On a bender

A CHIEF CONSIDERATION when playing with a slide is the tuning. Many of our favorite slide players — Elmore James, Duane Allman, Johnny Winter, Derek Trucks — play slide almost exclusively in an open t

TODAY, I’D LIKE to talk about the legacy of the legendary B.B. King, as 2025 marked what would have been his 100th birthday. I met B.B. in 1990 when I was 13 years old, and we became lifelong friends.

DARLING BLUE IS the Marcus King Band’s first album since 2018’s Carolina Confessions. This might sound weird considering we’re talking about a crew that has been a dedicated band of road warriors sinc

B.B. KING was the gracious, perma-gigging ambassador of the blues, but his seeming serenity glossed a rollercoaster career, struggles with racism and gambling, audiences lost and found. As a new tribute album reinforces his legacy, MAT SNOW goes to bat for arguably the most underrated legend of the form, starting with the gig that turned everything around...

JIMMIE VAUGHAN IS still kicking at 74, but he’s endured a few setbacks along the way, mostly in the form of three recent heart attacks. After the third of these — which happened in 2022 — the Texas bl

IF YOU’VE SEEN recent footage of Eric Steckel in action, you’ll probably have noticed that his take on the blues is an undeniably aggressive one. It’s a new thing for him, he tells GW, having started