Blues guitar great Freddie King was born on this day in 1934 in Gilmer, TX. King began as a down-home acoustic Blues guitarist in the vein of fellow Texan Lightnin` Hopkins. He carried this style to the electric guitar and used the thumb and fingerpick method, as opposed to the single string method of the other two Kings of the Blues, BB and Albert. Freddie was heavily influenced by Eddie Taylor (Jimmy Reed`s guitarist) and Robert JR. Lockwood and went on to become a major influence on guitarists Lonnie Mack, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among many others. When Freddie was 16, he moved to Chicago and began to soak up the influence of Taylor, Lockwood and others and soon formed his own band The Every Hour Blues Boys. He soon began doing session work for Chess and Parrot Records. King released a single in 1957 Country Boy that failed to generate much attention. Three years later, he signed with Federal Records and released You`ve Got To Love Her With a Feeling, which became a minor hit and made it onto the Pop charts. He followed with the instrumental Hideaway, originally released as a B side that became a major hit and King`s signature song. Hideaway became a standard song on the playlists of budding Blues and Rock bands across America and England. In the early 60s, King released San-Ho-Zey, The Stumble and I`m Tore Down, all top-ten hits that became Blues standards. King died prematurely of a heart attack at age 42. His influence can still be heard in Blues and Rock guitar decades after his demise. check out Hideaway: The Best Of Freddie King on Rhino, or The Ultimate Collectin on Hip-O, or The Best Of Freddie King on MC.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 13:19:04 +0000
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