Eagle-Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid and James "Blood" Ulmer Down In Mississippi

David Barnes (harmonica); Vernon Reid (guitar); James "Blood" Ulmer (vocal, guitar); Eagle-Eye Cherry (vocal, percussion programming)

J. B. Lenoir was an African American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, active in the 1950s and 1960s Chicago blues scene. Lenoir was known in the 1950s for his showmanship - in particular his zebra-patterned costumes - and his high-pitched vocals.

Muddy Waters Interview On Tour 1971

I really like this clip of Muddy Waters being interviewed in a van while on tour back in 1971. Note that he is sitting next to Big Mama Thornton, and she makes a small interjection into the conversation.

Alvin Youngblood Hart - Illinois Blues

Skip James was born near Bentonia, Mississippi. His father was a converted bootlegger turned preacher. As a youth, James heard local musicians such as Henry Stuckey and brothers Charlie and Jesse Sims and began playing the organ in his teens. He worked on road construction and levee-building crews in his native Mississippi in the early 1920s, and wrote what is perhaps his earliest song, "Illinois Blues", about his experiences as a laborer.

Territory

Muddy Waters Interview

This interview of Muddy Waters is a very interesting view of the man.

"bring it to me straight, brother."...in Molde (Norway) 1977 after his show.

Marc Ribot - Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground

"Blind" Willie Johnson was an American singer and guitarist whose music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. Among musicians, he is considered one of the greatest slide or bottleneck guitarists, as well as one of the most revered figures of depression-era gospel music.

Ry Cooder once said Dark Was The Night--Cold Was The Ground was the most soulful, transcendent piece of American music recorded in the 20th Century

In the liner notes of a 2002 record by Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot compared "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was the Ground" to the music of Django Reinhardt and the avant garde guitarist Bailey.

Muddy Waters "Mannish Boy"

Hope T-Modle Ford Gets Better Soon

@ricksaunders The great T-Model Ford had a mild stroke yesterday. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Lou Reed - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" is a classic blues song written by Blind Lemon Jefferson.

The lyrics can be found on Wikipedia

Well there's one kind of favor I'll ask for you
Well there's one kind of favor I'll ask for you
There's just one kind of favor I'll ask for you
You can see that my grave is kept clean

I like the Lou Reed cover


as well as the original

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

Peter Green and John Mayall Palying the Blues

Boogie Woogie Papa - Gatemouth Moore

Moore who died at the age of 90 in 2004 was remembered more for some of his blues compositions -- "Did You Ever Love A Woman", "I Ain't Mad at You, Pretty Baby", "Somebody's Got To Go" -- than for the powerful, gospelly voice that earned him his nickname.

Oscar Peterson

C-Jam Blues


Kelly's Blues


...and here's Mr. Peterson playing a duet with Ray Charles:

Mississippi John Hurt - "Stagger Lee"

Mississippi John Hurt performing "Stagger Lee".





Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings

click image for info


Mississippi John Hurt @Amazon.com


Mississippi John Hurt @ SqueezeMyLemon

It's the Birthday of Albert King

Albert King was born on April 25, 1923 and he passed away on December 21, 1992. He is one of the three Kings of the blues (along with BB King and Freddie King).

During his time, he was according to Wikipedia;

Albert King stood 6' 4" (192 cm) and weighed 250 lbs (118 kg) and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church. He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys, in Osceola, Arkansas. He also briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, but also interestingly Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V, which he named "Lucy".

He was;

Born: Apr 25, 1923 in Indianola, Mississippi
Died: Dec 21, 1992 in Memphis, Tennessee

Famous for these songs:
"Born Under a Bad Sign"
"That's What the Blues Is All About"
"Blues at Sunrise"

Famous for these albums
King of the Blues Guitar
The Ultimate Collection
Born Under a Bad Sign

Influences
B.B. King
T-Bone Walker
Blind Lemon Jefferson

The Very Best of Albert King

click image for info




Albert King @SqueezeMyLemon Blues Blog

Sister Rosetta Tharpe "Up Above My Head"

Notes from YouTube: Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Up Above My Head (I hear music in the air) unknown performance date (appox. around the 1960's) on the show TV Gospel Time with the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church Choir an amazing performance with a Gibson Les Paul SG custom with (polar white finish?)

Gospel Blues @SqueezeMyLemon

Peter Green - "Love In Vain Blues"

Me & the Devil

click image for info




Peter Greeen @Amazon.com

Peter Green @SqueezeMyLemon Blues Blog

Deep River Blues

Trout season opens tomorrow around where I live, and it's a good thing too. This last winter may not have been as severe as some, but it seems like it was just as long, and I've got the Deep River Blues. Here's Doc Watson:

Carolina Chocolate Drops "Cornbread and Butterbeans"

Notes from YouTube;

Carolina Chocolate Drops performing "Cornbread and Butterbeans" at WDVX's Blue Plate Special. For more information on Carolina Chocolate Drops please visit www.carolinachocolatedrops.com. For more information on WDVX's Blue Plate Special please visit www.wdvx.com. For more Blue Plate Special videos please visit www.knoxnews.com/blueplatespecial

Carolina Chocolate Drops @Amazon.com

Carolina Chocolate Drops official site

Carolina Chocolate Drops @SqueezeMyLemon

Music Voyager visits Louisiana

The crew from Music Voyager (the New PBS music and travel show) made a recent visit to my home state, and even shot footage, with local home town boy Kenny Wayne Shepherd in my home town, Shreveport, LA.

Notes from YouTube;

Made in Louisiana Production-Shreveport Louisiana, a very rough 1st cut, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Buddy Flett were so amazing we had to give you a taste. -Farook

The Music Voyager on YouTube

Music Voyager.com Official Website

Music Voyager on Twitter

Music Voyager on Facebook

Blues Britannia - Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton: The Autobiography

I'd recommend this book which is an amazing catalogue of his journey through life - a frank discussion - obviously not ghostwritten and full of stories. Eric has obviously met everyone and lived life - drugs, women ( George Harrison's wife) and fishing.


Amongst his many albums I like unplugged

Eric Clapton Unplugged

1. "Signe" – 3:13
2. "Before You Accuse Me" (Ellas McDaniel) – 3:36
3. "Hey Hey" (Big Bill Broonzy) – 3:24
4. "Tears in Heaven" (Clapton, Will Jennings) – 4:34
5. "Lonely Stranger" – 5:28
6. "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Jimmy Cox) – 3:49
7. "Layla" (Clapton, Jim Gordon) – 4:40
8. "Running on Faith" (Jerry Lynn Williams) – 6:35
9. "Walkin' Blues" (Robert Johnson) – 3:37
10. "Alberta" (Traditional) – 3:42
11. "San Francisco Bay Blues" (Jesse Fuller) – 3:23
12. "Malted Milk" (Robert Johnson) – 3:36
13. "Old Love" (Clapton, Robert Cray) – 7:53
14. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Muddy Waters) – 4:10



lots more here

Amazon Clapton Store

Elmore James - Dust My Broom

Elmore James (vocals, guitar); Leonard Ware (bass); Frock O'Dell (drums); Sonny Boy Williamson (harmonica)songfacts

Elmore was known as The King of the Slide Guitar and he had a unique guitar style, he was noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.

There is a long and learned article in Wikipedia, I like

The most famous guitarist who admired Elmore James was Jimi Hendrix. Early in his career Jimi styled himself variously as 'Maurice James' and subsequently as 'Jimmy James'
James is mentioned in The Beatles' song "For You Blue": while John Lennon plays the slide guitar (James' trademark), George Harrison says, "Elmore James got nothin' on this, baby."

An early cover of a number by Mac - posted just for the fun of it

Dust My Broom

Garland Jeffreys - Washington, D.C. Hospital Blues

Allmusic

Shortly after his triumphant resurrection at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, Skip James returned to the recording studio for the first time in over three decades to cut the 12 sides which comprise the superb Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers, a career-capping overview which reprises some of the songs from his 1931 Paramount sessions and introduces a half-dozen new compositions as well. Although his guitar skills have lost a step in the intervening years, the passage of time has only made James' vocals that much more expressive; his new material is especially devastating, in particular "Sick Bed Blues" and "Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues," both detailing the fight with cancer that eventually led to his death.

Blues Quote - Muddy Waters

I got a black cat bone
I got a mojo too

I got a John Coquorer
I'm going to mess with you

I'm going to make you girls
lead me by my hand

Then the world will know that
I'm a Hoochie Coochie Man

~ Muddy Waters

Blues Britannia - Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated

Alexis Korner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), born Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, was a pioneering blues musician and broadcaster who has sometimes been referred to as "the Founding Father of British Blues".






Kornerstoned - The Alexis Korner Anthology 1954-1983

Son Simms Four - Rosalie

Muddy Waters (vocal-guitar); Percy Thomas (guitar); Henry "Son" Simms (violin); Louis Ford (mandolin)

1930 -- Bought his first guitar. Later, the Son Sims Four, enlisted him as a vocalist. Muddy saw and was inspired by the playing of Son House whose style he learned. Still later Muddy bought a 1934 V8 Ford.

Rosalie (Son Simms Four)

doesn't seem to be on the net apart from playing the mp3. I think this will do

John Lee Hooker "Big Legs Tight Skirt"

Blind Willie Johnson - Soul Of A Man

A very profound song - the first and last verses

Won't somebody tell me, answer if you can!
Want somebody tell me, what is the soul of a man
I'm going to ask the question, answer if you can

As far as I can understand, a man is more than his mind
When Christ stood in the temple, the people stood amazed
Was showing the doctors and the lawyers, how to raise a body from the grave

Big Bill Broonzy - When I Been Drinkin'

This is one of those low down and dirty blues songs. It covers all the bases, hard work, hard liqueur, and domestic violence. And you have to love that growl in Big Bill's voice on this one. I believe he just wants to be left alone after a hard day of work and drinking.

B.B. King - Three O'Clock Blues

• B.B. King (vocals, guitar); Richard Sanders, Adolph "Billy" Duncan (tenor sax); Johnny Ace (piano); Tuff Green (bass); Earl Forest (drums)
• Recorded Memphis, Tennessee, circa September 1951

"3 O' Clock Blues" is a 1951 song by B.B. King. B.B. King's debut single went to number one on the R&B Best Seller charts for five weeks and was his most successful release on the R&B charts. B.B. King's performance on the single makes extensive use of melisma, which bends and streches a single syllable into a melodic phrase. (I never knew that)




blues for peace

New Orleans Boogie

Carolina Chocolate Drops - "Georgia Buck"

Dona Got a Ramblin Mind

click image for info


Carolina Chocolate Drops @Amazon.com

Howlin' Wolf - How Many More Years

Howlin' Wolf - How Many More Years — 2:43

• Howlin' Wolf (vocals, harmonica); Willie Johnson (guitar); Ike Turner or Albert Williams (piano); Willie Steele (drums)
• Produced by Sam Phillips
• Recorded Memphis, Tennessee, either May 14 or August 1951

Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' At Midnight — 2:57

• Howlin' Wolf (vocals, harmonica); Willie Johnson (guitar); Willie Steele (drums)
• Produced by Sam Phillips
• Recorded Memphis, Tennessee, either May 14 or August 1951

Meet me in the Morning

I recall when Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks came out. I think I was 14 at the time and and this music knocked my socks off. One of my favourite tunes on that album was (and still is) a blues called Meet me in the Morning.

Let's have a listen to some different interpretations...

Here's Easton Stagger Phillips


Here's Sloan Wainwright:


The Sarah Jarosz Band:

Excellent picking and fiddle playing on that performance. Wow. Sorry it gets cut off at the end...still well worth a listen.

Finally, here's The Perpetrators with a version featuring some nice slide:

Blues Word of the Day - Balling the Jack

ball(ing) the jack

1 - origin: balling the jack is a phrase from the jargon of railroadsmen in the beginning of this century in America and simply means going at top speed (highballing). The "jack" is the locomotive and "ballin'" means to work fast or get rollin'. Balling the jack (and variants like balling or having a ball) later acquired other, non-railroad related meanings like having a wild good time (drinking), to move quickly, going flat out, dancing, having sex and in gambling circles of risking everything on a single throw of the dice or turn of a card and in general use risking everything on one attempt or effort.
Following visitor contributed information confirms these meanings:

2 - metaphor for having sex, see also balling the jack and grinding. Dave Vanderslice says: "Means literally: use a jack hammer, but also to have sex." Thanks to Dave Vanderslice for his contribution to the list;

3 - name of a once popular dance, dancestep. Gray "Grayotis" Martin writes: "Ball the Jack---also likely a juke joint dance, with a reference to the act of sexual intercourse. "Ball" in verb form, is a slang word for sex, in white and black lingo. Thanks to Gray Martin for this contribution;
Southern Louisiana's John "JohnnyB" Bradford says: "The "eagle rock" and "ball and the jack" are 1940's dance moves. Thanks to John "JohnnyB" Bradford for this contribution to the list;

This phrase can be found in:
Bessie Smith, Baby Doll & St. Louis Blues, Big Bill Broonzy, I Feel So Good



Notes from YouTube;

Brenda Lee covered Ballin' the Jack on her first album entitled "Grandma, What Great Songs You Sang!" (Later renamed "Brenda Lee Sings Songs Everybody Knows") . She was a Judy Garland fan and I suspect this cover came about because the song was in "For me and My Gal" (1942) starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.

(J. Barris - C. Smith)

Well you put your two knees close up tight,
And then you swing them to the left
You swing them to the right.
Step around the floor kind of nice and light.
And then you twist around and
Twist around with all your might.
Shake your loving arms way out in space,
Then you do the Eagle Rock with the style and grace.
Swing your foot way round then you bring it back.
That's what I call Ballin' The Jack.

Well you put your two knees close up tight,
And then you swing them to the left
You swing them to the right.
Step around the floor kind of nice and light.
And then you twist around and
Twist around with all your might.
Shake your loving arms way out in space,
Then you do the Eagle Rock with the style and grace.
Swing your foot way round then you bring it back.
That's what I call Ballin' The Jack.

The song was written in 1913, before modern jazz. Its structure, however, lends itself to jazz, blues and pop adaptations. The lyric merely describes dance movements. Modern songs have used the term "ballin' the jack" in other contexts, including sexual, but originally it was just railroad repair term. A ball was jacked against a rail in order to straighten the rail. The original writers must have thought the phrase catchy enough to start a dance craze.

"Today's Chicago Blues" No Longer Being Updated

Sad to read that Karen Hansen is no longer posting to her blues music blog "Today's Chicago Blues." As a blues blogger I understand her reasons perfectly. Blogging about the blues is a labor of love at best, and just hard work at its worst.

First I would like to say thanks to her for maintaining a well written and high quality blues blog. I really enjoyed reading about the dynamic Chicago blues music that she wrote about. I felt like I knew what was going on in the Chicago Blues music scene because I visited her blog often.

Her voice will be missed.

Blues Britannia - Led Zeppelin

Very much part of my growing up -


Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Uploaded by hushhush112. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.





Led Zeppelin IV

Let's Stick Together

Well friends, I have to apologize...I just couldn't find the versions by Junior Parker and by Bob Dylan, or you know I would have posted them right here too. Hopefully the fantastic interpretation by Bryon Ferry of this old tune makes up for the incompleteness of the post.

Mississippi John Hurt - Big Leg Blues

Mississippi John Hurt was an influential country blues singer and guitarist. He sang in a loud whisper, to a melodious finger-picked guitar accompaniment.

Hurt's influence spanned several music genres including blues, country, bluegrass, folk and contemporary rock and roll. A soft-spoken man, his nature was reflected in the work, which remained a mellow mix of country, blues and old time music to the end

Rosco Gordon - Memphis Blues

Rosco Gordon (April 10, 1928 – July 11, 2002) was an African American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known for his 1952 #1 R&B hit single, "Booted" Born on Florida Street, in Memphis, Tennessee, Gordon was one of the Beale Streeters, a moniker given to a group of musicians who helped develop the style known as Memphis Blues

Paul Davies and Ronnie Shellist Harmonica Jam

Notes from YouTube; just a jam in G



Harmonica Players @SqueezeMyLemon

Harmonica @SqueezeMyLemon

Don't Start me Talking

I'll tell everything I know....

Blues Britannia - Chickenshack

Stan Webb's Chickenshack

Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in 1965 by Andy Silvester (bass guitar) and Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), with Alan Morley (drums) and later joined by Christine Perfect (vocals and keyboards - naming themselves after Jimmy Smiths 'Back At The Chicken Shack' album. Chicken shacks (chicken restaurants) had also by then frequently been mentioned in blues and rhythm and blues songs, as in Amos Milburn's hit, "Chicken Shack Boogie". Their first concert was at the 1967 National Blues and Jazz Festival at Windsor and they were signed by the Blue Horizon record label in the same year.

Chicken Shack enjoyed modest commercial success, with Christine Perfect being voted Best Female Vocalist in the Melody Maker polls, two years running.

Perfect left the band in 1969 when she married John McVie of Fleetwood Mac.

CHICKEN SHACK
Uploaded by ivanof55. - See the latest featured music videos.

Nobody's Fault But Mine - Weissenborn Blues Cover

Notes from YouTube: Nobody's Fault But Mine played on my Ermanno Pasqualato weissenborn style lapslide.

Lyrics: Traditional/Blind Willie Johnson

Nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul get lost
Nobody's fault but mine

My mama she taught me how to read
My mama she taught me how to read
If I don't read, my soul be lost
Ain't nobody's fault but mine

My sister she taught me how to read
My sister she taught me how to read
If I don't read, my soul be lost
Ain't nobody's fault but mine

Nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul be lost
Ain't nobody's fault but mine

Nobody's fault but mine
Nobody's fault but mine
If I don't read, my soul get lost
Nobody's fault but mine

Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88

Jackie Brenston (vocal, baritone sax); Raymond Hill (tenor sax); Ike Turner (piano); Willie Kizart (guitar); Jesse Knight (bass); Willie Sims (drums)



Wikipedia

The original version of the 12-bar blues song was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who took the song to number one on the R&B charts. The band did not actually exist and the song was put together by Ike Turner and his band in rehearsals at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and recorded by Turner's Kings of Rhythm. Jackie Brenston (1930-1979), who was a saxophonist with Turner, also sang the vocal on "Rocket 88", a hymn of praise to the joys of the Oldsmobile "Rocket 88", which had recently been introduced.

It's time to Boogie Woogie and that's that

Curtis Salgado - 20 Years of BB King

Notes from YouTube; 2010 LRBC Caribbean Cruise Main Stage From the finest floating festival on the planet! Kodak Zi8 and Sony Stereo Mic

Robert Belfour - Done Got Old (live)

Robert Belfour
Done Got Old (live)

Little Junior's Blue Flames - Mystery Train

(Herman Parker-Sam Phillips)
Junior Parker (vocals); probably: Floyd Murphy (guitar); William Johnson (piano); possibly Kenneth Banks (bass); John Bowers (drums)
Produced by Sam Phillips - Recorded Memphis, Tennessee, September/October 1953





Junior Parker, also known as Little Junior Parker or "Mr Blues" (May 27, 1932[2]–November 18, 1971) was a successful and influential Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth". He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001

Blues Quote - Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips once remarked of Chester Arthur Burnett, "When I heard Howlin' Wolf, I said, 'This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies.'

John Lee Hooker - "I'm Going Upstairs"

The Definitive Collection

Click image for info


John Lee Hooker @SqueezeMyLemon

John Lee Hooker @Amazon.com

Billie Holiday - I'm A Fool To Want You

Wikipedia

Lady in Satin is an album by jazz singer Billie Holiday released in 1958 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1157 in mono and CS 8048 in stereo. It is the final album completed by the singer and released in her lifetime. ....... Holiday's voice had lost much of its upper range in her 40s, although she still retained her rhythmic phrasing. The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the album a three-star rating of a possible four stars, but expressed a basic reservation about the album, describing it as "a voyeuristic look at a beaten woman."

Ray Ellis said of the album in 1997:

I would say that the most emotional moment was her listening to the playback of "I'm a Fool to Want You". There were tears in her eyes...After we finished the album I went into the control room and listened to all the takes. I must admit I was unhappy with her performance, but I was just listening musically instead of emotionally. It wasn't until I heard the final mix a few weeks later that I realized how great her performance really was

written by Frank

Lady in Satin

Sleepy John Estes

Sleepy John Estes
Originally uploaded by george mitchell1

Notes from flickr.com

Sleepy John Estes

Sleepy John Estes, Brownsville, Tennessee, 1962. Taken with a Kodak Brownie camera.

Uploaded by george mitchell1 on 18 Feb 10, 8.19PM PDT.

Big Joe Williams and friends

Big Joe Williams and friends
Originally uploaded by george mitchell1

Notes from flickr.com

Big Joe Williams and friends

Big Joe Williams in Chicago in 1963 at Pete Welding's home studio.

Uploaded by george mitchell1 on 26 Feb 10, 2.20PM PDT.

Jessie Mae Hemphill

Jessie Mae Hemphill
Originally uploaded by george mitchell1

Notes from flickr.com

Jessie Mae Hemphill

Jessie Mae Hemphill, Senatobia, Mississippi, 1967. She lived right acoss a field from another Hemphill, Rosa Lee Hill.

Uploaded by george mitchell1 on 28 Feb 10, 11.26AM PDT.

Will Shade

Will Shade
Originally uploaded by george mitchell1

Notes from flickr.com

Will Shade

Will Shade, also known as Son Brimmer, was the head of the great Memphis Jug Band. Here he is blowing harmonica, his main instrument, but he also blew the jug, played the one-string oil-can bass, and guitar. In the background is his wife, Jennie Mae Clayton Shade, known in her younger days as the beauty of Beale Street and a singer with the Memphis Jug Band. Photograph taken with, if I remember correctly the Sears/Roebuck version of a Kodak Brownie. Memphis, Tennessee, 1962.

Uploaded by george mitchell1 on 7 Mar 10, 9.25PM PDT.

Lonzie Thomas

Lonzie Thomas
Originally uploaded by george mitchell1

Notes from flickr.com

Lonzie Thomas

A great blind street musician, outside his home here. Lee County, Alabama, 1980. Hear him at Red Cross Store

Uploaded by george mitchell1 on 8 Mar 10, 6.57PM PDT.

Charlie Burse

Charlie Burse
Originally uploaded by george mitchell1

Notes from flickr.com

Charlie Burse

Charlie Burse of the Memphis Jug Band playig tenor guitar. Memphis, Tennessee,1962. Taken with Sears eqivalent of Kodak Brownie camera.

Uploaded by george mitchell1 on 10 Mar 10, 2.22PM PDT.

Memphis Jug Band - K.C. Moan

Wikipedia

The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s. The band featured harmonicas, violins, mandolins, banjos, and guitars, backed by washboards, kazoo, and jugs blown to supply the bass; they played in a variety of musical styles. The band recorded almost a hundred titles

It's the Birthday of Big Walter Horton

According to Wikipedia

Walter Horton, better known as Big Walter Horton or Walter "Shakey" Horton, (April 6, 1917 – December 8, 1981) was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming and essentially shy man, Horton is remembered as one of the most influential harmonica players in the history of blues. Willie Dixon once called Horton "the best harmonica player I ever heard."

Hoochie Coochie Man - Muddy Waters

"Hoochie Coochie Man" (sometimes referred to as "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man") is a 1954 song written by Willie Dixon and first performed by Muddy Waters. The song was a major hit upon its release, reaching number eight on Billboard magazine's Black Singles chart. Waters' rendition of the song was featured on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, where it was voted number 225 by representatives of the music industry and press.

The Hoochie coochie was a sexually provocative dance that became wildly popular during and after the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

Since the dance was performed by women, a ‘hoochie coochie man’ either watched them or ran the show. Alternatively, from the directly sexual meaning of hoochie coochie, he greatly enjoyed sexual intercourse

Joe Bonamassa "Burning Hell"

Joe Bonamassa 'Burning Hell' live at the jazz festival, Montreal.

It's the Birthday of Adam Gussow

Adam Gussow (born April 3, 1958, New York, United States) is a scholar, memoirist, and blues harmonica player.

Gussow is currently an associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. He spent twelve years (1986-1998) working the streets of Harlem and the international club and festival circuit with Mississippi-born bluesman Sterling Magee as a duo called Satan and Adam.


Check him out online at these places;

* Adam Gussow's Modern Blues Harmonica web site

* Adam Gussow's dirty-South blues harp channel

* Adam Gussow's Facebook page

* Adam Gussow @Amazon.com

* Satan & Adam @Amazon.com

Blues Britannia - Tony (T.S.) McPhee

Tony McPhee (born Anthony Charles McPhee, 23 March 1944, at Redlands House, near Humberston, Lincolnshire) is an English blues guitarist, and founder of The Groundhogs, a blues-rock trio that produced three UK top ten albums in the early 1970s

The Carolina Chocolate Drops

Genuine Negro Jig

click image for CD

I can not say enough about these guys. They are new to me, but they are also very old souls.

From Wikipedia;

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina, United States. Formed in November 2005 following the members' attendance at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, the group is one of the few remaining African American string bands. The group has three members: Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, and Justin Robinson, who were all in their twenties when the group formed. All of the musicians sing, and trade instruments including banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, snare drum, bones, jug, and kazoo. The group learned much of their repertoire, which is based on the traditional music of the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, from the eminent African American old-time fiddler Joe Thompson, although they also perform old-time versions of some modern songs such as Blu Cantrell's R&B hit "Hit 'em Up Style (Oops!)."

Members

* Dom Flemons - 4-string banjo, guitar, jug, harmonica, kazoo, snare drum, bones
* Rhiannon Giddens - 5-string banjo, fiddle, kazoo
* Justin Robinson - fiddle, 5-string banjo, autoharp, jug, beatbox

Carolina Chocolate Drops @Amazon.com

Carolina Chocolate Drops official site

Carolina Chocolate Drops @SqueezeMyLemon

Sonny Boy Williamson - Bring It On Home

Wikipedia

Sonny Boy Williamson Bring It On Home — 2:34 (Willie Dixon)
"Bring It On Home" is a song written by Willie Dixon and made famous by Sonny Boy Williamson II in 1963, featuring a simple rhythm track and interplay between vocals and harmonica.

In 1969, English rock band Led Zeppelin recorded a version of the song for their album Led Zeppelin II. The intro and outro were deliberate homages to the Sonny Boy Williamson song, while the rest of the track was an original Jimmy Page/Robert Plant composition. However, Dixon was not given a lyric writing credit for the track, leading to Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, bringing a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement and winning an out-of-court settlement in the 1970s. Dixon himself did not benefit until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and a copyright credit.

Bring It On Home

Mississippi John Hurt - "Spike Driver Blues"

Notes from YouTube;

Seen here with Pete Seeger & Hedy West. Not sure of date, circa 1950's-60's(post Seeger blacklist). Playing John Henry (Steeldriver Blues). Lived:(March 8, 1892,Carroll County, Mississippi - November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) the eighth child of ten.