The Top 10 Greatest Blind Musicians of All Time

Man, being sick almost the whole of last week and still only at about 80 % sucked some serious ass. So, while recuperating, I stumbled on an idea regarding many of the finest blind musicians of our time. There have been many blind musicians over the years, and all are equally as talented and not only just for being able to rock an instrument with a sight handicap, but also for just being brave enough to put themselves out there in the first place. What follows is a list of the ten greatest, and most well known, blind musicians of all time. Oh, and this list was one of the many suggestions I have received over the past few weeks. Enjoy!

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10) ED 'LITTLE BUSTER' FOREHAND (10-28-42)

Little Buster was a celebrated artist in the soul and blues genres. He was born sighted, but developed glaucoma at age 3. By the time his vision was completely gone, he was fluent on six instruments, including the guitar. His first professional gig was at the Brooklyn Paramount, where he was a back-up guitarist for Alan Freed's Rock and Roll shows. He also became a regular at Long Island clubs. In 1961, Buster composed his first original song Looking For a Home while living in Glen Cove. First recorded on Josie/Jubilee after winning a talent contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater in 1964, Buster released Looking For a Home. He recorded a series of 45s there, including his biggest hit in 1968, Doc Pomus' Young Boy Blues. Pomus was quoted as saying that Buster's overwhelming version of this song was the best rendition that he ever heard. Buster's last single with Josie was City of Blues/Cry Me a River. His 45s and several new compositions were compiled for the 1970 LP, Looking For a Home that never came out until it was released by the English label Sequel in 1997. Buster changed his focus, concentrating on the live blues with his band, The Soul Brothers, where they were legendary for bluesy rocking soul that took no prisoners, led by Buster's tremendous guitar playing and heart-rending vocals.

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9) BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON (11-26-1894 / 12-1929)

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an influential blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920's. Despite his commercial success, Jefferson stands alone in a category of his own. His musical style was extremely intense and individualistic, bearing little resemblance to the typical Texas blues style of the 1930s. Jefferson's singing and self-accompaniment seemed only loosely connected, and he appeared to improvise his accompaniment. His irregular vocal style and his freely structured field holler rhythms made the tension between his guitar and his voice wildly unpredictable. He was not influential on younger blues singers as they did not seek to imitate him as they did other commercially successful artists. On the other hand, the white North Carolina performer Arthel "Doc" Watson credited listening to Jefferson's recordings as his first exposure to the blues, which would powerfully influence his own style.

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8) TERRI GIBBS (6-15-1954)

Terri Gibbs is a country music performer and song-writer who had some pop and country hits during the early 1980's. Gibbs was born in Miami, Florida and raised in Grovetown, Georgia from age one. She is blind from birth. Terri Gibbs learned to play the piano at three years of age and was influenced by a variety of musical styles in her formative years. Her most successful hit was in 1981, "Somebody's Knockin'", a #8 country and #13 pop hit. It was controversial at the time because the subject matter of the song compared a woman's lover metaphorically to the Devil. Gibbs received the ACM's Best New Female Vocalist award. She also won the CMA's inaugural Horizon Award (for artists rising to new levels of prominence). Gibbs made I'm a Lady in 1981 and Over Easy in 1983. Both made the charts, but not as high as "Somebody's Knockin'." She also had country hits with "Ashes to Ashes" in 1982 and "Anybody Else's Heart but Mine" in 1983. Later in the 1980's, Gibbs returned to her gospel roots. In 1987, Turn Around received a Grammy nomination but ultimately lost to Kate Helein's "You Dropped A Bomb On Me". Gibbs' "Unconditional Love," "Comfort the People," and "Promised Land" all made the CCM charts. She made "Great Day" on the Morning Gate label in the 1990's. Then Gibbs left music to concentrate on her family.

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7) ART TATUM (10-13-99 / 11-5-56)

Arthur Tatum Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso. With an exuberant style and technique that combined dazzling speed and precision with sophisticated use of harmony, Art Tatum is widely recognized as one of the leading jazz pianists of all time. Critic Scott Yanow wrote "Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries ... Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists."

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6) BLIND WILLIE MCTELL (5-5-1901 / 8-15-1959)

William Samuel McTier in Thompson, Georgia, blind in one eye, McTell had lost his remaining vision by late childhood, but became an adept reader of Braille. He showed an inherent proficiency in music from an early age and learned to play the six-string guitar as soon as he could, eventually becoming a proficient 12-string finger-picking guitarist. His father left the family when McTell was still young, so when his mother died in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became a wandering busker. He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta. In the years before WWII, he traveled and performed widely, recording for a number of labels under a variety of names. His style was singular: a form of country blues, bridging the gap between the raw blues of the Mississippi Delta and the more refined East Coast sound. The style is well documented on John Lomax's 1940 recordings of McTell for the Library of Congress.

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5) EDDIE LANG (10-25-1902 / 3-26-33)

Eddie Lang was an American jazz guitarist, considered by many to be the finest of his era, and to be the greatest rhythm player of all time, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt. Lang was born Salvatore Massaro in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At first, he took violin lessons for 11 years. In school he became friends with Joe Venuti, with whom he would work for much of his career. He was playing professionally by about 1918, playing violin, banjo, and guitar.

In 1929 he joined Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, and can be seen and heard in the movie The King of Jazz. When Bing Crosby left Whiteman, Lang went with Bing as his accompanist and can be seen with him in the 1932 movie Big Broadcast. Lang also played under the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn on a number of blues records with Lonnie Johnson. Eddie Lang died from a sudden hemorrhage following a tonsillectomy in New York City.

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4) RONNIE MILSAP (1-16-43 {Some say '46 or '44})

Ronnie Lee Milsap was born in in Robbinsville, North Carolina, and is an American Country/Pop Singer and Musician. He was one of Country Music's most popular singers in the 1970's and 1980's. He became Country Music's first blind superstar. He was one of the many crossover Country singers in Country Music at this time, which was also called Countrypolitan or Country Pop. His biggest crossover hits include "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", "Smoky Mountain Rain", and "Lost In the Fifties Tonight". He is credited with forty number-one songs, third only to George Strait and Conway Twitty.

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3) JEFF HEALEY (3-25-66 / 3-2-08)

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Healey was raised in the city's west end. Healey lost his sight when he was eight months old, due to retinoblastoma, a rare cancer of the eyes, which he suffered from throughout his life and which ultimately killed him. His eyes had to be surgically removed, and he was given artificial replacements. He began playing guitar when he was three, developing his unique style of playing the instrument flat on his lap. When he was 17 he formed the band Blue Direction, a four-piece band which primarily played bar-band cover tunes.

Shortly thereafter he was introduced to two musicians, bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen, who formed a trio and made their first public appearance at The Birds Nest, located upstairs at Chicago's Diner on Queen Street West in Toronto. Jeff Healey was discovered by guitar virtuoso Stevie Ray Vaughan and later appeared in the Patrick Swayze film "Road House" (released 1989). 1988 saw the release of the hit single "Angel Eyes". The song "Hideaway" was nominated for the "Best Instrumental" Grammy Award, and in 1990 the band won the "Entertainer of the Year" Juno Award.

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2) RAY CHARLES (9-23-30 / 6-10-04)

Ray Charles Robinson, known by his stage name Ray Charles, was a pioneering American Pianist and musician who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues. He brought a soulful sound to country music, pop standards, and a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradly of 60 Minutes called the "definitive version of the song, an American anthem — a classic, just as the man who sang it."

Frank Sinatra called him "the only true genius in the business."And in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Ray Charles #10 on their list of The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

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1) STEVIE WONDER (5-15-50)

Stevie Wonder (born Steveland Hardaway Judkins, name later changed to Steveland Hardaway Morris) is an American Singer-Songwriter/Multi-instrumentalist, and Record Producer. A prominent figure of 20th century Popular Music, Wonder has recorded more than thirty top ten hits, won twenty-five Grammy Awards (a record for a solo artist), plus one for Lifetime Achievement, won an Academy Award for Best Song and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame. Opera star Luciano Pavarotti once referred to him in a concert as a "great, great musical genius".

Blind from infancy, Wonder signed with Motown Records as a pre-adolesant at age twelve, and continues to perform and record for the label to this day. He has nine U.S. number-one hits to his name and album sales totaling more than 100 million units.

**All Article Snippets Borrowed From Wikipedia**