Jimmy Rogers (1924-1997), real name James A. Lane, who came into his own backing Muddy Waters, was born in Ruleville, Mississippi. He started off playing harp but took up guitar in his teens. He went to Atlanta and then to Memphis. Jimmy took his stepfather’s surname of Rogers when he embarked on his musical career and lit out for East St. Louis to play with Robert Junior Lockwood.
By the mid-40s, Rogers was in Chicago playing harp under the name Memphis Slim and his Houserockers. In 1947, Rogers got together with Muddy Waters and Little Walter and they recorded as the Headcutters or Headhunters and founded the South Side Chicago Blues sound. When each band member released a solo project, it usually contained the other band members.
Although Rogers was primarily a guitarist in this band, sometimes Rogers and Walter switched around with Jimmy taking up the harp and Walter taking up the guitar. Rogers established himself as a solo artist by 1950 with such hits as “That’s All Right” and had another hit in 1956 “Walking By Myself” which featured some hot harp work by Little Walter.
Rogers stayed with Waters until 1954 and, after a few more hits of his own, he began to work less and less. The popularity of blues was on the wane and Rogers found fewer gigs and had no desire to switch over to rocknroll. By 1960, he was briefly part of Howlin’ Wolf’s outfit, which he had been during Wolf’s early days at Chess but then Jimmy stopped gigging altogether. For a few years, Jimmy drove a cab and ran a Chicago clothing store which burnt down in the 1968 riots following Martin Luther King’s assassination.
Rogers decided to go back into music when blues made a small revival in the early 70s thanks to B. B. King’s “The Thrill is Gone” hitting #1. In 1971, Jimmy toured Europe which is always interested in seeing American jazz and blues acts as well as early rocknroll. By 1977, he was reunited with Muddy Waters and became a full time solo act in 1982. Rogers continued to perform until his death in 1997 of colon cancer.
Jimmy’s son, James D. Lane, also plays guitar (his first, a Gibson acoustic, was given to him by John Wayne) and works as a recording engineer and producer for Blue Heaven Studios and has worked with old and new blues acts including Honeyboy Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Taj Mahal, Mick Jagger, Jonny Lang, Van Morrison, Gary Moore, Robert Plant, Lazy Lester, Jeff Healy and Keith Richards. Not to mention his father.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhjDXXEcocg