Latest News ...rss

Teen guitarist and vocalist Matthew Davidson, of Shreveport, has won the 2011 Robert Johnson New Generation Award. Davidson, 13, said it is an honor to be chosen for the award. About 25 young musicians were considered.

“It’s an award given out annually to guitarists 12 to 18 years old that helps young kids like myself keep interested in the blues and respect the blues,” Davidson said. “Robert Johnson is one of the greatest blues players. He kind of started it all and paved the way for so many.”

Steven Johnson, grandson of Robert Johnson and vice president of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation, said it was Davidson’s style and professionalism that set him apart.

“His style was kind of advanced for his age,” Johnson said. “It was crisp; it was professional. His style with that electric guitar was amazing.”

As winner of the award, Davidson also will receive a Robert Johnson Signature Gibson L-1 guitar and a chance to play at a future foundation event.

Read more at ShreveportTimes.com.

The legacy of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson will get the all-star treatment when The Roots, Shemekia Copeland, Bettye Lavette, Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo,’ Sam Moore and Todd Rundgren gather in NYC in 2012.

Co-produced by Steve Berkowitz, Michael Dorf, Joe Morton and Patricia Watt and taking place March 6 at New York City’s famed Apollo Theater, net proceeds will go to funding the construction of the Blues Hall Of Fame in Memphis. Expect more artists to be announced in the weeks to come.

VIP ticket packages are available via RobertJohnson100.com, while general onsale tickets are now available at Ticketmaster.com. Visit ApolloTheatre.org for more information.

Read more at Pollstar.com.

Check out Part 3 of the BBC’s “Hellhounds on His Trail: The Robert Johnson Story,” a radio documentary originally broadcast in 2005. Paul Sexton concludes the story of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson, who died in 1938 aged just 27, and explores his music, influence and the myths surrounding his life.

When Howlin’ Wolf romped through “Wang Dang Doodle” or thundered in “Three Hundred Pounds of Joy,” the snarling guitar that accompanied him belonged to one of the greatest bluesmen to pick up the instrument: Hubert Sumlin.

The cry of Sumlin’s guitar — riffing hard one moment, sighing poetically the next — helped define Wolf’s sound, even if Sumlin never attained a fraction of the fame of his celebrated boss. Sumlin died Sunday of heart failure in New Jersey. He was 80.

A mainstay of the Chicago blues scene, Sumlin was nominated for four Grammy awards and was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008.

Hubert Sumlin was born in Mississippi, raised in Arkansas and moved to Chicago to play with Howlin’ Wolf, with whom he had a loyal but often contentious relationship. In 1956 Sumlin was hired away for a brief stint with Wolf’s biggest rival, Muddy Waters. After Wolf’s death in 1976, Sumlin continued to perform with the rest of Wolf’s band under the name the Wolf Gang. In addition to his work as a sideman, he released more than a dozen albums under his own name, most recently About Them Shoes (2004).

In recent years, Sumlin — who had left Chicago and lost his wife, Willie B. “Bea” Reed Sumlin, in 1999 — was still an attraction on Chicago stages. He appeared alongside Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan in 2007 at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, at Toyota Park in Bridgeview; performed at a “Blues at the Crossroads” concert in February at Symphony Center; and headlined frequently at the Chicago Blues Festival but canceled his participation in a Robert Johnson centennial tribute at this summer’s fest (as did the since-deceased nonagenarian David “Honeyboy” Edwards), due to illness.

Read more at Rolling Stone and the Chicago Tribune.

Hubert Sumlin (left), Honeyboy Edwards (right) and Steven Johnson (center) at the Berklee Performance Center in February 2011.

You can listen to Part 2 of “Hellhounds on His Trail: The Robert Johnson Story,” a radio documentary that is being rebroadcast by the BBC. The series features contributions from Honeyboy Edwards, Robert Plant, Tony McPhee, Chris Dreja, John Hammond, Dave Davies, Bob Brunning, Rob Love, Dave Kelly, Mike Vernon, Mike Davis and more!