lt was T-Bone Walker, B.B. King once ‘Hey, Good Lookin’,” ‘‘Cold, Cold For Louis Jordan, life was a nonstop said, who ‘ ‘really started me to want Heart,” “You Win Again,” “Your party. Dropping a dynamic downbeat to play the blues. I can still hear T- Cheatin’ Heart,” “I’m So Lonesome I on postw ar rhythm and blues, he set Bone in my mind todayfrom thatfirst Could Cry” - these songs are among the stagefor the bacchanal tofollow. record I heard, ‘Stormy Monday. ’ He the classics o fcountry music, and every was thefirst electric guitar player I one was w ritten and sung by Hank heard on record. He made me so that I Williams. Williams brought country knew Ijust had to go out and get an music into the modern era. He was I electric guitar.” I an astonishingly prolific songwriter, I a supremely expressive singer and a Walker was the godfather o fthe performer who blended barely repressed In his 1949 ‘ ‘Saturday Night Fish Fry, ’ ’ modern electric blues guitar. He transformed sexuality with an aura o ftragic doom. he gazed into a crystal ball and sang, ithe prewar styles o fBlind Lemon Jefferson and Hiram Williams was born in the dirt-poor i' ‘It was rockin’, it was rockin’/You Lonnie Johnson into sophisticated, swinging town o fMount Olive, Alabama, in 1923. He had never seen such scufflin’ and electric music. Millions who have never heard a congenital spinal defect that caused him I shufflin’ till the break o fdawn. ’ ’ W alker’s music know him nonetheless through increasing back pain as he grew older, a pain he ‘ 7 wanted to playfo r the people, ’ ’ his profound influence on a host o fblues and would later try to ease with alcohol and pills. he told Arnold Shaw, “for millions, notjust a rock musicians: Duane Allman, Otis Rush, Jimi His mother, a church organist, taught him few hepcats. ’ ’ Though he could have been a Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Jimmy traditional hymns and gospel songs; a black successfuljazz instrumentalist, and indeed had Page, Albert Collins. Over hisforty-year street musician, Rufus “Tee Tot" Payne, taught come up playing alto saxophone in Chick career, Walker produced a series o fpeerless him blues and pop tunes, along with the Webb’s band, he optedfor the role o febullient recordings, including ‘‘T-BoneShuffle,” rudiments o fguitar. By the time he was sixteen, entertainer. In 1938, at the age o fthirty, he ‘ ‘Mean Old World, ’ ’ ‘ ‘Papa Ain’t Salty’ ’ and Hank hadformed thefirst version o fhis formed his own combo, which worked out at ‘ ‘Call It Stormy Monday. ’ ’ legendary band, the Drifting Cowboys, and was Harlem’s Elks Rendezvous, and he cut hisfirst Walker was born in 1910 in Linden, Texas, to appearing regularly at local dances and on records that year. By 1939, his combo was afamily o fblack and Cherokee ancestry. At age radio station WFSA. officially called Louis Jordan and His Tympani two, he moved with his mother to Dallas, where In 1946, Williams went to Nashville to Five. They reached the charts with hit after hit, he served as a ‘ ‘lead b o y for country-blues auditionfor the Grand Ole Opry; he was turned including “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us master Blind Lemon Jefferson. While still in his down. Williams’s compositions, however, Chickens, ’ ’ ‘ ‘Somebody Done Changed the teens, Walker, who was self-taught on guitar, favorably impressed Fred Rose, who signed him Lock on My Door, ’ ’ ‘ ‘Stone Cold Dead in the banjo and ukulele, toured with a medicine show toAcuff-Rose, his publishing company, and, the Market, ’ ’ ‘ ‘That Chick’s Too Young to Fry’ ’ and with blues singer Ida Cox. He wasfirst following year, to MGM Records. and the ever-popular ‘ ‘Caldonia. ’ ’ His best recorded in 1929 under the name Oak C liff T- Williams’sfirst MGM disc, ‘ ‘Move It On year was 1946, when he released ‘ ‘Choo Choo Bone. Walker moved to Los Angeles in 1934; he Over, ’ ’ was released in 1947. In early 1949, his Ch’Boogie’ ’ and ‘ ‘Beware, Brother, Beware, ’ ’ claimed to have begun playing amplified guitar version o f ‘ ‘Lovesick Blues’ ’ shot to the top of both o fwhich were million sellers. shortly thereafter. I fthat is true, then he was Billboard’s CAW chart, remaining in the Top Jordan’s songs not only would supply a good among thefirst major guitarists to go electric. Fifteenfor more than ten months. He finally deal o fthe slang o frock and roll but also would In 1939, Walkerjoined Les Hite’s Cotton, appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in June 1949, directly influence many o frock’s progenitors. Club Orchestra, a rough-and-tumble big band stopping the show and earning six encores. Bill Haley’s recordings echoed Jordan’s ‘ 'Let whose alumni include D izzy G illespie and Between 1949 and 1953, Williams recorded the Good Times Roll” spirit, and Chuck Berry Lionel Hampton. With the Hite band. Walker eleven singles that were million sellers. At the has said simply, ‘ 7 identify myself with Louis perfected hisflowing, hornlike guitar licks and same time, using the pseudonym Luke the Jordan more than any other artist. ’ ’ mellow blues vocals. H ecut sidesfor Capitol, Drifter, he issued a series o fpopular musical Imperial, Atlantic (including the classic T-Bone sermonettes, including “Be Careful o fStones Blues LP) and a h a lfdozen other labels, most That You Throw’ ’ a n d ' ‘Beyond the Sunset. ’ ’ often as a leader but also in tandem with Jimmy The pressures o fsuccess proved to be Witherspoon, Memphis Slim and Johnny Otis. Williams’s downfall. His drinking and drug In 1973, Walker climaxed his recording career taking increased, and he missed gigs more and with a m asterfully eclectic double LP, Very morefrequently. He was divorced in 1952. Rare; it was produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Songs like ‘ ‘T ll Never Get Out o fThis World Stoller, who assembled an all-star cast o fjazz Alive’ ’ seemed toforetell the end. It came in veterans and young studio pros to honor the 1953, when Williams suffered a massive heart great bluesman. Walker died in Los Angeles of attack and internal bleeding en route to a show. LOUIS JORDAN bronchial pneumonia at the age o fsixty-four. He was not yet thirty years old. B om July 8th, 1908 ‘ ‘T-Bone Walker is thefundamental source of Brinkley, California the modern urban style o fplaying and singing D ied February 4th, 1975 blues, ’ ’ wrote Pete Welding. ‘ ‘The blues was Los Angeles, California different before he came onto the scene and it hasn’t been the same since. ’ ’

T-BONE WALKER Aaron Thibeaux Walker B om May 28th, 1910 Linden, Texas Died March 16th, 1975 Los Angeles, California

HANK WILLIAMS Hiram Williams Bom September 17th, 1923 Mount Olive, Alabama Died January 1st, 1953 Oak Hill, West Virginia