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Kansas City Blues Society

The Kansas City Blues Society creates a community environment to promote, preserve, enjoy, and celebrate Kansas City Blues music.

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KCK Street Blues Festival 2004 crowd in front of stage

Yesterday's Blues

Buddy Moss

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the May 1994 Blues News With the focus so often on the Mississippi Delta area as the “cradle of the blues,” other places …

Read moreBuddy Moss

Johnny Shines

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the FMarch 1994 Blues News Johnny Shines was a highly gifted guitar player and a literate and poetic composer of blues lyrics.  He was, …

Read moreJohnny Shines

Professor Longhair

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the February 1994 Blues News In October of 1993, New Orleans premier music club, Tipitina’s, officially changed its name to Professor Longhair’s Tipitina to …

Read moreProfessor Longhair

Speckled Red & the Dirty Dozens

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the April 1994 Blues News “Playing at the Dozens” or “Putting in the Dozens” is a folk game in which two or more …

Read moreSpeckled Red & the Dirty Dozens

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the February 1995 Blues News In 1952, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton recorded a robust and raunchy number with a lot of innuendo …

Read moreWillie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton

Walter “Furry” Lewis

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the December 1990 Blues News Beale Street, for the first quarter of this century, was one of the roughest and toughest, most rocking and …

Read moreWalter “Furry” Lewis

Blind Willie Johnson

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the May 1998 Blues News The Rev. Willie Johnson was a sanctified and holy man who played and sang gospel songs to bring …

Read moreBlind Willie Johnson

Mississippi John Hurt

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the Jan. 1996 Blues News A tiny gnome of a man with the countenance of an angel took the stage at the 1963 …

Read moreMississippi John Hurt

Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the April 1990 Blues News The Last of the Old Country Bluesmen Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins was a bluesman who carried on the old …

Read moreSam “Lightnin'” Hopkins

Blind Boy Fuller

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the August 1996 Blues News Sixty years ago, a slight, neatly dressed black man stood on the corner of Seventh and Patterson Streets in Winston-Salem, …

Read moreBlind Boy Fuller

Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the December 1996 Blues News “I got the blues from my baby, Left me by the San Francisco Bay. Ocean liner took her so far …

Read moreJesse “Lone Cat” Fuller

Sleepy John Estes

By Doyle Pace, originally published in the November 1995 Blues News When the documentary filmmaker David Blumenthal rediscovered Sleepy John Estes in 1962, the former blues great was destitute and …

Read moreSleepy John Estes

Champion Jack Dupree

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the November and December 1993 Blues News Last year was a sad and unfortunate year for the blues. Before 1992 was half over, three giants …

Read moreChampion Jack Dupree

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup

 By Doyle M. Pace Originally published in the September 1993 Blues News Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup should have been able to live out his last years in comfort and prosperity …

Read moreArthur “Big Boy” Crudup
Blind Arthur Blake

Blind Arthur Blake

By Doyle M. Pace, originally published in the June 1993 Blues News Sometimes in the late 1920s, a blind musician using the name of Arthur Blake migrated to the city …

Read moreBlind Arthur Blake

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