Jimmy Witherspoon & Duke Robillard

I love the Blues.

I really love Slow Blues.

I know, it’s simple and basic and all of the shredders can play twenty notes for every single note in a slow blues song.

But the slow blues moves me. It moves me like no other music. Ronnie Earl, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duke Robillard and so many many others made careers out of mastering the slow blues.

13 years ago today, September 18, 1997, we lost Jimmy Witherspoon. He was 77.

Jimmy was not a guitar player. He was a singer. A blues singer. And in this case, a slow blues singer.

This recording is Jimmy Witherspoon’s last before he passed away, leaving behind a long legacy of great blues recordings. Jimmy died of throat cancer, which is evident in this recording as his voice is quite weak.

Enjoy this soulful rendition of “Going Down Slow” with Duke Robillard providing backup on guitar.

[Listen to “Goin’ Down Slow”]

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