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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Billy Branch

Billy Branch is one of the most respected living ambassadors of Chicago blues: an Emmy Award winner, three-time Grammy Award nominee, retired Grammy governor, Blues Hall of Fame inductee, educator, actor, narrator, humanitarian, and master harmonica player whose career has carried the sound of the blues around the world.

For nearly five decades, Branch has stood at the center of the blues tradition as both a performer and a cultural advocate. He is among the last living blues artists to have been directly mentored by many of the music’s original giants, including Willie Dixon, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Bo Diddley, and others. That connection gives his music a rare authority. Branch is not simply preserving history from a distance; he carries it through lived experience, personal mentorship, and a lifelong commitment to keeping the blues alive for future generations.

Branch’s touring career began in the late 1970s, when he joined the Willie Dixon All Stars as harmonica player. His seven-year tenure with Dixon became a defining chapter in his development and placed him in direct contact with one of the architects of modern blues. From that foundation, Branch built a career that has taken him across the globe, presenting America’s blues heritage to audiences in Europe, Australia, South America, Central America, Mexico, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, and beyond. His groundbreaking tours of China introduced authentic Chicago blues to millions of young Chinese fans, expanding the music’s reach in a historic way.

As a recording artist, Branch has appeared on more than 300 recordings, including fifteen albums under his own name. His discography and collaborations reflect both his versatility and his stature within American roots music. He has recorded with an extraordinary list of artists, including Willie Dixon, Koko Taylor, Johnny Winter, Lou Rawls, Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jim Irsay, and many others. His work has also been recognized by the Grammy Museum, where his recording with Dave Spector is included in the Woody Guthrie installation Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom.

Branch’s achievements as a blues artist are matched by his work as an educator and community advocate. He is a proud recipient of multiple Blues Music Awards and Keeping the Blues Alive Awards for his long-running Blues in Schools program, which has served students for more than 45 years. Through that program, Branch has introduced generations of young people to the cultural, historical, and musical importance of the blues. His educational work has become one of the most meaningful parts of his legacy, connecting classrooms to a living American art form.

In 2020, Branch was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame Museum in Memphis, an honor he counts among the proudest of his career. He continues to serve the blues community through leadership roles on the Board of Directors of both the Blues Foundation and the Little Walter Foundation, helping support the music’s history, artists, and future.

Branch’s recent honors further underscore his continuing impact. In 2025, he won the Blues Music Award for Best Harmonica Instrumentalist and received the 2025 Living Blues Critics’ Award. He was also named a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Taproot Artists & Community Trust Alliance Fellowship, recognizing him as an American culture-bearer. Branch used part of that award to fund a daytime blues event for senior citizens on the South Side of Chicago, a Blues in Schools concert for 500 Chicago students, and a community concert celebrating his new album, The Blues Is My Biography.

His creative work extends beyond the concert stage and recording studio. Branch is also the principal actor and narrator in the audio drama Moja, a sweeping historical fiction saga that follows five generations of the fictional Ellis family while tracing African American music from Africa to the present-day United States. The project reflects Branch’s gift not only as a musician, but as a storyteller and cultural historian.

Branch has also been honored as a member of the Jim Irsay Collection Band, performing alongside a remarkable lineup that has included Rock & Roll Hall of Famers and celebrated artists such as Vince Gill, Stephen Stills, Ann Wilson, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. His presence in that company speaks to the respect he commands across blues, rock, country, and American roots music.

Billy Branch’s life in music is more than a career. It is a testimony, a classroom, a cultural mission, and a bridge between generations. From his apprenticeship with Willie Dixon to his global tours, from his Blues in Schools work to his recordings, awards, and community service, Branch has devoted his life to making sure the blues remains a living, breathing force. His new album, The Blues Is My Biography, says it plainly: for Billy Branch, the blues is not only what he plays. It is who he is.

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