The Blues

[Feraud]

We recently lost the one blues thread.

Lets make this the place where we share our love of all variations of the blues.

To start I will say that I am thrilled to have just received the book Leadbelly: A Life in Pictures!

The influential Louisiana bluesman, Lead Belly, wrote and performed some of the best-loved songs of the twentieth century, including "The Midnight Special," "Rock Island Line" and his signature song, "Goodnight, Irene," which became an international hit in 1950, eight months after his death. John A. Lomax, the esteemed Library of Congress folk music anthropologist, discovered Lead Belly serving time (for assault and murder) at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1934. He immediately saw that Lead Belly was a walking anthology of African-American music, and arranged for him to come to New York, where he created a sensation. Reporters followed Lead Belly everywhere, theaters clamored to book him and celebrities thronged to his concerts. His influence on a later generation of popular musicians was massive: Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Van Morrison, Robert Plant and Beck have all paid their respects.
Lead Belly: A Life in Pictures is a treasure trove of rare, unpublished photographs, news clippings, concert programs, personal correspondence (including letters from Woody Guthrie), record albums, awards and other memorabilia retrieved only recently from a basement trunk in New York.

Lead Belly, born Huddie Ledbetter on a Louisiana farm in 1888, won international fame as an interpreter of African-American folk songs and blues. For 15 years he performed folk songs, spirituals, blues and ballads to enthusiastic audiences at night clubs, political rallies, universities, concert halls and private parties. In 1988 Lead Belly was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where he was the subject of a major retrospective in 2004.

http://www.artbook.com/3865214592.html
You can see some of the pictures from the book at this link-
http://www.steidlville.com/books/558-A-Life-in-Pictures.html


I was never much for the big band pop sound but the blues is where I am at.
Feel free to share pictures, comment, clips, etc. about your favorite blues performer.

Here is his hit Goodnight Irene from Youtube.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fLOualK5GP0

 

[Bourbon Guy]

Seems my favorite blues song and artist moves around with my mood.
Currently it is Charley Patton's "Elder Greene Blues."

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Oddly Enough...

I had just pulled out the Eric Clapton "From The Cradle" - all blues - Clapton's voice is at it's peak on this one.

-dixon cannon

 

[Feraud]

'Honeyboy' Edwards, Delta bluesman, outlasts them all

Posted on Sun, May. 11, 2008
'Honeyboy' Edwards, Delta bluesman, outlasts them all
By CHRIS TALBOTT
With his 93rd birthday a month away, David "Honeyboy" Edwards admits it's getting hard to walk long distances.
Fortunately for the man believed to be the oldest surviving Delta bluesman, fans and admirers never let him walk more than a few feet at a time. Every few steps, someone wants to shake his hand, offer a gift or share news of common friends.

"It's like this everywhere we go," Edwards' manager, Michael Frank, said during the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation ceremony Friday to honor the Shaw native. "He can't walk through a crowded room."

Edwards has a legacy that almost no living musician can match, and as the last Delta bluesman still standing he has found himself in demand. In the past year alone, he has released a new album, won Grammy and Handy Awards, appeared in "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," and done interviews for three documentaries due out in 2009 and 2010.

With all the activity, though, Edwards finds he is often tired these days. He was in Tunica on Thursday for the Blues Music Awards, in Jackson on Friday, and in Crystal Springs on Saturday to play a festival on a bill that included Pinetop Perkins, one of the few musicians who can claim to have known Edwards when he was a young man.

Edwards, who turns 93 on June 28, will get a day to rest when he returns to Chicago, and then it's off to Europe for 10 dates. He still plays about 70 gigs a year and the calls keep coming.

Even among the footloose group of blues musicians who gained fame in the 1930s and '40s, Edwards was known for his far-ranging travels.

"When I was young, I was everywhere," Edwards said.

Edwards learned the guitar growing up in Shaw, started playing professionally at age 17 in Memphis and by the 1950s had played with almost every bluesman of note - Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton, Big Joe Williams, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters - across the decades.

Edwards was honored by the Johnson foundation along with the late Ike Zinnerman, who is believed to be the teacher who helped Johnson become the envy of his fellow bluesmen and a touchstone for a generation of rock 'n' roll musicians.

Though much time has passed, little about Edwards' style has changed. His latest album, "Roamin' and Ramblin'," offers the kind of music Edwards would have played as he traveled first the Delta, then the region.

"Blues ain't never going anywhere," Edwards said. "It can get slow, but it ain't going nowhere. You play a lowdown dirty shame slow and lonesome, my mama dead, my papa across the sea I ain't dead but I'm just supposed to be blues. You can take that same blues, make it uptempo, a shuffle blues, that's what rock 'n' roll did with it. So blues ain't going nowhere. Ain't goin' nowhere."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.miamiherald.com/776/story/528704.html

 

[Tomasso]

"Sweet Home Chicago"

25th Annual Chicago Blues Festival, June 5-8.

The first Bluesfest was a tribute to Muddy Waters, my favorite bluesman.

'Honeyboy' Edwards, Delta bluesman

He's played the Front Porch at the CBF at least a dozen times. This year he's scheduled for June 5th, at 2:30.

 

[Bourbon Guy]

White folks' blues

White peoples' blues. I love this stuff. Could listen to it all day and night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRlU_lSVluE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJPnG3RDxU&feature=related

 

[LizzieMaine]

If the Homemade Jamz Band ever comes to your town,
*run*, don't walk, to get tickets. You will not regret it. One of the best shows we've booked in a long time -- and we get a lot of blues bands here.

 

[JohnnyGringo]

Freddie Cannon, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Lockwood Jr., The 3 Kings-BB, Freddie, and Albert, Jimmy Thackery, Tommy Castro-geez, I could go on and on...Man, I just dig the Blues, be it Classic or Contemporary. This music speaks to me...

 

[KY Gentleman]

Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.
I like J J Cale, too. I tend to lean toward more country blues.

I forgot to ad Keb Mo' to my list...

 

[Bogie]

I'm a big fan of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson, I consider them both in my top rotation lists whenever I'm feeling like say, running in front of an oncoming train.

No, but seriously, I love the Blues. Great music, I tend to lean towards the earlier, grittier style, it's amazing just how much power and soul shines through inspite of, or because of, the lack of recording quality.

 

[TheSwingingBee]

I love BB & Freddie King, grew up on it, and for a local So Cal blues group I love Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, They are awesome in person. But basically anything, I like older stuff, but am more exposed to the newer stuff, my Dad is a huge blues fan and always has been, so I got a good education early.

 

[KY Gentleman]

Taj Mahal! If you haven't heard him do "Leaving Trunk" you ought to hit a record store soon! (no-not a place that sells CD's and posters but a real hole in the wall record store!).

 

[Creeping Past]

Fine picking

Mance Lipscomb, "Sugar Babe"

 

[Feraud]

A tribute to the Mississippi Sheiks is due in 3/09.

Legendary Mississippi Sheiks to get their due
By Tony Montague
Publish Date: May 15, 2008
On a recent holiday, Steve Dawson—guitar maestro and founder of local label Black Hen Music—had the bright idea of putting together a tribute album to one of his favourite bands, the Mississippi Sheiks.

Other than the blues classic “Sitting on Top of the World”, the Sheiks’ songs are largely unknown to today’s music fans, despite having been revered by Americana-influenced musicians since the ’30s. In those days, the trio was one of the hottest—and sauciest—acts around, and it influenced such legends as Memphis Minnie, Robert Johnson, and Big Bill Broonzy.

“Much of their stuff remains obscure,” Dawson told the Straight. “They disbanded in 1935, but were one of the first bands to generate crossover interest from both black and white communities. What’s going to make this different from the regular tribute album is that, for the most part, there’s going to be a house band and the musicians are coming here to record over a three-day period.” The artists appearing on the album—which is scheduled to be out in March 2009—include Madeleine Peyroux, Bill Frisell, Bruce Cockburn, John Hammond, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bob Brozman, Kelly Joe Phelps, Geoff Muldaur, Van Dyke Parks, and Dawson’s recording buddies Jim Byrnes and the Sojourners.

“Ry Cooder has also agreed to do it, much to the chagrin of his lawyer.

Yazoo/Mississippi Sheiks

 

[Peter J.]

This guy was a inspiration to them all (if you narrow it down to electric guitar):
T-Bone Walker:
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=V1xvx0UHa0A&feature=related
Great stuff.

 

[cookie]

Crossroads - the Movie

I picked up the CD at one of the $10 shops recently and can't stop playing it. Also digging a lot of John Lee Hooker and BB King ...though Muddy would still be my fave...IMHO

 

[Vintage lover]

George Thorogood, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Johnson, my all time favorite blues guitar players.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOkN6SOVepE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAcBCGOdDTo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0033iRJLuB8

 

[dhermann1]

Favorite bluesmen that I've seen live: Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Joseph Cotton, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Taj Mahal, Gatemouth Brown. Favorites on record: Little Walter, Lightnin' Hopkins, Rev. Gary Davis, Jay McShann, Paul Butterfield, Big Bill Broonzy, John Lee Hooker, Sister Rosetta Tharp. Hey, I almost forgot! Ray Charles!

 

[flat-top]

I gotta recommend Big Joe Louis. Truly authentic vintage sound. I saw him play live and was blown away!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=231293291

 

[Beowulf67]

W.C. Handy Festival

This is kicking off in a couple of days near me!