JIMMY REED
You might call him "The Blues Everyman," just representing ordinary people, revealing basic feelings about relationships, be they romantic or business. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Jimmy Reed generally avoided really dire themes in his songs, most of which he wrote himself, preferring simple narratives of love gained or lost. Establishing a routine early, his songs all sounded markedly similar (a slow-to-medium shuffling beat, standard rhythm guitar riffs, casually appealing harmonica interludes and a vocal approach prone to lyric slurring), steering clear of the urgency conveyed by other '50s bluesmen. For some, a repetitious formula such as this might be good for one or two hit records, but in Reed's case it gained him a legion of followers; he averaged one or ... MORE ››
