Category: Music

Saturday Matinee – 405: The Movie, Hank Jr., The Cleverlys & Run C&W

That’s my afternoon commute, the southbound 405. Thank God for Imperial Highway, the 105 & the 110, and God bless Wayz!

Heard that on a houseboat on a remote bank of Dale Hollow Lake in 1980, and the song suddenly popped into my head. It’s not PC 40 years later, but I still like it.

How ’bout some pickin’ & grinnin’? Black Eyed Peas ala Bill Monroe performed by The Cleverlys at Larry’s Country Diner.

Run C&W escaped my radar until now. Nice version of Sam & Dave‘s 1966 hit.

IIRC, Sam & Dave were in the Stax studio with the studio session band (Booker T. & the M.G.s). Steve Cropper had just come out of the restroom down the hall when Booker Jones (or Duck Dunn) hollered something like, “Steve! Check out this groove!” Cropper yelled back, “Hold on! I’m coming” and a song title was born.

For decades I thought “M.G.” stood for “Memphis Group.” Apparently not.

Have a great weekend, and may Kansas City pound the 49ers.

 

Saturday Matinee – Thomas and Brian Owens, Barbara Lynn Ozen & Clarence Gatemouth Brown (Plus Rare Damone Ramone Audio)

Such a pretty cover of Sam Cooke’s 1964 classic “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Brian Owens and his father. (Cooke was singing about the Civil Rights Act and the repeal of Democrat Jim Crow Laws. The white people in that audience are embarrassing to watch.)

Barbara Lynn Ozen cranked some cool Ray Charles, left-handed, on a 1966 TV show called The !!!! Beat.

Here’s a cool convergence. The house band for The !!!! Beat was led by Clarence Gatemouth Brown.

Brown was one of those rare musicians who could play the hell out of a 16d nail if you told him it was a musical instrument, and he had one tight band.

A TACKY RACCOONS EXCLUSIVE

This is a “found” recording ostensibly from Damone Ramone‘s only public performance (Burma, 1979) performed on sewing machines, and sent to us by the 5th Ramone himself.

Have a great weekend folks. Stick around for more stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Ismael Sanz-Pena, Ricky Syers, Taj Mahal & ZZ Top


Persistence of Vision III is an awesome vid by Ismael Sanz-Pena  [h/t Mme. Jujujive].

Cool artistry, cool story, and Ricky Syers is interesting.

The legendary Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band covered Bill Doggett‘s 1956 hit Honky Tonk “filmed at Yoshi’s SF grand opening.” (Yoshi’s had grand openings in 1972, 1979, 1985 & 1997, so take your pick.)

ZZ Top is one of the greatest 3-man blues-rock freight trains ever, and here they are in their prime.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll be back here tomorrow, rain or shinola.

Saturday Matinee – Boogie Woogie Piano (featuring Ladyva, Stephan Ulbricht, Danilo Cristaldi, Luca Sestak & Johan Blohm), Terry Miles, Bradley and McKinley & Commander Cody

That’s some brutal stuff to play, and I like it. None of those players are reading sheet music and don’t need to stare at the keys. I never learned piano, but the ambidextriousity of it all amazes me.

That’s Terry Miles on the 88s, and apparently the girl in the checkers is his daughter. Security Goon tried to stop the fun. (Here’s another fun romp.)

Will Bradley, Ray McKinley & Freddie Slack had some fun back then. At 01:15 is the WB/RMc logo on the bass drum. Not sure, but that might be a cameo by Slim Gaillard at 02:36.

Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen covered Bradley & McKinley’s “Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar” in 1977. Here’s a more recent vid.

Some might dismiss it as geezer rock, but it’s actually pre-pre-geezer. The style dates to the 1890s.

Don’t touch that dial, stay tuned & have a great weekend, folks.

 

Saturday Matinee – Blind Willie McTell, Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, The Allman Brothers & Buddy Guy

Yeah. That’s the great Taj Mahal with the great Ry Cooder covering the great Blind Willie McTell‘s great 1928 recording of Statesboro Blues in Nashville Tennessee, September, 2014.

The Allman Brothers covered the same great song.

Speaking of jamming, the great Buddy Guy still does it better than most.

Have a great weekend, my friends, see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Jim Bruce & Ken Mayall, SRV & Howlin’ Wolf

Jim Bruce on guitar, Ken Mayall on harmonica.

How ’bout we take a stroll down Travis?

Stevie Ray Vaughan cranked it with ??? on ”Night Music” January1989, Los Angeles, CA. I’m not sure who he’s jamming with, couldn’t find credits. It appears to be Hiram Bullock guitar, Omar Hakim on drums, ??? bass, ??? keyboards. Lemme know and I’ll update the credits.

Howlin’ Wolf & Hubert Sumlin (and yeah, Jimmy Page stole that riff as well as the lyrics from Wolf’s Killing Floor for Lemon Song ).

Have a great holiday sandwich weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for things and stuff.

 

Saturday Matinee – Terry Miles’ Boogie Woogie, Wrap It Up, Can’t Wrap This, The Magical Piano & Christmas Of Love

Terry Miles finds odd pubs and unusual venues with under-used pianos, then heaves bricks of boogie woogie at the heads of the unsuspecting patrons. I love it.

Wrap It Up: Bonnie Raitt, Brittany Howard, Gary Clark Jr. and Jimmie Vaughan take on the Sam & Dave soul classic. Good gawdamighty.

[h/t Christmas Carolyn R.]

The only vid better than the Magical Piano is this:

Christmas Of Love (Little Isidore & The Inquisitors) is one of my favorite holiday songs, and that video makes it all the better.
[Related Little Isidore vids here and here.]

Christmas is coming, and around here the presents always show up on time, so see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Ronco’s Greatest Hits, Han Li, Sam Chatmon, Magic Slim & The Teardrops

Just a few more shopping days left. Go for it [via].

“We found the happiest lady [Han Li] in China. We told her that you don’t need a real hula hoop to have fun. She agreed.”

Khruangbin made me smile [found here].

Sam Chatmon (1897-1983) sang his version of a classic cheatin’ song in 1978. Apparently the vid was filmed by Alan Lomax.

The origin of the song “Make Me A Pallet On The Floor” is fuzzy and dates to the 1800s. It appeared in sheet music in 1908 in “Blind Boone’s Southern Rag Medley No. One: Strains from the Alleys.“

Now check out John William Blind Boone‘s amazing story…

Magic Slim, aka Morris Holt (1937-2013). Nice Chicago blues [via].

Magic Slim was forced to give up playing the piano when he lost his little finger in a cotton gin mishap. He first came to Chicago in 1955 with his friend and mentor Magic Sam. The elder (by six months) Magic (Sam) let the younger Magic (Slim) play bass with his band and gave him his nickname.

Have a great weekend folks. Be back here tomorrow for more stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Earl Hooker, Sam Maghett & Joanna Connor

Here’s Earl Hooker’s guitar with Earl Hooker [1930-1970].

Here’s Earl Hooker’s guitar being ripped to shreds by Magic Sam Maghett (1937-1969). I think the song is also named Looking Good.

Here’s Joanna Connor’s guitar, played by Joanna Connor, playing Magic Sam playing Earl Hooker’s guitar.

Killer stuff, that. Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for more stuffing and gravy.

Saturday Matinee – Musical Weaponry

That’s kinda funny until you realize that not one of those idiots in the vid had any significant training in the safe handling of firearms.
[Found via here.]

That’s kinda funny until you realize that each of those idiots in the vid had significant training in the safe handling of firearms yet they still treated them as toys.

That’s kinda funny until you realize that each of those idiots in the vid had little training in the safe handling of firearms yet they treated them as toy weapons. I love it.

Okay, lets move on. How ’bout another gun song?

Yeah, I could link to this, but I won’t.

There’s Junior Walker with three of the All Stars. In 1965, the lineup was

Don’t read too much into this post, friends. It’s all in fun and everyone has the Right to arm themselves for self-protection. I just like the videos & music.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow.