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The Latest Breaking News from Freddie King

“Listening to him had an effect on me similar to what I might feel if I were to meet an alien from outer space”: How Eric Clapton’s mission to spread the blues gospel was the making of the first guitar ‘god’

The discovery of Freddie King was the Eureka! moment in the origin story of Slowhand's ascent as the British blues scene's greatest player

MusicRadar

“Just about every blues show I attended in the ’80s and ’90s started with an uptempo shuffle like this”: Joe Bonamassa on the Eric Clapton classic that’s essential learning for any blues soloist

Written by Memphis Slim, covered by Slowhand with John Mayall, Steppin’ Out is one of the tracks that all blues players should know. Bonamassa teaches you how to play it

Guitar World

“Nobody had ever made that kind of noise on record before”: The life and times of Mike Vernon, the British blues legend who got Eric Clapton his Bluesbreakers tone

The producer of vintage Fleetwood Mac and Bluesbreakers was one of British blues’ towering figures

Guitar World

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“These performances present him at his very best – and they’re thrilling to hear”: Blues gold unearthed as rare Freddie King live performance surfaces after 50 years

In October 1975, the Texas Cannonball wowed a French audience with a blues masterclass, and the recordings have been restored

Guitar World

“As soon as they started to jam, all three felt the magic. They instinctively knew they were on to something”: Their first single was so bad, the label pulled 10,000 copies. Yet they went on to be one of the most influential supergroups in music history

60 years ago, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker put together Cream. This is the story of the early years of the power trio that changed the face of popular music, and elevated Clapton to God-like status

Guitar World

“Freddie King and T-Bone Walker both developed exceptional vocabularies of single-note turnarounds”: Sue Foley shows you how to nail classic blues turnarounds – and how to come up with your own

In Foley's final column in the series, she completes her turnarounds masterclass – an essential skill for any blues player

Guitar World

“If a guitarist is just riffing away on minor pentatonic licks, it will make their playing sound ‘scale-y’; you don’t want to sound scale-y!” Power-up your blues with a turnaround trick that was a specialty of the great Freddie King

This masterclass in turnarounds explores different ways to approach an essential blues technique, so of course it finishes up with a look at how the master of turnarounds did it back in the day

Guitar World

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I saw Black Sabbath play three days after their debut album was released - and tickets cost 30 pence

When bluesman Freddie King pulled out of a show in early 1970, a young band from Birmingham stepped in

Metal Hammer

“Miles Davis is the scariest individual I’ve ever met. He makes Lou Reed look like a pussycat”: Steven Van Zandt’s wild tales of Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and Miles Davis

One blues icon pulled a gun on the E Street Band guitarist

Louder

“Chuck Berry's not a very good guitar player. He's a clown. He runs all over the guitar, just like any one of these old rock players would do, and makes no sense”: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown pulled no punches when speaking about his fellow guitar heroes

In a 1992 sit-down with GW, the late blues guitar pioneer offered remarkably frank assessments of some of his sacrosanct peers – among them Chuck Berry, B.B. and Freddie King, and T-Bone Walker

Guitar World

“Freddie King would ask me why I never tried using thumbpicks... I really like digging in with my fingers”: He replaced Jimi Hendrix in Little Richard's band, was idolized by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and is one of the most underrated Tele slingers of all time

Extracting inimitable, stinging tone from his Tele with just his fingers, Albert Collins carved a hugely influential sonic path for himself, though he's still often left out of discussions of the greatest blues guitarists of all time

Guitar World

“I wanted to play more, and it was inappropriate with Eric or Roger. I was not the lead guitarist, and I wanted to be”: Clapton, Waters, Satriani and me – Andy Fairweather Low on his greatest collaborations and finally taking center stage

As pop idol, hit-making solo artist, and with the most star-studded CV of any sideman, the affable Welshman offers up his latest release, The Invisible Bluesman, and reflects on his storied career

Guitar World

“Freddie King would ask me why I never tried using thumbpicks – I just couldn't play with one”: He took Jimi Hendrix's place in Little Richard's band, was idolized by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and is one of the most overlooked Telecaster slingers of all time

Guitar World

‘The screams, you can’t unhear that’: New Orleans revelry ends in shock and mourning in night of horror

French Quarter residents and workers are navigating life in a crime scene, job uncertainty and trauma after a New Year’s Day attack, Alex Woodward reports

The Independent UK

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Louder

“Jimmy Page allowed Eric to unleash the power he had”: How Eric Clapton helped reinvent the blues with The Bluesbreakers’ landmark Beano album

The epic story of John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers’ 1966 blues rock milestone Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton

Guitar World

What if Jimi Hendrix jammed with Eric Clapton, or Gary Moore traded solos with Joe Bonamassa? We imagine 5 all-star fantasy blues jams and what they would sound like

Welcome to an all-star fantasy blues jam, featuring a greatest hits of blues players, their signature licks, and how to put them together and incorporate them in your own playing

Guitar World

“People might think, ‘Oh, that's so easy. There's nothing happening. It's only three chords.’ But it's not – it's as exciting as you make it”: Blues veteran Sue Foley on why turnarounds are essential to any great blues solo

Foley names T-Bone Walker, Freddie King and Eddie Taylor as turnaround masters and demonstrates a number of key approaches that blues guitarists should add to their toolkit

Guitar World

“I played poker with Freddie King during one of the tours he did with Eric Clapton. I lost half my tour money!” Session legend George Terry on eating Whoppers with Diana Ross and high times as Eric Clapton’s go-to ’70s six-string lieutenant

George Terry looks back on a decade of hits with the Bee Gees, Barbra Streisand, ABBA, and Diana Ross, and his adventures and misadventures with Slowhand

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Guitar World

What do the finest blues guitarists of the past 60 years have in common? From B.B. King to Eric Gales, these are the technique secrets behind 30 of the most iconic players

Starting from ’50s electric blues pioneers, we're bending the blues scale into different shapes, with 30 licks taking us up to the present day as the art form continues to evolve and thrive

Guitar World

“Even when Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf went electric, people were saying, ‘This isn’t blues.’ It’s the artist’s job to push boundaries”: Samantha Fish on the past, present and future of blues

Signed up for Slash's all-star S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival, Fish is one of the players who has found her voice in taking blues out of its comfort zone. Here she salutes her blues heroes – especially the rule breakers

MusicRadar

"When he felt the spirit, he was untouchable" – the story of Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton and Peter Green

Two legendary players. Two near-mythical Les Pauls.Two all-time-great blues albums and the greatest guitar handover in blues history

Guitar World

“I’m funny with amps. I love Marshalls, but I also love old Fender Deluxes. Dumble built one for me just before he passed away. I think it was the last one he ever built”: With Strats, Magnatones, and plenty of all-star guests, Slash embraces the blues

Turning to spontaneity, and changing habits both gear and playing-wise, Slash's new record is a laid-back, charming tribute to an ever-lasting strain of guitar playing

MusicRadar

“I think the biggest pitfall about learning the blues is faking it”: Slash talks true blues, his love for the pedal steel and valuable advice for new players

Switching out his fabled Les Paul for an ES-335 and his Marshall for Magnatone, Slash goes all in on the blues for Orgy Of The Damned – and lifts the lid on the gear that powered the album

Guitar World

“When I met him, he didn't have an amp. He would use my Twin Reverb and turn it all the way up. And he would sound like B.B. King”: Joe Bonamassa recalls the times B.B. King borrowed his amp – and made it sound better than him

In sharing his amp anecdote, Joe Bonamassa has revealed what blues legends B.B. King, Albert King and Freddie King have in common

Guitar World

“When I play the trill with my finger, my hand is not on the neck at all. It all comes from the wrist”: The story of B.B. King, the greatest blues guitar player of all time

How the King of the Blues heard his calling, found a guitar, and developed a style that made him the undisputed greatest of all time

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