Buster Benton

Throughout his performing years, Chicago guitarist Buster Benton maintained his musical output even after portions of both legs were amputated. He specialized in a lively fusion of blues and soul that he once termed “disco blues,” a label later viewed as unfortunate yet accurate in conveying the music’s dance-floor drive. At a time when blues activity had declined sharply in the late ’70s, Benton’s sessions for Ronn Records stood out as especially welcome.

Gospel-trained and influenced by Sam Cooke and B.B. King, Benton first took up the blues in Toledo, Ohio, during the mid-’50s. By 1959 he was fronting his own ensemble in Chicago. Through the ’60s he issued a string of soul-leaning singles on the local Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, and Twinight labels before joining forces with Willie Dixon in 1971.

For a period Benton performed with Dixon’s Blues All-Stars, and Dixon received songwriting credit for Benton’s signature piece, the anguished slow blues “Spider in My Stew.” Issued on Stan Lewis’s Shreveport-based Jewel Records, the track brought Benton initial recognition; its successor, “Money Is the Name of the Game,” further strengthened his standing. The 1979 album Spider in My Stew, released on Jewel’s Ronn subsidiary, ranks among the era’s most compelling Chicago blues recordings, its modern rhythms supporting Benton’s fluent guitar lines and expressive vocals.

Three subsequent Ichiban albums proved less satisfying than the Ronn material. Within Chicago’s club scene, Benton’s determination amid severe physical challenges remained widely admired. Diabetes eventually required kidney dialysis during his final years, and poor circulation led to the 1993 amputation of part of his right leg (he had already lost part of the other leg roughly ten years earlier). He nonetheless sustained his performances of uplifting blues until his death.