J.B. Hutto

Born Joseph Benjamin Hutto on April 26, 1926 in Blackville, South Carolina, J.B. Hutto was a blues slide guitarist and vocalist. His family moved to Augusta, Georgia when he was three. His father and siblings formed a gospel group, the Golden Crowns, but when his father died in 1949, the family relocated to Chicago, Illinois. Hutto was drafted into the military and served in the Korean War in the early 1950s. Once he returned to Chicago, he became the drummer for Johnny Ferguson and his Twisters. A multi-instrumentalist, he also played the piano but finally settled on the guitar as his main instrument. He formed a band that he named the Hawks and began playing local gigs. The band released three singles in 1954, but by the late 1950s, Hutto became disenchanted with performing live after his guitar was broken by a female audience member broke Hutto’s guitar over her husband’s head. He took a job as a janitor in a funeral home and did not return to the music business for a decade. He returned to the music industry in the mid-‘60s, forming a new version of the Hawks. J.B. Hutto and The Hawks released the album Masters of Modern Blues, Vol. 2 in 1967, followed a year later by Hawk Squat. His first solo album was the 1972 live album Hipshakin’. That release was followed in ’73 by the Slidewinder album which was credited to J.B. Hutto and The Hawks. When Blues legend Hound Dog Taylor died in 1975, Hutto stepped in and fronted Taylor’s band The Houserockers for a short time. The Slidewinder album was reissued under Hutto’s name in 1976, the same year he released the album Blues for Fonessa. Hutto moved to Boston in the late ‘70s and formed a new band that he named The New Hawks. In 1980, they issued the album Keeper of the Flame. Three years later, the albums Slideslinger and Slippin’ And Slidin’ were released. On June 12, 1983, J.B. Hutto died of carcinoid cancer at the age of 57. In 1985, Hutto was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.

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