

In 1969, my family moved out of Manhattan for the northern reaches of Westchester County. I wasn't happy about being there, but it was still better than dealing with the city's overcrowded classrooms and the threat of muggings in school stairways. The good news was that by age 15, two years later, I could access New York by taking the train. So on Saturdays, I began traveling alone to the city to spend hours at large record stores, returning with four or five jazz albums paid for with lawn-mowing money. Jazz was my refuge and, in the rural suburbs, my own private music genre no one else knew about. That's how albums were then. You discovered music you loved that no one else was familiar with and that corner of the world became your best friend. [Photo above of Albert King]



By '71, many of my rock-loving friends in Westchester had grown weary of British blues-rock guitarists. Solos weren't long enough or sufficiently soulful. They were looking for the real thing and were eager to hear more by the names they saw in music-magazine articles. Unfortunately, records by Albert King, Freddie King and other electric blues players weren't available at our local mall. My friends had never been to New York and didn't plan to go. They were frightened of making the trip and the dangers they'd heard about on the news. [Photo above of Magic Sam]



So they cut a deal with me. If I bought them albums by these blues guitarists while I was in the city, they'd pay for two of my jazz albums. I took them up on their offer. Even though I had given up on rock (a little too druggy and long-winded for me), I became intrigued by the blues players and the originality of their sound. Their albums made it onto my shopping list as well. [Photo above of Freddie King]

Here are five blues guitarists who caught my ear nearly 50 years ago and still do now:

Here's Albert King at the Fillmore East in 1970...

Here's Freddie King in Europe...

Here's Magic Sam in 1969...

Here's John Lee Hooker in 1969...

And here's Otis Rush...