1940-1943United States

Blues Shouter

Also known as blues shouters

A loud, postwar blues vocal style associated most strongly with Big Joe Turner and Wynonie Harris, straddling jump blues, early R&B, and the road toward rock and roll.

Origins and context

Postwar urban blues, jump blues, and early rhythm and blues clubs and dance-band settings in the United States.

United States

The sound

Characteristics

Powerful lead vocals
Horn sections
Piano
Rhythm section
Jump-blues tempo

How to listen

Start here

Big Joe Turner
Wynonie Harris

Mood

Boisterous
Driving
Brassy

Best for

Big-band blues crossovers
Jump blues collections
Early R&B history

History

The label is most closely tied to the 1940s and 1950s, when louder dance bands and amplified club settings rewarded singers who could project with real authority. AllMusic’s histories of Big Joe Turner and Wynonie Harris place them at the center of that world, and both artists are repeatedly described as blues shouters whose records helped define postwar jump blues and early R&B. The style grew out of earlier blues and swing traditions, but it took on its own identity in the urban postwar market: bigger horns, faster backbeats, bawdier lyrics, and a delivery that could cut through a noisy room. Big Joe Turner’s later identification as the “premiere blues shouter” and the way his recordings led toward rock and roll make the style feel less like a sealed-off genre than a loud, influential bridge.