The Blues Blogger

Last Summer

I was asked to write a piece on Buddy Guy’s album Skin Deep, which at the time was close to being released. In the article I mentioned how I warmheartedly remembered the music legend’s work from the sixties… I listened to Skin Deep, and immediately loved what I heard, but for some reason it made me drift back to an album Guy came out with forty years earlier.

A Man & the Blues was released in 1968, and today I can still visualize the album cover in my mind… I associate that particular LP to the upbeat atmosphere I was surrounded by at the time… In last year’s article I had to restrain from drifting too much. So I thought it might be cool to take the reflective trip I wasn’t able to make last year…

Church Gig 1968

Now I never normally go to church. That’s because I was more familiar with the synagogue further down the road. I remember thinking even at eight years old, how the Cantor when he sang sounded like Jack Bruce from the band Cream. That’s where my imagination led me even at that young age. A wild association I still get a kick out of telling today… Yes, I fondly recall those times being very buoyant indeed. So you could imagine how anxious I was going to church for the first time.

I helped my brother’s friend and roadie The Big F load the gear out of the basement of our house (where they usually rehearsed) to the church hall. The guys were playing one their first live gigs that night and I was helping them set up. I remember they even brought in a horn section to back them up. The gig was going to be more of a family evening of entertainment; a moment in time where friends, music lovers and neighbors would get together and just have a blast.

My brother’s band eventually got a reputation as a great blues party band. In 1968 my brother and his friends were all teenagers looking for an outlet to express themselves through the love of the music that inspired them. Their enthusiasm and musicianship was well received. The guys loved what they did and it showed.

Several of the songs that my brother and his musician friends rehearsed leading up to that gig were from the album A Man & The Blues. The tunes the guys played were “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “One Room Country Shack” and they opened with the classic Berry Gordy tune “Money.” Many of those songs were versions Buddy covered on the album.

Back then I was too young to express how the music made me feel. All I knew was how important it felt to be around for some reason. And even though I knew deep down I wasn’t going to be a musician, I did know one thing: I needed to experience more of what was going on. I knew right then that music was going to play a big part in my life. It was just a matter of when.

Buddy Guy

was born in July 30th,1936 to a sharecropper’s family, and was one of five children raised on a plantation near the small town of Lettsworth, Louisiana. He learned to play guitar on a self made diddley bow and eventually began performing in the fifties with local acts in Baton Rouge.

Shorty after arriving in Chicago in 1957, Guy entered guitar battle contests on Sundays and Mondays against west side guitarists Magic Sam and Otis Rush. With help from Muddy Waters, he eventually got a recording contract. Some of his early influences were T-Bone Walker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Guy also learned a thing or two from Guitar Slim (a.k.a. Eddie Jones)

“The first guitar player I saw putting on a show was Guitar Slim—I must’ve been 13 years old—he came out riding that guitar, wearing a bright red suit. I thought; ‘I wanna sound like B.B. King, but I wanna play guitar like that.”

In 1960 Guy worked at Chess Records and recorded “First Time I Met The Blues.” Later that same year he started working the first of what would be many projects with Junior Wells. As the sixties progressed, Buddy left Chess and soon got on a serious roll. He entered Billboard’s R&B charts, toured all over the world and shared the stage with many of the best musicians around at the time.

A Man and & The Blues is Buddy Guy’s first full length solo LP. It featured Otis Spann on piano, bassist Jack Myers and drummer Fred Below. This recording is essential listening for any fan of the blues old or new. Hearing the music once again certainly reminded me of the impact it played in my life.

As the sixties closed, so did a chapter in many of our lives. My brother and several of his friend’s would leave home and head out to the bigger cities in hopes of that one gig which would get them the attention they deserved… Buddy Guy continued to record throughout the seventies and eighties, but as the blues scene softened, so did the high profile gigs. It would take close to 20 years of perseverance, until new opportunities would flourish for Guy. And when it did, they would be huge! But that’s a story for another post.

Buddy Guy Summer Tour Schedule 2009

You definitely don’t miss the opportunity to see this true blues music legend as he continues his tour throughout this summer… Dates and show times are subject to change, so make sure you double check. If you want more information on Buddy Guy you can go to his web site by clicking here….The following are some dates that are lined up for this summer’s tour:

Buddy Guy Summer Tour Schedule 2009

JUNE

06/19/09 Charleston, West Virginia Mountain Stage @ Clay Center
06/20/09 Atlantic City, New Jersey Showboat Atlantic City - HOB
06/21/09 Vienna, Virginia The Filene Center @ Wolf Trap
06/23/09 Savannah, Georgia Johnny Mercer Theatre
06/24/09 Atlanta, Georgia Chastain Park Amphitheater
06/26/09 Saskatoon, Sask., CANADA Saskatchewan Jazz Festival
06/27/09 Winnipeg, MB, Canada Winnipeg Jazz Festival
06/30/09 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Summerfest

JULY

07/02/09 Montreal, Quebec, CANADA Fest Int’l De Jazz De Montreal
07/04/09 Chicago, Illinois Petro Music Shell/Grant Pk.
07/05/09 Detroit, Michigan Comerica CityFest
07/09/09 Burlington, Vermont Quadracentennial Festival
07/10/09 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
07/18/09 Council Bluffs, Iowa Mid-America Center Ribfest
07/19/09 Commerce City, CO Mile High Music Festival
07/23/09 Hyannis, Massachusetts Cape Cod Melody Tent
07/24/09 Verona, New York Turning Stone Resort Casino
07/25/09 Montclair, New Jersey Wellmont Theatre
07/26/09 Bridgeport, Connecticut Gathering Of The Vibes

AUGUST

08/01/09 Notodden, Norway Brygga
08/11/09 San Juan Cap., California The Coach House
08/12/09 Los Angeles, California Hollywood Bowl
08/14/09 Primm, Nevada Primm Valley Resort
08/15/09 Saratoga, California Historic Mountain Winery
08/27/09 Bethel, New York Bethel Woods Center For Arts
08/29/09 Westbury, New York Capital One Bank Theatre

SEPTEMBER

09/05/09 Ocean Springs, Mississippi The Shedd BBQ & Blues Joint
09/06/09 Bedford, Texas Bedford Blues Festival
09/12/09 Lincoln, Rhode Island Twin River Events Center
09/19/09 Telluride, Colorado Telluride Blues & Brews Fest.
09/26/09 Birmingham, Alabama Alys Robinson Stephens PAC

Have you seen Buddy Guy in concert before? Anyone checking out the shows listed above? Where were you when Buddy Guy’s 1968 release A Man & The Blues came out? Your comments are always welcome.

TheBluesBlogger

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Tags: Blues Reflections, Reflections, The Sixties by The Blues Blogger
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I feel a whole lot better this weekend! It’s funny, every time I get sick or injured, I always seem to trip back to the sixties. I guess forced relaxation can do that to some people… On that note, I’m going to take it easy this weekend. In the meantime, here’s a post from last year you may enjoy if you missed it the first time around.
~tbb

It Was The Year 1966

My brother knew his cue… Late at night when he heard our father snoring; he would grab his guitar from underneath the bunk bed and begin to play… On most nights I would only pretend I was sleeping. I would listen as he would re-create the sounds he had earlier spun on our console stereo system. It always sounded perfect to me… Not too shabby for a 14 year old guitar player! I was only six years old.

I remember three volumes of an LP called Chicago The Blues Today! My first recollection of Otis Rush is from that album. Along with many others, Otis will always be a part of my earliest musical memories. Chicago The Blues Today! represented the first time that many people were introduced to the sounds of Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Otis Spann, Buddy Guy and of course Otis Rush… He pioneered what was known as The West Side Sound and this album is a perfect example of that era.

One of the tunes I recall my brother playing in the middle of the night was from that LP. The song in particular was called “I Can’t Quit You Baby.” It was the first single and a vehicle for arranger/producer Willie Dixon to launch both Otis Rush’s career and Cobra Records.

“I Can’t Quit You Baby.” was originally released in 1956 and reached number 6 on the Billboard R&B charts… In Willie Dixon’s biography he explains that the song was written about a relationship that Otis was in at the time. Dixon drew from Rush’s experience and captured an emotional performance. The version of the song on 1966’s Chicago The Blues Today! was a little different than the original. However it ended up being the most covered version of the song…

Led Zeppelin did their take on the song on their 1969 debut self entitled album. Zeppelin regularly performed the song at concerts around 1968 to 1970… As well as so many other performers such as Buddy Guy & B.B.King, and Gary Moore.

Otis Rush

was born one of seven children in April 29, 1934, in Philadelphia, Mississippi …He sang occasionally in the church choir, but remained drawn to the country blues sounds of Tommy McClennan and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

In the winter of 1948 Rush went to Chicago and stayed with this sister. While working in the Chicago stockyards, he played harmonica and was inspired by watching Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers perform. Rush then began to study the guitar in 1953. A year later, he fronted a band under the name of “Little Otis.” He played his first job with Arkansas-born guitarist Bob Woodfolk. Otis was self taught and plays his right handed axe left handed and upside down without restringing it. It certainly contributed to his unique sound.

Rush combined his Mississippi roots with modern urban styles of the time. He produced a solid soulful sound with vocals that were capable of really wild falsetto shouts. During the sixties blues revival, Otis emerged as a guru to many well known musicians.

Even though it was his original version in 1956 that got inducted in the blues hall of fame in 1994, for me it was Otis’ sixties take of his song that I commonly remember. And how my brother was able to capture that energy; solo on the bunk bed below… One thing for sure, it’s a great memory for me.

If you are not familiar with Otis Rush, you can get more information regarding this amazing artist on his website. I think if you asked the question… What do Clapton, Hendrix, Bloomfield, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Peter Green all have in common? The answer is they were all influenced by Otis Rush.

Well I hoped you enjoyed another one of my little trips down memory lane? I could go on and on, but the idea is to get the readers of this blog involved in the discussion. So many of you have your own stories to tell… Please make sure you comment below.

Have a good one. I’ll be back soon…

The Blues Blogger

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Tags: Blues Reflections, Reflections, The Sixties by The Blues Blogger
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Ten Random Music Blips

Many of the posts you read on this blog have me venturing out to the country and engaging on a hike with my dog Lucille. Well, the past weekend Lucille stayed home and I took the family dirt biking instead. It was certainly a different experience for us.

Unfortunately, I guess I’m not as familiar with the word clutch as I thought and lost control of the bike. One thing for sure, I realized dirt biking was not my scene. Later that night, battered and bruised my wife gave the following Twitter update:

DIRT BIKE ACCIDENT: @TheBluesBlogger sustains injury. He is fine… However, the shed will never be the same. More to follow. ~TBBW

Not wanting to concern anyone, I sent the following tweets the next day:

Yesterday my doctor gave me some good advice when she said, “You should really stick to hiking.”

“I feel very fortunate… Thankfully, the barbecue & lawn mower cushioned my blow on the way into the steel shed.”

As a result of my accident, there won’t be an @TheBluesBlogger post this weekend. However, I will be doing some random blips shortly.

It’s unusual for me not to bring you a post each and every weekend. I felt bad and was a little bummed Sunday night. So I went on Twitter and came up with ten music blips that randomly came to mind at the time… So, while my writing skills are a little off at the moment, I thought for those that are either not on Twitter, didn’t see my sidebar updates, or just missed it, I’ve decided to publish this post… I’ve also added two additional videos to further enhance the piece.

You can click on each highlighted blip to hear that individual song… Enjoy.

Blip 1 of 10: Let’s get this BlipFest started with The Allman Brothers Band “Whipping Post.” ♫

Blip 2 of 10: If you’re feeling funky… Billy Preston – “It´s Alright Ma (I´m Only Bleeding)” ♫

Blip 3 of 10: Pretty hard to feel down when you’re listening to Electric Flag “Killing Floor.” ♫

Blip 4 of 10: Some medicine for the soul. Gary Moore “Hard Times.” ♫

Blip 5 of 10: With music like this, I’ll be up & running laps in no time. Joe Bonamassa “Blues Deluxe.” ♫

Blip 6 of 10: Recovering from this weekend’s dirt bike accident. So you’re “Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues.” ♫

Blip 7 of 10: Now that the meds have kicked in, here’s a wild choice… Jimi Hendrix “If 6 Was 9.” ♫

Blip 8 of 10: Susan Tedeschi is a fantastic artist. Her song “Learning the Hard Way” comes to mind. ♫

Blip 9 of 10: One more to go. Hope u liked the selections… Here’s Junior playing “Hoodoo Man Blues.” ♫

Blip 10 of 10: That’s it for me. Nite everyone. Here’s Luther taking it back to “Sweet Home Chicago.” ♫

Thanks to all who sent their messages my way. I truly appreciate your concern in regards to this most ridiculous scenario…. I’m sore, but will be up and around very soon.

TheBluesBlogger

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Tags: 1969, Blues Reflections, Reflections, The Seventies, The Sixties, Twitter by The Blues Blogger
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