Today in Music – Birthdays for James Cotton (1935) and Willie Dixon (1915)

Today we celebrate the birthdays of two of the most influential blues artists of all time, one for his artistry with his instrument and the other, while a good musician, for his influential songwriting! The first is blues harpist James Cotton born on this date in 1935 and the second the legendary Willie Dixon (July 1, 1915 – January 29, 1992)! Now some of you may not remember or know Willie Dixon, but he was an unbelievably good songwriter and his compositions include: “Little Red Rooster”, “Hoochie Coochie Man”, “Spoonful”, “Back Door Man”, “I Just Want to Make Love to…

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Blues Wednesday – James Cotton – Giant

So sometimes artist fall into that category of you know their name, you know they’re great and yet you’ve never listened to their music. An artist like that for me is the great James Cotton. I’ve known the name since the 60’s then the James Cotton Blues Band, but never really sought out his music only hearing it now and then on the radio’ So when I saw that the 75 year old Cotton had released a new album Gianta few weeks ago I said in my best Toyota Commercial Voice “Now is the Time!” and downloaded the album on…

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