Left us on this day (Dec. 17) in 1975: electric blues guitarist Hound Dog Taylor (lung cancer, age 60); born in Mississippi, he moved to Chicago in 1942 where he eventually became one of the city’s top performers; he was known for his prowess on the slide guitar (the fact that he was born with a 6th finger on his left hand certainly didn’t hurt!), his cheap Japanese Teisco guitars & his raucous boogie beats; in 1971, he became the first artist signed to Alligator Records, which would soon turn into one of the premier blues & roots music labels in the world (debut album, Hound Dog Taylor & the HouseRockers); he released a handful of acclaimed albums for the label & toured the country with the likes of Big Mama Thornton & Muddy Waters; Hound Dog inspired a young protégé by the name of George Thorogood; he was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984…
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 21:23:50 +0000