We are very late with this one, having missed his birthday at the start of the month, so we're using a spare day here to put that right. James Cotton was born in Tunica, Mississippi on 1st July 1935, and was attracted to the blues by hearing Sonny Boy Williamson on the radio. In his teens he left home and went to West Helena, Arkansas, where he sought out Williamson, who became something of a mentor for Cotton. Indeed, when Williamson headed north to rejoin his wife from whom he had separated, he left Cotton to take over the band, a task he later admitted he was too "young and crazy" to take on. His first professional work was with Howlin' Wolf in the early '50s, and made his his first solo records for the Sun label in Memphis around 1953. By 1955, he started working with Muddy Waters - generally Little Walter was Muddy's harpist, but his self-destructive tendencies meant he was not always reliable, and Cotton found a regular gig with Waters as a dependable and highly capable alternative. He made his first records with Muddy in 1957 and was with him until the mid-'60s. In 1965, in between gigs with Waters, he formed his first band - the James Cotton Blues Quartet - with Otis Spann on piano, and then after finally splitting with Muddy in 1966, worked with Janis Joplin while firmly establishing his solo career.  The James Cotton Blues Band became a regular attraction in the USA, recording a number of successful albums, getting two Grammy nominations during the '80s before finally securing the award for his 1996 "Deep In The Blues" album, and he has recorded with a lengthy roster of blues and rock legends over the years. A throat condition stopped him singing from the mid-90s, but he continued to play harmonica using other voclaists, and in 2008 took part in the induction ceremony for Little Walter into the Blues Hall of Fame. Acrobat has a album of James Cotton's recordings  from the '60s featuring artists like Paul Butterfield and Elvin Bishop - for details click here.