David Barnes (harmonica); Vernon Reid (guitar); James "Blood" Ulmer (vocal, guitar); Eagle-Eye Cherry (vocal, percussion programming)
J. B. Lenoir was an African American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, active in the 1950s and 1960s Chicago blues scene. Lenoir was known in the 1950s for his showmanship - in particular his zebra-patterned costumes - and his high-pitched vocals.
I really like this clip of Muddy Waters being interviewed in a van while on tour back in 1971. Note that he is sitting next to Big Mama Thornton, and she makes a small interjection into the conversation.
Skip James was born near Bentonia, Mississippi. His father was a converted bootlegger turned preacher. As a youth, James heard local musicians such as Henry Stuckey and brothers Charlie and Jesse Sims and began playing the organ in his teens. He worked on road construction and levee-building crews in his native Mississippi in the early 1920s, and wrote what is perhaps his earliest song, "Illinois Blues", about his experiences as a laborer.
This interview of Muddy Waters is a very interesting view of the man.
"bring it to me straight, brother."...in Molde (Norway) 1977 after his show.
"Blind" Willie Johnson was an American singer and guitarist whose music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. Among musicians, he is considered one of the greatest slide or bottleneck guitarists, as well as one of the most revered figures of depression-era gospel music.
Ry Cooder once said Dark Was The Night--Cold Was The Ground was the most soulful, transcendent piece of American music recorded in the 20th Century
In the liner notes of a 2002 record by Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot compared "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was the Ground" to the music of Django Reinhardt and the avant garde guitarist Bailey.
@ricksaunders The great T-Model Ford had a mild stroke yesterday. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" is a classic blues song written by Blind Lemon Jefferson.
The lyrics can be found on Wikipedia
Well there's one kind of favor I'll ask for you
Well there's one kind of favor I'll ask for you
There's just one kind of favor I'll ask for you
You can see that my grave is kept clean
Moore who died at the age of 90 in 2004 was remembered more for some of his blues compositions -- "Did You Ever Love A Woman", "I Ain't Mad at You, Pretty Baby", "Somebody's Got To Go" -- than for the powerful, gospelly voice that earned him his nickname.
Mississippi John Hurt performing "Stagger Lee".
Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings
click image for info
Mississippi John Hurt @Amazon.com
Mississippi John Hurt @ SqueezeMyLemon
Albert King was born on April 25, 1923 and he passed away on December 21, 1992. He is one of the three Kings of the blues (along with BB King and Freddie King).
During his time, he was according to Wikipedia;
Albert King stood 6' 4" (192 cm) and weighed 250 lbs (118 kg) and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church. He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys, in Osceola, Arkansas. He also briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, but also interestingly Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V, which he named "Lucy".
Notes from YouTube: Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head (I hear music in the air) unknown performance date (appox. around the 1960's) on the show TV Gospel Time with the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church Choir an amazing performance with a Gibson Les Paul SG custom with (polar white finish?)
Gospel Blues @SqueezeMyLemon
Trout season opens tomorrow around where I live, and it's a good thing too. This last winter may not have been as severe as some, but it seems like it was just as long, and I've got the Deep River Blues. Here's Doc Watson:
Notes from YouTube;
Carolina Chocolate Drops performing "Cornbread and Butterbeans" at WDVX's Blue Plate Special. For more information on Carolina Chocolate Drops please visit www.carolinachocolatedrops.com. For more information on WDVX's Blue Plate Special please visit www.wdvx.com. For more Blue Plate Special videos please visit www.knoxnews.com/blueplatespecial
The crew from Music Voyager (the New PBS music and travel show) made a recent visit to my home state, and even shot footage, with local home town boy Kenny Wayne Shepherd in my home town, Shreveport, LA.
Notes from YouTube;
Made in Louisiana Production-Shreveport Louisiana, a very rough 1st cut, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Buddy Flett were so amazing we had to give you a taste. -Farook
Elmore James (vocals, guitar); Leonard Ware (bass); Frock O'Dell (drums); Sonny Boy Williamson (harmonica)songfacts
Elmore was known as The King of the Slide Guitar and he had a unique guitar style, he was noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.
There is a long and learned article in Wikipedia, I likeThe most famous guitarist who admired Elmore James was Jimi Hendrix. Early in his career Jimi styled himself variously as 'Maurice James' and subsequently as 'Jimmy James'
James is mentioned in The Beatles' song "For You Blue": while John Lennon plays the slide guitar (James' trademark), George Harrison says, "Elmore James got nothin' on this, baby."
An early cover of a number by Mac - posted just for the fun of it
Shortly after his triumphant resurrection at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, Skip James returned to the recording studio for the first time in over three decades to cut the 12 sides which comprise the superb Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers, a career-capping overview which reprises some of the songs from his 1931 Paramount sessions and introduces a half-dozen new compositions as well. Although his guitar skills have lost a step in the intervening years, the passage of time has only made James' vocals that much more expressive; his new material is especially devastating, in particular "Sick Bed Blues" and "Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues," both detailing the fight with cancer that eventually led to his death.
I got a black cat bone
I got a mojo too
I got a John Coquorer
I'm going to mess with you
I'm going to make you girls
lead me by my hand
Then the world will know that
I'm a Hoochie Coochie Man
Alexis Korner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), born Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, was a pioneering blues musician and broadcaster who has sometimes been referred to as "the Founding Father of British Blues".
Kornerstoned - The Alexis Korner Anthology 1954-1983
Muddy Waters (vocal-guitar); Percy Thomas (guitar); Henry "Son" Simms (violin); Louis Ford (mandolin)
1930 -- Bought his first guitar. Later, the Son Sims Four, enlisted him as a vocalist. Muddy saw and was inspired by the playing of Son House whose style he learned. Still later Muddy bought a 1934 V8 Ford.
Rosalie (Son Simms Four)
A very profound song - the first and last verses
Won't somebody tell me, answer if you can!
Want somebody tell me, what is the soul of a man
I'm going to ask the question, answer if you can
As far as I can understand, a man is more than his mind
When Christ stood in the temple, the people stood amazed
Was showing the doctors and the lawyers, how to raise a body from the grave
This is one of those low down and dirty blues songs. It covers all the bases, hard work, hard liqueur, and domestic violence. And you have to love that growl in Big Bill's voice on this one. I believe he just wants to be left alone after a hard day of work and drinking.
Howlin' Wolf - How Many More Years — 2:43
I recall when Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks came out. I think I was 14 at the time and and this music knocked my socks off. One of my favourite tunes on that album was (and still is) a blues called Meet me in the Morning.
Let's have a listen to some different interpretations...
Here's Easton Stagger Phillips
Here's Sloan Wainwright:
The Sarah Jarosz Band:
Excellent picking and fiddle playing on that performance. Wow. Sorry it gets cut off at the end...still well worth a listen.
Finally, here's The Perpetrators with a version featuring some nice slide:
ball(ing) the jack
1 - origin: balling the jack is a phrase from the jargon of railroadsmen in the beginning of this century in America and simply means going at top speed (highballing). The "jack" is the locomotive and "ballin'" means to work fast or get rollin'. Balling the jack (and variants like balling or having a ball) later acquired other, non-railroad related meanings like having a wild good time (drinking), to move quickly, going flat out, dancing, having sex and in gambling circles of risking everything on a single throw of the dice or turn of a card and in general use risking everything on one attempt or effort.
Following visitor contributed information confirms these meanings:
2 - metaphor for having sex, see also balling the jack and grinding. Dave Vanderslice says: "Means literally: use a jack hammer, but also to have sex." Thanks to Dave Vanderslice for his contribution to the list;
3 - name of a once popular dance, dancestep. Gray "Grayotis" Martin writes: "Ball the Jack---also likely a juke joint dance, with a reference to the act of sexual intercourse. "Ball" in verb form, is a slang word for sex, in white and black lingo. Thanks to Gray Martin for this contribution;
Southern Louisiana's John "JohnnyB" Bradford says: "The "eagle rock" and "ball and the jack" are 1940's dance moves. Thanks to John "JohnnyB" Bradford for this contribution to the list;
This phrase can be found in:
Bessie Smith, Baby Doll & St. Louis Blues, Big Bill Broonzy, I Feel So Good
Notes from YouTube;
Brenda Lee covered Ballin' the Jack on her first album entitled "Grandma, What Great Songs You Sang!" (Later renamed "Brenda Lee Sings Songs Everybody Knows") . She was a Judy Garland fan and I suspect this cover came about because the song was in "For me and My Gal" (1942) starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.
(J. Barris - C. Smith)
Well you put your two knees close up tight,
And then you swing them to the left
You swing them to the right.
Step around the floor kind of nice and light.
And then you twist around and
Twist around with all your might.
Shake your loving arms way out in space,
Then you do the Eagle Rock with the style and grace.
Swing your foot way round then you bring it back.
That's what I call Ballin' The Jack.
Well you put your two knees close up tight,
And then you swing them to the left
You swing them to the right.
Step around the floor kind of nice and light.
And then you twist around and
Twist around with all your might.
Shake your loving arms way out in space,
Then you do the Eagle Rock with the style and grace.
Swing your foot way round then you bring it back.
That's what I call Ballin' The Jack.
The song was written in 1913, before modern jazz. Its structure, however, lends itself to jazz, blues and pop adaptations. The lyric merely describes dance movements. Modern songs have used the term "ballin' the jack" in other contexts, including sexual, but originally it was just railroad repair term. A ball was jacked against a rail in order to straighten the rail. The original writers must have thought the phrase catchy enough to start a dance craze.
Sad to read that Karen Hansen is no longer posting to her blues music blog "Today's Chicago Blues." As a blues blogger I understand her reasons perfectly. Blogging about the blues is a labor of love at best, and just hard work at its worst.
First I would like to say thanks to her for maintaining a well written and high quality blues blog. I really enjoyed reading about the dynamic Chicago blues music that she wrote about. I felt like I knew what was going on in the Chicago Blues music scene because I visited her blog often.
Her voice will be missed.
Very much part of my growing up -
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Uploaded by hushhush112. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.
Led Zeppelin IV
Well friends, I have to apologize...I just couldn't find the versions by Junior Parker and by Bob Dylan, or you know I would have posted them right here too. Hopefully the fantastic interpretation by Bryon Ferry of this old tune makes up for the incompleteness of the post.
Mississippi John Hurt was an influential country blues singer and guitarist. He sang in a loud whisper, to a melodious finger-picked guitar accompaniment.
Hurt's influence spanned several music genres including blues, country, bluegrass, folk and contemporary rock and roll. A soft-spoken man, his nature was reflected in the work, which remained a mellow mix of country, blues and old time music to the end
Rosco Gordon (April 10, 1928 – July 11, 2002) was an African American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known for his 1952 #1 R&B hit single, "Booted" Born on Florida Street, in Memphis, Tennessee, Gordon was one of the Beale Streeters, a moniker given to a group of musicians who helped develop the style known as Memphis Blues
Notes from YouTube; just a jam in G
Harmonica Players @SqueezeMyLemon
Harmonica @SqueezeMyLemon
Stan Webb's Chickenshack
Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in 1965 by Andy Silvester (bass guitar) and Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), with Alan Morley (drums) and later joined by Christine Perfect (vocals and keyboards - naming themselves after Jimmy Smiths 'Back At The Chicken Shack' album. Chicken shacks (chicken restaurants) had also by then frequently been mentioned in blues and rhythm and blues songs, as in Amos Milburn's hit, "Chicken Shack Boogie". Their first concert was at the 1967 National Blues and Jazz Festival at Windsor and they were signed by the Blue Horizon record label in the same year.
Chicken Shack enjoyed modest commercial success, with Christine Perfect being voted Best Female Vocalist in the Melody Maker polls, two years running.
Perfect left the band in 1969 when she married John McVie of Fleetwood Mac.
Notes from YouTube: Nobody's Fault But Mine played on my Ermanno Pasqualato weissenborn style lapslide.
Lyrics: Traditional/Blind Willie Johnson
Nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul get lost
Nobody's fault but mine
My mama she taught me how to read
My mama she taught me how to read
If I don't read, my soul be lost
Ain't nobody's fault but mine
My sister she taught me how to read
My sister she taught me how to read
If I don't read, my soul be lost
Ain't nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul be lost
Ain't nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul get lost
Nobody's fault but mine
Jackie Brenston (vocal, baritone sax); Raymond Hill (tenor sax); Ike Turner (piano); Willie Kizart (guitar); Jesse Knight (bass); Willie Sims (drums)
Wikipedia
The original version of the 12-bar blues song was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who took the song to number one on the R&B charts. The band did not actually exist and the song was put together by Ike Turner and his band in rehearsals at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and recorded by Turner's Kings of Rhythm. Jackie Brenston (1930-1979), who was a saxophonist with Turner, also sang the vocal on "Rocket 88", a hymn of praise to the joys of the Oldsmobile "Rocket 88", which had recently been introduced.
Notes from YouTube; 2010 LRBC Caribbean Cruise Main Stage From the finest floating festival on the planet! Kodak Zi8 and Sony Stereo Mic
(Herman Parker-Sam Phillips)
Junior Parker (vocals); probably: Floyd Murphy (guitar); William Johnson (piano); possibly Kenneth Banks (bass); John Bowers (drums)
Produced by Sam Phillips - Recorded Memphis, Tennessee, September/October 1953
Junior Parker, also known as Little Junior Parker or "Mr Blues" (May 27, 1932[2]–November 18, 1971) was a successful and influential Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth". He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001
Sam Phillips once remarked of Chester Arthur Burnett, "When I heard Howlin' Wolf, I said, 'This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies.'
Lady in Satin is an album by jazz singer Billie Holiday released in 1958 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1157 in mono and CS 8048 in stereo. It is the final album completed by the singer and released in her lifetime. ....... Holiday's voice had lost much of its upper range in her 40s, although she still retained her rhythmic phrasing. The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album a three-star rating of a possible four stars, but expressed a basic reservation about the album, describing it as "a voyeuristic look at a beaten woman."
Ray Ellis said of the album in 1997:
I would say that the most emotional moment was her listening to the playback of "I'm a Fool to Want You". There were tears in her eyes...After we finished the album I went into the control room and listened to all the takes. I must admit I was unhappy with her performance, but I was just listening musically instead of emotionally. It wasn't until I heard the final mix a few weeks later that I realized how great her performance really was
The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s. The band featured harmonicas, violins, mandolins, banjos, and guitars, backed by washboards, kazoo, and jugs blown to supply the bass; they played in a variety of musical styles. The band recorded almost a hundred titles
According to Wikipedia
Walter Horton, better known as Big Walter Horton or Walter "Shakey" Horton, (April 6, 1917 – December 8, 1981) was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming and essentially shy man, Horton is remembered as one of the most influential harmonica players in the history of blues. Willie Dixon once called Horton "the best harmonica player I ever heard."
"Hoochie Coochie Man" (sometimes referred to as "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man") is a 1954 song written by Willie Dixon and first performed by Muddy Waters. The song was a major hit upon its release, reaching number eight on Billboard magazine's Black Singles chart. Waters' rendition of the song was featured on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, where it was voted number 225 by representatives of the music industry and press.
The Hoochie coochie was a sexually provocative dance that became wildly popular during and after the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
Since the dance was performed by women, a ‘hoochie coochie man’ either watched them or ran the show. Alternatively, from the directly sexual meaning of hoochie coochie, he greatly enjoyed sexual intercourse
Adam Gussow (born April 3, 1958, New York, United States) is a scholar, memoirist, and blues harmonica player.
Gussow is currently an associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. He spent twelve years (1986-1998) working the streets of Harlem and the international club and festival circuit with Mississippi-born bluesman Sterling Magee as a duo called Satan and Adam.
Check him out online at these places;
* Adam Gussow's Modern Blues Harmonica web site
* Adam Gussow's dirty-South blues harp channel
* Adam Gussow's Facebook page
* Adam Gussow @Amazon.com
* Satan & Adam @Amazon.com
Tony McPhee (born Anthony Charles McPhee, 23 March 1944, at Redlands House, near Humberston, Lincolnshire) is an English blues guitarist, and founder of The Groundhogs, a blues-rock trio that produced three UK top ten albums in the early 1970s
Genuine Negro Jig
click image for CD
I can not say enough about these guys. They are new to me, but they are also very old souls.
From Wikipedia;
The Carolina Chocolate Drops are an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina, United States. Formed in November 2005 following the members' attendance at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, the group is one of the few remaining African American string bands. The group has three members: Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, and Justin Robinson, who were all in their twenties when the group formed. All of the musicians sing, and trade instruments including banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, snare drum, bones, jug, and kazoo. The group learned much of their repertoire, which is based on the traditional music of the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, from the eminent African American old-time fiddler Joe Thompson, although they also perform old-time versions of some modern songs such as Blu Cantrell's R&B hit "Hit 'em Up Style (Oops!)."
Sonny Boy Williamson Bring It On Home — 2:34 (Willie Dixon)
"Bring It On Home" is a song written by Willie Dixon and made famous by Sonny Boy Williamson II in 1963, featuring a simple rhythm track and interplay between vocals and harmonica.
In 1969, English rock band Led Zeppelin recorded a version of the song for their album Led Zeppelin II. The intro and outro were deliberate homages to the Sonny Boy Williamson song, while the rest of the track was an original Jimmy Page/Robert Plant composition. However, Dixon was not given a lyric writing credit for the track, leading to Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, bringing a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement and winning an out-of-court settlement in the 1970s. Dixon himself did not benefit until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and a copyright credit.
Notes from YouTube;
Seen here with Pete Seeger & Hedy West. Not sure of date, circa 1950's-60's(post Seeger blacklist). Playing John Henry (Steeldriver Blues). Lived:(March 8, 1892,Carroll County, Mississippi - November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) the eighth child of ten.
