More than one 'King of the Blues'

If rock music has proven that dying young offers fame, then blues has proven the opposite for many of its great performers. Your best hope for post-mortem fame is to have a slightly androgynous English band from the '60s or '70s cover some of your songs and hope that they are around well after most people retire. But since the Stones didn't really do a lot for the two lesser known Kings of the blues, I figured it couldn't hurt to get out my scarf, grab a beat up Gibson and see where it takes me...or maybe I'll just write about them.\nWhile B.B. King's distinctive guitar tone and vocal delivery are probably no strangers to anyone's ears, Texas born bluesmen Albert King and Freddie King -- of no relation -- go overlooked in their equally important roles in the development of early electric blues and their abilities to stand out by crafting their own voices. In fact, it's arguable that Freddie and Albert were more important to the blues community than B.B., and had a longer-lasting impact.\nFreddie King may be the least well known of these, but his influence spread the furthest. His instrumental blues put strong backbeats into the rhythm that powered danceable tunes with the energy of early rock and R&B and broadened the boundaries of Chicago-style electric blues with some of modern blues' bests like "Hideaway" and "The Stumble." Freddie King's powerful but soothing voice has a sincerity that's more common to soul than his Southern contemporaries, and his playing style was more melodic than either Albert or B.B. His influence can be heard in some of the genre's greatest players, from the filthy, funky Luther Allison (a personal favorite) to the sharp attack and melodic sense of Albert Collins (also recommended).\nAlbert King characterizes Austin's electric blues scene in the late '60s and onward but adds Motown-flavored horns and soul to his voice that is at once angry grit and as tender as Otis Redding. With favorites like "I'll Play the Blues for You" and "Blues Power," it's no doubt Albert King never forgot his roots or lost his connection with the blues. "Breakin' Up Somebody's Home" and "Angel of Mercy" show Albert's typical conversational style that breathes life into his better songs even in the studio. Albert King's obvious influence oddly enough seems to impact rock musicians (like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan), though his blues were as pure as anyone's.\nB.B. King remains one of the most important figures in the blues, but often as no result of the music itself. It's hard to recall a year where B.B. didn't have at least one commercial endorsement running, and he's never been afraid to follow the trends instead of being a trailblazer himself. Nonetheless, on record and even live at close to 80 years old, B.B. still has little trouble hitting where it counts, and there's no law that says it's compromising your music to try new things. Amazingly, B.B. has one of the most consistent collections for such a long career and certainly deserves much of the respect as well as controversy. It's no mistake that "The Thrill is Gone" is what really put him on the map, since this is the time that's generally considered his creative peak, but it's hard not to recommend the lesser known Indianola Mississippi Seeds (which actually came out right before "Thrill" hit the mass audiences).\nThe point is that there's much more to blues than the handful of artists that generally get the credit. The three Kings were all Southern born guitar players/vocalists who rose to popularity around the same time (mid-late '60s and on), but it's almost impossible to mistake one for the other. And there are many more pure electric blues players from that time: Buddy Guy, Clarence "Gatemouth Brown," Johnny Copeland, plus the followers mentioned above.\nSo if you're in a blues rut and cringe at so much of the slicker modern blues (which isn't that wasteland it's said to be, by any means) and can't handle the edge of blues' raw roots, check out Freddie and Albert King. Trust Albert -- he knows when he says, "That's what the blues is all about"