James played a wide variety of "blues" (which often crossed over into other styles of music) similar to that of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and some of B. B. King's work, but distinguished by his guitar's vastly more powerful sound (arguably only equaled in technical ability by King, although in a different style) unbelievably coming from a modified, hollow body traditional acoustic guitar, which sounded like the more modern solid body guitars.
He most often played using a slide, but on several recordings he plays without. His voice and style was as instantly recognisable as King's, Muddy's and Wolf's and he and his 'Broomdusters' were as popular in the Chicago clubs as any of these musician's bands.
James could be reportedly 'difficult' (drinking on the job, not paying out cash, abandoning musicians, double booking etc.) Due to his early death, just before the 1960s "blues boom", and the silence of other famous blues performers, the then current music writers only being interested in 'the stars' not caring to interview his ex-band members, immediate family, children, friends etc. little is known about him.
His best known song is the blues standard "Dust My Broom" (also known as "Dust My Blues"). The song gave its name to James's band, The Broomdusters. The song's opening slide guitar riff is one of the best-known sounds in all of blues. It is essentially the same riff that appeared in the recording of the same song by Robert Johnson, but James played the riff with electric slide guitar. It was even transformed into a doo-wop chorus on Jesse Stone's "Down in the Alley", recorded by The Clovers and Elvis Presley.
There is an ongoing dispute as to whether the song was originally written by Robert Johnson or Elmore James.Elmore James made his first recording of "Dust My Broom" in 1951, for the Trumpet Records label.
Most electric slide guitar players will admit to the massive, if not, total influence of James' style. He was also a major influence on such successful 'Blues' guitarists as 'Homesick James' John Littlejohn, Hound Dog Taylor, J. B. Hutto and many others. He also influenced many rock guitarists such as The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones and Fleetwood Mac's Jeremy Spencer. John Mayall included the song, "Mr. James," on his 1969 "Looking Back" album as a dedication to James.
The most famous guitarist who admired Elmore James was Jimi Hendrix. Early in his career Jimi styled himself variously as 'Maurice James' and subsequently as 'Jimmy James.' This, according to former bandmate and recording partner Lonnie Youngblood, was a tribute to Elmore James.
James is mentioned in The Beatles' song "For You Blue": while John Lennon plays the slide guitar (James' trademark), George Harrison says, "Elmore James got nothin' on this, baby." Other artists influenced by Elmore James include Frank Zappa and Jeffrey Evans of the band 68 Comeback. Eric Clapton recorded a song called "Tribute to Elmore" that appeared on a 1990 "The Best of British Rock" compilation CD.
" The above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."
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