mp3s by Memphis Minnie

Click here for Memphis Minnie @ Amazon.com

Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie - "When the Levee Breaks" mp3

"Where is My Good Man At" mp3

Trail of The HellHound Bio for Memphis Minnie

Listen to a sample of "Bumble Bee Blues" (1.78MB wav)

Listen to a sample of "Soo Cow Soo" (2.01MB wav)

Guys like a girl who can play a guitar, and by all accounts Memphis Minnie could play it as well if not better then many of the men on the blues scene of her day. Take a listen to her music and read up on her history to get a picture of this blues great who played an important roll in shaping the music that we listen today.

Just the fact that she wrote and played "When The Levee Breaks", a 1929 Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe song, was later covered by Led Zeppelin and released in 1971 on Zeppelin's fourth album, is enough for those of us who love music to sing her praises.

You can read about her here;

The forgotten queen - Was Memphis Minnie the mother of electric blues guitarists? by JoBeth Briton @ The Worcester Phoenix.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Minnie


Click here for Memphis Minnie @ Amazon.com

file under;
Memphis
blues
music
mp3

mp3s by Sonny Boy Williamson

Click for Sonny Boy Williamson
(John Lee Williamson) @ Amazon
One of my all time favorite pre-war blues men is Sonny Boy Williams. It is kind of funny how I discovered him. I went to a music store to buy a CD by Sonny Boy Williams II (Rice Miller) and bought a CD by the original Sonny Boy and this was my introduction his pre war blues harmonica style. I fell in love with the raw emotions of his playing, and the mastery that he exhibts.

The irony of finding Sonny Boy while looking for Rice Miller takes some of the sting off the fact that Miller stole the name from Sonny Boy. And I have wondered how many other Sonny Boy Williams fans found him that way. The theft of Sonny Boy's name caused music historiains some confusion for a while there. But research has proven the original Sonny Boy Williams was in fact John Lee Williamson. In 1914 he was born near Jackson Tennessee which he even mentions in a couple of his songs. Some have called him the "father of the modern blues harmonica," and I agree with this assesment.

In 1948, Sonny Boy was tragically killed after a mugging.

Reference;

Sonny Boy Williamson @ Answer.com

MP3s (hosted @ rapidshare);

Sonny Boy Williamson - Dealing with the Devil

Sonny Boy Williamson - Check Up On My Baby Blues

file under;
harmonica
blues
music
mp3

mp3s by Mississippi John Hurt

Stack O'Lee Blues

Frankie

Louis Collins

Nodbody's Dirty Business

"Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age 10. He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farm hand into the 1920s. In 1923 he often partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour (Carroll County Blues) as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith. When Narmour got a chance to record for OKeh Records in reward for winning first place in a 1928 fiddle contest, Narmour recommended John Hurt to OKeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell. After auditioning "Monday Morning Blues" at his home, he took part in two recording sessions, in Memphis and New York City (See Discography @ www.answers.com). The "Mississippi" tag was added by OKeh as a sales gimmick. After the commercial failure of the resulting disc and OKeh records going out of business during the depression, Hurt returned to Avalon and obscurity working as a sharecropper and playing local parties and dances."

"Mississippi John Hurt." @ Answers.com.



file under;

blues
music
Hurt
mp3

Bukka White

"The Panama Limited" mp3 by Buka White.

"Shake em On Down" mp3 by Buka White.

Bukka White

Not even Keith Richards could play an open G tuning like Bukka White. Not only did he slide up and down the neck with the grace, finesse, and dexterity of a clock maker, but he also infused a rhythmic style to his playing that has yet to be duplicated. White's career had two lives. From the 1930s to '40s, he played Delta Blues with open wounds bleeding from his songs. His eerie narratives of hard living crept into his warble-mouthed musings, as his hands pulled otherworldly tones and slap-knock rhythms from an old National steel guitar. When the blues revival hit hard in the '60s, White's music resurfaced after a ten-year hiatus -- this time more song-driven and accessible to younger crowds. He became well-known as a driving live performer, creating myths of dance floors being broken by his hypnotized audiences worked up into berserk dancing frenzies.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



file under;

blues
mp3s
mp3
music
download

mp3s by Lonnie Johnson

Born Alfonzo Johnson on February 8, 1894, Lonnie Johnson was one of the inventors of the blues and early jazz. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in a family of musicians. He played the blues on piano, violin, banjo and guitar. He is most well know for his guitar work.

He died in 1970 of complications from a car wreck that he was in a year earlier. In 1997 he was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.

mp3s

"Mr. Johnson's Blues" - (2:43, 464 kB) - 9435-A-OK 8253, St. Louis, Mo., 4 November 1925

"Lonesome Jail Blues" - (3:08, 540 kB) - 73939-B-OK 8309, New York City, 19 January 1926

"Sam, You're Just a Rat" - (3:15, 558 kB) - 405141-A, 9 February 1932

"The Loveless Blues" - (3:11, 556 kB) - BS 044051, 2 November 1939

"Tomorrow Night" - (3:02, 524 kB) - Cincinnati, 10 December 1947

references

Wikipedia Article on Lonnie Johnson

Answers.com Article on Lonnie Johnson

Web page on Lonnie Johnson @ RedHotJazz.com - Includes a great man Real Player music files.

Blues Lyrics by Lonnie Johnson @ Blues Lyrics On Line

file under;
blues, mp3, music

mp3s by Sleepy John Estes

Born January 25, 1904, in Ripley, Tennessee, Sleepy John Estes life in my mind really embodies the blues. And he was truly a blues poet who wrote and lived the blues.

He was one of a sharecropping family of ten. His father Daniel was a guitarist, and this influenced his son to play. Young Estes was blinded in his right eye from a baseball accident at the age of six, and he later in life lost vision in his other eye and was completly blind. He was called "Sleepy" due to a chronic blood pressure disorder that caused him to have marcolepsy episodes, where he would fall asleep at the most unexpected times.

He made his living playing in jug bands during the teens and twenties. Playing house parties, picnics, and the streets in the Brownsville area from 1919 to 1927. He did some recordings during this time, you can check out some of his stuff at Sleepy John Estes' Amazon.com.

Sleepy Estes was rediscovered in 1962 during the blues revival that revived the careers of Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, and Skip James. He cut several albums for Delmark and returned to touring with Hammie Nixon before health problems confined him to Brownsville.

Sleepy John Estes died June 5, 1977, and is buried at Durhamville Baptist Church in Durhamville, Tennessee.

References;


Sleepy John Estes page at the National Parks Service "Links to the Past" site

John Adam Estes @ Answers.com

mp3s;

"The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair" (2:59, 522kB) - 55581-1-Vi V38549, Memphis TN, 24 September, 1929

"Milk Cow Blues" (3:05, 540 kB) - 59918-2-Vi V38614, Memphis TN, 13 May, 1930

"Someday Baby Blues" (3:02, 531 kB) - 90096-A-Ch 50068, Chicago, 9 July, 1935

cds;



file under;
blues
mp3
music

Blues legend B.B. King keeps busy as he reaches 80th birthday

They came to see B.B. King. But before the night was over, the hundreds who lined up at a bookstore in Washington D.C. could be forgiven for thinking the blues legend had really come to see them.

Click below to read the full article on SignOnSanDiego.com

Blues legend B.B. King keeps busy as he reaches 80th birthday from the ASSOCIATED PRESS.

file under;
blues
music
BBKing

mp3s by Clarence "Gate Mouth" Brown, RIP Mr. Brown

RIP Mr. Brown

Grammy-award winning guitarist and singer Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown has died in Texas at the age of 81.

The musician, who recorded with Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder and Frank Zappa during a career that spanned 50 years, died surrounded by his family at his brother's home in Orange, Texas.

Please check out his web site @ Gatemouth.com for more information about this great bluesman who is a national treasure.

Texan Blues star Brown dies at 81 @ the BBC.

mp3s are in red;

"Okie Dokie Stomp"

"One More Mile"

"Information Blues"

"Real Life"

Click below to buy music by Clarence "Gate Mouth" Brown



file under;
blues
mp3
music
Clarence Brown

mp3s by Big Bill Broonzy

mp3s

Big Bill Broonzy mp3; Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down

"Down in the Basement Blues" (3:27, 606 kB) - 20922-1, c. Oct, 1928

"Pig Meat Strut" (2:47, 490 kB) - 16579, 2 May, 1930

"Big Bill Blues" (2:55, 513 kB) - 18385, 9 February, 1932

"How Do You Want It Done?" (2:49, 495 kB) - 11611-2, 29 March, 1932

"Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down" (2:37, 461 kB) - 96232-1, 31 October, 1935


Chicago Blues artist Big Bill Broonzy, died in 1958, unfortunately missing the 1960s blues renaissance, which surely would have proved very lucrative. Broonzy was one of a wave of artists who migrated to Chicago from the deep South in the '20s and bridged the gap between Country and Urban Blues. His warm vocal style could soar and shout, or be smooth and controlled. Broonzy was a well rounded guitar player equally adept at propulsive Country Blues and swinging single note lines for small jazz combos. He recorded prolifically, hundreds of sides -- as a sideman and as a solo artist. Ironically, as time went on, Broonzy played a less sophisticated, more rural style of blues, which reflected the tastes of white, folk music fans. He was one of the first blues artists to tour Europe and consequently had an enormous influence on the first wave of English Bluesmen like Alexis Korner -- and by proxy, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones.



File under;
blues
mp3
Big Bill Broonzy

mp3s by Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

Two early bluesmen that were very influential but are not that well known today are Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell. There are several reasons that these two musicians, who helped create the blues, are not that well known today. They were from Indianapolis, IL which is not usually thought of as one of the homes of the blues, if they had been from say Chicago, or St. Louis they may have been better known. They were both laid back bluesmen and did not really standout like many of the bluesmen that followed them and who were inspired by them. And probably the biggest reason that these guys are not better known is that they did not survive to be seen by the folk audiences of the sixties. Blackwell was alive in the early sixties and almost made a comeback, but it was not to be.

reference

Article on Leroy Carr (1905 - 1935)

Article on Scrapper Blackwell (1903 - 1963)

mp3

"Kokomo Blues" (3:03, 538 kB) - Vocalion IND-624, 16 June, 1928, Indianapolis, IL

"How Long, How Long Blues" (3:02, 533 kB) - Vocalion IND-623, 19 June, 1928, Indianapolis, IL

"Sloppy Drunk" (3:00, 527 kB) - Vocalion C-6806-B, 9 September, 1930, Chicago

"When the Sun Goes Down" (2:58, 522 kB) - Bluebird 85496-1, 25 February, 1935, Chicago

"Six Cold Feet in the Ground" (3:03, 538 kB) - Bluebird 85516-1, 25 February, 1935, Chicago

File under;
blues
mp3
music
Indianapolis

mp3s from Charley Patton

Charley Patton is considered by most blues authorities to be one of the earliest and best known blues singers and guitar players. He was born on May 1, 1891, in Hinds County near Edwards or Bolton, Mississippi. His parents were Bill and Annie Patton, who were sharecroppers in Mississippi. When Patton was nine years old, his family moved to Dockery's plantation. It was at this time that Patton developed a love for music. He took up the guitar in his early teenage years.

He, like many poor black Mississippi bluesmen found he could be free while singing this music. One of my favorite statements about Charley Patton comes from Robert Palmer's "Deep Blues : A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta";

Charley Patton saw a world of changes during the fifty-odd years of his life, but the system was in effect in the upper Delta before he was born, and it outlasted him by several decades. He adapted to it well enough despite his lingering rage, which he tended to take out on his women, sometimes by beating them with a handy guitar. He suffered his dark moods and his occasional repentance and conversions, but he also had fun, or something like it. He rarely worked for whites except to furnish a night's entertainment, and he was never tied to a menial job or a plot of land for very long. He went where he pleased, stayed as long as he pleased, stayed as intoxicated as he pleased, left when he wanted to, and had his pick of the women wherever he went. And he created an enduring body of American music, for he personally inspired just about every Delta bluesman of consequence, and some blueswomen as well. Along with Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, and a few others who created not just styles but dynasties, he is among the most important musicians twentieth century America has produced. Yet we know very little about his formative years, and practically nothing about how he learned his art.

references;

Charley Patton @ The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project of Starkville High School

Charley Patton @ Trail of the Hellhound

At this link you will find two sample wav files.

mp3s;

"Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues" (3:06, 531 kB) - Paramount 12805, Richmond Ind., 14 June, 1929

"Mean Black Cat Blues" (2:57, 508 kB) - Paramount 12943, Grafton Wis., late November/early December, 1929

"High Water Everywhere, Part 1" (3:08, 536 kB) - Paramount 12909, Grafton Wis., December, 1929

"Bird Nest Bound" (3:12, 535 kB) - Paramount 13070, Grafton Wis., 28 May, 1930

"Poor Me" (2:58, 514 kB) - Vocalion 02651, New York, 1 February, 1934



File under;
blues
mp3
music
Mississippi

mp3s by Blind Willie McTell

Willie McTell was a masterful twelve-string guitarist and singer. He recorded from 1927 to 1955. His most famous song, "Statesboro Blues" has been covered by many artists including Taj Mahal, The Allman Brothers Band, and Bob Dylan. Dylan wrote and recorded a tribute to him.

He was blind from birth, and was an adept Braille reader. He learned to play six string guitar as a child and was a very skilled musician. I love his smoth voice, his quick delivery and his excellent guitar playing.

mp3s

"Mama 'Tain't Long for Day" (2:57, 517kB) - 40310-1, 18 Oct, 1927

"Statesboro Blues" (2:30, 439kB) - 47187-3, 17 Oct, 1928

"Broke Down Engine Blues" (3:08, 551kB) - 15905-1, 23 Oct, 1931

References

Blind Willie McTell (1898-1959) @ The New Georgia Encyclopedia

Blind Willie McTell @ Answers.com

Blind Willie McTell Festival

File under;
blues
mp3
music
Georgia

Blogging Hurricane Katrina

If you read any of my blogs you may know that my home town is Shreveport Louisiana. And I can not tell you how sad I am as I hear more and more bad news from my home state and the Gulf Coast as a whole.

The information flow is spotty and slow. Major News organizations are having a hard time getting out the news from this rural area of the country. The New Orleans Times-Picayune did not have a print edition for three days, they and other papers and TV stations are operating on the web.

A reader of one of my other blogs from anoter country said, "Thanks for the links - the info I get here is very general." So I thought a country boy like me might be able to help to gather some helpful links to inform and help the people of the area.

PHOTOS

Before and after pics of the flood from flickr.

flickr photos for the neworleans tag.

flickr photos for the katrina tag.

NEWS

The Times-Picayune

WDSU Blog

WWLTV News


COMMUNITY BOARDS @ FORUMS

New Orleans Craigslist Community Board

Times-Picayune Missing Persons Forum

Red Cross-Salvation Army

CNN Reported Safe List

Full Circle Katrina flood Victims and familys board

Katrina: Family-Friends Forum

Vieux Carre (French Quarter) Life Forum

BLOGS

Polimom Says

New Orleans Metro Blogs

Looka at Gumbo Pages

Ernie the Attorney

MAKE A DONATION

Red Cross.org

FEMA: Where to Donate

Net Work For Good



File under;

storm
gulf coast
hurricane
Katrina

Venerable Bluesman R.L. Burnside Dies

He is probably in heaven sitting down.

I hope Mr. Burnside has a peaceful journey to the other side and may God bless his soul. One of his albums was named, "Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down" and I hope that he is. My condolences go out to his widow Alice Mae, and his kids and grandkids. RIP R.L.

Blues Veteran R.L. Burnside Dies from Billboard.com.

R.L. Burnside Dead at 78 by Paul Cashmere from Undercover.com.

R.L. Burnside @ Answers.com

Donewaiting.com

Write up on R.L. @ Fat Possum Records


mp3s by R.L. Burnside from Fat Possum.com

"Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down"

"See What My Buddy Done"

"Shake 'Em on Down"

"Goin' Down South (featuring Lyrics Born)"

mp3s by R.L. Burnside from Amazon.com

"Bad Luck City"

"Hard Time Killing Floor"

"Walkin' Blues"

"Goin' Down South"




File under;
blues
RL Burnside
mp3
music

mp3s by Bessie Smith

Mrs. Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tenn. in 1894 she learned her craft working with the venerable Gertrude (Ma) Rainey. She was one of the earliest blues singers. She honed her considerable singing abilities working in traveling shows. She started her recording career in New York City, where she recorded more than 160 songs between 1323 and 1933. She worked with and recorded with jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins. She was even appeared in the 1929 movie St. Louis Blues.

She was called the “Empress of the Blues” because of her wonderful and powerful singing voice.

Like so many blues singers, the blues finally caught up with her. She died in a car accident while on tour in Mississippi in 1937.

"Down Hearted Blues" (3:24, 597kB) - Columbia 80863-5, New York City, 16 February 1923

"The St. Louis Blues" (3:10, 550kB) - Columbia 14064-D, New York City, 14 January 1925

"Cold in Hand Blues" (3:11, 558kB) - Columbia 14064-D, New York City, 14 January 1925

"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (2:57, 511kB) - Columbia 14451-D, New York City, 15 May 1929

"I'm Down in the Dumps" (3:10, 548kB) - Okeh 8495, New York City, 24 November, 1933


File under;
blues
Bessie Smith

Aug 22 John Lee Hooker, blues singer and guitarist was born.

On this day back in 1917 John Lee Hooker, blues singer and guitarist was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He was the son of cotton-sharcroppers. He told of learning to play the blues from his stepfather and other blues men that he met in the Mississippi Delta. He is reported to have consturcted his first instrument from strings made of rubber inner tube nailed to a barn. He left home and the tender age of 14, and started singing in a gospel group. In 1943 he moved to Detroit and in 1948 he made his first recording, the rythm-and-blues hit "Boogie Chillun".

His discogrphy is a long and varied one. He recorded more than 100 albums accompanying himself on electric guitar. His music is a mix of slow blues tunes and fast boogies, which he played as he toured thgoughout the United States. After Hooker was rediscovered by the white blues-rockers of the 1960's he recorded with several rock musicians and influenced many young singers and electric guitar players.

Hooker's later popular albums include;

16-song Rhino CD The Very Best Of John Lee Hooker (April 25, 1995),
Chill Out (February 21, 1995),
and Live At The Cafe Au Go-Go (And Soledad Prison) [LIVE] (1996).

He won three Grammy awards and was inducted (1991) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Mr. Hooker passed away on Thursday, June 21st 2001.

"Mr. Lucky Windows Media Player File"

John Lee Hooker
Buy posters at AllPosters.com

The Blues Brothers 25 Years Later.

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.

Juke Joints In Clarksdale Miss. have the blues.

Bill "Howl-N Madd" Perry performs at the Ground Zero Blues Club in June in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Here is an interesting article about the juke joints down in the delta and I think it is a good take on what is going on down there. If you ever get a chance to go down there you can see where many of the blues founders were born and raised, lived played the music and died.

Juke joints have got the blues

Clarksdale, Miss., shops and residents live and breathe by the blues

BY JOHN BORDSEN for KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

Blues Legend "Little" Milton Campbell Dies

"Little" Milton Campbell's publicist, Carrie Newton, confirmed that the 70-year-old Mississippi musician died around 8:50 a.m. Thursday at a hospital in Memphis, Tenn. No other details were released.

Little Milton suffered a stroke on July 27 and slipped into a coma.

May God bless his soul and I hope he has a peaceful journey. Campbell is survived by his wife, Patricia, and several children.

You can read about it here at the WTOK.com website.

Master bluesman as pitchman; From Marketplace

Master bluesman as pitchman; From Marketplace

Listen to this story Uses RealPlayer.

New health ads on TV for medical devices, like new hips or knees, are tapping celebrities for their marketing push. Helen Palmer reports from the Health Desk at WGBH. In this ad you will hear the master blues man B.B. King do a spot for diabetes. (photo © Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Traveling the Blues Highway Article

Photograph by William Albert Allard

Traveling the Blues Highway Text by Charles E. Cobb, Jr. from the NationalGeographic.com is an interesting article. It is accompanied by some awesome photos that can be seen here; Blues Highway photos.

Purpose of Blog

The purpose of the "Squeeze My Lemon blog" is to be a blues music resource. It will be a collection of links to other blues music resources, including books, blogs, articles and other media.

The main focus of the blog will be a place for blues music fans to download legal mp3 files. Squeeze My Lemon is a blog that will review other blues mp3 blogs as well as provides links to free and legal online mp3s.

Discussions of digital music and the hardware needed to play digital music will also be covered. Tips, and "how to" information will be provided to help the modern music enthusiast make informed choices.

It will also be a platform for affiliate links. Links to digital music providers as well as hardware and other music equipment will a part of this blog.