Saunders King
b. 13 March 1909, Staple, Louisiana, USA. Starting out as a singer, and obtaining a job with the NBC network, King took up the electric guitar in 1938 after hearing Charlie Christian. King formed his own band in 1942, which became popular around the San Francisco area, began recording for the small Rhythm Records and his first session produced his biggest hit, Saunders Blues. The song achieved more fame under the title S.K. Blues and became a staple in the repertoires of many blues shouters, such as Jimmy Witherspoon and Big Joe Turner. Later recordings for Modern/RPM/Flair (who bought the Rhythm masters and cheekily reissued S.K. Blues as New S.K. Blues!), Cavatone and Aladdin, failed to emulate the success of S.K. Blues, and his final recordings were made in 1961 for Galaxy, after which he retired from professional music, although he was brought back in 1979 when asked to guest on Carlos Devadip Santana's ONENESSalbum. Over the years, Saunders King has taken a back seat to the mighty ‘ T-Bone Walker, but it is often overlooked that he, in fact, was recorded playing electrified blues guitar before Walker made his recording debut on that instrument.