Proto punk soul singer and producer Genya Ravan blew me away when I heard Stay With Me (1970), and check out her 1977 interview here.
Pat Benatar‘s 1991 cover of Denzil Laing & the Wrigglers‘ 1958 cover of
Wynonie Harris‘ 1951 cover of Hank Penny‘s song from 1949.
Larkin Poe gets all nasty and swampy.
You know the drill. Have a great weekend.
[Update: Fixed link to Stay With Me.]
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros is a bit of an enigma to me. Some songs sound like folk busker music, some seem almost evangelical, and then they morph into a psychedelic jug band. Formed by singer Alex Ebert, the band’s name is based on a story he wrote about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe.
The Contours should need no introduction, but not according to some of the comments in the Utoobage. The 1962 hit Do You Love Me was written by James Brown and Pee Wee Ellis.
A former James Brown impersonator, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires turned up the soul groove with this retro gem from 2014. Great bassline too.
Happy Memorial Day weekend, stay safe in your travels, and we’ll be sitting on the porch as usual if you want to stop by.
The late great Lonnie Mack.
Steve Ripley & The Tractors were responsible for creating the highest selling album ever recorded in the state of Oklahoma.
In 2019, Malford Milligan, backed by Danny Vera (& band), performed a great cover of Sam Cooke’s 1963 classic on Dutch television.
After attending Bunkessa’s wedding in NOLA, I had a busy week doing nothing and I loved it. Have a great weekend, see you tomorrow, rain or shine.
Aaron Hughes‘ impressive hand-drawn animation Five Cents:
“Drawn by hand on thousands of market data pages from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times with ink, white-out, gouache paint, gold leaf and other materials.”
[h/t Mme. Jujujive].
Formed in South London in 1980, The Meteors are considered the first verifiable psychobilly band (and the second band to use the term).
The Interrupters: Aimee Interrupter & the Bivona brothers always look like they’re having fun, probably because they are.
That’s all for now. Be back here tomorrow and we’ll make up stuff.
Smooth Hound Smith were an Americana duo comprised of Zack Smith and Caitlin Doyle-Smith; their sound reminds me of Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks. After ten years of performing and recording, they closed up shop during The Great Covid Lockdown. Apparently Z.G. Smith is now back in business.
Justin Johnson‘s unusual cover of Howlin’ Wolf fits my mood.
Cam Cole, busker, bluesman, rocker, recording artist, and “the most impressive one-man band you will ever see” has a new EP out, but this one is still my favorite.
Porch time is on schedule for tomorrow, so we’ll see you there.
When you ask A.I. to create a Family Guy pizza commercial you get this.
Hot Club de Piracicaba performs Paganini in Django style.
Guitar great Jimmie Vaughan is still pickin’ the blues at 72.
At 04:12 he says it’s an Eddie Taylor song, but a 1952 Meteor Records 78rpm issue credits Elmore James & James Taub as the writers.
Robert Randolph and The Family Band
“In his adolescent years before being discovered by the secular community, [Randolph] was almost completely unaware of non-religious music. He went on exclaim in an interview that ‘I grew up and saw a lot of older guys playing lap steels and pedal-steel guitars in my church. I had never heard of the Allman Brothers, or even Buddy Guy or Muddy Waters.’ “ [Wiki}
And I had never heard the term sacred steel before today. Have a great weekend, see you back here tomorrow. Bring your laundry.
Mississippi John Hurt, recording from Pete Seeger’s “Rainbow Quest” series (1965/1966) a television show devoted to folk music.
The great John Hiatt, backed by The Jerry Douglas Band, gets all sweet and swampy and stuff.
Grammy nominee and Swayzees frontman Les Greene teams up with The Televisionaries, a surf punk band from Rochester New York, and the result is.. that.
Have a great weekend, see you on the back porch tomorrow.
This is the work of Billy Blob.
Sundance Film Festival award-winning short Bumble Beeing Part 1 – The Butterfly Effect (2002) has the back story, and Mr. Butterfly later agreed to do a Special Commentary interview.
“I started playing around the age of four, and started getting good at seven.” G.E. Smith is an unpretentious and underrated guitar player with an impressive resume, best known as the pony-tailed bandleader for The Saturday Night Live Band. The song is a cover of Robert Johnson’s 1936 recording of 32-20 Blues, which itself is a remake of Skip Jame’s 22-20 Blues.(1931).
Buddy Guy with Ally Venable (and vice versa) is a killer match up. From Venable’s studio album Real Gone (2023).
Chicago legends Lonnie Brooks and James “Sugar Blue” Whiting jammed with the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra in 1999.
And that’ll do it for this installment. Have a great weekend and we’ll have a sit down on the back porch tomorrow.
Propellerheads, with Shirley Bassey, the Welsh vocalist known for her renditions of themes to three James Bond movies.
“Propellerheads were a British big beat music band, formed in 1995, from Bath made up of electronic producers Will White and Alex Gifford. The term ‘Propellerhead’ is Californian slang for a computer nerd, and when Gifford and White heard a friend from California drop this into conversation, they thought it the perfect name for their band.”
From Birmingham, UK, Harry & The Howlers features what Harry (Haley) Jordan calls “sleaze-fuelled rock and roll.”
Roy Rogers is one of those guitslingers who doesn’t need a backup band to sound good, but give him one and the results are amazing.
Have a blessed Easter.
Boney D. (1996) by Bill Plympton & Jonathan Lee . Better than computer animation, and Plymptoons always made me smile.
Elise LeGrow‘s unusual take on Fontella Bass’ 1965 hit Rescue Me is sultry and sleazy, yet still respectful to the original.
Boogie woogie master Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra head over to Fat Freddie’s Place. Don’t know who the soloists are in this lineup, but that trumpet player melts it.
Fun times this week, and I’m getting a bit tired of it. See you back here tomorrow and we’ll cook up a big ‘ol pot of drudgery. Have a great weekend.
Tacky Raccoons 