Bill Bartlett

Reclusive rock guitarist Bill Bartlett struck gold twice: In 1968 as a
Lemon Piper when "Green Tambourine" topped the charts, and, in 1977, when his band Ram Jam recorded "Black Betty," among the most covered songs in rock history. For many years, Bartlett has lived quietly outside the college town of Oxford, Ohio, and has rarely played in public. In fact, he hadn't sung "Black Betty" in decades when he appeared at Cincinnati's "Summer of Love" music festival on August 15, 2009 to deliver a blistering version of his classic. "Everybody wants to know who Black Betty is," Bartlett yelled from the stage. "I think she's Bettie Page, with that black hair and those straight bangs. If you never heard of her, go to Google."

The Blue Wisp

Like the wooden barns with big tobacco ads, the all-jazz club is
vanishing from the American landscape. The Blue Wisp Jazz Club in Cincinnati, Ohio, created in 1977, is among the nation's oldest. Since
2000, the club has been in a former cellular telephone storefront on Eighth Street. The club's co-founder, Marjean Wisby, was a club fixture
until her death in 2006. For almost 30 years, the club has housed the venerable Blue Wisp Big Band, led by former Stan Kenton drummer John von Ohlen. Over the decades, the club has mirrored the economic changes in jazz. With few touring jazz acts these days, the Blue Wisp maintains a close relationship with the jazz faculty at the University of Cincinnati.

Blues on the Porch

This blues mural from 2009 on a porch on Fourth Street in Richmond, Indiana, is three blocks away from where country blues legends Blind Lemon Jefferson, far left, and Charley Patton, far right, recorded in 1929 at Gennett Records.  At Patton’s recording date, he debuted his classic “Spoonful Blues.”  In the 1960s, as guitarist with British rock trio The Cream, Eric Clapton, center mural, recorded “Spoonful” (a version modified by Willie Dixon in the 1950s).  Three months after Jefferson recorded in Richmond, he died in a Chicago snowstorm.

The Incredible Scotty Anderson

Unknown to the public, Scotty Anderson has a global following with guitarists, thanks largely to sound and video downloads on the Web.  The late Chet Atkins once quipped, “Scotty plays Chet Atkins better than I do.”  For 30 years, Scotty’s blistering country-rock technique has drawn the praises of such guitarists as Brian Setzer, Eric Johnson, John5, Lonnie Mack, James Burton, and the late Danny Gatton.  A Kentucky boy who grew up in a family of mountain pickers, Scotty shies away from touring opportunities, but attracts the faithful where he’s most at home - in small bars and outdoor venues around Cincinnati, Ohio.

Christmas at The Comet

The Comet is a tiny, century-old bar in Cincinnati’s eclectic neighborhood of Northside where every December since 2002 local keyboardist Steve Schmidt holds his “Christmas Extravaganza.”  For decades, Schmidt has been a Cincinnati jazz fixture on the piano, but for this event, he puts his C-3 Hammond organ in the Christmas spirit.  Most years, Chicago saxophonist Scott Burns and drummer Mark Wolfley (both pictured) have joined the packed festivities. The annual extravaganza has its origins with Schmidt’s CD “Merry Christmas Baby.”

Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack is one of the great roadhouse warriors of early rock’n’roll, and considered a father of blues-rock guitar. A small-town Hoosier native, Mack made his break in the early 1960s with the guitar solo recording “Memphis,” and his first album “The Wham of That Memphis Man!”  He has inspired legions of guitarists, from Duane Allman to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Illuminated by a single lamp in the back of a Cincinnati club, Mack holds his 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar, the seventh off the production line, and his principal ax all of these years.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

You don’t see this every day: Legendary blues-rock guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan without his trademark, black bolero hat.  Among the most distinctive guitarists in blues history, Vaughan pulled off his hat and winked at the ecstatic crowd at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 24, 1990.  His sweet gesture to say goodbye proved to be a final farewell.  Two months later, the 36-year-old Vaughan was killed in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin. Even though the Texas native was a major music act for only seven years, he left a breathtaking body of recorded work that grows in stature – a legacy much like his guitar idol Jimi Hendrix.