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I started a quest to find terrific blues music and incredible musicianship when I was just a little kid. I also have a tremendous appreciation of fine musical instruments and equipment. One of my greatest joys all of my life was sharing my finds with my friends. I'm now publishing my journey. I hope that you come along!


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Sunday, May 8, 2011

Blue Light Boogie - King Biscuit Boy


Sorry but this is the best I could find. You have got to check out the old King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar albums. They are terrific! Can't find video.

King Biscuit Boy was the stage name of Richard Alfred Newell (March 9, 1944, Hamilton, Ontario - January 5, 2003, Hamilton, Ontario) a Canadian blues musician.

Newell played guitar and sang, but was most noted for his harmonica playing. His stage name was taken from the King Biscuit Flour Hour, an early American blues broadcast. He was given the name by Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins, a pioneering rock and roll musician, while he was part of Hawkins' back-up band.

Newell reportedly started his career by stealing his first harmonica (Marine Band, key of B) from a joke shop near his home on Hamilton Mountain, Hamilton, Ontario.

Newell played with The Barons (later renamed Son Richard and the Chessmen) from 1961 to 1965, followed by a stint with The Midknights and in the summer of 1969 helped to form And Many Others, which was Ronnie Hawkins' backing band at that time. After one LP and several US appearances, Hawkins fired the entire band in early 1970, upon which the members, including Newell, formed themselves into their own band, which they named Crowbar. Newell recorded an album with Crowbar, then embarked on a solo career, although he played with Crowbar off and on throughout his career.

After leaving Crowbar, he signed a major American deal with Paramount/Epic. Seven solo albums followed, along with two Juno nominations (the Juno Awards are the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. Grammy Awards).

Newell released his last album in early 2003 at Race Records, an independent record label in Hamilton, Ontario. It was a collaboration with sax player Sonny Del-Rio (a former Crowbar bandmate and long-standing friend) entitled Two Hound Blues. The album is a combination of six lost tracks from the 1981 King Biscuit Boy album, Biscuits 'n' Gravy and the 1991 Sonny Del-Rio effort, 40 Years of Rock & Roll and All I Got's the Blues, which was recorded in 2002.

He was the first Canadian blues artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., plus Rolling Stone called him "legendary".

King Biscuit Boy has played with artists like Muddy Waters, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, and his fans include Keith Richards and Paul McCartney.

As testimony to the respect that Richard Newell's playing was accorded a former King Biscuit Boy roadie recounts that Duane Allman invited the Biscuit to play harp and bottleneck slide with the Allman Brothers Band when Allman first formed it. Richie declined because he did not want to be part of an endlessly touring band.

In an interesting sidenote, although Newell was a hardcore bluesman, Blake 'Kelly Jay' Fordham (a former Crowbar bandmate and friend) recalls that Newell had a soft spot in his heart for 1950s doo-wop music. "We'd do a medley, four chords in F, and see how many songs we could fit into it; stuff by Johnnie & Joe -- Over the Mountain -- and You Belong to Me, or Talk to Me, by Little Willie John. Each week we'd try to best ourselves, see who could come up with more. He would always find the most obscure stuff."

Newell preferred Hohner Special 20 (diatonic) harmonicas, and was using a Danelectro amplifier late in his career. He very rarely played a chromatic, either on stage or in the studio, but was excellent on it, as per the chromatic solo track, Necromonica, on his Mouth of Steel recording.
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