Sonny Rhodes Turban driven Blues

For more than 30 years, Sonny Rhodes (1940-2021) was known as the Texas Bluesman who plays slide with a steel guitar on his lap, and wears a colorful turban. The turban was one of his trademarks, along with a full three piece suit and a tie. 

Sometime right after 9/11 happened in America, someone threatened Sonny with a .38 pistol, simply because of the turban, so he decided to set the turban aside, but he continued to wear a colorful suit and tie and sport a regular hat.

Born in Smithville Texas in 1940 as Clarence Edward Smith, he acquired the nickname Sonny Rhodes while sharecropping the cotton fields as a kid. He traded cotton picking for guitar picking sometime in the 1950's, recording his first single in 1958 - "I'll Never Let You Go When Something Is Wrong". 

After graduating from high school, Rhodes enlisted in the US Navy and served for a number of years before returning to music and making his next recordings in California in 1966 and 1967. 

 

In 1976 he began touring Europe, where he and the Blues received better recognition and respect than at home, and recorded a number of albums with independent European Blues labels. 

Still frustrated with the recording industry in the US, he created his own independent record label in 1978 - Rhodes-Way Records. 

                

"Rhodes can coax either a banshee wail or a saxophone-like croon from the thing, and he fires off writhing single-string passages that sound like a frenzied “amen” choir one minute and the voice of a possessed alter ego the next..."  
David Whiteis - Chicago Reader 

 

 

Rhodes was definitely one of a kind 

 

"Take it, Big Dog!" Jamming with Jorma

Living legend Jorma Kaukonen, the guitarist from Jefferson Airplane and one half of the original Hot Tuna (alongside bassist Jack Casady), arrived in Israel in December 2010 for a special concert of Hot Tuna in Tel aviv, right on the eve of Jorma's 70th birthday! 

They landed on Wednesday, December 22, and upon their arrival, there was a quick "meet and greet" at a local used record store in downtown Tel Aviv, where I first met Jorma, his sweet wife Vanessa, and legendary bassist Jack Casady.

 

Jorma 

 

That night, Hot Tuna - Jorma and Jack, performed in Tel Aviv to a full house, and at midnight as it turned into Thursday December 23rd, Jorma marked his 70th birthday on stage, and we all cheered with him.  

...A day or two later, there was a special get together with Jorma as featured guest at the Jaffa home of one of the promoters of the show - Yamit Hagar, and a number of musicians and friends in the community were invited to participate in an informal jam. A number of us were sitting in a circle around the small room, with Jorma at the center, four or five of us holding guitars and following closely as Jorma played. 

That's me in the foreground - under the blurry gray cap. 

 

At one point, Jorma began playing the Hesitation Blues, a song I have been performing on stage for decades. He noticed that I was finger-picking the accompaniment in the style of Rev. Gary Davis and in perfect time with him, so he turned to me and said: "Take it, Big Dog!", and I took a couple of verses, trying not to crack up laughing from his comment.

My old friend, Rock and Blues singer Libi, was sitting next to me, and completely burst out laughing at the moniker "Big Dog", and for months after that, would not let me forget it, teasing me frequently with "Hey Big Dog!", "Yo, Big Dog!"....

 

We wrapped up the jam, and we all went outside to the sun and fresh air on the Jaffa beachfront nearaby. It was a lovely day, and a very special experience.  

  

 

A happy Bluesman, following the jam, 
getting fresh air at the nearby Jaffa beachfront.
 

 

 

 

 

That time I showed the Blues Brothers movie in the middle of Lebanon!

In the summer of 1984, I was sent up into Lebanon on army reserve duty for a month. The Israel Lebanon war was just entering its third year, and there was still plenty of fighting going on.

I was sent up as a communication equipment technician for a month of reserve duty in A-Nabatiya, a town somewhere in the center of south Lebanon. The army base was a multi-story  old tobacco factory at the edge of town, and it served as offices, barracks, and a supply center for our forces in that region.  

 

 One evening, I walked out of the electronics lab where I repaired damaged equipment, and I see a room at the end of the hall with a 16mm movie projector running. As I stepped in to check it out, I immediately recognized the sights and sounds of the classic Blues Brothers movie. When the reel ended, a few more soldiers came in to relax and watch the movie, and someone called out "does anyone here know how to operate the projector?". Trying to be a good guy, I foolishly volunteered, rewound the film, and started showing the first reel, and was about to leave, but a couple of the guys begged me to stay and keep it going, the movie was always good fun and a nice escape from the reality all around us in the midst of the war in Lebanon...

  ...and so it went - every time a reel ended, I was asked to stick around to rewind and keep the movie going. This went on for about 16 hours until around noon of the next day, when I finally said I really had to get back to work, or lunch... or anything else!  

I had scenes from the Blues Brothers playing in my head and filling my dreams for months after I got home from Lebanon... 

 

Willie Dixon and Memphis Slim in Israel - 1960

Back in 2003, I produced a special Blues show that brought together many veterans of the Blues and Rock scene in Israel on one stage presented at the  annual "Jazz, Blues, and Videotape" festival in Tel Aviv. One of the guests was veteran Jazz drummer Araleh Kaminsky. During the rehearsals, I had a chance to chat with Araleh, and he told me of his memories from when he was 19 years young, still in the army, and was called down to a Jaffa club (the Hammam) to sit in with some American Blues artists that were touring Israel. The names Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon meant little to him at the time, but he remembered how wonderful it was to have these authentic Blues artists to play with and learn from... I didn't find any more information on Willie and Memphis visiting Israel, until I managed to get my hands on a rare copy of  the book by Mitsutoshi Inaba, "Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues".

Willie Dixon on a Camel - Eilat, Israel, 1960

Here is an excerpt from the book, where Willie Dixon tells us a little about the Israel tour of 1960:

...me and Memphis went to Israel in 1960 to work for this lady named Aviva who had a place in Haifa called Ha Moadon. We played everything in the club, blues and spirituals.

We went over there with the wrong impression that we would get 100 Israeli Pounds and 100 Dollars in American money. We thought the Israeli Pound was the same thing as the English Pound and, at that time, the English Pound was worth $2.80 US.

We started running all over Israel after our first payday and got into a heated discussion about the money. We had a few bucks of our own and were spending our money and keeping the Israeli Pounds. People were glad to get the American Dollar. When we found that the Israeli Pound was only worth 33 cents, we hardly had enough to survive on. 

We started trying to get other jobs at other places there to try to make enough money to get back home with. We went everywhere, down to Jerusalem, Haifa, the Red Sea (Eilat) and we got pretty popular over there. 

One time, we were just going down by the Red Sea somewhere,. I know it was hotter than hell and we were seeing people come along with camels and looking at this great big cat who was so tall he made Slim look like he was short. This guy had one of those big sickles like you cut grass with but it was bigger. He had a rag around his head covering one of his eyes. Looked like he might have been an old pirate or something.

We got to talking about him while we were walking around and we finally ran into a cat who had a camel. The camel was down and I decided to take a picture on there and, you know, when a camel gets up, it grunts. I was pretty fat, so Slim thought that this camel was grunting because he couldn’t get up with me on his back.

Slim was going to take my picture on the camel, and when you’re sitting on it and they raise up behind you first, you almost fall forward, and when they raise up in front, you almost fall backward. Slim was all set with his camera to take my picture and he ain’t got the picture yet. Some other guy took the picture of me on the camel because Slim was laying out laughing...

We went further down there and there was a guy with some kind of van like thing with a top pulled over there. I looked back in and he’s got all these tiny women, young girls in there with those veils across their face. 

He said, “I sell you a wife. How much you pay? Three American Dollars one wife as long as you’re in Israel. Five American Dollars, two wives as long as you’re in Israel.”

”But they’re babies.”

“No, no, no full grown. They’re women. You make love, they have babies.”

“No, no, no. ” We were laughing at the guy...

Taj Mahal at 75

I must have first heard Taj Mahal on record at my Cousin Elliott's sometime in the early 70's, and I remember immediately being impressed by his deep rough voice and authentic finger picking style. From very early on, he had his own unique style, his own lovely arrangements of classic Blues songs, as well as things he adapted, rewrote, or wrote from scratch. Taj has always been the real thing - a true original in the framework of traditional and Folk Blues.

It was only a couple of years later that I had the pleasure of hearing him live at the Mariposa folk festival in Toronto and then at a few more festivals...

Over the decades since the 70's, Taj has continued to explore different facets and streams of Blues and Folk music, including some of his Caribbean roots. He has performed all around the world, and put out many different kinds of albums from acoustic duets to full acoustic bands with horns, to completely electric bands, each album completely different from the previous one ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of5W9UGNbzU

Last week Taj Mahal turned 75 years old, and he doesn't appear to be slowing down much, as he just released a new album and embarked on a concert tour, collaborating with Keb' Mo' on their joint project "TajMo".

The last time I saw Taj in person was on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise of January 2006 in the Carribean, where, aside from performing with his famous Phantom band, he would hang out on the deck by the pool, with a big cigar, and chat with anyone who wanted to sit down for a bit...always a great dresser, Taj seems to like hanging out with some of his audience and have long chats...

Happy 75th Birthday Taj!

Robert Palmer Speaking about Blues Guitarists

"The great Blues guitarists are gifted with an acute sensitivity to the finest nuances of pitch, the subtlest differences in the attack and tone and decay of every note. In most cases, they learned when they were children to listen carefully, to size up a stranger in a few seconds by the timbre and inflection of his voice. And they play the guitar the way they listen, with an ear for the minutest details of phrasing and touch and meaning. They are great guitarists not because they can play more notes per minute than lesser musicians or because of their ability to fashion fancy, flashing phrases, but because they have a surer command of the Blues language."

Robert Palmer writing about Otis Rush, with big thanks to Libi for the bringing me the book "Blues and Chaos, the writings of Robert Palmer"

A few Pearls of Blues Wisdom

“the Blues is Information...in church, you sing about God, you don’t talk about how you felt last night.

The Blues on the other hand, is information - something that consoles, or brings peace, or some news.”
 **** James ‘Blood’ Ulmer  ****

___________________________________________________

"There is no greater thing to do than the Blues if you are a musician.
There is nothing easier or more difficult. It's a symphony of the soul, there is no question about it"

**** Sam Phillips - founder of Sun Studios and Sun Records, Memphis, Tennessee ****

____________________________________________________


“Leave your ego, play the music, love the people.”
**** Luther Allison ****

Meeting Steve Peskoff Again

Steve Peskoff Trio at Beit Haamudim

The first time I met Steve Peskoff was at the Jerusalem Cinematheque in the fall of 1987. I was playing a regular weekly gig there on Sunday nights, backing up the singer Libi on guitar. Libi knew everyone in the Jerusalem music scene, and would call up different musical guests each time to sit in with us. One Sunday day night, she called up Steve Peskoff, as I took a break and sat down in the front row to listen. Now, for the sake of full disclosure, I did have a little bit of 'weed' earlier in the evening, but that certainly should not diminish my estimation of Steve's playing, quite the opposite, it may have made my reaction to his playing much more extreme...

• Steve Peskoff with Deborah Neasouli (Steve's solo starts at 03:00 min)

As I watched this tall skinny man and his Pedulla custom guitar playing through a few changes and going into a long solo, I suddenly found myself in total awe. He seemed to be saying something to himself over and over as he got deeper immersed in the music, maybe chanting or even praying to himself. After about 20 minutes, I said to myself: "I'm going to go home, burn all of my guitars, and never ever play another note, ever!

Steve Peskoff Trio at Beit Haamudim

Well, as the years passed, and I got to know Steve, and performed with him on stage from time to time, I sort of relaxed, and of course, didn't burn my guitars, and continued to play. On one or two occasions where I managed to put together some sort of band, and invited Steve to be a part of it, having him next to me on stage felt like I had a safety net under me - like I could do no wrong as long as he was there. That is just how good Steve is, but unfortunately, not very many people have heard him in the last 10 or so years, and not enough people really see what a gem of a musician and a person he really is.

• Steve Peskoff with Memelo (Steve's solo from 01:30 to 04:40)

After so many years of not seeing Steve in person, this evening I got to hear Steve performing live in a trio with his son Haim on drums, and Michael Edward on bass, and it was nothing short of refreshing and wonderful. (A new Jazz series has opened up at the Beit Haamudim on Rambam St. near Nahalat Binyamin, with shows every night of the week)

Son Seals and the Tel Aviv tour that never happened

Son Seals had a birthday a couple of days ago, he would have been 74 years old, and as I played his recordings, listening to his powerful screaming guitar solos and his rich unique voice, I couldn't help but thinking about the meeting that ALMOST was...

I think it was in the winter of 1998/99 - I was asked to recommend a number of Blues artists that the Camelot club in Tel Aviv could bring over for a week's stay. Son Seals was one of the names I suggested, and one day the Camelot club phoned to ask me to prepare some questions for a phone interview with a Chicago based artist who might come to perform here. I soon found out it was Son Seals I was about to interview for the monthly Camelot music magazine. They set a date for the tour, sometime in mid winter, when he wouldn't be too busy with festivals and touring the USA. At the end of the phone interview, we both said "See you soon in Tel Aviv..."

Son Seals - Friday Again

Well, the night of his arrival came and went, I kept calling the Camelot management to see if maybe his flight was delayed due to winter conditions, but no news was to be had... I started sending out emails to people in the Blues community, including Bruce Iglauer the owner/founder of Alligator Records, where Son Seals was on contract for over 35 years...finally, word got out that Seals was hospitalized and had his lower leg amputated due to complications with diabetes. Son recorded one more album, but he stopped touring, and the show in Tel Aviv never happened... Son Seals had a fairly hard life, went through many serious troubles, and passed away at the end of 2004, leaving behind a small treasure of ten albums, 2 of them live albums recorded in downtown Chicago.

the Son Seals story

Refreshing Blues from Lazy Lester

My new car radio seems to have a mind of its own, completely! I cannot figure out the logic it uses for selecting the next song or next folder to play from my USB flash drive... It's certainly not sorting by any kind of alphabetical, and not by numerical order...my 32GB USB drive can hold at least 200 different albums in MP3 format, and I don't always remember which ones are on there... so I play a game of musical roulette each day on my way to work, clicking the forward and back buttons until I land on an album I want to hear...
Sometimes I land on something that is a very nice surprise or a 'blast from the past', like the three Lazy Lester albums that I recently landed on by coincidence while searching the treasures on this drive...
As the week went by, I found myself listening to more and more of these Lazy Lester albums, which include originals by Lester, as well as covers of classic blues like Five Long Years or Scratch My Back by Slim Harpo, who was a fellow Louisianna "Swamp Blues" singer, and someone Lester recorded with on occasion. Lester also recorded and toured with Lightnin Slim, Katie Webster,
Lonesome Sundown, Whispering Smith, Silas Hogan, Henry Gray, and many others.

Lazy Lester circa 1960

I find Lester's music to be very refreshing - good solid old Blues of the 50's-60's variety with the slight difference that Lester comes from the Lousianna "Swamp Blues" tradition.
His most recent album is You Better Listen released in 2011, and
Lazy Lester at 83 years old still seems to be going strong!

Lazy Lester today

Here are a few Lazy Lester hits to give you an idea -
Lazy Lester - Sugar Coated Love
Lazy Lester - They Call Me Lazy

this classic song by Lazy Lester from the early 60's has an eerie kind of premonition about the science of cloning!
Lazy Lester - The Same Thing Could Happen To You

"...now when you cut your toenails off, don't ever leave 'em in a crack,
because before you leave the jailhouse, man,
you're going to meet yourself coming back..."

Re-Appreciating Fred Neil

I think that anyone who has ever heard one of Fred Neil's original recordings has felt real awe at the depth and clarity of his voice, as well as the energy and originality of his singing style. The problem of course, is that not enough people have ever heard those recordings, and Fred Neal's self-imposed semi-retirement after 1970 did not help matters at all. (The main reason for his retirement - Fred had a big interest in protecting Dolphins, and apparently Neil and Ric O'Barry founded the Dolphin Research Project in 1970, an organization dedicated to stopping the capture, trafficking and exploitation of dolphins worldwide.

Just to give you a reference point on Fred - in 1966 he wrote the classic "Everybody's Talkin' " which only became a hit when Harry Nilsson recorded it in 1968, and became even more popular when it was included in the soundtrack of the hit movie "Midnight Cowboy" in 1969. According to the Bob Dylan biography Chronicles, Fred Neil was instrumental in helping the young Dylan to find cafe gigs, food, and shelter back in his first years in New York city.
Aside from "Everybody's Talkin' ", here are links to some of Fred Neil's classics that I can point you to:
"Blues on the Ceiling"
"Other Side to This Life"
"Ba-di-da"
"That's the Bag I'm In"
"I've Got a Secret"
"The Dolphins"
In this age of countless CD reissues, a fantastic 2-CD set ("the Many Sides of Fred Neil" - Collectors' Choice Music 1999) has been released which encompasses 3 of Fred Neil's original albums, plus a number of rare singles and outtakes, and I highly recommend it. The set includes:
 - "Fred Neil" - 2nd solo album 1966
 - "Sessions" - 1967
 - "The Other Side of This Life"
 (live recording released in 1971)

Ba De Da
I get so tired
Hangin’ around this town
All this old city life
Should bring us fellow down
Badada dada
Dadada dada
Dadada dada
Ba-de-da
I get so tired
Trying to sleep at night
All this old city life
They keep on burning bright
Badada dada…
I get so tired
Hangin’ around this town
All this old city life
Sure brings a fellow down
Badada dada…