-
-
Victor Records issues the first known recording of black music, "Camp Meeting Shouts."
-
Mamie Smith records for Okeh Records. Her "Crazy Blues" becomes the first blues hit, beginning the business of "race" recording.
-
Electrical recording technology is introduced.
-
Blind Lemon Jefferson is first recorded. He will become the dominant blues figure of the late 1920s and the first star of the folk blues.
-
One of the greatest Blues legends of all time, Robert Johnson, died outide of Greenwood, Mississippi
-
Eddie Durham records the first music featuring the electric guitar. It will be a key factor in transforming the sound of blues
-
The Log was the first solid-body guitar. It was built with a 4x4 piece of fencepost, with pickups made from pieces of a telephone and an Epiphone body cut in half and glued to either side.
-
B.B. King has his first major rhythm and blues hit with a version of "Three O'Clock Blues."
-
Samuel Charters publishes The Country Blues, fueling the blues element of the folk music revival.
-
The Newpork Folk Festival became a popular spot for Bluesmen to play, including Howlin' Wolf, The Allman Brothers, John Lee Hooker, and many others,
-
Muddy Waters performs at the Newport Jazz Festival to tremendous acclaim.
-
John Hammond pushes to have a selection of Robert Johnson's recordings reissued on LP by Columbia.
-
What would become the Rolling Stones formed as a Blues band.
-
The first U.S. tour by the Rolling Stones marks the invasion of British blues rock bands.
-
The Blues Foundation created the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. It's innagural members are some of the greatest in Blues history: Robert Johnson, John Lee hooker, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, among many more.
