Tag: Blues

Saturday Matinee – Otis Rush, Dale Watson and Fred Wesley & The New JBs

I went downstairs, made a cup of coffee, had a chat with the neighbor, took the clothes in, came back up to my laptop, and he was still holding the first “Well”.

Otis Rush (1934-2018) plays Willie Dixon‘s classic I Can’t Quit You Baby. Can’t confirm the date or show of this vid.

Dale Watson, keeper of the true country music flame and the Memphis sound (despite hailing from Austin) is right up there with Johnny, Willie & Waylon – and a lot of others.

Fred Wesley & The New JBs is comprised of:

Fred Wesley – trombone
Gary Winters – trumpet
Phillip Whack – saxophone
Bruce Cox – drums
Dwayne Dolphin – bass
Reggie Ward – guitar
Peter Madsen – keyboards

Happy Independence Day weekend to all. Don’t get too ‘splodey tomorrow – you’re gonna want to be whole come Monday.

Telaesthesial Hot Links

Polly Put Your Kettle On, Sonny Boy Williamson (1947)Williamson’s final recording session took place in Chicago in December 1947, in which he accompanied Big Joe Williams. On June 1, 1948, Williamson was killed in a robbery on Chicago’s South Side as he walked home from a performance at the Plantation Club. After his death, Alex “Rice” Miller stole the name for his own performances and recordings.

Sonny Boy Williamson – Vocals, Harmonica
Blind John Davis – Piano
Big Bill Broonzy – Guitar
Willie Dixon – String Bass
Charles Chick Sanders – Drums

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis did a great cover, previously posted in here. Note that Williamson’s lyrics differ from the children’s rhyme.

Kay’s Fudge.

Robot Squid.

“That’s Noody.”

A lung in a box.

Black Hawk Ham.

Tough summer job: Mail Boat Jumping.

16-year-old Prathamesh Jaju did this.

Why are you still wearing a mask outside?

Kid wore an I Voted For Joe Biden t-shirt & got reactions.

Someone Found a Color 8mm Home Video from 1939.

Google AI identified an image of a toy turtle as a rifle.

[Top image found here.]

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

 

Saturday Matinee – A NY Mom, The Paladins, The Fabulous Thunderbirds & The Stray Cats

If you have children or grandchildren in public school, or know someone who does, watch this before YouTube takes it down.

Now for the fun stuff.

The Paladins were/are an underrated but great 3-man flat head six rockabilly band. I saw them decades ago opening for The Fabulous Thunderbirds at the original Golden Bear.

That’s the original T-Bird lineup from 1980
Jimmie Vaughan (guitar)
Kim Wilson (harmonica)
Fran Christina (drums)
Keith Ferguson (bass)
covering Slim Harpo‘s Baby Scratch My Back.

Brian Setzer & The Stray Cats did Eddie Cochran righteously in 1981. (Wanna feel old? Look at Brian Setzer now.)

That’s gonna do it for now. Have a great weekend, see you back here tomorrow and we’ll, um, you know. Do stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Refrigerator Rockets, Billy Gibbons, R. L. Burnside & The Obscuritones

“…and packs an impressive top speed of 100mph.” Good God.
[Found here.]

Billy Gibbons covers R. L. Burnside. From the YouTube comments:
“Just hit play on this one and my 6 year old son immediately yelled from across the room ‘is that was ZZ TOP?!'”

R. L. Burnside 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 brother were murdered there. In 1959 he returned to Mississippi, was convicted for murder himself, and served time at the Parchman Penitentiary.

“I didn’t mean to kill nobody. I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head and two times in the chest. Him dying was between him and the Lord.”

The Obscuritones self describe as “Close harmony and rockin rhythm. Like the Andrews Sisters singin with the Stray Cats after a night out with the Cramps.” Okay, almost, but not bad for this sextet from the UK, and their album got a decent review.

Have a great weekend and we’ll do something tomorrow for sure.

Saturday Matinee – June Foray & Bill Scott, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, Devil In A Woodpile & Green Day

“True fun, not fake fun.”
June Foray and Bill Scott were my heroes, two of the most recognizable and ubiquitous voices of my childhood. They also did the morning traffic reports as Rocky and Bullwinkle in Boston. At 02:01, Rocky and Bullwinkle introduced a Kiss song on WBCN.

Cliff Richard & The Shadows had some stiff competition – check out the Billboard Hits for 1960. Sir Richard holds the record as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its active decades (1950s–2000s). The Shadows were Richard’s backup band (1958-1968), and they reunited in 2020 to play their 1960 hit Apache.

Bron-Y-Aur Stomp is a Led Zeppelin cover, named after Bron-Yr-Aur, a house in Gwynedd, Wales, and based on Waggoner’s Lad, a song by Bert Jansch that appeared on his album Nobody’s Fault But Mine. Go figure. I almost forgot – Devil In A Woodpile is awesome.

Possibly the greatest Ramones cover that’s not a Ramones cover. Green Day had some great stage moves, too. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t fit in with the other vids, but it clicks with me somehow.

Good God. It’s 2:30am. I’m outta here, see you in a few.

Saturday Matinee – Textron ARV, Malford Milligan, The Brothers Osborne w/ Darius Rucker & A Thousand Horses, and Thee Sinseers

That’s some serious Black Mirror stuff.

The Malford Milligan Band with Jeff Plankenhorn (I think) circa 2011. Can’t verify the the others.

“We had so much fun backstage during our last jam video that Darius Rucker decided he didn’t want to be left out…so we made another!” Whole buncha peeps in that one: The Brothers Osborne, Darius Rucker and A Thousand Horses. BTW, that’s a Doc Watson song.

Joey Quinones & Thee Sinseers‘ chicano R&B gets me every time. Reminds me of so many things long ago and far away. Hard to find the band lineup, but that’s Adriana Flores (of The Altons) on vocals.

Guess that’s good enough for now. Have a great weekend, do something nice for your mom, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Cassini Periodical Hot Links

Chicken Stuff, Hop Wilson & His Chickens (1958)Harding Wilson (1921-1975) got his nickname from playing harmonica a lot as a kid – harp is pronounced hop in Texan. (Chicken stuff goes by another name there, too.) Pop Hop’s steel slide style influenced many other bluesmen.

The Marty Lisa.

Cicadas in Greece.

Fishing the cicada catch.

R.I.P El Risitas 1956-2021.

Not sure what to make of this.

The Pillow (a short horror movie).

Elements of Grammar Walk Into a Bar…

3 hours of mostly peaceful protest sounds.

“It’s not clear how the turtle became airborne.”

Coming Soon: Axe throwing and miniature golf.

His parents really named him Dylan Shakespeare Robinson?!

One of the worst man-made catastrophes in history happened 35 years ago on 26 April 1986.

4 year old Zoe Roth became a meme in 2008. She’s 21 now and $458,000 richer because of it.

1988 Trabant quality control. The car’s been called “a spark plug with a roof.” More about the East German car here.

[Top image: Cicadaman, spotted recently by Amy D.]

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

Saturday Matinee – Russian Cyberfarm, KMAC2021, The Marcus King Band & Playing For Change

They say that Russia is a technically backward country, there are no roads, robotics do not develop, rockets do not fly, and mail goes too long. It’s bullshit.

[h/t Feral Irishman]

KMAC2021 has been around a while, does some great short videos and has close to a million fans on the Utoobage. He does some serious stuff, too.

Marcus King started learning guitar at age three or four, played professionally since he was 11. He’s a fourth-generation musician; his grandfather was a country guitarist, and his father, Marvin King, continues to perform live.

Musicians from around the globe, assembled by Playing For Change, covered the NOLA staple Iko Iko in style. It features Dr. John (in one of his last recordings), the Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, New Orleans’ favorites Ivan Neville, Donald Harrison and George Porter, Jr.

Yep. There’s some stuff alright. Have a great weekend and try not to annoy too many people on social media. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Cajun Country Revival, The Black Keys & When Rivers Meet

Cajun Country Revival in the Bunny Glade at Pickathon 2012. No idea what “the Bunny Glade” is, but it appears to be somewhere near Portland, Oregon.

The Black Keys are still around, still doing what they’re best at. This is an unusual take on the blues standard Crawlin’ King Snake (first recorded by Big Joe Williams in 1941, but it goes back decades earlier).

When Rivers Meet is a blues/roots rock 4-member “duo” from London. Good tough stuff, they got the edge. Looks like a good band to keep an ear out for.

Gotta wrap it up early but we’ll see you tomorrow for no good reason at all.

Saturday Matinee – Unknown Hinson, Little Feat & Alan Mirikitani

Those piqued my interest, so I dug further. Because I had to.

you gave the dog my supper
you had sex with my brother
you’ve done some ugly things
for such
such a pretty girl

The Utoobage algorithm said I should check out Stuart Daniel Baker, aka Unknown Hinson, so I did. Don’t dismiss him. He’s got some serious guitar chops, and Ugly Things is the finest love ballad I’ve heard in hours. (Not only that, but the grandson of Hank Williams (Hank III) has an image of Unknown Hinson tattooed on his forearm.)

Little Feat was never easy to categorize, but this one’s kinda swampabilly with some big band thrown in.

Alan Mirikitani (1955-2015) was a classic bluesman from L.A., and fronted the band BB Chung King & The Screaming Buddaheads. Used to hear them on the radio, never got to see them live. He was in the recording studio when he died of a heart attack at the age of 60.

I think that’ll do for now. Have a great weekend, do where you wanna go, go where you wanna do. You know the drill, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.