Bobby Radcliff

Bobby Radcliff - Dresses Too Short - 1989 - Black Top Records

"...the return of of guitarist Bobby Radcliff as a recording artist is a cause for celebration. Radcliff, one of the most underrecognized players on the scene, is a phenomenally gifted musician whose soulful delivery, funky picking, and sparse, stinging West Side sound (as personified by his hero Magic Sam) is distinctive and eleltrifying." - Hal Horowitz in Blues Revue

Bobby Radcliff turns in a tight, tough update of Magic Sam-style Chicago blues with Dresses Too Short. The songs are either too familiar or a weak approximation of the genre, but the playing throughout is terrific -- his guitar playing is alternately subtle and ferocious. Best of all is the handful of tracks cut with Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters who spur Radcliff on to his best performances. © Thom Owens © 2011 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/dresses-too-short-r89397

"FIVE STARS!...Not since Stevie Ray Vaughan's first set has there been such a smashing bow by a blues-rock guitarist." - "downbeat" magazine

A great Texas/Chicago style blues album by the unheralded Maryland born blues guitarist, Bobby Radcliff. Andy Glass, in The Music Paper said that "Conventional musicritese - scorching, blistering, pyrotechnical and all that jive - fails to convey the heat in these grooves. More than heat, this platter's got muscle. A tightly coiled, spiky, New York kinda muscle. It's a new kind of blues, daring, dangerous and devastating." Musicians on this album include Ron Levy on keys, Ronnie Earl on rhythm guitar, Steve Gomes on bass, and Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff on sax, who was also responsible for the horn arrangements. Buy Bobby's tremendous "There's a Cold Grave in Your Way" album and promote great blues

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Ugh! - Christian 3:39
2 Bonehead - B. Radcliff, R. Earl 3:10
3 Stick Around - G. Guy 3:34
4 You Haven't Hurt Me - Ron Levy 4:10
5 Going Home Tomorrow - Bartholomew, Domino 3:17
6 Next Woman I Marry - Trad. 2:46
7 Dresses Too Short - Syl Johnson 4:51
8 Keep Loving Me Baby - Otis Rush 4:15
9 Alimony Blues - F. Simon 2:34
10 Hard Road To Travel - Harris 5:00
11 Kool And The Gang - Kool & The Gang 3:56

MUSICIANS

Guitar, Vocals - Bobby Radcliff
Guitar [Rhythm] - Ronnie Earl (tracks: A2, A3)
Bass - David Hofstra (tracks: A1, A4, A5, B1 - B5), Steve Gomes (tracks: A2, A3)
Organ, Piano - Ron Levy (tracks: A1, A4, A5, B1 - B5)
Drums - Per Hanson (tracks: A2, A3), Richard "Dickie" Dworkin (tracks: A1, A4, A5, B1 - B5)
Saxophone [Tenor] - Mr. Excello (tracks: A1, A4, A5, B1 - B5), Saxy Boy (tracks: A1, A4, A5, B1 - B5) [The Kamikaze Horns]
Saxophone [Tenor & Baritone]: Horn Arrangements - (tracks: A1, A4, A5, B1 - B5) - Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff [The Kamikaze Horns]

SHORT BIO

Although Bobby Radcliff has spent the last 25 years honing his craft in bars around his native Washington, D.C., and in New York City and Chicago, the 45-year-old guitarist, singer and songwriter is just now coming into his prime. Born September 22, 1951, Radcliff grew up in Bethesda, MD and had easy access to Washington, D.C. blues clubs, where he learned from people like Bobby Parker. Before graduating from high school, he'd already made several trips to Chicago to meet his idol, Magic Sam Maghett, owing to a small but growing blues club scene in Washington. Radcliff began playing when he was 12, and he started off taking classical guitar lessons. After his guitar teacher showed him some blues, he began buying every blues guitar album he could get his hands on. In 1977, Radcliff moved to New York City and worked in a bookstore by day until 1987, when he realized he was making enough money playing in clubs to give up his day job. Since he hooked up his recording deal with BlackTop Records, Radcliff has toured the U.S., Canada and Europe more than a dozen times, and his fiery guitar playing is always a festival crowd-pleaser. Parker has three excellent albums out on the BlackTop label that showcase his songwriting, guitar playing and soulful singing. They include his debut, Dresses Too Short (1989), Universal Blues (1991) and There's a Cold Grave in Your Way (1994). Collectors will seek out his 1985 vinyl release, Early in the Morning, on the A-Okay label. © Richard Skelly © 2011 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-radcliff-p498/biography

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When BOBBY RADCLIFF’s first album on the revered Black Top label hit record stores all over the world, critics declared him the next in a long line of guitar heroes. Jazz-lovers awarded him a coveted five-star review in downbeat, New York rockers took him to heart for his edgy energy, and blues fans everywhere knew their favorite music was alive and well. Long before all that, it was the time he spent in the sixties with “Magic Sam” Maghett that bound him forever to the raucous mixture of deep blues and flashy funk that defined the sound of Chicago’s West Side. After running away from a suburban childhood in Chevy Chase, Maryland, at the tender age of seventeen Bobby sought out the guitar master who had changed his life on record. With the help of Bob Koester, Bruce Iglauer, and Jim O’Neal (the blues trinity at Chicago’s legendary Record Mart), he found his idol in Cook County Hospital recovering from a minor stroke. Although he was a little shocked that anyone would come so far simply to meet him, Sam took Bobby under his wing and introduced him to the Chicago blues scene at the peak of the blues renaissance.“Seeing Sam perform was like watching Elvis. He had that total kind of style and magnetism… beyond musical genre and beyond race,” Radcliff remembers. “He showed me the way to sing in a clear concise way, with a crisp and clean sound on the guitar. And then there’s the freedom of working in a trio, but also the risks. Don’t forget, these were the days of Cream and Hendrix, with tons of distortion alternating with lavish studio production. I wanted something different!” By the release of “Dresses Too Short” in 1989, Bobby was already a twenty-year veteran of the club circuits in Washington, DC and New York City. He had shared the stage with the likes of Otis Rush, Roy Buchanan, James Cotton, Danny Gatton, Lowell Fulsom, and Dr.John. In the nineties, three more brilliant albums followed on Black Top Records: “Universal Blues” (1991), “There’s A Cold Grave In Your Way” (1994), and “Live At The Rynborn” (1997). With the label based in New Orleans, Bobby also had the further pleasure of touring with more of his idols, label-mates like Snooks Eaglin, Earl King, and George Porter, Jr. Unhappily, Black Top founder Nauman Scott passed on in 2002, and the label never really recovered. As the rest of the record industry was racked with corporate consolidations, format-wars, and the hi-tech upheaval of the Internet, many artists have found themselves out in the cold. Bobby Radcliff made a choice: make your own records your own way on your own label, with no one to please but the fans. It’s out of this philosophy that Rollo Records was born, to provide a home for musicians too uncompromising, too challenging, and too kick-ass to either pigeon-hole or ignore. Combining vintage techniques and current technologies, we put the artists in the driver’s seat and hit “the highway to your soul.” “Natural Ball” is our first offering and one to make any label proud. © http://www.bobbyradcliff.com/bio.html

Alexis Korner

Alexis Korner - Juvenile Delinquent - 1984 - Charisma

The late Alexis Korner often hailed as "the grandfather of the British blues scene" and his Blues Incorporated band was a catalyst for the development of British Blues Music which Alexis played with a unique passion. Alexis found ties between urban and country blues. In his eclectic repertoire he played music by Muddy Waters and Charles Mingus similar to artists like Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington who mixed blues and jazz to create great music. In the early '60's "white bluesmen" were mostly playing covers of black man's music, but by the mid-sixties thanks to people like Alexis Korner these "white bluesmen" began composing their own blues songs. The '60's British blues movement spawned bands like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Ten Years After and many more artists who spread this new form of white blues around the world. "Juvenile Delinquent" is just one of Alexis' many releases. It is not a well known album. It is also a short album. You won't read many reviews of this album, but it has all the hallmarks of the great man's trademark sound of urban blues and blues soul. The album contains two unusual covers; Peter Sarstedt's "Beirut" and The Stones' "Get Off My Cloud". Listen to CCS "CCS 1st" and Alexis Korner's "A New Generation Of Blues" albums

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

A1 Beirut - Peter Sarstedt
A2 Mean Fool - Alexis Korner
A3 The Sphinx - Joey Alkes, Chris Fradkin, Mitch Rafal
B1 Get Off My Cloud - Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
B2 King B.B. - Alexis Korner
B3 Juvenile Delinquent - Alexis Korner

MUSICIANS

Alexis Korner: vocals, acoustic guitar (except for track 6)
Alan Ross: electric guitar, backing vocals
Colin Hodgkinson: bass guitar
Adam Sieff: slide guitar
Robin Lumley: synthesizers
Morris Pert: percussion
Tony Hicks: drums
Katie Kissoon, Doreen Chanter - backing vocals

ALBUM LINER NOTES

Alexis Korner wanted to revolutionise people's ability to feel and this he did, if not always directly. Like Plato (and Alexis's mother was Greek) he offered the philosophy and the texts; but it was those he influenced who conquered the world. It is a formidable list, for it includes The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Robert Plant and John Mayall. Nor, up in Liverpool, would those who became The Beatles have been deaf to the influential concerts and broadcasts at the turn of the 50's by Korner's Blues Incorporated. We talk of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as British growths, which is a bit like saying the Californians invented wine,' wrote Miles Kington. It was Alexis's genius to smile away the protests of these sharing his love of American urban blues, and to conjure in London a notional ghetto of feeling and sources and musicianship irresistible to the middleclass kids of the time. ‘Blues is a matter of feeling not of colour,' was his retort. He never envied those players who transmuted his ideas into more lucrative rock and roll, and was always dismissive of attempts to give him a patriarchal role. Yet there is no doubt Alexis Korner is the source of rich delight for the rock'n roll generation, its children, and the music industry. Himself urbane rather than urban, Alexis was a boy of twelve when in 1940 he landed in England on the last boat from France. The son of an Austrian cavalry officer, he had already lived in France, Switzerland and North Africa. The easy, educated charm of the Eurocracy in him sometimes concealed the very real passion of his integrity; as performer, broadcaster and critic. He chose to respect his subject and forego any considerable reward; the lot of the academic. When he died, Alexis was completing his first studio recordings in seven years, with his long-time collaborator and bass-player Collin Hodgkinson. In re-working Peter Sarstedt's excellent and sadly-relevant song 'Beirut' Alexis seems to be attempting an interesting synthesis of his favoured blues style and the gospel-rooted American soul which has now swept the board in black music, notably in the person of Michael Jackson (who offered praise to the late Jackie Wilson at the Grammy awards). I was in Cyprus when I heard Alexis's uniquely abrasive voice had been silenced by lung cancer. The fierce sunset that day was itself a powerful blues. I raised a glass to the Hoochie Coochie Man; only 55, and with much left to teach us. I thank Bobbie Korner and Del Taylor for allowing Charisma to be associated with these final recordings. © Tony Stratton Smith © http://alexis-korner.net/notesjd.html

ALEXIS KORNER (WIKI)

Alexis Korner (19 April 1928 - 1 January 1984), born Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, was a pioneering blues musician and broadcaster who has sometimes been referred to as "the Founding Father of British Blues". A major influence on the sound of the British music scene in the 1960s, Korner was instrumental in bringing together various English blues musicians. Alexis Korner was born in Paris to an Austrian father and Greek mother, and spent his childhood in France, Switzerland, and North Africa. He arrived in London in 1940 at the start of the Second World War. One memory of his youth was listening to a record by Jimmy Yancey during a German air raid. He said, "From then on all I wanted to do was play the blues." After the war, he played piano and guitar, and in 1949 joined Chris Barber's Jazz Band where he met blues harmonica player Cyril Davies. They started playing together as a duo, formed the influential London Blues and Barrelhouse Club in 1955, and made their first record together in 1957. Korner brought many American blues artists, previously unknown in England, to perform. Although he himself was a blues purist - Korner criticised better-known British blues musicians, during the blues boom of the late '60s, for their blind adherence to Chicago blues, as if the music came in no other form - he liked to surround himself with jazz musicians and often performed with a horn section drawn from a pool which included, among others, saxophone players Art Themen, Mel Collins, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Dick Morrissey, John Surman and trombonist Mike Zwerin. In the 1960s Korner began a media career, initially as a show business interviewer and then on ITV's Five O'Clock Club, a children's TV show. He also wrote about blues for the music papers, and continued his performing career especially in Europe. Apart from discovering various English musicians Korner also introduced foreign artists, such as German Wolfgang Michels, to a larger audience. Korner also wrote the liner notes for Michels' group Percewood's Onagram first album in 1969. While touring Scandinavia he first joined forces with singer Peter Thorup, together forming the band New Church, who were one of the support bands at the Rolling Stones Free Concert at Hyde Park on 5 July 1969. It is said that Jimmy Page found out about a new singer, Robert Plant, who had been jamming with Korner, who wondered why Plant had not yet been discovered. Plant, Korner, and Steve Miller were in the process of recording a full album with Plant on vocals until Page had asked him to join "the New Yardbirds", aka Led Zeppelin. Only two songs are in circulation from these recordings: "Steal Away" and "Operator". In 1970 Korner and Thorup formed a big band ensemble, C.C.S. - short for The Collective Consciousness Society - which had several hit singles produced by Mickie Most, including a version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" which was used as the theme for BBC's Top Of The Pops for several years. Another instrumental called Brother was used as the theme to the Radio 1 Top 20 when Tom Browne presented the programme in the early 1970s. This was the period of Korner's greatest commercial success in the UK. In 1973, he formed another group, Snape, with Boz Burrell, Mel Collins, and Ian Wallace, previously together in King Crimson. Korner also played on B. B. King's Supersession album, and cut his own, similar album, Get Off My Cloud, with Keith Richards, Peter Frampton, Nicky Hopkins, and members of Joe Cocker's Grease Band. In the mid 1970s, while touring Germany, he established an intensive working relationship with bassist Colin Hodgkinson who played for the support act Back Door. They would continue to collaborate until the end. In the 1970s Korner's main career was in broadcasting. In 1973 he presented a unique 6-part documentary on BBC Radio 1, The Rolling Stones Story, and in 1977 he established a weekly blues and soul show on Radio 1, which ran until 1981. He also used his gravelly voice to great effect as an advertising voice over artist. In 1978, for Korner's 50th birthday, an all-star concert was held featuring many of his friends mentioned above, as well as Eric Clapton, Paul Jones, Chris Farlowe, Zoot Money and other friends, which was later released as The Party Album, and as a video. In 1981, he joined another "supergroup", Rocket 88, a project led by Ian Stewart based around boogie-woogie keyboard players, which featured a rhythm section comprising Jack Bruce and Charlie Watts, among others, as well as a horn section. They toured Europe and released an album on Atlantic Records. Alexis Korner, a lifelong chain smoker, died of lung cancer in London on January 1, 1984, aged 55.

Charlie Musselwhite

Charlie Musselwhite - Tell Me Where Have All the Good Times Gone? - 1984 - Blue Rockit

Drummer/label head Pat Ford reunited with Charlie and brought along brother Robben on guitar, producing this return to form. Charlie is up to the task in all departments -- singing, playing (great tone), and especially songwriting (the title tune and "Seemed Like the Whole World Was Crying," and inspired by Muddy Waters's death) -- but it had been a while since Robben had played lowdown blues (touring with Joni Mitchell, putting in countless hours in L.A. studios). Pianist Clay Cotten is in fine form, and it may have been wiser to give the guitar chair to Tim Kaihatsu, who by this time had seniority (in terms of hours on the bandstand with Musselwhite) over any of Charlie's alumni. The to-be-expected-by-now deviations this time out: Don & Dewey's "Stretchin' Out," an impressive chromatic harp rendering of "Exodus," and Charlie's solo guitar outing, "Baby-O." Easily Charlie's best-engineered album (nice job, Greg Goodwin). © Dan Forte © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/tell-me-where-have-all-the-good-times-gone-r89293

Throughout his long and varied career Charlie Musselwhite has released albums ranging from traditional blues to music with elements of jazz, gospel, Tex-Mex, Cuban and other world music. He is oneof the best-known and best-loved blues musicians in the world. DownBeat called him “the undisputed champion of the blues harmonica.” He demonstrates that to great effect on this album which is a great traditional blues album with a dash of real Mississippi soul. The incredible Robben Ford helps out on guitar. N.B: The original 1984 release was entitled "Tell Me Where Have All the Good Times Gone?" From 1992 other releases were titled "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?" and featured the extra track "I'll Get a Break Someday", included here. Charlie's "Takin' My Time" and "Delta Hardware" are brilliant albums and his superb "Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band" album is well worth buying. His "Rough Dried: Live At The Triple Door" album can be found @ http://rapidshare.com/files/212302270/Charlie_Musselwhite_-_Live_at_the_Triple_Door.rar For music in the same genre listen to Paul Butterfield's "East-West" album

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

SIDE A

1 Hello Stranger - J.L. Williamson (3:09)
2 Seemed Like The Whole World Was Crying - Charlie Musselwhite (5:15)
3 Baby-O - Charlie Musselwhite (3:27) *
4 Still A Stranger - Charlie Musselwhite (3:48)
5 Exodus - Ernest Gold (1:54)
*N.B: Maybe my ears are playing tricks, but there seems to be a fault on Track 3. I've tested the track with professional audio equipment and nothing shows up. There are some unusual vocal and chord changes on this song, so maybe it's just me. If anybody else hears anything "unusual" on the track, please let me know - A.O.O.F.C
SIDE B

1 Stretching Out - Charlie Musselwhite (3:45)
2 Going Away Baby - J. Rogers (4:20)
3 Where Have All The Good Times Gone - Charlie Musselwhite (7:24)
4 Kid Man Blues - Big Maceo Merriweather (3:12)

EXTRA TRACK

10 I'll Get a Break Someday - Trad. 2:45 [Bonus Track on 1992 release]

MUSICIANS

Charlie Musselwhite - guitar on "Baby-O", harmonica, harp, vocals
Robben Ford - guitar
Steve Ehrman - bass
Clay Cotton - piano
Patrick Ford - drums

BIO

Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo can recollect a leaner time when his record collection had been whittled down to only the bare essentials: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band. Butterfield and Musselwhite will probably be forever linked as the two most interesting, and arguably the most important, products of the "white blues movement" of the mid- to late '60s -- not only because they were near the forefront chronologically, but because they both stand out as being especially faithful to the style. Each certainly earned the respect of his legendary mentors. No less than the late Big Joe Williams said, "Charlie Musselwhite is one of the greatest living harp players of country blues. He is right up there with Sonny Boy Williamson, and he's been my harp player ever since Sonny Boy got killed." It's interesting that Williams specifies "country" blues, because, even though he made his mark leading electric bands in Chicago and San Francisco, Musselwhite began playing blues with people he'd read about in Samuel Charters' Country Blues -- Memphis greats like Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Gus Cannon. It was these rural roots that set him apart from Butterfield, and decades later Musselwhite began incorporating his first instrument, guitar. Musselwhite was born in Kosciusko, MS in 1944, and his family moved north to Memphis, where he went to high school. Musselwhite migrated north in search of the near-mythical $3.00-an-hour job (the same lure that set innumerable youngsters on the same route), and became a familiar face at blues haunts like Pepper's, Turner's, and Theresa's, sitting in with and sometimes playing alongside harmonica lords such as Little Walter, Shakey Horton, Good Rockin' Charles, Carey Bell, Big John Wrencher, and even Sonny Boy Williamson. Before recording his first album, Musselwhite appeared on LPs by Tracy Nelson and John Hammond and duetted (as Memphis Charlie) with Shakey Horton on Vanguard's Chicago/The Blues/Today series. When his aforementioned debut LP became a standard on San Francisco's underground radio, Musselwhite played the Fillmore Auditorium and never returned to the Windy City. Leading bands that featured greats like guitarists Harvey Mandel, Freddie Roulette, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, and Junior Watson, Musselwhite played steadily in Bay Area bars and mounted somewhat low-profile national tours. It wasn't until the late '80s, when he conquered a career-long drinking problem, that Musselwhite began touring worldwide to rave notices. He became busier than ever and continued releasing records to critical acclaim. His two releases on Virgin, Rough News in 1997 and Continental Drifter in 2000, found Musselwhite mixing elements of jazz, gospel, Tex-Mex, and acoustic Delta blues. After signing with Telarc Blues in 2002, he continued exploring his musical roots by releasing One Night in America. The disc exposed Musselwhite's interest in country music with a cover version of the Johnny Cash classic "Big River," and featured guest appearances by Kelly Willis and Marty Stuart. Sanctuary, released in 2004, was Musselwhite's first record for Real World. After extensive touring globally, he returned to the studio for its follow-up, the back-to-basics Delta Hardware, recorded in Mississippi. The set was hard-edged and raw blues and featured one live track, the hip-shaking "Clarksdale Boogie," recorded in front of a small but enthusiastic audience at Red's Juke Joint in that very town. Musselwhite returned to Alligator in 2009 and got down to business and cut The Well in Chicago, an all-original program that featured a guest duet appearance from Mavis Staples on the track "Sad Beautiful World." The song references the murder of his 93-year old mother during a burglary in her home. © Dan Forte © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/charlie-musselwhite-p472/biography

Pee Wee Crayton

Pee Wee Crayton - Early Hour Blues - 1999 - Blind Pig

A West Coast blues guitar hero, Crayton died shortly after these sessions, done primarily with Rod and Honey Piazza's band, or with jazz pianist Llew Matthews' quartet. The two dates show Crayton could do it all. Jump blues, hard or straight blues, and boogie were all easily played. It's that unmistakable T-Bone Walker influence, a stinging, swinging single line or chunky, chortling chord progressions that made Crayton stand out among the crowded blues guitar landscape. He was a one-of-a kind player, and this CD is not only his final testament, but a solid exclamation point on the career of a true American music legend. Crayton also proved to be a pretty good singer. His soulful rendering of the hit "Send for Me" is sincere and believable. "Barefootin'" might be a throwaway, but he really sends up the B.B. King evergreen "When I'm Wrong." Steaming instrumentals with big horn charts swing hard as on "You Know Yeah," Eddie Taylor's "E.T. Blues," "Red Rose Boogie," and the short horn-fired rave-up "Head'n'Home." The Piazzas and Matthews really know how to support a star, and their work is as credible as any. Additional kudos to Crayton's wife, Esther, who wrote six of these 11 cuts, and was always a major factor in his repertoire. On some of his solos, Crayton is astounding; on the rest, his guitar is merely spectacular. Though 14 years late (Crayton died in 1985) and only 45 minutes short on this CD, this is a precious document of one of originals of blues guitar, and a reminder that although he was relatively obscure, he had many fans who knew what the real deal was. For blues scholars, this is an artist, like Freddie King, Otis Rush, and T-Bone, well worth studying and relishing. © Michael G. Nastos © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kpfwxqlkldde

If there's a pantheon for unsung blues heroes, Pee Wee Crayton belongs in it. Like T-Bone Walker, whose style Crayton's closely resembles, he came from Texas, heading for the West Coast early on. Though he recorded prolifically throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, he never quite garnered the attention he deserved. That's a shame, as Early Hour Blues--collecting several cuts from Crayton's final two albums--attests. The material is an appealing mix; Texas and West Coast, instrumental and vocal, sensual ballads and uptempo rockers, the latter of which display some impressive guitar gymnastics. Rod Piazza, who helped produce the albums from which these songs are taken, does harp duty on several tracks. This aptly titled collection is evocative of a late night in a bar, somewhere where last call happens at around 4 a.m., and is definitely worth a listen or several. © Genevieve Williams © 1996-2010, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates http://www.amazon.com/Early-Hour-Blues-Pee-Crayton/dp/B00000J7V2

HR by A.O.O.F.C, this is a wonderful album from the late and sadly neglected Pee Wee Crayton. They don't play like this anymore! Buy his brilliant "Peace Of Mind" album

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Blues at Daybreak - Esther Crayton 3:02
2 Early Hours - Esther Crayton 4:33
3 Barefootin' - Robert Parker 2:37
4 Blues After Hours - Pee Wee Crayton/Jules Taub 5:25
5 You Know Yeah - Pee Wee Crayton/Jules Taub 4:07
6 E.T. Blues - Eddie Taylor 4:23
7 When I'm Wrong - B.B. King 7:51
8 Send for Me - Ollie Jones 4:32
9 Red Rose Boogie - Esther Crayton 1:53
10 Come on Baby - Esther Crayton 2:32
11 Head'n Home - Esther Crayton 4:25

MUSICIANS

Pee Wee Crayton - Guitar, Vocals
Doug MacLeod - Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm)
Dan Fredman, Eric Ajaye - Bass
Llew Matthews - Keyboards
Honey Piazza - Piano
Lee Spath, Soko Richardson - Drums
Fred Clark - Sax (Alto), Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor)
Bill Clark, Marshall Crayton - Sax (Tenor)
Fernando Harkless - Saxophone
Claude Williams - Trumpet
Rod Piazza - Harp

BIO

Although he was certainly inexorably influenced by the pioneering electric guitar conception of T-Bone Walker (what axe-handler wasn't during the immediate postwar era?), Pee Wee Crayton brought enough daring innovation to his playing to avoid being labeled as a mere T-Bone imitator. Crayton's recorded output for Modern, Imperial, and Vee-Jay contains plenty of dazzling, marvelously imaginative guitar work, especially on stunning instrumentals such as "Texas Hop," "Pee Wee's Boogie," and "Poppa Stoppa," all far more aggressive performances than Walker usually indulged in. Like Walker, Connie Crayton was a transplanted Texan. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1935, later moving north to the Bay Area. He signed with the Bihari brothers' L.A.-based Modern logo in 1948, quickly hitting pay dirt with the lowdown instrumental "Blues After Hours" (a kissin' cousin to Erskine Hawkins' anthem "After Hours"), which topped the R&B charts in late 1948. The steaming "Texas Hop" trailed it up the lists shortly thereafter, followed the next year by "I Love You So." But Crayton's brief hitmaking reign was over, through no fault of his own. After recording prolifically at Modern to no further commercial avail, Crayton moved on to Aladdin and, in 1954, Imperial. Under Dave Bartholomew's savvy production, Crayton made some of his best waxings in New Orleans: "Every Dog Has His Day," "You Know Yeah," and "Runnin' Wild" found Crayton's guitar turned up to the boiling point over the fat cushion of saxes characterizing the Crescent City sound. From there, Crayton tried to regain his momentum at Vee-Jay in Chicago; 1957's "I Found My Peace of Mind," a Ray Charles-tinged gem, should have done the trick, but no dice. After one-off 45s for Jamie, Guyden, and Smash during the early '60s, Crayton largely faded from view until Vanguard unleashed his LP, Things I Used to Do, in 1971. After that, Pee Wee Crayton's profile was raised somewhat; he toured and made a few more albums prior to his passing in 1985. © Bill Dahl © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:difwxq95ldke~T1

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Connie Curtis "Pee Wee" Crayton is a name that must feature prominently in any history of electric blues guitar and West Coast blues. Beginning in the 1940's he carved out a magnificent discography and enduring reputation, and the success of his atmospheric, jazzy and jumping R & B helped pave the way for the likes of Lowell Fulson, Gatemouth Brown and B.B. King. Fulson recollected, "these guys like Pee Wee Crayton and T-Bone Walker - they made me study a little more and work a little harder." Expatriate studio great Mickey Baker credited Crayton for showing him a musical direction: "What made me listen to blues was, I was out in California, stranded, and I heard Pee Wee Crayton playing. Those people messing around on the floor, man, they would go crazy! That was the first blues I learned to play." Almost a quarter century later, young guitar phenom Shuggie Otis included a tribute to his mentors on his debut album, specifically citing "the great Pee Wee Crayton." Pee Wee remained a vital artist until his passing on June 25, 1985. Blind Pig's new compilation of his last recordings, Early Hour Blues is a welcome and timely showcase for what blues authority Bill Dahl called his "dazzling, marvelously imaginative guitar work" and "daring innovation," and a loving act of admiration and appreciation on the part of some distinguished acolytes. Pee Wee was born near Austin, Texas in Rockdale, on December 18, 1914. In 1935 he moved to Los Angeles. By World War II he was in the San Francisco Bay Area, an aspiring musician. There he supplemented the inspiration of jazz guitar trailblazer Charlie Christian with personal tutelage by a man who would be a close friend till his passing thirty years later, the original electric blues guitar master, T-Bone Walker. Crayton told interviewer John Breckow, "We got to be real good friends." According to another Pee Wee interview, T-Bone "showed me how to string up the guitar to get the blues sound out of it. T-Bone was gonna try to help me learn how to play. My timing was real bad. T-Bone helped me with my timing. He would play the piano or the bass and show me how to play in time." The two went on to stage friendly battles, and when T-Bone's health problems interfered with his gigs late in life, Crayton was on call to fill in whenever he was available. Pee Wee added some rawness to Walker's stylish blues approach, and chord knowledge gleaned from guitarist John Collins involving the use of four fingers. Pee Wee proudly stated, "I know how to play them big, pretty chords and where to put 'em at." After some obscure recordings as a leader and sideman (mostly for pianist Ivory Joe Hunter) in the Bay Area, Pee Wee hooked up with L.A.-based Modern Records. In 1948 he broke through with the classic moody instrumental "Blues After Hours" and followed with the equally definitive hits, the swinging "Texas Hop" and vocal ballad "I Love You So." Soon he was tearing up venues around the country with his flashy picking, power chords and grooves suitable for dancing or romance. Though his great Modern sides have been reissued thoughtfully in England and Japan, their unavailability in the U.S. is a major gap in the blues canon. They and his personal appearances established Pee Wee as a stalwart of the emerging L.A. blues scene, and launched him as a formidable national presence. "I was the No. 1 attraction in the country for three years. I went across the country with a band that couldn't play five songs all the way through. Only thing I could play was the tunes I recorded. But, wherever I'd go, I'd draw a lot of people, because I was a good-looking man at that time. And very popular, you know, with the women anyway. So wherever women go, the men gonna be there." One man of note who was in the crowd for a different reason later was a certain Elvis Presley, according to musician Billy "The Kid" Emerson who took Elvis to hear Crayton at the Flamingo Club in Memphis: "Ah, man! Elvis thought that was somethin'. He'd never seen him before, and Pee Wee was good! Pee Wee Crayton was really good. And it learned him about stage personality, you know, he learned how to get around a stage and whatnot." In the 1950s Pee Wee's star faded somewhat. Los Angeles recordings for Aladdin and Recorded In Hollywood after he left Modern did him little or no good, and he moved to the Midwest (befriending a young Kenny Burrell in Detroit and giving lessons in Waterloo, Iowa) before golf hustling his way back to L.A. in 1960. But with the custom Strat guitar and Twin amp given to him by Leo Fender, he continued to make often scintillating records, most prolifically for Imperial in New Orleans ("Win-O" and "You Know Yeah") with Dave Bartholomew's crack band and for Vee-Jay in Chicago ("The Telephone Is Ringing") in similarly illustrious company. His wife Esther began to make her presence felt as a lyricist. After his return to Los Angeles, the next decade brought Pee Wee his least glorious musical period as he mostly drove a truck and played locally. A fine LP he recorded didn't even credit him, appearing under the name of "The Sunset Blues Band." The down home folk blues tastes of the international white blues boom didn't coincide with his relatively sophisticated approach. But by the decade's end, the vintage R & B which Pee Wee had helped popularize came in for belated recognition. Johnny Otis showcased Pee Wee in a memorable program at the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival (issued on Epic), leading to a comeback LP on Vanguard, and later recorded an LP by Pee Wee for his Blues Spectrum label. Pee Wee continued to record sporadically and added some prestigious festivals and international tours to his resume. He lived comfortably in L.A. till his death shortly after a Chicago Blues Festival appearance and a triumphant return to his home town at Antone's. There's a plaque in his honor where he used to feed the ducks at his favorite golf course. But till the end he was frustrated that he never got the accolades he felt his historical contributions warranted. Pee Wee's last two albums were recorded in Riverside, California for Murray Brothers, at the instigation of the label's A & R man, blues harpist deluxe Rod Piazza. Pee Wee relished the freedom and the chance to work with some veteran sidekicks and younger admirers like Rod and Honey Piazza ("I played a lot of places with Rod") and guitarist Doug MacLeod ("one of the best friends I got, and he's one of the finest guitar players you'd ever want to hear") and his band. His tone, energy and repertoire were up to the minute. [title] emphasizes Pee Wee's blues, boogies and R & B, with a couple recreations and the accent on instrumentals. Rod Piazza described the music as "a seasoned professional doing what he does best with no compromises." From the late night instrumental ambience of a revived and extended "Blues After Hours" and the extravagant vocal blues "When I'm Wrong I'm Wrong," through the rousing R & B of "Barefootin'" and a revisited "You Know Yeah" and the blistering uptempo instrumentals like "E.T. Blues," "Red Rose Boogie" and the Piazza feature "Head'n Home," Pee Wee and Blind Pig have a reminder of his greatness for his longtime fans, and a wakeup call for a new generation. As Early Hour Blues affirms, what was once pioneering is now timeless as blues history and joyful listening! © 2006 Blind Pig Records, a division of Whole Hog, Inc. - All Rights Reserved http://www.blindpigrecords.com/index.cfm?section=artists&artistid=23

Raful Neal

Raful Neal - Louisiana Legend - 1987 - Fantastic/King Snake

Kenny Neal's dad Raful is a longtime Baton Rouge swamp blues stalwart whose own discography is way sparser than it should be. This album, first out on Bob Greenlee's King Snake logo, is an atmospheric indication of what the elder Neal can do with a harmonica, mixing covers ("Steal Away," "Honest I Do," "No Cuttin' Loose") with spicy originals. © Bill Dahl, All Music Guide © 2010 Answers Corporation http://www.answers.com/topic/louisiana-legend

The late Raful Neal from Baton Rouge, was a powerhouse blues harmonica player. He had a heavy, gut-grabbing style of blues, reminiscent of Solomon Burke at times, but with a personal stamp best heard in tracks like his wrenching "Down and Out". His laid-back vocals and powerful harmonica was the soul of South Louisiana blues. He was influenced in his early days by artists like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Walter, and in his later life he played with greats like Buddy Guy. A brilliant harmonicist, this album is a perfect example of pure Baton Rouge home blues.The album was co-produced by his son Kenny Neal, who also plays lead guitar. Buy Raful's great "I Been Mistreated" album

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

Luberta - Raful Neal
Steal Away - Jimmy Hughes
Blues On The Moon - Raful Neal
Down And Out - Raful Neal
You Don't Love Me (Anymore) - Daniels, Marks, Moore
No Cuttin' Loose - Daniels, Marks, Moore
Been So Long - Raful Neal
Late In The Evening - Raful Neal
Honest I Do - Jimmy Reed, Ewart Abner
Let's Work Together - Wilbert Harrison

MUSICIANS

Kenny Neal (Lead Guitar)
Bryan Bassett (Guitar)
Bryan Lancaster, Ernie Lancaster (Rhythm Guitar)
Bob "Rattlesnake" Greenlee (Bass), (Baritone Sax)
Red Simpson, Barry Rupp (Keyboards)
Jimmy Payne, Scott Corwin, Denny Best (Drums)
Noble "Thin Man" Watts (Trombone), (Tenor Sax)
Jon Paltishall (Trombone)
Bruce Staelens (Trumpet)
Raful Neal (Harmonica), (Vocals)

BIO

When he wasn't busy siring progeny (the Neal household produced ten kids, most of them seemingly now playing the blues), Raful Neal was staking his claim as one of the top harpists on the Baton Rouge blues front. Unfortunately, until recently, his discography didn't reflect that status — but albums for Alligator and Ichiban have righted that injustice. Born in Baton Rouge in 1936, Neal took up the harp at age 14, tutored by a local player named Ike Brown and influenced by Chicago mainstay Little Walter. Neal's first band, the Clouds, also included guitarist Buddy Guy. This was the band Little Walter heard while in Baton Rouge and invited them to move up to Chicago and fill in at the gigs Walter couldn't make. Guy jumped at the chance but Neal decided to stay in Louisiana and raise his family. The harpist debuted on vinyl in 1958 with a 45 for Don Robey's Houston-headquartered Peacock Records. But "Sunny Side of Love," fine though it was, didn't lead to an encore for Peacock or anywhere else until much later, when Neal turned up with 45s on Whit, La Louisiane, and Fantastic. Neal's debut album, the aptly titled Louisiana Legend, first emerged on Bob Greenlee's King Snake Records and was picked up by Alligator in 1990. I Been Mistreated, Neal's equally swampy follow-up, was released on Ichiban the following year; sons Noel (on bass) and Raful Jr. (on guitar) pitched in to help their old man out. Neal toured around the world and in 1997 he contributed harp to a couple of tracks on Tab Benoit's Live: Swampland Jam record. The understated but solid Old Friends appeared in 1998. After a long bout with cancer, Raful Neal died on September 1, 2004, after a long bout with cancer. © Bill Dahl © 2010 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifuxq95ld0e~T1

BIO (WIKIPEDIA)

Raful Neal (6 June, 1936 – September 1, 2004 was an American, Louisiana blues singer, harmonicist and songwriter. Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Neal took up the blues harp at age 14, tutored by a local player named Ike Brown and influenced by Little Walter. Neal's first band, the Clouds, also included the guitarist, Buddy Guy. Neal debuted on vinyl in 1958 with a single for Don Robey's Houston, Texas based Peacock Records. But "Sunny Side of Love" was not successful. Neal's debut album, Louisiana Legend, first emerged on King Snake Records and was picked up by Alligator Records in 1990. I Been Mistreated, Neal's follow-up, was released on Ichiban Records the following year. Neal toured around the world and in 1997 he contributed harp to a couple of tracks on Tab Benoit's Live: Swampland Jam record. Neal's next long-player, Old Friends, appeared in 1998. After a long bout with cancer, Neal died in Baton Rouge, in September 2004. Nine of his ten children are also blues musicians, and several performed with him on his later releases on the Alligator label.

Billy Peek

Billy Peek - Can a White Boy Play the Blues - 1986 - Rivertown Records

Billy Peek is an acclaimed bluesman that has been playing on and off for in the Saint Louis, Missouri area for over 50 years. He had a local hit, "Can A White Boy Play The Blues" recorded for Marlo. However, his main claim to fame is having played and toured extensively with Chuck Berry, and Rod Stewart. Before that, Billy fronted a band in the Gaslight Square in Saint Louis, Missouri with Bonnie Bramlett (Bonnie Lee). Billy played lead guitar, and recorded and toured with Rod Stewart for a few years. He played on five of Stewart's albums. You can hear some of his work on "The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998" album, and Stewart's "Blondes Have More Fun" album. Listen to Billy's guitar on Chuck Berry's "Concerto in B Goode" album. Obviously, Billy's stints with Chuck Berry, Rod Stewart, and others influenced his music, and CAWBPTB is a very much rock, blues, and soul influenced album. There is a great version of Ike Turner's "Prancin'" on the album, although all the cuts are good. Billy Peek is a good vocalist, and a top class guitar player, who has been underrated for a long time. Not unusual, considering he has mainly been a "bridesmaid" for the bigger guys. There is no questioning Billy Peek's talent. He is a great blues rock guitarist, with Grade A credentials. He penned six of the tracks on this album, and also covers songs by Sonny Boy Williamson, Don D. Robey & Joe Medwick, and as previously mentioned, Ike Turner. This is a very short album, but what's here is good. Some of Billy's best guitar work can be heard on Eric Carmen's "Tonight You're Mine" album. Promote this guy and buy his great "The Answer" album. N.B: Can anybody help out with a complete musicians credit list for this album?

TRACKS

1 Can A White Boy Play The Blues? (05:23)
2 Good Mornin' School Girl (03:18
3 Good Lovin' Baby (02:47)
4 Prancin' (02:40)
5 Peek-A-Boo Inn (02:56)
6 Farther Up The Road (02:52)
7 Bobbie Lolli-Bop (02:53)
8 Bad One Legged Lover (02:48)
9 Rock'N Roll Guitar Man (03:44)

Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, & 9 composed by Billy Peek: Track 2 composed by Sonny Boy Williamson: Track 4 composed by Ike Turner: Track 6 composed by By Don D. Robey & Joe Medwick Veasey

MUSICiANS [ Incomplete}

Billy Peek - Guitar, Vocals
Andy O' Connor - Drums, Percussion
Harry Simon - Saxophone

SHORT BIO

Billy Peek is one of St. Louis's greatest treasures, but his talent is truly a national music legend. He is more than an accomplished guitarist who has played with the best of them. He is an artist who gives a hard-driving combination of rock n' roll and rhythm n' blues. He is an elite member of Blues Royalty, and one of the finest rock and blues guitarists in the country. His repertoire includes 50's Chuck Berry and Ike and Tina Turner style rock and roll music along with Albert King, Elmore James and BB King style blues. An electrifying entertainer - Billy composes, performs and sings a wide variety of music with his own band which includes Dave Moreland on Bass guitar and Don Tieman on drums. He has toured with Chuck Berry and was the lead guitarist for over five years and four albums with Rod Stewart. His guitar work on such hit songs as "Hot Legs." "Blondes Have More Fun," "Passion," "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and "Born Loose" have been heard by millions of fans all over the world. Billy played throughout St. Louis in the "Gaslight Square" era and has always had a steady following of Swing and Imperial style dancers that can't get enough of that rhythm and blues. His first solo album is packed full of original Billy Peek music featuring such artists as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Legend Johnnie Johnson on piano. He is still getting enormous local attention and there's a reason. When he asks the title, "Can A White Boy Play The Blues?", the answer is a resounding "YES!" © KETC - © 2003-2009 MySpace. All Rights Reserved

Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets

Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets - Rack 'Em Up - 1989 - Black Top

Rack 'Em Up is a straightforward blues album that demonstrates Anson Funderburgh's affection for the Texas shuffle. Nobody on the album, whether it's Funderburgh or the Kamikaze Horns, overplays their hand and it delivers the goods efficiently although without flair. © Thom Owens, allmusic.com

Anson Funderburgh has played with artists of the calibre of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Snooks Eaglin, Delbert McClinton, Boz Scaggs, David Sanborn,and Earl King. "Rack 'Em Up" is another good album of Chicago, Texas and Delta blues from the great Texan guitarist and his band, the Rockets which have been called "one of the best live blues bands in existence" "Rack 'Em Up" includes the late blues vocalist, drummer, harpist and songwriter, Sam Myers from Laurel, Mississippi. Sam played with Anson and the Rockets for many years and was a vital part of the band's great sound. For a similar, but arguably stronger album, buy or listen to the Sam Myers, & Anson Funderburgh "Change in My Pocket" album

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Tell Me What Have I Done Wrong? - Brown
2 Since We've Been Together - Sam Myers, Anson Funderburgh
3 Rack 'em Up - Sam Myers, Anson Funderburgh
4 Mama and Papa - Earl King
5 20 Miles - Sam Myers, Anson Funderburgh
6 Hold That Train, Conductor - B.B. King, Jules Taub
7 I'm Your Professor - Ron Levy
8 I'll Keep on Trying - Eddie Bocage
9 All Your Love - Otis Rush
10 Are You Out There - Percy Mayfield
11 Lemonade - Sam Myers, Anson Funderburgh
12 Mean Streak - Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff

MUSICIANS

Anson Funderburgh - Guitar
Tater Britches - Rhythm Guitar
Mike Judge - Bass
Ron Levy - Organ
Matt McCabe - Piano
Marc Wilson - Drums
Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff - Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
Grady Gaines - Tenor Saxophone
John Selzer - Trumpet
Sam Myers - Harmonica, Vocals

ANSON FUNDERBURGH BIO

In recent years, Dallas-based guitarist Anson Funderburgh has taken his band the Rockets out of the clubs and onto the festival stages with his critically acclaimed recordings for the BlackTop label out of New Orleans. With Jackson, MS-native Sam Myers delivering the vocals and harmonica treatments, this band mixes up a powerful gumbo of Texas jump blues and Delta blues that can't be found anywhere else. Funderburgh & His Rockets are a particularly hard working band, performing across the U.S. and Europe nearly 300 nights a year. Funderburgh was born November 15, 1954, and got hooked on the blues when he got his first guitar at age seven or eight. His first musical experiences happened in the clubs in Dallas. He developed his team approach to blues music while learning from the likes of Freddie King, Jimmy Reed, and Albert Collins when these great bluesmen were passing through Dallas-area clubs, but Funderburgh had already taught himself guitar mostly from listening to classic blues records. He never had the chance to see Muddy Waters, but he did get to play with Lightnin' Hopkins in the late '70s. Funderburgh formed the Rockets in 1978, but didn't meet Sam Myers until 1982. Funderburgh recorded with the Fabulous Thunderbirds on their Butt Rockin' album, and went solo in 1981, when the New Orleans-based BlackTop label released Talk to You by Hand, the label's first release. Funderburgh added Myers on harmonica and lead vocals in 1986. Myers had traveled for years on the chitlin circuit, where he had the chance to accompany people like Elmore James and Robert Junior Lockwood. Funderburgh admits that adding Myers on vocals and harmonica was a turning point for the Rockets, partly because of the image they project from the stage, a big towering black man and three white guys backing him up. Funderburgh continued his association in the '90s with Black Top releasing Tell Me What I Want to Hear (1991), Live at Grand Emporium (1995), and That's What They Want (1997). After releasing nine albums on Black Top, in 1999 Funderburgh changed record labels with the release of Change in my Pocket for Bullseye Blues. At the beginning of the new millennium, Funderburgh is just coming into his prime by way of his songwriting talents, so his career deserves close watching in the coming years. The best is yet to come from this guitarist and bandleader. © Richard Skelly & Al Campbell, allmusic.com

Son Seals

Son Seals - Bad Axe - 1984 - Alligator

One of Son Seals's finest collections, studded with vicious performances ranging from covers of Eddie Vinson's "Person to Person" and Little Sonny's "Going Home (Where Women Got Meat on Their Bones)" to his own "Can't Stand to See Her Cry" and swaggering "Cold Blood." Top-drawer Windy City studio musicians lay down skin-tight grooves throughout. © Bill Dahl, allmusic.com

It was once said that "No one who hears Son Seals can say Eric Clapton is the king of the slide guitar". The late great Son Seals , born in Osceola, Arkansas in 1942, is now regarded as one of the grear bluesmen. "Bad Axe" may not be Son Seals' greatest album, but it highlights the man's great talents. A good blues album in the style of Albert King. Check out Son Seals' great "Midnight Son" album

TRACKS / COMPOSERS [Where known]

A1 Don't Pick Me For Your Fool - Dollison, Higgins
A2 Going Home (Where Women Got Meat On Their Bones) - Crutcher, Manuel
A3 Just About To Lose Your Clown - MacRae
A4 Friday Again - Seals
A5 Cold Blood - Seals

B1 Out Of My Way
B2 I Think You're Fooling Me
B3 I Can Count on My Blues
B4 Can't Stand To See Her Cry - Seals
B5 Person To Person - Elmore James

MUSICIANS

Vocals, Guitar - Son Seals
Guitar - Carl Johnson
Bass - Johnny B. Gayden, Nick Charles
Keyboards - Carl Snyder Jr., Sid Wingfield
Drums - Rick Howard, Willie Hayes
Harmonica - Billy Branch

REVIEW

As usual Son has changed his band. This time Sid Wingfield and Carl Snyder Jr takes care of the organ playing, Carlos Johnson plays second guitar on some of the tracks, Johnny B. Gayden and Nick Charles shares the bass job and Willie Hayes or Rick Howard plays the drums. If the former album were a mix between blues and soul, this album is a mix between blues and rock. Son have never sounded as tough as here. The guitar playing is monotonous and piercing. Son really hammers down his notes. Very, very aggressive playing straight through and the lyrics are very macho style tough too.
Don´t pick me for your fool (4.17)
An incredibly tough opening. A medium/slow shuffle with Son hitting his trademark licks with force. Don´t pick me for your fool, baby... Son sounds like he was in the mood to kill someone. Shucks.
Going home (where women got meat on their bones) (3.48)
The lyrics are traditional. Meat shaking on my Big leg woman, hmmm. It was a long time since I heard someone use this old time metaphor! But Son doesn´t sing like he is enjoying himself, "I´m going home where women got meat on their bones", he sounds like he´s bitter with the Chicago women...
Just about to lose your clown (3.10)
A heavy back beat, almost beautiful guitar and bitter lyrics makes this one my favorite song on this album. "You treat me just like dirt and you think it doesn´t hurt. You say I look funny every time you put me down, but you´re in for a big surprise. Honey, you´re just about to lose your clown."
Friday again (5.27)
A solid bass line and nice organ from Sid Wingfield sets the mood to this medium slow blues. Son sings of "Friday again" and everything he is going to do. Well, Son doesn´t seem to have high hopes for his Fridays. On Monday he have to be back on his job, the guys are going to steal his woman and the money are going to disappear. Hey Seals, where are your illusions? "Gentleman from the windy city" from Chicago Fire is another party description, but with a completely different attitude. Compare!
Cold Blood (4.00)
Some nice piano in the background (a long solo near the end) and Son´s solo is a little bit different than he usually plays. But this is just another semiquick shuffle. A typical filler.
Out of my way (4.32)
Whooa. The first licks reminds me of the eighties style of rock! Horrible! Fortunately the song turns into a standard blues with some nice turnarounds and stop breaks.
I think you´re fooling me (3.52)
This one also start like one of these awful rock songs. Brrr. But again, the song turns into something completely different. The beat is soulful and the lyrics are witty. A fun thing to listen too, not much to write home about...
I can count on my blues(6.07)
A ballad! A nice mix between soul, country and pure muzak! Son knows how to sing! At last something new in the Seals repertoire. I like this! Son even plays a soft and melodic solo
Can´t stand to see her cry (4.01)
After the ballad Son dives deep into the seventies blaxplotation sound. A cool guitar riff and you almost feel the Shaft atmosphere. Yes! I had forgot how this song sounded. Du du di, da dadat dapp! Funky without the seventies strings and congas...
Person to Person (3.08)
A straightforward take of this classic song. The N.O feeling is there. A nice ending to a good album. © Tommy Jansson, http://hem.fyristorg.com/bukka/bdn5.html#38



BIO

It all started with a phone call from Wesley Race, who was at the Flamingo Club on Chicago's South Side, to Alligator Records owner Bruce Iglauer. Race was raving about a new find, a young guitarist named Son Seals. He held the phone in the direction of the bandstand, so Iglauer could get an on-site report. It didn't take long for Iglauer to scramble into action. Alligator issued Seals' eponymous debut album in 1973, which was followed by six more. Son Seals was born Frank Seals on August 13, 1942 in Osceola, Arkansas. His dad operated a juke joint called the Dipsy Doodle Club in Osceola where Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, and Albert King cavorted upfront while little Frank listened intently in back. Drums were the youth's first instrument; he played them behind Nighthawk at age 13. But by the time he was 18, Son Seals turned his talents to guitar, fronting his own band in Little Rock. While visiting his sister in Chicago, he hooked up with Earl Hooker's Roadmasters in 1963 for a few months, and there was a 1966 stint with Albert King that sent him behind the drumkit once more. But with the death of his father in 1971, Seals returned to Chicago, this time for good. When Alligator signed him up, his days fronting a band at the Flamingo Club and the Expressway Lounge were numbered. Seals' jagged, uncompromising guitar riffs and gruff vocals were showcased very effectively on that 1973 debut set, which contained his "Your Love Is like a Cancer" and a raging instrumental called "Hot Sauce." Midnight Son, his 1976 encore, was by comparison a much slicker affair, with tight horns, funkier grooves, and a set list that included "Telephone Angel" and "On My Knees." Seals cut a live LP in 1978 at Wise Fools Pub; another studio concoction, Chicago Fire, in 1980, and a solid set in 1984, Bad Axe, before having a disagreement with Iglauer that that was patched up in 1991 with the release of his sixth Alligator set, Living in the Danger Zone. Nothing But the Truth followed in 1994, sporting some of the worst cover art in CD history, but a stinging lineup of songs inside. Another live disc, Spontaneous Combustion, was recorded at Buddy Guy's Legends club and released in June of 1996. Over the years, Seals had his share of hardship, bad deals, unemployment, and rip-offs that go on in the music business. However, his personal life took two devastating blows in the late '90s. On January 5, 1997, during a domestic dispute, Seals was shot in the jaw by his former spouse. He miraculously recovered and continued touring. Two years later he had his left leg amputated as a result of diabetes. What would have surely forced most performers into retirement only made Seals more dedicated to his music and audience. He came back in 2000, signing with Telarc Blues, and recorded Lettin' Go. Seals preferred to remain close to his Chicago home, holding his touring itinerary to an absolute minimum. Virtually every weekend he could be found somewhere on the Northside blues circuit, dishing up his raw-edged brand of bad blues axe to local followers. The blues ended for Son Seals on December 20, 2004; he passed away due to diabetes related complications. © Bill Dahl & Al Campbell, allmusic.com

Johnny B. Moore

Johnny B. Moore - Hard Times - 1987 - Blues R&B

Very few young Chicago bluesmen bring the depth and knowledge of tradition to the table that Johnny B. Moore does. His sound is a slightly contemporized version of what's been going down on the West side for decades, emblazoned with Moore's sparkling rhythmic lead guitar lines and growling vocals. Moore first met the legendary Jimmy Reed in Clarksdale, when he was only eight years old. By the time he was 13 or so, Moore was sharing a bandstand or two with Reed up in Chicago. Letha Jones, widow of piano great Johnny Jones, took an interest in Moore's musical development, spinning stacks of blues wax for the budding guitarist. Moore joined Koko Taylor's Blues Machine in 1975, touring and recording with the Chicago blues queen (on her 1978 LP for Alligator, The Earthshaker). He went out on his own around the turn of the '80s, waxing a fine 1987 album for B.L.U.E.S. R&B, Hard Times, that impressively spotlighted his versatility. After some rough spots, Moore is now more visible than ever on the Chicago circuit, with two new albums (one for Austrian Wolf, the other, Live at Blue Chicago, for Delmark). In addition to playing as a leader, Moore is likely to turn up on local stages as a sideman behind everyone from Mary Lane and Karen Carroll to rock-solid bassist Willie Kent. If Johnny B. Moore isn't a star in the making, there's no justice in the blues world. © Bill Dahl, All Music Guide

"Hard Times", was originally marketed by a local nightclub. It was lauded by the Down Home Guide to the Blues as a "fine debut album featuring some good originals along with some impressive updatings of a couple of songs from the 30s. The album is a first class blues album, played in the Chicago tradition of Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters. Real authentic Chicago blues. The sounds of Robert Nighthawk and Howlin' Wolf, are ingrained into Johnny B.'s style. There is even a touch of Elmore James' slide guitar style on this album. Johnny B. Moore does a great service on this album in preserving the great delta blues tradition. Buy his "Live at Blue Chicago" album, and listen to his great "911 Blues" album. For similar blues music, try and listen to the "Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall " album.

TRACKS

1 Hard Times
2 Fast Talkin' Fannie
3 Liquor Store Blues
4 Groove Thing
5 In The Closet
6 Whiskey Drinkin' Woman
7 Just Like That
8 Confusion
9 Don't Blame Shorty
10 Sacrifice
11 Trouble World

N.B: A.O.O.F.C would welcome any information concerning the musicians and song composers on this album. Sippi - Sorry I've not kept in touch. This is your area!

BIO (WIKIPEDIA)

Born Johnny Belle Moore on January 24, 1950, in Clarksdale, MS; son of Floyd Moore (a Baptist minister). Dropped out of school to work in a lamp factory, mid-1960s; performed evenings in bands of Jimmy Reed, Charles Spiers, and others, early 1970s; joined Koko Taylor's band, Blues Machine, 1975; formed own trio, 1975; toured widely with Taylor and with Willie Dixon, including five European tours; released solo debut, Hard Times, 1987; recorded for Delmark label (Chicago), and Wolf label (Vienna, Austria), 1990s; released album Live at Blue Chicago, 1996; released Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, 2001; appeared at Chicago Bluesfest, 2002. Blues music has both urban and rural aspects: born in the plantations and sharecroppers' fields of Mississippi, the music moved north to Chicago and other northern cities. In the music of some of its greatest practitioners, the blues have seemed to tell a tale of migration, of a displaced people coming to terms with a hard life in a new place. The music of Johnny B. Moore, a contemporary Chicago blues player, maintains strong links to the first-generation Chicago music of Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and their contemporaries, who came north from the Mississippi River Delta. When Moore performs, blues fans flock to Chicago clubs to hear music that sounds much like what might have been played in the 1960s in a blues bar on the South or West sides of the city. On January 24, 1950, Johnny Belle Moore was, as the title of one of his album releases proclaimed, born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, which is located squarely in the middle of the Mississippi Delta region. Moore's musical talent began to be noticed shortly after his Baptist minister father, Floyd Moore, began teaching him to play the guitar at age seven. The first piece he learned to play was John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen," and as a youngster he also admired and was influenced by the style of guitarist Magic Sam. Another early influence was gospel music: Moore performed in Clarksdale with the Spiritual Harmonism and Soul Revival gospel groups, and even after moving to Chicago he continued to perform church music with a group called the Gospel Keys. Moore followed his father north to Chicago in 1964, bringing the blues sounds of the Delta with him. He learned to read music while attending high school in Chicago. Another aspect of his musical education was a series of record-listening sessions with Letha Jones, the widow of blues pianist Johnny Jones. In the late 1960s Moore found work in a lamp factory, but he continued to play the blues after working hours. Sometimes he performed with Jimmy Reed, whom he had met in Clarksdale when he was eight years old, and he played with the Charles Spiers band and other groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Moore's transformation from factory worker to full-time blues musician became complete in 1975 when he became lead guitarist of the Blues Machine, the band of rough-voiced singer Koko Taylor. The job gave him the credibility to work smaller clubs as the headliner of a trio, but in the rough-and-tumble world of the blues, that wasn't always a good thing. Moore told Metromix.com writer Kevin McKeough that he had once played "in a place called the Domino Lounge over on Roosevelt and Western. It was owned by a man called Iron Joe, he got killed in that place the same night we was working there." Things brightened a bit when Moore began to record with Taylor, and his lead guitar style can be heard on her 1978 album The Earthshaker. Touring with Taylor and later with guitarist Willie Dixon, Moore began to play in safer environments. He went on three European tours with Taylor and two with Dixon, in whose band he served until Dixon's death in 1992. Back in Chicago, Moore welcomed the more sedate atmosphere he found in the city's blues clubs. "It's much better, the people appreciate you more," he told McKeough. "Back then, they didn't have any respect for you, they'd get to fighting and knock your stuff over. Just to get those few dollars, that's what I'd have to do." As an increasingly identifiable fixture on the Chicago blues scene, Moore appeared on his own more and more often. His first album, Hard Times, appeared in 1987 on the B.L.U.E.S. label marketed by a local nightclub; it was praised by the Down Home Guide to the Blues as a "fine debut album featuring some good originals along with some impressive updatings of a couple of songs from the 30s." Both on recordings and in his live performances, Moore drew on a songbag filled during his early years with unusual and fascinating items from the pre-Chicago years of the blues. In the 1990s Moore recorded five more albums of his own and appeared on several compilations including: Johnny B. Moore (1996), Live at Blue Chicago (1996), and Troubled World (1997) for Chicago's Delmark label, and 911 Blues (1997) and Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi (2001) for the Wolf label in Austria. Reviewers praised Moore's stylistic versatility and his ability to evoke the Delta sound in an electric context. "Moore clearly knows what the blues is about," wrote Guitar Player of Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, "and he could easily teach upcoming blues wunderkinds a lesson or two about feel." European blues historian Gérard Herzhaft concurred, noting that "[Moore's] albums reflect a strong Delta flavor that is refreshing in the present blues scene, dominated by rock or funk overtones." Some critics have found Moore's live performances wooden in comparison with those of flashy musicians such as Buddy Guy. The website Lycos.com complained that Moore "conducts himself with undue restraint," and the Chicago Reader, while praising Moore's "dexterity, imagination, and taste" on the guitar, commented that "his singing ... is stiff, and so is his stage presence, which explains why he's never transcended journeyman status despite his stellar chops." The Live at Blue Chicago album, recorded in a club basement, featured Moore in largely acoustic or lightly amplified arrangements of classic blues pieces and Moore originals, but even in a fully electric setting the Delta flavor of Moore's playing was clearly evident. He often used a bottleneck in his guitar improvisations, and his guitar playing was filled with evocations of Mississippi and Chicago blues masters such as Dixon, Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, and others. Moore's solo activities in the early 2000s included an appearance at the Chicago Bluesfest in 2002 and numerous appearances on albums by other blues artists. "If Johnny B. Moore isn't a star in the making," argued the All Music Guide's Bill Dahl, "there's no justice in the world." Moore's progress to the top levels of the blues world has been gradual, but aficionados already know that by listening closely to his performances and recordings they can peel back and examine many of the layers that the blues have accumulated since the music was born.

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Power Of The Blues - 1987 - Charly

Legendary British blues artist John Mayall has always been an eclectic blues artist because of his tendency to incorporate jazz and folk elements into his music. This in-concert set from 1987 is a successful attempt by Mayall to contemporize the electric Chicago blues style. Mayall and his band, including the great guitarists, Walter Trout and Coco Montoya cover tunes by great artists including Sonny Boy Williamson, and Otis Rush. The 11-minute "Room to Move," with Mayall on harmonica, is a standout track. Over the years Mayall has swung his musical output between acoustic and electric, and although much of his less blues orientated material remains very much in demand, it's a great change to hear the man get back to basics, and play some authentic blues standards. This album was recorded live in Frankfurt, Bonn, and Munster, Germany between 19th, and 21st April 1987. The UK magazine series The Blues Collection No.8 includes a CD with the same tracks as The Power of the Blues. The album has also been released on other labels with different sleeve/CD covers. However, the track list is the same on most of them. Listen to the brilliant John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers 1967 "Crusade" album, and John's equally brilliant 1968 "Blues from Laurel Canyon" album. British blues doesn't come much better than the two aforementioned albums.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Ridin' On The L&M - Burley/Hampton
2 Help Me - Williamson/Bass
3 Racehorse Man - Mayall
4 All Your Love - Rush
5 I Ain't Got You - Arnold
6 Wild About You - Mayall
7 It Ain't Right - Jacobs
8 Room To Move - Mayall

MUSICIANS

John Mayall - Mouth Harp, Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
Coco Montoya - Guitar, Vocals
Walter Trout - Guitar, Vocals
Bobby Haynes - Bass
Joe Yuele - Drums



BIO (Wikipedia)

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and '67 then dropped it for some fifteen years, but in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and it has been kept since then. The name has become generic without a clear distinction which recordings are to be credited just to the leader or to leader and his band. The Bluesbreakers have included luminaries such as: Eric Clapton (April–August 1965, November 1965–July 1966 and Jack Bruce, who both left to form Cream, Peter Green, who had replaced Clapton, played until August 1967, when he departed with Mick Fleetwood and then also enticed Bluesbreaker John McVie a few weeks later to form Fleetwood Mac, Mick Taylor (August 1967–July 1969) who later joined The Rolling Stones, and reunion tours in 1982–83 and 2004, Harvey Mandel, Walter Trout, Larry Taylor (later in Canned Heat), Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Randy Resnick, Aynsley Dunbar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser (Free), Chris Mercer, Henry Lowther, Johnny Almond and Jon Mark (later of Mark-Almond). The Bluesbreakers were formed in January 1963 and became an ever-evolving lineup of more than 100 different combinations of musicians performing under that name. Eric Clapton joined in 1965 just a few months after the release of their first album. Clapton brought the blues influences to the forefront of the group, as he had left The Yardbirds in order to play the blues. The group lost their record contract with Decca that year, which also saw the release of a single called "I'm Your Witchdoctor" (produced by Jimmy Page), followed by a return to Decca in 1966. The album Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (also known as The Beano Album because Clapton is shown on the cover photo reading a copy of the comic) was released later that year; it reached the Top Ten in the UK. Clapton and Jack Bruce left the group that year to form Cream. Clapton was replaced by Peter Green for A Hard Road, after which he left to form Fleetwood Mac. Finally, in 1969, the third Bluesbreaker-guitarist departed when Mick Taylor joined the Rolling Stones. By the time the 1960s were over, the Bluesbreakers had finally achieved some success in the United States. With some interruptions, the Bluesbreakers have continued to tour and release albums (over 50 to date), though they never achieved the critical or popular acclaim of their earlier material. In 2003, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Chris Barber reunited with the band for John Mayall's 70th Birthday Concert in Liverpool — the concert was later released on CD and DVD. In 2004, their line up included Buddy Whittington, Joe Yuele, Hank Van Sickle and Tom Canning, and the band toured the UK with Mick Taylor as a guest musician. In November 2008 Mayall announced on his website he was disbanding the Bluesbreakers to cut back on his heavy workload and give himself freedom to work with other musicians. A 2009 tour with Rocky Athos (formerly of Black Oak Arkansas) is currently advertised.

The Blues Band

The Blues Band - Ready - 1980 - Baton Productions Ltd. (Sweden)

In 1979 Paul Jones, ex UK band Manfred Mann, was working as an actor in London’s West End , and playing a few harmonica sessions as a day job.. He missed playing the Blues, and contacted his old Manfred Mann buddy, Tom McGuinness, with the idea of forming a part-time blues band that could gig around London’s pubs for fun and some badly needed spare cash. Jones and McGuinness also managed to get drummer, Hughie Flint who had played with John Mayall. Tom McGuinness and Hughie Flint had been mainstays of McGuinness Flint, the popular seventies British rock band. Dave Kelly, a good vocalist, and bottleneck guitar player with The John Dummer Blues Band was at a loose end at the time, and joined the band with bass player, Gary Fletcher, a friend of Dave Kelly, who incidentally was the brother of the amazing blues singer, Jo Ann Kelly. The Blues Band are still playing the occasional gig today. They are a bunch of very experienced musicians who have undergone numerous personnel changes, and still play the blues with the best of them. This is a great album, with some well written songs by Paul Jones and Stonebridge/McGuinness, along with other great British songsters/players, but there are also some great covers of songs by Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Ray Charles. Speaking of Ray Charles, it is worth buying The Blues Band's great tribute album to the genius of soul, " Thank You Brother Ray" and try and listen to the band's great "Live at the BBC" album.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

A1 Twenty Nine Ways - Willie Dixon
A2 Find Yourself Another Fool - Stonebridge/McGuinness
A3 Noah Lewis Blues - Paul Jones
A4 Hallelujah I Love Her So - Ray Charles
Piano - Geraint Watkins
A5 Treat Her Right - Roy Head
A6 Lonely Avenue - Doc Pomus
Backing Vocals - Paulettes, The

B1 I'm Ready - McKinley Morganfield
B2 Green Stuff - Gary Fletcher
B3 Hey Hey Little Girl - Stonebridge/McGuinness
B4 Can't Hold On - Paul Jones
B5 Sus Blues - Dave Kelly
B6 The Cat - The Blues Band

N.B: There are various issues of this album. Some Arista editions of the album replace Track A5 "Treat Her Right" with "Maggie's Farm" . The album has also been included on a 2 CD set (Two LP's on 2 CD's) called "Blues Band Bootleg/Ready" with 14 tracks. The album posted here is the 1980 Swedish LP version on the Baton Productions Ltd label

BAND

Paul Jones - vocals, harmonica
Dave Kelly - vocals, slide guitar
Gary Fletcher - bass, background vocals
Hughie Flint - drums, percussion
Tom McGuinness - guitar, background vocals
Ian Stewart - piano

BIO (Wikipedia)

The Blues Band were formed in Britain in 1979 by Paul Jones, former lead vocalist and harmonica player with Manfred Mann in the 1960s, and vocalist/slide guitarist Dave Kelly, who had formerly played with the John Dummer Blues Band, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker among others. Also in the band’s first line-up were bassist Gary Fletcher, Jones’s former Manfred Mann colleague, guitarist Tom McGuinness, and drummer Hughie Flint, the two latter having been the mainstay of McGuinness Flint. They originally got together just for fun, but in the process stayed together far longer than any of their previous groups had ever managed to do. Their first album, The Official Blues Band Bootleg Album, a mixture of blues standards and original songs – notably the Jones-McGuinness composition "Come On In", and their long-standing stage favourite "Flatfoot Sam" - initially attracted no interest from major record companies, so they pressed a limited run of 3,000 themselves, hand-stamped their logo on the cardboard sleeve, and signed them all. After unqualified endorsement from BBC Radio 1 presenter Simon Bates and others, media interest resulted in a recording contract with Arista Records, who gave the album an official release. In 1982 Flint left, and was replaced by former Family drummer Rob Townsend. They briefly disbanded later that year after recording a live album, Bye Bye Blues, released in 1983, but reformed soon afterwards. They have remained a constant factor on the music scene ever since, unfazed by lack of chart success (after the first few years, as demonstrated below), happy to combine a regular schedule of touring and recording around their other commitments. More recent albums include Back For More, Homage, Brassed Up, Wire Less, Fat City, and Thank You Brother Ray, the last being a set of cover versions of Ray Charles songs, recorded as a tribute. Jones, McGuinness and Townsend are also members of The Manfreds, a virtual reincarnation of Manfred Mann, though because of the non-participation of the eponymous keyboard player of the 1960s outfit, legal reasons and courtesies require them to assume the name 'Manfreds'. Jones and Kelly sometimes play gigs as a duo, and Kelly performs with The Dave Kelly Band (generally The Blues Band without Jones). As the band themselves often joke, "The music industry doesn’t bother us and we don’t bother them."

SHORT BIO

England's the Blues Band is led by ex-Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones and guitarist/vocalist Dave Kelly, who, before forming the group in 1979, had been a member of the John Dummer Blues Band and issued several solo recordings on his own (Kelly had also received praise for his playing by such blues legends as Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker). After hooking up with friend/bassist Gary Fletcher, the seeds for the Blues Band were sown, resulting in countless albums (including such titles as 1980's Official Bootleg Album and Ready, 1981's Itchy Feet, 1982's Brand Loyalty which featured new member ex-Family drummer Rob Townsend, 1983's Bye Bye Blues, 1986's These Kind of Blues, 1989's Back for More, 1991's Fat City, 1993's Homage, and 1995's Wire Less, among others). In addition, Kelly formed the Dave Kelly Band in the mid-'80s (issuing four albums), penned music for commercials and such projects as BBC TV's King of the Ghetto and The Comic Strip Presents Strike!, has been voted Best Acoustic Artist by BBC polls throughout the '90s, and is an honorary patron of the London Guitar College with Hank Marvin. © Greg Prato, All Music Guide

Rory Gallagher

Rory Gallagher - Acoustic Capital Radio [Richard Diquance Show 18/3/80] - unofficial

In 1972 , the influential Melody Maker music mag voted the late, great Irish Bluesmaster, Rory Gallagher Top Musician of the Year, upstaging guitar giants like Eric Clapton. His album Live in Europe has been a huge seller worldwide. Regarded as one of the most influential guitarists of all time, many of today's top musicians, including Brian May of Queen admit that Rory inspired them in their formative careers. It is also a fact that the Rolling Stones auditioned Rory among a number of other guitarists for the band in the 1970s. Rory never bowed to the big record industry moguls and commercialism. He always "did his own thing" and played the blues in a way that nobody else could match. His soft Irish accent was unusually, a perfect contrast to his mindblowing guitar playing. Rory was "Ard Rí na hÉireann" of the blues, and his Fender Strat was his "Bana-Ard-ri." He is without doubt, the greatest Irish rock guitarist of all time, and will never be forgotten. This particular album is a rare eighties radio recording of Rory. The seven tracks were recorded for the Richard Diquance Show on 18/3/80 for Capital Radio, London, U.K. Rory plays six blues standards and his own great "Going To My Hometown " composition, to a small but appreciative audience. This recording is 28 years old, but it's a 320 bit version, and the sound quality is very acceptable. This recording has been released on at least three different boots, all with the wrong track listing or sequence which is corrected here. There is info on Rory's "Powerful And Velvet" album @ RG/PV and his "Live At The Cork Opera House 1987" album @ RG/COH Buy his "Big Guns" album which is a good compilation of many of Rory's best tracks, and you should listen to his "Live In Europe" album. Check out the great man's detailed biography @ RORRYG/BIO/WIKI

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

01.As The Crow Files (White) 3.48
02.Nothin´ But The Devi l(Skim) 3.16
03.Out On The Western Plain (Leadbelly, Arr. R.Gallagher) 4.05
04.Banker´s Blues (Broonzy) 2.44
05.Too Much Alcohol (Hutto) 3.48
06.Pistol Slapper Blues (Fuller) 3.04
07.Going To My Hometown (Gallagher) 4.22

Amiga Blues Band

Amiga Blues Band - Not Fade Away - 1983 - Amiga

This album is a little piece of music history, because the "Amiga Blues Band" never really existed! The members of this "band" were members of other GDR blues and rock bands. The group was founded as a cover band and made this one great successful album. At the time of this release, the Amiga Blues Band were regarded as one of the best "blues bands" in the GDR. See bottom of page for info on blues music behind the "Iron Curtain." This is a 320 vinyl rip, but absolutely well worth listening to!

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

A1.Walkin By Myself - Jimmy Rogers
A2.Ramblin' On My Mind - Robert Johnson
A3.Crossroad Blues - Robert Johnson
A4.Help Me - Sonny Boy Williamson

B1.I Believe I'll Dust My Broom - Robert Johnson
Saxophone [Alto] - Helmut Forsthoff
Trumpet - Claus-Dieter Knispel , Dagobert Darsow
B2.Maggie's Farm - Bob Dylan
Percussion - Norbert Jäger
B3.Little Red Rooster - Willie Dixon
B4.Hoochie Coochie Man - Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters
B5.Not Fade Away - Hardin/Petty

BAND

Bass - Georgi Gogow
Drums - Herbert Junck
Guitar - Michael Lincke , Peter Gläser
Harmonica - Frank Gahler
Organ - Gerhard Laartz
Piano - Wolfram Bodag

ABOUT AMIGA RECORDS [ Extract from article by Otto, www.harpl.com/2002104477.html ]

AMIGA was the name of the record label in the GDR that released a lot of Blues records (for instance: Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, SonnyTerry and Brownie McGee, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Mayall, Lonnie Johnson...). there were also many Blues-musicians in the GDR, who made records and could sell them without beeing illegal like Stefan Diestelmann Blues Band or the AMIGA-Blues Band. Another source for records were the other eastern countries like Poland, CSSR, Hungary where you could buy licensed records. And in the Intershops in the GDR you had the chance to buy even the original records from the western, capitalistic world, but this was much expensive. Why should Blues have been illegal in the GDR? Like Jazz (Louis Armstrong toured in the GDR already in the fifties) the Blues has been considered as the original music and the voice of the oppressed black people in America, before it was captured by the capitalistic music industry. What more could the ideologists want? Most people in the GDR had the chance to receive TV- and radio-stations from west-germany, therefore they knew the music very well, be it Blues, Jazz, Rock, Punk or what else. The iron curtain wasn't so strong as some people may think.

Valerie Wellington

Valerie Wellington - Million Dollar $ecret - 1984 - Rooster Blues

"Valerie Wellington came onto the blues scene relatively late," said harmonicist Billy Branch, a longtime friend of Ms. Wellington's. "But she accomplished a lot in a short period of time. She developed not just a love for it {blues}, but a general resp0ect for it." Ms. Wellington performed regularly in such local clubs as Kingston Mines, Rosa's, Artis' and Blues Chicago. She recorded three albums on the Chicago B.L.U.E.S. and Alligator labels. She also appeared in several films and documentaries, including "Survivors," a 1984 tribute to the late blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield with Bob Dylan, Dr. John and other artists, and "Great Balls of Fire," a 1989 movie on Jerry Lee Lewis' life starring Dennis Quaid, in which she portrayed 1950s blues singer Big Mabell. "Million Dollar $ecret! is a great rockin' "straight-from-the-heart" blues album fron the late Valerie Wellington. This great blues singer was influenced by blues greats like Bessie Smith, Ray Charles, Ma Rainey, and Koko Taylor. She released an album in 1991, "Life in the Big City," but it was nowhere near the standard of "Million Dollar $ecret." Had she lived, there is no doubt that she would have become one of the great blues singers. Read the LP sleeve notes for more detailed info on Valerie Wellington, and for music in a similar vein, check out Koko Taylor's brilliant "Deluxe Edition" album @ KOKOT/DEE

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

Down in the Dumps - Lana Wilson, Wesley Wilson
Million Dollar Secret - Helen Humes, Jules Taub
Independent Blues - Valerie Wellington
Cold, Cold Feeling - Jessie Mae Robinson
Smokestack Lightning - Howlin' Wolf
Dirty No-Gooder's Blues - Bessie Smith
My Baby Treats Me Like a Stepchild - Valerie Wellington
You Can't Have My Monkey - Valerie Wellington
Bad Avenue - Walter Williams
Love Don't Love Nobody - Roy Brown
Wild About You - Elmore James, Joe Josea [Bonus Track on 1995 CD Re-Issue]
Voodoo Blues - Valerie Wellington [Bonus Track on 1995 CD Re-Issue]

MUSICIANS

Valerie Wellington (Piano), (Vocals)
Nate Applewhite (Drums)
Casey Jones (Drums), (Vocals)
John Littlejohn (Slide Guitar)
Magic Slim (Guitar), (Vocals)
John Primer (Guitar), (Vocals)
Aron Burton (Bass), (Vocals)
Nick Holt (Bass)
Billy Branch (Harmonica)
Sunnyland Slim (Piano)

REVIEWS

Wellington is a powerful yet subtle vocalist, backed by some of the best Chicago blues players, including Sunnyland Slim, Billy Branch, Casey Jones, and Magic Slim & the Teardrops. The CD reissue contains two bonus tracks. © Niles J. Frantz, All Music Guide

SHORT BIO

Valerie Wellington took the Chicago blues scene by surprise in 1982, perhaps not forgoing her classical training as an opera singer as much as using it to enhance her work in the blues. As a blueswoman she fit right in, not only becoming a regular in the blues clubs but also compiling an impressive theatrical resume for her portrayals of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith -- women who, like opera singers, learned to project their voices without microphones. The influence of Koko Taylor was also evident in Wellington's blues approach, which combined classic vaudeville-era blues with hard-driving Chicago sounds. Her power-packed voice was heard on only a few record releases but was featured frequently in TV and radio commercials. Valerie Wellington was only 33 years old when she died of a brain aneurysm. © Jim O'Neal, All Music Guide