Artie 'Blues Boy' White

guitarist, singer 

 

16.04.1937 - 20.04.2013

Artie "Blues Boy" White was an American blues and soul singer and guitarist based in Chicago, who was described as "one of the foremost Chicago practitioners of Southern Soul music". Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he first began performing in his teens with a gospel group, the Harps of David, before moving to Chicago in 1956. He continued to sing gospel in the Full Gospel Wonders, but switched to perform blues music in Chicago clubs in the early 1960s. After releasing several singles on small labels, he had his only chart hit in 1977 with "(You Are My) Leanin' Tree", written by Chicago songwriter Bob Jones and released on the ALTee label, which reached number 99 on the Billboard R&B chart.

For a while he ran a blues club, Bootsy's Show Lounge, and later another venue, the New Club Bootsy’s. He continued to perform and record, releasing the album Blues Boy on the Ronn label in 1985 and thereafter adopting the title as his sobriquet. In 1987, he moved to the Ichiban label, where he recorded seven albums of soul blues, including more of Bob Jones' songs and, on the 1989 album Thangs Got to Change, a collaboration with his musical inspiration, Little Milton Campbell. He signed for the Waldoxy label, a subsidiary of Malaco Records, in 1994, and released the album Different Shades of Blue, which was nominated for the Jackson Blues Award. His most popular singles in the 1990s included “I'm Gonna Marry My Mother-In-Law” (1994) and “Your Man Is Home Tonight” (1997). In 1997 he released the album Back Home to Clarksdale: A Tribute to Muddy Waters, followed by Can We Get Together (1999).

He became well known on the Chicago blues scene for his flamboyant costumes and stage presence, toured internationally, and headlined the 2000 Chicago Blues Festival. In 2001 he released the album Can't Get Enough on his own AChillTown label. He became ill later in the decade, developing multiple health issues and increasingly becoming confined to a wheelchair, but returned to occasional performances such as a concert to honor Buddy Guy in 2008.

James Henry 'Jimmy' Dawkins

guitarist, singer 

 

24.10.1936 - 10.04.2013

James Henry “Jimmy” Dawkins was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He is generally considered to have been a practitioner of the "West Side sound" of Chicago blues. Dawkins was born in Tchula, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago in 1955, where he worked in a box factory, started to play in local blues clubs, and gained a reputation as a session musician.

In 1969, thanks to the efforts of his friend Magic Sam, his first album, Fast Fingers, was released by Delmark Records. It won the Grand Prix du Disque from the Hot Club de France. In 1971, Delmark released his second album, All for Business, with the singer Andrew Odom and the guitarist Otis Rush.

Dawkins toured in the late 1970s, backed up by James Solberg (of Luther Allison and the Nighthawks) on guitar and Jon Preizler (the Lamont Cranston Band, Luther Allison, and Albert King), a Seattle-based Hammond B-3 organ player known for his soulful jazz-influenced style. Other musicians that toured with Dawkins in the late 1970s were Jimi Schutte (drums), Sylvester Boines (bass), Rich Kirch and Billy Flynn (guitars). Dawkins toured in Europe with this group of musicians. He also toured in Japan and recorded more albums in the United States and Europe. He contributed a column to the blues magazine Living Blues.

In the 1980s he released few recordings but started his own record label, Leric Records, and was more interested in promoting other artists, including Taildragger, Queen Sylvia Embry, Little Johnny Christian and Nora Jean Bruso (née Wallace).