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.
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
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].
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.
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.
BALTHVS is a Colombian psychedelic funk surf rock group consisting of Balthazar Aguirre / guitar; Johanna Mercuriana / bass; Santiago Lizcano /drums. Four albums and over three dozen singles in only four years, plus world tours makes for a busy schedule and a lot of spacey retro vibes.
Johnny Rawls is a true soul-blues renaissance man. He’s been recording and performing for over fifty years, winning many awards in the process. Ten of his recordings have been nominated for Soul Blues Album of the Year and two of them won in that category (which didn’t exist until Rawls showed up).
Dan Patlansky was voted the No. 4 Best Guitarist in the world and remains the only artist with two worldwide No.1, and two worldwide No.2 Best Blues Rock albums to his name, as voted by Blues Rock Review USA.
Great googly moogly, the weekend his here already. Too many time flies buzzing about, and that means we have some serious porching to attend to. See you tomorrow.
Known as o Bruxo (the Sorcerer), Pascoal often makes music with unconventional objects such as teapots, children’s toys, and animals, as well as keyboards, button accordions, melodica, saxophones, guitars, flutes, voices, various brass and folkloric instruments. [Wiki]
Brazilian improvisational avant-garde musician Hermeto Pascoal e Grupo play with water in Música da Lagoa, a scene from the 1985 movie Sinfonia do Alto Ribeira by Ricardo Lua.
Texas born Caron “Sugaray” Rayford grew up in starvation-level poverty. His mother struggled to raise three boys alone while battling cancer; when she died, the siblings were relieved. “She suffered and we suffered. Then, we moved in with my grandmother and our lives were a lot better. We ate every day and we were in church every day, which I loved. I grew up in gospel and soul.”
As red hair is flailing and double bass pounding, Marlene Perez of the Rhythm Shakers closes out another show in Los Angeles. Ripping wails and howling vocals are rocketed from her torso more reminiscent of Tina Turner and Amy Winehouse than the echo dripped hiccups of the 1950’s rock and roll genre the band exists within.
Happy weekend to all, and tomorrow porch time shall commence promptly at whenever. See you then.
The Colour of Don Don, The Cactus Channel (2012) The Cactus Channel is/was a hip hop funk & soul group from Melbourne AU. Nice Stax/Volt influence. The 7-10 piece group has apparently disbanded to pursue other projects.
(Until Then) I’ll Suffer, Barbara Lynn (1971) Barbara Lynn (aka Barbara Lynn Ozen, Barbara Lynn Cumby) is a well-known blues / R&B singer, songwriter and electric guitar player* with an impressive discography. She was only 19 when she began her recording career with Give Me A Break in 1961, and the following year she scored her biggest hit You’ll Lose A Good Thing. Many years and many tours later, sharing the stage with almost every big name in the business, she’s still performing.
*Barbara Lynn plays a left-handed guitar without a pick [video].
Not sure where all the days are going, and I’m about to rip up my calendar for lying. Have a great weekend, see you back here tomorrow for some uncomplicated porch time.
Wendy Saddington with Jeff St. John & Copperwine ca. 1971. From the Utoobage comments: “I dislike it when people say that she was ‘Australia’s Janis’ or ‘Australia’s Aretha’ – she was Wendy, a one of a kind and no imitation of an imported product.”
Matthew ‘Dutch’ Tilders, dubbed the Godfather of Australian Blues, was born in the Netherlands in 1941. His family moved to Oz in 1955 when he was 14, just in time for the rock and roll era and the resurgence of American blues. Self-taught on guitar, by 1960 he was playing original songs in the local coffee houses.
Lachy Doley channels Jimi Hendrix on his Hammond C3.
All Australian blues for this edition of the Saturday Matinee [h/t Archie]. It’s a mystery to me why these musicians got so little exposure in the US.
Time is getting compressed and the days are speeding past again, at least for me. Have a great weekend – we have some serious porch sitting to do tomorrow.
(Until Then) I’ll Suffer, 
Tacky Raccoons 