Stuff I Do When I’m Bored
Tag: harmonica
Saturday Matinee – Johnny Blues Cárdenasis, Percy Wiggins & The Bo-Keys, & Wycliffe Gordon’s Big Band
Johnny “Johnny Blues” Cárdenasis is a blind self-taught street musician from Santiago, Chile, who plays nothing but roots blues. There are interviews with him on the Utoobage, but they lack captions and my Spanish is rusty.
The Bo-Keys featuring soul gospel singer Percy Wiggins.
Big band speed skat courtesy Wycliffe Gordon. The video comments section is an eyeroller.
Ran out of time for this edition – too much real life bouncing in my noggin. See you tomorrow when things cool down a tad.
Saturday Matinee – Richie Kavanaugh, Indiara Sfair and Guilherme Tosin, Justin Johnson & G.E. Smith
“Like Aon Focal Eile, I had no idea how big that would be. I was afraid I’d get a slagging from the Irish speaking people but the boss man in Glór na Gael wrote me a very nice letter thanking me for having a song with a full Irish title in the charts.” Richie Kavanaugh
Brazil native Indiara Sfair & Guilherme Tosin cover Robert Johnson’s Walking Blues. Sfair is/was a member of Brazilian blues band “Milk’n’Blues.”
Justin Johnson‘s axe is a shovel, and he sells ’em, too.
Utoob comment: “Just imagine what he could do with a backhoe.”
G.E. Smith gets all swampy and stuff with a tribute to late bassman Tom “T Bone” Wolk. Both backed Hall & Oates and were the core of the SNL Band (1985-1995).
Have a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow.
Saturday Matinee – Bovine Spring, Biergarten, Man In The Woods & James Cotton (1935-2017)
Vandaag was het weer groot feest bij boer Brandsma in Bolsward! Na 5 maanden mochten de koeien weer voor het eerst naar buiten!
Springtime in the Netherlands and the cows are released from their winter shelters (via) and THIS is definitely related.
Proof that German cattle know what a Biergarten für Rinder sounds like.
This creepy short animation was a student project from 2014 [via].
We lost J. Geils recently, but I completely missed the news of one of the greatest harmonica players I ever heard. James Cotton (aka “Mr. SuperHarp”) passed away at the age of 81 on 16 March 2017 in Austin Texas. Cotton recorded “The Creeper” in 1968. It predates Richard “Magic Dick” Salwitz‘ 1971 recording of “Whammer Jammer“, falsely accredited to “Juke Joint Jimmy”.
Here’s James Cotton at his finest, and having fun with it, too.
Have a great weekend folks, be back here tomorrow for something or other.
Saturday Matinee – Subconscious Herd Mentality, THE Rope Trick, Kim Wilson & The Fabulous Thunderbirds (plus Flight 93 Trailer)
Herd mentality experiment [via].
That explains a lot.
This is THE rope trick [via]. Now let’s rock and roll.
Kim Wilson has always amazed me. One of the best blues harp players around, Wilson doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, IMO. I’m no slouch on a Hohner chromatic with a Ham Radio bullet mic, but I sure as hell can’t pull off what he does.
Kim Wilson & The Fabulous Thunderbirds (featuring Jimmy Vaughan) jam with Stevie Ray Vaughan in a tribute to Ray Charles‘ classic “What’d I Say” circa 1984.
Have a great weekend, folks, and remember to put your Flag out on Sunday if only for the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
Saturday Matinee – Brazil, The Olympics, Jackie Phelps & Jimmy Riddle, and Tuba Skinny
I was looking for a live performance of “Brazil” (perhaps by Xavier Cugat) to commemorate the Competitions of the Grecian Gods, but instead we must settle for The Theme Song to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil as performed by Geoffrey Muldaur. He was famous for marrying Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D’Amato who recorded some popular songs in 1973 about putting camels to bed, and another one about feeling her leg.
There’s no live performance for that one, so I looked for some more Olympics-themed stuff.
The Olympics sound a lot like another Lieber & Stoller product to me, but so what.
Yep. There be the Olympians of Eefin’ and Hambone, Jimmy Riddle & Jackie Phelps.
Let’s go back to Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D’Amato (aka Maria Muldaur) and the leg feeling stuff. What a sultry voice.
This version by Tuba Skinny is a bit closer to Blue Lu Barker’s 1946 original.
Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff that’s too hot to handle and too cold to hold.
Saturday Matinee – NASA 1961, Jason D. Williams, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, & The Yonder Mountain String Band
This magnificent feat was engineered with slide rules, and it amounted to blasting a giant bullet containing a human into the sky, then recovering both it and Alan Shepard intact [via]. Those early astronauts had big brass ones, and the creepy music made it even better. (John Glenn appears at 04:15.)
Speaking of Great Balls of Fire, here’s the next best thing to The Killer. Jason D. Williams pounds the ivories with Sticks McGhee‘s 1947 classic “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-dee-o-dee.”
Spodiodi was street slang for chipping in for a cheap bottle of fortified wine in a brown paper bag and sharing it with your buddies. Urban Dictionary says “Spodiodi” is a glass of wine spiked with bourbon. Nah.
BTW, Sticks McGhee was the brother of Brownie McGhee, who partnered with harmonica player Sonny Terry known for his harmonica whooping. “Key to the Highway” was covered by many, including what’s his name. That famous British guy. You know. That guy.
Here’s some Easy-On-The-Ear-Holes stuff from The Yonder Mountain String Band. They need some authentic whooping in my opinion. Maybe even some eefin.
Have a great weekend, folks, and be glad that you’re not in Turkey.
Saturday Matinee – Justin Johnson, Luna Lee, Kim Wilson & Patrick Sweany
Roots music performer Justin Johnson plays an electrified custom cigar box diddley bow.
Luna Lee plays Elmore James on the gayageum [found via].
The Kim Wilson Blues All-Stars. Jump to 08:20 for an impromptu jam.
Here’s some heavy duty swamp rock. Although Patrick Sweany is from Ohio, he stomps it with “Every Gun.” Zach Setchfield on guitar, Ron Eoff (?!) on bass and Dillon Napier on drums.
That should make the nut for this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend, folks. See you tomorrow.
Saturday Matinee – Mormonball, RamCam, Kim Wilson with Kid Ramos, & Hurray For The Riff Raff
“They clownin’, man! “
Turn up the sound and be amused – two Mormon missionaries sharked a streetball game. Here’s an exerpt from the Utoobage description:
“My cousin Cole, a missionary in Dallas Texas, has been dying to play some street ball and got the chance. After playing it cool asking to play because they are “Just some white boys”, they were allowed to play and tried to make it look like they weren’t that good. That is until they started to play.
[…]
“He actually was on a State Champ basketball team where he can dunk a regulation size hoop. He has over a 40″ Vert. but doing this in his dress shoes is even better.”
RamCam is self explanatory.
Kim Wilson is the best original blues harmonica jammer since James Cotton, IMO. Yeah, Magic Dick was awesome, but KW wins it in my book.
Bunkessa showed up without warning a while ago, and suggested Hurray For The Riff Raff for a wrap. 27:30 is pure retro awesome.
Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here tomorrow for more fun.
Saturday Matinee – Santigold, Ленинград & Rod Piazza
Santigold’s “Lights Out” vid has some cool retro patterns.
Great WTF video: . Russian/Punk/Dixieland by a band named Leningrad, titled “Fish Of My Dreams.” English lyrics translation here. [h/t Bunkessa].
With that, we’re out for the weekend. Have a great weekend, folks. See you tomorrow.
Tacky Raccoons 