Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?*
(*with thanks to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band – see clip at the end)

"This song is dedicated to all those modern blues singers who were deprived of a deprived childhood" - Frankie J Holden, "Charted Accountant Blues"

With all the fuss about the new Rolling Stones' new blues album (and yes they should’ve done it years ago and yes, it’s great), we figured it time to have a look at some of the other great white blues artists we've seen over the years. And, putting the Bonzo’s and Frankie J’s cheeky digs and any arguments regarding cultural appropriation aside, there have been some great ones, including some that not a whole lot of people have heard of. Here’s 15 of our favourites. (NB - We’ve only put a couple of Aussie’s here but there could be more – stay tuned for another post.)

1. Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Rightfully legendary and hugely influential, the racial integrated Butterfield Band were seen as perhaps the first serious attempt by young and white Americans to play the blues in a rock context. Sure there had been plenty of early groups like fellow Chicagoans the Shadows of Knight and any number of other garage bands, but they were all playing teen clubs and coming to it via British bands like the Yardbirds, Animals, and of course the Stones. These guys saw it as grown up music, and weren’t looking across the pond. With the great Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar, they quickly expanded upon their roots and had a big influence on the bourgeoning psychedelic movement.

Also check out: Charlie Musselwhite

Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Born in Chicago

 2. Fleetwood Mac (with Peter Green)

Over the pond but similarly positioned to Butterfield between blues revival and a more progressive rock, Fleetwood Mac under Peter Green were an incredible band. Green’s guitar playing and in particular the tone he achieved on heavy duty tracks like "Oh Well" and "Rattlesnake Shake" influenced everyone from Led Zeppelin to Aerosmith to the Black Keys.

Also check out: John Mayall Bluesbreakers

Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well

3. J. Geils Band

Better known for their super high energy R&B jams, the early Geils band could deliver a bone-hard, stone-cold blues like nobody’s business. Case in point is this great John Lee Hooker cover from their fantastic debut album.

Also check out: Australia’s own Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons

J. Geils Band - Serves You Right To Suffer

4. Ry Cooder

Ry has explored so many styles there’s no way he’ll be pegged as just a bluesman - and of course the Stones themselves are just one of a multitude of artists who’ve gleaned much from an association with him - but he’s cut plenty of great blues tracks over the years.. None better than his amazing version of Blind Willie johnson’s ethereal "Dark Was The Night Cold Was the Ground" from Paris, Texas.

Also check out James Luther Dickinson

Ry Cooder - Dark Was The Night

5. Captain Beefheart

Beefheart was at his straightest early on – a teenaged Ry Cooder played on the first Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band album Safe As Milk, but the blues was always at the core of his music, no matter where it went. And he obviously had the biggest lungs this side of Howlin’ Wolf – check out his voice and the massive harp tone on this amazing track from The Spotlight Kid.

Also check out: ...err, any ideas anyone?

Captain Beefheart - Grow Fins

6. Chain

As we all know Australia had a massive blues scene in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s too. Chain have always been flagbearers for Aussie blues, and they genuinely made a new genre out of it with the iconic "Black & Blue". "Fair Dinkum Aussie Blues" is what Matt Taylor called it, and he wasn’t fooling. (For more great ‘70s Aussie blues & boogie, check out Festival’s fantastic Boogie! Australian Blues, R&B and Hard Rock of the ‘70s)

Also check out: Wendy Saddington, Carson

Chain - Black & Blue

 

7. Dr. Feelgood

Canvey Island’s Feelgoods rode the London Pub rock explosion as it fishtailed into early punk and had a #1 live album for their troubles in ’76. Not bad for a bunch of guys who dressed like sweaty used car salesmen. Their form of blues was stripped back and hyped-up, like J.Geils on speed. Fact: unstoppable shag-haired guitarist Wilko Johnson played the chrome-domed executioner in early episodes of ‘A Game of Thrones’.

Also check out: The Count Bishops    

Dr. Feelgood - Roxette

8. Kenny Brown

Best known as RL Burnside’s ‘adopted son’ and longtime sideman, Kenny grew up steeped in the North Mississippi hill country blues. As a kid he learned at the feet of elderly neighbour Joe Callicot, who recorded as early as 1929 and whose song "Love Me Baby Blues" was later recorded by Ry Cooder as "France Chance". Kenny worked with RL from the early ‘70s til RL’s death in 2005 and has also performed and recorded for years under his own name. The title track from Kenny’s first solo album Going Back to Mississippi is simply the greatest Rolling Stones rocker that the Stones never recorded. This live version doesn’t quite capture the nuance but it’s still great. All of Kenny’s records are great.

Also check out: North Mississippi All-stars

Kenny Brown - Back to Mississippi

9. The Red Devils

The band that, famously, backed Mick Jagger on an unreleased (but bootlegged) pure blues session in the ‘90s. The Red Devils were a popular LA bar band: Rick Rubin saw them and cut the great live album King King that cemented their legend. The band had connections to LA’s great roots-rockers the Blasters, and, in Lester Butler a great harp-playing frontman who sadly overdosed in 1998. 

Also check out: Lester Butler’s 13

The Red Devils - She’s Dangerous

10. Fabulous Thunderbirds

Jimmie Vaughan is a very different player than his more celebrated brother Stevie Ray was. Jimmie is a master of feel and simplicity. The early Thunderbirds were a booze and grease-drenched tribute to the ‘50s R&B of Louisiana and their home state Texas, and Kim Wilson rocked a mean turban. Their first few albums in particular are great party-starters.

Also check out: Stevie Ray Vaughan

Fabulous Thunderbirds - Rock with Me

11. Canned Heat

They’ve been around for ever and have had more members than Bill Wyman’s had girlfriends, but Canned Heat remain the masters of Boogie, having popularized it late in the ‘60s. Too often dismissed for their role in the popularisation (and thus perhaps the dumbing down of) the extended jam-style of boogie, the band, which was formed by deeply knowledgable young blues collectors and scholars Bob Hite and Alan ‘Blind Owl’ Wilson released some killer stuff, especially early on. Can’t go past "Goin’ Up The Country" for Wilson’s otherworldy lead vocal.

Also check out: George Thorogood & the Destroyers

Canned Heat - Going Up the Country

12.  Johnny Winter

Johnny cut his teeth on the Texas circuit from the tail end of the ‘50s and right through the ‘60s, so the stuff was in his bones. He fulfilled a dream by producing a few classic Muddy Waters albums in the mid-70s, and was a leading figure in blues circles until his death in 2014. There’s some great early ‘70s Johnny footage on YouTube, including this…

Also checkout: Roy Buchanan

Johnny Winter - Mean Town Blues

13. Rory Gallagher

Irish guitarist Rory was massively popular figure in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and came in at #57 on Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Greatest Guitarists’ list. He was equally at home on electric or an acoustic resonator. He wrote some great originals but one of his signature tunes was his cover of JB Hutto’s "Too Much Alcohol". Here it is from Rory’s great live album Irish Tour 74.

Also check out: Ten Years After

Rory Gallagher - Too Much Alcohol

14. Moloch

Memphis early ‘70s heavy rockers, Moloch are best known (or should be better known for) the great track "Going Down" (produced, written and arranged by Don Nix, who also gave it to Freddie King), which was later covered by Jeff Beck, JJ Cale and others, and which subsequently became a de facto Aussie blues anthem in the hands of Billy Thorpe and Lobby Loyde at Sunbury (and has been revived by the Angels, Rose Tattoo and no doubt plenty of others).

Also check out: Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs

Moloch - Going Down

15. Paramount Trio

Throughout the late ‘80s and ‘90s, this Melbourne combo provided a great lesson to many a blues novice, including this writer, in pre-war blues as well as some of the rockin’ Excello and Chicago stuff. Singer/harp-player Dave Hogan had been at it since fronting unrecorded NZ band the Unknown blues in Invercargill in the mid-60s and also fronted biker faves Southern Lightning. Guitarist Warren Rough had been in legendary local roots groups the Autodrifters and the Crackerjacks. Drummer Ken Farmer, legend has it, was in London in the very early ‘60s and had played with the likes of Manfred Mann before they got famous. They cut my favourite ever version of "Smokestack Lightning" on their second album, but there’s not much on YouTube so this will have to do. And don’t be fooled, they dug a lot deeper than this obvious choice would suggest.

Also check out: Dutch Tilders, The Backsliders, the Foreday riders, CW Stoneking. And stay tuned for an ILYOS Aussie blues special sometime soon!

Paramount Trio - Dust My Broom

And one final word from Frankie J Holden before we look at the Bonzo’s track:
"Got my mojo workin' / but... what the hell is a mojo anyway?"

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?

- DL