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Artist
Siegel-Schwall Band
12+ albums
bluesblues rockSinger SongwritersModern Bluessiegel-schwall band
about
The Siegel-Schwall Band is a blues band from Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1964 by Corky Siegel (harmonica) and Jim Schwall (guitar) and still tours occasionally. Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall were both music students at Roosevelt University, where Siegel studied saxophone and Schwall studied guitar. Schwall's background was mostly in country music, while Siegel was more interested in blues. They combined these two genres, producing a lighter sounding blues as compared to Butterfield Blues Band or John Mayall. The Siegel-Schwall Band included Shelly Plotkin on drums and Rollo Radford on bass. Radford had previously played with Martha and the Vandellas and Sun Ra. The band was the house band at Pepper's Lounge on Chicago's South Side. Every important Chicago blues musician sat in with Corky and Jim at Pepper's, including Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Billy Boy Arnold, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Magic Sam, Otis Spann, Bo Diddley, Lazy Lester and Sam Lay, just to name a few. The band moved to Big John's in Old Town after the Butterfield Blues Band began touring and left a vacancy. In 1965, Sam Charters signed the band to Vanguard Records. In 1966, the band released their first eponymous album, and began a national tour in 1969. While they weren't as commercially successful as Butterfield or Mayall, the band was still able to perform at large venues such as Fillmore West. Also around that time, the Siegel-Schwall Band became the first blues band to ever perform with
