Tag: Blues

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 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.

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 Kawashima – Shamisen
[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.

Saturday Matinee – Universal Everything, Felix Colgrave, Matt “Guitar” Murphy w/ Memphis Slim & Billy Stepney

Transfiguration (2020) by Universal Everything is a remaster from their 2011 original. UE is a global collective of digital artists, architects and engineers, and there’s some very cool CGI animations in their portfolio.

Donks by Felix Colgrave:
“The name comes from a box of miscellaneous plastic objects my child has. Things that are not categorically blocks or figurines or anything describable. I referred to them as ‘gonks’, which was pronounced by my then-2-year-old as ‘donks’. “
[h/t Mme. Jujujive]

Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Memphis Slim & Billy Stepney on Jazz Prisma, Brussels, Belgium (1963).
Regarding Matt Murphy, one UToob commenter summed it up:
“I’ve heard many a fine guitarist mention this guy as a major influence, from Jimmy Page to fellow blues legend Freddie King. He was Howlin Wolf’s lead guitarist before Hubert Sumlin came along, and played with Ike Turner, Buddy Guy, Etta James, Chuck Berry, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush, and of course the Blues Brothers. Underrated player.”

See you tomorrow. Have a weekend. Bunk out.

Saturday Matinee – ZeFrank, Yoann & Marie Bourgeois, Little Walter (w/ Hound Dog Taylor, Dillard Crume & Odie Payne) and GA-20

ZeFrank educates because it’s what he does, behbeh.

Yoann and Marie Bourgeois – The One Who Falls
Performances presented on October 22, 2022 on the occasion of the pre-opening of Hangar Y, the new cultural and event center of the city of Meudon.
Amazing dance / performing artists [h/t Memo Of The Air].

Walter’s Blues (1967).
Little Walter – Harp
Hound Dog Taylor – Guitar
Dillard Crume – Bass
Odie Payne – Drums

Straight Outta Loveland:
GA-20 covers Hound Dog Taylor & The House Rockers. Great authentic electric blues with respect, these guys ain’t posers.

Lotsa stuff to do: stuff that I need to do, stuff that I probably oughta do, and stuff that’s a total waste of time.  Seems I’m doing a lot of the third type of stuff these days, but at least it’s fun. Have a Superbowl weekend, and we’ll be back tomorrow. For stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Glenn Marshall / Fractal Forest, The Ramones, The Brothers Comatose & Sue Foley

AI meets Mandelbrot, and the results are beautiful, serene – and distubing. Computer artistry by Glenn Marshall, based upon a 3D Appolonian fractal animation by Inigo Quilez.

Here’s a palette cleanser. The Ramones.

The Brothers Comatose crank out denim trenchcoat bluegrass.

Think premium leaded Fabulous Thunderbirds with SRV. Sue Foley is an amazing blues rocker out of Austin, Texas.

Got a lot going on these days, and even more to worry about if I really wanted to bother, so maybe I’ll just have fun instead. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Postmodern Jukebox, MONSTER TAI-RIKU, and Victor Wainwright & The WildRoots

Postmodern Jukebox did a good ‘un with this U2 cover in soul / R&B style featuring Rogelio Douglas, Jr. (2019). No comment on the, um, harmonica solo.

Excellent Buddy Guy cover by MONSTER TAI-RIKU (and that is how to play blues harp). Formed in 2012 and comprised of young session musicians, the band took a leave of absence in March of 2020.

Currently recording as Victor Wainwright & The Train, it’s Dr. John meets Roomful of Blues.
“Victor Wainwright, winner of this year’s Pine Top Perkins Piano Player Award at the BMA’s, is a force to be reckoned with on a piano. He IS honky-tonk and boogie, with a dose of rolling thunder. Wainwright’s playing is simply beautiful madness.” -American Blues Scene

Got some free time to mess around this week, and gonna mess around tomorrow too. See you when you get here.

Saturday Matinee – Cyriak Harris, Hubert Sumlin & Sunnyland Slim, and Scott H. Biram

Cyriak Harris strikes again with a music video for the band Light.
[via Ms. Cellanea].

Hubert Sumlin & Sunnyland Slim (with Willie Dixon on bass & Clifton James on drums) from The Stars of the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival, a German television program. Sonny Boy Williamson II did the introduction.

Scott H. Biram is a one-man ass-kickin’ rock machine. (Reposted from about ten years ago).

I’m yawning, gotta go, see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Vi Hart, Otros Aires, The Head Cat & Gunhild Carling

Vi Hart has put together some amazing videos over the years – her series Doodling in Math Class is excellent. [h/t Memo Of The Air]

Argentine tango in black and white.
Otros Aires is “a 21 Century Audiovisual ElectroTango project created,  produced and directed by the Argentinean musician, architect & video artist Miguel Di Genova. It was made between Barcelona and Buenos Aires ports in 2003.“

Meanest cover of Dale Hawkins‘ Susie-Q  I’ve ever heard.
The Head Cat, live at The Key Club, West Hollywood, California, May 6th, 2010, consisted of Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats) Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead) & Danny B. Harvey (Rockats). Lemmy died in 2015 at the age of 70 and was replaced by David Vincent (Morbid Angel).

Gunhild Carling is amazing. Someone told her the bag pipes are a musical instrument so she played them.

Happy New Year to all, and let’s hope the insanity abates in 2023.

Saturday Matinee – Sam Butera & The Witnesses, Ry Cooder, and Miles Davis w/ Robben Ford & Bob Berg

Sam Butera & The Witnesses (1964).

Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Elvis scored a hit in 1961 with Little Sister in 1961, but Ry Cooder‘s 1982 version is my favorite.

New Blues, Miles Davis w/ Robben Ford & Bob Berg (1986).
Don’t be fooled -it starts out slow then sneaks up behind you and kicks you in the head. Ford steps in at about 3:00.

Have a great weekend, see you back here tomorrow and we’ll talk it over.