Broke Hungry Ragged Dirty Too - Snooky Prior

Snooky Pryor (September 15, 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica, although on his earliest records in the late 1940s and early '50s he did not utilize this method.
James Edward Pryor was born in Lambert, Mississippi and developed a Delta blues style influenced by both Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II. He moved to Chicago around 1940.

While serving in the U.S. Army he would blow bugle calls through the powerful PA system, which led him to experiment with playing the harmonica that way. Upon discharge from the Army in 1945, he obtained his own amplifier, and began playing harmonica at the outdoor Maxwell Street market, becoming a regular in the Chicago blues scene.

Pryor recorded some of the first postwar Chicago blues records in 1948, including "Telephone Blues" and "Snooky & Moody's Boogie" with guitarist Moody Jones, and "Stockyard Blues" and "Keep What You Got" with singer/guitarist Floyd Jones. "Snooky & Moody's Boogie" is of considerable historical significance: Pryor claimed that harmonica ace Little Walter directly copied the signature riff of Pryor's song into the opening eight bars of his own blues harmonica instrumental, "Juke," an R&B hit in 1952. In 1967, Pryor moved south to Ullin, Illinois. He quit music for carpentry in the late 1960s but was persuaded to make a comeback. After he dropped out of sight, Pryor was later re-discovered and resumed periodic recording until his death in nearby Cape Girardeau, Missouri at the age of 85.

In January 1973 he appeared with the American Blues Legends tour which played throughout Europe, alongside Homesick James. Whilst on this tour they recorded an album in London, Homesick James & Snooky Pryor, on Jim Simpson's label Big Bear Records.

Some of his better known songs include "Judgement Day" (1956), and "Crazy 'Bout My Baby" from Snooky (1989), "How'd You Learn to Shake It Like That" from Tenth Anniversary Anthology (1989) and "Shake My Hand" (1999).
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Floyd Jones - Stockyard Blues

Jones was born in Earle, Arkansas, United States, on 8 April 1908. Raised in the church, he developed an interest in music at an early age and learned to play guitar after his brother bought an old broken guitar for $3. When he was proficient enough he started playing for country dances, and by 1939 had arrived in Chicago. In Chicago he became one of a number of musicians, performing on Maxwell Street and in non-union venues, who played an important role in the development of the post-war Chicago blues sound, often performing with his first cousin, singer and guitar player Floyd Jones. By the late 1940s he was capable of playing any kind of music requested, and had learned to play piano, banjo and bass (including a home-made bass made out of a wash-tub, a broom-handle and a clothes line), in addition to guitar. He was regarded by his contemporaries as the best guitar player on the Chicago scene, and was warned by noted slide guitar player Muddy Waters not to “fool with that slide” when Jones sat in with Waters’ band one night.
Moody Jones (April 8, 1908 - March 23, 1988) was an American blues guitarist, bass player, and singer, who is significant for his role in the development of the post-war Chicago blues sound in the late 1940s.
Jones is most significant, and best known, for his association with his cousin Floyd Jones and harmonica player Snooky Pryor, and for the singles he recorded with them in 1948 which were among the first recorded examples of the new style. The track
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Why You Want To Treat Me - Homesick James

Homesick James (d. December 13, 2006) was an American blues musician.He was born in Somerville, Tennessee, the son of Cordellia Henderson and Plez Williamson Rivers, who were both musicians. He developed a self-taught style of slide guitar through playing at local dances in his teens. Little is known about his early life. He claimed to have played with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller and Big Joe Williams, among others, and to have been acquainted with Robert Johnson. He also claimed to be the older cousin of Elmore James, to have bought James his first guitar, and to have taught him how to play slide. However, some of these claims are unconfirmed.

By the mid 1930s he was based in Chicago, and working with Horace Henderson's band at the Circle Inn, and with pianist Jimmy Walker at the Square Deal Club. He may have first recorded for RCA Victor in 1937, but this is also unconfirmed, and by 1938 may have begun playing electric guitar. His first known recordings were in 1952 for Chance Records, recording the tracks "Lonesome Ole Train" and "Homesick" which gave him his stage name. During the late 1940s and 1950s he worked with both Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), and with Elmore James, and in the early 1950s he worked in bands including Baby Face Leroy Foster, Snooky Pryor, Floyd Jones, and Lazy Bill Lucas. He was a longtime member of James' band from 1955 to 1963, contributing to such tracks as "Dust My Broom," "The Sky Is Crying," and "Roll and Tumble." Elmore James is said to have died on Homesick's couch, while the latter frantically searched for the former's heart pills.

As a solo performer, he recorded for the Colt and USA labels in 1962, including a cover version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads". Homesick James's slide guitar style, not as refined as Elmore James', traces back to Johnson's. He also recorded a 1964 album for Prestige Records, Blues On the South Side (Prestige OBCCD 529-2), including another of his best-known covers, "Stones In My Passway", and some tracks for Vanguard that are available on the compilation album Chicago: The Blues Today. One of his own songs, "Gotta Move" (also on Blues On the South Side) was covered (as "Got To Move") both by Elmore James and Fleetwood Mac.


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