King Of Blues Now 72, B.B. King Has Achieved Legendary Status As A Modern Blues Icon

At age 72, B.B. King is beyond being a blues great.

He is a blues legend.

And fortunately for us, he is a living legend.

King, who performs at the Spokane Opera House on Sunday, is a modern blues icon, a man whose guitar work has influenced the likes of Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Sting and U2. He’s a man who doesn’t just play his guitar nicknamed Lucille but instead coaxes it to speak in near-human tones.

He’s a man who has earned seven Grammys, a musician who, despite his five-plus decades of performing, still averages 275 concerts per year.

Hmmmm. Perhaps legend is an understatement.

Born Riley B. King, this son of a sharecropper was raised on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. He was 8 years old when the minister from his Baptist church first introduced him to the guitar.

In 1947 with only a guitar on his shoulder and $2.50 in his pocket, King hitchhiked to Memphis the soul of the southern music scene at the time. A year later, King got his first big break when he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program.

Nicknamed the Blues Boy King, he would eventually be called just B.B. He would also go on to release over 50 albums. His 1965 record “Live At The Regal” is considered a definitive blues album. King also is featured on U2’s “Rattle and Hum,” singing “When Love Comes to Town.” His latest album, “Deuces Wild,” features King in duets with 13 top rock, country and hip hop musicians.

Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones join King for the cool rocking blues number “Paying The Cost to Be The Boss.” “The Thrill is Gone” is a slow-burning number that finds King’s husky-thick vocals winding with Tracy Chapman’s equally vibrant and rich singing. Heavy D gives a rap lesson to the King in the funky-fun “Keep It Coming.”

Here you can find King’s signature guitar style, that human-like voice he creates with the bended notes and left-hand vibrato with that powerful-yet-respectful touch he applies to his guitar Lucille.

King first baptized his guitar with the name Lucille in the 1950s. And it was, literally, a baptism by fire. While King was performing at a dance in Arkansas, two men began duking it out, knocking over a kerosene stove and setting the establishment on fire. King plunged back into the burning building to save his guitar.

He later found out the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, and he decided to give that name to the guitar he’d bought for $30. Each one since has been so named.

On Sunday, King and Lucille will be joined by Kelly Joe Phelps. The 37-year-old Vancouver, Wash., musician has taught guitar, banjo and mandolin at Clark College, Mont., Hood College and Oregon University and has opened for not only King, but Leo Kottke, Keb Mo and Little Feat.

Phelps’ country blues is inspired by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, the same great who influenced King’s guitar style.

His latest album, “Roll Away The Stone,” is filled with Phelps’ delicate, ringing guitar (both conventional and lap slide) and a voice soulful and smoky like an early morning church service on a misty fall morning.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Bridget Sawicki

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: B.B. King and Kelly Joe Phelps perform at the Spokane Opera House Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets: $27.50, available at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.