Acoustic Chicago Blues

Acoustic Chicago blues covers the small-combo blues recorded in Chicago from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, before amplification defined the city's sound. Guitar, piano, harmonica, washboard and string bass support singers such as *Big Bill Broonzy*, *Tampa Red* and *Washboard Sam* in hokum, ragtime-inflected and early urban styles recorded for #Bluebird# and #Decca#. The music documents the Great Migration generation: country techniques reshaped by city studios, session work and juke-joint dance floors. Later acoustic sessions by *Muddy Waters* and *Lonnie Johnson* revisited the format after electric blues had eclipsed it.