S.O.D. "Why I Sing The Blues" by B.B. King

5/16/2015     We have truly lost a musical giant here.  I'll give you some information but you really need to reference him.  He earned the title The King of the Blues and was a tireless performer sometimes keeping audiences entertained with more than 340 concerts a year.  His sophisticated method of fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato would influence mostly every electric blues guitarist that followed.  Kings career spanned 67 years and within that time has only associated himself with three other acts: Bobby Bland, Eric Clapton and U2.  He was born Riley B. King on a cotton plantation in 1925 near the town of Itta Bena Mississippi but considers the nearby city Indianola to be his home.  

     Of course he is in all of the Halls of Fame, won 15 Grammys, Lifetime Achievement Awards, has been given the keys to a few cities and has received from George H. W. Bush the National Medal of Arts Award and then the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush.  In his 20s, King worked at WDIA radio station in Memphis Tennessee as a singer and disc jockey where he earned the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy" which was later shortened to Blues Boy and finally BB. It was also there that he met T-Bone Walker where he first heard the Electric guitar and knew he had to have one.  Rolling Stone ranks him at #6 on their 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list and he is also #17 on Gibsons list of The Top 50 Guitarist of All Time. King just passed onto Blues Heaven on May 14 but released 43 studio albums before he did.  Enjoy!!!!!!