Canned Heat is a blues-rock/ boogie band that formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The importance of the group lies not only with their blues-based music, but with their efforts to reintroduce and revive the careers of some of the great old bluesmen, and their improvisational abilities.

The group was led by Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (guitar, harmonica, vocals) and Bob “The Bear” Hite (vocals, harmonica). Henry “Sunflower” Vestine also played guitar and was an ex-member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Larry “The Mole” Taylor was their studio bassist, along with drummer Frank Cook for their first album. Canned Heat took their name from Tommy Johnson’s 1928 “Canned Heat Blues”, a song about an alcoholic who has desperately turned to drinking Sterno, which is generically called canned heat.

Wilson helped rediscover Son House and accompanied him on his 1965 comeback album. The group also strong-armed their ... read more »