Artists Who Opened New Doors

[B Vance]

Who were some of the artists that opened up the doors to new styles of music you may have never experienced had you not found them?

[PeeWee]

George Harrison's interest in Indian ragas introduced me to that style of music. Some of my favorite Beatles tracks are the ones heavily influenced by his study with Ravi Shankar. Then, through Ravi I discovered his daughter, Anoushka, who is a master sitarist in her own right. I recently discovered Zakir Hussain, who played tabla on "Within You And Without You" when he was a mere teenager and is considered a virtuoso in Indian Classical music today.

Through The Stones, Clapton and Johnny Nash I was turned on to Reggae in the early '70s and found folks like Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer & Max Romeo and then taking it a bit further back, the great Ska bands of the late '50s and early '60s; not to be confused with the stuff that came out of England with the Specials, English Beat or Selector and certainly not the shit they try to pass off today as Ska. Love the Skatalites, Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, The Charmers and such!

[B Vance]

It was probably rude of me not to post some of mine...

Sam Cooke - he opened a big door for me into a lot of classic soul and R&B. Although I wasn't directly introduced to some of the artists he opened the door for, but I had a much greater appreciation for what they brought to the table. Artists like Lou Rawls, Al Green, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and even more recent artists like Musiq Soulchild, John Legend and Lauryn Hill.

SRV - Otis Rush, Albert King, Freddy King, Robben Ford, Larry Carlton and Chris Duarte.

Keb Mo - Son House and Muddy Waters

[PeeWee]

It's funny how the circle continues. My intro to Muddy came via the Stones. It was their version of "Mannish Boy" from Love You Live and "I Can't Be Satisfied" from More Hot Rocks that made me want to go see Muddy in '78. I was 15 then and sat no more than 6 feet away from him at a club that I was far too young to have been in to start with. Major Life changing moment for me! It was also the Stones who turned me on the Slim Harpo with their takes on "I'm A King Bee" and "Shake Your Hips". Clapton was where I first learned of Otis Rush, via the Bluesbreakers LP.

In retrospect, The Stones were my starting point when I was first learning about all the great blues cats. They led me to Muddy, Little Walter, Slim Harpo, 'Wolf and in turn to guys like Charlie Patton, Bukka White and Son House while continuing to trace points of influence. Clapton led me to Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Albert King and it was my love of B.B. King that led me to find Peter Green and Mike Bloomfield.

My journey into Memphis Soul started with Booker T & The MGs - "Green Onions" in particular - then to the Mar-Keys which led to Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, Sam & Dave and so on. Once I learned that they were essentially the house band at Stax, I wanted to hear everything that I could possibly get my hands on. Stax/Volt led me to Hi Records where I heard Al Green, Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles and the like and got my first taste of the Hodges Brothers AKA "The Hi Rhythm Section". All of these folks have had a huge influence on my playing at one time or another.