I'm sure tons of you guys are familiar with Sugar Blue, but I think it will be a pleasant discovery for some, and there weren't any results when I put his name through the search bar on this message board

Sugar Blue is an underrated blues harmonicist that played on a handful of Stones songs, notably "Miss You", "Some Girls" and "Down in the Hole" (and a few others that escape me) which helped jump-start his career, because the dude is exceptional

Here's him doing an absolutely killer rendition of Hoochie Coochie Man (it's a bit long, but worth it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iPKBEUEnJ8


Sugar Blue himself covered one of the original Stones Tracks that featured him on harmonica, with his own take on the song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKjg8T40j70


While he played very smoothly on his recordings with the Stones, dude is an absolute monster on the mouth harp, check out this solo that starts right around the 1:10 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EmDnJHAKqc

It would be really cool to see them record or perform together again one day

Someone told me that Mick and Keith offered him a job as permanent Stones mouth harper but he declined--don't know if that's true or not

nice post

amazing player.  I'm not that familiar with his non-Stones stuff to be honest, but his work on the Some Girls sessions is fantastic.

Really wish the Stones had polished up this track for release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyn2NbOZS-8

And not forgetting the full length version of Some Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSN5fmoWjzg


They missed a trick with the deluxe version of this album. Could have added an extra disc featuring the extended versions of all the songs on the original LP

Agree 100% he also played in Send it to me but I'm not sure if Sugar plays on Down in the hole.

This is me with Sugar Blue at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago, greeting Parmmy Mammy

http://www.rocksoff.org/headers/i3-buddyguys-02.JPG

Voodoo?

http://www.rocksoff.org/headers/i3-buddyguys-03.jpg

Voodoo Chile in Wonderland wrote on Nov 24^th, 2018 at 7:36pm:

Agree 100% he also played in Send it to me but I'm not sure if Sugar plays on Down in the hole.

He played on the Paris sessions for the Emotional rescue album.

Sounds more like him than Mick on 'Down in the hole' to me

He played with Louisiana Red too!  As a Brit I landed in NY as a lad in the '80s? to be greeted by ludicrous queues at Immigration with folk muttering something about something called thanksgiving!!!  I had no idea what they were talking about (then)!! Got a listings mag and could see very little on in Manhattan that evening.  BUT there was someone called Sugar Blue playing in a fairly small bar.  Wow!!  He had a diagonal belt across his chest full of the different keys and did a great 'show'.  Great night!  Long time ago / hazy memory!

I am a chicago guy and I've seen him play many times. I've hung out with him a little. He got a friend of mine pregnant about 20 years ago. Fine musician but the drug stuff back then anyway could be a hassle. I wish him well

Sugar Blue once sent me an awesome CD of great Stones covers, including my first taste of the Flying Burrito Bros. Didn't know he played the harp!

Just listening to his work on Some Girls was enough to make me a fan. I love harmonica, got my first one at 3 years old but, to play like this guy, well, that's just a gift from God.

dadrob wrote on Nov 25^th, 2018 at 8:21am:

I am a chicago guy and I've seen him play many times. I've hung out with him a little. He got a friend of mine pregnant about 20 years ago. Fine musician but the drug stuff back then anyway could be a hassle. I wish him well

well, theres quite an exclusive!!

Because of threads like this I love Rocks Off