James Peterson was born November 4, 1937 in a small house in the Battle Community of rural Russell County, AL. Peterson left home when he was just 14 years old and moved north to the industrial city of Gary, Indiana. There he picked up a guitar and taught himself to play. Peterson stayed in Gary for just two years before moving to another northern industrial city, that of Buffalo, New York, around 1955. As a guitarist and singer, Peterson was influenced by some of the greatest blues artists of the day, including Muddy Waters and B.B. King, and he began to attract his own following as a live act by the late 1950s.

Peterson opened the Governor's Inn House of Blues in Buffalo in 1965. The Governor's Inn became a regular stop for blues performers over the next ten years, with Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy appearing in concert there.

In the 1980’s, James moved to Tampa, FL where he opened another blues club called the After Dark Club. At this point, Florida became his home base, from where he would record and go on tour, at times with his son “Lucky” Peterson, who gained his own international notoriety as a blues musician under his father’s tutelage.

A December 2000 review in the St. Petersburg Times noted that Peterson "played a raw, hard-driving set, moving from the lowest, raunchy blues to the highest ecstasy of a sanctified church meeting. He played and sang as if he were rooted to the center of the earth. What he lacked in refined technique he more than made up for in the solid, seemingly unstoppable forward motion. Using his cordless guitar and trademark headset, James prowled through the club singing, screaming, and occasionally sharing verbal asides with the audience."

James has had a weekly standing gig at Mahuffer’s on and off for 20 years and was a great friend of John Susor. We are proud to have him as part of our family.

Selected Discography
The Father, Son, and the Blues, Perception, 1970.
Rough and Ready, Ichiban, 1990.
Too Many Knots for the Kingsnake, Ichiban, 1991.
Don't Let the Devil Ride, Waldoxy/Malaco, 1995.
Preachin' the Blues, Waldoxy/Malaco, 1996.
Wrong Bed!, HownDog, 1999.

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