Eli's Blues

Traveling Blues - My New Blues Radio Show!!!

2011-07-29T11:14:00.001+03:00

Hey people, I've got a brand new Blues radio show called "Traveling Blues"!!!

It airs on Monday nights at 10:00 PM (Jerusalem time, 7:00 PM GMT, 3:00 PM EDT), and you can listen to it live on radio (106.2FM in central Israel) or the internet from the IDC Radio site.
The show is also archived as an MP3 file/podcast that can be downloaded directly from the iCast site or streamed in the online popup player - just click the earphone icon.

At the moment, the show is mostly presented in Hebrew
(shows no. 2 and no.5 are in English, and from show no.14 we will present in English),
but you will certainly be able to make out the artist names and phrases that we discuss on the show, and we have a live artist in the studio on many of our shows. Sooooooo, please tune in and turn on the Blues, and tell all your friends and Blues mavens out there too!!!

Charles Sawyer interviewed on IDC radio

2011-07-16T17:16:00.004+03:00

In my recent "Traveling Blues" radio show on IDC radio,
I interviewed the man who wrote the first biography of BB King, Charles Sawyer,
a Blues harmonica player in his own right,
as well as a Blues historian, and photographer, who teaches an extension course at Harvard University on the Blues.

You can listen to and/or download the show at:
http://pod.icast.co.il/7841cb91-d266-4026-9cb4-30913a5bb835.icast.mp3
or at
http://www.icast.co.il/PlayerWin.aspx?file=http%3A%2F%2Fpod.icast.co.il%2F7841cb91-d266-4026-9cb4-30913a5bb835.icast.mp3&IndexID=396590&name=iCast

Charlie Musslewhite - radio playlist from June 9th, 2011

2011-06-13T10:00:00.003+03:00

Radio 90FM, Israel,
Thursday night, June 9th, 2011 24:00 - 02:00
Eli Dr. Blues Marcus as a guest on "Deja Vu" with host Benny Tavory.
This show was a tribute to Charlie Musselwhite, on the eve of his upcoming first show in Israel,
presenting the history and biography of Charlie Musselwhite.

------Artist----------**------------Song----------**-----------Album---------**-----------Label

01. Charlie Musselwhite, Finger Lickin' Good, from "Memphis Charlie", Arhoolie records
02. Charlie Musselwhite, WHere Highway 61 Runs, from "The Well", Alligator records
03. Charlie Musselwhite, Miss Bessie, from live recording, Cambridge, 1988
04. Big Joe Williams, Skin and Bone Blues, from "Watergate Blues", Ornament/CMA Music Production
05. Big Walter Horton, Back Home To Mama, from "Harmonica Blues Kings", Delmark records
06. Little Walter, Juke, from "Blues With a Feeling", Blues Encore
07. Junior Wells, Ships on the Ocean, from "Hoodoo Man Blues", Delmark records
08. Butterfield Blues Band/Paul Butterfield, Lovin' Cup, from "The Original Lost Electra Sessions", Elektra/Rhino
09. Charlie Musselwhite, Baby Will You Please Help Me, from "Stand Back!", Vanguard records
10. Junior Wells, Little By Little, from "Live at Theresa's, 1975", Delmark records
11. Charlie Musselwhite, Little By Little, from "Tenessee Woman", Vanguard records
12. John Lee Hooker, One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer, from "Live at Cafe A Go Go", ABC-Bluesway
13. Charlie Musselwhite, Wild Wild Woman, from "Memphis Charlie", Arhoolie records
14. Charlie Musselwhite, Cut You Loose, from "Memphis Charlie", Arhoolie records
15. Bonnie Raitt (duet with Musselwhite), Shadow of Doubt, from "Longing in Their Hearts", Capitol records
16. Cyndi Lauper (with Musselwhite), I'm Just Your Fool, from "Memphis Blues", Downtown records
17. Cyndi Lauper (with Musselwhite), Dwon Don't Bother Me, from "Memphis Blues", Downtown Records
18. Charlie Musselwhite, Dig the Pain, from "the Well", Alligator records
19. CG and the Hammer, Same Old Fool, from "Blues Heaven", independent (Israel)
20. Charlie Musselwhite, It Ain't Right, from Memphis Charlie", Arhoolie records
21. Charlie Musselwhite, Hoodoo Queen, from "the Well", Alligator records
22. Charlie Musselwhite, Help Me, from "Stand Back!", Vanguard records

Remembering Gil Scott Heron

2011-06-01T00:04:00.004+03:00

I never got to see or hear Gil Scott Heron live, and when it was announced last year around this time that he was coming to perform in Israel, I thought I would finally get a chance, and maybe even to say hello, shake his hand, and tell him how much joy his words and music gave me over the years. Unfortunately, someone got to him before the date, and persuaded him to cancel his trip to Israel...

I believe that it was near the end of the 1970's that I picked up the album "Bridges", and fell in love with the infectious funky Jazzy sounds of Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson. That is probably his happiest, funkiest, most upbeat album of all the collection. Just check out a few of the tunes on these YouTube links:

Hello Sunday, Hello Road

Under the Hammer

Racetrack in France

Little by little, I also found some of his more political albums with more of his "rap" - he definitely had a way with words, and a strong sense of humor too. Gil Scott Heron was a poet, a stand-up comedian, political/social commentator, and a fine musician with deep Blues and Jazz roots.

Gil Scott Heron was a deadly serious man with a message, but he didn't hit you over the head with it - he preferred to present his views as a conversation with the audience, filled with positive ideas and lots of humor. When you heard him speak, everything he said made sense, he had some very astute observations, and most of the time, he could see right through the layers of lies that we build in our culture to try and protect or legitimize our way of life.

I really felt sad to hear that in recent years he had messed up his life with heavy drug use, got into trouble with the law, did jail time, and eventually, also destroyed his health - to the point where he just didn't make it, and passed away last week at age 62.

Rest in peace brother Gil.

Yesterday's Blues Phrase: Wild Women Don't Have the Blues

2011-05-31T11:31:00.004+03:00

Wild Women Don't Have The Blues

movie clip

by Ida Cox
recorded July 1924

"I hear these women raving 'bout their monkey men
About their trifling1 husbands and their no good friends
These poor women sit around all day and moan
Wondering why their wandering papa's don't come home
But wild women don't worry, wild women don't have no blues

Now when you've got a man, don't never be on the square
'Cause if you do he'll have a woman everywhere
I never was known to treat no one man right
I keep 'em working hard both day and night
'Cause wild women don't worry, wild women don't have their blues

I've got a disposition and a way of my own
When my man starts kicking I let him find another home
I get full of good liquor, walk the streets all night
Go home and put my man out if he don't act right
Wild women don't worry, wild women don't have their blues

You never get nothing by being an angel child
You better change your ways and get real wild
I wanna tell you something, I wouldn't tell you a lie
Wild women are the only kind that really get by
'Cause wild women don't worry, wild women don't have their blues"

Today's Blues phrase: I'll be your mule

2011-05-31T11:20:00.005+03:00

I'll be your mule

"A mule is a creature that can carry any load
up the highest mountain or 'long the roughest road
but you better feed him right and treat him like a friend
'cause once he turns his back on you ,
he will never look at you again"

"I'll be your mule, I'll be your mule, I'll be your mule
I'll be your mule, I'll be your mule
I'll be your mule, but I will refuse to be your fool"

Steve Freund,
from the album "I'll be Your Mule" (Delmark 752)

R.I.P. Willie Pinetop Perkins 1913-2011

2011-03-22T11:54:00.003+02:00

I met Pinetop in 2006 on the Blues Cruise.

He was a very sweet man, and when he got on stage, it was as if he was 40 years old again, the voice, the piano playing, were all there as if he was in his prime.

Just 2 months ago he won a Grammy for his latest album with Willie Big Eyes Smith - "Joined at the Hip: Pinetop Perkins & Willie 'Big Eyes' Smith."

Here is one of the newspaper notices of his passing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8397186/Legendary-blues-musician-Pinetop-Perkins-dies-age-97.html

R.I.P. Big Jack Johnson - 1940-2011

2011-03-21T15:54:00.004+02:00

Sad news from Bob Corritore (March 14, 2011) :

Big Jack Johnson passed away this morning at 6am in his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi after a long battle with heath issues. He was 70 years old.

Big Jack's inventive, energetic, Delta-rooted guitar, rich confident vocals, down home songwriting, and larger than life stage presence made him one of the most celebrated bluesmen of Mississippi. His long music career included much national and international touring, many amazing record releases, and a huge amount of praise and respect.

Big Jack was born in Lambert, Mississippi in the summer of 1940, and learned guitar from his father at age 13. He rose to prominence in the early 1960s working as a key member of the legendary Jelly Roll Kings, a champion blues band which also included Frank Frost and Sam Carr. Big Jack first appeared on record in the 1960s as the guitarist on two famous Frank Frost albums; Hey Boss Man on the Phillips International label (an offshoot of Sun Records) from 1962, and My Back Scratcher on Jewel from 1966.

In the late 1970s, Michael Frank debuted his Earwig Music label with The Jelly Roll Kings / Rockin' The Juke Joint Down which also was a recording debut for Big Jack's great vocals. Soon afterward, Big Jack Johnson would start a solo career for himself, independent of the Jelly Roll Kings. His solo debut album, Oil Man (Big Jack used to hold down a day gig delivering oil barrels in Mississippi) on the Earwig label was released in 1987. This led to additional CDs for Earwig, a nice run with M.C. Records, and additional recordings for Rooster Blues, P-Vine Records, Right Coast Recording, and Big Jack Music. There was also a nice Jelly Roll Kings reunion album called Off Yonder Wall that came out in 1997 on the Fat Possum Records. Additionally, Big Jack appeared in the influential 1992 documentary movie Deep Blues. He was a popular festival and club entertainer, a warm and hospitable person, and an amazing musician.

Big Jack Johnson was the last original member of the Jelly Roll Kings. His passing leaves a gap in the blues that will never again be filled. To see his amazing performance of "Catfish Blues" from the movie Deep Blues, click here. Thanks for all the great music Big Jack. You are loved!"

******************************

I remember Big Jack visiting Israel and playing in a small club in Tel Aviv.

The host guitarist who invited him to Israel (and shall remain nameless) was trying his usual tricks of one-up-manship and trying to intimidate his guest, as he often does with various people he invites on stage.

Jack Johnson didn't even flinch, stood his ground, played and sang his solid Blues, and managed to push this rude host guitarist into the opposite corner of the stage with his no-bones Mississippi roots attitude. I think that this was the first time I saw anyone really stand up to this guy, and Jack Johnson gave a great show that night!

R.I.P. Robin Rogers 1957 to 2010

2010-12-29T14:57:00.005+02:00

This news comes just 2 days after Robin was nominated for Contemporary Blues Female Artist for the 2011 Blues Music Awards. This week her latest CD reached # 4 on the Blues Roots Music Charts.

From Bob Corritore's newletter:

"Singer / harmonica player Robin Rogers has died today in her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. She had been struggling with terminal liver cancer for a month now. Robin was well loved within the blues community and had some highly successful CDs which frequently ended up with nominations, and she was honored with a Blues Blast Music Award in 2009, for "Best Female Artist".

Her humble and sincere personality, coupled with her unmistakable talent, made us all take her in as an adopted little sister. She had lead a very hard life, complete with homelessness, and drug and alcohol abuse, but she had turned her life around, and found a positive outlet in blues music. She had been sober for 21 years and happily wed to her husband, and musical partner Tony Rogers who was by her side until the end.

Many benefits sprouted around the country and her latest record Back In The Fire, on the Blind Pig label, was met with great success, and has recently been nominated for a Blues Music Award. Please spend a few minutes to hear the NPR interview with Robin, from a few weeks ago. . Thank you Robin, for your great music, and your strong heart. To read more about Robin Rogers, please visit www.robinrogers.com"

R.I.P. James Peterson 1937-2010

2010-12-14T11:01:00.005+02:00

I first discovered James Peterson's solid Blues on a CD from the early 90's. Only later did I discover that he was also the father of the high energy singer (and multi instrumentalist) Bluesman Lucky Peterson.

Well, James Peterson passed away this week, on Dec. 12, 2010.

He was active in recent years in the Tampa Bay Florida Blues scene.

Rest in peace James.

See and hear James Peterson - live performance video.

Open Letter to Gil Scott Heron

2010-04-29T07:29:00.003+03:00

Hello Gil,
I was so elated when I first heard that you were coming to perform here in Tel Aviv, both my wife and I were really looking forward to seeing and hearing you in person.
I have been a big fan since the 1970's when I happened upon your album Bridges (Hello Sunday, Hello Rose), and I have tried to follow your career through the years, as well as introduce my friends to your music. I also do the occasional radio show and I have broadcast your music many times, as well as introduced other radio people here in Israel to your albums.

Today, I am very disappointed in you. The newspapers are announcing that you have canceled your Israel show at the urging of a few individuals and based on hearsay and political propaganda.
I really thought you were more intelligent and sensitive than to swallow lies from propaganda machines. In the past, I think that you had the keen observation tools to see through the establishment "bull", and to form your own very unique opinions - that is at least the Gil Scott Heron that I thought I knew...

Regardless of your scheduled performance here, I invite you to come to Israel, walk around Jerusalem with me, walk around a few other towns, meet some local artists, feel the pulse of the people here, see for yourself!!!

A couple of things to ponder -
would a country or a people that has such a "bad rap" politically in the world today be able to produce a democracy where Arab citizens of Israel sit in its parliament and openly criticize the government on a regular basis?
Would an "ogre" or a "pariah" people have such great artist and musicians, especially in the international Jazz world which requires sensitivity and creativity at the highest level?

Please do not take the word of those who only seem to have hatred, death and destruction on their agenda, and completely deny our right to exist peacefully, come here and make up your own mind!!!

And maybe you can help to bridge the gaps and change attitudes with the magic of music!!!

Sincerely,
Eli ("Dr. Blues") Marcus

Lazer Lloyd Blues Band - new Blues in the Holy Land

2010-03-26T07:52:00.008+03:00

This is a repost and update - the Lazer Lloyd Blues Band is recording a new album,
and I hope to have more news soon of special appearances and touring by this amazing dynamic power Blues/Rock trio.

Lazer Lloyd is an American guitarist and phenomenal Blues/Rock artist who lives in the Holy Land of Israel.
He is known worldwide for his power Rock Blues trio Yood.

Lazer has recently renewed his Blues power trio -
the Lazer Lloyd Blues Band,
and he's opening on March 27, 2010 for the Snowy White Blues Project,
which is performing in Tel Aviv, Israel for the first time.

Listen to recent recordings by Lazer on his MySpace page,
and check out live video at Lazer Lloyd's YouTube Channel

enjoy...

R.I.P. Marva Wright - NOLA Gospel and Blues singer

2010-03-24T07:17:00.003+02:00

Gospel, blues artist Marva Wright dead at 62

(AP) – 7 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans blues and gospel singer Marva Wright died Tuesday at age 62, her former manager said.

Adam Shipley confirmed that Wright died of complications from a stroke she suffered last year.

She sang traditional jazz and gospel standards but was better known for sultry, sometimes bawdy blues songs. Among her best known songs were "Heartbreakin' Woman" and "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean."

She released a series of albums on local and international record labels, and frequently performed in Europe and at blues festivals around the country. With her band, the BMWs, she drew large crowds for performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

As a child, Wright listened to her mother sing and play piano at church. Among her childhood memories were visits to Chicago, the adopted home of New Orleans gospel great Mahalia Jackson, who had grown up with Wright's mother.

"My mother would go to the national Baptist convention," Ms. Wright once said, according to an account in The Times-Picayune newspaper. "When it convened in Chicago, Mahalia would say, 'Girl, you don't need to get no hotel. Stay with me.' That's what my mother would do. I met Mahalia when I was 9 years old, but I never realized she was that popular until I got older."

But Wright didn't start singing professionally until she was almost 40, according to a biography on her Web site.

Wright was hospitalized last June after suffering a serious stroke following a gig at the CoCo Club on Bourbon Street. Relatives said then that she had just recovered from an earlier, less serious stroke.

On the Net:

http://www.marvawright.com

Poor man, but a good man, Skip James

2010-03-18T08:14:00.008+02:00

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***James Coburn * James Brown *****
***Etta James * Steve James *********
***Jesse James * Jameson*************
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*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
*** Skip James Skip James Skip James ***
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***Jimmy James & the Blues Flames***
*** James Bond * Bob James***
***Elmore James * King James***
***Frank James * James bay***
***Susan James * Ellen James***
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James

****Skip town for 33 years***

James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
James James James James James
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*****************SKIP******************
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R.I.P. Nick Holt - (1940-2009) - brother

2009-08-23T20:55:00.002+03:00

Longtime Chicago and Lincoln blues player Nick Holt died Monday.

Holt, 69, had played at the Zoo Bar and other Lincoln venues since 1975, mostly with his brother, Morris “Magic Slim” Holt.

And like his brother, he moved his family from Chicago’s South Side to Lincoln in the 1990s to get his kids and grandchildren out of the city. Most of the extended family still lives here.

Holt recovered from a 1987 bout with throat cancer, but he had been sick for several months.

In 1999, he was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award as best blues instrumentalist on bass. At the time, he played bass with Magic Slim and the Teardrops.

“He was one of the best bass players I’ve ever heard, and he really influenced me in my playing,” said Zoo Bar co-owner Jeff Boehmer, who plays bass himself.

“I probably would have been 4 or 5 or younger when they started coming to town, so I’ve known Nick my whole life.”

Funeral services are pending.

*********************************
RIP Nick Holt 1/15/1940-6/22/
Bruce Iglauer reports that Nick Holt, the bass-playing younger brother of Magic Slim, died of brain cancer on Monday, June 22, 2009 in Lincoln , Nebraska , where he had been living. He was 69. Born in Granada , Mississippi in 1940, Nick moved to Chicago in 1956. Four years later, he and his brother formed the notorious Magic Slim & The Teardrops. This band persevered to become a mainstay of the Chicago blues scene. Slim's raucous guitar and Nick's insistent bass lines anchored the band, and created a tough, rock-solid groove so propulsive that it packed the dance floors nightly. It wasn't that Nick did anything fancy or flashy on the bass; he just played it simple and right. Magic Slim & The Teardrops recorded numerous albums for a wide array of labels such as Rooster Blues, Blind Pig, Wolf Records, Alligator, Isabel, Delmark, Red Lightnin', Black & Blue, Evidence, and others. The band relocated to Lincoln , Nebraska , where they had a huge following from their touring appearances at the Zoo Bar. Nick had not been touring for the last few years, possibly for health reasons. In addition to scores of Magic Slim & The Teardrops records, and various sessions as a sideman, Nick leaves us with three releases bearing his name:
Magic Slim And Nick Holt/You Can't Lose What Never Had (Wolf Records)
Nick Holt/You Better Watch Yourself (Wolf Records)
Little Boogie Boy Blues Band featuring Nick Holt/We Do It For The Blues
Many blues fans will warmly remember seeing Magic Slim & The Teardrops with the brothers’ towering presence filling up the stage while they knocked out the heaviest of shuffles. Such a loss for the blues. Prayers to Magic Slim in this time of grief. Thanks, Nick, for the great times, and the spectacular music.

A celebration of Nick’s life is planned for Wednesday from 6pm-9pm at The Zoo Bar. Magic Slim and his Lincoln band will perform.

Happy Birthday Buddy Guy!

2009-07-31T08:23:00.005+03:00

George "Buddy" Guy is 73 years young!!!!
born : 7/30/36 Lettsworth, Louisiana

27 WC Handy Awards

5 Grammy Awards

Blues Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!

...A Rose by any Other Name

2009-07-06T18:19:00.006+03:00

John Lee Hooker was a very interesting character, an iconoclastic musician with his own very personal and individual style, he was also a survivor - a Blues musician who knew early on how to sell himself to record companies.

And sell himself he did, maybe too well - over the years from 1948 to the mid 1950's, John Lee Hooker recorded for no less than 20 different record labels!!!
Of course, this was done under a number of different aliases to get around contractual problems, since he often recorded the same material for those various labels.

Hooker certainly wasn't the first musician to do such a thing - Thomas 'Fats' Waller was reputed to have periodically gone through the famous Brill building, from door to door, selling the same compositions under different names to different music publishers so that he could get a bit of cash in his pockets to go out and get drunk...

The aliases Hooker created for himself were just as varied as the labels who were eager to record his music.
(Modern, King, Regent, Savoy, Danceland, Staff, Sensation, Chess, Acorn, Gotham, Regal, Swingtime. Federal, Gone, Chance, DeLuxe, JVB, Chart, Specialty, and Vee-Jay)
Here is a list of known aliases John Lee Hooker recorded under:

"Texas Slim"
"Delta John"
"Birmingham Sam and His Magic Guitar"
"Little Pork Chop"
"Johnny Williams"
"John Lee Booker"
"The Boogie Man"
"Johnny Lee"
"Sir John Lee Hooker"
"John Lee Cooker"
"Johnny Lee Hooker"
"John L' Hooker"

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet..."
from Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

References used:
Bill Dahl, "John Lee Hooker: Biography", http://afgen.com/john_hooker.html

Claus Röhnisch, "John Lee Hooker Complete Singles Discography"http://web.telia.com/~u19104970/johnnielee1.html#singles

R.I.P. Jackie Washington (1919-2009) - Canadian Jazz and Blues icon

2009-06-28T16:06:00.003+03:00

Canadian Jazz and Blues icon Jackie Washington passed away on Saturday, June 27, 2009

I feel honored and privileged to have known him and even jam with him on occasion.
Jackie was the sweetest, nicest man I knew in the music business in Canada.
He was a great entertainer, singer, instrumentalist, playing both piano and guitar, Blues, Jazz, Boogie Woogie, and "Sentimentals" as he called part of his repertoire.

Jackie was a walking living encyclopedia of old Jazz and Blues,
I think he knew at least a few thousand songs and could play them all perfectly.
His one big fault was that he loved music so much, he just couldn't say no to an all night jam,
even when staying up and playing all night would threaten his health...
Rest in peace Jackie.

sample some of Jackie's music:
Borealis Records website 1

Borealis Records website 2

Hamilton, Ontario local news:
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/590760

"Blues Trek- the Next Generation"

2009-06-04T11:57:00.007+03:00

Here are three female Blues Divas to watch out for,

now that the Queen Koko Taylor has passed on -

Diunna Greenleaf - Houston, Texas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBXGgrFFsdg
(I was at this show! standing on the right taking pictures... Blues Cruise Jan. 2006)

*****************************************************************

Lady Bianca - Oakland, California

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmJdSqXuu4U

*********************************************************************

Nora Jean Bruso - Chicago, Illinois (born in Greenwood, Mississippi)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6iSu54Y--Q&feature=related

Koko Taylor - Queen of the Blues R.I.P.

2009-06-04T00:52:00.005+03:00

The Queen has left us, Koko Taylor, the Queen of the Blues has passed away at age 80
Rest in peace Koko...

"I got 29 ways to get to my baby's door
I got 29 ways to get to my baby's door,
and if he needs me real bad,
I can find about two or three more"
Willie Dixon - Koko Taylor

"... We gonna pitch a Wang Dang Doodle,
all night long..."
Willie Dixon - Koko Taylor

The Blues is...

2009-05-19T18:44:00.001+03:00

The Blues is about humanity,
the personal touch,
touching people's lives,
touching everyday life

"the Blues gives you back your soul" Taj Mahal

2009-05-19T16:31:00.005+03:00

"Reggae gives you back your body.
Jazz gives you back your mind.
And Blues gives you back your soul."
Taj Mahal
June 2009 Blues Revue magazine

It's hard to believe, but artist Taj Mahal just turned 67 years old! Anyone who has seen him in person in recent years, would hardly believe that the man who almost single-handedly started a new wave of young Black Blues artists in the 1970's, can now be considered one of the "elder statesmen" of the Blues.
The newest issue (June 2009) of Blues Revue magazine contains an interview with Taj,
go out and your copy today!!!

25th International Blues Challenge - Memphis 2009

2009-02-12T17:09:00.003+02:00

25th International Blues Challenge

here is the list of winners for 2009:

Band, 1st place
South Florida Blues Society--JP Soars & the Red Hots

Band, 2nd Place
Cascade Blues Association--Ty Curtis Band

Band, 3rd Place
Ottawa Blues Society--MonkeyJunk

Best Guitarist (in a a band) Award
JP Soars

Solo/Duo, 1st place

Blues Society of Tulsa--Little Joe McLerran

Solo/Duo, 2nd Place

Crossroads Blues Society of Mississippi--Alphonso & Richard

Best Self-Produced CD Award

"Hollerin'!" Nathan James & Ben Hernandez took home the Best Self-Produced CD Award for their newest effort (Many of you will recall, this duo won the 2007 International Blues Challenge).

Here is a summary of the IBC week (from http://blues.org/ibc/past.php?YearId=25)

From the opening night, with last year’s runner-up Shakura S’Aida belting out the National Anthem at the Memphis Grizzlies game to the Wednesday night party at the New Daisy Theater featuring previous IBC Winners like Trampled Under Foot, Sean Carney, Homemade Jamz and Jonn Richardson to the 184 acts from around the world to the all day Saturday finals to jams in every Beale Street venue, the IBC has become THE winter blues event to attend.
It was not that long ago that the IBC, aka the International Blues Challenge, hosted 20 to 30 acts which competed in one or two clubs on Beale. Solo performers and bands were lumped in the same category and the few fans, mainly family, crammed into the New Daisy theater. Today it has grown into a world class event with enough music to satisfy every blues taste.
For those not familiar with the format, 10 clubs on Beale Street each host 10 bands for a 25 minute performance on both Thursday and Friday nights. Another 6 clubs host 10 solo/duo acts during the same period. The top scoring band in each venue then moves to the Saturday finals.
With program in hand, one simply darts from club to club starting at 5 PM searching out the best of Beale. When the dust finally settles, around midnight, your friends will tell you about all the great bands you missed. That sets up your Friday schedule.
This year, the Blues Foundation started Friday’s music at 11 AM with two exciting showcases during the afternoon. Alfred’s hosted a showcase of 11 International acts which came to Memphis to compete. High energy bands from France’s Blues Sur Seine, Norway, Croatia, Ottawa, Quebec, Australia, Israel, and Italy showed all afternoon that the blues thrives around the world. At the same time, the Foundation hosted a Youth showcase for 24 bands whose members were under 21 years old. Blues Societies were asked to send their best Youth band to showcase talent. Held in four clubs on Beale, the Youth Showcase featured a 9 year old string slinger, a 15 year old slide guitarist, bass players whose bass is bigger then they are, and a 14 year old boogie woogie master. This showcase was enough proof that the blues can still catch the ears of today’s younger generation.
As it that was not enough music, Blind Raccoon and Yellow Dog Records each held showcases in the Rum Boogie and King’s Palace respectively. At the Blind Raccoon show, fans could hear musicians like Dave fields, Chris James, Patrick Rynn, Tas Cru, Billy Gibson, Steve Howell, and the Delta Flyers. The highlight here was when Super Chikan unveiled his OBAMA guitar, complete with Chikan’s unique stimulus package. Yellow Dog’s show included the varied musical Mary Flower, Rich Del Grosso and Fiona Boyes.
Highlights of my two days of running from club to club included the Grady Champion revue from Jackson, MS. I first met Grady 13 years ago and haven’t seen his show in almost 10 years. His combination of Southern soul, funk, and blues was a refreshing break from blasting guitars. Another highlight was the sweet, acoustic stylings of Washington’s Alice Stuart. There were explosive sets by Austin’s Mike Milligan and the Alter Boyz, Conrad Oberg on both piano and guitar, Dan Treanor’s trippy Afrosippi blues band, and the Phil Gates band. On the street I had difficult choices between the booming voice of Austin “Walkin’ Cane,” the dense guitar groove of Darrell Raines and George Caldwell, the finger picking of Roger “Hurricane” Wilson and the hill country blues of 80 year old veteran L.C. Ulmer and his 17 year old student, Chase Holifield.
The finals included the soul stylings of Monkey Junk, Ottawa’s top blues band, the four handed boogie-woogie of Poland’s Boogie Bo ys, the sultry come hither blues of Phoenix’s Meredith Moore, the passionate guitar work of Pryor Baird, the fresh blues vision of Boston’s Delta Generators and the gorgeous 10 minute slow blues guitar of eventual band winner, JP Soars and the Red Hots. Follow that with a 6 act performance in the solo duo category won by the gorgeous Piedmont finger style of 24 year old Little Joe McLerran and Saturday was a night that satisfied every blues taste.
But the music never stops when the shows end. Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin hosted his annual after party jam at the Rum Boogie on both Friday and Saturday night. On Saturday, Michael Burks and Shemekia Copeland both stopped by to join Bob’s jam. The New Daisy hosted a Youth Jam session on Friday night that produced enough energy to light the night. And on Saturday night, Big City Blue hosted a showcase at Morgan Freeman’s new Memphis Ground Zero.
Congrats to the Blues Foundation for having the vision to let this event grow into one of the premier music events on the Blues calendar.

Blues at the Grammy's - 2009

2009-02-12T17:07:00.000+02:00

Blues Grammy Winners:

The 51st Grammy Awards were held on Sunday, February 8, but you didn’t see the Blues categories, which were held earlier.

Below are the nominees in the Blues-related categories. They winners are in bold:

Best Traditional Blues Album

The Blues Rolls On - Elvin Bishop - Delta Groove Music

Skin Deep - Buddy Guy - Silvertone Records

All Odds Against Me - John Lee Hooker, Jr. - Steppin' Stone Records/CC Entertainment

One Kind Favor - B.B. King - Geffen Records

Pinetop Perkins & Friends - Pinetop Perkins & Friends - Stoneagle Music/Telarc

Best Contemporary Blues Album

Peace, Love & BBQ - Marcia Ball - Alligator Records

Like A Fire - Solomon Burke - Shout! Factory

City That Care Forgot - Dr. John And The Lower 911 - 429 Records

Maestro - Taj Mahal - Heads Up International

Simply Grand - Irma Thomas -Rounder Records

These are all winners!

The Blackmailers - Blues and Fun from Moscow

2009-02-08T00:37:00.010+02:00

Zlato Zrno Blues (2004)

My friend Alex S. introduced me to the music of the Blackmailers about 2 years ago, and suggested that I contact them.
They kindly responded by sending us copies of their first two albums.

Featuring a with a nice horn section, their sound reminds me of Blood Sweat and Tears, and the full voice of the lead vocalist reminds me allot of David Clayton Thomas.
Even though the singing diction isn't perfect, the overall message comes across -
these guys love the Blues and are having a good time when they play!!!

Guitarist Alex Baryshev and singer Timo Kopylov provide us with an interesting mix of Jump Blues, Chicago Blues, some Jazzy Blues, and a strong spicing up with some Balkan music!!!

Paradise Fanfare Blues (2006)

I give these 2 albums 4 thumbs up (out of a possible 5).

Sam Bluzman Taylor - 1934- 2009

2009-01-09T16:15:00.006+02:00

Where Sam Bluzman Taylor is concerned, I can profess almost total ignorance. I had hardly heard the name 'till someone mentioned a live show of his on one of the Blues forums. But the minute I checked him out, I found a charming, dynamic, and powerful "Bluzman" who was quietly tucked away in the Long Island, N.Y. area, and was a respected member of the Long Island Blues Society, . His musical history includes playing in early funk and soul bands such as BT Express and Joey Dee & The Starlighters. He was awarded Blues Trust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, as well as being inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.
To me, Sam Taylor strongly resembled Matt "Guitar" Murphy Wikipedia: Matt Murphy which made me more curious about him, and once I heard his music I found a powerful singer with strong roots in gospel and soul, as well as a fine electric Blues guitarist.

Here are
some video clips of Sam

here are a few selected Obits and references to Sam Bluzman Taylor:

Long Island Music Hall of Fame site

Newsday Obituary

Keith Gordon - About.com Guide to Blues on Sam Taylor

R.I.P. Davy Graham - Brit guitar virtuoso

2008-12-17T07:46:00.007+02:00

It's a sad day for guitarists and guitar fans around the world!
R.I.P. Davy Graham (1940-2008)

For those who are not familiar with Davy Graham (born in Leicester to a Scottish mother)
he wrote a famous little guitar instrumental named "Anji" (sometimes spelled "Angi")
(not to be confused with Mick Jagger's song "Angie")
Graham was a pioneering young virtuoso guitarist who was equally adept at playing
English Folk songs, Beatles, American Blues, modern Jazz, and even Indian music on his guitar.
I recommend the album "Folk , Blues and Beyond" as a starting point that represents his best work
[ Folk Blues and Beyond on AMG ]

His Blues and Jazz interpretations were particularly fresh and innovative in the early 60's when most acoustic players were still deep in the Folk traditions, and I guess that is my attraction to Graham's music - his take on the Charles Mingus tune "Better Get It In Your Soul" for example, which echoed the John Renbourn/Bert Jansch take on Mingus's "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" from the same period. They were all part of the same scene of what I would term "Acoustic Avant Garde Guitar", pushing the boundaries of what one could play on an acoustic guitar at the time.
Graham was to me the most mysterious of the group because he was much less accessible than the rest - his recordings were very hard to find until recently when the digital download age resulted in an explosion of reissues of many of Graham's albums from the 60's (many of those are uneven or not up to the same standard as "Folk Blues and Beyond" and "3/4 A.D.", so you must preview each album before buying).

The song Anji was named after Graham's big love at the time (early 1960's)
and was recorded by Paul Simon on the album "Sounds of Silence" (1966)
Paul Simon also used the tune as the basis for his song "Somewhere They Can't Find Me"
Fellow Scotsman and friend of Graham's - Bert Jansch recorded the definitive version of Anji on his album "Lucky 13" (1966)
and continues playing Anji to this day in his regular repertoire on stage.

And of course, there is the Israeli connection to this story - a man named Sidney Katzenel (another Scotsman)
who was a friend of both Bert Jansch and Davy Graham, and lived in Israel from the late 60's onward
(Sidney lived in Nahariya, where he was a high school teacher and a musician),
Sidney claimed that he had a direct hand in the composition of the song Anji.

And more Israeli connections - the namesake of the song, Anji herself, apparently migrated to
Israel sometime in the late 60's, and was living in Rosh Pina.
I don't know if she is still alive or her whereabouts,
but some people in the Israel folk community have told me they once knew her...

Rest in peace Davy Graham...

In memory - Robert Lucas

2008-12-03T17:21:00.003+02:00

A YouTube clip dedicated to the memory of recently departed Blues great Robert Lucas

see this entry I wrote about him: Robert Lucas R.I.P.

Odetta Gordon - another legend has left us

2008-12-03T16:44:00.003+02:00

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/blog/2008/12/odetta_19302008.html

Holy crap!!!
that was my immediate reaction as I just heard from a friend about the passing on of Odetta Gordon.
Another legendary artist gone.

I heard in the Blues circles recently that Odetta was in hospital and that
she was expected to get back on her feet in a few weeks.
- I was hoping to send her a copy of my book while she was recovering...
- She was very much hoping to sing at the Obama inauguration in January...

I met Odetta in 1980 at the Toronto Folk Festival,
I was asked to accompany her from the artist's tent to the stage (where I was a stage hand),
she put her arm under mine and let me lead her across the festival grounds.
I was a bit nervous, I mean this is a person I had known as a legend since my early childhood, and here I was arm in arm, walking her through the festival grounds.
She was very dignified, had great poise and posture, was colorfully well dressed, but also smelled strongly of perfume and booze at the same time!
The minute she got on stage, there was no doubt who was the greatest singer at that festival...

Rest in peace great lady.

R.I.P. Robert Lucas - an extraordinary Bluesman

2008-11-29T20:25:00.016+02:00

I discovered Robert Lucas sometime in the mid-1990's when Audioquest records put out his recordings. With his rough whiskey voice, solid harmonica riffs, and powerful guitar playing, both electric and acoustic slide guitars, he had a very distinctive Blues style - as if he had been playing the Blues for 40 years or more. I had no idea that he was so young at the time, apparently he was in his late twenties at the time, but the album photos made him look much older. In recent years, after not hearing anything about him for a good while, I learned that he had joined the Canned Heat band as lead singer, a position he filled off and on up to very recently.
This week, as news of his passing due to drug overdose came over the internet, I was shocked to find out that he was only 46 years old. Some of his playing/singing at times was pretty dark stuff, I don't know what kinds of demons haunted him to make him turn to the drugs that led to his demise, but I hope he can rest in peace now, and that we can remember him for his contribution to the Blues.

I recommend exploring these two albums on Audioquest for starters (click on the links for a description):

Robert Lucas - Layaway Plan

*************** ^^^^^^ ********************
"Former Canned Heat frontman Robert Lucas, R.I.P.
By Reverend Keith A. Gordon, About.com: Blues

Former Canned Heat frontman Robert Lucas, a skilled slide-guitarist and harp player, died on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 from an apparent drug overdose, according to his manager Skip Taylor. The Long Beach, California native was just 46 years old.
Lucas first became known to blues fans as a member of guitarist Bernie Pearl's late-1970s band, originally playing harmonica behind artists like Big Joe Turner, Lowell Fulson, Percy Mayfield and other West Coast blues and R&B singers. Lucas worked on his skills for years before launching his own band, Luke & the Locomotives, in 1986.
It was with the 1990 release of his self-produced cassette tape, Across The River, that Lucas began to make a name for himself as a solo artist. After receiving a complimentary newspaper review, Lucas came to the attention of the L.A.-based AudioQuest Records label, which signed the young blues prodigy to a deal.
The label quickly released an acoustic-blues collection, Usin' Man Blues, a mix of original songs and classics from Robert Johnson, Son House, and Sonny Boy Williamson, in late-1990. Lucas would go on to release seven solo albums throughout his career.
Lucas hooked up with boogie-rock kings Canned Heat in 1994 as singer, guitarist and harp player, and would first appear on the band's 1996 Blues Band album, the last featuring founding member and guitarist Henry Vestine.
Between 1994 and 2008, Lucas served two stints as the band's frontman, touring the world in front of the band and contributing songs, instrumentation and vocals to recordings like 1999's Boogie 2000 and the band's 2007 Christmas album.
Lucas recently left Canned Heat to pursue his solo career, and for a relatively young blues artist, he had endless possibilities in front of him. In a statement to the press, Taylor said of Lucas that "his unequaled fury and stage presence, together with his earth-shattering vocal delivery, gave him the ability to channel many of the blues masters through his words, songs and musical ability.
Continuing, Taylor says, "He [Lucas] has been recognized by blues fans and critics worldwide as one of the most inspired singer, player and songwriter talents of the past decade."

Robert Lucas - Built For Comfort

Shake Hands with a Brother

2008-11-22T11:24:00.002+02:00

A few months before going to Canada for our summer vacation, I realized that I could actually manage to attend some major concerts and see some of my idols for the fists time. One such concert was the beginning of the Allman Brothers Band summer tour of 2007, which was kicking off in Canada.
I went online to buy tickets as soon as I knew that I would be in Toronto at the right time, bought 2 tickets for the ABB show at Casino Rama which is a few hours north of Toronto, made sure I had booked a room at the Casino/Hotel, arranged the car rental, and we were all set, I was finally going to see not only the Allman Brothers, but Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks as well, since they are in the band in the last few years.

I remember the summer of 1973, the Brothers and Sisters album had just come out at the end of the summer vacation, I was in high school in the Boston area, and the local radio played music from that album all through the fall. That was my introduction to the Allman Brothers, and I have always loved their music, which is primarily based on Blues, it only took another 34 years before I could hear and see them live!

After checking in to the Casino Rama hotel, we were heading for the elevators to reach our room, and who should come out of the elevator but Gregg Allman!!!
Now, I don't like to be rude, or impose on celebrities, but before I knew what had happened, I heard myself blurt out "Hey Gregg!"
he turned around, I shook his hand and may have mumbled something like "It's a great honor to meet you", a half second of dead silence may have passed, and he turned back around and kept on walking. I later found out from the discussion group that he does this all the time, that he is just plain like that, not one to stand and talk with fans or strangers, and it's nothing personal...but I was star-struck nonetheless.

Anyway, the wife and I had a great time at the concert, Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks were nothing short of amazing, and the rest of the band was certainly what I expected too - classic Allman Brothers at the height of their game.

The Blues as Zen

2008-11-07T15:29:00.005+02:00

This is an article that I wrote for a local magazine back in 1998,
I made some minor updates and corrections, and here it is:

The Blues As Zen

By Eli Marcus

What is the essence of Blues? I see the Blues as a kind of Zen. Like Zen the Blues at face value looks simple, easy. Actually the Blues is simple in its essence, however, as with Zen, a deep understanding of the Blues requires the student/disciple to travel along a path of gradual enlightenment. Brownie McGhee said: "Blues is life", i.e. the Blues is a way of life. It can also be understood that the Blues, like life, has complexity on the one hand, with levels and layers, changing and evolving in time but at the core - its essence is constant.

Willie Dixon said: "I am the Blues", expressing a level of Zen awareness about his life as a Bluesman. The origins of the Blues are quite diverse: not necessarily just musical, they are to a great extent a social/cultural expression of the enslaved and oppressed Black populations of America. Musically we find African melodies and particularly rhythms, intermixed with European musical forms, both folk and classical.

One of the inborn paradoxes of the Blues is that pain and frustration are expressed side by side with joy and spiritual elation, sometimes in the same song. This is a sort of Zen duality. The Afro Americans ("Blacks") arrived in America a few hundred years ago as slaves who were kidnapped out of Africa. With them came the famous "Talking Drums", which was both a form of percussion and an actual method of communication (like the telegraph).

White plantation owners soon understood that the drum-communication was a direct threat to their subjugating authority and a widespread ban of drums and drumming was enforced by the 1830’s. The result was apparently a strengthening of the singing rhythms as well as an emphasis on guitar (European origin) and banjo (African origin) as rhythmical instruments, a trend that has remained in the Blues to this day.

In the same token that rhythm was internalized or went "underground’, so did the Black slave's spirituality. The Black man brought with him from Africa a myriad of religious practices and beliefs which were quite foreign and strange to the Christian/European sensibilities of the White man. This included kinds of tribal witchcraft, Hoodoo and Voodoo.

The clash with Christianity, followed by a ban of Hoodoo and other ritual practices, caused the Blacks to hide these beliefs deep down inside themselves (much like the Maronites in Portugal - Jews who were forced to conceal their religious practices from public view and "officially" converted to Christianity). Again a duality arose with the Black man publicly embracing Christianity (producing Gospel music by the early 1900’s).

Many Blacks continued in secret the practices of Hoodoo and other pagan traditions, some of which are even witnessed in the Blues today. Muddy Waters was well known for the song "Hootchie Cootchie Man" (written by Willie Dixon) and also for "Got My Mojo Working", with lines such as:

"I got a black cat bone, ‘got a Mojo too,
I got a John the Conqueror root, I’m gonna mess with you...."
or -
"I’m goin’ down in Louisiana ‘gonna get me a Mojo Hand,
gonna’ have all you ladies right here under my command".

These ancient pagan religious references in the Blues may be the reason that "righteous" Blacks who were loyal to the church called the Blues "the Devil’s Music" and frowned on it or banned it outright in their homes and the community at large.
Gospel music, though really another musical form of the Blues, was strictly Christian and "White" in textual content, while the Blues have all the rest of the social and cultural content of the Black experience.

Much in the same way that Zen and Blues can be a process of enlightenment, the Black man has undergone a process of socialization and evolution in America. In the music itself we see lots of clowning and "hokum" in the Blues of the 1920’s and 30’s. The Black man in Vaudeville and early movies has no dignity, no self respect. His only expression of being a real person is his sexuality- the one thing the White man didn’t manage to repress. The White man was afraid of the Black man’s overt sexuality, leading to all the nasty stereotypes that exist about Black’s and their sexuality.

The expressions of sexuality that seemed natural and healthy in Black society, were too blatant for the uptight and even puritan White society in America of the 40’s and 50’s, and this was a major factor in keeping R & B and Blues from breaking the color barrier in the 50’s. The "softened" versions of the Black music that were hits for Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other White performers were often simply "covers" of the Black originals that couldn’t break through, and were often stolen outright from the Black artists.

The late 50’s and early 60’s saw a maturation of the Black music scene, Chuck Berry became a star that appealed to Whites as well as Blacks, but just as the White audiences began discovering the wonderful Black heritage, the Black community began to turn away from the Blues as being archaic, and something they wanted to put behind them. For a while there was even a kind of shame involved in the old black culture and music, and only in the mid 1980’s did young Black artists find a renewed pride in the traditional Blues (witness Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Keb ‘Mo, Guy Davis, and Eric Bibb).

The great attention Blues has received in recent years in the media, including the United States government declaring 2003 as “The Year of the Blues”, is a "ship finally coming in" for artists such as John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, and the recently departed Luther Allison- artists who have patiently practiced their Blues craft for 30-40 years before achieving real fame and fortune. A pop-rock artist may rise to fame in 5 years and then vanish overnight, but the Blues, like Zen, is a patient and enduring art.

Living with the Blues and learning as we go, brings us full circle, like Zen, to the starting point of simplicity, an expression of everyday life-
"THE BLUES IS LIFE"
Brownie McGhee

© 1998-2008 Eli Marcus

Blues For Beginners - by Judith Podell

2008-10-21T20:07:00.011+02:00

In early 1997, Judith Podell published an essay on "How to Sing the Blues" in Wordrights Magazine. Without her permission, it was transcribed and distributed around the world via email and various websites. In most cases, the text was modified, added to, some parts were completely changed, and in almost all cases the original author credit was missing.

By way of trying to right the wrong, I present the original text that was published in Judith Podell's book "Blues For Beginners and Other Obsessions" (Argonne House Press, 2001)

You can read a few more essays by Judith in my recent entries here
"Blues For Advanced Beginners"
"Animal Behavior"
"Death of the Blues"

*****
Blues For Beginners
by Judith Podell

woke up this morning
cat threw a hairball on the bed.
said, i woke up this morning
cat puke all over the bed.
went to the kitchen
mr. coffee was dead.
"Post-Graduate Blues,"
(attrib. to Memphis Earline Gray)

1. Most blues begin "woke up this morning."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line.

i got a good woman-
with the meanest dog in town.

3. The Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes.

got a good woman-
with the meanest dog in town.
he got teeth like Margaret Thatcher
and he weighs 500 pound.

4. The Blues are not about limitless choice.

5. Blues cars are Chevies and Cadillacs. Other acceptable blues transportation is Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Walkin' plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers cant' sing the blues. Adults sing the Blues. Blues adulthood means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. You can have the blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont or North Dakota are just depression. Chicago, St Louis and Kasas City are still the best places to have the Blues.

8. The following colors do not belong in the blues:
a. orange
b. beige

9. You can't have the blues in an office or a honky-tonk. The lighting is wrong.

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. the highway
b. the jailhouse
c. the empty bed

11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if:
a. your first name is a southern state.
b. you're blind.
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you can't be satisfied.
No if:
a. you once were blind but now can see.
b. you're deaf.

13. Neither Frank Sinatra nor Meryl Streep can sing the blues.

14. If you ask for water and baby give you gasoline, it's the blues. Other blues beverages are:
a. wine
b. Irish whisky
c. muddy water

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, or being denied treatment in an emergency room.

16. Some blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama

17. Some blues names for men:
a. Willie
b. Joe,
c. Little Willie
d. Lightning

Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia will not be permitted sing the blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

*****
Copyright - 1997 by Judith Podell and 2001 by The Argonne House Press
used by kind permission from the author.

Blues for Advanced Beginners - Judith Podell

2008-10-21T00:42:00.002+02:00

Here is the official "sequel" to
"Blues For Beginners" or "How To Sing the Blues" -

*****
"Blues for Advanced Beginners"
by Judith Podell

"Woke up this morning and went back to sleep..."
-- "Epstein-Barre Blues"
attributed to Memphis Earline Gray

1. You have an inalienable right to sing the blues if youwere born under a bad sign. Capricorn is a bad sign to be born under. Jesus was on. So was Nixon.

2. The right to sing the blues may be earned if you:
a. suffer
b. lose
c. pay some dues

3. It's not the blues when your loss is tax deductable.

4. Some examples of dues:
a. working for the man
b. hating your day job
c. losing your man

5. Some forms of suffering that will never be blues - worthy:
a. anorexia nervosa
b. low LSAT's

6. It's the blues if you:
a. wish you'd never been born
b. feel like a motherless child

7. If your mother is dead and you miss her it's Country.

8. Good times to have the blues are:
a. Christmas
b. Mother's Day
c. every night when the sun goes down

9. You can't sing the blues in Chinese.

"Mouth full of toothache
Head full of network news
Gonna go downtown
Buy some alligator shoes"
-- "Silverpoint Blues"
attributed to Blind Drunk Johnson

10. Blues women never sing "Send in the Clowns". They pack heat and eat meat.

11. Just because you shot that two-timing man doesn't automatically make you a blues woman, but it's a good start. So is buying him an Armani suit, or paying his child support.

12. Blues sports are:
a. drinking
b. gambling
c. running around

13. Blues men are not team players.

14. You can't sing the blues in Gore-Tex.

15. The following drugs don't belong in the blues:
a. ecstacy
b. speed
c. multi-vitamins

16. Blues women don't wear Chanel. Other fashion no-no's:
a. running shoes
b. lace
c. Botox

17. Blues men don't get born again.

18. There is no word in French for "hellhound".

19. You can't sing the blues in French, not even if you are blind.

*****
Excerpted from "May Contain Nuts"
(Harper Collins, Perennial Currents imprint, 2004)
Copyright 2003 by Judith Podell
used by kind permission from the author.

Animal Behavior - further ponderings by Judith Podell

2008-10-12T00:24:00.005+02:00

Animal Behavior
by Judith Podell

1. Cats never apologize and never explain. Dogs let it all hang out on Oprah.
Dogs are hot, but cats are cool.

2. John Travolta, Dei Moore, and President Clinton are dogs. Dogs get in your
face: they leave nthing to the iagination.
Lawrence of Arabia was a cat.

3. Cats do not play well with others.

4. Favorite teachers are dogs. Teachers you get crushes on are cats.

5. Opera singers are dogs. Ballet dancers are cats.

6. People who need people are dogs.

7. Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie were dogs. Any jazz musician who doesn't
shoot heroin is a dog.

8. Cats have the killer instinct. If you put your cat on a vegetarian diet she
will go blind.

9. Dogs let others do the killing and hang around for the leftovers. They are
natural born shoppers.

10. Dogs are shameless, but easiy guilt-tripped. Cats are without guilt, but
sometimes you can embarrass them.

11. Dogs are resilient, courageous, and sentimantal. They buy vacuum cleaners
for their wives, and neckties for their boyfriends. They hang their children's
artwork in their cubicles.

12. Cats despise cubicles. If they bother with gifts it's always what you wanted
but never thought to ask Cats are the ones who break up first.

13. Cats can handle high fashion but dogs look better in the classics. That
means no spandex, and no see through. It's more fun to design for cats, but the
money lies in making products for dogs.

14. No one wants a cat for a lawyer.

15. Dogs have sexual energy, which is not the same thing as sex appeal." I just
made love to a million people", Janis Joplin said after one of her concerts,
"but I'm going home alone".

16. Only dogs can sing the blues.

*****
Excerpted from "Blues For Beginners and Other Obsessions" (Argonne House Press, 2001)

Copyright - 2001 by Judith Podell and by The Argonne House Press
used by kind permission from the author.

A Sea Turtle Named Eli Marcus????

2008-09-24T23:26:00.000+03:00

About a year ago, I organized a Jazz and Blues series of concerts at the "Beach-Bar" venue in ancient Caesarea on the beach of the Mediterranean in Israel.
It was also the occasion of my 50th birthday, so I set aside the night of Friday September 28th, 2007 for myself and a few friends to do an electric Blues concert to celebrate my 50th.
Publicity was sent out to local papers and radio 90FM, email messages, flyers and text messages to cell phones were distributed as well.

About 10 days after the series was over, a friend at work came up to me with a curious article in a local paper from the region of Caesarea stating the the giant sea turtle Eli Marcus had been rehabilitated and released back in the sea.

I found this very amusing of course, but it got me curious and doing a bit of detective work to try and find out how my name was tagged onto a distressed sea turtle that was rescued from strangulation by floating garbage.

I couldn't get any response from the contact names in the local paper. Nor could I find any direct references to the source. A bit of internet research came up with leads at the Society For Protection of Nature in Israel and another organization that has a sea turtle research center and shelter a few kilometers south of Caeasarea. None of the researchers or professors listed in the site responded to any of my inquiries, but finally I tracked down one of their log reports that stated that a giant sea turtle had recently been saved from strangulation by swallowing floating plastic garbage in the sea.
As it turns out, the volunteers working with the turtle were named Elie and Marco, and thus the turtle was given the name Elie Marco.
The person writing the piece in that local paper, must have seen one of the posters for the Beach-Bar the week before, and made the mistake of using my name for that turtle.
Some who dunnit, huh?
Sloppy journalism, and the power of the internet for doing research...

Death of the Blues - humor by Judith Podell

2008-09-21T07:34:00.008+03:00

In early 1997, Judith Podell published an essay on "How to Sing the Blues" in Wordrights Magazine. Without her permission, someone transcribed it and began mailing it around the world and spreading it all over the Internet. After years of following the "How to Sing the Blues" legend around and only finding cold dead-end leads, I found a copy of her collected essays "Blues For Beginners and Other Obsessions" (Argonne House Press, 2001) which contains the original essay. Determined to find the author, and following some intensive internet detective work, I recently managed to contact Judith and received her permission to publicize the closing essay in the book.
Please remember that this is copyrighted material, and if you like it, please give credit when you quote it!

>>We have all wondered and speculated from time to time about what would happen if a certain cultural icon or hero had not died young. What if Jimi Hendrix had awoken from his drunken stupor in that flat in London on September 18th and lived to be 66 years old? Judith Podell has answered some of these questions for us in the following essay.<<

*****
Death of the Blues
by Judith Podell
copyright 2001

Vienna, 1902. Sigmund Freud seeking non-addictive cocaine substitute discovers Prozac. Revises Civilization and Its Discontents to add happy ending, repudiates psychoanalysis. Incidence of neurasthenia plummets, as does Jewish birth rate. Apprentice pastry-chef Ludwig Wittgenstein invents the Sacher-Masoch tort.

Prague, 1912. Franz Kafka moves out of parents' house, marries. Writes Metamorphosis, popular children's story about a man who turns into a great big bug and has many exciting adventures.

London, 1920. T.S. Eliot tears up drafts of Wasteland, tells Ezra Pound he wants to write show tunes for shop girls and live on the Riviera. Teams up with George Geshwin to write Cats!.

Memphis, 1926. Bessie Smith quits Vaudeville, opens beauty parlor. Robert Johnson tries to buy back soul from the devil, struck by lightening.

Berlin, 1933. Metamophosis adapted for stage. Lotte Lenya sings the Ballad of Max the Roach. Burning of the Reichstag.

London, 1944. Churchill takes up exercise and quits smoking for the duration of the Blitz. House and Garden editor Virginia Woolf urges wartime Britain 'think Chintz'. 10,000th performance of Cats!.

1952. Dixieland legend Miles Davis quits show business to attend Dental School. Billie Holiday records White Chrstmas with Perry Como.

1956. Steep decline in alcoholism, Soviet birthrate. Nikita Krushchev tells U.S. "We will bury you - in cheap household appliances". Russia leads world in production of hair dryers and toasters.

1964. Lawrence Welk named Downbeat Musician of the Year. Battle of the Bands won by British barbershop quartet, Rolling Stones.

1970. Janis Joplin passes California Bar. Green Beret Jim Morrison missing in action. Billie Holiday stars in revival of Cats.

1978. Sylvia Plath marries Ernest Hemmingway, opens first bed and breakfast in Ketchum.

1984. IPO for Sylvia Plath Lifestyle, Inc. withdrawn after hunting accident.

2000, Memphis. Stash of old records found in yard sale. rare performances by Robert Johnson, Bukka White, and Son House. Antiques Roadshow estimates value at $5.
Nobody gets the blues.

*****

Click here to purchase your own copy of "Blues For Beginners and Other Obsessions" from Amazon.com

You can read more essays by Judith in my recent entries here:
"Blues For Advanced Beginners"
"Animal Behavior"

Cotton Comes to Tel Aviv

2008-09-06T07:17:00.001+03:00

I just got back from a wonderful show of James Cotton's Superharp with
his fantastic band (Slam Allen guitar, vocals; Tom Holland guitar,
vocals; Noel Neal, bass; Kenny Neal Jr., drums)
right here in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The whole band is a very hot group of musicians, starting with Tom Holland who sang a few numbers and played rhythm, solo, and lovely slide guitar.
The major entertainment of the show was handled beautifully by Slam Allen - a great singer with a rich gospel singer's voice, and a very solid guitarist in his own right. He was very funny at times, he has amazing stage presence, always smiling and doing all the intros and knowing exactly what to say at any moment - he had the audience completely at his mercy.

Noel Neal on bass was so much fun to watch,
he really cracked me up for most of the show - he was "hamming it up"
making funny faces and poses, playing the bass with his hand over the
top of the fretboard, but still maintaining full control and playing
amazing bass throughout the show, including a couple of very hot solos
that got the crowd whistling and cheering when his turn came around.

Kenny Neal Jr. didn't stand out much except for one solo, but was
definitely the steady backbeat of the band, which acted as a tight unit and responded to the slightest signs from Cotton or from Slam.

Cotton was solid and enjoyable as ever, he looked like he was himself
enjoying the band!
We should all be so lucky at age 70 plus to be able to travel the world
and perform on stage for hundreds or thousands of people.
What a great show! What an amazing band!

R.I.P. Phil Guy

2008-08-21T14:34:00.005+03:00

Not many people have heard of Phil Guy, Buddy Guy's younger brother and a Blues artist himself.
Phil passed away on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 in a Chicago hospital, following a battle with cancer.
Rest in peace Phil, you have made your contribution to the Blues legacy, your work here is done...

***************
***************
here is Phil Guy's biography from his website:

PHIL GUY BIOGRAPHY

(by Lisa Mallen)

Born on April 28, 1940, Phil Guy was the fifth child and third son of his sharecropping parents, Sam and Isabell Guy. Along with his parents, sisters (Annie Mae and Fannie Mae), and brothers (Buddy and Sam, Jr.), Phil grew up picking cotton and pecans on the Lettsworth, Louisiana plantation – about 60 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. The Guys were very poor. They had no electricity or running water for most of Phil’s youth. Yet, the Guys were a proud family.

When Phil was nine years old (and oldest brother Buddy thirteen) the family made enough profit from their crops to obtain electricity. Besides the one light bulb that lit up their home, their daddy splurged on a radio and an old phonograph. They were intrigued with the sounds of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Howlin Wolf and John Lee Hooker.

Buddy started down the music road first with a guitar he made from screen wire and a lighter fluid can, and then progressed to a $2 guitar with two strings to eventually a Harmony f-hole guitar when he graduated from the eighth grade. Phil was not allowed to touch Buddy’s guitar.

However, when Buddy moved to Baton Rouge to attend high school and live with Annie Mae, he left his old guitar hanging on a nail on the wall of their country shack. Completely left handed, thirteen year old Phil stared at it mesmerized. He took the guitar down and tried to figure out how to play it. Upside down and backwards didn’t work so he forced himself to play right handed. Soon he began taking the guitar out on the levee. His cousin Ervin Hartford would join him playing harmonica.

Even though Phil’s influences were Lightnin’ Slim, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Albert Collins, he said, “I didn’t know but one song, just a rhythm line of a Jimmy Reed song.” The echo on the levee captivated him, and so he’d play that one line over and over.

One weekend evening, when Phil was fifteen, musician Lightnin’ Slim stopped by Johnny McGlitcham’s Club in nearby Torres with his amplified guitar. Phil had never seen anything like it. Phil said, “Slim’s amp was the size of a radio. He said he was just going to play for a little while, but when people kept throwing money into the hat, Slim ended up staying for a week. It was Slim who gave me my first chance to play an electric guitar.”

In the meantime in Baton Rouge, after years of listening to Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin Wolf and B.B. King, Buddy joined harp player Raful Neal’s band. They performed at many of the local joints including the Dew Drop Inn and

The Rock House.

Buddy yearned to see and learn from his idols, so on September 27, 1957 at 21 he moved to Chicago where they were. Before he left he told Raful that his younger

seventeen year old brother could also play the blues. Phil cut his musical teeth in Raful Neal’s band replacing Lazy Lester as rhythm guitarist. “From then on, I just started learning more and more,” Phil said. He stayed with Raful’s band until Buddy summoned him to come to Chicago. Phil ventured north in April 1969 and began working immediately with Buddy in his bands. Often, they played in the basement at Theresa’s Lounge on 48th & Indiana.

At that time, Phil’s (29) and Buddy’s (33) musical styles had gone different directions. Phil was more into funky songs by Jimmy Reed and James Brown. His method was a deep picking, penetrating and searing style like Albert King. Buddy’s approach was skilled Chicago blues like Muddy Waters, straight picking yet mixed with electrifying Guitar Slim style showmanship and powerful vocals. However, whenever these two blues brothers jammed together, their styles complimented each other exquisitely.

Soon after his arrival in Chicago, Buddy invited Phil to join his band on a trip to Africa sponsored by the U.S. State Department. “The trip was a huge success,” Phil said.

“The Africans had heard of James Brown and Muhammad Ali but knew nothing about the blues. They were so amazed with the music they thought Buddy’s strings were magic and stole them right off his guitar!”

Following one performance in Africa, Phil put his guitar on top of the equipment truck. Driving miles and miles over the bumpy, pot hole laden roads, his Fender Telecaster fell off. When they finally realized what had happened 30 or 40 miles down the road, they backtracked and retrieved it. To this day Phil continues to play with his beloved guitar, "Ludella."

The Guy blues brothers and Junior Wells had several high profile gigs in Europe, including opening for the Rolling Stones in 1970 and jamming with Eric Clapton. Buddy, Phil, and Junior Wells were much better known across the ocean than in our homeland where blues took root.

A year after Woodstock and Altamont, in the summer of 1970 Buddy and Phil Guy joined a collection of future rock and roll superstars, including Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Band, and the Flying Burrito Brothers and others, on the infamous Festival Express. The Festival Express was a train that rock and rolled, jammed and partied, day and night across Canada – making concert stops in Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. It was a multi-band, multi-day extravaganza that captured the spirit and imagination of a generation and a nation. Long lost film, never seen before of the ride was found in the 1990’s and made into a documentary nearly 35 years later. Speaking of the rare footage of Phil and Buddy jamming on the train and performing in Winnipeg, Phil chuckled about his wild afro, beard and clothes recalling, “It was a great musical experience . . . I was a hippie back then.”

Phil spent quite a few years as a backing musician. Besides playing with Buddy, Raful Neal, and Junior Wells, he backed up Son Seals, Albert Collins, Koko Taylor, Memphis Slim, John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton. “Big Mama Thornton was wild! She was kind of like a female Junior Wells!” Phil explained.

During the mid 1970’s and into the mid 1980’s disco, rock and roll, and pop were what audiences wanted to hear. There was no money in playing the blues. Phil needed to support his family, so he picked up whatever work he could.

Occasionally, good things happened in the dry blues years. In 1979, Phil and Buddy were on tour in France. Out of the blue, promoter Didier Tricard asked Buddy if he wanted to record an album. Buddy thought it was a joke, but insisted that if he was serious, he would only record if the label was named after their mother, Isabell. From that, right in the middle of the disco craze came, Stone Crazy.

Phil struck out on his own in the 1990’s and formed his band Phil Guy and The Chicago Machine. His albums include: Tina Nu (1994) JSP label, All Star Chicago Blues Session (1994), Breaking out on Top (1995), Chicago’s Hottest Blues Session, Vol. 25 (1998), Track 16 – A Selection of the Best Modern Blues (2000), and Say What You Mean (2000) – JSP label. *** 2006 Phil's newest CD "He's My Blues Brother" - Black Eyed Sally's Music label.

Phil’s highly praised Say What You Mean CD showcases his exceptional penned lyrics in “Fixin to Die,” “For the last Time,”and “Last of the Blues Singers.” Coupled with Phil’s intense tone and soul vocals and mixed in with his emotion-filled guitar playing, his performances are Chicago savvy, his audiences always wanting more.

Phil Guy has become one of Chicago’s most rock solid and legendary blues performers. Not afraid to tackle anything or any genre, he mixes his performances with R& B, rock-and-roll - and hip-hop - entertaining people of all ages.

Phil acknowledges that “the 1990’s are gone, and now in the 2000’s, everybody’s back on the floor dancing.”

Phil Guy is always ready to boogie and give the people what they want – whether it’s some down home Louisiana blues, Sweet Home Chicago Blues, Funky James Brown tunes, Rolling Stones “Missing You,” or today’s hip-hop – Phil delivers more than what audiences expect. “Fun” should be his middle name.

Phil Guy's website

Hey Bo Diddley!!! Hey Bo Diddley!!!

2008-06-03T14:45:00.007+03:00

Jacksonville, Florida, June 2nd, 2008,
The cigar box guitar has been silenced,
Bo Diddley has passed on...

"She rolled right up to my front door,
Knocked an knocked 'till her fist got sore,
When she turned and walked away,
All I could hear my baby say:

Hey bo diddley, oh bo diddley,
Hey bo diddley, oh bo diddley."

Bo Diddley - "Have Guitar Will Travel"

I think that one of the most incongruous and kitsch album covers I have ever seen was the Bo Diddley record album "Have Guitar Will Travel" from 1959, and now that Bo Diddley has passed on, I was thinking that this also may symbolize the man - a mix of kitsch and flashy facade with the "real thing" to back it up.

What I mean is that behind the gimmick of the rectangular bodied bright red guitar, the flashy clothes, glasses and haircut, this man could really produce the goods!!
He created a new style of playing the electric guitar, a new set of jumpy Blues rhythms, and a treasure of catchy new songs in the Blues and Rock and Roll idiom.

Between 1955 and 1959 Bo Diddley wrote and recorded a number of unforgettable Blues and/or Rock and Roll songs that have become both standards of the Blues and Rock and Roll tradition, as well as identifiable icons for Bo Diddley himself.
Among these are:
I'm a Man,
Bo Diddley,
Who Do You Love,
Hey Bo Diddley,
Diddley Daddy,
Before You Accuse Me
You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)
Hush Your Mouth
Bring it to Jerome
Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover (written by Willie Dixon)

Rest in peace Ellas "Bo Diddley" McDaniel
the angels up in heaven must now be dancing to a funkier beat!!!

Who Do You Love?
Ellas McDaniel (Bo Diddley) 1956

I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire, I got a cobra snake for a necktie
A brand new house on the road side, and it's a-made out of rattlesnake hide
Got a band new chimney made on top, and it's a-made out of human skull
Come on take a little walk with me Arlene, and tell me who do you love?

Who do you love? Who do you love?
Who do you love? Who do you love?

I've got a tombstone hand in a graveyard mind,
just twenty-two and I don't mind dying

Who do you love? (4x)

I rode around the town, used a rattlesnake whip,
take it easy Arlene don't give me no lip

Who do you love? (4x)

The night were dark when the sky was blue, down the alley a ice wagon flew
hit a bump and somebody screamed, you should've heard what I seen

Who do you love? (4x)

Now Arlene took a-me by my hand,
she said "ooh ee Bo you know I understand, who do you love?"

Who do you love? (4x)

This month at the Fingerboard Coffeehouse - Champagne Charlie!!!

2008-06-01T17:27:00.003+03:00

On Saturday, November 26, 1977, in the basement of the 519 Church St. Community Center in Toronto, Canada, Thom "Champagne Charlie" Roberts gave a command performance at the Fingerboard Coffeehouse.
The poster for the Fingerboard was designed and drawn by my multi-talented cousin Elliott Rovan.
I had just taken over the management of the Fingerboard at the end of August, and I had befriended Champagne Charlie earlier in the year. I was quite honored to have an artist of his professional caliber and style in the club, as most of the artists who performed there were not necessarily seasoned professional musicians - many were on their way to becoming established or even famous, but few had the stature or history that someone like Champagne Charlie had at that time.
Champagne Charlie would play with his big chimney sweep moustache, opened the Martin guitar case with the large Donald Duck decal on the back, and pulled out his Martin 000-28 (triple "O" twenty eight), a sweet sounding guitar that I dreamed of buying for myself for only the last thirty years...
I don't recall the exact repertoire that he played, but most likely it included a few Rev. Gary Davis songs and instrumentals, as Thom taught me some of them later as our friendship progressed. Songs like "Death Don't Have No Mercy", "the Maple Leaf Rag", "Cincinnati Flow Rag", "Buck Dance" were regular parts of Champagne Charlie's arsenal, as were "The Beat From Rampart Street", "Yas Yas Yas", "Windin Boy", and other Ragtime and New Orleans parlor type Blues songs.

"The Beat From Rampart Street", a song by Larry "Fast Fingers" Johnson from his first solo album, is an upbeat two-step with a tricky double-syncopated beat that was very hard to learn at first - I think it took me two months or more before I could play that pattern automatically. That song is still one of my favorites, and I perform it to this day.

Here are the humorous lyrics:

"Well gather 'round people, gonna sing a little song
Pay close attention, 'cause it won't be long
Gonna sing about that beat, down on Ramapart Street

Looky here people what Rampart's done
Made Grandma marry her young grandson
When she heard that beat, down on Ramapart Street

Playin'nice an' easy,
Soft and sweet
When you hear that beat, down on Ramapart Street

Now I have a little cousin named Cripple Lou John,
He dropped his crutches and walked right on
When he heard that beat, down on Ramapart Street

Yeah John, nice to see you standing straight again
come on over and do that two step for us

Now my old aunty loved my uncle so
That she dropped her drawers like years ago
When she heard that beat, down on Ramapart Street

Now when I die, don't bury me at all,
Just pickle my bones in alcohol
Gonna hear that beat, down on Ramapart Street

You can hear it in the alley
You can hear cross the fence,
By golly it don't make no sense,
Talkin' 'bout that beat, down on Ramapart Street

Playin' all night long,
Let me hear that band moan
Playin'nice an' easy,
Soft and sweet
When you hear that beat, down on Ramapart Street,
that's all!"

R.I.P. Champagne Charlie a.k.a. Thom Roberts

2008-05-15T07:48:00.010+03:00

Thomas Charles Roberts a.k.a. Champagne Charlie, Canadian Jazz, Blues, and Ragtime guitarist and singer, born in Ottawa on January 5th, 1945, passed away in Guelph Ontario on April 4th, 2008. Thom was a good friend, and important musical mentor to me.

"Champagne Charlie is my name
Champagne Charlie is my name,
Champagne Charlie is my name by golly,
and roguein' an' stealin' is my game"
- Blind (Arthur) Blake

Sketch of Champagne Charlie in concert
(copyright Eli Marcus 1977)

I first met Thom in the personage of Champagne Charlie, Ragtime guitarist extraordinaire, at the Fingerboard Cafe in downtown Toronto. It was a Wednesday night , March 16, 1977, and a young Colin Linden (almost 17) and also Dave McClean were on hand to make it the perfect evening of Blues music at the small Folk-club in the basement of the 519 Church St community center. I was very impressed with all three performers, but Champagne Charlie, with his chimney-sweep black moustache that covered his mouth, a dark cap of some kind and a nice black dinner jacket impressed me the most. Thom also had a distinctive guitar - a Martin 000-28 which is slightly more compact than a standard full sized guitar, yet has a much fuller and rounder tone.

The blue Martin hardshell case that carried his guitar also had a large Donald Duck decal on the back, so you could spot Thom a mile away just by his guitar case.
That night at the Fingerboard I befriended Thom, and over the next few months he and I would hang out at different clubs where he or Colin were playing. Thom had many colorful stories about his history in music and life in general, and even if they didn't all ring true, it was fascinating to hear him tell them. He definitely had a distinctive style to his voice whether he was singing or speaking, as well as a very unique and hearty laugh.

One late summer night, close to midnight, Thom and I were walking through the streets of downtown Toronto, when we came upon a nice chair that was put out on the corner for garbage. Now, you must understand that a nice chair with a good padded seat, no arm rests, and just the right height is something of value to an acoustic guitarist to be able to sit comfortably when you play guitar - so Thom gave me his guitar case to carry, and he loaded that chair on his shoulder, and off we went.

We stopped off at the co-op student rooming house where I lived at the time,
went into a vacant room with a wooden floor, Thom sat on his newly acquired chair, and I sat on a guitar case. It was sometime around midnight, the proverbial bewitching hour when Blues musicians sell their souls to the devil to acquire more musical prowess... Thom showed me a few Ragtime style chords and progressions to a Reverend Gary Davis tune (probably "Death Don't Have No Mercy"), and to a tune called "The Beat From Ramparts Street". That is how Thom became my musical mentor.

A friend of mine from the University had just opened up a little cafe on Brunswick Ave. and Thom and I spent hours playing music and just taking it easy there (the food was pretty good too!).
Later that summer, I had to leave the Innis College co-op residence, and I had no idea where I would find a place to live. Thom told me there was a little one room "bachelorette" apartment next to him up at 159 Walmer Rd. - I ended up living there for the next two years. During that time, Thom and I became great friends, and Thom had decided to study a bit of formal Jazz guitar, and he would pass on tips and songs to me, and sometimes we'd accompany each other on old Duke Ellington tunes and others he was learning at the time, the doors to our rooms were always open when we were home, and for a while Thom was like the older brother I never had...

I'll leave you with a song - one of Thom's favorite tunes at the time was a number written by Duke Ellington and Bob Russell, and covered by singers like Billie Holiday and Nat King Cole. Thom would sing it out loud and put special emphasis on the very last line:

"Do Nothing 'Till You Hear From me"

Do nothing till you hear from me
Pay no attention to what's said
Why one should tear the seam of anyone's dream
Is over my head

Do nothing till you hear from me
At least consider our romance
If you should take the word of others you've heard
I haven't a chance

True, I've been seen with someone new
But does that mean that I'm untrue?
While we're apart, the words in my heart
Reveal how I feel about you

Some kiss may cloud my memory
And other arms may hold a thrill
But please do nothing till you hear it from me
And you never will!

42 IF - Jeff Healey's birthday - and a "Mess of Blues"

2008-03-25T13:52:00.010+02:00

Jeff Healey would be 42 years old by now had he survived the cancer that plagued him throughout his life (Healey passed away in Toronto, Canada on March 2nd, 2008, and his 42nd birthday was on Tuesday March 25th, 2008 )
Well, Happy Birthday Jeff, wherever you may be!!!

Last month, hardly a fortnight after he passed away, "Mess of Blues", Healey's first commercial album in 8 years was released in Europe - an album chock full of Blues, Rock & Roll, and just plain fun music!

Starting with Sonny Thompson's upbeat Blues classic "I'm Tore Down" (often identified with Otis Rush), Healey is at home both vocally and on guitar as he goes from straight electric Blues to slightly more modern Rock territory. Next is the classic "How Blue Can You Get" with a very soulful guitar solo by Jeff. Four of the tunes on this album were recorded live on stage in London England, and at Healey's own club in Toronto (Healey's Roadhouse), but the studio tracks also have the quality of a live show because they were recorded with the same band that he played with onstage for a good number of years, and they are all very comfortable with each other both on stage and in the studio.
The next tune is a vintage 50's Blues-Rock & Roll chestnut named "Sugar Sweet" which Healey performs in his own inimitable way and then he ventures into the Lousianna Bayou, letting loose with the good time swamp tune "Jambalaya".
Next up is "the Weight", the old standard made famous by the Band back in the movie Easy Rider, which seems to be making a revival lately as at least 3-4 other artists have recently covered the tune on their newest releases.

The album title tune, the Doc Pomus song "Mess of Blues" was a hit for Elvis Presley way back when, and Healey has fun with this upbeat Rock & Roll number.

Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane" brings Healey's special emotional rendition and has all the makings of the designated "hit single" from the album, and hopefully it could become a posthumous commercial hit for the benefit of Healey's wife and young children.
The album closes with a light rendition of the folk/bluegrass/country Blues standard from the 1920's - "Sittin' On Top of the World", and the Rock & Roll standard "Shake Rattle and Roll".
Overall, this is a fun album filled with lots of Blues and the joy of music. The band is tight and professional all the way, but the session is pretty laid back, and Healey is playing to please both himself and his regular audience at the club...

Rest in peace brother Jeff, even though you left us much too soon, you've earned your place in heaven.

Kelly Joe Phelps - a style that's all his own

2008-02-28T08:15:00.001+02:00

Kelly Joe Phelps -
“Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind”
live concert recordings
Rykodisc, 2004
*********************************
A few years ago on the Blues discussion groups on the internet (Blues-L), I was reading the occasional comment about this guy out in the Northwest who was a new phenomenon of the acoustic blues and slide guitar. It took me a while before I could get my hands on his first three albums, “Lead Me On“, “Roll Away The Stone”, and “Shine Eyed Mister Zen”.

Kelly Joe Phelps soon rose to popular acclaim and fame in Folk and Blues circles. While the first three albums were classic solo acoustic ventures, his next two albums became more complex and filled with additional instrumentation and personnel, which spoiled for me the intimate, immediate and personal nature of his music.
Now comes a new album that was recorded live, with only a man and his guitar – pure, bare, personal, meditative, lovely!

The album opens with a 10 minute rendition of the classic Nehemiah (Skip) James “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” and also includes a cover of the Rev. Gary Davis tune “I Am the Light of This World” (which has been identified with Jorma Kaukonen’s repertoire for the past 35 years).There are plenty of evocative and lyrical singer-songwriter folk numbers penned by Phelps, alongside the Blues numbers which are his forte.

Kelly Joe Phelps is a fine guitar picker as well as slide player, playing with the acoustic guitar on his lap. He also has a very pleasant mellow voice with just a hint of that smoky rasp of singers like Dave Van Ronk. This album is highly recommended for late night listening, meditation, or for those who love hearing lots of fine acoustic guitar fingerpicking…

Geoff Muldaur - Blues with class

2008-02-28T08:08:00.004+02:00

Geoff Muldaur
“the Secret Handshake” (Hightone Records, 1998)
“Password” (Hightone Records, 2000)
**************************
Geoff Muldaur has class, and that is a double entendre, because he not only has class in the sense of culture and quality, but he also has a thing or two to teach us, as if her were holding classes in Blues and Jazz appreciation.

I have always known that Geoff Muldaur has impeccable taste in music, his repertoire has always been a wide mix of styles that are both entertaining and instructive. More often than not, his repertoire has inspired me to go do a bit of research and discover new artists or musical sub-styles in the rich American Folk/Blues/Jazz heritage that I wasn’t previously aware of or familiar with. Longtime fans of Ry Cooder will know what I’m talking about, if he doesn’t already have one, Geoff Muldaur should have an honorary degree in ethnomusicology…

Geoff has always made music very personal, never compromising over the arrangements or orchestrations or complexity of musical ideas, nor the fine musicians that accompany him. He began recording in the mid 60’s with the (Jim) Kweskin Jug Band alongside his wife, singer Maria (born D’Amato) Muldaur, continuing with his own solo efforts with Maria, and also as part of Paul Butterfield’s Better Days band. He even had a bit of good fortune when his recording of the song “Brazil” was used as the theme song in the popular Terry Gilliam futuristic science-fantasy film “Brazil”.

I recently rediscovered the magic that Geoff does with music in a pair of solo albums on Hightone records – “the Secret Handshake” (1998) and “Password” (2000). Both records are similar in their scope and flavor, labeled by Muldaur as “American Music: Blues and Gospel”, ‘though for my tastes I would characterize the first one as more dynamic and eclectic, and the second one as more subdued and introspective.
Make no mistake, both albums are interesting and varied, but I simply feel a stronger connection to “Secret Handshake”.

The album begins with an acoustic rendering of “The Wild Ox Moan” (from the late 30’s Library of Congress recordings of Vera Hall) where Geoff does a beautiful falsetto moan. The opening number is followed by a full brass band and vocal choir for the Gospel classic “This World Is Not My Home” and then we suddenly switch to a Zydeco groove for the classic Leadbelly song “Alberta”. This is followed by a quiet personal tale of Geoff’s escapades as a youth in trying to find the grave of Blind Lemon Jefferson in East Texas in order to sweep it off as the classic Blind Lemon verse on the gravestone epitaph requests – “see that my grave is kept clean”- “Got To Find Blind Lemon – Part One” (part two can be heard on the album “Password”).
A couple more Zydeco style numbers follow, a country stringband number, a solo piano and vocal song, a lovely blues arrangement of Sleepy John Estes’ “Someday Baby”, and closing with solo vocal and guitar. I can almost guarantee that you’ll play this album over and over again before you have heard enough.

Some Memories of Willie P. Bennett

2008-02-25T21:19:00.004+02:00

I keep getting the picture in my mind of a festival (probably the Ottawa Festival For the Folks, summer 1977 or 1978)
where it started pouring rain in the afternoon, and everyone was looking for shelter,
Willie spontaneously (or so it seemed to me) saved the day by starting to perform in some old dinning hall on the grounds,
completely acoustically, no mics or amplifiers,
as all of us huddled inside - it was hard to hear, but still a great experience - experiencing his voice live in front of you was always something special....

or the time that he showed up at the Toronto Folklore Centre (TFC) on Avenue RD. (in an old redbrick house on the west side,right near the bridge of the railroad tracks) right after he had shaved his head for the first time and everyone was inspecting and questioning him, and he just picked up a harmonica and started to play...he used to hang out at the TFC quite often in the middle of the day, sometimes trying out guitars, sometimes just resting (or waking up)...I wasn't on speaking terms with him, just on "hey there" nodding to each other kind of terms.

these are some of the nice memories I have of him

R.I.P. - Willie P. Bennett

2008-02-25T18:27:00.005+02:00

I just received the sad news today -
legendary Canadian Folk/Country singer songwriter Willie P. Bennett
has passed on to the other side following heart trouble over the last year.
*************************
****Willie P. Bennett****
October 26 1951 - February 15, 2008
http://www.williepbennett.com/
***********************************
Some of you may have heard me speak in reverence of Willie P. Bennett and
I have sung his songs many times at the local Tel Aviv Folk Club and other venues,
songs such as "Take My Own Advice" or the song quoted at the end of this post, "Down to the Water".
I think that the best way we can help commemorate this man is by learning more about him and his music
you can hear many of his songs here: http://www.williepbennett.com/sounds.html

I feel so lucky to have known Willie back in the glory days of Folk Festivals
and Folk Clubs in the late 70's in the Toronto area.
Willie was a one of a kind troubadour, guitarist, mandolin player, harmonica player,
and a powerful singer with a deep voice.
He was an amazing songwriter who could make you laugh, or melt your heart, or leave your jaw hanging in awe of his lovely words.
He was a man who "didn't take sh*t from no one", and dealt in the bare truths of life in his writing.

It is no wonder that three of his musical friends formed a popular band based on his music - "Blackie and the Rodeo Kings" or "B.A.R.K." (after one of Willie's classic songs)with Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing, and Tom Wilson, and sometimes Willie himself joined in.

here are the lyrics to one of Willie's classic songs:

"Down To the Water"
From "Tryin' To Start Out Clean"
LP originally released 1975

My mind was sinking in a sea of darkness
My eyes were blinded by the light of you
The reasons for leaving were not all that harmless
The lessons I learned both straight and true
The stars were rising in a light of triumph
The time for leaving was about half gone
The sun was drowning in sea of silver
My heart was as low as the sun in the dawn

So come on...
Let's go down to the water
And show me what you think is the truth
You know that you could
Let's go down to the water
I'd show you my crown if I could

My mouth was frozen in a thousand faces
My words were hanging in the air
My thoughts were scattered in a thousand places
How come you start out running scared
The time was running on a little further, and further
The moon was rising right beside your head
You always lose yourself in someone else's need
Always looking to find love in a bed

So come on...
Let's go down to the water
And show me what you think is the truth
You know that you could
Let's go down to the water
I'd show you my crown if I could

Thinking about the ways of the seagull
Spending my time on every one
You could keep on reaching out forever and forever
With out ever touching anyone

So come on...
Let's go down to the water
And show me what you think is the truth
You know that you could
Let's go down to the water
I'd show you my crown if I could

here is a message from Willie's website:
"Dear friends,

It is with pain in our hearts and deep sadness that we formally inform the music community that our friend, lover, troubadour, mentor, and musical artist Willie P. Bennett passed away suddenly at his home in Peterborough Ontario, Friday February 15th 2008.

More information will be available soon at the discretion of Willie's partner Linda and the Bennett family.

Thank you for your compassionate words and positive thoughts. Willie always expected the best from us, especially in our kindnesses to each other, and I am sure he is still proud to call us his friends.

Letters of condolence and support may be sent to:

his companion in love,

Ms. Linda Duemo,
272 Bold Street
Hamilton Ontario L8P 1W2

his family,

Mrs. Margaret Bennett
Box 526
Picture Butte, Alberta T0K 1V0

care of his mother Margaret, sister Esther, (son Richard Barrett, wife Judy,grand-nephews William James and Jason Alexander), and brothers David (Brian), and Paul (Shelley, nephews Ryan, Adam and Brandon)

".....we'll understand it all in time......."

Best wishes to you all

Robin "

The previous 8 posts were formerly on another ...

2008-02-24T23:15:00.004+02:00

The previous 8 posts were formerly on another blog that I thought might be a good idea - "Now Playing In My Car", record reviews combined with gripes about driving my car to work or elsewhere on the highway,
but alas, nobody seemed to notice.
So here they are again, maybe someone will take notice and try some of these recording out for themselves!

John Scofield - Blue Matter

2008-02-24T23:09:00.001+02:00

Ok, so I'm driving home again after an annoying and tiring day at the office, where I also felt at one point like I had food poisoning from the onion soup at the vegetarian restaurant...I needed a cool kind of album to "chill out" on the way home.

I've got the windows down to enjoy some of the breeze of the fall night, as I slip in another of my favorite John Scofield albums - "Blue Matter" .
If "Still Warm" has a warmish texture to it, "Blue Matter" is a bit more cool and distanced, especially due to some of the seriously dated synthesizer sounds from Mitchell Forman - if there is one thing that seems to date an album more than anything else, it's the embarrassing synth sounds that are often used in many 70's and 80's recordings, in Fusion and modern Jazz in particular. Getting past that, this album still has some great tunes on it with a killer rhythm section in bassist Gary Grainger and super drummer Dennis Chambers.

I saw Dennis Chambers live once or twice, and he nearly stole the show the second time - he is such a powerful and funky drummer with an amazing groove, that I don't think anyone today can come near him in this niche, I mean he's like Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham, and Dave Weckl all in one, playing on amphetamines...

As I'm waiting for some of the congestion to clear up along the 2 1/2 lane boulevard that passes by the Yarkon river, I get a waft of the local sewage treatment station along the way - oh putrid!!! - gotta crank up the volume on "Now She's Blond" and try to ignore the olfactory affront. As I pass the Diamond Exchange business area, another waft of sewage comes up - you can also get that whnever you pass by the Sheraton City Tower on the highway heading north, it always seems to smell terrible around there, at least for the last 3-4 years...

I flip back to one of my favorites - "Blue Matter", the first track on this album and what originally sold me on it when I bought the fine German pressing of the LP around 20 years ago, and I used to sit with the album and try to pick out the tune on my own guitar.

Just a couple of years after that album came out, I managed to help persuade someone that it would be a good idea to have Scofield over here for a live concert or two, and I even got to meet my idol and get him to autograph my Ibanez guitar (a similar model to the one that he plays).

Cool, I've chilled out now...

John Scofield - Still Warm

2008-02-24T23:08:00.002+02:00

On average,I have a 20 minute ride from home to work each day. Usually, this involves weaving in and out of high traffic areas and some driving on the highway. Every morning is a different story, and every morning there is a new set of "challenges" to face.
Music helps to take off the edge, to help me ignore or forgive the countless inconsiderate assholes and idiots out there on the road who are either a danger to you and everyone else, or just a nuisance for which you need supreme amounts of patience in order not to loose your cool...

This morning I placed in my CD player one of my all time favorite Jazz/Fusion guitar albums - John Scofield's "Still Warm" from 1986. I admit that I am a total John Scofield addict, and I have loved many of his albums over the years, but I keep coming back to "Still Warm". After all these years, I think that it has become a kind of classic. The different tones, colors, the rhythms, the mix of subtlety and boldness on this album are the result of an unusual team of players from different parts of the musical spectrum - guitarist Scofield and keyboard player Don Grolnick are from more mainstream and slightly traditional Jazz backgrounds, while drummer Omar Hakim and bassist Daryl Jones are from more commercial Jazz/Fusion/Rock origins.

As I'm winding through traffic on the main street in the city, I jump to track 5 - "Rule Of Thumb" which begins with a delicate keyboard rhythm, and then turns into a delicate but funky and upbeat collaboration between Daryl Jones lightly snapping the bass and Hakim on a solid funk riff, as "Sco" adds some pizzicato picking. As I am forced to weave in and out of different lanes to avoid the stupid rich-bitch that has double parked her car and has the door open - further obstructing the right hand lane...the music soothes my pain, makes it easier to grin and bear it 'till I actually get onto the highway.

The gentle but steady sounds of track 6 "Picks and Pans" begin, the fast pace of the traffic matches the music, and the idiots that can't seem to choose a lane to stay in are easier to ignore as I hold back a little and turn up the volume on Sco's long solo.

I flip back to track 2 "Still Warm", an up tempo but fairly quiet tune, very subtle and understated both in the playing and the harmonic composition - this is a great relaxation tune that doesn't put you to sleep. I'm rounding the corner now to the neighborhood of my office building, traffic seems fairly clear now, all the way up to a few meters from the entrance to the building - that's when all hell seems to break loose as all sorts of inconsiderate and impatient people are making U-turns and blocking traffic in both directions as other impatient people try to weave around them...all I can do is put up the volume a bit and wait in line...at least another 5 minutes before the mess resolves itself and I can make it into the parking garage as the first track "Techno" starts playing.

There, I made it safely to work once more,
another annoying morning in traffic,
but I had John Scofield to keep me company
and I managed not to blow my stack...

the Pentangle - Live at Royal Festival Hall 1968

2008-02-24T23:06:00.002+02:00

Last night as I drove home from work, I was feeling a bit ill and very tired, sort of like serious jet lag. I put in my CD player a recording of the Pentangle live in concert from the Royal Festival Hall, June 29, 1968...and I was already starting to feel a bit better.

I've been a big fan of the Pentangle and all of the individual members too for over 30 years, but I don't recall the last time I gave them a good listen in the past year. So last night as I was negotiating the tricky turns of the newly built but badly mis-planned bridge near the big Ramat Gan Mall complex, it was a great delight to once again hear the delicate tones of Jacqui McShee singing "Hear My Call" and "Way Behind the Sun". As her voice gives way to the rest of the band in improvisation mode, I recalled the greatness of this ensemble - who took Elizabethan style Folk songs and zapped them with pure Jazz and Blues feeling.

The bowed Bass riff that Danny Thompson plays at the start of "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" invokes a real Blues feeling, as does the rhythm that is later established by the rest of the band - this song is probably 300 years old or more, but they have made it totally 20th century.

As I turn into the underpass that leads me home - only about 2 km left to go, I hear Bert Jansch's unmistakable voice begin singing "A Woman Like You" with his lovely acoustic guitar sounds in the background. Jansch is one of the first virtuoso guitarists that I ever became enamored with, and his playing can still make the hairs rise on the back of my neck to this day.

It's such a pleasure to be able to listen to the Pentangle again in this digital age where so much of the recent musical offerings seem to be a rehashing of yesterday's commercial trash over and over again. So go out today and get yourself a Pentangle album!!!

Root Doctor - "Change Our Ways"

2008-02-24T23:04:00.005+02:00

I just received the new CD from Root Doctor Band a couple of days ago, so this morning I gave it a "test drive" so to speak on my way to work.

It was a fairly normal day today, with moderate traffic as I got onto the highway. But of course, the laws of "Carma" - the cosmological laws of driving and traffic, have a way of balancing out your experience sometimes. What you gain in a break in traffic at one part of your journey, you certainly will lose as you encounter a minor jam somewhere further on up the road.

Root Doctor are an interesting band of mostly young Blues musicians fronted by a more veteran vocalist named Freddie Cunningham. Cunningham has one of those soulful voices that have a rich rounded tone and deep vibrato or sustain in his technique. He wouldn't stand out that much among old style R&B/ Soul singers, but in the Blues idiom it adds a breath of fresh air and a different take on the Blues.

Root Doctor are a tight band with a good dose of Soul and Funk in their playing, but they can certainly prove their mainstream Blues roots as well. Their previous album from last year (Been A Long Time Coming - Big O Records 2406)impressed me as a fresh new band on the scene, and this new CD just keeps up that good feeling with a selection of original tunes, and some interesting covers.

One such cover, "Soul Shine" by Warren Haynes, is a very pleasant surprise since I am a very big fan of Warren and his band Gov't Mule, and Root Doctor do a fine cover of this inspirational song.

Well, I finally made it through that last surprise traffic jam just 800 meters from the office, and managed to slip into the parking lot without event as I flipped to the first track on the CD - "Blues Will Take Care of You", written by their keyboard man Jim Alfredson, a very nice Blues song to carry with me through my day...

Frank Zappa - OZ Live

2008-02-24T23:03:00.001+02:00

I think that I first remember hearing Zappa back in high school at some friend's basement after school. I recall the song Dyna-Moe-Hum,so I guess it was the Over-Nite Sensation album that was on the turntable at the time. As I drove home tonight, facing the wind-down of the weekend, tired from the whole week of work and other little worries of life, I tried to play a Jazz album that I recently acquired, but my car CD player refused to register it properly - even though it was an official commercial pressing. So I slipped in the burned copy I have of Frank Zappa's OZ double CD - live from Sydney Australia back in January of 1976.

I love Frank Zappa, I have always thought of him as the greatest genius of the Rock/Pop/Contemporary music field - he could do it all - compose, write lyrics, play amazing guitar, sing, produce, promote, perform , conduct an orchestra, and of course, he had vision and an amazingly sharp wit.

A number of DVDs and video clippings have recently become available with segments from Frank's 1973 band performances with the great Napolean Murphy Brock on Sax and , mania, and vocals. Well, Napolean is also on hand at the Australian tour that is featured on OZ. It's always fun to hear some of Frank's on stage talk and antics from a live show, and this show is no different - die hard fans can probably pickup all the nuances and variations in this show over other performances, and that is part of what makes each live recording a unique experience and a fresh take on something you may have heard many times before.

As long as I can listen to the guitar solo masterpiece "Black Napkins", I'm cool. That tune is one of my top 5 all time greatest guitar instrumentals of all time and all music. It was originally presented on the album "Zoot Allures", where Zappa and his studio editing magic has it dissolve into the surreal song "The Torture Never Stops". I can't ever seem to get enough of that tune "Black Napkins"

I'm sure I'll play this double CD a number of times in my car in the months to come...

Bill Withers - Acoustic Soul!!!

2008-02-24T23:02:00.001+02:00

Sunday morning traffic is always the heaviest around the greater Tel Aviv area, as well as other parts of the country. A large number of traffic jams seem to be unnecessarily caused by drivers who simply don't know how to use lanes properly - they hesitate too much, block exit lanes that could easily flow faster if they were surer of themselves or decisive in any way.
To compound all that, there is a fanning out or widening funnel effect caused by assholes who try to cut in further down the line and block additional lanes that are not part of the exit, this causes a chain reaction that slows down the rest of the lanes, causing a traffic jam backup of a few miles...So I wanted a mellow album to help me be patient, and also to try to wake up. I took along the new Bill Withers Super Hits compilation that I picked up last Friday.

Sundays are hard days to get back to work, the one and a half day weekend is short, and I'm quite often still very tired - the body wakes up at 6:30 in the morning, but the brain sometimes takes it's sweet time in fully waking up 'till around one hour after I arrive at the office...

I was just starting high school as Bill Withers began hitting the charts with songs like "Ain't No Sunshine (When She's Gone)", "Use Me", "When I'm Kissing My Love", and the following year, "Grandma's Hands" and his all time classic "Lean On Me".
I consider Withers to be a real crossover artist - someone with true R&B sensibilities - he started his career teamed up with Booker T. Jones.
Withers played acoustic guitar and wrote very catchy pop-oriented tunes, so it's not surprising that he made it big at the time as part of the Pop-Folk-Singer/Songwriter scene. Many of his songs are timeless, standing up today as well as they did back then when I would hear them on Boston radio stations all the time, and I have performed his classic "Lean On Me" quite a few times on stage over the years.

Well, maybe it was the karma of Bill Withers' music, and maybe it was sheer luck, but once I got past the unnecessary jam in the Sheraton City Towers area of the highway, the rest was smooth sailing, and I was in the office trying to wake up in no time...

Mingus is God

2008-02-24T23:01:00.001+02:00

Tuesday, the middle of the work week, another one of those unexplained traffic slowdowns where the highway seems like a parking lot more than a thruway. Just as soon as I entered the highway from the La Guardia exit, I was already making my way back out at the Shalom exit, to continue up the main road parallel to the highway, that takes me northward to the edge of the urban center.

There is an old Jazz musician's joke about the musician who just arrived in heaven, and is sitting in at the big band rehearsal with all the great legends of Jazz, and there is one guy in the corner with a trumpet playing something awful. The punchline is: "oh, that's just God, he thinks he's Miles". Well to me, Mingus has always been and always will be God.

I finally cracked open that Mingus at Antibes CD that my buddy Yair gave to me for my birthday. This is a classic live session (so many of Mingus's recordings are...) from a festival on July 13, 1960 at Juan Le Pins, France. On hand with "Chazz" (Mingus never liked the nickname Charlie - he felt it was demeaning like calling a Black man "boy")were Ted Curson (Tpt), Eric Dolphy (various reeds), Booker Ervin (T Sax), and Dannie Richmond (Dms), with special guest Bud Powell sitting in on one song.
The first tune, "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" is true Mingus, a happy and upbeat Gospel song that allows each of the musicians to stretch out a bit and "present their case" as it were with Mingus egging them on with shouts and screams as well as his bass riffs.
The third track, "What Love" has an amazing blowing session as both Curson and Dolphy get to really explore some of the "outer limits", Curson soloing first, followed by Dolphy, who then gets into a direct dialog of call and response with Mingus's bass and the encouragement by Dannie Richmond from time to time.

As I make the turn into Devora Ha Nevia St. I see a bit of a slowdown, so I try the shortcut through the Ramat Hachayal residential neighborhood, only to find just as big a pileup on Raoul Wallenberg. Well, I finally get through it all as I hear the beginning of "I'll Remember April" with Bud Powell as a guest on piano.
It must have been a very hot day on stage at Juan Le Pins that day,
Mingus is God!!!

Todd Wolfe - Live

2008-02-24T23:00:00.002+02:00

OK, my body is moving toward the car, but my brain doesn't seem to be fully awake yet.
I've got a piece of cake and my portable coffee mug (with a spring loaded seal at the top for drinking and driving) filled with hot Turkish coffee/swill.
I pop a live CD of Todd Wolfe in the player and get going while the getting is good.
It's a nice sunny day today, not hot, just pleasant. As I get onto the highway and start devouring the cake, I realize that some days you just gotta get tough with traffic - you gotta seize the moment and get past all the idiots who are hogging a lane while driving 60 kph while everyone else is up at 80-100 kph.
It doesn't hurt to have the hot guitar work of Todd Wolfe playing "The Cissy Strut" in the background, as I find the empty holes in traffic to maneuver around the slow-pokes and get myself ahead in line and into a more free and open zone of traffic going 100-120 kph.

"Cissy Strut" has become a minor classic instrumental piece favored by Jazz, Rock, and even some Blues artists, it was originally written and recorded by the New Orleans funk band the Meters. I first heard it on one of John Scofield's late 1980's albums, and in recent years I've discovered recordings by the Derek Trucks Band, Gov't Mule, Danny Gatton and Redneck Jazz Explosion, and by Jaco Pastorius playing with Hiram Bullock.

Two tracks later, and Wolfe is doing the early BB King number "Woke Up This Morning" from BB's first recordings in the 50's.
I've now managed to sip at least half the coffee and taste the strong Turkish coffee aroma from the Galilee with cardamom and ginger and other special Yemenite coffee spices that I put in this morning, this is no ordinary coffee at all, it is a festival of flavors.
A little background on Todd Wolfe - he's a hot Blues-Rock guitarist that I was alerted to by someone who returned from a year in New York and was a number one fan of Todd's live shows, and brought me a few CDs of his music.
Wolfe has a good bit of professional mileage behind him, playing in assorted Rock and Blues bands in the 80's on the east coast, followed by a five years working closely with Sheryl Crow both as guitarist and co writer, but then he turned his back on the Rock and Roll fame game, and decided to return to the Blues. More power to him!! for keeping the Blues alive and for reaching new and young audiences with the Blues.

As I approach the high tech industrial area where I work, Todd is singing the Peter Green classic "I Need Your Love So Bad"
I guess that getting tough paid off this morning as it was a relatively short ride with no serious nerve wracking situations...

"Fuzzaneli" - in memory of a true friend

2007-09-01T00:43:00.001+03:00

Michael Jeffrey "Fuzz" Friend was a good friend to me back in my college days at Innis College in the University of Toronto. I just got the news today of his passing away last Friday, August 24th, 2007.

My first encounter with Fuzz was hearing him growling an expletive like "turkey shit" or "You look just like death warmed over" or "there goes some sex on the hoof..." at someone in the Innis College Student Society office in the "old building" of Innis College on St. George St.
I soon learned that Fuzz spoke this way all the time, but only to those he knew and liked or were in some way close to him.

I was good with my hands, and pretty soon I found myself doing handy work and house renovations with Fuzz during summer vacations, winter breaks, and any other free time I had when I could help out.
Fuzz taught me all the little professional secrets and tricks of the trade, as well as imparting much of his grass-roots life wisdom - and he had plenty life wisdom and plenty experience to base it on.

Mike was 13 years my senior, and had been a professional auto mechanic and a Narcotics Detective on the Toronto Police force before arriving at U of T. so, you can imagine how worldly and experienced he was in contrast to students who had just left home for the first time and/or were fresh out of high-school.

Many of the skills Mike taught me carried me through a renovations and handyman career for many years, safe work habits kept me from harm - it was Mike's insistence that we secure ourselves with strong rope that saved my life once when I fell off the side of a three story house we were painting.
Mike and I became good friends, and within the space of a year we were also a good work team that was in demand six months in advance each summer to fix, renovate, or re-build homes in the Toronto area.
On one particular job, we were putting up new drywall, and I had scribbled the words "Fuzz 'n' Eli" on the wall as a sort of signature of our "masterwork", well from that day on, Cathy - the wife of the family who's home we were renovating, referred to us as "the Italian firm of FUZZANELI".

Mike also knew how to enjoy himself with simple pleasures, like sitting at the Old Brunswick House bar in the main hall downstairs with friends, and drinking those little 40 cent glasses of beer that they would serve us by the dozen.
I can recall one very peaceful and quiet Christmas vacation weekend at the Innis College "InnisFree farm" out in the country, where Fuzz cooked a nice pot roast for us, and enjoying the company of a Fuzz and Sue and a few other friends out there.
Mike loved animals, from dogs (like the legendary "Guppy"), to birds, to reptiles. Through his live snake and reptile collection, Mike taught me and others to understand these reptiles, to not fear snakes (at least not boa constrictors), as well as providing himself with a hobby that he dedicated so much of his life to.
Mike loved Country music, but also appreciated many contemporary Canadian Folk and Rock artists. He certainly was not shy about speaking his mind or telling us what his likes or dislikes were.

On my recent two visits to Canada, in summer of 2001 and last month (July 2007), I was very glad to have had the chance to visit Mike and Sue and spend the evening with them.

Under that growling rough exterior, long hair and fuzzy long beard, Mike had a heart of 24 Carat gold.

"You Turkey Shit!!! You look like death warmed over!!!"

Rest in peace Mike - you've done your part, you deserve the rest!

In memory of Bill Perry RIP

2007-07-30T18:05:00.001+03:00

I was quite shocked to receive the sad news last week of Bill Perry's passing on July 17th, 2007 - he died of an apparent heart attack at age 49,
a bit young for any active human being, and certainly an early age by Blues standards.
About eight years ago, I was given the pleasurable task of writing a promotional review for a one week stand at Tel Aviv's Camelot club.
I was given a preview copy of his 1999 CD, recorded live at Manny's Car Wash in NYC ( I highly recommend this CD!!!).
When Bill Perry got onto the stage at Camelot, I was a bit shocked at his diminutive size - the power and energy of his playing on the live CD, and the cover photo, had me expecting a much taller man, with a bigger physique.
Nonetheless, Bill Perry was a big man, in more ways than one. A powerful Blues guitarist and a singer with an unusual voice.
By all accounts from friends and musicians who worked with him, Bill was a very warm, genuine, and a funny man.
SInger Ritchie Havens considered him not just an excellent band member, but a soulmate, a close friend.
Bill, you left us much too soon, you will be sorely missed.

Sunday at the Toronto Beaches Jazz fest

2007-07-30T17:47:00.000+03:00

I had a great day yesterday in the artistic village area called the Toronto Beaches where the Beaches Jazz Festival is held -
a totally free festival in its 19th year - http://www.beachesjazz.com/mainstage.html
they have sponsorships from Subaru to the provincial Lottery to food vendors...
I made contact with Brian Blane, the head of the Toronto Blues Society, and he directed me to the Media Tent so that I could sign in as a Radio Journalist, and get backstage access and meet all the other organizers and folks in the biz.
I met the mother of a new 16 year old Blues/Jazz diva Sophie Berkal Sarbit
- the mother heard I was from Israel, and spoke to me in Hebrew - she is the daughter of a Rabbi from Winnipeg - the Jewish connections in the music scene never cease to amaze and surprise me.
So I got to hear 2 blues shows of the Saturday Night Fish Fry
http://www.beachesjazz.com/mainstage/2007/bios/BillKingFishFry.html
headed up by singer, organist and piano player Bill King, who is also the Beaches Jazz festival organizer and the creator of the JazzReport and the http://www.jazzpromo.com/ sites

next up was an amazing guitarist and solid singer named Kal David in a trio with Hammond organ and drums, later accompanied by his partner, singer Lauri Bono:
http://www.beachesjazz.com/mainstage/2007/bios/KalDavid.html

of course, I distributed copies of the book (Touched By The Blues) to Jazz radio people, local organizers, etc. let's hope we get some reviews...

Belkin and Jutas - Blues from Lithuania

2007-07-20T15:11:00.000+03:00

In the beginning of April 2007, two Blues performers from Lithuania arrived in Israel for a 10 day tour of local clubs. On many of the gigs, they were joined by local Bluesman and Blues-harp master Dov Hammer.

The Belkin-Jutas Duo are an acoustic Blues duo made up of guitarist and singer Aleksandr Belkin and guitarist and singer Virgilius Jutas. Each of these guys has his own electric Blues band back in Lithuania, but for the sake of travel, they formed this compact duo.

Belkin and Jutas are both fine guitarists, with Jutas playing acoustic guitar rhythm and some soloing on this tour, and Belkin playing acoustic rhythm and also some very nice slide guitar. Aleksandr Belkin also accompanies himself on harmonica part of the time. Both artists provided us with various renditions of Blues standards, and even a couple of original songs, although their English is far from perfect, the feeling was there, and they sure can "belt out" a few...

The 10 day tour was a success, thanks to local Blues promoter Alex Shain, and the duo is considering coming back to Israel again in the coming year.

Albert Collins' "My Mind is Trying to Leave Me"

2007-03-28T18:11:00.001+02:00

I was recently re-acquainting myself with a live Albert Collins recording
from 1983 - "Don't Lose Your Cool" (Alligator Records ALCD4730)
and I really got into the humorous song -
"My Mind Is Trying To Leave Me"

so here are the lyrics for those of you that are not
familiar with the song,
search it out and give it a good listen (the guitar solos are pretty hot too!):

I went to breakfast this mornin',
Down to the corner bar
I thought I heard my baby call my name,
And it came from so far
I started runnin' and answerin',
Like a crazy fool would do
Aha, ya' see, my woman gone away and left me
And now my mind is tryin' to leave me too

Now my friend stepped out the bar
And stopped me and offered me a drink
I went in and had a double
And I began to think about my baby
Aha, like a crazy fool would do
You see, my woman gone away and left me
And now my mind is tryin' to leave me too

Oh!

Ha-ah, I went into the barber shop and ordered ham 'n' eggs
And each barber gave me fifty cent
They thought I was tryin' to beg
And I started cryin' like a baby (like a baby, ha!)
Like any fool would do
You see my woman gone away and left me
And now my mind is tryin' to leave me too

Another very nice Collins tune is "A Good Fool is Hard To Find"
which can be heard on the brand new Tommy Castro CD
"Painkiller" (Blind Pig Records),
where Tommy sings and plays some sizzling guitar in tribute to Albert Collins.

Collins recorded the tune for his 1986 Alligator release
"Cold Snap" (Alligator ALCD 4752).

Ted Cooper is in the house!

2007-03-20T14:59:00.002+02:00

Canadian/Israeli Blues artist Ted Cooper was recently visiting in Israel and gave 2 acoustic performances in the country. Ted is an excellent electric and acoustic guitarist, harmonica player, and bass player, as well as a deep voiced singer of Blues, Country, R & B and Rock and Roll. Ted has a repertoire filled with a nice set of self penned songs that he's written over the last 25 years, and many standards of Blues, Country, and Folk-Rock that he's made sound like he wrote them himself.
Ted was a regular fixture of the Blues and Folk music scene in Israel throughout the 1980's, playing many Jacob's Ladder Festivals, as well as being a regular in clubs and kibbutz venues around the country. Ted moved back to Toronto in late 1993, and very rarely performs on stage these days, except during his visits to Israel.

Just about a year ago, Ted visited Israel and participated in a whirlwind reunion tour with singer Libi and many of the musicians and friends who used to accompany her and/or Ted over the years. Last year's reunion tour was a real blast of nostalgia and lots of wild fun too.
This year's visit was a bit more low key - but it is always a pleasure to hear Ted live on stage, this time accompanied by Assaf "Sweet Tooth" Rozov on acoustic guitar, vocals and dobro, and Dov Hammer on harmonica and vocals - both of them musicians who grew up in the Ted Cooper Band of the late 1980's.
Today, each one of them has a mature voice of his own to contribute to this trio, and the result was very smooth and enjoyable.

I really look forward to the next time Ted decides to grace us with a visit and gives a few rare performances on stage...

Michael Powers - Old Blood into new Blues

2007-02-23T14:08:00.001+02:00

To look at Michael Powers, you would think he is just in his early twenties, just starting out in music, but don't let his baby face fool you. Michael Powers is already a seasoned veteran of the music scene and a very competent guitarist. He's also been connected to the Blues from an early age, from the early guitar lessons he received from the great Jimmy Reed, to the Blues spirit deep down in his soul...
Michael Powers spent a number of years playing in different rock bands, but in recent years, he has come back to the roots and has been playing and recording some traditional Blues alongside Rock, Blues-Rock and solid electric Blues.

Michel Powers has released two fine albums on the Baryon Records label -

"Onyx Root" released in 2004 with a good mix of traditional style acoustic and acoustic/electric tunes, as well as some modern originals.

"Prodigal Son", released in late 2006, which has a few traditional acoustic songs on it, but also originals like the haunting and beautiful title song "Prodigal Son".
His voice has allot of soul, a little bit of smoke, and the right touch of pain when needed. He is equally proficient on acoustic and electric guitar, and whether he's playing a Hendrix riff, or a John Lee Hooker riff, or even some Robert Johnson or Jimmy Reed, it sounds like it's his own style now.

I think that Michael Powers is an artist to keep watching and listening to, he's also on the list of nominations for the annual Blues Music Awards
(see Blues Music Awards), and I hope he wins one of those awards and that more people will take notice of him.

For a biographical and other info on Michael Powers see:
Baryon Records Website - artist Michael Powers

and

Michael Powers website

More Paul Pena Music

2007-02-06T18:07:00.001+02:00

I finally got my hands on a copy of the live CD recorded by singer and harmonica player Big Bones (see his MySpace page at Big Bones) together with Paul Pena back in 1991.
Paul Pena is a minor Blues legend that wrote hit songs like "Jet Airliner" and "Gotta Move" (which is a favorite in recent years of the Derek Trucks Band).
A guitarist and singer who became legally blind at an early age, Paul Pena led a life that was sometimes charmed, and sometimes full of pain. When he passed away in the fall of 2005, I started searching for his recordings...

"Giant Killers" Paul Pena and Big Bones
This is a live acoustic set, but it has some nice surprises, such as guest (instrumental) performances by Alvin Youngblood Hart on a couple of songs, and when you hear Paul Pena's incredibly deep voice on songs such as "Swing Low Sweet Cadillac", you might not believe such notes are possible in a human!
Big Bones plays solid harmonica and also has a fairly deep and full voice on most of the songs. Paul Pena plays resophonic slide guitar on all tracks, and sings on a few.
I'm so glad I got my hands on this CD,
and you can also get yourself a copy by contacting Big Bones directly:
Big Bones Email

Paul Pena links:
The official Paul Pena website

Article on Paul in CV MusicWorld

Paul Pena memorial page on Friends of Tuva website

Paul Pena entry in Wikipedia

Trask Blues Band

2007-02-06T18:04:00.001+02:00

See some recently recorded video clips of Trask playing live on Israel television:

Trask Blues Band on You Tube

Trask is a Blues-Rock cover band that does an excellent job of holding the crowd's attention at festivals and clubs in Israel.
They don't have any self penned songs to offer as yet, but what they do is a very professional job of covering some old and new Blues and Blues Rock, with a nice touch of class.

the Trask website is at: TRASK

Come Back Baby - part 2

2007-02-04T16:18:00.001+02:00

Well, I guess it's been too long since the last post about the roots of the song "Come Back Baby" - one of my all time favorite Folk/Blues songs.

I finally got a hold of the double CD collection of Walter Davis recordings from the Document label...but beyond that, I also sat down to listen to and transcribe the lyrics to a few more versions of the song, following the trail of cover recordings that seems to start about 10 years after Walter Davis recorded his original 2 versions.
Here are the verses sung by some of my favorite artists, as I may have mentioned earlier, the Bert Jansch and Dave Van Ronk versions have been my favorite ones for many years - they have a very delicate but powerful and haunting melodic style both in the vocals and the acoustic guitar.

COME BACK, BABY (Lightnin' Hopkins rec. 1950)

Come back, baby. Baby, please don't go.
Way I love you, you'll never know
Come back, baby. Can't we talk it over one more time.

You know this world darlin', wasn't made in one day.
Why we can't talk it over, 'fore you go away.
Come back, baby. Let's talk it over one more time.

You know it's been a long time, since I seen you smile.
Made me think about, when you was a child.
Come back, baby. Can't we talk it over one more time.

If you ain't coming back baby, darlin' please tell me so
Then I won't have to worry, about you coming back no more.
Come back, baby. Let's talk it over one more time.

COME BACK BABY (Mance Lipscomb - rec 1964)

Come back, baby, Please don't go
The way I love you baby, you'll never know.
Come back, baby, let's talk it over, one more time

My hearts in trouble, head's in misery,
Ain't got nobody talk sweet talk to me,
Come back baby, let's talk it over one more time

Lone, lonesome day,
Seem like tomorrow gonna be the same old way.
Come back baby, can't we talk it over one more time

I left her standing, in the doorway crying
Hated to go, leave that girl behind,
Come back baby, let's talk it over one more time

I love you baby, I cain't help myself
Don't get you, don't want nobody else
Come back baby, let's talk it over one more time

Went up on the mountain, looked down at the sun,
Ain't seen nobody love me like you have done,
Come back baby, let's talk it over one more time

I love you baby, I cain't help myself
Don't get you, don't want nobody else
Come back baby, let's talk it over one more time

Come back baby, can't we talk it over one more time

Come back, baby, Please don't go
The way I love you baby, you'll never know.
Come back, baby, let's talk it over, one more time

Down to the river, couldn't get accross
Jumped on an alligator, thought it was a horse
Come back, baby, let's talk it over, one more time

Bert Jansch does a great version on his 1967 album - Nicola

Please come back baby, please don't go
for the way I love you you'll never know.
So come back baby, let's talk it over, one more time.

Woke up this morning, just past dawn,
Read the note, baby,
Saying you had gone,
Come back, baby, let's talk it over, one more time.

You know I love you, tell the world I do,
For the way I love you, baby,
You'll never know.
So come back, baby, let's talk it over,
One more time.

Dave Van Ronk recorded this a number of times,
and it was a regular part of his performing repertoire throughout his career

Please come back baby, please don't go
for the way I love you you'll never know.
Come back baby, let's talk it over, one more time

I love you baby tell the world I do
I don't want no one else but you
Come back baby, let's talk it over, one more time

Long old train, mean engineer
Took my baby, left me standing here
Come back baby, let's talk it over, one more time

If I could holler like a mountain jack
I'd climb this mountain, call my baby back
Come back baby, let's talk it over, one more time

Hey come back baby, please don't go
for the way I love you you'll never know.
Well come back baby, let's talk it over, one more time

Ray Charles had a top 10 R & B hit with his version in 1955,
Ray embellished the tune with a little traditional blues bridge (the last verse)
which is not found in any of the Folk or Country Blues versions of the song

Come back, baby, Please don't go
For the way I love you baby, how you'll never know
Oh, come back, baby, yeah yeah let's talk it over
oh one more time, oh now now

Well I admit Baby that I was wrong
Don't you know baby, aw you been gone too long
Oh, come back, baby, yeah yeah let's talk it over
oh one more time, oh now now

Say if I could holler like a mountain jack
Yeah yeah oh people I'd call my baby back
Oh come back, baby, yeah yeah let's talk it over
oh one more time, oh now now

Now one of these days baby, and it won't be long yeah
You gonna look for me child you know, and I'll be gone
So come back, baby, yeah yeah let's talk it over
oh one more time, oh now now

A Get Well Prayer for Jeff Healey

2007-01-19T00:03:00.000+02:00

Get well soon Jeff Healey!!!
I want you to heal completely from your latest surgery,
so that you can keep on enriching our lives
with your music for many years to come!

I want to hear you playing your trumpet and singing again,
and also to hear your guitar gently weep...

Here's to your health!!!

Homesick James - "gone home"

2006-12-21T10:32:00.002+02:00

(I only found out about this today - guess I haven't been reading the Blues news enough lately)

Chicago blues legend Homesick James passed away Wednesday, December 13, at
11:15pm. He was in his mid-90s, but his own accounts of his age would vary.
He passed away resting comfortably in his home in Springfield, Missouri.
Funeral arrangements will be made by his family, and the funeral will take
place on Saturday, December 23 in Covington, Tennessee
********
********
from: Who's Who Chicago -

"One of the last of the generation that came from
the Delta in the mid-40s and invented electric Chicago blues, John
William Henderson got his nickname from a track he cut for Chicago
label Chance in 1953. The Chicago slide guitarist spent years playing
with blues legend Elmore James (who Homesick has long claimed as a
"cousin" -- Elmore is said to have died on Homesick's couch while the
latter frantically searched for the former's heart pills),
roommate/cousin Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Big Walter, Big Bill Broonzy, Sunnyland Slim
and Johnny Shines. High-pitched voice and stark slide guitar mark his
southern roots authenticity, and were part of the famous Maxwell Street
sound of a few decades ago.

Born in Somerville, Tennessee, his wailing moans hark back to the field hollers of the Mississippi delta. Self-taught on guitar, Homesick developed a wild slide guitar style which he developed playing at local dances and taverns by the age of 14. In his early years, he played with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Sonny Boy Williamson, Hammie Nixon, Snooky Pryor, Muddy Waters, Honeyboy Edwards, Blind Boy Fuller (Homesick's mentor), Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Son House, and Big Joe Williams.

Homesick led a group called the Dusters during the early '30s, featuring at various times Pryor, Baby Face Leroy Foster, and Albert King on drums. Later that decade, James began his recording career, with sides for RCA and Vocalion. Homesick moved up to Memphis during the 1940s, playing regularly with Big Walter Horton, and in the early '50s, he continued north, settling in Chicago.

There, he began sitting in with Memphis Minnie (Homesick's girlfriend for many years), Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red, Yank Rachell, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Roosevelt Sykes, Henry Townsend, Junior Wells, Sunnyland Slim, Little Walter Jacobs, and Elmore James. Homesick apparently bought Elmore his first guitar, and taught him how to play slide, and was a longtime member of Elmore's band (from 1955-1963), contributing to such classics as "Dust My Broom," "The Sky is Crying," and "Roll and Tumble."

Since then, he has recorded for Delmark, Prestige/Fantasy, Bluesvile, Appaloosa, Stanhope, Trix, Black and Blue and Earwig Records. Most recently, he released Words and Wisdom on Icehouse Records. Though over 90 years old, he remains active, performing both locally and at international festivals, including headlining gigs at the Chicago Blues Festival, San Francisco Blues Festival, and St. Louis Blues Festival. Homesick fans including Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and members of the Black Crowes have come to Chicago to see their idol perform in the last few years."

Living Blues Magazine calls him "One of the most delightful characters in blues...." and Option says "Hearing this is as riveting as discovering Robert Johnson recordings for the first time... it's like finding the roots of every blues guitarist twisted together in a single source."

Says the Chicago Reader, "... in recent years he's raised irascibility to an art form: throwing together snippets of standards both vintage and recent; pulling and popping his guitar strings with anarchistic fierceness and then breaking into a shimmering slide run; and interspersing his tight-throated vocals with boasts, anecdotes, and aphorisms drawn from some 70 years of hard traveling."

Come Back Baby - where did it start?

2006-12-13T23:12:00.001+02:00

I have been singing the old Blues standard "Come Back Baby" for more than 25 years, but I never really bothered to research the origin of the song, just collected a number of verses from here and there along the way...

In a recent conversation with my friend Raviv, he mentioned Dave Van Ronk's recording of "Come Back Baby", and said he always thought it was by Ray Charles, since it was credited to him on his recordings, and also on the cover by Dave Edmund's band Love Sculpture. I told Raviv that I was pretty sure the song was older than that, and that sparked an obsessive effort to try and discover the earliest known version.

I have always admired 2 versions of the song in particular - Dave Van Ronk and Bert Jansch. Each of their versions is powerful, simple, elegant, and moving. Van Ronk took a very delicate and slow approach to the song, with a soft 2 note guitar chord opening.
Jansch has a slightly more "snappy" upbeat guitar accompaniment, and that Scottish accent and high slightly nasal voice also adds charm to his version.

So where did it begin? The latest edition of Blues and Gospel Records, 1890-1943 tells me that the earliest known recording of a song titled Come Back Baby was recorded by Whistlin' Alex Moore in 1937, but once I found a recording, I found that his song has no connection or relation to the song I'm familiar with. Next in line was Walter Davis, with 2 recordings, one from July 12, 1940, and the other ("New come Back Baby") from 1941. So at the moment, it looks like this could be the earliest and possibly the original version of the song. My experience with folk music history tells me that it's likely that the song is much older - I just haven't found the proof yet...

Well, I searched high and low, and could not find the 1940 version by Walter Davis, nor a listing of the lyrics... until a DJ contact in Denmark (thank you Kjell!) forwarded my request to a collector in Norway (thank you Rolf!) - who sent me an MP3 copy of the song so that I could transcribe the lyrics. I also managed to locate a lovely 2 CD compilation (the Essential Walter Davis) by Document records and ordered it from the UK - it arrived within a week.

So here are Walter Davis's verses:

"Come Back Baby"
Walter Davis (rec. July 12, 1940)

Oh, come back baby, please don't go
'bout the way I love you you'll never know
Come back baby, cain't we talk it over one more time

My heart is full of sorrow, my eyes is full of tears
Lord We've been together for so many years
Come back baby, cain't we talk it over one more time

You know this world, wasn't made in one day.
Can't we talk it over, just before you go away.
Come back baby, cain't we talk it over one more time

Come back baby don't break up my home
You know I'm gonna miss you after you've gone
Come back baby, cain't we talk it over one more time

I begged you all night , all the night before
Please don't ever leave me, don't ever leave me no more
Come back baby, cain't we talk it over one more time

Now you know babe, you the only one I love,
Lord I just as soon to be dead, gone to the lord above
Come back baby, cain't we talk it over, one more time

I'll get into other versions in the next blog entry...

"Hootie" is gone at 90

2006-12-08T12:47:00.001+02:00

I just heard that Jay "Hootie" McShann has passed on,
and although he reached the ripe age of 90 years, I still feel a sense of great loss.
I feel fortunate to have been able to see and hear McShann a couple of times in the 1970's in Toronto, when he would do a week or two each year at the Chick N' Deli restaurant on Mt. Pleasant Ave.
McShann always amazed me in the power of his singing and the elegance of his piano playing, this was especially admirable when he was in his 70's or 80's. He also had a baby face and a charming smile, maybe that is why it is so hard to believe he is gone.
Rest in peace "Hootie".

***************
James Columbus McShann: January 12, 1916 - December 7, 2006

Kansas City pianist, bandleader and songwriter Jay 'Hootie' McShann has died in hospital today (Dec. 7) after a brief illness. He was 90 years old. He was the last of the great Kansas City players, and the creator of a style that combined swing and blues and changed the course of popular music. A piano player with a unique and subtle touch, he was a bluesman at heart. His best known composition 'Confessin' The Blues' has been recorded by artists like The Rolling Stones, BB King, Little Walter, Esther Phillips, and Jimmy 'Spoon' Witherspoon among many many others. McShann was born in Muskogee, Oklahama in 1916.

James Columbus McShann was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, January 12/ 1916. He taught himself piano as a child, despite his parents' disapproval of his interest in music. His real education came from Earl Hines’ late-night broadcasts from Chicago’s Grand Terrace Ballroom. “When Fatha went off the air, I went to bed” he would later state. Jay McShann began his professional career in 1931, playing with Don Byas. He studied at the Tuskegee Institute, and performed around Arkansas and Oklahoma from 1935 to 1936. In late 1939, Jay had assembled a progressive band, which included Gus Johnson, Gene Ramey and Charlie Parker.

By 1940, Jay McShann had his own big band which included a young alto sax player called Charlie Parker. The Jay McShann Orchestra toured extensively and recorded for the Decca label in 1941. The band's most popular recording was a Blues titled 'Confessin' the Blues', but the band performed and recorded many modern compositions which bridged traditional Kansas City Jazz and Bebop. There were hits like 'Hootie Blues', and the Blues classic 'Ain’t Nobody’s Business', debuting a young Blues singer named Jimmy Witherspoon. During this period, he recorded mostly for Aladdin and Mercury Records. Jay returned to Kansas City, where he raised his family, and played locally. During the 1950's, he attended music school at the University of Missouri, KC where he continued his music studies in arrangement and composition. Jay McShann was in obscurity for the next 2 decades, making few records and playing in Kansas City.

In 1969, Jay resumed touring, and has been performing and recording internationally every since. March 3, 1979 was declared 'Jay McShann Day' by the governor of Missouri, and he has received many other awards and honors. He was the subject of the documentary film Hootie Blues (1978), and was showcased in the film, Last of the Blues Devils. He tours internationally constantly and records frequently. He has recorded through the years for Onyx, Decca, Capitol, Aladdin, Mercury, Black Lion, EmArcy, Vee Jay, Black & Blue, Master Jazz, Sackville, Sonet, Storyville, Atlantic, Swingtime, Music Masters and and most recently for Stony Plain Records. Affectionately know as "Hootie" he remains a vital pianist and an Blues vocalist who keeps a classic style alive. Jay McShann was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1987 and received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award in 1996. Jay McShann is a Blues force of nature that keeps rolling on.

Toronto was frequently on his tour schedules; jazz musician and Downtown Jazz Festival artistic director Jim Galloway brought him to the now-vanished Bourbon Street club in 1972 and he recorded close to a dozen albums in the city for the Sackville label. His last four albums, including the Grammy-nominated 2003 release "Going to Kansas City", were recorded for the Edmonton-based Stony Plain label; three of them were co-produced by guitarist Duke Robillard. Stony Plain's owner, Holger Petersen, acting as tour manager, frequently accompanied McShann to international jazz festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Monterey, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. Said Petersen: "Jay had a great uplifting smile and kind words for everyone. He was always a delight to travel with, and had a very laidback, inquisitive and cheerful attitude. I'll miss his smile, and hearing him and saying 'Everything's cool'."And Jim Galloway summed it up: "His passing marks the end of a line. He will be missed." Jay McShann leaves his companion of more than 30 years, Thelma Adams (known as Marianne McShann), and three daughters - Linda McShann Gerber, Jayme McShann Lewis, and Pam McShann.

*************************
Funeral services will be announced shortly; plans are pending for a musical celebration of his life to be held in Kansas City early next year. For further information please contact:
Richard Flohil at 416 351-1323 Holger Petersen at Stony Plain Records 780 468-6423

Give me some of Ye Olde Blews

2006-11-27T13:23:00.000+02:00

It occurred to me while reading an etymological site describing the possible origin of the phrase "the Blues", (spelled "Blews" in 18th century style), that maybe there is a connection between the Blues and the word to blow (in the musical sense).

A quick game of word association went through my mind -
from "I've got the blews (blues)" to "blew his mind" (freaked him out), to "blowing session"(a Jazz jam session with horns).

The recent passing of my father in law (Goodman Al Ritz, 1926-2006), brought to mind the Hebrew term for passing on - "Naphach Et Nishmato" - which is literally "he blew out his soul", since in Hebrew, the word for soul (Neshama) is the same as the word for breath, and you can also reference John Lennon's "he blew his mind out in a car", and that brings me back around to "he blows with allot of soul".

Finally, may I argue that the phrase "blow me" can actually be interpreted somehow as "give me the blues (blews)" or "play me some blues"???

Robert Lockwood Jr. dies at age 91

2006-11-23T18:16:00.001+02:00

Robert Lockwood Jr., 91, a Delta blues guitarist who became the torchbearer of Robert Johnson's guitar legacy and a revered musician in his own right, died Nov. 21 at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. He had a brain aneurysm and a stroke.

Robert Lockwood Jr. was born in Turkey Scratch, a hamlet west of Helena, Arkansas. He started playing the organ in his father's church at the age of 8. The famous bluesman Robert Johnson lived with Lockwood's mother for 10 years off and on after his parents' divorce. Lockwood learned from Johnson not only how to play guitar, but timing and stage presence as well. Because of his personal and professional association with the music of Robert Johnson, he became known as "Robert Junior" Lockwood.

Lockwood’s first recordings came in 1941, with Doc Clayton, on his famous Bluebird Sessions in Aurora, Illinois. During these sessions, he cut four singles under his own name. These were the first incarnations of “Take A Little Walk with Me”, and “Little Boy Blue,” Lockwood staples sixty years later.

Lockwood was a King Biscuit Boy on KFFA’s ground-breaking King Biscuit Time radio program.

Lockwood moved around, the usual route was Memphis, St. Louis, to Chicago. By the early 1950’s, he had surfaced in the Windy City, where he became the top session man for Chess Records, the epitome of blues labels. He recorded with the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter, Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Eddie Boyd, whom he toured with for six years, you can hear his smooth chords on their recordings. He was also an early influence on B.B. King, and played with King during his early career in Memphis, Tennessee.

Lockwood’s solo recording career, exclusive of the 1941 Bluebird Sessions, began in 1970 with Delmark’s Steady Rollin’ Man, backed by old friends Louis Myers, his brother Dave Myers, and Fred Below, collectively known as The Aces. In 1972, Lockwood hooked up with famed musicologist, Pete Lowry to record Contrasts, the first of two for Trix Records. Does 12 followed in 1975. They have been remastered and repackaged by Fuel 2000 Records.

In the early 1980s Lockwood teamed up with another long-time friend, Johnny Shines, to record three albums for Rounder, which has been comprised into 1999’s Just the Blues. Plays Robert and Robert, a Black and Blue recording of a solo show in Paris in 1982, was re-issued on Evidence in 1993.

Lockwood’s recordings earned Grammy nominations in 1998 and 2000.
He was well-known to Arkansas audiences for his frequent appearances at festivals in the state.

Ruth Brown, Blues and R&B Queen - gone at age 78

2006-11-20T09:33:00.001+02:00

Ruth Brown, 78, a Blues and Rhythm-and-Blues singer whose hits in the 1950s made Atlantic Records "the house that Ruth built" and who revived her career decades later as the Tony Award-winning star of the musical revue "Black and Blue," died Nov. 17 at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals in Henderson, Nev., after a stroke and heart attack.

Ms. Brown, who lived in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, became known as a persistent and vital activist in the musicians' royalty reform movement of the 1980s. Her efforts brought aging, often ailing musicians payments that major music companies had long denied them.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Ruth Brown,
Background information
Born January 12, 1928
Portsmouth, Virginia
Died November 17, 2006
Las Vegas, Nevada
Genre(s) Blues, Rhythm and Blues
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1949 - 2006

Ruth Brown (born Ruth Alston Weston, January 12, 1928 [1] in Portsmouth) was a singer who brought a popular music style to rhythm and blues in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s.

Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the eighties, Brown used her influence to press for musicians' rights regarding royalties and contracts. Her performances in the Broadway musical Black and Blue earned Brown a Tony Award, and the original soundtrack won a Grammy Award.

Ruth Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with a trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra, but was fired after she brought drinks to the band for free, and was left stranded in Washington, D.C.

Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager. Willis Conover, a local DJ, caught her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records bosses, Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Brown was unable to audition as planned though, because of a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital visit. In 1948, however, Ertegun and Abramson drove to Washington from New York City to hear her sing in the club. Although her repertoire was mostly popular ballads, Ertegun convinced her to switch to rhythm and blues. His productions for her, however, retained her "pop" style, with clean, fresh arrangements and the singing spot on the beat with little of the usual blues singer's embroidery.

In her first audition, in 1949, she sang "So Long", which ended up becoming a hit. This was followed by Teardrops from My Eyes in 1950. Written by Rudy Toombs, it was the first upbeat major hit for Ruth Brown, establishing her as an important figure in R&B. Recorded for Atlantic Records in New York City in September 1950, and released in October, it was on Billboard's List of number-one R&B hits (United States) for 11 weeks. The huge hit earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm" and within a few months Ruth Brown became the acknowledged queen of R&B.[2]

She followed up this hit with "I'll Wait for You" (1951), "I Know" (1951), "5-10-15 Hours" (1953), "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1953), "Oh What a Dream" (1954), "Mambo Baby" (1954) and "Don't Deceive Me" (1960). She also became known as Little Miss Rhythm and the girl with the teardrop in her voice. In all, she was on the R&B charts for 149 weeks from 1949 to 1955, with 16 top 10 blues records including 5 number ones, and became Atlantic's most popular artist, earning Atlantic records the proper name of "The House that Ruth Built."

During the 1960s, Brown faded from public view to become a housewife and mother, and only returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of comedic acting gigs, including a role in sitcom Hello, Larry and the John Waters film Hairspray, as well as earning a Tony Award for her Broadway performance of Black and Blue and a Grammy award for her album Blues on Broadway, featuring hits from the show.

Brown's fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was inducted as a Pioneer Award recipient in its first year, 1989. In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as The Queen Mother of the Blues.

According to an article in JazzImprov Magazine by Stephen Thanabalan, she has become an iconic symbol to many black women for later generations, where she is also a favorite artist and inspiration for later blues artists such as Bonnie Raitt. Brown recorded and sang along with fellow rhythm and blues performer Charles Brown, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and toured with Raitt on Raitt's tour in the late 1990s, "Road Tested". Her 1995 autobiography, Miss Rhythm, won the Gleason Award for music journalism.

In 2006, Hummer used her song "This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'" in one of their H3 commercials.

Jon Cleary is such a funky guy!!!

2006-11-15T00:31:00.001+02:00

"British born Jon Cleary is a triple threat-with a salty-sweet voice, masterful piano skills,
and a knack for coupling infectious grooves with melodic hooks and sharp lyrics."
- from the Bonnie Raitt website

Jon Cleary's name appears in the credits of close to 100 Blues albums from the past 25 years, so when I ordered one of his CDs and collected it from my postbox, I expected to hear some good old piano-based Blues, right???
Wrong!!!

What I heard on "Pin Your Spin" from 2004, was a singer and piano player with a very funky and tight band playing almost everything but Blues - from tunes that are like smooth Jazz, to funky New Orleans swamp music, to solid rock with an upbeat pace.
I heard vocal and musical ideas that remind me of Stevie Wonder, the Neville Brothers and Dr. John, as well as a touch of Professor Longhair's classic Boogie Woogie piano stylings.

All these influences are wrapped up into one man who makes everything he plays sound very authentic and believable. The only 2 things that I find hard to believe when I hear his music are that he's British born, and that he's not black.

To date, Cleary has made 4 albums under his own name (see the discography page on his website).
The first album - "Alligator Lips and Dirty Rice" from 1989, is officially out of print, but can be purchased online by download, or in CD form directly from Jon Cleary's website. This album is actually the closest to a normal Blues album, and contains some amazing Boogie Woogie style piano playing by Cleary, as well as some interesting original songs.

The other albums show the much more developed and individual music style that I described before, and the latest 2 were recorded with his regular band, "the Absolute Monster Gentlemen". "Monsters" they are, talent wise that is, each one a master of his instrument and comfortable in many different styles - together they make up a fantastic unit with a very high energy level in their playing.

What can I say? In the space of a few weeks since I received my first Jon Cleary album, I've become hooked, and that's why I wanted to share it with all of you...

If you are attending any live Bonnie Raitt shows in the next month, you will probably get a chance to hear Jon Cleary live, since he is both opening for her, and playing in her band on many dates throughout November and December, including opening 2 shows by the Rolling Stones!!! See the shows page for tour dates.

Re-Discovering Paul Pena

2006-11-14T16:39:00.001+02:00

It's been just over a year since Paul Pena passed away at the age of 55, and I finally got my hands on his recording - "New Train" (the CD cover pictured at right).
I guess I must have subconsciously known about Paul Pena for years, his name has been around in Blues circles since the early 1970's, but it wasn't until I read his obit last year that I really took notice...

Paul Pena was a singer, guitarist, bass player, and songwriter. He had a hard life, having been born with a serious case of congenital Galucoma which left him legally blind from the age of 10 onward. He still became a talented musician, playing in the band of Blues icon T-Bone Walker during the early 70's.
Paul recorded 2 albums under his own name as leader:

"Paul Pena", released in 1972 by Capitol Records (currently out of print)
"New Train", recorded in 1973, released in 2000 by Hybrid Recordings

Following the recording of his 2nd album (New Train, 1973)he suffered a sort of blacklisting in the industry due to an unscrupulous producer (Albert Grossman) who refused to release the recordings and also would not release Paul from his binding contract. If it weren't for a stroke of luck and a hit song to provide him with royalty checks, Paul Pena would have starved - Pena just happens to be the writer of the song "Jet Airliner" which was a big Top 10 hit for
Steve Miller in 1977. He also happens to be the author of a number of other interesting songs.

One of those songs, "Gonna Move", sounded much too familiar to me the minute I heard the rhythm track at the start of the song, and then I realized that I have been hearing the Derek Trucks Band and Susan Tedeschi (Derek's wife) performing that song as a regular part of their live repertoire.

Another moving song (no pun intended) is the title track - "New Train",
a song of spirituality and a hope for peace, here are the lyrics:

"I remember a time back in the big city near my home
To the clocks tolling the morning
'Hear the sound of a Gospel choir, singing soft and low
On a rainy day the sun was dawning
But it's been a long long time, since I've heard the rhyme
Of a time and a season hidden in the past
And the days are growing harder, time is growing shorter
Brother hating brother spreading fast...

You gotta get on the new train and ride
We gotta find our way to freedom
You gotta get on the new train and ride
Buy our ticket for a brand new season

Trippin down south in the Easter time
See the folks coming out from worship
Everyone talking about the glories of the resurrection
While all of them thinking that they're perfect
When there comes a helpless man
who's down and needs a hand
And the will of Christ is done by one from prison
So he gets a hand from one, and is condemned by some
but divine love we all have and this he lays on him

You gotta get on the new train and ride
We gotta find our way to freedom
You gotta get the new train and ride
Buy our ticket for a brand new season

As I look back on my history
See a house with children playin' in the street
Mama sittin' cross legged tellin' us
Be our brother's keeper
And I take my strength from daddy's song
You know I love what I see
'Cause it's taught allot to me
Made me strong and helped this boy understand
That this world is here for giving
And life is here for living
Let the choir sing and let me sing it with the band

You gotta get on the new train and ride
We gotta find our way to freedom
You gotta get on the new train and ride
Buy our ticket for a brand new season"
[copyright 1973, 2000 Paul Pena]

For more information on Paul Pena:

The official Paul Pena website

Article on Paul in CV MusicWorld

Paul Pena memorial page on Friends of Tuva website

Paul Pena entry in Wikipedia

Blues and Male Existentialism

2006-11-05T01:46:00.000+02:00

Why do men write Blues songs?
Why do we sing the Blues?

Well, some might say that women invariably give us the Blues,
and that is why there is so much music out there trying to tell the story of
how hard it is for a man to get lovin' from a woman.

In the spectrum of man/woman relationships,
there is so much misunderstanding,
so much lack of real communication,
deception,
cheating in a small way (acts of omission),
cheating in a big way (infidelity),
and outright cruelty...
The Blues is one way to deal with the pain, the feeling of being left out of the loop, not getting the joke, or simply not getting enough loving.

I was watching a movie on late night TV called "Kiss the Sky" - a 1999 movie which depicts an existential search by 2 guys having a mid-life crisis, who decide to visit the far east and look for answers. The movie contains some pretty serious conversations about the nature of the man/woman relationship, expectations, unsaid and misunderstood feelings and desires, double standards, jealousy, and also Zen.

I don't think that I'll spoil the story if I tell you that even though for most of the movie they both seem to be of the same mind, each of them finds a different answer ultimately to their existential angst, the search for "true freedom" and "true happiness" and their problems in relating to the women in their lives.

I recommend this movie, I think it is both fun and insightful, and it seems like there aren't nearly enough movies of that kind these days...

Libi's Birthday

2006-11-05T01:23:00.000+02:00

Local Rock and Blues singer Libi has been making a comeback this past year, with a very hot band named Flashback, and with many old friends to come out and show their support.

On Tuesday night, Oct. 24, Libi celebrated her 55th birthday at the Jerusalem Syndrome club, a small but very funky little bar with live music.

Originally hailing from the New York area, Libi was known as a somewhat controversial singer back in the early 80's in Israel - she might have been ahead of her time as "Libi and the Flash" - Israel was not ready yet for her intensity or her antics on stage at the time. Some 20 plus years later, she assembled a number of crack musicians from the Jerusalem area, and named them "Flashback" to reflect her comeback status.

By the time Libi got on stage, the club was packed with barely even standing room by the bar, as she tore into some Rock-Blues standards from the late 60's and early 70's. I was pleasantly surprised when she did a rendition of Freddie King's "Woman Across the River".
Libi and the band gave a hot show that lasted at least 90 minutes, and included an original new song that was written by Libi and arranged by the band.
To top it off, one of her friends brought a birthday cake, so that at the end of the show, there was chocolate cake for all...

Mini-Woodstock in Israel

2006-11-05T01:07:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago, during the week of the Succot holidays in Israel,
I was invited to an evening titled: "Min-Woodstock".
Thrre different bands presented music from the 60's and early 70's in atribute to the era and spirit of the legendary Woodstock festival.
The evening started with singer Eyal Peretz and his very professional band,
with 2 horn players and 3 female backup singers. Eyal does a crack imitation of Joe Cocker, singing many of Cocker's hits from the period.

Following Peretz, and one of the producers of the evening, was Danny Shoshan and his "Time Machine" band, who opened with a hot rendition of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". Danny Shoshan is an historical figure who was once in the "Churchills" which then became "Jericho Jones" and gained popularity in England at the beginning of the 70's. Today, he sings and plays bass like the best of them...

The third act of the night was Shlomo Mizrahi and his band, who did an hour's program of a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Shlomo was one of the first Israeli musicians in the late 60's to play real Blues, and later focused on the music of Jimi Hendrix, to the point where he is known as "the Israeli Jimi Hendrix". He even did a send up of Jimi's controversial "Star Spangled Banner" by playing the Israeli national anthem Hatikva ("the Hope") as a screaming Hendrix guitar solo...
The 300 plus audience was rocking and swaying to the music all night...

James "Snooky" Prior gone at age 85

2006-10-22T08:57:00.001+02:00

Harmonica great and elder statesman of the Blues,
James "Snooky" Prior passed away on October 19, 2006
he celebrated his 85th birthday just a month ago.

Here is the website of the Canadian Electro Fi label where Snooky recorded in recent years:
Electro Fi

Happy New Year 5767!!!

2006-09-28T17:10:00.000+03:00

Well, I'm now seven times seven,
Way past twenty one,
I'm a grown man now,
But I still like to have my fun...

Today is my birthday, and it falls during the week between the Jewish/Hebrew new year and the day of atonement (Yom Kippur).
In Jewish tradition, this is the time to reflect on the past year, and to forgive and ask forgiveness from one's fellow man for our transgressions.
Then on the day of atonement, you ask forgiveness from God for your transgressions against him, and hope that you are "written" into the book of goodness and righteousness.
So this time of year has always been a period of introspection and reflection for me, aside from being the time when I also scratch another "notch" on the wall for my years on this earth.
The sort of questions I ask are:
Have I been a kind person this past year?
Have I done enough to help other people out?
Have I done my part to help advance the Blues?

Chicago Blueswoman Bonnie Lee dies at 75

2006-09-27T08:57:00.000+03:00

(from www.WillieKent.com)
Bonnie Lee, one of the last great voices in urban women's blues, passed away on the morning of September 7th. Born in 1931 near the Texas-Louisiana border, the young Bonnie played piano and sang gospel in her hometown church. In her teens, she toured the South as a singer with the great minstrel show; but her life took a new direction when she caught a ride with a moving van driver and headed north to Chicago. Living with an aunt on the South Side, she made her debut as a performer in neighborhood clubs -- first as a dancer, then a singer. Her powerful voice delivered blues in the full range from flirty simper to throaty growl, and her reputation grew as she gained experience.

By the 1970s she had withdrawn from public performance for family reasons; but her heart remained with the blues in the clubs. Her unfulfilled need to sing was painful to her and eventually led to a breakdown that left her fragile and shaken. When she regained her strength, music opened the door to her recovery.

She gave full credit for her comeback to her longtime friend, Willie Kent. Thanks to his insistance, she returned to the clubs, first as part of the audience, later as a singer invited up onstage, and finally as an integral part of the show. Her friend Willie also led her to make two excellent recordings (Sweetheart of the Blues on Delmark, and I'm Good! on Wolf Records), which unveiled the richness of her singing to a wider audience; and her voice also appears on several compilations of Chicago blueswomen. She participated in the "Ladies Sing the Blues" tour in Europe and was an authentic, vibrant presence on the Chicago blues scene. Until her death, she was a regular performer at B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted.

Bonnie Lee's singing style has been compared to that of Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, and Koko Taylor; but her versatility, power, and sense of timing were entirely her own. In her later years, her performances surprised many: she would arrive slowly, an apparently timid, fragile-looking older woman, would be helped up the steps to the stage, and as the music started she would close her eyes and sway slightly... and from that gentle, unlikely source, a powerful, vital song would blaze out to sear the night. And it would swing.

Bonnie Lee is survived by a son, and by many friends and fans worldwide. Bonnie, we'll miss you!

Blues Patriarch Henry Townsend dies at 96

2006-09-25T16:45:00.000+03:00

This is from Hawkeye Herman:
--------------------------

It is with a heavy heart that I report to you that 96 year old blues legend Henry Townsend passed away this evening at St. Mary's Ozaukee Hosptal,Mequon,WI at approximately 10PM (CDT) just hours after having been the first person presented with a 'key' in Grafton's Paramount Plaza Walk of Fame. The last surviving blues artist to have recorded for Paramount Records.

The Paramount Plaza Walk of Fame, currently under construction, will be a stylized piano keyboard. Forty-four keys will each have the name of a famous Paramount recording star.

It was in Grafton, Wisconsin that Henry Townsend recorded two songs for Paramount Records in 1930; "Doctor, Oh Doctor," and "Jack of Diamonds Georgia Rub."

Mr. Townsend made the trip to Grafton to be honored by the Village of Grafton as the first inductee on the Walk of Fame along with his son,Alonzo, his son's fiance, Kendra, and two members of his band.

Mr. Townsend arrived in Grafton on Thursday, Sept. 21st in good spirits, but confined to a wheelchair. He was to perform at the first annual Paramount Blues Festival as the honored guest. He was to be honored again on Sunday,Sept. 24th, at a noontime Paramount Plaza Walk of Fame ceremony.

Myself, members of the Grafton Blues Association, Alonzo, Kendra,and the band members all went out to dinner together on Thursday night. Henry was talkative, happy to be in Grafton, and excited about the weekend events that lay ahead.

However, the following day, Friday, 9/22, he was not feeling well and it was
necessary for him to be hospitalized. The hospital staff took immediate and great care of him. He wanted to get out of there and perform on Sat. a the festival. But it was not to be. He condition did not improve and the doctors refused to release him on Sat. so that he could perform. He was extremely disappointed. He told band member Jeff Shuman, "They didn't say I couldn't perform today." Shuman had to go and get the doctor and have him come back to Mr. Townsend's hospital room and explain to him that this meant that he could not leave the hospital to perform.

An announcement was made at the festival that he would not be present to perform. Alonzo Townsend spoke on behalf of his father, and apologized to the crowd for his father not being present, and that it was wonderful that Grafton had chosen to honor him, and that he hoped that he would be able to make it to the Walk of Fame ceremony on Sunday. It was not to be. Alonzo Townsend attended the noon ceremony on Sunday and accepted the honor for his father.

Henry Townsend is one of the few musicians who has recorded in every decade for the past 80 years. He was the last surviving Paramount blues artist. Born in Shelby, MS in 1909. As a youngster, he ran away from home to St.Louis where, as a teenager he heard Lonnie Johnson and other legends develop the blues sound. Henry was influenced by local barber Henry Spaulding's recording of "Cairo Blues," and his boyhood friend, David Perchfield. In 1929, an audition was arranged by Sam Woolf, owner of a music store in St.Louis. Townsend recorded for Columbia in 1929, and for Paramount in 1930.
It was piano great Roosevelt Sykes who brought Townsend to the attention of Paramount records.

Henry Townsend became the 'Godfather' of St. Louis blues. Performing on piano and guitar his entire life, and nurturing the younger generations in the world of the blues. His last release was "The 88 Blues."
Sadly submitted by Michael "Hawkeye" Herman - 9/24/06 in Grafton, WI
------------
p.s.

Since I am on the road and unable to take the time to submit this message to other interested parties and web sites ... you all have my permission to post this message and photo wherever blues fans might congregate online and in the media.

Blues Icon Etta Baker dies at 93

2006-09-25T16:28:00.001+03:00

Etta Baker is one of the first guitarists who's recordings taught me fingerpicking techniques. Her special and unique version of the old folk ballad "Railroad Bill" was one of my favourite songs when I was growing up and forming my musical tastes. She was also known for playing slide guitar with a pen knife - and her slide version of "John Henry" inspired me to start learning the art of slide guitar as well.
Bless her soul, may she rest in peace.

here is an obit article from Sept 25, 2006
in the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina:

Etta Baker's signature picking drew folks to music's down-home artistry
STEVE LYTTLE AND CARRIE LEVINE
slyttle@charlotteobserver.com | clevine@charlotteobserver.com

Etta Baker, who traded a job at a Morganton shoe factory to become a blues music legend, died Saturday in Fairfax, Va.

She was 93.

Baker's unusual two-fingered picking style on the guitar earned her a reputation as a master of the Piedmont blues, a resonant blend of bluegrass and blues that dates back more than a century in the mountains of N.C. and Tennessee. The self-taught musician from humble roots in Caldwell County influenced legions of musicians and crossed a variety of musical styles.

Baker's oldest child, Darlene Davis, said Sunday evening that her mother died Saturday afternoon, after traveling from her Morganton home to Fairfax, Va., to visit another daughter who requires dialysis. Davis said Baker's health had been declining since the late 1990s.

"Mother's been up and down for the past couple of years, but she felt like she needed to be there with my sister," Davis said.

Davis said family en route to Morganton and funeral arrangements hadn't yet been set.

"She embodied everything we love about the South," Tim Duffy, who worked with Baker through his Music Maker Relief Foundation, told the News & Observer of Raleigh.

Despite her age and health problems, Baker remained active in the music business. She played guitar on the most recent CD by blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd that sold a million copies. She also recorded a CD of banjo music scheduled for release next year.

Beth Pollhammer, the founder of the Charlotte Blues Society, said Baker's music was a unique hybrid of white rural music and black music and her two-finger picking style was extremely unusual for the blues. She described Baker as an impeccable player and a phenomenal self-taught musician.

"So much of blues is a feeling. It's not a sound," Pollhammer said. "When people were moved by her playing, it was because of her life force and what she put into it, her soul, when she played.

"When she played, it was like she was talking. If you love the blues and you're listening that way, it's more of a feeling."

Pollhammer also said that Baker, in person, was charming.

"When you met her, it was just like you'd known her forever," Pollhammer said. "She was very sweet, very open. She was a beautiful woman, a beautiful spirit."

Baker was the product of a Caldwell County family and the daughter of "Medicine" Boone Reid, who played banjo, guitar, harmonica and violin in the N.C. foothills and mountains.

She learned to play guitar from her father but didn't become a full-time musician until she was in her 60s.

She raised nine children and was working at a shoe factory in Morganton in 1958 when she was approached by a professional musician and asked to change careers.

" `Etta, why don't you quit the Buster Brown plant and play music for a living?' " Baker recalled in an interview in June 2005, during Etta Baker Day festivities in Morganton. "This was on a Wednesday. I went in and told 'em I was quitting on Friday, and I did. I never did go back."

Baker's fame grew over the decades, and her versions of "One-Dime Blues" and "Railroad Bill" became classics.

Veteran blues musician Taj Mahal said Baker's guitar picking on "One-Dime Blues" was "beautiful stuff."

"It just cut right through me," he told the News & Observer. "I can't even describe how deep that was for me."

A CD containing "One-Dime Blues" helped her earn national recognition in 1991. She won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and also was awarded the Folk Heritage Award from the N.C. Arts Council.

During the years, she suffered the kinds of problems that would make a compelling blues song.

She was involved in a serious car accident in 1964 in which a grandson was killed. And in 1967, her husband died and a son was killed in the Vietnam War -- within a span of one month.

About a decade ago, she began losing the strength to play guitar. Rather than give up music and quit touring, however, she just changed instruments and took up the banjo.

Wayne Martin, a fiddle player on her upcoming CD, said Baker was still playing a month ago.

"I consider her to be one of the most important traditional artists of our lifetime," Martin told the News & Observer. "She touched hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people with her music.

"It's amazing that she raised nine kids, attending to their needs, then had a career that didn't even start until she was in her 60s."

Davis, Baker's daughter, said music was her mother's way of meeting other people. She loved meeting people on engagements in Europe or Texas, Davis said, because the music brought them together.

"She loved that, because she was able to bring happiness to other people through something she loved," Davis said.

Davis said her mother advised her to always be honest, to work for what she wanted, and to always be friendly, nice and respectful to others.

"She's loved by people all over the world," Davis said. "Everyone was welcome just to come and visit and be with her. She made them welcome."

St. Louis Blues Legend Bennie Smith Dies

2006-09-12T18:19:00.000+03:00

From St. Louis POST-DISPATCH

Bennie Smith, known as the dean of St. Louis electric blues guitarists, died
Sunday evening (Sept. 10, 2006) after suffering a heart attack Saturday,
according to John May, chairman of the St. Louis Blues Society.
He was 72.

Born in St. Louis in October 1933, Mr. Smith was the seventh son in a family of
14. He went on to become known as a leading electric blues guitarist who played
with several artists, including Chuck Berry, Ike Turner, Big Bad Smitty and
Johnnie Johnson.

"Bennie Smith was one of the last of the blues/rhythm and blues legends of his
generation," May said. "I was happy to see that he was at the top of his world
last week at the blues festival."

Mr. Smith remained active in music throughout most of his life, playing guitar
in the Bennie Smith & the Urban Express blues bands and performing regularly at
bars, clubs and blues festivals in the region. His most recent performance was
earlier this month at the Big Muddy Blues Festival on Laclede's Landing.

At the festival, on Sept. 2, Mayor Francis Slay proclaimed the day "Bennie
Smith Day" in St. Louis. The city's Board of Alderman also recognized him as
the dean of St. Louis electric guitarists.

Jammin' with the General in the Holy Land

2006-08-18T21:04:00.001+03:00

Spiritual Blues singer and guitarist Gypsy "The General" Carns flew in and out of Israel for 3 days.
I organized a show at the new Lavontine 7 music club in downtown Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, and his buddy Richard in Jerusalem organized a gig at the Maabada Bar in the Holy City.
Gypsy arrived with his blue Dobro guitar, his "stomp box" and a few other accessories.
I had been listening to some of Gypsy's CDs for the past 6 months or so, and I could tell that the man has deep roots in the traditional slide guitar and delta Blues and Gospel, but experiencing "the General" live on stage is a whole different ballgame.
You must see the man live on stage to feel the enormous power and energy that he puts into his show. His slide guitar playing is impeccable, and his vocals are very strong too.
All this is combined with a black ski hat and reflector sunglasses, leather boots with spurs, and 2 sets of little bells tied to each leg for percussion as he plays "bass drum" by stomping on his wooden "stomp box".
I had the pleasure of doing a guest spot with my National steel body guitar - we sang 2 Blind Willie Johnson classics, "God Don't Never Change" and "Nobody's Fault But Mine".
The following night, we repeated the show at the Maabada Bar club in Jerusalem, extending the show to 2 hours or more, and Gypsy called me up for 2 different guest spots.
Quite an honor and a special experience to be on stage and jam with the General.
You can get information on Gypsy and even download a number of his recordings at
www.GypsyCarns.com

Playin' the Blues for the Troops

2006-08-18T01:40:00.000+03:00

Got a call Friday, asking if I was willing to play some music for our soldiers on the night before the ceasefire agreement took effect.
I said sure, and so, on Sunday night, August 13, I drove up the coast about 20km with 3 other local Blues guys: singer and harmonica wiz Dov Hammer, acoustic Blues/Folk artist Yaron Ben Ami, and my good buddy Johnny Mayer, the guy who created Blues For Peace.
We got up to the base, and were told to follow the car that was waiting for us at the gate. We set ourselves up in the middle of a tent area that held reserve unit soldiers,
and a few of the younger soldiers (including some young ladies) also came to hear the show.
I started off with the National steel guitar, pulling out the old Walking Blues with Johnny backing me his custom hand-made Blues For Peace electric guitar.
Then Dov came up and we did some of the duets we've been doing together for years - Key To the Highway, Midnight Rider (Allman Brothers), and then went on to some chicago style standards.
Yaron joined in, and contributed his nice fingerpicking version of Statesboro Blues.
I was actually surprised how well the crowd received all this Blues material, as this isn't the kind of music the general population in Israel listens to ost of the time...
Well, we managed to do a 2 1/2 hour set between all of us, and the guys were pretty appreciative.
It made me feel good that at least before the ceasefire came, I did my part to help support our soldiers...

Blood from a stone

2006-08-18T01:34:00.000+03:00

Like getting blood from a stone
that's what it's like
trying to get some loving outta you
Now that you brushed me off
and you're already snoring
you've left me with another hard night
to try and get through...

"Justice" by Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn

2006-08-10T10:27:00.001+03:00

What's been done in the name of Jesus?
What's been done in the name of Buddha?
What's been done in the name of Islam?
What's been done in the name of man?
What's been done in the name of liberation?
And in the name of civilization?
And in the name of race?
And in the name of peace?

Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else

Can you tell me how much bleeding
It takes to fill a word with meaning?
And how much, how much death
It takes to give a slogan breath?
And how much, how much, how much flame
Gives light to a name
For the hollow darkness
In which nations dress?

Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else

Everybody's seen the things they've seen
We all have to live with what we've been
When they say charity begins at home
They're not just talking about a toilet and a telephone
Got to search the silence of the soul's wild places
For a voice that can cross the spaces
These definitions that we love create --
These names for heaven, hero, tribe and state

Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else

Copyright 1981 High Romance Music

This is my pain

2006-08-08T12:05:00.000+03:00

I ain't looking to get even baby
Revenge isn't really my game
Just looking for some loving,
But of course, this is my burden,
This is my pain

This is my burden, this is my pain
Outside I have sunshine, inside I feel rain
Bruised on the inside, but no one can see
The way that my woman is really treating me

You've got emotional amnesia darlin'
You got Aldsheimer of the soul
You seem to forget I'm right here beside you
And the love I have for you is whole

I'm right beside you here darlin'
But I feel so all alone
C'mon mama, gimme some lovin'
Throw this old dog a bone

Here comes thunder
Here comes rain
Here come the blues all over again,
This is my burden, this is my pain

Copyright 2006 Bluesman Productions

Blues this morning

2006-08-08T11:45:00.000+03:00

I got the blues this morning people
My woman don't pay me no mind -
I ain't sayin' she's mean,
It's just that she ain't too kind

************

It's a quarter past five in the AM,
everything is quiet and calm

As the early dawn light silhouettes your body
I just want to hold you in my arms

Just to touch and feel your soft skin
As it softens my pain,

To feel a little sensuality, affection
and then fall asleep again...

*****************
Copyright 2006 Bluesman Productions

Sam Myers is playing Blues Harp up on high...

2006-08-06T11:13:00.001+03:00

Singer and Blues harmonica great "Sweet Sammy" Sam Meyers passed away on Monday, July 17, 2006.
He was laid to rest on July 22 in Paulding, Mississippi
next to his mother and father.

Sam Myers was born in Laurel, Mississippi on February 19, 1936. Visually impaired by cataracts from a young age, Sam was educated at the Piney Woods School near Jackson. While there, Sam developed an interest in music as a career. He became skilled enough at playing the trumpet and drums that he received a non-degree scholarship from the American Conservatory School of Music in Chicago. Sam spent his days in the classroom learning the academic side of music and his nights honing his blues chops in the rough nightclubs and streets of Chicago’s South Side.

Sam met and sat in with such blues luminaries as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Lockwood, Jr. and the great Elmore James, with whom Sam formed his first long-lasting musical relationship. Sam played drums with Elmore on a fairly steady basis from 1952 until his death in 1963. In 1956, Sam wrote and recorded what was to be his most famous single, “Sleeping In The Ground,” which has been covered by Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and many other blues artists.

From the early 1960’s until 1986, Sam worked the clubs in and around Jackson, Mississippi as well as across the South in the Chittlin’ Circuit. He even found himself touring the world with Sylvia Embrey and the Mississippi All-Stars Blues Band. Then in 1986, Sam met Anson Funderburgh and joined his band, The Rockets. Since that time, Sam and Anson have traveled all over the U.S. and the world, winning acclaim as one of the best live blues bands playing today.

Sam passed away while at home on July 17, 2006, following his release from the hospital after throat cancer surgery. He was making good progress with his recovery, and his death was totally unexpected. He was laid to rest next to his parents, Ollie and Celeste Myers, near Meridian, Mississippi.

Sam’s autobiography, “Sam Myers: The Blues Is My Story,” will be published by the University Press of Mississippi in October, 2006.

Floyd Dixon is no longer with us

2006-07-30T00:17:00.001+03:00

Floyd Dixon was a sweet man who had a double career - once in the 1950's as a hot new item on the Blues scene, and a sort of comeback career in the 1990's as a living legend. I highly recommend the early Specialty recordings, re-released on Fantasy Records. Bless his soul...

OBITUARIES
Floyd Dixon, 77; Blues Singer, Pianist Influenced Ray Charles
By Geoff Boucher, L.A.Times Staff Writer
July 28, 2006

Floyd Dixon, the singer and jump-blues pianist who dubbed himself "Mr. Magnificent" and became an influential figure in the burgeoning R&B scene of 1950s Southern California, died Wednesday of cancer at Chapman Hospital in Orange. He was 77.

Dixon's best-known song was the raucous "Hey Bartender," which was made popular by the Blues Brothers. His other notable recordings included "Wine, Wine, Wine," "Call Operator 210," "Telephone Blues" and the early Jerry Lieber-Mike Stoller song "Too Much Jelly Roll."

His career found him taking on a variety of styles and sounds: mournful blues, R&B ballads, ribald bar songs and even a channeling of Little Richard on late 1950s tracks such as "Oooh Little Girl." But his strongest suit was jump blues, which added a grit and vigor to the smooth blues lessons he absorbed from his major influence, Charles Brown.

"I liked Charles Brown's style more than just about anybody's," Dixon told an interviewer two years ago. "People told me I sounded like that before I even heard him."

Dixon was born Feb. 8, 1929, in Marshall, Texas, not far from the Louisiana border, where he taught himself to play the piano and soaked up the region's blues, gospel and rural music styles. At age 13, his family moved to Los Angeles during World War II and found, as did so many arrivals in that decade, that the growing city was a place of much promise and easy disappointment.

To pay the bills he worked at a drugstore and caddied, but his young eye was pulled toward other pursuits — he took courses in hotel management and considered a football career. Always, though, he sang and longed to make it into a living. In 1947, he made his first recording, "Dallas Blues" for Supreme Records and after that, it was all about the music.

Again and again, he was told that he sounded like Brown, who was known for his mellow blues and burnished stage performances. In 1948, Dixon won the big talent show at the Million Dollar Theater and some people in the audience thought that he was Brown — except for those who noticed that Brown was seated up front, watching.

"That was something," Dixon told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2004. "The people just screamed and yelled and laughed, because they thought it was Charles and they didn't know it was me."

Brown would help the younger man's career. Dixon would pass on that mentorship, famously to Ray Charles, B.B. King and Robert Cray as the decades went by. Charles would become famous for melding gospel and R&B into the potent concoction called soul music, and some music commentators say that in the hoarse, church-born vocal style of Dixon, Charles may have found a compass point for the direction that made him famous. Before going on the road with Dixon, Charles' sound was far closer to that of the polished Nat King Cole than to the raw soul sound he would later create.

The late 1940s and early 1950s were a feverish time for black music in Los Angeles, and its reach and accomplishment were historic. The confluence of styles in jitterbugging postwar years found up-tempo blues, sophisticated R&B and swing merging into a music that would become the protean sound of rock 'n' roll.

The rock 'n' roll era took its toll on the older R&B musicians and, though he toured into the early 1960s, the end of the decade found Dixon fading from the limelight. He made a significant comeback in 1975 with a European tour, and in the following decade he was commissioned to write a blues song for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The next decade found more success as he won the 1997 W.C. Handy award for comeback blues album of the year for "Wake Up and Live!," a concert recording that veered from the ribald "450 Pound Woman," his famous old tune "Hey Bartender" and the forlorn "Don't Send Me No Flowers in the Graveyard." The album was hailed by reviewers as a late-career declaration of self-worth. Last year, Dixon recorded with fellow piano heroes Pinetop Perkins and Henry Gray for an album scheduled to be released this fall by HighJohn Records.

Bruce Iglauer, president of the blues music label Alligator Records, which released "Wake Up and Live!," said Dixon's hits from the 1950s did not earn the man a lasting memory with the public, but that for students of the tributaries of American pop, he was a notable figure.

"All that music came together and he was right at that pivot point," Iglauer said Thursday.

Iglauer said Dixon never flashed the bitterness of a maestro who had felt cheated of his rightful spotlight.

"He simultaneously knew that he was a quite an important figure in music, but he was also a somewhat neglected one," Iglauer said. "But he felt he had a good life and a good time in life. He was very gentle and jolly. He liked being the life of the party."

Dixon, who never married, is survived by two first cousins, Marie Banks of Los Angeles and Mary Dixon of Marshall, Texas.

There will be a public memorial service from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday at Grace Chapel on the grounds of Inglewood Park Cemetery at 720 E. Florence Ave.

Jessie Mae Hemphill (1934-2006)

2006-07-25T07:16:00.001+03:00

In Memory of Jessie Mae Hemphill, who passed on July 22, 2006:

Jessie Mae Hemphill's music has seen a revival in recent years due to the popularity of her hill country blues influences in the work of Daniel "Slick" Ballinger and Richard Johnston. Both artists are devotees of the lady from Senatobia, Mississippi. The Hemphill family, going back to her Great Grand Father was very influential in the development of this specific genre of northern Mississippi blues styles. Her grandfather, Sid Hemphill was featured of some the early recordings by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress.

When Jessie Mae Hemphill was growing up, she came in contact with a large number of local and national musicians, whether in the Delta or in Memphis. She discovered Fred McDowell, from Como, Mississippi, as well as Johnny Woods, the harmonica player who sometimes accompanied him. In the 1960s, she mentioned McDowell to George Mitchell but McDowell had already started performing for the blues revival crowds by the time Mitchell reached him. Since she was a member of a renowned musical family she met many of the local musicians when they visited her grandfather, this was the case with Sonny Boy Williamson [Rice Miller]. When she was living in Memphis, she became friends with some of the best-known blues and rhythm-and-blues artists of the times: B.B. King, Albert King, Junior Parker, Robert Nighthawk, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. She remembered that one time, she and two other women -one piano player and one drummer- decided to play while B.B. King and his band were taking a break. They got on the stage, started playing, and the people in the club started dancing. The members of B.B. King's band did not dare return inside the club right away; they thought that the owner had hired another band because B.B. King and his musicians had taken a break which had lasted too long.

The instruments that Jessie Mae Hemphill played illustrated this stylistic and musical duality, the style of music she played, and the songs she composed and interpreted also underline this stylistic situation. Her instrument of choice on stage was the electric guitar that she played in what could be seen as a traditional adaptation of a modern instrument: she did not play extended solos or fast musical phrases. Instead, she used the guitar as a rhythm instrument by strumming or elaborating patterns to accompany her singing. It could be said that she used the guitar in a way similar to the drum found in the traditional fife-and-drum bands of the Delta, such as the bands that her great-grandfather and grandfather directed. She has also recorded tunes where she uses a tambourine attached to her foot or bells attached to her leg. In addition, she is known to have recorded at least one tune where she accompanies herself on the diddley bow (a horizontal piece of broom wire attached on the outside wall of a house, with two bottles serving as bridges that is played by striking the wire with a finger while sliding a small bottle or a piece of metal pipe on the length of the wire, in a manner similar to what is produced when a musician plays bottleneck guitar).

If Jesus was...

2006-07-25T07:13:00.000+03:00

if Jesus was the son of a carpenter,
he could have been the one killed today
by a rocket in the Galilee
those heathen wretches
might have killed the next Messiah
and then where would we be?
are these the signs of
the bringing of the apocalypse?

testing, testing, hey does this mic work?

2006-07-20T09:55:00.000+03:00

testing, testing,
hey, does this mic work?

Well, here I am - out in cyberspace,

I got here by accident actually,
following the blog by Lebanese musician
Mazen Kerbaj - check out his blog from a shelter in Beirut
http://mazenkerblog.blogspot.com/
he's got some amazing cartoon drawings
of the madness of the war going on,
he also made an improvised recording of
bombs falling in the distance as he plays his trumpet

without stating any political agenda,
his blog is very human and also contains
much humor in the face of all the crazyness

I've been in that situation (shelters, bombs..) before,
so I can empathize.

well, I guess that's my opening blog entry for now
go listen to some good blues music, say, by Magic Slim and the Teardrops...
ciao,

Eli
www.EliMarcus.com