T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux Walker was the one of the most important figure in the development of electric blues guitar. Raised in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, he led Blind Lemon Jefferson around the streets as a teenager and absorbed the older man's style before becoming one of the first guitarists to perform with an electrically amplified instrument in the late 1930s. His 1947 recording of 'Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)' for Black & White Records is one of the most influential blues recordings ever made, establishing the template for the sophisticated, jazz-inflected West Coast blues guitar style. His single-string soloing technique, use of ninths and diminished chords, and showmanship (playing guitar behind his head and doing the splits) directly influenced B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, and every electric blues guitarist who followed. He won a Grammy for his 1970 Polydor album 'Good Feelin'.'