Bukka White

• Genre: Delta Blues
• Hometown: Houston

About

Not even Keith Richards could play an open G tuning like Bukka White. Not only did he slide up and down the neck with the grace, finesse, and dexterity of a clock maker, but he also infused a rhythmic style to his playing that has yet to be duplicated. White's career had two lives. From the 1930s to '40s, he played Delta Blues with open wounds bleeding from his songs. His eerie narratives of hard living crept into his warble-mouthed musings, as his hands pulled otherworldly tones and slap-knock rhythms from an old National steel guitar. When the blues revival hit hard in the '60s, White's music resurfaced after a ten-year hiatus -- this time more song-driven and accessible to younger crowds. He became well-known as a driving live performer, creating myths of dance floors being broken by his hypnotized audiences worked up into berserk dancing frenzies.

- Eric Shea