While its shiftless younger cousins, rock and hip-hop, rely on the impulsive tendencies of youth, blues is a genre that rewards mastery. From B.B. to John Lee, the best bluesmen only improve with age. Case in point: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inductee Elvin Bishop. His 1976 single “Fooled Around and Fell…
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Yousif Kassab on June 14, 2017
The 36th annual Fountain Blues Festival is just a week away. But for blues fanatics, there’s plenty more free-form jamming, harmonica solos and hard living to celebrate during “Blues Week,” which runs from this Sunday until the main event at Plaza de Cesar Chavez on June 24.
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Stacy Torres on June 22, 2016
Of all the incredible blues performances Dan Ross has seen in his time, there is one he will never forget. “It was just fantastic when John Lee Hooker came out and basically rocked 3,000 people with his boot,” Ross says, recalling one of the two times the blues legend performed at the…
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When the Fountain Blues Festival started in 1981, there was barely a place for blues musicians to play in San Jose. Yet it drew 1,000 people that first year. The next year, the organizers managed to score John Lee Hooker to headline. They more than doubled the attendance. Through the years, tons…
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