Tag Archives: Blues

Blues, Film

Video of the day: Can Blue Men Sing The Whites BBC documentary

Mayall_blues

Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Sing The Whites?

Documentary telling the story of what happened to blues music on its journey from the southern states of America to the heart of British pop and rock culture, providing an in-depth look at what this music really meant to a generation of kids desperate for an antidote to their experiences of living in post-war suburban Britain.

This is the definitive documentary on the beginnings of British Rhythm and Blues.

Narrated by Nigel Planer and structured in three parts, the first, Born Under a Bad Sign, focuses on the arrival of American blues in Britain in the late 50s and the first performances here by such legends as Muddy Waters, Sonnie Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Part two, Sittin’ on Top of the World, charts the birth of the first British blues boom in the early 60s, spearheaded by the Rolling Stones and groups such as the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals and the Pretty Things.

The final section, Crossroads, looks at the next, more hardcore British blues boom of the mid-to-late 60s, with guitarists Eric Clapton and Peter Green and the international dominance of their respective bands, Cream and Fleetwood Mac.

Featuring archive performances and interviews with Keith Richards, Paul Jones, Chris Dreja, Bill Wyman, Phil May, John Mayall, Jack Bruce, Mick Fleetwood, Ian Anderson, Tony McPhee, Mike Vernon, Tom McGuinness, Mick Abrahams, Dick Taylor, Val Wilmer, Chris Barber, Pete Brown, Bob Brunning, Dave Kelly and Phil Ryan

DURATION: 1 HOUR, 30 MINUTES

– Hallgeir

Blues, Robert Johnson

Videos of the day: Two great documentaries about Robert Johnson

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Today is the birthday of the legendary blues-man Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson’s shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend, including a Faustian myth. As an itinerant performer who played mostly on street corners, in juke-joints, and at Saturday night dances, Johnson enjoyed little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime.

We celebrate his life and art with two amazing documentaries.

1. The Crossroads Legends – Search for Robert Johnson:
search_for_robert_johnson

John Hammond, Jr. explores the life and times of blues man, Robert Johnson. Hammond is a fine blues musician himself, here he travels through the small towns of the Mississippi Delta and interviews several of Robert Johnson’s contemporaries and acquaintances, including Johnny Shines.
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Music Calendar

April 28 in music history

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Bob Dylan: Together Through Life (released 5 years ago today)
…Sure, I try to stick to the rules. Sometimes I might shift paradigms within the same song, but then that structure also has its own rules. And I combine them both, see what works and what doesn’t. My range is limited. Some formulas are too complex and I don’t want anything to do with them.
~Bob Dylan (to Bill Flanagan, in 2009)–

“Dylan, who turns 68 in May, has never sounded as ravaged, pissed off and lusty”
~David Fricke (rollingstone.com)

 bob dylan Together-Through-Life
Charley Patton (between April 1887 and 1891 – April 28, 1934), also known as Charlie Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the “Father of the Delta Blues”, and is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man (Palmer, 1995). Musicologist Robert Palmer considers him among the most important musicians that America produced in the twentieth century. Many sources, including musical releases and his gravestone, spell his name “Charley” even though the musician himself spelled his name “Charlie.”Check out:

 charlie patton
Kim Althea Gordon (born April 28, 1953, Rochester, New York) is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz (of Pussy Galore). Gordon has collaborated with a number of musicians, including Ikue Mori, DJ Olive, William Winant, Lydia Lunch, Courtney Love, Alan Licht, Mike Watt, and Chris Corsano.  KimGordon
Classic Interview: Bob Dylan – Klas Burling Interview, Stockholm, Sweden – 28 April 1966 (Read more)

Immediately after the official press conference at the Hotel Flamingo at Stockholm, Dylan was interviewed for Swedish Radio 3: Stockholm: Radiohuset by Sweden’s first disc jockey, Klas Burling. Burling asked all the questions that Dylan had clearly grown sick and tired of hearing and got a really hard time as a result. You have to give poor Burling credit for lasting the distance and carrying the interview through to the end.
(~Every Mind Polluting Word)

  bob Dylan klas burling interview 1966
Johnny Cash, Music Calendar

April 26 in music history

20 year anniversary for Johnny Cash’s American RecordingsAmerican Recordings did something very important — it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he’d been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)		 cash american 1
William “Count” Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984)
was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie’s theme songs were “One O’Clock Jump” and “April In Paris”.		 Count_Basie_in_Rhythm_and_Blues_Revue
Johnny Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992)
was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, “Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth. When Shines came back to the blues in 1965 he was 50, yet his voice had the leonine power of a dozen years before, when he made records his reputation was based on”.		 johnny shines
 Devils & Dust is the 13th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, and his third folk album (after Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad). It was released on April 25, 2005 in Europe and on April 26 in the US. It debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200 album chart.  bruce devil and dust
Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886? – December 22, 1939)
was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.		 MaRainey
Duane Eddy (born April 26, 1938)
is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically “twangy” sound, including “Rebel Rouser”, “Peter Gunn”, and “Because They’re Young”. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.		  duane eddy

 

– Hallgeir

Blues, The Best Songs

Charley Patton: Pony Blues

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charlie patton

If I made records for my own pleasure, I would record Charley Patton songs only.
~Bob Dylan (Press Conference, Rome – July 2001)

Baby, saddle my pony, saddle up my black mare
Baby, saddle my pony, saddle up my black mare
I’m gonna find a rider, baby, in the world somewhere

Hello central, the matter with your line?
Hello central, matter, Lord, with your line?
Come a storm last night an’ tore the wire down

 

Wikipedia:

Released 1929
Format 78 RPM single
Recorded 14 June, 1929
Genre Delta blues
Length 2:58
Label Paramount
Writer(s) Charlie Patton

“Pony Blues” is a Delta blues song written and recorded by the archaic bluesman Charley Patton. With the help of record store owner, H. C. Speir, Patton’s first recording session occurred on June 14, 1929, cut six sides, included “Pony Blues” (vocal and guitar), for Paramount Records. The song later became a standard in the Delta region, and appears in the repertoires of many other blues musicians. Patton had a body of his own compositions which he recorded at the session, included “Banty Rooster Blues,” “Down the Dirt Road” and his version of “Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues.”

Pony Blues was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2006. The board selects songs in an annual basis that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

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