Steve Knopper

In T. Mike Childs' world -- which is our world, too, really -- the Blender Children are the biggest heavy-metal band ever, and everybody knows the Gnats took over where...

Big Jack Johnson The Memphis Barbecue Sessions (M.C. Records) Mississippi bluesman Jack Johnson never got big in the first place, but suddenly the talented singer-guitarist, 61, needs a comeback album....

Peter Green Splinter Group Time Traders (Blue Storm Music) Original Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green learned his blues in '60s England, which explains why his recent work has had the...

Chris Thomas King The Legend of Tommy Johnson (21st Century Blues/Valley Entertainment) Though blessed with the perfect last name for blues stardom, veteran singer-guitarist Chris Thomas King has never managed...

Various artists Alligator Records 30th Anniversary Collection (Alligator) Blind Pig Records 25th Anniversary Collection (Blind Pig) Chicago's Alligator and San Francisco's Blind Pig lean heavily on fast-fingered guitar heroes who've...

R.L. Burnside Burnside on Burnside (Fat Possum/Epitaph) Some perceive R.L. Burnside, the great Northern Mississippi singer-guitarist who plays traditional Delta blues with sludgy rock 'n' roll spirit, as a reluctant...

Everybody knows what happened to jukeboxes in the '50s: They blew up. Teenyboppers, frustrated with listening to Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry on fuzzy transistor radios, flooded to soda fountains...

Big Time Sarah A Million of You (Delmark) "Big Time" Sarah Streeter is one of those Chicago electric-blues fixtures who's great at doing one thing -- and while she does...

Deborah Coleman Livin' On Love (Blind Pig) If this former electrician and nurse from Portsmouth, Va., doesn't start playing way more electric guitar solos, somebody will have to revoke her...

Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings Double Bill (Velvel/Koch) While Bill Wyman's old Rolling Stones mates keep pretending to move forward in rock 'n' roll, the bassist, more honestly, returns to the...