Category: Saturday Matinee

Saturday Matinee – Keith Turner & The Southern Sound, Jovin Webb, Selwyn Birchwood and Dollar Bill

Keith Turner & The Southern Sound was a popular Scottish rockabilly band until the demise of guitarist and singer Keith Turner in 2015. Turner’s other bands included Hi Voltage, The FretTones, Shake Rag and Memphis Detour.

“Drifter is the sound of a blues life searching for gospel redemption,” Jovin shares. “It’s me trying to figure out religion, women, my career, and everything I’ve gone through.”
Louisiana blues singer Jovin Webb has the John Lee Hooker growl down, can’t rhyme worth a shinola, but he made it to the final ten performers on the 2020 season of American Idol.

Selwyn Birchwood plays what he calls “Electric Swamp Funkin’ Blues,” and his tribute to Florida Man seems appropriate given the recent weather.

Scotsman Ian Bowerman, aka Dollar Bill, is one tight band. Bowerman also played drums for Keith Turner’s Southern Sound and The Blue Mambas.

Hope you’re all sound and safe from hurricanes, tornados, fires, floods and fleas, and we’ll see you tomorrow, porch time- ish.

Saturday Matinee – FRANK, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Eric Tessmer & Big Monti Amundson

FRANK is not a band that didn’t form in 2021 when singer/songwriter/guitarist Élise Lounici didn’t join up with Sébastien Gaschard (drums) or Colin Pradier (bass) or something. Their website is in French and I can’t decipher the story.

Chicago guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Ronnie Baker Brooks‘ cover of the Stones makes me smile.  He is the son of multiple GRAMMY Award nominee and Blues Hall Of Famer Lonnie Brooks.

Eric James Tessmer is a guitar slinger out of Austin and cites Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix as inspirations. That’s no surprise – his guitarist dad named him after them. More about Tessmer here.

Big Monti Amundson backed by Bart Kamp (bass) and Henk Punter (drums). Amundson definitely has the Texas blues sound down.

What a week, especially with the continuous news of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. Prayers for the survivors that they not lose hope.

See you tomorrow.

 

Saturday Matinee – Lurrie Bell & Billy Branch, Omar & The Howlers, The Andreas Diehlmann Band, and Playing For Change

Lurrie Bell and Billy Branch are two modern day blues masters. Branch is a roots blues promoter and historian with  a direct link to Willie Dixon, while Bell is the son of harpslinger and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Carey Bell. In 1977, Bell and Branch were considered members of the “New Generation of Chicago Blues” and both have made significant contributions to the genre.

Omar and The Howlers features Kent “Omar” Dykes:
“He hails from McComb, MS, a town with the distinction of being home turf for Bo Diddley. Omar started playing guitar at twelve where he took to hanging out in edge-of-town juke joints playing with Wakefield Coney and other authentic blues greats in the middle of the night when his parents were asleep.”

The Andreas Diehlmann Band is a German power trio who crank out Texas blues ala ZZ Top, with vocals to match. Diehlmann is backed by Jörg Sebald on bass and Tom Bonn on drums.

Playing For Change: Legendary multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones, accompanied by Stephen Perkins, Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks, and over 20 musicians and dancers from seven different countries perform a rework of the 1929 original release by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flooding in U.S. history.

Prayers to those who lost loved ones and were otherwise affected by Hurricane Helene, one of the largest to hit the US in recent history.  The cleanup effort required is mind boggling.

Porch time begins at porch time. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Black Hole, Carolyn Wonderland, The Henrik Freischlader Trio & The Gary Hoey Band

The Black Hole (UK, 2008) is a short film starring Napoleon Ryan and a hole, directed by Phil Sampson and Olly Williams (Phil and Olly) who may or may not have been fans of Warner Bros. cartoons.

“Carolyn Wonderland  describes herself as ‘a guitarist in a roomful of singers and a singer in a roomful of guitarists,’ was recently called ‘one of Texas’ finest Americana guitar-slingers’ by her hometown newspaper, The Austin American-Statesman.” – Alligator Records

The Henrik Freischlader Trio plays some damn good funkified blues. Freischlader is a German blues guitarist, singer-songwriter, producer, and self-taught multi-instrumentalist from Wuppertal, Germany.

Gary Hoey was in diapers when the Chantays recorded their 1962 classic, and he rips it up with respect.

Way too much happened this past week. I think some of the sensory overload is intentional and unnecessary, but we’ll cope.
Porch. Tomorrow. Noonish.

Saturday Matinee – The Reverend Horton Heat, Beverly Watkins & Buckwheat Zydeco (reposted)

[My calendar malfunctioned, so here’s a repost from 01 October 2016.]

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I don’t listen to food shows on the radio, at least not intentionally, but sometimes I do by accident.

KFIAM640 features “The Fork Report” on Saturdays, featuring Neil Saavedra, and his themesong is pretty cool. Lordy, lordy. Last night I suddenly realized that he’s been playing The Reverend Horton Heat all this time. If you’re offended by Rockabilly cheesecake videos, click on it, turn away and just listen. The song is fun. The video is funner.

Yeah, I found that mildly amusing, but then I’m easily amused. So let’s go visit Beverly Watkins instead.

From the UToobage description:

Beverly Watkins plays a mean blues guitar, and that’s putting it mildly. Over six decades of performing, the 77-year-old has opened for Ray Charles, James Brown, BB King and other legendary musicians. She’s one of the greatest female blues guitarists, and still plays local gigs in Atlanta.

Not convinced? Try this.

Here’s some bad news.

Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. passed away Saturday, 24 September 2016 at the age of 68. The vid features Lenny Kravitz and Ry Cooder. Rock on, Buck [via].

We all move on, despite what we would like to believe. Have a great weekend, folks, and let’s all have fun while we still can.

Saturday Matinee – Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers, The Black Keys, Janiva Magness, and Ry Cooder w/ Buckwheat Zydeco & Lenny Kravitz

Ruby Dee & The Snakehandlers “plays an Americana that encompasses Texas honky-tonk, Bakersfield twang, Memphis rockabilly, Western swing and good old-fashioned rock’n’ roll.” This song doesn’t really fit any of those categories, but it’s nice and easy.

The Black Keys‘ breakout video from 2010… or maybe it wasn’t.

Janiva Magness covers Tom Waits.

Ry Cooder, Buckwheat Zydeco and Lenny Kravitz, having some fun in New Orleans 2005.

Too much heat, stress and attitude for me this week. Tell you all about it on the porch when the time is right.

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Saturday Matinee – The Dirtbombs, Al Green & The Hard Times, The Chase Walker Band and Chicago Blues Union

Motor City afropunk:
“Since the band’s inception in 1992 The Dirtbombs have won over dozens of fans. In more recent years, they’ve been named Spin magazine’s #10 best live band in the world.” – YouTube description (2009)

Al Green & The Hard Times (aka Piper & The Hard Times) mixes roots rock, blues and soul performed by “pro-level players covering bass, guitar, keyboard/organ, and horns for a big rootsy vibe,” and fronted by Al “Piper” Green on vocals.

The Chase Walker Band is a blues roots rock and soul band from Riverside, California.  Despite his young age (26 as of this posting) Walker has already attracted the attention of many in the industry, and he’s going places.

Straight outta Hungary: Chicago Blues Union is a project of T. Rogers & Jenő Fekete as a tribute to the 50’s and 60’s Chicago electric blues scene. ( I couldn’t find much solid information about them, other than that Fekete is on guitar and vocals.)

The Labor Day weekend is upon us, so do Labor Day things on Labor Day. Tomorrow we’ll be attending to our regular duties on the porch, watching the world go fry. See you then.

Saturday Matinee – The Fearless Flyers, Manou Gallo & The Steady 45s

The Fearless Flyers showed how to make a music video in 2018. The quartet was a spinoff / side project of funk group Vulfpeck (who recorded the quietest grooves ever on Sleepify).

Afro Groove Queen Manou Gallo is a singer, songwriter, bandleader and 5-string bass slapper from West Africa, and plays a variety of regional and world music styles.

The Steady 45s are a retro reggae / rocksteady / ska group founded in Los Angeles in 2012. I like this groove, better than the original.

Glad that the DNC finally had their party so we can get back to the important things in life, like quality porch time. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – BALTHVS, Johnny Rawls & Dan Patlansky

BALTHVS is a Colombian psychedelic funk surf rock group consisting of Balthazar Aguirre / guitar; Johanna Mercuriana / bass; Santiago Lizcano /drums. Four albums and over three dozen singles in only four years, plus world tours makes for a busy schedule and a lot of spacey retro vibes.

Johnny Rawls is a true soul-blues renaissance man. He’s been recording and performing for over fifty years, winning many awards in the process. Ten of his recordings have been nominated for Soul Blues Album of the Year and two of them won in that category (which didn’t exist until Rawls showed up).

Dan Patlansky was voted the No. 4 Best Guitarist in the world and remains the only artist with two worldwide No.1, and two worldwide No.2 Best Blues Rock albums to his name, as voted by Blues Rock Review USA.

Great googly moogly, the weekend his here already. Too many time flies buzzing about, and that means we have some serious porching to attend to. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Jimmie Vaughan, Ruzz ‘Guitar’ Evans Blues Revue & Los Lonely Boys

“Stevie had the intensity, but Jimmie had the feel; Custodian of a genre, master and eternal student, genius born of passion for honoring those who came before.” – YouTube comment
Jimmie Vaughan & The Fabulous Thunderbirds  – Extra Jimmies (ca. 1980).

From Bristol, UK, Ruzz ‘Guitar’ Evans Blues Revue cranks out a variety of  blues styles, from big band swing to rockabilly to western space retro rock. Evans won the Guitarist Of The Year award and was nominated Artist Of The Year (runner up to Jimmie Vaughan!) in The Blues Lounge Radio Show 2021 Awards.

Los Lonely Boys:
“Leveraging the power of their connection, brothers communicate in their own vernacular understood by one another, yet alien to the rest of the world. Scaling one mountain at a time, they have summited unprecedented heights.”
Whew. Seems like someone’s girlfriend wrote that description, but these guys rock. San Angelo, Texas, brothers Henry (vocals, guitar), Jojo (bass, vocals) and Ringo Garza (drums) have been performing since 1996.

Time compression kicked in for me again this week, exacerbated by ad-libbed napping and the leftovers of a drive-by head cold. Be back here tomorrow, porchtime-ish, and we’ll discuss variable speed quantum hypotheticals and, you know, stuff.