The Real and The Retro

Johnny Young
The Complete
Blue Horizon
Sessions
Blue Horizon
Remastered

Here's a quickie before I head off to China for a amazing and amazingly cheap trip. More 'bout that later.

I spied the release of Johnny Young's The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions on Blue Beat's website and since I knew that Paul Oscher was aboard and that it would be chock full of deep Chicago blues, I decided that I should add it to what I've got. I have some of Johnny Young's stuff on compilations and his Testament records release, so I figured that I could expect some excellent singing and mandolin blues and that's exactly what I got.

Let me say here, that historical reissues such as these HAVE to be purchased in CD form for the extensive liner notes that offer so much more value to the recording than just downloading the music from iTunes or such. This reissue comes from Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon vaults and basically recaptures the magic from Johnny Young's originally titled Fat Mandolin. It is replete with false starts, alternate takes and previously unissued releases. The notes include a fascinating history of the mandolin in blues and popular music. Great reading, and the history of this session is just as interesting. Not gonna re-cap it right now.

Okay, how can you go wrong with Johnny Young leading a band that consists of Otis Spann (piano), Sammy Lawhorn (bass guitar/second guitar), S.P. Leary (drums) and Paul Oscher (harmonica)? Hard to do, if Chicago blues is your thang. Spann's playing is particularly inspired (I believe that he was tapped to record his own Blue Horizon stuff very shortly afterwards). Young's singing is powerful and if you haven't heard how efffective he can stick a mandolin into the blues, then you owe it to yourself to get it just for that reason. This is Chicago style ensemble blues playing, much the same as Muddy and his bands created (most of these cats were in his band). Oscher weaves his harp in and out of the grooves and leans on it when his number is called. He comes up with some good sideman ideas. Not really showcase stuff, but just following the leader. I love this release. That's it--(said it'd be short).


Morry Sochat
& The Special 20s
Swingin'
Shufflin'
Smokin'
Self Production

When I was looking around for the Young disc, I ran across a release by the Special 20s. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I had checked it out based on the fact that Special 20 is the name of a Hohner harmonica and figured that someone played the blues harp in the band. That someone is Morry Sochat and it seems that he moved from Texas to Chicago in the 1990s and took lessons with the modern master Joe Filisko. It also seems that he has been on the Chicago scene since then and has played with most of the blues movers and shakers in that town. He certainly has gathered together some fine musicians on this release with Shoji Naito (guitar), Jim St. Marie (guitar), Ted Beranis (bass), Dave Ross (piano), Kenny Smith (Willie's boy on drums)and Nick Krebs who adds harmonica touches to five of the tunes. Both he and Sochat are fairly efficient blues harp guys and get some good tonal variety pumping, especially on classic covers such as Standing Around Crying (Krebs), Young Fashioned Ways (Krebs), Train Kept A-Rollin' (Sochat), Can't Hold Out Much Longer (Sochat) or George Smith's Rocking (Sochat). Sochat's originals don't stray far from the tree and in some cases gives direct credit to his mentors, such as on the opener 1955, which is a Chicago blues name dropper of a tune recalling those of yesteryear.

These guys are good, but there's not much that separates them from the crowded field of retro-active blues bands out there. That's okay with me because I like what they are doing and after checking out their website, it seems that they ply their trade mostly around Chicago. To me, that's great to know that anyone that drops into the city can see the younger set carrying on the tradition. Anyway--I'm gone.

My Take--Today

I've been asked in the past who my favorites are in the world of blues and I always say that it depends. The genre encompasses way more styles that a lot of folks realize. Are we talking pre-war? Post war? Mississippi Delta? Chicago electric? Acoustic? Solo? Ensemble? Big Band? Piedmont finger picking? West Coast? East Coast? It is the ol' apples and oranges in some cases or Granny Smith's to Red Delicious in other cases, but it is always tied into the taste of the consumer and my appetite changes from time to time. There are some folks, though, that will always be on my list of favorites--regardless. No over analyzing here, just off the top of my head and off the finger tips. Here's a few:

Pre-War:
1. Charley Patton--He could go from playing some of the deepest blues ever recorded to being a total clown, to singing a hymn book and he was a master at getting it all across. I think he influenced everyone who followed him out of the Mississippi Delta. He transformed the guitar into a percussive instrument that elicited a power that was definitive to the region's style. His recordings are an acquired taste, but once he settles into the soul, he stays awhile.

2. Robert Johnson--Arguably the most influential bluesman from the mid to late 1920s and I won't argue that he's not. His re-issued recordings went Gold 60 years after his death. The list of those that fell under his spell and the music is long. He was influenced by all who preceded him, but took what they gave him and created a window into the dark passages of man's existence and made it all his own. The man could play. His recordings sparked an interest in me to search out his influences and his contemporaries.

3. Blind Lemon Jefferson--He pretty much had everyone in the blues world beat out in terms of records on the market back in those days and he was from Texas and even T-Bone Walker cut his teeth by hanging with Lemon. Like Patton, his recordings suffer from needing a bit of a little modern techniques to clean up the sound, but also like Patton, once his message is grasped, it's hard to argue the genius of the man. Guitarists will tell you just how intricate his picking was and how difficult it is to master his stuff. Everybody who was anybody in 20th century blues owes a debt to Blind Lemon Jefferson. Many, many artists recorded his songs or stole lyrical lines from his songs that became famous down the line. Lightnin' Hopkins, who in his youth crossed paths with the blind man, covered a wealth of his songs and took his musical style and created in own methods and went of to influence succeeding generations. BB King goes back to his roots on his latest CD and knocks out a great version of See That My Grave Is Kept Clean. Roaring "20s" blues that remains important in the 21st century. Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley both did versions of his Matchbox Blues in the '50s.

4. Skip James--He was one of those "Re-discovered Bluesmen" uncovered by the folky musicologist in the '60s and they got him lined up with gigs and recording contracts, but the first time I heard his 1931 recordings and that eerie, falsetto voice of his, I was quite sure that he was summoning up spirits from the netherworld--Cypress Grove was particularly moving. The old recordings are a difficult listen with the snap, crackles and pops, but they are all so rewarding. Vanguard's '60s recording, Skip James Today, of course has the pristine sound of modern (for the time) equipment laying the tracks down. Although a Mississippian, his style of playing represents a recognizable difference from the Delta blues of Patton and has been tagged the Bentonia style, which is the hill country region of the state that James hailed from.

I'll just leave it at the big four here. This music does not represent a passive activity--ya' got to really listen to it to get it. There are oodles of others that I have listened to, but I always go back to these guys.

Blues Singers:
Blues music is as much about the human voice as any of the instruments used to get the emotion across and most time more effectively.

1. Otis Rush--His Cobra Records recordings are unequalled as an example as to just how much the voice can be a instrument in the blues. The hair on back of my neck stood up the first time I heard him sing Double Trouble (which by the way is where Stevie Ray came up with the name for his band).

2. Muddy Waters--He took what Robert Johnson and Son House were doing in the Delta into the city and sang it like his life depended on it, which was the only way the blues is supposed to be sung. No great octave leaps like Rush, but Muddy was the real deal deep blues dude.

3. Howlin' Wolf--I've had friends ask, "How can you listen to that?", in response to the Wolf's growling the blues. If you have to ask, then you just don't get it. He took his cue from Patton and like Patton, once he sinks in, he sticks. That's just it. Go ahead and listen to I'll Be Around and tell me that his message ain't gettin' to you.

4. Magic Sam--Died waayy to young, like Otis Redding, but Sam was a bluesman. I really believe that he could have ridden the wave of interest in the blues of the late '60s & early '70s to great success and I believe he could have sparked a great deal more interest had he lived longer. He threw in just enough R&B to excite the soul crowd and then he passed. He could wail.

5. Lightnin' Hopkins--To me, Ol' Lightnin' represents everything that people think of when they think of blues music--he's the prototype or stereotype or whatever you want to refer to him as, but the man could sing the blues in that deep East Texas drawl of his. He could read the contents off a cereal box and it would sound like the deepest blues ever recorded. HE WAS THE BLUES.

6. Bobby 'Blue' Bland--I'm not a big fan of soul/blues, but when Bobby sings the blues, he just can't be beat. His recording of Further On Up The Road grabbed me back in the day and never let go.

7. BB King--He hasn't been the King of the Blues for near 50 years for nothing. Don't know who the king will be after he passes, but he's still got it going on and his latest release, One Kind Favor (a lyric from the Blind Lemon song) proves that he is not about to abdicate.

8. Little Walter--I know, I know, but I think that part of being an effective blues singer is being about getting the song's emotional message across and no one could do Blues With A Feeling like Walter. Try singing that one sometime.

9. Kim Wilson--I know, I know that I'm sticking some of my favorite harp guys in here, but he fits the same mold as LW--he can just get a song across and proves that white boys can sing the blues.

10. Tad Robinson--Another white boy singer and like Bland, when he lays off the blue eyed soul music and sings the blues, it really sounds like it comes from the heart--if not then he gets my vote as being an excellent actor also.

You do know that this is difficult to do, don't you, and that this just scratches the surface of the wonder of the blues? Let's just say that these blues folks are at the surface of my psyche at this moment.

Blues Writers--
There is a lot of fluff out there and derivative lyrical sludge, but a great blues song last forever and a day.

1. Blind Lemon Jefferson--He could actually write fluff and give it a spin that made it sound so important and deep. When you listen to his songs, it dawns on you that you've heard it before and you have. Maybe as a credited cover or a disguised version or as a complete rip-off or in a lyrical snippet or two over the decades that followed him.

2. Robert Johnson--Like Jefferson, his influential songs had such a decades long reach that still hasn't relented. He had few recording opportunities before his death, but what he did write prevailed and has stood the test of time.

3. Howlin' Wolf--Chester Burnett wrote some of the most hair raising blues music put to wax. There's not many songs of despair that can beat examples such as, How Many More Years, Smokestack Lighting, Killing Floor, or Moanin' At Midnight.

4. Muddy Waters--I'm not going to reel off the number of blues classic written by McKinnley Morganfield because I'd get tired of typing and you'd get tired of reading.

5. Sonny Boy Williamson I-Hey I'd take a dollar every time I heard a cover of Good Morning Little Schoolgirl or Sugar Mama Blues or Sloppy Drunk Blues or ideas stolen from John Lee Williamson. He took the country blues to the city before Muddy or the Wolf and his recordings were numerous, accessible, and influential throughout the African American communities, both urban and rural.

6.. Sonny Boy Williamson II--Alex Rice Miller, or whatever his real name was, wrote with a sense of humor that belied the nature of the genre. He showed that blues didn't have to be all downhearted with a hung down head and even when it was, it might just be funny. I mean, just think about having two fine chicks to romance, but just what the repercussions might be if they lived on the same street as in his classic Too Close Together or being put out in the cold in Nine Below Zero or looking for a way out of the house when the husband comes home in One Way Out (famously covered by the Allman Brothers Band). His songs had great twists of fate associated with the story.

7. Slim Harpo--James Moore was one of the first blues artists (Jimmy Reed was another)to cross over and appeal to teenage boppers back in the '60s. The Rolling Stones grabbed and covered a number of his tunes back in the day along with the Kinks and Van Morrison and numerous others that were nowhere near being African American or considered blues men. His songs such as, Raining In My Heart, Scratch My Back, and Shake You Hips became Top 40 hit singles on Anglo radio stations from coast to coast. He made the Louisiana Swamp blues sound cool.

8. Jimmy Reed--Ditto. He's got to be included for the same reason as Slim Harpo. We could hear him on OUR radios. Teen bands had to cover Baby, What You Want Me To Do, You Don't Have To Go or Ain't That Loving You Baby or some other of Reed's hits or be run off the stage.

9. James Harman--Another one of my triple threat guys. He plays harp and sings as well as anyone, but his written word captures stories and tales that are just so real. Sometimes they are comic, sometimes tragic and sometimes in between or both, but his songs are short novels that I can relate to, so they are relative--right?

10. Rick Estrin--Took me awhile to get Estrin, because I really dismissed songs that had a hokum quality to them. Once I really listening to what he was saying, I realized that he was singing the blues with a humor spin that wasn't a whole lot different than the take that Sonny Williamson II gave us. The more I listened, the more I understood that Rick had the ability to understand this side of the human condition and his method of getting across works well in the blues. Blues with a touch of irony from the soul.

So, that's it for now. Just a few blues guys that I thought about today. I'll come back around at some point with those I like best at the guitar or harmonica and maybe throw a few girls in the mix. Anyway--

Blues For Food Fest 2008

Oh, Yeah!!!

The 17th Annual Blues For Food Fest is due to hit Shakespeare's Pub on November 16th. Trust me on this--if you are anywhere within driving range of 14129 Memorial Drive in Houston, Texas, you must not miss some of the finest music that the city has to offer in a non-stop, kick booty, blues and roots rockin' show that'll satisfy and saturate your soul. You will have some kind of fine time and the entry fee is to show up with non-perishable food items and/or cash donations that will help the Houston Food Bank replenish their supplies and feed those in need and while you're there you can feed yourself on the free BBQ that'll be on the house.

My good friend Sonny Boy Terry has been involved in promoting this fine event, in one way or another, since its inception and the quality of talent donating their time over the years has been amazing. I first met the likes of Jimmy 'T-99' Nelson, Joe 'Guitar' Hughes, Texas Johnny Brown, Grady Gaines, Calvin Owens and Pete Mayes through the years at these gatherings. The stars have always shone for this event. Ya never know who will turn up, but I do know that all these cats will be there, according to this press release:

SHAKESPEARE'S PUB AND KPFT RADIO 90.1 PROUDLY PRESENTS BLUES FOR FOOD FEST '08. OVER 12 HOURS OF NON STOP BUTT ROCKIN' BLUES. IT'S THE BIGGEST COLLECTION OF BLUES ARTISTS OF THE YEAR STARRING THE LEGENDARY TRUDY LYNN AND MANY MORE...LOTS OF FANTASTIC BLUES AND ROOTS ROCK. ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE HOUSTON FOOD BANK:
1:30pm-Steve the Chief, 2:30pm-Mojofromopolis, 3:30pm-TC and the Cannonballs, 4:15pm-Don Kesee and the Bluesmasters, 5pm-John McVey and the Stumble w/Marie English, 5:45pm-Texas Johnny Brown and the Quality Blues Band, 6:30pm-Sonny Boy Terry w/Little Ray, 7:15pm-Trudy Lynn, 8pm-The Mighty Org, 8:45pm-Snit's Dog and Pony Show, 9:30pm-1:30am-Spare Time Murray and the Honeymakers' World Famous Blues Jam and Open Mic featuring Little Screamin' Kenny.

MASTERS OF CEREMONY FROM KPFT 90.1 INCLUDE JAMES 'BLUES HOUND' NAGEL, NURI NURI, MR.&MRS. VEE, AND SMOKIN' JOE MONTES. ANY NON-PERSISHABLE FOOD ITEMS AND CASH ARE NEEDED. Proceeds benefit the needy, the homeless, the hungry and the infirmed...Following Hurricane Ike, we need more than ever...SHAKESPEARE'S PUB, 14129 MEMORIAL DRIVE @ KIRKWOOD, HOUSTON, TX, 77070, CALL 281.497.4625 FOR DETAILS OR VISIT OUR WEB ADDRESSES: www.myspace.com/houstonbluesforfood, www.kpft.org, www.shakespearepub.net

Hey, this will be a walloping good show. If you've never seen Trudy Lynn, then you've never seen anyone upset the house in the way that she will. There is going to be some kind of cranking great music coming off Memorial Drive on the 16th. Anyway--

Texas Blues

Texas Blues
The Rise of a
Contemporary Sound
Alan Govenar
Texas A&M University Press
College Station

John & Robin Dickson
Series In Texas Music
Center for Texas Music History
Texas State University
Greg Hartman & Gregg Andrews
General Editors


I was about to sit down and add a bit or two to the ol' blog here, when my wife came in the front door with a UPS delivery from Amazon.com that trumps anything that I was about to write and that everyone reading this blog needs to go out and buy (or push a few keystrokes and buy). Now, having had my copy for less than a couple of hours, this won't be much of a review--I just know how great of a book that it is going to be for anyone that relishes the blues.

At my side is a copy of Alan Govenar's Texas Blues-The Rise of a Contemporary Sound. It is sort of his continuing saga that began with his Living Texas Blues and Meeting the Blues: The Rise of the Texas Sound. With over 400 photographs and at 599 pages, it offers us a marvelous culmination of his research that began over 25 years ago. There ain't much that he hasn't managed to uncover as far a tracking down the blues from its beginnings in the state up to interviews with blues artists that are taking the stage tonight. The key word here is interviews. These are stories told by the artists themselves, either in interviews conducted by the author or collected from others and reproduced for our enjoyment and education.

He travels from the early blues of East Texas and the Deep Ellum of Dallas, through the progression of electric blues, the importance that the saxmen played on the creation of the sound, the influence of the state's musicians on the West Coast, and along the way we find out oodles about musicians from San Antonio, Austin, DFW, Houston and the Golden Triangle of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange.

I'm ecstatic that a couple of darned fine musicians (both of whom I consider friends) are getting their due. It's about time that a major publication is giving a bow to Sonny Boy Terry's importance to the Houston blues scene for the last 20 some-odd years. As much as I know about Sonny Boy (because I've written about he and his music back in the day), his interview gave me a slice of his history with the city and the bluesmen that he hung with that I didn't know. Sonny Boy's current guitarist and one of this state's finest, Little Ray Ybarra, gets to tell his tale also and it's a fascinating read. Didn't know that his given name was Alphonso. Next time I see him, I'll have to call him Little Alphonso. I reviewed his band's CDs back in the day and they're somewhere, in the meantime go to his myspace site under my links and check out what real blues guitar playing is all about.

It's good to also see Frank Robinson's story in print. Blues musicologist, record company owner, musician, etc.., Tary Owens pulled him from obscurity in Crockett, Texas (my birthplace) and got him featured at the first couple of Navasota Blues Festivals in honor of Mance Lipscomb and also provided Frank with his first recording opportunity. Since Lightnin' grew up just down the road in Centerville and played Crockett jukes frequently back in the day, the younger Robinson often sat and picked with him and picked up his style, his and Frankie Lee Sims, who also frequented the area. Listening to him play was like witnessing a blues time warp kind of thing. His inclusion at that first 'fest was a real treat and got him back into the game. His inclusion in this book shows just how deep Govenar got into the outback of Texas blues.

I'll come clean and admit that I knew that Sonny Boy and Little Ray would be included in Govenar's book, but it was just an added carrot to entice me into getting my hands on it. I did read their interviews before I sat down today and I may not get back to the blog for awhile because I plan on spending some time reading the words of the legends (and those not so legendary, but just as vital) presented within this massive example of Texas blues history. So, I'm gonna stop and read a bit and quit hitting these keys for a spell.

I'm not sure who John & Robin Dickson are, but hats off to them and the Center for Texas Music History at my Alma Mater, Texas State University (I might have to forgive the regents for changing the schools name now.)

Anyway--

P.S.--Update (10/27/08) Quibbles: Now that I read a few more pages of the book, I think I should pass along what irritates me about it. The value of the contents of this volume outweigh my peeves by a long shot, but I think there are some things that could have made the book even better:
1. Better editing--In the table of contents, Doyle Bramhall II is listed as the entry on page 521. Turn to page 521 and it is titled Doyle Bramhall III with a very nice photo of Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton from their Arc Angels days. There are three additional pictures of he and Charlie together (one of which is erroneously mis-labeled). Is the interview about Doyle Bramhall III or II? No, it is about his dad, Doyle Bramhall, there is no III. Well, the table of contents had it right as far as photos go and there is one photo of Doyle Sr. from back in the day in Dallas. And speaking of photos, I realize that with over 400 photos that the real work comes with writing the captions. There are a few that could have identified the subjects a bit better or a bit more correctly.

2. A little more introduction to some of the artist to let the reader know why they count and maybe why they are included. I know enough about a good number of the musicians highlighted in this book, that the interview suffices, but the novice blues fans could benefit with a bit more about the who, what, when, and where. I'm clueless about a few of the folks here, so a bit more info, please.

3. A little updated information on some of the artists that are still with us would have been nice, especially if the interview was from the '80s. This again would be of great benefit to the novice blues reader who just might get the idea that Jimmy Vaughn and Kim Wilson's contributions of any importance to the genre ended in 1987.

I'll stop now, because I don't want to give anyone the idea that I don't and won't treasure this book as being an important addition to the world of blues music. It is well worth the price and adding to your collection of blues literature. Anyway--

Happy Birthday....To Me

I'm going to keep this short because I'm pretending that today is my birthday. Yesterday was actually my birthday, but it turned out to be less than enjoyable. I had to go under the knife for what has become a frequent routine for me in recent years--the removal of a basal cell carcinoma. My skin doesn't like the sun, but I spent a good deal of my time as a teenager on the beach and a great deal of my time as an adult working summers on a workover oil rig--so, my skin is in full retaliation and this one was on the left side of my nose, which will match the scar on the right side of my nose from the same procedure. Not gonna go into a lot of detail, but yesterday was not fun and was a great deal more painful than my past trips to the derm doc. So, forget yesterday. My mom did bring out a great chocolate cake and gave me money and my wife did hold my hand for the bad trip and feel sorry for me and gave me an Adirondack chair for the front porch (which I'm enjoying today).

Anyway, I didn't go through my usual routine of ordering some kind of blues so that it would arrive by the 9th. The pending operation just sidetracked me a bit, so yesterday I decided to download a bit from iTunes--since posting about such kinda got me looking around again and since it would appear on my harddrive in an instant, then it made it sorta birthdayish.

I'd had my eye on the Texas Northside Kings for some time now, mainly because Johnny Moeller and Mike Keller were both a piece of the fabric for another Dialtone Records revue that follows their Texas Southside Kings and Texas Eastside Kings. Where the latter two showcased unsung veterans of the music, this one here focuses on some of the young bucks (and buckette) of the genre. Joining Moeller and Keller are Nick Curran, Seth Walker, Shawn Pittman and Eve Monsees with Houston keyboard veteran Earl Gilliam thrown into the mix (Dialtone dialed up a winner with a Gilliam CD a couple of years ago). All those present have been adding there touches with their own releases and on a multitude of other artist's recordings. Moeller and Keller stepped in to the role of Fabulous T-Bird guitarists when Curran stepped out. Walker and Pittman both have garnered the respect of most everyone around the Lone Star state with both their guitar and vocal skills. Monsees has gained a reputation around Austin with her band the Exiles (formed with ex-T-Bird drummer Mike Buck) and as being quite a butt rockin' guitarist and a heck of a singer.

So, there's a bunch of guitaring going on here, but it is not at the expense of the songs that they cover. This is OLD SCHOOL stuff. They show their reverence for the R&B, Blues and Rock 'n' Roll from four and five decades ago as they offer up covers from Lazy Lester, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Little Richard, etc...and it sounds oh, so authentic and sweet. Keller gets the Red Hot Mama going with a wicked slide tone, Curran gets down, way down and dirty with the Wolf's I'll Be Around with some wicked distortion and gruffed up vocals, Monsees belts out some Magic Sam, Seth Walker nails down sweet ballad vocals on Since I Fell For You, Gilliam and Moeller (he sings one too) bounce off each other on the Junior Walker sounding Radio Groove with a exquisite sax from the mighty Spot Barnett. Oh, did I say there were some guitarist on this release? Yep, and they do be slinging it in a tasty sort of way. If you like it done the way it was once done, then get this.

I didn't know much about San Pedro Slim when I downloaded his release, Barhoppin', but I had read favorable reviews and I knew he was a harmonica man and that Rick Holmstrom was on board as guitarist and producer, so I clicked on it and sucked it into my machine. This is pretty much traditional West Coast/Chicago style blues and is a fairly enjoyable ride. Anyone who is a fan of Holmstrom's blusiest guitar work (such as from his Johnny Dyer and Rod Piazza days) will certainly enjoy what he gets going here. He is quite intent on keeping the tonal variety quotient up by summoning some of the heaviest reverb ladened plucking on one tune and then the deepest distortion possible on another and then swinging to and fro the rest of the way. If you know Rick, then you know the trick. I think he keeps the purist in us and him in mind and doesn't flip out into left field, as he's wont to do on some of his solo stuff.

Well, what about Slim? He has a lot in common with James Harman, both vocally, harmonically and lyrically. Maybe a little too much in common. He sounds like he is trying to sound like Harman. It's tough to do that without coming off sounding like a second rate version. He writes with the same hell bent for humor lyrics and comes up with some really nice ideas. Even his amplified harp tone has a Harman quality on a couple of the cuts, but Slim's chops are not quite equal. If I wasn't such a Harman fan and didn't know his music well, then I'd really enjoy Slim's singing and writing a lot more and it may grow on me, heck, I've only listened to the songs once. Back in the day a bit, before I realized what separated the men from the boys on blues harp, I would really enjoy his playing also. It's not a bad release of trad blues music, but I would get it for Holmstrom's playing. I may be over-analyzing and he may not be influenced by Harman in the least, but I think that San Pedro Slim will progress once he develops more of a style of his own.

Since I had new birthday money, I did order up a couple of CDs the traditional way through Bluebeat Music. They had a copy of Johnny Young's Complete Blue Horizon recordings. Young is one of those few blues artist that could be considered an original, since he took the mandolin and applied it to the format. Of course, he wasn't the first and not the only one to do so, but in the context of a Chicago blues band it was indeed unique. I'm not a huge fan of Englishman Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label, but a number of his releases are valuable snippets of blues history as it was being made--this being a prime example and I also wanted to hear what harpman Paul Oscher was putting down with Johnny Young's band. I also ran across a band called The Special 20s and since that is also the name of a Hohner harmonica, I figured that the band is led by a harp player and it is. I ordered a copy of their second album called Morry Sochat and The Special 20s just to hear what some new bloods are doing with Chicago blues. Anyway--'Nuff for Now.

Scattershots

I got into the ipod thang relatively late in the game. When I finally got around to getting my hands on a nano version, very shortly afterwards they dropped the price by half because they upgraded the gizmos and doubled the capacity and added video capabilities and such. I have a tendency to drag my feet when it comes to jumping into new technology. It took me forever to buy a cd player, but my hand was forced on that account because records and tapes faded away.

I do enjoy visiting the iTunes site and seeing what's available as far a blues goes and adding a tune here and there to my library. For the most part, I've kept it aimed at blues harp tunes because I've found the ipod great for wood shedding the harp skills and for taking my mind off mindless exercise (two activities I'd like to stick to and increase throughout retirement). I'm not about to give up buying CDs. There is just something about holding the product from the artist in my hands and reading the liner notes and such that has a satisfaction quotient that searching for the same and downloading it on a computer can't meet for me(this is where I miss the ol' LP version the most). I want to know which musicians are adding what to each cut and who's playing the cowbell. I really don't trust this ipod stuff. I'm thinking POOF! and it all disappears. I've downloaded very few full albums, unless it is something that I don't have and can't find. I have transferred a few of my CDs over to the ipod in order to steal a lick or two, but for the most part I look around for some songs that really have strong, toneful harp from the heart and that I don't have a copy of in another format.

Okay, I'm just going to occasionally throw out and comment on some of the artists or tunes that I have in captivity on my little friend and share it with those that care to read it.

1. Jimmy Rogers--I grabbed some songs off of his Gold Tailed Bird album that is woefully underrated. Leon Russell's Shelter Records was doing us all a favor signing up and recording bluesmen in early '70s such as Rogers and Freddie King back in the day. In fact, this was Rogers return to recording after getting out of the scene for quite some time. Sure, these albums suffer in comparison to the their classic recordings of the '50s and '60s and sure some rock icons had their fingers on the product, but I think, that in retrospect, Shelter put out some good stuff. The Aces (Little Walter's old bandmates Fred Below, Dave and Louis Myers) and Freddie King are on board for this release, so how can you go wrong? The real reason that I downloaded tunes from this album was due to the harp blowing of Bill Lupkin (whose CD I mentioned in an earlier post). I wanted to hear what he was doing back in the day with one of the masters which helped define his reputation. He was just a young pup in '72, but had his chops down. If you don't any Jimmy Rogers, get his Chess stuff first or Ludella (with Kim Wilson) on the Antones label.

2. Little Walter--I listen to something by Little Walter every day, because he's just the greatest blues harp player that ever walked the planet. I downloaded the entire Confessin' The Blues. I mentioned in one of my blues history posts that this was the first LP that I ever had of Little Walter's stuff and that the liner notes were in Italian. I was just going to download Rocker and Rock Bottom, because I had listened to this record many, many, many times, but I wanted those couple of instrumentals on the pod for a little practice. I did that, but then went back and bought the whole enchilada. Great balls of fire, here!

3. Tad Robinson--This guy was made for my ipod--as far as cherry picking the songs that I like the best (namely those with his harp in his mouth). See, Robinson is one of those fantastic harp guys, with tone to die for, that puts out albums that highlight their vocal chops more than their harp and that's great if that's what they feel like doing. Darrell Nulisch, John Nemeth and Curtis Salgado fit into this same category. These cats can ALL sing their butts off--and pull some serious stuff from the harmonica. A lot of what they like to get across vocally is more in the soul/blues bag and well, that just ain't my cup of tea. I don't care who keeps saying that it is all blues to them; it ain't, but if that's what smokes their shorts, okie dokie. What I like, though, is when they get down and dirty with the blues--harmonically and vocally. So, the ipod does its duty for me here--as I pull up Robinson's work with Dave Specter and the Bluebirds Live In Europe. Whoa! The boy do get down with the harp business on chestnuts like Eddie Taylor's Bad Boy and Little Walter's It's Too Late Brother. Dave Specter can really swing the axe on this fine set of live stuff. From there, I just took a swing through Tad's catalog of work available on iTunes and snatched off his harp blowing numbers--all of it very good.

3. James Harman--James is one of my main men. There ain't too many dudes that can write a blues song as well as Harman does and then sing it and then add one hell of a tonally righteous harmonica to it. He doesn't blow harp on every song on his albums either, but when he doesn't, it's because he's letting someone like Hollywood Fats or Kid Ramos kick butt on guitar to carry the song--and it's all blues, so all is forgiven. I've got most of everything that the man has recorded and some of his finest is some of his first, such as, Extra Napkins, Mo' Napkins and Strickly Live in '85 (one of his finest of the fine). I let some of his Blacktop recordings get by me and then the label went out of business, so I snagged a few of those that I'd missed back in the day and they're classics. I mean, how can you pass up a song that's narrated by a man who's left for dead by his lover on the hard floor and all he can feel is the freezing air conditioner and all he can see is the knob saying HI COOL--which also is the song's chorus. Cool.

4. Watermelon Slim--Now I have one of Slim's CDs and like it a lot. Some doubt just how legitimate his Hillbilly Bluesman persona can possibly be, given that he has a degree in literature and can quote Shakesphere off the cuff. He sounds darned authentic, so if his schtick ain't real, then he's a good actor. He's got a rough, gruff vocal style that promotes the Okie from Muskogee blues thang well. He does put his academic background to work in his songwriting skills. He's a bit of a countryfied Rick Estrin as he twists the humor threads of life experiences from driving trucks, dealing with check bouncing, juke joint women, and laboring the hard way. He works with a rock solid band of journeymen musicians and applies his skills both with the slide guitar and the Hohner diatonic. He is fairly formidable at both. I'll probably grab another of his CDs, but in the meantime, I went through his stuff on iTunes and pulled his harp playing tunes over to my ipod. Pretty hopped up ride.

5. Moreland and Arbuckle--These guys are a close second to Collard Greens and Gravy (mentioned back a bit) or maybe an American version of Collard Greens and Gravy as far as stripping down the music to its bare essentials. Anyway, what these young Kansas cats are doing is a Mississippi hill country/Delta stomping kinda blues thing with harmonica, guitar and sometimes drums. It is raw and it is real The first examples I downloaded was from Moreland, Arbuckle and Floyd (Floyd being the drummer) called Floyd's Market which was a mix of original stuff and covers of such artists as RL Burnsides, Mississippi Fred McDowell and even Little Walter. Aaron Moreland can get a nasty, distorted vibe going on with his slipping, slide guitar and its really nice to hear a young (or younger) dude like Dustin Arbuckle quote some of the masters of the blues harp. He has his chops down pretty good and even pulls off a nice rendition of Juke, which is far from being just a slavish copy of Little Walter's masterpiece. These guys are rawkus in their attitude towards the music and play it with wild abandon. They be stompin' on it! I also pulled some stuff from their latest, called 1861, which has some great cuts on it. Their sonic aura does wear on me after awhile, so an ipod shuffle mix is the right place for them for me.

Anyway--'Nuff for now. I'll share my snippets from time to time.

Harpin' Microphones

Anyone who plays amplified blues harmonica has been down some of the same roads that I've mentioned on this blog. I'd say that most of us went looking for THE amplifier to give us THE tone way before we were ready to uphold our end of the bargain by producing much of that with simply the sound that we made with the harmonica pressed to our lips. But, no, we knew we would sound much better by cupping up a microphone and sucking the notes through a tube amp. Fact is, I didn't sound much better, but just sounded like a louder me--which was a far cry from the gnarly bluesman I was attempting to sound like. Way down the road, I eventually found that matching my much improved acoustic tone, with the right amp and the right microphone came a lot closer to the sound that floated around in my head. I did say closer.

Back in the day, even though I knew MY tone wasn't there yet, I was hell bent to get my amplified act together. I mentioned that my first amplifier was far from being harp friendly, but little did I have a clue at the time. I just knew that I needed a microphone to go with it. I had been reading up on amps and mics and stuff, written by folks like Pete Sheridan and Tom Ellis. They were very knowledgeable and gave good descriptions of what to expect with various mic configurations and in Sheridan's case, which mics were used by our heroes such as James Cotton, Little Walter or Big Walter. I found that most of the examples discussed, and that were on the market, were out of my price range.

So, I experienced a bit of excitement when I stumbled across a box of microphones in a storeroom at the high school where I taught. My principal agreed with me when I told him that maybe they should go home with me, since no one had a use for them. The mics, pictured above, are from left to right: Shure 535, Shure 545SD, Turner 254, Shure 565SD and at the bottom, an Electro Voice 630. I was most excited by the presence of the 545, a type maybe used by Little Walter and similar to a model used by Paul Butterfield. I had also read that Turner and Electro Voice mics had their places in blues harp history. None of the microphones were useful out of the box (hah!). They had no cords, except for the Turner which was a desktop, push button model that certainly wouldn't plug into my amp. The 535 had a piece of a frayed cord attached, but that was that. So, I knew that I had a little work to do that I knew nothing about.

I began my butchery by attacking the Turner desktop and cutting the base off of it and attaching the leads of a mic cord to it and by golly it worked. I could blow some notes and hear it blast out through my amplifier. I knew enough at this point to know that the crystal element that the mic had in it was a type suited to harp playing. It still sounded like Ricky Bush and not Little Walter, but gosh it was loud and gave me my first exposure to FEEDBACK (which is another of those shared experiences that us amplified guys deal with controlling--another story, there). I packed it up with my amp and hauled it down to my first jam and blew the blues, dude. Jam leaders, Neil Kulhanek, Robert Zientek and Sam Murski encouraged me all night, but I knew that I had a ways to go.

After being successful with getting something out of the Turner, I turned my attention to the Electro Voice 630. Try as I might, though, I couldn't get it to reproduce a sound. I pretty much boogered it up fairly well in my quest to get it working and gave up and never got back to it. Might try to resurrect it someday.

I took the Shure 545SD and 535 to Tom's Sales and Service, which was operated at the time by Tom Brinkmeyer. He was from the old school and was one of the only techs in town who could work on tube type amplifiers and such. He ordered a Shure cord that would work on the 545 & 565 and he hard wired a cord to the 535. The 535 turned out to be a super hot, high impedance mic that proved to be way touchy for harp playing. Both the 545 and 535 were wired to low impedance, but I had bought an impedance matching transformer and cord to work around that. The 545 & 565 sonically blasted the Turner away. Only then did I really just how really weak the Turner crystal element was in comparison. I started using the 545 at jams and sit-ins, but it was a just not gritty sounding enough for me. It did become my main axe, though. Since these early days, I discovered how to change the impedance in both those microphones to high and the 545 will overdrive a tube amp very well. Not with the same tonal palette of an Astatic MC151 element or a Shure Controlled Reluctance/Magnetic cartridge, but with its own flavorful qualities. It is harder to seal off in a cup with a harp, but Stephen Schneider passed along the idea of using a bit of foamed pipe insulation around the mic and it does work. The 565 is okay, but does have quite the same magic as the 545 does.

Since I still didn't really have my tonal chops together and I hadn't discovered how to make the 545 better, I'll have to get around to the Crystal Balls story next time out. Anyway--