BluesPhotosbyDonMcGhee

09/01/2026

Happy Birthday Steve Salter!
Killer Blues Headstone Project

Johnnie Bassett's headstone dedication Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery Warren, MI 07/17/22

08/15/2026

Too Tight Henry rests in peace, NOW MARKED WITH A TOMBSTONE PLACED THROUGH THE EFFORTS OF Killer Blues Headstone Project. Please share and please consider a donation to the tireless efforts of the Project. Every dime goes to the mission of identifying and honoring those [Blues folks] whose graves have gone unmarked.

07/28/2026

Happy Birthday bluesman Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
https://www.bluesphotosbydonmcghee.com/Events/FESTIVALS/Briggs-Farm-Blues-/Briggs2016/i-pSXxgzd?

Briggs Farm Blues Festival 2016

07/26/2026

Thinking about Blues Queen Alberta Adams (b. 07/26/17 d. 12/25/14) today 💙

Thinking of Alberta Adams today. It is really hard to believe that it has been 4 years since we lost Detroit’s original Queen of the Blues. Alberta Adams died on Christmas morning in 2014, at…

07/26/2026

Wow - Congratulations & THANK YOU Roger Stolle for 24 years of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Arts

07/07/2026

Celebrating Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins. (b. 7/7/13, Belzoni MS d. 03/21/11, Austin TX) He began his career as a guitarist but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a knife fight with a chorus girl in Helena, Arkansas. Unable to play the guitar, he switched to the piano...

Celebrating Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins. (b. 7/7/13, Belzoni MS d. 03/21/11, Austin TX) He began his career as a guitarist but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a knife fight with a chorus girl in Helena, Arkansas. Unable to play the guitar, he switched to the piano. From the 1950s, Joe Willie Perkins became universally known as "Pinetop Perkins" for his recording of (Clarence Smith’s) “Pinetop's Boogie Woogie". He performed with Bob Margolin, Earl Ho**er, Henry Townsend, Honeyboy Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Robert Nighthawk, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and many more.

At the age of 97, Perkins won a Grammy Award in the category Best Traditional Blues Album for Joined at the Hip, which he recorded with Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, thus becoming the oldest winner of a Grammy Award. Perkins has been the subject of two documentary films: Born in the Honey (2007) and Sidemen: Long Road to Glory (2016). He also appeared in Clint Eastwood's 2003 documentary Piano Blues. Did you see him outside Aretha's Soul Food Cafe in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers, having an argument with John Lee Ho**er over who wrote "Boom Boom?” [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinetop_Perkins]

06/16/2026

Venues, festivals - dynamic duo Gary & Cedric Burnside, together - Bring 'em! Spread the word y'all.

05/28/2026

My name is William P. (Bill) Homans. I moved from Oklahoma to Clarksdale, having bought my little house on Catalpa Street in 2009 after the 2008 Real Estate Bubble Bust, after visiting to play shows repeatedly since 2004, when at 55 I retired from truck driving, having made a CD that got nominated for a Blues Music Award.

I have been proud to be a working member of this community since then. I intended from the time I moved here to be a Clarksdale resident for the rest of my life. I have purchased my grave plot in the Heavenly Rest Cemetery on Highway 61, and have purchased my tombstone.

Recently it has been reported that the city government has voted 3 to 2 (our mayor cast the deciding vote) to rezone a plot of 648 acres in south Clarksdale as industrial land, provisionally to locate an AI data center there. I will not go into the various disadvantages and risks of AI data centers, except for one: no Clarksdale residents are going to be hired to build such an industrial operation, nor to work at and maintain it.

Technologically qualified outsiders will be brought here by the firm that will own, build and run the data center. Local, lifelong residents will not benefit in the slightest, nor will their children.

Very lately I have been told that other cities including Grenada, Helena AR and Jackson are also under consideration for the location of this data center. I hereby ask all Clarksdale residents to SPEAK UP AND SPEAK OUT against our city welcoming a giga-corporation to build an industrial enterprise that will do no good whatsoever for us!

Sincerely, Your Fellow Citizen,

Bill Homans, aka the bluesman Watermelon Slim

05/01/2026

Detroit Michigan's Blues music family's tough week delivered a severe sad shock today with news of the sudden passing of Bobby Murray. Authenticity. Talent. Humility, Humor. Kindness. Passion. Integrity. Generosity of Spirit. Award-worthy traits of this prize of a human being - Bobby Murray humbly existed among us; to know him has been my own reward. Bobby Murray remained the top choice of library patrons attending the Jazz & Blues concert series at the Southfield Library, for its entire history.
Here's to carrying our memories forward, through our music scenes, as if they are Bobby himself weaving through the crowd. More images:

Bobby Murray

04/30/2026

From Attic Bar days ... to Fostoria ... and Jackson ... to Canada ... and so on elsewhere - Greg Manning always gave us his dry humor and tasty kit work. Mourning with our Detroit Blues music scene family, with heartfelt condolences to his wife and family. Long live our memories. Rest now, Greg.