Blues-rock
Encyclopedia
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining blues
y improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie
jams
with rock and roll
styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar
, piano
, bass guitar
and drum kit
, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a tube
guitar amplifier, giving it an overdriven character.
The style began to develop in the mid-1960s in England
and the United States
. UK Bands, such as The Rolling Stones
and The Animals
and American bands such as the Butterfield Blues Band and the Siegel–Schwall Band, experimented with music from the older American bluesmen, like Albert King
, Howlin' Wolf
, Robert Johnson
, Jimmy Reed
, Muddy Waters
, and B.B. King. While the early blues rock bands "attempted to play long, involved improvisations which were commonplace on jazz records", by the 1970s, blues rock got heavier and more riff-based. By the "early '70s, the lines between blues rock and hard rock
were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. In the 1980s and 1990s, blues rock acts returned to their bluesy roots, and some of these, such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan
, flirted with rock stardom."
jams
typically focused on the electric guitar
player, and often a heavier, riff
-oriented sound and feel to the songs than might be found in traditional Chicago-style blues
. Blues rock bands "borrow[ed] the idea of an instrumental combo and loud amplification from rock & roll". It is also often played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues.
, bass guitar
and drum kit
. The electric guitar is usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier or using an overdrive effect. Often two guitars are played in blues rock bands, one playing the accompaniment riff
s and chords on rhythm guitar
and one playing the melodic lines and solos of the lead guitar
part. While 1950s-era blues bands would sometimes still use the upright bass
, the blues rock bands of the 1960s used the electric bass, which was easier to amplify to loud volumes. Keyboard
instruments such as the piano
and Hammond organ
are also occasionally used. As with the electric guitar, the sound of the Hammond organ is typically amplified with a tube amplifier, which gives a growling, "overdriven" sound quality to the instrument. Vocals also typically play a key role, although the vocals may be equal in importance or even subordinate to the lead guitar playing as well, a number of blues rock pieces are instrumental-only.
Blues rock pieces normally follow the 12-bar blues structure, but often follow a slightly different structure, as seen in "Stormy Monday", which follows the general format of a 12-bar blues, but which the Allman Brothers played with altered chords:
...instead of the traditional G | C | G | G | C | C | G | G | D | C | G | G progression. The progression is usually repeated, with only one section of the song, though there are exceptions, some pieces having a "B" section. The key is traditionally major, but can also be minor, a common technique being the use the minor pentatonic scale, with blue note
s, over a major chord progression, as employed by Albert King
in nearly all of his pieces. The lead guitar typically uses the pentatonic scale, either major or minor, when soloing.
A classic example of blues rock is Eric Clapton
's "Crossroads" first released on Cream's Wheels of Fire
album. It was adapted from Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues
" and "Traveling Riverside Blues
". It fuses some of the lyrical and musical styles of blues with rock-styled tempo and guitar solos.
debuted an idiosyncratic, fast-paced electric blues guitar style which confounded his contemporaries, but which later came to be identified with blues rock. His instrumentals from that period were recognizable as blues or R&B tunes, but he relied heavily upon fast-picking techniques derived from traditional American country and bluegrass genres. The best-known of these are the hit singles "Memphis" (Billboard #5) and "Wham!" (Billboard #24). However, blues rock was not named as such, or widely recognized as a distinct movement within rock, until several years later, with the advent of such British bands as Free
, Savoy Brown
and the earliest incarnations of Fleetwood Mac
. The musicians in those bands had honed their skills in a handful of British blues bands, primarily those of John Mayall
and Alexis Korner
. At that point, Mack's earlier recordings were rediscovered and he soon came to be regarded as a blues rock pioneer. Other American performers, such as Johnny Winter
, Paul Butterfield
and the group Canned Heat
are now also considered blues rock pioneers.
Music critic Piero Scaruffi argues that the blues rock genre was defined when John Mayall
released the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton in 1966, which included guitarist Eric Clapton
. Scaruffi defines "blues rock" as a "genre of rhythm'n'blues played by white European musicians." Scaruffi claims that the US "equivalent of John Mayall was Al Kooper
." Cream "took the fusion of blues and rock to places where it had never been before" by engaging in a "level of group improvisation that was worthy of jazz." He calls Fleetwood Mac (during the Peter Green
period in the late 1960s) "one of the most creative and competent British bands of the blues revival". Scaruffi argues that the "British blues musicians were true innovators", in that they did a "metamorphosis" on US blues and "turned it into a "white" music" by emphasizing "the epic refrains of the call and response
", speeding up the "Chicago's
rhythm guitar
s," smoothing "the vocal delivery to make it sound more operatic" and adding vocal harmony.
The electric guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix
(a veteran of many American rhythm & blues
and soul
groups from the early-mid 1960s) and his power trios, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
and Band of Gypsys
, has had broad and lasting influence on the development of blues rock, especially for guitarists. Eric Clapton
was another guitarist with a lasting influence on the genre; his work in the 1960s and 1970s with John Mayall
and the Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds
, supergroups Blind Faith
, Cream
and Derek and the Dominos
, and an extensive solo career has been seminal in bringing blues rock into the mainstream. By this time, American acts such as The Doors
and Janis Joplin
further introduced mainstream audiences to the genre.
In the late '60s Jeff Beck
a former member of The Yardbirds
, revolutionized blues rock into a form of heavy rock, taking the UK
and the USA by storm with his band, The Jeff Beck Group
. Jimmy Page
, a third alumnus of The Yardbirds, went out to form The New Yardbirds which would soon become known as Led Zeppelin
and would become a major force in the 1970s heavy metal scene. The Who
during their early run was a blues rock standard group, with their posters for their performances including their catch phrase "Maximum R&B". During this period the band covered songs from Bo Diddley
, Sonny Boy Williamson
, and Mose Allison
. The Australian band AC/DC
were also influenced by blues rock. Other blues rock musicians influential on the scene in the 1970s included Rory Gallagher
and Robin Trower
.
Beginning in the early 1970s, American bands such as Aerosmith
fused blues with a hard rock edge. Blues rock grew to include Southern rock
bands, like the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top
and Lynyrd Skynyrd
, while the British scene, except for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat
, became focused on heavy metal
innovation. Blues rock had a re-birth in the early 1990s - 2000s, with many artists such as Gary Moore
, The White Stripes
, The Dead Weather
, Them Crooked Vultures
, John Mayer
, Blues Traveler
, The Black Crowes
, The Black Keys
, Jeff Healey
, Clutch
, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Joe Bonamassa
.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
y improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie
Boogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie music. The characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie was then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. The earliest recorded...
jams
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
with rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a tube
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
guitar amplifier, giving it an overdriven character.
The style began to develop in the mid-1960s in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. UK Bands, such as The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
and American bands such as the Butterfield Blues Band and the Siegel–Schwall Band, experimented with music from the older American bluesmen, like Albert King
Albert King
Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...
, Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
, Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given...
, Jimmy Reed
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James "Jimmy" Reed was an American blues musician and songwriter, notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. Reed was a major player in the field of electric blues, as opposed to the more acoustic-based sound of many of his contemporaries...
, Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, and B.B. King. While the early blues rock bands "attempted to play long, involved improvisations which were commonplace on jazz records", by the 1970s, blues rock got heavier and more riff-based. By the "early '70s, the lines between blues rock and hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. In the 1980s and 1990s, blues rock acts returned to their bluesy roots, and some of these, such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
, flirted with rock stardom."
Characteristics
Blues rock can be characterized by bluesy improvisation, the 12-bar blues, extended boogieBoogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie music. The characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie was then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. The earliest recorded...
jams
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
typically focused on the electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
player, and often a heavier, riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
-oriented sound and feel to the songs than might be found in traditional Chicago-style blues
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
. Blues rock bands "borrow[ed] the idea of an instrumental combo and loud amplification from rock & roll". It is also often played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues.
Instrumentation
The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitarElectric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. The electric guitar is usually amplified through a tube guitar amplifier or using an overdrive effect. Often two guitars are played in blues rock bands, one playing the accompaniment riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
s and chords on rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
and one playing the melodic lines and solos of the lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
part. While 1950s-era blues bands would sometimes still use the upright bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, the blues rock bands of the 1960s used the electric bass, which was easier to amplify to loud volumes. Keyboard
Electronic keyboard
An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
instruments such as the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
are also occasionally used. As with the electric guitar, the sound of the Hammond organ is typically amplified with a tube amplifier, which gives a growling, "overdriven" sound quality to the instrument. Vocals also typically play a key role, although the vocals may be equal in importance or even subordinate to the lead guitar playing as well, a number of blues rock pieces are instrumental-only.
Structure
- G9Ninth chordA ninth chord is a chord that encompasses the interval of a ninth when arranged in close position with the root in the bass.A dominant ninth is a dominant chord with a ninth. A ninth chord, as an extended chord, typically includes the seventh along with the basic triad structure. Thus, a Cmaj9...
| C9 | G9 | G9 | C9 | C9 | G9 / Am7Seventh chordA seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chord's root. When not otherwise specified, a "seventh chord" usually means a major triad with an added minor seventh...
| Bm7 / Bbm7 | Am7 | Cm7 | G9 / C9 | G9 / D augmented
...instead of the traditional G | C | G | G | C | C | G | G | D | C | G | G progression. The progression is usually repeated, with only one section of the song, though there are exceptions, some pieces having a "B" section. The key is traditionally major, but can also be minor, a common technique being the use the minor pentatonic scale, with blue note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
s, over a major chord progression, as employed by Albert King
Albert King
Albert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...
in nearly all of his pieces. The lead guitar typically uses the pentatonic scale, either major or minor, when soloing.
A classic example of blues rock is Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
's "Crossroads" first released on Cream's Wheels of Fire
Wheels of Fire
Wheels of Fire is the name of a double album recorded by Cream. The release was largely successful, scoring the band a #3 peak in the United Kingdom and a #1 in the United States, and became the world's first platinum-selling double album....
album. It was adapted from Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues
Cross Road Blues
"Cross Road Blues" is a song by Delta Blues singer Robert Johnson; released on a 78 rpm record in 1936 by Vocalion Records, catalogue 3519. The original version remained out of print after its initial release until the appearance of The Complete Recordings in 1990...
" and "Traveling Riverside Blues
Traveling Riverside Blues
"Travelling Riverside Blues," sometimes called "Mudbone" or "Mud Bone," is a blues song written and recorded in Dallas, Texas by the bluesman Robert Johnson...
". It fuses some of the lyrical and musical styles of blues with rock-styled tempo and guitar solos.
History
While rock and blues have historically always been closely linked, blues rock as a distinctly recognizable genre did not arise until the late 1960s. In 1963, American Lonnie MackLonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack is an American rock, blues and country guitarist and vocalist....
debuted an idiosyncratic, fast-paced electric blues guitar style which confounded his contemporaries, but which later came to be identified with blues rock. His instrumentals from that period were recognizable as blues or R&B tunes, but he relied heavily upon fast-picking techniques derived from traditional American country and bluegrass genres. The best-known of these are the hit singles "Memphis" (Billboard #5) and "Wham!" (Billboard #24). However, blues rock was not named as such, or widely recognized as a distinct movement within rock, until several years later, with the advent of such British bands as Free
Free (band)
Free were an English rock band, formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song "All Right Now". They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become a frontman of the band Bad Company along with Simon Kirke on drums; lead guitarist Paul Kossoff died from a...
, Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are a British blues rock band, formed in 1965, in Battersea, South West London...
and the earliest incarnations of Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
. The musicians in those bands had honed their skills in a handful of British blues bands, primarily those of John Mayall
John Mayall
John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
and Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
. At that point, Mack's earlier recordings were rediscovered and he soon came to be regarded as a blues rock pioneer. Other American performers, such as Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter
John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...
, Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
and the group Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
are now also considered blues rock pioneers.
Music critic Piero Scaruffi argues that the blues rock genre was defined when John Mayall
John Mayall
John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
released the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton in 1966, which included guitarist Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
. Scaruffi defines "blues rock" as a "genre of rhythm'n'blues played by white European musicians." Scaruffi claims that the US "equivalent of John Mayall was Al Kooper
Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
." Cream "took the fusion of blues and rock to places where it had never been before" by engaging in a "level of group improvisation that was worthy of jazz." He calls Fleetwood Mac (during the Peter Green
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...
period in the late 1960s) "one of the most creative and competent British bands of the blues revival". Scaruffi argues that the "British blues musicians were true innovators", in that they did a "metamorphosis" on US blues and "turned it into a "white" music" by emphasizing "the epic refrains of the call and response
Call and response
Call and response is a form of "spontaneous verbal and non-verbal interaction between speaker and listener in which all of the statements are punctuated by expressions from the listener."...
", speeding up the "Chicago's
Chicago blues
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois, by taking the basic acoustic guitar and harmonica-based Delta blues, making the harmonica louder with a microphone and an instrument amplifier, and adding electrically amplified guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums,...
rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
s," smoothing "the vocal delivery to make it sound more operatic" and adding vocal harmony.
The electric guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
(a veteran of many American rhythm & blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
groups from the early-mid 1960s) and his power trios, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience were an English-American psychedelic rock band that formed in London in October 1966. Comprising eponymous singer-songwriter and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the band was active until June 1969, in which...
and Band of Gypsys
Band of Gypsys
Band of Gypsys was a blues rock band led by Jimi Hendrix and backed by Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. Hendrix formed the band after the dissolution of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Band of Gypsys is also the band's eponymous live album recorded on two separate nights, 31 December 1969 and 1 January...
, has had broad and lasting influence on the development of blues rock, especially for guitarists. Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
was another guitarist with a lasting influence on the genre; his work in the 1960s and 1970s with John Mayall
John Mayall
John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
and the Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
, supergroups Blind Faith
Blind Faith
Blind Faith were an English blues-rock band that consisted of Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood and Ric Grech. The band, which was one of the first "super-groups", released their only album, Blind Faith, in August 1969...
, Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
and Derek and the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos were a blues rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, who had all played with Clapton in Delaney, Bonnie & Friends...
, and an extensive solo career has been seminal in bringing blues rock into the mainstream. By this time, American acts such as The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
further introduced mainstream audiences to the genre.
In the late '60s Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
a former member of The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
, revolutionized blues rock into a form of heavy rock, taking the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the USA by storm with his band, The Jeff Beck Group
The Jeff Beck Group
The Jeff Beck Group were an English rock band formed in London in January 1967 by former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck. Their innovative approach to heavy sounding blues and R&B was a major influence on popular music.- The first Jeff Beck Group :...
. Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, a third alumnus of The Yardbirds, went out to form The New Yardbirds which would soon become known as Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
and would become a major force in the 1970s heavy metal scene. The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
during their early run was a blues rock standard group, with their posters for their performances including their catch phrase "Maximum R&B". During this period the band covered songs from Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Willie "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, from Mississippi. He is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills...
, and Mose Allison
Mose Allison
Mose John Allison, Jr. is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...
. The Australian band AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
were also influenced by blues rock. Other blues rock musicians influential on the scene in the 1970s included Rory Gallagher
Rory Gallagher
William Rory Gallagher, ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995, was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste...
and Robin Trower
Robin Trower
Robin Leonard Trower , known professionally as Robin Trower, is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio.-Biography:...
.
Beginning in the early 1970s, American bands such as Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
fused blues with a hard rock edge. Blues rock grew to include Southern rock
Southern rock
Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...
bands, like the Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
and Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band prominent in spreading Southern Rock during the 1970s.Originally formed as the "Noble Five" in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, the band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tune, Freebird...
, while the British scene, except for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat
Foghat
Foghat are a British rock band that had their peak success in the mid- to late-1970s. Their style can be described as "blues-rock," or boogie-rock dominated by electric and electric slide guitar. The band has achieved five gold records...
, became focused on heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
innovation. Blues rock had a re-birth in the early 1990s - 2000s, with many artists such as Gary Moore
Gary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
, The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
, The Dead Weather
The Dead Weather
The Dead Weather is an American alternative rock supergroup, formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2009. Composed of Alison Mosshart , Jack White , Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence , The Dead Weather debuted at the opening of Third Man Records' Nashville...
, Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures is a rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 2009 by John Paul Jones , Dave Grohl , and Josh Homme . The group also includes guitarist Alain Johannes during live performances...
, John Mayer
John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...
, Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler is a rock band, formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. The band has been influenced by a variety of genres, including blues-rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock, soul, and Southern rock...
, The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes are an American rock band formed in 1989. Their discography includes nine studio albums, four live albums and several charting singles. The band was signed to Def American Recordings in 1989 by producer George Drakoulias and released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, the...
, The Black Keys
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer/producer Patrick Carney. The band was formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. As of October 2011, the band has sold over 2 million albums in the U.S....
, Jeff Healey
Jeff Healey
Norman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey was a blind Canadian jazz and blues-rock vocalist and guitarist who attained musical and personal popularity, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
, Clutch
Clutch (band)
Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland, formed in 1990. The band's first release was an EP entitled Pitchfork, which debuted in October 1990. Their first studio album, Transnational Speedway League, was released three years later in 1993. To date, Clutch has released nine studio...
, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa is an American blues rock guitarist and singer.-Early life:Bonamassa was born and raised in New Hartford, United States. His parents owned and ran a guitar shop. He is a fourth-generation musician...
.
Further reading
- Bane, Michael. White Boy Singin' the Blues. Penguin, 1982. 270 p. A5, index. ISBN 0-14-006045-6
- Brunning, Bob.Bob BrunningRobert 'Bob' Brunning was a British musician best known for his role as the original bass guitar player with the blues rock band Fleetwood Mac....
Blues : The British Connection. Foreword by Paul JonesPaul Jones (singer)Paul Jones is an English singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio personality and television presenter.-Career:As P. P...
. Blandford Press, 1986. 256 p., index. ISBN 0-7137-1836-6. Rev. & upd. ed. in 1995 as Blues in Britain : The history, 1950s-90s (other sub-title : 1950s to the Present), 288 p. ISBN 0-7137-2457-9. Re-publ. w/ original title by Helter Skelter, 2002, 288 p. ISBN 1-900924-41-2 - Fancourt, Leslie. British Blues on Record (1957–1970). Retrack Books, 1989. 62 p. A5.
- Heckstall-Smith, Dick. The Safest Place in the World: A Personal History of British Rhythm and Blues. Preface by Jack BruceJack BruceJohn Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
. Quartet, 1989, hb, 178 p. ISBN 0-7043-2696-5. New ed. by Clear Books in 2004, w/ a second part written by Pete Grant, his manager since 2000, now titled as Blowing the blues: Fifty Years Playing the British Blues, w/ a 7-track CD (5 prev. unissued). 256 p. ISBN 1-904555-04-7. - Hjort, Christopher. Strange Brew: Eric Clapton and the British Blues Boom, 1965-1970. Foreword by John MayallJohn MayallJohn Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
. Jawbone, 2007. 352 p. ISBN 1-906002-00-2. - Myers, Paul. Long John Bauldry and the Birth of the British Blues, Greystone Books, 2007, 272 p. ISBN 978-1553652007
- McStravick, Summer; Roos, John (eds); Foreword by Bob Brunning. Blues-Rock Explosion, Old Goat Publishing, 2001. 286 p A4 + xxxi, index. ISBN 0-9701332-7-8.
- Schwartz, Roberta Freund. How Britain Got the Blues: The Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom. Ashgate (Ashgate Popular and Folk music series), 2007. 282 p., hb. ISBN 0-7546-5580-6.