The Blues Blogger

“I’m excited about releasing some new music for the audience and for my band and for me to play. This material we’re just releasing now we’ve been working on stage for the last couple of years and it’s been going over really, really well and it’s just worked out that now seemed like a good time to release a record.”~ Steve Miller

Saturday Morning – Breakfast

My wife TBBW and I sat down for a scrumptious Ukrainian breakfast at a local neighborhood eatery with some good friends. Many months had passed since our last get together. I commented on how amazed I was that half of 2010 had gone by. And that so many different, but positive changes had already taken place in our day gigs for both my wife and I. This was something I predicted would be the case the last time we all got together.

As our server warmed up our coffee, I was asked if The Blues Blogger had any new posts lined up. I told everyone how concerned I was because during the transitional stages of the last six months, I felt some of my older readers may have noticed that I’ve been posting less frequently. And I hoped they understood.

I then mentioned I was writing an article on Steve Miller. Just hearing the name had everyone flashing back to a moment where one of his tunes played like a soundtrack to their past. But it also met with some curiosity and a few questions. Why Steve Miller? And how does he relate to the blues? These were all very good questions. He may be known to many as the “Space Cowboy” or the “Gangster of Love,” but his background is as vibrant as all the upbeat recognizable songs.

Several Years Ago

I wrote an article where I highlighted a song called Loan Me a Dime that Boz Scaggs recorded from the album of the same name back in 1969. In that piece I mentioned that Scaggs grew up in Texas with rock legend Steve Miller. In fact it was Miller that taught Scaggs some guitar chords and convinced him to join his band. For me it was actually Boz’s album in 1969 that introduced me to the late sixties psychedelic blues sound of Steve Miller. I’ve enjoyed both of them since.

Steve Miller

was born October 5, 1943 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Steve’s father was a jazz enthusiast, hat salesman, pathologist and amateur recording engineer. And his mother was a jazz-influenced singer.

Miller’s godfather Les Paul (pioneer of the electric guitar and multi-track recording) taught him his first guitar chords at the age of five. Paul and his wife Mary Ford were one of the regulars who stopped by the Miller household. Steve’s father was also the best man at Les Paul and Mary Ford’s wedding. It was Paul who encouraged a young Steve Miller to utilize his talent.

The Miller family later moved to Dallas Texas in 1950. At St. Mark’s School Miller put together his first band “The Marksmen.” This was also where (as I mentioned above) Miller met classmate Boz Scaggs. Steve would eventually graduate from Woodrow Wilson High School.

Another regular in the Miller house was T-Bone Walker. Steve’s father used to record Walker and his playing became a huge influence on Steve.

Returning to Wisconsin in 1962, he entered The University of Wisconsin–Madison, and put together a band called The Ardells along with Boz Scaggs who joined down the road.

After briefly attending The University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Miller returned to the U.S. and moved to Chicago. He would learn the ropes in the same Chicago sixties setting that Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop thrived.

Absorbed in the Chicago blues scene, Miller got the opportunity to play with guys like Paul Butterfield. He also found himself jamming with blues legends such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Buddy Guy. It was a very influential time. And Miller realized, if he hadn’t already, that music would be a part of his life forever.

In 1965 Miller and keyboardist Barry Goldberg formed the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band; eventually getting a steady gig at a New York City blues club… After his stint with Goldberg, Miller moved back to Chicago. Feeling it was time to move on, he made the decision to buy a used Volkswagen bus and go to San Francisco. Impressed by the lively scene, he decided to stay… The Steve Miller Blues Band (later known as just the Steve Miller Band) was born.

The first three albums Children of the Future, Sailor, and Brave New World weaved psychedelic rock with blues; generating a unique style. As most of you all know, Steve would later go on to become a rock icon with enormously popular hits in the seventies and eighties. But it was during the period I mention above that signifies Miller’s roots…

And this is the setting and influence that brings his latest album to life.

Bingo!

The Steve Miller Band’s first studio release in 17 years, takes a look back at the music that initially inspired him; his true roots – The Blues.

Bingo! was recorded at filmmaker George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch and co-produced by Andy Johns. (The Rolling Stones, Free, Led Zeppelin and Blind Faith) The album features energetic covers of ten blues and R&B classics. Songs like “Rock Me Baby,” “Tramp” and “You Got Me Dizzy” along with three Jimmie Vaughan tunes are just some of the classic blues numbers you’ll hear on Bingo! Some of the tracks feature Michael Carabello, Latin percussionist and founding member of Santana. Miller can also be found trading licks alongside guitarist Joe Satriani. This is the first of two parallel releases planned by Miller’s Space Cowboy label and Roadrunner Records.

BINGO! will be released in two formats: a 10-track digipack CD and a special edition with 4 bonus tracks and expanded artwork by Storm Thorgerson. The same person responsible for artwork packages for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

With a gorgeous touring stage by Broadway designer Rob Roth, Miller and his fellow band-mates will perform in selected cities this summer. It’s a positive feel good setting and an experience that aims to please all Steve Miller fans old and new alike.

Our Breakfast Concluded

Breakfast has always been my favorite meal of the day. It’s good to get together with friends. Unfortunately with busy schedules, it never seems to happen enough… As we headed towards our vehicles, I was asked how I knew all this stuff. It’s not so much the information I retained over the years, but really my love of music and writing that brings it all together. There are lots of opinions which are formulated regarding artists without really knowing their background. It’s that additional information that as a writer and music lover really puts the artist’s work in perspective for me.

Looking at the life and times of Steve Miller runs like a screenplay through my mind. I have so many cool visuals that I often find it difficult putting it to words. The videos included in this article show Steve talking about his cool past, and help fill in the gaps beautifully. Please check them out; I think you’ll find them very interesting indeed.

Did you know of Steve Miller’s Chicago blues roots and encouragement by blues greats such Otis Rush, T Bone Walker, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy? Will you get the chance to see Steve this summer? Please add your comments below.

I’d love to hear from you!

The Blues Blogger

— The Steve Miller Band 2010 Summer Tour —

For updated times and concert info, please go to the Steve’s site by clicking here.

June 2010

June 07 Pepsi Center – Corner Brook, NL
June 08 Mile One Center – St. John’s, NL Canada
June 12 Hilton Hotel – Atlantic city, NJ
June 13 MGM Grand – Mashantucket, CT
June 30 Molson Amphitheater – Toronto, Ontario

July 2010

July 02 DTE Energy Music Center – Clarkston, MI
July 03 Taste of Chicago – Chicago, IL
July 05 DE Montreal Jazz Fest – Montreal, QC
July 09 Pechanga Resort – Temecula, CA
July 10 Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
July 11 Greek Theater – Los Angeles, CA
July 14 Chateau Ste Michelle Amp – Woodinville, WA
July 15 Edgefield Amp – Troutdale, OR
July 16 Les Schwab Amp – Bend, OR
July 17 Raley Field – Sacramento, CA
July 24 PNC Park – Pittsburgh, PA
July 25 Churchill Downs Fest – Louisville, KY
July 27 Wolf Trap – Vienna, VA
July 29 Biltmore Estate – Ashville, NC
July 30 Verizon Wireless Amphitheater – Alpharetta, GA
July 31 Amphitheater at the Warf – Orange Beach, AL

August 2010

August 10 Wisconsin State Fair – West Allis, WI
August 12 Eagle River Pavilion – Boise, ID
August 14 Mile High Music Fest – Denver, CO

September 2010

Sept 17 Fender Center Museum – Corona, CA
Sept 18 Verizon Amphitheater – Irvine, CA
Sept 22 Oracle Open World Fest – San Francisco, CA

October 2010

Oct 02 Sun Life Stadium – Miami, FL

Tags: blues, Blues News, Blues Reflections, Classic Rock, New Releases, The Seventies, The Sixties by The Blues Blogger
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The following article was originally featured Dec 3rd, 2007 on blogcritics.org. Coincidentally a few weeks later, Little Walter was inducted into The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. The timing made this a very popular piece… As May 1,2010 would have been Little Walter’s 80th birthday, I’ve re-posted the article adding the video below for any of my readers who might have missed it the first time around. ~tbb

Rehearsal 1968

I love Saturdays… In the basement of our house we were getting ready for another band rehearsal in the afternoon, and there was no place I would rather be. However, there were a few other things that captured my attention. I didn’t have many, but they were some shows on TV I liked to watch. Programs like Underdog, The Flintstones, Spiderman, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and then American Bandstand. Why not? After all, I was only eight.

My brother and I would have canned spaghetti for lunch. After that he’d indulge in a piece of chocolate cake and a slice of processed cheese, which made me wince with disgust.

While helping setup for practice, I would pay close attention to what needed to be done, and learn as much as possible.

BROTHER: Whatever you do, don’t fart around with the gear. I’m serious.

TBB: Don’t worry. I wouldn’t think of messing with everyone’s stuff.

BROTHER: The last time I left you alone you bit my guitar. I see those bucktooth marks every time I play.

TBB: That was years ago… Besides it adds some character.

BROTHER: That type of character I can do without.

My brother had to leave for a while to get something that can only be left to the imagination. My parents were at work and my sister was nowhere to be seen. No one thought much of leaving a kid alone for a few hours back then. Besides I could be trusted. I was left alone to gawk at all the gear. But I would never think of actually sitting down by the drum kit… Well… maybe just a few snaps on the snare…

It sounded good to pound away at the drums. I would imagine I was Gene Krupa and continued to hammer away… How terrible I must have sounded. But it sure felt great… I then went to the bass guitar, picked it up, took a seat and plugged into the amp. Cranking the volume I plucked away at a few of the strings and decided to stop when a bit of plaster came off the ceiling and landed onto the floor… Hmm… maybe I should clean that up.

I grabbed my harmonica that I received as a gift… Hovering over our Admiral console player I found a 45 already on the turntable. It was a Checker Records single called “Key to the Highway” by Little Walter. Placing the stylus in its groove, I positioned the harmonica close to the mike and played along… Who was this Little Walter I thought? He was amazing. I would amuse myself by playing along; getting lost in my imagination. He was unlike any harp player I heard before. Little Walter breathed life into an instrument that I only knew as a toy.

I often thought to myself how cool it would be to actually play music, but those were only fleeting moments. Truthfully I wasn’t interested in being a musician. I wanted to do something different. I wasn’t sure what it was I wanted to do, but I knew it had to involve music.

I finished up my little session and by the time I tidied up, the boys came barreling down the stairs eager to rehearse.

DRUMMER: (sitting down on stool) What’s this white crap on my kit?

BASS PLAYER: (concerned) Hey kid … Where’s your sister?

TBB: I don’t think she’ll bug you … She’s not home.

BASS PLAYER: (relieved) That’s good… I don’t think that chick likes me.

I briefly asked the guys about Little Walter and they told me a little bit about him. They mentioned he died in a street fight in Chicago. What a terrible outcome for such a talented musician. He was only 37. My brother and his friends were working on a few of his tunes. One of those songs was Key to the Highway, which Walter did a version of.

The other song was called Off The Wall. It was the first song on their list to go through. The rehearsal went on for almost 2 hours, and I listened with enthusiastic interest.

Walter Marion Jacobs

known as Little Walter was born May 1, 1930 in Marksville, Louisiana. He taught himself harmonica at the age of 8. After quitting school at 12, Jacobs left Louisiana and traveled wherever his mood took him. He would work at all types of jobs and busk on the streets of New Orleans, Memphis and St. Louis. Little Walter would later honed his skills with great blues man like Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Bill Broonzy, who originally wrote Key to the Highway.

In 1948 Little Walter hooked up with Muddy Waters, and while playing in the Chicago clubs, helped define electric blues. Walter played the amplified harmonica by holding a small microphone in his cupped hands, and achieved a saxophone like sound that expressed his highly creative improvisations. Walter’s ground-breaking playing and distinguishing sound contributed deeply to Muddy’s recordings of the early 1950′s.

The tunes my brother’s band was rehearsing at that time were more from Little Walter’s solo career which began in 1952. Walter formed a group called The Jukes with David and Louis Myers on guitars and Fred Below on drums. This trio were known as The Aces and had been working previously with Junior Wells.

A Loud F Sharp Came From Upstairs

Sometime during rehearsal my sister came home. Storming down the stairs right in the middle of one of the tunes she sneered directly at the bass player. She then yanked the cord from his amp and the outlet almost came off the wall. They continued without missing a beat even though the whole bottom end disappeared. As my sister briskly went back upstairs you could now hear in the distance The Monkees “Last Train to Clarksville” blend into the missing bottom end. This always signified the end of practice for the day.

From 1952 to 1968 Little Walter recorded about 100 titles of which about half were issued on record as of the early 1970′s. Previously unreleased material has made its way to CD’s, and is a great tribute. For a brief time frame in 1964 Little Walter did a tour of England with The Rolling Stones. The years during and after these times were not glorious and would eventually end in his tragic death.

Little Walter inspired artists like Clapton to Butterfield and many other great musicians of our time. I feel very fortunate to have such rich memories and Little Walter is one of those special musicians that helped influence my love for the blues.

It’s been over 40 years since we lost Little Walter. Do you have a memory or favorite Little Walter song? Can you recall a harp player that amplified his sound prior? Feel free to add your comments.

The Blues Blogger

Tags: blues, Blues Reflections, Reflections, The Sixties by The Blues Blogger
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“At that time, my writing partner was William Bell. He came over to my house the night before the session. William wrote the words and I wrote the music in my den that night. That was one of my greatest moments in the studio as far as being thrilled with a piece of music. The feeling of it, it’s the real blues done by the real people… I was there in the middle of it and it was exhilarating.” ~Booker T Jones (NPR Interview)

I’m not sure why, but whenever I get those moments when you’re feeling life’s hard rocky road, I drift back to the sixties and always find a cool moment that seems to smooth things out a bit. The sixties and some of the music from that era had a magical ability to sweep us away; taking us on a soothing, creative and in some cases, ground breaking trip. Fairly young at the time, I didn’t experience the same scene first hand as my older brother and his musician friends. But I was a keen observer.

In the mid to late seventies I had an extensive record collection and dedicated a whole room to store them. With space at a premium and today’s technology giving us access to instant digital media, why utilize the space? Yes, the convenience of a digital audio library at my finger tips is quite cool, but it does have its distinct disadvantages. All this new technology will never kick start my memory banks like going to my local used record store and looking at some old vinyl LP’s. I can search online, but it’s not the same as browsing through the record bins.

After hanging out and checking all the old releases from the sixties and reminiscing, I happen to come across the classic ground breaking 1967 release, “Born Under a Bad Sign.” by Albert King. Closing my eyes, I can still visualize the album cover easily even after all these years… Feeling privileged because it was Albert King’s birthday today, I bought the album and went home with a feeling that it was meant to be. I then converted the LP to MP3 and had a listen. And then I remembered how much this very album influenced some of the great musicians of our time… Great memories indeed!

Albert King

was born on April 25th, 1923 on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. In 1931 when Albert was eight, the family moved to a farm in Forrest City Arkansas. One of 13 children, his real name was Albert Nelson and would be known as Albert King in 1953 after the release of his first single, “Be On Your Merry Way/Bad Luck Blues.” King’s parents were musical. His mother was a church singer, and his stepfather an amateur guitar player and preacher.

As a child King taught himself to play guitar and built his own instrument out of a cigar box. He started playing with gospel groups, but after hearing blues musicians such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, and many others; his sights were set differently. In 1950, he met MC Reeder who owned a nightclub in Osceola Arkansas called T99. In no time King moved to Osceola joining T-99′s house band, In the Groove Boys.

In 1956 King moved to St. Louis, where he sat in with local bands. Later that same year, he was headlining several clubs in the area. It was during those times that Albert began perfecting his style playing his signature Gibson Flying V, named “Lucy.” A left-hander, he learned to play the right-hand guitar upside-down.

King’s popularity was on the rise, but it wasn’t until 1967 with the release of his first album Born Under a Bad Sign with Stax Records that he earned international recognition. Backed up by the Stax house band Booker T. & the MGs, which consisted of guitarist Steve Cropper, bass player Donald “Duck” Dunn and Booker T Jones on keyboards, the album was a collection of recordings from five sessions between March of 1966 and June of 1967. The album’s tile track “Born Under a Bad Sign,” and several others would become a staple for many blues/rock guitarists for years to come such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Derek Trucks just to name a few.

Born Under a Bad Sign

Track Listing of Original Release

Side 1

1. “Born Under a Bad Sign” (William Bell, Booker T. Jones) – 2:47
2. “Crosscut Saw” (R.G. Ford) – 2:35
3. “Kansas City” (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) – 2:33
4. “Oh, Pretty Woman” (A.C. Williams) – 2:48
5. “Down Don’t Bother Me” (Albert King) – 2:10
6. “The Hunter” (Steve Cropper, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Al Jackson, Jr, Booker T. Jones) – 2:45

Side 2

1. “I Almost Lost My Mind” (Ivory Joe Hunter) – 3:30
2. “Personal Manager” (Albert King, David Porter) – 4:31
3. “Laundromat Blues” (Sandie Jones) – 3:21
4. “As the Years Go Passing By” (Deadric Malone) – 3:48
5. “The Very Thought of You” (Ray Noble) – 3:46

Complete with all the charming crackle of the vinyl format, listening to Born Under a Bad Sign after so many years was really cool. The songs are short, but so soulful and sweet. The brevity of the tunes was tied to the 3 1/2-minute limit set by the mandates of radio airplay at the time. But that still doesn’t prevent the album as going down as one of the most influential blues albums of our time. It’s a record that will be long remembered by musicians and fans worldwide.

And since today would have been Albert King’s 87th Birthday, I can’t think of a better time to reflect on this landmark release.

I’ve included a widget of Atlantic Records version of the album titled “King Of The Blues Guitar.” It includes all of the music on the 1967 Stax release, in addition to all of the recordings Albert King did with Booker T & the MGs. Have a listen!

Musicians

* Albert King – Electric guitar and vocals
* Steve Cropper – Electric guitar
* Booker T. Jones – Piano
* Isaac Hayes – Piano
* Donald “Duck” Dunn – Bass
* Al Jackson, Jr. – drums
* The Memphis Horns – Horns

Albert King would play his last gig in Los Angeles on December 19, 1992. He passed away of a heart attack two days later at his Memphis home on December 21, 1992. He was 69 years old. As his hearse sailed in a procession down Beale Street, the Memphis Horns led the way playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” King would then be laid to rest at Paradise Gardens Cemetery in Edmondson, Arkansas.

While The Blues Blogger utilizes digital media to bring these articles to life, there still isn’t a product in the world that can take me back like an old 33 1/3… And “Born Under a Bad Sign” is a perfect example.

Do you have any favorite versions of the song Born Under a Bad Sign? Were you aware of the importance this album played not only on the musicians it inspired, but a whole generation of blues/rock music fans? I’d love to hear you comments.

Happy Birthday Albert King! You will never be forgotten…

The Blues Blogger

Tags: blues, Blues Reflections, Reflections, The Sixties by The Blues Blogger
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