Bman's Blues Report

Shuggie Otis (born Johnny Alexander Veliotes, Jr.; November 30, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and multi-instrumentalist. Otis' composition "Strawberry Letter 23" (as recorded by The Brothers Johnson) topped the Billboard R&B chart and reached #5 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1977. He also achieved commercial success with his 1974 single "Inspiration Information" (from the album of the same name), reaching #56 on the R&B chart Born in Los Angeles, California, Otis is the son of rhythm and blues pioneer, musician, bandleader, and impresario Johnny Otis and wife Phyllis. The name "Shuggie" (short for "sugar", according to his mother) was coined by Phyllis when he was a newborn. Otis began playing guitar when he was two years old and performing professionally with his father's band at the age of twelve, often disguising himself with dark glasses and a false mustache so that he could play with his fa...

Robert Lee McCollum (30 November 1909–5 November 1967) was an American bluesman who played and recorded under the names Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. Born in Helena, Arkansas, he left home at an early age to become a busking musician, and after a period wandering through southern Mississippi settled for a time in Memphis, Tennessee. There he played with local orchestras and musicians, such as the Memphis Jug Band. A particular influence was Houston Stackhouse, from whom he learnt to play slide guitar, and with whom he appeared on the radio in Jackson, Mississippi. After further travels through Mississippi, he found it advisable to take his mother’s name, and as Robert Lee McCoy he moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Local musicians with whom he played included Henry Townsend, Big Joe Williams, and Sonny Boy Williamson. This led to two recording dates in 1937, the four musicians recording together at the Victor Records studio in Aurora, Illinois, as well as recordings under his ...

Mike Morgan (born November 30, 1959, Dallas, Texas) is an American Texas and electric blues musician. He has released thirteen albums to date, on various record labels including Rounder, Black Top and Severn Records. The majority of his releases have featured his long standing backing band, The Crawl. Morgan has played alongside Darrell Nulisch, Lee McBee, Gary Primich, and Randy McAllister. Morgan was born in Dallas, but grew up in Hillsboro, Texas. He received his first guitar at an early age, and initially concentrated on playing rock music. In 1985 he converted to blues and blues-rock, before relocating back to Dallas in 1986. There he met Darrell Nulisch, who both were founding members of The Crawl. The group was named for a Lonnie Brooks song. Mike Morgan and the Crawl earned a reputation playing around Dallas and the Fort Worth area, before Nulisch left them in 1989, to be replaced by the singer and harmonica player, Lee McBee. Following a performance at the New Orleans Jazz...

Walter Brown ("Brownie") McGhee (November 30, 1915 - February 16, 1996) was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry Brownie McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. As a child he had polio, which incapacitated his leg. His brother Granville "Sticks" or "Stick" McGhee was nicknamed for pushing young Brownie around in a cart. His father, George McGhee, was a factory worker known around University Avenue for playing guitar and singing. Brownie's uncle made him a guitar from a tin marshmallow box and a piece of board. McGhee spent much of his youth immersed in music, singing with local harmony group the Golden Voices Gospel Quartet and teaching himself to play guitar. A March of Dimes-funded leg operation enabled McGhee to walk. At age 22, Brownie McGhee became a traveling musician, working in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and befriending Blind Boy Fu...

Everyone knows that TYA is on of my all tile favorite blues rock bands and Alvin Lee one of my favorite all time contemporary guitar players but then there's Leo who's off the charts! Leo Lyons (born David William Lyons, 30 November 1943) is an English rock musician, who was also the bassist of the British late 1960s to 1970s rock group Ten Years After. Lyons was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. He first played with lead guitarist Alvin Lee in The Jaybirds. In 1967 there was a name change to Ten Years After. With this group, Lyons played at major rock festivals including Woodstock in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival on 29 August 1970. Ten Years After disbanded in 1976, although they later reformed several times in the 1980s and 1990s with all original members. In 1975, he was hired as a studio manager by Chrysalis Records to re-equip and run Wessex Studios in London. He then produced UFO from 1974 to 1976. Later he started two commercial recording studios h...

I just received a new self titled release from The Blues Overdrive , on of Denmark's most talented blues bands. The release is made up of 10 original tracks and one never released track by JJ Cale. The opening track, Death On The Highway, is a jazzy boogie style track with head boppin' guitar riffs. Out In The Country has a lot of the musical characteristics of a Jim Morrison composition. Dual lead guitar players Martin Olsen and Andreas Andersen share the space rather than vying for it. I Was Wron g is a really uptempo shuffle track and gives the band great opportunities to riff away. bassist Thomas Birck and Drummer Lars Heiberg lay down a solid bottom for strong lead guitar slinging. Ball and Chain is a stripped down slow blues very reminiscent of early British blues including vibrato enhanced guitar effects over a solitary vocal track and chorded rhythm guitar with simple guitar leads. I really like this track. Puts me in mind of some of the early creative work by Kim ...

Gift Yourself! Get a Free Record Club Membership! With the Holiday Season upon us, we're excited to offer Music Maker members the opportunity to spread the love and earn a special reward for encouraging friends to become Music Maker members! When your friends are making their gift through our online store, make sure they designate your name in the COMMENTS section of the order form . Once three new members designate that you referred them, receive either (1) FREE enrollment in our Givin' It Back Record Club or (1) Flash drive loaded with the past year's new releases, with our thanks! So, spread the word and gift yourself! We thank you so much for all your support! Listen:  Willa Mae Buckner-   Peter Rumpkin Meet our interns from abroad! Raphael and Simon came from Toulouse, France to intern with Music Maker for nine months; their university requires that students int...

Joe Kubek was raised in Irving, Texas, and while still a teenager was playing guitar in the band of the original Texas Cannonball, Freddie King. Kubek went on to forge his aggressive guitar style fronting his own band, and backing many legendary blues artists throughout the '70s and '80s, including Al "TNT" Braggs, Little Joe Blue, and others. Influenced by the hard-rocking blues of the '60s and '70s, Kubek's guitar playing smolders with the same fire that burned in the styles of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Johnny Winter, earning him the well-deserved nickname "Smokin' Joe." If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Luther Ingram (November 30, 1937 – March 19, 2007) was an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter. His most successful record, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", reached no. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and no. 3 on the Hot 100 in 1972. Born Luther Thomas Ingram in Jackson, Tennessee, his early interest in music led to him making his first record in 1965 at the age of 28. His first three recordings failed to chart but that changed when he signed for KoKo Records in the late 1960s, and his first hit "My Honey And Me" peaked at #55 on the Hot 100 on 14 February 1970. Many of his songs appeared in the pop and R&B charts, even though Koko was only a small label, owned by his manager and record producer, Johnny Baylor. Koko and Baylor were closely associated with the Memphis based Stax Records label during the height of its commercial success. Ingram is best known for the hit, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be...

Shorty moved to Chicago in 1969 at the age of 18. He started gigging on bass with Homesick James, Eddie Clearwater and Kansas City Red. He's also backed up Little Johnny Taylor and Jimmy Reed. But by far the biggest feather in his cap is when Shorty was asked to join Howlin Wolf's band by the Wolf himself in 1974. He held that position until 1976 when the Wolf passed away. After that he joined Eddie Shaw's Wolfgang who he's played with for over 35 years, touring all over the world. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

J. J. Barnes (born James Jay Barnes, November 30, 1943, Detroit, Michigan) is an American R&B singer. He first recorded in 1960. His early releases including "Just One More Time" and "Please Let Me In", on the record labels Mickay and Ric-Tic, had relatively little success, but were subsequently picked up as Northern soul favorites. He also covered The Beatles' "Day Tripper"”, before moving for a short period to Motown. His biggest hit single came in 1967 with "Baby Please Come Back Home", which, like many of his records, he co-wrote. The song reached #9 on the US Billboard R&B chart. However, subsequent singles on a variety of labels, including covers of "Black Ivory" at Today/Perception Records, failed to repeat the success. On the recommendation of his friend, Edwin Starr moved to England in the 1970s becoming very popular. Starr had arranged for Barnes to appear on a series of shows which led to him signing a deal ...

John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band which has included Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Harvey Mandel, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar, Hughie Flint, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser, Dave Navarro, Johnny Almond, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya and Buddy Whittington. Mayall's father was Murray Mayall, a guitarist and jazz music enthusiast. From an early age, John was drawn to the sounds of American blues players such as Leadbelly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith, and Eddie Lang, and taught himself to play the piano, guitars, and harmonica. Mayall spent three years in Korea for national service and, during a period of leave, he bought his first electric guitar. Back in Manchester, he enrolled at Manches...

Duke Levine (born November 29, 1961 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an American guitarist known primarily for his rock and country music playing as a session musician. He has recorded and performed with Shawn Colvin, Peter Wolf, Lucy Kaplansky, Bill Morrissey, Jonatha Brooke, John Gorka, Jeanie Stahl, Ellis Paul, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Slaid Cleaves and many others. Since 2011 he has been touring guitarist for The J Geils Band. He frequently performs live with The Duke Levine Band and Slaid Cleaves. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

One of the acid jazz movement's most prominent guitarists, London-born Ronny Jordan is widely credited with returning the instrument to its rightful place as a major force in modern-day jazz; despite outcries from purists, few other artists of his era proved more pivotal in knocking down the long-immutable boundaries of contemporary black music. The son of a preacher, Jordan's early musical history was rooted in gospel; his first public performances were with gospel groups, but the outbreak of Brit-funk during the early '80s led him to begin exploring other avenues of music, culminating in a fascination with jazz. A self-taught guitarist, his early influences included Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, and Grant Green, and when hip-hop began to take off, Jordan started exploring ways to fuse jazz and rap together. The first fruit of his endeavors was the single "After Hours," a primitive foray into what would eventually become known as acid jazz. Record compani...

I just received a new recording, The Amoeba Collective , that is quite out of the box. Songwriters Tippy Agogo and Bill Bourne complimented by Madagascar Slim on guitar and Michelle Josef on drums have put together something new. The first track, Yo Mojo , is a loose jam track with a funky slack beat and a twist of reggae creating a unique sound. I like it. Mud Bears Park is a modern interpretation of an 8 bar blues...say Canned Heat but with extraneous guitar soloing during the melody as opposed to after ... it is self defined and interesting. Marketplace has a definite world sound with warm vocal harmonies and African rhythms. MS plays some very intricate guitar riffs throughout this track. Bobby Johnson is a hip hop style track but without the harsh street lyrics. Black Banks is a different mix of R&B and Louisiana country blues. Cool track with cool guitar riffs. Old Crow has the distinct sound of early country music. Very authentic and very cool. Oh, How Beautiful has ...

      It's that time of the year again…the annual end of the year Blowout Sale! This is your chance to get some of Delta Groove's most   honored and acclaimed releases at drastically reduced prices.   Whether you are looking to get gifts for the holidays or just expand   your library of music, this is a sale not to be missed!     FOR ALBUM INFO, TRACK LISTING, AND AUDIO CLIPS, CLICK ON THE COVERS BELOW.   "Remembering a Legend"   PHILLIP WALKER "GOING BACK HOME" "Soul At It's Best"   ARTHUR ADAMS "STOMP THE FLOOR" "Randy's Favorite Album"   BOBBY JONES "COMIN' BACK HARD" "Discover A Treasure"   THE SOUL OF JOHN BLACK "BLACK JOHN" "Grammy Award Winning Band"   PHANTOM BLUES BAND "FOO...