Category: Saturday Matinee

Saturday Matinee – Hans Theessink & Terry Evans, JJ Grey & Mofro, and Mad Guz & the Mojos

Hans Theessink & Terry Evans (with Arnold McCuller and Willie Greene Jr. provide backing vocals) doing some gospel-style Delta blues. Ry Cooder is lurking somewhere in the background.

JJ Grey describes his music as funkified rock and front porch Southern soul music, a style he calls Mofro, hence the band name JJ Grey and Mofro. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Grey writes, produces, sings and plays all instruments for demo tracks before bringing the band into the studio.

Mad Guz & the Mojos is a heavy rockabilly-influenced blues band from somewhere in Germany, and consists of Mad Guz (vocals, sax, guitar), Isi Mojo (double bass), Tim Mojo (drums, vocals) and Spike Mojo (lead guitar, vocals).

Yep. Another busy week is out of the way,  and after Tet, Superbowl Sunday, Lincoln’s Birthday, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday and a couple other holidays I don’t remember, I’m declaring tomorrow to be National Porch Day. Be there or be somewhere else.

Saturday Matinee – Jimmy Dawkins, Frank Sultana & The Altered Five Blues Band

Jimmy ‘Fast Fingers’ Dawkins, Skopje Jazz Festival, Macedonia 1991. Dawkins was one of many Mississippi bluesmen who migrated to the Chicago scene in the 1950s. At 18 he was playing on street corners for tips, eventually finding some success as a sideman / session player, and later as a solo artist and record producer.

“Pre WW2 mojo, dark, dirty guitar tones and a voice that has the grit and soul of the characters and places he writes and sings about.”
Sydney Australia bluesman Frank Sultana won the solo/duo section of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Tennessee in 2023. [h/t Archie.]

Award winning group from Milwaukee, Altered Five Blues Band features frontman Jeff Taylor with Jeff Schroedl / guitar, Mark Solveson / bass, Alan Arber / drums and Steve Huebler / keyboard.

Superbowl Sunday tomorrow and there’s still time to get The Chili going.

Saturday Matinee – Luther ‘Snakeboy’ Johnson, Big Guitars From Memphis & The Radiacs

Luther Snakeboy Johnson (aka Snake, Georgia Boy, Little Luther & Luther King) was born in 1941 in Davisboro, GA, and taught himself guitar while still in grade school. He served in the US Army, and after discharge performed with a gospel group before heading to Chicago. In the late 50s, he played regularly with Otis Spann and Elmore James before joining Muddy Waters’ band in 1967. This video is from a 1973 French television show; three years later he succumbed to cancer at the age of 34.

Big Guitars From Memphis show their chops in this video, recorded for Mugz, an indi film that was scheduled for 2010 but never released. (They don’t sound like Memphis because they aren’t from Memphis).

Doing 90 on the 90, The Radiacs are/were a psychobilly quartet formed in 1987 in Sheffield, UK. Can’t find much about them, but it appears they were active through 2011.

Got a lot to think about these days, and I think sitting out on the porch with a couple of dogs is a damn fine idea. See you there tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – There I Ruined It, Matteo Mancuso, 8 Ball Aiken & The Gary Hoey Band

In Memory of Country Music: Every fake accent 2-part harmony bro country song crammed into 1-1/2 minutes of ear torture from There, I Ruined It. The comments on the Utoobage vid are fun, and if that’s not enough for you, there’s this mashup.

Django Reinhardt and Les Paul meet Weather Report: Italian guitar prodigy Matteo Mancuso plays cool jazz fusion blues and more.

8 Ball Aiken is an Australian singer and songwriter from Brisbane, plays blues, swamp-rock, alternative country, and Americana music. At one of his early gigs in a rough pub, a fight broke out over a pool table. The 8 ball landed on stage and his bandmates gave him the nickname.

Underrated guitar thrasher Gary Hoey shreds the blues. He’s been compared to Robin Trower, early Clapton, SRV and others.

So there you go, and no, I’m not going to apologize for the first one. It’s like an aural vaccine so you never have to listen to country pop again. Have a great weekend, see you tomorrow, porch time is noonish.

Saturday Matinee – Vox Americana, Micke Bhorklo & Blue Strip, and Gary Clark Jr.

Vox Americana is a group of musicians from Staffordshire UK, with American singer/songwriter Helen Walford. They revisited the murder ballad The Knoxville Girl and wrote Knoxville Town from the perspective of the victim.

Finnish bluesrock band Micke Bhorklo & Blue Strip takes their turn on Robert Johnson’s They’re Red Hot (1936).

Gary Clark Jr. cranks up the blues in studio, December 2011.

I think I’m just gonna sit and watch the weather tomorrow. On the porch. See you then.

Saturday Matinee – The Young@Heart Chorus, The Linda Krieg Trio, The Hacklers & La Perra Blanca

What started out in 1982 at a Western Massachusetts elderly housing project to joyfully pass the time instead of passing before your time has developed into the stereotype-defying, generation-crossing musical extravaganza better known as The Young@Heart Chorus. 

Linda Krieg is one of the few prominent blues harp players in Germany and a fixture in the Rhine-Main blues scene. Her trio includes Dominik Krauss (guitar) and Klaas Wendling (bass); she also tours with her guitarist husband Oliver Hell as Mrs. Krieg & Mr. Hell.

The Hacklers are an Irish Ska band based in Kildare. They formed in 2014 and “developed their own distinguished sound, a mix of Ska and Reggae blended with their own unique ‘Extra Stout’ Irish flavour.”

Alba Blanco, aka La Perra Blanco, is a blues/rockabilly guitarist from Cádiz, Spain, and has been performing since the age of 14. This video highlights her stage act, kind of over the top with the mugging, but her talent shines.

Another long week gone in no time, and it’s already the weekend. We have big plans for tomorrow, or maybe we don’t. See you on the porch noonish.

Saturday Matinee – Gogol Bordello, S.M.N. & GJS

“It’s one of the very few songs I wrote for a girl. I just moved in with my girlfriend in New York. We had a neighbour: an old woman who was always dressed in purple head to toe. She was clearly bonkers. So whenever my girlfriend and I had an argument and she would start screaming at me, I would say: you might as well start wearing purple now”. – Eugene Hütz

Gogol Bordello, fronted by Ukranian-born Eugene Hütz, is a multinational American punk band from Manhattan, known for gypsy/romani/punk theater.  More about them here.

Formed in 2001 in Fukuoka, Japan,  S.M.N. (Slackers Make Noise) consists of high school classmates Hiroaki Yokoyama / guitar, Mah-bou / drums, Kosuke Nishimura / bass.

Here’s something to cool your eardrums. Gentry-Jones is Nil Jones and Tony Gentry, here with Mr. Sam (Sam Fallie) in 2014. Old soul line dancing at its smoothest. More on GJS here.

Whoop, look what time it is. Gotta go, got an appointment with the porch tomorrow. See you there.

Saturday Matinee – Tuba Skinny, Lucky Chops, Timo Gross & Skatune Network

Tuba Skinny, featuring bandleader Shaye Cohn on cornet. Although we were in NOLA last May, I didn’t get a chance to see them because I was too busy chillin’ on a balcony with the dogs.

Formed in 2016, Lucky Chops  began as a group of subway buskers from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, New York City, and now they perform world-wide.

German bluesman Timo Gross  has been around for a while but he’s relatively unknown in the US; I had to run his Wikipedia entry through Google Translate.

One man ska band JER / Skatune Network rang in the New Year in 2016 and somehow I missed it. Turnitup!

Yep, it’s almost time to turn the calendar ahead again, but before we do, we have a porch that needs sitting on. See you there.

Saturday Matinee – Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Dropkick Murphys, Joe Bonamassa & Chris Rea

Pee Wee Herman’s Christmas Special (1988) is kind of self explanatory. Watch the entire show if you really have to.

Dropkick Murphys and “family”.

Joe Bonamassa‘s Merry Christmas Blues album (2013) is free for download (I think).

Except for a hit in 1978, songwriter and perfomer Chris Rea is virtually unknown in the US (having never toured here). Despite long term medical problems, he’s enjoyed a successful career in the UK.

Have a Merry Christmas if I don’t see you, stay safe in your travels, and we’ll be back here tomorrow to trash talk you.

Saturday Matinee – Pays D’en Haut, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band & Joanna Connor

Pays D’en Haut & friends.

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band in 2012: “The video was shot in one day in Brown County, IN on the hottest day in Southern Indiana history.”

The amazing Joanna Connor, from an unknown performance, possibly late 1990s.

I caught up on my missed naps today and ran out of time to do much Utoob mining or write up. Not quite ready for Christmas music either. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.