Saturday Matinee – Rising Appalachia, Little Feat (w/ Lowell George), and Moreland & Arbuckle

Such a pretty sound. Rising Appalachia plays roots-based music righteously.

Little Feat, with founder Lowell George and Mick Taylor sitting in, live in London 1977.

“Where Zeppelin meets Son House.”
Moreland & Arbuckle were a trio consisting of Aaron Moreland on box guitar, Dustin Arbuckle on harp, Kendall Newby drums. Active from 2001-2017, they’re still performing, with different bands and lineups.

Gonna be a long hot (and probably loud) weekend given Independence Day on schedule for Tuesday. Don’t blow your wad of Black Cats too soon and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Foraminiferous Hot Links

Cruisin’ For A Love, J. Geils Band (1973) One of the greatest bar bands to hit it big (timeline of band members here). Guitarist John Warren Geils Jr. passed away in 2017 at 71.

Good morning.

Anatidaephobia.

His name was Eugene.

Pretty sure I need this.

The Art of the Drive-By.

Bishop’s got the moves.

This dog [via Bunkerville].

Draw Logos From Memory.

Pretty sure I need these too.

The plateau that disappeared.

Building Barbie [via Mme. Jujujive]

Blunting the Tip of the Spear [h/t Kirk W.]

Ray Jessel‘s 2014 performances of What She’s Got [NSFK].

North Korean anti-American propaganda art, 1950-1970 [NSFK].

[Top image:Apocalyptic play house, Lazio, Italy, via Google Maps Street View via Neil.Fun h/t Memo Of The Air.]


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

Lecanoscopic Hot Links

Bring It On Home, Sonny Boy Williamson II (1963) This classic was written by Willie Dixon and recorded in 1963 (with Matt “Guitar” Murphy) but wasn’t released until three years later. Led Zeppelin covered the song on their album  Led Zeppelin II (1969). In 2017 Randy Newman wrote Sonny Boy, a song about Rice Williams’ theft of the original Sonny Boy Williamson’s identity.

The Pit.

The Caveat.

Yo-Yo Show.

Raccoon boop.

It’s a good day.

The customers.

“No one is safe…

How to trombone.

Flight of the Bumble.

Horking up a hairball.

This cop & this trucker.

Retrogressive landslide.

Cards Against Humanity.

The “Certificate.” [h/t Kirk W.]

Spy hatchlings! [via Bunkerville]

I need just about everything they sell.

1954 Buick Wildcat II [via Memo Of The Air]

Best Use of Thermochromics Award [via Mme. Jujujive].

[Top image: Doggo McMuffin found here.]


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

Saturday Matinee – Genya Ravan, Pat Benatar & Larkin Poe

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.]

Saturday Matinee – Smooth Hound Smith, Justin Johnson & Cam Cole

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.

Saturday Matinee – A.I. Family Guy Pizza, Hot Club de Piracicaba, Jimmie Vaughan, and Robert Randolph & The Family Band

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.

Saturday Matinee – Mississippi John Hurt, John Hiatt w/ The Jerry Douglas Band & Les Greene w/ The Televisionaries

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.

Saturday Matinee – The Quantum Creep (2007), G.E. Smith, Ally Venable w/ Buddy Guy, and Lonnie Brooks & Sugar Blue w/ the Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra

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 BlueWhiting 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.

Saturday Matinee – Tokyo Groove Jyoshi, Edward Phillips & The Raunch Hands

What is hip? Tokyo Groove Jyoshi is. They’re a groove band formed in 2018 by three session musicians:
Juna Serita – Bass
Emi Kanazashi – Keyboard
Yuriko Seki – Drums
w/ Shinobu KawashimaShamisen
[h/t Feral Irishman]

Blind Boy Fuller‘s Step It Up and Go (1940) as covered by blues roots historian Edward Phillips.

New York retro-rockers The Raunch Hands were underrated and overrated at the same time. [h/t Gord S.]

Hope you have a wet weekend and we’ll check the rain gauge tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Biscuits & Gravy Revew, Olena Uutai, Reverend Peyton & The Terraplanes Blues Band

“It looks like vomit.”
“I’m so scared to try this.”
“It looks like a chopped up ferret.”

Born in Yakutia, Russia, Olena Uutai (Olga Podluzhnaya Uutai) pulls unearthly sounds from a  khomus, a type of jaw harp once played by tribal shamans of the far east. [h/t Pam M.]

Reverend Peyton got hold of a groovebox in 2018.

The Terraplanes Blues Band shows us yanks how to play Delta Blues.

It’s later than usual for this time of year, hope it’s still early where you are. See you tomorrow, and if I’m not here, start without me.