Beginning with a stirring African folk song (Zélié performed by Angélique Kidjo) the roots are established and rapidly swell into a trunk thickened by the hardships of the Great Depression (Gamblin' Man performed by David 'Honeyboy' Edwards) and the oppression of segregation (Jim Crow Blues performed by Odetta). Finally, this Blues family tree shows off vibrant new growth as it reveals the Blues' influence on our modern wealth of talented musicians (Midnight Special performed by John Fogerty and Hound Dog done by Macy Gray). Ruth Brown gives Blll Cosby a full-throttle serenade (and a playful smoldering gaze), along with Mavis Staples and Natalie Cole. Angélique Kidjo persuades Buddy Guy to an unforgettable rendition of 'Voodoo Child,' shortly before Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray accompany B.B. King and Lucille for the final number, 'Paying the Cost to be the Boss.' This documentary presents to the audience, with authority and candor, an authentic history of this musical form. The highly esteemed elders of this musical family are exemplary in their humbleness toward one another, rich with decades of shared memories; and their performances are of a quality rarely seen in modern times. These men and women are true artisans, yet they continue to generously pass their legacy down to select members of each musical generation. Those who grew up on this music find themselves performing on the stage with the very heroes who served as their earliest inspiration. Legends, such as Ruth Brown, Honeyboy Edwards, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, B.B. King, Howling Wolf, and Buddy Guy, gave the world a double helping of their genius-first with song and secondly as the spirit which supplies the continuation of their art: in such artists as Natalie Cole, Jimmie Vaughan, John Fogerty, Macy Gray, Alison Krause, and Bonnie Raitt. Written by Annie Campos

Homesick James (30 April 1910[1] - 13 December 2006) was a black American blues musician. He is believed to have been born John William Henderson, but later used the name James A. Williamson and was sometimes referred to as Homesick James Williamson.
Contents

* 1 Life
* 2 References
* 3 See also
o 3.1 External links

[edit] Life

He was born in Somerville, Tennessee, the son of Cordellia Henderson and Plez Williamson Rivers, who were both musicians[2]. He developed a self-taught style of slide guitar through playing at local dances in his teens. His early life is uncertain. He claimed to have played with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller and Big Joe Williams, among others, and to have been acquainted with Robert Johnson. He also claimed to be the older cousin of Elmore James, to have bought Elmore his first guitar, and to have taught him how to play slide. However, some of these claims are unconfirmed.

By the early 1930s he was based in Chicago, and formed a band called the Dusters that included Snooky Pryor and "Babyface" Leroy Foster[3]. He may have first recorded for RCA Victor in 1937, but this is also unconfirmed, and by 1938 may have begun playing electric guitar. His first known recordings were in 1952 for Chance Records, recording the tracks "Lonesome Ole Train" and "Homesick" which gave him his stage name. During the late 1940s and 1950s he worked with both Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), and with Elmore James. He was a longtime member of Elmore's band from 1955 to 1963, contributing to such classics as "Dust My Broom," "The Sky is Crying," and "Roll and Tumble." Elmore is said to have died on Homesick's couch while the latter frantically searched for the former's heart pills[4].

As a solo performer, he recorded for the Colt and USA labels in 1962, including a version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads". Homesick James's slide guitar style, not as refined as Elmore James's, traces back to Johnson's. He also recorded a 1964 album for Prestige Records, Blues On the South Side (Prestige OBCCD 529-2), including another of his best-known covers, "Stones In My Passway", and some tracks for Vanguard that are available on the compilation Chicago: The Blues Today.[5]. One of his own songs, "Gotta Move" (also on Blues On the South Side) was covered (as "Got To Move") both by Elmore James and by Fleetwood Mac.

In the 1970s he began playing at blues festivals, including some in Europe, often with Snooky Pryor. He continued to record for labels including Delmark, Prestige, Big Bear, Appaloosa and Icehouse Records. Homesick married Rosa Mangiullo, an Italian immigrant, who with her son Tony owns and operates premier blues club Rosa's Lounge on the west side of Chicago in the 1980s - they would remain married until his death although they did not live together other than for a brief period after the wedding. Her son Tony is a well-known blues drummer in Chicago and Europe. Homesick was referred to by name in the Deacon Blue song "Fergus Sings the Blues", in the lyric "Homesick James, my biggest influence". Homesick toured the country with Big Walter Horton and appeared on National Public Radio broadcasts live from college campuses in the late 1970s, backed by Rich Molina, Bradley P. Smith, Eddie Taylor, Guido Sinclair and Paul Nebenzahl.

He remained an active performer into his 90s, performing both locally and at international festivals, but stopped recording in 2004. He moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he was cared for during the last years of his life by blues musician and protege John Long, and died there on December 13, 2006. He is buried in Covington, Tennessee.

BIOGRAPHY:
When Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor sat down on his battered folding chair, slipped his steel slide onto his six-fingered left hand and tore into one of his foot-stomping shuffles, supercharged boogies or a searing slow blues, he had one thing in mind--making people forget their troubles, either by dancing or by immersing themselves in the deepest of bottleneck blues. And whether he was playing for old friends at one of Chicago's inner-city bars or for thousands of college kids and hippies at clubs and campuses around the country, Taylor's music never changed. With just two guitars and a drum set, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers created a rocked-out, hypnotic, ultra-danceable sound that is as emotionally powerful and wildly energizing today as it was the day they produced it.

Until he recorded his (and Alligator Records') first album, HOUND DOG TAYLOR AND THE HOUSEROCKERS in 1971, Taylor was largely unknown outside of Chicago. He played blues guitar for 35 years before reaching a wider audience and gaining the status of a beloved blues icon. From the mid-1950's until 1975, Taylor and his band--second guitarist Brewer Phillips and drummer Ted Harvey--kicked out the blues jams all over the South and West sides, including a regular Sunday afternoon gig at Florence's Lounge. It was at one of these performances in 1970 where a young blues fan named Bruce Iglauer decided to start a blues record label for the sole purpose of recording Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers.

Without a drop of slickness, Taylor's electrified blues was feral, rocking and raw. Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau referred to the band as "the Ramones of the blues," and it's easy to understand why. Taylor played fast, loud and sloppy, and would sometimes hit bad notes or get out of tune. But he always made primeval, soul-satisfying music. Nobody could match him when it came to emotional fervor and the pure joy of making music. Songs like Give Me Back My Wig, She's Gone, and Walking The Ceiling are now considered blues classics. "Live wire exuberance and hard-as-nails force," said Rolling Stone, "natural for partying, drinking and talking loud."

Now, for the first time in 22 years, there's finally more Hound Dog Taylor music to be heard. RELEASE THE HOUND is a sizzling collection of some of the best previously unreleased Hound Dog Taylor material in existence. Featuring over 68 minutes of music, RELEASE THE HOUND boasts 14 live and studio performances, including stunning versions of Wild About You, Baby, What'd I Say?, She's Gone, Sen-Sa-Shun and Gonna Send You Back To Georgia. Taylor's wild guitar exuberance and joyous, soulful abandon fuel each and every song. Three instrumentals on the CD showcase Brewer Phillips' crazed lead guitar playing. From the audience reactions on the live cuts to the untamed blues energy of the studio tracks, RELEASE THE HOUND will delight old fans and introduce new ones to Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers' one-of-a-kind blues experience.

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Crow Jane Skip James

Crow Jane Crow Jane, don’t you hold your head too high
Someday, baby you know you got to die

You got to lay down and.
You got to die…
You got to….

You know I wanna buy me a pistol,
Want me 40 rounds of ball
Shoot crow jane Just to see her fall
She got to fall She go to
She got to

I wanna dig her grave
With a silver spade
I aint gonna let nobody take her place
No, you can’t take her…
No, you can”t take her place

solo

I never missed my water
Till my well went dry
Didn’t missed crow jane until she…
Till the day she died, till the day she…

There’s a reason I begged Crow Jane
Not to hold her head too high
Someday, baby, you know you got to die
You got to lay down…

And I dug that women’s grave
8 ft in the ground
I didn’t feel sorry
Until they let her down
They had to let her down, let her…

There’s a reason I begged Crow Jane
Not to hold her head too high
Someday, baby, you know you got to die

Jimmy Rogers was born James A. Lane in Ruleville, Mississippi, on June 3, 1924, and was raised in Atlanta and Memphis.[1] He adapted the professional surname "Rogers" from his stepfather's last name. Rogers learned the harmonica alongside his childhood friend Snooky Pryor, and as a teenager took up the guitar and played professionally in East St. Louis, Illinois (where he played with Robert Lockwood, Jr., among others), before moving to Chicago in the mid 1940s.[citation needed] By 1946 he had recorded his first record as a harmonica player and singer for the local Harlem record label (not to be confused with the New York based label of the same name), although his name was not included on the label — the record was issued under the names "Memphis Slim and his Houserockers".

Rogers joined Muddy Waters the next year, with whom he helped shape the sound of the nascent Chicago Blues style. Although he had several successful releases of his own on Chess Records beginning in 1950 with "That's Alright", he stayed with Waters' until leaving his band for a solo career in 1954. In the mid 1950s he enjoyed several successful record releases on the Chess label, most notably "Walking By Myself", but as the 1950s drew to a close and interest in the blues waned, he gradually withdrew from the music industry. In the early 1960s he worked as a member of Howling Wolf's band, before finally withdrawing from the music business altogether for almost a decade. He worked as a cab driver and owned a clothing store, until his store was burned in the Chicago riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. He gradually began performing in public again, and in 1971 when fashions made him a reasonable draw in Europe, Rogers began occasionally touring and recording again, including a 1977 reunion session with his old bandleader Waters. By 1982, Rogers was again a full-time solo artist.

In 1995 Rogers was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[2]

He continued touring and recording albums until his death in 1997, in Chicago. He was survived by his son, James D. Lane, who is also a guitarist and a record producer and recording engineer for Blue Heaven Studios and the APO Records label.