Blues Before Sunrise 3

Guitar Slingers and Backbeaters

Steve Cushing, Wayne Everett Goins

$246

Hardback

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English

University of Illinois Press
13 May 2025

Music reviews & criticism; Blues; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups; Biography: arts & entertainment

Series: Music in American Life

Steve Cushing’s third volume of interviews from Blues Before Sunrise puts fans face-to-face with music legends and industry figures. The volume kicks off with a roundtable featuring drumming all-stars Earl Phillips, S.P. Leary, Odie Payne, Clifton James, and Fred Below discussing their lives and craft. Cushing segues to one-on-one interviews with Howlin’ Wolf sideman Phillips; Leary, a fellow Wolf alum and player with Sonny Boy Williamson II; Payne, known for his kick drum technique; longtime Muddy Waters drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith; next-generation standard bearer and session mainstay Casey Jones; and King Records house drummer Phillip Paul.

Interviews with guitarists include talks with Honeyboy Edwards, whose friendships with innumerable Chicago blues legends (and Robert Johnson) predated the Great Migration; jazz player turned bluesman Guitar Shorty; and figures like Texas native Roy Gaines, Johnny Heartsman of Oakland, and Memphis-born Floyd Murphy. A final section offers interviews with vocalists, record label founders, and other figures. Music scholar Wayne Everett Goins provides an introduction on blues history, blues style, and the careers of the featured artists.

Interviews: Joel Dorn, Honeyboy Edwards, Slim Gaillard, Roy Gaines, Johnny Heartsman, Franz Jackson, Casey Jones, S.P. Leary, Floyd Murphy, Jimmy “T-99” Nelson, Johnny Parth, Phillip Paul, Odie Payne, Earl Phillips, Art Sheridan, Guitar Shorty, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Norvel Taborn

By: Steve Cushing
Introduction by: Wayne Everett Goins
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780252046605
ISBN 10: 0252046609
Series: Music in American Life
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 13 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Steve Cushing has hosted Blues Before Sunrise for over forty years. He is the author of Blues Before Sunrise: The Radio Interviews, Blues Before Sunrise 2: Interviews from the Chicago Scene, and Pioneers of the Blue Revival.

Reviews for Blues Before Sunrise 3: Guitar Slingers and Backbeaters

“Steve Cushing’s seen it, been there, and done it all--a blues musician interviewing other musicians both well-known and lesser-known, along with the outliers of the blues and jazz scene--in an informative book.”--Mike Rowe, coeditor of Blues Unlimited: Essential Interviews from the Original Blues Magazine