Category: Saturday Matinee

Saturday Matinee – Orkestra Obsolete, Thee Sinseers, Kemuri & The Ghost Town Blues Band

“It’s like a bunch of 1930’s comic book villains got together and formed a band.” – YouTube Comment
Not much can be found about Orkestra Obsolete except that Scottish guitarist Angus McIntyre assembled the band for the BBC. The original un-colorized video was released ca. 2016 and is a cover of New Order’s 1983 electrobeat song of the same name.

Thee Sinseers have the chicano soul groove down and mix in a bit of Motown on the side. Wait’ll Joey Quiñones’ voice ages a bit and they’ll be even better.

Founded in Oxnard, California in 1995, disbanded 2007, reunited 2012, Kemuri is more to my liking these days. They released two albums back-to-back in 2015 and they’re still touring world wide.

Ignore the tacky stage decor, The Ghost Town Blues Band nails the Memphis sound of the early 70s.

That should hold you over for a while. Have a big fat sloppy weekend, but be back here tomorrow just because.

Saturday Matinee – El Twanguero, Hot Club du Nax, John Prine & Grandpa Elliot Small

Spanish guitarist Diego Garcia, aka El Twanguero, plays his original composition Minor Rag / Spanish Rag. Stay with this one; it starts out slow then jumps to amazing.

Austria’s Hot Club du Nax features talent from Innsbruck, Prague, London and Bologna, and do a damn fine job playing 1930s gypsy swing.

John Prine had the perfect voice for his style of songwriting and was “among the English language’s premier phrase-turners with music relevant to any age.”

Grandpa Eliott Small & his PFC Band pulled off a great version of Buster Brown‘s Fannie Mae (complete with some whoopin’ and eefin’). A New Orleans street performer, Small once said he doesn’t know what beer tastes like, he’s never touched drugs and the only thing he smokes is the exhaust from the cars that pass Royal and Toulouse.

As I was looking for some music videos for this post, I began searching my memory for loud, angry, pissed-off frustration songs to reflect the recent abhorrent events that have fallen upon our Republic, knowing that things are about to get worse.

Then I decided that I didn’t want to go there. Venting is wasted energy, at least for me, so I wandered off in a different direction. Hope you like it.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll be back tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Too Many Zooz, The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio & Buddy Guy w/ B.B. King

“Warriors” by Too Many Zooz, shot somewhere under NYC, is oddly interesting. Some call it street music, but the band calls it “brass house.” Kinda rough on my ears, but I get it.

Tight sound with a nice groove. The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (aka DLO3) covers Curtis Mayfield‘s 1970 soul classic Move On Up.
Delvon Lamarr – Hammond B3 organ
Jabrille “Jimmy James” Williams – guitar
David McGraw – drums

“When I’m pushing up daisies, don’t forget. You’re still my, Buddy”

Two greats, Buddy Guy and (the late) B.B. King. No more needs to be said.

Have a great weekend, search for the truth, ignore the liars, and be back tomorrow for Funday.

Saturday Matinee – Santa’s Roundeer, Greenies Snowman, The Rocker Covers, The Tractors, Postmodern Jukebox & Sleepy Man

Santa’s Roundeer (Rollin’ Wild).

Pure Calvin. [h/t Corrine L.]

Straight outta Gloucestershire, The Rocker Covers covered Carey in Bath, England.

The Tractors‘ Santa Claus is Comin’ (in a Boogie Woogie Choo-Choo Train) has a nasty intro, but keep with it because it rocks and the vid is cool.

Early Postmodern Jukebox:
Scott Bradlee on keyboard, Ben Golder-Novick on saxoblaster.
[Previously posted here in 2013.]

Sleepy Man, formerly Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, aka the Mizzone brothers, polish up this overwrought standard.

That’ll do for now. Have a great weekend, folks and we’ll be back tomorrow for all your last-minute Christmas browsing needs.

Saturday Matinee – Christmas Songs from the Bands of the USN, USA, USAF, USCG & USSF

United States Navy Band featuring
Senior Chief Petty Officer Keith Arneson, banjo
Petty Officer 1st Class Joe Friedman, guitar

This bluegrass medley by the United States Army Band featured
SFC Dean G. Woods, vocals, guitar
SFC Marlisa D. Woods, vocals, fiddle
MSG Michael J. Ford, vocals, harmonica
SFC Kristopher C. Armstrong, string bass
CW5 (ret.) Charles Vollherbst, banjo

The United States Air Force Band jazzed it up a bit. None of that hillbilly crap for them (even though they’re all rednecks).

The United States Coast Guard Band played one of my favorites. Kinda.

The United States Marine Band did a good job with this one.

The United States Space Force Band is still in it’s infancy, but this works as a placeholder.

Have a great weekend, see you back here tomorrow if I’m not at the mall.

Saturday Matinee – Gillian Hills, Delbert McClinton, The J. Geils Band & Bobby Womack

“‘Tut Tut Tut Tut’ is indeed the Franco-phonetic way of imitating a busy signal. In the course of this two minute song, Hills huffs 7 TUTs in a row, four different times for a total of 28 TUTS. Then she adds another 15 or 20 during the fade. Who doesn’t love her TUTS?”

The song is featured in the 2020 TV miniseries “Queen’s Gambit” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, but Gillian Hills recorded “Tut Tut Tut Tut” in 1960, featured in the movie Beat Girl. An English version, Busy Signal was recorded by The Lollipops in 1965.

[Update – Corrected factual error. That is Gillian Hills in the video.]

“McClinton sounds EXACTLY like Peter Wolf!” – video comment

Delbert McClinton is the sound of Texas soul, and has the credentials, backing the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson II, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Jimmy Reed. Eventually he had a national hit, playing harmonica on Bruce Channel‘s “Hey! Baby” in 1962.

“Wolf sounds EXACTLY like Delbert McClinton!” – video comment

The J. Geils Band on The Old Grey Whistle Test 1973 (before all that garbage they put out in the 80s). They also covered this song:

Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, Bobby Womack was slowing down by the time of this 2013 performance, and he passed away the following year at age 70. He first recorded “Lookin’ For A Love” with his brothers as The Valentinos.

Guess that’ll do it for now. Have a great weekend while you can, see you back here for dessert.

Saturday Matinee – Andre Antunes, The Cleverlys, Ricky Skaggs & The Whiskey Gentry

Hold onto your earflaps people. Andre Antunes has a hit on his plate, and he included the lyrics so everyone can sing along.

The Cleverlys Who’s That Knockin’ At My Door is pure gospel bluegrass. Awesome happens at 02:30 with Irl Hees on bass. He’s no longer with the band.

In November 2019, Mr. Hees was charged with felony domestic battery in the second degree and felony aggravated assault of a household member.

“Hees said the argument was over his communication with an ex-wife. He said at some point during the argument, Heather DuBroc walked into the kitchen, picked a pistol up off the kitchen table, and pointed the weapon at him.” [Source]

Ricky Skaggs is one of the greatest mandolin players to come out of the 1980s bluegrass revival, and Highway 40 Blues is one of my favorite early morning roadtrip songs. Skaggs continues performing at the Grand Ole Opry.

Another of my favorites is the ballad of Colly Davis, written by Steven F. Brines and Jim Smoak. I’ve heard a few versions, but this one by The Whiskey Gentry blew me away.

That should keep you rollin’ a while. Have a great weekend folks, and do whatever seems righteous. See you back here tomorrow for more things to click on.

Saturday Matinee – The Gunfighter, Freddie Bell & the Bell Boys, The Bus Boys, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band

“In a small town in the old west, a lone and weary gunfighter enters a saloon.” The Gunfighter is a classic short by Eric Kissack (narrated by Nick Offerman). NSFK content, language.
[h/t Andy D.]

Freddie Bell & the Bell Boys “Giddy Up A Ding Dong” (1956) as performed in Rock Around The Clock, (a showcase movie featuring DJ Alan Freed). The song was written in 1953 by Freddie Bell and his friend Peppino “Pep” Lattanzi.

The Bell Boys played covers of black R&B artists, including Big Mama Thornton’s Hound Dog. Elvis Presley heard Bell’s version and decided to record it in 1955. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band covered Giddy Up A Ding Dong (with matching choreography) in 1973.

The Bus Boys had a great retro sound and were featured on SNL and in the 1982 movie 48 Hours.

New Orleans’ famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band was founded by Pennsylvanian Allan Jaffe in the early 1960s as a dixieland revival group, and that song wasn’t at all what I expected.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be home by 9:59pm so the ‘rona don’t gitcha, or stay out to 10:01pm and you’ll earn some serious ‘vid-kickin’ braggin’ rights.

Saturday Matinee – The Darlings, The Dillards, New Grass Revival, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, and Victor Wooten

The Darlings were a regular feature on the Andy Griffith Show, usually showing up whenever there was trouble brewing (like when Ernest T. Bass tried to woo Charlene Darling). The Darlings were The Dillards.

The Dillards, live at the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 1999. Entertaining intro to Ebo Walker, song starts about 03:45 in.

But there was also a real Ebo Walker, an upright bass player from Kentucky, and the song is not a tribute. From a  Reddit discussion:

Harry Shelor

“Crazy story time. Ebo Walker’s real name is Harry Lee Shelor Jr, (there’s a song called Ebo Walker, which Harry took the name from). Harry cultivated and grew marijuana. He ended up shooting a Kentucky State Police Detective by the name of Darrell Vendl Phelps. He began serving a 50 year sentence in 1981.”

Shelor was released from prison in 2013, age 70.

Prior to his arrest in 1981, Harry Shelor/Ebo Walker was a founding member of The New Grass Revival.

New Grass Revival covers Townes Van Zandt‘s White Freightliner Blues (ca.1981). This lineup consisted of

Sam Bush – mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals
Pat Flynn – guitar, vocals
John Cowan – bass guitar, vocals
Béla Fleck – banjo, guitar, vocals

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, featuring Victor Wooten on fretless bass , his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten on Drumitar. That’s one tight trio.

Victor Wooten won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone.

That set of connections happened somewhat by accident, just like a lot of things these days. Find something fun to do this weekend accidentally, and when you’re done c’mon back here. Got some cool stuff for you to click on.

Saturday Matinee – Alexandre Nicolas Theroude, Joe Rinaudo, Mayer Hawthorne & The Beat Farmers

“Au siècle de la révolution industrielle, la technologie des automates est maîtrisée principalement par les artisans français. Alexandre-Nicolas Théroude, le créateur de cette pièce pour laquelle il a déposé un brevet en 1866, est connu pour avoir le premier su enfermer le mécanisme dans le corps de l’automate.”

“Flautiste” – Life-size Flute Player Automaton by Alexandre Nicolas Theroude (1807-1883), Paris, France, c.1869-77.

Joe Rinaudo and the American Fotoplayer  on “California’s Gold” with (the late) Huell Howser, Season 17, Episode 7, February 18th, 2006.
From the YouTube comments:

  • “Ladies and Gentlemen: Please rise for our 2020 National Anthem.“
  • “If people could read my mind, this is what they’d see.”
  • “This is baby makin’ music for clowns.”

Mayer Hawthorne has the Motown sound down. I heard this and thought “Why don’t I remember that one?” He once stated that, when working as a hip hop DJ, he began recording his own Motown-style tracks to avoid paying fees for sampling other artists’ work. That video made me grin. An excerpt of “The Walk” was used in a Blue Moon beer TV commercial in 2017.

The Beat Farmers were a great band from So. California. I got to see them several times in the 80s, and Road of Ruin seems appropriate for our times. (Two of the original members are gone: Country Dick Montana and Buddy Blue.)

Yeah, we may be on the road of ruin depending on how you look at things, and I’m not talking about the current election fraud. It’s the bigger picture that concerns me. Not much I can do about it.

See you back here tomorrow, rain or shine, and we’ll do something stupid together.

Aw hell. I just gotta post this. GOTTA.