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I started a quest to find terrific blues music and incredible musicianship when I was just a little kid. I also have a tremendous appreciation of fine musical instruments and equipment. One of my greatest joys all of my life was sharing my finds with my friends. I'm now publishing my journey. I hope that you come along!
Please email me at Info@Bmansbluesreport.com
I started a quest to find terrific blues music and incredible musicianship when I was just a little kid. I also have a tremendous appreciation of fine musical instruments and equipment. One of my greatest joys all of my life was sharing my finds with my friends. I'm now publishing my journey. I hope that you come along!
Please email me at Info@Bmansbluesreport.com
Showing posts with label Canned Heat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canned Heat. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Simi Valley Cajun-Blues Fest feat. Robert Randolph/Swamp Dogg/John Mayall/C.J. Chenier/Canned Heat/Guitar Shorty/Dwayne Dopsie
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Turpentine Moan & On The Road Again - Bob Hite, Canned Heat
Robert Ernest "Bob" "The Bear" Hite (February 26, 1943 – April 5, 1981) was the American lead singer of the blues-rock band, Canned Heat, from 1965 to his death in 1981.
He was introduced to Alan Wilson by Henry Vestine and the two of them helped convince blues pianist Sunnyland Slim to get back into the recording studio to record. In 1965, aged 22, he formed a band with Wilson. Vestine joined soon after and this trio formed the core of Canned Heat. The trio were eventually joined by Larry Taylor (bass) and Frank Cook (drums).
Canned Heat appeared on a November 1969 episode of Playboy After Dark. Hite was invited to talk with Hugh Hefner after the performance, along with other guests Sonny and Cher, Vic Damone, Dick Shawn and Larry Storch. A 20-year-old Lindsay Wagner, playing the part of one of Hefner's party guests, sat on Hite's lap and played a party game. When asked by Hefner what kind of animal Hite would be if he were an animal, Wagner claimed he'd be a bear. Hite told her she got it right, that people called him "The Bear." It was also on this episode that Bob Hite informed Hugh Hefner that he had over 15,000 78s.
He produced the John Lee Hooker/Canned Heat album, Hooker 'N Heat (1971). Hite was found dead in his van of a heart attack in 1981, at the age of 38
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!
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!
Labels:
Bob Hite,
Canned Heat
Friday, February 8, 2013
drum solo with Canned Heat - Fito De La Parra
Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra (born 8 February 1946, Mexico City) is a Mexican drummer, best known as a longtime member of Canned Heat
Fito de la Parra began playing drums professionally from the age of 14. In 1958 he was a member of a Mexican rock band called Los Sparks. Later he played with some of Mexico's most famous rock bands, Los Sinners, Los Hooligans and with Javier Batiz. In 1966 he moved to Los Angeles and became a member of Sotweed Factor and then left them to join Bluesberry Jam. He also backed The Platters, Etta James, The Rivingtons, Mary Wells and the Shirelles.[3] He replaced Canned Heat's original drummer, Frank Cook and played his first gig with the band on 1 December 1967. He joined in time for their second album, Boogie with Canned Heat, and has played on every subsequent album up to present day.
During his 40+ years with Canned Heat, Fito has also played with some of the greatest blues singers of our time including, Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Albert Collins, and George "Harmonica" Smith. His solid, basic drumming and fantastic solos have led to recording sessions with John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Fito has also written a book "LIVING THE BLUES" with his personal story and Canned Heat's, now available on the band's website cannedheatmusic.com, Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. As "Keeper of the Flame" he has remained the band leader, rhythmic and spiritual force behind Canned Heat's music for over four decades. He has also produced three DVDs, "Boogie with Canned Heat", "Rock Made in Mexico", and "Fito de la Parra Drum Solos" and countless CDs for Canned Heat and other artists. He became a US citizen in 1984. Fito is an avid motorcyclist and an animal lover, currently living in Ventura county, CA.
In recent years he was the only member of the 1960s Canned Heat line-up that toured with the group, although in 2010 (and for most shows in 2009) Larry Taylor and Harvey Mandel rejoined the group and together with Fito are currently touring worldwide.
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”
Labels:
Canned Heat,
Fito De La Parra,
Mexico
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Severn Records Sets March 19 Release Date for "The Blind Owl," Special 2-CD Compilation Saluting the Career of Canned Heat Founding Member Alan Wilson
Severn Records
Announces a March 19 Release for The Blind Owl,
a Two-CD
Compilation Set Saluting the Career of Canned Heat Founding Member Alan
Wilson
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Severn Records announces a March 19 release
date for the special two-CD compilation set, The Blind Owl, a
tribute to Alan Wilson, the brilliant musician and founding member of the
legendary band, Canned Heat. Distributed nationally by City Hall Records,
The Blind Owl is comprised of 20 tracks recorded during Wilson’s
tragically short career, and features songs from such Canned Heat album classics
as Boogie with Canned Heat, Future Blues,
Hallelujah, Living the Blues, Canned Heat Concert (Recorded
Live in Europe) and the group’s debut self-titled album, released in
1966 on Liberty Records.
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”
The set includes Canned Heat’s Top 10 worldwide hits, “On the
Road Again” (inspired by Floyd Jones and adapted by Wilson) and “Going Up the
Country” (written by Wilson), which featured his trademark high-pitched lead
vocals, influenced by Skip James. Other fan favorites on the two CDs include
“Help Me,” “Time Was,” “An Owl Song,” “Shake It and Break It,” “Mean Old World”
and several parts from the band’s highly ambitious nine-part psychedelic musical
adventure known as “Parthenogenesis.” In addition to Alan Wilson on lead vocals,
rhythm and bottleneck guitar and harmonica, The Blind Owl features
Canned Heat members Henry Vestine and Harvey Mandel on lead guitar; Larry Taylor
and Tony de la Barreda on bass; and Adolfo (“Fito”) de la Parra and Frank Cook
on drums and percussion. Dr. John is a special guest on piano for two tracks.
The Digipak album package also features extensive and insightful liner notes
about the songs from Skip Taylor, Canned Heat’s manager from the beginning,
producer and personal friend of Alan Wilson, with cover art by Josh Hunter,
illustrator of The 27s Book.
Nicknamed “The Blind Owl” by good friend and fellow blues
musician John Fahey, Wilson was nearsighted to the point of almost complete
blindness. That affliction, along with his innate shyness around people and an
introverted personality combined to form a potent combination, that while giving
inspiration to many of his songs, also helped create Alan’s personal demons that
eventually took his life at age 27. He’s forever linked with the other greats of
the “27 Club” who died way-too-young at that age, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis
Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Robert
Johnson.
As a member of Canned Heat, Wilson performed at the two most
iconic live concerts in rock: the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which helped
launch the whole festival show craze; and Woodstock, the 1969 once-in-a-lifetime
event that will forever be considered a defining moment in rock music history.
Wilson’s “Going Up the Country” not only became the theme of the movie filmed at
Woodstock, but would also become the anthem of the entire “Woodstock
Generation,” and still continues to be featured in movies and commercials to
this day.
Born on the Fourth of July in 1943 in Boston, Alan Wilson got
involved in the Cambridge coffeehouse folk-blues circuit while enrolled at
Boston University. He also immersed himself in the history of early blues music,
becoming an authority on the subject; so much so that in 1964 noted
manager/producer/blues historian Dick Waterman recruited Wilson to “re-teach”
the legendary Son House how to play his old slide guitar licks and songs he had
recorded in the ‘30s and had forgotten. After several weeks of playing together,
House invited Alan to play guitar and harmonica with him at the Newport Folk
Festival and on The Legendary Son House, Father of Folk Blues
record.
In 1965, Alan became a founding member of Los Angeles-based
Canned Heat. Painfully awkward, Wilson battled anxiety and depression throughout
his life, which manifested itself in songs such as “My Mistake,” and “Change My
Ways,” both included on The Blind Owl. The set also includes such
hallmarks as his performances on “Help Me,” Wilson’s debut as a singer in 1966;
“An Owl Song,” the band’s first recording with horns; “Alan’s Intro,” his
amazing slide guitar intro to Canned Heat’s “Woodstock Boogie,” recorded live at
the festival; “Skat,” a group jam that features Alan “scat” singing; and “Human
Condition,” Alan’s final studio recording. Keenly attuned to the environment, he
also lamented the carnage of the planet’s resources, documenting those feelings
on the track, “Poor Moon.”
Wilson was one of the few serious blues scholars of his day
and wrote lengthy articles on such artists as Robert Pete Williams and Son House
about their significant contributions to the history of the blues. After Canned
Heat’s appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, Downbeat magazine
put the band on its cover and proclaimed Wilson “the greatest harmonica player
of the 20th Century.” And none other than the king of boogie,
himself, John Lee Hooker paid the ultimate compliment to Wilson after the band’s
sessions on the double-LP, Hooker ‘n Heat, in 1970:
“Alan plays my music better than I knows it myself. You musta been listenin’ to
my records all your life.”
The Blind Owl
Track Listing
Disc One
1) On the Road Again
2) Help Me
3) An Owl Song
4) Going Up the Country
5) My Mistake
6) Change My Ways
7) Get Off My Back
8) Time Was
9) Do Not Enter
10) Shake It and Break It
11) Nebulosity / Rollin’ & Tumblin’ / Five
Owls
Disc Two
1) Alan’s Intro
2) My Time Ain’t Long
3) Skat
4) London Blues
5) Poor Moon
6) Pulling Hair Blues
7) Mean Old World
8) Human Condition
9) Childhood’s End
Labels:
Alan Wilson,
Canned Heat,
Severn Records
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Move On Down The Road - Alan Wilson and Canned Heat
Alan "Blind Owl" Christie Wilson (July 4, 1943 – September 3, 1970) was the leader, singer, and primary composer in the American blues band Canned Heat. He played guitar and harmonica, and wrote most of the songs for the band.
Wilson was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in the Boston suburb of Arlington. He majored in music at Boston University and often played the Cambridge coffeehouse folk-blues circuit. He acquired the nickname "Blind Owl" owing to his extreme nearsightedness; in one instance when he was playing at a wedding, he laid his guitar on the wedding cake because he did not see it. As Canned Heat's drummer, Fito de la Parra, wrote in his book: "Without the glasses, Alan literally could not recognize the people he played with at two feet, that's how blind the 'Blind Owl' was."
With Canned Heat, Wilson performed at two prominent concerts of the 1960s era, the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969. Canned Heat appeared in the film Woodstock, and the band's "Going Up the Country," which Wilson sang, has been referred to as the festival's unofficial theme song. Wilson also wrote "On the Road Again," arguably Canned Heat's second-most familiar song.
Wilson was a passionate conservationist who loved reading books on botany and ecology. He often slept outdoors to be closer to nature. In 1969, he wrote and recorded a song, "Poor Moon", which expressed concern over potential pollution of the moon. He wrote an essay called 'Grim Harvest', about the coastal redwood forests of California, which was printed as the liner notes to the Future Blues album by Canned Heat.
After Eddie 'Son' House's 'rediscovery' in 1964, Wilson taught him how to play again the songs House had recorded in 1930 and 1942 (which he had forgotten over a long absence from music); House recorded for Columbia in 1965 and two of three selections featuring Wilson on harmonica and guitar appeared on the set. On the double album Hooker 'N Heat (1970), John Lee Hooker is heard wondering how Wilson is capable of following Hooker's guitar playing so well. Hooker was known to be a difficult performer to accompany, partly because of his disregard of song form. Yet Wilson seemed to have no trouble at all following him on this album. Hooker concludes that "you [Wilson] musta been listenin' to my records all your life". Hooker is also known to have stated "Wilson is the greatest harmonica player ever"
Stephen Stills' song "Blues Man" from the album Manassas is dedicated to Wilson, along with Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman.
Wilson died in Topanga Canyon, California of a drug overdose at age 27. Although Wilson had reportedly attempted suicide twice before and his death is sometimes reported as a suicide, this is not clearly established and he left no note.
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”
Labels:
Alan Wilson,
Boston,
Canned Heat,
Massachusetts
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Move On Down The Road - CANNED HEAT
Robert Ernest "Bob" "The Bear" Hite (February 26, 1943 – April 5, 1981) was the American lead singer of the blues-rock band, Canned Heat, from 1965 to his death in 1981.
He was introduced to Alan Wilson by Henry Vestine and the two of them helped convince blues pianist Sunnyland Slim to get back into the recording studio to record. In 1965, aged 22, he formed a band with Wilson. Vestine joined soon after and this trio formed the core of Canned Heat. The trio were eventually joined by Larry Taylor (bass) and Frank Cook (drums).
Canned Heat appeared on a November 1969 episode of Playboy After Dark. Hite was invited to talk with Hugh Hefner after the performance, along with other guests Sonny and Cher, Vic Damone, Dick Shawn and Larry Storch. A 20-year-old Lindsay Wagner, playing the part of one of Hefner's party guests, sat on Hite's lap and played a party game. When asked by Hefner what kind of animal Hite would be if he were an animal, Wagner claimed he'd be a bear. Hite told her she got it right, that people called him "The Bear." It was also on this episode that Bob Hite informed Hugh Hefner that he had over 15,000 78s.
He produced the John Lee Hooker/Canned Heat album, Hooker 'N Heat (1971). Hite was found dead in his van of a heart attack in 1981, at the age of 38.
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”
Labels:
California,
Canned Heat
Sunday, February 26, 2012
On The Road Again - Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues", a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called "canned heat". After appearances at Monterey and Woodstock, at the end of the 1960s the band acquired worldwide fame with a lineup consisting of Bob Hite, vocals, Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, guitar, harmonica and vocals, Henry Vestine (or Harvey Mandel) on lead guitar, Larry Taylor on bass, and Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra on drums.
The music and attitude of Canned Heat afforded them a large following and established the band as one of the popular acts of the hippie era. Canned Heat appeared at most major musical events at the end of the 1960s and they were able to deliver on stage electrifying performances of blues standards and their own material and occasionally to indulge into lengthier 'psychedelic' solos. Two of their songs - "Going Up the Country" and "On the Road Again" - became international hits. "Going Up the Country" was a remake of the Henry Thomas (blues musician) song "Bulldoze Blues" recorded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1927. "On the Road Again" was a cover version/re-working of the 1953 Floyd Jones song of the same name, which is reportedly based on the Tommy Johnson song "Big Road Blues" recorded in 1928.
Since the early 1970s numerous personnel changes have occurred and today, in the fifth decade of the band's existence the band includes Fito de la Parra and Larry Taylor from the "classic" 1960s lineup as well as Harvey Mandel. For much of the 1990s and 2000s de la Parra was the only member from the band's 1960s lineup. He has written a book about the band's career. Larry Taylor, whose presence in the band has not been steady, is the other surviving member from the earliest lineups. Harvey Mandel, Walter Trout and Junior Watson are among the guitarists who gained fame for playing in later editions of the band. British blues pioneer John Mayall has frequently found musicians for his band among former Canned Heat members.
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Labels:
California,
Canned Heat
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