A SONG A DAY

I'm going to send you one song a day until you lick this thing. 
 Today will be from my Surf music collection.



I always loved instrumentals. Don't get me wrong I love singing and lyrics too. But the instrumental is raw and naked. It has to hold up on it's own. I like surf music. It's simple. It' catchy. It's cool.

Your blues brother....

Today I have what might be my all time favorite surf music song. I fucking LOVE this song\!\n\nRight from the intro, it grabs a hold of me and sucks me in. I'm ALL in for the ride. I hope you like it too.\n\nYour Blues brother

and I already failed to deliver. I'm getting old!

Today is an unusual surf tune that highlights the keyboard. I think I know why I'm drawn to this song. Cartoons of course! 
Funny how cartoons shaped my early development. 
Surf music with a  Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov  theme!

The guitar version of Bumble Bee

Continuing with surf music...
No surf music would be complete without a song from the Cobras.

The Cobras included a relative unknown guitarist....Stevie Ray Vaughn

ChurchKey? Who comes up with song names.?

One from the Surf Teens

Back in the late 60s there was a local band that I liked, the James Montgomery Band. They played around the area for a while until they began to get popular. They were back in town and playing at the paramount theater on Main Street in Springfield. I somehow got someone to take me there. What I didn't realize is that James Montgomery was the opening act. The headliner was someone I never heard of. 
The Montgomery set was really good. The time on the road had helped them to improve. When they announced the headliner, John Lee Hooker, I wondered what I was going to experience. There was a chair in the middle of a big stage. There was a red hollow body guitar and an old amplifier that looked like it had been around the world a few times. Hooker comes in, picks up his guitar, sits in the chair and plays a couple odd chords. He starts to talk to the audience about the blues. I'm thinking, this isn't going to be good. I wished the James Montgomery Band could play a longer set. He starts playing some weird syncopated guitar unlike anything I ever heard. As he plays, he thumps the guitar body on the beat. He starts out slow and imperceptibly begins to build the song. He had a mournful voice that you could feel the blues in it. There was a lot of power in his voice. The power reminded me of Jim Morrison. It had a beat that was captivating. I had never heard music phrased the way he did it. It was a mixture of strange chords, picking and thumping. It wasn't just the notes he played, there were the pauses. Rock and pop doesn't use pauses. The pauses hold you suspended and wanting more. I never heard anything like it and I LOVED it. Each song builds on the previous, I'm "Hooked"!  I had goose bumps on my goose bumps. THIS IS THE SOUND I"VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ALL MY LIFE! I found it!!! It was like the scene from the movie The Jerk when Steve Martin hears Jazz for the first time.
After a few songs, he gets out of his chair and continues to play as he strolls around the stage. I had never seen someone command the stage like he did. This was HIS stage! This was HIS music. This was HIS sound. He wasn't showy. He wasn't flashy. He wasn't high energy. There was that understated elegance. Less was more.

I had already gravitated toward the Blues sound...Cream, Stones, Doors, Jeff Beck...and others. They teased me with their sound. But, I didn't know what I was missing. I was ready for the John Lee Hooker master class. 

I saw Hooker a few more times over the years but there is nothing like the1st time. I will always remember that night and that performance.

Before the internet it wasn't easy to find stuff out. When I would get a new album, I would study the album. I would read every word. I would check to see who wrote each song and which musicians appeared on each song. Some albums were a lot more informative than others. As for the song author, a lot of songs that I really liked, one name kept popping up.... Willie Dixon. Each time I saw his name again, I wondered...who is this guy? How come you never hear his music on the radio? It seemed like everyone had a Willie Dixon song on their album. Oftentimes, the best song on the album was a Willie Dixon song. Even as I got more familiar with blues, my favorite artists Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters had a LOT of WiIlie Dixon songs. As luck would have it Willie Dixon came to western Ma. He played at the Hideaway in Granby. I've often wondered why so many great bluesmen played in Western Ma. (not that I was complaining). I think it might have been that it was a venue between Boston and New York. Back to my Willie Dixon story. Willie played with a stand up bass (not amplified). It seemed impossible but he pulled it off. How, you ask? Willie was a BIG dude. He was ~6'2" and 300 pounds. He was "built for comfort".  The big stand up bass didn't look so big with Willie playing it.  He had huge hands and the tips of index and middle fingers had enormous callouses. They were easily twice as wide as his left hand. He PLUCKED those strings!  The strings seemed to me to be extra thick. When he would get to playing, he had a kickstand on the bottom of his bass and he would really get animated. Tilting it. Thumping it. And spinning it like a top. He was great to see but I was familiar with the Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters versions and preferred them. Willie sang and let's say he was a great bass player and songwriter but he wasn't a great singer.     Willie also helped to produce the song and was a studio bass player for Chess records. I saw him another time and his son played electric bass while Willie played acoustic.
Years later I later wondered if my recollection of his hand size and his ginormous finger pads were accurate or if my memory may have embellished the size. I was down in Hollywood taking in the Hollywood Walk of fame and who has a star there? Yes you guessed it, Willie Dixon. Also there is a casting of both hands. My memory was perfectly accurate. His hands were huge and he had mallets on his index and middle fingers of his right hand. I put my hand in the mold and my hand was lost.   
From the list below, you can see he wrote some really great songs. I would go so far as to say, no song writer has had their songs recorded by as many top bands in the history of rock and roll. 

I googled...List of artists that record a Willie Dixon song...There are some GREAT songs here. 

-Your Blues brother

List of songs with title, first recorded by, year, and subsequently recorded by Title First recorded
by Year Subsequently recorded by "29 Ways" Willie Dixon 1956 Koko Taylor, Marc Cohn, The Blues Band "As Long as I Have You" Little Walter 1960 The Ford Blues Band, John P. Hammond, George Thorogood "Back Door Man" Howlin' Wolf 1960 The Doors, Grateful Dead, Shadows of Knight, Bob Weir, The Blues Project, The Blues Band "The Big Boat" a.k.a. "Somebody Tell that Woman" Big Three Trio 1955 Peter, Paul and Mary "Bring It On Home"[a] Sonny Boy Williamson II 1963 Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, Dread Zeppelin, Johnny Thunders, Widespread Panic, Hawkwind, Canned Heat "Built for Comfort" Willie Dixon 1959 Howlin' Wolf, Canned Heat, UFO, Juicy Lucy, Dana Gillespie "Close to You" Muddy Waters 1958 Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Doors "Crazy for My Baby" Willie Dixon 1955 Little Walter, Colin James, Charlie Musselwhite "Crazy Love" Buddy Guy 1967

"Crazy Mixed Up World" Little Walter 1959 James Harman Band "Dead Presidents" Little Walter 1963 The J. Geils Band "Diddy Wah Diddy" Bo Diddley 1955 Captain Beefheart, The Remains, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Blues Band "Do Me Right" Lowell Fulson 1955 Willie Dixon "Do the Do" Howlin' Wolf 1962 Top Jimmy & the Rhythm Pigs "Don't Go No Further" Muddy Waters 1956 The Doors, B.B. King, John P. Hammond "Don't You Tell Me Nothin'" Willie Dixon 1986 used in the film The Color of Money "Down in the Bottom" Howlin' Wolf 1961 Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, John P. Hammond, Siegel–Schwall Band, Barry McGuire "Eternity" Grateful Dead 1992

"Everything but You" Jimmy Witherspoon 1959

"Evil" Howlin' Wolf 1954 Canned Heat, Captain Beefheart, Monster Magnet, Luther Allison, Derek and the Dominos, Gary Moore, Cactus, The Faces, Steve Miller, Koko Taylor, Jeff Healey, Tom Jones, Greta Van Fleet "Fishin' in My Pond" Lee Jackson 1957 Hip Linkchain, Jimmy Rogers, Willie Dixon "Groanin' the Blues" Otis Rush 1957 Eric Clapton "Help Me" Sonny Boy Williamson II 1963 Ten Years After, Charlie Musselwhite, Canned Heat, Junior Wells, Luther Allison, Johnny Winter, James Cotton "Hidden Charms" Charles Clark 1958 Howlin' Wolf, Link Wray, Elvis Costello "Hoochie Coochie Man" Muddy Waters 1954 Willie Dixon, Shadows of Knight, Eric Burdon, The Nashville Teens, Dion, The Allman Brothers Band, Alexis Korner, Steppenwolf, Chuck Berry, Motörhead, Eric Clapton, John P. Hammond, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Healey, Manfred Mann, New York Dolls, Dave Van Ronk, Phish "Howlin' for My Baby" Howlin' Wolf 1959 George Thorogood, Paul Filipowicz "I Ain't Superstitious" Howlin' Wolf 1961 Jeff Beck Group, Grateful Dead, Megadeth, Chris Spedding, The White Stripes, The Yardbirds, Howlin' Wolf "I Can't Quit You Baby" Otis Rush 1956 Little Milton, Willie Dixon, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Led Zeppelin, Gary Moore, Dread Zeppelin, Nine Below Zero "I Can't Understand" (co-written with Cesar Rojas) Los Lobos 1990

"I Don't Play" Little Walter 1960 Robben Ford "I Got My Brand on You" Muddy Waters 1960 Alexis Korner "I Got What It Takes" Koko Taylor 1964

"I Just Want to Make Love to You" Muddy Waters 1954 Willie Dixon, The Animals, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Shadows of Knight, Mungo Jerry, Grateful Dead, Foghat, The Rolling Stones, Etta James, Van Morrison, Paul Rodgers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, April Wine, Robben Ford, Meat Puppets, Cold Blood, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Righteous Brothers, Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke "I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I Love" Muddy Waters 1956 Willie Nelson, John P. Hammond, Mose Allison "I Want to Be Loved" Muddy Waters 1955 The Rolling Stones "I'm a Natural Born Lover" Muddy Waters 1954

"I'm Ready" Muddy Waters 1954 Humble Pie, Buddy Guy, Aerosmith, Long John Baldry, Eric Burdon, George Thorogood, Albert King, John P. Hammond, Carey Bell, The Blues Band, Luther Johnson "If the Sea Was Whiskey" Big Three Trio 1947 Chris Thile and the How to Grow a Band "Insane Asylum" Koko Taylor 1968 Kathi McDonald & Sly Stone, Diamanda Galás, Asylum Street Spankers, The Detroit Cobras, Oxbow & Marianne Faithfull "It Don't Make Sense (You Can't Make Peace)" Willie Dixon 1984 Styx "Let Me Love You Baby" Buddy Guy 1961 Koko Taylor, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Mike Farris "Little Baby" Howlin' Wolf 1961 The Rolling Stones, The Blues Project, Ant Trip Ceremony "Little Red Rooster" Howlin' Wolf 1961 Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Luther Allison, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Big Mama Thornton, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bo Diddley, Otis Rush "Mellow Down Easy" Little Walter 1954 Cactus, Paul Butterfield, The Black Crowes, Carey Bell, ZZ Top, Jimmy Reed, Holly Golightly, John P. Hammond "Mighty Earthquake and Hurricane" a.k.a. "Earthquake and Hurricane" Willie Dixon 1978 Tina Turner "Move Me" Willie Dixon 1959

"My Babe" Little Walter 1955 Sonny Boy Williamson, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Lonnie Mack, Spencer Davis Group, John P. Hammond, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, The Remains, Othar Turner, James Cotton, Bo Diddley, Memphis Slim, Ike & Tina Turner, Ricky Nelson, Gerry and the Pacemakers "My Baby's Sweeter" Little Walter 1959

"My Love Will Never Die" Big Three Trio 1952 Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Robben Ford "Nervous" Willie Dixon 1959 André van Duin (as a parody, in Dutch), Ian Whitcomb "Oh Baby" Little Walter 1954

"Pain in My Heart" Willie Dixon 1955

"Pretty Thing" Bo Diddley 1956 Pretty Things, Canned Heat "The Same Thing" Muddy Waters 1964 Willie Dixon, George Thorogood, The Allman Brothers Band, Sue Foley, Marc Ford, Grateful Dead, The Band, Louisiana Red, Eddie C. Campbell, Treat Her Right "The Seventh Son" Willie Mabon 1956 Mose Allison, Bill Haley, Johnny Rivers, Sting, Climax Blues Band, Long John Baldry, Remo Four, Georgie Fame, John P. Hammond "Shake for Me" Howlin' Wolf 1961 Stevie Ray Vaughan, John P. Hammond "Sittin' and Cryin' the Blues" a.k.a. "Sit and Cry (The Blues)" Buddy Guy 1958 Willie Dixon "Spider in My Stew" Buster Benton 1974 Magic Slim "Spoonful" Howlin' Wolf 1960 Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Shadows of Knight, Dion, Paul Butterfield, Cream, Canned Heat, Grateful Dead, Ten Years After, The Who, Etta James, Delbert McClinton, Allman Joys, Gil Evans "Study War No More" Willie Dixon 1989

"Talk to Me Baby" a.k.a. "I Can't Hold Out" Elmore James 1960 Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton "Third Degree" Eddie Boyd 1953 Willie Dixon, Eric Clapton, Leslie West, Johnny Winter "Three Hundred Pounds of Joy" Howlin' Wolf 1963 Tom Jones & Jools Holland, Blues Brothers, Dana Gillespie "Tollin' Bells" Lowell Fulson 1956 Savoy Brown, Robert Cray, Paul Butterfield "Too Late" Little Walter 1953 Little Milton "Too Many Cooks" Jesse Fortune 1961 Buddy Guy, Robert Cray "Violent Love" Big Three Trio 1951 Otis Rush, Oingo Boingo, Dr. Feelgood, Skankin' Pickle "Wang Dang Doodle" Howlin' Wolf 1960 Koko Taylor, Grateful Dead, Savoy Brown, Box Tops, PJ Harvey, Rufus Thomas, The Pointer Sisters, The Blues Band, Widespread Panic, Warren Zevon, Dave Edmunds, Z.Z. Hill "Weak Brain, Narrow Mind" Willie Dixon 1964 Great White, Widespread Panic "What in the World You Goin' to Do" John Littlejohn 1968

"When My Left Eye Jumps" Buddy Guy 1967

"When the Lights Go Out" Jimmy Witherspoon 1954 Kim Wilson "Whole Lotta Love" (co-credit with Led Zeppelin)[b] Led Zeppelin 1969 Tina Turner, Tori Amos, Ben Harper, Prince, Carlos Santana, Mary J. Blige "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" Bo Diddley 1962 Shadows of Knight, Cactus, The Yardbirds, Beat Farmers, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Tim Hardin, The Merseybeats, Elliott Murphy, Long John Baldry, The Monkees, Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan, Tom Rush, The Rolling Stones, John P. Hammond, Dion DiMucci, Delbert McClinton "You Know My Love" Otis Rush 1960 Gary Moore, Anson Funderburgh "You Need Love" Muddy Waters 1962 Candye Kane, Savoy Brown, The Small Faces "You Shook Me" Muddy Waters 1962 Willie Dixon, Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Dread Zeppelin "You'll Be Mine" Howlin' Wolf 1961 Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dr. Feelgood, John P. Hammond "Young Fashioned Ways" Muddy Waters 1955 Koko Taylor Footnotes • ^ Led Zeppelin copied portions of Dixon's "Bring It On Home" for the intro and outro of their song of the same name on Led Zeppelin II. A lawsuit on behalf of Dixon was brought against Jimmy Page, et al. and was settled out of court.[3] Subsequent releases of the group's "Bring It On Home" listed Dixon as the songwriter, with their original portions re-titled "Bring It On Back" and credited to the group members. ISWC T-914.040.241-1. • ^ Elements of Dixon's "You Need Love" were copied by Led Zeppelin for their popular "Whole Lotta Love". A lawsuit was settled out of court[3] and resulted in Dixon's name being added along with the group members on subsequent releases of "Whole Lotta Love". IWSC T-070.202.109-7. The attached song was:

I bought a double album called British Blues Anthology.  There was lots of good music on it. It had the bigger names and a few names that you never hear in the States. There were a couple of songs by Joann Kelly that really resonated with me. Here was this young, blond, white girl with big round glasses that had this mournful voice that dripped pain and blues. If you listened to her music and then put 10 girls in a lineup and you had to guess who played and sang the song, she would be my last choice.  

Your blues brother

I always loved live music. The energy is palpable. It's the full experience. 
I became interested in the blues from the British blues re-importation.
I was primarily influences by the big 3, Clapton, Page and Beck. There were certainly others like Peter Green and Kim Simmons. But the big 3 were the main players. Clapton certainly was very well known and Jimmy Page was also well known. For some reason Jeff Beck never got the same popularity. I always thought this was weird because he was my favorite of the 3. I've seen each of them live but my all-time favorite performance was Jeff Beck. He played in Holyoke of all places. They played in a bar on High street. The place was between the river and City hall. I had never been there before and never went there again. One floor below the bar was small room with a really small stage. There might have been 50 people there max. I don't remember the exact year. Early 70s at the earliest, since I was drinking age. I think I went to the show alone after not being able to convince my friends to go. Small venues are the best! I do remember being high on something but I don't recall what it was. Beck was masterful! His tone was mesmerizing. His technique was flawless. He was one with that guitar. This was Jeff Beck at this peak. It wasn't the reserved player that he became. It was the athletic player pushing his limits. He had a great band that included Max Middleton on the piano. 
Of ALL the concerts that I've seen, the penultimate moment was when Beck came out for his 2nd encore and played Freddie King's "Going Down". Beck's version was the 1st version that I heard and has always been my favorite. If you're familiar with the song, there are 2 pauses toward the end where you get tricked into thinking the song is ending ...but...it's not. At the end of the pause, he launches back into the song. I had triple goosebumps. He kept going off on some amazing jam and then picking up the song again to the pause...........where he would launch into another adventure. The song lasted for ~30 minutes. I remember thinking this the best moment ever. I'm here and sharing something magical. No song has ever affected me like Going Down beneath a bar in Holyoke.

Another British band that never made it big in the states was Savoy Brown. Not sure why? Like a lot of songs, I heard the Savoy Brown version of "Louisiana Blues" first. I later heard it played live by Muddy Waters but I always liked the Savoy Brown version. 
I LOVE the intro to this song!

JB Hutto was playing in Connecticut and I wanted to see him real bad. I was with some of the falls gang and they also wanted to go. Unfortunately, we were a bit light on funds. We all dug out what little we had. I even pulled out my rear car seat to collect some long lost change. Collectively, we had enough money to get in but not enough to buy drinks at the venue. We pooled our money and went to the liquor store and told the guy we want the MOST amount of alcohol for 'this much' money. Without hesitation, he said "You want 'mad dog', MD20/20. A wine that has the maximum amount of alcohol allowed by law. All the winos buy it". We replied, Yes we want mad dog! The mad dog did the trick. We all got a buzz before going in. The show was great JB Hutto with his weird wildly colorful African? outfit and his signature Red Fez, tore the place down. He was tall, thin, and very black but he could really slide the blues. He had an infectious smile and you could tell he loved to perform.

Every song needs a story so.... !

Today's song is by a white Jewish guy...David Bromberg. I've seen David a few times. Great musician. Great writer. Great story teller. This song is nifty little instrumental.

-M

I think this got out of sequence...
Continuing with David Bromberg....
Bromberg had some early fame but for some reason left the scene just as he was getting big. Besides guitar, he could play any stringed instrument. When he left the music scene, he opened a violin repair and sales shop. I believe he had the largest collections of rare violins in the US at one point. I recall reading about an old Martin guitar that he had. It apparently had legendary sound. Martin tried to replicate it but couldn't. They later got close when they tried again using hide glue which Bromberg insisted was vastly superior to white glue. 
I know that he learned a lot of blues from the legendary blind Reverend Gary Davis. Here is a unique version of Statesboro Blues.

I don't know why, but I'm attracted to music by members of the 27 club. The 27 club is for musicians that died at the ripe age of 27. It's really amazing that so many of my music idols are in the club.... Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Robert Johnson. Even Kurt Cobain who I really liked (much to the disappointment of Sean and Jason who wanted to claim him as one of theirs).  I'm not sure what that says about me. Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, from Canned Heat is a member of this group. I was a big fan of the Blind Owl. I'd love to say that I saw him live but I never did. I did see "Canned Heat" play here in Goleta but the only members were the Drummer and the Bass guitar player.....fun but not Canned Heat. The bass player lives here in town and comes into the shop of friend. I’ve met him a few times and we talked about what it was like playing in a popular band (it wasn't always that fun).
Alan Wilson was a troubled soul. You could hear it in his voice. His voice was not particularly melodic but there was something dark and deep about it.

My all-time favorite blues band is the Howling Wolf blues band. I've seen them quite a few times. He always has a great band that included the incomparable Hubert Sumlin on guitar. There was always a piano player, sometimes there was a sax player. Hubert was in his prime....he was masterful. He had that super soft touch. His left hand floating up and down the neck. Even when the Wolf was singing or another band member was getting featured, Hubert continued to play lead even though he didn't pick the notes, he played silently. He never really took the foreground. It was never about Hubert. He always deferred to the Wolf. His left hand never stopped.  A lot of rock guitarists copied Hubert's riffs. His riffs are very noticeable in many great white guitar heroes.  Make no mistake. Wolf was the band leader. He was the conductor. All of the band members payed full attention to Wolf. With a glance or a nod or some subtle facial expression. The soloist would continue or finish on his instruction. Wolf read the room and always made the correct choices. I've seen the band quite a few times and he played the same song differently each time. Howling Wolf has that raspy unique voice. He's a large man and a force on the stage. Wolf was an animated singer. He poured his heart into his songs. During the song "Evil", his face was downright scary. He would challenge everyone with his stare.  One time he got a chair and pulled out an old acoustic guitar and launched into Little Red Rooster. I didn't know he played guitar. He often played the harp but rarely the guitar.

One more Howling Wolf story. 
The Howling Wolf band was coming to town and was scheduled to play at the Circus  (or Circle) Lounge in Holyoke. The venue was at the top of the mountain and there was only one road up. The day of the show a big snowstorm was forecast. With only one road up and the steepness of the road, no one was going to get up there once the storm started. I talked Judy into going up a couple hours early. When we got there the storm was just starting to pick up. The band was already there and they were setting up. The place was still empty. There was Judy and I and 2 other couples.  As show time approached, I could overhear the owner telling Wolf that the road was closed and there weren't going to be any more people. He offered to pay the Wolf and was OK with cancelling the show. The Wolf said "We're here. We're going to play!" It was incredible ...6 people in the audience and Wolf rejected a chance to get out of it. This is the mark of a true professional. I've seen shows cancelled with much more favorable conditions by artists that didn't want to perform. They could have learned a lot from the Wolf.  The band announced that they are going to play a straight set with no breaks. I got to call out all of my favorite songs. He might not have played it next but he did manage to work it in. They played a 75 minute straight set of all my favorite songs.  It wasn't the best I've ever seen him but it makes for a great story.

-M

After Howling Wolf passed, his longtime guitar player, Hubert Sumlin, set out on his own. He never reached a lot of fame. The people that knew...knew. 
The song I selected is "Blues for Henry". I don't know who Henry is, but he got the blues real bad! The song is an instrumental which as you know I'm partial to. The song starts slow. I believe that Ronnie Earl is the 2nd guitarist on the track. Hubert's deft touch and gorgeous tone painting the mood. It begins to build slowly....no hurry... then Hubert makes his guitar sing the blues. The great ones did that.

The 3 Kings of the blues

BB King Albert King Freddie King

I've seen BB and Albert King live. Unfortunately, I never saw my favorite King....Freddie. I liked BB and I liked Albert but I loved Freddie. My friend Al is a musician and he also likes blues. Albert is his favorite guitar player. Albert gets a lot of respect. I just wasn't as moved by Albert. Albert had the iconic left handed flying V guitar. Albert always looked weird playing his flying V guitar. I can't think of another black bluesman that did. Kim Simmons from Savoy Brown played a flying V. Albert named his guitar Lucy.

BB had his famous red Gibson guitar "Lucille". Possibly the most famous guitar in the world. If I was asked to provide the name of the most famous guitar, I would say Lucille without hesitation.    I would probably get barbecued for saying this but, I always thought that BB stayed on his notes too long trying to bend them into submission (I'm going to Blues hell for that one).

Freddie King was the least famous of the Kings, but he is easily my favorite King. I LOVE Freddie. As you are aware I love instrumentals and Freddie did a lot of them. Freddie is in the top 5 acts to catch when I get my time machine running. I know you play one of my favorites "In the Open" (LOVE that song) so I'm not going to send you that one. Hideaway it is. I love how he keeps his left hand going while not picking. I fell in love with this song from the John Mayall Bluesbreaker version with Clapton. There are subtleties in Freddie’s version that Clapton didn't capture. 

-M    

Johnny Winter For some reason I always called him Johnny WinterS with an S.   Johnny was a real crossover player. He played rock and roll and he played blues. 
I had his Progressive Blues Experiment album and practically wore it out. I saw Winters a few times including when he toured and played in a group that included Muddy Waters and James Cotton. Johnny was a performer who always gave a great show. Except at the end, I saw him on a blues cruise. He was a shell of what he was. He had to be led to his chair where his hands knew what to play but his spirit was gone and his eyes were vacant. That was sad to see this high energy performer on auto pitot. His brother, Edgar, was there to take care of him. He passed away a couple months later.

One night, a long time ago, (you were there) when we lived on Bolton Street....I came home late, maybe from a bar or some other place where drinking may or may not have been involved. I went up to my room and like I often did, I muted the speakers, put on my headphones and cued up the album of the evening. That night it was the  "Live Johnny Winter And" album Side 2 and turned up the volume real loud...because Johnny’s version of Jerry Lee Lewis song "Great Balls of Fire" needs to be played LOUD. I'm totally rocking out when dad bursts into my room and he's PISSED and starts yelling something (I couldn't hear what) I removed the headphones..............OH Shit.......I didn't press the mute button after all. It was blaring and it was late! I pressed the mute button. I deserved and got a good yelling at. Too bad dad didn't have a mute button, I'm pretty sure everyone in the house was up now and wondering WTF? I'm not sure where Jeff was that night. So, if you feel compelled to play Johnny WinterS loud, I might be responsible.

The song I selected is his version of the Jimi Hendrix masterpiece, Red House, called (I don't know why) Barcelona Boogie.

-M

` 
What blues song list would be complete without Buddy Guy? Buddy could flat out play. He never became popular on his own until he toured Europe and was re-imported to the US with British rocker backing, I saw him a few times over the years. He was always great. I saw him in a bar in Chicopee Center. I don't recall the place. He was touring with Junior Wells. Junior was an accomplished harp player and a very good singer. He was also a great front man. After he parted ways with Junior, Buddy took over the singing and being the front man. I never thought it worked as well as when Junior filled that role. Buddy lacked charisma and I never cared much for his singing. I also saw him live as the guitar player in Big Mama Thornton's band (a future story).  Back in the day, the record producers were very controlling of the musicians and how they played. The musicians weren't in a position to push back (except for Sonny Boy...another story). The music that was played live in the 50s and 60s was so much freer and better than the watered down versions the record producers produced. The treasured albums and recordings could have been so much better if the musicianship wasn't reigned in.       

I've selected 2 recordings of the same song. Be sure to listen to the 1st recording "01" before listening to the 2nd recording "11". The 1st recording was strangled by the Chess producers. The 2nd recording Buddy is off the leash.

Sonny Boy Williamson
This a follow up about the control Leonard Chess had over the musicians and their recordings. I mentioned that the musicians weren't in a position to push back (except Sonny Boy). I love blues guitar foremost. I also love piano and a good blues harp. Sonny Boy was a great harp player. I never saw him. He was a bit before my time. I had a double album that I loved. There were some outtakes that made it onto the extras. Leonard Chess was the Big Boss Man. He always got his way. No one was willing to stand up to him....except Sonny Boy.  Nobody fucked with Sonny Boy, he was ornery enough that he might stab you.

I remember reading a story about Sonny Boy "mentoring" Junior Wells. I did some poking around and found the story.

The following was written by Junior Wells: 

DID YOU HAVE A HARMONICA THEN?
Oh, yeah. At that time, you could buy harmonicas at the Rexall Drugstores or else somethin' like that there. You didn't have to pay but about 25 cents for one. And it was Marine Bands. The cheapest harp you could buy then was American Ace. And that's the one that [Sonny Boy] throwed down and stomped. Of mine. Yeah. [Laughs]

WERE YOU TRYIN' TO PLAY FOR HIM?
Yeah. I had asked him about teachin' me somethin' and he say, "Where's your harp at?" I took it out and showed it to him. He took it and throwed it on the ground and stomped it. He said, "That's not a harmonica." He said, "You gotta go get one. And you gotta buy me a drink." I say, "Okay." So I went up there to the drugstore and I got me a Marine Band and I come back and I brought him back a half pint of whiskey. 100 proof Granddaddy. He said, "No. What do I look like to you? Some little boy or something' another?"

And I said, "No." He say, "I need a fifth."

I went and got that fifth and brought it back to him. And he took the drink of it, big drink of it. Drink him some more and he sat down and went to blowin' the harp. He said, "Now, I want you to listen to this." So he blowed it and I tried to play it. He said, "You know what?" I say, "What?" He said, "Now, I'm gonna show you one more time." And he did. And I did the same thing. He said, "You know what? You ain't never gonna learn how to be nothin' or do nothing' with your dumb ass. And you know what else? You see that bottle of whiskey you bought?" He say, "You bought it, right?" I said, "Yeah." And he say, "And it's mine." And he took his knife out and licked it and laid it down there by his bottle of whiskey, said, "And if you touch it, you little bastard, you, I'll cut your damn throat. Now get up and get the hell away from me."

Man, nothin' ever hurt me before like that before in my life. I told him, "You just doin' this to me 'cause I'm a kid, but if I was a grown man you wouldn't do that to me." He said, "Well, I did it. Now get out of my face." I cried, that hurt me to my SOUL. I said, Lord Jesus. And, ah-oooh, man, I was more determined then I was gonna do it. And I went on back to Chicago, you know, and I met the original Sonny Boy, John Lee [Williamson], then I met [Little] Walter and all those people and then I started to learnin' how to do it right.

And it was down to Theresa's [Lounge, at 48th and Indiana] in the basement, after Sonny Boy come to Chicago, he came down there one evening for the Blue Monday thing we were doin' down there. And he come up in there sittin' at the bar, "Hey, Junior. Come here, man! I'm gonna buy you a drink." I said, "Let me tell you one thing. Don't mess with me. Just leave me ALONE." He said, "I know what's wrong with you. You mad with me about what I said to you and the way I treated you a long time ago, right?" And I said, "Yeah." He said, "Well, listen at you now.

You learned how to play. And you're doin' it right. I'm proud of you." Said, "Now just think. If I had a' babied you around you still wouldn't be blowin' the harmonica. Do that make sense to you?"
 And I'll be damned, it just run through my head just like that, said boom! He's right. I said, "You're right." He said, "Well, come on and have a drink then. Now treat the next son of a bitch that come up and tell you to show him something', treat 'em like I treated you. [Laughs] The dumb son of a bitch'll learn somethin' then."

I was proud of him then, you know. 'Cause he was right about it. I probably wouldn'ta." 

-M

SonnyBoyWilliams_OutTakes
This was out takes that were included on the album where Sonny Boy tells off Leonard chess and calls him a Motherfucker

James Cotton I remember the first time that I saw him, he was a big roundish guy. He was wearing a bandolier draped across his chest that had pockets filled with all kinds of harmonicas. It was pretty cool. James had a great big smile and mischief in his eyes. When I saw him, he was in his prime. He was younger than Wolf, Muddy, Willie. He had an enormous amount of energy and that's how he played...full tilt ahead.  Matt "guitar" Murphy was his guitarist.  When Judy and I were dating she was pretty agreeable to going to see blues bands with me. She wasn't a big fan of acoustic or slow blues but she liked the Chicago style and particularly liked boogie blues. James Cotton was a GREAT boogie band. We would get out on the dance floor and get completely sucked into his vortex. We would boogie out the whole set. We'd be drenched in sweat and completely spent. It was awesome. James Cotton was OUR band. I have never seen a blues band come close to matching his energy. 
Cotton was rumored to blow the reeds out his harps. He had a huge lung capacity and could hold a note seemingly forever.  He was also famous for doing a standing backflip on stage. 

A pretty cool video that hints at some of his enthusiasm. I think if they weren't Canadians and the venue was smaller with a packed dance floor, you would see a more fully animated Cotton that Judy and I saw.

The T Bone Walker concert that changed my life forever.

I'm not sure whether I told you this story. Sorry if it's a repeat. The T Bone Walker show that changed my life.... I LOVE T Bone Walker. T Bone was way ahead of his time. He was laying it down before I was born. 

T Bone Walker is THE MOST INFLUENTIAL blues musician of all time!!!!!!!!!  Take a moment and think about it. The electric guitar was a novelty until T Bone picked it up and made it popular.  T Bone was a great musician T Bone was a great performer T Bone was a great songwriter T Bone was popular with everyone including the white audience which was unprecedented at that time.. 
He was often asked to be the featured musician for big band performances. T Bone even played Jazz. T Bone was a huge influence for every blues performer that came after him.  T Bone was so cool.!

I had his T Bone Blues album and it was fabulous! I was a huge fan and was dying to see him perform live.  So, how did the local T Bone Walker concert change my life?

There was this girl (there's always a girl...). I met this girl and we really hit it off. We spent the evening together and I was smitten. We wanted to get together again and she said she was getting tickets to see Bonnie Raitt who I really liked and asked if I wanted to go? I quickly agreed and we made a date. As fate would have it, I learned that T Bone Walker was coming to town for a show! I was so stoked.....until I realized that it was the same day as the Bonnie Raitt show, BAD timing...I didn't like the idea of canceling my first date with a girl I really fell for...but "T Bone Walker".....It was tough but I decided to call the girl and explain that it's T BONE WALKER!! She'll understand. So, I call her and we pick up right where we left off. It was so natural talking to her. She said that she was really looking forward to our date and seeing Bonnie Raitt. I couldn't do it. I couldn't cancel our date! I would have to wait until the next time T Bone came back to town. We went to see Bonnie Raitt and had a real nice time. Unfortunately, T Bone Walker never came back to town. He passed away shortly after. I gave up my only chance to see T Bone Walker for a girl! On the other hand, that girl gave me 3 beautiful children and 50 lovely years together. Sometimes it's the path NOT taken. 

That is how a T Bone Walker show changed my life. 

You'll be starting your Radiation and Chemo treatment today. I don't know whether you'll read this today or not. I'm sure that you have a lot on your mind. I imagine the waiting has been tough. You are now putting your health in the hands of the medical community. I would imagine that you've already experienced the FULL range of emotions. I wish I could tell you everything is going to be alright but I know nothing. So, I'll wish you the best. You and Shari have likely done your due diligence and have researched your disease. It doesn't make it any easier.

If you ever need someone to talk to please don't hesitate to reach out. We can talk about cancer and your disease. I don't have a lot of experience. Judy's mom lived with us at the end of her life. She was living here when she was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas. She had radiation and chemo. It was not my intention to be dark before your treatment but, it's better to talk about things than to ignore them. I think about you every day when I share my love of music with you. I try to put a personal touch in as well.  As for the song of the day...we left off with T Bone. So I'll send you T Bone's most iconic song, "Stormy Monday". It's a little dark and not particularly uplifting but strangely fitting. 

Wishing you the best, -M 

If you are reading this, you survived your 1st day of radiation and chemo. 
I hope that you got through Stormy Monday because Tuesday's just the same. Wednesday's worse and Thursday's oh so bad.
Now that I've cheered you up. Here is a T Bone Instrumental ...Blues for Marili. It's hard to believe this was recorded in the mid fifties. It seems so relevant even today.

-M 

How are you holding up to all of your treatment?

Today's song is by Rev Blind Gary Davis. Davis was a terrific guitarist and performer. I never saw him live. I know that David Bromberg used to look after him at one point while getting guitar lessons. I also heard that when he lived in New York City, he never left his house without his pistol. I always thought that was strange since he was blind. I chose Hesitation Blues. It's a catchy little number that I first heard played by the Jefferson Airplane guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen.

I never saw Stevie live. This is one of my great regrets. When my kids were young and I was getting established at work, I kind of fell out of music. I justified this as not having the time or the 80s music didn't move me. Looking back, it’s all bullshit. I turned my back on music. I missed out on Stevie. I'll admit it. I was an idiot. I could have seen Stevie and I blew it. I honestly wasn't aware of Stevie. That's how disconnected I was. Going back to see Stevie will be my 2nd trip when I get my time machine working. Fortunately, there's quite a bit of video footage of Stevie. In retrospect, I LOVE Stevie! Why the hell do the great ones go too soon?   
I chose the Hendrix cover song, Little Wing. Stevie's version is one of the BEST recordings of any song I've heard. I don't know a lot about recording but this recording is a masterpiece. When I installed my surround sound system, I would show it off by playing Stevie's Little Wing at a high volume. It made my system sound better than it was.

Hard to believe that Cream didn't get featured until day 28. Cream was really the 1st rock supergroup. No one was playing as a 3 man rock band. Cream was the first. Their musicianship allowed them to pull it off. They may have only been 3 people but they put out a lot of sound. Eric Clapton is a great guitarist and got a lot of credit that he deserved. I loved his sound and it was as close to real blues that I heard at the time. I loved his playing. Jack Bruce wrote most of the original songs and sang on most of the tracks. Jack was also a great bass player. There are bass players and there is Jack Bruce. Jack wasn't just playing background bass that the others would layer over. Jack played a very robust bass that carried the song. GInger Baker was a drumming genius. He was unlike any other drummer. He drummed at a different level than anyone. I sent you a link a while back to a Ginger Baker documentary on YouTube called "Beware Mr. Baker". This is a must watch video. He was great and a whole lot crazy. Together, they were greater than the sum of their parts. They really meshed. It's a shame that they couldn't have stayed together longer. They imploded and split up but left us with some great music. Cream would be high on the list when I get the time machine working. I mentioned earlier that I would listen to music with headphones at bed time with the speakers muted (with 1 exception). I probably listened to Cream more than any other band. I was obsessed with Crossroads. I would play it over and over and over again. Something I rarely did. I know every nuance and note to that song. Naturally, the song of the day is Cream's version of Robert Johnson's Crossroads.

-M

You have completed 1 week of treatment. I trust you have Saturday off? How are you feeling? I hope that you aren't too worn out.

I have always loved female vocalists and it's about time we had another one. What better place to start than with the best female (or male) singer of my generation. The incomparable, Aretha Franklin. I don't know who is the 2nd best singer of my generation but I know who the best is. The range, the emotion, The cool softness followed by her explosiveness, the talent of her voice is amazing. 
I did get to see her a few years ago. She was way past her prime for sure. But, she was a true professional and really made the most of her diminished abilities and put on a very enjoyable show cycling through her many hits. I would have loved to see her in her prime.  With all of the great Aretha Franklin songs it's really hard to pick just one. Respect is the obvious choice here but I chose "I never loved a man (the way I love you)". This song talks to my soul and affects me at a primitive level. Hope you like it.

Aretha again

I know that yesterday I told you I wasn't going to select Respect.  I lied. It's just too good of a song. When I think of Aretha Franklin, I think of this song.

B52s Well I bet you didn't expect a song from the B52s. As I mentioned in another email, I fell out of the music scene during the childrearing years. There were bands that became popular at the time but I wasn't aware of them. I still caught some of them on the radio. But I wasn't plugged in. I'm not usually a fan of pop music per se. One of the bands that I had heard of was the B52s.  On a lark, I saw that the B52s were playing at the Chumash casino maybe 15 years ago. The Chumash is notorious for nostalgia tours. We've seen quite a few and they haven't always been great. Judy was agreeable and off we went. Maybe it's because I wasn't super familiar with them, but they sounded exactly like I remembered them. We got swept up in the crowd's energy and went up front in the 'mosh pit'. We jumped around with everyone like idiots for the entire show. They were super entertaining and we had a fantastic time! Going into the show, I wouldn't say we were big B52 fans. That night we were top B52 fans. Music is so strange.

CafeRandB This is a band that you probably never heard of.  When Judy and I lived in Ma. James Cotton was 'our' band. After child rearing,  we rekindled our love of music. If we had a Mike and Judy band, it was CafeRandB. They were a tight little blues band with a VERY dynamic front person in Roach Carruthers. She was a black woman married to the white band leader and lead guitarist, Byl Carruthers. Roach was a real firecracker. She performed with a big blonde wig, a million dollar smile and a mischievous twinkle in her eye. I always wondered why they weren't more popular. They were a local band playing out of Santa Monica. They did end up moving to Santa Barbara. When Roach put on that blond wig, she transformed into a different person, a pure entertainer. She would prance all over the stage. On Killing Floor she would sometimes literally get down on the floor and sing from her back with her legs in the air. Byl was a very good guitarist and had a great feel for the blues. I selected Howling Wolf's "Killing Floor" for the song of the day. They did several Howling Wolf covers. Sitting on Top Of The Word, Smokestack Lightning. All songs where Hubert Sumlin's guitar playing really shined. I spoke with Byl after one of his shows regarding Howling Wolf and Hubert Sumlin. He was a big fan but never saw them live. When I told him, I'd seen them several times, he grilled me about their shows. He was a big fan. I learned later that lots of musicians never attend other musicians that they admire. Mostly, they are too busy, sometimes, they can't afford it. I learned this on the Blues Cruise talking with the performers. They really liked the blues cruise because they could see the other performers.  I always thought that Roach would be the perfect person to sing the Etta James version of "I Just Want To Make Love To You". I suggested it to Byl but he pushed back saying that's Etta's song. Too bad. She was perfect for it. Sadly, Byl passed away and CafeRandB is no more and best I can tell, Roach is not performing which is a shame.

I did manage to see Tull once. I knew that he was playing in Manchester New Hampshire but we didn't have tickets. We decided to go anyway. When we got there, we learned they were sold out. The internet sure would have been nice. We were there and it was in an old building. In the back, on the 2nd floor, there was an air conditioner, a ledge and an open window. I don't know who's bright idea it was but we lassoed the air conditioner and scaled the wall to the ledge. What could go wrong? I cringe at the stupidity of it now. We all got in. The show was great. Ian Anderson was a tall wild singer and flutist. He would stand on one leg like a crane and play the flute. Who plays a flute in a rock band? Ian Anderson does and somehow manages to pull it off. Great show. Glad it didn't end differently.

Hard to Believe the Stones come in at 34? Back in the early and mid 60s, I wasn't going to any concerts. Music was something played on the radio. I had a little transistor radio that I would listen to. If you wanted to see a rock band, there were limited options. The best option was the Ed Sullivan Show. There were some other variety shows and some bands would do cameo performances but, Ed Sullivan was the most likely place. Music was played at the Social Center and some Ice Skating rinks. 
I was a big time Stones fan when I was really young. I liked the Beatles a lot but mom also liked the Beatles and that soured me a little. The Stones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. The bell bottoms, the wild outfits, the unkempt long hair. The bad boy image appealed to me. The show was awesome....except for one thing.....dad was watching too and he wasn't a fan. He called them girls and faggots. What I saw was Mick Jagger gyrating around singing.....I can't get no....Satisfaction... The Stones were the coolest. I liked the Beatles but I loved the Stones. We saw him in '89 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. I remember Guns and Roses (not my favorite) opened for them. We thought at the time, this would be the last chance to see the Stones. We were wrong...very wrong! We saw them a couple more times. They always put on a great show. But the venues were always big and impersonal.

So many great hits to choose from. Satisfaction gets my nod in memory of seeing Mick on the Ed Sullivan show.

The Beatles

The Beatles were a phenom. Watching the news when they came to the US and watching girls faint and swoon like they did was mind blowing to me. I couldn't imagine having that effect on girls (but I wanted to). Mom would play Beatles songs on the piano. She genuinely liked the Beatles and had bought a Beatle sheet music book. I never thought about it before but, mom was the 1st musician I ever got to play a requested song! The Rexall drug store on the corner of Bridge and Main sold records. I bought my first record there. It was a 45 by the Beatles. I bought it for the song Day Tripper, I loved the guitar in that song even back then I gravitated to the guitar. The B side was We Can Work it out. I spent a lot of time thumbing through the records picking just the right one. I had to look at EVERY record they had before I would give up my hard earned cash. I don't remember the exact cost but, I believe the 45s were $0.50 to $0.99 each. The most popular one was $0.99. This was a lot of money to me. At the time, I measured monetary value in candy bars. Candy bars were a nickel each, so $0.99 was 20 candy bars!! I did love my candy bars! So, 20 candy bars was a steep price for a record. Having 1 record in my music collection meant that it got a LOT of play time. Kathy had some records that I wasn't supposed to play (while she was home) but they were more pop music that I didn't love them (I did like Janis Ian's Societies Child). Rick wasn't that interested in music and I don't recall him buying any music. As a kid, I had more money than most kids. I always had a hustle. Paper route, nightcrawler business, snow shoveler, lawn raker, bottle recycler, blueberry picker....,whatever I could do, I was usually willing to do it. A boy can only eat so many candy bars, I guess I was ready to make room for music collecting.

Yesterday, I said that the Beatles Day Tripper was the 1st record that I ever bought. It was.
However, it wasn't the 1st music that I paid for. The 1st music that I paid for was spent at the jukebox at Haviland Pond. I paid and played a song. You were there but you were probably too young to remember. I believe it was 10 cents per play (2 candy bars). The song was the wildly controversial Louie Louie by the Kingsman. It was the 1st song that I remember that had "dirty lyrics". It was so controversial; they were investigated by the FBI. Some radio stations wouldn't play it. At one point it was banned. They appeared in front of a judge that said....   'Why are you fighting over this? It's a piece of junk.' And so he said, 'Listen, nobody can tell what it says. I'm going to deem it unintelligible at any speed, and lift the ban.'"

To a young kid it was amazing to hear..."every night at 10, I (unintelligible) her again". It sure corrupted me! I was so corrupted, I paid 10 cents to hear it played on that jukebox. With that rebellious act, I fell into moral decay and gravitated toward bad music and poor decisions. The moral corruption spurred me to learn to play the song on the guitar. It was the 1st song I learned to play.

-M

Jimi Hendrix What can I say?
Jimi is my very first stop when I get my Time Machine working. 

My early record collection was primarily sourced from Rexall drug store. I had discovered cutouts. Cutouts had a notch cut out of the album cover and were sold at a substantial discount. Usually $0.99 to $1.99 per album. I spent quite a few hours poring over the cutout bin. Thankfully, the proprietor never chased me off. I would pick up albums that struck my interest and devour the information on the back of the album. Album notes, band members, song authors. I read it all.  I don't remember what my first cutout album was. I did find some real gems though. 
They also had new full priced offerings. The new records sold for $1.99 to $2.99. One day I picked up Jimi Hendrix's Band Of Gypsies album. I wanted it real bad and it was priced higher than any single album that I had ever seen. It cost $3.25! NO other album in the bin cost more than $2.99. Strangely, I wanted it even more given its inflated implied value. I don't believe I was using the candy bar metric any more but if I was, it cost 65 candy bars.
I loved this album. I played it over and over and over. It was a departure from his Jimi Hendrix Experience lineup. It was rock. It was funk. It was progressive. It was blues. It was jazz. It was unstructured jamming. I don't know what it was but I loved it. 
From the jam song Who knows to the megacool Machine Gun. The song that I liked best was the Power of Love. I loved his guitar in this song right from the intro.

Little Walter Definitely  Time Machine worthy. Besides the guitar, I loved Blues Harp and Little Walter was a virtuoso. I know that he backed Muddy Waters for a while before going out on his own. He really got great tone from his harp. He played what others described as "the Mississippi saxophone". Walters was one of the first to electrify his harp with a separate amp instead of playing through the PA. He pushed the sound adding feedback and distortion to get some incredible sound. Hendrix was to the guitar what Little Walters was to the harp. They both pushed the limits.  I never got to see Little Walter. He died relatively young before I was old enough to have been able to see him. I did see all the band members on the included song backing Sunnyland Slim  (great show).   I am including a super cool slow song where his harp drips sad blues all over the place. His long holds on the intro set the pace. The mournful sound is pure blues genius. The backing band perfectly augments his harp playing. The simple guitar work from Louis Myers and Dave Myers and the efficient drumming of Fred Below perfectly augments Little Walters harp. Fred Below never plays a single wasted note.

Little Walter (continued) There were 2 other gems that I wanted to share. 
A little known instrumental song called "The Toddle". This song was on my first Little Walter album. I always thought this was the perfect warmup song. Oftentimes, while attending a blues show, the band comes out and does a couple numbers before introducing the headliner. Sometimes the warmup numbers are really great songs in their own right. The Toddle always reminded me of one of those really cool warmup songs. 

The other song was on the same album. I loved the guitar intro and pacing of the song. The underrated Robert Lockwood plays guitar, Willie Dixon (one of the Chess Records studio musicians) plays bass. Little Walters sings and plays the Mississippi Saxophone.

Lightnin Hopkins

My friend Al ( a musician) called Lighnin Hopkins the coolest blues player ever. 
I don't know if that's true (T Bone gets my vote) but Lightnin was definitely one cool cat ( he wore sunglasses for an evening show). I saw him in Santa Barbara ~1980. He was the opening act for Bonnie Raitt (another Bonnie Raitt story?). Bonnie was a big time blues fan herself. Like a lot of popular performers, Bonnie was sharing the wealth by having Lightnin play on the undercard. She was honoring the blues roots by bring along some lesser known blues artists. Honestly, I came to see Lightnin Hopkins. Bonnie was a bonus. Lightnin comes out with his guitar, a microphone and a chair. He was dazzling. His guitar work was amazing and he had a confidant smooth very cool voice. Each of his songs were very different from the other. He was having a good time and I was loving it!

Lighning Hopkins .....continued.....

Lightnin was laying it down and having a grand time. The MC came out and said OK, one last song. Lightnin played the 'last' song and launched into another song.....

-M

Lighning Hopkins .....continued.....continued

Lightning was jamming! The MC came out again and said 'Is everyone having a good time? OK, one last song.' Lightning played the 'one last' song and launched into yet another song.....It was awesome! I was getting a very full dose of Lightnin Hopkins playing some great songs. The MC came out and escorted Lightnin from the stage. Man it was great. Bonnie came out and seemed genuinely amused by the situation. She acknowledged Lightnin and ended up playing an abbreviated set. To me, she never matched Lightnin's performance. I appreciated her being such a good sport about it. She got upstaged. Wisely, she didn’t invite Lightnin to join her. "One More Time".....

Earl Hooker

Earl Hooker is a great blues guitar that almost no one's heard of. I learned about him from reading his name on the record album notes as the guitar player for various musician. I didn't know who he was. I never saw him live. He died in 1970. Earl never gained the fame that deserved. I'm surprised that he wasn't more famous. I haven't included many video links but I'm including one here. The link is to a performance in 1969, one year before his death from TB complications. I'm guessing that he wasn't at his peak for this performance (hard to believe).  Note the band line up. Lead guitar, Bass guitar and drummer. The blistering lead, full driving bass riffs and a very active drummer. Together they create a lot of sound. Remind you of anyone? Yeah, Cream used the same line up. You really see the influence to the British power trio, Cream.
Earl even played with his teeth (Hello Jimi Hendrix). Earl Hooker is high up on my Time Machine list.  

-M

Elmore James

I became aware of Elmore James from the many covers of his songs that the rock bands performed. Elmore also died too young. I also had an early Clapton record with his 'Tribute to Elmore' song. I did manage to snag a couple Elmore James albums from the cutout section down at the Rexall drug store. The albums were really great. All the songs were good. I really loved the big band sound on his records. The piano playing by Johnny Jones was amazing. Elmore and Jones trading off and there was usually some hot sax solos. They kept trading off. Good stuff. They must have really put on a great show.

-M  

Charlie Musselwhite

Charlie has had a long successful career.  I've seen him a few times over the years. I saw him this past fall when he played in Santa Barbara with Elvin Bishop. They were both in their 80s but they were both still dynamic. The musicianship has held up. They told stories between songs. Partly because they liked to tell stories and partly to get a breather before the next song.  The most memorable time that I saw Charlie was on a Blues Cruise. We were sailing off the west coast of Mexico on a warm summer evening. Charlie was the last band to perform that evening and it was a little after midnight. Charlie had played a real pleasing set. Judy and I were a bit lubricated with some tequila that we brought aboard. The cruise operators allowed everyone to bring wine and beer at boarding time (no hard liquor). We took an empty wine bottle and filled it with tequila. Charlie was playing on the rear deck and Judy and I were standing against the back railing. A warm sea breeze caressed us. Charlie closed with the deeply moving "Christo Redentor". No one plays Christo Redentor like Charlie does. His intro is pure bliss. The long holds on the early harp notes really set the mood. We had a mellow tequila buzz. Judy leaned into me and I thought....this is one of those perfect moments in one's lifetimes where there is no other place that you would want to be than right here, right now!

-M

James Harman

I know that I sent you a link to a YouTube video and a little story, so I won't repeat it here. Part of the blues is often telling a story and James loved to talk. I always liked his Helsinki Laundromat song. It's not his best stuff and I have no idea what the point of the song is. But for some reason I always liked the song and it's a good example of Harman's story telling.

Brother Yusef

I'm pretty confident that you never heard of Brother Yusef. He certainly never hit the mainstream. About 20 or so years ago, my friend, Robert and I, were attending the Big West basketball tournament down in Orange County. It's a 3 day affair where we watch 10 games total. On days 1 and 2, we watch 4 games each day. The men and women finals are on day 3. There is usually a few hours to kill between games so we went over to DisneyLand Way which is an area outside DisneyLand with shops, restaurants and oftentimes street performers. I heard this street musician playing on the corner and he sounded really good so we stayed and watched him for a while. He had dreadlocks and looked like a homeless person. But he played blues with a unique interpretation. We watched his set and talked to him for a while. He took requests. He was selling CD's so I had to buy one. My expectations were really low thinking that it might have been a less than professional recording. But, it's for a good cause. I wanted to show my appreciation. I was very surprised when I listened to the CD. IT was well recorded and really captured the solo performance with his playing, singing and percussion and thumping his guitar.

Koko Taylor

I saw Koko a few times. The 1st time I saw here I wasn't sure what the hell I was seeing and hearing. I've always had a fondness for female singers. But Koko obliterated any ideas I had about female singers. She had a gravelly voice and was a FIERCE singer. She attacked every song. Her in-your-your face raucous, lewd performances were so raw it was a little frightening. However, I couldn't look away. She commanded the stage. She always had an excellent band and she gave EVERYTHING to her performance. She wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but her energy made it all work. The recording studio could never hope to capture Koko Taylor's essence.

I saw Big mama Thornton a couple of times. One time, her lead guitar player was none other than Buddy Guy. She was a big lady and both times I saw her she was quite drunk. Oddly, after stumbling onto the stage, she still put on a hell of show. I was watching a video of her and was surprised to find out she played the harp and played it well. I never saw her play the harp but there are limits of what one can do when inebriated. Oftentimes, when you hear a song that you like a lot, that becomes the de facto standard for that song. Any other version really seems to fall short. This includes when you hear the original version...it doesn't sound like the version that you're used to. I REALLY like Janis Joplin's version of Ball and Chain (which I heard first). When I heard Big Mama's version, it was even better. Granted Big Mama's band was MUCH better than Joplin's mediocre Holding Company band, but Big Mama's version was more nuanced and refined whereas Joplin's relied on pure passion. You probably already guessed the song title? Yep, Ball and Chain.

Wow 50 days already. I really hope that you are holding up. The treatment has to be really taxing. Keep the faith! You've been out of work for quite a while. Are you doing OK financially? Say the word and I can help out. Just let me know.

Bonus story  Leon Redbone ....story only. I saw Leon Redbone in the early 80s. He wasn't the type of artist that I would normally go see and I didn't know his music very well. I went based on his song, Shine On Harvest Moon. He sat in a chair and played solo with an acoustic guitar and a microphone. He had a cool vibe and played a quirky set. In the middle of the set, a fan crept up to the edge of the stage and took a photo with his flash on. Redbone pauses, sets his guitar aside and reaches under his chair and pulls out this big ass camera and shoots it toward the audience. Holy Shit!!!! It had the brightest flash imaginable. The entire audience was momentarily blinded. We ended up seeing spots for quite a while. Redbone puts the camera back under his chair, picks up his guitar and resumes playing. He never acknowledged the fan. He picked up the song right where he left off and never once mentioned the incident. Point taken.

Johnny Rivers I selected the iconic Secret Agent Man.  This is one of the few songs I could play on the guitar. I saw him play ~6 years ago. It was a fun show. He said he was always embarrassed when current guitar players would come up to him and tell him that they took up guitar when they heard Secret Agent Man because they loved the guitar in the song. He considered himself a crummy guitar player. You just never know.

-M

Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry

An interesting dual. Brownie had polio when young and lost the function of one of his legs. Sonny Terry lost his sight in a teenage accident. They were good separately but together they were greater than their sum. Brownie on guitar and doing most of the singing and songwriting. Sonny on the harp. During your visit, we caught that band up on the mountain. They played a couple of Brownie and Sonny songs. I saw Brownie and Sonny at Mount Holyoke in a small auditorium. I was single at the time. I know what you're thinking.... a great blues band playing at an all women college! Not too bad!....They didn't serve alcohol and the band was thirsty so there was a collection for someone to go get some liquid refreshments. A while later this beaming yuppie college guy returns with a bag and pulls out.......Guinness Stout!!! When I saw the Guinness Stout and the band's hard to conceal eye roll (Blind Sonny Terry even did an eye roll), I had to admit I was quite embarrassed to be a White Male.  Even back in the 70s, there was lots of racial prejudice. Most blues performers were older and black and lots were from the south. They encountered more than their share of prejudices. The song I selected deals with racial prejudice.

The Animals

Another early band that I really liked was the Animals. Before I got into blues I gravitated toward that blues sound. I saw the Animals twice. You were with me the first time but you probably don't remember. The first time was in the late 60s at Mountain Park. Mom and Dad occasionally brought us all to Mountain Park. We were mostly interested in riding the rides, and eating cotton candy. Mountain Park had an outside stage where bands would play. As luck would have it, The Animals were playing. It was really cool. I remember thinking that these were the coolest guys I ever saw. Eric Burdon was the coolest! He was wearing LEATHER PANTS !!!!!!!! Oh my god, I wanted a pair of leather pants so bad. A few years later there was a headshop in Holyoke that sold lots of cool stuff. They had a pair of leather pants. Nice ones. I might of drooled on them a little bit. Unfortunately, they were over $200! I loved them and I wanted them but..... I saw 'the Animals' about 5 years ago. I think Eric Burdon was the only original member. He was older but could still sing. I think it really helps when your singing is more like talking and you don’t use a lot of range. There is less to lose. As a want to be rebel, I liked rebellious songs. I passed on House of the Rising Sun for It's My Life. It has a great bass intro.

-M 

Rick Estrin and the Nightcats

This band derives their Nightcats name from Little Charlie and the Nightcats. I've seen Little Charlie a couple times before he retired. Little Charlie was the guitar player. Rick Estrin was the front man. He played harp, sang and did most of the songwriting. It was a natural progression for Rick to take over the band when Little Charlie retired. They became Rick Estrin and the Nightcats. Judy and I have seen the NIghtcats quite a few times. I've even taken all my kids to see him. Rick is an old soul and has this lounge lizard vibe to him (in a good way). He's a white guy with a Zoot suit and slicked back hair. He looks right out of the 50s. The guitar player, Kid Anderson, is a large blond Norwegian guy 6-3 and 300+ pounds. He has a great understanding of his instrument and gets great sound. He's one of the best guitarists I've seen, certainly, the best blond Norwegian guitarist I've seen. The drummer has changed a few times with the current drummer by far the best. The other member is Lorenzo Farrell. Lorenzo sometimes plays stand up acoustic bass. More often he plays 2 keyboards simultaneously. I'm not talking about an instrument with 2 keyboards one above the other but 2 separate keyboards arranged in an "L" configuration. He plays the bass with one hand and on the 2nd keyboard, he plays the rhythm and lead piano or organ. It's mind boggling to watch. I have no idea how you could play 2 separate functions with either hand. Once he brought a saxophone and he was very good. Rick says if Lorenzo picks up a new instrument he will be proficient within hours.  Rick is a seasoned performer and a fun story teller. The band is real tight and the musicianship is top notch.

I've selected a bluesy song that has some clean guitar solos and as you know, I love instrumentals, so I included a cool breezy instrumental.

-M

Santana

This is a hard one for me.
I really liked Santana for quite a while. I loved the full rock/jazz/Latin fusion sound, the musicianship, and the percussion. When I found out that he was playing at the Springfield civic center I jumped on it and got tickets.
I go to the show and they announce that he would be playing an experimental show. I had no idea what that meant but I have an open mind (I thought). Santana is introduced but wait....where is the band???? Where is all the support equipment? Where are the dual drummers?
Santana comes out and has a box with one string. He sets it on the stage and pulls up in a chair. He twangs away and thumps on the box. WTF???????????
I was livid. Concert admission costs were not trivial. I went out and demanded my money back...NO REFUNDS. I'm triple pissed now. I went right up front and booed as loudly as I could for as long as I could. It's not easy to boo for extended periods, but I tried. I am certain that Santana heard and saw me. I hoped that he was embarrassed. I wasn't. I probably ruined the show for all the one string box enthusiasts but they should have refunded my money. I'm pretty sure that I derailed his one string box career.  As far as I know, this was the only time Santana performed a solo act. Anyone that ever talked about seeing Santana raved that it was a great show. You're welcome!

I had more chances to see Santana but I just couldn't pull the trigger. If I get my time machine working, I'm going back to that night and find something else to do.

This concludes my pathetic story. Writing it has allowed me to finally forgive Carlos Santana. I never stopped liking his music.

Johnny A

Continuing from my Santana theme where an artist that you really like didn't live up to your expectations when you see them live. Johnny A is that artist. I first heard Johnny A on the radio. I had to know more but they never announced the song title or artist. I ended up emailing the DJ and found out it was Johnny A.  The song is the attached song. It's a hot little instrumental number that has a catchy beat and a cool vibe. I saw Johnny A at a small club in Santa Barbara. It was very sparsely attended. There were less than 5 other people in attendance. Johnny A announced that he was going to have an experimental performance. I have an open mind but.....I started thinking back to the Santana debacle. Johnny A was performing solo but he had a looping and mixing device. He would play and record a rhythm on his guitar that would form the frame of the song. He then would loop the recording and accompany the loop by playing along with it. He would capture this and start looping the frame and the accompaniment while layering a new track that he played live. He kept building tracks. Sometimes he would delete and re-record the track. I thought it was pretty fascinating. Johnny A however didn't share my fascination. He kept messing up and became frustrated.  A couple of songs were pretty straightforward and some songs were a slog. The fact that you would try to do this in front of a (small) audience was very ambitious. After ~ 1/2 hour he said he was ending the show. It could have been the fact that there was a poor turnout. It could have been the difficulty of pulling something like this off. I want you to think back to the Howling Wolf show where he played a full set to an audience of 6 people. Wolf was a true professional. Johnny A was not. He could have shifted gears and put on an enjoyable performance. He chose to mail it in, quit and bail. I didn't even boo.
This concludes another pathetic story. I'll leave you with the song "Oh Yeah"

The Kinks

After a couple of bummer stories, today's story is more upbeat.  Judy and I were living in California (before kids). We went out to eat for a nice fish dinner. We were trying to think of something else to do and I picked up a local (alternative) newspaper to see what was playing at the movies. I saw an ad saying the Kinks were playing at the Santa Barbara Bowl tonight. The show started in 30 minutes. I knew the show was sold out. I said 'let's go by the ticket office and see if there were any cancellations and see if we could possibly get tickets'. Judy thought I was crazy but agreed since the Bowl was 5 minutes away. I pull up to the ticket office and double parked. Judy goes in and comes out beaming holding up 2 tickets! Apparently someone in line and in front of her just turned in 2 tickets. I went off to find a place to park and we had great seats to see the Kinks. It was a warm summer evening (the bowl is an outside venue). It was a great time. They played all of our favorites and we both sang along to some memorable songs. That night really turned out perfect. 
One of my earliest 45 records was Kinks record. The song All Day and All of the Night was on one side and Your Really Got Me was on the other side.

This is an artist that you probably never heard of. I've seen her a few times and she always puts on a great performance. I'm a little surprised that she never got the popularity that she deserved. I saw her a few times without Judy, when Judy was in her ‘I need more than blues’ phase. I finally convinced her to go see her play at a Chinese restaurant....yeah, I know what you're thinking...a Chinese Restaurant...really???? This particular Chinese restaurant was used many times by traveling blues shows when the restaurant was past prime time. You could also order food and they had a full bar. It was a fun place! So Karen Lovely shows up after a big show she did the night before, where she strained her voice. She ended up putting on a full show but it was much more subdued. Judy thought she was OK, sort of (which she was). 
I selected a cover that you will be familiar with: Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker. Whenever you hear the same some by different artists, you (I do) usually like the version you heard first. I first heard this song by the Animals and loved it. I heard it again by the James Montgomery band but I liked the Animals version more. Then I saw it played by the author, John Lee Hooker and instantly knew this version was the best. Later, when I heard Karen Lovely do her cover with her soft sultry start building to a powerful crescendo, I had a new favorite. I loved Hooker's original but I have to admit, I love Karen Lovely's version even more. So my theory that my 1st listen is the best was disproved TWICE. 

-M 

Little Richard

I never had the pleasure of seeing Little Richard live. Little Richard would be very high on my Time Machine list. 
I was always intrigued by Little Richard. He was a little flamboyant for my tastes but his enthusiasm and energy were unmatched. Little Richard was the performers' performer. He wasn't quite blues. He wasn't quite rock and roll. He wasn't quite R&B. He wasn't quite Gospel. He wasn't quite pop. He was a little bit of everything. Little Richard was his own genre and he was in his own lane. I saw a documentary on him shortly after he died. Little Richard was a force! He had hit records from the 50s. Performers before him were stoic and didn't move around much. Little Richard changed everything. Without Little Richard there is no Elvis, no Mick Jagger. There is no Freddie Mercury or Prince, They all owed a debt to Little Richard. 
I found out that both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones contacted Little Richard and offered to be one of the warmup bands for the headliner, Little Richard. Little Richard was bigger and more famous than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Jimi Hendrix played guitar in his band for a while. Hendrix, always the ladies man, was late to the band bus one too many times and Little Richard left him and fired him when Hendrix caught back up with him. Wild parties, groupies, sexcapades, bisexuality....Little Richard invented all of that. He was a bisexual black man in a very white world and still achieved a great deal of success in spite of the racial prejudices. He did it on his terms. You had to love that attacking, full speed ahead, no hold barred, balls to the wall, approach to music and life. There will never be another.

Tommy Castro

We went to see the Tommy Castro Band at the Santa Barbara Blues Society. They were a hot commodity at the time after winning some recent Blues awards. Tommy had a talented band and put on an entertaining show. The Santa Barbara Blues society does a big end of the year fundraiser. Every year they raffle off 2 tickets to the yearly Blues Cruise. Tickets were pricey at $50 each. I 'never' buy raffle tickets unless I feel I have some advantage (the prize value exceeded the total ticket revenue). But, it's for a good cause so at the beginning of the year I bought a ticket. The end of the year rolls around and the last show of the year is Tommy Castro. They would be announcing the raffle winner so I dug out my long forgotten ticket. When I purchased the tickets, people in line were buying them in bunches. My odds weren't the best with a single ticket. The show begins and Tommy and his band play a hot, enjoyable set. At intermission, The MC asks Tommy if he would be willing to pull the winning ticket. It was at that moment I pulled out my ticket and this exact scenario flashes through my mind..... Tommy pulls the ticket and holds it up and pauses, trying to decide how to pronounce my last name. He takes a stab at it and pronounces it perfectly. I jump out of my seat, stride up to the stage and instead of taking the stairs on the side, I quicken my pace and launch myself onto the stage to claim my ticket....
I looked over to Judy and told her matter-of-factly, that he's GOING TO call my name. I wasn't hoping. My prescient vision had already revealed it to me....  he WAS going to call my name. Tommy reaches into the ticket jar, pulls out a ticket and pauses. Then he announced ..."Mike Rys"...and the pronunciation was perfect. I wasn't the least bit surprised. I had already begun to stand when he paused. I popped up holding the ticket overhead. I strode toward the stage, I already knew I wasn't taking the stairs. I leaped up onto the stage, surprising the MC and Tommy. I probably had a giant shit-eating grin but I didn't care. We were going on a Blues Cruise.  To say this is a weird, hard to believe story would be huge understatement. I wouldn't believe it if it didn't happen to me. I don't think of myself as particularly lucky or unlucky. Luck happens. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad. This was different. I can't explain it.  I don't remember a single thing about the final set.

Blues Cruise

Yesterday I told you about winning Blues Cruise tickets. Today I'll talk about the experience. You need a passport since you'll be going into Mexico and sailing through Mexican waters. Departure occurs in San Diego. There were a few cruise ships in the harbor. Carnival was boarding while we were boarding. Their boat was bigger and they had elaborate water slides on the top deck that were already in use. It looked pretty cool. 1st time blues cruisers were herded off for the virgin initiation. After the meeting the 1st band on the top deck starts to play. It was ON! The band was good (I can't recall who was playing). We started grooving to the blues. We looked over at the Carnival boat and there were a throng of gawkers standing on the top deck watching our band play. They were cheering. We sailed off.  We got settled in our rooms after the show. Our bags were already there.  The cruise was 8 days and 7 nights. There were 90+ shows. Some shows overlapped so it would be impossible to see every show. I don't know how many we saw but, we saw a lot of shows. There were (3) ports of call where we docked in Mexico. You could stay on the boat or wander into town. You could also sign up for excursions (additional cost) and do some organized stuff. We opted to take a tequila tour where we took a bus out to Jalisco (All tequila MUST be grown and produced in Jalisco County or it's not tequila). It was cool to go to the source and see how it's harvested and processed. There was also plenty of sampling going on.  What about food you ask? The first few days all food was behind glass to prevent communicable disease. It was like the biggest smorgasbord you ever saw and the food was very good. You simply pointed to what you want. Around dinner time there was a seated dinner where you had a couple of choices of meals. If nothing suited your fancy, there was the smorgasboard. Breakfast and lunch was all good. Desserts...I don't normally eat dessert....except when cruising. You were often seated with performers so you got to talk about performing, music, influences, or whatever inane questions I would ask, they were mostly very open. The performers particularly loved attending the other performances. Often while they are touring, they never have the chance to watch their contemporaries. They thought that it was cool to have the freedom to be audience members. We discovered (by accident) a special dining area where they had top chefs preparing your meal. The price was $50 each for a meal dining experience that would normally cost twice that or more. We were reluctant but were convinced when one of the diners that was leaving stopped and raved about the place and convinced us we HAD TO experience it. This place was swank and the service was top notch. I remember ordering black cod fish and it was amazing. It lived up to the recommendation. 
There are some on-board activities... cooking, tennis, yoga, swimming, crafts, educational shows, blues movies..... There were multiple performance areas. There were jam sessions where musicians could jam. There were open jams where musicians and any audience member could jam. A lot of cruisers brought their instruments. Some were good, some weren't good at all but they had a lot of fun.  8 days is a long time but it went quickly and we were ready to return to the real world. Before we left, we signed up for next year's cruise.

I'd like to go one more time and I'd like for you to go with me. Think about it. It would be really fun. We'll have to wait until you're in an upright position again. You can bring your guitar.  
Several Song of the Day artists were performers at the cruise so I picked someone that you probably never heard of: Coco Montoya. Coco lives about 30 miles south of me. Ironically, the first time I saw him was at a concert in Ma. Judy and I went to a concert with Rick and Claudia to see John Mayall and Coco was his guitarist. 

Oops, Sorry for all the food talk.

Led Zeppelin

Hard to believe that I chose 60 other musicians before Led Zeppelin. I had their 1st album and played it a lot. There were a couple blues covers including Willie Dixon's "You Shook Me". The Led Zeppelin version borrowed heavily from Jeff Beck's arrangement. Led Zeppelin was notorious for recording stuff that were thinly veiled copies of other people's work and were often sued. They also did some great original music. Of the big British 3 guitarists Jimmy Page was my least favorite of the 3. This says more about Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton than it does about Jimmy. I really like Jimmy Page. I saw Led Zeppelin once. I saw them at UMass at an outside venue. IT WAS THE  LOUDEST CONCERT I EVER HEARD. There was a 20 foot wall of speakers on either side of the stage. Like an idiot, I went up front to take in the show right in front of the tower of speakers. I'm pretty sure that is why I wear hearing aids today (that and a lot of other hearing abuse). The concert coincided with the release of their 2nd album (which I didn't have yet.).  I don't listen to the radio very much anymore but when I listen to classic rock, I'm always a little surprised how much air time Led Zeppelin gets. They are still popular. They had wild success and sold a ton of records. 

Pretty tough to pick one Led Zeppelin song...OK...Stairway to Heaven is too obvious.

I chose a song from the set list from the UMass concert where Jimmy goes off.

-M

The Who

I first 'saw' the Who when they made their network debut on the Smother Brothers Show. I was a big fan of the Smother Brothers Comedy Hour. The show came on every Friday night and The Who were the artists of the evening. Tommy Smothers, (the goofy one) was my favorite brother. The Who played their iconic; My Generation. At the end of the song one of the amps starts to smoke. Townsend begins to violently smash his guitar and amplifier, destroying his guitar. The always crazy Keith Moon's drums blow up sending Keith Moon on his ass. This all happened in 1967. I'm an impressionable 12 or 13 year old. I'm watching in awe. WTF???? What is going on? It was shocking. It was exciting. It was super cool. This set me down the wrong path. The path of rock and roll and debauchery. Too bad that nice guitar got wrecked. The Who played in Santa Barbara ~15 years ago. I knew they were going to play and I meant to get tickets when the tickets went on sale....but I forgot and it sold out in hours. A week before the show, I was playing pool with my friend John. I was complaining about missing out on the Who tickets. John is the head of security at the Santa Barbara Bowl and sometimes can get tickets. As it turned out, his wife is a big Who fan and they were supposed to go but John ended up having to work the show. He asked if I wanted his ticket and if I would accompany his wife. I said YES of course. His wife is a real sweet lady. The seats were directly in front of the mixer board. The acoustics can vary quite a bit in any venue. One thing you can count on.... The mixer board is set up in the sweet spot. Those guys know! His wife was really nice, we had a great time. The Who were great. Roger Daltry's voice was no worse for the wear. His voice had really held up well. No instruments were harmed.
I've chosen My Generation. This song struck a chord with me as an impressionable pre-teenager. It's ironic that it still does even though I'm much older than the generation that the Who was rebelling against.  I found footage of the show that ended my youthful innocence:

The Who on the Smother Brothers 

I swore that I sent this to you yesterday. Looks like I was wrong... again. another reason to get my time machine working... Allman Brothers Band I liked the Allman Brothers Band a lot. They played a lot of bluesy rock and Duane Allman played a mean slide guitar. I had their Live at the Fillmore double album. On Side 4 of the album it had ONE SONG. IT was a long version of Whipping Post that took up the whole side. It's a great song, but 22 minutes is a bit much. They get a little sideways in the middle and finally come back with the same driving beat used at the beginning. I saw the Allman brothers twice. Once in Ma. and once in CA, The Allman Brothers show that I missed was cancelled when Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash. So, I never saw the 'best' version of the Allman Brothers. No disrespect to Dickie Betts or Derek Trucks, both fine guitar players but they weren't Duane Allman. Duane was in a league of his own. His slide guitar was amazing. I wanted to attach Whipping Post but it's too big.

Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan are locals and play around Santa Barbara quite often. In fact, you might recognize them. Yep, the band we saw when drove up the mountain to the Cold Springs Tavern. You had the primo seat for the performance. You were top dog on log #1. Where else can you literally reach out and touch the performers without getting off of your log? I can't think of any other place. They usually play as a duet so it was different to see them with a third musician (he did play a mean cardboard drum box with the drum brushes). I love that they've been keeping the blues alive for the last 40+ years. The song is the only one I had on my hard drive. Honey Bee (a Muddy Waters cover). I believe they played it while we were there. The recording isn't the greatest but our seats were really good.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds

This is another band with some local roots. The original lead guitar player was none other than Jimmie Vaughn. Jimmie, as you know, is Stevie Ray's big brother. The big brother that he looked up to. The big brother that kicked his ass when he caught Stevie touching his guitar. The big brother that was eventually eclipsed by Stevie's supernova talent. The front man was Kim Wilson. Kim handled all the singing and he's an excellent harp player. He also wrote most of the original songs. Kim Wilson grew up in Goleta. Early in his career, he was known as Goleta Slim. He had a few bands before forming the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds had some success but never really hit the big time. They were a real fun Blues band and Goleta Slim is a charismatic band leader. The Goleta Boys Club was a formative place for local youth and apparently it left an impression on Kim Wilson. Most years, Kim performs at the Goleta Boys Club and donates the proceeds to the club. Sal ran the Boys Club back then and is still involved with the club. Everyone loved, respected and feared Sal. It was Sal's club. 

-M

5 to 1 The Doors Hard to believe we made it to Day 66 without The Doors. I don't really have much in the way of a story because I never saw them live. I would have loved to have seen them as I was a big fan. I gotta get that time machine working!!!! I especially liked Jim Morrison. I loved his presence and the understated power of his voice and words. Let's see....Jim is the 4th member of the 27 club from the Song of the Day lineup. The others were Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, Alan 'Blind Owl' Wilson from Canned Heat, and Jimi Hendrix. They are all members of the 27 club. The club is for musicians that died while they were 27 years old. It's pretty weird that they all died at 27, It's even weirder that I gravitate to the musicians in the club. I did meet Robbie Krieger, Door lead guitarist, at a goat party at Wixen music where Jason was working (he is currently a co-owner). The Doors are one of their clients. Sylvester Stallone was making another Rambo movie and wanted to use the song "5 to 1" in the movie. The surviving Doors weren't too keen on the idea but agreed on one condition. The Movie producer throws a goat party and invites Stallone. Show business sometimes come up with strange 'asks'. They agreed. Jason called me to ask whether I wanted to attend a goat party with the Doors and Stallone. I'd never been to a goat party, I was free and curious, so I went. The party was basically a meet and greet with drinks and food. Then they arrive with goats. Stallone couldn't make it. The goats are pretty adorable and make any party better. We did goat yoga where I get on my hands and knees and the goat climbs up on me then I stand. I talked with Robbie for a while. Robbie was an underrated guitar player. He wasn't flashy or fast but he created some very cool and memorable riffs that you would recognize instantly in 3 notes. Robbie also wrote a lot of their songs. The Doors were sort of unique as they didn't have a bass player. Ray Manzarek mostly filled that role on the keyboards much like Rick Estrin's keyboard player.

Here is a photo of Robbie jamming at Robbie's home studio that Jason sent to me.

And I thought that I wouldn't be able to concoct a Doors story....

Janis Joplin

With Janis, you either loved her or you hated her. Judy hates her and I love her. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Admittedly, she doesn't have a pretty sounding voice. If you don't connect into her unbridled passion, you'll miss her completely. You never hear someone say ...."She's OK, I could take her or leave her".  It probably didn't help that she's a bit homely and plain. I always thought her band was mediocre at best and her voice and presence deserved so much more. If she had a top band, it could have been so much more.

Janis makes the 5th 'song of the day' member of the 27 club. Another musician's flame extinguished long before their time.

-M

Booker T and the MGs

This is a band that never achieved much fame. They had one popular song and never struck gold again. That song was Green Onions, a super cool blues/jazz/rock with a straight ahead groove. I think this song started me on my love of instrumentals...I do love a good instrumental and this one delivers! The tone... the driving bass line holds the song together. The real star is Booker T and his organ. This was back when the organ was cool. Once the 80s rolled around, the organ was left behind. Booker T really builds off the bass line and gives the song direction and a narrative. The Steve Cropper guitar solo was surprisingly well done and left (me) wanting more. The drummer accentuates the bass line to provide that unmistakable driving beat. The MGs were one of the first integrated bands. Booker and the drummer were black. The Bass and lead guitar players were white. This was unusual back in the 60s.  In every live show, there is always that one song that makes the price of admission so worth it. Green Onion would have been that song. I would have happily paid the price of admission for a fresh helping of Green Onions!

-M

Albert "IcePick" Collins

Albert had a couple of cool names....The Icepick and Master of the Telecaster. I've seen the Icepick a couple of times. The second time I saw him he was playing with Robert Cray. 
Albert liked to wander around the venue while playing his guitar. This was before wireless interfaces. You could imagine the logistics of a really long guitar cord. He had a 'helper' reel out and reel in the cord. 
Albert learned to play from none other than his cousin Lightning Hopkins. It's a small world.

Here's a cool instrumental featuring The Master of the Telecaster....

-M 

J Geils

I feel like I sent a J Geils song already, but I couldn't see that I had. J Geils was a really fun band that I saw quite a few times. The band formed in Ma. They played often around Western Ma. Maybe you saw them? They always put on a highly entertaining show. I didn't know at the time that J Geils was the only non-Jewish band member. 
The band consisted of J Geils the lead guitarist, Peter Wolf was the front man and a damn good one. He was a fast talking, high energy performer that knew how to involve the audience. He was strangely relatable. Magic Dick played the "Licking Stick" (harp). Magic Dick was the best harp player that I ever saw up to that point (James Cotton and others later took the honors). If you are familiar with Whammer Jammer that features his harp skills, you know what I mean. Seth Justman played the keyboards. The bass player and drummer were also Jewish. They were a hot rockin band with a strong blues influence.

A song that I always looked forward to hearing when I saw them was Serve You Right To Suffer, a John Lee Hooker cover. I heard John Lee play this song live but, I heard the J Geils version so many times that I liked the J Geils version more. Sacrilege you say? Maybe....

-M

96 Tears Question Mark and the Mysterians

I saw this band play on the American Bandstand TV show. I thought they were really cool. They had a few hit songs, none bigger than 96 Tears. I loved that song when it came out. I still love it. Ironically, Aretha Franklin did a cover of 96 Tears. That's a real tribute. I never saw them live as I was too young (back when the organ was cool).

John Mayall

Mayall was a very interesting musician, performer and band leader.

John Mayall and Blues Breakers band was a revolving door of British rockers getting their start including.... Eric Clapton (Cream and...
Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac and.... Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones and .... John McVie (Fleetwood Mac... Jack Bruce (Cream....
Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac..... and some other lesser known musicians

I got to see Mayall a few times. Each time was a very different experience. He was always evolving. Believe it or not, I first saw Mayall with Rick, Claudia, and Judy. How surprising was that. I don't recall going to any other concert with Rick other than the very forgettable Neil Young concert that we all went to see (it could have been so much better). It was obviously before we had kids. I don't remember where the show was. It was outside somewhere. I had never been there before or since. It was a good show. Coco Montoya played guitar for him that day. Coco lives about 30 miles south of me now so I've seen him several times in California.  Mayall wrote a lot of songs, he sang, played harp, guitar and keyboards.

Here is a hot number featuring him playing harp....Room to Move

Carl Sonny Leland

I love guitar music. I love a good blues harp. I love a great front man. I also love a great piano player.  Oftentimes, the piano player is the most musically gifted band member. They usually began studying other music forms including classical music. It's not like they one day heard a rock or blues band and decided....wow...I want to be the keyboard player in a rock/blues band. It's far more likely that they are well versed in many styles and decided that those rock musicians have groupies...I want me some. OK, I made that up. Sure, there are some front men that are piano players: Gregg Allman, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Little Richard, Stevie Winwood and others, but for the most part, pianists were mostly in a supporting role. I've seen Sonny in both roles, as a support musician and as a solo act. He is good at both, he's funny and really knows his stuff. He's a wealth of information regarding the past great pianists. I know I sent you an email a while back with a YouTube link where Sonny plays my favorite original "Witch's Kitchen". I saw Sonny in some tiny venue with him playing solo. He ended with his original song, Witch’s Kitchen. The venue was a piano placed in the middle of a room. When he played the final song, my vantage point was similar to the cameraman fronm the YouTube video.

Big Joe Duskin

Continuing on with the ivory ticklers. Being a member of the Santa Barbara Blues Society allows me to see music acts that probably would have escaped me otherwise. I got to see Big Joe Duskin live! What a treat. Big Joe Duskin was never a well known performer. Like all pianists, he started playing when was really young. When he was older, he started playing publicly and was developing a reputation as a performer. One day his father, a reverend in the church, heard him playing boogie in the church and made him promise to stop playing boogie woogie while he was still alive. Big Joe honored his promise and halted his music career and became a cop and later a postal worker. Meanwhile his dad lives to be 104!  You can't make this shit up!!!! It's a true story. With his father dead and gone, Big Joe resumes playing boogie woogie and blues again. When I saw him, he was not a young man but he played with youthful, pure joy like he was making up for lost time. He was a hell of a piano player! What is it with blues musicians' fathers?  There seem to be a disproportionate number of fathers that were reverends. I wonder if this somehow drove them to be blues musicians?  I love dad. But, I would never have agreed to stop playing boogie and blues (if I could have) He'd probably live to be 100!

More of the 88s Yet another piano player. Henry Gray

I heard a really cool piano song on the radio while I was in the car. I was almost at my destination when I heard it. I stopped and listened to the end of the song. I was hoping that the DJ would announce the musician but there were a few more less memorable songs in the set. I sat there waiting since I had to know who the piano player was. The DJ finally came back on and I got the name; Henry Gray. I was talking to the Blues Society president and mentioned the song I heard. Later that year, Henry Gray gets booked to play. It was a great show and Henry more than lived up to the memory. 

Roll Em...again with another piano player Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lewis was no tickler of the ivories! He was no ballad singer. He was a balls-to-the-wall performer that played the piano like it was on fire and could only be put out by playing it harder. He once broke a rib playing the piano. Who breaks a rib playing the piano? I saw him in Ma. at a rock and roll revival show with Fats Domino, Chubby Checkers and some others that I forgot. There was no forgetting Jerry Lee Lewis. He was in rare form, playing with his heels. Jumping on the keys. He lived an outlandish life, married 7 times, he even married his 13 year old cousin. 
 You may recall my Johnny Winter(s) story where I left the speakers on while playing Great Balls Of Fire? on high volume (dad wasn't amused). I must have been channeling Jerry Lee Lewis. So, yeah, it was Jerry Lee Lewis's fault that night that you got woken up to Great Balls Fire.

Here is some old footage that captures some of his on stage energy. 

Rob Rio Roll Em Rob...continuing with some more blues/boogie on the Black and Whites

I saw Rob Rio several years ago. He does a solo show where he's accompanied with a guy off to the side playing a snare drum and top hat with brushes (like the guy we saw on the mountain top). I've seen pure solo, with a band, with a bass player and drummer and with a snare drum/top hat. Obviously, a piano with a full band is going to be great but, I always felt that the snare drum with brushes is the perfect accompaniment. The bass can be eliminated with a talented left hand but the snare drum sound can not be replicated when used judiciously, it really can augment the piano and help get in in the groove. I can't really describe it. On the blues cruise there is a late night piano bar where someone plays piano in a small intimate setting into the wee hours. It's a real cool vibe and I especially like it when the snare drum guy shows up and fills the sound up. It's subtle and less is more.

I've chosen a Pete Johnson song that was on one of my early Blues Anthology albums that opened my mind to the piano. 

As a bonus, I included an aptly named Dive Bomber

More piano?
Pinetop Perkins

I never knew what the origin of his name was. I bet there is a story there. I saw Pinetop Perkins when he played with Muddy Waters. Muddy always had great musicians in his band. Pinetop did tour as a solo artist. I would have liked to see him as a solo artist.

Tom Petty

Today there will be a short diversion from the blues for a fast breaking story. 
As you know, there are several fires in Los Angeles burning as you read this. Jason's place in Venice is pretty safe for now. The fire hasn't progressed much in his direction. There is another fire near Jason's business. He made a trip there to recover some hard drives and some priceless keepsakes. Perhaps the most valuable item would be Tom Petty's Rickenbacker. So he rescued it. It's at his place at the moment. I asked him how much it's worth? He laughed and said it's priceless. I don't understand exactly how much that is but I'm guessing it's a lot. I never saw Tom Petty live and didn't really collect his music but I've always liked him and still do. 

Queen
Hard to believe 70+ artists were mentioned before Queen. I will admit that I dropped the ball with this band. I liked their music but I didn't really appreciate how great this band was. Regretfully, I never saw them live. I do believe that they are time machine worthy. I've seen footage of the band playing live and I realize that I missed out on a great opportunity. They were a great band with great musicians. Freddie Mercury was a genius and one of those rare performers that don't come around very often. He was a force. I was an idiot.

-M

Ten Years After I'm not sure why I didn't send a Ten Years After song sooner. I love Ten Years After. Leo Lyons may be my favorite Bass Player. If you watched the video I sent last year you saw Leo play bass while his shadow appeared to simultaneously playing the drums. Leo was able to more than hold his own with Alvin Lee. Alvin was a superb guitar player. He could shred years before it was a thing. Speaking of shredding, I was on business travel in San Diego and after dinner I was looking for something to do. I was driving around and saw a line of people waiting in a line wrapped around some theater. I didn't know what they were waiting for so I called an audible....I parked the car and got in line. I was going to see whatever everyone else saw. I really had no idea. I found out that it was a musical performance. There apparently was a really talented guitarist that played really fast. I got a drink and found a seat. As it got closer to show time, a lot of people started drifting toward the stage so I joined them in the mosh pit. The band started and I got to experience (for the 1st time)... Speed Metal. It was loud. It was fast. It was frantic. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it so I went with it and acted like a big fan and jumped around with the crowd. It was fun. It was entertaining. But, it was one and done. No more speed metal, I'm good.
Oh yeah, Ten Years After. I had their 2nd album, Undead and their 4th album; SSHH back in the 60s. Later, I bought some of their other albums. My favorite album is Undead. It was bluesy rock which I loved. I think the live recording came closest to capturing their essence. Their later stuff had a lot of pop songs. Some were OK. Some were...meh.

It would be easy to just attach I'm Going Home from their electrifying Woodstock performance but I was really affected by the Undead album that I played 100s of times so it had to be something from Undead. There were lots of times I would come home late (Bolton Street) and put the headphones on and travel to the land of the Undead. Thankfully, with the speakers were muted! Footage of Ten Years After at Woodstock
There were lots of great performances at Woodstock and it's hard to select a 'best'. For me it's easy. Ten Years After..... I'm Going Home was and is my favorite.

Robben Ford I've seen Robben a few times. The 1st time was at an outdoor blues festival. I will admit that I didn't know who he was and I was ready to head home before he came on. It had been a long hot day and I was ready to get in my air conditioned car..... Then….I recognized the song instantly (you would too since you can play it!) Freddie Kings's "In the Open". Damn it! I love this song! A did an about face and hurried back. I stayed for his set. I saw him another time at a small club in Santa Barbara. We had a table right up front. I'm watching him play and he's finger picking the strings and then like magic a pick appears out of thin air and he's using the pick. Without missing a note, the pick disappears again and he's back to finger picking. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. They weren't.  I carefully watched his right hand and finally figured it out. The pick was tucked between 2 fingers while he finger picked and it seamlessly transitioned from this position when he would use the pick. It was really smooth. I don't know how he didn't drop it.

Junior Brown

I believe I sent you an email and some video links. 
Junior Brown is so far from your typical Rocker or Bluesman. He was primarily a country music artist but he did transcend genres. I did get to see him here in SB at a small club where I got to see him perform with his strangely unique “Guit-Steel” that he created. Yes, he wore his big cowboy hat and wore a bolo tie with his suit. He's a great entertainer and a lot of fun. 

Here is a favorite song of mine, that's clearly a Red House tribute. It's a little bit of country and a lot of blues. His tone is incredible.

JuniorBrown_GuitarSteelBlues

-M

Junior Brown bonus.
 I have been tempted to send this song to a few people with a note....

"I heard this song and it reminded me of you"

My better judgement prevented me from sending it but I have to admit that I was awfully tempted.

-M

I'm guessing that you never heard of Doug Macleod. He never hit the big time, but he makes living playing music. He played with some of the bigger blues names. He writes all of his own songs which is very unusual. I've seen him a few times. He's always entertaining. He likes to talk and tell stories which adds interest. He'll be playing in Santa Barbara at a small venue in February. So I'll have a chance to see him again.

I only have one of his CDs and it's not my favorite. I've always seen him as a solo act and to hear him with accompaniment just seems wrong.

YouTube link with some up close video of his National Guitar.

Albert King

I had to go back and check....I never sent you an Albert King song. My musician friend, Al, would be very disappointed in my negligence. Al's a big fan and likes Albert more than Freddie. Albert has been cited as a big influence to a lot of the great white guitarists...Stevie, Eric, Jimi, Joe Walsh and others. I never had the pleasure of seeing Albert live. When I get the time machine working, I'll bring my friend Al and we'll settle the Albert vs. Freddie argument.

Pretty easy choice for the song....  

BB King

BB King did make the big time. When you think of blues musicians, BB King may be the most recognizable name of any one. It was hip and it was cool to have BB as a guest on everyone's show. He was magnanimous and very likable. I learned about BB by watching him on TV quite a few times. I did see him play live at the Springfield Civic Center. He had a large band with a big horn section. I've seen a few shows at the Civic Center and have to say it's a terrible place for a music performance (Santana plays his fucking box).. I feel that I didn't see BB at his best. It wasn't a great show. BB had transformed himself to be a lot more contemporary to add to the general appeal. I can't say I really blame him. He made money. I had a couple BB King albums and they aren't great. There is a lot of fluff. I later bought a 4 disc set and really liked his early stuff.

The thrill is gone would be too obvious This is from his early stuff. You can hear the clear T Bone Walker influence.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Another band that I really liked but never saw. I did see Credence Clearwater Revisited. A partial band (no John Fogerty). I also saw John Fogerty without any Credence band members. I saw CC Revisited at the Indian Casino where they have bands that are way past their prime or they also have tribute bands. Both are fun. It's fun to reminisce about the 'glory days'. It reminds me of what I was doing when this music was current. Yet another way of marking off time in my life. I really liked seeing Fogerty. He was the heart and soul of CCR. The singer, guitar player, songwriter...
An interesting story about CCR. CCCR quickly became highly successful . They had a string of hit songs. Before they became real popular, they signed what was called the worst record contract ever for any successful band. Additionally, the egos amongst the band members became a problem. John Fogerty could not get out of the contract so he refused to record with CCR so the record label could not capitalize. Fogerty could not perform any of 'his' CCR songs. He wrote a song that was similar to a CCR song and got sued. He was sued for plagiarizing himself!  He won the lawsuit. Eventually the contract got bought out and Fogerty still would not reunite with the original band. Unfortunately, the world never got to find out what a happy CCR group would have given to the world. 

Lots of songs to choose from... here is one of their 1st hits... a cool cover of Susie-Q

....it's got to be a piano song! Marcus Roberts My friend Al, the musician, is friends with the local Lobero Theater.director. The theater brings in a diverse collection of shows. If they don't sell out the show, the director likes to contact the local musicians and offer them the seats for free. The good news is the seats are free. The bad news is it's often the same day or at best 1 day ahead. If AL calls me with tickets and I'm free, I usually accept a couple tickets and see if Judy wants to go. If she doesn't my friend Robert is usually game. It also means that I'm going to a show that I didn't make plans to see. This is how I came to see The Marcus Roberts trio. Marcus is a blind black man that plays the piano. The trio also had a stand-up bass and a drummer. They were all very talented musicians. I had to admit that I liked the show even though it was a jazz performance. To me jazz has been hit or miss. I can't describe it. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don't. A while back I read the book "A Gentleman in Moscow" (great book). The book summed up jazz (much more eloquently than I could)…. how I felt about jazz ....

“On the platform in the opposite corner of the bar, the jazz ensemble was playing a perky little tune. Admittedly, when the Count had first encountered jazz, he hadn’t much of an affinity for it. He had been raised to appreciate music of sentiment and nuance, music that rewarded patience and attention with crescendos and diminuendos, allegros and adagios artfully arranged over four whole movements – not a fistful of notes crammed higgledy-piggledy into thirty measures.
And yet…
And yet, the art form had grown on him. Like the American correspondents, jazz seemed a naturally gregarious force – one that was a little unruly and prone to say the first thing that popped into its head, but generally of good humor and friendly intent. In addition, it seemed decidedly unconcerned with where it had been or where it was going – exhibiting somehow simultaneously the confidence of the master and the inexperience of the apprentice. Was there any wonder that such an art had failed to originate in Europe?” ― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

(If you are paying attention, the earlier repeated Day gets caught up)

Pee Wee Crayton 

I saw Pee Wee at a Santa Barbara Blues Society show in the early 80s. He was a great guitar player and had his own band with him. It is rumoured that he was THE first guitarist to play blues with a Fender Stratocaster. Leo Fender gave him a Stratocaster. You can recognize the T Bone influence in his music but who wasn't influenced by T Bone? Pee Wee was a big influence on Clapton too.

I chose a really cool instrumental; Blues After Hours. He originally recorded this song in the 1940s and still sounds great and relevant today. From the slow simple start to the interplay with the piano. Pee Wee gets in the groove and brings you for a ride!

-College

Finis Tasby

This another performer that you probably never heard of before. I saw Finis on my 2nd blues cruise. Finis started out as a bass player and played in a lot of back up bands when they came through LA. He even did a stint with Freddie King. He was a good singer and wrote a lot of songs. He had an early band called the Thunderbirds (not related to the Fabulous Thunderbirds). He eventually switched to lead guitar. 

-M

George Harmonica Smith

I saw George at the Santa Barbara Blues Society in the early 80s. He played a big old Chromatic harp and he could really make that thing talk. It was a great show and he was a good singer. He had Hollywood Fats on guitar. After the show I bought his album (no CDs yet) and asked him to sign it. He was very deliberate when he signed. He was really concentrating. His signature looked like a 2nd grader signed it. I thanked him. It was even more precious since I'm guessing he was illiterate. It's hard to believe that someone that is talented enough to play as well as he did would struggle to write his name. Rumor had it that he was one of the first to amplify the harp. He took apart an old cinema  projector and removed the amplifier and speaker and began using it to play on the streets.

-M 

George Harmonica Smith

I noticed that I missed a day last week. I'm not sure how.... so I will invoke the best excuse I ever heard.....I went to a yoga class and the teacher hadn't arrived. We all waited around since we showed up and we wanted us some yoga. I decided to go up front and announced that I would be willing to lead the class and that I was not a yoga instructor so if anyone wanted to leave I would fully understand, to my surprise, no one left. We started doing yoga and after a while the real teacher showed up. I went back to my place. The teacher looked up at the clock and said, she didn't know why she was late. She left at the proper time. The traffic was normal. She went the same way she always did, yet she was 30 minutes late. She shrugged her shoulders and said there must have been a time warp continuum. She said this matter of factly. No one questioned her. I thought she might be onto something and decided that I will put this in my back pocket until sometime in the future when I will pull it out and play the time warp continuum card. This is that moment. I'm playing it.   

I chose another George Harmonica Smith song..... Summertime by George Gershwin. Mom was a big George Gershwin fan. It's not really blues but the song has a lot of depth to it. He does an instrumental version. It's the same song that Janis Joplin sang (one of my favorites). 

-M

Tab Benoit

I first saw Tab Benoit on my first blues cruise. I wasn't familiar with Tab before the cruise. I had a kid in my High School with the last name of Benoit. He, and everyone else, pronounced it as: ben - oyt. When I read the name Tab Benoit, I pronounced it in my head as ben - oyt. During the Blues Cruise the MC announced announced him as Tab Ben - Wah. I thought they were different people. The English language is just weird.    
Tab was very entertaining and had a Cajun flavored blues sound. He hails from New Orleans which explains the swampy sounds he coaxes from his Telecaster. I've seen him a couple more times and he never disappoints. I was surprised when Lisa mentioned during Zoom that she went to see Tab Benoit and really enjoyed it. I didn't know she liked Blues?  I thought I might have ruined her love for music forever when I played a nasty practical joke on her. There were these Eddie Arnold (yecchhh) TV commercials promoting him and his records. For some reason this provoked Lisa to profess how much she hated Eddie Arnold and it made her sick. Well, Christmas was around the corner.....you guessed it! I bought her her first record......an Eddie Arnold album. It was a gag gift and it worked!!! I also got her a proper gift...I have no memory of the proper gift....I do remember the Eddie Arnold gift. Siblings are the worst! I was glad that she liked Tab Benoit.

-M

Little Brother Montgomery

I bought an album many years ago from some cutout bin somewhere or other. It was titled Chicago Blues Piano Plus. I recognized Little Johnny Jones as the hot piano player on my Elmore James albums. I really liked little Johnny Jones so I bought the album. When you buy cutout albums on a whim, not all (or any) of the songs are going to be great. It's a crapshoot but I'm a Rys and we can't resist a bargain. I took it home and it was great! The entire album was excellent. It far exceeded expectations. One of the musicians was Little Brother Montgomery. He did 3 songs on the album and they were all winners. I wish I could have seen him live. I bought a Little Brother Montgomery album and it was horrible. It was a bad recording of Mongomery playing what sounded like a Harpsichord. I was so disappointed. It's a crap shoot. I don't think I played it again.

I chose Little Brother since it seemed appropriate. You'll always be my younger brother...but....it's been a LONG, LONG time since you've been my LITTLE brother. However, since you've been shrinking, you are once again my LITTLE BROTHER! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts...LITTLE BROTHER!

-BIG BROTHER    Note that "Little" appears 3 times in the song listing!

Luther Tucker

Luther was one of those musicians that played with everyone....BB King, Elmore james, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, James Cotton, Robben Ford, John Lee Hooker and more. He was a competent session man that appears on a lot of different artists' recordings. He went solo but never achieved notoriety. He was a very good guitar player. I've seen him several times in Massachusetts. Mostly at the Rusty Nail in Hadley where I saw some great music over the years. Every time I saw Luther he looked really high or really drunk or both. We were out in the parking lot at intermission smoking pot and Luther asked if he could join us. Of course we smoked pot with him. He may have been high or drunk or both but it didn't seem to affect his ability to play. He was good!

I have a some music from his solo career but the recording is awful and doesn't do him justice so I'm sending a Little Walter song that he plays guitar on. Yes, I know that in week 38 I sent the song and said that Robert Lockwood was the guitar player. He was for the other songs but Luther Tucker plays on the Toddle. This is a cool little instrumental that features Little Walter but has a nice interplay with Luther's guitar work. Robert Lockwood was Luther Tuckers' mentor when Luther was younger. 

Otis Rush

I saw Otis at the SB Blues society back in the 80s. He was a big man that played a hollow body Gibson left handed upside down and backwards. Jimi also played that way. Otis was a big man with a deep voice. He was an excellent guitar player and wrote some cool songs.
I can't quit you baby 
All your love
Double Trouble (Stevie's band was named after this song) …to name a few He somehow never achieved the fame and fortune that he deserved. I don't know why. He was good enough.

Rod Piazza

Rod Piazza has been around seemingly forever. He's still going strong. He's a great front man singer and harp player. He was once in a band with the great George Harmonica Smith where they both played harp. That must have been something else. 
He resides in California so I've seen him several times. He always gives 100% and has a rocking band.  

Honey Piazza Rod Piazza's wife Honey Piazza is no slouch as a musician. She plays piano in Rod Piazza's band, The Mighty Flyers. She plays with a joyous, youthful abandon that is so infectious.  Honey began studying classical piano at age 4. She played classical music until she was derailed after hearing an Otis Spann record. The gal can really play and deserves her own day.   Here is a smoking hot video of her giving Rod a breather while holding the crowd spellbound. There is something about piano accompanied by drums. 

100 days. That's a long time to go through what you have been going through. 

100 days requires a commemorative song, a song that inspires, a song that has a family connection.

As you may be aware from all of my boasting, Jason is in the music business. He didn't exactly start out on a clear path but not everyone does. So, I'll give you a little back story. Jason was going to Cal Poly College studying business. He did his 1st year and we signed a 1 year housing lease for his 2nd year. Sometime after signing the lease, he decided that he didn't want to continue. During his 1st year he got into trouble by taking computer classes for computer major students. Cal Poly has strict rules against crossing majors. Regardless, he didn't want to go back to Cal Poly and we were on the hook for a 1 year lease. His solution was to go to Cuesta College and study classical guitar.  WTF! As an engineer, this seemed like a real bad plan. There are perhaps 10 people on earth that support themselves as a Classical Guitar player. I was complaining to Judy that Liberal Arts majors are a bad idea. She calmly reminded me that she was a Liberal Arts major and that everything would be OK adding that everyone should follow their dream. I didn't want to be the "dream crusher" so I went along with it...reluctantly, but silently. He gets a classical guitar and does his 1st year at Cuesta. He forms a special bond with his guitar teacher that takes a real interest in Jason. As (bad) luck would have it, his teacher has some serious health issues and ends up passing away. The teacher was replaced but that special bond was severed. Jason did some local performances and he was really good. He ended up drifting to LA and played on-line poker to support himself. As an engineer, I also didn't think this was a good idea either. He was home visiting and we were talking about on-line poker and I asked him to show me. He went on my computer and entered 6 games at once. I asked him how do you know what the other person has? He laughed and said he had no idea what they had and it didn't matter. He said it's all math. He played mathematically sound while most players played emotionally. Math beats emotion! I asked... is it really that simple? He said...if you know the math. As a father I wasn't thrilled that he supported himself as an on-line poker player but after seeing that he was using his mind and after observing his scientific approach, I felt a lot better about it and said as much. Playing on-line poker 2 hours a day isn't the most exciting life and I think he wanted some more social interaction. I believe there was this girl (there's always a girl) that worked at a nearby Italian restaurant that he liked so he took a job for the social aspect (and the girl). If you are wondering where this story is going, I'm getting to it. This big party comes into the restaurant. Jason is their waiter. They begin to order and Jason is taking their order verbally. The party leader takes Jason aside and tells him...this is an important business meeting and he needed to write their orders down. It has to go right! Jason calmly assures him that ...he's got this and there won't be a problem. The orders are ready and he brings them to the patrons and recites verbatim what they ordered with all changes and modifications. The orders are all delivered without a hitch. After the dinner, the party leader seeks Jason out and they hit it off. Jason told him about his business studies and classical guitar studies (not sure whether he mentioned the on-line poker). The guy said that he owned a music licensing business. They talk for a while. The guy wants to know why he's a waiter? The guy ends up offering Jason a job on a trial basis and gives him his card. A month or 2 goes by and Jason picks up the card and decides to give the guy a call. They set up a time and Jason starts. Jason had never had a full time job before..
....FAST FORWARD.....
Today, Jason is a full partner and part owner of the business: The party leader is stepping down and Jason is taking the reins. 

A while back we were down visiting Jason and he had this award on his wall. Jason received the award as the publisher of record for Journey's song..... Don't Stop Believing. The record went Diamond which means that it sold 10 million copies! There aren't a lot of songs that have gone Diamond. 

The take away from this long rambling story is:

Journey_DontStopBelieving

Bob Dylan

Judy and I went to see the Bob Dylan movie, a complete unknown. It was a very enjoyable movie and the guy that played Dylan nails the character. If you get a chance to see it when it hits streaming, you should watch it. I never saw Dylan live but after seeing the movie, I've put his coordinates into the time machine. Bob Dylan's real name was Robert Allen Zimmerman. I knew that Bob Dylan wasn't his real name but for some reason, I mistakenly thought his name was Richard Zimmerman. Zimmerman is clearly a Jewish name and he was of Jewish descent. Dylan started as a folk singer but he was always shape shifting. He played rock, blues, jazz, folk, country and pop. It seemed like whenever he got pigeon holed, he would break out of it. Regardless of the genre. Dylan was/is a great songwriter. He has won every award imaginable. He even won a Nobel prize for literature. The ONLY musician to ever win a Nobel prize. Keep an eye out for the movie when it comes to streaming.

Mike Bloomfield.

I was reminded of Mike Bloomfield from the Bob Dylan movie I saw on Tuesday. Dylan was wildly popular in the 60s. He was playing at the Newport folk festival and was the main act. The folk crowd had their folk hero...Bob Dylan. He was the closing act that year. All he had to do was play his hits and the crowd would have loved him. Dylan had other ideas. He just hated when people tried to tell him what to do.....so, he often did the opposite. For the show, he got some blues and rockers with him and then did a real fucking loud show and Dylan played electric guitar for the 1st time. As expected, more than 1/2 the crowd booed, some liked it but a lot wanted their favorite folk singer the way they wanted him. One of the guitarists was Mike Bloomfield. Dylan called Bloomfield the best guitar player he ever saw. Bloomfield plays guitar on Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. Dylan tried to get Mike as a band member but Mike turned him down as he was a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and money wasn't important to him. Mike was a rich Jewish kid that was born in Chicago. He fell in love with the blues at a young age and hung out with everyone. He sat in with everyone. Muddy, Wolf, Little Walter, BB, Buddy, he played with them all. The guy could play the blues. I saw him when he was the guitarist for Paul Butterfield. The concert was in Springfield somewhere (not the Civic Center). Butterfield was the harp playing front man but Bloomfield's guitar was more memorable.  I have Muddy Waters, Father and Sons album. Bloomfield plays lead guitar on it. Like so many musicians, he had his demons and heroin use really derailed his career. 

From the Fathers and Sons album...Mike plays lead guitar.

Ben Rice

I'm pretty sure that you never heard of Ben Rice. I saw Ben play at a Chinese restaurant in Ventura, Calif. Ben is a younger white musician that is carrying on the blues tradition. He's a good guitar player and has a nice voice. 
He brought out a 'cigar box' guitar that his dad built him. He played a few songs with it. It sounded pretty good.  I have a photo of Ben with his mom and dad (guitar maker). BenRice_CantBeSatisfied(Intro)
BenRice_CantBeSatisfied

Lowell Fulson

I saw Lowell at the SB Blues society in the 80s. He could really play and it was a really good show. Lowell has been around the block and has played blues since the 40s. Back in the 40s, he formed a band that included a young blind piano player. Although Lowell never hit the big time, his piano player went on to have a VERY successful career. The piano player was Ray Charles! No, Ray Charles was not in the band that I saw.

Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie was mentioned in a few earlier stories....T Bone Walker and Lightning Hopkins.....but she never had her own story. The day Judy and I went on our 1st date was back in the mid 70s. It was one of those rare, beautiful, late summer days in Massachusetts. Not too hot, not humid...it was perfect. I had my shiny red Fiat 124 spider convertible at the time. I even washed and cleaned it. I picked her up at her mom's place in Holyoke. When I pulled up I caught her and her mom checking me out from their upstairs window. I had the top down, it was convertible weather. The show was at Tanglewood in Western Ma. We took the back roads and I drove fast. It's funny that today Judy hates it when I drive fast. Back then she loved it. It was a perfect day. Everything went perfectly. I honestly don't remember a lot about the show. We were both smitten and weren't concentrating on the music as much as we were tuned into each other. Bonnie was good...Judy was great. We really hit it off. It was so good, I didn't think of T Bone once the whole day! 

Deb Ryder

I saw Deb Ryder a few times (including once at the famed Chinese Restaurant in Ventura). She is the singer and front person for the band. She has that deep raspy voice that lends itself to the blues. The best time I saw her was at an outdoor blues festival. The outdoor festival had a big stage and could accommodate her entire band which had a sizable horn section. I'm not generally a big fan of horn sections but hers were all stellar musicians. After her set, she was working the merch counter and we talked blues for quite a while. I told her some stories that I've shared with you. Nice lady! 

Honey Boy Edwards

Honeyboy, born in 1915, he hit the road as a performer when he was 14 years old. He hobo'ed around the country for most of his life. He used to play with Robert Johnson! He was with Robert Johnson when he drank the poisoned whiskey the night Robert Johnson died. Johnson messed with the wrong woman one too many times and was poisoned by his rival (There's always a girl). 

Remarkably, I saw Honey Boy Edwards play live. I saw him play in a car dealership showroom in downtown Santa Barbara. They drove the cars out and set up folding chairs. You can't make this shit up! It was the BEST car dealer showroom concert I ever saw. He was really old and needed some help getting around but he could still play guitar. His voice wasn't great. He played into his 90s. I don't think he knew anything else.

Robert Johnson

Hard to believe Robert Johnson hasn't been listed before this. Robert Johnson will easily be the oldest member of the 27 club that I'll list. I don't know what my fascination is with these club members? It' a little weird. As I mentioned in the Honeyboy story, Robert was poisoned for his womanizing (there is always a girl). Johnson was a real trailblazer. His guitar playing was ahead of everyone's at the time and he had a great haunting voice. I read on a Clapton album notes that Eric locked himself in a room for a year teaching himself how to play the blues by listening to his well worn Robert Johnson album. Clapton's version of Crossroads will always be my favorite because I listened to it a thousand times before hearing Johnson's original. Johnson died much too soon and we'll never know what he would have produced. His recordings have stood the test of time though.....Crossroads, Love In vain, Sweet home Chicago, Ramblin on my Mind ...to name a few. I would estimate that his songs were covered by more blues and rock bands than any other writer (except for Willie Dixon). Robert Johnson will be a top 5 destination when I get my time machine working.

Edgar Winter Edgar is Johnny Winter's little brother. The two albino brothers shared a love of music. While Johnny was steeped in the blues, Edgar played a variety of genres. Although Johnny was a wizard with his guitar, Edgar played a variety of instruments...keyboard, sax, trumpet, drums..and was expert at all of them. Edgar was also the inventor of the keyboard strap which freed him to go cavorting about the stage while playing the keyboard. I first saw Edgar at the Paramount Theater on Main Street in Springfield. It was the 2nd loudest concert that I've been to (Zeppelin at Umass was louder). This is especially impressive since the Paramount Theater wasn't all that big. However, his hit at the time, Frankenstein, DEMANDS maximum volume and he delivered. There is always one standout song in a set that alone is worth the price of admission, Frankenstein was that song. Another show that hastened my hearing loss.

Amazingly, I found a YouTube video from the same time period that shows Edgar playing multiple instruments and you can see his ingenious keyboard strap. The underrated Rick Derringer plays lead guitar. 



I did see Edgar again on the blues cruise. At the time, he was looking after his older brother as Johnny was nearing checkout time. I did discover something during the evening shows, Edgar had a real hard time seeing at night and needed a bright light to see his keyboard. It was a real struggle. Apparently this is common for Albinos.
I'm not going to send Frankenstein since that's covered in the video, so I'll send another oldie that I like.

Samantha Fish

I saw Sam on my 1st Blues Cruise. She was a young blond white girl...maybe 25 years old at the time. It's unusual in a lot of ways. She's a white girl playing blues and she's young and pretty. She was also a decent guitar player. She wrote her own songs too.
On the cruise she played in 2 ensembles. One where she played with 2 other young white guitar playing girls and one when she played with her own band. Of the 2, I liked her with her own band better. It's good to see some young talent keeping the blues alive.

Choker Eric Clapton Clapton waits until Day 111? WTF? OK, I did list Cream which featured Clapton. I blame my own bias in putting Clapton off. I'm not a big fan of his politics and his anti-vax, anti-science shenanigans. Why would someone believe Clapton over scientists? I have no idea, but they do. It's like taking health advice from Neil Young (from the concert we went to) OK rant over. Clapton is an outstanding guitar player. He became a pretty good singer as well, I never thought he had the charisma needed to be a great front man, but not everyone can pull that off. My favorite version of Clapton will always be Cream. After Cream he went on to a lot of success. I liked most of it but if I hear "I shot the sheriff" one more time I'm going to shoot the singer and his fucking deputy. He did a lot of collaborations and has appeared on countless recordings. He's done benefits and I should appreciate him more than I do. His first band was called the Roosters after all. What song? Can't be Cream...hmmm.... here is a real early recording ..pre – Cream

Lil Ed and the Imperials

I saw Lil Ed at the SB Blues society. He played a mean slide guitar and wore a red Fez just like JB Hutto. This is more than a coincidence, as he learned from his uncle, JB Hutto! I can't think of a better person to learn slide from. He even adopted JB Hutto's Fez for his performances. You can hear the JB influence in his style. 

LiEd_MidnightBurnin

I sent this earlier today but it didn't send. 
I'm sending it now...it's still Monday the 17th here, so I didn't miss a day.

Harvey Mandel

Harvey was an underrated guitar player. He played with Mayall, Charlie Mussewhite, Canned Heat and a few others before going off on his own. I heard a story that Mick Jagger invited him to be a Rolling Stones member but Keith Richard vetoed the plan because he was intimidated by Mandel's abilities. I saw Canned Heat but it was much much later after all the good members were gone. My friend Bert has a machine shop and his friend Jimmy likes to come by and visit. One day Jimmy came by and Bert introduced me to Jimmy and said he used to play with Canned Heat. We talked for a while about what it was like....lot's of drugs, drinking and women. Jimmy didn't like that part of it and eventually quit. I saw Harvey play in a small place in Ventura. It was all instrumentals and I couldn't for the life of me put him in a genre box. When I thought I had him figured out, he would play something off the wall. Could be blues, rock, pop, jazz, swing, funk, salsa, ???? ...he played it all and he played it well.

HarveyMandel_RankachankBluesRemastered

Tina Turner

Somehow, I never saw Tina live...my bad. I would put her on short list when I get the time machine working (I really need to get on that). 
I watched a movie about Tina's life. Tina never had it easy...from a broken family she was passed around. She picked cotton! She sang in the church.
Then she met Ike Turner. Ike was an immensely talented musician. He was an excellent guitarist and a decent piano player. He played with just about everyone and produced a lot of music. He was also a talented songwriter. I've seen his name pop up in liner notes of several blues albums as the guitar player. Tina was gobsmacked when she saw him play and was obsessed with him. Ike finally relented to let her join him and they had a lot of success together, Ike knew the business and really developed Tina into who she became, he taught her how to sing!. They married. It was always, Ike and Tina Turner. Ike was a controlling asshole with a drug and alcohol problem. He was also abusive. The studios got sick of Ike but loved Tina. They wanted Tina to split off. Ike wasn't having any of it. Ike became jealous of her fame which didn't help much. They stayed together much too long. Tina eventually divorced him and went on to have a highly successful career. Ike...not so much.

IkeTinaTurner_IWantToTakeYouHigher

Etta James

Etta is another that I regretfully never saw. I had made plans to see her in 2012 but she passed away before the show date. Etta is very much time machine worthy. She started singing the year I was born and she sang it all; choir, gospel R&B, Jazz, Rock, Blues...she sang it all and sang it well. She checked all of the boxes for a blues singer....broken home, absent mother, physical abuse, heroin addiction, incarceration..... it was rumored that Minnesota Fats might be her father.....She was qualified to sing the blues! Her gritty cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want To Make Love To You" was easily the best version of this song. I used to see Cafe R&B quite a bit and their female singer was real good. I got to know the band leader and suggested that they do "I Just Want To Make Love To You" as the song would be perfect for Roach to sing. I thought it was a great idea but he vetoed it saying it was too much Etta's song now and it wouldn't be right to cover it. Even after Etta's death, they never did cover it. A shame, Roach was perfect for the song.

Etta James (again)

Etta had the gritty voice for a raw version of "I Just Want To Make Love To You' but she was hardly a one note singer.  She sang it all. I have attached her lovely version of "At Last". I LOVE THIS SONG. The song pulls me in and takes me for a dreamlike, hypnotic, ethereal ride. Her voice is perfection! This song IS a time machine!

Theresa Russell

This is a performer that I didn't know existed. I saw her by pure chance. I went down to my local bar to play pool. The bar (2 miles from my house) has 5 pool tables and there is usually some action there. When I got there, there was a band setting up in the corner. I didn't pay too much attention and started playing pool. The band was led by this young white gal playing a fiery lead guitar. She had BIG hair. It was very curly and reminded me of the lion's mane from the Wizard of Oz movie. It fit her. When I heard Freddie King's "I'm going down", she had my attention so I went over and watched the show. She apparently was friends with the bar owner, Liz, and was performing for some small celebration of Liz's friend. I talked to her after the show and picked up a CD. It's not the greatest but she was entertaining.

Jimmy Thackery

Jimmy is a guitar virtuoso. The guy can really play. Jimmy is a white guy about my age. He played in the band The Nighthawks for many years. The Nighthawks played 300 + shows a year so it was life on the road. They also backed up travelling bluesmen since they could play almost anything. He went out on his own and headed his own band. As great of a guitar player as he is, it's surprising that he never became better known. Go figure? I saw Jimmy at the SB Blues society and then I saw him on my 2nd blues cruise. I made sure to see each of his shows on that cruise. 



JimmyThackeryAbndTheDrivers_DontLoseYourCoolInstrumental

Doug Macleod

I know that I already sent you a Doug MacLeod song....

I saw Doug MacLeod last night at the Unitarian Society. I don't know why its' called that...it's a church chapel. The show was put on by the SB Blues society. Every year, they put on a member appreciation show. The show is free to members. I wanted to get there early to get a good seat but we had some trouble finding the church and ended up wandering around for a bit. We made it to the venue minutes before the show began. We found seats but they were toward the back. The show started but the sound was way off. It wasn't that I couldn't hear it. I could hear it OK. The guitar sounded muddy and the voice was garbled and I couldn't make out most of the words. I've seen Doug a couple times before and the sound was never a problem. Doug is a storyteller and every song has a story. He tells a story and there is usually humor and irony. The people up front were laughing at the story but I couldn't make out most of the words. I believed that we were in the dreaded distortion zone. Rooms are not usually designed for great acoustics and weird things can happen when acoustic waves bounce around the room creating nodes and phasing errors.  If I was alone, I would have gone up front and stood off to the side but, I was with Judy and it would have been rude. At intermission, most everyone piled out and we upgraded our seats to the 4th row. One thing about the SB Blues society crowd; most aren't hardcore blues fans and the average age is ~ my age. A sizable number will always leave at intermission. I never understood this and hope I never do. So, the seat upgrade was without drama. The 2nd set begins and the sound was 500% better. The distortion was gone, I could understand his words, and the guitar was crisp and on point. Doug is an old soul. He performs like the old blues guys did. He tells an interesting story and ends with...so I wrote a song about...it goes like this.....sometimes he pauses in mid-song to elaborate his earlier story. Doug is 78 and he's still 'got it'. He plays with an infectious joy that transcends his age. Tonight he played an acoustic guitar with a 6 string pickup across the sound hole. At least half of the songs he played slide on. 
He said something memorable about the blues that struck me as profound.....he said “the blues is about hope”.

Checkout his pickup.

Good Morning Little Schoolgirl Mississippi Fred McDowell Another great one before my time. I would put Fred near the top of my time machine tour. When I think of Delta Blues, I think of Fred McDowell. His parents died when he was young. He hoboed around the south, farming and playing on street corners for tips. He did this for 30 years. He was "discovered" by a blues historian ~1960. His recordings were very well received leading to bigger venues and he was able to be a full time musician for the 1st time in his life.

His popularity grew. Everyone wanted to play with him. He convinced Bonnie Raitt to play slide. I've included his most popular song...Good Morning Little School Girl....I first heard this song played by Ten Years After and that was the gold standard for me. When I heard McDowell's version...it was a no brainer....his was the platinum version and the final word.

Kokomo Blues Mississippi Fred McDowell Mississippi Fred McDowell again He had that uncompromising sound. His slashing slide guitar and that voice... pure Delta Blues... My favorite quote..."I don't play no Rock and Roll music".

Memphis Minnie

Minnie is very high on Time Machine list. I first heard her on a double Blues Anthology album that I bought a long time ago. It had quite a few artist that I didn't know. There was one song on that album that I couldn't hear enough of. It was Memphis Minnie's "Me and My Chauffeur Blues". I LOVED this song. The guitar the singing, the timing...it's just a great song.

Minnie was the premiere female blues player, singer, songwriter. She was the queen and she was tough enough to make a decent living performing for 40 years. It had to be difficult. Being black during this time and being a woman had to make it doubly hard. They used to stage guitar contests and Minnie would usually win them beating out Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red and other big time bluesmen of the era. That must have been super fun to see those competitions. She was a prolific songwriter with over 200s songs. 

-M

It has to be Me and My Chauffeur.....

Memphis Minnie again

I don't remember whether I told you this or not...~10 years ago, Judy and I went to the LA Public Library to get library cards. They had a robust E-Media section and they had digitized all of their books, videos, music, and magazines. You could even access a few newspapers. There were several Apps on their website to access stuff. For music, they had "Freegal". Freegal was your gateway to the libraries music collection. You could search and browse the collection and they had a built-in player to listen to anything in their collection. Another unexpected benefit is you are allowed to download 5 songs for free. As you are well aware, Rys's love free stuff! We spent some time with the librarian and she walked us through all of the E-Media they had at their website. We were really excited to be able to read books on our Kindles. The librarian asked whether we had a library card from the LA County Library. We didn't and she said we should. They have their own website and their own E-Media, separate from the LA Public Library. We asked where it was and it was only 10 minutes away so we went and got another library card. They had there own Freegal so I could download 5 free songs from this library too. Now 10 songs a week may not sound like much but.....(52 weeks) x (10 songs per week) x (10 years) adds up to a lot of songs. Every Monday, Freegal allows 5 more songs. Admittedly, I have missed a few weeks here and there, but not many misses (Rys's like free stuff too much).

Oh yeah, another Memphis MInnie (from Freegal) that I like. 

MemphisMinnie_ImSoGladDigitallyRemastered

Johnny Lang

One of the issues with blues music is that many of the performers are aging out. They are dying off. Without new blood, the blues will not survive. Johnny Lang was one of the younger performers, but even he is in his early 40s. His guitar was born before he was. He broke out on the scene when he was really young. He recorded his 1st album when he was 14 years old. I have included the title track "Lie To Me". He sings and plays lead. He has the chops but not quite the substance...this will come with time. For a 14 years old, it was damn good. I Haven't seen him live yet.

Nick Moss

On Thursday we went to see the Mark Hummel Blues Harmonica Blowout. Mark as you surmised is a harp player. He has been staging these blowouts every year where he gets the best harp players and goes on tour with them. The format is that they each play a short set 2 or 3 songs. The next player is announced and they might play together for a song before that next player highlights. This cycles until all of the players have played and then they bring them all out together for a blue jam. All of this is only possible with a backing band. For this year's blowout, the band was kind of a who's who of musicians. Nick Moss handled the lead guitar. Nick has been around for quite a while and is from Chicago. The show was really great and I heard a couple new artists that I didn't know about.

The sound on the video isn't too great. I'll cover his harp player later. Also...check out his bass player. The bass player is exceptional.

NickMossband_TryToTreatYouRightLive

Preview YouTube video Nick Moss Band w/Dennis Gruenling “Get Your Back Into It” Springing The Blues Festival 4/7/2024

Dennis Gruening

Dennis is one of the harp players at the Blue Harp Blowout I saw last Thursday. I had never heard of him before. Dennis is a younger white player. He's a very good harp player and has a LOT of energy. He has that 70s vibe and looks like he would fit perfectly into that time slot. He wears a leopard skin style shirt and he had the perfect  Bad Ass amplifier (see photo).

Dennis Gruening_CountChromatic

Alice Cooper This band may not be a band that I loved but...they had one song that really resonated with me. They released "18" when I just happened to be ...18 years old. The song was about ...being 18 so it was relatable:

I'm in the middle without any plans
I'm a boy and I'm a man 

I'm eighteen, and I don't know what I want
Eighteen, I gotta get away

Feels like I'm livin' in the middle of doubt

I'm eighteen and I like it

It's that time of life where sometimes you feel like you have it figured out and sometimes you question everything and you're unsure. Whenever the song came on, I'd dig the groove and sing along with it. Afterwards, I’d always felt a little less unsure of myself. I did get to see Alice Cooper live at the Springfield CivicCenter. I was dating Judy Treston at the time and we were struggling as a couple. We drifted apart and somehow no longer fit together. We went to the concert and we were feuding at the time over everything. I don't remember too much as she was really bringing me down. It was the last straw. I knew it was over. She knew it was over. I wish we could have waited a couple days so we could have enjoyed the show but..."I'm 18 and I don't know what I want". On the way home we're in a funk and I'm stopped at a red light when Boom I get rear ended. I get out and the other driver (Puerto Rican) gets out holding a beer. As luck would have it, a cop was passing by and I flagged him down. He pulls up and says to the other driver, 'Hey Angel how are you?" I'm like... he just rear ended me and he's drunk, arrest him! The cop takes his beer and pours it down the sewer. He tells Angel to get in the car and leave. He tells me the same thing. I never even got his insurance (if he had any). Judy Treston says something to add fuel to the fire. If I had any doubt, it was dissolved. We were done. Not every concert is great but unlike Santana, it wasn't the band's fault.  It was my own fault. I swore I'd never date another Judy!!!

-M

I bet you could guess which song will be attached.....

MC5

I have included MC5 because they have the dubious distinction as being the first recording artist to drop the F--- bomb on record (1969). At the beginning of the song they issue the infamous line "Kick Out the Jams Motherfucker!". It's not a particularly good song but it’s historic. Of course, I had to buy the record. MC5 was kind of like a blueprint for metal music. I don't know if they started it but it's the earliest metal sound that I can remember.

Curtis Salgado

Curtis Salgado was one of the 5 harp players featured in the recent Blues Harp Blowout. As a harp player, he may have been my least favorite player. As a singer he was far and away the best singer. Curtis has been around. He was the front man for Robert Cray and Roomful of Blues. He even had a brief run with Santana. 
Curtis was the inspiration for John Belushi's Blues Brother character.

CurtisDelgado_YouGiveTheBluesABadName

One of the beauties of being retired is not having to adhere to a schedule. It allows you to be spontaneous. I bought tickets to the blues harp blowout. The show was ~ 90 miles north of Goleta so we got a hotel. We also left at 10 AM and took in a few activities along the way. While driving through a very rural area. I saw a sign:

Loofah Farm
Open to the public

I turned in. The long drive was whimsically decorated with oddities. When we got there we were greeted by a wonderfully eccentric Loopy Loofah Lady. She gave us a tour of the Loofah operation and the whole fascinating backstory of how it came to be. She had taken part in a blind grow off. Everyone was given seeds and weren't told what they were. Her plants were not doing well and they kept getting blown over in the wind so she stuck them in her greenhouse. Everyone else's plants died but in the greenhouse her plants flourished. They were melons. When they got riper she started harvesting them and tried eating them. They were slimy, bitter, and very fibrous. She tried cooking them but "they sucked". She threw the rest onto her compost pile and forgot about them. Much later, she picked up the dry melon and peeled off the dry skin....voila....it was loofah. She gathered the seeds and planted more and became the Loopy Loofah Lady. She gave us a bunch of avocados from her tree. We asked her a million questions and she gave us a beautiful (sealed) book with remarkable photos that her former son-in-law created (before he went bonkers). Sometimes the best side trips are the spontaneous ones. We bought a bunch of loofahs and had a great time which put us in the right mood for a Blues Harp Blowout that evening. Ahhh....retirement!

Oh yeah the song...
This song features the Blues Harp Blowout bass player, Rodrigo Montavani. Rodrigo was born and raised in Brazil. He fell in love with blues and moved to the US. At the show, he played a stand up bass and an electric bass. It was my first time seeing Rodrigo and I hope to see him again. He is currently playing in the very talented Nick Moss band. He was fabulous on either one but I have an affinity for the stand up. The bass player rarely gets the recognition that they deserve. They hold the rhythm together for the band. They are the backbone for the song. 

The song that I've included is from The Nick Moss Band's newest release. Even though the song is about the bass player...there are a couple of 5 second long solos.

Here is Rodrigo covering the bass for his idols.

 Preview YouTube video "Electrifying Chicago Bassists" Series #1 featuring Bob Stroger by Rodrigo Mantovani

Preview YouTube video *** Master Blues Bassists Series #14*** by Rodrigo Mantovani

RJ Mischo

Mischo  was one of the harp players at the Blues Harp blowout show. Mischo's been around and has been performing for years. He's a singer/songwriter and one hell of a harp player. Of the harp players at the show, he was my favorite. Somehow I had never seen him before. He played in Santa Barbara last year but I had a conflict that prevented me from seeing the show. I'd love to see him as the main artist. The attached song has a Sonny Boy Williamson harp influence.

Mark Hummell

The Blues Harp Blowout that we recently attended is a yearly show featuring the best harp players in the world. Mark Hummell is the organizer and the MC for the show.  There has been a parade of who's who harp players over the years starting in 1991. Sadly, a lot of these artists are no longer with us. It's not often in California and this show was only 90 miles away, so it was a must see.  Whenever the tour passes through again I'll be in attendance.

Mark Hummell is an accomplished harp player himself. I've seen him before in an acoustic duet accompanied by Rusty Zinn on acoustic guitar at the Santa Barbara Blues Society. This arrangement is ideal for featuring the harp since you aren't just playing background music.

-M

MarkHummell_CantJudgeNobody

Sue Foley I heard a song on the radio several years back that I really liked. It was by someone named Sue Foley. I'd never heard of her but I liked her style and I liked her voice. After a little investigation I learned she was the lead guitar player too. I never saw her live and don't recall ever noticing her playing nearby anywhere. She's from Texas and is a regular at Antoine's which is a haven for blues. Stevie, Freddie were regulars and just about everyone played there. This place is a goldmine of blues.  Back to Sue Foley....I bought some of her CDs and really liked them. I played them quite a bit. I talked to Steve, the president of the Santa Barbara Blues Society about booking her for a show. He pushed back saying she wouldn't sell enough tickets. He said the members were more interested in musicians of African descent. While this is partially true, many black performers have been brought in to play. Quite a few white performers have been hired as well. I like Steve and we both share a love of the blues and he has booked a lot of great musicians that I was not aware of and the shows were excellent. Steve will often seek me out and ask my opinion of the show because I believe he values my opinion (I didn't tell him I booed Santana). Most of the shows were great and we would discuss the best and the worst of the show. Sometimes we don't see eye to eye and he has brought in some clunkers and I'll tell him what I thought, warts and all. I tried but I couldn't get him to book Sue Foley and I told him he's missing a gem.

This is the song I heard on the radio that got me interested in her.

-M

I wish you the best of luck with your surgery. It's been a long haul for you with plenty of rough sailing. It had to be hard to wait so long. If you're like me, waiting sucks. A 6 hour procedure is going to be taxing. I'm glad you had a little time to gain some strength. You'll need it.  

Sue Foley again One more Sue Foley song. It's a simple song but it's catchy.

-Mikedog

William Clarke

I'll keep it short because you are going to have an important day. I'd pray for you but I'm afraid I'm not in good standing with the big guy and it could work against you.
I sincerely wish you the best.  Hang tough!

-Your loving brother, Mike

WilliamClarke_ChromaticJumpLive

Little Charlie and the Nighthawks. 

Before Rick Estrin and the Nighthawks, it was Little Charlie and the Nighthawks. Little Charlie was the lead guitar player. He was studying Mathematics at UC Berkeley when he met Rick Estrin and they formed a band and his career in mathematics fizzled out. Berkeley is a top rated school and is not easy to get into. I guess the music draw was too much. I saw Little Charlie and the Nightcats a couple of times and they were real good and a lot of fun. Rick Estrin was the front man but Little Charlie was a top guitar player. Little Charlie decided to retire after 30+ years and I was bummed out that someone so good would retire. It's a little unusual since many musicians keep playing until they simply can't. Rick Estrin, who was the frontman all along kept the band going. To replace Little Charlie, they picked up Kid Anderson who was a 6 foot 4 blond Norwegian. From the 1st time that I saw the KId, I was no longer bummed. Kid Anderson was a monster guitar player and still is.

Matt Guitar Murphy

I've seen Matt quite a few times, always as James Cotton's guitar player. Matt was built like a linebacker. The guy was a physical stud! He had these huge Popeye forearms but he still possessed a soft touch on the guitar. He was probably ~45 to 50 years old when I saw him. He achieved significant notoriety with John Belushi and Dan Akroyd of all people when attended one of his shows and asked him to join the Blues Brothers, Yes...he was in the movie too. He probably made more money with the Blues Brothers than he made over his whole career together (just guessing). Freddie King is said to have once admitted that he based his song "Hideaway" on Murphy's playing. That's a BIG compliment in my book.

-M

MattGuitarMurphy_Buck’sBoogie

One more Matt Guitar Murphy

I had to include this song because I love the intro....

Billy Branch

I saw Billy Branch on a Blues cruise. Billy plays blues harp and plays well. He's even toured in Willie Dixon's Blues all star band. He's won a bunch of blues musician awards.

Susan Tedeschi 
Susan grew up in Norwell Ma. She was much too young for me to have seen her there. I did see her at the Avila Blues festival at Avila Beach. The venue was an absolutely gorgeous location between a lagoon and the ocean on a golf course. Susan played lead guitar and sang in her own band. 
She later married Derek Trucks, a former member of the Allman Brothers and they formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Derek is the better guitar player (he's really good) but Tedeschi was no slouch and could sing. She wasn't too bad to look at either.

-M

Big Walter Horton

I saw Big Walter Horton in the 70s when he played with Willie Dixon's band back in Massachusetts. He had great tone and was one of the best harp players ever. He gave lessons to a couple of harp greats; Little Walter and to James Cotton in the 40s.As great as he was, he never hit it big and lived a life of poverty all of his life.

Here is a simple tune demonstrating his great tone, aptly named:  "Relaxin'" from his Fine Cuts album.

-M

Bo Diddley

Unlike a lot of black musicians coming up in the 40s, 50s, 60, and 70s, Bo had quite a bit of commercial success. He came up from blues but he embraced rock and roll early which turned out to be commercially successful. He had a rockabilly sound before rockabilly was a thing. He influenced a lot of big time rock bands with his music and his guitar sounds. As far as I know, he always played a square Gretsch guitar that looked kind of homemade and cheap. He did get some great sounds out of it.
I saw him live at the Springfield Civic Center when he was part of the Rock and Roll tour that included Jerry Lee Lewis, Chubby Checkers and others.

-M

Last Song!

When you announced that you had cancer, I knew there wasn't much I could do to "fix" you. I also knew you were in for some "rough sailing" and you would get knocked on your ass.

Feeling helpless, I came up with the One Song A Day idea. We share a love of music and I thought by doing so, it would make me think of you and what you are going through every day. I don't know if you got sick of them but I didn't know what else to do. I tried to make it personal by including a story that showed my relationship to the attached song. I enjoyed writing and sending them. 

Now that you have navigated the worst of it, and the dark clouds above you are clearing, you can concentrate on returning your life to an upright position. You deserve it. You've been there!

The impossible task of selecting the last song..... I really couldn't think of what to send. I kept thinking I found it and somehow it didn't work. I flip flopped and decided that we have to end on a high note. It had to be something full of life and energy. Something moving and dynamic....It had to be.......  

James Brown   -   Soul Brother #1
I Feel Good

 With undying love, your very own soul brother.