Studebaker John

Studebaker John Grimaldi derived his performing name from a car he had once driven. Emerging from Chicago’s lively West Side blues community, he entered the world on November 5, 1952. His father played music as a hobby, so instruments were always within reach during Grimaldi’s childhood, and he soon experimented with whatever lay around the house. He became a regular presence at the open-air Maxwell Street flea markets, a gathering spot that hosted many street-level blues performers. Exposure to Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson drew him toward the harmonica, while a Hound Dog Taylor appearance prompted him to pick up the guitar as well.

In the early 1970s he assembled the blues-rock group the Hawks, an outlet that highlighted his distinctive reedy vocals, raw harp tone, and fiery slide-guitar technique. Over the ensuing years he also honed his abilities as a songwriter. He continued working in construction while launching his recording career in the mid-1980s with a live set captured in the Netherlands that later appeared in the United States under the title Rockin’ the Blues ’85. His following studio effort, Too Tough, arrived in 1994, and Outside Lookin’ In followed the next year. Maintaining a steady output, he delivered Tremoluxe in 1996 and Time Will Tell in 1997.