Category: Videos

Saturday Matinee – JP Soars & The Red Hots, The Bruce Katz Band, and Eric Slim Zahl & The South West Swingers

JP Soars & The Red Hots go on a roadtrip. There are exactly two Red Hots: drummer Chris Peet and Cleveland Frederick on standup bass.

The Bruce Katz Band: Bruce Katz on keyboards, Aaron Lieberman on guitar and drummer Ray Hangen.

Award winning rockers Eric Slim Zahl & The South West Swingers hail from Stavanger, Norway.  Other than a brief discography, I could find scant info about this group, and that’s a damn shame.

We’re barely past the Summer Solstice and the days are getting shorter already, but it doesn’t matter to me because my watch is set to porch time. See you tomorrow when the big hand points at something.

On the Road with Steve

Dinosaur Service, Gas Station, Highway 40, Jensen, Utah, 1971
The Big Chief Motel, Highway 80, Gila Bend, Arizona, 1973
Regal Reptile Ranch, Snakepit Operator, Highway 66, Sayre, Oklahoma, 1972
Wigwam Motel, Highway 66, Holbrook, Arizona, 1973
Motel Dinosaur, Highway 40, Vernal, Utah, 1974

“So this made him wonder which was stronger – his father’s Buick or his grandmother’s God.”

[Photos by Steve Fitch.]

Saturday Matinee – The David Gogo Band, The Atomic 44’s and Kevin Borich, John Watson & Harry Brus

Canadian singer, songwriter and bluesman David Gogo began playing guitar at the age of five; at 15 he met and was encouraged by Stevie Ray Vaughan; a year later he formed his first band. He’s won numerous awards, including three JUNOs (despite EMI spiking his solo album in the US).

Blues/roots supergroup The Atomic 44’s formed in 2020 when Eric Von Herzen (harmonica player for Walter Trout, Social Distortion, The Atomic Road Kings, Junior Watson) joined guitarist/vocalist Johnny Main (The 44’s).

Another power trio of rockers from down under: Kevin Borich / guitar, John Watson / drums & Harry Brus / bass.  [h/t John McL.]

That should be enough to fill your earbuckets for now. Happy Fathers Day to all you fathers (including those of you who don’t know yet) and we’ll have some quality porch time tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Tom Waits, Joe Louis Walker & Kid Anderson (with Tommy Harkenrider, Brent Harding & Derrick D’Mar Martin)

Tom Waits‘ Telephone Call From Istanbul was released on his album Frank’s Wild Years (1987) and was featured in the movie Big Time (1988).

Joe Louis Walker at Broadway Studios, San Francisco, December 1999. Walker has recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper, opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk, hung out with Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and was a close friend and roommate of Mike Bloomfield, and that’s some serious cred.

Kid Anderson / lead guitar, Tommy Harkenrider / rhythm guitar, Brent Harding / bass and Derrick D’Mar Martin / drums at the Beatnik Bandito Emporium, Santa Ana, California, February 2020.

Nice set for St. Medarus Day. Celebrations will commence on the front porch whenever you get here. If I’m not out you’ll need to holler at the door because the doorbell doesn’t work.

D-Day 06 June 1944

The Daily Mail posted an interactive timeline of the D-Day, the Invasion of Normandy, 80 years ago today.

Saturday Matinee – Marcus Armitage (That Yorkshire Sound), Witchita Trip, Los Straitjackets & Sue Foley

“A hand drawn animated documentary, following the rhythms of a day in Yorkshire. It captures the sound of Yorkshire, from its multicultural and bustling cities like Bradford and Sheffield, to the delicate sounds of birds in the country side and the hypnotic rhythm of the motorways and train tracks.”

That Yorkshire Sound by Marcus Armitage [h/t Nag on the Lake].

In 2014, Witchita Trip covered Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn:
“Ya, it has a better groove. That’s Wichita Trip. The two singers and I have played together for about 15 years. There’s no country bars so we end up playing with rockabilly and blues bands, it’s not a great fit. Barb and Rupert have been singing together for about 30 years.” – Gorehound, guitarist

Los Straitjackets play definitive roadtrip cruisin’ music and more.
“The funny thing about this band is when the band started I thought it was just going to be for fun,” says founding guitarist Eddie Angel. “I thought we’d play once a month in Nashville and our friends would come out and laugh at us. Ironically, all the other bands I was in, the ones I took seriously, crashed and burned and the one I thought was just for fun became my job.” – Houston Press
[h/t Taminatorpgh]

Austin blues rocker Sue Foley plays one mean Texas shuffle.

Been a short week all around for me, starting with Memorial Day on Monday, then waking up on Friday convinced it was Saturday until about 3pm, so  I got two 3-day weekends in a row by accident. See you on the porch around the crack of noon and well discuss time travel.

Saturday Matinee – OMC, Dr. Feelgood & Rory Gallagher

OMC (Ōtara Millionaires Club) was an Aukland NZ success story until the premature deaths of Phil Fuemana in 2005 and his brother, frontman Pauly Fuemana, in January 2010.
[h/t Tony McG. for indirectly reminding me of the song.]

The UK R&B band Dr. Feelgood took their name from a 1964 recording by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, a cover of the song written by Will ‘Piano Red‘ Perryman, aka Dr. Feelgood.

You ever woke up with them bull frogs on your mind?
Roots blues rocker Rory Gallagher jammed William Harris’ 1928 song Bullfrog Blues in 1979. I can’t understand the words even after reading them.

Three day weekend is here, don’t forget what Memorial Day is all about, and we’ll see you tomorrow at the usual place (porch) at the usual time (porch thirty).

Saturday Matinee – Steve Arvey & Stumpy Joe Sweckard, Sean Webster & the Dead Lines, and Kid Anderson w/ Frankie Ramos

Steve Arvey and Stumpy Joe Sweckard cover Robert Johnson‘s The Last Fair Deal Gone Down (1936).

Sean Webster & the Dead Lines.

Chris ‘Kid’ Anderson with (the late) Frankie Ramos.

Oh, man I’m SO out of steam and SO out of time to write anything even remotely coherent. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Nina Simone, The High Numbers & GA-20

1987 claymation video by Aardman Animations features the voice and piano of Eunice Kathleen Waymon, aka gospel / jazz / R&B / soul singer Nina Simone, with a song from 1958. She changed her name to elude family members and play “the devil’s music” in an Atlantic City nightclub. The management told her that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, and that launched her career as a jazz vocalist.

“What’s your band’s name?”
“The High Numbers.”
“The who?”
“Yes.”

The Detours, a British group formed in the early 1960s, changed their name to  The High Numbers and recorded a few tracks before reverting to a previous band name, The Who. That’s a young Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon covering Jesse Hill‘s Ooh Poo Pah Doo (1960) and The Miracles‘ I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying (1963).

GA-20  covers Hound Dog Taylor‘s She’s Gone (1971). Great authentic electric blues cranked out with respect.

Too far south to see this weekend’s aurorae, and I hope everyone who can survives the EMT barrage. I’ll take the event as a good omen, and yet another damn good reason to do some porch sitting tomorrow.
See you then.

Saturday Matinee – The Courettes, The Holophonics & Dan Patlansky

Dubbed The World’s Greatest Two Person Rock ‘N’ Roll Ensemble, Flavia & Martin Couri, aka The Courettes, make retro new again. Hop hop.

The Holophonics are a ska punk reggae band with members from New York City, Dallas/Ft. Worth & Southern California. At least they have a Facebook page.

This trio consists of Dan Patlansky / guitar & vocals, Tom Schwan / bass and Ben Matthews / drums. Patlansky is a blues guitarist from South Africa, was voted the No. 4 Best Guitarist in the world. He’s the only artist with two worldwide No. 1 and two No. 2 Best Blues Rock album awards as voted by Blues Rock Review.

Been another week full of Time Flies and I still haven’t figured out how to slow them down. I plan to be up at the crack of noon tomorrow for porch time and we can discuss our options then. See you when you get here.