Artists

Abi Wallenstein

The "father of the Hamburg blues scene" — a blues interpreter since 1966, nine-time German Blues Award winner in Solo/Duo. Released the album Blues Vibes with the Ludwig Seuss Trio in 2025, and plays live with the Three Generations Bluesband on 31 October 2026.

Adam Kulisz / Kulisz Trio

Silesian blues vocalist "Coolish" (b. 1966), six-time Twój Blues Vocalist of the Year, whose Kulisz Trio (2007–2023) closed after drummer Tomasz Kwiatkowski's death — kept distinct from his own long solo career.

Adriano Viterbini

Roman guitarist, singer and composer bridging blues rock with desert blues and alt-rock — founder of the duo Bud Spencer Blues Explosion and of I Hate My Village.

Alberto Visentin

Guitarist, singer and songwriter from Treviso, Veneto, blending blues, rock, funk and soul — selected to represent Italy at the 2025 European Blues Challenge in Split.

Alice Armstrong

A Surrey-born rhythm & blues singer-songwriter and two-time UK Blues Awards Contemporary Artist of the Year, winner of the 2025 European Blues Challenge.

Andreas Diehlmann Band

Blues-rock band from Kassel, founded 2017 by guitarist Andreas Diehlmann — "Texas Blues meets Rock'n'Roll".

Angelo "Leadbelly" Rossi

Italian acoustic and country blues singer-guitarist from Ancona, known for his solo Delta blues style and his nickname taken from Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter.

Ash Grunwald

Byron Bay-based Australian one-man-band bluesman known for stomp-box, lapsteel and harmonica-driven solo shows and genre-blending albums.

Aynsley Lister

A Leicester-born blues-rock guitarist and Ruf Records signing, twice British Blues Awards Best Guitarist and a Classic Rock Top 50 artist.

B.B. & The Blues Shacks

Blues band from Hildesheim (1989–), over 3,000 concerts on five continents, three-time Trophée France Blues winner.

Ben Poole

English blues-rock guitarist, singer and songwriter praised by Jeff Beck and Gary Moore, and the UK's representative at the 2012 European Blues Challenge.

Bernard Sellam & The Boyz From The Hood

Toulouse-based jump blues and swing outfit led by Bernard Sellam, formerly leader of the acclaimed Texas-blues band Awek for 28 years, now fronting a five-piece built for dancing.

Blue Deal

Blues-rock quartet from Germany's Southern Black Forest (2015–), 2023 German Blues Challenge and 2024 German Blues Award winner.

Boogie Beasts

A Belgian blues-rock band marking 15 years in 2026 with an R.L. Burnside tribute album featuring his son and grandson-in-band collaborators.

Boogie Boys

Poznań boogie-woogie quartet (2002–), the only non-US finalist at the 2009 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, ranked #1 Band in Blues Top 2024.

Brave Rival

A Portsmouth blues-rock quartet fronted by Lindsey Bonnick, named Joe Bonamassa favourite and crowned Band of the Year at the 2025 UK Blues Awards.

C.W. Stoneking

Australian singer-guitarist whose original songs recreate 1920s-30s pre-war blues, hokum and calypso with an uncanny, timeless voice.

Catfish

A multi-award-winning South of England blues-rock band fronted by the late Matt Long, whose 2025 album "Time To Fly" was completed as a tribute by his surviving bandmates.

Charley Patton

The father of the Delta blues — Dockery Plantation's first star.

Cheap Tobacco

Kraków blues-rock band (2010–), fronted by four-time "Best Polish Blues Female Vocalist" Natalia Kwiatkowska, with over 500 concerts including Sziget Festival and Canadian Music Week.

Chris Wilson

Melbourne blues singer, harmonica and saxophone player (1956-2019), a fixture of the Australian blues-rock scene from Sole Twisters and Crown of Thorns to a celebrated solo career.

Christine McVie

British blues singer and keyboardist who won Melody Maker's Female Vocalist of the Year in 1969 and 1970 with Chicken Shack, before later fame as a Fleetwood Mac songwriter.

Connor Selby

A young voice of traditional British blues from Ashford, Kent, whose self-titled 2023 debut was named MOJO Magazine Blues Album of the Year.

Cyril Davies

The pioneering British blues harmonica player who co-founded Blues Incorporated with Alexis Korner and led his own R&B All-Stars, amplifying his harmonica with a home-made pickup and helping ignite the 1960s British blues boom before his death in 1964 at age 31.

Daniel Eriksen

Norwegian blues guitarist and vocalist from Langesund, two-time Spellemannspris winner (2014, 2020) and 2015 Notodden Blues Festival award recipient.

Danny Bryant

An English blues-rock guitarist and singer from Hertfordshire whose fiery playing has taken him from his father's RedEyeBand to fronting Walter Trout's band and a Jazzhaus Records catalogue spanning two decades.

Dave Hole

Perth-based slide guitarist famed for his unique "over the top" technique, and the first non-US artist signed to Alligator Records in the label's history.

DeWolff

A Dutch psychedelic blues-rock trio from Limburg, blending Hammond-organ grit with heavy riffs since 2007.

Doghouse Sam & His Magnatones

A Belgian/Dutch rhythm and blues trio, Belgian Blues Challenge winners and European Blues Challenge runners-up.

Dom Martin

A Belfast-born guitarist and singer-songwriter hailed as Rory Gallagher's musical inheritor, four-time UK Blues Award winner and UK Blues Hall of Fame inductee.

Duster Bennett

British one-man-band bluesman (guitar, harmonica and foot-drum simultaneously) signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label alongside Fleetwood Mac, whose song "Jumping at Shadows" was later revived by Gary Moore.

Dżem

Legendary Polish blues-rock band from Tychy (1973–), fronted for 21 years by Ryszard Riedel and today by his son Sebastian Riedel.

El Fish

A Belgian blues-rock band founded in Leuven in 1994, twice honoured with Zamu awards.

Erik Harstad & The Buzz Brothers

Norwegian electric blues band led by guitarist/vocalist Erik Harstad, documented on a self-titled 1998 album for Blue Mood Records; Harstad remains an active, respected figure in Norwegian blues today.

Errol Linton

Brixton-born harmonica player and singer who fuses Chicago blues with reggae, discovered busking by BBC producer John Walters, a three-time UK Blues Harmonica Player of the Year.

Fabio Treves

Milan harmonica player and bandleader, founder of the Treves Blues Band in 1974 — widely regarded as Italy's first blues band — and a fixture of the Italian blues scene for over 50 years.

Fiona Boyes

Australian blues guitarist and the only Australian ever nominated for a US Blues Music Award, known for cigar-box guitar work and Delta/Mississippi Hills-rooted original songs.

Francesco Garolfi

Guitarist, composer and producer rooted in acoustic blues (with harmonica player Fabrizio Poggi on 2006's "The Breath of Soul"), whose band won Italy's 2026 national selections for the International Blues Challenge and European Blues Challenge.

Frank Get

Trieste-born singer, guitarist and composer with a 40-plus-year career spanning blues, rock and Americana, whose multi-ethnic (Istrian, Slavic and Hungarian) roots run through 15 albums and a shared bill with Bruce Springsteen's Light of Day benefit.

Fred & The Healers

A Belgian blues and blues-rock band active since 1994, with festival appearances at Dour and Montreux.

Fred Chapellier

French blues-rock guitarist and singer from Metz, celebrated for his Peter Green- and Albert King-rooted playing and his years touring with Jacques Dutronc.

Gary Moore

Belfast-born guitarist and Thin Lizzy alumnus who abandoned hard rock in 1990 for the blues-rock classic "Still Got the Blues," his most successful album, selling over three million copies.

Gaëlle Buswel

French singer-guitarist from Alfortville whose blues-rock draws on folk and 1970s rock, launched as a solo artist through a chance meeting with guitarist Neal Black.

Gegè Telesforo

Foggia-born jazz and funk vocalist and scat-singing pioneer whose 2024 album "Big Mama Legacy" pays explicit tribute to blues and Rome's historic Big Mama club.

Geoff Achison

Melbourne-based blues-roots guitarist, singer and songwriter, former lead guitarist for Dutch Tilders, and a Memphis Albert King Award winner.

Gloria and the Doctors

A Florence-based blues trio fronted by singer-drummer Gloria Turrini, who took Italy to second place at the 2026 European Blues Challenge in Katowice.

Hans Theessink

A Dutch-born, Vienna-based acoustic country-blues master with a career spanning over five decades. He marked the milestone with the album 75 Birthday Bash in March 2025, and continues touring the UK, Austria and Spain through 2026.

Harlem Lake

A Dutch five-piece blending rock, Americana, soul and blues, winners of the 2022 European Blues Challenge.

Howlin' Bill

A Belgian blues and roots band whose "Live At Ancienne Belgique" captured a landmark Brussels show.

Ian Siegal

A British blues singer, guitarist and bandleader whose Mississippi collaborations with the Dickinson brothers and three-time British Blues Awards Male Vocals win made him the first UK artist nominated for a US Blues Music Award.

Jean-Jacques Milteau

France's foremost blues harmonica player, a Victoire de la Musique winner who spent decades as the go-to harmonica voice for French chanson stars before building his own acclaimed solo catalogue.

Jessie Lee & The Alchemists

Modern French blues-rock quintet co-led by singer-guitarist Jessie Lee and guitarist-composer Alexis "Mr AL" Didier, whose 2022 album was mixed by Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Joe Bonamassa).

Jimi Hocking

Melbourne guitarist, mandolinist and vocalist known for stints in The Angels and The Screaming Jets, and a 2005 International Blues Challenge Solo/Duo win in Memphis.

Jo Ann Kelly

An English country-blues singer and slide guitarist regarded as Britain's finest interpreter of Delta blues, who recorded and toured with Mississippi Fred McDowell, John Fahey and Son House.

Joanne Shaw Taylor

A Black Country blues-rock guitarist discovered as a teenager by Dave Stewart, now a fixture of the UK Blues Chart and Joe Bonamassa's Keeping the Blues Alive roster.

Jolly Jumper & Big Moe

One of Norway's most beloved acoustic blues duos, pairing harmonica singer Jolly Jumper with veteran guitarist Big Moe.

Julian Sas

A Dutch blues-rock guitarist and bandleader active since the mid-1990s, deeply rooted in the Rory Gallagher tradition.

Kasa Chorych

Legendary Białystok blues-rock band (1975–2017), founded by Ryszard "Skiba" Skibiński, Fryderyk winner in 2009, who gave their farewell concert in their hometown after more than 40 years.

Kevin Borich

New Zealand-born, Australian-based blues-rock guitarist and Australian Blues Foundation Hall of Fame inductee, from The La De Da's to the long-running Kevin Borich Express.

King King

Glasgow blues-rock band led by guitarist/singer Alan Nimmo, multiple-time British Blues Awards Band of the Year and inductee to the British Blues Awards Hall of Fame.

King of the World

A Dutch blues supergroup, active since 2011, whose members' backgrounds span acts like Cuby & The Blizzards -- Netherlands' hardest-working blues rock band.

Kyla Brox

A Manchester blues and soul singer born into blues royalty, winner of the UK Blues Challenge 2018 and the European Blues Challenge 2019.

La Bedoune

French "one woman & man band" duo — Cécile Perfetti (vocals, fretless bass) and Greg Perfetti (guitars, percussion) — that blends blues, jazz and folk with French lyrics.

Laurence Jones

Liverpool-born blues-rock guitarist and three-time British Blues Awards Young Artist of the Year, called "a young Eric Clapton" by Buddy Guy.

Leif de Leeuw Band

A Dutch southern-rock and blues jam band led by nine-time Benelux "Best Blues Rock Guitarist" Leif de Leeuw.

Leszek Cichoński

Poland's premier blues-rock guitarist (b. 1957, Wrocław), founder of the annual "Thanks Jimi Festival" and its Guinness World Record mass guitar performance (8,122 guitarists in 2025).

Lightnin' Guy

A Belgian blues guitarist, harmonica player and singer, the first Belgian blues artist signed to Dixiefrog Records, now leading Artisans of Solace.

Linda Valori

Widely regarded as Italy's leading female soul-blues voice, a Sanremo Festival veteran who has recorded in Chicago and Nashville and performed for three Popes.

Lloyd Spiegel

Melbourne blues guitarist and songwriter, personally invited to the USA by Brownie McGhee at 16, now a Blues Music Victoria Hall of Fame inductee.

Long John Baldry

A British-Canadian blues singer and towering figure of the 1960s British blues boom, whose bands launched the careers of Rod Stewart and Elton John — who took his own stage name partly from Baldry.

MY BABY

A Dutch-New Zealand trio from Amsterdam fusing delta blues trance with funk, soul and psychedelic energy.

Magda Piskorczyk

Polish blues vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from Białystok (2001–), two-time International Blues Challenge semi-finalist, French audiences call her "the black voice in a white suit."

Malted Milk

Nantes-based band led by guitarist-singer Arnaud Fradin, evolved from an acoustic Delta-blues duo in the 1990s into a horn-driven soul and funk septet.

Manu Lanvin & The Devil Blues

Paris-born blues-rock power trio led by guitarist-singer Emmanuel "Manu" Lanvin, son of actor Gérard Lanvin, forged through a formative collaboration with Texan bluesman Calvin Russell.

Marco Pandolfi

Italian blues harmonica player, singer and guitarist, active on the scene for over 30 years, twice a competitor at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and winner of the 2013 Italian European Blues Challenge final.

Martyna Jakubowicz

Polish singer-songwriter (b. 1955) blending blues, folk and rock since her 1977 debut, awarded the Złoty Fryderyk for lifetime achievement in 2024.

Matt Schofield

A three-time British Blues Awards Guitarist of the Year and the first guitarist inducted into its Hall of Fame, whose organ-trio sound blends blues, funk and jazz.

Maurizio Pugno

Italian blues guitarist, composer and bandleader from Gubbio with 35+ years in the European blues scene, leader of Rico Blues Combo and now Sacromud — the first Italian group to record at Sun Studio, Memphis.

Mauro Ferrarese

Trento-born acoustic bluesman devoted to prewar country blues and his own «Agricultural Blues» — bottleneck guitar, spirituals and original songs rooted in rural tradition.

Max Lazzarin

Padova-born blues pianist and singer whose New Orleans-steeped sound won the Italian Blues Challenge in 2016, alongside his role as vice president of the Italian Blues Union.

Michał Kielak & The Mystery Train

Poland's most decorated harmonica player (b. 1977, Poznań), former Kasa Chorych member, who in 2024 formed The Mystery Train with "Keys in My Pocket," a double Album-of-the-Year winner.

Nico Wayne Toussaint

French blues harmonica player from Toulon, a Dixiefrog Records mainstay who cut his teeth jamming with Chicago blues veterans in Minneapolis in the early 1990s.

Nina Attal

French singer-guitarist and songwriter who emerged from Paris's blues jam scene as a teenager and became one of French blues-rock's most consistently touring artists.

Nocna Zmiana Bluesa

Poland's most enduring blues band, founded in Toruń in 1982 by harmonica player Sławek Wierzcholski, with 15 albums and 40+ years on stage.

Open Mouth Blues Orchestra

A thirteen-piece Milanese soul-blues big band, founded in 2007 by saxophonist Lorenzo Vergani, that brings 1960s-70s black music out of the clubs and into the peripheral squares of Milan.

Otis Grand

Lebanese-born guitarist and bandleader who became a fixture of the UK blues scene from the late 1980s, voted Best UK Blues Guitarist seven years running (1990-1996).

Otto Junior Band

Norwegian blues band documented on the Oslo club circuit through Østkanten Bluesklubb, described as bringing youthful energy to a driving live set.

Oz & The Wizards

Their autumn and winter are booked solid: Sandnes Bluesklubb on 7 October, a headline night at Teateret in Kristiansand on 12 December, then Mandal Bluesklubb on 7 February. A new LP/CD is in the works too, likely landing March 2027. Booking details are further down this page.

Paul Lamb & The King Snakes

Europe's premier blues harmonica player, fronting one of Britain's longest-running electric blues bands since 1990.

Phil Manning

Tasmanian-born guitarist and founding member of Chain, whose 1971 single "Black and Blue" became a landmark of Australian blues rock; also a long solo career and Fender/Cole Clark endorsee.

Robbert Duijf Band

A decorated Dutch blues-gospel trio from Limburg, winners of both the Dutch and European Blues Challenges.

Roberto Ciotti

Rome-born electric blues-rock guitarist and composer, often called "the Italian Eric Clapton", whose 1989 soundtrack for Gabriele Salvatores' Marrakech Express made "No More Blue" an Italian blues classic.

Sebastian Riedel & Cree

Sebastian Riedel's own blues-rock band from Tychy (1993–), founded at 15 with a name suggested by his father Ryszard Riedel — a separate legacy from Sebastian's later role fronting Dżem.

Stein Stokke & The Engine

Norwegian blues band of seasoned musicians playing only original material, described by Østkanten Bluesklubb as a "well-oiled blues machine."

Steven Troch Band

A Belgian blues band led by harmonica player Steven Troch, formed in 2016 and Belgian Blues Challenge winners in 2019.

The Blues Band

Long-running London R&B/blues band formed in 1979 by ex-Manfred Mann members Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness, together for over four decades and 4,000+ gigs before disbanding in 2022.

The BluesBones

A five-piece Belgian blues-rock band known for chart-topping releases and a 2017 European Blues Challenge runner-up finish.

The Bluesanovas

Five-piece band from Münster (2015–), three-time German Blues Award winner — supported Eric Clapton's 2022 German tour.

The Cinelli Brothers

A London-based blues and soul four-piece led by Italian-born brothers Marco and Alessandro Cinelli, crowned 2024 UK Blues Band of the Year.

The Damned and Dirty

A Dutch slide-guitar and harmonica-driven blues act that began as a lo-fi delta blues experiment in 2012.

The Freaky Buds

Bass-less roots-blues quartet from Nantes with a Hill Country and swamp blues core, recorded by Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Studio in California for their second album.

The Hoochies

A raw, unpolished Dutch blues quartet and winners of the 2025 Dutch Blues Challenge.

The SuperSoul Brothers

Seven-piece deep-soul and rhythm & blues band from Pau in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France's official representatives at the European Blues Challenge 2026 in Katowice, Poland.

The Zac Schulze Gang

A raw blues-rock trio from Gillingham, Kent, invited to play Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival and voted UK Blues Emerging Band of the Year 2024.

Tiger City Jukes

High-energy Norwegian blues-rock band from Horten, formed 1995, known for a dark, genre-bending sound and a reputation built on live performance.

Toby Lee

A Warwickshire-born guitar prodigy turned UK Blues Hall of Fame's youngest member, with a number-one Blues Chart debut of original material.

Śląska Grupa Bluesowa

Katowice blues institution (2003–, roots to 1972) regarded as the main voice of Silesian blues, built around the legacy of the late Jan "Kyks" Skrzek.

Blind Lemon Jefferson

The first male blues star to sell on record.

Ma Rainey

Mother of the Blues — the voice that took it to the cities.

Bessie Smith

The Empress of the Blues — vaudeville's biggest star.

Blind Willie Johnson

Sacred slide guitar that NASA sent into deep space.

Lead Belly

12-string folk-blues that crossed every American border.

Son House

Raw, spiritual slide guitar — the preacher's blues.

Skip James

Eerie falsetto and open D-minor tuning — the haunted blues.

Memphis Minnie

One of the first women to play the blues like she meant it.

Robert Johnson

29 recordings that defined the Delta blues forever.

Big Bill Broonzy

From Mississippi sharecropper to first ambassador of the blues in Europe.

T-Bone Walker

Invented the electric blues guitar solo. Period.

Lightnin' Hopkins

Houston's poet of the boogie — over 80 albums.

John Lee Hooker

Hypnotic boogie and a foot that never stopped tapping.

Muddy Waters

The man who took the Delta to Chicago and plugged it in.

Howlin' Wolf

300-pound voice that shook the walls of Chess Records.

Elmore James

King of the slide — the riff every blues-rock guitarist stole.

Willie Dixon

Bassist, producer and songwriter behind half of Chess.

Little Walter

Plugged the harmonica into an amp and never looked back.

Jimmy Reed

The lazy shuffle that the Stones, Elvis and everyone else copied.

B.B. King

Lucille, vibrato and a smile that conquered the world.

Albert King

Upside-down Flying V and the bending hand SRV worshipped.

Freddie King

Texas-Chicago hybrid — "Hide Away" is on every guitarist's playlist.

Otis Rush

West Side soul-blues — left-handed, upside-down, devastating.

Magic Sam

The Hendrix of the West Side, gone at 32.

Junior Wells

Sharp-suited harmonica master and Buddy Guy's lifelong partner.

Koko Taylor

Queen of the Blues — "Wang Dang Doodle" still rattles the rafters.

Etta James

From doo-wop to deep blues — "At Last" is just the start.

Buddy Guy

The Chicago legend still touring in his nineties — released Ain't Done with the Blues in 2025, won his ninth Grammy in 2026, and is marking his 90th birthday with a tour running through 2026.

Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated

The London blues workshop founded by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies in 1961 whose rotating line-up — Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker — and audience of Jagger, Richards and Clapton made it the single most important incubator of the British blues boom.

Chicken Shack

Stan Webb's blues band, founded 1965, whose early keyboardist Christine Perfect left in 1969 to marry Fleetwood Mac's John McVie and became Christine McVie — while Webb kept Chicken Shack running as a genuine, unbroken blues band for six decades.

Eric Clapton

Slowhand is still on the road — released the album Meanwhile in 2024, put out an expanded reissue of Journeyman in 2025, and heads out on a new European and US tour in 2026.

Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green era)

Before the pop reinvention with Buckingham and Nicks, this was — for three years under Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan — arguably the finest blues band Britain ever produced, scoring a UK No. 1 with the instrumental "Albatross."

Free

Formed by teenagers in 1968 — named by Alexis Korner himself — Free built a spare, groove-heavy blues-rock sound around Paul Rodgers's voice and Paul Kossoff's guitar, then wrote "All Right Now," one of the most-played songs in radio history.

Jimmy Page

London's most prolific session guitarist of the mid-1960s, then the architect behind the Yardbirds' final transformation into Led Zeppelin — the producer-guitarist whose distance-miked, reverse-echoed studio techniques rebuilt what a rock record could sound like.

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers

The 'Godfather of British Blues' whose ever-rotating Bluesbreakers lineup, launched in London in 1963, gave apprenticeships to Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor before they became rock's defining guitarists — and whose 1966 'Beano Album' set the template for British blues-rock guitar tone.

Led Zeppelin

The band Jimmy Page built from the wreckage of the Yardbirds in 1968, who rebuilt Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson, Memphis Minnie and Howlin' Wolf songs at stadium scale — and were sued, and settled, over nearly every one of them. The 2025 documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, telling that early story in the band's own words, won the 2026 National Film Award for Best Documentary.

Paul Kossoff

The teenage guitarist behind Free's "All Right Now," famous for one of the widest, slowest vibratos in rock — a career that lasted barely eight years before drug-related heart problems killed him at 25, his epitaph simply reading the title of his most famous song.

Peter Green

The blues guitarist B.B. King called the only one who ever gave him "cold sweats" — the man who replaced Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, founded Fleetwood Mac, wrote "Black Magic Woman" and "Albatross," then walked away from fame entirely at the height of it.

Savoy Brown

Kim Simmonds's uncompromising Chicago-blues band, founded in 1965 and rebuilt by him through more than sixty lineup changes over fifty-seven years — including the 1970 departure that formed Foghat — until his death in 2022.

Ten Years After

The Nottingham blues-rock band whose leader, Alvin Lee, became famous almost overnight for one blistering nine-minute performance of "I'm Going Home" at Woodstock in 1969, playing his battered ES-335 "Big Red" at a speed that earned him the nickname "the fastest guitarist in the West."

United States · Blues Rock Revival

The Yardbirds

The London blues band that, in barely five years, employed Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in succession on lead guitar — and whose final lineup, under Page, renamed itself Led Zeppelin in 1968. Founding member Chris Dreja, the band's rhythm guitarist and bassist, died on 25 September 2025, aged 78, leaving Jim McCarty and Paul Samwell-Smith as the last surviving originals.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Texas tone, hummingbird right hand, gone far too soon.

Joe Bonamassa

Independent blues-rock empire — vintage tone and a relentless tour bus.

Shemekia Copeland

Johnny's daughter, the new queen of blues with a political voice.

Samantha Fish

Kansas City fire — cigar-box slide and rock-blues hooks.

Larkin Poe

Lovell sisters — roots-rock, lap-steel and tight harmonies.

Christone "Kingfish" Ingram

Clarksdale-born phenom keeping the Delta line unbroken.

Big Walter Horton

Passed away December 8, 1981, at around 60. People still put on "Walking By Myself" to hear that harmonica solo.

United States · Modern

Elmore James Jr.

Passed away in May 2026, aged 86 — after sixty years keeping his father's slide sound alive on Chicago's South and West Side.

Jeff Beck

Passed away January 10, 2023, at 78. Forty-seven years with the guitar after The Yardbirds — feedback, fuzz, and a tone that sounded like a voice.

Kai Strauss

Still active with the Electric Blues All-Stars — 2024's Wailin' in Vienna is the latest of nine albums as bandleader, with tour dates booked into 2026.

Louise Hoffsten

Still active while living with MS since 1996 — 2022's Crossing the Border is the latest chapter in a career approaching four decades.

Rita Engedalen

Still touring Europe, and billed to play Notodden Blues Festival again in summer 2026 — over twenty years after her debut.

Robert Cray

Still on the road in 2026 with the Robert Cray Band, fifty years after it started in Eugene, Oregon.

Ireland · Classic Era

Rory Gallagher

Passed away on June 14, 1995, aged 47. The Stratocaster and Irish Tour '74 live on.

Poland · Classic Era

Tadeusz Nalepa

Passed away March 4, 2007, at 63. Many still call him the godfather of Polish blues -- the 1971 album Blues remains a cornerstone of Polish rock.

Taj Mahal

Five Grammys across sixty years, most recently in 2025 — the same week he received a separate Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Still active.

Wilko Johnson

Passed away November 21, 2022, at 75 -- still performing weeks before, decades after Dr. Feelgood and a cancer diagnosis he beat against the odds.

United States · Modern

Shaun Murphy

The voice behind Bob Seger, Eric Clapton and Little Feat, fronting her own blues band since 2009.

Big Creek Slim

Pre-war Delta and country blues from Ikast, Denmark, carried all the way to Brazil.

Fried Okra

Copenhagen trio bringing North Mississippi Hill Country blues to Scandinavia since 2006.

Denmark · Classic Era

Peter Thorup

Danish blues pioneer, co-voice of CCS's "Whole Lotta Love" (Top of the Pops' theme for decades). 1948-2007.

Denmark · Classic Era

Troels Jensen

"All of Denmark's Mr. Blues" - leader of Scandinavia's oldest blues band for over 50 years. 1946-2020.

H.P. Lange

Acoustic Delta and Piedmont blues traveller, ~100 concerts a year for nearly four decades.

Mike Andersen

Danish blues-soul road warrior - 2,000+ shows, 5 Danish Music Awards, a Joss Stone duet.

Ole Frimer Band

Ph.D. biologist turned virtuoso Danish blues guitarist - Frimer Band, Blue Junction, and beyond.

Paul Banks

Colorado-born, Copenhagen-based since 1961 - acoustic blues, folk, ragtime and gospel.

Copenhagen Blues Band

Denmark's 1980s blues-boom live legends - no album until their 2021 reunion, 40 years on.

Tim Lothar

Ex-drummer turned Danish acoustic bluesman - Frederikshavn songster, German Blues Award honoree.

Kenn Lending Blues Band

Denmark's most durable blues band - Kenn Lending's 1,000+ concerts with Champion Jack Dupree and four decades on stage.

Mats Ronander

From Peps Persson's stand-in guitarist to ABBA's touring backing band — Mats "Malla" Ronander has spent five decades moving between blues, rock and pop, always anchored by his Elmore James-titled blues album "Himlen gråter för Elmore James."

Peps Persson

Passed away on June 27, 2021, aged 74, in Vittsjö. The voice that translated Muddy Waters and Elmore James into Scanian dialect lives on — from Peps Blodsband's 1970s heyday to a 2015 Swedish Music Hall of Fame induction.

Rolf "Roffe" Wikström

Self-taught after a childhood TV glimpse of Champion Jack Dupree, Roffe Wikström fused blues structure with Swedish poetic lyricism — including sung settings of poet Nils Ferlin — across a career still active in his seventies. After a year off touring in 2025 for back problems, he released the album Ballader och Bröl in April 2026, turning 72, and returned to a smaller run of shows later that year.

Sky High (Clas Yngström)

Fender Stratocaster-wielding bandleader of Sky High since 1978 — blues-rock guitar heroics from "Red House" (1979) to "Get Out! Stay Out!" (1989), still touring more than four decades on.

Sven Zetterberg

"The Swedish blues professor" — a Chicago Express bandleader who toured with Jimmy Rogers, Luther Allison and Eddie Boyd, and built a soul-inflected solo catalog until his death in 2016, with one final album released posthumously in 2022.

Eric Bibb

American folk royalty (father Leon Bibb, godfather Paul Robeson) who settled in Stockholm and became one of the world's most Grammy-nominated acoustic blues artists, spanning 50+ albums from "Good Stuff" (1997) to "Ridin'" (2023).

Lisa Lystam Family Band

Sweden's European Blues Challenge 2015 representatives — Lisa Lystam's harmonica-led family band blends original material with roots and rock energy, from "When Money's Runnin' Out" (2014) to a raw 2022 live studio session.

Slidin' Slim

Anders Landelius, performing as Slidin' Slim — one of Sweden's leading delta blues artists, working solo with slide guitar and harmonica in the pre-war acoustic tradition, from "Ten Long Years" (2004) to "Better Late Than Never" (2016).

Trickbag

"Sweden's largest blues export" — over 30 years of raw, swinging Delta-rooted houserockin' rhythm & blues, from 1999's "Just Passing Through" to the 30th-anniversary "The Collection" (2024).

Canada · Modern Era

King Biscuit Boy

King Biscuit Boy, born Richard Alfred Newell in Hamilton, Ontario, was one of Canada's most celebrated and influential harmonica players, known for his raw Chicago-inspired style.

Canada · Modern Era

Sue Foley

Sue Foley is a Canadian-born blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter who has been a leading female voice in modern blues since the late 1980s.

Canada · Modern Era

Colin James

Colin James is one of Canada's most successful and versatile blues-rock artists, with a career spanning decades and genres.

Amund Maarud

The Nes-born guitarist who went from a TV talent show with his brother to winning Spellemannsprisen for blues in 2011 with "Electric," building a career almost entirely through bands of his own making.

Bjørn Berge

Norwegian one-man-band blues guitarist and vocalist, known for his ferocious 12-string resonator playing and stomp-box percussion, cutting a solo path through blues, rock and funk across more than a dozen albums.

Elles Bailey

Bristol-based Americana and blues-rock singer-songwriter whose fourth album swept the 2025 UK Blues Awards, winning Album of the Year, Vocalist of the Year and Broadcaster of the Year.

Finland · Modern Era

Erja Lyytinen

Finland's foremost blues guitarist and vocalist, celebrated for her slide playing and a catalogue that has steadily pulled blues toward 1970s-influenced rock without ever losing the grit.

Good Time Charlie

The Bergen R&B/blues band, formed 1982 by Arle Hjelmeland and Bård Ose, that coined "garage-soul" on 2008's "Mojo Energy" and later pioneered Norway's first dialect-based blues albums for children.

Hungry John (Bergen Blues Band)

The Bergen street musician who earned his nickname going hungry in London, then founded the Bergen Blues Band in 1975 — three albums selling over 60,000 copies and an Irish No. 1 single made them western Norway's defining blues act of the era. Still active today — playing Bjørgvin Bluesklubb in May 2026 and closing out Bluesweekend Rett West in September.

Johnny "Guitar" Augland

Kristiansand's blues "crown jewel" — guitarist, pianist and producer who shaped Good Time Charlie's 1990s sound, produced Vidar Busk's Spellemannspris-winning run, and released his own one-man blues album in 2005 with a young Kid Andersen guesting.

Kent Erik Thorvaldsen

Toten's "9Fingers" — former frontman of vintage Chicago-blues revivalists The Jelly Roll Men, now a solo delta-blues storyteller singing in his own dialect, whose 2025 debut album "SUGG." features Knut Reiersrud as guest guitarist.

Kid Andersen

Norwegian-born guitarist, producer and owner of Greaseland Studios in San Jose. Longtime member of Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, a Blues Music Award and Grammy-nominated producer, and one of the most in-demand session guitarists in modern blues.

Knut Reiersrud

The Oslo-born guitarist who has never used a plectrum, whose ~6,000 concerts and Chicago blues collaborations with Buddy Guy and Otis Rush made him Norway's most internationally recognized blues musician, and whose Spellemannspris-winning partnership with organist Iver Kleive fused blues guitar with Norwegian hymnody. In 2025 he released Remembrance with In The Country and Solveig Slettahjell, and on 25 September 2026 a new album with Geir Sundstøl, Purcell, Truth, Lies and Bad Memory, is due out.

Reidar Larsen

The Stavanger pianist-turned-bluesman whose blues career began on commission from a jazz club in 1980, and who became the first artist to win Spellemannsprisen for a blues album sung entirely in Norwegian dialect, 2009's "Kom inn te oss." He's kept releasing since — A Touch of Blues in 2024 and Rock and Roll Soldier in 2026 — and remains a regular at Notodden Blues Festival.

Spoonful of Blues

Blues-rock band from Notodden — home of Norway's biggest blues festival — built around Jostein Forsberg's vocals and harmonica and Morten Omlid's guitar, cutting original songs steeped in their hometown's blues tradition.

Denmark · Modern Era

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado

Denmark's leading blues band, an eight-piece led by singer-guitarist Thorbjørn Risager, blending Chicago blues stomp with horns, strings and soul that has made them festival headliners across Europe.

Tor Einar "Daumann" Jacobsen

The Kristiansand guitarist and bassist who took the initiative to record at Chess Studios in Chicago with Sunnyland Slim, Bob Stroger, S.P. Leary and Zora Young in 1983, then brought them back to Norway — and spent five decades building Kristiansand's blues scene along the way.

Vidar Busk

Left Norway at fifteen to tour America with bluesman Rock Bottom's band; returned five years later to build a Spellemannspris-winning career (twice) fronting Vidar Busk & His True Believers on swing-based, soul-inflected blues-rock.

Henrik Freischlader

A Wuppertal-based guitarist and label owner who learned the blues from Gary Moore's records — three-time winner of the German Blues Award in the guitar category, and producer for artists like Layla Zoe and Tommy Schneller.

Andreas Kümmert

German vocalist who won 'The Voice of Germany' in 2013 but found his true home in blues and soul with the 2016 covers album 'Heart & Soul' alongside Siggi Schwarz and Jessy Martens — also known for declining to represent Germany at Eurovision 2015.

Blues Company

Founded in Osnabrück in 1976 by Todor 'Toscho' Todorovic — Germany's oldest and most successful blues band, with around 4,000 concerts, three German Record Critics' Awards, and a 50-year career still going strong.

Inga Rumpf

The Hamburg voice behind Frumpy and Atlantis in the 1970s, who went on to build a 50-year solo career at the crossroads of blues, soul and rock — a two-time German Blues Award winner who jammed with the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards as early as 1988. She turned 80 on 2 August 2026, marking the milestone with an anniversary concert at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie on 13 September, released as the live album Inga 80.

Gregor Hilden

A Münster-based guitarist and former editor-in-chief of the magazine 'Akustik Gitarre' — known for an elegant, jazz-inflected blues style played on a modified 1968 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, and for his main project, the Gregor Hilden Organ Trio.

Frank Muschalle

A Berlin-based pianist from Bünde, known for piano battles with Axel Zwingenberger and Vince Weber, artistic director of the Spiekeroog jazz festival since 2006, and named Germany's 'Boogie Woogie Pianist of the Year' in 2011.

Michael van Merwyk

Bandleader of Michael van Merwyk & Bluesoul from Rheda-Wiedenbrück — a former house guitarist for touring blues legends, runner-up at the 2013 International Blues Challenge, and a three-time German Blues Award winner in the Solo/Duo category.

Luca Sestak

A German pianist, vocalist and composer from Celle — he started posting piano videos to YouTube at age 11, signed with Sony Music in 2019, and today combines classical piano, jazz, blues and boogie-woogie in a trio format.