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.



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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

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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;



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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.

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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



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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.



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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

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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



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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

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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



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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"




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RL Burnside
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