Saturday Matinee – The Funk Brothers, Procul Harum & Robin Trower

The Funk Brothers were/are a rotating group of session musicians who performed on many Motown classics, including The Contours‘ 1962 hit “Do You Love Me.” This 2002 line up backed Bootsy.

I always liked that song even though nobody knows exactly what Procul Harum was singing about in 1967.

Robin Trower continued his career after leaving Procul Harum, had a nice solo run, and is still performing at 75. Jimmy Dewar‘s vocals always fit.

Have a great weekend, folks, don’t burn down or loot anything, turn in those who do, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for something or other.

Saturday Matinee – Lou Reed, Tom Waits & Popa Chubby

Lou Reed had an incredible a vocal range. In 2015, as he was about to be (posthumously) inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his sister wrote about their early years in A Family In Peril.

Tom Waits‘ “Telephone call from Istanbul” from the movie Big Time. The missus-to-be and I saw it at the Nuart in L.A., and I remember it being damn surreal.

Popa Chubby (aka Theodore Joseph “Ted” Horowitz) cranks out Hambone Willie Newbern‘s “Roll and Tumble Blues” (1929).

Have great weekend, folks, and be sure to wear a mask and maintain proper social distance if you decide to go looting and burning businesses in your neighborhood. See you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Thee Lakesiders, Thee Sinseers, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, & Taj Mahal

Thee Lakesiders have a good East L.A. retro vibe that kinda matches my mood lately. Let’s groove it up a bit.

More East L.A. R&B, this time from Thee Sinseers.

St. Paul & The Broken Bones successfully channels the Stax Records sound, and my mood is improving a bit.

Taj Mahal takes a ride around town, pickin’ the classics, and I feel better.

<vent>Way too much stuff went down in meatworld this week, some very good, some pretty bad, and the latter was starting to get to me. Backing into a BMW SUV in a hospital parking lot didn’t help either – just one more damn thing to accept and deal with. Yeah, the Lord’s testing me…</vent>

Ah well, have a great weekend, folks. Wear masks if you have to, don’t if you don’t. Do what you want and ignore the scolds – they’re not going to eat you (unless you let them). See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – How Countries Fight Their Wars; Les Paul with Carol Kaye & Justin Johnson

Awesome [via BlenderGuru email].

Les Paul with Carol Kaye.
Don’t know who she is? You’ve heard her many times before.

Justin Johnson covers ZZ Top‘s “La Grange” with no backup.

Ah, May is here, and in a few more months we’ll be “allowed” to have some of our freedoms back. Perhaps soon we’ll find out who’s been doctoring the statistics to justify their abhorrent destruction of prosperity.

Ah well. Have a great weekend, folks, ignore the scolds and have fun anyway. That’ll really piss ’em off. 😀

Saturday Matinee – Black Oak Arkansas, The Osborne Brothers & John Lee Hooker+

Black Oak Arkansas‘ 1971 cover of LaVerne Baker’s 1956 hit is a good one, but that video is just embarrassing.

The Osborne Bros.‘ 1972 recording of Midnight Flyer was covered by a lot of folks (including the Eagles). I like the original better.

John Lee Hooker, with Elvin Bishop. Paul Butterfield, J.J. Cale & Carlos Santana, in 1986. That’s some badass boogie.

Yeah, that’s an eclectic mix.  I couldn’t quite find what I was originally looking for, kept getting distracted and then forgot where I started.
Have a great weekend, folks. Go outside, do what you wanna do, and ignore the virus-shamers – they’re not worth the attention.

Saturday Matinee – Live at Crossroads 2010: Hubert Sumlin, Jimmie Vaughn and Robert Cray; Pino Daniele, Joe Bonamassa and Robert Randolph & The Family Band; AND ZZ Top

Wow. Hubert Sumlin, Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Cray at the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Wow again. Pino Daniele, Joe Bonamassa with Robert Randolph & The Family Band were also at the 2010 CGF.

Good God can these three put out some loud! ZZ Top at the same place, same year.

It just dawned on me that it’s been 10 years since all that awesome went down. Lotta time flies buzzing around my head these days.

Have a great weekend, folks. Do what you wanna do, go where you wanna go. Don’t worry about a thing, and always remember: it’s not the heat, it’s the humanity. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Maceo Parker, & the Ghost Town Blues Band

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes (in 1985) with their 1976 hit “I Don’t Wanna Go Home.” The missus walked in while I was watching the vid and said, “Okay, so who’s the pirate?” That’s Miami Steve Van Zandt, – he wrote the song. SJ & the AJ had a great retro sound that was all but missing in the mid ’70s.

Maceo Parker makes it funky at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam 2012. The badass backup:

Corey Parker, Martha High (backing vocals);
Lee Hogans (trumpet);
Troy ‘Trombone Shorty‘ Andrews (trombone);
Bruno Speight (guitar);
Will Boulware (keys);
Rodney “Skeet” Curtis (bass);
Marcus Parker (drums).

Ghost Town Blues Band picks up the Beatles’ Come Together and throws it right into the swamp, and then it’s Norwegian Wood meets Whole Lotta Love. Kinda matches my attitude these days.

Have a great weekend, folks. Go ahead, leave your house, get some fresh air and go wherever you want while it’s still legal. See you back here tomorrow for stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Germs and You, The First Edition, Gunhild Carling & Elvin Bishop

Yankovic tweeted this out recently as a public service announcement.

The First Edition (featuring Kenny Rogers on bass & vocals) had their first big hit in 1968.

Gunhild Carling is amazing. According to Wiki, she plays trombone, bagpipes, trumpet, recorder, string instruments (such as banjo, ukulele and harp) and can also play three trumpets simultaneously.

So where do we go from here? Oh wait. I got it.

Haven’t heard that song since high school. Elvin Bishop had a few minor hits, but never got the recognition he deserved despite touring with the Allman Bros. (According to the comments on the Utoobage, I wasn’t the only one who thought the other guitar was Dickie Betts – it was Johnny ‘V’ Vernazza.)

Have a great weekend, folks. If you decide to go out, hoard me some, too.

Saturday Matinee – Max’s Journey to the Moon, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ry Cooder & Taj Mahal

Cool animation required 600 pancakes [found here]).

Bassist Keith Ferguson is ‘playing’ one of Jimmy’s 6 string guitars upside down.”

The original Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1980:
Jimmie Vaughan (guitar), Kim Wilson (vocals/harmonica), Keith Ferguson (guitar) and Mike Buck (drums).

If Things Could Talk (1974)
Ry Cooder – guitars, vocals; Russ Titelman – bass; Jim Keltner & Milt Holland – percussion, drums; Bobby King, Gene Mumford & Cliff Givens – backup vocals. (Mumford & Givens sang with The Dominoes.)
40 years later:

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder play Blind Willie McTell‘s 1928 Statesboro Blues in 2014.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll sure do something or other tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Great East Japan Earthquake 2011, Steve Gibbons Band, Keb’ Mo’, Juzzie Smith & Jeff Beck’s Killer Lineup

11 March 2011 – The Great East Japan Earthquake (video at Sendai Airport) measured 9.0–9.1 on the Richter Scale. It moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) 8 feet east.

It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku’s Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, traveled at 700 km/h (435 mph) for up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than 19,000 were killed, many at evacuation sites, more than a hundred of which washed away. [Wiki]

[Watch the whole thing. Video found here, via here.]

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That’s a tough one to follow, but let’s try this.

Long intro, good story by The Steve Gibbons Band (1977). If you don’t know who he is, check out his credentials. I bought one of his albums for his cover of Chuck Berry’sTulane.”

Keb’ Mo’ plays Son House‘ “Walkin’ Blues” (1930), accompanied by musicians from six countries. It’s part of the “Playing For Change” video series.

Juzzie Smith introduces his One Man Band, and it’s amazing. I can play harmonica and guitar, but my brain won’t let me do both at once.

Jeff Beck (guitar), Tal Wilkenfeld (bass), Beth Hart (vocals), Lizzie Ball (violin) and Jonathan Joseph (drums) crank out Freddie King‘s 1971 classic “Going Down”  at Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013. What a lineup.

That should hold y’all for a bit. See you back here tomorrow for something or other.