Elmore James-Blues After Hours (1960)

Elmore James is one of the fathers of modern blues. His personalized take on traditional Mississippi Delta blues led him to pick up the torch from the legendary Robert Johnson, and some of his iconic songs, such as "Dust My Broom," "Believe", "Standing at the Crossroads", "Dust My Blues", and "It Hurts Me Too", all released in the 1950s, cemented his status as one of the most important figures in blues. Despite a relatively short career (he began recording in the early 1950s), his musical legacy includes countless songs that have been, and continue to be, covered by hundreds of musicians who have kept his legacy alive throughout the years. With extraordinary virtuosity on the slide and bottle neck guitars, he defined a unique and original style, decisively influencing the playing of hundreds of subsequent blues and rock guitarists. Elmore James died in 1963 at the age of 43 from a heart attack, just as he was about to embark on a long tour of Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival. He was inducted posthumously into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame many years later. His musical legacy and influence have been acknowledged by electric guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Hound Dog Taylor, Duane Allman, and Jerry Garcia.