Chapter 6: Bluesmen/Blueswomem

- Detroit blues

John Lee Hooker is believed to have been born August 22, 1917 on a farm south of Clarksdale, Mississippi, but conflicting reports place his birth anywhere from 1912 to 1923.

His first instrument was strips of inner tube nailed to the side of a barn, soon afterwards, his sister's boyfriend gave him an old guitar just to keep him away.

In 1943, "The Hook" settled in Detroit and began his music career. After working with T-Bone Walker for two years, he released his first record in 1948, the smash hit "Boogie Chillin".

During the 1960s, Hooker worked with English rockers like John Mayall and the Yardbirds, making him a hit in England. In the 1970s, he worked with "Canned Heat", who had been devotees of his from the start.

Hooker never stopped gigging in his later years, and would often appear unannounced in blues clubs and treat the crowd to a surprise performance by one of the greatest names in blues.

John Lee Hooker died in his sleep in Los Altos, California on June 21, 2001. His son, John Lee Hooker, Jr. continues in his fathers footsteps, playing his own brand of jazz-blues

-B.B king

B. Riley King, son of Albert King (not the famed bluesman) and Ella King, was born on September 16, 1925, in the small town of IttaBenna in the state of Mississippi. IttaBenna was istante all, except in towns like Inverness, where Howlin 'Wolf was born, or Rolling Fork, home of Muddy Waters or Richland, where Elmore James was born. It is important that the concept of near today can not be applied to rural Mississippi of the 30s and 40s, when the fact of owning a mule already a huge privilege. At age four, his parents separated and BB he grew up under the care of his maternal grandparents in the small Kilmichael, in the state of Mississippi.

Her mother died when King was only nine years. The first guitar came five years later and in the same time, he began singing in choirs gospeis.