Tag: Blues

Saturday Matinee – Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse, The Cinelli Brothers, and Mr. Sipp

Beau Gris Gris & The Apocalypse is a roots rock blues Americana country soul punk psychobilly band from California, featuring vocals by documentary filmmaker, television producer, business entrepreneur and Louisiana native Greta “Gris Gris” Valenti. (The nice lady dancing in the background is Kitten De Ville.)

Winners of the 2024 UK Blues Band of the Year, The Cinelli Brothers (Marco and Alessandro) revive 1960s – 70s vintage electric blues, R&B and soul with a modern vibe.

Castro Coleman, aka Mr. Sipp is smooth. A recipient of many prestigious awards, Castro was the first bluesman to have his handprint inducted into the Wall of Fame in Fredrikshavn, Denmark.

Another week and world news is still splattering all over the pavement and splashing in the swales. Every major story is both good news and omens of disaster depending upon the time of day and which town crier is coming through the village. The 48 hour rule is officially null and void.

My plan is to sleep in until Porch Time so I can be fashionably late. See you then and/or there.

Saturday Matinee – The Heavy, Big Guitars From Texas, Eric Johnson and Booker T. & The MG’s

Formed in 2007, The Heavy are a rock / soul / R&B band from Bath, Somerset, England. Kelvin Swaby / lead vocals, Dan Taylor / guitar, Spencer Page /bass, Chris Ellul / drums.

Big Guitars From Texas ca. 1985: Evan Johns, Don Leady, Denny Freeman, Frankie Camaro, Keith Ferguson and Mike Buck. Buck / drums and Ferguson /bass were original members of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Leady & Ferguson were also members of The Tailgators, Leady, Buck & Johns were with The LeRoi Brothers.

From Wikipedia:
Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is an American guitarist, vocalist and composer. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single “Cliffs of Dover” won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

R.I.P. Steve Cropper (1941-2025)
Booker T. & The MG’s opened this Creedence Clearwater Revival concert at the Oakland Coliseum, 1/31/70. Seen offstage are John Fogerty, Doug Clifford (w/beard), and Stu Cook (w/glasses).

Thanksgiving leftovers are almost gone, Christmas is just around the corner, and I’m still on Halloween. Guess I’ll have to reset the calendar one of these days, but not tomorrow. I plan to have some QPT (Quality Porch Time) at precisely sometime o’clock. See you then.

Saturday Matinee – Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge w/ Petar Janjic, and The Riccardo Grosso Blues Band

Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials are killer.
Lil’ Ed Wiiliams (vocals, slide guitar), Ed’s half-brother James “Pookie” Young (bass), guitarist Mike Garrett (guitar) and drummer Kelly Littleton (drums) have been jamming for over 30 years. Lil’ Ed & Pookie learned from their uncle,  J. B. Hutto.

Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge (with Serbian drummer Petar Janjic). Bowers is an amazing powerhouse jammer. Born in 2006, she was only 18 at the time of this performance from 2024, and she looks like she’s having fun.

“Blues is my foundation, but I don’t want to be the next copycat. My goal is to deliver the missing soundtrack of your life – and mine.” R. Grosso
Riccardo Grosso Blues Band‘s cover of Slim Harpo’s Shake Your Hips is a steady driver. There’s an interesting interview with Grosso on Bluesmoose Radio here, and it includes more examples of his excellent harp shredding.

It’s finally here – my favorite week. Yep, we gots a lotsa LEFTOVERS!
See you on the porch tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about them.

Saturday Matinee – Eddie 9V, RelaxTrio, Altered Five Blues Band & Bywater Call

“A shot rang out in the name of love” is one hell of a lyric.
Brooks Mason was born in Georgia in 1996, focuses on classic southern soul, blues, rock and funk. “A lot of people wanted me to be the Brooks Mason Blues Band, but that’s been done. I wanted to start from scratch, and I ain’t never heard of no bluesman named Eddie 9V.”

The girl pounds bass. Finnish band RelaxTrio is
Linda Teränen (Vocals & double bass)
Oskari Nieminen (Vocals & guitar)
Vilho Voutilainen (Drums & backing vocals)

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.

Bywater Call is a Toronto-based group formed by singer Meghan Parnell and guitar player Dave Barnes. They were nominees for the Southern Rock & Soul Independent Blues Awards in 2021. In 2024 they were nominated for International Blues Artist of the year (UK Blues Awards).

Lotta weather this past week, but it didn’t freeze, didn’t flood and nothing important fell over. Thought about getting a hair cut, but I filled up the tank instead and fed the cat a few times. Life is good. See you tomorrow, some time around porch o’clock.

Saturday Matinee – Alastair Greene, Eric Johanson & Katarina Pejak; Nikki Hill Band, Anthony Rosano & The Conqueroos, and Cam Cole

Ruf’s Blues Caravan 2024 featured Alastair Greene, Eric Johanson & Katarina Pejak. 

Nikki Hill Band:
“If Tina Turner and Little Richard had a daughter and raised her with the help of uncles James Brown and Chuck Berry, she’d be like Nikki Hill.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune

Anthony Rosano & The Conqueroos mixes Delta blues, NOLA  second line funk and 60’s jams with classic rock. No self-indulgent wheedly-wheedly solos with these guys.

Cam Cole, busker, bluesman, rocker, recording artist, and the most impressive one-man band you will ever see.

Looks like the west coast is in for rain, the midwest is in for winter, and the porch has a roof with a live weather watch. See you tomorrow, rain, mud, sleet or snow.

Saturday Matinee – The Lemonheads, Evan Johns & Charlie Burton, and The Guy Forsyth Blues Band

Alt-rock punk band The Lemonheads was formed in Boston in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. There’s an obvious Ramones influence on their 1992 cover of Simon and Garfunkel‘s Mrs. Robinson (recorded in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the move The Graduate).

Evan Johns and Charlie Burton on Art Fein’s Poker Party, 1993.
Charlie Burton on vocal and rhythm guitar, seated is Grammy nominated Evan Johns (Evan Johns and the H-Bombs) on lead guitar, Dave Robel (Shithook) on drums, C. Buggs Coombs on bass. Johns passed away in 2017 at the age of 60; Burton passed on in 2024, age 73.

The Guy Forsyth Blues Band out of Austin, Texas, sounds a bit like early Fabulous Thunderbirds to me, and I like it. Forsyth’s earlier collaborations include The Asylum Street Spankers and The Hot Nut Riveters.

Cold weather moving down south, wind and water for us folks in the west, and a great big storm of stupid just passed through much of the nation. There’s some good news out there if you know where to look, and a good place to start is on the porch tomorrow. See you then and there.

HALLOWEENAGE

Miscellaneous earbone stimulation for throwing treats at the little ghosts and goblins. [Image found here.]

 

[Caveat: I don’t own the copyrights to any of these recordings. They are presented here for entertainment purposes only.]

 

Emunctory Hot Links

Boogeyman, The Atomic 44’s (2021)
Blues/roots supergroup The Atomic 44’s formed in 2020 when Eric Von Herzen (harmp player for Walter Trout, Social Distortion, The Atomic Road Kings, Junior Watson) joined guitarist/vocalist Johnny Main (The 44’s).

Holler.

“Dance.”

“CHILL!”

MDAOES.

THIS POD.

Mr. Bubba.

Greenlight.

Monkey rain.

E-E-AH-H-H.

The East Wig.

Engagement.

Make it black.

Morel Doucet’s busts.

Differing martial arts.

About Hedwig Kiesler.

Patty was a headbanger.

Dance This Meme Around.

Mark Allen, Cardiff Busker.

Earl the Spider [via Thompson, blog].

Herman Poole Blount [via Everlasting Blört].

Nathan Vidal & Eduardo Granados are dkhds.

Don’t Fear The Reaper (medieval version) [via Memo Of The Air].

[Top image: Colorized magazine photo, unknown source, with caption
“Rich Palmer ran the nation’s largest volume hobby shop in Parsippany, New Jersey. Aurora hired him to organize its Monster Customizing Contest in 1964. Aurora received national television attention when the CBS Evening News visited his shop. Walter Cronkite and Palmer held a conversation in the “Monster Korner” of the store. Big Frankie occupies the top shelf in the Monster Korner.”
More info in this forum.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Surculigerous Hot Links

Goin’ Down South, R.L. Burnside w/ Lyrics Born (2004) Burnside recorded several versions of Goin’ Down South over the years. He was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, learned from Mississippi Fred McDowell who lived in the next county over. Burnside and his family, tired of the life of sharecroppers, moved to Chicago in the early 50s. Subsequently his father, two uncles and two brothers were murdered there. In 1959 he returned to Mississippi, was convicted of murder himself, and served time at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, aka Parchman Farm. [h/t Suzanne P.]

Play B-22.

Haint paint.

Tower bees.

Douchebag.

200% Chinese.

Sidewalk chalk.

Freddie’s Level.

Plucking around.

Sorry We’re Closed.

Street pyrotechnics.

Elvis anti-fog sponge.

One man’s bucket list.

Maisie, Jake and Harry.

A snapshot in concrete.

“Shut up,” she explained.

Norty Blues Episode 138.

Cast aluminum farm toys.

Repairing Cow 613 [h/t Kirk W.]

WindowSwap [via Memo Of The Air].

There’s a loo in The Netty, dear Liza.

Four hours’ pay means four hours’ stay.

Stereotypical foods that few locals eat.

Even better at 1.5x speed [via Thompson, blog].

…and not very sharp [via The View From Lady Lake].

100 Years of the Photobooth [via Everlasting Blört].

“Play with and trade upon the themes of accumulation and juxtaposition.”

[Top image: 19th century Japanese octopus sculpture found here.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Saturday Matinee – HatFitz and Cara, Marc Amacher & The Thilo Wolf Big Band

HatFitz and Cara: “Aussie bluesman and Irish Songstress get married, form a band and make great music together. This shabby hill country blues oozes cool”. Guitar & Bass Magazine.

Swiss gravel-voiced guitarist Marc Amacher plays his mashup of roots blues, gospel, rock and funk – someone called it “dirty blues-rock of traditional style”.

The Thilo Wolf Big Band, the Thilo Wolf Jazz Quartet and the Thilo Wolf Groove Selection are all groups created by German pianist and composer Thilo Wolf. What a coincidence.

Had the house main water line replaced yesterday (weasels chewed up the old one) so we can shower and flush the toilets, then we had an internest downage last evening so this post was delayed a bit. The porch is open for business.