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A full half-century from when he started out in the blues business, Jimmy McCracklin was still touring, recording, and acting like a much younger man. In fact, he vehemently disputed his commonly accepted birth date, but since he began recording back in 1945, it seemed reasonable. McCracklin grew up in Missouri, his main influence on piano being Walter Davis (little Jimmy's dad introduced him to the veteran pianist). McCracklin was also a promising pugilist, but the blues eventually emerged victorious. After a stint in the Navy during World War II, he bid St. Louis adieu and moved to the West Coast, making his recorded debut for the Globe logo with "Miss Mattie Left Me" in 1945. On that platter, J.D. Nicholson played piano; most of McCracklin's output found him handling his own 88s.

McCracklin recorded for a daunting array of tiny labels in Los Angeles and Oakland prior to touching down with Modern in 1949-1950, Swing Time the next year, and Peacock in 1952-1954. Early in his recording career, McCracklin had Robert Kelton on guitar, but by 1951, Lafayette "Thing" Thomas was installed as the searing guitarist with McCracklin's Blues Blasters and remained invaluable to the pianist into the early '60s.

By 1954, the pianist was back with the Bihari Brothers' Modern logo and really coming into his own with a sax-driven sound. "Couldn't Be a Dream" was hilariously surreal, McCracklin detailing his night out with a woman sent straight from hell, while a 1955 session found him doubling credibly on harp.

A series of sessions for Bay Area producer Bob Geddins' Irma label in 1956 (many of which later turned up on Imperial) preceded McCracklin's long-awaited first major hit. Seldom had he written a simpler song than "The Walk," a rudimentary dance number with a good groove that Checker Records put on the market in 1958. It went Top Ten on both the R&B and pop charts, and McCracklin was suddenly rubbing elbows with Dick Clark on network TV.

The nomadic pianist left Chess after a few more 45s, pausing at Mercury (where he cut a torrid "Georgia Slop" in 1959, later revived by Big Al Downing) before returning to the hit parade with the tough R&B workout "Just Got to Know" in 1961 for Art-Tone Records. A similar follow-up, "Shame, Shame, Shame," also did well for him the next year. Those sides eventually resurfaced on Imperial, where he hit twice in 1965 with "Every Night, Every Day" (later covered by Magic Sam) and the uncompromising "Think" and "My Answer" in 1966.

McCracklin's songwriting skills shouldn't be overlooked as an integral factor in his enduring success. He penned the funky "Tramp" for guitarist Lowell Fulson and watched his old pal take it to the rarefied end of the R&B lists in 1967, only to be eclipsed by a sassy duet cover by Stax stalwarts Otis Redding and Carla Thomas a scant few months later. McCracklin made a string of LPs for Imperial, even covering "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" in 1966, and segued into the soul era totally painlessly. Latter-day discs for Bullseye Blues proved that McCracklin still packed a knockout punch from behind his piano, no matter what his birth certificate said. Jimmy McCracklin died in San Pablo, California on December 20, 2012 at the age of 91. ~ Bill Dahl

Lowell Fulson was one of the most important figures in post-war West Coast blues, a guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was active from the late 1940s to the mid-'90s. While Fulson seemed willing to do a little bit of everything over the course of his career, his best-known work was informed by jump blues and the polished, impassioned, big-city sound typified by his fellow California bluesman T-Bone Walker. However, Fulson also cut spare, rural blues-styled material, strong soul-styled sides in the mid- to late '60s (1967's Tramp, including the hit title track), a smattering of funky, rock-infused blues (1970's In a Heavy Bag), and barroom-style guitar workouts (1995's late-era Them Update Blues).

Lowell Fulson was born on March 31, 1921 in Atoka, Oklahoma on a Native American reservation; his father was of Cherokee heritage. He was just six years old when his father died, and his mother moved the family to nearby Clarita, Oklahoma, where his grandfather owned land. Like many blues artists, Fulson got his start in music singing in church, and he took up the guitar when he was 12, soaking up the influences of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Boy Fuller. He soon put his new talent to use playing dances with a local string band. When he turned 18, Fulson set out on his own, briefly living in Ada, Oklahoma and playing alongside local blues artist Texas Alexander, doing extensive regional touring that taught Fulson the ropes of a musician's life. After a year with Alexander, he pulled up stakes and headed to Gainesville, Texas, where he played Saturday night dances and worked a day job as a fry cook. Fulson was drafted into the military in 1943, and the Navy stationed him in Oakland, California, where he saw T-Bone Walker perform several times. After he was discharged in 1945, Fulson settled in Oakland, where he played club gigs and formed a band with piano player Eldridge McCarthy. Producer and label head Bob Geddins heard Fulson and signed him to a deal, cutting material he leased to Swing Time Records. Geddins believed in Fulson enough to buy him an electric guitar and an amplifier, and he recorded a handful of guitar duets with his brother Martin.

In 1948, Fulson scored his first hit when Swing Time issued his "Three O'clock in the Morning Blues," a number B.B. King would rework as "Three O'clock Blues." More hits followed, including "Everyday I Have the Blues," "Blue Shadows," and "Lonesome Christmas." Fulson was playing frequent road dates, and put together a band that included Stanley Turrentine on sax and a young Ray Charles on piano. (Charles would later record one of Fulson's songs, "Sinner's Prayer.") Fulson and his band became a staple at nightclubs and R&B package shows in the South and Southwest, and in 1954 he signed a new recording contract with Checker Records, an offshoot of the successful blues label Chess Records. His first single for Checker, "Reconsider Baby," became a major hit and the song became an oft-covered favorite, with Elvis Presley taking the song to the pop charts in 1960. Fulson would continue to record for Checker until 1963, scoring hits with "Loving You," "That's All Right," "Low Society," and "Hung Down Head" that featured his sharp single-note solos, soulful vocals, and subtly impassioned arrangements.

After leaving Checker, Fulson struck a new deal with the R&B label Kent Records, where he used the name Lowell Fulsom. In 1965 he charted one of his biggest hits, "Black Nights," which topped out at number 11 on the R&B Singles Chart. The next year was even better for him, as "Tramp," a playful number with a funky vibe, rose to number five R&B, with Otis Redding and Carla Thomas soon covering the track and enjoying even greater success with it. Fulson's follow-up to "Tramp," "Make a Little Love," peaked at number 20 R&B, and for a while he was a bona fide star on the soul circuit. By 1970, Fulson had jumped from Kent to Jewel Records, where he cut a blues-rock set, In a Heavy Bag, where he was backed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. By the mid-'70s, Fulson's run of hits was over, but he was still in demand as a live act, especially on the West Coast, and went back to calling himself Lowell Fulson. He made records occasionally for specialist labels, including 1981's Blue Shadows (backed by the Canadian band Powder Blues) and 1984's One More Blues (accompanied by the Phillip Walker Blues Band). In 1988, Rounder brought out It's a Good Day, a strong set of contemporary barroom blues, and Rounder's Bullseye Blues imprint would issue two more latter-day efforts from him, 1992's Hold On and 1995's Them Update Blues. In the '90s, Fulson struggled with a variety of health problems, and in 1997 he retired from music. Lowell Fulson was less than a month away from his 78th birthday when he died in Long Beach, California on March 6, 1999. ~ Mark Deming

Known primarily for his tough 1963 remake of the blues standard "Tin Pan Alley" (featuring the moaning lead guitar of Johnny Heartsman) for the tiny Sahara logo, vocalist Ray Agee recorded for a myriad of labels both large and small during the 1950s and '60s without much in the way of national recognition outside his Los Angeles home base. That's a pity -- he was a fine, versatile blues singer whose work deserves a wider audience (not to mention CD reissue).

The Alabama native was stricken with polio at age four, leaving Agee with a permanent handicap. After moving to L.A. with his family, he apprenticed with his brothers in a gospel quartet before striking out in the R&B field with a 1952 single for Eddie Mesner's Aladdin Records (backed by saxist Maxwell Davis' band). From there, his discography assumes daunting proportions; he appeared on far too many logos to list (Elko, Spark, Ebb, and Cash among them).

Ray Agee slowly slipped away from the music business in the early '70s. Reportedly, he died around 1990. ~ Bill Dahl