When José Luis Villegas and I were working together on this project, Lowell Fulson was one of the guys Jose got to, but I did not.

We only had limited space, and I had limited time, and wasn't able to interview Fulson, or see him live.

Since then I've heard some of his sides, and realized that I've heard many of his tunes over the years, covered by other singers -- such as "Reconsider Baby," which is one of the best tunes on Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle" album.

Fulson was born on an Indian reservation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on March 31,1921, half African-American and half American Indian. An uncle gave him a guitar when he was 12, and not long after, Lowell Fulson became a blues man.

He toured with singer Texas Alexander in 1939, then, after the war, moved to Oakland, California, where he wrote and recorded "San Francisco Blues."

In the early 1950s he was part of the blues scene in Los Angeles (along with the likes of Charles Brown), where he wrote "Everyday I Have the Blues," which was a big hit for him, and later became a big hit for B.B. King. His "Reconsider Baby," reached the top 5 on Billboard's Top R&B Albums Chart in 1954, and was covered by Elvis Presley and Clapton.

Despite his illness, he had continued to work in his last years, including in 1998, when he joined Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and others on "Blues Blues Blues," a tribute album to the late blues singer Jimmy Rogers.