Songs above are ordered from oldest to newest, all have been posted previously. More playlists here, top image found here.
[Caveat: I don’t own the copyrights to any of these recordings. They are presented here for entertainment purposes only.]
Tag: R&B
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 – 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.]
Nepheligenous Hot Links
Party Hard, Little Isidore & the Inquisitors (ca. 2012)Little Isidore is the alter ego of David Forman, a little known musician with a great resume; he fronts The Inquisitors, aka The Golden Inquisitors, aka The Mighty Inquisitors. Live stream December 2024 reunion show here: https://volume.com/t/gGilog/
The Tree People [via Mme. Jujujive].
Sharing the bounty [via Bunkerville].
Merry Xmas from Panzergruppe Süd.
“…no shops, no temptations, no waste time…”
A volumetric 3D display [via Memo Of The Air].
[Top image: Raindrops on Weeds in a Broken Wall, Hollie Jane Wright photographer; via IDHMGO].
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.
Saturday Matinee – Jesse Welles, The Anthony Paul Soul Orchestra w/ Willy Jordan, Curtis Salgado, and Vanessa Collier
Born and raised in Ozark, Arkansas, Jesse Welles began his career around 2012, performing as Jeh Sea Wells. “It’s obvious that Wells will always be comfortable in some dirty rock and roll kitchen where, as he says in one song, ‘everyone’s kinda ugly in that way that looks pretty.'” – NPR
60s-70s soul sounds from San Francisco: The Anthony Paul Soul Orchestra (APSO) features Willy Jordan.
R&B soul singer Curtis Salgado won the Blues Music Awards’ Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year two years in a row (2021 & 2022). Salgado was the inspiration behind John Belushi’s creation of the Blues Brothers characters in the late 1970s. They met in Eugene, Oregon, and became friends while Belushi was filming the movie Animal House [Wiki].
Nice Louisiana dixiefunk. Vanessa Collier fronts an 11 piece band that includes Laura Chavez (guitar), Doug Woolverton (trumpet) and Mark Earley (sax).
Gonna take my hatchet and get a Christmas tree tomorrow. Not gonna cut it, I just get a better price with a hatchet in my hand. Don’t know why, I just do. In the meantime, help yourselves to the porch and I’ll be back soon enough.
Boustrophedonic Hot Links
Step By Step, The Four Hollidays (1963) One of several groups out of Detroit with similar names, this one had an extra L and featured Cleo “Sonny” Barksdale, Robert Barksdale, James Holland and Johnny Mitchell.
OCD.
Cat Hotel [via Mme. Jujujive].
Professional pool hustlers.
Jeremy Jones tells some stories.
Daisy has all the time in the world.
Printing concrete [via Bunkerville].
Unusual food phobias (including mortuusequusphobia).
Constance Frances Marie Ockelman [via Memo Of The Air].
An interview with UK Labour Minister Steven Pineless [via Bustednuckles].
The only instrumental single ever banned from radio in the US.
[Top image: Traditional Taiwanese fire fishing, story here.]
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.
Vauclusian Hot Links
Good, Good Lovin’, The Blossoms (1966)
The Blossoms were probably the most successful unknown group of the ’60s, and the most well-known lineup was Darlene Love, Fanita James and Jean King. Their biggest hit was not even credited to them: producer Phil Spector was in a rush to get He’s A Rebel to the market, and since his top group was on tour at the time, he named The Crystals instead.
Careful with that dog, Eugene.
Walrus whistle [via Mme. Jujujive].
Bridging the gap [via Bunkerville].
The OSU Marching Band TubaCam.
The 1964 Zambian space program.
Pearl Jam sings names of LinkedIn.
1971 Emoryville scrap yard [via Memo Of The Air].
Some disturbing thoughts about lab-grown sentience.
[Top image: WWII era German built steam locomotive, PKP National Railway Museum, Warsaw, Poland. Image source unknown.]
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.
Ololygmancing Hot Links
Hello Stranger, Barbara Lewis (1963)
One of the prettiest songs ever written IMO.
Barbara Lewis was inspired to write a song with that title while working gigs in Detroit with her musician father: “I would make the circuit with my dad and people would yell out: ‘Hey stranger, hello stranger, it’s been a long time’.” The song is notable because its title comprises the first two words of the lyrics but is never repeated at any point in the rest of the song. [via Wiki]
“A snek!”
Eyechat [via Nag on the Lake].
Gaping maws [via Mme. Jujujive].
The Costco Apocalypse Dinner Kit.
The final minute of WWI [via Bunkerville].
Popular Scientific Recreations – 1883 [via Memo Of The Air].
[Top image found here.]
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.
Obnubilated Hot Links
New Life, Little Johnny Christian (1983) John Christian grew up in Cleveland, Mississippi singing gospel in local church choirs. He was 15 in 1951 when he left for Chicago and joined The Highway Q.C.s, a post-WWII group with an ever-changing lineup that launched the careers of many gospel and soul singers. Tire of touring, Christian sang and played bass guitar in bar bands around the Chicago area, eventually forming his own R&B group, The Chicago Players, in 1968. [More at the link at top.]
Watterson’s musing [thread].
“This behavior is unacceptable.”
Shell station in a grocery store.
R. C. Anderson, Psychic Bullfighter.
The life of a modern cowboy [via Bunkerville].
Animation vs. Geometry [via Memo Of The Air].
To the Red White and Blue [via Feral Irishman].
All the little birdies go tweet tweet tweet [via Mme. Jujujive].
[Top image: Japanese decoy tank constructed from lava rock, Iwo Jima, WWII (colorized); Decoy Warfare: Lessons and Implication from the War in Ukraine, USNI Proceedings April 2024.]
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.
Tacky Raccoons 