Kenny Neal › Similar Artists

Michael Burks - 96% match to Kenny Neal

1957, Milwaukee, USA. Coming from a long line of musicians, Burks was taught to play the guitar at an early age by his bass playing father. He began playing live at the age of six and by his teens was playing regularly in his father’s Bradley Ferry Country Club in Camden. The closure of the club in the mid-80s forced Burks to reassess his musical career, and he found wo Read more

Debbie Davies - 95% match to Kenny Neal

Los Angeles, California, USA. Davies had her first guitar at the age of 12 and when Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, was released in 1965, she set out to memorize all of Clapton’s solos. Intrigued by the names of black blues artists mentioned in his interviews, she discovered the records of Freddie King, Otis Rush and Gatemouth Brown. Her first live gigs were in a club Read more

Bill Perry - 92% match to Kenny Neal

Chester, New York, USA, d. 17 July 2007, Sugar Loaf, New York, USA. Blues guitarist and singer Bill Perry grew up in a home dominated by music where his grandfather played organ for the local church and his mother was a percussionist. However, he took more interest in his father’s records of Kenny Burrell’s guitar playing, and he started to learn the guitar himself Read more

Bob Margolin - 89% match to Kenny Neal

9 May 1949, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. Margolin’s right of passage to the blues came through Chuck Berry, who sparked his interest in the guitar and introduced him to the music of the classic Muddy Waters band. After working in local blues groups, Margolin worked alongside Luther ‘Georgia Boy’ Johnson, who had been in Waters’ band during the 60s. In 1 Read more

Guitar Shorty - 89% match to Kenny Neal

David William Kearney, 8 September 1939, Houston, Texas, USA. A penchant for acrobatics disguises Shorty’s real talent as a blues guitarist. He grew up in Kissimmee, Florida, where his uncle Willie Quarterman introduced him to the guitar. At 17 he was playing in the house band at Tampa’s Club Royal, where he first acquired his stage name. A year later, he went to C Read more

Tinsley Ellis - 86% match to Kenny Neal

4 June 1957, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Like many American musicians of his generation, Ellis first took up the guitar at the age of seven, inspired by groups in the late 60s British blues rock invasion. While playing in rock bands, he took an increasing interest in the work of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker and particularly in guitarists Freddie King, Buddy Read more

Tommy Castro - 82% match to Kenny Neal

Jimmy Thackery - 81% match to Kenny Neal

19 May 1953, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Raised in Washington, DC, blues rock guitarist Thackery is a raw live player who has earned favourable comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan. With Mark Wenner he formed the blues-based Nighthawks in 1972, recording 20 albums over 15 years and touring extensively. Tired of the endless touring schedule, Thackery left the band in 1987 and Read more

Coco Montoya - 75% match to Kenny Neal

Santa Monica, California, USA. Montoya first rose to prominence in 1972 when a chance meeting in Culver City, California, led him to join Albert Collins’ band as drummer. He took every opportunity to study the master guitarist closely over the five years they worked together. Thereafter Montoya concentrated on his day job, until another chance meeting shaped his future. Read more

Joanna Connor - 75% match to Kenny Neal

31 August 1962, New York City, New York, USA. Connor was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts and began playing guitar while still a small child. Encouraged by her mother, a blues enthusiast, her guitar playing skills proved to be exceptional and in her teenage years she frequently sat in with visiting blues artists. By the mid-80s she had relocated to Chicago where she contin Read more

Deborah Coleman - 74% match to Kenny Neal

3 October 1956, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA. Blues guitarist Coleman eschewed early stardom, either by accident or fate. She raised a daughter and supported her family with jobs as a nurse and electrician well before recognition as a major blues artist. It is perhaps partly due to her down-to-earth quality that she has earned such a massive crossover following. The early inspi Read more

Albert Cummings - 72% match to Kenny Neal

Joe Louis Walker - 72% match to Kenny Neal

25 December 1949, San Francisco, California, USA. Although born in the city and raised during the era of ‘flower power’, Walker had a strong and realized sense of the blues tradition. Nevertheless, he abandoned blues in the mid-70s to sing with gospel group the Spiritual Corinthians, but returned to his first love in 1985 when he assembled a new band, the Boss Talk Read more

Son Seals - 71% match to Kenny Neal

Frank Seals Jnr., 14 August 1942, Osceola, Arkansas, USA, d. 20 December 2004, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Son Seals was one of 13 children of Jim Seals, an entertainer and club owner in rural Arkansas. Son began his musical education on the drums and worked with many of the later famous musicians who travelled through the area. Having taught himself to play the guitar, he forme Read more

Corey Stevens - 70% match to Kenny Neal

Illinois, USA. Stevens bought his first guitar, a second-hand acoustic, with the money his grandfather gave him from pawned fishing gear. By the age of 15, Stevens had learnt to play rhythm guitar and had begun to write songs for his band. He studied music at Southern Illinois University, including classical guitar. However, his extra-curricular activities focused on going o Read more