Berks Blues Fest Blog

James Cotton - Slow Blues

Sigudo — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:35:48 GMT

James Cotton (called Cotton by his friends) was born
on the first day of July,1935, in Tunica, Mississippi. He was the
youngest of eight brothers and sisters who grew up in the cotton fields working beside their mother, Hattie, and their father, Mose. On Sundays Mose was the preacher in the area's Baptist church. Cotton's earliest memories include his mother playing chicken and train sounds on her harmonica and for a few years he thought those were the only two sounds the little instrument made. His Christmas present one year was a harmonica, it cost 15 cents, and it wasn't long before he mastered the chicken and the train. King Biscuit Time, a 15-minute radio show, began broadcasting live on KFFA, a station just across the Mississippi River in
Helena, Arkansas. The star of the show was the harmonica legend, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller). The young Cotton pressed his little ear to the old radio speaker. He recognized the harmonica sound AND discovered something - the harp did more! Realizing this, a profound change came over him, and since that moment, Cotton and his harp have been inseparable - the love affair had begun. Soon he was able to play Sonny Boy's theme song from the radio show and, as he grew so did his repertoire of Sonny Boy's other songs. Mississippi summers are ghastly, the heat is unrelenting. He was too young to actually work in the cotton fields, so little Cotton would bring water to those who did. When it was time for him to take a break from his job, he would sit in the shadow of the plantation foreman's horse and play his harp. His music became a source of joy for his first audience. James Cotton's star began to shine brightly at a very early age.

Read More Here

Ray Charles & Oscar Peterson Play A Blues Duet - Very Rare

Sigudo — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:04:45 GMT

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC, CQ, O.Ont. (15 August 1925 � 23 December 2007)was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends, and was a member of jazz royalty. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career. He is considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of all time, who played thousands of live concerts to audiences worldwide in a career lasting more than 65 years.

---------------

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 � June 10, 2004), known by his stage name Ray Charles, was an American pianist and singer, who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues. He brought a soulful sound to country music and pop standards through his Modern Sounds recordings, as well as a rendition of "America the Beautiful" that Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes called the "definitive version of the song, an American anthem � a classic, just as the man who sung it." Frank Sinatra called him "the only true genius in the business".

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Charles number ten on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and also voted him number two on their November 2008 list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Rockman Blues Band - Wish I was in New Orleans - Tom Waits Cover

Sigudo — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:43:04 GMT

Rock Man Blues Band provides an evening of live old timey, acoustic, eclectic, bluesy americana for your listening pleaser...

Playing acoustic music using National Guitar, Harmonica, Stand up Bass, and Accordion.

Playing songs by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Tom Waits and many, many more.

http://rockmanbluesband.com

Call 610-372-7268 for booking information.

(BLACK FRIDAY) Fri Nov 28th 2008 7 - 10 PM

Canal Street Restaurant & Pub
535 Canal Street Reading, PA 19602
610-376-4009
Official Website

View Larger Map

Please Check out our new video on our webste

"Not Anymore" - Screamin' Jay Hawkins! Rare Chicago Blues Metal 45RPM Negative from 1957

Sigudo — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:52:50 GMT

Jalacy Hawkins, best known as Screamin' Jay Hawkins (July 18, 1929 � February 12, 2000) was an African-American singer. Famed chiefly for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances of songs such as "I Put a Spell on You" and "Constipation Blues," Hawkins sometimes used macabre props onstage, making him perhaps the first shock rocker.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Hawkins originally set out to become an opera singer, and has regularly cited Paul Robeson as his idol. When his initial ambitions failed, he began his career as a conventional blues singer and pianist.

He served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Ocean during World War II, primarily as an entertainer, although he claimed to have been a POW. Hawkins was an avid and formidable boxer: in 1949, he was the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska.

In 1951, he joined guitarist Tiny Grimes for a while, and recorded a few songs with him. When Hawkins became a solo performer, he often performed in a very stylish wardrobe, featuring leopard skins, red leather and wild hats.

"I Put a Spell on You"

His most successful recording, "I Put a Spell on You" (1956), was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Later career

Hawkins had several further hits, including "Constipation Blues", "Orange Colored Sky", and "Feast of the Mau Mau". Nothing he released, however, had the monumental success of "I Put a Spell on You".

He continued to tour and record through the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Europe, where he was very popular. He appeared in performance (as himself) in the Alan Freed bio-pic "American Hot Wax" in 1978. Subsequently, the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch featured "I Put a Spell on You" on the soundtrack � and deep in the plot � of his film Stranger Than Paradise (1983) and then Hawkins himself as a hotel night clerk in his Mystery Train. ad roles in �lex de la Iglesia's Perdita Durango and Bill Duke's adaptation of Chester Himes' A Rage In Harlem.

His 1957 single "Frenzy" (found on the early 1980s compilation of the same name) was included in the compilation CD, "Songs in the Key of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files", in 1996. This song was featured in the show's season 2 episode "Humbug". It was also covered by the band Bratmobile

In July 1991, Hawkins released his album Black Music for White People. The record features covers of two Tom Waits compositions; "Heart Attack and Vine" (which, later that year, was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits' permission, resulting in a lawsuit), and "Ice Cream Man" (which, contrary to popular belief, is a Waits original, and not a cover of the John Brim classic. Incidentally, Hawkins also covered the Waits tune "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard" for his album Somethin' Funny Goin' On.)

Hawkins also toured with The Clash and Nick Cave during this period, and not only became a fixture of blues festivals, but appeared at many film festivals as well.

His performance style earned him a loyal following � the use of a skull, a moving arm and, in his early days, a coffin �added to his charisma.

Hawkins died on February 12, 2000 after surgery to treat an aneurysm. He left behind many children by many women; about 55 were known (or suspected) upon his death, and upon investigation, that number "soon became perhaps 75 offspring", according to this website.

Floyd Jones & Big Walter Chicago Blues

Sigudo — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:48:12 GMT

Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 � December 19, 1989) was an American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, who is significant as one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after the Second World War. A number of Jones' recordings are regarded as classics of the Chicago blues idiom,[1] and his song "On The Road Again" was a top ten hit for Canned Heat in 1968.[2] Notably for a blues artist of his era, several of his songs have economic or social themes, such as "Stockyard Blues" (which refers to a strike at the Union Stockyards), "Hard Times" or "Schooldays".[3]

Life and career

Jones was born in Marianna, Arkansas. He started playing guitar seriously after being given a guitar by Howlin' Wolf, and worked as an itinerant musician in the Arkansas and Mississippi area in the 1930s and early 1940s, before settling in Chicago in 1945.[4]

In Chicago, Jones took up the electric guitar, and was one of a number of musicians playing on Maxwell Street and in non-union venues in the late 1940s who played an important role in the development of the post-war Chicago Blues sound. This group included Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers, both of who went on to become mainstays of the Muddy Waters band, and also Snooky Pryor, Floyd's cousin Moody Jones and mandolin player Johnny Young. His first recording session in 1947, with Snooky on harmonica and Moody on guitar, produced the sides "Stockyard Blues" and "Keep What You Got", which formed one of the two records released by the Marvel Label, and was one of the first examples of the new style on record. A second session in 1949 resulted in a release on the similarly short-lived Tempo-Tone label. During the 1950s Jones also had records released on JOB, Chess and Vee-Jay, and in 1966 he recorded for the Testament label's Masters of Modern Blues series.[5]

Jones continued performing in Chicago for the rest of his life, although he had few further recording opportunities. Later in his career the electric bass became his main instrument.[6] He died in Chicago in December 1989.

Big Walter Horton or Walter "Shakey" Horton (April 6, 1917� December 8, 1981) was an American blues harmonica player.

Born Walter Horton in Horn Lake, Mississippi, he was playing a harmonica by the time he was five years old. In his early teens, he lived in Memphis, Tennessee and claimed that his earliest recordings were done there in the late 1920s with the Memphis Jug Band, although there is no documentation, and many have since disputed this claim. (He also claimed to have taught some harmonica to Little Walter and the original Sonny Boy Williamson, although these claims are unsubstantiated, and in the case of the older Williamson, somewhat suspect.) As with many of his peers, he spent much of his career existing on a meager income and living with constant discrimination in a segregated America. In the 1930s he played with various blues performers across the Mississippi delta region. It's generally accepted that his first recordings were made in Memphis, backing guitarist Little Buddy Doyle on recordings for the Okeh and Vocalion Records labels, in 1939. These recordings were in the acoustic duo format popularized by Sleepy John Estes with his harmonicist Hammie Nixon, among others. On these recordings, Walter's style is not yet fully realized, but there are clear hints of what is to come. He eventually stopped playing the harp for a living due to poor health, and worked mainly outside of music in the 1940s. By the early 1950s, he was playing music again, and was among the first to record for Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, who would later record rock and roll superstars Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and country giant Johnny Cash. The early Big Walter recordings from Sun include performances from a young Phineas Newborn, Jr. on piano, who later gained fame as a jazz pianist.

During the early 1950s he first appeared on the Chicago blues scene, where he frequently played with fellow Memphis and Delta musicians who had also moved north, including guitarists Eddie Taylor and Johnny Shines. When Junior Wells left the Muddy Waters band at the end of 1952, Horton replaced him in Muddy's band long enough to play on one session with Muddy in January 1953. Big Walter's style had by then fully matured, and he was playing in the heavily amplified style that became one of the trademarks of the Chicago blues sound. His harmonica playing is characterized by a deep, rich tone, and precise articulation, using the full register of the harp and utilizing the higher notes of the harp with great dexterity. His tone was consistently deeper or 'heavier' than Little Walter's, but with phrasing that was more in keeping with the Memphis traditions, and less adventurous and improvisational than the jazzier explorations employed by his chief harmonica rival Little Walter. He also made great use of techniques such as tongue-blocking. Many blues harmonica aficionados consider Horton's solo on Jimmy Rogers' 1956 Chess recording "Walking By Myself" to be his greatest moment, and a high point of post-war Chicago blues.

Also known as "Mumbles", and "Shakey" because of his head motion while playing the harmonica, Horton was active on the Chicago blues scene during the 1960s as blues music gained popularity with white audiences. From the early 1960s onward, he recorded and appeared frequently as a sideman with Eddie Taylor, Johnny Shines, Johnny Young, Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon and many others. He toured extensively, usually as a backing musician, and in the 1970s he performed at blues and folk festivals in the U.S. and Europe, frequently with Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All-Stars. He has also appeared as a guest on recordings by blues and rock stars such as Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter. In the late 1970s he toured the country with Homesick James Williamson, Richard Molina, Bradley Pierce Smith and Paul Nebenzahl, and appeared on National Public Radio broadcasts. His musical output was somewhat inconsistent over the course of his career, unpredictably wavering between brilliant and workmanlike, and much of his best work was done as a sideman. Some of the best compilations of his own work are Mouth-Harp Maestro and Fine Cuts. Also notable is the low-key but excellent Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell album released by Alligator Records in 1972.

A quiet, unassuming man,[citation needed] Horton is remembered as one of the most gifted harmonica players in the history of blues music. He died in Chicago in 1981 at the age of 64, and was buried in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

Buddy Guy First Time I Met The Blues blues

Sigudo — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:45:49 GMT

Buddy Guy
First Time I Met The Blues blues

The first time I met the blues,
People, you know I was walkin, I was walkin down through the woods.
Yes, the first time, the first time I met you, blues,
Blues you know I was walkin, I was walkin down through the woods.
* Yes, I've watched my house burnin blue,
Blues, you know you done me, you done me all the harm that you could.

The blues got after me,
People, you know they ran me from tree to tree.
Yes, the blues got after me,
Blues, you know you ran me, ran me from tree to tree.
Yes, you shoulda heard me beg ya, blues,
Ah, blues, don't murder me.

Yes, good mornin, blues,
Blues, I wonder, I wonder what you're doin here so soon?
Yes, good mornin, good mornin, good mornin, mister blues,
Blues, I wonder, I keep wonderin what you're doin here so soon?
Yes, you know you'll be with me every mornin, blues,
Every night and every noon.
Oh, yeah.

Old Blues

Sigudo — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:52:17 GMT

Cousin Joe" Pleasant

Sigudo — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:42:58 GMT

Check it out

"Cousin Joe" Pleasant (December 20, 1907 � October 2, 1989) was a blues and jazz singer, later famous for his 1940s recordings with clarinetist Sidney Bechet and saxophonist Mezz Mezzrow.

His birth name was Pleasant Joseph and he grew up in the fields of rural Louisiana.

The Blues & Gospel Train

Sigudo — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:23:58 GMT

The ticket for the Blues & Gospel Train performance. Produced by famous Granada TV 'light entertainment' producer Johnny Hamp, this ticket gets you on the train leaving Central Station (GMEX) and taking you to Wilbraham Rd Railway Station where there were top notch blues performances...

Until I saw this ticket I was under the impression that the performance was at the station where Morrisson's supermarket now stands, but according to the instructions on this ticket it was actually more at the bottom end of Whalley Range...

you can't lose some little girl you ain't never had - Muddy Waters

Sigudo — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:28:09 GMT

You Can't Lose What You Never Had

Muddy Waters, Allman Brothers

Had a sweet little girl, I lose my baby, boy ain't that bad
Had a sweet little girl, I lose my baby, boy ain't that bad
You can't spend what you ain't got,
you can't lose some little girl you ain't never had

Had money in the bank, I got busted, people ain't that bad
Had money in the bank, I got busted, people ain't that bad
You can't spend what you ain't got,
you can't lose some little girl you ain't never had

Ain't that the truth boys

Had a sweet little home, it got burned down, people ain't that bad
My own fault, people ain't that bad
Well you know you can't spend what you ain't got,
you can't lose some blues you ain't never had

Have mercy!

Sweet little home, got burned down, people ain't that bad
Yeah you know I had a sweet little home, it got burned down, people ain't that bad
Whoa you know you can't spend what you ain't got,
you can't lose some little girl you ain't never had