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Post by BunnyWhit on Jul 10, 2024 19:05:13 GMT
Happy Birthday, Béla Fleck! (10 July 1958)
I've post Fleck's "Rhapsody in Blue" elsewhere on this site, but it deserves repeating.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Jul 22, 2024 2:12:42 GMT
Dreams of movie magic and falling in love with a shooting stars like the Mad Housewife...
I fell in love with the actress. She was playing a part that I could understand.
Neil Young - A Man Needs A Maid (Live at the BBC 1971)
Pretty Pegi of the California canyons is no longer with us I am sorry to learn.
Neil Young - Unknown Legend
I suppose Neil has written something about The Mermaid but I am not up to that just yet.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Jul 23, 2024 13:59:43 GMT
There are times when we need soothing and a reminder that all is right with the world, and I've found over the years that one thing I can invariably turn to is Jayne Mansfield's Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky and Me (1964). I got it out recently and it had the expected salutary effect.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Jul 23, 2024 14:08:40 GMT
Another voice which can have a soothing effect on me, perhaps more explainable than Jayne Mansfield's, is Robert Frost's. This particular poem, my favorite, skirts on the edge of darkness, but is somehow also an affirmation of what a life can mean.
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Post by BunnyWhit on Jul 23, 2024 15:57:28 GMT
Happy Birthday to the Swamp Fox, Tony Joe White! (23 July 1943 -- 24 October 2018)
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Post by BunnyWhit on Jul 24, 2024 1:29:02 GMT
John Mayall, Godfather of British Blues, dead at 90
Mayall practically single-handedly brought the blues to England. His tireless work in the 1960s with his band, The Bluesbreakers, gave the likes of Eric Clapton, Alexis Korner, Peter Green and John McVie a stamping ground. Without Mayall, there might never have been Cream, Fleetwood Mac, or the Rolling Stones.
Otis Rush's "All Your Love" was a favorite of Mayall's. It is the opening track on the John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers debut album, Blues Breakers (1966). My yes, it's from the heart of the "Clapton is God" period.
"Room to Move" on The Turning Point (1969) was Mayall's signature tune.
Mayall kept rolling through the decades. "The Sensitive Kind" on A Sense of Place (1990)
I saw John Mayall live a handful of times. His all-consuming love of the blues was infectious, mesmerizing, and nothing short of a gift to all.
Rest well, dear man.
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Post by BunnyWhit on Jul 26, 2024 14:33:28 GMT
Happy Birthday, Mick Jagger! (26 July 1943)
Humble beginnings, folks!
first appearance with Ed Sullivan
from the Rock and Roll Circus, 1968
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 26, 2024 18:36:52 GMT
Following on BunnyWhit.
Mck and the band at maximum hair and a freakin' awesome song:
Mick never forgot his Blues roots:
Great pics and one of my favorite not-well-known Stone's song:
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Post by BunnyWhit on Jul 26, 2024 22:30:52 GMT
Mick never forgot his Blues roots:
All you have to do is take a look at the debut album, The Rolling Stones (1964). The boys did Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Slim Harpo, and Rufus Thomas tunes. Then the Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry influence on the album paved the bridge from blues to rock and roll. It's a fine offering. |
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Post by BunnyWhit on Jul 31, 2024 1:53:31 GMT
Happy Birthday, George "Buddy" Guy! (30 July 1936)
Born the first child of Louisiana sharecroppers, Buddy Guy is no stranger to hard work. He came up through the ranks musically. He began gigging in Baton Rouge in the mid-1950s, then moved to Chicago in 1957. There he came under the tutelage of Muddy Waters. He earned his first recording contract as a result of winning a competition in which he played against other guitar greats like Otis Rush and Magic Sam. Guy was on Chess Records for over a decade, but the label impeded his ascension by refusing to allow him to record in his unique style. Guy essentially was relegated to the house band, but he backed the greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Koko Taylor, and the list continues. Still, through it all, Guy worked as a tow truck driver until 1967.
Guy's career got the boost it needed during the blues revival of the late-1980s and early-1990s. His earned the first of his eight competitive Grammy Awards for his album Damn Right, I've Got the Blues (1991). He has also been awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement, National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors, multiple W.C. Handy awards, among others.
At age 88, Guy is completing his farewell tour, but he's not done performing. He still does regular gigs at his Chicago club, Buddy Guy's Legends, and intends to to do limited engagement at various other festivals throughout the country.
If you should have the opportunity, watch PBS's American Masters documentary Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away (2021). It's excellent.
From a two-string homemade diddley bow to the electric electrified polka-dot Fender that is his trademark, Chicago bluesman, Buddy Guy, has maintained an original voice in the blues pantheon. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the man Eric Clapton considers "the greatest guitarist [he's] ever heard."
Damn Right, I've Got the Blues (1991) -- Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
Living Proof (2010) -- Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album
Bring 'Em In (2005)
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Post by BunnyWhit on Aug 1, 2024 22:10:05 GMT
Happy Birthday, Robert Cray! (1 August 1953)
Young Bob's first Grammy Award was for the album Showdown! (1985), a collaboration with his hero Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland. Nothing like starting out on top. Strong Persuader (1986) earned Cray the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album, and he took that honor again the following year with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1988). Obviously, Cray helped usher in the blues revival of the 1980s. He has also been successful in bringing blues sounds across to the contemporary charts, historically a difficult task. He plays a great show, so go see him if you get the chance.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Aug 16, 2024 18:38:38 GMT
Back in the early 1980's a friend did a DJ gig featuring 1950's R & B on the local community radio station on Saturday nights midnight - 3 AM. I was working nights then so I recorded a lot of the shows on cassette. They're in surprisingly good shape but I've started digitizing them and falling in love with the music all over again. I like most kinds of music, but this stuff in particular really gets to me.
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Post by BunnyWhit on Aug 18, 2024 18:29:59 GMT
Happy Birthday, Johnny Preston! (18 August 1939 -- 4 March 2011)
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Post by BunnyWhit on Aug 20, 2024 15:11:19 GMT
Happy Birthday, Jim Reeves! (20 August 1923 -- 31 July 1964)
Gentleman Jim: "If I, a lowly singer, dry one tear, or soothe one humble human heart in pain, then my homely verse to God is dear, and not one stanza has been sung in vain."
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Post by BunnyWhit on Aug 22, 2024 20:57:50 GMT
Happy Birthday, John Lee Hooker! (22 August 1917 -- 21 June 2001)
“Nobody know John Lee Hooker,” he once said. “They know as much about my cat as they know about me.”
Perhaps it's true, but what we do know about John Lee Hooker is that he was one of the finest bluesmen ever to plug into an amp. His brand of electrified Delta blues found its foothold when Hooker moved to Detroit in the 1940s. "Boogie Chillen" was his first hit in 1949. As was his way, Hooker recorded the tune multiple times during his career, each time a little differently. He did this with his own songs -- among them "Boom Boom" and "I'm In the Mood" -- as well as other of his signature songs written by others.
John Lee Hooker's style is often called "raw." I believe that Hooker's spare, minimalist approach is what is meant here. He was not the greatest guitarist -- he said this many times himself throughout his career -- and though he did write some songs, he was functionally illiterate. If you want to capture the truest feeling that is the blues, listen to Hooker.
The Hook remained busy in the music business, but he did not have a charting album until 1970's Hooker 'n Heat, which he recorded with Canned Heat. From this point forward, collaboration became a big part of Hooker's recording. Several of his albums are comprised of collaborations with the likes of Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Steve Miller, Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, and so many others. I am not always a fan of these types of collaborative efforts because all too often the result sounds like a competition. Hooker duets sound like a joyful raising up of others, and you can always hear the admiration from him and to him.
John Lee Hooker won his first Grammy in 1990 at the age of 73. It was the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Performance, awarded for "I'm In the Mood," his duet with Bonnie Raitt on the excellent album The Healer (1989). The album met with critical and commercial success, and it along with his appearance in The Blues Brothers (1980) were largely responsible for Hooker's comfort in his remaining years.
"Boogie Chillen"
"Bottle Up & Go" from Boom Boom (1962) is one of my all-time favorite Hooker recordings.
Hooker and Raitt, "I'm In the Mood" (adults only, please)
If you think John Lee's backing band in this "Boom Boom" clip from The Blues Brothers is comprised of actors, think again. It's Walter Horton, Pinetop Perkins, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, Luther "Guitar Jr" Johnson, and Calvin "Fuzz" Jones. To quote Elwood, "Yep."
"This is Hip" from Mr. Lucky (1991) -- My advice to you is: don't even try to be this cool. You'll only hurt yourself.
I cried like a baby the day John Lee Hooker left us, and my memorial to him adorned my refrigerator for months afterwards. Thank you for what you gave, John Lee.
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