Dutch Mason

Tonight I'd like to feature another Canadian bluesman, the late Dutch Mason, Prime Minister of the Blues.



Who do you love?


Here's an excellent little bio of a Canadian treasure

It's the Birthday of Blind Boy Fuller

Blind Boy Fuller a blues guitarist and vocalist was born on this day, July 10 back in 1907 in Wadesboro, North Carolina. He was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists.

Books about Blind Boy Fuller @ Amazon.com

Blind Boy Fuller mp3s @ Amazon.com

On my Mind

I can't believe he died 5 years ago - I did have the privilege of seeing him once and it was as good as you might expect.



1. All I Want To Do – With Angie Stone
2. You Are My Sunshine – With Chris Isaak
3. It All Goes By So Fast – With Mary J. Blige
4. You Were There – With Gladys Knight
5. Imagine – With Ruben Studdard & The Harlem Gospel Singers
6. Compared To That – With Leela James
7. Big Bad Love – With Diana Ross
8. I Will Be There – With Idina Menzel
9. Blame It On The Sun – With George Michael
10. Touch – With John Legend
11. Shout – With Patti Labelle & The Andrae Crouch Singers
12. Surrender To Love – With Laura Pausini
13. Busted (Live) – With Willie Nelson
14. America The Beautiful – With Alicia Keys

Ray's Amazon Store

Morgan Davis

Time to feature another Canadian bluesman Morgan Davis.

Reefer Smokin Man


Davis was actually born in Detroit, but moved up to Toronto Canada in 1968. He's been living in the Maritimes since 2001.

Here's Waffle House Blues

Keeper of the Blues

He works a lot in schools - you can just hear his infectious enthusiasm in the second track that works so well in classrooms.

The first one is exactly what I like - 3 divas belting it out, it would be impossible to sit still.





Tell Me What You Say
I Claim Nothing But the Blues

West Coast Blues

Kenny Sultan is best known as the guitarist in the perenially popular blues duo of Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan. West Coast Blues is Sultan’s first album of solo instrumental blues and spans the gambit from sexy shuffles to toe-tapping rags, with the odd slide number thrown in for variety. Kenny Sultan is a best selling author of guitar blues videos and music books.

New Release - Otis Taylor - Pentatonic Wars Love Songs

I have been meaning to post something about Otis Taylor for a while now. I enjoy his music a great deal and want to introduce him to new fans.

I really like his music because as one reviewer stated;

No one ever accused blues singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist Otis Taylor of overindulging in the brighter and happier aspects of the human condition. His songs are often peopled with characters whose emotional landscape - no matter how raw or dark - is laid bare for all to experience, and the story is often less than pretty.

And his new release gives me such a chance to introduce the raw blues power that he delivers.


click image

Amazon.com's product review states;

Taylor's new recording, Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs, throws a light on the complexities of love in all of its forms. In addition to Taylor's trademark haunting vocals and simple but stirring guitar riffs - a combination often referred to as trance blues - the album also features guest appearances by Irish blues-rock guitarist Gary Moore (previously heard on Taylor's Definition of a Circle in 2007) and jazz/hip-hop pianist Jason Moran.

Within these songs of love are tales of tragedy and loss, misunderstanding and deception - but often a glimmer of hope as well. "That's just my nature," says Taylor. "I may write love songs, but they aren't always going to be happy and pretty. Look at songs like `Teen Angel' or `Ode To Billy Joe.' Those are love songs, but they aren't exactly happy. So why shouldn't my songs be considered love songs?"

"This is a different kind of endeavor for me," he says of the new recording. "I found myself saying, `What can I do after making a banjo album? What will people want to listen to?' My answer was love songs. I'm doing things here that I didn't have the opportunity to do on previous albums, things that people wouldn't normally expect from me, compared to what I've done so far. I think it's one of my best works because it has such unusual elements."

Otis Taylor @Amazon.com

A Bluesman You Probably Don't Know - Hip Linkchain

Tragedy is part and parcel of the blues, of life and everything really. And I have said it many times, you have to live the blues to play the blues, consider one Hip Linkchain.

Cancer took, the guitarist and song writer, Hip Linkchain's life before he got to be big on the blues scene, that is why I say "you probably don't know" him. His best album Airbusters was released before he passed away in 1989. It might have made all the difference, and brought him fame and fortune. But that was not to be.

He was born in Mississippi, like many other bluesmen, named Willie Richard at birth, he got his odd stage name because the white residents of the area called his seven-foot-tall dad, Linkchain. His dad got that name because he wore logging chains around his neck. The son was called "Hipstick" which led to Hip Linkchain. He learned to play the blues from his father and brother. During his time in the Delta he got to hear Elmore James, Little Milton, and Sonny Boy Williamson before he made that migration up to Chicago in the early 1950s.

During the 1950s and 1960s he played with harpists Dusty Brown, Willie Foster, and Lester Davenport, trying to make a name for himself in Chicago. In 1959 he played with Tyrone Davis in a band called the Chicago Twisters. Around 1981 he debuted with his album Change My Blues.

Airbusters




Airbusters was released by Black Magic records in the late 1980's, and for my money is his best album. There were two recording sessions using two different bands, but still it is a very good showing all told. I think this album shows all of Hip Linkchain's talents, his singing, guitar work and his song writing are all on showcase here. The songs are executed with a craft that blues fans will appreciate and because most of the songs are Hip Linkchain originals, you may hear some blues that you never heard before.

Like many bluesmen, Hip Linkchain never got the recognition that his talents would have brought him if he had lived. But I think that we blues fans of today can do much to keep his memory alive.

B3 Blues

Readers of my other blog mister anchovy's will know that I am a fan of the colour instruments. You know what I mean, accordions, concertinas, squeezeboxes, harmonicas, and let's not forget organs. I love the sound of the Hammond B3 heard through it's sweet sister the Leslie.

Here's Root Doctor performing Hip Hug Her.


Here's , a fabulous player!


The Hammond Organ was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 as a church organ replacement for pipe organs. This electric organ features mechanical devices known as tonewheels that rotate in front of pickups. These are adjusted by drawbars, so sometimes the B3 is called a drawbar organ. Although the B3 comes with speakers, most players hook the instrument up to speakers known as Leslies. The Leslie is a combo speaker-amp that features a rotating horn that creates the characteristic sound we know and love. You can look up all the technical stuff if you're interested. For me it's all about the sound.

Here is the late great Jimmy Smith playing his signature piece, The Sermon. Smith, who played by ear, learned horn lines on his B3. He took the B3 to new heights.


Of course the Hammond Organ was prominent in a rock context too. Everybody knows Booker T and the MGs Green Onions.

The "Memphis Group" personified the STAX sound. Even today, it's totally infectious. Booker T played a smaller organ, the Hammond M3 without a Leslie.

Lonesome Sundown

My Home is a Prison


I love the video of the 45 rpm vinyl. We had some people over to the house the other day whose teen-aged kids had never seen a record play. Man, I feel old.