Bob Corritore

A lifelong fan of the blues, Chicago-born producer/harmonica player Bob Corritore began collecting blues albums, playing harmonica, and attending blues gigs after he heard Muddy Waters on the radio when he was 12. Through his involvement in the Chicago blues scene, he made friends with many of the city's blues musicians, which led to Corritore performing at local clubs and forming his own blues record label, Blues Over Blues. This part of his career expanded into production duties on sessions with Chicago bluesmen like Fred Below and Pinetop Perkins. Corritore moved to Phoenix in 1981 and formed a band with Louisiana Red, whose Sittin' Here Wonderin' he produced. Along with producing albums by R.L. Burnside and compiling blues collections, Corritore also worked as a pickup harmonica player for touring artists like Willie Dixon and Otis Rush, played in local blues groups, and hosted a weekly blues radio program on KJZZ. Corritore's recording career didn't begin in earnest until 2010, when he signed with Delta Groove. He released Harmonica Blues that year, and his records arrived quickly over the next half decade, as he either cut duet albums with other blues musicians — Kid Ramos, Tail Dragger, John Primer, and Henry Gray all among them — or issued solo efforts like 2014's Taboo. Two years after Taboo, he collaborated with Big Jon Atkinson on House Party at Big Jon's. ~ Heather Phares