Billy Branch

Billy Branch is an American blues harmonica player and singer associated with Chicago blues. He is born in 1951 in Great Lakes, Illinois, and is raised in Los Angeles before returning to Chicago in 1969. He studies political science at the University of Illinois and begins to build his career in Chicago’s blues scene after being introduced to the music there.

Early life and influences

Branch first picks up a harmonica at the age of ten and learns simple tunes. In Chicago, he spends time at clubs including Queen Bee’s and Theresa’s Lounge, and learns from harmonica players such as Big Walter Horton, James Cotton, Junior Wells and Carey Bell.

Career

In the 1970s, Branch forms Billy Branch & The Sons of Blues. The original line-up includes Branch, Lurrie Bell, Freddie Dixon and Garland Whiteside. The group tours Europe and plays the Berlin Jazz Festival. Branch later works as an apprentice harmonica player in Willie Dixon’s Chicago Blues All-Stars, eventually replacing Carey Bell and staying with Dixon for six years.

His first recording is for Barrelhouse Records. He also records for Alligator Records as part of the Grammy-nominated Living Chicago Blues sessions, and becomes a regular studio musician, appearing on more than fifty albums. His PolyGram releases are The Blues Keep Following Me Around and Satisfy Me.

Collaborations and recognition

Branch records and performs with Muddy Waters, Big Walter Horton, Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks, Koko Taylor, Johnny Winter and Albert King. In 1990, he appears with Carey Bell, Junior Wells and James Cotton on Harp Attack!, which wins a W.C. Handy Award. He is a three-time Grammy nominee, an Emmy Award winner and a winner of the Addy Award.

Education and community work

Branch serves as a retired two-term governor of the Chicago Grammy Chapter. He also leads Blues In The Schools and teaches in the Chicago school system for more than twenty years through the Urban Gateways Project. In 1996, students from his teaching programme open the main stage at the Chicago Blues Festival, with the performance broadcast on National Public Radio.

Style and later associations

Branch is known for a Chicago blues approach on harmonica and voice. He is also associated with The Jim Irsay Band and Chicago Blues: A Living History.