| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Ernie Williams remembered
MMRF Artist 
Fireball Boogie - Camille Howard
Camille Howard (March 29, 1914 – March 10, 1993) was an American R&B pianist and singer.
Howard was born in Galveston, Texas. When in California in the 1940s, she became the featured piano player with Roy Milton’s Solid Senders, playing on all their early hits on the Juke Box and later the Specialty record label, including "R. M. Blues" (1946).
After that record's success, she featured on more of Milton’s records, occasionally as singer. Record label head Art Rupe also began recording her as a solo artiste, with her biggest hit coming with "X-Temporaneous Boogie".
She continued to record successfully in the early 1950s, but the growth of rock and roll and her own religious convictions ended her career.
Howard died in Los Angeles in March 1993.
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”
Blues In D Natural / Queen Bee - Sue Foley
Sue Foley (born March 29, 1968, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian blues singer and guitarist.
Foley has been writing and playing professionally since 1984. She has recorded ten albums, for both Antone's Records and Shanachie Records. She has spent over fourteen years on the road as a bandleader, lead vocalist, guitarist and manager of her own band. In addition to her own touring, she has also shared the stage with blues musicians, such as Back Alley John, B. B. King, Buddy Guy and John Lee Hooker. Her initial career began in Ottawa, Canada, at the age of sixteen where, in addition to solo work, she sang with the Back Alley John Revue.
Foley sent a demo tape of herself to Clifford Antone's label (Antone's Records) in 1990. Impressed, the record label arranged an audition for the guitarist. She moved to Austin, Texas and soon signed a recording contract with Antone's.
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”
Pawnshop Bound - William Clarke
William Clarke (March 29, 1951 - November 2, 1996) was an American blues harmonica player. He was chiefly associated with the Chicago blues style of amplified harmonica, but also incorporated elements of soul jazz and swing into his playing.
Born in Inglewood, California, United States, Clarke played guitar and drums as a youngster and learned the blues through The Rolling Stones records. He began playing harmonica in 1967 and played locally in Los Angeles, while he held a day job as a machinist. He soon struck up an association with George "Harmonica" Smith; the pair began playing regularly together in 1977, lasting until Smith died in 1983.
Clarke began releasing albums in 1978 on small local record labels. From 1985 to 1988, Rick Holmstrom toured and played with Clarke. In 1987, Clarke was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award for his record Tip of the Top, and after sending a demo tape to Alligator Records, he secured a national recording contract. His debut for Alligator, Blowin' Like Hell, arrived in 1990, and he followed the release with international touring. "Must Be Jelly", a song from the album, won the Handy Award for Blues Song of the Year.
Clarke was touring in March 1996 when he collapsed on stage at a date in Indianapolis. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and as a result lost weight and cut back on alcohol and drugs. These measures were not sufficient to keep him healthy; he collapsed again in November, at a concert in Fresno, and died of a bleeding ulcer, at the age of 45, the following day.
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”
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A Pair Of Kings - Artur Menezes
At 25 years old, and 13 of guitar playing, Artur Menezes is a very active musician in the Brazilian blues/rock scene.
He played in several festivals in Brazil: Guaramiranga Jazz and Blues Festival, Garanhuns Jazz Festival, Canoa Blues, Lençois Jazz and Blues, Bourbon Street and many others.
In 2006 and 2007, Artur Menezes lived in Chicago, where he had the honor to meet the blues closer.
There he played in several Blues Clubs: B.L.U.E.S., Kingston Mines, Buddy Guy’s Legends, Smoky Daddy, Rosa’s, Katherina’s, Vine Tastings and Gabe’s Backstage and Lounge.
In these Clubs he played with John Primer, Charlie Love and The Silky Smooth Band, Linsey Alexander, Phill Guy, Brother John, Big Ray, Jimmi Burns among others.
He also was a member from The Shakes Blues Band, where he played in many gigs. Besides that, he had the single opportunity to improve his guitar playing skills after watching concerts of many names like Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Koko Taylor, Jeff Beck, Robert Cray, Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, Eddie Clearwater, Carlos Johnson and many others. Among his influences, we can tell: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert King, Albert Collins, B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter, James Brown, Charlie Love and many kinds of brazilian music.
Nowadays, Artur Menezes recorded his newest album called "Early To Marry", by the Blues Time Records brand. He still studies music and teach his guitar skills in some workshops.
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”
Walking Blues - Joe Willie Wilkins
Joe Willie Wilkins (January 7, 1921 – March 28, 1981) was an American Memphis blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Whilst he influenced contemporaries such as Houston Stackhouse, Robert Nighthawk, David Honeyboy Edwards, and Jimmy Rogers, Wilkins' bigger impact was on up and coming guitarists, including Little Milton, B.B. King, and Albert King. Wilkins' songs included "Hard Headed Woman" and "It's Too Bad."
Wilkins was born in Davenport, Coahoma County, Mississippi. He grew up on a plantation near Bobo. His father, Papa Frank Wilkins, was a local sharecropper and guitarist, whose friend was the country bluesman, Charley Patton. Young Wilkins learned to play guitar, harmonica and accordion. His early proficiency of the guitar, and slavish devotion to learning from records, earned him the nickname of "Walking Seeburg" (Seeburg Corporation being an early manufacturer of jukebox)
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”
Cry Baby Cry - Effie Smith
Born Effie Bly, 10 April 1914, Oklahoma and Died 11 February 1977 , Los Angeles, California Smith made her first professional splash in the '40s, when she appeared as a regular guest on broadcasts of the Armed Forces Service Radio. Much of this material has been reissued as collector's broadcast transcripts, and reveals a performance opportunity that not only included a hungry, appreciative audience, but a whole world of possible connections and influences for a young performer.
Effie Smith took part in broadcasts with artists such as tenor saxophone colossus Coleman Hawkins, bandleader and composer Benny Carter, and even pianist and eventual classical conductor Andre Previn at the age of 16. Smith cut one her earliest sides, "Answer to R.M. Blues" and "It's Been So Long," for the Miltone label in 1947.
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”
Jerry "Boogie" McCain has passed
Jerry McCain, often billed as Jerry "Boogie" McCain (June 18, 1930 - March 28, 2012), was an American electric blues musician, best known as a harmonica player. Born in Gadsden, Alabama, United States), he was one of five children of a poor family, many of his siblings became involved in music as well, most notably his brother, Walter, who played drums on some early recordings. McCain picked up the harmonica from itinerant musicians "Chick" and "Shorty" who played at the local bars (and street corners) when he was young.
McCain was a fan of the music of Little Walter and met the artist when, in 1953, he traveled to Gadsden for a show. McCain's recording debut came via Trumpet Records the same year under the name "Boogie McCain", with his brother Walter on drums. The two tracks were "East of the Sun" and "Wine-O-Wine". After recruiting Christopher Collins, who would be with him throughout most of his career, he went on to the Excello label. During his years with the Excello (1955–57) he developed his amplified harmonica style, and unusual blues lyrics. The Excello Label period saw the release of such noted songs as "The Jig's Up", and "My Next Door Neighbor". His later recording for Rex Records "She's Tough" / "Steady" was an inspiration to The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Kim Wilson duplicated McCain's harp work on their version
In 2002, Ichiban released an album called American Roots: Blues featuring McCain. McCain's abridged work was featured on track 8 of the Rhino Records Blues Masters Volume Four: Harmonica Classics, with an almost lost recording of "Steady". McCain's inclusion in the Blues Master series, was alongside Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Junior Wells, Howlin' Wolf, Snooky Pryor, and George "Harmonica" Smith.
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”
My Baby Left Me - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs such as "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other artists.
Arthur Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi, United States. For a time he lived and worked throughout the South and Midwest as a migrant worker. He and his family returned to Mississippi in 1926. He sang gospel, then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. As a member of the Harmonizing Four he visited Chicago in 1939. Crudup stayed in Chicago to work as a solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label.
There was some confusion as to his actual date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his siblings. He died of a heart attack in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia in March 1974
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”
Rock Me Baby - Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam John Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas. Rolling Stone magazine included Hopkins at number 71 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
Robert "Mack" McCormick stated, "Hopkins is the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act"
Born Sam John Hopkins in Centerville, Texas, Hopkins' childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas. That day, Hopkins felt the blues was "in him" and went on to learn from his older (somewhat distant) cousin, country blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander. Hopkins had another cousin, the Texas electric blues guitarist, Frankie Lee Sims, with whom he later recorded. Hopkins began accompanying Blind Lemon Jefferson on guitar in informal church gatherings. Jefferson supposedly never let anyone play with him except for young Hopkins, who learned much from and was influenced greatly by Blind Lemon Jefferson thanks to these gatherings. In the mid 1930s, Hopkins was sent to Houston County Prison Farm for an unknown offense. In the late 1930s Hopkins moved to Houston with Alexander in an unsuccessful attempt to break into the music scene there. By the early 1940s he was back in Centerville working as a farm hand.
Filmmaker Les Blank captured the Texas troubadour's informal lifestyle most vividly in his 1967 documentary, The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins.
Houston's poet-in-residence for 35 years, Hopkins recorded more albums than any other bluesman.
Hopkins died of esophageal cancer in Houston January 30, 1982, at the age of 69. His New York Times obituary named him as "one of the great country blues and perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players."
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”
Dr. Feelgood - Linah Rocio with Earnest "Guitar" Roy
The Man and the music speaks for itself. Earnest ”Guitar” Roy is truly fulfilling his dream. Earnest Roy, Jr. was born on September 25th, 1958 in Clarksdale, Mississippi under the watchful eye of his late, great father and guitarist, Earnest Roy, Sr, who worked with Jackie Brinston, Ike Turner, John Lee Hooker, Wade Walton, Raymond Hill and many of the other Clarksdale bluesman. Earnest Sr. was in a book called, “Conversation with the Blues” by Paul Oliver. Earnest’s father taught him bass guitar at the early age of five, and when Earnest turned eight, he began playing in his fathers band, “Earnest Roy and the Clarksdale Rockers”, who's members included Big Jack Johnson, C.V. Ville, and Raymond Hill. At age eleven, Earnest Jr. began playing lead guitar. Earnest Jr. formed his first band, First Choice, at age
fourteen. It was at this time that he began playing blues and jazz music that developed into his own style, “Bluejazz”. The national exposure of First Choice led to an offer as a regular performer on Soul Train. At the time, however, the fourteen year old decided to finish high school. At seventeen, Earnest moved to Dayton, Ohio and joined a band called, Black Satin Soul. In 1989, Jim O’Neal , the president and C.E.O. of Rooster Blues Records signed Earnest “Guitar” Roy to the Rooster Blues label and released a single called “Too Many Women And I Wanna Know What My Little Girl’s Been Doing”. The song was written in a San Diego hotel room while touring and playing backup guitar for the late blues great, Albert King. From 1993 to 2001, Earnest played for the international televangelist and pastor, Rod Parsley, whose breakthrough ministry aired on 320 nations around the world. In 2001, Earnest “Guitar” Roy returned to his blues roots when he began touring and appearing at blues and jazz festivals with the blues legend, Sam Carr. Earnest also toured Australia in cities such as Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Byron Bay, and Brisbane to name a few. While in the U.S., Earnest played at The House Of Blues in Orlando, Fl. with Joe Turner. Earnest’s other credits include playing drums on Big Jack Johnson’s first album “Oil Man”, and playing lead guitar and drums on Frank Frost’s “Midnight Prowler” album (Earnest has writing credit for the song "Earnest’s Groove"). The song appeared on the Earwig Music Label. Bob Eagle, an Australian Blues Historian, said, “Earnest plays lovely, thoughtful original solos. Earnest is not another B.B. or Albert King, but is one of the few original voices on guitar. He has a happy knack of writing good songs and performing them convincingly. Earnest inherited his father's brand of playing and his father's band name, Earnest "Guitar" Roy and the Clarksdale Rockers.
"I first entered the realm of music through dance.
At the age of six I took my first ballet classes and I did not stop dancing until injuries forced me to.
I was born in Santiago de Chile and grew up there, as well as in Hong Kong and Switzerland. As a child I had the privilege to travel extensively throughout Asia. I still feel very much at home while travelling. I gave this a voice with a song called “Gipsy Woman”. I think that is me.
I believe travelling can give big changes and wisdom through new perceptions and perspectives, which always comes in naturally as long as you are open to it. Through my music I hope I can travel again and see new things and places.
I have explored a great deal in art, and I miss dancing, but now I dance with my voice and with my hands.
To play the piano had not been an immediate choice, rather it came to me when I had no band at the time. I had sung in numerous bands, but no band gave me the satisfaction I was searching for.
I decided to start playing rather late, with the vision in my head to write songs and eventually be on stage with them.
I never thought I would actually sing AND play the piano, always convinced it should be someone else who played it for me, with me only doing the basic, the ground on which to build on.
But the piano seems to have become a part of me when I play. It has become my dance, and it soothes me when I’m in distress.
After exploring the world of dance and theatre (I did some acting) I found songwriting one of the most rewarding and personal choices I have ever made. Songwriting is like opening a door and letting everyone in without being able to close it. That can be very scary but also so rewarding.
Songwriting gives me freedom of speech and freedom to feel what I sometimes might not have the courage to feel when not doing music, or not on stage.
That might seem odd, but there is a great deal that I tend to hide from myself. And then, when I perform, it all comes out."
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”
BLACK SWAMP BLUES - Steve Karla
On a dual path from the start, having been raised around music making in the heartland and drawing since he could hold a pencil, there was never a question in Steve’s mind that he was meant to be an artist of both visual and musical mediums.
An early foundation in classical western music, taught by the ear training method known as Suzuki, combined with Steve’s rebellious nature, led him to seek out the possibilities of improvisation in blues and jazz once he switched to guitar.
This concept of improvisation directly influenced his art making approach as he focused on the possibilities through ceramic sculpture and drawings during his undergraduate and graduate experience. Each work is an attempt at accessing a mindset beyond uncertainty and doubt, free of all presumptions and expectations, while becoming a conduit for the creative spirit.
Most recently Steve has been working on sizeable collage creations, “Geoscapes,” that owe much of their inspiration to the whimsical scenes from artists like Heironymous Bosch, M.C. Escher, and Salvadore Dali. The works of R.Crumb have also been influential, along with his musical sense. Other musical influences include Robert Jr. Lockwood, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sol Hoopii, Bob Wills,
Charlie Christian, and Django Reinhardt.
Steve moved to Asheville after working as a production potter and playing lap steel and guitar in a swing band in Tennessee. He can be seen sitting in with local musicians, and is also half of a guitar and ukelele duo with his wife Hali, combining the styles of classic jazz standards, Hawaiian, blues, and gypsy swing.
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”
Soulstack Releases Long Awaited Debut CD Big Red
| Soulstack Releases Long Awaited Debut CD Big Red |
|
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”
The BBP has a live IndieGogo campaign to fund the making of their first studio recording! (IndieGogo is like Kickstarter)
|
ReverbNation
Twitter
Artist Website
Facebook
YouTubeIf 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”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)