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Rusty Zinn

American guitarist and singer-songwriter

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 30, 2025
Entity authorityQ2177386
Source-derived summary

Rusty Zinn (born April 3, 1970 in Long Beach, California, United States) is an American electric blues and reggae guitarist and singer-songwriter. Zinn released six albums between 1996 and 2009, on Black Top, Alligator, Bad Daddy, and 9 Above Records. He has worked with Mark Hummel, Kim Wilson, Larry Taylor, and Sly Dunbar.

Biography

Zinn was raised in Northern California, and was introduced to music via both his mother's and brother's record collections. He bought blues recordings himself, intrigued by guitar players such as Robert Lockwood, Jr., Eddie Taylor, and Jimmy Rogers. Having practised the drums as a youngster, Zinn purchased his first guitar at the age of seventeen, and then witnessed Luther Tucker perform in concert with Rogers. Within twelve months, Tucker invited Zinn onstage and gave him some guitar playing advice. By the late 1980s, Zinn was playing in several Bay Area bands, and had backed both Rogers and Snooky Pryor.

A spell in Mark Hummel's backing band The Blues Survivors followed, and he later met Kim Wilson at the 1992 San Francisco Blues Festival. Subsequently, Zinn joined Wilson's band, alongside the former Canned Heat bassist, Larry Taylor, and played on Wilson's 1993 album Tigerman.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Rusty Zinn” as american guitarist and singer-songwriter. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rusty, Zinn and American.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970, 1996, 2009, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1970-04-03. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Rusty, Zinn and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Rusty Zinn”, the useful work is to connect “american guitarist and singer-songwriter” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2177386. VIAF identifies the subject as 63651808. The Library of Congress control number is no2001002418. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1996, 2009 and 1992.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rusty Zinn”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rusty Zinn primary sources, Rusty Zinn archive and Rusty research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rusty Zinn”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Rusty Zinn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.