E is for… Electricity

Acoustic country blues was effectively finished when guitarists like T-Bone Walker in Texas and Muddy Waters in Chicago started amplifying their guitars in the late '40s. The era of electric blues was born.

It was while on tour in the UK in 1958 that Muddy Waters sowed the seeds of the British blues boom that would take root in the '60s. Bands like The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones and The Animals fed off the raucous amplified guitar tone on Muddy’s records. Those bands in turn would spark the birth of British hard rock. Muddy Waters' late '50s visit had a huge impact on the British music scene.

E is also for… Epiphone

Not all blues guitarists dug Fender and Gibson guitars. John Lee Hooker had a thing for Epiphone axes. In this killer clip of Hobo Blues, Hooker is brandishing a beautiful early '60s Epiphone Zephyr E312TN ('T' denoted a thinline model; the 'N' a natural finish). It was made in the Gibson factory, to be fair…