Recent Articles
10. Tom Morello
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 10. Tom Morello Tom Morello endured 18 years in Libertyville and graduated with honors from Harvard in 1986. Neither, though, had much to do with his greatest achievement: Rage Against The Machine (sorry Audioslave, your name fit your confined music). Rage ignited Molotov cocktails of post-“Bring The Noize” rap-metal, […]
9. Curtis Mayfield
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 9. Curtis Mayfield It’s easy to forget what a guitarist Curtis Mayfield was. Obscured beneath forming The Impressions, helping give voice to the Civil Rights movement, recording one of the greatest soundtracks of all-time, and his nearly fatal accident was an ace. Blurring his skill further was the fact […]
8. Rick Nielsen
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 8. Rick Nielsen Rick Nielsen deserves a spot on this list for his guitar collection alone; he has reportedly owned more than 2,000 sweet axes, including at least one custom five-neck Hamer with 38 strings. (Storage space must be cheap in Rockford.) Equally impressive is his contribution to power […]
7. Elmore James
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 7. Elmore James All electric slide-guitar playing starts with Elmore James. Argue all you want whether he stole his songs from Robert Johnson or Tampa Red or whoever, because back in the day he was playing with them all and such didn’t matter. What does matter is that in […]
6. Mike Bloomfield
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 6. Mike Bloomfield According to the site’s stats, Mikebloomfield.com has averaged 60 visits a day for the last six years – not bad for a white, Jewish blues guitarist who died in 1981 and is best known for his performances on other people’s albums. Mike Bloomfield crammed a lot […]
5. Magic Sam
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists One of the great what-ifs of blues history. Many a musician met a premature demise (frequently at their own hands), but fate was especially cruel to Samuel Gene Maghett. Struck down by a heart attack just months after a star turn at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, the […]
4. Otis Rush
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 4. Otis Rush Revered by blues and rock musicians alike, legendary guitarist/vocalist Otis Rush is perhaps the most intense, soulful bluesman of his era. Since the ’50s, when he had his first chart-topping hit on Cobra Records, “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” Rush has gone on to influence musicians […]
3. Bo Diddley
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 3. Bo Diddley Bo Diddley was one of those who took blues by the hand and led it into rock. Diddley’s music includes every aspect of rock: the fuzzy, effect-wielding guitar, humor, volume (Diddley didn’t necessarily play loud, but he always sounds like he was), sex, DIY aesthetic (the […]
2. Muddy Waters
The 20 All-Time Greatest Chicago Guitarists 2. Muddy Waters When future Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee and Grammy winner Muddy Waters (aka McKinley Morganfield) came to Chicago in 1943 from Clarksdale, Mississippi, he had no idea he would alter the American musical landscape irrevocably, paving the way for a musical revolution.
1. Buddy Guy
1. Buddy Guy Naysayers will think Buddy Guy tops our list in some glad-handing tribute to Chicago’s most prominent living bluesman. Sheeeeit. Early in his prime he was muzzled by Leonard Chess and the Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon machine.
File: April 2008
A Festivus For The Rest Of Us If Lollapalooza packs ’em in with the rumored announcement of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails as headliners, us Chicago folk might be crowded out of our own festival. Pitchfork Music Fest has already squashed the one that gave it birth (Intonation) — you’ll have to excuse us if […]
Hello, My Name Is Andy
Hello, My Name Is Andy Q&A With Andy McKee IE: What first attracted you to playing the guitar and how old were you? Andy McKee: I was 13 when I got my first guitar and I asked for a guitar for my birthday that year because I heard Eric Johnson on the radio. They played […]
DVD Zone: April 2008
I Am Legend Warner Home Video What is it about the end of the world? The current trend is to speculate about what the planet would be like if humans weren’t around to tend to the old homestead. Both The History Channel and The National Geographic Channel have run specials about it, and there’s I […]
Gone Too Soon
The music world lost two supremely talented and distinctive artists recently when R&B and rock drummer/singer/ songwriter Buddy Miles and Canadian guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jeff Healey passed away. Miles succumbed to congestive heart failure at the age of 60 on February 26th in Austin, Texas, and Healey died a few days later in Toronto after a lifelong […]
Chicagoland Studio Happenings
South Side drummer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Anthony (Sgt. Roxx, Raddaka, Pamela Moore) worked on his solo project called Gagorder13 at BAREFOOT STUDIO in Beecher with David Knuth. Gabriel finished drum tracks in March and plans to track all guitars, bass, and vocals through the spring and summer for a fall/winter release.
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