Blues Guitarist Maynard Silva, R.I.P.

Blues guitarist Maynard Silva died on Wednesday, July 16, 2008, reports the Vineyard Gazette Online. The 57-year-old blues musician lost his three-year battle with cancer. Born of working class roots on Martha's Vineyard, Silva attended college in St. Louis, but felt the lure of blues music drawing him to Memphis. He began hanging around Beale Street clubs on the weekend, and subsequently began performing with country blues legend Bukka White in 1972.

Through the years, Silva played with blues music giants like White, J.B. Hutto, and Buddy Guy, launching his own Maynard Silva Band in 1982. Though he largely retired from touring in the late-1980s, Silva continued to record and to perform regionally. During a career that spanned five decades, Silva recorded six solo albums along with two albums with his band the New Hawks – the best known of which is Howl at the Moon – and his songs have appeared on a number of slide guitar anthologies. Get the full story on this overlooked blues guitarist from the Vineyard Gazette Online….