Joel Paterson

Versatile Chicago-based Jazz & Blues Guitarist

One of the very bright lights in the world of American roots music is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter out of Chicago, Joel Paterson. Joel Paterson started playing guitar in the mid 80’s. As he said : "I borrowed a guitar from somebody and tried to teach myself by ear and immediately got into the blues. My mom actually had a Lightnin’ Hopkins LP, The Best of Lightnin' Hopkins on the Tradition/Everest label. I put that record on when I first started playing guitar. You know everything was in “E”. I’m like “I’ve got to learn this”. I just learned all the songs on that record. I just wanted to play country blues. Then I got obsessed with Blind Blake. That taught me the thumb patterns right away. There was this record store in Madison that had all the Yazoo LPs. I started buying everything I could get my hands on." Source : http://bluesjunctionproductions.com/joel_paterson_interview