Learn to play from Chicago Blues Masters
Learn to play Chicago Blues from the best. Our instructors are professional musicians who work, live and breathe the Blues. Most of our instructors and guest artists are Chicago Blues Hall of Fame Artists. We are honored to introduce to you the instructors and staff of Chicago Blues Network.
Learn MoreChicago Blues Masters are staying home.
You’re staying home.
How ‘bout some
At Home Chicago Blues?
The Faculty of Chicago Blues Bootcamp are offering online lessons of our entire Blues Network fakebook for you while taking shelter. For $23.95 per month, customers will receive up to 25 video lessons taught by Chicago Blues Masters. Each lesson shows techniques, riffs, chord changes and other insights which Faculty members use in Blues Clubs and Festivals around the country. Chicago Blues Bootcamp will donate 20% of each order to the Blues Foundation’s COVID-19 Blues Musicians Emergency Relief Fund.
About Chicago Blues Network
Who we are
July 2nd - Jimmy Johnson, Dave Specter, Johnny Burgin & friends. Chicago Blues Bootcamp/Delmark Trading 4s
The Chicago Blues Network is a global social impact community of interest in the art form Chicago Blues. We connect Chicago Blues musicians with those who have a passion for the Chicago Blues style of music to further the study and appreciation of this urban music discipline.
Our goal is to become the destination for all things Chicago Blues, actively supporting musicians, record labels, clubs, festivals, foundations, neighborhoods and individuals. Through our bootcamps, our web-based training, our live Chicago Blues shows, our blues letter, our podcasts, and our social media we seek to bring together women and men of all ages in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and The Americas.
We stand up for the dignity, respect and human rights of the global Chicago Blues community.
Brother Brett Champlin, Founder
(1947 – 2020)
When Brett was 13, he began to teach himself to play guitar on a used acoustic guitar that had only three strings. While in high school in Oakland, California, he played saxophone in a rock band but he switched to guitar when he was at Southern Illinois University, where he played in both a folk music duo and in a blues rock band. The band, originally named “OM”, moved to San Francisco in 1968 and changed it’s name to “Devil’s Kitchen.” Devil’s Kitchen Band played all of the major venues on the West Coast and especially the Bay Area, eventually becoming the “house band” at Chet Helms’ Family Dog Ballroom. They opened for and jammed with the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Taj Mahal, Santana, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Allman Brothers, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After, Lightning Hopkins, Big Mama Thornton, Magic Sam and many others. When that band broke up, Brett traveled around the world and eventually settled in Chicago, went back to school for his MBA, and worked as an IT Manager and Management Consultant in large corporations for the next 35 years before retiring to play music again. After retiring, Brett could be found at blues jams in the Chicago area or listening to his favorite blues players three to four nights a week. He also started going to harmonica and guitar camps that were fun but none that taught Chicago style electric urban blues. So he decided to start one and that is how the Chicago Blues Network was born.
Learn to play blues from the best
Meet the Chicago Blues Masters
Our faculty are professional musicians who work, live and breathe the Blues. Most of our faculty and guest artists are Chicago Blues Hall of Fame Artists. We are honored to introduce to you the instructors and staff of Chicago Blues Network.
Click right or left to view more Chicago Blues Masters
Upcoming Events
Admission fee is $5. Use coupon code 'Crew' for $5.00 discount at checkout.
At Home Chicago Blues Trading 4s Show – Thursday
November 5, 2020
At Home Chicago Blues Trading 4s Show – Thursday
November 19, 2020
At Home Chicago Blues Trading 4s Show – Thursday
December 3, 2020
What People Are Saying
Connect With Us
Blues History Feature: "Muddy Waters in Winter"
by Marty Weil @ChiBluesHistory on Twitter
The late-career of Muddy Waters was a success in the studio and on tour due in large part to guitarist and producer Johnny Winter. In the early 70s, Muddy had released a few albums that ...didn't quite reach the standard he'd set for himself in the late 1950s and early 60s. After the release of "Electric Mud" in 1968, some music critics had written Waters off. The backlash from vocal critics and fans led to Muddy to disdain the record.
In 1975, Muddy parted ways with Chess Records. He took his talents to Blues Sky Records where he was paired with guitarist and producer Johnny Winter. Their first LP together, "Hard Again," released on January 10, 1977, was Waters' first album for his new label. The comeback album was heralded by critics and adored by Chicago blues fans. For most of the remainder of Waters' life, Johnny and Muddy made magic together in the studio and on stage.
The impact Johnny Winter had as a producer is clearly evident in the energetic, lively sound of "Hard Again." Right from Winter's screaming hyped-up intro to the song Mannish Boy, the listener is made aware that something special took place in Blue Sky's studios. Chicago bluesman Dave Specter sums it up, "Winter brought his energy and passion for Muddy's music into the studio and it was reflected in the sound of those records." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, respected critic Robert Christgau attributed the record's intense quality to "the natural enthusiasm of an inspired collaboration," and remarked on its standing in Chicago blues, "except maybe for B.B. King's Live at the Regal and Otis Spann's Walking the Blues, I can't recall a better blues album than this." Hard Again was recorded in only three days. Winter produced Hard Again and two other well-received albums for Muddy Waters on Blue Sky.
Hear the latest "No Border Blues" Podcast with Johnny Burgin and Stephanie Tice, as they interview Lorenzo Albai, and take a look at International Blues Artists and Blues from around the World!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLruHOa35K0
#noborderblues #podcast ...#bluespodcast #bluesmusic #johnnyburgin #stephanietice #lorenzoalbai
Take a blues journey with No Border Blues! This new video podcast, sponsored by The Chicago Blues Network, talks with notable international blues...
www.youtube.comThe possibilities start here. Learn these 16 Blues Songs with our esteemed Faculty. Take a listen and remember you can play too! Get started info@athomechicagoblues.com. Hear these tunes by Muddy Waters, Holwin' Wolf, Otis Rush and More... https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/set-list/
...Here's "Blow Wind Blow" by Muddy Waters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu3CbGyKgiA
Muddy Waters plays Blow Wind Blow. This was probably live in 1976 in Dortmund, Germany. The band consists of Muddy Waters on vocal/guitar, Bob...
www.youtube.com
Thank you to everyone who viewed the At Home Chicago Blues Trading 4s show last night with Mary Lane and Brother John Kattke!
Tonight! Mary Lane and Brother John Kattke "encore!" performance 7 PM CST. This is a broadcast of the recent At Home Chicago Blues Trading 4s. Watch this blues concert from your livingroom! $5 Tickets: http://bit.ly/Oct15trading4s
#chicagoblues #bluesconcert #homeconcerts ...#virtualconcerts #givingback
Trading 4s: A performing music technique in which musicians consistently alternate brief solos of 4 bars each. Each Chicago Trading 4s show contains:...
bit.ly
In Praise of A Most Amazingly Talented Man
In case you do not know Brother John Kattke and his role in the Chicago Blues Music scene since 1990, Trading 4s is giving you the chance to learn all about this driving force. Click here to sign up and see this show that has been viewed by 35,000+ ...folks already in 2 weeks, https://bit.ly/Oct15trading4s
Tonight, John will be showcasing his guitar, piano, vocal, comping and band leading talents and skills during a 90 minute show with Mary Lane. Be prepared to be blown away by the quiet assurance and confidence you hear in his performance, the playfulness, the range.
Celebrate with Us - Thursday! - https://mailchi.mp/ed11f8252382/blues-note-volume-1-issue-4721321
bBlues Note Issue 1, Volume 23 - https://mailchi.mp/c8a79b77dc70/blues-note-volume-1-issue-4721177
By Adam Lukach
Aug 05, 2020 at 1:34 PM
“Like virtually every other physical event in 2020, the Chicago Blues Boot Camp had to make a digital pivot due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The modest, four-year-old operation typically piggybacked on the international audience of the Chicago Blues Festival, and 14 of its 28 students in 2019 were visiting from outside the US.
The move to digital space has allowed for some expansion, however, with this summer’s launch of the “At Home Chicago Blues” series, including the Trading 4s concert series. Since late May, owner and manager Scott Weil has been organizing “pay what you can” bi-weekly shows on the first and third Thursdays of the month featuring Chicago blues musicians.”