Personalities | T-Bone Walker | Turning Blues Electric | Guitar Heroes

The first bluesman to record with an electric guitar, T-Bone Walker (1910–75) shaped the course of post-war blues, influencing everyone from B.B. King and Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix and beyond.

B.B. King acknowledges that the first time he heard Walker, he knew he had to get an electric guitar, and Berry and Hendrix took as much notice of Walker’s showmanship – playing his guitar behind his head and generally thrilling the ladies – as his soulful playing. Even today, Walker’s style remains an essential element of lead-guitar playing.

Born in Linden, Texas, Walker grew up in a musical household in Dallas, learning guitar, ukulele, banjo, violin and piano. Blind Lemon Jefferson was a family friend and Lonnie Johnson played nearby. By the age of 16, Walker was earning a living as a musician, playing local shows. In 1929, he won a talent contest to join Cab Calloway’s band and made his first recordings. He also started a band with another local guitarist, Charlie Christian. He began touring a wider region and in 1934, moved to California, where he played and sang in various big bands.

Walker started playing amplified guitar in order to be heard, and his defining moment came in 1942 at a recording session with Freddie Slack’s Big Band, when he got the chance to take the spotlight for a couple of blues songs. ‘Mean Old World’ was arguably the first electric blues record, and he followed it with ‘Call It Stormy Monday’, which became his signature tune and a blues classic. Before long, he was leading his own band and scoring blues hits with ‘T-Bone Shuffle’, ‘Glamour Girl’, ‘The Hustle Is On’ and ‘Cold Cold Feeling’.

Walker’s big-band background and the jazz musicians who played with him gave his blues a sophistication that was in marked contrast to the raw blues coming out of Chicago and the rock’n’roll coming out of Memphis. Ironically, this made him unfashionable for a while, although his reputation as a live performer never dipped. After a car accident in the early 1970s, his health deteriorated and he died of bronchial pneumonia following a stroke in 1975.

Essential Recordings

1942
Solo: ‘Mean Old World’

1946
Solo: ‘Bobby Sox Blues’

1947
Solo: ‘Call It Stormy Monday’

1948
Solo: ‘West Side Baby’

Personalities | Joe Walsh | The Outrageous Eagle | Guitar Heroes

AUTHORITATIVE

An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...

CURATED

Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.

Rock, A Life Story

Rock, A Life Story

The ultimate story of a life of rock music, from the 1950s to the present day.

David Bowie

David Bowie

Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers his life, music, art and movies, with a sweep of incredible photographs.