Best blues drummers

brady

Platinum Member
I've seen several 'favorite/best drummers' threads here for rock and jazz but not for blues. So...let's hear about your favorite blues drummers. Who do you think of when you lay down a shuffle?
 
Steve Jordan can lay down some NASTY nasty Blues, (just one of the styles I believe he excels in). Check out John Mayer's Where the Light Is, for some very tasty playing.
 
I second Steve Jordan, some other awsome blues drummers Charlie Watts, Levon Helm, and Mitch Mitchell.
 
Steve Jordan gets my vote too. Check out the stuff he did with the Blues Brothers.
But for my favorite, I"m going old-school and say Fred Below. The I could listen to the stuff he did with Little Walter all day long. Great feel!
 
John the Bonham, Ian Paice, Carmine Appice, and Pretty Purdie
 
One of the best is Chris Layton. Best known for drumming with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.. He has recently been playing with Pinetop Perkins.
 
One of the best is Chris Layton. Best known for drumming with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.. He has recently been playing with Pinetop Perkins.


That would be awesome. How long has he been playing with Pinetop? Did you get to see him?
I saw Pinetop about a year ago with Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith. I got to hang out and talk with him for a bit. Very classy guy. Pinetop too; he signed autographs for a very long time. Willie's son was supposed to be on drums but was sick at the time I think. The drummer on this date was Bob something. If anyone knows who that may have been, that would be great to know.
 
That would be awesome. How long has he been playing with Pinetop? Did you get to see him?

Perkins was on a recent Austin City Limits show on PBS and Chris Layton was drumming. Whether he was just filling in for someone else, I'm not sure.
 
As a native born Chicago guy I have to give my vote to Sam Lay. Probably best known for what is referred to as the "double shuffle". He first came to prominence as the drummer for Little Walter and later Howlin' Wolf along with Paul Butterfield and Siegel-Schwall Blues Band among others. Of note is that he was the drummer when Bob Dylan "went electric" at the infamous Newport Folk Festival.
 
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Hmm blues drummers....Guitarists, and harmonica players get the lions share of the attention in Blues....That's a tough question, hard to pick. Sam Lay would probably get my vote for the traditional genre. Duke Robillards drummer Mark Teixeira, gets my pick for the best contemporary blues drummer.
 
I'm still confused...... 12 bar Delta blues, jazz blues,electric blues, Southern blues, slide guitar blues, blues rock... All the drummers I know play some form of the blues... so when y'all say blues drummers, what does that mean?

When we say blues are we talking about Samuel Johnson, Django Reinhart, Johnny Winter, SRV, Miles Davis, Allman Bros, Eric Clapton, Eric Gale....?

Pardon my ignorance.
 
Being a predominantly blues oriented drummer, I find these guys to be continued inspirations for pure feel & groove:

Sam Lay (Chicago Legend)
Sonny Freeman (Check out his "Flat Tyre" shuffle!)
Fred Below (Chess Records ace)
Al Jackson Jr (check out Born Under a Bad Sign, Albert King)
Jabo Starks ('2 Steps From the Blues' by Bobby Blue Bland is a killer album)

Steve Jordan springs to mind as a more contemporary player who really gets where it all comes from - his shuffles & sense of groove really are amazing. Same can be said for Charlie Watts & Levon Helm. Jim Keltner too goes without say - check out BB's new album..

I always go back to Earl Palmer too. Not necessarily known as a blues drummer per se, but where the backbeat started in earnest! Check out the BB King Album tribute to the music of Louis Jordan - Earl really lays it down mostly with brushes!
 
Duke Robillard's drummer Mark Teixeira, gets my pick for the best contemporary blues drummer.
I know Mark quite well, he's a really nice kid and one HELL of a drummer!!
Other Rhode Island drummers of note that play the blues are Westerly Rhode Island native Fran Christina who is with The Fabulous Thunderbirds and also Rhode Island's own Neil Gouvin who is with Sugar Ray and the Blue Tones. Ronnie Earl's drummer Per Hanson lays down an achin' blues shuffle, he hails from Maine.
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