Lonnie Brooks & Phillip Walker – Broadcast July 2008
Generally in these sessions we cover the lives and work of those blues men and women who have gone on to that great festival in the sky. Today, though we are covering the work of two great Gulf Coast bluesmen whose careers commenced in the mid 50s, but who are still very active today, 50 years later.
Both hailing from the Louisiana/Texas Gulf region, guitarists Lonnie Brooks and Phillip Walker first worked together in zydeco king Clifton Chenier’s backing band in 1955 then went on to peruse successful careers before coming together again in the late 1990s for a great collaboration album. And as we said, both are still going strong today in their 70’s
We will start with Lonnie Brooks, the older (by 4 years) of the two. Born Lee Baker, Jr. in Louisiana in Dec 1933, Brooks didn't play guitar seriously until he was in his early twenties and living in Port Arthur, TX. Influenced by the styles of B.B. King and Long John Hunter, he landed a three month gig with zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier in 1955 before inaugurating his own recording career in 1957 with the influential swamp pop ballad "Family Rules" for Lake Charles, Lousiana based Goldband Records. The young Brooks, who at that stage called himself Guitar Junior — enjoyed more regional success on Goldband with the rocking dance number "The Crawl" (covered much later by the Fabulous Thunderbirds). Both these tracks ….
1. The Crawl – 1957 – The Crawl – Tk 1 –2.15
2. Family Rules – 1957 – The Crawl – Tk 2 –2.22
When Sam Cooke offered the young Lee Baker a chance to accompany him to Chicago, he gladly accepted. But two problems faced him once he arrived - firstly there was another Guitar Junior in town (precipitating the birth of Lonnie Brooks), and the bayou blues that worked so well on the Gulf Coast didn't work so well up north. Scattered session work followed – including a position behind Jimmy Reed's on Reed’s classic "Big Boss Man" in March 1960 as Brooks learned the Chicago style of blues.
In late 1975 Brooks toured Europe as part of the travelling Chicago Blues Festival and cut an album with tour sponsors – the French Black and Blue label. Song JB Lenoir made famous, with an all-star lineup of Hubert Sumlin, Fred Below, Dave Myers and Wilie Mabon
3. Mama Talk To Your Daughter – 1975 – Blues Collection – Tk 1 – 3.24
By the late '70s, Brooks had cemented a solid reputation in Chicago and joined the Alligator label in 1978 and has stayed there ever since.
Couple of tracks from 1983 album Hot Shot
4. Mr Hot Shot – 1983 – Hot Shot – Tk 7 –3.23
5. One More Shot – 1983 – Hot Shot – Tk 10 –2.36
Continue with a live track released on Alligator Records 20th Anniversary collection in 1992
6. Two Headed Man – 1992 – Blues at Christmas – Tk 16 –play 3.32
While all this was going on, Phillip Walker, four years younger than Brooks was making his own, equally impressive but just more understated career.
A teenaged Walker picked up his early influences around Port Arthur, TX, from the likes of Gatemouth Brown, Long John Hunter, Lightnin' Hopkins, and one Lonnie Brooks. Clifton Chenier hired Walker in 1953 as his guitarist, when Chenier played a local club, and it was Chenier who gave Phillip his first genuine, bona fide guitar and, against his father’s advice, took Phillip on the road, but whereas Brooks only stayed three months, Walker stayed for three and a half years.
Apparently, when Phillip had left home, with Clifton, at 16, his father thought it was a huge mistake and told him so, calling the guitar “a starvation box.”
In 1959, Walker moved to Los Angeles. He was among the first of a long line of Texas bluesmen to relocate to the West Coast from the late 1950’s, and was joined by Johnny Guitar Watson, T Bone Walker and Lowell Fulson. Scattered 45s emerged during the '60s, but it wasn't until he joined forces with producer Bruce Bromberg in 1969 that Walker began to get a studio foothold.
Instrumental track from that year
7. The Struggle – 1969 – Best of PW – Tk 10 – 2.43
Walker’s work with producer Bromberg resulted in a 1973 album for Playboy label (reissued by HighTone in 1989), The Bottom of the Top. Probably the best track from this album, featuring Jimmy Vaughan on piano, was this one which he first recorded back in 1959. This has got to be the nicest two minutes you will hear on radio anytime….
8. Hello My Darling – 1970 – Best of PW – Tk 3 – 2.09
Walker recorded a fine follow-up album - Someday You'll Have These Blues that showcased his tough Texas guitar style. Title track ….
9. Someday You’ll Have These Blues – 1975 – Best of PW – Tk 11 – 2.40
Continue with a 1979 track recorded with his old friend and teacher Cornelius Green, better known as Lonesome Sundown. Green was another veteran from the mid 50s Clifton Chenier lineup. This one’s called:
10. Steppin Up In Class – 1979 – Blues Collection – Tk 15 – 2.53
Lowell Fulson track from a 1984 Rounder album. This is the title track
11. I’m Tough as I Want To Be – 1984 – Blues Collection – Tk 3 – 3.54
Track from 1988, recorded for Hightone, supposedly the day before Robert Cray recorded his own version
12. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark – 1988 – Best of PW – Tk 5 – 4.34 (fade after 2.05..)
An interesting sideline – this song was written by Dennis Walker (no relation) who also played bass on this track. As well as a fine bass player Walker is a multi-Grammy award winning producer and songwriter who has won three Grammy Awards for his work and written over 200 songs, including all of Robert Cray’s finest early numbers including False Accusations, Foul Play, I Guess I Showed Her, Phone Booth, Right Next Door (Because of Me).
In 1998 Walker cut an album called Sweet Tooth Track from this album featuring a great blues line – My name is misery, people in the graveyard doing better than me”
13. My Name is Misery – 1997 – Sweet Tooth – Tk 2 – 3.36
Lonnie Brooks and Phillip Walker caught up with each other again in 1999 with the recording of an Alligator album called Lone Star Shootout.
The album was structured as a “duel" of the guitar and vocal work of four long-time rivals, all hailing from the Louisiana-East Texas region with artists Phillip Walker, Lonnie Brooks, Long John Hunter, and Ervin Charles supported by Texas pianist Marcia Ball, and it was almost certainly influenced by the success of a similarly styled Alligator album called Showdown, featuring Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland some 14 years earlier..
Here’s a Gatemouth Brown hit from the 50’s featuring Lonnie on first guitar solo and Phillip on vocals and second solo, which was successfully released as a single.
14. Boogie Rambler – 1999 – Lone Star Shootout – Tk 2 – 3.09
Another Gulf Coast classic featuring vocals and solos from Walker, Hunter and Brooks (in that order) all supported by Marcia Ball on piano
15. Bon Ton Roulet – 1999 – Lone Star Shootout – Tk 4 – 3.53
Close out today with a very current album from Eddie the Chief Clearwater called West Side Strut. Album was produced by Lonnie’s son Ronnie Baker Brooks with his father Lonnie on lead guitar and vocal:
16. Too Old to Get Married – 2008 – West Side Strut – Tk 8 – 3.53
Both Brooks and Walker are still very active playing international gigs and USA festivals. Walker was in France last week at Le Meredian, the Paris hotel which was the scene of a live album recorded by Screamin Jay Hawkins, which we featured here last session.
Brooks is also notable for co-authoring (with another son, Wayne Baker Brooks) the book "Blues for Dummies".
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Moon Mullican
Moon Mullican – Broadcast August 2008
Every now and again the Colonel indulges me by letting me stray a little from the straight blues path we walk in these sessions. Today is one such instance. We are going to cover an artist I love, who was a huge influence in country music and early rock and roll during the 40’s and early 50’s, but who is not strictly categorized as a bluesman.
He is Moon Mullican, who merged country and RnR — as well as blues, pop, hillbilly and honky tonk —and also managed to play a key role in the history of Western swing, all in a recording career that lasted almost 30 years.
However, history generally remembers him as one of those "lost" musical figures from the '40s and early '50s, whose career paved the way for rock & roll, but who was born just a little too early, and who was a little too old to take advantage of what he'd started.
My favourite Moon Mullican track
1 Pipeliner Blues – July 1952 – Moonshine Jamboree - Tk 4 – 2.33
Moon was born Aubrey Mullican in 1909 in Corrigan, TX, a little more than an hour's drive north of Houston, to a very religious family that owned an 87-acre farm that was worked by sharecroppers. It was one of them, a black blues guitarist named Joe Jones, who introduced Mullican to the blues before he was in his teens.
Young Aubrey showed talent on the guitar and the bass, but his instrument of choice was the keyboard: first the family organ, and later the piano.
By the time he was 14, he was able to make 40 dollars — more than a week's wages in 1923 — for two hours of piano playing at a local cafe.
Finally, at 16, Mullican left home for Houston where he made his living playing music and earned the nickname "Moon," short for "Moonshine," which stuck for the rest of his life.
During the mid-'30s, he joined the Western swing band the Blue Ridge Playboys,
Track from 1936 with MM backing the Blue Ridge Playboys on piano, with Leon ‘Pappy’ Selph on vocals.
2 Gimme My Dime Back, Give Me My Money – Nov 1936 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 1, Tk 1 – 2.50
Mullican's moved to the lead singer's spot in 1939 when working with fiddle player Cliff Bruner’s band. The first trucker song ever recorded "Truck Driver's Blues."
3 Truck Drivers Blues – Aug 1939 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 1, Tk 7 – 2.58
This recording and the advent of the '40s heralded the busiest phase of Mullican's career, as he juggled a long-term association with Bruner and a stint in the backing band for Jimmie Davis during Davis’ successful campaign for governor of Louisiana, and finally put together his own band, called the Showboys
The Showboys quickly became one of the most popular outfits working the Texas/Louisiana border during the mid-'40s, and though they couldn't have known it at the time, that beat, coupled with their mix of country music and Western swing, and Mullican's definite blues-influenced piano and singing brought them amazingly close to a sound that would later be called rock & roll.
Track recorded in NYC in Nov 44, with Cliff Bruner again on fiddle
4 That’s What I Like About The South – Nov 1944 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 1, Tk 25 – 3.01
Mullican and his band got their big recording break two years later, in 1946 when they joined Syd Nathan’s King Records of Cincinnati, OH. The first 16 sides cut at those early King sessions were outstanding, capturing everything that Mullican had been delighting local audiences with for the last couple of years — he went on to cut a decade's worth of superb music for King, including a uniquely stylized version of the Cajun classic "Jole Blon" recorded in Fort Worth that was a hit in 1947.
Moon couldn’t sing the French lyric, so he made up his own, mixing English nonsense with vague Cajun phrases. Don’t know what the good Cajuns of La thought of this, but when the track was picked up by Modern on West Coast, it became a big nationwide hit.
5 New Joli Blon – Sept 1946 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 2, Tk 1 – 2.56
It was in the realm of hillbilly boogie, however, that Mullican had his greatest influence, his version of “Don't Ever Take My Picture Down" pre-figuring rock & roll in tone and beat.
6 Don’t Ever Take My Picture Down – 1950 – Showboy Special – Tk 9 – 2.32
Cute number from 1950
7 Short But Sweet – 1950 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 6 – 2.27
By the late '40s, Moon was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and found a national audience from its radio broadcasts,.
At this stage he was a hard drinking, overweight and sometimes unreliable man who had spent the past 20 years working the dives and dancehalls of the Tx south west, and much of his repertoire was not suited to the Opry audiences.
Nevertheless, his Opry connection helped the sales of his biggest hit, this track from 1951.
8 Cherokee Boogie – 1951 – Moonshine Jamboree - Tk 7 – 3.03
Another track that showed where JLL got his influences from – a hard rockin instrumental from 1952
9 Shoot The Moon – 1952 – Showboy Special – Tk 6 – 2.52
Mullican had more influence in the country music world than the sales of his records would indicate. For decades, it was an open secret that he'd co-written this next track, from 1952, with his fellow Grand Ole Opry member Hank Williams, collecting a 50 percent share of the royalties on the sly because of his contractual relationship to King Records.
10 Jambalaya – 1952 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 17 – 2.31
Two tracks from 1953, firstly one with typical suggestive lyrics, followed by a Roy Brown comedy track that Roy had recorded himself a few months earlier.
11 Rocket To The Moon – 1953 – Moonshine Jamboree- Tk 12 – 2.29
12 Grandpa Stole My Baby – 1953 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 10 – 2.32
By the mid-'50s, Mullican was trying to get out of his King Records deal and onto one of the major labels. It didn't happen until the end of the '50s, a point where his star had fallen considerably. Rock & roll had taken a lot of the edge off the sales of country records, effectively stealing country music's audience.
Mullican's record sales, ironically, had fallen even as the stars of his successors like Jerry Lee Lewis rose. In a sense, his timing was off — Mullican, with his cowboy hat, Western twang in his singing, and 50-ish appearance was definitely not what the kids were buying, no matter what his records sounded like.
Chuck Berry was enjoying success with such suggestive numbers as "Reelin' and Rockin'," but Mullican was having a harder time with "Seven Nights to Rock," an equally bold number with a compelling beat, cut with Boyd Bennett & His Pockets in an effort to reach the rock & roll audience.
13 Seven Nights To Rock – Jan 1956 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 2 – 2.24
(To put this track in time context, when Seven Nights To Rock came out in early March 1956 it was competing with the likes of James Brown (Please Please Please), Little Richard (Long Tall Sally), Howlin Wolf’s Smokestack Lightnin',
Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock had been released a few months before, and Sam Philips had just sold Elvis Presley’s contract to RCA for $35K.
And it was not until a year later, in 1957 that JLL burst onto the scene with Whole Lotta Shakin Going On)
Mullican entered the '60s as an overlooked figure, apart from country listeners with long memories and those people lucky enough to catch his performances in Texas and around the Southern and border states.
An on-stage heart attack in Kansas City in 1962 sidelined him for a while, but he was back performing and recording in 1963, this time locally for the Hall-Way label of Beaumont, TX, where he made his home. A very country style track from this period
14 The Cajun Coffee Song – 62-64 – Moon’s Rock – Tk 24 – 2.32
Time, and years of hard living finally caught up with Moon on New Year's Eve 1966 when, at the young age of 57 he suffered another heart attack, and died early in the morning on January 1, 1967.
Moon legacy is one of a major innovator with his piano stylings and as one of the main links between Western Swing, Honky Tonk and Country Boogie.
One commentator has written that this, allied with his great King recordings, should guarantee him a place in the Country Music Hall Of Fame as a true pioneer of a major C20th American art form, a link in the chain stretching from those old piney lumber camps to the classic honky tonkers like the Killer Jerry Lee Lewis. But it hasn’t.
However the more far sighted Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame inducted Moon back in 1976.
Every now and again the Colonel indulges me by letting me stray a little from the straight blues path we walk in these sessions. Today is one such instance. We are going to cover an artist I love, who was a huge influence in country music and early rock and roll during the 40’s and early 50’s, but who is not strictly categorized as a bluesman.
He is Moon Mullican, who merged country and RnR — as well as blues, pop, hillbilly and honky tonk —and also managed to play a key role in the history of Western swing, all in a recording career that lasted almost 30 years.
However, history generally remembers him as one of those "lost" musical figures from the '40s and early '50s, whose career paved the way for rock & roll, but who was born just a little too early, and who was a little too old to take advantage of what he'd started.
My favourite Moon Mullican track
1 Pipeliner Blues – July 1952 – Moonshine Jamboree - Tk 4 – 2.33
Moon was born Aubrey Mullican in 1909 in Corrigan, TX, a little more than an hour's drive north of Houston, to a very religious family that owned an 87-acre farm that was worked by sharecroppers. It was one of them, a black blues guitarist named Joe Jones, who introduced Mullican to the blues before he was in his teens.
Young Aubrey showed talent on the guitar and the bass, but his instrument of choice was the keyboard: first the family organ, and later the piano.
By the time he was 14, he was able to make 40 dollars — more than a week's wages in 1923 — for two hours of piano playing at a local cafe.
Finally, at 16, Mullican left home for Houston where he made his living playing music and earned the nickname "Moon," short for "Moonshine," which stuck for the rest of his life.
During the mid-'30s, he joined the Western swing band the Blue Ridge Playboys,
Track from 1936 with MM backing the Blue Ridge Playboys on piano, with Leon ‘Pappy’ Selph on vocals.
2 Gimme My Dime Back, Give Me My Money – Nov 1936 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 1, Tk 1 – 2.50
Mullican's moved to the lead singer's spot in 1939 when working with fiddle player Cliff Bruner’s band. The first trucker song ever recorded "Truck Driver's Blues."
3 Truck Drivers Blues – Aug 1939 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 1, Tk 7 – 2.58
This recording and the advent of the '40s heralded the busiest phase of Mullican's career, as he juggled a long-term association with Bruner and a stint in the backing band for Jimmie Davis during Davis’ successful campaign for governor of Louisiana, and finally put together his own band, called the Showboys
The Showboys quickly became one of the most popular outfits working the Texas/Louisiana border during the mid-'40s, and though they couldn't have known it at the time, that beat, coupled with their mix of country music and Western swing, and Mullican's definite blues-influenced piano and singing brought them amazingly close to a sound that would later be called rock & roll.
Track recorded in NYC in Nov 44, with Cliff Bruner again on fiddle
4 That’s What I Like About The South – Nov 1944 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 1, Tk 25 – 3.01
Mullican and his band got their big recording break two years later, in 1946 when they joined Syd Nathan’s King Records of Cincinnati, OH. The first 16 sides cut at those early King sessions were outstanding, capturing everything that Mullican had been delighting local audiences with for the last couple of years — he went on to cut a decade's worth of superb music for King, including a uniquely stylized version of the Cajun classic "Jole Blon" recorded in Fort Worth that was a hit in 1947.
Moon couldn’t sing the French lyric, so he made up his own, mixing English nonsense with vague Cajun phrases. Don’t know what the good Cajuns of La thought of this, but when the track was picked up by Modern on West Coast, it became a big nationwide hit.
5 New Joli Blon – Sept 1946 – Sail My Ship Alone – Disc 2, Tk 1 – 2.56
It was in the realm of hillbilly boogie, however, that Mullican had his greatest influence, his version of “Don't Ever Take My Picture Down" pre-figuring rock & roll in tone and beat.
6 Don’t Ever Take My Picture Down – 1950 – Showboy Special – Tk 9 – 2.32
Cute number from 1950
7 Short But Sweet – 1950 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 6 – 2.27
By the late '40s, Moon was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and found a national audience from its radio broadcasts,.
At this stage he was a hard drinking, overweight and sometimes unreliable man who had spent the past 20 years working the dives and dancehalls of the Tx south west, and much of his repertoire was not suited to the Opry audiences.
Nevertheless, his Opry connection helped the sales of his biggest hit, this track from 1951.
8 Cherokee Boogie – 1951 – Moonshine Jamboree - Tk 7 – 3.03
Another track that showed where JLL got his influences from – a hard rockin instrumental from 1952
9 Shoot The Moon – 1952 – Showboy Special – Tk 6 – 2.52
Mullican had more influence in the country music world than the sales of his records would indicate. For decades, it was an open secret that he'd co-written this next track, from 1952, with his fellow Grand Ole Opry member Hank Williams, collecting a 50 percent share of the royalties on the sly because of his contractual relationship to King Records.
10 Jambalaya – 1952 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 17 – 2.31
Two tracks from 1953, firstly one with typical suggestive lyrics, followed by a Roy Brown comedy track that Roy had recorded himself a few months earlier.
11 Rocket To The Moon – 1953 – Moonshine Jamboree- Tk 12 – 2.29
12 Grandpa Stole My Baby – 1953 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 10 – 2.32
By the mid-'50s, Mullican was trying to get out of his King Records deal and onto one of the major labels. It didn't happen until the end of the '50s, a point where his star had fallen considerably. Rock & roll had taken a lot of the edge off the sales of country records, effectively stealing country music's audience.
Mullican's record sales, ironically, had fallen even as the stars of his successors like Jerry Lee Lewis rose. In a sense, his timing was off — Mullican, with his cowboy hat, Western twang in his singing, and 50-ish appearance was definitely not what the kids were buying, no matter what his records sounded like.
Chuck Berry was enjoying success with such suggestive numbers as "Reelin' and Rockin'," but Mullican was having a harder time with "Seven Nights to Rock," an equally bold number with a compelling beat, cut with Boyd Bennett & His Pockets in an effort to reach the rock & roll audience.
13 Seven Nights To Rock – Jan 1956 – Seven Nights to Rock - Tk 2 – 2.24
(To put this track in time context, when Seven Nights To Rock came out in early March 1956 it was competing with the likes of James Brown (Please Please Please), Little Richard (Long Tall Sally), Howlin Wolf’s Smokestack Lightnin',
Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock had been released a few months before, and Sam Philips had just sold Elvis Presley’s contract to RCA for $35K.
And it was not until a year later, in 1957 that JLL burst onto the scene with Whole Lotta Shakin Going On)
Mullican entered the '60s as an overlooked figure, apart from country listeners with long memories and those people lucky enough to catch his performances in Texas and around the Southern and border states.
An on-stage heart attack in Kansas City in 1962 sidelined him for a while, but he was back performing and recording in 1963, this time locally for the Hall-Way label of Beaumont, TX, where he made his home. A very country style track from this period
14 The Cajun Coffee Song – 62-64 – Moon’s Rock – Tk 24 – 2.32
Time, and years of hard living finally caught up with Moon on New Year's Eve 1966 when, at the young age of 57 he suffered another heart attack, and died early in the morning on January 1, 1967.
Moon legacy is one of a major innovator with his piano stylings and as one of the main links between Western Swing, Honky Tonk and Country Boogie.
One commentator has written that this, allied with his great King recordings, should guarantee him a place in the Country Music Hall Of Fame as a true pioneer of a major C20th American art form, a link in the chain stretching from those old piney lumber camps to the classic honky tonkers like the Killer Jerry Lee Lewis. But it hasn’t.
However the more far sighted Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame inducted Moon back in 1976.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Ruth Brown & Lavern Baker
Ruth Brown & Lavern Baker - Broadcast Sept 2008
Last time I was in we spent most of our time in the 1950s covering the work of honky tonk pianist and early rock’n roll star Moon Mullican. Today, we will stay in the 1950’s but cover two female artists for whom the term R&B was invented and who helped the grow the Atlantic label in the 1950s
These are Ruth Brown – born in early 1928, and Lavern Baker, born a nearly two years later, in late 1929 and who both had a string of hits through the 1950s with that label
RUTH BROWN
They called Atlantic Records "the house that Ruth Brown built" during the 1950s. Ruth Brown's hit making reign from 1949 to the close of the '50s helped tremendously to establish the New York label's predominance in the R&B field.
The daughter of a docker Ruth Weston was born in Jan 1928 and as a child sang in a local church choir, but preferred more popular music.
She ran away from her Portsmouth VA home in 1945 to hit the road with trumpeter Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married. After a few early career hiccups, she was introduced to Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, bosses of the new Atlantic label.
Unfortunately, Brown's debut session was delayed by a nine-month hospital stay caused by a serious auto accident en route to New York. When she finally made it to her first date in May 1949, she cut this track which became her first hit.
1. So Long – May 1949 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 1– 2.40
Brown's seductive vocal delivery shone on her Atlantic hits "Teardrops in My Eyes" (an R&B chart-topper for 11 weeks in 1950),
2. Teardrops in my Eyes – 1950 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 2– 2.53
This track was still selling strongly six months after its release, when Atlantic began releasing 45s in early 1951, at it became the first disc released at that new speed
Other hits followed - "I'll Wait for You" and "I Know" in 1951, "5-10-15 Hours" a year later (another number one rocker), the standard "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean"
Here are two of those:
3. I’ll Wait For You – Dec 1950 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 3 – 2.38
4. 5-10-5 Hours – 1952 – – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 6 - 3.15
Along the way, she picked up the nickname "Miss Rhythm" and it is impossible to understate her popularity during the early and mid 50s. She was a star on the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the Apollo in 1955, exhibiting great comic timing while trading sly one-liners with MC Willie Bryant (ironically, ex-husband Jimmy Brown was a member of the show's house band). Two more tracks from 1953
5. Wild Wild Young Men – Oct 1953 – – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 9 – 2.32
6. Hello Little Boy - 1953 – Classics – Tk 22 – 2.42
Her last number 1 came in 1954.
7. Mambo Baby – 1954 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 12– 2.43
Personally, her unhappy and career-damaging relations with men also hurt. She was outspoken on all these subjects. "I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn't pick a good man," she regretted after three failed marriages.
A hard driving track from 1955 that charted well. This track shows off Ruth’sd trademark vocal trademark ......
8. As Long as I’m Movin – 1955 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 14– 2.44
It was around this time that Atlantic signed Clyde McPhatter and his group The Drifters. Duet she recorded with McPhatter
9. I Gotta Have You – 1955 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 14– 2.17
Track written by Bobby Darrin which was her last major hit for Atlantic
10. This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin – 1958 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 20– 1.49
Live version of the hit from 1953
11. "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean – 1959 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 22 - 3.01 (fade out after 2.00)
After two-dozen R&B chart appearances for Atlantic that ended in 1960 Brown faded from view.
After raising her two sons and working as a domestic cleaner and school bus driver, she returned to show business in 1975 with the help of comedian Redd Foxx, who found her acting work on his hit show, Sanford and Son, and elsewhere. She also worked in movies and on Broadway, getting a Tony Award in 1989.
Brown had few business skills, and her Atlantic career was hampered both by the poor fees black artists received and by dubious and dishonest deals from other record labels.
Labels not only scrimped on black artists' fees, but also charged them unaccounted "production costs", which were held against payments for their reissued material. Brown "owed" Atlantic $30,000 until her career revived and she then hired a lawyer. Supported by the Rev Jesse Jackson, they persuaded Atlantic and its owner Warner Communications to change the system.
In 1988, as part of its 40th-anniversary celebration, Atlantic announced it had wiped out past "debts" and made lump-sum payments of retroactive royalties for 35 acts. Atlantic also fronted up with $2 million to launch the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, where Brown remained a trustee, fighting the fight with as much determination as when she'd begun
In 1993 Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 1995 saw the release of her autobiography, Miss Rhythm. Brown suffered a heart attack and stroke following surgery in October 2006 and never fully recovered, and died on November 17, 2006.
LAVERN BAKER
We will continue with LaVern Baker. Lavern was one of the sexiest divas gracing the mid-'50s rock & roll circuit, with a vocal delivery tailor-made for a string of catchy novelty songs with titles like "Tweedlee Dee," "Bop-Ting-a-Ling," and "Tra La La" for Atlantic Records during rock's first wave of prominence.
Born Delores Williams, she took her inspiration from Memphis Minnie who was a relative, and began singing at a Chicago south side at age 17, decked out in raggedy attire and billed as "Little Miss Sharecropper". She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for OKeh as part of the Todd Rhodes Orchestra before settling on the first name of LaVern in 1952. The association with Rhodes got her a trip to Europe in 1952/3 before deciding to go solo.
LaVern signed with Atlantic on her return in 1953, and her first outing with the label was this track.
12. Soul On Fire – 1953 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 5 – 3.05
Another track recorded in 1953, released on her first album in 1956
13. Lots of Love – 1953 – Lavern – Tk 1 – 2.21
Compared with Ruth Brown’s output, Baker’s hits over the next few years were more lightweight rock’n roll
The Latin-tempo "Tweedlee Dee" was a smash in 1955 on both the R&B and pop charts.
14. Tweedle Dee – 1954 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 28 – 3.05
Her "Bop-Ting-A-Ling," and the rocking "Jim Dandy" all charted over the next couple of years.
15. Bop Ting a Ling – 1955 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 19 – 3.03
This song "Jim Dandy" was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was ranked in Rolling Stone Magazines 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
16. Jim Dandy – 1956 – Lavern – Tk 13 – 2.08
Baker's statuesque figure and personality made her a natural for TV and movies. She co-starred on the historic R&B revue segment on Ed Sullivan's TV program in November of 1955 and did memorable numbers in Alan Freed's rock movies Rock, Rock, Rock and Mr. Rock & Roll.
Her Atlantic records remained popular throughout the decade: she hit big in 1958 with the ballad "I Cried a Tear,"
17. I Cried a Tear – 1958 – See See Rider – Tk 13 – 2.36
In 1958 LaVern released a tribute album of Besssie Smith songs
18. Gimme a Pigfoot – 1958 - Precious/Bessie – Tk 13 – 3.05
The following year she released a gospel album called Precious Memories
19. Everytime I Feel the Spirit – 1959 – Precious/Bessie – Tk 10 – 2.17
LaVern left Atlantic in 1964 and in the late 1960s went to Vietnam to entertain the troops. She became seriously ill after the trip and was hospitalized, eventually settling far out of the limelight in the Philippines. She remained there for 22 years, running an NCO club on Subic Bay naval base for the U.S. government.
Finally, in 1988, Baker returned to the USA to star in Atlantic's 40th anniversary celebrations that we mentioned earlier. That led to a soundtrack appearance in the film Dick Tracy, a starring role in the Broadway musical Black & Blue (replacing her ex-Atlantic labelmate Ruth Brown), a nice comeback disc for DRG (Woke Up This Mornin'), and a memorable appearance at the Chicago Blues Festival..
In 1991, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. .
LaVern Baker died from coronary complications in 1997, and was interred in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, New York. Unfortunately she lies in an unmarked grave. A fundraiser was scheduled by local historians to give LaVern a headstone in April 2008.
Last time I was in we spent most of our time in the 1950s covering the work of honky tonk pianist and early rock’n roll star Moon Mullican. Today, we will stay in the 1950’s but cover two female artists for whom the term R&B was invented and who helped the grow the Atlantic label in the 1950s
These are Ruth Brown – born in early 1928, and Lavern Baker, born a nearly two years later, in late 1929 and who both had a string of hits through the 1950s with that label
RUTH BROWN
They called Atlantic Records "the house that Ruth Brown built" during the 1950s. Ruth Brown's hit making reign from 1949 to the close of the '50s helped tremendously to establish the New York label's predominance in the R&B field.
The daughter of a docker Ruth Weston was born in Jan 1928 and as a child sang in a local church choir, but preferred more popular music.
She ran away from her Portsmouth VA home in 1945 to hit the road with trumpeter Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married. After a few early career hiccups, she was introduced to Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, bosses of the new Atlantic label.
Unfortunately, Brown's debut session was delayed by a nine-month hospital stay caused by a serious auto accident en route to New York. When she finally made it to her first date in May 1949, she cut this track which became her first hit.
1. So Long – May 1949 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 1– 2.40
Brown's seductive vocal delivery shone on her Atlantic hits "Teardrops in My Eyes" (an R&B chart-topper for 11 weeks in 1950),
2. Teardrops in my Eyes – 1950 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 2– 2.53
This track was still selling strongly six months after its release, when Atlantic began releasing 45s in early 1951, at it became the first disc released at that new speed
Other hits followed - "I'll Wait for You" and "I Know" in 1951, "5-10-15 Hours" a year later (another number one rocker), the standard "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean"
Here are two of those:
3. I’ll Wait For You – Dec 1950 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 3 – 2.38
4. 5-10-5 Hours – 1952 – – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 6 - 3.15
Along the way, she picked up the nickname "Miss Rhythm" and it is impossible to understate her popularity during the early and mid 50s. She was a star on the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the Apollo in 1955, exhibiting great comic timing while trading sly one-liners with MC Willie Bryant (ironically, ex-husband Jimmy Brown was a member of the show's house band). Two more tracks from 1953
5. Wild Wild Young Men – Oct 1953 – – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 9 – 2.32
6. Hello Little Boy - 1953 – Classics – Tk 22 – 2.42
Her last number 1 came in 1954.
7. Mambo Baby – 1954 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 12– 2.43
Personally, her unhappy and career-damaging relations with men also hurt. She was outspoken on all these subjects. "I can pick a good song, but I sure couldn't pick a good man," she regretted after three failed marriages.
A hard driving track from 1955 that charted well. This track shows off Ruth’sd trademark vocal trademark ......
8. As Long as I’m Movin – 1955 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 14– 2.44
It was around this time that Atlantic signed Clyde McPhatter and his group The Drifters. Duet she recorded with McPhatter
9. I Gotta Have You – 1955 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 14– 2.17
Track written by Bobby Darrin which was her last major hit for Atlantic
10. This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin – 1958 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 20– 1.49
Live version of the hit from 1953
11. "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean – 1959 – Rockin’ n Rhythm – Tk 22 - 3.01 (fade out after 2.00)
After two-dozen R&B chart appearances for Atlantic that ended in 1960 Brown faded from view.
After raising her two sons and working as a domestic cleaner and school bus driver, she returned to show business in 1975 with the help of comedian Redd Foxx, who found her acting work on his hit show, Sanford and Son, and elsewhere. She also worked in movies and on Broadway, getting a Tony Award in 1989.
Brown had few business skills, and her Atlantic career was hampered both by the poor fees black artists received and by dubious and dishonest deals from other record labels.
Labels not only scrimped on black artists' fees, but also charged them unaccounted "production costs", which were held against payments for their reissued material. Brown "owed" Atlantic $30,000 until her career revived and she then hired a lawyer. Supported by the Rev Jesse Jackson, they persuaded Atlantic and its owner Warner Communications to change the system.
In 1988, as part of its 40th-anniversary celebration, Atlantic announced it had wiped out past "debts" and made lump-sum payments of retroactive royalties for 35 acts. Atlantic also fronted up with $2 million to launch the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, where Brown remained a trustee, fighting the fight with as much determination as when she'd begun
In 1993 Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 1995 saw the release of her autobiography, Miss Rhythm. Brown suffered a heart attack and stroke following surgery in October 2006 and never fully recovered, and died on November 17, 2006.
LAVERN BAKER
We will continue with LaVern Baker. Lavern was one of the sexiest divas gracing the mid-'50s rock & roll circuit, with a vocal delivery tailor-made for a string of catchy novelty songs with titles like "Tweedlee Dee," "Bop-Ting-a-Ling," and "Tra La La" for Atlantic Records during rock's first wave of prominence.
Born Delores Williams, she took her inspiration from Memphis Minnie who was a relative, and began singing at a Chicago south side at age 17, decked out in raggedy attire and billed as "Little Miss Sharecropper". She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for OKeh as part of the Todd Rhodes Orchestra before settling on the first name of LaVern in 1952. The association with Rhodes got her a trip to Europe in 1952/3 before deciding to go solo.
LaVern signed with Atlantic on her return in 1953, and her first outing with the label was this track.
12. Soul On Fire – 1953 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 5 – 3.05
Another track recorded in 1953, released on her first album in 1956
13. Lots of Love – 1953 – Lavern – Tk 1 – 2.21
Compared with Ruth Brown’s output, Baker’s hits over the next few years were more lightweight rock’n roll
The Latin-tempo "Tweedlee Dee" was a smash in 1955 on both the R&B and pop charts.
14. Tweedle Dee – 1954 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 28 – 3.05
Her "Bop-Ting-A-Ling," and the rocking "Jim Dandy" all charted over the next couple of years.
15. Bop Ting a Ling – 1955 – Wild Wild Women – Tk 19 – 3.03
This song "Jim Dandy" was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and was ranked in Rolling Stone Magazines 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
16. Jim Dandy – 1956 – Lavern – Tk 13 – 2.08
Baker's statuesque figure and personality made her a natural for TV and movies. She co-starred on the historic R&B revue segment on Ed Sullivan's TV program in November of 1955 and did memorable numbers in Alan Freed's rock movies Rock, Rock, Rock and Mr. Rock & Roll.
Her Atlantic records remained popular throughout the decade: she hit big in 1958 with the ballad "I Cried a Tear,"
17. I Cried a Tear – 1958 – See See Rider – Tk 13 – 2.36
In 1958 LaVern released a tribute album of Besssie Smith songs
18. Gimme a Pigfoot – 1958 - Precious/Bessie – Tk 13 – 3.05
The following year she released a gospel album called Precious Memories
19. Everytime I Feel the Spirit – 1959 – Precious/Bessie – Tk 10 – 2.17
LaVern left Atlantic in 1964 and in the late 1960s went to Vietnam to entertain the troops. She became seriously ill after the trip and was hospitalized, eventually settling far out of the limelight in the Philippines. She remained there for 22 years, running an NCO club on Subic Bay naval base for the U.S. government.
Finally, in 1988, Baker returned to the USA to star in Atlantic's 40th anniversary celebrations that we mentioned earlier. That led to a soundtrack appearance in the film Dick Tracy, a starring role in the Broadway musical Black & Blue (replacing her ex-Atlantic labelmate Ruth Brown), a nice comeback disc for DRG (Woke Up This Mornin'), and a memorable appearance at the Chicago Blues Festival..
In 1991, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. .
LaVern Baker died from coronary complications in 1997, and was interred in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, New York. Unfortunately she lies in an unmarked grave. A fundraiser was scheduled by local historians to give LaVern a headstone in April 2008.
Bluesnews 12 Feb 2009
Hello again. Here is another edition of a newsletter setting out all the blues news for South East Queensland.
With Woodford fading into a pleasant memory, its time to start getting excited about the ECBRF at Easter. The second round of artists has been announced, with more due tomorrow. Tickets are (as they say) selling fast …….
Cheers
Mark Hipgrave
0418 556048
NEWS
RADIO/TV
FESTIVALS
CD LAUNCHES & REVIEWS
REGULAR STUFF AND GIG GUIDES
NEWS
Some Good News Amidst all the Gloom
Crikey reported on 11 Feb:
All seems shrouded by gloom. The bushfire toll rises in Victoria, political deadlock settles over the federal parliament, the crisis besetting the global economy stretches for new depths. Here though, in the midst of all this darkness, is a good news story, as sure a sign as any that when all this has passed, some brightness will out:
MUZAK FILES VOLUNTARY CHAPTER 11 PETITIONS TO FACILITATE A BALANCE SHEET RESTRUCTURING
FORT MILL, SC -- Muzak Holdings LLC and certain of its subsidiaries (together, the "Company"), today announced the filing of voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the "Court") to facilitate a restructuring of the Company’s debt obligations. Muzak previously reached an agreement with its lenders to access all cash on hand and cash generated from ongoing operations.
Hope endures.
East Coast Blues & Roots Festival Launches 2nd Round of Artists and InDIG Stage
On 30 Jan the ECBRF people announced another round of artists for the Easter festival:
The huge name here is American Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, a genuine super star in the making who has been near the top of the Australian charts for 35 weeks, and like Jack Johnson and Ben Harper before him, was discovered and introduced to Australian audiences last year via Bluesfest.
This entire artist announcement is a cross section of big stars and cult heroes; a quality-rich ‘something for everyone’ affair – with roots folk and country-rock, one or two soul legends, some exciting contemporary songwriters, hip-hop party boys, world music and much more.
The next Bluesfest announcement for 2009 includes:
Jason Mraz, Xavier Rudd, Paul Kelly, Drive-By Truckers, Booker T Jones, James Hunter, Blues Traveller, CW Stoneking, Ash Grunwald, AYO, Rodney Crowell, Dallas Frasca, Spectrum, Pete Cornelius & the De Villes, Hot Club of Cow Town, Resin Dogs, Tijuana Cartel, Veneno, Mic Conway’s National junk Band, and Morning Of The Earth – Cult Surf Movie and Concert featuring Brian Cadd, Lior, Old Man River, Mike Rudd & Tim Gaze.
I was interested to see Festival Owner Peter Noble checking out Veneno at one of their sets at Woodford last month. Peter was disguised in a Hawaiian shirt but obviously liked what he saw and heard.
And on Wed 18 Feb, Bluesfest is launching the InDIG Stage for this year’s festival:
With support from Events NSW, this stage showcases our Indigenous heritage and cultural significance with the line-up including major Indigenous artists from Australia and the Pacific Rim.
Members of the Arakwal Aboriginal Corporation Byron Bay and the Bundjalung Elders Council Aboriginal Corporation [will attend] the event, where Bluesfest Director Peter Noble, and CEO of Events NSW, Geoff Parmenter, will launch the new InDIG Bluesfest stage, followed by special guest performance from a headlining InDIG stage Artist. Bluesfest has over the years given the spotlight to many Indigenous performers – and this launch represents the important next step.
Grammy Awards
The Grammy’s were announced on Feb 8.
In case you missed it, the top awards went to Raising Sand, by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, released in late 2007. The album walked off with five huge awards: Album of the year. Record of the year. Best contemporary folk/Americana album. Best pop collaboration with vocals. Best country collaboration with vocals.
Here’s how the NY Times reported it, and here is Rolling Stone’s report.
Some parties have suggested in recent years that the Grammys are loosing their relevance. I suspect Rhythms magazines falls into this category – see their report here.
If you are still interested. a full list of winners, in all categories is here.
And while the Grammys were being awarded, Dr John and the Neville Brothers were having fun in St Louis.
Blueswax Awards
Meanwhile, the Blueswax people have announced their own award results for 2008:
The readers of BluesWax, the largest subscribed Blues publication in the world, have selected their BluesWax Artist of the Year 2008 and BluesWax Album of the Year 2008. During December we took your nominations and created a final ballot of five artists and five albums and then for the past few weeks you voted. As the largest subscribed Blues publication in the world, these awards are open to more fans than any other awards in the Blues.
The final ballot for BluesWax Blues Artist of the Year 2008 was:
· Albert Cummings
· EG Kight
· Taj Mahal
· Moreland & Arbuckle
· Jason Ricci & New Blood
With record voting in both categories this year, you selected Albert Cummings as BluesWax Blues Artist of the Year 2008. With a record number of first place votes Cummings is a first time winner of the BluesWax awards.
BluesWax Album of the Year
As with the Artist of the Year Award, the nominating process for BluesWax Album of the Year 2008 began back in December when our readers and contributors began making nominations. The nominating process created the final ballot of:
Full Tilt - Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials
It's Hot In Here - EG Kight
Let Life Flow - Kenny Neal
Maestro - Taj Mahal
Peace, Love & BBQ - Marcia Ball
These were all great nominations and we loved every one of them! In the final voting, again with record returns, you selected Kenny Neal's Let Life Flow as BluesWax Album of the Year 2008. The win is the first for Neal in the BluesWax awards.
International Blues Challenge
Melbourne trio Collard Greens and Gravy represented the MBAS at the 25th International Blues Challenge from 5-8 Feb in Memphis.
The band has done well in the past at this event. As the MBAS reports:
The trio first received international recognition when they ... were awarded second place at 2001’s International Blues Challenge (IBC), followed by a successful tour of the United States. The same year the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) awarded their second album, More Gravy, “Best Blues and Roots Album”.
Their follow up album, Silver Bird, won the “Best Self-Produced CD” award at the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in February 2005. The band was a finalist for the “Duo or Group of the Year” award and Ian Collard was nominated for “Male Vocalist of the Year” at the 2005 Australian Blues Music Awards.
Unfortunatey ‘the Gravies’ (as the MBAS calls them) did not make the finals this year.
Here are items from the Blues Foundation’s website about the event:
25th IBC Finalists
25th IBC Results
Commercial Appeal on 25th International Blues Challenge
Previous Australian successes at the IBC have been Geoff Achison, Jimi Hocking and Fiona Boyes.
Harmonicas at the Jubilee Hotel
And speaking of Ian Collard, The Colonel, Mark Doherty is running a Blues Harmonica Blowout Saturday, April 18, at the Jubilee Hotel featuring Ian Collard, Mojo Webb, Jamie Symons, Mark Gibbons, Greg Baker & more to be announced.
Ian Collard will be back the next day running a harmonica workshop
Press Articles – Various
T Model Ford and His Mississippi Blues, from Pine Magazine
NoPod - Why America's favorite gadget is doomed, from Portfolio
Buena Vista Social Club bassist Orlando 'Cachaito' Lopez dies age 76, from Times Online
Rick Wakeman brings 'Tudor rock' to Hampton Court, also from Times Online
Hank Crawford, Prolific Saxophonist, Dies at 74, from the NY Times
Blossom Dearie, Cult Chanteuse, Dies at 84, also from the NY Times
“Solid Air” Singer-Songwriter John Martyn Dead at 60, from Rolling Stone
Hallelujah! It's Leonard Cohen, from Australian Jewish News
Pete Seeger receives belated apology for gig cancellation threat, from The Guardian
Laughing Through the Tears: The Enduring Journey of Etta James, from PopMatters
Hank's Other Side: Religion, Radio, and the Roots of Country Music, also from PopMatters
Buddy Guy's celebrates 20th in blues great's ever-present company, from Chicago Sun Times
RADIO/TV/YOU TUBE
Arthur Elliot reports on his upcoming Sidestream shows– for Brisbane listeners 99.7 FM, Wed 7pm to 9pm.
On 18 Feb, the first hour of the programme includes music from Gandalf Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Angus & Julia Stone, Conjunto Jardin, the Earlies, the Bills, Serena Ryder, and more.
In the 8pm blues hour, we have blues of all sorts and eras, from Ray Bonneville, the Holmes Brothers, Chris Thomas King, Keb ‘Mo, Lou de Adder, Ellen McIlwaine, Tom Jones & Jools Holland, Dinah Washington, Louis Jordan, Mississippi Shakedown, Andy Cowan, and others.
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
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 :
The hell with the heat, I’m going surfing
And here are some selected by Dan (A&R man at Joes Waterhole, Eumundi):
The Wilson Pickers...keep an eye out.
http://www.abc.net.au/dig/stories/s2447703.htm
The new crop of brilliant songwriters around today
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-BZQ6iuJ2kM&feature=related
My newest favourite song writer...I'll be trying to entice him to Oz with a little help from my friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le5ztJM0ikc
FESTIVALS
Blue Mountains Music Festival
The 2009 Festival is on March 13, 14, 15. Details are here.
Kiama Jazz & Blues Festival
This festival runs on the same weekend as the Blue Mountains festival - Friday 13th March to Sunday 15th March. Details are here.
Back to the top
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.
Back to the top
REGULAR STUFF AND GIG GUIDES
There is more blues at the Palmwoods Hotel on Sat 21 Feb, this month featuring the Chris Mawer Band, JB Lewis and King Biscuit duo
For the last five years Chris Mawer has been the bass player of choice for a number of touring US blues artists. No surprises really as the sydneysider is a lowdown master of the pocket. As a band leader though, he really comes into his own when stepping up to the mic. His smokey voice is a perfect vehicle for the top notch veterans that make up the Chris Mawer band. Keys player Alison Penney is a first call accompanist with an impressive list of supports and a massive history on the national blues scene, playing a style of blues, boogie and New Orleans piano perfect for those hot summer nights. Joining Chris are Illya Szwec, a recent visitor to Palmwoods with Continental Robert & The Rinky Dinks and top drummer Jacob Cook. Truly a great Australian blues band!
www.myspace.com/chrismawerband
www.myspace.com/alisonpenney
Also on the bill in February is the JB Lewis Band. As the bass player and second guitar player for Mojo Webb, JB spent a fair bit of time overseas and interstate in the last few years but is truly at home fronting his own trio playing blues, surf and roots music of the highest quality. Having him playing the middle spot at Palmwoods always lays down the gauntlet for the act to follow
www.myspace.com/jblewismusic
Opening proceedings will be the stripped down duo version of Brisbane’s award winning Natural Ball. Mark and Ben only rarely get a chance to perform as the blues duo King Biscuit so to catch them is a rare treat
www.myapce.com/naturalball
Doug McLeod is visiting Australia in March (for the Port Fairy Folk Festival and the Mossvale Music Festival in Leongatha,) but only doing one show in Qld – on Fri 13 March – at St Bernards Hotel 101 Alpine Tce, Mt Tamborine P: 5545 1177
Doug was last here in 2005 where he played two nights in Brisbane (at The Piney, I recall) and also at the Blues on Broadbeach Festival.
He is also holding two guitar workshops:
The workshop is geared for intermediate to advanced students, but all are welcome to attend.
The first part of the workshop will focus on the Key of E in standard tuning. Doug starts with the right hand and the importance of setting up a groove and will take the student on a musical journey that includes turnarounds, improvisation, octaves, and as Doug says, " Playing the feeling that lives behind the notes."
The second part of the workshop will focus on bottlenecking in Open G tuning.
Using Doug's technique of simplifying the fret board the student will learn chord forms, turnarounds, how to build a solo, and the secret of finding the notes that live inside the notes.
After a workshop with Doug MacLeod the student comes away with not only a whole new batch of tricks and licks, but with an insight to the music and its philosophy that could only be learned by a man who had been there.
Plus, the students have fun. With his stories and sense of humour the students come to find that Doug is an engaging teacher as he is a performer.
Date: Wednesday March 11th
Time 7.30pm
Cost: $40
At: Guitar Brothers, 95 Musgrave Rd. Red Hill
P: 3367 3558
Date: Thursday March 12th
Time 7.30pm
Cost: $40
At: Masonic Lodge, Knoll Rd, North Tamborine.
M: 0413 456 188
Mark Easton is one of the hardest working bluesmen around – but passes through Brisbane only infrequently. However, he is doing a series of shows in SEQ in the next few months:
Here is a paste from his newsletter:
03/03/2009 07:00 PM
byron bay, NSW,
The Rails,Byron Bay
03/08/2009 02:00 PM
COOLANGATTA, QLD
Greenmount Surf Club
03/13/2009 09:00 PM
Brisbane, QLD
Clarence Corner Hotel
03/20/2009 08:00 PM
MURWILLUMBAH, NSW
Imperial Hotel
03/21/2009 05:30 PM
Palmwoods, QLD,
Palmwoods Hotel
03/22/2009 01:30 PM
BUCCA, QLD
Bucca Hotel
03/29/2009 02:00 PM
Kingscliff, NSW
Kingscliff Beach Hotel
04/03/2009 08:00 PM
Brisbane, QLD
The Joynt
04/09/2009 08:00 PM
WEST TWEED HEADS, NSW,
West Tweed Hall
04/17/2009 08:00 PM
MURWILLUMBAH, NSW,
Imperial Hotel
04/18/2009 09:00 PM
Brisbane, QLD
Clarence Corner Hotel
04/19/2009 02:00 PM
TAMBOURINE, QLD
Bearded Dragon Hotel
(Someone was asking me the other week who was playing at Blues on Broadbeach this year – there is nothing on the festival website yet, but from the above listing I can see that at least Mark is)
There is now a weekly blues session at the Jubilee Hotel in the Valley, every Sunday afternoon, commencing 2pm. Sessions for the next few weeks include
· Sun 15 Feb Mojo Webb
· Sun 22 Feb BASEQ Jam (at 1pm)
· Sum 1 March Mick Hadley & the Atomic Boogie Band
· Sun 8 March Mama Voodoo with Sly Jack
Coming up at The Step Inn
· Sat 28 Feb Bob Log III
Coming up at The Troubabour
Have a look.
At Joes Waterhole, Eumundi
Look out for:
· Fri 27 Feb Mia Dyson
· Thurs 5 March Preston Reed (Ireland)
· Fri 6 March Matt McHugh
· Sat 7 March Paul Greene
And later …..
· Bill Chambers & Kevin Bennett
· Luka Bloom (Ireland)
· Ruthie Foster (USA)
· Martin Martini
At The Tivoli you can catch
· Wed 18 Feb The Waifs
At the Cooly Hotel
· Fri 27 Feb Kate Miller-Heidke
· Sun 21 March Mason Rack Band
And at The Judy.
· Thurs 26 Feb Mia Dyson
At The Zoo
· Sun 22 Feb Kaki King
At The Powerhouse
· Wed 4 March Preston Reed
At The Soundlounge, Currumbin
· Fri 20 Feb Chase The Sun
· Sun 1 March Mia Dyson
· Fri 6 March Tommee Trio
· Fri 27 March Dallas Frasca, Blackwater Fever & Texas Tea
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
With Woodford fading into a pleasant memory, its time to start getting excited about the ECBRF at Easter. The second round of artists has been announced, with more due tomorrow. Tickets are (as they say) selling fast …….
Cheers
Mark Hipgrave
0418 556048
NEWS
RADIO/TV
FESTIVALS
CD LAUNCHES & REVIEWS
REGULAR STUFF AND GIG GUIDES
NEWS
Some Good News Amidst all the Gloom
Crikey reported on 11 Feb:
All seems shrouded by gloom. The bushfire toll rises in Victoria, political deadlock settles over the federal parliament, the crisis besetting the global economy stretches for new depths. Here though, in the midst of all this darkness, is a good news story, as sure a sign as any that when all this has passed, some brightness will out:
MUZAK FILES VOLUNTARY CHAPTER 11 PETITIONS TO FACILITATE A BALANCE SHEET RESTRUCTURING
FORT MILL, SC -- Muzak Holdings LLC and certain of its subsidiaries (together, the "Company"), today announced the filing of voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the "Court") to facilitate a restructuring of the Company’s debt obligations. Muzak previously reached an agreement with its lenders to access all cash on hand and cash generated from ongoing operations.
Hope endures.
East Coast Blues & Roots Festival Launches 2nd Round of Artists and InDIG Stage
On 30 Jan the ECBRF people announced another round of artists for the Easter festival:
The huge name here is American Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, a genuine super star in the making who has been near the top of the Australian charts for 35 weeks, and like Jack Johnson and Ben Harper before him, was discovered and introduced to Australian audiences last year via Bluesfest.
This entire artist announcement is a cross section of big stars and cult heroes; a quality-rich ‘something for everyone’ affair – with roots folk and country-rock, one or two soul legends, some exciting contemporary songwriters, hip-hop party boys, world music and much more.
The next Bluesfest announcement for 2009 includes:
Jason Mraz, Xavier Rudd, Paul Kelly, Drive-By Truckers, Booker T Jones, James Hunter, Blues Traveller, CW Stoneking, Ash Grunwald, AYO, Rodney Crowell, Dallas Frasca, Spectrum, Pete Cornelius & the De Villes, Hot Club of Cow Town, Resin Dogs, Tijuana Cartel, Veneno, Mic Conway’s National junk Band, and Morning Of The Earth – Cult Surf Movie and Concert featuring Brian Cadd, Lior, Old Man River, Mike Rudd & Tim Gaze.
I was interested to see Festival Owner Peter Noble checking out Veneno at one of their sets at Woodford last month. Peter was disguised in a Hawaiian shirt but obviously liked what he saw and heard.
And on Wed 18 Feb, Bluesfest is launching the InDIG Stage for this year’s festival:
With support from Events NSW, this stage showcases our Indigenous heritage and cultural significance with the line-up including major Indigenous artists from Australia and the Pacific Rim.
Members of the Arakwal Aboriginal Corporation Byron Bay and the Bundjalung Elders Council Aboriginal Corporation [will attend] the event, where Bluesfest Director Peter Noble, and CEO of Events NSW, Geoff Parmenter, will launch the new InDIG Bluesfest stage, followed by special guest performance from a headlining InDIG stage Artist. Bluesfest has over the years given the spotlight to many Indigenous performers – and this launch represents the important next step.
Grammy Awards
The Grammy’s were announced on Feb 8.
In case you missed it, the top awards went to Raising Sand, by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, released in late 2007. The album walked off with five huge awards: Album of the year. Record of the year. Best contemporary folk/Americana album. Best pop collaboration with vocals. Best country collaboration with vocals.
Here’s how the NY Times reported it, and here is Rolling Stone’s report.
Some parties have suggested in recent years that the Grammys are loosing their relevance. I suspect Rhythms magazines falls into this category – see their report here.
If you are still interested. a full list of winners, in all categories is here.
And while the Grammys were being awarded, Dr John and the Neville Brothers were having fun in St Louis.
Blueswax Awards
Meanwhile, the Blueswax people have announced their own award results for 2008:
The readers of BluesWax, the largest subscribed Blues publication in the world, have selected their BluesWax Artist of the Year 2008 and BluesWax Album of the Year 2008. During December we took your nominations and created a final ballot of five artists and five albums and then for the past few weeks you voted. As the largest subscribed Blues publication in the world, these awards are open to more fans than any other awards in the Blues.
The final ballot for BluesWax Blues Artist of the Year 2008 was:
· Albert Cummings
· EG Kight
· Taj Mahal
· Moreland & Arbuckle
· Jason Ricci & New Blood
With record voting in both categories this year, you selected Albert Cummings as BluesWax Blues Artist of the Year 2008. With a record number of first place votes Cummings is a first time winner of the BluesWax awards.
BluesWax Album of the Year
As with the Artist of the Year Award, the nominating process for BluesWax Album of the Year 2008 began back in December when our readers and contributors began making nominations. The nominating process created the final ballot of:
Full Tilt - Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials
It's Hot In Here - EG Kight
Let Life Flow - Kenny Neal
Maestro - Taj Mahal
Peace, Love & BBQ - Marcia Ball
These were all great nominations and we loved every one of them! In the final voting, again with record returns, you selected Kenny Neal's Let Life Flow as BluesWax Album of the Year 2008. The win is the first for Neal in the BluesWax awards.
International Blues Challenge
Melbourne trio Collard Greens and Gravy represented the MBAS at the 25th International Blues Challenge from 5-8 Feb in Memphis.
The band has done well in the past at this event. As the MBAS reports:
The trio first received international recognition when they ... were awarded second place at 2001’s International Blues Challenge (IBC), followed by a successful tour of the United States. The same year the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) awarded their second album, More Gravy, “Best Blues and Roots Album”.
Their follow up album, Silver Bird, won the “Best Self-Produced CD” award at the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in February 2005. The band was a finalist for the “Duo or Group of the Year” award and Ian Collard was nominated for “Male Vocalist of the Year” at the 2005 Australian Blues Music Awards.
Unfortunatey ‘the Gravies’ (as the MBAS calls them) did not make the finals this year.
Here are items from the Blues Foundation’s website about the event:
25th IBC Finalists
25th IBC Results
Commercial Appeal on 25th International Blues Challenge
Previous Australian successes at the IBC have been Geoff Achison, Jimi Hocking and Fiona Boyes.
Harmonicas at the Jubilee Hotel
And speaking of Ian Collard, The Colonel, Mark Doherty is running a Blues Harmonica Blowout Saturday, April 18, at the Jubilee Hotel featuring Ian Collard, Mojo Webb, Jamie Symons, Mark Gibbons, Greg Baker & more to be announced.
Ian Collard will be back the next day running a harmonica workshop
Press Articles – Various
T Model Ford and His Mississippi Blues, from Pine Magazine
NoPod - Why America's favorite gadget is doomed, from Portfolio
Buena Vista Social Club bassist Orlando 'Cachaito' Lopez dies age 76, from Times Online
Rick Wakeman brings 'Tudor rock' to Hampton Court, also from Times Online
Hank Crawford, Prolific Saxophonist, Dies at 74, from the NY Times
Blossom Dearie, Cult Chanteuse, Dies at 84, also from the NY Times
“Solid Air” Singer-Songwriter John Martyn Dead at 60, from Rolling Stone
Hallelujah! It's Leonard Cohen, from Australian Jewish News
Pete Seeger receives belated apology for gig cancellation threat, from The Guardian
Laughing Through the Tears: The Enduring Journey of Etta James, from PopMatters
Hank's Other Side: Religion, Radio, and the Roots of Country Music, also from PopMatters
Buddy Guy's celebrates 20th in blues great's ever-present company, from Chicago Sun Times
RADIO/TV/YOU TUBE
Arthur Elliot reports on his upcoming Sidestream shows– for Brisbane listeners 99.7 FM, Wed 7pm to 9pm.
On 18 Feb, the first hour of the programme includes music from Gandalf Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Angus & Julia Stone, Conjunto Jardin, the Earlies, the Bills, Serena Ryder, and more.
In the 8pm blues hour, we have blues of all sorts and eras, from Ray Bonneville, the Holmes Brothers, Chris Thomas King, Keb ‘Mo, Lou de Adder, Ellen McIlwaine, Tom Jones & Jools Holland, Dinah Washington, Louis Jordan, Mississippi Shakedown, Andy Cowan, and others.
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
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 :
The hell with the heat, I’m going surfing
And here are some selected by Dan (A&R man at Joes Waterhole, Eumundi):
The Wilson Pickers...keep an eye out.
http://www.abc.net.au/dig/stories/s2447703.htm
The new crop of brilliant songwriters around today
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-BZQ6iuJ2kM&feature=related
My newest favourite song writer...I'll be trying to entice him to Oz with a little help from my friends.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le5ztJM0ikc
FESTIVALS
Blue Mountains Music Festival
The 2009 Festival is on March 13, 14, 15. Details are here.
Kiama Jazz & Blues Festival
This festival runs on the same weekend as the Blue Mountains festival - Friday 13th March to Sunday 15th March. Details are here.
Back to the top
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.
Back to the top
REGULAR STUFF AND GIG GUIDES
There is more blues at the Palmwoods Hotel on Sat 21 Feb, this month featuring the Chris Mawer Band, JB Lewis and King Biscuit duo
For the last five years Chris Mawer has been the bass player of choice for a number of touring US blues artists. No surprises really as the sydneysider is a lowdown master of the pocket. As a band leader though, he really comes into his own when stepping up to the mic. His smokey voice is a perfect vehicle for the top notch veterans that make up the Chris Mawer band. Keys player Alison Penney is a first call accompanist with an impressive list of supports and a massive history on the national blues scene, playing a style of blues, boogie and New Orleans piano perfect for those hot summer nights. Joining Chris are Illya Szwec, a recent visitor to Palmwoods with Continental Robert & The Rinky Dinks and top drummer Jacob Cook. Truly a great Australian blues band!
www.myspace.com/chrismawerband
www.myspace.com/alisonpenney
Also on the bill in February is the JB Lewis Band. As the bass player and second guitar player for Mojo Webb, JB spent a fair bit of time overseas and interstate in the last few years but is truly at home fronting his own trio playing blues, surf and roots music of the highest quality. Having him playing the middle spot at Palmwoods always lays down the gauntlet for the act to follow
www.myspace.com/jblewismusic
Opening proceedings will be the stripped down duo version of Brisbane’s award winning Natural Ball. Mark and Ben only rarely get a chance to perform as the blues duo King Biscuit so to catch them is a rare treat
www.myapce.com/naturalball
Doug McLeod is visiting Australia in March (for the Port Fairy Folk Festival and the Mossvale Music Festival in Leongatha,) but only doing one show in Qld – on Fri 13 March – at St Bernards Hotel 101 Alpine Tce, Mt Tamborine P: 5545 1177
Doug was last here in 2005 where he played two nights in Brisbane (at The Piney, I recall) and also at the Blues on Broadbeach Festival.
He is also holding two guitar workshops:
The workshop is geared for intermediate to advanced students, but all are welcome to attend.
The first part of the workshop will focus on the Key of E in standard tuning. Doug starts with the right hand and the importance of setting up a groove and will take the student on a musical journey that includes turnarounds, improvisation, octaves, and as Doug says, " Playing the feeling that lives behind the notes."
The second part of the workshop will focus on bottlenecking in Open G tuning.
Using Doug's technique of simplifying the fret board the student will learn chord forms, turnarounds, how to build a solo, and the secret of finding the notes that live inside the notes.
After a workshop with Doug MacLeod the student comes away with not only a whole new batch of tricks and licks, but with an insight to the music and its philosophy that could only be learned by a man who had been there.
Plus, the students have fun. With his stories and sense of humour the students come to find that Doug is an engaging teacher as he is a performer.
Date: Wednesday March 11th
Time 7.30pm
Cost: $40
At: Guitar Brothers, 95 Musgrave Rd. Red Hill
P: 3367 3558
Date: Thursday March 12th
Time 7.30pm
Cost: $40
At: Masonic Lodge, Knoll Rd, North Tamborine.
M: 0413 456 188
Mark Easton is one of the hardest working bluesmen around – but passes through Brisbane only infrequently. However, he is doing a series of shows in SEQ in the next few months:
Here is a paste from his newsletter:
03/03/2009 07:00 PM
byron bay, NSW,
The Rails,Byron Bay
03/08/2009 02:00 PM
COOLANGATTA, QLD
Greenmount Surf Club
03/13/2009 09:00 PM
Brisbane, QLD
Clarence Corner Hotel
03/20/2009 08:00 PM
MURWILLUMBAH, NSW
Imperial Hotel
03/21/2009 05:30 PM
Palmwoods, QLD,
Palmwoods Hotel
03/22/2009 01:30 PM
BUCCA, QLD
Bucca Hotel
03/29/2009 02:00 PM
Kingscliff, NSW
Kingscliff Beach Hotel
04/03/2009 08:00 PM
Brisbane, QLD
The Joynt
04/09/2009 08:00 PM
WEST TWEED HEADS, NSW,
West Tweed Hall
04/17/2009 08:00 PM
MURWILLUMBAH, NSW,
Imperial Hotel
04/18/2009 09:00 PM
Brisbane, QLD
Clarence Corner Hotel
04/19/2009 02:00 PM
TAMBOURINE, QLD
Bearded Dragon Hotel
(Someone was asking me the other week who was playing at Blues on Broadbeach this year – there is nothing on the festival website yet, but from the above listing I can see that at least Mark is)
There is now a weekly blues session at the Jubilee Hotel in the Valley, every Sunday afternoon, commencing 2pm. Sessions for the next few weeks include
· Sun 15 Feb Mojo Webb
· Sun 22 Feb BASEQ Jam (at 1pm)
· Sum 1 March Mick Hadley & the Atomic Boogie Band
· Sun 8 March Mama Voodoo with Sly Jack
Coming up at The Step Inn
· Sat 28 Feb Bob Log III
Coming up at The Troubabour
Have a look.
At Joes Waterhole, Eumundi
Look out for:
· Fri 27 Feb Mia Dyson
· Thurs 5 March Preston Reed (Ireland)
· Fri 6 March Matt McHugh
· Sat 7 March Paul Greene
And later …..
· Bill Chambers & Kevin Bennett
· Luka Bloom (Ireland)
· Ruthie Foster (USA)
· Martin Martini
At The Tivoli you can catch
· Wed 18 Feb The Waifs
At the Cooly Hotel
· Fri 27 Feb Kate Miller-Heidke
· Sun 21 March Mason Rack Band
And at The Judy.
· Thurs 26 Feb Mia Dyson
At The Zoo
· Sun 22 Feb Kaki King
At The Powerhouse
· Wed 4 March Preston Reed
At The Soundlounge, Currumbin
· Fri 20 Feb Chase The Sun
· Sun 1 March Mia Dyson
· Fri 6 March Tommee Trio
· Fri 27 March Dallas Frasca, Blackwater Fever & Texas Tea
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
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