Blind White Blues Guitarist
As talented as he was however bloomfield suffered from deep seated insecurities and constant insomnia which in turn resulted in a long time battle with drugs and alcohol that the guitarist inevitably lost.
Blind white blues guitarist. This disability did not stop him from progressing in the music business. He was even featured in patrick swayze s road house movie. Blind musicians seem to be generally blues and jazz musicians so country singer ronnie milsap is a bit of an oddity.
He was born in 1943 in robbinsville north carolina along with a congenital disorder which made him completely blind at birth. Being a white blind musician has not stopped him from finding success in a music genre dominated by black sighted musicians. He now tours the united states canada and europe as bryan lee and the power blues band.
He hit number 5 on the u s. As his playing includes fills that later became part of the lexicon of white electric blues. Billboard hot 100 chart with angel eyes and reached the top 10 in canada with the songs i think i love you too much and how long can a man be strong.
Michael bloomfield was the first white blues guitarist of note a skilled technician that was taught his craft by the chicago bluesmen that took the teenaged prodigy under their wing. Blind willie mctell stretched the blues over to the style of ragtime itself an early jazz form. Hailing from canada jeff healy became blind as a young child as a result of retinoblastoma.
In my opinion these are the greatest blues guitarists that are white. In general blind musicians seem to be jazz or blues musicians so this american country musician and pianist is a strange exception. He was born in robbinsville north carolina with a congenital disorder that left him almost completely blind at birth.
When talk turns to great blues guitarists. At the age of three he began playing the guitar by placing it flat on his lap a unique style of playing which continued into his professional musical career as a jazz singer and guitarist. In fact it racked up more than 60 000 votes 60 429 to be exact from readers.
