Leave Me Alone - Buster Benton

Despite the amputation of parts of both his legs during the course of his career, Chicago guitarist Buster Benton never gave up playing his music -- an infectious hybrid of blues and soul that he dubbed at one point "disco blues" (an unfortunate appellation in retrospect, but useful in describing its danceability). In the late '70s, when blues was at low ebb, Benton's waxings for Ronn Records were a breath of fresh air. Inspired by the music of Sam Cooke and B.B. King, the gospel-bred Benton began playing the blues during the mid-'50s while living in Toledo, Ohio. By 1959, he was leading his own band in Chicago. During the '60s, he cut a series of soul-slanted singles for local concerns (Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, Twinight) before hooking up with the great Willie Dixon in 1971. Benton was a member of Dixon's Blues All-Stars for a while, and Dixon is credited as songwriter of Benton's best-known song, the agonized slow blues "Spider in My Stew." Its release on Stan Lewis' Shreveport-based Jewel Records gave Benton a taste of fame; its follow-up, "Money Is the Name of the Game," solidified his reputation. A 1979 LP for Jewel's Ronn subsidiary (logically titled Spider in My Stew) stands as one of the most engaging Chicago blues LPs of its era, its contemporary grooves abetting Benton's tasty guitar work and soulful vocals. Benton cut three albums later on for Ichiban, but compared to his Ronn output, they were disappointing. On the Chicago circuit, Benton's extreme courage in the face of physical adversity will long be cited. He was on kidney dialysis for the last few years of his life as a result of diabetes, and a portion of his right leg was amputated in 1993 due to poor circulation (he had already lost part of the other a decade earlier). Still, he continued to play his brand of uplifting blues until the end. 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!

Way Back - Willie "Big Eyes" Smith

Willie "Big Eyes" Smith (January 19, 1936 – September 16, 2011) was a Grammy Award-winning American electric blues vocalist, harmonica player, and multi-award winning drummer. He was best known for several stints with the Muddy Waters band beginning in the early 1960s. Born in Helena, Arkansas, Smith learned to play harmonica at age seventeen after moving to Chicago. Smith's influences included listening to 78's and the KFFA King Biscuit radio show, some of which were broadcast from Helena's Miller Theater, where he saw guitar player Joe Willie Wilkins, and harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson II. On a Chicago visit in 1953 his mother took him to hear Muddy Waters at the Zanzibar club, where Henry Strong's harp playing inspired him to learn that instrument. In 1956, at the age of eighteen he formed a trio. He led the band on harp, Bobby Lee Burns played guitar and Clifton James was the drummer. As "Little Willie" Smith he played in the Rocket Four, led by blues guitarist Arthur "Big Boy" Spires, and made recordings that were later reissued on the Delmark label. In 1955 Smith played harmonica on Bo Diddley's recording of the Willie Dixon song "Diddy Wah Diddy" for the Checker label.[citation needed] Drummers were in more demand than harp players so Smith switched to drums and starting playing with Muddy Waters band. Smith recorded with Muddy on the 1960 album Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill Broonzy, a tribute to Big Bill Broonzy. In 1961, Smith became a regular member of Muddy Waters' band, which then consisted of George "Mojo" Buford, Luther Tucker, Pat Hare and Otis Spann. By the mid '60s, he'd left the band for more steady work as a cab driver. In the late '60s he rejoined Muddy's band and remained a permanent member until 1980. All of Muddy's Grammy Award winning albums (Hard Again, I'm Ready, They Call Me Muddy Waters, Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live, The London Muddy Waters Session, and The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album) were released between 1971 and 1979 during Smith's tenure with the band. Though he did not play on all of these albums, Smith is estimated to have participated in twelve sessions yielding eighty-four tracks. In June 1980, Smith and other members of Muddy's band Pinetop Perkins (piano), Calvin Jones (bass) and Jerry Portnoy (harmonica) struck out on their own, also recruiting veteran Chicago blues man Louis Myers (harmonica/guitar) to form The Legendary Blues Band, with the vocals shared by all. Later that year, Smith and the Legendary Blues Band appeared backing John Lee Hooker in the movie The Blues Brothers (1980). Smith was the only band member, besides Hooker, to appear onscreen in close-up. With varying personnel over the years, the Legendary Blues Band recorded seven albums, Life of Ease, Red Hot 'n' Blue, Woke Up with the Blues (nominated for a W. C. Handy Award), U B Da Judge, Prime Time Blues, and Money Talks, were recorded between 1981 to 1993. By the time Money Talks came out in 1993, Smith had become a very credible singer. The Legendary Blues Band toured with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. His first solo recording started in 1995 with Bag Full of Blues, with Pinetop Perkins, harpist Kim Wilson, plus guitarists James Wheeler, Nick Moss and Gareth Best. In 1999, Smith recorded with Muddy Waters' son Big Bill Morganfield on his album Rising Son. Smith's album Way Back (2006), contained 11 songs, half of which he wrote. He was backed by Bob Margolin and Frank Krakowski on guitar, Pinetop Perkins on piano, and guest shots by James Cotton and others. Smith's 2008 album Born in Arkansas utilized bassman Bob Stroger, pianist Barrelhouse Chuck, guitarist Billy Flynn, guitarist Little Frank Krakowski (who has worked with Smith for years) and his son and drummer, Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith. In June 2010, Smith released Joined at the Hip with Pinetop Perkins. Joining these two in the studio were bassist Bob Stroger, and Kenny Smith on drums. John Primer, who was another Muddy Waters band alumnus, joined on lead guitar along with Frank Krakowski. On February 13, 2011, Smith won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album for Joined at the Hip, an album he recorded with Pinetop Perkins. Smith died following a stroke on September 16, 2011 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!

Gods Amazing Grace - Roberta Martin Singers

Roberta Martin (February 12, 1907 – January 18, 1969) was an American gospel composer, singer, pianist, arranger and choral organizer, helped launch the careers of many other gospel artists through her group, The Roberta Martin Singers Born in Helena, Arkansas, Martin moved to Chicago with her family in 1917, where she studied piano. Although a high school teacher inspired her to dream of becoming a concert pianist, her future course was changed after accompanying the Young People's Choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church. She came into contact with Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music, through her work as the pianist for the youth choir. With Dorsey's help, she and Theodore Frye organized the Martin-Frye Quartet, a youth group consisting of Eugene Smith, Norsalus McKissick, Robert Anderson, James Lawrence, Willie Webb and Romance Watson, in 1933. Martin renamed the group the Roberta Martin Singers in 1936 and added Bessie Folk, Myrtle Scott and Delois Barrett Campbell to the group in the 1940s. The group set the standard for the gospel choir and mixed group, and had an extremely successful recording career, featuring such hits as "Only A Look," and "Grace." Most of these songs were published by Roberta Martin Studio of Music, a publishing house in Chicago that she incorporated in 1939, and would eventually publish outstanding compositions by gospel artists ranging from Professor Alex Bradford to James Cleveland. Her first composition, "Try Jesus, He Satisfies," was an immediate hit in 1943. She was also the choir director of the Pisgah Baptist Church in Chicago for many years. The theme song of the Roberta Martin Singers is "Only A Look." It was always sung at the opening of their concerts, at their annual Anniversary Program in Chicago, and was recorded on the Apollo label with Bessie Folk with Delois Barrett as lead soloists and later on the Savoy label with Delois Barrett as lead vocalist. Martin's group was unique in a number of ways. It was the first to include both male and female voices in a small group format. Martin favored smooth harmonies and a subtle rhythmic dynamic in which her singers were slightly, almost imperceptibly, behind the beat. On slower songs Martin featured lead singers against a subdued background provided by the rest of the group; on jubilee and shout material she used the more energetic call-and-response technique typical of Holiness churches. Martin encouraged her singers to maintain their individual personalities, allowing the audience to distinguish each backup singer's voice rather than blending them into a single choral sound. Martin complemented her group's performance with her piano accompaniment, which often dictated the rhythm and pace of the song or commented on it by responding to or accenting a singer's performance. Martin's piano style reflected the influence of Holiness artists such as Arizona Dranes and her classical training. The other musical signature of the Roberta Martin Singers was the accompaniment of "Little" Lucy Smith on the Hammond organ. Her droning introductory chord and unique "passes" using the bass pedals set the tone for a meditative experience and became a recognized trademark of a "Roberta Martin gospel song". Martin's refined, subdued style, which emphasized phrasing and modulation, had a profound influence on many gospel artists, including Albertina Walker, James Cleveland and Alex Bradford. Cleveland and Bradford wrote and arranged for and performed with her group early in their careers. Her stylistic restraint did not, on the other hand, mean that her group lacked fervor or emotional punch; as one commentator noted, "Bert would sneak up on you and hurt you." Her group disbanded upon her death in 1969 but the surviving members continued to perform as a group in reunion concerts into the 21st century. Many of the members had later solo careers such as Delois Barrett, and Gloria Griffin, who was the author of the classic gospel song "God Specializes", made famous by the Roberta Martin Singers in concerts and recordings. Well known in the African-American community, her funeral in Chicago in 1969 attracted over 50,000 mourners 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!

Time Has Made A Change - Jimmy DeBerry

Jimmy DeBerry, 17 November 1911, Gumwood, Arkansas, USA - 17 January 1985, Sikeston, Missouri, USA. De Berry was an active if peripheral member of the Memphis blues community from its heyday during the 20s until the early 50s. He grew up in Arkansas and Mississippi before moving to Memphis to live with his aunt in 1927. Teaching himself to play ukulele and then banjo and guitar, he associated with the likes of Will Shade, Charlie Burse, Jack Kelly, Frank Stokes and a very young Walter Horton. While in East St. Louis in 1934, he lost the lower part of his right leg in a train accident. Five years later, he recorded for Vocalion Records with his Memphis Playboys in a style that updated the hokum music from the earlier part of the decade. Over the next 15 years De Berry spent time in St. Louis and Jackson, Tennessee, returning to Memphis to make radio appearances with Willie Nix and Walter Horton. In 1953 he recorded two sessions for Sun Records; at the first session, he and Horton recorded the classic “Easy”, an instrumental adaptation of Ivory Joe Hunter’s “I Almost Lost My Mind”. The blues ballad “Time Has Made A Change”, with accompaniment from pianist Mose Vinson, came from the second session. In 1972 producer Steve LaVere reunited De Berry and Horton for sessions designed to recreate their earlier partnership, an endeavour that met with little success. 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!

Down In The Alley - Ronnie Hawkins with Jeff Healey

Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins (born January 10, 1935) is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life. He is considered highly influential in the establishment and evolution of rock music in Canada. Also known as Rompin' Ronnie, Mr. Dynamo or simply The Hawk, Hawkins was one of the key players in the 1960s rock scene in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Throughout his career, Hawkins has performed all across North America and recorded more than twenty-five albums. His hit songs included covers of Chuck Berry's "Thirty Days" (entitled "Forty Days" by Hawkins) and Young Jessie's "Mary Lou", a song about a "gold digging woman". His other well-known recordings are "Who Do You Love?", "Hey Bo Diddley", and "Suzie Q", which was written by his cousin, the late rockabilly artist Dale Hawkins. Hawkins is also notable for his role as something of a talent scout and mentor. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of premiere backing musicians via his band, The Hawks. The most successful of those eventually forming The Band, while other musicians Hawkins had recruited provided the makings of Robbie Lane & The Disciples, Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band, Crowbar, Bearfoot and Skylark. Hawkins was born in 1935 in Huntsville, Arkansas, just two days after the birth of Elvis Presley. At the age of nine, his family moved to nearby Fayetteville, Arkansas. After graduating from high school, he studied physical education at the University of Arkansas where he formed his first band, The Hawks, touring with them throughout Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Hawkins also owned and operated the Rockwood Club in Fayetteville where some of rock and roll's earliest pioneers came to play including Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty. Hawkins began touring Canada in 1958, per Twitty's advice, and his first gig there was at the Golden Rail Tavern in Hamilton, Ontario, where he became an overnight success. Hawkins decided to move to Canada, and in 1964, became a permanent resident, eventually making Peterborough, Ontario his home. After the move, The Hawks, with the exception of drummer Levon Helm, dropped out on Hawkins. Their vacancies were eventually filled by Canadians Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson, all hailing from across Southwestern Ontario. Helm and the rest of those Hawks would leave Hawkins in 1964 to form an act of their own, which eventually came to be named The Band. In December 1969 Hawkins hosted John Lennon and Yoko Ono for a stay at his Mississauga, Ontario home during the couple's Peace campaign. John Lennon signed his erotic "Bag One" lithographs during his stay at Hawkins' farm. Lennon also did a radio promo for a Ronnie Hawkins single entitled "Down In The Alley". In the early 1970s, Hawkins noticed guitarist Pat Travers performing in Ontario nightclubs, and was so impressed with the young musician that he invited him to join his band. Travers later had a very successful recording career and became one of the most influential guitarists of the 1970s hard rock genre. In 1975, Bob Dylan cast Hawkins as "Bob Dylan" in the movie, Renaldo and Clara. The following year he was a featured performer at the Band's Thanksgiving Day farewell concert, which was documented in the 1978 film The Last Waltz.[5] His 1984 LP, Making It Again, garnered him a Juno Award as Canada's best Country Male Vocalist. In addition to his music, he has also become an accomplished actor, hosting his own television show Honky Tonk in the early 1980s and appearing in such films as Heaven's Gate with his friend Kris Kristofferson and Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. On January 8, 1995, Hawkins celebrated his 60th birthday by throwing a concert at Massey Hall in Toronto which was documented on the album Let It Rock. The concert featured performances by Hawkins, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Band and Larry Gowan. Jeff Healy sat in on guitar for most, if not all, of the performances. Hawkins' band, The Hawks, or permutations of it, backed most, if not all, of the acts. All of the musicians performing that night were collectively dubbed "The Rock ‘N’ Roll Orchestra". Ronnie Hawkins' star on Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2002, October 4 was declared "Ronnie Hawkins Day" by the city of Toronto as he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, in recognition of his lifetime contribution to music and his generous support of the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario and other charitable organizations. Hawkins was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame at the Canadian Music Industry Awards on 4 March 2004. His pioneering contribution to the genre has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In recent years, Hawkins battled pancreatic cancer. His recovery, attributed to everything from psychic healers to native herbal medicine, is featured in the film, Ronnie Hawkins: Still Alive and Kicking. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary degree from Laurentian University. Also Hawkins recently has reissued most of his albums on CD through Unidisc Music Inc. 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!

David Migden and the Dirty Words

David Migden & The Dirty Words are an exciting electric five piece, performing unique original material in a genre-busting crossover of rock, blues and twisted American roots. David Migden was raised in Little Rock Arkansas and moved to the UK as a teenager. After playing and touring around London and Europe, initially in the Lee Sankey Group with Matt Schofield and Ian Segal, he started to write his own tunes and released his first album ‘Little Stranger’. He then teamed up with ‘The Dirty Words’ and released ‘Second Hand Tattoo’, as well as featuring on the soundtrack of the ‘Mr Nice’ film about Howard Marks, performing the aptly named ‘Don’t Bogart That Joint’. David Migden & The Dirty Words are now releasing their eagerly awaited second album ‘Killing It’ which promises to be their best so far, and this band’s best will be something to behold. 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!

Woman To Woman - Shirley Brown

Shirley Brown (born January 6, 1947, West Memphis, Arkansas) is an American soul singer, best known for her million-selling single "Woman to Woman" which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975. Brown was born in West Memphis, but was raised in Madison, Illinois, where she started singing in church when she was nine years old. Early experience singing gospel gave her a powerful but expressive voice likened to Aretha Franklin. Albert King discovered her at age 14, singing in the Harlem Club in Brooklyn, Illinois. Young Shirley went on the road with King for nine years. While King made sure she had a tutor, Brown often cut her classes to work with the band. By 1972, Shirley was living in East St. Louis, Illinois, where she made her first record for the Abet label called, "I Ain't Gonna Tell" and "Love Built on a Strong Foundation". Bandleader Oliver Sain produced the record; Sain worked with King on his first hit record ten years earlier. By 1974, King recommended Brown to Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had been one of the label's stars for some time. Her 1974 hit, "Woman to Woman" spent two weeks at #1 in the Billboard R&B chart and climbed to #22 in the Billboard Hot 100. It sold over one million copies by December 1974, and was awarded a gold disc. It was to prove to be Stax's final major hit record, (the song was later covered by Barbara Mandrell in 1978 and became a top-five country hit). A successful debut album, Woman to Woman, was released by Stax on their Truth label, but by 1975, the company was struggling financially and also facing litigation. A follow-up single, "It Ain't No Fun" was only a moderate success, and Stax closed soon afterwards. Her signing to Arista Records in 1977 resulted in the album Shirley Brown, produced by the former Stax owner Jim Stewart and writer-producer Bettye Crutcher, who provided most of the songs. These included "Blessed Is The Woman" which reached #14 R&B (#102 pop). Brown continued to record for several labels since then, including Fantasy, on the re-formed Stax label, and Sound Town. She has been with the Mississippi based blues and soul label, Malaco Records since 1989. She remains a popular live performer, mainly in southern states of the US, without having found the recording success of her earlier years 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!

Cate Brothers Am I Losing You - The Cate Brothers

The Cate Brothers perform Am I Losing You?, May 1, 2010, at the Cherokee Casino in Siloam Springs, AR. Ernie Cate, vocals and keyboard, Earl Cate, guitar, Dave Renko, sax, Ron Oeff, bass, Terry Cagle, drums The Cate Brothers are the singer-songwriter-musician duo of Earl and Ernie Cate, twin brothers from Fayetteville, Arkansas, who in the mid 1960s became performers of southern soul music at clubs and dances throughout the regional South of the United States. Both brothers are singers, with Earl on guitar and Ernie on piano. They became prolific recording artists during the mid to late 1970s, and again since the mid 1990s. In their 1950s Fayetteville hometown, where rock pioneer Ronnie Hawkins had also grown up during the 1940s, Hawkins owned and operated the Rockwood Club. There, some of Rock music's earliest pioneers came to play, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty. During the late 1950s the Cates associated with Hawkins and his original band members in Arkansas, known as the Hawks, including Hawks drummer Levon Helm. After 1958 Helm and Hawkins left, and settled in Canada, where they went on to form the core of the group The Band. In 1975 Levon Helm introduced the Cates to a record company representative in Los Angeles. The Cates soon after received a recording contract with Asylum Records, and so began their recording career. Their 1975 debut self-titled album was produced by guitarist Steve Cropper, who also appeared on the record along with Levon Helm, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Poco bass guitarist Timothy B. Schmit, who later joined the Eagles. Two more albums followed in 1976 and 1977. In 1979 they reached a wide audience when they appeared on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits, taped in December of the prior year. In 1979 the brothers released their fourth and final album of the period, Fire on the Tracks, which reached number 24 on the album rock charts that year from the success of the single "Union Man." That single was one of the songs the brothers had performed during the Austin City Limits television show, leading up to the album's release. During the 1980s the band's recording career went on hiatus, though they remained a popular touring act around the southern country rock and blues circuit of the Tennessee and Arkansas region. In the early 1980s, the brothers joined Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson in a revival of The Band (without guitarist Robbie Robertson), and also worked with blues singer Maria Muldaur. The Cate Brothers resumed recording in the mid 1990s, on a series of independent label albums. Their 1995 release, Radioland, featured blues guitarist Coco Montoya, formerly with the 1980s reformed version of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In September 2000, Porky Hill died. He was the drummer for the Cates for 12 years. Ron Eoff's brother Mickey then joined the band. 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!

Woke Up This Morning - EB Davis

EB Davis was born in 1945 in the Delta town of Elaine, Arkansas and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. In the sixties he moved to New York where he spend many years performing before moving to Germany. mike My first exposure to music was gospel also, because that was the only thing allowed in the home. When I was six or seven years old, I was walking home from school and there was an old guy, Jim Hunt, sitting on his front porch and he was playing a big acoustic guitar. I had never seen a guitar so big and I was amazed at the sound of his guitar, so I just went across the road there to have a look. I had never heard this kind of music before , and the way he was playing and the way he was singing. I was just totally fascinated. I asked my mother what kind of music was he playing and she told me I shouldn’t go back over there anymore. [...] so I started to sneak over there without my family knowing it. I just fell in love with that music. When EB was about fourteen, he left Arkansas and the ‘country-life’ behind and moved to Memphis, which at that time was truly the home of the Blues. top mike In Memphis I lived only for the weekends - hanging out on Beale Street and at the weekly Jam Sessions in Handy Park, listening to all the great bluesmen like Bobby Bland, B.B. King, Junior Parker, Albert King ...! From the masters I learned the main ingredients: Work hard and sound good, entertain and look good. The audience paid their hard earned money to see you. In Memphis, EB met Eugene Goldston. He owned the 521 Club in Booklyn and EB moved to New York to work for him. mike I started working in the club, but not as an entertainer. Later on I started performing there on a regular basis. And when I formed a band in New York (‘The Soulgroovers’), we became the regular house band there. [...] We did a lot of the covers of whatever was popular at the time, a little bit of blues, but mostly soul. A good seventy percent of soul. EB and the ‘Soulgroovers’ soon became one of the most important touring bands of the soul and blues era. Regularly touring with and supporting people like Rufus Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes, Ray Charles and B.B. King. Members of the band later becoming part of James Brown’s JBs and the Isaac Hayes Movement.After the band break up, EB started singing with ‘The Drifters’ and worked with them in Europe for the first time. top mike I had every intention of going back to New York. But there was a band called ‘The Bayou Blues Band’ and it was a nine piece band and the leader of this band (Wolfgang Ruegner)approached me one night and he said :”How would you like to join our band as the lead vocalist?” And being as they were, such a well-known, well-established band - they were playing all the top houses - I said : ”Of course.” I joined them around 1980 and was with them until ’83,’84. One thing lead to another and from there came the Radio Kings and then ‘The Superband’. EB Davis has more than 19 recordings to his name and can be heard on numerous other recordings as a guest; a career of more than 7000 concerts in more as 60 different countries. He has been invited to give lectures and seminars on the history of the blues and is the only bluesman to appear at the Posnan- (Poland) and Bratislava- (Slovakia) State Opera Houses. He has appeared in five movies to which he contributed songs to the soundtrack including ‘The Innocent’ with Anthony Hopkins and his music has been covered by other artists such as the great Guitar Crusher and Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones. EB is a yearly hit at many of the major festivals of Europe and America, where he recently played the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas. In 2008 EB Davis was inducted into the Blues Hall of fame as an official Blues Ambassador to the state of Arkansas. He was also in 2008 voted by The Deutsche Rock music Verein as the best R&B singer in Europe. In the same year he was invited by The 52-piece Jobst Liebrecht classical orchestra to headline the classical open-air festival in Hellersdorf Germany. If you want to read more about EB look for the Living Blues interview (#147, sept./oct. 1999). 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!

Got My Mojo Working - Pat Hare with Muddy Waters

Auburn "Pat" Hare (December 20, 1930 - September 26, 1980) was an American electric Memphis blues guitarist and singer. His heavily distorted, power chord-driven electric guitar music in the early 1950s is considered an important precursor to heavy metal music. His guitar work with Little Junior's Blue Flames had a major influence on the rockabilly style, while his guitar playing on blues records by artists such as Muddy Waters was influential among 1960s British Invasion blues rock bands such as The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds He was born in Cherry Valley, Arkansas. He recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, serving as a sideman for Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland and other artists. Hare was one of the first guitarists to purposely use the effects of distortion in his playing. In 1951, he joined a blues band formed by Junior Parker, called Little Junior's Blue Flames. He played the electric guitar solo on "Love My Baby" (1953), which later inspired the rockabilly style. One of their biggest hits was "Next Time You See Me" which in 1957 reached #5 on the Billboard R&B charts and #74 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart He was born in Cherry Valley, Arkansas. He recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, serving as a sideman for Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland and other artists. Hare was one of the first guitarists to purposely use the effects of distortion in his playing. In 1951, he joined a blues band formed by Junior Parker, called Little Junior's Blue Flames. He played the electric guitar solo on "Love My Baby" (1953), which later inspired the rockabilly style. One of their biggest hits was "Next Time You See Me" which in 1957 reached #5 on the Billboard R&B charts and #74 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart His guitar solo on James Cotton's electric blues record "Cotton Crop Blues" (1954) was the first record to use heavily distorted power chords, anticipating elements of heavy metal music. According to Robert Palmer: "Rarely has a grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound been captured on record, before or since, and Hare's repeated use of a rapid series of two downward-modulating power chords, the second of which is allowed to hang menacingly in the air, is a kind of hook or structural glue. The first heavy metal record? I'd say yes, with tongue only slightly in cheek." The other side of the single was "Hold Me in Your Arms"; both songs "featured a guitar sound so overdriven that with the historical distance of several decades, it now sounds like a direct line to the coarse, distorted tones favored by modern rock players." According to Allmusic, "what is now easily attainable by 16-year-old kids on modern-day effects pedals just by stomping on a switch, Hare was accomplishing with his fingers and turning the volume knob on his Sears & Roebuck cereal-box-sized amp all the way to the right until the speaker was screaming." Reported to have been an unassuming man in private (once married to Dorothy Mae Good, with whom he had three children — a son and two daughters); however, he had serious, and ultimately fatal, drinking problems. Shortly after the "Cotton Crop Blues" recording, he recorded a version of the early 1940s Doctor Clayton song "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby" on May 14, 1954, which has since been released on the 1990 Rhino Records compilation album, Blue Flames: A Sun Blues Collection. The record also features power chords, which remains "most fundamental in modern rock" as "the basic structure for riff-building in heavy metal bands." According to Robert Palmer, the song is "as heavy metal as it gets." According to the album liner notes, "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby", "is doubly morbid because he did just that". In December 1963, Hare shot his girlfriend dead, and also shot a policeman who came to investigate. At the time of his arrest, he was playing in the blues band of Muddy Waters. He was replaced in the band by guitarist James "Pee Wee" Madison. Hare spent the last 16 years of his life in prison, where he formed a band named Sounds Incarcerated. Hare succumbed to lung cancer inprison, and died in 1980 in St. Paul, Minnesota 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”

Stockyard Blues - Floyd Jones

Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 – December 19, 1989) was an American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, who is significant as one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after World War II. A number of Jones' recordings are regarded as classics of the Chicago blues idiom, and his song "On The Road Again" was a top ten hit for Canned Heat in 1968. Notably for a blues artist of his era, several of his songs have economic or social themes, such as "Stockyard Blues" (which refers to a strike at the Union Stockyards), "Hard Times" or "Schooldays" Jones was born in Marianna, Arkansas. He started playing guitar seriously after being given a guitar by Howlin' Wolf, and worked as an itinerant musician in the Arkansas and Mississippi area in the 1930s and early 1940s, before settling in Chicago in 1945. In Chicago, Jones took up the electric guitar, and was one of a number of musicians playing on Maxwell Street and in non-union venues in the late 1940s who played an important role in the development of the post-war Chicago Blues sound. This group included Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers, both of who went on to become mainstays of the Muddy Waters band, and also Snooky Pryor, Floyd's cousin Moody Jones and mandolin player Johnny Young. His first recording session in 1947, with Snooky on harmonica and Moody on guitar, produced the sides "Stockyard Blues" and "Keep What You Got", which formed one of the two records released by the Marvel Label, and was one of the first examples of the new style on record. A second session in 1949 resulted in a release on the similarly short-lived Tempo-Tone label. During the 1950s Jones also had records released on JOB, Chess and Vee-Jay, and in 1966 he recorded for the Testament label's Masters of Modern Blues series. Jones continued performing in Chicago for the rest of his life, although he had few further recording opportunities. Later in his career the electric bass became his main instrument. He died in Chicago in December 1989. 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!

From The Delta To You - John Weston

John "So Blue" Weston was much more than a self taught blues musician, he was a man that saw no color. John loved "what" people were, not "who" they were. John was a true treasure of the Delta hidden away in Smale, AR where he composed and played in a small studio behind his home. In 2004, a BHS high school senior, John's chosen "Nephew" was able to visit with John on camera. This short documentary gives the viewers some insight concerning John's personality and his unique philosophy. John was inducted into The Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame in 2005, the same year he lost his fight with cancer. John Weston is greatly missed but the compassion he had for his fellow man as well as the lessons learned from him, live on in the the hearts of those fortunate to have known this great and talented person! 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!

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 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!

Hey Little Girl - Dee Clark

Dee Clark (November 7, 1938 – December 7, 1990) was an African-American soul singer best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the ballad "Raindrops," which became a million-seller in the United States in 1961 He was born Delectus Clark in Blytheville, Arkansas, and moved to Chicago in 1941. His mother, Delecta Clark, was a gospel singer and encouraged her son to pursue his love of music. Clark made his first recording in 1952 as a member of the Hambone Kids, who enjoyed some success with a recording of "Hambone" on the OKeh label. In 1953, he joined an R&B group called the Goldentones, who later became the Kool Gents and were discovered by Chicago radio DJ Herb Kent upon winning a talent competition. Kent got the Kool Gents signed to Vee-Jay label's subsidiary Falcon/Abner. The group recorded for Falcon/Abner in 1956, and also recorded a novelty record as "The Delegates". Clark embarked on a solo career in 1957, initially following the styles of Clyde McPhatter and Little Richard. When Little Richard temporarily abandoned his music career to study the Bible, Clark fulfilled Richard's remaining live dates and also recorded with his backing band, the Upsetters.[3] Over the next four years he landed several moderate hits, two of which ("Just Keep It Up" and "Hey Little Girl") reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100). His records for Abner and Vee-Jay were orchestrated by Riley Hampton. His biggest single, "Raindrops," a power ballad augmented by heavy rain and thunder sound effects and Clark's swooping falsetto, was released in the spring of 1961 and became his biggest hit, soaring to number two on the pop chart and number three on the R&B charts. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. "Raindrops" was also an international success, reaching number one in New Zealand and reaching the top ten in South Africa and Belgium, and selling well in Japan. "Raindrops" remains a staple on oldies and adult standards radio station playlists to this day, and has also been covered by several other artists in the years since, including David Cassidy, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and most notably Narvel Felts, who took the song to number 30 on the country chart in 1974. Clark himself recorded an updated version of "Raindrops" in 1973. However, Clark's biggest hit was also his last. The follow-up to "Raindrops," "Don't Walk Away From Me," was a flop, and he made the pop charts in America only twice more, with "I'm Going Back to School" (1962) and "Crossfire Time" (1963). By the time "Crossfire Time" came out, Clark had moved from Vee-Jay to the Constellation label. Though he continued to record for Constellation through 1966, none of his records charted nationally. He had considerable local success in Chicago with such standout recordings as "Come Closer" (1964), the double-sided hit of "Warm Summer Breezes" and "Heartbreak"(1964), and "TCB" (1965). He later recorded for the Columbia, Wand, Liberty and Rocky labels, without success.Clark had a brief revival in 1975 when his song "Ride a Wild Horse" became a surprise Top 30 hit in the UK Singles Chart, becoming his first chart hit in the UK since "Just Keep It Up." Afterward, Clark performed mostly on the oldies circuit. By the late 1980s, he was in dire straits financially, living in a welfare hotel in Toccoa, Georgia. Despite suffering a stroke in 1987 that left him partially paralyzed and with a mild speech impediment, he continued to perform until his death on December 7, 1990, in Smyrna, Georgia, from a heart attack at the age of 52. His last concert was with the Jimmy Gilstrap Band at the Portman Lounge in Anderson, South Carolina. 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!

Your Funeral And My Trial - Eugene Pierson w/ Sonny Boy Williamson (II)

Eugene Pierson, blues guitarist, born December 6, 1934 in Forrest City , Arkansas. Eugene was know for among other things playing guitar with Sonny Boy Williamson II. 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”

Robert Nighthawk interviewed by Mike Bloomfield

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 own name, including “Prowling Night-Hawk” (recorded 5 May 1937), from which he was take his later pseudonym. These sessions led to Chicago careers for the other musicians, but not for McCoy, who simply continued his rambling life, playing and recording (for Victor/Bluebird and Decca) solo and with various musicians, under various names. He also became a familiar voice on local radio stations. Then Robert Lee McCoy disappeared. Within a few years he reappeared as the electric slide-guitarist Robert Nighthawk, and began recording for Chess Records. This was also Muddy Waters’ label; the two men’s styles were close enough that they were in competition for promotional activity — and as Waters was the more saleable commodity, being more reliable and a more confident stage communicator, he received the attention. Though Nighthawk continued to perform and to record, he failed to achieve any great commercial success. In 1963, some ten years later, Nighthawk was discovered busking in Chicago, and this led to further recording sessions and club dates, and to his return to Arkansas, where he appeared on the King Biscuit Time radio programme. He had a stroke, followed by a heart attack, and died at his home in Helena. Recordings Robert Nighthawk: Prowling with the Nighthawk (Document) — twenty-six sides (1937–1952) recorded for Bluebird, Decca, Aristocrat, and United. Ramblin’ Bob (Saga) — twenty-four sides (1937–1952) recorded for Victor, Decca, Chess, and United. 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!

Hosea Leavy

Guitarist-vocalist Hosea Leavy hails from a small crossroads town called Althermer, Arkansas, located out about 26 miles from Little Rock. Born in 1927, he learned how to play guitar at an early age from his father, also a blues player in the 1920s and '30s, and soon started performing at house parties and work camps in the late 1940s. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950, Leavy honed his guitar skills performing at USO shows. In 1954 he formed a blues group featuring his younger brother, Calvin Leavy, who was a notable singer. In 1968 fame came to the Leavy brothers when Calvin recorded the blues classic "Cummins Prison Farm," based on the notorious prison work camp in Arkansas, and later made into a film called "Brubaker," starring Robert Redford. The record, released on Soul Beat/Blue Fox, sold over one million copies. The group toured extensively through much of the south with the success of the song. In 1969 Hosea released solo efforts on Riceland Records, backed by Mississippi harp player Willie Cobbs. In 1977 Hosea moved to West Fresno, California and continued his blues career. He has appeared on a number of CDs, including "You Gotta Move," on the New York-based label Fedora. He has performed at blues festivals in Europe. 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”