This week's playlist

Robert Johnson - "Sweet Home Chicago"
'Blind' Lemon Jefferson - "Worried Blues"
Daddy Long Legs - "You Wonder"
Daddy Long Legs - The Devil's In The Details"
Paul Rodgers - "Louisianna Blues"
Even Dozen Jug Band - "Take Your Fingers Off It"
The Mescal Canyon Troubadours - "Chattahoochee Coochee Man"
Albert Collins - "Blue Monday Hangover"
'Blind' Lemon Jefferson - "Black Snake Moan"
The Black Tongued Bells - "Kingbee Jam"
'Blind' Lemon Jefferson - "Low Down Mojo Blues"
Big Maybelle - "Way Back Home"
Jimmy Rogers - "That's All Right"
Shamekia Copeland - "Ghetto Child"
The Mitch Laddie Band - "So Excited"
Ry Cooder - "Bourgeois Blues"
Joe Taino - "Take Me Now"
Michael Harrison - "Fortune Favors The Brave"
'Blind' Lemon Jefferson - "That Crawlin' Baby Blues"
Earl Hooker - "The End Of The Blues"

Featured Artist: 'Blind' Lemon Jefferson

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson

(Lemon Henry Jefferson) 

September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929)

Lemon Henry Jefferson was born blind near Coutchman, Texas in Freestone County, near present-day Wortham, Texas, one of eight children born to sharecroppers Alex and Clarissa Jefferson. Disputes regarding his exact birth date derive from contradictory census records and draft registration records. By 1900, the family was farming southeast of Streetman, Texas, and Lemon Jefferson's birth date is indicated as September 1893 in the 1900 census. The 1910 census, taken in May before his birthday, further confirms his year of birth as 1893, and indicated the family was farming northwest of Wortham, near Lemon Jefferson's birthplace.
In his 1917 draft registration, Jefferson gave his birth date as October 26, 1894, further stating that he then lived in Dallas, Texas and had been blind since birth. In the 1920 census, he is recorded as having returned to Freestone County and was living with his half-brother, Kit Banks, on a farm between Wortham and Streetman.
Jefferson began playing the guitar in his early teens, and soon after he began performing at picnics and parties. He became a street musician, playing in East Texas towns, in front of barbershops and on streetcorners. According to his cousin, Alec Jefferson, quoted in the notes for Blind Lemon Jefferson, Classic Sides:
They were rough. Men were hustling women and selling bootleg and Lemon was singing for them all night... he'd start singing about eight and go on until four in the morning... mostly it would be just him sitting there and playing and singing all night.
By the early 1910s, Jefferson began traveling frequently to Dallas, where he met and played with fellow blues musician LeadBelly. In Dallas, Jefferson was one of the earliest and most prominent figures in the blues movement developing in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas. Jefferson likely moved to Deep Ellum in a more permanent fashion by 1917, where he met Aaron Thibeaux Walker, also known as T-Bone Walker. Jefferson taught Walker the basics of blues guitar, in exchange for Walker's occasional services as a guide. By the early 1920s, Jefferson was earning enough money for his musical performances to support a wife, and possibly a child. However, firm evidence for both his marriage and any offspring is unavailable.
Prior to Jefferson, very few artists had recorded solo voice and blues guitar, the first of which was vocalist Sara Martin and guitarist Sylvester Weaver. Jefferson's music is uninhibited and represented the classic sounds of everyday life from a honky-tonk to a country picnic to street corner blues to work in the burgeoning oil fields, a further reflection of his interest in mechanical objects and processes.
Jefferson did what very few had ever done - he became a successful solo guitarist and male vocalist in the commercial recording world. Unlike many artists who were "discovered" and recorded in their normal venues, in December 1925 or January 1926, he was taken to Chicago, Illinois, to record his first tracks. Uncharacteristically, Jefferson's first two recordings from this session were gospel songs ("I Want to be like Jesus in my Heart" and "All I Want is that Pure Religion"), released under the name Deacon L.J. Bates. This led to a second recording session in March 1926. His first releases under his own name, "Booster Blues" and "Dry Southern Blues", were hits; this led to the release of the other two songs from that session, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues," which became a runaway success, with sales in six figures. He recorded about 100 tracks between 1926 and 1929; 43 records were issued, all but one for Paramount Records. Unfortunately, Paramount Records' studio techniques and quality were bad, and the resulting recordings sound no better than if they had been recorded in a hotel room. In fact, in May 1926, Paramount had Jefferson re-record his hits "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues" in the superior facilities at Marsh Laboratories, and subsequent releases used that version. Both versions appear on compilation albums and may be compared.
Jefferson died in Chicago at 10:00 am on December 19, 1929, of what his death certificate called "probably acute myocarditis". For many years, apocryphal rumors circulated that a jealous lover had poisoned his coffee, but a more likely scenario is that he died of a heart attack after becoming disoriented during a snowstorm. Some have said that Jefferson died from a heart attack after being attacked by a dog in the middle of the night. More recently, the book, Tolbert's Texas, claimed that he was killed while being robbed of a large royalty payment by a guide escorting him to Union Station to catch a train home to Texas. Paramount Records paid for the return of his body to Texas by train, accompanied by pianist William Ezell.
Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery (later Wortham Black Cemetery). Far from his grave being kept clean, it was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas Historical Marker was erected in the general area of his plot, the precise location being unknown. By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, but a new granite headstone was erected in 1997. In 2007, the cemetery's name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery and his gravesite is kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham, Texas.

Monday Morning Blues 10/03/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 10/03/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

3AM - "Insatiable"
B.B. King - "Fine Looking Woman"
Barrence Whitfield and The Savages - "I'm Sad About It"
Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Southern Woman Blues"
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards - "Hambone Blues"
Billy D and The Hoodoos - "Somewhere In The Middle Of The Blues"
The Memphis Jug Band - "It Won't Act Right"
The Holmes Brothers - "You're The Kind Of Trouble"
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils - "Standing On The Rock"
B.B. King - "When Your Baby Packs Up And Goes"
Simon Prager and Masha Vlassova - "Jelly Bean Blues"
Irene Torres and The Sugar Devils - "Sticky Fingers"
B.B. King (with Joe Louis Walker) - "Everybody's Had The Blues"
Joe Louis Walker - "Hornet's Nest"
Alison Joy Williams - "What They Used To Call The Blues"
Anthony Gomes - "Back To The Start"
The Jeff Healey Band - "Yer Blues"
Status Quo - "Unspoken Words"
Cyril Neville - "Blues Is The Truth"
B.B. King - "B.B. Blues"
Virgil and The Accelerators - "88"

Featured Artist: B.B. King

Riley B. King (B.B. King)
Born September 16 1925

Universally hailed as the reigning king of the blues, the legendary B.B. King is without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half century. His bent notes and staccato picking style have influenced legions of contemporary bluesmen, while his gritty and confident voice -- capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric -- provides a worthy match for his passionate playing. Between 1951 and 1985, King notched an impressive 74 entries on Billboard's R&B charts, and he was one of the few full-fledged blues artists to score a major pop hit when his 1970 smash "The Thrill Is Gone" crossed over to mainstream success (engendering memorable appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand). Since that time, he has partnered with such musicians as Eric Clapton and U2 while managing his own acclaimed solo career, all the while maintaining his immediately recognizable style on the electric guitar.
The seeds of Riley B. King's enduring talent were sown deep in the blues-rich Mississippi Delta, where he was born in 1925 near the town of Itta Bena. He was shuttled between his mother's home and his grandmother's residence as a child, his father having left the family when King was very young. The youth put in long days working as a sharecropper and devoutly sang the Lord's praises at church before moving to Indianola -- another town located in the heart of the Delta -- in 1943.
Country and gospel music left an indelible impression on King's musical mindset as he matured, along with the styles of blues greats (T-Bone Walker and Lonnie Johnson) and jazz geniuses (Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt). In 1946, he set off for Memphis to look up his cousin, a rough-edged country blues guitarist named Bukka White. For ten invaluable months, White taught his eager young relative the finer points of playing blues guitar. After returning briefly to Indianola and the sharecropper's eternal struggle with his wife Martha, King returned to Memphis in late 1948. This time, he stuck around for a while.
King was soon broadcasting his music live via Memphis radio station WDIA, a frequency that had only recently switched to a pioneering all-black format. Local club owners preferred that their attractions also held down radio gigs so they could plug their nightly appearances on the air. When WDIA DJ Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert exited his air shift, King took over his record-spinning duties. At first tagged "The Peptikon Boy" (an alcohol-loaded elixir that rivaled Hadacol) when WDIA put him on the air, King's on-air handle became "The Beale Street Blues Boy," later shortened to Blues Boy and then a far snappier B.B.
King had a four-star breakthrough year in 1949. He cut his first four tracks for Jim Bulleit's Bullet Records (including a number entitled "Miss Martha King" after his wife), then signed a contract with the Bihari Brothers' Los Angeles-based RPM Records. King cut a plethora of sides in Memphis over the next couple of years for RPM, many of them produced by a relative newcomer named Sam Phillips (whose Sun Records was still a distant dream at that point in time). Phillips was independently producing sides for both the Biharis and Chess; his stable also included Howlin' Wolf, Rosco Gordon, and fellow WDIA personality Rufus Thomas.
The Biharis also recorded some of King's early output themselves, erecting portable recording equipment wherever they could locate a suitable facility. King's first national R&B chart-topper in 1951, "Three O'Clock Blues" (previously waxed by Lowell Fulson), was cut at a Memphis YMCA. King's Memphis running partners included vocalist Bobby Bland, drummer Earl Forest, and ballad-singing pianist Johnny Ace. When King hit the road to promote "Three O'Clock Blues," he handed the group, known as The Beale Streeters, over to Ace.
It was during this era that King first named his beloved guitar "Lucille." Seems that while he was playing a joint in a little Arkansas town called Twist, fisticuffs broke out between two jealous suitors over a lady. The brawlers knocked over a kerosene-filled garbage pail that was heating the place, setting the room ablaze. In the frantic scramble to escape the flames, King left his guitar inside. He foolishly ran back in to retrieve it, dodging the flames and almost losing his life. When the smoke had cleared, King learned that the lady who had inspired such violent passion was named Lucille. Plenty of Lucilles have passed through his hands since; Gibson has even marketed a B.B. -approved guitar model under the name.
The 1950s saw King establish himself as a perennially formidable hitmaking force in the R&B field. Recording mostly in L.A. (the WDIA air shift became impossible to maintain by 1953 due to King's endless touring) for RPM and its successor Kent, King scored 20 chart items during that musically tumultuous decade, including such memorable efforts as "You Know I Love You" (1952); "Woke Up This Morning" and "Please Love Me" (1953); "When My Heart Beats like a Hammer," "Whole Lotta' Love," and "You Upset Me Baby" (1954); "Every Day I Have the Blues" (another Fulson remake), the dreamy blues ballad "Sneakin' Around," and "Ten Long Years" (1955); "Bad Luck," "Sweet Little Angel," and a Platters-like "On My Word of Honor" (1956); and "Please Accept My Love" (first cut by Jimmy Wilson) in 1958. King's guitar attack grew more aggressive and pointed as the decade progressed, influencing a legion of up-and-coming axemen across the nation.
In 1960, King's impassioned two-sided revival of Joe Turner's "Sweet Sixteen" became another mammoth seller, and his "Got a Right to Love My Baby" and "Partin' Time" weren't far behind. But Kent couldn't hang onto a star like King forever (and he may have been tired of watching his new LPs consigned directly into the 99-cent bins on The Biharis' cheapo Crown logo). King moved over to ABC-Paramount Records in 1962, following the lead of Lloyd Price, Ray Charles, and before long, Fats Domino.
In November of 1964, the guitarist cut his seminal “Live At The Regal” album at the fabled Chicago theater and excitement virtually leaped out of the grooves. That same year, he enjoyed a minor hit with "How Blue Can You Get," one of his many signature tunes. "Don't Answer the Door" in 1966 and "Paying the Cost to Be the Boss" two years later were Top Ten R&B entries, and the socially charged and funk-tinged "Why I Sing the Blues" just missed achieving the same status in 1969.
Across-the-board stardom finally arrived in 1969 for the deserving guitarist, when he crashed the mainstream consciousness in a big way with a stately, violin-drenched minor-key treatment of Roy Hawkins' "The Thrill Is Gone" that was quite a departure from the concise horn-powered backing King had customarily employed. At last, pop audiences were convinced that they should get to know King better: not only was the track a number-three R&B smash, it vaulted to the upper reaches of the pop lists as well.
King was one of a precious few bluesmen to score hits consistently during the 1970s, and for good reason: he wasn't afraid to experiment with the idiom. In 1973, he ventured to Philadelphia to record a pair of huge sellers, "To Know You Is to Love You" and "I Like to Live the Love," with the same silky rhythm section that powered the hits of The Spinners and The O'Jays. In 1976, he teamed up with his old cohort Bland to wax some well-received duets. And in 1978, he joined forces with the jazzy Crusaders to make the gloriously funky "Never Make Your Move Too Soon" and an inspiring "When It All Comes Down." Occasionally, the daring deviations veered off-course; “Love Me Tender”, an album that attempted to harness the Nashville country sound, was an artistic disaster.
Although his concerts were consistently as satisfying as anyone in the field ( King asserted himself as a road warrior of remarkable resiliency who gigged an average of 300 nights a year), King tempered his studio activities somewhat. Nevertheless, his 1993 MCA disc “Blues Summit” was a return to form, as King duetted with his peers (John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Fulon, Koko Taylor) on a program of standards. Other notable releases from that period include 1999's “Let The Good Times Roll: Thre Music Of Louis Jordan” and 2000's “Riding With The King”, a collaboration with Eric Clapton. King celebrated his 80th birthday in 2005 with the star-studded album “80” which featured guest spots from such varied artists as Gloria Estefan, John Mayer and Van Morrison. “Live” was issued in 2008; that same year, King released an engaging return to pure blues, “One Kind Favor”, which eschewed the slick sounds of his 21st century work for a stripped-back approach. A long overdue career-spanning box set of King's over 60 years of touring, recording, and performing, “Ladies And Gentlemen...Mr. B.B. King”, appeared in 2012.

Monday Morning Blues 03/03/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 03/03/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Ma Rainey - "See See Rider"
Taj Mahal - "Leaving Trunk"
Blowin' Smoke Rhythm And Blues Band - "Turtle Blues"
James Tumston - "Beer And Cheap Wine"
Roundhouse Jug Four - "Short Legs Shuffle"
Dani - "Old Brown Shoe"
Fats Domino - "Careless Love"
Taj Mahal - "Stagger Lee"
Howlin' Wolf - "Sitting On Top Of The World"
Taj Mahal - "Going Up To The Country"
Blowin' Smoke Rhythm And Blues Band - "Built For Comfort"
Sun King - "Late Night Phone Call"
Joe Marson and The Satisfied Minds - "Someday Soon"
Dr. Feelgood - "Lights Out"
Patrick Sassone - "Big Old Dinosaur"
Imelda May - "Smotherin' Me"
Taj Mahal - "Frankie And Albert"
The Mills Brothers - "You Rascal, You"

Featured Artist: Taj Mahal

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks
(born May 17, 1942)

Taj Mahal was born Henry St. Clair Fredericks in New York on May 17, 1942. His parents -- his father a jazz pianist/composer/arranger of Jamaican descent, his mother a schoolteacher from South Carolina who sang gospel -- moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, when he was quite young, and while growing up there, he often listened to music from around the world on his father's short-wave radio. He particularly loved the blues - both acoustic and electric - and early rock & rollers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. While studying agriculture and animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts, he adopted the musical alias Taj Mahalm (an idea that came to him in a dream) and formed Taj Mahal & The Elektras, who played around the area during the early '60s. After graduating, Mahal moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and, after making his name on the local folk-blues scene, formed The Rising Sons with guitarist Ry Cooder. The group signed to Columbia and released one single, but the label didn't quite know what to make of their forward-looking blend of Americana, which anticipated a number of roots rock fusions that would take shape in the next few years; as such, the album they recorded sat on the shelves, unreleased until 1992.
Frustrated, Mahal left the group and wound up staying with Columbia as a solo artist. His self-titled debut was released in early 1968 and its stripped-down approach to vintage blues sounds made it unlike virtually anything else on the blues scene at the time. It came to be regarded as a classic of the '60s blues revival, as did its follow-up, “Natch'l Blues”. The half-electric, half-acoustic double-LP set “Giant Step” followed in 1969, and taken together, those three records built Mahal's reputation as an authentic yet unique modern-day bluesman, gaining wide exposure and leading to collaborations or tours with a wide variety of prominent rockers and bluesmen. During the early '70s, Mahal's musical adventurousness began to take hold; 1971's “Happy Just To Be Like I Am” heralded his fascination with Caribbean rhythms and the following year's double-live set, “The Real Thing”, added a New Orleans-flavored tuba section to several tunes. In 1973, Mahal branched out into movie soundtrack work with his compositions for Sounder, and the following year he recorded his most reggae-heavy outing, “Mo' Roots”.
Mahal continued to record for Columbia through 1976, upon which point he switched to Warner Bros.; he recorded three albums for that label, all in 1977 (including a soundtrack for the film 'Brothers'). Changing musical climates, however, were decreasing interest in Mahal's work and he spent much of the '80s off record, eventually moving to Hawaii to immerse himself in another musical tradition. Mahal returned in 1987 with “Taj”, an album issued by Gramavision that explored this new interest; the following year, he inaugurated a string of successful, well-received children's albums with “Shake Sugaree”. The next few years brought a variety of side projects, including a musical score for the lost Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play 'Mule Bone' that earned Mahal a Grammy nomination in 1991.
The same year marked Mahal's full-fledged return to regular recording and touring, kicked off with the first of a series of well-received albums on the Private Music label, “Like Never Before”. Follow-ups, such as “Dancing The Blues” (1993) and “Phantom Blues” (1996), drifted into more rock, pop, and R&B-flavored territory; in 1997, Mahal won a Grammy for “Senor Blues”. Meanwhile, he undertook a number of small-label side projects that constituted some of his most ambitious forays into world music. Released in 1995, “Mumtaz Mahal” teamed him with classical Indian musicians; 1998's “Sacred Islands” was recorded with his new Hula Blues Band, exploring Hawaiian music in greater depth; 1999's “Kulanjan” was a duo performance with Malian kora player Toumani Diabate. “Maestro” appeared in 2008, boasting an array of all-star guests: Diabate, Angelique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.

Monday Morning Blues 24/02/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 24/02/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This Week's playlist

58 Deluxe - "Red House"
Reverend Gary Davis - "Devil's Dream"
Steve Cropper (featuring Delbert McClinton) - "Right Around The Corner"
Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band - "Spike Driver Blues"
Rick Fowler - "Skeletons In Your Closet"
King David's Jug Band - "Rising Sun Blues"
John Lyons - "Bluestar Highway"
Jack Derwin - "Bone House Blues"
Reverend Gary Davis - "The Boy Was Kissing The Girl (And Playing The Guitar The Same Time)"
Hambone Willie Newbern - "Rock And Tumble Blues"
Curtis Jones - "Roll Me Over"
Reverend Gary Davis - "Mister Jim (Walking Dog Blues)"
Layla McCalla - "When I Can See The Valley"
Bob Dylan - "Rollin' And Tumblin'"
Lil' Ed and The Blues Imperials - "My Chains Are Gone"
Chris Rea - "My Baby Told Me"
Christian Maucery - "Rattle Snake"
Sandi Thom - "Save Some Mercy For Me"
Reverend Gary Davis - "Can't Be Satisfied"
Charlie Patton - "Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues"

Featured Artist: Reverend Gary Davis

Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis 
(April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972)

Gary Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina, and was the only one of eight children his mother bore who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant. Davis reported that his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama, when Davis was ten, and Davis later said that he had been told that his father had been shot by the Birmingham High Sheriff. He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that before his death his father had given him into the care of his paternal grandmother.
In his prime of life, which is to say the late '20s, the Reverend Gary Davis was one of the two most renowned practitioners of the East Coast school of ragtime guitar; 35 years later, despite two decades spent playing on the streets of Harlem in New York, he was still one of the giants in his field, playing before thousands of people at a time, and an inspiration to dozens of modern guitarist/singers including Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Donovan and Ry Cooder,who studied with Davis.
Davis was partially blind at birth, and lost what little sight he had before he was an adult. He was self-taught on the guitar, beginning at age six, and by the time he was in his 20s he had one of the most advanced guitar techniques of anyone in blues; his only peers among ragtime-based players were Blind Arthur Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie Johnson. Davis himself was a major influence on Blind Boy Fuller.
Davis' influences included gospel, marches, ragtime, jazz, and minstrel hokum, and he integrated them into a style that was his own. In 1911, when Davis was a still teenager, the family moved to Greenville, SC, and he fell under the influence of such local guitar virtuosi as Willie Walker, Sam Brooks, and Baby Brooks. Davis moved to Durham in the mid-'20s, by which time he was a full-time street musician. He was celebrated not only for the diversity of styles that his playing embraced, but also for his skills with the guitar, which were already virtually unmatched in the blues field.
Davis went into the recording studio for the first time in the '30s with the backing of a local businessman. Davis cut a mixture of blues and spirituals for the American Record Company label, but there was never an equitable agreement about payment for the recordings, and following these sessions, it was 19 years before he entered the studio again. During that period, he went through many changes. Like many other street buskers, Davis always interspersed gospel songs amid his blues and ragtime numbers, to make it harder for the police to interrupt him. He began taking the gospel material more seriously, and in 1937 he became an ordained minister. After that, he usually refused to perform any blues.
Davis moved to New York in the early '40s and began preaching and playing on street corners in Harlem. He recorded again at the end of the 1940s, with a pair of gospel songs, but it wasn't until the mid-'50s that a real following for his work began developing anew. His music, all of it now of a spiritual nature, began showing up on labels such as Stinson, Folkways, and Riverside, where he recorded seven songs in early 1956. Davis was "rediscovered" by the folk revival movement, and after some initial reticence, he agreed to perform as part of the budding folk music revival, appearing at the Newport Folk Festival, where his raspy voiced sung sermons; most notably his transcendent "Samson and Delilah (If I Had My Way)" - a song most closely associated with Blind Willie Johnson - and "Twelve Gates to the City," which were highlights of the proceedings for several years. He also recorded a live album for the Vanguard label at one such concert, as well as appearing on several Newport live anthology collections. He was also the subject of two television documentaries, one in 1967 and one in 1970.
Davis died in May 1972, from a heart attack in Hammonton, New Jersey. He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York.

Monday Morning Blues 17/02/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 17/02/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Pete 'Snakey Jake' Johnson - "Payday"
Jim Quick & The Coastline - "Jumpin' The Jetty"
Maria Muldaur - "The Panic Is On"
Maria Muldaur - "Blues Go Walking"
Ginger St. James - "Please Mr. Driver"
Jed Davenport & His Beale Street Jug Band - "Piccolo Blues"
Jim & Bob - "Party Spirit"
Isaiah B. Brunt - "Hear My Train A Comin'"
John Lyons - "The Blues Moved In"
Ike Turner - "Prancin'"
Robert Johnson - "Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)"
Sean Pinchin - "Coming Home"
Maria Muldaur with Dan Hicks - "Life's Too Short/ When Elephants Roost In Bamboo"
Maria Muldaur - "Rain Down Tears"
A.J. Croce - "Rollin' On"
Billy Branch And The Sons Of The Blues - "Sons Of The Blues"
Scott H. Biram - "Jack Of Diamonds"
Flying Saucers Gumbo Special - "New Orleans"
Pepe Belmonte - "Foolish"

Featured Artist: Maria Muldaur

 Maria Mudaur

Born on September 12, 1943

Best known for her seductive '70s pop staple "Midnight At The Oasis," Maria Muldaur has since become an acclaimed interpreter of just about every stripe of American roots music: blues, early jazz, gospel, folk, country, R&B, and so on. While these influences were certainly present on her more pop-oriented '70s recordings (as befitting her Greenwich Village folkie past), Muldaur came into her own as a true roots music stylist during the '90s, when she developed a particular fascination with the myriad sounds of Louisiana. On the string of well-received albums that followed, Muldaur tied her eclecticism together with the romantic sensuality that had underpinned much of her best work ever since the beginning of her career.
Maria was born Maria D'Amato on September 12, 1943, in New York. As a child, she loved country & western music and began singing it with her aunt at age five; during her teenage years, she moved on to R&B, early rock & roll, and girl group pop, and in high school formed a group in the latter style called the Cashmeres. Growing up in the Greenwich Village area, however, she naturally became fascinated with its booming early-'60s folk revival and soon began participating in jam sessions. She also moved to North Carolina for a while to study Appalachian-style fiddle with Doc atson.
Back in New York, she was invited to join the Even Dozen Jug Band, a revivalist group that included John Sebastian, David Grisman, and Stefan Grossman; they had secured a recording deal with blueswoman Victoria Spivey's label and she wanted them to add some sex appeal. The young D'Amoto got a crash course in early blues, particularly the Memphis scene that spawned many of the original jug bands, and counted Memphis Minnie as one of her chief influences.
Elektra Records bought out the Even Dozen Jug Band's contract and released their self-titled debut album in 1964; however, true to their name, the band's unwieldy size made them an expensive booking on the club and coffeehouse circuit and they soon disbanded. Many of the members went off to college and, in 1964, D'Amoto moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, home to another vibrant folk scene. She quickly joined The Jim Kweskin Jug Band and began an affair with singer Geoff Muldaur; the couple eventually married and had a daughter, Jenni, who would later become a singer in her own right.
When the Kweskin band broke up in 1968, the couple stayed with their label (Reprise) and began recording together as Geoff & Maria Muldaur. They moved to Woodstock, New York to take advantage of the burgeoning music scene there and issued two albums – 1970's “Pottery Pie” and 1971's “Sweet Potatoes” -- before Geoff departed in 1972 to form Better Days with Paul Butterfield a move that signaled not only the end of the couple's musical partnership, but their marriage as well.
With Maria initially unsure about her musical future, her friends encouraged her to pursue a solo career, as did Reprise president Mo Ostin. Muldaur went to Los Angeles and recorded her debut album “Maria Muldaur” in 1973, scoring a massive Top Ten pop hit with "Midnight at the Oasis." Showcasing Muldaur's playfully sultry crooning, the Middle Eastern-themed song became a pop radio staple for years to come and also made session guitarist Amos Garrett a frequent Muldaur collaborator in the future. Muldaur's next album, 1974's “Waitress In A Donut Shop”, featured a hit remake of her Even Dozen-era signature tune, "I'm a Woman." Three more Reprise albums followed over the course of the '70s, generally with the cream of the L.A. session crop, but also with increasingly diminishing results.
Around 1980, Muldaur became a born-again Christian; she recorded a live album of traditional gospel songs, “Gospel Nights”, for the smaller Takoma label in 1980, and moved into full-fledged CCM with 1982's “There Is A Love”, recorded for the Christian label Myrrh. However, this new direction did not prove permanent, and for 1983's “Sweet And Slow”, Muldaur recorded an album of jazz and blues standards (many with longtime cohort Dr. John on piano) that created exactly the mood its title suggested. Released in 1986, the jazzy Transblucency won a year-end critics' award from The New York Times. Muldaur spent the rest of the '80s touring, often with Dr. John, and also began acting in musicals, appearing in productions of Pump Boys and Dinettes and The Pirates of Penzance. In 1990, she recorded an album of classic country songs, “On The Sunny Side”, that was specifically geared toward children; it proved a surprising success, both critically and among its intended audience.
Partly inspired by Dr. John's New Orleans obsessions, Muldaur signed to the rootsy Black Top label in 1992 and cut “Louisiana Love Call”, which established her as a versatile stylist accomplished in blues, gospel, New Orleans R&B, Memphis blues, and soul. The album won wide acclaim as one of the best works of her career, offering a more organic, stripped-down approach than her '70s pop albums, and became the best-selling record in the Black Top catalog. Her 1994 follow-up, “Meet Me At Midnight”, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award. Muldaur next cut a jazzier outing for the Canadian roots label Stony Plain, 1995's “jazzabelle”. She subsequently signed with Telarc and returned to her previous direction, making her label debut with 1996's well-received “Fanning The Flames”. Released in 1998, “Southlands Of The Heart” was a less bluesy outing recorded in Los Angeles, arriving the same year as a second children's album, “Swinging In The Rain”, a collection of swing tunes and pop novelties from the '30s and '40s. “Meet Me Where They Play The Blues”, issued in 1999, was intended to be a collaboration with West Coast blues piano legend Charles Brown, but Brown's health problems prevented him from contributing much (just one vocal on "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You"); thus, the project became more of a tribute.
Muldaur moved back to Stony Plain for 2001's “Richland Woman Blues”, a tribute to early blues artists (particularly women) inspired by a visit to Memphis Minnie's grave. Featuring a variety of special guest instrumentalists, “Richland Woman Blues” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. The children's album “Animal Crackers In My Soup: The Songs Of Shirley Temple” appeared in 2002. The next year saw the release of “Woman Alone With The Blues”, a collection of songs associated with Peggy Lee, on Telarc Records.
“Love Wants To Dance” followed in 2004, also on Telarc. The mostly acoustic “Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul” was issued by Stony Plain in 2005, followed by “Heart Of Mine: Love Songs Of Bob Dylan” on Telarc in 2006. “Songs For The Young At Heart” was also released in 2006. The following year, the last in the set of three albums that paid tribute to female blues singers of the 1920s through 1940s, “Naughty, Bawdy And Blue” (fllowing on from “Richland Woman Blues” and “Sweet Lovin' Ol'Soul”), came out. The antiwar-themed “Yes We Can!”, which featured Muldaur singing with the Women's Voices For Peace Choir, was released in 2008. Muldaur next released another children's album, “Barnyard Dance: Jug Band Muic For Kids”, in 2010, following it with the New Orleans-flavored “Steady Love” on Stony Plain in 2011.

Monday Morning Blues 10/02/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 10/02/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Featured Artist - Kim Simmonds

Kim Simmonds, born in Newbridge, Wales, in 1947, is considered a legendary blues guitarist by almost any musical standard. He has even been called one of the founding fathers of British blues by some. Besides his mastery with the guitar, he can hold his own with vocals, piano, harmonica, and even Dobro. The strength of his talent and his willingness to hang tough when weaker men would toss in the towel have carried him through more than three decades in the survive-if-you-can music business.
When still a young teenager Kim Simmonds learned to play from listening to his brother's blues records.
At the age of 19 Simmonds formed Savoy Brown in 1966. Explosive live performances eventually led to Savoy Brown signing with Decca. But it was 1969 before its classic line-up gelled around Simmonds, guitarist "Lonesome" Dave Peverett and monocle and bowler hat-wearing vocalist Chris Youlden. That year's Blue Matter and A Step Further albums conjured up at least three classics heard on The Best Of Savoy Brown: "Train To Nowhere," the live show-stopper "Louisiana Blues" (a Muddy Waters number) and "I'm Tired." Since its first US visit, Savoy Brown has criss-crossed the country, and "I'm Tired" became the group's first hit single across the ocean. The band would find a greater reception in America than in its native England throughout its career.
1970's Raw Sienna followed, featuring A Hard Way To Go and Stay While The Night Is Still Young. When Youlden then departed for a solo career, Lonesome Dave took over the lead vocals. Looking In, also in 1970, featured not only "Poor Girl" and "Money Can't Save Your Soul" but one of the era's memorable LP covers, a troglodyte-like savage staring into an eye socket of a monstrous skull. Later, Peverett, bassist Tony Stevens and drummer Roger Earl left to form the immensely successful but decidedly rock band Foghat. Simmonds soldiered on, recruiting from blues band Chicken Shackn keyboardist Paul Raymond, bassist Andy Silvester and drummer Dave Bidwell, and from the Birmingham club circuit the vocalist Dave Walker.
The new lineup was a hit. On stage in America, the group was supported by Rod Stewart and The Faces. On the album Street Corner Talking (1971) and Hellbound Train (1972) launched favorites "Tell Mama", "Street Corner Talking", a cover of the Temptations' Motown standard "I Can't Get Next To You" and the nine-minute epic "Hellbound Train" (decades later Love & Rockets adapted it as "Bound For Hell"). Walker then quit to join Fleetwood Mac, pre-Buckingham/Nicks.
In 1997, Simmonds released his first solo acoustic album, entitled Solitaire. He continues to tour worldwide with various configurations of Savoy Brown - of particular note is the 2004 live set You Should Have Been There, recorded in early 2003 in Vancouver with Simmonds himself handling lead vocals - and also as a solo acoustic act. In 2011 he celebrated 45 years of touring with the Savoy Brown album Voodoo Moon.
As leader of Savoy Brown, he has released over 50 albums. He is also a painter, and the cover of his 2008 solo release "Out of the Blue" features his original art.

Monday Morning Blues 03/02/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 03/02/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Chuck Bery - "Oh Baby Doll"
Champion Jack Dupree - "Morning Tea"
Kim Simmonds - "Going Away"
Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown - "Laura Lee"
Alexis Korner - "Night Time Is The Right Time"
Elder Richard Bryant and His Sanctified Singers - "Come Over Here"
Spin Doctors - "If The River Was Whisky"
The Blue Valentines - "Swamp"
Roscoe Chenier - "Time Is Hard"
Ry Cooder - "On A Monday"
Connie Lush - "Nobody's Fault"
Kim Simmonds - "Going Home"
Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown - "Goin' To The Delta"
No Refunds Band - "One More Drink"
Nick Moss Band - "Light It Up"
Jessie Pratcher, Mattie Gardner and Mary Gardner - "Mary Mack"
Willie Dixon - "Pain In My Heart"
Sherman Robertson - "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind"

Featured Artist - Jake Leg Jug Band

Today we are joined in the Jake Leg Jug Band ahead of the official launch of their new album "Next Stop" at The Clonter Opera on Saturday 8th March. The album is already available to buy from the usual online type places.
Have a look at their website HERE.

Monday Morning Blues 27/01/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 27/01/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Little Feat - "Mellow Down Easy"
The Jake Leg Jug Band - "Alabama Blues"
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - "Messin' With The Kid"
J.J. Cale - "Midnight In Memphis"
The Dixieland Jug Blowers - "Memphis Shake"
Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated - Baby Don't You Love Me"
The Jake Leg Jug Band - "Maple Leaf Rag"
Sleepy John Estes - "Milk Cow Blues"
Mississippi John Hurt - "Monday Morning Blues"
The Jake Leg Jug Band - "Frisco Town"
Mance Lipscomb - "Mother Had A Sick Child"
Janiva Magness - "Your Love Made A U-Turn"
Blind Willie McTell - "Mr. McTell Got The Blues"
Jimmy Rogers - "Left Me With A Broken Heart"
Paul Rodgers - "Muddy Water Blues (Acoustic)"
Dr. Feelgood - "My Babe"
The Jake Leg Jug Band - "Sugar In My Bowl"
Robin Rogers - "Need Your Love So Bad"

This week's playlist

The Trevor Sewell Band - "DNA"
Connie Lush - "Blues Is My Business"
Alison Joy Williams - "Blues Sure Get Me"
Alison Joy Williams - "Blonde Hair Blues"
Ma Rainey - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
Wes Mackey - "Life Is A Journey"
Connie Lush - "Send Me No Flowers"
Mike McGuire - "Kentucky Morning"
Bill Bourne and The Free Radio Band - "Maggie's Farm"
Connie Lush and Blues Shouter - "24 hr Blues"
Jim Allchin - "Overlocked"
Nine Below Zero - "Mama Talk To Your Daughter"
Charlie Musselwhite - "Been Gone Too Long"
Miss Marcy and Her Texas Sugar Daddy's - "Sugar Daddy"
Kerri Powers - "Buttercup"
Guy Clark - "I'll Show Me"
The Black Keys - "Run Me Down"
Connie Lush - "Love Me Like A Man"

Featured Artist: Connie Lush

Connie Lush

Connie Lush has been recognised as one of the finest Blues singers in the UK, winning five times, “Best Female Vocalist Uk” earning a place in the gallery of greats, alongside Alexis Corner and Eric Clapton to name just two. Twice voted “European Blues Vocalist of the year” by the French Blues Trophies Awards” and nominated again “Best UK Blues Vocalist” 2011-2012.
Growing up in her native Liverpool, her Mother used to send her to the record store every Saturday to purchase the top 10 chart hits. So it was that from an early age Connie became acquainted with the likes of Lonnie Donegan, Brenda Lee and Ray Charles.
From there she started listening to Little Feat and Bonnie Raitt and, after an audition at the Colne Blues Festival, she plucked up the courage to join husband Terry in his band,
In recent years, Connie has performed in over 30 countries. She has played at some of Europe’s largest and most prestigious festivals, including Glastonbury Festival 2011 and wowing audiences in Moscow, New York and LA , recording in “The Cotton Row Studios” in Memphis and of course singing at BB Kings, Beale St....Connie also toured with BB King through the Uk, finishing at The Royal Albert Hall London.
Connie is also a known songwriter, writing for TV and featuring at Jazz FM and other radio stations as a DJ. She continues her love affair with audiences everywhere, bringing her enormous “Gusto” for life and music wherever she goes. As BB King said “That Woman makes my heart sing!”

Monday Morning Blues 20/01/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 20/01/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Chicken Wilson & Jimmy 'Skeeter' Hinton - "Chicken Blues"
Charlie Patton - "Rattlesnake Blues"
Pokey La Farge & The South City Three - "La La Blues"
Jack Derwin - "Still The Same"
Jo Ann Kelly - "Whiskey Head Woman"
Rachelle Coba - "View From Here"
Status Quo - "Lazy Poker Blues"
Mississippi Sheiks - "He Calls That Religion"
Walter Trout Band - "Got To Kill The Monkey"
Soulstack - "Let Me Be Your Fool"
Tommy Johnson - "Big Road Blues"
Tedeschi Trucks Band - "Learn How To Love You"
Bo Carter - "Corrine, Corrina"
Johnny Winter - "Lights Out"
Jody Weger - "Talkin' Daytime Drinkin' Blues"
Norine Braun - "Drunk"
Hooray For The Riff Raff - "St. Roch Blues"
Tommy Castro & The Painkillers - "When I Cross The Mississippi"
Savoy Brown - "I Miss Your Love"
Skip James - "Devil Got My Woman"
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - "Little Wing"

Featured Artist: H.C. Spier

H. C. Speir

(October 6, 1895 – April 22, 1972)

Born Henry Columbus Speir in Prospect, Mississippi.
Speir was a white businessman who ran a music and mercantile store on Farish Street, in Jackson's black neighborhood. In 1926, through selling blues records in his store, he began working as a scout for the record companies producing the records, such as Okeh, Victor, Gennett, Columbia, Vocalion, Decca and Paramount.
Using a metal disc machine in his store, Speir made demo recordings of the musicians that he sent to the labels, before arranging for more formal recording sessions. Word spread among blues musicians that Speir could help them make records, and many came to audition at the store. This audition process — along with the ensuing recording sessions — was dramatized in the Wim Wenders -directed instalment of the television mini-series Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey, entitled The Soul Of A Man.
Among the numerous musicians whom Speir introduced to the record companies were Ishman Bracey, Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton, Son House, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Bo Carter, Willie Brown, The Mississippi Sheiks, Blind Joe Reynolds, Blind Roosevelt Graves, Geeshie Wiley, and Robert Wilkins. He also auditioned, but turned down, Jimmie Rodgers.
Speir retired from recording in 1936, and left Farish Street after a 1942 fire at his store. In the 1960s, Speir was extensively interviewed by blues scholar Gayle Dean Wardlow about the recordings he had made. On April 22, 1972, Speir died at his home in Pearl, Mississippi after suffering a fatal heart attack. He is buried alongside his wife at Lakewood Memorial Park Cemetery, in Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi. According to a living family member, Speir's "headstone does not recognize him for his accomplishment in the recording industry".
Speir was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame in 2005.

Monday Morning Blues 13/01/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 13/01/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Lonnie Johnson - "Happy New Year Darling"
Lightnin' Hopkins - "Katie Mae Blues"
Philipp Fankhauser - "It's Gonna Rain"
Fiona Boyes - "Waiting For Some Good News"
Acoustic Endeavors - "Cordially Invited To The Blues"
Pete 'Snakey Jake' Johnson - "I've Been Well Warned"
Whistler And His Jug Band - "Jug Band Special"
Ray Charles - "I've Got A Woman"
Anni Piper - "Live To Play"
Roscoe Chenier - "Bad Luck"
Lightnin' Hopkins - "Papa Bones Boogie"
Simon Prager and Masha Vlassova - "Jelly Bean Blues"
Corey Lueck and The Smoke Wagon Blues Band - "Josephine"
Lightnin' Hopkins - "Coffee Blues"
Roomful Of Blues - "Dressed Up To Get Messed Up"
MonkeyJunk - "Let Her Down"
6th Street Rhythm And Blues Revue - "Just Like A Man"
The Bankesters - "I Gotta Have You"
Michael Jerome Brown - "Sing Low"
Jason Daniels - "Riding Back To Memphis"
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards - "Kansas City"
Lightnin' Hopkins - "They Wonder Who I Am"
Eddie Boyd - "Key To The Highway"

Featured Artist: Lightnin' Hopkins

Sam John Hopkins

(March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982),

Born Sam John Hopkins in Centerville, Texas, Hopkins' childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jeffersonmat a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas. That day, Hopkins felt the blues was "in him" and went on to learn from his older (somewhat distant) cousin, country blues singer Alger 'Texas' Alexander. Hopkins had another cousin, the Texas electric blues guitarist Frankie Lee Sims, with whom he later recorded. Hopkins began accompanying Blind Lemon Jefferson on guitar in informal church gatherings. Jefferson supposedly never let anyone play with him except for young Hopkins, who learned much from and was influenced greatly by Blind Lemon Jefferson thanks to these gatherings. In the mid-1930s, Hopkins was sent to Houston County Prison Farm for an unknown offense. In the late 1930s, Hopkins moved to Houston with Alexander in an unsuccessful attempt to break into the music scene there. By the early 1940s, he was back in Centerville working as a farm hand.
Hopkins took a second shot at Houston in 1946. While singing on Dowling St. in Houston's Third Ward (which would become his home base), he was discovered by Lola Anne Cullum from the Los Angeles-based record label Aladdin Records. She convinced Hopkins to travel to Los Angeles, where he accompanied pianist Wilson Smith. The duo recorded twelve tracks in their first sessions in 1946. An Aladdin Records executive decided the pair needed more dynamism in their names and dubbed Hopkins "Lightnin'" and Wilson "Thunder".
Hopkins recorded more sides for Aladdin in 1947. He returned to Houston and began recording for the Gold Star Records label. During the late 1940s and 1950s Hopkins rarely performed outside Texas. However, he recorded prolifically, occasionally traveling to the Mid-West and Eastern United States for recording sessions and concert appearances. It has been estimated that he recorded between 800 and 1000 songs during his career. He performed regularly at clubs in and around Houston, particularly in Dowling St. where he had first been discovered. He recorded his hits "T-Model Blues" and "Tim Moore's Farm" at Sugar Hill Recording Studios in Houston. By the mid to late 1950s, his prodigious output of quality recordings had gained him a following among African Americans and blues music aficionados.
In 1959, Hopkins was contacted by folklorist Mack McCormick who hoped to bring him to the attention of the broader musical audience which was caught up in the folk festival. McCormick presented Hopkins to integrated audiences first in Houston and then in California. Hopkins debuted at Carmegie Hall on October 14, 1960, appearing alongside Joan Baez and Pete Seeger performing the spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep". In 1960, he signed to Tradition Records. The recordings which followed included his song "Mojo Hand" in 1960.
In 1968, Hopkins recorded the album Free Form Patterns backed by the rhythm section of psychedelic rock band the 13th Floor Elevators. Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, Hopkins released one or sometimes two albums a year and toured, playing at major folk festivals and at folk clubs and on college campuses in the U.S. and internationally. He traveled widely in the United States, and overcame his fear of flying to join the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival, visit Germany and the Netherlands 13 years later, and play a six-city tour of Japan in 1978.
Hopkins died of esophageal cancer in Houston on January 30, 1982, at the age of 69. His New York Times obituary named him as "one of the great country blues and perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players."

Monday Morning Blues 06/01/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 06/01/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud