Henry Sloan (1870-1948?) was already playing the blues in 1897, making him one of the earliest known blues musicians anywhere (Palmer 1981, 57).
Mamie Smith (1883-1946) was an American vaudeville and blues singer.
Ma Rainey (1886-1939) first heard the Blues from a young girl singing in a small Missouri town, saying it sounded "strange and poignant" (Palmer, Deep Blues, 1981, 44). She decided to work it into her vaudeville act, and received a great response from rural black audiences.
Charley Patton (between April 1887 and 1891–1934), was an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues," and is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta-blues man (Palmer 1981, 48-57).
Sam Collins (1887-1949) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Employed bottleneck-slide guitar. Recorded for Gennett Records. he moved to Chicago in the late 1930's.
Full name is Huddie Ledbetter (1888-1949), "discovered" by Alan Lomax while serving time in prison for attempted murder, Lomax convinced authorities to release Lead Belly, so that he could record and perform his music (Brasch 2004, 26).
Joshua Barnes "Peg Leg" Howell (1888-1966) was an American blues singer and guitarist.
Noah Lewis was an American singer and blues harmonica musician.
W.C. Handy, who would later achieve fame as a songwriter and "populizer" of the blues, first hears blues in St. Louis, calling them "shabby guitarists... with one-line verses that could go on all night" (Palmer, Deep Blues, 1981, 42).
Born Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon (1892-1964), he was an American blues musician, and a member of the Mississippi Sheiks.
Blind Lemon Jefferson (1897-1930) was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He is known as the father of the Texas Blues. He employed "poly-rhythmic effects" while playing guitar (Palmer 1981, 64).
Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (1893-1981) was an American blues and country guitarist and songwriter from Memphis.
Bessie Smith (1894-1937) was widely responsible for increasing the appeal of the Blues in the early 1900's. She was the first Blues recording star, known as the "Queen of the Blues" (Brasch 2004, 27).
Sara Martin (1884-1955) was an American blues singer, billed "The Famous Moanin' Mama," and "The Colored Sophie Tucker."
Clara Smith (1894-1935) was an American blues singer, billed as "The Queen of the Moaners."
Otis Spann (1930-1970) was an American blues pianist who performed post WWII in Chicago.
Hughie Cannon (1877-1912), composer of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey," wrote early works structured in 12-bar Blues (Long Lost Blues: Popular Blues in America, 1850-1920, by Peter C. Muir, 189).
Henry Speir (1895-1972) was largely responsible for recording Delta-blues artists such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Son House, Skip James, the Mississippi Sheiks, and Tommy Johnson.
Willie Brown (1895 to 1890-1952) was a talented guitarist with a "clean, fast, aggressive picking style, inventive bass rhythms, and extraordinary poly-rhythmic dexterity" (Palmer 1981, 58).
Alberta Hunter (1895-1974) was an American blues singer and songwriter. Her career started in the 1920's. She left her home of Memphis in her teens to move to Chicago, and performed widely in Chicago, New York, and Europe.
Trixie Smith (1895-1943) was a female American blues singer.
Johnson (1896-1956) recorded in the 1920's, and was known for a high falsetto voice, and virtuosic guitar.
Robert Wilkins (1896-1987) was an American blues guitarist and singer. He was known to perform blues, country, ragtime, minstrel, and gospel.
Ida Prather Cox (1896-1967) was an American blues and vaudeville singer.
"Blind" Blake Arthur (1896-1934) was an American blues musician who was born in Virginia.
The National Gramophone Company introduces the first phonograph as an alternative to the recorded cylinders invented by Thomas Edison in 1877.
Memphis Minnie was a female American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter.
Born Lee Conly Bradley (1898-1958), a fiddler and a guitarist, became an accomplished performer. Through the 1930s he was a significant mover in founding the small group blues (singer, guitar, piano, bass drums) sound that typified Chicago-blues.
Beulah "Sippie" Wallace (1898-1986) was an American singer-songwriter. She recorded on Okeh records, and accompanied greats such as Louis Armstrong and King Oliver.
William Samuel "Blind Willie" McTell (1898-1959) was a blues singer and guitarist from Georgia. Born blind, he was featured on the Library of Congress recordings by Alan Lomax.
De Ford Bailey (1892-1982) was an American blues and country harmonica player.
Alger "Texas" Alexander (1900-1954) was an American blues singer from Jewett, Texas.
"Blind Joe" Reynolds (1900-1968) was born in Louisiana. He was an American blues singer and guitarist.
Lottie Kimrough was born in 1900. She was an American female blues singer.
James "Kokomo" Arnold (1901-1968) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist, born in Georgia.
Ishman Bracey (1901-1970) was an American blues guitarist and singer from Mississippi.
Eddie "Son" House (1902-1988) was a failed preacher, convicted murderer, guitarist, and blues singer (Palmer 1981, 79).
When W.C. Handy happened upon a man singing on a train platform in Tutwiler,, Mississippi, he heard all together a new style of music. It included bottleneck-slide guitar, repeated lyrics
"Mississippi Fred McDowell (1904-1972) was a legend of the bottleneck-slide guitar. Re-discovered after WWII, he emerged as the reigning slide king.
Big Maceo Merriweather(1905-1953) was an American Chicago blues pianist and singer.
Henry Spaulding (1905-1939) was an american blues singer and guitarist, who recorded in the late 1920's - 1930's.
Theodore Roosevelt "Blind Teddy" Darby (1906-1975) was an American blues guitarist and singer, born in Kentucky.
A Chicago blues musician, Johnny Temple (1906-1968) was a contemporary of Skip James.
Victoria Spivey (1906-1976) was an American blues singer and songwriter, born in Texas.
Blind Boy Fuller, born Fulton Allen (1907-1941), was a vocalist and guitarist from North Carolina. He recorded Piedmont Blues guitar style, which refers to a particular finger-picking style of the East Coast of the U.S..
Tommy McClennan (1908-1962) was an American Delta-blues singer and guitarist.
Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White (1909-1977) was said to have learned from listening to Charley Patton's recordings (Palmer 1981, 62).
John Hammond (1910–1987) was an American record producer, Civil Rights activist, and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music
Howlin' Wolf (1910-1976) was one of the most famous Chicago blues men, and the chief competitor to Muddy Waters.
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (1910–1975) was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was an innovator of the jump blues and electric blues sound
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