Born John Grimaldi on 5 November 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, he absorbed guitar playing from his father during his Chicago upbringing and caught live sets by blues greats such as Howlin’ Wolf, J.B. Hutto, Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson. Self-taught on both harmonica and guitar, he initially modeled his approach on those masters yet quickly forged a personal style. During the 1970s he assembled a band and chose his stage name after a cherished possession, his 1963 Studebaker Silver Hawk, while holding daytime construction jobs and gigging nightly in Chicago clubs. Late in that decade he cut tracks with Robert ‘Mojo’ Elem that appeared on Mojo Boogie (1978); his first album under his own name followed in the mid-1980s, though it remained unavailable in the USA until the mid-1990s. A deal with Blind Pig Records eventually placed his direct, uncompromising guitar work before larger audiences. His first widely distributed solo outing arrived in 2004 with the Avanti release Between Life & Death—an earlier acoustic recording had been offered solely through his website.
Grimaldi delivers forceful, exhilarating slide guitar and matching harmonica, while his vocals, though secondary to his instrumental command, hold attention, particularly on his own material. Those compositions retain classic blues frameworks yet reflect present-day subjects and outlooks.
