The Dillards, live at the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 1999. Entertaining intro to Ebo Walker, song starts about 03:45 in.
But there was also a real Ebo Walker, an upright bass player from Kentucky, and the song is not a tribute. From a Reddit discussion:
Harry Shelor
“Crazy story time. Ebo Walker’s real name is Harry Lee Shelor Jr, (there’s a song called Ebo Walker, which Harry took the name from). Harry cultivated and grew marijuana. He ended up shooting a Kentucky State Police Detective by the name of Darrell Vendl Phelps. He began serving a 50 year sentence in 1981.”
Shelor was released from prison in 2013, age 70.
Prior to his arrest in 1981, Harry Shelor/Ebo Walker was a founding member of The New Grass Revival.
Victor Wooten won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone.
That set of connections happened somewhat by accident, just like a lot of things these days. Find something fun to do this weekend accidentally, and when you’re done c’mon back here. Got some cool stuff for you to click on.
Riff City, Slim Gaillard (1946) Bel-Tone RecordsGaillard could play several instruments and managed to turn the performance from jazz to comedy. He would play the guitar with his left hand fretting with fingers pointing down over the fingerboard (instead of the usual way up from under it), or would play credible piano solos with his palms facing up.
Bill Coleman (1904-1981) & Stephane Grappelli (1908-1997) ca. 1976. Great stuff for early morning forty miles to East Jesus road trips, or just sitting on the back porch watching the world go by.
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks (with the Acoustic Warriors) 1989 reunion concert on Austin City Limits. Hicks had a solid fan base, but he got into alcohol and drugs, pissed off a lot of people. Years passed before he cleaned up his act and started over. DH&HHL came onto my radar in 1978 with (what my ears heard as) “Crazy Cuzzie Iz.” Thought he was singing about a family member.
George Duke showed up to play Zappa’s classic Uncle Remus with Dweezil Zappa‘s band in 2010. (If you like George Duke, this behind the scenes rehearsal from1978 is kinda fun. Jump to 02:50.)
Ignore the clickbait title – it’s a killer groove by MonoNeon. He’s right-handed, but plays left-handed on an upside-down right-handed bass. Dude can cover Zappa, too.
You Tell Her – I Stutter, The Georgians (1923). The Georgians were a subset of the Paul Specht Orchestra. Specht had a gig at the Hotel Alamac in New York City in 1920. The orchestra played music for dancing in the ballroom and afterwards a smaller version of the group that went by the name of the Georgians played in the cocktail lounge.
Euphoria Brass Band cranks out Sublime’s What I Got at the Tijuana Jazz and Blues Festival 2015. Lotta not-so-subtle influences heard in that jam, and I like it.
“i found a cd of this band in a abandoned ship on the coast of uruguay – montevideo, never heard nothing about this band. really a surprise. grettings. good shit.” [2016 YouTube comment]
The Mudcat Blues Band featuring Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck hails from everywhere, but apparently is anchored in Atlanta. This vid is from 2013, Matildas, Music Under the Pines in Alpharetta, Georgia – jump to 1:34 for Whiskey.
Well that seems to sum up my attitude for today. Have a great weekend folks, don’t worry ’bout the ‘Rona, and do what you wanna do. See you tomorrow for something or other.
Last week I erroneously (and embarrassingly) confused Nena Kerner with Nina Hagen. I lost a lot of karma for that blowzit, so I’ll try to make up for it.
Video caption: The audio track is from the CD commemorating the concert and while I had to make some adjustments in speed to match the video, it sounds a hell of a lot better.
Tacky Raccoons 