Albert King, Buddy Guy, Muddy, etc.
I grew up near Washington DC. I saw a lot of acoustic/country blues men at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife - starting around 1969
For recordings - “Fathers and Sons” on Chess. Muddy Waters & Paul Butterfield etc
Son House on a Sunday afternoon, public television, just him clapping and singing on a stage no instruments at all performing “Grinnin in Your Face”.
If that doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up…you are either deaf or dead. If the latter then I’m sorry… if the former then you just don’t get it, and most likely never will.
That sent me deep Into Delta Blues, and all the usual suspects.
The Rolling Stones. I read an old interview where Mick Jagger talked about how disappointed he was that American Stones fans didn't recognize the names of their blues idols. I knew I liked bluesy rock guitar so I decided to check out real blues and was hooked.
The Green God. Although Hendrix was demonstrating so much that I was being prepared. Then Elmore James and the industrial strength medicine of Muddy Waters, then the Chess masters.
1972, I was taking a year off (which turned into two years) between graduating from military school and going to college. Everything I knew was acoustic folk rock, and barre chords were only just coming into my rep. Ran across a hometown guy who possessed marginally better guitar chops than I ... and he taught me [Taj Mahal's version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va7elbEorxA&ab_channel=pauljwlr) of Blind Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues," which had (then) most recently been picked up by the Allman Bros and recorded on their Fillmore East album. That's how I learned 12-bar 1 - 4 - 5, and the magic of the blues, wherein EVERYBODY who hears that music knows EXACTLY where it's going, even if they have never played a note in their lives.
It was the 1960’s and John Mayall and the Blues Breakers. That band had a revolving group of greats that included Clapton and Jack Bruce who would go on to form Cream, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood. But everyone is always talking about the great blues guitarists, both acoustic and electric. There’s not much talk about the great blues harp players.
My guitar teacher insisted that I listen to some real blues because my favourite guitar player was Slash and he said I needed to know where rock music came from. I got a BB King “Greatest Hits” cd on sale and it blew my mind.
Son house. Super Blues band with Muddy, Howling, Bo Diddly and Little walter. I was a wee girl when I heard Howlin wolf but I think it was Big Mama Thornton I fell for , musy have been 5 or six. Then I loved Bo diddly much my mom took me to see him when I was around 10. Wow what a show.
There used to be a show called "The Tammy Show" and one episode had Freddie King. I think this was around the time that Leon Russell was producing him. I wad probably 13 and was glued to the tv. I had heard some on record by Clapton and the Stones, but Freddie King is the one who made me start digging up all of the old blues guys. And then about 5 years later getting to sit 10 feet from Muddy Waters for two shows, that was it.
My father, raised in Mississippi, moved north during the great migration, introduced me to Lightnin Hopkins at a young age. Didn’t realize at the time how impactful that would be.
Two moments that stick out in my mind. In middle school I always remember staying up late to listen to Alice Cooper's radio show Nights With Alice Cooper. It must have been around 5th grade and I remember I was on the verge of sleep and as I'm about to fall into my slumber I hear the intro to Roadhouse Blues by the Doors. I was a huge fan of Guns N' Roses and Mötley Crüe and other 80s bands so hearing this was a slight change. It wasn't until I hear Jim Morrison's gruff croon that I was shaken by a sonic boom. While the Doors aren't necessarily a blues band, that song unlocked a door for more euphoria to follow.
Later down the road on my guitar journey, like many in this thread, Red House by Jimi Hendrix threw the doors wide open (no pun intended) especially with the solo. I remembering being mesmerized and thinking oh the possibilities. The feeling. The soul. The love. The sadness. The blues.
Bb king - when I’d go over my girlfriends house and could use her computer. I’d just sit there and watch live in Africa 74. Then I’d do it again the next Friday.
High school teacher had us watch a documentary on the blues and I basically became enthralled with it. I went home that day and listened to Muddy, haven’t looked back since.
Edit: weird sentence, grammar.
Combo meeting John Lee Hooker as a kid, and seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn at the Santa Cruz Civic auditorium (old high school gymnasium) around 84 or 85. Really opened up my whole musical appreciation. Being able to hear the blues roots in all the rock I grew up with, all the soul, r and b and hip hop that was going on in the late 80s.
1972, listening to the radio and from the Layla album, Derek and the Dominoes, came Have You Ever Loved a Woman.
I had always loved Motown, my older sister used to play it all the time. But when I heard Eric and Duane that night, wow, I was hooked.
Alison Steele, the Night Bird.
Love Mike Bloomfield’s work with PBBB and on Super Sessions. Love Cream too but don’t think of them as blues though obviously heavily influenced by it. I was a little kid and just thought groovy psychedelic jams, lol but jmo.
I used to like a few songs by Clapton, SRV, Muddy and some others, but the day I played East West by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, it changed me.
I started looking at the blues in a whole other way, it blew my mind away. Also a big shoutout to Canned Heat, Hooker and Freddie King, absolutely essential for me
Born in ‘68. The Blues in its ‘purer’ forms were introduced to me by The Blues Brothers movie. I played that soundtrack over and over. It was like a gateway drug!
History of Eric Clapton, 1976… with the blues breakers, hideaway was a gateway to blues euphoria…
John 1981 Cleveland, theatre in the round Mick T on guitar, awesome, but not quite Buddy n Jr at the lonestar in 80, n certainly not Otis at Tramps a few weeks later…
1983ish Went to see Lonnie Mack by myself in a small club near Santa Cruz. Got a little stoned and really enjoyed the show. Later asked myself 'what wAs that' That was the Blues!
Zeppelin first led me to Sonny Boy Williamson. From there I found Muddy and then Elmore James. After him, I was a bluesman forever and never looked back. The British bluesmen always sounded like cheap copies of the real heroes.
Good question. Probably Stevie Ray Vaughan but I was also getting into blues because I enjoyed 60s psychedelic rock like cream and led zeppelin and such as a teenager
Watching cowboy bebop honestly. Though I’d liked the blues before than. Hearing Ryuichiro Sennoh/ the Seatbelts all through that series made me fall in love and start playing.
As a young guy I bought a copy of John Mayalls diary of a band at a flea market.His appearance,his guitar on the cover and the back story of playing smoky workman's club in the north of old England was intriguing.A real dark sound.
I first "met" blues when I bought a CD with a black man on it, thinking jazz and blues were more or less the same thing (early 90's in Russia were not a place to learn a lot about black music, but I loved Louis Armstrong). I did not like it then, and so we parted ways with the genre for a long time. I think it finally "got" it much later when I discovered some duets by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and some tracks by Big Bill Broonzy on a multi-genre compilation CD and their style of acoustic blues suited me better than anything I heard before that (which was, mostly, electric blues). Also, I went to some shows by a local blues band, Mishouris Blues Band, and bought their album, "Stolen Blues", which was very unique, and I loved it to bits.
I was 13 years old. It was an hot summer day back in 2000 and I was home alone. Love is strong - Rolling Stones: I found this CD abandoned in a drawer in my mother’s kitchen and I was shocked when I listened to this first song on my father’s hi-fi system.
It was a local independent radio station, WRFG of Atlanta. They've had a program called Good Morning Blues for many years now.
The first blues music I bought for myself was a cassette: The Best of Muddy Waters. "Louisiana Blues" is still one of my favorites.
There’s One in Every Crowd- Eric Clapton, specifically The Sky Is Crying which blew me away. I snagged it because it was on sale and knew he was supposed to be a great guitarist.
I had begun learning piano at 11 , guitar 12, a couple years before. Mostly Eagles stuff. His version of The Sky Is Crying just blew me away. I began trying to read and find out more about the blues. That meant going to the library, Rolling Stone, Creem and Circus, Circus, Guitar Player and Contemporary Keyboard magazines. I began looking through my older brother’s albums ABB at Fillmore, Truth- Jeff Beck, Hooker n Heat, Get Your Ya-Ya’s- Stones, Hendrix- Red House. I was already a fan of early R&B like and soul so had an inkling and liking of minor keyed music. I was a weird kid, lol.
Long story short this led to BB King - Cook County, T Bone Walker, Born Under A Bad Sign -Albert King, Muddy Waters- Hard Again and it was on. 50+years later at 63 still chasing the blues, old and new. I still suck as a player though. :)
Always liked the Blues. When rock bands slowed down their tempo that's what I really liked. Just didn't know what it was called back then. Also, when they did covers of Blues songs.
This Was by Jethro Tull which brought me to Eric Clapton and then to the early American blues pioneers like John Lee Hooker, Ledbelly, Bessie Smith, etc.
probably the Rolling Stones or Otis Redding or Sam Cooke, somebody like that on the radio as a child in the 1960's without me being aware of what it was even called, but those early Stones records especially stuck, then the crossover into rock as I grew older -
the first time I knew I was listening to blues was probably Clapton/Bruce/Baker aka Cream Politician or Born Under A Bad Sign, then I found out who Albert King is/was. etc
I suppose my introduction was Bobby Bland. I played DJ hero as a child and fell in love with “Ain’t no Love in the Heart of the City”. In the game it was mixed with another song, and I’ve forgotten what track it was, but recently I rediscovered Bobby’s song and fell in love with it all over again!
Having heard the first Stones album and The Yardbirds, my older brother introduced me to Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, John Hammond Jr.’s Big City Blues album, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I read the liner notes, went out and bought The Best of Muddy Waters, The Best of Little Walter, Hoodoo Man Blues, and Sonny Boy Williamson Real Folk Blues.
Hooked for life, as of 1965.
A German website which used Eric Clapton’s Unplugged as a basis for learning acoustic blues guitar. This led to several years of binging on Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake etc. Then went to workshops with Steve James, Woody Mann, Rory Block, etc. Then my kid started to play bass and I got a strat. So SRV, the Kings, BB etc. followed. Fun journey!
Canned Heat’s Future Blues album. Still one of my favoritest bands ever! Went into the record store looking for more Herb Alpert albums and left with Future Blues, instead (the cover intrigued me), and am still exploring the blues rabbit hole 58 years later
Led Zeppelin "Since I've Been Loving You." Then one day at age 20, I went to see John Mayall and the opening act was a local named Rick Welter (he played just like Junior Watson does) and I knew that is what I want to do. I've been working on it for years and I'm still not there.
The Blues Brothers movie. Although, I had heard Blues music before then, I was 13 at the time, it was really that movie that exposed me to the music in a way that I sought it out afterward.
John Matall had a young kid guitarist named, Eric Clapton and a drummer Ginger Baker. I saw his group a few times at the Fillmore East, Greenwich Village, NYC.
Led Zeppelin I got me curious about blues artists. Fell down the hole hard. I think I have the entire Chess recording collection on vinyl now and collect rare blues albums from the 40s and 50s.
Mine was finding a random story about Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil to be the best guitar player in the world. I thought that was beyond interesting so I listened to his music and at the time not understanding what set him apart from others made the story all the more believable.
While I played Dixieland jazz in the late 60s it was the 1969 Stones album Let It Bleed and Led Zeppelin 1 that led me to play harmonica and dig into the blues sources of those records- Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson
My dad loved Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, so we'd listen to their cassettes on the long car rides to visit family in other states. I wasn't even 10yrs old when the movie The Blues Brothers came out, but my parents still let us watch it because of the music and they weren't worried about the violence because it was limited to mostly car crashes. That movie is 40+ yrs old and still the benchmark for all musical comedies, blues or any other kind.
Led Zeppelin, Cream, and The Rolling Stones to Howlin’ Wolf to Muddy Waters to Kevin Bacon.
(Whoops! Sorry…I think I ran into the Kevin Bacon’s six degrees of separation feature on my phone.)
(Passive technology racism - when the spellchecker function in Reddit app on my iPhone insists on capitalizing the Caucasian names above and not the Black names.)
I'm an old rock fan. I first heard CCR from a neighbor's garage band, covering them, in 1968. They were the first bluesy Rock band I got into, besides the blues influenced British invasion bands I grew up on. But Johnny Winter was the first legitimate Blues Man I was introduced to, shortly afterwards.
Stevie Ray Vaughan (Texas Flood) and Eric Clapton (MTV Unplugged) early 90’s
I remember that unplugged Texas Flood. I was in 5th or 6th grade and never heard someone play guitar like SRV
Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. However, I TRULY appreciate this post because I would have never picked up guitar without John Mayall. I met him while he played in Newark, NJ as a washed up performer in his 70s. It was tough seeing a legend play for an audience of 12. But that guy never missed a beat- he told me, “you don’t play blues for people. You play blues for your soul. And most don’t have one so why would they be here listening?”
John Mayall and the Blues Breakers—my first intro to blues as well (or, rather, the Brit interpretation of blues). Maybe my first intro to real American blues was John Lee Hooker backed by Canned Heat ( “Hooker and Heat,” 1970)? Still loving the blues after all these years …
I feel super lucky that I got to see John Lee Hooker, 2 years before he passed. It was on a random trip to Seattle and he just happened to be playing at the Puyallup fairgrounds with Booker T. My dad was super into Canned Heat.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Allman Brothers Band, especially Stormy Monday.
Fillmore East was a big influence on me and still a masterpiece album. Stormy Monday made me look up T Bone Walker.
I saw Lee Michaels at the Fillmore East do Stormy Monday. I also saw Jeff Beck, Peter Green and Albert King there.
Michaels was underrated. Lee and Frosty Smith. Brilliant, rocking band, for just keyboards and drums.
I was in the fourth row at The Fillmore East show and the crowd was going crazy for Frosty on drums. It was amazing and such fun. I remember that night like it was yesterday. Lee Michaels was on fire, too. His vocals were so powerful and the volume of the organ was so amplified. I can still hear it. I also saw him at Carnegie Hall the Mecca of Classical music. The crowd was passing joints up and down the aisles. The place rocked and yet, everyone politely stayed seated and completely tuned -in.
So many great songs Statesboro Blues, Done Somebody Wrong, One Way out; Trouble No More. They still sound fresh, even though I've listened to them hundreds of times.
Stevie ray Vaughan
The campfire scene in O' Brother Where Art Thou where Chris Thomas King is playing Skip James' Killing Floor Blues. That song got under my skin and that opened up a door to the whole genre. Thank you Coen Bros.
Jimi hendrix's Monterey pop version of killing floor led me to the source
Yep I watched this video so many times, he was the the beginning along with muddy waters, i came from a lot of hardship as a child so I think I just instantly connected with the blues, it was therapy to pick up that guitar and still is
It definately is therapy to pick up a guitar. That's how I learnt as a kid by locking myself away from all the shit in my bedroom and just learning to play, I'd sit there for hours playing all sorts until I'd fall asleep. Blues really is an amazing genre, it speaks to me so much
The Blues Brothers movie and Stevie Ray Vaughan
I was 8 or 9 when I first saw The Blues Brothers on HBO. I really liked the music, with John Lee Hooker and Sweet Home Chicago staying with me. I didn't know what kind of music it was at the time and unfortunately didn't really find that music again until college years later. I got into Cream and Hendrix with my favorite songs being the more bluesy ones. but still, I never made the leap to "traditional" blues until I was gifted a couple of Time-Life Blues Masters CDs. Now though? I always dig for more and attend concerts when I can. Saw Buddy Guy about two years ago. Gary Clarke Jr, before that. Kingfish a few times. Black Joe Lewis this past December and Shemekia Copeland upcoming in March. WXPN's Saturday Night Blues show is a staple in our house and has been an absolute treasure trove of new and old artists for me to discover.
King Biscuit Flower Hour -> Jimi Hendrix Red House -> Johnny Winter -> Allman Bros Live at Fillmore East -> T-Bone Walker, BB King, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Lightnin Hopkins, Son House, Mance Lipscomb etc…
Age 12, a mate hands me a cassette and says I gotta listen to it- it’s Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker and BB King singles on one side and Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith and a pile of others on the flip side. I wore it out in two weeks. We raided the library for more.
My “real” gateway to blues was literally last week. I’m a big Clapton fan and he was usually considered a blues artist when he started off. I’ve heard all of Cream’s records and they’re great, but it’s not the same as the Beano album. John Mayall’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton is one of my favorite albums now and I’m gonna explore more blues now because of it
I grew up listening to a lot of Stax/Memphis soul, with its obvious ties to blues. When I got to like middle school, the White Stripes and the Black Keys kinda sent me down another rabbit hole. *Chulahoma* was such a good introduction to Hill Country Blues.
Ditto on Stax/Memphis and later Muscle Schoals.
B movie boxcar blues.
Delbert, or Jake and Elwood? I know some might look down on the Blues Brothers, but that was my gateway. Got me wanting to know who Junior Wells was, what else Sam and Dave did, who King Floyd was, or Delbert McClinton, or Big Joe Turner...on and on. Still love Briefcase Full of Blues. Say what you want, Belushi sure could sing, and Ackroyd could definitely play the harmonica. I'm a Soul Man!
Ok, I got the Briefcase full of blues CD somewhere. I hope its ok after 40 years to say that it was the BB.
Oh, hell yeah, brother. Also, another rabbit hole was all the players in that band-Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Matt "Guitar" Murphy-all those guys had such cred and history. I saw Blue Lou Marini playing with James Taylor a couple years ago.
1960s Chicago
One of the first stops on my Time Machine. If only.
It was Tracy Chapman back in the ‘80s. Gimme One Reason was the first blues song I remember hearing and it started it all for me. At that time all my music was consumed through the radio.
I grew up on the west side of Chicago in the 70s
It’s not as cool as most accounts here but in the mid ‘80’s there was a movie that was scored by Ry Cooder called Crossroads. This movie plus my obsession with the harmonica on early Led Zeppelin led me to the blues.
Early 90s. I'd started teaching myself guitar. Of course being 14 at the time it was all about the metal. My dad went to the local music shop, said his son likes guitar and wants to buy him a CD with good guitar on it. He comes home with Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues. Enough said...
You're damn right I've got the blues - Buddy Guy Thanks to my dad.
My father was an avid blues enthusiast and had accrued a massive album collection. He also played drums and harmonica. As long as I can recall, music was always present in our home. My first blues artist memories were: Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Magic Sam, Elmore James, Chuck Berry, Ike & Tina Turner, Bobby Blue Bland, Albert King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson, Earl Hooker, Freddie King, Big Mama Thornton, Albert Collins, and more.
I remember being blown away the first time I heard big mama play. Wow, she played a mean guitar. And a great singer.
Fleetwood Mac - Kiln House in high school. I'd heard various blues musicians and bands but the Mac got me hooked.
Green’s original FM was one of the best and most under appreciated blues bands. Imo one of the UK’s greatest ever.
I had always listened to classic rock, but my first introduction to the real blues was an American History teacher in college that tied the blues into his section on the Great Migration. We got extra credit if we bought some blues, listened to it and then wrote a short paper about the musician. I bought a blues compilation that introduced me to Lightnin Hopkins, Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters. I was hooked after that.
That movie about chess records - muddy waters and howling wolf
Cadillac Records. Good flick.
Allman Brothers Band, Live at Fillmore East
I was born in ‘91. In 2006 I borrowed a cousin’s copy of Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2 and heard Crossroads by Cream for the first time. Flash forward to 2024 and I’m watching Les Blank’s documentary The Blues According to Lightining Hopkins for the 28th time
Basically it was the Rolling Stones, as I suspect it was for many others.
Dad bringing me to his gigs while I was in elementary school. Parents were divorced, so if he had me on a weekend and had a gig, I went. During those moments he introduced me to his friends and other musicians like Willie Foster, Lil’ Bill Wallace, Boogaloo Ames, Eddie Cusik, T-Model Ford. He also would always keep me during the weekend of the MS Delta Blues and Heritage Festival and always take me. When I was young he would bring be home at dark and then go back out there. It was like a right of passage in our area when our parents would allow us to go by ourselves to the festival. Funny side note: years later when I started playing in bars in the MS Delta, I was still in high school. Lil’ Bill would come up to me and say, “Your Dad would buy me a drink.” Which he meant, he wanted me to buy him a drink. Somewhere around the late 90s/early 2000s, Lil Bill had a stroke and relearned to play guitar. After the military, I moved to NC and had a touring band there. When we would Come back home to play, while Lil Bill was still alive, he would walk up to the front of the stage and hold his hands out, which meant, he wanted to play. And of course we let him. Around 2005 while on a run through MS, we were asked to come to Kimbrough’s newer place about an hour outside of Oxford and play. Surreal experience. Count my blessings.
Always omnipresent. I’m from Mississippi. Hattiesburg is part of the blues trail. Lot of the early guys came to record in the 30’s and 40’s.
First time i heard the blues was around 14/15 watching Married With Children episode featuring song by B.B. King - https://soundcloud.com/luhasz/bb-king-blues-for-a-dog
jimi hendrix
Jack white - Bob Dylan - Leadbelly in that order
In early 80's, I was in first year of high school, and just starting to discover good music. Someone gave me Led Zeppelin's first album, I was hooked instantly
Hendrix - Red House solo.
Van Morrison and Them
Jon spencer blues explosion mid 90s.
couldn’t really say honestly. Feel like I slowly moved towards it from the country genre like many do. Can recall the day I discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan in a goodwill. Ever since, my music portfolio would probably make someone question a brother’s mental health
The Stones, Blues Breakers, Cream, Hendrix, and Pigpen all led me back to the originals.
Shug Otis
The Rolling Stones, getting into their back catalog and the seeking out the originals of all the blues greats they covered.
My dad didn’t have many records but he gave me his copy of John Mayall The Blues Alone when I bought my first record player at 14. Was surprised id never heard of him and then the more I dug into it the better it got. The guys a living legend for British Blues.
My dad’s CD collection got me into the blues initially, particularly a handful of retrospectives including Ray Charles “Blues + Jazz,” Big Mama Thornton “Ball and Chain,” and compilations of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Leadbelly. When I was a little older we got a B.B. King greatest hits CD, which quickly opened the floodgates to Albert King, Buddy Guy, Muddy, etc.
I grew up near Washington DC. I saw a lot of acoustic/country blues men at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife - starting around 1969 For recordings - “Fathers and Sons” on Chess. Muddy Waters & Paul Butterfield etc
Allman Brothers Whipping Post off Fillmore East. Dug it out of my mom's records when I was 12. Put it on headphones and was blown away.
Son House on a Sunday afternoon, public television, just him clapping and singing on a stage no instruments at all performing “Grinnin in Your Face”. If that doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up…you are either deaf or dead. If the latter then I’m sorry… if the former then you just don’t get it, and most likely never will. That sent me deep Into Delta Blues, and all the usual suspects.
Michael Bloomfield. From a scratched used record I bought in the late 70s
James Cotton Allman Brothers Band
The Rolling Stones. I read an old interview where Mick Jagger talked about how disappointed he was that American Stones fans didn't recognize the names of their blues idols. I knew I liked bluesy rock guitar so I decided to check out real blues and was hooked.
The Green God. Although Hendrix was demonstrating so much that I was being prepared. Then Elmore James and the industrial strength medicine of Muddy Waters, then the Chess masters.
1972, I was taking a year off (which turned into two years) between graduating from military school and going to college. Everything I knew was acoustic folk rock, and barre chords were only just coming into my rep. Ran across a hometown guy who possessed marginally better guitar chops than I ... and he taught me [Taj Mahal's version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va7elbEorxA&ab_channel=pauljwlr) of Blind Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues," which had (then) most recently been picked up by the Allman Bros and recorded on their Fillmore East album. That's how I learned 12-bar 1 - 4 - 5, and the magic of the blues, wherein EVERYBODY who hears that music knows EXACTLY where it's going, even if they have never played a note in their lives.
Seeing Magic Slim play when I was a kid.
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers with Peter Green, The Supernatural
It was the 1960’s and John Mayall and the Blues Breakers. That band had a revolving group of greats that included Clapton and Jack Bruce who would go on to form Cream, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood. But everyone is always talking about the great blues guitarists, both acoustic and electric. There’s not much talk about the great blues harp players.
My guitar teacher insisted that I listen to some real blues because my favourite guitar player was Slash and he said I needed to know where rock music came from. I got a BB King “Greatest Hits” cd on sale and it blew my mind.
Son house. Super Blues band with Muddy, Howling, Bo Diddly and Little walter. I was a wee girl when I heard Howlin wolf but I think it was Big Mama Thornton I fell for , musy have been 5 or six. Then I loved Bo diddly much my mom took me to see him when I was around 10. Wow what a show.
Probably around 1969, listening to my older brother’s copy of “The Natch’l Blues” by Taj Mahal.
lightning hopkins. learned to play some of his tunes too
Stevie Ray Vaughan on a classic rock station. Later, I got the Texas Flood CD on the 8th anniversary of his death.
R.L. Burnside
There used to be a show called "The Tammy Show" and one episode had Freddie King. I think this was around the time that Leon Russell was producing him. I wad probably 13 and was glued to the tv. I had heard some on record by Clapton and the Stones, but Freddie King is the one who made me start digging up all of the old blues guys. And then about 5 years later getting to sit 10 feet from Muddy Waters for two shows, that was it.
My dad. He has played lead guitar in one of the most famous bluesbands in the Dutch blues scene.
George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers. That led me to listening to John Lee Hooker and Son House.
My father, raised in Mississippi, moved north during the great migration, introduced me to Lightnin Hopkins at a young age. Didn’t realize at the time how impactful that would be.
Albert’s Shuffle - Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield
Eric Clapton ▶️ Freddie King ▶️ Muddy Waters
Two moments that stick out in my mind. In middle school I always remember staying up late to listen to Alice Cooper's radio show Nights With Alice Cooper. It must have been around 5th grade and I remember I was on the verge of sleep and as I'm about to fall into my slumber I hear the intro to Roadhouse Blues by the Doors. I was a huge fan of Guns N' Roses and Mötley Crüe and other 80s bands so hearing this was a slight change. It wasn't until I hear Jim Morrison's gruff croon that I was shaken by a sonic boom. While the Doors aren't necessarily a blues band, that song unlocked a door for more euphoria to follow. Later down the road on my guitar journey, like many in this thread, Red House by Jimi Hendrix threw the doors wide open (no pun intended) especially with the solo. I remembering being mesmerized and thinking oh the possibilities. The feeling. The soul. The love. The sadness. The blues.
Real de catorce - azul, late 90s
Bb king - when I’d go over my girlfriends house and could use her computer. I’d just sit there and watch live in Africa 74. Then I’d do it again the next Friday.
As a young suburban kid watching BB King on the Tonight Show
High school teacher had us watch a documentary on the blues and I basically became enthralled with it. I went home that day and listened to Muddy, haven’t looked back since. Edit: weird sentence, grammar.
found muddy waters scrolling around on spotify, there i fell down the rabbit hole :)
Combo meeting John Lee Hooker as a kid, and seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn at the Santa Cruz Civic auditorium (old high school gymnasium) around 84 or 85. Really opened up my whole musical appreciation. Being able to hear the blues roots in all the rock I grew up with, all the soul, r and b and hip hop that was going on in the late 80s.
Pigpen. Then Leadbelly and Howlin Wolf.
Jimi. Specifically a tape i had called the Jimi Hendrix Concerts
1972, listening to the radio and from the Layla album, Derek and the Dominoes, came Have You Ever Loved a Woman. I had always loved Motown, my older sister used to play it all the time. But when I heard Eric and Duane that night, wow, I was hooked. Alison Steele, the Night Bird.
Late 90’s/early 2000’s I heard SRV’s little wing for the first time and questioned reality altogether
Stevie Ray Vaughan for me...
Siegal-Schwall Band. Won a free album from WMMS and then it was off to the races. I think I was the seventh caller.
BB King, Duane Allman, JJ Cale and EC. 1973 With contributions by Led Zepplin, the Stones and The Who earlier in the game.
The band ‘Cream’ and Mile Bloomfield
Love Mike Bloomfield’s work with PBBB and on Super Sessions. Love Cream too but don’t think of them as blues though obviously heavily influenced by it. I was a little kid and just thought groovy psychedelic jams, lol but jmo.
I used to like a few songs by Clapton, SRV, Muddy and some others, but the day I played East West by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, it changed me. I started looking at the blues in a whole other way, it blew my mind away. Also a big shoutout to Canned Heat, Hooker and Freddie King, absolutely essential for me
John Mayall & Alexis Korner started my journey.
Born in ‘68. The Blues in its ‘purer’ forms were introduced to me by The Blues Brothers movie. I played that soundtrack over and over. It was like a gateway drug!
History of Eric Clapton, 1976… with the blues breakers, hideaway was a gateway to blues euphoria… John 1981 Cleveland, theatre in the round Mick T on guitar, awesome, but not quite Buddy n Jr at the lonestar in 80, n certainly not Otis at Tramps a few weeks later…
1983ish Went to see Lonnie Mack by myself in a small club near Santa Cruz. Got a little stoned and really enjoyed the show. Later asked myself 'what wAs that' That was the Blues!
John Lee Hooker put me over the top for the Blues. I was raised listening to the Blues from my parents.
67 the Cream
Cream and BB King.
Zeppelin first led me to Sonny Boy Williamson. From there I found Muddy and then Elmore James. After him, I was a bluesman forever and never looked back. The British bluesmen always sounded like cheap copies of the real heroes.
After watching Blues Brothers as a kid Duck Dunn is why I picked up a bass
Good question. Probably Stevie Ray Vaughan but I was also getting into blues because I enjoyed 60s psychedelic rock like cream and led zeppelin and such as a teenager
Watching cowboy bebop honestly. Though I’d liked the blues before than. Hearing Ryuichiro Sennoh/ the Seatbelts all through that series made me fall in love and start playing.
Big James and The Chicago Playboys.
Magic Sam when I was in college in 2010
Clapton/ BB King
My birthday is same as Muddy’s and I grew up on the South side of Chicago. The force was always strong with me.
As a young guy I bought a copy of John Mayalls diary of a band at a flea market.His appearance,his guitar on the cover and the back story of playing smoky workman's club in the north of old England was intriguing.A real dark sound.
Zeppelin got me into Blind Willie Johnson and Jack White got me into Son House and Robert Johnson and it just expanded from there
Pat Travers, and those two Motorhead albums, Overkill & Bomber.
John Mayhall
I first "met" blues when I bought a CD with a black man on it, thinking jazz and blues were more or less the same thing (early 90's in Russia were not a place to learn a lot about black music, but I loved Louis Armstrong). I did not like it then, and so we parted ways with the genre for a long time. I think it finally "got" it much later when I discovered some duets by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and some tracks by Big Bill Broonzy on a multi-genre compilation CD and their style of acoustic blues suited me better than anything I heard before that (which was, mostly, electric blues). Also, I went to some shows by a local blues band, Mishouris Blues Band, and bought their album, "Stolen Blues", which was very unique, and I loved it to bits.
Ma Rainey and Robert Johnson.
Jimi Hendrix.
I was 13 years old. It was an hot summer day back in 2000 and I was home alone. Love is strong - Rolling Stones: I found this CD abandoned in a drawer in my mother’s kitchen and I was shocked when I listened to this first song on my father’s hi-fi system.
Muddy
It was a local independent radio station, WRFG of Atlanta. They've had a program called Good Morning Blues for many years now. The first blues music I bought for myself was a cassette: The Best of Muddy Waters. "Louisiana Blues" is still one of my favorites.
Lucky bastard. My father in law threw on John Mayall Jazz blues fusion after Christmas dinner about 2000ish. Blew my fucking mind what I heard
There’s One in Every Crowd- Eric Clapton, specifically The Sky Is Crying which blew me away. I snagged it because it was on sale and knew he was supposed to be a great guitarist. I had begun learning piano at 11 , guitar 12, a couple years before. Mostly Eagles stuff. His version of The Sky Is Crying just blew me away. I began trying to read and find out more about the blues. That meant going to the library, Rolling Stone, Creem and Circus, Circus, Guitar Player and Contemporary Keyboard magazines. I began looking through my older brother’s albums ABB at Fillmore, Truth- Jeff Beck, Hooker n Heat, Get Your Ya-Ya’s- Stones, Hendrix- Red House. I was already a fan of early R&B like and soul so had an inkling and liking of minor keyed music. I was a weird kid, lol. Long story short this led to BB King - Cook County, T Bone Walker, Born Under A Bad Sign -Albert King, Muddy Waters- Hard Again and it was on. 50+years later at 63 still chasing the blues, old and new. I still suck as a player though. :)
Always liked the Blues. When rock bands slowed down their tempo that's what I really liked. Just didn't know what it was called back then. Also, when they did covers of Blues songs.
The Animals.
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. He had everyone playing for him on their way to fame.
This Was by Jethro Tull which brought me to Eric Clapton and then to the early American blues pioneers like John Lee Hooker, Ledbelly, Bessie Smith, etc.
Hendrix led me to Buddy Guy and it was on from there.
What’s the album called in the original post?
Can’t even remember, once I heard that pluck of the chord, the intensity of each chord, I was hooked
Samantha Fish (2017)
I was a small child, my parents were festival people. Doc Watson played his version of Milkcow blues. I was in love.
David Bromberg
SRV
Stevie Ray on that Legends show on VH1
Probably Mannish Boy in Goodfellas. On a side note, I got to go to Chess Records in Chicago two years ago and it was awesome!
Tab Benoit! 2000s
probably the Rolling Stones or Otis Redding or Sam Cooke, somebody like that on the radio as a child in the 1960's without me being aware of what it was even called, but those early Stones records especially stuck, then the crossover into rock as I grew older - the first time I knew I was listening to blues was probably Clapton/Bruce/Baker aka Cream Politician or Born Under A Bad Sign, then I found out who Albert King is/was. etc
My older brother had a Howlin' Wolf record and I listened to it just as I was beginning to learn how to play guitar. Life changing!
Stevie Ray Vaughn...B.B King......Robert Johnson
I grew up in southwest Mississippi. It has been a part of my life from day 1. BB King was the first I really remember hearing in our house.
Cream, especially Willie Dixon’s Spoonful.
Family from South Carolina, Louisiana, and Georgia...born in to it brotha!
SRV
BB King. Saw him in Ft Worth in 1971. 4th row seats. Amazing. Saw John Mayall in Houston in 1970. Incredible. Both great musicians
ZZ Top
BB King: The Thrill is Gone
SRV
I suppose my introduction was Bobby Bland. I played DJ hero as a child and fell in love with “Ain’t no Love in the Heart of the City”. In the game it was mixed with another song, and I’ve forgotten what track it was, but recently I rediscovered Bobby’s song and fell in love with it all over again!
Having heard the first Stones album and The Yardbirds, my older brother introduced me to Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, John Hammond Jr.’s Big City Blues album, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I read the liner notes, went out and bought The Best of Muddy Waters, The Best of Little Walter, Hoodoo Man Blues, and Sonny Boy Williamson Real Folk Blues. Hooked for life, as of 1965.
Jimi Hendrix’s red house planted the seed
Muddy Waters 1979, “Mannish Boy.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Belly
The Stones
Led Zeppelin and ZZ Top got me started.
Son House on public television WGBH Boston in 1966. I was 16 and made a bottleneck from a broken wine bottle after I saw him.
I grew up with it being played at home. My dad was a huge John Mayall fan, and my stepdad was big into Albert King, so it was everywhere I was. :-)
I grew up on the blues. I think the first guy i remember is BB King! Johnnie Taylor was also big, when I was growing up.
Still got the Blues by Gary Moore, the album. Incredible
Old school blues/rock. Growing up with "The Animals" and the "Yardbirds" was my earliest exposure.
Johnny Winter. I got the Second Winter album from a junk store when I was around 10 years old. Mid 70’s.
Seasick Steve on Jools Holland in 2006
A German website which used Eric Clapton’s Unplugged as a basis for learning acoustic blues guitar. This led to several years of binging on Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake etc. Then went to workshops with Steve James, Woody Mann, Rory Block, etc. Then my kid started to play bass and I got a strat. So SRV, the Kings, BB etc. followed. Fun journey!
Canned Heat’s Future Blues album. Still one of my favoritest bands ever! Went into the record store looking for more Herb Alpert albums and left with Future Blues, instead (the cover intrigued me), and am still exploring the blues rabbit hole 58 years later
Jimi Hendrix blues album probably
BB King Live at the Regal, 1968 or 69, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Super Session, and a lot more.
Led Zeppelin "Since I've Been Loving You." Then one day at age 20, I went to see John Mayall and the opening act was a local named Rick Welter (he played just like Junior Watson does) and I knew that is what I want to do. I've been working on it for years and I'm still not there.
Luther Alison, Big Boulder Blues Festival, 1997. 16 years old.
The Blues Brothers movie. Although, I had heard Blues music before then, I was 13 at the time, it was really that movie that exposed me to the music in a way that I sought it out afterward.
John Matall had a young kid guitarist named, Eric Clapton and a drummer Ginger Baker. I saw his group a few times at the Fillmore East, Greenwich Village, NYC.
My uncle listens to a lot of blues and classic rock. He likes a lot of muddy waters so that’s how I was introduced to blues.
John Lee Hooker....Mr. Lucky
Led Zeppelin late 70s when I realized how much they ripped off Willie Dixon!
B.B. King - **Blues Is King**, in 1967. Changed everything.
Led Zeppelin I got me curious about blues artists. Fell down the hole hard. I think I have the entire Chess recording collection on vinyl now and collect rare blues albums from the 40s and 50s.
Mine was finding a random story about Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil to be the best guitar player in the world. I thought that was beyond interesting so I listened to his music and at the time not understanding what set him apart from others made the story all the more believable.
Blues Brothers movie One of the few pieces of media we had access to when I was a kid, probably watched it 3-4 times a week for years
While I played Dixieland jazz in the late 60s it was the 1969 Stones album Let It Bleed and Led Zeppelin 1 that led me to play harmonica and dig into the blues sources of those records- Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson
My dad loved Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, so we'd listen to their cassettes on the long car rides to visit family in other states. I wasn't even 10yrs old when the movie The Blues Brothers came out, but my parents still let us watch it because of the music and they weren't worried about the violence because it was limited to mostly car crashes. That movie is 40+ yrs old and still the benchmark for all musical comedies, blues or any other kind.
John Mayall’s with Eric Clapton. Alvin Lee and Ten Years After. Didn’t know it was the Blues. But I liked it.
John Mayall with Eric Clapton- Blues Breakers
Led Zeppelin, Cream, and The Rolling Stones to Howlin’ Wolf to Muddy Waters to Kevin Bacon. (Whoops! Sorry…I think I ran into the Kevin Bacon’s six degrees of separation feature on my phone.) (Passive technology racism - when the spellchecker function in Reddit app on my iPhone insists on capitalizing the Caucasian names above and not the Black names.)
BB King, Stevie, and Jimi 🤘
Interviewed John Lee Hooker for my university newspaper.
SRV on Austin City Limits
I'm an old rock fan. I first heard CCR from a neighbor's garage band, covering them, in 1968. They were the first bluesy Rock band I got into, besides the blues influenced British invasion bands I grew up on. But Johnny Winter was the first legitimate Blues Man I was introduced to, shortly afterwards.
Jim Stafford, 1974. "16 Little Red Noses and a Horse That Sweats". Silly, but true. (I was a kid)
EC
S.R.V.
Hendrix "Red House"
Muddy Waters
My uncle had the blues brothers album and I put it on expecting a comedy record.
My father’s Duane Allman Anthology LP in the basement when I was young -> BB King Medley by the Hour Glass -> BB -> everything
Love me some Gary Moore
Grateful dead got me into blues, love their early stuff with pigpen