Charlie Musselwhite | Artist
Charles Douglas Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader born 1944 in Kosciusko Mississippi. He was one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. His family considered it natural to play music. His father played guitar and harmonica, his mother played piano, and a relative was a one-man band. At the age of three, Musselwhite moved to Memphis Tennessee where he experienced the cocktail of rockabilly, western swing and electric blues music which combining to give birth to rock and roll. Musselwhite supported himself by digging ditches, laying concrete and running moonshine in a 1950 Lincoln automobile. This environment was a school for music as well as life for Musselwhite, who eventually acquired the nickname Memphis Charlie. In true bluesman fashion, Musselwhite then took off in search of the rumoured "big-paying factory jobs" up the "Hillbilly Highway", Highway 51 to Chicago, where he continued his education on the South Side, making the acquaintance of even more blues musicians, including Lew Soloff, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and Big Walter Horton. His first album release was 1967's excellent Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band, under the name Charley Musselwhite. Then followed several more excellent releases by the Charley Musselwhite Blues Band. He has gone on to release some 30 solo albums, including collaborations with Elvin Bishop and Ben Harper. Standout albums include Stand Back!, Tennessee Woman, Memphis Tennessee, In My Time and Delta Hardware. Musselwhite, a superb blues harmonica player, guitarist and songwriter, was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2010. He also was reportedly the inspiration for Elwood Blues, the character played by Dan Aykroyd in the 1980 film, The Blues Brothers.
Artist Website: charliemusselwhite.com
Featured Albums: Charlie Musselwhite
Related Artists: Elvin Bishop, Ben Harper
Video Clips: With Ben Harper, Harmonica Solo, Chicago 1981
