walking upstream…
B.B. King
sourcesWikipedia · Guitar World
Riley 'B.B.' King grew up picking cotton in the Mississippi Delta before turning a single-string vibrato and a guitar he named Lucille into the most influential vocabulary in electric blues. His singing-guitar dialogue — call it out, then answer it with a bent note — became the grammar that nearly every blues-rock guitarist after him learned to speak. He recorded and toured for six decades, carrying Delta blues into arenas and, eventually, into the DNA of soul, rock, and pop guitar playing at large.
the sound in question
1969
The Thrill Is GoneB.B. King
walk the tributaries ↓
T-Bone Walker1940s · Jump blues / Electric blues / West Coast blues
King said hearing T-Bone Walker play 'Stormy Monday' on electric guitar was the moment that started him playing blues at all — 'that was the prettiest sound I think I ever heard in my life,' he recalled.
listen: upstream & here
1947
Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)T-Bone Walker
1956
Sweet Little AngelB.B. King
listen forWalker's 1947 'Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)' is where the modern electric-blues guitar solo effectively begins — long, singing, unhurried lines; King's own 'Sweet Little Angel' takes that same vocal-toned phrasing and adds his signature quick vibrato, the sound he spent a career refining out of that first jolt of inspiration.
Blind Lemon Jefferson1920s · Blues / Country blues
King grew up listening to Blind Lemon Jefferson's records and later said his voice 'hit me the hardest' because it sounded so distinct and natural — 'I heard them talking to me,' he said of Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson both.
listen: upstream & here
1927
Match Box BluesBlind Lemon Jefferson
1951
Three O'Clock BluesB.B. King
listen forJefferson's 1927 'Match Box Blues' is raw solo Delta blues, voice and guitar trading off with nothing else in the room; that same conversational, call-and-response instinct — guitar answering voice — anchors King's breakthrough 'Three O'Clock Blues,' even with a full band behind him.
Lonnie Johnson1920s–40s · Blues / Jazz
Lonnie Johnson's smooth, jazz-inflected guitar lines and crooning vocal delivery were, by King's own account, one of the two voices from his childhood records that shaped him most deeply.
listen: upstream & here
1948
Tomorrow NightLonnie Johnson
1952
You Know I Love YouB.B. King
listen forJohnson's 1948 hit 'Tomorrow Night' pairs a warm, unhurried croon with delicate single-note guitar fills; hear King absorb that same smoothness into his breakout 'You Know I Love You,' where the guitar answers each vocal line with the same conversational restraint.