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limelight it must have been something of a surprise
to him to find that so many people were interested
in his music.

In 1977 he was once again teaming up with Muddy
Waters, for his “I’m Ready” album.

The last few years of his career saw him at last

achieving the status that he should have received
much earlier for his contribution to modern blues
- he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in
1995, and in the same year he was Living Blues
magazine’s blues artist of the year. His songs were
also coming to the ears of a new generation of

record buyers as they were covered by such
artistes as Gary Moore and Eric Clapton. Asked
what he thought of the various covers, Roger’s
reply was “I’ve heard a lot of cover versions of my
songs. I don’t have any particular ones that are my
favourites; they all try to put their own sound on
them, you know. Some of them try to copy me, and

some try their own sound, but sometimes they hit
and sometimes they don’t”!

With tours lined up, and the “Blues Blues Blues” album about to be released, Jimmy Rogers
passed away quite suddenly on 19th December 1997, due to colon cancer. He is buried
in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, in a plot quite close to Muddy Waters, where
his gravestone notes the name Jay, rather than James. There is an inscription on the

gravestone that is actually a quote from Albert King, and states that “If you can’t dig the
blues you must have a hole in your soul”!

His son, Jimmy D. Lane, is a guitarist and record producer, although I don’t think this is in
the field of blues.

In 2016 Jimmy Roger’s song ‘That’s All Right’ was inducted by the Blues Hall of Fame as

a “Classic of Blues Recording”.

Undoubtedly his career was defined by his solo recordings, and those with Muddy Waters
band, during the 1950s, when they helped immeasurably to shape the sound of Chicago
blues, and going forward the electric blues that so captured the imagination of a generation
of mostly white, but certainly many black, musicians over the next decades. His
understated guitar playing might not be spoken of in the same hushed tones as BB, Freddy

and Albert King, but he deserves his place with them.

Unfortunately there is not a great deal of his work readily available these days, but if you
can get your hands on the Chess double cd “Jimmy Rogers - the complete Chess recordings”
(1997), you will be in possession of 51 tracks of his best work in my opinion!