Deak Harp One Man Band

Actually, Deak has been playing the blues harp since the early age of 12...inspired by a school classmate. The 1980's found Deak learning from - and eventually doing shows with the great harmonica master James Cotton, who played with the legendary Muddy Waters and became an important blues artist of today in his own right. Deak also struck an ongoing correspondence and friendship with the late, great West Coast Harmonica King, William Clarke around that time.

The concept of the Deak Harp Blues Band have their beginnings that go back from the early lineup in the 1990's to just a short while ago, to the summer of 2007, when Deak himself was given the red carpet treatment at the Pocono Blues Fest, along with David Beardsley of STLBlues.net. Deak sat in with many of the artists there, including Eddie Van Shaw...son of Howlin' Wolf sideman and sax legend Eddie Shaw. A climactic moment of the festival occurred when Deak fronted the band, singing and blowing harp at the end-of-festival party...and Deak, with the encouragement of festival promoter Michael Cloren, began to think of how it might be a great idea, and a great time to reform his old band again.

Another event that helped inspire this turn of mind happened later in October of 2007, where Deak Harp showed up at the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival (formerly the King Biscuit Blues Festival) playing on Cherry Street in front of the KFFA Radio Station, and later sitting in with Mississippi one-man-band artist Bill Abel at the Houston Stackhouse Stage. A cool clip of this performance can easily be seen on Deaks video page

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Hillbilly Blues - Sleepy La Beef

Sleepy LaBeef (born Thomas Paulsley LaBeff, July 20, 1935, Smackover, Arkansas) is an American rockabilly musician.

LaBeef stands 6' 7" tall and was given the nickname "Sleepy" from the appearance of his eyes. Born in Arkansas, he was raised on a melon farm and moved to Houston when he was 18. There, he sang gospel music on local radio and put together a bar band to play venues as well as radio programs such as the Houston Jamboree and Louisiana Hayride.

In the 1950s, as the rockabilly component of rock-n-roll became evident, LaBeef began recording singles in the genre; his first, "I'm Through", was issued on Starday Records in 1957. In 1964, he moved to Nashville and moved to a more solidly country style, recording singles for Columbia Records. His first genuine hit was 1968's "Every Day", which peaked at #73 on the U.S. Billboard Country charts. After moving to Plantation Records in 1969, he scored a second hit in 1971 with "Blackland Farmer", which charted at #67. Around this time LaBeef also starred in the horror movie The Exotic Ones. LaBeef transferred to Sun Records in the 1970s and continued releasing albums and touring widely; his popularity flagged in America but rose in Europe. The 1980s saw him sign to Rounder Records, where he released albums into the 1990s.
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Spider In My Stew - Buster Benton

Buster Benton (July 19, 1932 – January 20, 1996) was an American blues guitarist and singer, who played guitar in Willie Dixon's Blues All-Stars, and is best known for his solo rendition of the Dixon-penned song "Spider in My Stew." He was tenacious and in the latter part of his lengthy career, despite the amputation of parts of both his legs, Benton never stopped playing his own version of Chicago blues
Arley Benton was born in Texarkana, Arkansas.

Whilst residing in Toledo, Ohio, during the mid 1950s, and having been influenced by Sam Cooke and B.B. King, Benton began playing blues music. By 1959, he was leading his own band in Chicago. During the 1960s, local record labels, such as Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, and Twinight Records released several Benton singles, before in 1971 he joined Willie Dixon. Indeed, a lack of opportunity in the early 1960s meant that Benton gave up playing professionally for several years, and he worked as an auto mechanic. Benton's earlier work was an amalgam of blues and soul, which he confusingly dubbed 'disco blues'. However, according to Music journalist, Bill Dahl, "in the late 1970s, when the popularity of blues music was at low ebb, Benton's recordings, particularly for Ronn Records, were a breath of fresh air."

Benton became a fixture in Dixon's Blues All-Stars for some time. A 1973 album by Dixon's Blues All-Stars, featuring Benton, The All Star Blues World Of Maestro Willie Dixon and his Chicago Blues Band, was issued on Spivey.

Dixon was credited as the songwriter of Benton's best known song, "Spider in My Stew." Released on the Shreveport-based Jewel Records label, it gave Benton a modicum of fame, and his 1974 follow-up, "Money Is the Name of the Game", helped to cement his standing. Benton's 1978 effort for Jewel's Ronn Records subsidiary (also titled Spider in My Stew) became recognised as one of the more engaging Chicago blues albums of its time.

Benton recorded three further albums on the Ichiban label, but in comparison to his work on the Ronn label, they were uncommercial. One such LP offering was 1989's, Money's The Name of The Game, produced by Gary B.B. Coleman. Benton also issued a record on the Blue Phoenix label. Benton's fortitude did not go unnoticed. He suffered from the effects of diabetes and received dialysis for the final years of his life. In addition, in 1993, part of his right leg was amputated due to poor circulation, having already lost a portion of the other some ten years previously. He soldiered on, playing his brand of the blues up to his death. However, as journalist, Tony Russell, stated in his book The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, Benton "never found another money spider".

Benton died in January 1996, in Chicago, from the effects of diabetes, at age 63.

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Rock me Baby - Mary Lane

A longtime staple of Chicago's West Side blues circuit, singer Mary Lane was born November 23, 1935 in Clarendon, Arkansas. After honing her skills in local juke joints in the company of Howlin' Wolf, Robert Nighthawk, Little Junior Parker and James Cotton, Lane relocated to Chicago in 1957; backed by Morris Pejoe, she soon cut her debut single "You Don't Want My Lovin' No More" for the Friendly Five label. A favorite among peers for her dulcet tones, she nevertheless did not record again for several decades, remaining virtually unknown outside of the Chicago blues faithful; finally, in the early 1990s, Lane recorded a handful of tracks for the Wolf label, leading to 1997's full-length Appointment with the Blues.
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Who Pumped The Wind In My Doughnut - Washboard Sam

Robert Brown (July 15, 1910 – November 6, 1966), known professionally as Washboard Sam, was an American blues singer and musician
Born in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, United States, and reputedly the half-brother of Big Bill Broonzy, Brown moved to Memphis, Tennessee in the 1920s, performing as a street musician with Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon. He then moved to Chicago in 1932, performing regularly with Broonzy, and appearing with him and other musicians including Memphis Slim and Tampa Red on innumerable recording sessions for Lester Melrose of Bluebird Records.

In 1935 he began recording in his own right for both Bluebird and Vocalion Records, becoming one of the most popular Chicago blues performers of the late 1930s and 1940s, selling numerous records and playing to packed audiences. Between 1935 and 1949 he recorded over 160 sides, including such popular numbers as "Mama Don't Allow", "Back Door" and "Diggin' My Potatoes." His strong voice and talent for creating new songs overcame his stylistic limitations.

By the 1950s, his audience began to shrink, largely because he had difficulty adapting to the new electric blues. His final recording session for RCA Victor was held in 1949, he retired from music for several years, and became a Chicago police officer. He recorded a session in 1953 with Broonzy and Memphis Slim, and in 1959 Samuel Charters included his "I've Been Treated Wrong" on the compilation The Country Blues for Folkways Records. Brown made a modest but short-lived comeback as a live performer in the early 1960s. He died of heart disease in Chicago, in November 1966, and was buried in an unmarked grave at the Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Illinois.

A September 18, 2009 concert held by executive producer, Steve Salter, of the Killer Blues organization raised monies to place a headstone on Washboard Sam's grave. The show was a success and a headstone was placed in October 2009. The concert was held at the Howmet Playhouse Theater in Whitehall, Michigan. It was recorded by Vinyl Wall Productions and filmed for television broadcast in the mid-Michigan area by a television crew from the Central Michigan University. The concert featured musical artists such as Washboard Jo, R.B. and Co. and was headlined by the Big House Blues Band.
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Robert Lowery

Robert Lowery (born April 8, 1931, Shula, Arkansas, United States) shown here with Virgil Thrasher (harp), and T-Bone Flippin (2nd harp) is an American blues singer, and guitarist.
As a teenager, he picked up blues tunes from records by Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Blind Boy Fuller, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and others, eventually developing his own distinctive style. After moving to Santa Cruz, California in 1957, he backed up Big Mama Thornton.

Lowery made his first major concert appearance in 1974, at the San Francisco Blues Festival, and appeared there again in 1976 and 1984. Since then, he has traveled worldwide, and performed at many blues festivals and concerts, including a special appearance of fellow Arkansas native President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration. Lowery has released many recordings on diverse record labels, some of which are currently available.

More recently, Lowery's reputation as an authentic Delta blues musician has taken him far beyond California. He played the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2006, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2007, Philadelphia Blues Festival, Eureka Springs Festival in Arkansas, the San Remo Blues Festival in Italy and the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. He recorded a television commercial for MCI Inc., singing about how his telephone bill was too high
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WE GONNA MOVE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN - CASEY BILL WELDON

Casey Bill Weldon (December 9, 1909 – 1960s?) was an American country blues musician, born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas who later lived and worked in Chicago was known as one of the great early pioneers of the slide guitar. He played upbeat, hokum and country blues tunes, both as a solo artist and as a member of the Memphis Jug Band. Playing a National steel guitar flat on his lap Hawaiian style, "Casey Bill" Weldon's was known as the "Hawaiian Guitar Wizard". He was married to Memphis Minnie in the '20s with the two making influential recordings together in the late '20s. Weldon played in medicine shows before beginning his recording career in 1927 for Victor.

In 1927 Weldon made a recording with Charles Polk and other members of what would become the Memphis Jug Band for Victor Records. In October of that year, Victor brought them to Atlanta where they recorded several sides, including "Kansas City Blues". In 1930, the last year of the Memphis Jug Band's contract with Victor, the band recorded 20 sides. The contract ended after a final recording session in November 1930 in Memphis just before the financial crash of the 1930s bankrupted Victor. Weldon went on to cut over 60 sides for Victor, Bluebird, and Vocalion. He was also an active session guitarist appearing on records by Teddy Darby, Bumble Bee Slim, Peetie Wheatstraw, and Memphis Minnie. On Memphis Minnie's last recording for Bluebird Records in October 1935, Weldon accompanied her for the first time. He played on two sides, "When the Sun Goes Down, Part 2" and "Hustlin' Woman Blues." [4] He scored solo hits with his two most well known songs, "Somebody Changed the Lock on My Door" and "We Gonna Move (to the Outskirts of Town)."

In October 1927, when the Victor field recording unit visited Atlanta, Georgia, he recorded two sides, including a chilling, haunting song called "Turpentine Blues", which would have left him immortalized if he had never recorded again.[citation needed] He did not enter another recording studio until eight years later, when he laid down many recordings for Vocalion Records. Weldon also played with Charlie Burse and the Picanniny Jug Band and the Brown Bombers of Swing. Considering the fact that most slide guitarists of the era went unrecorded, Weldon maintains a healthy amount of recorded material for aficionados to appreciate.

After his divorce from Memphis Minnie, he married blues singer Geeshie Wiley. They disappeared from the public eye soon after and he stopped recording by 1938. His date of death is unknown, though assumed to be sometime in the 1960s
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Forrest City Jump - Forrest City Joe

Extracts of a writing by Mike Leadbitter:
CRITTENDEN COUNTY, Arkansas, has the Mississippi River for its eastern border - a border that extends north to Frenchman's Bayou and south to Horseshoe Lake. The county's major town is West Memphis and two highways can speed one's progress through the countryside: Highway 55, pointing north to Blytheville and Missouri, and Highway 40 which runs west to Little R7ock via Forrest City. Crittenden County is deep in the cotton-belt and here Joe Bennie Pugh was born on July 10th, 1926.

Joe's exact birthplace is uncertain but it was definitely in the area south of West Memphis near Horseshoe Lake and Hughes. His parents, Moses Pugh and Mary Walker, were plantation workers and they raised their child in a world devoted to the production of cotton Joe grew up to be an uneducated field-hand and spent his early life working on the land or the nearby Mississippi levees. Somehow or other he became involved in the musical activities of his community and learned to play harmonica, guitar and a little piano. When Saturday night came around, Joe would be helping with the entertainment for the dancers.

Joe got to hear Sonny Boy Williamson when he was old enough to drink and gamble in the juke-joint, while listening to the latest blues records on the box. He was so impressed by John Lee's unique vocal and instrumental technique that he, like many others, worked hard to produce a perfect imitation. Joe was not only inspired by Sonny Boy's music, but also by his popularity. He too wanted to leave the cotton fields and become a professional recording artist.
By 1947 Joe was going by the name of "Forrest City" Joe. We can only guess at the origin of this name. He may have lived there for a time, but this is uncertain - possibly he sang a popular blues about the town. Whatever, Joe had become a well known figure in Northern Arkansas and Missouri, thanks to his Sonny Boy impersonations, and began to move around, trying to make a living by music or just plain hustling. He went from Hughes to West Memphis and then north, by way of Osceola, Blytheville and Caruthersville, to St. Louis where he sheltered under the wing of Big Joe Williams.
1948 saw Joe reaching Chicago. He had a partner with him called "J.C.", who played guitar and was also from the Delta. We can presume that Joe met his hero at last, and must have been shocked by Sonny Boy's tragic death in June. His blues, "Memory of Sonny Boy" indicated that he was on intimate terms with the man and his wife. When he got to record it for Aristocrat in 1949, he may have been consciously attempting to carry on the tradition, or even (more likely) trying to cash in on the tragedy. In fact the company probably only recorded Joe because of his almost uncanny ability to recreate a sound that once meant good record sales. Whatever the motive for releasing the record, it did not sell and Joe was not to record again for a decade.
So Joe came back South to West Memphis and got a job with Willie Love's Three Aces who were extremely popular at the time and broadcasting regularly. However, Chicago was still calling, and after some months Joe was back there again. Here (according to Bengt Olsson) he lived at 3802 South Ellis Avenue with his wife, and his home became a well known meeting place for musicians. Making little progress on his own, Joe joined a small combo that Otis Spann was heading at the 'Tick Tock Lounge' on the South Side at 37th and State Streets. Spann remembered Joe as being "one of the best," and they stuck together for four years. Then Muddy Waters hit the big time and took a band on the road. In 1954 Spann went with him and split up his combo, leaving Joe in the cold.

Without having made a name for himself, Joe quit Chicago for good in 1955 and went back South again where he was at least popular and times were easier. Settling in the Hughes area, he got a job as a tractor driver, quickly slipping back into the old routine of work all week, play music weekends. In spite of this, the name of "Forrest City" Joe was becoming a memory only for most people.
In August, 1959, Alan Lomax "discovered" Joe in Hughes, sitting out front of "The Old Whiskey Store," playing guitar for the loungers. It was a Friday night, and Alan decided to record Joe in the evening, when work was over and they could get a band together. At last, Joe was back on record again. Backed by Sonny Boy Rogers (guitar) and Thomas Martin (drums) he cut several Sonny Boy songs in the traditional manner. Unlike his earlier songs, which were lyrically original, the 1959 Atlantic tracks were plain imitations, except for "Red Cross Store" with slightly changed words and for which Joe played piano in a very knocked-out style. In the middle of this song he calls out, "Send her back to Memphis, Tennessee - 1956 Wilson!" This and "A Woman On Every Street," demonstrate that Joe probably lived in Memphis for some time, but when?
While Joe waited for Lomax to bring him fame and fortune, he continued to play a little music locally and also did some gigs with Willie Cobbs in the same year. By 1960, Lomax was getting round to the idea of bringing Joe up North and then heard that he was dead. Bad luck followed Joe right to the end.

On April 3rd, 1960, Joe was returning home with friends from a dance when their truck flipped over by Horseshoe Lake. Joe's head was crushed and he died instantly. No one was around to write a "Memory of Forrest City Joe" and it would be another decade before his death was confirmed.

Notes: Details of Joe's life obtained from copy of death certificate held by myself. Song transcriptions were again my work, but thanks are due to John Broven and Mike Rowe for details of the Aristocrat numbers. Other general details obtained from articles by Bengt Olsson and Rick Milne.
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Discography

PLEASE SEND MY BABY BACK - SUNNY BLAIR

Sunny Blair, blues harmonica player born as Sullivan Jackson in Little Rock , Arkansas died July 6, 1966.
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TROUBLE - Johnnie Jones Jr

I, "Johnnie Jones, Jr." was borned to Mr. & Mrs. Johnnie Jones, Sr. being one of their 21 children. I'm just a good old country boy with a big heart. I grew up in Brinkley, AR. playing football and running track for the BHS Tigers as a team player. As far back that I can remember I haven't never met no one that hasn't been a friend.

I was a young man when my father died leaving my mother, "Mrs. Betty Jones" with 9 of my brothers and sisters to take care. I never hesitated to go to the assistance of my mother because nothing can replace my LOVE for my mother. My family knew that I wanted to sing all my life but I chose to put it on the back burner to go to work for the state. I needed the job in order to assist my mother with my 9 brothers and sisters and provide for my wife, "Annie " and our 5 children to include 2 more children of my deceased sister and a wayward nephew of another sister. My mother worked too but she was needed at home at night therefore, I decided to go out and get 2 more jobs in order for us all to live. My wife had a full time job taking care of the children but she also, assisted me on my side jobs. I performed these 3 jobs for 15 years, "worked for the state of Arkansas from 7:30am - 4:30pm daily, mowed yards from 5:00pm - 8:30pm, then performed janitorial duties such as stripping and waxing floors from 9:00pm - 11:00pm" I never complained because I knew my work would pay off one of these days because of my work hard attitude and being selfless.

Even though, our family already included 8 kids not including my 9 brothers and sisters we didn't hesitate to take on more challenges. One day; Annie and I received a phone call from the DHS office located in Ardmore, OK. informing them that my wife, "Annie" was found to be the next of kin to a child that was placed in foster care in their office and wanted to know if they would take the child into their care. Being the good country boy with the heart of gold told his wife, "there is no way that we can turn our back on this child after everything you have done for my family". Without any hesitation, Annie and I left for Oklahoma. Upon the arrival at the DHS office in Ardmore, we found out that Nathan was 2 years old but he had an older brother, "David" that was 3 years old and a sister,"Elizabeth" that was just 1 year old. This situation to another man and wife could had caused serious consequences but Annie and I stepped up and adopted all 3 children without hesitation and brought them to Arkansas to join our family.

I kept my desire to sing a secret for all of these years. After raising nearly all of the kids and getting settled down into a new job and relocating to a new town, I started working on my dream during my off time. The 3 children that we adopted and brought to Arkansas are six, eight, and nine years old now. These three children has encouraged and pushed me to pursue my secret dream of becoming a singer. They always requested me to sing and with the history of my life what choice of music would be better than the Blues.
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Come Here Mama - Little Willie Anderson

Some folks called Chicago harpist Little Willie Anderson "Little Walter Jr.," so faithfully did Anderson's style follow that of the legendary harp wizard. But Anderson was already quite familiar with the rudiments of the harmonica before he ever hit the Windy City, having heard Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, and Robert Jr. Lockwood around West Memphis. Anderson came to Chicago in 1939, eventually turning pro as a sideman with Johnny Young. Anderson served as Walter's valet, chauffeur, and pal during the latter's heyday, but his slavish imitations probably doomed any recording possibilities for Anderson -- until 1979, that is, when Blues On Blues label boss Bob Corritore escorted him into a Chicago studio and emerged with what amounts to Anderson's entire recorded legacy. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

Deep Blues - Robert Palmer

Robert Franklin Palmer Jr. (June 19, 1945 – November 20, 1997) was a 20th century American writer, musicologist, clarinetist, saxophonist, and blues producer. Robert Palmer is best known for books he authored such as Deep Blues , his music journalism articles for The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine, his work producing blues recordings and the soundtrack to the film Deep Blues,and his clarinet work in the 1960s band The Insect Trust. A collection of his work, titled Blues & Chaos: The Music Writing of Robert Palmer and edited by Anthony DeCurtis, was published by Scribner on November 10, 2009. Palmer was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of a musician and school teacher, Robert Palmer Sr. A civil rights and peace activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, the younger Palmer graduated from Little Rock University (later called the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR)) in 1964. Soon afterwards he and fellow musicians Nancy Jeffries, Bill Barth, and Luke Faust formed a psychedelic music group blending jazz, folk, and blues with rock and roll, called The Insect Trust. The band recorded its first, self-titled album on Capitol Records in 1968. He continued playing clarinet and saxophone from time to time in local bands in areas he lived throughout the rest of his life. In the early 1970s, Palmer became a contributing editor for Rolling Stone. He became the first full-time rock writer for The New York Times a few years later, serving as chief pop music critic at the newspaper from 1976 to 1988. He continued his journalism work for film magazines and Rolling Stone; meanwhile, he began teaching ethnomusicology and American music courses at colleges, including at the University of Mississippi. In the early 1990s, he also began producing blues albums for Fat Possum Records artists like R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. After living near Memphis from 1988 through 1992, he spent about six months at a country estate near Little Rock before relocating in early 1993 to New Orleans, Louisiana, his home base until his death. Two of his better-known books are his 1982 Deep Blues historical study and his 1995 book Rock & Roll: an Unruly History, the latter of which was a companion book to a ten-part BBC and PBS television series on which he served as chief consultant. In 1985, he was recruited to play clarinet by friends Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on the song Silver and Gold by U2's Bono for the Artists United Against Apartheid album Sun City. Throughout his life, Robert Palmer published scholarly liner notes on albums by dozens of top jazz, blues, rock and roll and world music artists, including Sam Rivers, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Yoko Ono, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman, the Master Musicians of Jajouka, La Monte Young, and many more. He worked as screen writer, narrator, and music director on the documentary films The World According to John Coltrane and Deep Blues (based on his book by the same name). He additionally worked as codirector with Toby Byron on The World According to John Coltrane and wrote a book about Jerry Lee Lewis entitled Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks. Palmer died from liver disease at the Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, on November 20, 1997 If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Shotgun - Jr Walker and the Allstars

Junior Walker (born Autry DeWalt Mixon, Jr., June 14, 1931 – November 23, 1995) was an American musician. His group, Junior Walker & the All Stars, were signed to the Motown label in the 1960s, and became one of the label's signature acts,

Walker was born Autry DeWalt Mixon, Jr. in Blytheville, Arkansas and grew up in South Bend, Indiana. His saxophone style was the anchor for the band's overall sound. The other original members of the group were drummer Tony Washington, guitarist Willie Woods, and keyboardist Vic Thomas.

His career started when he developed his own band at the age of 14, in the mid 1950s as the 'Jumping Jacks'. His longtime friend Billy Nix (drummer) started his own group the 'Rhythm Rockers.' Periodically Nix would sit in on Jumping Jack's shows, and Walker would sit in on the Rhythm Rockers shows.

Nix obtained a permanent gig at a local TV station in South Bend, Indiana, and asked Walker to join him and his keyboard player (Fred Patton) permanently. Shortly after, Nix asked Willie Woods, a local singer, to perform with the group; shortly after Woods would learn how to play guitar also. When Nix got drafted into the United States Army, Walker convinced the band to move from South Bend to Battle Creek, Michigan. While performing in Benton Harbor, Walker found a drummer Tony Washington, to replace Nix. Eventually, Fred Patton (piano player) left the group, and Victor Thomas stepped in. The original name the 'Rhythm Rockers' was changed to the 'All Stars'. Walker's squealing gutbucket style was inspired by jump blues and early R&B, particularly players like Louis Jordan, Earl Bostic, and Illinois Jacquet.

The group was spotted by Johnny Bristol, and he recommended them to Harvey Fuqua, in 1961, who had his own record labels. Once the group started recording on the Harvey label, their name was changed to Junior Walker & the All Stars. When Fuqua's labels were taken over by Motown's Berry Gordy, Jr. Walker & The All Stars became members of the Motown Records family, recording for Motown's Soul imprint in 1961.

The members of the band changed after the acquisition of the Harvey label. Tony Washington, the drummer, quit the group, and James Graves joined the group in the Motown family. Their first and signature hit was "Shotgun", written by Junior Walker, and produced by Berry Gordy and featured The Funk Brothers' James Jamerson on bass and Benny Benjamin on drums. "Shotgun" reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B chart in 1965, and was followed by many other hits, such as "(I'm A) Road Runner", "Shake and Fingerpop" and covers of the Motown tracks, "Come See About Me" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)". In 1966, Graves left and was replaced by old cohort Billy "Stix" Nicks, and Walker's hits continued apace with tunes like "I'm a Road Runner" and "Pucker Up Buttercup."

In 1969 the group had another hit enter the top 5, "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)". A Motown quality control meeting rejected this song for single release but radio station DJs made the track popular, forcing Motown to release it as a single, whereupon it reached #4 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B chart. From that time on Walker sang more on the records than earlier in their career. He landed several more R&B Top Ten hits over the next few years, with the last coming in 1972.

In 1979, Junior Walker went solo and was signed to Norman Whitfield's Whitfield Records label. He was not as successful as he had been with the All Stars in his Motown period. Walker also played the sax on the group Foreigner's "Urgent" in 1981. The solo was actually cobbled together from tapes that he had made with the band.[citation needed] He later recorded his own version of the Foreigner song for the 1983 All-Stars album Blow the House Down. Walker's version was also featured in the 1985 Madonna film Desperately Seeking Susan. In 1983, Walker was re-signed with Motown.

In 1988, Walker played opposite Sam Moore as one-half of the fictional soul duo "The Swanky Modes" in the comedy Tapeheads. Several songs were recorded for the soundtrack, including "Bet Your Bottom Dollar" and "Ordinary Man", produced by ex-Blondie member Nigel Harrison.
Junior Walker died on November 23, 1995 in Battle Creek, Michigan of cancer at the age of 64. He had been inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation that year. Drummer James Graves died in 1967 in a car accident, and guitarist Willie Woods in 1997 at age 60. Victor "Vic" Thomas died Sunday, November 28, 2010 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Tony Washington is the only original surviving band member of the four that Harvey Fuqua signed to his label in 1961 and took to Motown with him.
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Have You Ever Been Mistreated - Queen Sylvia

Queen Sylvia Embry, Born: June 14, 1941 | Died: February 28, 1992 Instrument: Bass, electric

For a period of time in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it appeared that Queen Sylvia Embry was going to emerge as one of Chicago’s leading blues women. After she emerged from her role as bass player for Lefty Dizz and the Shock treatment in the late 1970s, she began fronting her own small band in South Side clubs and making guest appearances on the North Side circuit. Everywhere she went, her big smile, warm stage presence, rich gospel-rooted voice and solid bass playing won her new fans.

There were (and are) only a few professional-quality instrumentalists among the city’s blues women, and only one other playing bass. “I played piano when I first started out as a kid,” Sylvia recalled, “and I got away from it because my grandmother was very strict. She demanded I play gospel, and I wanted to play a little boogie-woogie. I was crazy about Chuck Berry and Lloyd Price; I didn’t care for blues then. My grandmother and her friends would drink white lightning and play blues records at their little outdoor cookouts, but she didn’t want me to do it.” To please her family, Sylvia sang in church choirs, even in a professional gospel group, The Southern Echoes, while a teenager. But at the age of nineteen, her ambitions grew bigger than the tiny town of Wabbaseka, Arkansas (where she was born in 1941) could hold. “I always wanted to be an actress or a vocalist. So I left home, went to Memphis. But unfortunately I got married, started to raise a family. I really didn’t trust leaving my home with someone else, so I was mainly a common housewife.”

“I came to Chicago and started going down to Pepper’s at 43rd and Vincennes. That was in the ‘60s. I was separated and divorced. That’s when I met John.” Johnny Embry was one of the city’s fine but unheralded blues guitarists. He and Sylvia were soon married.

“John taught me to play bass, after we got married. I kept beggin’ him but he said, ‘You won’t do it; it’s a hard thing.’ But I’m a determined type person. The bass is the only instrument in the band that really fascinated me. Especially when Z.Z. Hill put out this song about “Don’t Make Me Pay For His Mistake.” That bass pattern just knocked me over! And that was the first tune I learned how to play.”

“I worked briefly with John and other people, but nobody really big until I got involved with Lefty Dizz.” Dizz and Sylvia held down the slot as the Blue Monday house band at The Checkerboard for over three years, with Sylvia’s vocals becoming a more and more requested part of the show. The band won a North Side following at Kingston Mines, and gigged all over the South Side. But she was still having trouble in a man’s world. “When I started playing with Dizz,” she recalls, “I really didn’t even know the scales on the bass. But he was nice; he didn’t try to intimidate me. My problem was with other bass players. They would say, ‘You can’t play; stay home and have babies!’”

Finally, at the age of 39, Queen Sylvia stepped out and made her debut recordings for Alligator’s Living Chicago Blues series. “The kids are up and on their own,” she says, “and I can travel.” Razor Records then released an album (now out of print) of John and Sylvia Embry (no longer married, they remained good friends). She then began a professional association with Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins, the West Side guitarist, with whom she toured Europe and cut an album, “Midnight Baby,” now available on the Evidence label.

Unfortunately, Sylvia’s health declined in the 1980s and she died of cancer on Feb. 28, 1992, still not widely known in the blues world.
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Discography

Cummings Prison Farm - Cedell Davis

CeDell Davis (born Ellis Davis, June 9, 1927) is an American blues guitarist and singer.

Davis is most notable for his distinctive style of guitar playing. Davis plays guitar using a table knife in his fretting hand in a manner similar to slide guitar, resulting in a welter of metal-stress harmonic transients and a singular tonal plasticity. He uses this style out of necessity. When he was 10, he suffered from severe polio which left him little control over his left hand and restricted use of his right. He had been playing guitar prior to his polio and decided to continue in spite of his handicap, and developed his knife method as the only way he could come up with of still playing guitar.
Davis was born in Helena, Arkansas, United States, where his family worked on a local plantation. He enjoyed music from a young age, playing harmonica and guitar with his childhood friends.

Once he sufficiently mastered his variation on slide guitar playing, Davis began playing in various nightclubs across the Mississippi Delta area. He played with Robert Nighthawk for a ten year period from 1953 to 1963. While playing in a club in 1957, a police raid caused the crowd to stampede over Davis. Both of his legs were broken in this incident and he was forced to use a wheelchair since that time. The hardships resulting from his physical handicaps were a major influence in his lyrics and style of blues playing.

Davis moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas in the early sixties and continued his artistic work. In recent times, Davis' music has been released by the Fat Possum Records label to much critical acclaim. His 1994 album, produced by Robert Palmer, Feel Like Doin' Something Wrong, received a 9.0 from Pitchfork Media who called it "timeless."

The Best Of CeDell Davis (1995) was also released, with help from Col. Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit. The Horror of It All followed in 1998. Davis took time away from recording after these releases, and spent the next four years writing and performing. When he returned to the recording studio, he drafted musicians like R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey, The Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin, and soul keyboardist Alex Veley. The final results, When Lightnin' Struck the Pine, was released in 2002
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Bad Monkey - Iron Mike Norton

I have been listening to Bad Monkey, the new release by Iron Mike Norton. Norton has put together 10 tracks of music that is pretty different from the rest of the pack. He opens with an acoustic instrumental version of Amazing Grace demonstrating his prowess on slide guitar. Come To Me is an interesting track that has an cool ambiance and vocals that are very much in the vein of some of the old Hot Tuna stuff. Mike lays down some pretty clean slide work on this track as well. Got 'dem Moves has an updated but primitive juke joint sound with raw slide work. A portion of the release has some experimental rhythm sounds that are definitely out of the box. The bluesiest of these is Shake My Tree where Norton sings in concert with his slide guitar and a rhythm track is played under the mix. The Earl of Hooker is a funky instrumental giving Norton another opportunity to experiment with various sounds. Interesting!If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

She Got Me Walkin' - Lazy Bill Lucas

Lazy Bill Lucas (May 29, 1918 - December 11, 1982) was an American blues musician, who was part of the birth of the Chicago blues scene during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, before taking his talents to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and becoming an important part of that city's blues history until his death.
Born to sharecroppers in Wynne, Arkansas, United States, Lucas's family was always looking for better living conditions and worked their way north to Southern Missouri, then to St. Louis in 1940 and Chicago the year after. As a youngster, he sang on the streets of Advance, Missouri, where the mostly white audience preferred hillbilly songs, but in St. Louis, he teamed up with blues singer Big Joe Williams and started singing for a black audience. Until 1946, Lucas played guitar on the streets, often at the side of Sonny Boy Williamson II. Later that year, he formed a trio with Willie Mabon and Earl Dranes, joined the Musicians Union, and enjoyed a two week gig at the Tuxedo Lounge. For several years, he played in various blues combos and played in various clubs, bars and street settings. During this time, he played with Johnny "Man" Young, Jo Jo Williams, Homesick James, Little Hudson, Snooky Pryor, and Little Walter. In 1950, Lucas switched from guitar to piano and worked as a sideman for various blues bands, and appeared on records by the Blue Rockers, Willie Foster, Homesick James and Snooky Pryor. In 1953, while leading the trio Lazy Bill and the Blue Rhythm, he secured a recording contract with Chance Records, who gave him one recording session. The company released one 78 rpm phonograph record – "She Got Me Walkin'" b/w "I Had a Dream".
As the 1950s progressed, work became harder to find, and during the 1960s, Lucas tried to get into the folk-blues scene but could not secure any contracts. From 1964 and well into the 1970s, Lucas straddled two careers: playing in various groups led by George "Mojo" Buford and playing solo or leading his own small groups. In 1970, he played a benefit show at the Guthrie Theatre organized by Minneapolis's black establishment to show the range and history of Afro-American music. The same year Lucas appeared at the Wisconsin Delta Blues Festival, and the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, with Jeff Titon and John Schrag. In the 1970s, Titon helped record and produce Lucas's material for Philo Records. In 1979, Lucas, who had played live on the radio in the 1960s, started hosting his own regular radio show, The Lazy Bill Lucas Show on KFAI in Minneapolis.

Lucas died of natural causes in Minneapolis in December 1982, at the age of 64.
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You Don't Love Me - Willie Cobbs

Willie Cobbs (born July 15, 1932, Smale, Arkansas, United States) is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known for his song, "You Don't Love Me".

Cobbs was born in Smale, Arkansas and moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1951, occasionally performing in local clubs. He served in the American armed forces and then returned to Chicago, recording a number of singles on such labels as Ruler, a subsidiary of J.O.B. Records. He went on to release the albums Hey Little Girl for the Wilco label in 1986, and Down to Earth on the Rooster Blues label in 1994. Cobbs has performed at the King Biscuit Blues Festival and the Chicago Blues Festival. Cobbs also appeared in the 1991 film Mississippi Masala; he performed the songs "Angel from Heaven" and "Sad Feelin'" for the film.

"You Don't Love Me" has been covered by various artists including The Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead, Richie Kotzen Kaleidoscope (US band), Quicksilver Messenger Service, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Junior Wells and Magic Sam, as well as by Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills on their 1968 Super Session. Another cover of "You Don't Love Me" was the 1992 reggae rendition by Dawn Penn (known as "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)
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Come Here Mama - Little Willie Anderson

Some folks called Chicago harpist Little Willie Anderson "Little Walter Jr.," so faithfully did Anderson's style follow that of the legendary harp wizard. But Anderson was already quite familiar with the rudiments of the harmonica before he ever hit the Windy City, having heard Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, and Robert Jr. Lockwood around West Memphis.

Anderson (born May 21, 1920 in West Memphis, AR - Died Jun 20, 1991 in Chicago, IL) came to Chicago in 1939, eventually turning pro as a sideman with Johnny Young. Anderson served as Walter's valet, chauffeur, and pal during the latter's heyday, but his slavish imitations probably doomed any recording possibilities for Anderson -- until 1979, that is, when Blues On Blues label boss Bob Corritore escorted him into a Chicago studio and emerged with what amounts to Anderson's entire recorded legacy.
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Black Rat Swing - Little Son Joe

Ernest Lawlers (May 18, 1900 – November 14, 1961) was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and composer, also known as Little Son Joe.
Lawlers was born in Hughes, Arkansas, United States. He is best known for his musical partnership with his wife, Memphis Minnie, but he had been playing guitar and singing blues for some years around Memphis before they got together, including a period with Rev. Robert Wilkins, whom he accompanied on record in 1935. He took up with Minnie in the late 1930s, replacing her previous husband and partner, Kansas Joe McCoy. Lawlers made records under his own name, including the well known "Black Rat Swing", but mostly appeared in the supporting role, on a large number of sides covering most of the 1940s and the early years of the following decade. He retired from music with Minnie in the 1950s.

He died in Memphis, Tennessee, in November 1961 from heart disease
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