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Jimmy Rogers

Front Man, Side Man, “Bad Man”

By John Holmes

In the late 1940s a trio of musicians virtually designed the sound of Chicago blues, and
their influence can be heard across a great swathe of the blues, R&B, rock and roll, rock,
and even pop, that has continued to this day.

Muddy Waters, Little Walter Jacobs and
Jimmy Rogers were great innovators, and

Muddy and Little Walter have rightly been
acclaimed for their skills, and contribution
in electrifying the blues for a new audience.
However, Jimmy Rogers has remained
somewhat in the background - as indeed he
so often did on stage - so I believe it is right
to emphasise not only how important he

was to the sound of the Muddy Waters Band,
but also that his solo work is deserving of
attention.

He was born either Jay or James A. Lane
(depending upon where you look!), in
Ruleville, Mississippi (about 40 miles south

of Clarksdale) on June 3rd 1924, although
he later adopted the surname of his
stepfather, on the remarriage of his Mother,
when he was about 7 years old, and became
James Rogers. When he was a young child

the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and
he went to live with his maternal
Grandmother, who later moved to Memphis,
taking her Grandson with her.

Rogers first attempts at music were with the
harmonica, having been inspired by the

music of Sonny Boy Williamson I, as also
was a school friend, Snooky Prior, and they
formed a little band to back their early
musical efforts. Like Rogers, Prior was later
to become one of the stalwarts of Chicago
blues.

From about the age of 10 or 11 Rogers was
also learning to play guitar, although initially this was done on a broom wire that was often
stretched against the side of the family house, known as a “diddley bow”. “I’d take a bottle