Jackie Brenston & Ike Turner

Jackie Brenston & Ike Turner – Broadcast Oct 2008

Over recent sessions we have covered music from the likes of Moon Mullican, Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown all of whom we have mentioned as key influences on the early days of rock n roll. We are going to stay with this theme today and cover the 1950s output of two others who are the artists who cut what is generally accepted as the first r n r record. These cats are Ike Turner and the vocalist in his early 1951 Kings of Rhythm lineup – Jackie Brenston.

You can have a whole lot of fun on the net if you Google ‘first Rocn ‘N Roll record’ and there was even a book published in 1992 on the subject which lists fifty possible contenders.

The question is a bit like asking ‘who invented television, or the motor car. The answer is ‘a whole lot of people’. But nevertheless, this is the track, recorded in March 1951 in Memphis by 28 y/o Sam Phillips, just starting out in the record business that seems to be on top of most lists.

20 y/old Singer/saxist Jackie Brenston was backed by Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, a well rehearsed band that Brenston had joined the previous year. Turner was young, self confident and ambitious, and the Rocket 88 track they recorded had an incredible raw sound, with a strong back beat by drummer Willie Sims, Brenston's enthusiastic vocals, Turner’s own piano, and tenor saxophone solos by 17 year old Raymond Hill (later to be the father of Tina Turner's first child, before she married Ike). A broken speaker cone in the bands amplifier caused the sound of Willie Kizart’s guitar to give a fuzzy, distorted sound.

1 Rocket 88 – March 1951 – The Mistreater – Tk 1 – 2.48

The song described the joys of the Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" automobile, which had just been introduced in 1949, but the number 88 also referred to the number of keys on a piano.

The band made four more recordings that day, with Ike Turner singing on two of them while Brenston stood back on second tenor sax. Sam Phillips wasted no time. Although Turner thought the tracks would be released by Modern under his own name, Philips sold them to Chess Records in Chicago, who were ecstatic. Chess released two singles by the group in mid-April. The coupled sides that featured Turner's voice were credited to Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm. The other single, however, was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, much to Turner’s displeasure.

The Brenston single was a huge success, reaching #1 in June for five weeks Its success stirred Sam Phillips's determination to found Sun, as he realized that the large profits from the recording he had produced could have been his rather than the Chess brothers'. And Turners displeasure at being upstaged caused Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston to part company after one more session in mid 1951.

Going back a little now, Jackie Brenston was born on August 15, 1930, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, which of course is pretty much ‘blues central’ in the Delta. After a stint in the army during WW2, he returned to Clarksdale in 1947, and fell in with a local character named Jesse Flowers, who taught him the saxaphone.

Izear Luster Turner, Jr. just over a year younger than Brenston, was born November 5, 1931, also in Clarksdale. His father was beaten to death by a mob of angry whites, and growing up in a hostile environment unquestionably hardened Turner. He found his calling in music from an early age; he learned boogie-woogie piano firsthand from Pinetop Perkins, and as a teenager talked himself into a DJ slot on the local radio station. He formed his first band while still in high school, and by the late '40s had assembled an outfit which he called the Rhythm Kings

Turner’s lead singer was picked up for a solo career by Cincinnati based King records at the end of 1950 and Turner found Jackie Brenston to take over. The rest, as they say, is history

After the release of Rocket 88, Brenston’s follow up, "My Real Gone Rocket" was released at the end of June. However, perhaps because it was too much like its antecedent - it failed to sell. His next single, "Independent Woman," the remaining recording from the first session, was put out in July. It also failed to sell.

2 Independent Woman – March 1951 – The Mistreater – Tk 5 – 2.52

Two tracks from a Dec 51 session, both released by Chess in Jan 1952, the first with female vocalist Edna McRaney, the other a Louis Jordan styled jump blues number

3 Hi Ho Baby – Dec 1951 – The Mistreater – Tk 7 – 2.24

4 Leo the Louse – Dec 1951 – The Mistreater – Tk 8 – 2.34

"Starvation," his last Chess single, recorded in that same Dec 51 session, came in 1953

5 Starvation – Dec 1951 – The Mistreater – Tk 10 – 2.12

And so, little more than a year after it had begun, it was over. "I was a greenhorn," Brenston later reflected, "I had a hit record and no sense.

He took a job playing saxophone with Lowell Fulson's band in 1953, and he stayed with Fulson, on and off, through 1955.

After they split, Turner and his band became session regulars around Memphis - they went on to back artists like Howlin' Wolf , Elmore James, Otis Rush, Robert Nighthawk, Buddy Guy, and Sonny Boy Williamson II, plus an assortment of Sun artists. During the early '50s, Turner switched from piano to guitar, and also doubled as a talent scout for the Bihari Brothers' Los Angeles-based Modern Records, where he helped get early breaks for artists like Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King.

Turner became frustrated when Sam Philips did not issue much of his work. With the help of Joe Bihari, he rented a disused bus station in Clarkesdale and turned it into a recording studio. Here are a few tracks recorded during this period, in the bus repair workshop, with Turner playing either guitar or piano, and sometimes both.

Track recorded in 1954, with Ike on vocals under the pseudonym Lover Boy

6 The Way You Used To Treat Me – 1954 – Rhythm Rockin Blues – Tk 2 – 2.39

7 Love Is Scarce – 1954 – Rhythm Rockin Blues – Tk 20 – 2.19

Track with vocalist Denis Binder in front of the Kings of Rhythm, singing about a brand of whiskey:

8 Early Times – 1954 – Rhythm Rockin Blues – Tk 8 – 2.26

Track with Billy Gayles on vocals and great piano work by Turner

9 A Woman Just Won’t Do – 1954 – Rhythm Rockin Blues – Tk 17 – 2.13

Despite all this work Turner, had still not managed to come up with a hit record of his own, and this may have influenced his decision to bury the hatchet with Brenston, who reunited with Turner in 1955, holding down the baritone sax chair until 1962.

During the mid-'50s, Turner moved the Kings of Rhythm to East St. Louis, where they rose to the top of the local R&B circuit. Track recorded in St Louis, in late 1955, Turner on guitar, Johnny Wright on vocals

10 The World is Yours – late 1955 – Rhythm Rockin Blues – Tk 9 – 2.49

Adopting a revue format for their live performances, the Kings of Rhythm worked with a revolving group of vocalists during this period. One was a 17 yo singer originally from Tennessee named Anna Mae Bullock, who met Turner in 1956. She joined the revue, and moved into Turner's house after becoming pregnant to sax player Raymond Hill. Soon, she and Turner began their own relationship and had a child of their own, marrying in 1958.

Brenston did the vocals out front of the Kings of Rhythm on two great tracks in 1956: "Gonna Wait for My Chance" and "Much Later" which were both released by Federal.

11 Gonna Wait for my Chance – Sept 1956 – The Mistreater – Tk 21 – 2.08

12 Much Later – Sept 1956 – The Mistreater – Tk 24 – 2.15

These were the only two of the many singles that the band had out during that time that featured Brenston's vocals. He was reduced to being Ike Turner's baritone sax-player. Turner allowed Brenston to sing a few songs when the band performed in public, but he forbade him to sing "Rocket '88."

By the late 1950s, Brenston had developed a big alcohol problem. A singer in Turner's 1958 lineup said in an interview of Brenston and tenor sax-player Raymond Hill "They was drinking that really bad shit, boy," he recalled. "That stuff they used to drink you probably wouldn't allow it in your house. Not even to wash the floor. I'm telling you, man, it's really amazing... them cats, they could put away some alcohol, man."

In mid 1960 Ike Turner, with the help of Tina Turner, finally got his hit record, "A Fool in Love," the first of several for the Sue label. In New York that same summer Brenston cut a single of his own for Sue, "Trouble Up the Road" and "You Ain't the One," which was released during the Christmas season.

Brenston and Turner parted again, for the last time, in 1962, and Brenston made just one more record, in Chicago with Earl Hooker's band, released in 1963.

While Turner went on to a big career thanks largely to the talents of his wife Tina, Brenston sank further in his alcoholism, first in St Louis, then returning to Clarksdale, a hopeless drunk. He had a heart attack in Dec 1979 and was taken to an army veterans hospital in Memphis where died on December 15, 1979 aged just 49.

We will close out with a track that takes us back to where it all began for Jackie Brenston, when he had the world at his feet. The follow up track to Rocket 88, from July 1951. Listen out for the words:

“When I cruise through your town like the Great North Western, you can tell everybody that was mighty Jackie Brenston’.

13 My Real Gone Rocket – Jul 1951 – The Mistreater – Tk 4 – 2.12 but fade after 1.30

Hemphill & Turner Families

A few years ago, in these sessions, we covered some of the artists who lived in the hill country region of north Mississippi – men like Fred McDowell, Junior Kimbrough and RL Burnside. Today we are going back to that region to spend time in and around a place called Como.

To put the geography in context, the three towns we are going to speak about today – Como, Sledge and another called Senatobia all fit in a 10 km triangle about 50 km south of Memphis

These artists we will cover comprise a remarkable blind musician by the name of Sid Hemphill, his granddaughter Jesse Mae Hemphill, a fife player named Otha Turner and the modern incarnation of Otha Turner’s band – the Rising Star Drum and Fife Band. And if we have time, we will throw in a bit of the Nth Mississippi Allstars as well.

The first of these artists, Sid Hemphill, was born around 1876/78. Sid was the master of nine instruments, but was primarily known locally as a fiddle player who recorded 22 tracks for musicologist Alan Lomax in Sledge MS, not far from Como, in 1942.

We will start with one of the tracks recorded in the 1942 session, with Hemphill on fiddle and vocals, supported by Alec Askew, Lucius Smith and Will Head

1. John Henry – 1942 – LWBB – Tk 20 – 3.13

Lomax returned to the region seventeen years later in 1959, primarily to record Hemphill again. Drum and fife track from this second session, this time at Como featuring three brothers Ed Young, Lonnie Young and GD Young.

2. Jim and John – 1959 – LWBB – Tk 22 – 2.12

(As side note, it was at this second 1959 session at Como that a shy 55yo old farmer named Fred McDowell stepped out of the shadows and recorded Shake ‘Em On Down and take his place in blues history).

Sid Hemphill was the father of Rosa Hemphill who also recorded for Lomax in 1959 and through another daughter, grandfather to blues woman Jesse Mae Hemphill

Jessie Mae Hemphill was surrounded by music from the moment she was born in nearby Senetobia in 1934. As a young girl in the early 40’s, Jessie Mae was heavily influenced by the music at family and community gatherings; both church music and the blues.

Throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s, and early ’70s, she played drums and guitar with various bands, never straying far from her roots. She lived in Memphis for 20 years, playing on Beale Street when she wasn’t working various odd jobs. By the time she decided to return home to the country in the mid ‘70s, she had all but left the drums behind and focused mainly on her guitar playing.

Jessie Mae’s solo recording career began at age 45 in 1979. A track from that year, recorded near Como.

3. Take Me Home With You Baby – 1979 – Shake It Baby – Tk 9 – 2.45

One commentator has written Her songs are driven by a relentless rhythm, powered by a fierce strum - with a slide up one string and down the next for accent. Hemphill plays way up the neck, with both barred and fingered chords, and bends a string when the mood strikes her. The stomping guitar parts act as a rhythmic echo to the words and percussion.

Track recorded a year later in Memphis

4. Hard Times - 1980 – Shake It Baby – Tk 10 – 2.52

Both the tracks we have just played featured on her first album, She Wolf released in 1981. Unfortunately the album was only released in Europe and although it gained critical acclaim among blues enthusiasts, it failed to reach a broader audience.

Jesse Mae toured Europe on several occasions playing at large halls and festivals. In 1986 she recorded tracks for the French Black and Blue label, which achieved some recognition in the US. She won the W.C. Handy Award for Best Traditional Female Blues Artist in both 1987 and 1988, even though she had yet to release a full-length album in the states.

In 1991 she released her second album, and the first in the US, titled Feelin’ Good. The album won the Handy Award for Best Acoustic Album that year.

Title track from that album

5. Feelin Good – Jan 1988 – Shake It Baby – Tk 1 – 3.50

These tracks provide a good sense of the feel of Hemphill’s entertaining at house parties and picnics of the region. Her songwriting often wedded the stomp and march rhythms of the fife and drum bands to her amplified guitar work.

6. Shake It Baby – Nov 1985 – Shake It Baby – Tk 8 – 3.22

Coming off the success of Feelin’ Good, her career looked bright for the ‘90s. She was well-known in Europe and the US, was touring extensively, had gotten good reviews, and her albums were selling well. But in 1993 she suffered a stroke that paralysed her left side, leaving her unable to play guitar. Jessie Mae Hemphill retired from touring and returned to Senatobia. She still sang and played the tambourine in church. "I am singing for the Lord now," she said.

We will come back to Jesse Mae soon, for its now time to introduce Otha Turner.

Otha Turner was the last surviving master of the Mississippi back-country fife-and-drum tradition. He was born in 1908, and got his start as a performer by playing the fife and drums at local picnic celebrations. Money he raised playing at these gatherings enabled him to buy the farm near Como, where he lived with his family in relative obscurity for 60 yrs

while leading the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, a loose grouping of relatives, friends and neighbours which played primarily at his own picnics.

By the 1990s Turner was the final surviving link to fife-and-drum's roots; and at the age of 90, his music was finally preserved on an album called Everybody Hollerin' Goat, recorded between 1992 and 1997 by producer Luther Dickinson. The album got its name from the bar b que goat sandwiches he would serve at these picnics. "People always want goat at a picnic, so I try to have it for them," said Turner. "Everybody always hollering goat."

7. Shimmy She Wobble - 1997 – Hollerin Goat – Tk 1 – 4.18 play 2.00

The album was named one of the top five blues albums of the decade by Rolling Stone magazine.

Fife and drum music can be traced back to British and early American military music. In a time when drumming by slaves was strictly forbidden for fear of illicit communication, the fife and drum was an acceptable outlet, even used by confederate armies during the civil war.

Today, the fife and drum music performed by the Turner family has more in common with the music of West Africa. Alan Lomax, considers it one of his greatest discoveries in a lifetime of research. In his 1993 book, "Land Where the Blues Began," he wrote: "in voodoo ceremonies, dancers make pelvic gestures toward the drum to honour the holy music that is inspiring them. I never expected to see this African behaviour in the hills of Mississippi, just a few miles south of Memphis."

8. Station Blues - 1997 – Hollerin Goat – Tk 6 – 2.10, but start at 1.00

A follow-up album, Senegal to Senatobia, appeared in 2000. This album paired Otha Turner with several other musicians, including producer Luther Dickinson on slide guitar and a Senegalese kora player.

Interestingly the album also featured one Abe Young on drums. Abe was the son of fife player and drummer Lonnie Young, who featured on the second track we played today.

It was the last album Turner would complete; he died February 26 2003 at the age of 94. The impact of Turner's brief public revival of the fife and drum style was made apparent in 2002 when his "Shimmy She Wobble" was used in Martin Scorscese's film, Gangs of New York.

9. Bounce Ball - 2000 – From Senegal – Tk 3 – 3.44, fade out at 3.00

Both these albums featured guitarist Luther Dickinson, who with his brother Cody make up two thirds of the North Mississippi Allstars. Luther and Cody are sons of famed producer Jim Dickinson.

Dr. Sylvester Oliver, an ethnomusicologist from Rust College in nearby Holly Springs, sees the drums as the historic cultural centerpiece of Hill Country music. "I have interviewed several elderly individuals who told me...they would not start their picnic unless the drums came and kind of sanctified the area. They always wanted the drums to come and bless the area."

Jesse Mae Hemphill did make one last album, a two disc set released in 2003 and recorded live in a Como barn with a long list of guests including members of the Kimbrough and Burnside extended families, and Otha Turner’s Band.

We will let Jesse Mae do the intro before she moves on to a gospel song that you will all know.

10. Fife & Drum Intro – 2003 – Dare You To Do It Again – Disc 1 Tk 1 – 3.24, start at 1.25

11. Lay My Burden Down – 2003 – Dare You To Do It Again – Disc 1 Tk 2 – 4.33 fade out at 2.35

Jesse Mae didn’t record again after her 2003 album and died on July 22, 2006. She is remembered through the JMH Foundation, a non-profit vehicle to draw public attention to the hill country blues music indigenous to the Northern Mississippi region, thereby ensuring its preservation.

But the Nth Miss Hill Country sound is very much alive through the music of the Nth Miss Allstars and the descendents of the Burnside, Kimbrough and Turner families.

To give you an idea how the nth MS sound has evolved, we will finish up with a track from a North Missisisppi Allstars live album recorded 62 years after we started, at the 2004 Bonnaroo festival in Manchester Tn.

Track featuring Otha Turner’s grandchildren in his Rising Star Fife and Drum Band. You can hear RL Burnside helping with the intro:

12. Shimmy She Wobble/Station Blues - 2004 – Live at Bonnaroo – Tk 9 – 9.12,

Order CDs featured in this transcript:

Lonnie Donegan

Lonnie Donegan - Broadcast Nov 2008

Every now and again in these sessions we head off at a bit of a tangent to cover an artist or a style that is not strictly blues, but with strong links. And today we’re going down that path to complete some work we started a few months ago when we covered artists like Moon Mullican and Jackie Brensten who played a key part in the development of early rock’n roll

The artist we are covering today developed a style inspired by Leadbelly’s folk blues songs of the 1930s and in turn paved the way for literally hundreds of early 1960s British blues and rock artists. Among the many tens of thousands of British teens inspired by LDs skiffle style were The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon, Gerry & The Pacemakers, and the Searchers.

Others whose early careers included stints in skiffle bands include Mick Jagger, Graham Nash and Alan Clarke of The Hollies, Jimmy Page, Van Morrison and Ronnie Wood.

Lonnie Donegan was the King Of Skiffle and 'first real British pop superstar'. He shot to fame in 1956, when this cover of a Leadbelly track sold an unprecedented 3 million copies, shooting into the British and American top ten.

For a few years in the mid to late 1950’s LD was huge, and his influence changed the face of popular music forever. Over six years, every single he released was a top-ten hit. He was the first artist to win a Gold Record with a debut release, the first to have an album and an EP in the singles chart.

His first single was a Leadbelly cover and had a 22 week run on the English charts, peaking at No. 8. It was catchy, earthy, even bluesy American music played in a way that the British kids could master without an enormous amount of trouble—a guitar or two, and maybe a banjo, an upright bass (or even one made from a tea chest, a broom handle, and a piece of rope), and a washboard-and-thimble for percussion.

We will start with this first hit, Leadbelly’s version and fade into Lonnie’s

1. Rock Island Line – June 1940 – Legendary Leadbelly – Tk 21 – 2.32

2. Rock Island Line – July 1954 - LD The Early Years – Tk 1 – 2.37

LD’s 'Rock Island Line' was voted #38 in MOJO Magazine's '100 Records That Changed the World' poll. It lies ahead of the likes of The Beatles' 'Revolver', Bruce Spingsteen's 'Born to Run' and The Who's 'My Generation':

Lonnie Donegan was born Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland, in April 1931, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra. His father was unemployed in the 1930s, and in 1933 the family moved to East London.

He bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen, around 1945.. By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.

In 1949, he was drafted into the British Army. This put him in direct contact with American troops and, even more important, the American Forces Radio Network.

In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for US blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall. The story goes that the MC got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.

Donegan and his band eventually hooked back up with an old friend, trombonist Chris Barber, and later fellow jazzman Ken Colyer. Between sets by the full band, Donegan would come on stage and perform his own version of American blues, country, and folk standards, punched up with his own rhythms and accents, on acoustic guitar or banjo, backed by upright bass and drums.

When Chris Barber left to form his own band in 1954, he took Donegan with him, and featured him on an LP called the New Orleans Joys, recorded in July 1954. Thanks in large part to Donegan’s raucous version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", and "John Henry" which were included on the album, it sold an unprecedented 50,000 copies, which in turn led to Decca releasing these two tracks as the A & B sides of a single.

His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes," cut at an October 30, 1954 concert at London's Royal Festival Hall, was banned by the BBC for its suggestive lyrics—this hurt sales but also gave Donegan a slight veneer of daring and rebelliousness that didn't hurt his credibility with the kids.

3. Diggin My Potatoes – Oct 1954 - LD The Early Years – Tk 12 – 3.09

The name "skiffle" was hung on this music. The word, according to Donegan, was suggested by Ken Colyer's brother Bill, who remembered an outfit called the Dan Burley Skiffle Group, based in Chicago in the 1930's

Decca gave up on Donegan soon after, believing that skiffle was a flash-in-the-pan fad. The next month he was at Abbey Road Studios in London cutting a song for EMI's Columbia label. By the spring of 1955, he was signed to Pye Records, and his single "Lost John" hit No. 2 in England.

4. Lost John – April 1956 – Best Of – Disc 1 Tk 1 – 2.44

Lost John", was the start of a series of UK hits – 34 of them - which lasted until 1962.

Lonnie went over to America to appear on the Perry Como Show, and toured with Chuck Berry. Suddenly, his manager was getting offers of $1500 a week for concert appearances in cities from Cleveland to New York—that in a day when $800 was a year's wages in England.

Back in UK, his next release was another Leadbelly cover, which reached No 7.

5. Bring a Little Water Sylvie – April 1956 – Best Of – Disc 1 Tk 4 – 2.28

He performed two very live shows in London in Jan and Feb 1957. Two tracks from the second of these – at Royal Albert Hall. The audience response shows they were clearly having a great time but the erratic performance by a guy named Denny Wright on electric guitar suggests he had spent too long in the green room before the show.

Lonnie can introduce both songs

6. Cumberland Gap – Feb 1957 – Live – Tk 10 – Start at 2.55

7. Dont You Rock Me Daddy O – Feb 1957 – Live – Tk 12 – 1.51

The first of these tracks was recorded again a few weeks later, in a studio and became his first No 1 hit in April 1957:

Another live track from early 1958, which Johnny Cash would record a year later, followed by a Kingston Trio number recorded in the studio later that year, and which also became a huge hit

8. On a Monday – Feb 1958 – Best Of – Disc 1 Tk 15 – 2.38

9. Tom Dooley – Nov 1958 – Best Of – Disc 1 Tk 23 – 3.19

By mid-1958, however, skiffle was waning rapidly as a commercial sound, and LD realised he was going have to adapt his style. He looked to the US again for inspiration.

10. Fort Worth Jail – May 1959 – Best Of – Disc 1 Tk 25 – 2.13

His biggest ever hit was recorded live in Feb 1960, based on an old US novelty number which was popular with audiences in his live shows, this song needs no introduction. It was the first record by a British artist to enter the charts at No 1, selling well over 1 million copies

11. My Old Man’s a Dustman – Feb 1960 – Best Of – Disc 2 Tk 7 – 3.21

He cleaned up an old traditional coke sniffers song called Have a Whiff on Me for this 1961 top 10 hit:

12. Have a Drink On Me – May 1961 – Best Of – Disc 2 Tk 13 – 2.51

Eventually British rock soon overtook skiffle in the public’s attention and his hits became less frequent. Donegan was still strumming on, oblivious to the fact that the Skiffle craze had long since gone.

His last UK hit came in late 1962, with another Leadbelly cover

13. Pick a Bale of Cotton – Aug 1962 – Best Of – Disc 2 Tk 19 – 2.36

He continued to record sporadically during the 1960's, but after 1964, he was primarily occupied as a producer at Pye Records. A highlight of this period was his work with Tom Jones - he wrote "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for Jones in 1969,

Lonnie spent the late 60's and 70's touring, starring in Las Vegas, Hollywood, New York, Canada, Bermuda, Germany Australia and New Zealand, before severe heart problems led him to settle at Lake Tahoe, California.

In 1978, however, he was back in the studio, recording the album that was his first chart entry in 15 years, and more concert tours followed, along with a move to Florida and then to Spain.

Heart surgery in 1992 slowed Donegan down again, but by the end of the year he was touring once again with Chris Barber.

In 1998 he teamed up with long-time fan Van Morrison and became a frequent guest and opening act for Van’s shows. In Nov of that year he reunited with Chris Barber and Chris, LD and VM recorded a live album in Belfast. In June 1999 played at the Glastonbury Festival, followed by a tour that autumn.. He was awarded the MBE in 2000.

Lonnie died in 2002 aged 71, after suffering a heart attack mid-way through a UK tour.

Subsequently, son Peter Donegan formed a band that performs his father's material. Lonnies eldest son Anthony also formed his own band under the name Lonnie Donegan Jnr

Just before he died, he said in an interview

"In England, we were separated from our folk music tradition centuries ago and were imbued with the idea that music was for the upper classes. You had to be very clever to play music. When I came along with the old three chords, people began to think that if I could do it, so could they. It was the reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did that."

Finish up with track from 1965, with some fine banjo work, echoing the sound of Flatt & Scruggs, and then two tracks from the 1998 Live in Belfast album

14. She Was T Bone Talking Woman – May 1965 – Best Of – Disc 2 Tk 23 – 1.44

15. Railroad Bill – Nov 1998 – Skiffle Sessions – Tk 12 – 1.57

16. Muleskinner Blues – Nov 1998 – Skiffle Sessions – Tk 13 – 3.05

Odetta Holmes

Odetta Holmes - Broadcast Jan 2009

The sad death in early Dec 2008 of one of America’s great folk singers gives us the opportunity to mention her today.

In a career of almost 60 years, Odetta sang at coffeehouses and at Carnegie Hall. She became one of the best-known folk-music artists of the 1950s and ’60s. Her recordings of blues and ballads on dozens of albums influenced Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and many others.

Odetta’s voice was an accompaniment to the black-and-white images of the freedom marchers who walked the roads of Alabama and Mississippi and the boulevards of Washington to end racial discrimination. Although primarily a folk singer she released several blues influenced albums and we will concentrate on these today.

Start off with a well covered Jimmy Rogers number from her first solo album, 1956, showing her fabulous voice

1. Muleskinner Blues - 1956 – Ballads and Blues – Tk 3 – 2.51

Odetta was born Odetta Holmes on New Year's Eve 1930 in Birmingham, AL.

Although she grew up mostly in California, the music of that time and place — particularly prison songs and work songs recorded in the fields of the Deep South — shaped her life. “They were liberation songs,” she said in an interview “You’re walking down life’s road, society’s foot is on your throat, every which way you turn you can’t get from under that foot. And you reach a fork in the road and you can either lie down and die or insist upon your life.”

Her father died when she was young, and in 1937 at age 7, she and her mother moved to Los Angeles. Three years later Odetta discovered that she could sing.

Odetta's mother began saving money and she began voice lessons when she was 13. She received a classical training, and found her own voice by listening to blues, jazz and folk music from the African-American and Anglo-American traditions. She earned a music degree from Los Angeles City College. Her training in classical music and musical theater was “a nice exercise, but it had nothing to do with my life,” she said. “School taught me how to count and taught me how to put a sentence together. But as far as the human spirit goes, I learned through folk music.”

Song credited to the Lomaxes, from her first solo album in 1956:

2. Alabama Bound – 1956 – Ballads and Blues – Tk 12 – 1.43

In 1949, when she was 19 years old, Odetta landed a role in the Los Angeles production of Finian's Rainbow, where she met fellow cast member and blues harmonica master Sonny Terry. The following summer, Odetta was again performing in California. This time it was a production of Guys and Dolls, staged in San Francisco. Hanging out in North Beach during her days off, Odetta had her first experience with the growing local folk music scene.

In 1953, Odetta travelled to New York. Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte had both taken an interest in her career by this time, and her debut album, The Tin Angel, was released in 1954. From this time forward, Odetta worked to expand her repertoire and make full use of what she has always termed her "instrument" ie her wonderful voice.

Her first solo album, “Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues,” released in 1956, resonated with an audience eager to hear old songs made new.

Bob Dylan, referring to that recording, said in a 1978 interview with Playboy, “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta.” He said he heard something “vital and personal,” and added, “I learned all the songs on that record.”

Another track from the Ballads and Blues album that has been covered by lots of people

3. Shame & Scandal – 1956 – Ballads and Blues – Tk 5 – 2.23

Odetta’s next album, a year later in 1957 was the first showcase of her extraordinary ability to interpret the American folk song. Whereas the first album featured Odetta accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, for this next outing, she added bass player Bill Lee, father of filmmaker Spike Lee. Although the title -- At the Gate of Horn -- suggests that the album was recorded live at the Gate of Horn club in Chicago, it wasn't. The idea was to offer a replication of her Gate of Horn show at the time.

[And as a side note ….The Gate of Horn was a 100-seat folk music club, located in the basement of the Rice Hotel on the near north side of Chicago in the 1950s-60s, set up by Albert Grossman. Grossman was an entrepreneur and manager scene who was most famous as Bob Dylan’s manager from 1962 to 1970.

After university Grossman worked for the Chicago Housing Authority, leaving in the late 1950s to go into the club business. He set up the Gate of Horn as a ‘listening room’ to showcase various folk singers as the folk revival movement grew. Grossman moved into managing some of the acts who appeared at his club and in 1959, he co-founded the Newport Folk Festival.

In 1961, he put together the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. As well as PP&M, Grossman's client list included at various times John Lee Hooker, Gordon Lightfoot, Richie Havens, Todd Rundgren, The Band, the Electric Flag, Janis Joplin, and as we have mentioned, Bob Dylan].

Leadbelly numbers from this album

4. Gallows Pole – 1957 – At the Gate of Horn – Tk 1 – 2.52

5. Midnight Special – 1957 – At the Gate of Horn – Tk 5 – 2.36

In 1961, Martin Luther King, Jr. anointed her "The Queen of American folk music". In the same year the duo Harry Belafonte and Odetta made #32 in the UK Singles Chart with the song There's a Hole in My Bucket.

Odetta's most productive decade as a recording artist came in the 1960s, when she released 16 albums, including Odetta at Carnegie Hall, Odetta and The Blues, It's a Mighty World , and Odetta Sings Dylan.

In the 1962 album ‘Odetta and the Blues’ she drew from the classic female blues singers and traded in her acoustic guitar for a six-piece jazz band. Upbeat New Orleans jazz track…

6. Believe I’ll Go – 1962 – Odetta & The Blues – Tk 2 – 3.05

Two more tracks from ‘Odetta and the Blues’ with trumpet, trombone, and clarinet providing great accompaniment to Odetta’s voice

7. How Long Blues – 1962 – Odetta & The Blues – Tk 4 – 2.06

8. Yonder Come the Blues – 1962 – Odetta & The Blues – Tk 8 – 2.48

Odetta’s fame hit a peak in 1963, when she marched with Martin Luther King to Washington. But with King’s assassination in 1968, much of the wind went out of the sails of the civil rights movement, and the songs of protest and resistance that had been the movement’s soundtrack began to fade. Odetta’s fame flagged for years thereafter.

9. Go Down, Sunshine – 1962 – Odetta & The Blues – Tk 11 – 2.17

Odetta released only two new albums in the 20-year period from 1977-1997. But beginning in 1998, she re-focused her energies on recording and touring and so re-launched her career.

A 1998 CD dedicated to her old friend Ella Fitzgerald was followed by three more all of which gained Grammy Award Nominations The first, from 1999 was blues/jazz band tribute album dedicated to the great lady blues singers of the 1920s and 1930s titled Blues Everywhere I Go,

Track from this album:

10. Can’t Afford to Lose My Man – 1999 –Blues Everywhere I Go – Tk 7 – 2.57

The tracks on Blues Everywhere I Go tell what Odetta calls "the other side" of the African-American blues story. She chose tracks with the lyrics concerning lost love, unemployment, homelessness, and hard times — no knives, no guns, no chasin' women, no double-entendre lyrics in this collection.

11. Unemployment Blues – 1999 –Blues Everywhere I Go – Tk 4 – 4.06

12. Look the World Over – 1999 –Blues Everywhere I Go – Tk 10 – 3.38

Two more albums followed in 2002 and 2007. In 2003 she received a Living Legend tribute from the Library of Congress and a National Visionary Leadership award.

She toured North America, Latvia, and Scotland and was mentioned in Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary, No Direction Home. That same year Odetta released Gonna Let It Shine, which went on to receive a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Folk Album.

She was still performing at concerts and festivals right through to Oct 2008, and had hoped to perform at Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009, but on Dec 2 she died of heart disease in New York, aged 77.

Odetta married at least twice – both marriages ending in divorce, and according to her NY Times Obit, a third time in 1977, to the blues musician Iverson Minter, known professionally as Louisiana Red. Other sources say they were just ‘companions’. She had no children.

Finish off with a few more minutes from Blues Everywhere I Go. Big Bill Broonzy song about FDR’s Works Progress Administration, a ‘make work program set up in the 1930s

13. WPA Blues – 1999 –Blues Everywhere I Go – Tk 14 – 4.12

Bluesnews 26 Jan 2009

Hello again. Here is another edition of a newsletter setting out all the blues news for South East Queensland.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Woodford was great as usual – uplifting, stimulating and inspiring. There were many musical highlights, but I was particularly impressed with these new (at least for me!) discoveries:

· the Gold Coast’s Tijuana Cartel,
· Mojo Juju and The Snakeoil Merchants. (Their cabaret act was preceded by a delightful young lady in a milkmaid outfit who came on stage to milk a mechanical cow, and then did a striptease to Wynonie Harris’ 1952 raunchy song ‘Keep on Churning till the Butter Comes’
(Keep on churnin' 'til the butter comes
Keep on churnin' 'til the butter comes
Keep on pumpin', make the butter flow
Wipe off the paddle and churn some more))
· Mandolin playing bluesman Jimi Hocking,
· talented Virginia (USA) bluegrass duo Martha Spencer and Jackson Cunningham, on leave from The Whitetop Mountain Band. Martha’s Appalachian accent was so fetching she could have just stood on stage and read her shopping list and held everyone spellbound.
· King Curly
· Symbiosis
· White Boyz Can’t Funk
· Barons of Tang

Also interesting were Festival Director Bill Hauritz’ revelations in his Directors Report that in mid 2008 he had to have a serious sit-down with the festival’s bankers to discuss a threatened revenue shortfall due to poor ticket sales following last years wet weather. Thankfully budgets were trimmed and ticket sales picked up, and the bankers were pacified.

Bill is working on a number of strategies to shore up festival finances for at least the next 500 years.


It looks like this internet thing is not just a one minute wonder, so we’ve used the break, here at Bluesnews Headquarters to get on the net. You can find this newsletter here. Over coming months we will put some more stuff up, with the ultimate aim of earning a $ or two, so that I can give up my day job and, (like Rhythm’s Brian Wise) spend my life listening to music and travelling overseas to festivals ………..)


Cheers

Mark Hipgrave



NEWS

Best Of Lists for 2008……..

It’s that time of year again….

Barnes & Noble’s Best of List for 2008

From the wilds of upstate New York, the Felice Brothers kidnap traditional American song forms and take them on a dangerous caper stuffed with guns, drugs, and drink. They topped off a year of stellar releases that included vital sets from veteran folkies and bluesmen alike.

· The Felice Brothers, The Felice Brothers
· Kathleen Edwards, Asking for Flowers
· Sonny Landreth, From the Reach
· Buddy Guy, Skin Deep
· Amos Lee, Last Days at the Lodge
· Charlie Haden, Rambling Boy
· Joan Baez, Day After Tomorrow
· Pete Seeger, At 89
· Ray LaMontagne, Gossip in the Grain
· Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006

Their full list, in all categories, is here

Also …..

Amazon’s Best of Blues List
Something Else’s Best of Blues and Louisiana Music for 2008 (interesting categorization!)
Chicago Sun Times Best Blues of 2008 List

Other, more general music lists:

Time Magazine
Metacritic
Blogcritic
Pitchfork
Rolling Stone Magazine



John Ward Writes

Just before Christmas, John Ward, from Onlybluesmusic wrote:

Some good news, from the Courier Mail, Brisbane.

Blockbuster Albums Defy Gloom.
There is no sign of a recession in retail music with album sales rising by up to 60% on last years figures.

Music fans have been flocking to record stores with the release of blockbuster albums artists such as AC/DC, Kings Of Leon & Pink.

Australian Record Industry Asn chairman Ed St John yesterday said "for the past six weeks we've seen a dramatic increase in album sales. Given the economic climate consumers seem to be reprioritising their spending and music suddenly looks like a really attractively priced gift". Sales were up more than 20% since October 27, compared with the same period last year. Sales of the top five albums are double of those last year.

The week of AC/DC's Black Ice release showed a 47% increase in physical sales over the same week in 2007. The following week Pink's Funhouse album pushed CD sales 57% higher than the same period in 2007.

Warwick Vere, owner of Brisbane's largest independent record store, Rocking Horse Records, said "you constantly read stories that downloading is the end for the record shop but we've never noticed any downturn in CD sales or vinyl and niche market stuff. There has always been the adage that entertainment does well in recession & albums like Kings Of Leon's Only By The Night have been enormous for us, so has Australian blues singer C.W. Stoneking." Noel Mengel

Now for some not so good news.

Just a few weeks ago in the UK the huge distributor Pinnacle went bust. Leaving 100 staff out of a job & over 1000 labels without a distributor or payment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/04/pinnacle-distributor-enters-administration

Then in the last week or so, Australian distributor Creative Vibes has closed its doors. http://www.cvibes.com/

My Two Cents Worth –

Certainly we are entering into new territory, the big company with a lot of staff just does not make financial sense any more. Smaller leaner companies that focus on what they know & stick to quality, not quantity, I think they will survive & flourish. Musicians will certainly continue to make music with or without a lot of money about. They have always been given the rough end of the stick when dealing with the big companies anyway. Fans will always want to buy music, it is one of the best & safest forms of entertainment available & it is affordable. Music stores & places that sell music will continue to stock it as long as people still buy it, and they are. So at the end of the day, you need someone to connect the musicians with the fans & the shops. So distributors will always be needed, especially ones that know what they hell they are doing.

Welcome to the future, it is here now. Happy & safe 2009 to all.

Cheers, John.


And in perhaps related news, the Virgin Megastore in NY Times Square recently announced that it will close in April


Cheech and Chong to Tour

If you can remember the 70s you will be interested to learn that Undercover.com.au reports that:

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are coming down under. The “dopiest” comedians of the 70s and 80s will make Australia a part of their reunion tour.

Cheech and Chong epitomized the drug induced 70s with a series of comedy albums and films that are now cult classics.

Their characters like Sister Mary Elephant and Basketball Jones where known by any teenage kid from the 70s who had even walked past a joint.

More here

They will be in Brisbane on April 30 at the Performing Arts Centre


Macavine Hayes Dies

Music Maker Foundation reports that Macavine Hayes (who appeared at ECBRF a few years ago) died in his sleep Monday, January 12. He was 65 years old, and his most recent Triangle Performance was at Durham's Broad Street Cafe on New Year's Eve.

"Macavine had a wonderful, soulful, almost childlike warmth and happiness," says Music Maker head Tim Duffy. "He was internationally known, toured Australia and over 10 countries in Europe. Wherever he went, people just loved the guy. But he died with his boots on -- asleep at a drink house."


Blues Music Awards


Nominations for The Blues Foundation’s 30th Blues Music Awards were recently announced. Awards will be given at a function in early May, in Memphis. Key nominees are:

Acoustic Album of the Year
Eden Brent - Mississippi Number One
Rory Block - Blues Walkin' Like a Man
Paul Rishell & Annie Raines - A Night in Woodstock
Hans Theessink & Terry Evans - Visions
Fiona Boyes, Mookie Brill & Rich Del Grosso - Live from Bluesville

Acoustic Artist of the Year
Doug MacLeod
Rory Block
Otis Taylor
Paul Rishell & Annie Raines
Eden Brent

Album of the Year
The Mannish Boys - Lowdown Feelin'
Curtis Salgado - Clean Getaway
Buddy Guy - Skin Deep
Janiva Magness - What Love Will Do
Elvin Bishop - The Blues Rolls On

Contemporary Blues Album of the Year
Elvin Bishop - The Blues Rolls On
Watermelon Slim & the Workers - No Paid Holidays
Janiva Magness - What Love Will Do
Sean Costello - We Can Get Together
Buddy Guy - Skin Deep

Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year
Gaye Adegbalola
Marcia Ball
Robin Rogers
Bettye LaVette
Janiva Magness

Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year
Michael Burks
Elvin Bishop
Sean Costello
Watermelon Slim
Buddy Guy

Traditional Blues Album of the Year
Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials - Full Tilt
B.B. King - One Kind Favor
Honeyboy Edwards - Roamin' and Ramblin'
Eddy 'The Chief' Clearwater - West Side Strut
The Mannish Boys - Lowdown Feelin'

A full list of nominees in all categories is here.

This is the third year in a row that Fiona Boyes has scored a nomination, which is in itself a great achievement.


Press Articles – Various

Lots this issue ……….

Van Morrison Performs Astral Weeks Live at Hollywood Bowl, from yahoo music
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl from the Huffington Post
Where to go tomorrow - Festival au Desert, Mali, from Bob Gosford’s blog
Tangled up in red and blue, from New Statesman
Exile on Main Street: a Season in Hell With the Rolling Stones, from New Statesman
If John Lenon Were a Painting …. From Washington Post
Nowhere Man – Brian Epstein, from Washington Post
David (Fathead) Newman, Saxophonist, Dies at 75, from NY Times
Blues Musician Macavine Hayes Dies at 65, from World Music Central
All you need is Net, '60s folkie Donovan says, from Yahoo News
Delaney Bramlett, Singer-Songwriter and Slide Guitarist, Dies at 69, from NY Times
Blues Guitarist Robert Ward, R.I.P, from About.com
Longtime Roadmasters drummer Wilbert "Junkyard Dog" Arnold, 1955-2008, from Times Picayune
Jazz Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard Obit, from Jazz Review
Louisiana's Disappearing Music, from Time
Rock Stars and Their Parents from The Guardian (it’s worth a look)
Seasick Steve not down and out in Paris, from Times Online (he’s coming to ECBRF again)
And More Seasick Steve, this time from New Statesman
Rocking Cincinnatti’s Cradle, from NY Times
Clint Ballard Jr., Writer of Hit Songs, Dies at 77, also from NY Times
50 years later, Holly remains frozen in time, from JS Online
At Motown vault, the songs live forever, from PopMatters


RADIO/TV/YOU TUBE

Arthur Elliot reports on his upcoming Sidestream shows– for Brisbane listeners 99.7 FM, Wed 7pm to 9pm.

The first hour of Sidestream at 7pm on Wednesday 28/ Jan brings you some of the music from the new Holly Throsby album. More Australian music will come from Jeff Lang, Still Flyin’, and Mark Cryle. As well, you’ll hear from Red Rock Rondo, Fleet Foxes, Steeleye Span, Bellowhead, and more.

In the blues hour at 8pm, we have music from top local bluesman Doc Span, Geoff Achison, and Dave Hole; Britain’s Kitty, Daisy & Lewis; early blues singer Tommy Johnson; slide player Sonny Landreth; Bonnie Raitt with Habib Koite; Lonnie Mack; the R&B Bombers and others.

On 4 Feb, Sidestream’s first hour includes newly-released music from the David Bromberg Quartet, and a little of the new album from top US musician Gurf Morlix, Other sounds include the intricate and flowing guitars of the Durutti Column, the Celtic themes of Old Blind Dogs, the fiddle-driven music of Horseflies, atmospheric singing from Australia’s Liz Martin, and more.

There is a lot of Australian music in the blues hour from 8pm, with Jeff Lang, Glen Terry, Mia Dyson, the Vibrolators, Darren Jack, Pete Cornelius and others, while you’ll also hear from Del Rey and the Motor City Sidestrokers.


The Daily Planet, Weekend Planet and Music Deli (ABC Radio National)

The Daily Planet website, the Weekend Planet website and The Music Deli website all have links to shows broadcast over the past few weeks.



Coming Up On ABC2 TV

Classic Albums - Paul Simon: Graceland
7:30pm Saturday, 31 Jan 2009
Classic Albums - Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Moon
5:10pm Sunday, 01 Feb 2009
Classic Albums - Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland
7:30pm Saturday, 07 Feb 2009
Classic Albums - Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5:10pm Sunday, 08 Feb 2009
Blind Boys of Alabama: Live In Concert
7:00am Sunday, 01 Feb 2009
The Who: Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970
8:00am Sunday, 01 Feb 2009
Paul Kelly: Live Apples - Part 1 Of 2
9:25am Sunday, 01 Feb 2009
Festival: Folk Music At Newport 1963 - 1966
9:20pm Sunday, 01 Feb 2009
Montreux Jazz Festival 2003 - Black Superstars of Music
11:00pm Sunday, 01 Feb 2009
Festival: Folk Music At Newport 1963 - 1966
7:00am Sunday, 08 Feb 2009
Dr John: Live At Montreux
8:35am Sunday, 08 Feb 2009
Paul Kelly: Live Apples - Part 2 Of 2
9:35am Sunday, 08 Feb 2009
Marianne Faithfull: Dreaming My Dreams
11:05pm Sunday, 08 Feb 2009
T.Rex: When T.Rex Ruled The World
10:00pm Monday, 09 Feb 2009




Full program details are here


You Tube Selections

“Shaky” Shaun Bindley (presenter of Blues With A Feeling (8.05pm-midnight on Mondays 98.9fm in Brisbane and lots of other stations across Australia via the National Indigenous Radio Service) regularly sends me You Tube gems he has discovered.

Here are a few recent ones, with Shaun’s own titles :

· Country Music Is The Truth (featuring Rodney Crowell - see ECBRF item below)
· Did I say I thought Id seen it all?
· Phew!
· This Will Stop You Fiddling Around
· Uhuh
· Woohoo!


….and here are a couple from John Ward of Onlybluesmusic

· ‘This will really make you laugh, what a world without blues would be like http://igetblues.com/without.php

· Now this is something special. Two guys travel around the world recording street performers doing the same song, then they mix it into one. It is done really, really, really well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM&feature=email



FESTIVALS


Ragamuffin Festival – Fri Jan 30

‘The second annual Raggamuffin festival kicks off this weekend showcasing a stellar lineup of the world’s best reggae artists.

Ziggy Marley, Eddy Grant, Ali Campbell, Shaggy, Arrested Development, Inner Circle and Bonjah take the stage at Perth’s Supreme Court Gardens on Saturday January 24 in a five hour musical feast of reggae - with a healthy dose of funk, dub, hip hop and soul! ‘

The seven-band tour then heads to Ballina, Northern NSW on Australia Day Monday January 26 before playing in Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle and Sydney. The tour ends with a massive show at Rotorua Stadium, New Zealand on February 7 for 25,000 fans.

More here


Blue Mountains Music Festival

The run-up to Festival 14 (2009) has begun. Many have said that last year's Festival can justly be described as “the best” in our fourteen year history, but many of those are now also saying that the 2009 line-up may be better yet! The only way to be certain is to turn-up for the weekend and be part of the whole wonderful experience. With that in mind, Festival 2009 is on March 13, 14, 15 so make your plans now.

Details, including the lineup, are here.


2009 East Coast Blues and Roots Festival – Easter at Byron Bay

Festival co-founder and now sole owner Peter Noble wrote recently that:

‘Our next artist announcement of 20 artists will be coming to you next Friday January 30. It will include quite a few artists who have been listed on the Bluesfest Forum by those sleuths who have checked around different artists websites, AND, there will be quite a few surprises.

There will also be at least 2 more artist announcements after this and some really, really exciting news regarding our brand new stages, which we will be telling you all about in the coming weeks

We have been advised the police will be attending on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 [April] with drug detection sniffer dogs. Although this will be happening for the first time at Bluesfest, it now occurs at most Festivals in Australia. Festival Patrons continue to ignore this reality and in most instances, if they bring drugs to Festivals they are caught. Nobody wants a criminal conviction.

Please think deeply about bringing drugs to Bluesfest.’

So… (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, ) you should leave your stash at home on Fri and Sat, but hey, on other days, as Cheech and Chong would say: ‘no problemo’!

(I am excited to see the report on Rhythm’s Magazine website that Rodney Crowell will be included on the ECBRF lineup. Crowell was recently given a big rap by Head Butler)


2009 Australian Blues Music Festival

The festival is held every year on the second weekend in Feb (12-15 Feb 2009) - at Goulburn NSW

The Dec 2008 newsletter – giving you everything you need to know is here while the festival website itself is here.


The Rotary Club of Laverton Point Cook proudly presents the 2009 Homestead Blues Festival on Sun 15 Feb.

The highly successful Homestead Blues Festival showcases the very best of emerging and established blues acts. Featuring the renowned and very talented Michael Charles, Andrea Marr, Jimi Hocking, The Blues Dukes, Mannish Boys, The Sweethearts, and Cold Snap. As well as the bands, there are Children’s Activities and Entertainment, Wineries and Gourmet food outlets to make it a complete day for the whole family.




CD LAUNCHES & REVIEWS

The people at Allmusic provide a good list of blues albums released in the USA during the past two weeks

You can also check out the Arizona USA based Blues Bytes review site for reviews of recently issued albums.

The Rhythms Magazine website also features reviews of locally available albums.



REGULAR STUFF AND GIG GUIDES

Coming up at The Step Inn

Ozreggae.com announces ‘Bob Marley Birthday Bash

Bob Marley, born on 6th February 1945 in Nine Mile St Anns Jamaica. [On Sat 7 Feb] join us as we celebrate his 64th birthday in a big session of reggae vibes with Gregwise, Erther (Rude Bwoyz) and Basmati


Coming up at The Troubabour

…..well lots really. Have a look.


At Joes Waterhole, Eumundi

Look out for:

Sat 31 Jan Ange Takats (Saw her at Woodford – very entertaining, great songs and stories)
Fri 6 Feb Brewster Brothers
Fri 27 Feb Mia Dyson


And later …..

· Preston Reed (Ireland)
· Bob Brozman (USA)
· Luka Bloom (Ireland)
· Ruthie Foster (USA)


At The Tivoli you can catch

· Wed 4 Feb Anni di Franco
· Wed 18 Feb The Waifs
· Thurs 27 & Fri 27 Feb The Stray Cats (but both shows now sold out)


At the Cooly Hotel

· Fri 6 Feb Phil Emmanuel - Will Scarlett
· Sat 7 Feb Grace Knight
· Fri 27 Feb Kate Miller-Heidke


And at The Judy.

· Thurs 26 Feb Mia Dyson


At The Zoo

· Sun 22 Feb Kaki King


At The Palmwoods Hotel

· Sat 7 Feb Asa Broomhall



At The Soundlounge, Currumbin

· Fri 6 Feb Kingfisha
· Fri 20 Feb Chase The Sun
· Sun 1 March Mia Dyson
· Fri 6 March Tommee Trio


And look out for Lori Lee’s next outings:

· Saturday February 21 Danny & The Cosmic Tremors plus The Pat Capocci Combo at the Holland Park Bowls Club

More details here