Junior Wells Caricature

Junior Wells Caricature, illustrated here in Chicago, 1965 age 31.

Amos Wells Blakemore Jr. was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist. He was one of the pioneers of the amplified blues harp-style associated with Chicago.
Wells is best known for his signature song “Messin’ with the Kid” and his 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues.

Wells performed and recorded with various notable blues musicians, including Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, and Buddy Guy. He remained a fixture on the blues scene throughout his career and also crossed over to rock audiences while touring with the Rolling Stones.

Wells may have been born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in West Memphis, Arkansas (some sources report that he was born in West Memphis). Initially taught by his cousin Junior Parker and by Sonny Boy Williamson II, Wells learned to play the harmonica skillfully by the age of seven.

He developed a modern amplified harmonica style influenced by Little Walter. In 1952, he made his first recordings when he replaced Little Walter in Muddy Waters’s band and played on one of Waters’s sessions for Chess Records.
“Messin’ with the Kid”, “Come on in This House”, and “It Hurts Me Too”, would remain in his repertoire throughout his career.

Wells’s album Hoodoo Man Blues, released in 1965 by Delmark Records, featured Buddy Guy on guitar. The two worked with the Rolling Stones on several occasions in the 1970s.

In 1997, Wells began to have severe health problems, including cancer and a heart attack. He died in Chicago on January 15, 1998, and was interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago. He was 63.