Freddie King-Texas Cannonball (1972)

His style was heavily influenced by established artists such as T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, and the great jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell. Once settled in his new city, he experienced some of the blues' golden age firsthand, listening to legends like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Lonesome Sundown. His playing style, with its wide variety of characteristic solos, achieving a clean and robust sound, along with his energetic voice, would make him, over the years, one of the most emblematic and celebrated bluesmen in history. After a good number of successes during the sixties, such as “Freddie King Sings” (1961), “Freddie King Goes Surfin’” (1963) or “My Feeling For The Blues” (1970), in which he has the participation of the superb saxophonist King Curtis and in which stand out songs such as “Wake Up This Morning” by B.B. King or the superb “Il Wonder Why” and “Stormy Monday”. Around this time, King showcased a large group of backing musicians, including the aforementioned King Curtis and legendary session musicians, most of them from the Atlantic Records stable, such as Frank Wess, George Coleman, Cornell Dupree, and Martin Banks. On his tenth album, "Texas Cannonball", released in 1972 and considered one of the best blues albums ever made, he once again enlisted King Curtis as producer, featuring eleven blues standards by T-Bone Walker, Elmore James, Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, and Jimmy Witherspoon, as well as his own composition, "You Was Wrong". In the following years, he released a series of albums, including "Woman Across the River" (1973), "Burglar" (1974), and "Larger Than Life" (1975), his final work, in addition to various collaborations and compilation albums. However, Freddie King's career was tragically cut short on December 28, 1976, when he died of a heart attack. His death shocked the blues and rock world, and some years later he was included in the select group of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Ironically, observing the rise of blues rock and British blues, Freddie King once remarked in the mid-sixties that "the blues had undergone some changes in just a few years, especially since it was discovered by white kids".