Billy Boy Arnold‘s career spans no fewer than three historical blues epochs. Mentored as a teenager in 1948 by harmonica master John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, who’d helped define the mid-20th-century Chicago style, Arnold began playing professionally just as Muddy Waters and his contemporaries kicked off the postwar blues insurgency. Then, in 1955, he participated in what was, for all intents and purposes, the birth of rock ‘n’ roll—in fact, he’s often credited with coining one of rock’s most iconic stage names.
Charlie Musselwhite with special guest Billy Boy Arnold Fri 6/7, 5 PM, Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Billy Boy Arnold Sat 6/8, 3 PM, Crossroads Stage
Arnold got the chance to meet his idol for a memorable tutoring session only a few weeks before Williamson was murdered while walking home from a gig. Inspired, Arnold hit the local circuit, and in 1953 he released his own debut, the single “I Ain’t Got No Money” b/w “Hello Stranger,” on the tiny, short-lived Chicago label Cool—but these straightforward 12-bar blues outings barely hinted at what was to come.
Even though Arnold’s 1950s discography could be considered modest—not quite 20 sides, none of which charted—those early recordings provide a tantalizing snapshot of a music in the throes of radical if not cataclysmic change. Now that this change is a matter of history, Billy Boy Arnold is universally feted as a carrier of living blues heritage who helped the blues and R&B give birth to rock ‘n’ roll. v
