Lester Davenport

Lester "Mad Dog" Davenport (January 16, 1932 – March 17, 2009), was an American Chicago blues harmonica player and singer.

Born in Tchula, Mississippi, Davenport moved to Chicago, Illinois, United States, when he was 14. There he played with Arthur Spires, Snooky Pryor, Dusty Brown, and Homesick James and then worked with Bo Diddley, with whom he played harmonica on a 1955 Chess Records session.

Davenport released his first album under his own name in 1992 and recorded a follow-up, I Smell a Rat, in 2002.

Davenport died in March 2009 in Chicago, from prostate cancer, at the age of 77. In 2018 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for him at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

Discography When the Blues Hit You (Earwig Music, 1992) I Smell a Rat (Delmark Records, 2002)