SqueezeMyLemon

Ella Fitzgerald and Manhattan Transfer

2012-01-30T09:25:00.001-08:00

I can never have too much Ella

Muddy Waters plays Manish Boy

2012-01-30T01:00:00.000-08:00

Notes from YouTube: In this clip from a 1971 performance, Muddy Waters and his band perform "Manish Boy." From the DVD "Muddy Waters In Concert 1971.

Bo Carter

2012-01-29T06:25:00.000-08:00

Carter is often known for his bawdy songs such as "Banana in Your Fruit Basket", "Pin in Your Cushion", "Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me", "Please Warm My Wiener" and "My Pencil Won't Write No More".He had more depth in Blues - in 1928, he recorded the original version of "Corrine, Corrina", which later became a hit for Big Joe Turner.

Jesus Is The Best Thing That Ever Happened to me - James Cleavland

2012-01-29T01:00:00.001-08:00

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same

2012-01-29T01:00:00.000-08:00

This is a movie that I really can not tell you how man times I have seen. Back in the early eighties me and my Navy buddies used to go see this at the mid-night movies.

Good times with good friends and good music.

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same [Blu-ray]

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

For Led Zeppelin fanatics, this 1976 feature The Song Remains the Same is a treasure of searing live performances, particularly welcome in light of the sad scarcity of such visual material from the band's great decade. Despite the group's road weariness after a long tour, their final, three-night stand at Madison Square Garden in 1973 was full of the old power. Performances of "No Quarter," "Whole Lotta Love," "Black Dog," "Dazed and Confused," and "Stairway to Heaven" underscore Zep's charisma. Trouble is, you don't get an unbroken performance here. Viewers have to wade through a mishmash of documentary insight into the lives of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones, as well as fantasy sequences supposedly inspired by the thoughts and fantasies of the band's individual members. It's mostly garish and silly, but there are some nice elements, especially insights into the late Bonham's life. The DVD doesn't offer much in the way of add-ons (a theatrical trailer is about it), but there is also enhanced viewing for 16 x 9 televisions. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

The line forms here for the world’s greatest and possibly most influential band – Led Zeppelin! With Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Whole Lotta Love and more signature performances, this mesmerizing movie built around Zep’s famed ’73 NYC concerts is convincing proof why. Band members supervised the Re-mastering and Dolby 5.1 Re-mixing of the film’s image and sound.

In addition to their performances, fantasy sequences and at-home glimpses of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and the late John Bonham, this 2-disc Special Edition has over 40 minutes of newly-added extra features including: Two (2) never-before-released songs in rare performance footage: Celebration and Over the Hills and Far Away; Vintage TV Footage: Drake Hotel Robbery during the New York Concert Stand; Robert Plant BBC Interview and Tampa Concert Band Arrival. Also available in Hi-Def and Blu Ray!

Ren Harvieu - new face for 2012

2012-01-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

Not really bluesy but sometimes I just feel the need to pass on good news. Her web site is Here.

Guardian

... these massive strings-drenched ballads that pay lip service to the mid-60s era of those solo artists with single names like Dusty, Lulu, Cilla and Sandie and the sort of epic tunes they would have blasted out on Sunday Night at the London Palladium or during a royal command performance.

BBC

Harvieu looks likely to become one of the most talked about singing voices of the next few years.

Any comments guys?

Ana Popovic - Unconditional

2012-01-27T03:20:00.000-08:00

A great blues guitarist

Joe Louis Walker – While my guitar gently weeps

2012-01-25T12:43:00.001-08:00

Wow!

They're Red Hot - Robert Johnson

2012-01-25T10:12:00.000-08:00

some pretty good versions - any preferences?

Chris Isaak - Beyond The Sun

2012-01-24T01:21:00.000-08:00

Just saw him publicising his new album (in UK)- sounds goodIt is a collection of songs recorded by Sun Records artists Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Most of the songs were originally released on Sun Records.

"Ring of Fire" (Johnny Cash 1963)

"Trying to Get To You" (Elvis Presley 1955)

"I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (Elvis Presley 1955)

"Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis 1957)

"Can't Help Falling in Love" (Elvis Presley 1961)

"Dixie Fried" (Carl Perkins 1956)

"How's the World Treating You" (Elvis Presley 1956)

"It's Now or Never" (Elvis Presley 1960)

"Miss Pearl" (Jimmy Wages 1957)

"Live It Up" (Chris Isaak original)

"I Walk the Line" (Johnny Cash 1956)

"So Long I'm Gone" (Warren Smith 1957)

"She's Not You" (Elvis Presley 1962)

"My Happiness" (Elvis Presley 1953)

Blues Books: Delta Blues Life and Times of Mississippi Masters

2012-01-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music

Paperback: 449 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (November 2, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393337502
ISBN-13: 978-0393337501
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches

“The essential history of this distinctly American genre.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In this “expertly researched, elegantly written, dispassionate yet thoughtful history” (Gary Giddins), award-winning author Ted Gioia gives us “the rare combination of a tome that is both deeply informative and enjoyable to read” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). From the field hollers of nineteenth-century plantations to Muddy Waters and B.B. King, Delta Blues delves into the uneasy mix of race and money at the point where traditional music became commercial and bluesmen found new audiences of thousands. Combining extensive fieldwork, archival research, interviews with living musicians, and first-person accounts with “his own calm, argument-closing incantations to draw a line through a century of Delta blues” (New York Times), this engrossing narrative is flavored with insightful and vivid musical descriptions that ensure “an understanding of not only the musicians, but the music itself” (Boston Sunday Globe). Rooted in the thick-as-tar Delta soil, Delta Blues is already “a contemporary classic in its field” (Jazz Review). 38 illustrations

Watermelon Slim

2012-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Bill Homans aka Watermelon Slim has been performing since the 70s - he often plays his dobro guitar lap-style, lefthanded and backwards, with a slide.

Death Don't Have No Mercy - Ramblin' Jack Elliott

2012-01-22T01:01:00.000-08:00

Crosscut Saw (song)

2012-01-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

"Crosscut Saw", or "Cross Cut Saw Blues" as it was first called, is a bawdy blues song - it became an early R&B chart hit for Albert King, "who made it one of the necessary pieces of modern blues"

The lyrics are rife with double-entendre

Now, I'm a cross cut saw, drag me 'cross yo' logI'm a cross cut saw, and drag me across yo' logBabe, I'll cut yo' wood so easy, you can't help say "hot dog"

Dinah Washington

2012-01-19T10:23:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite voices

jump blues

2012-01-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Jump Blues is a jazz influenced Blues very popular in the 1940s and perhaps the precursor of Rock and Roll.Jump blues was revived in the 1980s by artists such as Joe Jackson and Brian Setzer Bands who perform it today include Roomful of Blues, MoPac and The Blue Suburbans, Ray Collins' Hot Club and Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s. In the 1990s The Mighty Blue Kings also played jump blues.

The Black Keys - Lonely Boy (First Listen)

2012-01-17T08:09:00.000-08:00

This video makes me get up and dance everytime!

Lucille Bogan - one of the big 3?

2012-01-17T00:51:00.000-08:00

WikipediaLucille Bogan was an American blues singer, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. The sexologist and music critic, Ernest Borneman, stated that Bogan along with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, was in "the big three of the blues"So quite explicit

Blues Books: The B.B. King Treasures

2012-01-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Book Details

Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Bulfinch (September 8, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0821257242
ISBN-13: 978-0821257241
Product Dimensions: 9 x 1.3 x 11.2 inches

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While true blues lovers may scoff at the opulence of such a coffee-table volume, they may change their minds when they discover the treat this work has tucked under its front cover: an hour-long audio CD of conversations with the "Chairman of the Board" of blues, B.B. King (b. 1925). The book itself is a stylishly packaged retelling of King's life from Mississippi sharecropping cabin dweller to White House honoree, with King's reminiscences intercut with comments from his friends. In addition to pages of gorgeously reproduced photos, eight parchment sleeves hold facsimiles of King memorabilia: first, his sharecropping account from 1940, and then mostly tickets, programs and posters for his shows. Still, the real "treasure" is the CD: 16 tracks of King talking about how and why he makes music, sometimes accompanied by riffs on Lucille (his guitar), plus two previously unreleased recordings. King gives a bluesman's take on race relations in the 20th century: how white radio stations started playing black music and how British stars (the Beatles, the Stones, Clapton, etc.) revived the careers of black bluesmen and then how white "folkies" picked up on the music, too. This will be a tasty gift for any blues fan. 116 illus. (Sept. 16)Correction: The agent for Robert Oxnam's A Fractured Mind (Reviews, Aug. 8) is Wendy Strothman.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The King of the Blues turns 80 on September 16: cause for celebration, indeed. Already, on February 15, 2005, Mississippi honored its world-famous son in a ceremony at the state capitol. Now comes this spectacular oral-history-cum-scrapbook that should draw browsers as if it were the cure for the common cold. It is certainly good for what ails you, what with its scads of great photos and blues-biz paraphernalia (posters, record labels, etc.) reproductions, its immaculately proofread text, its high production values (heavy stock, visually textured pages in several colors, clean layout), and its--libraries, beware!--removable bonus attractions (CD of interview outtakes and previously unreleased old recordings, eight translucent envelopes containing excellent reproductions of such memorabilia as a portrait-postcard a teenage King sent a girlfriend, backstage passes, business cards, booking sheets, concert handouts, etc.). On top of all that, it's an interesting read, especially about King's early life and pre-stardom career. If there are a few tangential errors (blues organist Mark Naftalin's father was mayor of Minneapolis, not Milwaukee), who cares? Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Sixty Minute Man - The Dominoes

2012-01-16T00:50:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia

Sixty Minute Man" is a rhythm and blues (R&B) record released in 1951 by The Dominoes. It was written by Billy Ward and Rose Marks and was one of the first R&B hit records to cross over to become a pop hit on the pop charts. It is regarded as one of the most important of the recordings which helped generate and shape rock and roll

The Blue Bishops - a UK rock and blues band

2012-01-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

Death Don't Have No Mercy - Rev. Gary Davis

2012-01-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Zora Young - Princess of the Blues?

2012-01-14T01:46:00.000-08:00

Web Sitean excellent review and potted bio on blogcritics - she has one of those voices that linger for a long time and she has a wow factor.

Stevie Wonder + Prince + Sheila E " superstition" @ Paris Bercy July 1 2010

2012-01-13T07:25:00.001-08:00

Just glorious - life enhancing just to listen to.

Julia Lee

2012-01-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia

Julia Lee was an American blues and dirty blues musician - she became best known for her trademark double entendre songs

Cinqui I'm A Train

2012-01-12T02:35:00.000-08:00

A real good feeling on listening to this I think - if anyone knows anything about them please tell.

Magic Slim & The Teardrops

2012-01-11T00:31:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia entryIn 2003 Magic Slim and the Teardrops won the W.C. Handy Award as 'Blues Band Of The Year' for the sixth time.

"Is It Because I'm Black" Lucky Peterson

2012-01-09T11:43:00.001-08:00

Blues Books: The Hero and the Blues by Albert Murray

2012-01-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

Book Details

Paperback: 112 pages
Publisher: Vintage (January 16, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0679762205
ISBN-13: 978-0679762201
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Murray's 1973 book analyzes the connection between blues, literature, and the African American's place in society.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reviews

"[Albert Murray] is possessed of the poet's language, the novelist's sensibility, the essayist's clarity, the jazzman's Imagination, the gospel singer's depth of feeling."

-- The New Yorker

In this visionary book, the author of the legendary Stomping the Blues takes an audacious new look at black music and, in the process, succeeds in changing the way we read all literature. Albert Murray's subject is the previously unacknowledged kinship between fiction and the blues. Both, he argues, are virtuoso performances that impart information, wisdom, and moral guidance to their audiences. Both place a high value on improvisation. And both fiction and the blues create a delicate balance between the holy and the obscene, essential human values and cosmic absurdity.

Encompassing artists from Ernest Hemingway to Duke Ellington, and from Thomas Mann to Richard Wright, The Hero and the Blues is at once an homage and a manifesto for a new black aesthetic. Erudite, eloquent, appreciative, and iconoclastic, it is further evidence of Murray's ability to turn the essay into a kind of poetry -- as enchanting as it is instructive.

"The size of his reputation is incommensurate with his quality .... Murray is as close to a classic nineteenth-century man of letters as one might find in this country today."

-- Boston Globe

He Calls That Religion - Acoustic Hats

2012-01-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

Notes From YouTube:

Acoustic hats at work: Laura Williams ( vocals and kazoo) and Luca Menti ( harps) came some time ago to visit me and we did this little jam singing and playing on the spot this old song composed by the Chatmon brothers alias the "Mississippi Sheiks".

I play my ringing National Triolian in standard tuning, key of C, with the help of my feet stomping a footdrum board crafted here in Italy by Herrmann Guitars (http://www.weissenbornguitar.com/ ).

Alabama Shakes

2012-01-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Fleetwood Mac w. Peter Green – Homework - 1968/12/31 - Paris

2012-01-07T04:30:00.001-08:00

B. B. King - Happy Birthday Blues

2012-01-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

This song "B.B. King - Happy Birthday Blues" was left for me by my online friends.

My online friends Lawrence & Toni who run the Martial Arts website Tan Dao Martial Arts. They run their site in the spirit of the journey. Warrior, Scholar, Monk. And they ask the question, "Are you an Evolving Martial Artist?"

I have heard most of B.B. King's music, but this song is a new one for me. Thanks to my friends for turning me on to it, and I just wanted to share it with those who read my blog.

Hokum Blueskum Blues

2012-01-06T01:28:00.000-08:00

Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos
A late one
one from the '50's
from the '30's

John Mayer - Battle Studies 2009

2012-01-05T23:04:00.000-08:00

Hum - not my taste really but fits the genre?

Tedeschi Trucks Band — Learn How To Love

2012-01-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Mos Def "Umi Says" ft. The Robert Glasper Experiment, Kanye West, & Lupe Fiasco

2012-01-04T11:21:00.001-08:00

Vibrant

Happy Birthday

2012-01-03T23:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Kelvin today - have a good day my friend!

Robert Lockwood Jr

2012-01-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, was an American Delta blues guitarist, who recorded for Chess Records among other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known as a longtime collaborator with Sonny Boy Williamson II and for his work in the mid-1950s with Little Walter.

Eric Clapton and B.B. King Everday I Have the Blues

2012-01-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

(Opportunity Knocks But Once) Snatch and Grab It

2012-01-02T01:28:00.000-08:00

Blues Books: Playtime Jazz & Blues

2012-01-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

Paperback: 24 pages
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (May 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1616770449
ISBN-13: 978-1616770440
Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.9 x 0.2 inches

Here is a great book that will help you learn to play Jazz and blues piano.

Candye Kane - Great Big Woman

2012-01-01T23:04:00.000-08:00

Stevie Ray Vaughan Little Wing

2012-01-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

Travelling Riverside Blues

2011-12-31T01:31:00.000-08:00

"Travelling Riverside Blues," sometimes called "Mudbone" or "Mud Bone," is a blues song written and recorded in Dallas, Texas by the bluesman Robert Johnson.

Catfish Keith — Put On a Buzz

2011-12-30T22:32:00.000-08:00

Colin James

2011-12-29T23:03:00.000-08:00

The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster

2011-12-28T23:03:00.000-08:00

In May 2010, at the Blues Music Awards, Ruthie was announced as Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year and I can see why!

Howlin' Wolf — 300lbs of Joy

2011-12-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

Just because .......

Kenny Wayne Shepherd How I Go 2011

2011-12-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

BBC

.... So while not everything here will click with audiences unfamiliar with blues-cum-country fare, despite this artist’s stateside achievements, How I Go is a decent introduction to an artist whose admiration of the likes of BB King and Honeyboy Edwards is steadily producing a comparable catalogue of authentically dusty barroom stompers and unlikely stadium rockers. It’s a set that benefits from its maker’s restraint – more of the same next time and he’ll move closer to the pantheon occupied by Clapton et al.

Joe Bonamassa - Dust Bowl 2011

2011-12-26T23:03:00.000-08:00

Guardian

Joe Bonamassa is an American blues guitarist who regularly wins awards in guitar magazines and has been praised by BB King. But his real love is British blues-rock from the 70s ....

Blues Books: Little Blues Book

2011-12-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

Book Details

Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1st edition (January 10, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1565121376
ISBN-13: 978-1565121379
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5 x 0.6 inches

Amazon.com Review

Almost small enough to fit into a hip pocket, this is a kind of guidebook to the blues, featuring quotations from blues songs, mini-biographies of bluesmen and blueswomen, and illustrations by R. Crumb. The quotes (on topics ranging from "Getting the Blues" to "The Thrill is Gone") are little gems, pithy aphorisms like this one from Rabbit Brown: "I done seen better days, but I'm putting up with these."

Author Brian Robertson, himself a musician, includes a bibliography and a list of Internet resources in this great little introduction to the blues and the men and women who made the music.

The Black Keys El Camino 2011

2011-12-25T23:02:00.000-08:00

El Camino is the seventh studio album by American blues-rock duo The Black Keys, and was produced in Nashville.BBC

El Camino finds its identity and The Black Keys their new purpose – to reinvigorate rock’n’roll from the roots up

Rolling Stone

The Keys cited the Clash as an influence for El Camino, and that influence is evident in the increased zip of the grooves, and in the group hug between roots music and rock spectacle

Howlin' Wolf — Goin’ Down Slow

2011-12-25T11:04:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia
The song alternates between sung and spoken passages. The sung passages are the reflections of a dying man:

I have had my fun, if I don't get well no more

My health is failing me, and I'm going down slow

Please write my mother, tell her the shape I'm in

Tell her to pray for me, forgive me for my sin

The spoken passages (by Willie Dixon; on Wolf's release) deal with relationship:

Now looka here...

I did not say I was a millionaire...

But I said I have spent more money than a millionaire!

Cause if I had've kept all my money that I'd already spent,

I would've been a millionaire a looong time ago...

Clapton

The Wang Dangs.......Goin down slow

Eric Bibb New Blues

2011-12-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

Joe Bonamassa, Hubert Sumlin & Jimmy Vivino at Guitar Center's King of the Blues Finals

2011-12-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

Stephen Dale Petit – Guitararama 2008

2011-12-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia

The first incarnation of “Guitararama” entered the Top 10 HMV Blues Album Chart in the UK (between two Robert Johnson albums), as well as the ITunes Top 10 Chart in both Norway and Sweden. Guitar Magazine also placed it in the top 10 albums of the year.

The Blues Brothers Movie still funny, 25 Years Later.

2011-12-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a blues humor post from the archives, the "Blues Brothers" movie is still a very funny movie.

While not in the same vane as many of my recent post. I have been posting mostly prewar blues in SqueezeMyLemon, that is because that is where I am at right now. Those blues are the ones that shade me right now. That is how blue I am. If you understand what I trying to say.

But there is an event that is going on in the world of the blues that I want to draw your attention to. It is the up coming release of the 25th Anniversary Edition of the 1980 movie "The Blues Brothers".

I have heard some of the critics say that this movie is really not about the blues at all. I mean it does not really have any blues greats in it. But that is OK. I think that Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi both loved the music and it showed in the work that they did on Sartuday Night Live and in the original movie.

Then there is the matter of the musicians, in the movie. The band, which had among others, Steve Cropper, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Lou Marini, was a real band of real musicians that played a tight, sharp, and clean set. In the movie there were musical performances by the band and guests Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, and James Brown which are classic and priceless. Even though they are not strictly blues performances. But they reflect where the music was at when the movie was made.

A very good interview was done on Terry Gross' NPR show, Dan Aykroyd, Still Full of the 'Blues'.

On Aug 30th there will be an anniversary event. The event will feature a live Q&A discussion with director/writer John Landis and the film's star and co-writer, Dan Aykroyd (via satellite from Toronto), followed by a first time screening of the film in high definition and cinema surround sound. The entire program will be presented live via satellite beginning at 6:30 p.m. PT / 9:30 p.m. ET to 83 movie theatres from coast to coast.

There are many highlight in the movie that still make me laugh to this day;

1. The seemingly endless, escalating series of car crashes. (I loved this, some don't)
2. "We've got both kinds of music: country AND western"
3. "We're on a mission from God"
4. When Ray Charles (God rest his soul) orders during the diner scene "four fried chickens and a Coke."
5. The scene with Carry Fisher, makes me laugh to this day.

Michael Burks - Iron Man

2011-12-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

The Brian Setzer Orchestra — Boogie Woogie Santa Claus

2011-12-22T04:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to you all

Brewin' the Blues - Elisabeth Kontomanou

2011-12-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

T-Bone Walker — T-Bone Shuffle

2011-12-20T00:11:00.000-08:00

Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt

2011-12-20T00:09:00.000-08:00

A magic combination - from Wikipedia

Django Reinhardt (French pronunciation: was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within Belgian gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France, described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz."

Blues Books: All Music Guide to the Blues

2011-12-19T01:00:00.000-08:00

Book Description - Complete, concise, authoritative and fully updated to reflect today's revitalized blues world, the latest edition of this guide is any blues fan's lifeline to the best music, past and present. It reviews and rates 8,900 recordings in all major styles across the blues map - from Delta blues to Louisiana, Memphis, Chicago, Texas and beyond; from classic female singers to jump blues, blues slide guitar, blues in jazz, Dixieland, zydeco, soul blues, blues-rock, modern acoustic and electric blues, and more. This fun and easy-to-use guide provides profiles of over 1,200 artists. Historical essays plus supplemental "music maps" chart the roots and evolution of the blues, its various styles, instruments used, key artists, and more. The essays explore the blues from the Mississippi Delta to modern electric blues and everything in between. Also includes 30 "top lists" recommending the best albums for each blues style - essential for starting or expanding a great record collection.

Blues Books @SqueezeMyLemon

Blues Music Books @Amazon.com

Camille Dalmais

2011-12-18T23:45:00.000-08:00

A very interesting voice
Telegraph

On the baroque, majestic Ilo Veyou, her fourth, self-produced, solo album, MaJiKer has gone but plenty of magic remains. In comes a classically trained string quartet – and a surprising step into territory unexplored in French music since the days that Le Pétomane, the great fartiste of the Moulin Rouge, titillated fin de siècle audiences with his note-perfect derrière.

Lester Young With The Oscar Peterson Trio — Ad Lib Blues

2011-12-18T13:10:00.000-08:00

Freddie King - I Hear Jingle Bells

2011-12-17T15:52:00.001-08:00

Freddie King - Christmas Tears

2011-12-17T15:47:00.000-08:00

No Snow Blues – Brian Protheroe

2011-12-17T13:36:00.000-08:00

Mahalia Jackson 1963 In concert – When The saints Go Marching In

2011-12-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

Cash Box Kings — Young Turks?

2011-12-16T22:38:00.000-08:00

LastFM

Considered the “Young Turks” of the Chicago blues scene, the Cash box Kings are dedicated to carrying on the spirit of the 1940’s and 50’s post-war Chicago blues sound as well as the Delta blues music of the 20’s and 30’s.

Guy Tortora — Too Much Stuff

2011-12-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Dee Dee Bridgewater — Afro Blue 1974

2011-12-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

A classic album

Etta James sings "At Last" and is in our prayers..

2011-12-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

Our prayers are going out to the incomparable Mrs. Etta James as news reports are stating that she is gravely ill.

Please see E Online's article titled Blues Legend Etta James Terminally Ill for more details.

According to the "At Last" singer's live-in physician, the blues icon is terminally ill and has little time left after battling leukemia, dementia and kidney failure for several years now.

Donny Hathaway - This Christmas

2011-12-15T15:31:00.000-08:00

One of the all time classic Christmas pop songs. As I was playing this I listened to the lyrics closer then I had ever paid attention to them, and realized that this song has the perfect sentiment for this time of year. Makes me feel all warm inside. LOL

The Producers — London Blues

2011-12-15T10:56:00.000-08:00

Chris Barber — Blues

2011-12-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

A couple of cracking tracks from Chris' long and varied repertoire, I hope you enjoy as much as I do.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Lonesome Road

2011-12-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

We've posted a few of Rosetta Tharpe's YouTube clips here at SqueezeMyLemon, because she is so spectacularly placed at the junction of blues and gospel music that it is mind boggling when you really consider how talented she was.

And it seems to me that she does not really get the credit that she deserves for her ground breaking work.

Just listen to this one and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe @Amazon.com

Albert Collins - If Trouble Was Money

2011-12-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

What if trouble was money???

I might not be a millionaire, but I know one thing, I would be a rich man and that's for real!

Gary Clark Jr. - Bright Lights

2011-12-14T07:52:00.000-08:00

Gary Clark Jr. "you going to know his name by the end of the night".

Notes from YouTube:

© 2011 WMG Gary Clark Jr. - Bright Lights

Directed/Edited by Bill Berg Hillinger

Bright Lights EP available now stores and on tour. http://wbr.fm/GCJep
http://www.garyclarkjr.com/
http://www.facebook.com/garyclarkjrmusic
http://www.twitter.com/garyclarkjr

Gary Clark Jr. Bright Lights

Ramon Goose — Testify

2011-12-13T22:24:00.000-08:00

Ramon Goose is an English blues rock guitarist, singer and producer, who is known for his work with the hip hop blues band NuBlues, his mastery of the slide guitar, and for producing other American blues artists' albums. As a solo artist he has toured across Europe and released several albums.

Wallace Coleman - Blues in the Wind

2011-12-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

Singer and harp player Wallace Coleman first met Robert Lockwood Jr. in 1985. They became fast friends, with Coleman playing in the local bluesman's band for a decade. Coleman recalls their friendship in "Robert Jr.," the anchor to this 10-song set dedicated to his late pal.

Cover of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song"

2011-12-13T17:55:00.000-08:00

Karen O
Trent Reznor
Atticus Ross
Immigrant Song

Not a bad little cover of this classic rock song by one of the best all time blues rock bands. I enjoyed the original version of this song, and I also enjoyed the original version of the movie that this was remade for, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

Big Mama Thornton ft. Buddy Guy – Hound Dog

2011-12-12T12:50:00.001-08:00

The History Of The Blues: The Roots, The Music, The People

2011-12-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Product Details

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (September 2, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0306812967
ISBN-13: 978-0306812965

Book Description (from Amazon.com)

Francis Davis's The History of the Blues is a groundbreaking rethinking of the blues that fearlessly examines how race relations have altered perceptions of the music. Tracing its origins from the Mississippi Delta to its amplification in Chicago right after World War II, Davis argues for an examination of the blues in its own right, not just as a precursor to jazz and rock 'n' roll. The lives of major figures such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and Leadbelly, in addition to contemporary artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray, are examined and skillfully woven into a riveting, provocative narrative.

Beth Hart – Dingwells - London - 29 November 2011 - Your Heart is as Black as Night

2011-12-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

She is pretty damned good!

I Feel Like Going to Church - Blind Willie Johnson Trouble Soon be Over

2011-12-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

This video is a re-enactment, but I really like it. I hope you enjoy it too, I think it is a great blues song for a Sunday morning.

Blind Willie Johnson Trouble Soon be Over

Gospel Blues @SqueezeMyLemon

Blind Willie Johnson @ Amazon.com

Chris Rea — Money

2011-12-10T04:13:00.000-08:00

Jimi Hendrix Tribute

2011-12-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

This video makes me laugh and also is amazing.

Notes from YouTube:

The opening act of the legendary Michael Winslow's hilarious performance in Michael Winslow Live at the Improv. Known universally as the sound-effects ninja guy from Police Academy, he continued to refine his noises and impersonations long after the movies disappeared from public view. He now returns with his amazing signature Jimi Hendrix impersonation along side other incredible acts later in the show including a Led Zeppelin performance and a host of other sound-effect related gags.

Mother in Law Blues - BB King

2011-12-08T23:12:00.001-08:00

Honest - to all Mothers in Law

Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightning

2011-12-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you just need to listen to the classics - both departed but both treasured.

contrasted with The Who

The Economist Weighs in on Music in Commericials.

2011-12-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

I hear a lot of classic blues music in ads, and it always makes me wonder. If blues music is popular enough to sell cars, food and even toys, why is it not popular enough to make blues musicians more wealthy?

The Economist online approaches the question from a different angle, in their article, Music in Commercials: Looney Tunes. It is a very good read.

THERE was quite a kerfuffle over this year’s Christmas advert for John Lewis, a British department store. It’s a nice, if overly sentimental, minute and a half in which a child impatiently counts down the days until Christmas. At the end we discover that his eagerness was more about wanting give his mum and dad a present than receive his own.

The article ask 'Are we guilty of over-intellectualizing this?'

I think we are over-intellectualizing this, the more I think about it I realize that most of us connect to music on an emotional level for the most part. The words, and the meanings, the style are not really that important. This is especially true for the music used in ads. Blues music has a lot of emotional content and it is this part of the music that marketers are attracted to.

Blues musicians deserve to be able to make money off their music when they are alive. And I don't think there is anything wrong with their music being used in ads, if it is done in a way that does not disrespect the music.

Ella Fitzgerald - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

2011-12-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas Music @ Amazon.com

Beth Hart - Trouble at Rockpalast

2011-12-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

Notes from YouTube: "Beth Hart Live At Rockpalast Crossroads 2011"

Sista Monica Parker —Love Train

2011-12-07T07:30:00.000-08:00

A blast of joy....

Slap My Hand

2011-12-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Ramon Goose — swamp thang

2011-12-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

Blues Art: Muddy Smiles

2011-12-06T01:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a blues art poster that I posted earlier, I like the look on Muddy Waters face in this print.

Muddy Smile 2007 Giclee Print

Jacobs, Reesa

Buy at AllPosters.com

JJ Grey & Mofro — Brighter Days

2011-12-05T22:53:00.000-08:00

American Blues

The album (and DVD) is a high-energy fireball of spectacular music. JJ and company seamlessly glide between sounds, with the crowd obviously feeding off the magnificent energy.

AllaboutJazz

And the depth to which JJ Grey and Mofro believe in the music they make approaches a religious fervor: Brighter Days, the work of a group spectacularly confident of itself, thus becomes a testament to the transformative power of music.

It's the Birthday of Aleck "Rice" Miller aka Sonny Boy Williamson II

2011-12-05T01:00:00.001-08:00

His Best

Today could possibly be the birthday of one of my favorite bluesmen. Aleck "Rice" Miller aka Sonny Boy Williamson II. It is reported that before he died he commented that they broke the mold when he was born. All my reading and research on him indicates that he was truly one of a kind, so I think that was a true statement.

I'll leave it to you to read the Wikipedia article on him, it is well done and has some other cool links that you might enjoy checking out.

To me the most important part of his life was all the music that he made and the musicians that he inspired.

While tall tales, unlikely fables and outright lies make up much of what Sonny Boy Williamson II had to say about his own life, his most important contributions have been documented well through countless recordings on myriad labels. His output of recordings, both issued and unissued, for Lillian McMurray's Trumpet label, can be found on Arhoolie, Alligator, Purple Pyramid, Collectables, plus a handful of other domestic and import imprints, while his years as a resident of the Chess/Checker house appear on various compilations on MCA/Chess. His European recordings reside on Alligator, Analogue Productions, Storyville, and others.

Sonny Boy Williamson II has had an enormous influence on modern day blues and blues rock artists and other legendary artists, as is shown by the number of his songs that are still covered.

Muddy Waters - "Nine Below Zero", "Decoration Day"
Howlin' Wolf - "Cool Disposition", "Decoration Day"
B. B. King - "Eyesight to the Blind"
Mose Allison - "Eyesight to the Blind"
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - "Help Me", "Checkin' Up On My Baby"
Led Zeppelin - "Bring It on Home"
Van Morrison - "Take Your Hands Out of My Pocket", "Help Me" - both on the 1974 live album It's Too Late to Stop Now. Morrison has often sung "Help Me" in live performances throughout his long career.
The Allman Brothers Band - "One Way Out"
New York Dolls - "Don't Start me Talkin'"
Ten Years After - "Help Me"
The Who - "Eyesight to the Blind"
Aerosmith - "Eyesight to the Blind"
The Blues Brothers - "From the Bottom"
Cowboy Junkies - "Decoration Day"
Lester Butler - "I Cross My Heart"
Rory Gallagher - "Don't Start me Talkin"; both on the Defender album and the live bootleg, Meeting With The G-Man.
Nine Below Zero took their band name from his song.
The Downchild Blues Band, also known as "Downchild", took their name from his song, "Mister Downchild".[3]
John Popper of Blues Traveler notes Sonny Boy Williamson as a strong influence on his harmonica playing.
Joe Bonamassa - "Your Funeral and My Trial"
Dr. Feelgood - "Checking Up On My Baby" on their live album, Stupidity

Sonny Boy Williamson: Your Funeral and my trial

Sonny Boy Williamson 1964

Sonny Boy Williamson @Amazon.com
Sonny Boy Williamson @SqueezeMyLemon