Saturday Matinee – The Tarbox Ramblers, Fred Wesley & The New JBs, and Taj Mahal w/ Gregg Allman, Chris Stapleton & Little Bigtown

The Tarbox Ramblers: “If the Rolling Stones had happened 10 years earlier, hailed from Memphis and been produced by Ike Turner, they might have sounded like The Tarbox Ramblers. The way the Ramblers lay down their backroads grit and raw hillbilly-rock jive, you’re unlikely to hear a more genuine blast of sandpaper rhythm and roots.” – The Boston Herald

Fred Wesley & The New JBs is comprised of: Fred Wesley / trombone, Gary Winters / trumpet, Phillip Whack / saxophone, Bruce Cox / drums, Dwayne Dolphin / bass, Reggie Ward / guitar and Peter Madsen / keyboards.

Taj Mahal, with Gregg Allman, Chris Stapleton and the members of Little Bigtown do the Elmore James‘ classic.

Hot days… warm nights… the rat in the garage couldn’t sleep so he left on his own. I’ll have the house to myself tomorrow night which means pizza for me and leftover steamed vegetables for the possum. Porch time tomorrow is at porch time o’clock. See you then.

Fabaceous Hot Links

Ooh Poo Pah Doo, Taj Mahal (1996) Cover of Jesse Hill’s 1960 classic. It was originally performed by a New Orleans pianist known only as “Big Four”. Reportedly Hill wrote down the melody and lyrics while hearing it live and began performing it with his own band.

Bench.

Stand By Me.

The Overcrowd.

Message in a bottle.

The Speech Jammer.

Cool carpentry trick.

Etsybirds [via My OBT].

Norty Blues Episode 113.

Public Opinion 1935-1946.

Tasting Surströmming.
Discussing Surströmming.

2+ years of boring weather.

The Flu vs. ‘Rona smackdown.

Fkkn Jeff [via Feral Irishman].

The French invented car theft.

Four Decades of CBGB & OMFUG.

The Infanticiser [via Bunkerville].

Kerry Hyde’s science fair project (2021).

YouTubes’ 20 year anniversary Top Ten.

Pickle lovers always insist on a proud pickle.

Listen with your teeth  [via Memo Of The Air].

American polyglot learns bonabo [via Everlasting Blört].

[Top image: The Crow, digital art by Sigi Kolbe  ca. 2009 found here.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Dextrogyratory Hot Links

The Car Of Your Dreams, Taj Mahal (1996)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Jr., aka Taj Mahal, has been writing, recording and performing since 1964. A true chameleon of roots music, his discography includes blues, rock, R&B, reggae, jazz, country blues, Caribbean and West African styles. He was an early pioneer of what’s now called world music.

UfoBER.

Ornaments!

I am a pilot.

Zombie fires.

Trouble in Bend.

Shop With A Cop.

Pah-rumpa pum pum.

The Whizzo of Gomez.

All it ever does is rain.

The 1960 Pininfarina X.

Norty Blues Episode 93.

All Chuck [h/t Corinne L.]

He saw what you did there.

Which people would say that?

Young Terry & the valiant effort.

This is NOT Toonces [h/t Gord S.]

Волшебник Изумрудного города.

Noodlin’ Cajun girl [via Bunkerville].

My favorite scene from Jurassic Park.

Climate Change over the past 4000 Years.

90 Animals Ranked by Eyesight [via Mme. Jujujive].

The paintings of Jules Worms [via Memo Of The Air].

A Female Science Fiction Character Written by a Male Writer.

[Top image found here. It appears to be a 1952 Chevrolet Bel Air.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Saturday Matinee – Taj Mahal w/ Clive Barnes & Eric Bibb, Cory Wong w/ Victor Wooten, and Anna Scionti

Following a performance in France in 2010, Taj Mahal and Clive Barnes joined Eric Bibb to play his song Needed Time.

Cory Wong with Victor Wooten and band lay down some funky groovidity.

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.

Outta time, outta steam, see you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Cooder, Mahal & Cooder, Duane Eddy & La Mississippi

Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal, with Joachim Cooder on drums, from Get On Board, a tribute to Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. Great country blues.

https://youtu.be/WliWlY9qyY4?t=14

Mancini’s classic by the Titan of Twang himself, Duane Eddy.

The Mississippi Blues Band formed in Buenos Aires in 1989. Renamed La Mississippi, they released their debut recording, Mbugi in 1993.

Have a great Labor Day weekend, and if you’re driving somewhere, don’t complain about the traffic – once you pull out of your driveway, you ARE the traffic. See ya tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Taj Mahal & Etta James, Little Feat, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

Taj MahalEtta James covered Inez & Charlie Foxx in 1993 on Letterman.
[h/t Mme. Jujujive]

Little Feat  would hate to lose your lovin’.

Meanwhile, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real (aka PTOR) had just about enough of the drama and decided to walk. Nelson & PTOR got off to a good start in 2008, opening for his dad, Willie, and now they back up Neil Young. They sound a bit like The Band to me, and that’s a good thing.

There’s a big storm coming, and I’m not talking about weather. Get your stuff in order and be back here tomorrow for no reason at all.

Saturday Matinee – Thee Lakesiders, Thee Sinseers, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, & Taj Mahal

Thee Lakesiders have a good East L.A. retro vibe that kinda matches my mood lately. Let’s groove it up a bit.

More East L.A. R&B, this time from Thee Sinseers.

St. Paul & The Broken Bones successfully channels the Stax Records sound, and my mood is improving a bit.

Taj Mahal takes a ride around town, pickin’ the classics, and I feel better.

<vent>Way too much stuff went down in meatworld this week, some very good, some pretty bad, and the latter was starting to get to me. Backing into a BMW SUV in a hospital parking lot didn’t help either – just one more damn thing to accept and deal with. Yeah, the Lord’s testing me…</vent>

Ah well, have a great weekend, folks. Wear masks if you have to, don’t if you don’t. Do what you want and ignore the scolds – they’re not going to eat you (unless you let them). See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Max’s Journey to the Moon, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ry Cooder & Taj Mahal

Cool animation required 600 pancakes [found here]).

Bassist Keith Ferguson is ‘playing’ one of Jimmy’s 6 string guitars upside down.”

The original Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1980:
Jimmie Vaughan (guitar), Kim Wilson (vocals/harmonica), Keith Ferguson (guitar) and Mike Buck (drums).

If Things Could Talk (1974)
Ry Cooder – guitars, vocals; Russ Titelman – bass; Jim Keltner & Milt Holland – percussion, drums; Bobby King, Gene Mumford & Cliff Givens – backup vocals. (Mumford & Givens sang with The Dominoes.)
40 years later:

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder play Blind Willie McTell‘s 1928 Statesboro Blues in 2014.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll sure do something or other tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Ismael Sanz-Pena, Ricky Syers, Taj Mahal & ZZ Top


Persistence of Vision III is an awesome vid by Ismael Sanz-Pena  [h/t Mme. Jujujive].

Cool artistry, cool story, and Ricky Syers is interesting.

The legendary Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band covered Bill Doggett‘s 1956 hit Honky Tonk “filmed at Yoshi’s SF grand opening.” (Yoshi’s had grand openings in 1972, 1979, 1985 & 1997, so take your pick.)

ZZ Top is one of the greatest 3-man blues-rock freight trains ever, and here they are in their prime.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll be back here tomorrow, rain or shinola.

Saturday Matinee – Blind Willie McTell, Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, The Allman Brothers & Buddy Guy

Yeah. That’s the great Taj Mahal with the great Ry Cooder covering the great Blind Willie McTell‘s great 1928 recording of Statesboro Blues in Nashville Tennessee, September, 2014.

The Allman Brothers covered the same great song.

Speaking of jamming, the great Buddy Guy still does it better than most.

Have a great weekend, my friends, see you back here tomorrow.