Tag: Soul

Saturday Matinee – The Too Bad Jims, Albert Cummings Trio, and Lachy Doley w/ Adam Wendt & The Big Blues Orchestra

The Too Bad Jims pay tribute to R.L. Burnside (even their band name came from the title of one of his albums). Little Victor, Son Jack Jr. and Nick Simonon play a mix of North Mississippi Hill Country blues and boogie.

Albert Cummings, Warren Grant and Scot Sutherland make a great power trio, and there’s proof.

Australian musician, singer and songwriter Lachlan “Lachy” Doley, best known for playing the Hammond organ and whammy clavinet, teams up with with saxman Adam Wendt and The Big Blues Orchestra at the Blues In The World Festival, Poland, 2018. Killer cover of Junior Walker‘s 1965 hit.

Got some heat waving happening around these parts, but it’s not the three-digit kind that some of you out in cactus country have to put up with. A wet shirt, a breeze, a cooler and a porch is all I need. Stop by tomorrow and we’ll talk about crackers and barrels.

Saturday Matinee – Emmaline, The Teskey Brothers & Toby Lee

 “Quite Like Me” is a diss track that I wrote to my friend’s EX-boyfriend. Now, I don’t write diss tracks often, but this guy was the absolute worst, folks — and that’s putting it in the nicest way possible!”
Vocalist, violinist and songwriter Emmaline has won much recognition for her jazz / torch song recordings and performances both on stage and on screen. I think this is one of the prettiest f-u songs I’ve ever heard. [h/t Octo.]

Josh Teskey (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Sam Teskey (lead guitar) formed The Tesky Brothers in 2008.  Based in Melbourne, Australia, they faithfully resurrect the sounds of 1960s/70s soul.

Born in Oxfordshire England in 2005, Toby Lee played Zack Mooneyham in the New London Theatre production of School of Rock the Musical in 2016 and was named UK Young Blues Artist of the Year in 2018. Since then he’s shared the stage with the likes of Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Peter Frampton, Slash, Joe Bonamassa, and Jools Holland, and has a number one record to boot.

We didn’t have any junebugs this year, but the julybugs made a good show. I found some barfed up catfood next to the trash bin, and the neighbor got a new roof and a Solatube. I was informed that the word picnic is racist for some made-up reason, and tomorrow is porch time. See you around  half past whenever.

Saturday Matinee – Shinyribs, 19-Twenty & Wee Willie Walker

Based in Austin, Texas, and fronted by Kevin “Shinyribs” Russel,
Shinyribs “defies genres as a sonic melting pot of Texas Blues, New Orleans R&B funk, horn- driven Memphis Soul, country twang, border music, big band swing, and roots-rock.”

19-Twenty is a high energy roots rock/blues band who have played numerous prominent festivals and many small venues across Australia. Their recordings include collaborations with other Aussie greats like Aloe Blacc, Lachy Doley, Roshani & Hussy Hicks.

Wee Willie Walker (1941-2019) was a gospel, R&B and soul singer born in Hernando, Mississippi, raised in Memphis, Tennessee. His first release, in 1967, was a cover of the Beatles’ Ticket to Ride.

Holy crap what a week of weather – record heat, record rains, record floods. Prayers to those who suffered losses of property and especially to those who lost loved ones.

Memorial Day

Arlington National Cemetery (via Google Maps Street View)

For those of you in the Memorial Day BBQ crowd, wrapping up your roadtrips, or just chillin’ on the porch, here are some random unrelated tunes posted in May of the years 2020 – 2025, ordered by year of release.

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

Saturday Matinee – Jovin Webb, Sonny Gullage & The Melbourne Ska Orchestra

Lionel Richie once described his voice as “the sound of barbecue sauce.” Luke Bryan remarked, “I could sit and drink a lot of bourbon listening to that voice.” Louisiana blues and soul singer Jovin Webb made it to the final ten performers on the 2020 season of American Idol and moved on from there.

Singer, songwriter and keyboardist  Kevin ‘Sonny’ Gullage has earned much acclaim despite his young age (26 years old this year), and combines the sounds of New Orleans roots blues, boogiewoogie and gospel with modern styles.

The Melbourne Ska Orchestra covers a tune from the 1927 Broadway show Good News.

Been pretty busy this week. A lot of time and effort goes into pretending to be busy, and I’m definitely getting better at it. Free lessons tomorrow on the porch. See you there.

Saturday Matinee – Ruthie Foster, Mingo Fishtrap & The California Honeydrops

Gospel, soul, blues and jazz singer Ruthie Foster began her career singing at churches in rural Texas, described herself as a “little Black girl with a guitar.” After college, she joined the US Navy where she began singing in the naval band Pride, playing pop and funk hits at recruitment drives. Since then, she’s won numerous Blues Music Awards and earned three Grammy nominations.

“Austin, Texas, doesn’t have a Trombone Shorty, the Subdudes or Dirty Dozen Brass Band like New Orleans does but they do have Mingo Fishtrap, and they’re just as funky and soulful as those bands with a healthy dash of Motown tossed into their pot.” –Something Else Reviews

From Oakland, The California Honeydrops cover Wilson Pickett.
“The California Honeydrops…evoke the greasy rumble of Booker T. and channel the spiritual ecstasy of Sly and the Family Stone.” -Rolling Stone

It seems the news machine has skipped the soak, wash and rinse cycles and is stuck on spin with a noisy unbalanced load. It’s just about time to fire up the porch and take it for a sit. See you there.

Saturday Matinee – Krissy Matthews (w/ Big Daddy Wilson & Alice Armstrong), Anna Scionti and Dave Hole

Krissy Matthews (NOR) backs Big Daddy Wilson (US) and Alice Armstrong (UK). Nice soul blues groove.

Anna Scionti won the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society’s (MBAS) Blues Performer of the Year 2023 (Solo/Duo Category) and represented the MBAS at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Tennessee in January 2024.

Australian guitar slinger slider Dave Hole is living proof that there’s a Mississippi Delta somwhere in Oz.

So many things to pay attention to these days, and watching the fireworks of the internet go off in unpredictably absurd directions makes me grin. Tomorrow is a good day to do the porch thing, see you when the time is right.

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 – 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.