Chicago blues speaks more to the region than a style, agreed three of the city's greatest living guitarists.
“It's labeled Chicago blues because that's where it took root,” said Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, who came to Chicago from Mississippi in 1950. “It's a mixture of early Delta blues which became known as Chicago blues when people like Muddy Waters and Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf came to Chicago and established themselves as blues players.”
Lonnie Brooks, a Louisianan with ties to Texas, came to Chicago in 1959 just as the blues scene was at its peak.
“Most everybody who came here to play the blues had their own style,” Brooks said, pointing to a couple of major influential guitarists.
“Everywhere you go, everybody was trying to copy B.B. (King),” he said. “And you had a lot of slide players that copied Elmore James. Everybody wanted to play slide like him. But you had a lot of mixture of blues, because Muddy was different. But everybody who played the blues that made a name, they had their own style. That's what makes an artist get known is if you have your own style.”
Jimmy Johnson said regionalizing blues in the United States can be pointless.
“A guitar player is an individual — I don't care where he came from,” Johnson said. “I grew up in Mississippi but I came up to Chicago pretty young. In Mississippi I was listening to Muddy Waters from Chicago. It's not where you're from, it's the individual and who you listen to. They look at Stevie Ray Vaughan and say he plays Texas blues. He could sound just like Albert King or Freddie King or Jimi Hendrix.
“Albert King is from Arkansas, Freddie King is from Chicago and Jimi Hendrix is from (Seattle). How could you say (Vaughan) plays Texas blues? Was he playing Washington music?”
Most of the Chicago blues clubs are gone now. Brooks described what a historic time it was when he came to city.
“So many bands were in town at that time that went on to be world-famous,” he said. “At that time, Muddy Waters was not considered a world-famous blues artist. He was very popular in the black community but he hadn't achieved worldwide fame until later on. He was here, along with Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter and Jimmy Reed and Elmore James. They were all in Chicago at that time playing a lot of local gigs throughout the town. So there were always places to go every night of the week. Every few blocks you'd go there'd be another blues club on the corner with bands playing.