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“When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing” – Etta James |
Etta James – Full Concert – 08/17/91 – Newport Jazz Festival : |
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Continue reading Jan 25: The late Etta James was born in 1938
Today: Sleepy John Estes passed away in 1977, 37 years ago (read more) |
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| Conway Twitty (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 40 #1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006. From 1971-76, Twitty received a string of Country Music Association awards for duets with Loretta Lynn. He was never a member of the Grand Ole Opry, but was inducted into both the Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame. |  |
| Freddie Stone (born Frederick Stewart, June 5, 1947, Vallejo, California, United States) is an African-American musician, best known for his role as co-founder, guitarist, and vocalist in the band Sly and the Family Stone, the frontman for which was his brother Sly Stone. His sisters Rosie Stone and Vet Stone were also members of the band. |  |
| Essence (released June 5, 2001) is Lucinda Williams‘ sixth album. It was released in 2001. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 28, selling about 44,500 copies in its first week. According to Billboard as of February 2008, the album had sold 336,000 copies in the U.S. | ![Lucinda_Williams_Essence-[Front]-[www.FreeCovers.net]](https://alldylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Lucinda_Williams_Essence-Front-www.FreeCovers.net_.jpg) |
| Bob Dylan recorded “The Man In Me” @ Studio E, Columbia Recording Studios, NYC in 1970 | |
Spotify Playlist – June 05 |
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Artwork by the legendary Robert Crumb
It ain’t but the one thing,
That give a man the blues.
He ain’t got no bottom
In his last pair of shoes.
But someday baby,
You ain’t worry my mind any more.
Someday Baby Blues (trad) first recorded by Sleepy John Estes
John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 – June 5, 1977), is best known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, he was a blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, born in Ripley, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.
From allmusic.com:
Despite the fact that he performed for mixed black and white audiences in string band, jug band, and medicine show formats, his music retains a distinct ethnicity and has a particularly plaintive sound. Astonishingly, he recorded during six decades for Victor, Decca, Bluebird, Ora Nelle, Sun, Delmark, and others. Over the course of his career, his music remained simple yet powerful, and despite his sojourns to Memphis and Chicago he retained a traditional down-home sound. Some of his songs are deeply personal statements about his community and life, such as “Lawyer Clark” and “Floating Bridge.” Other compositions have universal appeal (“Drop Down Mama” and “Someday Baby”) and went on to become mainstays in the repertoires of countless musicians. One of the true masters of his idiom, he lived in poverty, yet was somehow capable of turning his experiences and the conditions of his life into compelling art.
— Barry Lee Pearson
Mailman blues:
Estes made his debut as a recording artist in Memphis, Tennessee in 1929 for Victor Records. He later recorded for the Decca and Bluebird labels, with his last pre-war recording session taking place in 1941. He made a brief return to recording at Sun Studio in Memphis in 1952, recording “Runnin’ Around” and “Rats in My Kitchen”, but otherwise was largely out of the public eye for two decades.
Someday Baby Blues (audio):
Sleepy John Estes had a crying singing style and sounded so much like an old man even on his early records, that blues revivalists reportedly delayed looking for him because they assumed he would have to be long dead.
Sleepy John Estes talks about his life and career (from the album Goin’ to Brownsville):
By the time he was tracked down, by Bob Koester and Samuel Charters in 1962, he had become completely blind and was living in poverty. He resumed touring and recording, reunited with Nixon and toured Europe several times and Japan, with a clutch of albums released on the Delmark Records label.
Album of the day @ JV is this compilation from 1929 to 1941 covering his golden period, The Man Who Cried The Blues:
Other June-05:
Continue reading Today: Sleepy John Estes passed away in 1977 – 36 years ago
“When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing” – Etta James
Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins; January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012) was an American singer. Her style spanned a variety of music genres including blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as “Roll With Me, Henry”, “At Last”, “Tell Mama”, “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”, and “I’d Rather Go Blind” for which she wrote the lyrics. She faced a number of personal problems, including drug addiction, before making a musical resurgence in the late 1980s with the album The Seven Year Itch.
James is regarded as having bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and is the winner of six Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. Rolling Stone ranked James number 22 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists. (Wikipedia)
I’d Rather Go Blind (Montreux 1975):
Allmusic.com (Mark Deming):
Few female R&B stars enjoyed the kind of consistent acclaim Etta James received throughout a career that spanned six decades; the celebrated producer Jerry Wexler once called her “the greatest of all modern blues singers,” and she recorded a number of enduring hits, including “At Last,” “Tell Mama,” “I’d Rather Go Blind,” and “All I Could Do Was Cry.” At the same time, despite possessing one of the most powerful voices in music, James only belatedly gained the attention of the mainstream audience, appearing rarely on the pop charts despite scoring 30 R&B hits, and she lived a rough-and-tumble life that could have inspired a dozen soap operas, battling drug addiction and bad relationships while outrunning a variety of health and legal problems.
My favourite Etta James album is Etta James Rocks the house (1964), that isn’t on Spotify, so I have to settle for my second favourite, At Last from 1961 as todays Spotify choice:
Other 25th. January:
Continue reading Today: The late Etta James was born in 1938
Photo by Willa Davis
From Wikipedia:
John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 – June 5, 1977), best known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a American blues guitarist, songwriter and vocalist, born in Ripley, Lauderdale County, Tennessee.
From allmusic.com:
Despite the fact that he performed for mixed black and white audiences in string band, jug band, and medicine show formats, his music retains a distinct ethnicity and has a particularly plaintive sound. Astonishingly, he recorded during six decades for Victor, Decca, Bluebird, Ora Nelle, Sun, Delmark, and others. Over the course of his career, his music remained simple yet powerful, and despite his sojourns to Memphis and Chicago he retained a traditional down-home sound. Some of his songs are deeply personal statements about his community and life, such as “Lawyer Clark” and “Floating Bridge.” Other compositions have universal appeal (“Drop Down Mama” and “Someday Baby”) and went on to become mainstays in the repertoires of countless musicians. One of the true masters of his idiom, he lived in poverty, yet was somehow capable of turning his experiences and the conditions of his life into compelling art.
— Barry Lee Pearson
Mailman blues:
Album of the day @ JV:
Other June-05:
Continue reading Today: Sleepy John Estes passed away in 1977 – 35 years ago