Nick Holt is best remembered as the longtime bassist for his brother’s band, Magic Slim & the Teardrops. Co-forming the band in 1960, Holt played beside his brother for the next 40 years. Besides also fronting the Nick Holt Blues Band, he was also a popular session musician, having worked with the likes of Little Milton and Vance Kelly. He died of brain cancer at the age of 69.
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He’s been called the “Worlds Greatest Blues Singer,” but John Lee Hooker was much more than that. With over 100 albums to his credit, he was one of the most influential singers, guitarists and songwriters the world has ever known, blues or otherwise. A son of a sharecropper, Hooker was born near Clarksdale, MS where he developed his unique style of picking and “talk singing” that is often associated with Delta blues. His cousin, Earl Hooker was also a respected blues musician. By the late ’40s, Hooker found himself living in Detroit where he worked he assembly line at Ford by day and jammed at the local blues clubs by night. In 1948, his first single was released. It was called “Boogie Chillen” and it became a hit, but as was the case with many blues artists of the day, his record label heads made most of the money from its success. Another of his signature songs, “Boom Boom” was released in 1962 during the folk and blues revival of the early ’60s. In the ’80s, Hooker was back in vogue after appearing in the films, The Blues Brothers and the Last Waltz. In 1989, a stellar cast of admirers joined him on his The Healer album for which he won a Grammy. John Lee Hooker passed away of natural causes at 83.
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Rory Gallagher was an Irish blues rock guitar great who sold more than 30 million albums and is considered one of the greatest musicians Ireland has ever produced. Gallagher first began making waves with his mid ’60s blues rock trio, Taste. The band began building a solid reputation in London and soon found themselves opening for such bands as Cream and Blind Faith. By the early ’70s, Taste had broken up and Gallagher was now leading a trio under his own name, making some of his best and most popular albums. In 1972, the trend-setting Melody Maker magazine named him Top Musician Of The Year. It was during this period that Gallagher was being strongly considered for the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple AND Canned Heat. By the ’80s however, Gallagher was falling deeper into drug and alcohol addiction, and his musical output suffered from it. He made his final performance in January of 1995, and was in such bad health, he soon needed a liver transplant. Unfortunately, an infection developed following the surgery, and he died at the age of 47.
Wynonie Harris was popular jump blues and R&B singer during the late ’40s, earning himself fifteen Top 10 hits during a six year span from 1946 to 1952. He is generally credited for helping lead jazz and blues into rock ‘n roll. Influenced early on by singers, Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing, Harris started making a name for himself during the Great Depression. In 1940, he moved to Los Angeles where he began to be known as “Mr. Blue.” Harris stayed active both recording and performing into the mid ’60s. He died of esophageal cancer on June 14, 1969.
Often compared to Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Campbell was a Shreveport-born blues singer, songwriter and guitarist that played and sang with such fury that he left most audiences awestruck. After moving to Texas as a child, Campbell picked up the guitar at the age of eight, and by the time he hit his teens, he was sharing the stage with the likes of Son Seals, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and Albert Collins. Campbell was eventually signed by Elektra Records who released just two albums before he suddenly died of a heart attack while he slept on June 13, 1993.
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Nick Holt is best remembered as the longtime bassist for his brother’s band, Magic Slim & the Teardrops. Co-forming the band in 1960, Holt played beside his brother for the next 40 years. Besides also fronting the Nick Holt Blues Band, he was also a popular session musician, having worked with the likes of Little Milton and Vance Kelly. He died of brain cancer at the age of 69.
