Grant Britt

When you're one of 11 children, you gotta do something to stand out. Kenny Neal chose music, picking up instruments he found lying around his Baton Rouge, Louisiana, household. Dad Raful was a prominent blues harpist heavily influenced by Chicago blues icon Little Walter. By the time he

It was a match made in heaven, a dream come true for fans and performers alike. The 2011 summertime concert at Levon Helm’s Barn in Woodstock featuring Helm and gospel icon Mavis Staples was a celestial express with Mavis and Helm holding the throttle wide open. Carry Me Home,

Leyla McCalla provides a tantalizing glimpse into her Haitian roots through her infectious rhythms and velvety crooning on her latest project, Breaking the Thermometer. But the smooth texture reveals a rough surface underneath. The lilting melodies support a lyrical structure full of pain and corruption, but imbued with a fiery

Trombone Shorty is a party in progress. A never-ending second-line party parade purveyor, Troy Andrews has had his “Shorty” nickname since the age of 4, making his professional debut onstage at New Orleans' Jazz Fest with Bo Diddley. In person or on record, Shorty brings the same energy and

When Bonnie Raitt lets go with one of her trademark moans, dead men rise up to see what all the fuss is about. For her latest, Just Like That … , on her own Redwing Records, Raitt is in top form, recruiting blues rock fans above and underground to pay attention to

Johnny Winter cast a long shadow. The fiery blues-rocker and arguably best slide player of all time influenced a generation of guitarists, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, sending young rock fans back to the blues roots to discover the Black artists Winter dug up, worshiped,