Burke’s Law, The Reg Guest Syndicate (1966)
From the album Underworld, the RGS consisted of British studio musicians Reg “Earl” Guest on keyboards with Jim Buck / drums, Jack Emblow / accordion, Eric Ford / guitar, and John Paul Jones / bass.
From Devizes, Wiltshire, England, The Hoax is/was a blues band who got a lot of attention in the 1990s. Their debut album Sound Like This was named Best British Blues Album of the Year at the British Blues Connection Awards in 1994 and they’ve recorded several more since. [Their website appears to be defunct, but they have a FB page.]
Vargas Blues Band: “Javier Vargas was born in Madrid Spain shortly after his parents had left Buenos Aires where they had migrated some years before. Nine years later, the family returned to Argentina, and it is there where Javier started playing the guitar. In the 70’s, he lived in Nashville and L.A. playing the clubs and working recording sessions. He played with and impressed the likes of Alvin Lee, Roy Buchanan and Canned Heat, who also influenced his style.” [By request from Suz P.]
News of the Week: Iran’s IRGC are still being dicks, the FlyDubai hijacking was thwarted, and France is burning. The Cornell rape accuser won’t testify, an execution was botched, and former Director of the Domestic Policy Council Susan Rice called CA candidate for governor Xavier Becerra a “bitchass idiot”.
On the homefront, temperatures in the hallway hit 90 degrees yesterday, today it’s supposed to get hotter, but we have a remedy for the heatwave. Porch Time shall commence promptly at whenever o’clock. See you there.
Jive At Five, Count Basie and his Orchestra (1939)
Written and composed by Harry “Sweets” Edison, the band lineup was:
William J. “Count” Basie, piano, directing; Lester “Shad” Collins, Wilbur “Buck” Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, trumpets; William “Dicky” Wells, trombone; Lester Young, tenor saxophone; Ronald “Jack” Washington, baritone saxophone; Freddie Green, guitar; Walter Page, bass; Jonathan “Jo” Jones, drums.
“This is a fine set of slightly disturbed surf-space-euro instrumentals. The writing is excellent, and the tone quite intense. Spaghetti, surf, sci-fi, and creativity!” -Phil Dirt, Reverb Central Docteur Legume et Les Surfwerks is a mysterious retro surf space rock one-man band from Allessandria, Italy. Docteur Legume (aka Klänge, aka Modified Ambience) appears to be Massimiliano Bocchio.
The BluesBones are a blues rock band from Belgium, founded by frontman Nico De Cock in 2011. They’ve won numerous awards, and are the only group to hit No. 1 on the UK Blues Charts three times in a row.
News of the Week: Iran is still being dickish. CNN, MS NOW and Politico threw tantrums for being told to stand in the corner. NBC released a report recommending that we keep refrigerator doors closed, and Xi Jinping chuckled at a picture of an autopen. A big nor’easter is pounding the northeast, while Hurricane Polo is headed for the Baja peninsula and Hurricane Nolo is about to whack Hawaii.
I probably missed some things, but we can cover those and more at Porch Time tomorrow. Be there or be equilateral rectangle.
Oh My Angel, Bertha Tillman (1962) “R&B singer Bertha Tillman was born in Texas, but moved to San Diego where her career started. She only recorded a few singles, including her cover of the oldies staple “Oh My Angel” and a song called “I Wish” (released as Bertha Tillman & The Killers), both appearing on Bob Shad‘s New York label Brent Records. She died in San Diego on May 31, 1993, at the age of 50.”
Big Daddy Wilson (born Adam Wilson Blount in 1960) worked in the cotton and tobacco plantations of North Carolina during his childhood. He quit school at 16, and to escape poverty, enlisted in the US Army in 1979. While stationed in Germany he became interested in the blues, and having sung in gospel choirs he decided to pursue a career in music. [More details here.]
From San Angelo, Texas, Los Lonely Boys are brothers Henry (vocals, guitar), Jojo (bass, vocals) and Ringo Garza (drums). They’ve been performing Latino soul since 1996.
Guitar prodigy from Chester, Connecticut, Ryan Newman was eleven years old when he performed with blues great John Mayall, and not as a novelty act. Since then Newman has built a reputation across Southern New England and New York, and in 2021, the New England Music Hall of Fame awarded him their inaugural Best New Artist honor.
News of the Week: Iran is still effing around in the Strait of Hormuz, Greenland has agreed to allow new US military bases, and ugly women are upset with Sydney Sweeney’s looks. The Texas Big Bend border wall is starting construction, people are protesting the Kennedy Center repairs, and someone found a cat in Bolivia. The heat wave finally broke before our windows melted, and that means some time on the porch has been scheduled for tomorrow. See you at noon thirty o’clock.
Armed with vintage Fender gear, Solon Fishbone has spread jazz-flavored blues throughout Brazil and South America since 1984. He doesn’t have a functional website, but Wiki has some info (in Brazilian Portuguese).
Canadian-born guitarist, singer-songwriter Wolf Mail began playing at the age of fourteen and has recorded eight full-length internationally distributed albums and has toured in over twenty-six countries..
Wolf Mail – Lead vocals & Guitar
Slawek Semeniuk – Bass & Vocals
Tomek Dominik – Drums
Laurence Jones is a classically-trained guitarist from Liverpool, England. He was 17 in 2009 when he formed his own blues trio AND enrolled at the University of Birmingham. When his final exams came around, Jones chose to go on tour with Johnny Winter and Walter Trout instead.
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.’ ”
News of the Week: The nation commemorated the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. A lone juror refused to exonerate Lindsay Clancy for murder. Iran is still effing around, the GOP convention happened, and the debate on data centers and AI rolls on.
It’s been hotter than h-e-double hockey sticks, but you all know what to do. Show up for Porch Time tomorrow.
Watching My Baby Get Ready, Reigning Sound (2011) Reigning Sound was an American garage rock / punk band originally based in Memphis, Tennessee, active from 2001 to 2022.
