You never know who you're going to meet on the internet and I came to know Peter Tibbles (bio here) via email over the past couple of years. His extensive knowledge of most genres of music and his excellent taste became apparent only gradually (Peter's not one to toot his horn) but once I understood, I knew he needed his own column at Time Goes By - or, better, that TGB needed his column - which appears here each Sunday. You can find previous Elder Music columns here.

Most of the important early Chicago blues singer were born in Mississippi and brought their country blues style to the big smoke. That city changed them and they changed music forever.

Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield, which is a splendid name. He acquired the name Muddy as a young boy (playing in the mud, something we all did, but he copped the moniker). He added the Waters himself as a teenager.

Muddy made many fine singles and albums in his early career at Chess records and in his final years, Johnny Winter produced him with a highly recommended series of albums. However, I’m going in the period between those with a track from an album made in the late sixties that’s rather airily dismissed by the “bluesier than thou” types, but I like it. This is Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had from “Fathers and Sons.”

Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had

Howlin’ Wolf’s mum knew him as Chester Burnett. He was an imposing figure (at least when he grew up), two metres tall (that’s a lot of feet and inches) with a huge voice that would dominate any stage. He could rock the house down and scare patrons out of their wits.

As a youth, he listened to Charley Patton, who taught him the rudiments of guitar, as well as Tommy Johnson and Jimmie Rodgers, who was Wolf's childhood idol. He tried to emulate Jimmie’s yodeling but found it came out more as a howl.

Unlike many of the blues singers, Wolf was financially successful, a dedicated family man who was devoted to his wife and avoided the pitfalls of alcohol, gambling and similar traps to which so many of his peers fell prey. He was functionally illiterate into adulthood but he returned (or perhaps went) to school and gained an education. He’s an inspiration to us all.

He was a huge influence on the English bands of the sixties, especially the Rolling Stones and The Animals. The Stones covered one of his most famous songs and that seems like a good reason to play Wolf’s version of The Red Rooster. This was written by Willie Dixon who wrote a number of Wolf’s most important songs.

The Red Rooster

Which brings us to Willie Dixon, the third important figure. He wrote half the blues songs out there, produced most of them and played bass on a lot. He rarely sang on any of them though. He was also another who topped two metres. I don’t think you had to be tall to be a great bluesman but it probably helped.

He started out as a professional boxer and worked briefly as Joe Louis' sparring partner. Being cheated out of prize money, he decided to do something else. That something else was music.

He signed with Chess records originally as a singer but quickly became involved in producing and writing songs. He was employed by that company as a producer, A&R talent scout, session musician and staff songwriter.

Willie bestrode the blues-rock&roll divide, introducing Chess Records and the world to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.

In his later years, he became a tireless advocate for his fellow performers and worked to establish and preserve copyrights and royalties for blues musicians who were exploited in the past. He was inducted into the both the Blues and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.

This is one of the few tracks on which Willie sang, it’s called Crazy For My Baby.

Crazy For My Baby

Not all the Chicago blues were produced by men. Indeed, a good case could be made for Memphis Minnie starting the whole ball rolling in this genre. But here we’ll look at Koko Taylor who was born in Tennessee and moved to Chicago with her truck-driving husband.

Koko played the clubs in Chicago, was spotted by Willie Dixon and signed to Chess records. She had an immediate hit with Wang Dang Doodle, a song written by Dixon and successfully performed by Howlin’ Wolf some years earlier.

She toured extensively in the sixties and seventies and became more widely known when she signed with Alligator Records and produced a number of Grammy-nominated albums. Koko became a role model for other female blues performers such as Bonnie Raitt and Susan Tedeschi. Alas, she died in 2009.

Here she is performing Twenty-nine Ways.

Twenty-nine Ways

Etta James is from Los Angeles and she has claimed her mother told her that her father was the legendary "Minnesota Fats" (Rudolf Wanderone). I don’t know if Rudi was noted for his singing, but Etta sure is.

Johnny Otis discovered Etta, but there are differing accounts how this came about. However it happened, she recorded, with some friends, Dance With Me Henry. In the way of these things at the time, a rushed-out cover version by Georgia Gibbs undercut her.

In spite of this, it did bring her to the eye of promoters and she went on tour with Little Richard. Now that must have been interesting.

In 1960, Etta joined (yep, you guessed it) Chess records and had a bunch of blues hits. After recording some standards, Chess started promoting her as a cross-over artist. That was quite successful until Etta derailed it by getting a bit too much into the illegal substances.

After some years she made a successful return to recording at Atlantic and has gone more into the jazz direction. She has recorded a couple of Grammy-winning records in this genre.

Here she is in a soulful mood with I'd Rather Go Blind.

I'd Rather Go Blind

George "Buddy” Guy grew up in Louisiana and learned to play guitar at a young age. In the early fifties, he performed around that state until later that decade he moved to Chicago and fell under the influence of Muddy Waters. He joined Chess records (now there’s a surprise) but their then rather conservative policy didn’t bring out the best in Buddy’s recorded output at the time.

Buddy’s influence on the sixties’ blues and rock performers is immense, but as their popularity soared (along with their wealth), his declined. It was due to the blues revival a decade or two later that his star was in the ascendancy again.

Buddy’s concerts are flamboyant and, while his music is labeled Chicago blues, it can vary from the most traditional, deepest blues to a creative, unpredictable and radical mixture of blues, avante garde rock, soul and free jazz. He was a major influence on Jimi Hendrix who would occasionally cancel his own concerts to go and see Buddy. He had a similar effect on Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and others.

Here is Buddy playing When The Time Is Right

When The Time Is Right