With a subscription fee coming soon to X, this labor-of-love account will turn into a paying-to-labor account. That’s the reason I’m suspending my work here. Though I never set out a tip jar, my followers have filled my cup with plenty of love over the years. Keep the blues alive

Louis Myers, Koko Taylor, and Jimmy Rogers. Evan Nicole Bell
(Photo by Andre Hobus)

Rev. Gary Davis walks down a street in Harlem. With a complex, driving guitar style and big testifying voice, Davis' music lives on. As well as recording a large body of work, he gave guitar lessons to dozens of blues musicians. (Photo by John Cohen)

Bluesman Milwaukee Slim performing at Tail Dragger’s funeral repast on September 15th. Tail Dragger's final performance was at Delmark Records annual festival, earlier this month. RIP Tail Dragger. (Photo Bob Corritore)

Happy Birthday💙B.B. King👑
Central Park, New York, 1969.
Photo by ©David Fenton

Billy Boy Arnold celebrates his 88th birthday today! Arnold is a rarity: a leading bluesman who was born in Chicago, rather than migrating from the South. At 13, he was taking informal harp lessons from his neighbour, John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson. Read his awesome biography.

In 1972, Willie Mabon moved to Paris. He’d been sent airfare by Paris’ most famous bluesman Memphis Slim. Mabon arrived in France with little money but full of hope that the stories of Europe’s support for the blues were at least partially true. He found that they were.

It's 1968 in San Francisco. Blues legend Howlin' Wolf is in a hotel room lighting his pipe. He's holding a package of Edgeworth Tobacco. (Photo by Sandy Guy Schoenfeld)

Pop quiz:

Chicago Alderman or Bluesman?

Big Bill Thompson, Big Bill Broonzy, Hinky Dink, Funny Paper Smith, Bathhouse John, Lazy Lester, Dee Pow Powers, and Barbecue Bob.

A signed photo of 'Champion' Jack Dupree wearing boxing gloves. The photo was taken in 1968, decades after Dupree's boxing career had ended. From 1940 onward, he spent life as a highly sought-after bluesman. Can you name other famous blues playing pugilists? Willie Dixon was one.

Yes, there really was a Middle Walter on harp. Middle Walter was born in Augusta, Arkansas. His stage name was given to him by Johnny Littlejohn--placing him between blues harp legends Big Walter Horton and Little Walter Jacobs. Middle Walter died at age 51 in 1986.

In the 1950s, Big Mama Thornton was as brassy, bold, and ballsy as Chicago. She didn't receive any formal instruction on vocals, harp, or the drums. She played music straight from the heart. The sad trajectory of her music career is a punch to the gut of American popular culture.

Bluesman Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown with Yvonne Brown and their daughter, Renée, before they left to accompany him in his official role as 'Music Ambassador' for a U.S. State Department tour of Europe in 1979.

Unidentified young bluesman playing on Maxwell Street. Photo is likely from the late 70s as determined by the conversion vans in the lot behind him. 🕉🇺🇦🟦Stevie Van Zandt☮️💙 did you ever drive a van in the 70s? You’d have enjoyed Maxwell Street, if my E Street education hasn’t failed me.

Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin recently posted this image of himself in Las Vegas at Big Blues Bender. Margolin, famous for his stint with Muddy Waters, wrote, 'Elvis used to pray here before his shows. I’m praying for Elvis and all of us.' #sundayvibes

By the mid-1960s, there was no questioning the effect American blues music had on pop music culture in the UK, but what shocked rocker Paul Rodgers when he first arrived in the U.S. with Free was how oblivious most Americans were to blues music--its greatest cultural exports.