We’re barely past the Summer Solstice and the days are getting shorter already, but it doesn’t matter to me because my watch is set to porch time. See you tomorrow when the big hand points at something.
Canadian singer, songwriter and bluesman David Gogo began playing guitar at the age of five; at 15 he met and was encouraged by Stevie Ray Vaughan; a year later he formed his first band. He’s won numerous awards, including three JUNOs (despite EMI spiking his solo album in the US).
Blues/roots supergroup The Atomic 44’s formed in 2020 when Eric Von Herzen (harmonica player for Walter Trout, Social Distortion, The Atomic Road Kings, Junior Watson) joined guitarist/vocalist Johnny Main (The 44’s).
That should be enough to fill your earbuckets for now. Happy Fathers Day to all you fathers (including those of you who don’t know yet) and we’ll have some quality porch time tomorrow.
Joe Louis Walker at Broadway Studios, San Francisco, December 1999. Walker has recorded with Ike Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, and Steve Cropper, opened for Muddy Waters and Thelonious Monk, hung out with Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and was a close friend and roommate of Mike Bloomfield, and that’s some serious cred.
Nice set for St. Medarus Day. Celebrations will commence on the front porch whenever you get here. If I’m not out you’ll need to holler at the door because the doorbell doesn’t work.
“A hand drawn animated documentary, following the rhythms of a day in Yorkshire. It captures the sound of Yorkshire, from its multicultural and bustling cities like Bradford and Sheffield, to the delicate sounds of birds in the country side and the hypnotic rhythm of the motorways and train tracks.”
In 2014, Witchita Trip covered Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn: “Ya, it has a better groove. That’s Wichita Trip. The two singers and I have played together for about 15 years. There’s no country bars so we end up playing with rockabilly and blues bands, it’s not a great fit. Barb and Rupert have been singing together for about 30 years.” – Gorehound, guitarist
Los Straitjackets play definitive roadtrip cruisin’ music and more. “The funny thing about this band is when the band started I thought it was just going to be for fun,” says founding guitarist Eddie Angel. “I thought we’d play once a month in Nashville and our friends would come out and laugh at us. Ironically, all the other bands I was in, the ones I took seriously, crashed and burned and the one I thought was just for fun became my job.” – Houston Press
[h/t Taminatorpgh]
Austin blues rocker Sue Foley plays one mean Texas shuffle.
Been a short week all around for me, starting with Memorial Day on Monday, then waking up on Friday convinced it was Saturday until about 3pm, so I got two 3-day weekends in a row by accident. See you on the porch around the crack of noon and well discuss time travel.
OMC (Ōtara Millionaires Club) was an Aukland NZ success story until the premature deaths of Phil Fuemana in 2005 and his brother, frontman Pauly Fuemana, in January 2010.
[h/t Tony McG. for indirectly reminding me of the song.]
Three day weekend is here, don’t forget what Memorial Day is all about, and we’ll see you tomorrow at the usual place (porch) at the usual time (porch thirty).
1987 claymation video by Aardman Animations features the voice and piano of Eunice Kathleen Waymon, aka gospel / jazz / R&B / soul singer Nina Simone, with a song from 1958. She changed her name to elude family members and play “the devil’s music” in an Atlantic City nightclub. The management told her that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, and that launched her career as a jazz vocalist.
“What’s your band’s name?”
“The High Numbers.”
“The who?”
“Yes.”
Too far south to see this weekend’s aurorae, and I hope everyone who can survives the EMT barrage. I’ll take the event as a good omen, and yet another damn good reason to do some porch sitting tomorrow.
See you then.
Anna Sciontiwon 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.
Tacky Raccoons 