This week's playlist

"Monday Morning Blues" - Mississippi John Hurt
"Party On" - John Pippus
"Tell Me Why" - John Pippus
"Didn't I Say" - The Mustangs
"Hot Tomales And They're Red Hot" - Jake Leg Jug Band
"It's A Sin" - Guitar Mikey
"Whiskey River Blues" - Shameless Rob Band
"All Your Love" - The Deluxe Blues Band
"Captured Me" - Sunday Wilde
"Save Some Mercy For Me" - Sandi Thom
"Walk On" - Cee Cee James
"I'm On The Road Again" - James 'Buddy' Rogers
"Blues Is My Business" - No Refunds Band
"That's What Love Will Do" - Shaun Murphy
"What'd I Say" - Geno Washington
"Holler And Stomp" - The Cash Box Kings

This week's playlist

"Christmas Train" - Carey Bell
"The Christmas Song" - Mark jungers
"Christmas Day Blues" - Cephas and Wiggins
"Please Let Me Be Your Santa Claus" - William Clarke
"Stay A Little Longer Santa" - Shemekia Copeland
"Fattening Up The Turkey" - Dave Hole
"Christmas Iz Coming" - Christmas Jug Band
"Back Door Santa" - The Holmes Brothers
"Christmas Time" - Lil' Ed and The Blues Imperials
"Santa Claus" - Little Charlie & The Nightcats
"Zydeco Christmas" - C.J. Chenier and The Red Hot Louisianna Band
"It's Christmas Time Again" - JD Myers
"X-Mas Blues" - The Preston Shannon Band

"A Bluesman's Christmas" - Coco Montoya
"Christmas Time In The Country" - Kenny Neal
"Santa Claus, Do You Ever Get The Blues" - Roomful Of Blues
"Lonesome Christmas" - Son Seals
"Merry Merry Christmas" - Koko Taylor
"Deck The Halls With Boogie Woogie" - Katie Webster
"Really Been Good This Year" - Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women
"Santa Claus" - Bo Carter

This week's playlist

"Strange Fruit" - Pete 'Snakey Jake' Johnson
"I'm Cryin'" - Stevie Ray Vaughan
"I Ain't Superstitious" - The Jeff Beck Group
"Don't Cry" - Shirley Jackson & The Good Rockin' Daddies
"21 Days In Jail" - Magic Sam
"Mud Bears Park" - Tippy Agogo and Bill Bourne
"Beale Street Breakdown" - Jed Davenport and His Jug Band
"Bring It On Home" - Hawkwind
"Hey Santa Claus" - Jillaine
"Christmastime Blues" - Jaimi Shuey
"Cold Shot" - Stevie Ray Vaughan
"I Wanna Be" - Riot and The Blues Devils
"Lights Out" - Dr. Feelgood
"Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On Love" - Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" - Charles Brown
"Chemistry" - Jack Derwin
"I Won't Be Your Fool" - A Ton Of Blues
"Christmas Snow" - Michael Burks
"Backup Plan" - Mark Robinson
"Chick 4 Christmas" - Chick Willis
"Good Texan" - The Vaughan Brothers
"I Can't Quit You Baby" - Led Zeppelin

Featured Artist: Stevie Ray Vaughan

Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughan

                        (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990)
With his astonishingly accomplished guitar playing, Stevie Ray Vaughan ignited the blues revival of the '80s. Vaughan drew equally from bluesmen like Albert King, Otis Rush and Muddy Waters and rock & roll players like Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Mack, as well as the stray jazz guitarist like Kenny Burrell, developing a uniquely eclectic and fiery style that sounded like no other guitarist, regardless of genre.
Vaughan bridged the gap between blues and rock like no other artist had since the late '60s. For the next seven years, Stevie Ray was the leading light in American blues, consistently selling out concerts while his albums regularly went gold. His tragic death in 1990 only emphasized his influence in blues and American rock & roll.
Born and raised in Dallas, Vaughan began playing guitar as a child, inspired by older brother Jimmie. When he was in junior high school, he began playing in a number of garage bands, which occasionally landed gigs in local nightclubs. By the time he was 17, he had dropped out of high school to concentrate on playing music.
Vaughan's first real band was the Cobras, who played clubs and bars in Austin during the mid-'70s. Following that group's demise, he formed Triple Threat in 1975. Triple Threat also featured bassist Jackie Newhouse, drummer Chris Layton, and vocalist Lou Ann Barton. After a few years of playing Texas bars and clubs, Barton left the band in 1978. The group decided to continue performing under the name Double Trouble, which was inspired by the Otis Rush song of the same name; Vaughan became the band's lead singer.
For the next few years, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble played the Austin area, becoming one of the most popular bands in Texas. In 1982, the band played the Montreux Festival and their performance caught the attention of David Bowie and Jackson Browne.
After Double Trouble's performance, Bowie asked Vaughan to play on his forthcoming album, while Browne offered the group free recording time at his Los Angeles studio, Downtown; both offers were accepted. Stevie Ray laid down the lead guitar tracks for what became Bowie's “Let's Dance” album in late 1982. Shortly afterward, John Hammond Sr. landed Vaughan and Double Trouble a record contract with Epic, and the band recorded its debut album in less than a week at Downtown.
Vaughan's debut album, “Texas Flood”, was released in the summer of 1983, a few months after Bowie's “Let's Dance” appeared. On its own, “Let's Dance” earned Vaughan quite a bit of attention, but “Texas Flood” was a blockbuster blues success; receiving positive reviews in both blues and rock publications, reaching number 38 on the charts, and crossing over to album rock radio stations. Bowie offered Vaughan the lead guitarist role for his 1983 stadium tour, but he turned him down, preferring to play with Double Trouble. Vaughan and Doucle Trouble set off on a successful tour and quickly recorded their second album, “Cou;dn't Stand The Weather”, which was released in May of 1984. The album was more successful than its predecessor, reaching number 31 on the charts; by the end of 1985, the album went gold.
Double Trouble added keyboardist Reese Wynans in 1985, before they recorded their third album, “Soul To Soul”. The record was released in August 1985 and was also quite successful, reaching number 34 on the charts.
Although his professional career was soaring, Vaughan was sinking deep into alcoholism and drug addiction. Despite his declining health, Vaughan continued to push himself, releasing the double live album “Live Alive” in October of 1986 and launching an extensive American tour in early 1987. Following the tour, Vaughan checked into a rehabilitation clinic. The guitarist's time in rehab was kept fairly quiet, and for the next year Srevie Ray and Double Trouble were fairly inactive. Vaughan performed a number of concerts in 1988, including a headlining gig at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and wrote his fourth album. The resulting record, “In Step”, appeared in June of 1989 and became his most successful album, peaking at number 33 on the charts, earning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Recording, and going gold just over six months after its release.
In the spring of 1990, Stevie Ray recorded an album with his brother Jimmie, which was scheduled for release in the autumn of the year.
In the late summer of 1990, Vaughan and Double Trouble set out on an American headlining tour. On August 26, 1990, their East Troy, WI, gig concluded with an encore jam featuring guitarists Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Cray. After the concert, Stevie Ray boarded a helicopter bound for Chicago. Minutes after its 12:30 a.m. takeoff, the helicopter crashed, killing Vaughan and the other four passengers. He was only 35 years old.
"Family Style”, Stevie Ray's duet album with Jimmie, appeared in October and entered the charts at number seven. “Family Style” began a series of posthumous releases that were as popular as the albums Vaughan released during his lifetime.
“The Sky Is Crying”, a collection of studio outtakes compiled by Jimmie, was released in October of 1991; it entered the charts at number ten and went platinum three months after its release.
“In The Beginning”, a recording of a Double Trouble concert in 1980, was released in the autumn of 1992 and the compilation “Greatest Hits” was released in 1995.
In 1999, Vaughan's original albums were remastered and reissued, with “The Real Deal: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2” also appearing that year. 2000 saw the release of the four-disc box “SRV”, which concentrated heavily on outtakes, live performances, and rarities.

This week's playlist

"Blue Railroad Train" - Doc Watson
"A Spoonful Of Blues" - Charlie Patton
"Walk On" - Grant Lyle
"Honky Tonk Girl" - Pete Anderson
"Chained" - Shaun Murphy
"My Babe" - Narvel Felts
"Jug Rag" - The Prairie Ramblers
"Bottle Up And Go" - Hooker 'N' Heat
"Reconsider Baby" - Elvis Presley
"Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues" - Charlie Patton
"But Anyway" - Blues Traveler
"Monday Morning Blues" - Mississippi John Hurt
"Stone Pony Blues" - Charlie Patton
"ESP" - Eliza Neals
"The Hoodoo Shake" - The Some X 6 Band
"All I Want For Christmas (Is To Be With You)" - Lonnie Brooks
"Up The Line" - Paul Orta and The Kingpins
"Christmas Fais Do Do" - Marcia Ball
"Why Me" - Dellie Hoskie
"Winter Time Blues" - Big Maceo
"34 Blues" - Charlie Patton
"Tollin' Bells" - Lowell Fulson and Willie Dixon

Featured Artist: Charley Patton

Charley (or Charlie) Patton
1891 (?) - April 28th 1934

Patton was born in Hinds County, Mississippi near the town of Edwards, and lived most of his life in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta . Most sources say he was born in 1891, but there is some debate about this, and the years 1887 and 1894 have also been suggested.
Though Patton was considered African-American, because of his light complexion there have been rumors that he was Mexican, or possibly a full-blood Cherokee, a theory endorsed by Howlin' Wolf. In actuality, Patton was a mix of white, black, and Cherokee (one of his grandmothers was a full-blooded Cherokee). Patton himself sang in "Down the Dirt Road Blues" of having gone to "the Nation" and "the Territo'"—meaning the Cherokee Nation portion of the Indian Territory.
If the Delta country blues has a convenient source point, it would probably be Charley Patton, its first great star. His hoarse, impassioned singing style, fluid guitar playing, and unrelenting beat made him the original king of the Delta blues. Much more than your average itinerant musician, Patton was an acknowledged celebrity and a seminal influence on musicians throughout the Delta.
Although Patton was a small man at about 5 foot 5, his gravelly voice was rumored to have been loud enough to carry 500 yards without amplification. Patton's gritty bellowing was a major influence on the singing style of his young friend Chester Burnett, who went on to gain fame in Chicago as Howlin' Wolf.
His guitar playing was no less impressive, fueled with a propulsive beat and a keen rhythmic sense that would later plant seeds in the boogie style of John Lee Hooker.
His slide work -- either played in his lap like a Hawaiian guitar and fretted with a pocket knife, or in the more conventional manner with a brass pipe for a bottleneck -- was no less inspiring, finishing vocal phrases for him and influencing contemporaries like Son House and up-and-coming youngsters like Robert Johnson.
Most of the now-common guitar gymnastics modern audiences have come to associate with the likes of a Jimi Hendrix, in fact, originated with Patton, who gained notoriety for his showmanship, often playing with the guitar down on his knees, behind his head, or behind his back.
He first recorded in 1929 for the Paramount label and, within a year's time, he was not only the largest-selling blues artist but -- in a whirlwind of recording activity -- also the music's most prolific.
No one will never know what Patton's Paramount masters really sounded like. When the company went out of business, the metal masters were sold off as scrap, some of it used to line chicken coops. All that's left are the original 78s -- rumored to have been made out of inferior pressing material commonly used to make bowling balls -- and all of them are scratched and heavily played, making all attempts at sound retrieval by current noise-reduction processing a tall order indeed.
That said, it is still music well worth seeking out and not just for its place in history. Patton's music gives us the first flowering of the Delta blues form, before it became homogenized with turnarounds and 12-bar restrictions, and few humans went at it so aggressively.
He died on the Heathman-Dedham plantation near Indianola on April 28, 1934 and is buried in Holly Ridge. A memorial headstone was erected on Patton's grave, paid for by musician John Fogerty through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund in July, 1990.

This week's playlist

"Bring It On Home To Me" - The Angel Band
"Unemployment" - J.J. Cale
"Show Me A Man" - Sunday Wilde
"I Can't Shake That Guy" - Sunday Wilde
"I Dreamed About Muddy Waters Last Night" - John Pippus
"Walkin' Cane Stomp" - Kentucky Jug Band
"Black Dog Blues" - The Barrelhouse Brothers
"I'm A Mover" - Free
"Down Hearted Blues" - Bessie Smith
"James Alley Blues" - Richard 'Rabbit' Brown
"Captured Me" - Sunday Wilde
"When The Train Comes Back" - Chicken Shack
"It's Gonna Rain" - Philipp Fankhauser
"I Don't Live Anywhere" - Joe Bonamassa
"I Can't Be Satisfied" - Big Bill Broonzy
"Train Kept A-Rolling" - The Yardbirds
"Holy Water" - Jon Amor Blues Group
"He Thrills Me Up" - Sunday Wilde
"The Hard Way" - Danny Bryant's Redeye Band

Featured artist: Sunday Wilde

Sunday Wilde

Sunday Wilde is from the wilds of a small northern Ontario town, but she has been found singing everywhere from small logging and mining towns at coffee houses, funeral parlours, and blues joints and all the way to large festivals, house concerts and bars in bustling metropolises.
She has won jazz and blues awards with co-writers and her own compositions on garageband and has been ranked as high as 8 on Myspace Canada Gospel music charts.
Beyond her powerful vocal delivery is her equally powerful lyrical delivery which shows us all that she understands the ups and downs one can go through and thoroughly knows how to deliver that message, via her music, and people seem to have started to take notice.
She is influenced by the greats, such as, Ruth Brown, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Bessie Smith, Big Bill Broonzy, Tom Waits, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, to name a few of the more prominent ones. Her delivery of the styles of those greats is probably as good as most anyone else can do in these modern times and it is a delivery that perhaps isn't quite offered nearly enough in todays overly popped up music scene