Mississippi MacDonald is a blues musician from London, UK. He has been playing since he was 11 years old and has travelled extensively on the US blues trail. He has met BB King, Pinetop Perkins, Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith and Lucky Peterson. In 2010, he was part of the team that purchased a gravestone for the late Hi Records recording artist and soul legend, OV Wright.
24 PESOS is a band from London, UK that is formed by four musicians with a passion for Blues, Soul, Funk and the rhythms of New Orleans. Not content to simply rehash and imitate, 24 PESOS twist the traditional Blues form, blending the raw energy and down home grooves of the Meters with the sophisticated feel and harmony of John Scofield, John Mayer and Ray Charles while staying true and respectful to their Blues roots.
Once upon a time guitarist, singer, songwriter Julian Burdock had a dream.
Wouldnt it be great to be in a band called 24Pesos.
In 2006 Silas Maitland and Julian Burdock wrote and produced a record for legendary soul singer Geno Washington. The idea for that record was to capture Genos live energy and improvisational approach. The album was a return to form for Geno who regards this record as his most exciting and original to date. It was during the recording of that record that Burdock and Maitland decided to put together a group to play live and record their own material.
Commitments as sidemen (session musicians) meant that nothing really happened for a couple of years until the two found themselves on stage as part of the band with a very famous ex boy band member who shall remain nameless. The money was good but the music was not. It was at this point the pair decided to re kindle the idea of their own band.
In 2008 they recruited Moz Gamble (Hammond) and Mike Connolly (Drums) 24 Pesos was born. The original idea for the band was that the material should be fun to play, interesting, musical and challenging.
Shakey Vick got into blues in the late fifties and early sixties in various duos and blues bands around London.
In 1963 he formed his first band, teaming up with Chris Youlden. They won a heat of an R&B contest and did a gig at the Marquee, which was recorded by Giorgio Gomulsky of Yardbirds connection. Shakey and Chris did a few duo gigs and also worked occasionally with Dave Peverett in Dave’s band Lonesome Jax.
In 1967 The first Shakey Vick Big City Blues Band was formed and started to gig around London and the home-counties circuit, including the Marquee, 100 Club, Klooks Kleek, etc. During those early years he worked with many American artists, including the late Champion Jack Dupree, Arthur Big Boy Crudup, and Johnny Shines.
At about this time Shakey was asked to join Savoy Brown when their harp player left. Shakey had to turn the offer down because Harry Simmonds, the manager could only offer half of what Shakey needed to live on. While the others in the band were all single at that time, Shakey had a wife and children to support. He did a few gigs until Savoy Brown had a day off and were able to rehearse their set without harp and then carried on with his own Big City Blues Band. Later both Chris Youlden and Dave Peverett joined Savoy Brown and started their States careers.
The Shakey Vick band gigged regularly for a few years before Mel Wright, Ron Skinner and Rod Price split to form Dynaflow Blues. Rod Later teamed up with Dave Peverett in Foghat, the British band which became very successful in the USA.
The Shakey Vick band continued with Bruce Langsman on guitar and the first album Little Woman You’re So Sweet, was recorded for Pye in 1969 (later released in the U.S.A. on the Janus label, a Chess Records-associated company).
This was followed by the first continental touring. Shakey Vick Tours in Europe included: Denmark and Sweden in 1969/70, Holland 1972, Holland/Belgium 1974, Holland 1981, Italy 1983, and Holland again in 1985
In 1975 Big Bear Records asked Shakey to be the Artistes road Manager for the annual Anglo-American tour of France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. Here he travelled with Homesick James, Billy Boy Arnold and Tommy Tucker among others. One night arriving late at a German hotel, Tommy asked to share Shakeys room as hed got fed up rooming with Homesick. The next morning, the musicians asked Tommy what it was like sharing the room with a white guy.
I slept with one eye open. declared Tommy.
I slept with both eyes open. Shakey replied.
A series of long-lasting residencies on the London circuit continued during the ups and downs of the blues scene in Britain. Shakey continued to play the blues when other bands were turning to Rock, indeed his whole career has been about encouraging interest in the blues, whether as a musician inspiring younger blues players via open mic jams, or as the editor of a blues magazine, British Blues Review, or as a promoter of blues gigs around London.
Shakey edited the British Blues Review from April 1998 until July 1999. In addition to his band work, Shakeys promotions around London from 1992-1999 included the American artists, Kenny Neal, Lucky Evans (ex Howlin’ Wolf), Guitar Shorty, Elisha Blue and U.P.Wilson. at places as diverse as the 100 Club W1, the Carnarvon castle NW1, the Station Tavern W10, the Plough SW17 and the Dublin Castle NW1. He also started his own blues label, Vicksboro Records.
In January 2000, he went to the U.S. to gig and record an album for ex -Foghat guitarist Rod Price. Rod was in the first Shakey Vick band before joining the Black Cat Bones and then going on to success in the States with Foghat. The cd was released in the U.S on the Burnside label and then in Europe about eight weeks later. Shakey returned to the States another four times during the following eighteen months for promotional tours.
Currently Shakey has teamed up with Chris Youlden and Mel Wright (Chris was the singer in Savoy Brown when that band started to take off in the States, but he had formed a band with Shakey as early as 1963. Mel was the drummer in the original Shakey Vick Big City Blues Band). They have formed a new band, Maxwell Street, named after the famous Chicago market where bluesmen and women busked on the street.
The band personnel are Shakey Vick, vocals and harp, Chris Youlden, vocals and guitar, Bernie Pallo, lead guitar, Pete Moody, electric Bass and Mel Wright, drums.
They have recorded a 4-track cd entitled Movin Along with all songs penned By Shakey and arranged by the band. This has now been released on the Vicksboro label. The band will be doing some gigs in future. The Shakey Vick Big-City Blues Band will also continue to gig.
Maxwell Street have changed their name as there are at least two other bands with the same name. The band will now be known as Waydown and will release the forthcoming Cd album under the title “Greek Street” after the Soho street. This album will consist of nine new tracks plus the Maxwell Street tracks.
The band meet in the Coach & Horses pub in Greek Street, whenever they need to discuss business. This is the pub where Mel and Shakey first came up with the idea of the Moving Along Cd, and also where the name change was agreed so it seems appropriate to identify with the area.
Waydown’s line-up is the same as Maxwell Street with the exception of the bass. Pete Moody was unable to continue due to other commitments so Andy Cleveland joined for the other recording sessions. Andy has worked with the Shakey Vick Band and with Gordon Smith and the Top Topham/Jim McCarty Band among others.
Steve Phillips (born 18 February 1948) is an English blues and country musician. He is mainly renowned for being part of the supergroup Notting Hillbillies along with the Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler and Brendan Croker
Phillips was born in London, England, but when still a child his family moved to Leeds; he has lived in Yorkshire for most of his life. His father, Harry Phillips, was a sculptor (Harry Phillips inspired Mark Knopfler to write the song "In the Gallery," from the debut Dire Straits album), and his mother was a painter. At the age of 13, Phillips began learning to play guitar and started playing in different pubs in Leeds. In 1965, at the age of 17, he formed a band called Easy Mr. Steve's Bootleggers in which he mainly played piano. The group eventually recorded some demos but these were not released until 1996. They split up in 1967, although the various musicians continued to work together in different combinations from time to time.
In 1968, after buying his first steel resonator guitar, a vintage National, he played many solo gigs in Leeds pubs. Then, a journalist working for The Yorkshire Evening Post, called Mark Knopfler, met him in order to get an interview. They soon become friends and started playing together. Their stage name was The Duolian String Pickers. They went on playing in different pubs. Finally, in 1973, Knopfler left Leeds and moved to London to become part of Brewer's Droop and, afterwards, founded Dire Straits, with whom he finally reached mainstream recognition.
By the mid-1970s, Phillips had met the Bradford-born songwriter, singer and guitarist Brendan Croker. They opened a club in a Leeds pub called The Packhorse, where they also played guitar. As a side project, Phillips spent his spare time painting. Finally, in the 1980s, Phillips was persuaded to release his first album, titled ironically The Best Of Steve Phillips. Recorded between 1977 and 1986, the album contained fourteen tracks, only one of which was self-composed: the rest were classic country blues and ragtime instrumentals by such artists as Blind Willie McTell, Big Bill Broonzy and Blind Blake. In 1989, he released a second album, Steel-Rail Blues, which contained more of his own compositions as well as arrangements of others' songs.
Knopfler, already famous as the leader of Dire Straits, offered to produce Phillips's next album for him. However, following an impromptu (and still well-remembered) gig in May 1986 at the famous Grove Inn in Leeds (one of the city's most celebrated musical venues) in which Knopfler joined Phillips and Croker, Phillips suggested the they form a band along with Croker (who had also released a couple of albums with his band The 5 O'Clock Shadows). This idea became The Notting Hillbillies. Through this group, Phillips achieved a wider recognition that allowed him to go on releasing his full solo albums and to enhance his career.
Phillips went on releasing albums throughout the 1990s. He has worked with a wide group of musicians whom he calls on for band gigs; they were at one time called The Famous Five but are now known as The Rough Diamonds. Most of these musicians (and other guests) have appeared on his albums, except for his most recent, Solo (2005) which is Phillips on his own. (These recordings are difficult to find outside the UK, despite the fact that Phillips is internationally known as an excellent blues singer and guitarist and has undertaken several overseas tours, notably in Italy, Spain and Scandinavia). In 1996, Just Pickin' was released; an album that gathered previously unreleased demos with Easy Mr Steve’s Bootleggers, Mark Knopfler, Brendan Croker and other musicians. These recordings spanned nearly thirty years, from 1965 to 1981.
Phillips usually tours solo, with occasional gigs with The Rough Diamonds. He has also played with other solo blues artists such as Ray Stubbs, Doug McLeod and Hans Theessink. He still plays regularly with Croker and appears occasionally with Knopfler and his band, especially for charity fund-raising gigs. When not touring, Steve and The Rough Diamonds play most Tuesday nights at the Grosvenor Hotel in Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire. These informal evenings usually gather a good audience and often feature friends of Phillips and the band 'sitting in' for all or part of the gig. The music ranges from early blues to rock'n'roll, country to Chicago R&B. A live album of material recorded at the Grosvenor will be issued in 2008.[dated info]
In addition to his skills as a musician, Phillips is a noted landscape painter, specialising in scenes around his North Yorkshire home area. These paintings are notable for their treatment of North Yorkshire's distinctive but elusive light, and have a luminous quality which renders them instantly recognisable as his work. His album, Been A Long Time Gone, has a detail from one of his paintings on the sleeve.
As if musical and artistic gifts were not enough, Phillips has an enviable reputation as a builder and restorer of guitars. Though guitars made by N.S. Phillips are few in number, they are greatly sought after and are owned by musicians such as Knopfler, Croker, Dave Peabody and Dave Speight. The 6-string he made for Knopfler featured heavily on the Notting Hillbillies' album and has been described by Knopfler as one of his favourites.
One of the hardest working blues guitarists in London and T-Bone Walker obsessive, Mal moved to London in 2002 after 12 years in Edinburgh. Since then, he's played with the best of the South East blues scene all over the UK and Europe - including appearances with Kurt Crandall, Jerimiah Marques & the Blue Aces, West Weston's Bluesonics, Pete G & the MagniTones, the Eric Ranzoni Trio, Sam Hare (as Hucklebuck and Soul Junction), Oo-Bop-Sh'Bam, and Gentleman Tim & the Contenders. Currently Mal may be seen on stage playing West Coast blues with The Cadillac Kings or soulful blues with Big Mamma's Door.
In this blues harmonica lesson Lee Sankey shows how you can add flourishes to the ending of your blues licks and phrases like a professional player. Lee runs through exercises in 1st, cross and 3rd position that demonstrate two important techniques. One, jumping an octave and two, avoiding the root note. http://lnk.ms/MBHlC
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. One of three noted guitarists, with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, to have played with The Yardbirds, Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. He was ranked 14th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and the magazine has described him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock". He was also ranked second greatest rock guitarist of all time in Digital Dream Door, a site that ranks movies and music. MSNBC has called him a "guitarist's guitarist".
