JB Lenoir

JB Lenoir recorded one of my favourite acoustic albums: Alabama Blues

Sleepy John Estes

.. strange voice and blues poetry...

Bukka White

.. muddy bottleneck, rough blues and resonator guitar... back to the roots...

Hounddog Taylor

.. six fingers at each hand and a smile like a knife... sharp enough to cut one on a drunken night...




.. some good time music...

Howlin' Wolf

.. Chester Burnett aka Howlin' Wolf... deep chilling voice on tribal rhythms...


.. one of my favorite tracks from the London sessions...Who's been talking? ...

leadbelly

.. Huddie Ledbetter, aka Leadbelly... powerful singer and great figure of the blues...
playing a 12-string Stella loud and clear...


.. in the pastel above we can imagine him playing John Hardy: he recorded a version of this song with a button accordion... something strange and rather hypnotic...



listen to an extract of John Hardy by Leadbelly...

Back to the start

.. Guess it began with that sketch I made from a Leadbelly cover... the drawing seemed ok and people around me found it cool.
.. My slow brain had finally made the connection between two things I really love:
Blues and drawing...
.. So I went on trying to make portraits of those men who's music had brought me so much fun, looking for photographs and everything I could find about early blues,with the will to bring back in my sketches the spirit of those times.
.. Later on, as I had the opportunity to show my work in a gallery, I came to painting and started with some acrylics on wood...
.. I still keep on that way, trying to get some life out of my brushes (it doesn't work everytime but I try to do my best)...

Leadbelly's green corn... sometimes life can be so simple...