The man who helped make the musicians

Stevie Ray Vaughan was his most famous find, but dozens of musicians owe part of their careers to Clifford Antone.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

'You know, I didn't get in this as a business,' Clifford Antone told the Austin American-Statesman last year as he talked about his namesake club and its changing role in the blues. 'I got in it to bring the blues here; that's it. Almost all of my great friends are dead: Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker.'

For three decades, Antone was one of the nation's best-known and biggest supporters of blues music, but he and his club helped nurture other musicians as well.

Here's a sampling of the artists who played Antone's and received a lot of his support:

Marcia Ball

Lou Ann Barton

Wayne Bennett

Doyle Bramhall

Doyle Bramhall II

Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown

W.C. Clark

Albert Collins

James Cotton

Double Trouble (Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon)

Fabulous Thunderbirds (including Kim Wilson, Jimmy Vaughan)

Buddy Guy

John Lee Hooker

Albert King

Lazy Lester

Barbara Lynn

Eve Monsees

Ian Moore

Matt 'Guitar' Murphy

Pinetop Perkins

Jimmy Reed

Doug Sahm

Bob Schneider

Son Seals

Charlie Sexton

Will Sexton

Angela Strehli

Hubert Sumlin

Eddie Taylor

Susan Tedeschi

Luther Tucker

Big Joe Turner

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Muddy Waters

Junior Wells

Lavelle White