Blues Artists That Died in 2009

Blues harpist Norton Buffalo, a mainstay of the Northern California blues scene for better than three decades, lost his short battle with lung cancer on Friday, October 29, 2009 at the age of 58 years. A skilled harmonica player who was equally conversant in blues, rock, folk, and country music, Buffalo's distinctive harp tones can be heard on over 180 albums by artists as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, the Doobie Brothers, Elvin Bishop, Johnny Cash, and many others. Buffalo was a touring member of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, and had been a member of the Steve Miller Band since 1976.

Texas bluesman Rocky Benton, a long-time fixture on the Corpus Christi, Texas blues music scene, died on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at the age of 57 of heart failure. Benton had been in the hospital for about a week, awaiting surgery to install a pacemaker, at the time of his death. Born Harold Ray Benton is Silsbee, Texas, Benton lost his sight at the age of four years old. The blues harpist began playing the harmonica at the age of six, and soon branched out into drums and keyboards. Benton began his musical career at the age of ten, performing as a jazz drummer and singer with a band in Austin while attending the Texas School for the Blind, where he also picked up his "Rocky" nickname.

Texas blues guitarist Rocky Hill, brother of Z.Z. Top bassist Dusty, died on Friday, April 10th, 2009 from an undisclosed medical condition. The well-known Houston area musician was 62 years old. Hill picked up the guitar at a young age, and by the time he was 15 years old Rocky was playing local Dallas clubs with his band the Starliners. Hill later formed American Blues with his brother Dusty and drummer Frank Beard. The early power trio died their hair blue and performed the psychedelic blues-rock popular in Texas and elsewhere during the mid-to-late-1960s.

Bluesman Sam Carr, one of the premiere blues drummers of the modern era, passed away on Monday, September 21, 2009 after battling health problems over the past few years. Carr had recently lost his wife of over 60 years, Doris, and was living in a nursing facility at the time of his death. Carr was 83 years old. Born in Arkansas as Samuel Lee McCollum in 1926, he was raised by the Carr family on their Mississippi farm. The son of noted blues guitarist Robert Nighthawk, Carr didn't meet his father until he was 7 years old, but by the time he was 16 he was driving Nighthawk to performances, collecting money at the door, and sometimes playing bass with his father.

Blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sam "The Bluzman" Taylor passed away on Monday, January 5th, 2009 in his Islandia, NY home from complications associated with heart disease. Taylor was 74 years old. A veteran musician with almost five decades experience under his belt, Taylor was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1934 and settled in the Long Island area after a stint in the U.S. Air Force. A talented guitarist with a wide range, Taylor was much in demand throughout the 1960s. He was an early member of Joey Dee & the Starliters, playing on the band's big hit "Peppermint Twist," but he was also a bandleader who worked with legends like Otis Redding, The Isley Brothers, and Sam and Dave, among others.

Blues guitarist and singer Fird "Snooks" Eaglin, Jr. – a true New Orleans R&B legend – died on Wednesday, February 24, 2009 from a heart attack at the age of 73 years after a lengthy illness. Blinded as an infant by glaucoma, Eaglin was a self-taught guitarist, learning to play by listening to songs on the radio. Eaglin possessed a unique finger-picking technique, and by picking with his thumbnail he could bend the strings even faster.

We're saddened to report the death of Clarksdale, Mississippi blues artist Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson. The popular Delta blues singer, bass player, and band leader passed away on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 from complications due to lung cancer. Jefferson was 65 years old. Jefferson was born the oldest boy of thirteen children in Roundaway, Mississippi, a rural area south of Clarksdale. Raised in abject poverty, Jefferson picked cotton and plowed behind a mule as a young man, and as he got older, he worked the fields with a tractor. He picked up on blues music at an early age, hearing records on the jukebox at the juke joint that his mother ran out in the country.

Award-winning Alabama bluesman Willie King died at his Old Memphis, Alabama home from a massive heart attack on Sunday, March 8, 2009 at the age of 65 years. Although King wasn't very well known by the blues world at large, his influence as both a blues artist and a social activist loom large in the South, particularly in his home state. King had been playing his unique brand of what he called "struggling blues" for over 30 years at the time of his big league debut, the 2000 Rooster Blues album Freedom Creek. He would release four more albums during the decade, including 2006's One Love, his last recording.