Tag: Blues

Saturday Matinee – Indiara Sfair, Nick Waterhouse & the Carl Verheyen Band

Brazil native and harp virtuoso Indiara Sfair has a tutorial for harmonica beatboxing here.

Nick Waterhouse has an eclectic mix of styles: rockabilly, R&B, jazz and soul, with traces of both old Americana and modern indie rock. He likes vinyl records too.

Besides being guitarist for Supertramp, Carl Verheyen is “one of LA’s elite ‘first call’ session players for the past 40 years, playing on hundreds of records, movie soundtracks and television shows.” Unfortunately Verheyen’s videos don’t credit the band, but that’s Dave Marotta on bass, John Mader / drums, Troy Dexter / keyboards and Hollye Dexter / vocals.

Message to 2025: Please STFD and STFU. We’ve had just about enough of your shit. Take a breather. Message to everyone else: Porch time commences at the crack of noon. See you there.

Saturday Matinee – Clarence Gatemouth Brown w/ Canned Heat, Joe Louis Walker, and Kim Simmonds / Savoy Brown

Clarence Gatemouth Brown, backed by Canned Heat, one of the greatest blues revival bands ever.  Gatemouth Brown was a rare talent, played multiple styles, and if you told him a 10 penny nail was a musical instrument, he could play it.

Joe Louis Walker has recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper. Per Billboard, his style “blows all over the map…gutbucket blues, joyous gospel, Rolling Stones-style rock crunch, and aching R&B. Walker’s guitar playing is fine and fierce.”

Welsh guitarist Kim Simmonds (1947-2022) was the founder, primary songwriter and sole constant member of the British blues rock band Savoy Brown. Very underrated band.

Fires are still burning in the west, Arctic temperatures in the east, and we’ve got a whip-cracker in DC. Very interesting year so far, and if this keeps up 2025 is going to be in rehab by March. Keep your eyes open, your heads down, and we’ll see you tomorrow for porchtime.

Saturday Matinee – HeavyDrunk, Nuno Mindelis & 19-Twenty

HeavyDrunk: “Sippi Dupree was my bus driver when I was a kid. He helped me through an emotional crisis when I was in 3rd grade, and became my friend. He disappeared the next year. This is his story.”

Nuno Mindelis (aka “The Beast from Brazil”) is an Angolan-born Brazilian blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. (His website’s bonky, gotta scroll down.) This song is sung in Kimbundo dialect according to the Utoobage notes, Google Translate says it’s Zaptotec, and it seems to be about bears.

19 Twenty is a roots blues / rock / punk band from Australia with a sizeable fan base who know all the words to Tramp Stamp.

Fires are still burning in California, people are still recovering from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, news of just about everything is breaking hourly, and I hope 2025 stops dicking around and shows at least some respect. Meanwhile, I’ll be on the porch talking to dogs, see you at half past whenever you show up.

Saturday Matinee – Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Toronzo Cannon & The Chicago Way, and The Scotty Bratcher Band

Rick Estrin and The Nightcats: “Rick Estrin sings and writes songs like the brightest wiseguy in all bluesland and blows harmonica as if he learned at the knee of Little Walter.” – DownBeat magazine

Chicago bluesman Toronzo Cannon didn’t pick up a guitar until he was 22, but he picked it up fast:
“Gary Clark, Jr. declared, ‘Toronzo is a beast. He lights the room up,’ and Joe Bonamassa rightly pronounced, ‘Toronzo’s a great guitar player, excellent vocalist and an amazing personality.’ ”

Scotty Bratcher covers Albert King’s Feel Like Breakin’ Up Somebody’s Home. Bratcher was introduced to the guitar while still in the single digits of age, and was already making a name for himself before he had a driver’s license. He’s going to be around for a while.

The tragedy of the California fires has been the news of the week, but don’t forget the people who are still recovering from the ravages of hurricane Helene while coping with winter weather. For many, it’s going to be years before things get back to normal.

I’ll be on the porch if you need me.

Saturday Matinee – Justin Johnson, Too Slim & The Taildraggers, and Otis Clay

Master of the 3-string electric shovel, Justin Johnson slides on anything.

Too Slim & The Taildraggers go slidin’ all over the two lane. The award-winning trio has had six albums peak in the top 10 of the Billboard Top Blues Albums. Members currently consist of Tim “Too Slim” Langford (lead vocals, guitar), Robert Kearnes (bass, vocals) and Jeffrey “Shakey” Fowlkes (drums).

Gospel, soul and blues singer Otis Clay (1942-2016):
Gospel would remain Otis’ primary focus. After arriving in Chicago during the mid-1950s, he joined the Golden Jubilaires, then hooked up with Charles Bridges’ Famous Blue Jay Singers in 1960. “Here we are singing acappella, and we’re singing in elementary schools, high schools, hotels and colleges and things like that. We were known as variety singers, or we were billed as (performing) ‘Old Negro Spirituals and Plantation Melodies.’ ”

Nice to have 2024 behind us, but 2025 better settle its ass right down pronto or I’m getting out The Belt. Have a great weekend, we’ll weigh down the porch tomorrow, noonish o’clock.

Happy New Year’s Eve 2024 – End of Year Playlist

The end of a long year deserves a playlist to bring in the new one, and just as we did a mere twelve months ago, here’s a compilation of songs that buzzed my earballs in 2024.

Set 1 – January, February, March & April

Set 2 – May, June, July & August

Set 3 – September, October, November & December

[I omitted most of the tunes from the Halloween playlist, but you can hear them all here.]

And one more thing: Happy New Year!

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

Saturday Matinee – Snooks Eaglin, Latvian Blues Band & Clutch

Snooks Eaglin took Wilson Pickett’s Memphis classic down to N’awlins.
[h/t hotfox63.com]

In 2008, Latvian Blues Band became the first European-based group invited to perform in the Chicago Blues Festival. From Riga, Latvia, members include Jānis ‘Bux’ Bukovskis (guitar, vocals), Jonatans Rācenājs (guitar), Rolands ‘Rolx’ Saulietis (drums, backing vocals), Reinis Ozoliņš (bass), Nauris Strežs (trombone) and Artis Ločmelis (sax).

Clutch picks it up, throws it to the floor and kicks it square in the crackerbockles. From their 2007 album From Beale Street to Oblivion.

Just got a breather from the Christmas festivities, and here comes the New Year barrelling down the tracks. I’m not ready for it, but I’ve had just about enough of 2024. Porchtime? Whenever o’clock.

Saturday Matinee – Keb’ Mo’, The Mavericks, Skatune Network, & Gwen Stefani / No Doubt

Keb’ Mo’ breaks it down and throws it back.

The Mavericks are Raúl Malo / vocals, guitar; Paul Deakin / drums; Jerry Dale McFadden / keyboards, vocals; Eddie Perez / guitar. Early jump blues piano style that morphed into ska.

One man ska band JER / Skatune Network covers Otis Redding‘s cover of Charles Brown‘s 1947 hit. The guy’s amazing.

In 2003, Gwen Stefani & No Doubt spread the Oi of the season with their cover of the Vandals.

Lemme see. Christmas Eve isn’t until Tuesday, so I still have tomorrow’s porch time to make a list and check it twice, and Monday for shopping. No sweat. Stop by tomorrow and we’ll compare lists.

Saturday Matinee – Linda Teränen / RelaxTrio, The Nick Moss Band, and Shakura S’Aida

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

The Nick Moss Band gives a tribute to the late great Hubert Sumlin in fine Chicago style.

Great smoker by Shakura S’Aida, backed by Donna Grantis (guitar), Lance Anderson (B3), Roger Williams (bass) and Tony Rabalao (drums).

While posting this, an internest outage almost forced me to watch television. Fortunately it came back just in time so I could announce that tomorrow’s porch time shall commence promptly at whenever o’clock. See you then.

Dextrogyratory Hot Links

The Car Of Your Dreams, Taj Mahal (1996)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Jr., aka Taj Mahal, has been writing, recording and performing since 1964. A true chameleon of roots music, his discography includes blues, rock, R&B, reggae, jazz, country blues, Caribbean and West African styles. He was an early pioneer of what’s now called world music.

UfoBER.

Ornaments!

“I am a pilot.”

Zombie fires.

Trouble in Bend.

Shop With A Cop.

Pah-rumpa pum pum.

The Whizzo of Gomez.

All it ever does is rain.

The 1960 Pininfarina X.

Norty Blues Episode 93.

All Chuck [h/t Corinne L.]

He saw what you did there.

“Which people would say that?”

Young Terry & the valiant effort.

This is NOT Toonces [h/t Gord S.]

Волшебник Изумрудного города.

Noodlin’ Cajun girl [via Bunkerville].

My favorite scene from Jurassic Park.

Climate Change over the past 4000 Years.

90 Animals Ranked by Eyesight [via Mme. Jujujive].

The paintings of Jules Worms [via Memo Of The Air].

A Female Science Fiction Character Written by a Male Writer.

[Top image found here. It appears to be a 1952 Chevrolet Bel Air.]

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