Featured Artist: Lowell Fulson

Lowell Fulson

(March 31, 1921 – March 7, 1999)

Lowell Fulson recorded every shade of blues imaginable. Polished urban blues, rustic two-guitar duets with his younger brother Martin, funk-tinged grooves that pierced the mid-'60s charts, even an unwise cover of The Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It in the Road!" Clearly, the veteran guitarist, who was active for more than half-a-century, wasn't afraid to experiment. Perhaps that's why his last couple of discs for Rounder were so vital and satisfying -- and why he remained an innovator for so long.
Exposed to the Western swing of Bob Wills, as well as indigenous blues while growing up in Oklahoma, Fulson joined up with singer Texas Alexander for a few months in 1940, touring the Lone Star state with the veteran bluesman. Fulson was drafted in 1943. The Navy let him go in 1945; after a few months back in Oklahoma, he was off to Oakland, CA, where he made his first 78s for fledgling producer Bob Geddins. Soon enough, Fulson was fronting his own band and cutting a stack of platters for Big Town, Gilt Edge, Trilon, and Down Town (where he hit big in 1948 with "Three O'Clock Blues," later covered by B.B. King).
Swing Time records prexy Jack Lauderdale snapped up Fulson in 1948, and the hits really began to flow: the immortal "Every Day I Have the Blues" (an adaptation of Memphis Slim's "Nobody Loves Me"), "Blue Shadows," the two-sided holiday perennial "Lonesome Christmas," and a groovy midtempo instrumental "Low Society Blues" that really hammers home how tremendously important pianist Lloyd Glenn and alto saxist Earl Brown were to Fulson's maturing sound (all charted in 1950!).
Fulson toured extensively from then on, his band stocked for a time with dazzling pianist Ray Charles (who later covered Lowell's "Sinner's Prayer" for Atlantic) and saxist Stanley Turrentine. After a one-off session in New Orleans in 1953 for Aladdin, Fulson inked a longterm pact with Chess in 1954. His first single for the firm was the classic "Reconsider Baby," cut in Dallas under Stan Lewis' supervision with a sax section that included David 'Fathead' Newman on tenor and Leroy Cooper on baritone.
The relentless midtempo blues proved a massive hit and perennial cover item – even Elvis Presley cut it in 1960, right after he got out of the Army. But apart from "Loving You," the guitarist's subsequent Checker output failed to find widespread favor with the public. Baffling, since Fulson's crisp, concise guitar work and sturdy vocals were as effective as ever. Most of his Checker sessions were held in Chicago and L.A. (the latter his home from the turn of the '50s).
Fulson stayed with Checker into 1962, but a change of labels worked wonders when he jumped over to Los Angeles-based Kent Records. 1965's driving "Black Nights" became his first smash in a decade, and "Tramp," a loping funk-injected workout co-written by Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin, did even better, restoring the guitarist to R&B stardom, gaining plenty of pop spins, and inspiring a playful Stax cover by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas only a few months later that outsold Fulson's original.
A couple of lesser follow-up hits for Kent ensued before the guitarist was reunited with Stan Lewis at Jewel Records. That's where he took a crack at that Beatles number, though most of his outings for the firm were considerably closer to the blues bone. Fulson was never absent for long on disc; 1992's Hold On” and its 1995 follow-up. “Them Update Blues”, both for Ron Levy's Bullseye Blues logo, were among his later efforts, both quite solid. Fulson continued to perform until 1997, when health problems forced the career bluesman into a reluctant retirement. His health continued to deteriorate and on March 6, 1999 - just a few weeks shy of his 78th birthday – Lowell Fulson passed away.
Few bluesmen managed to remain contemporary the way Lowell Fulson did for more than five decades. And fewer still will make such a massive contribution to the idiom.

Monday Morning Blues 02/06/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 02/06/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

The Riverside Ramblers - Dissatisfied
Little Walter - It Ain't Right
The Michael Louis Band - Morning Gasoline
The Michael Louis Band - I Fought The Law
Slim Harpo - I've Got Love If You Want It
Even Dozen Jug Band - Take Your Fingers Off It
Tampa Red - It Hurts Me Too
Ralph McTell - Kindhearted Woman Blues


Blind Willie McTell - Mr. McTell Got The Blues
John Drummer Blues Band - No Chance With You
Lonesome River Band - Sorry County Blues
Ry Cooder - On A Monday
Albert Cummings - Workin' Man Blues
Ted Hawkins - I Got What I Wanted
The Powder Blues Band - Further On Up The Road
Snooks Eaglin - Mean Old Frisco
Eddie Boyd - Blue Coat Man
ZZ Top - La Grange
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards - Roamin' And Ramblin'

Monday Morning Blues 26/05/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 26/05/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Soulstack - Stone Cold Man
Freddie King - king-A-Ling
Turk Tresize - West On Train
Turk Tresize - Wasted
Blind Gary Davis - Cross And Evil Woman Blues
Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers - Noah's Blues
Billy Boy Arnold - I Ain't Got You
Freddie King - I'm Tore Down
Kathy Frank - I'm A Big Girl

Jimmy Rogers - Walkin' By Myself
Freddie King - Ain't Nobody's Business
The Bloody Jug Band - Murder Of Crows
Status Quo - Good Thinking-Batman
Maria Muldaur - Please Send Me Someone To Love
Patrick Sassone - Because Of You
Dan Sowerby - Messin Round
Riot And The Blues Devils - I Wanna Be
Freddie King - Same Old Blues
Bill Bourne and The Free Radio Band - Maggie's Farm

Featured Artist: Freddie King

Freddie King

September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976

When King was only six, his mother Ella Mae King and his uncle began teaching Freddie guitar. In autumn 1949, King and his family moved from Dallas to the South Side of Chicago. In 1952 King started working in a steel mill, the same year he married fellow Texas native Jessie Burnett, with whom he eventually had seven children.
Almost as soon as he had moved to Chicago, King started sneaking into South Side nightclubs, where he heard blues performed by Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, T-Bone Walker, Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson. King formed his first band, the Every Hour Blues Boys, with guitarist Jimmie Lee Robinson and drummer Frank "Sonny" Scott. In 1952, while employed at the steel mill, an eighteen-year-old King occasionally worked as a Sideman with such bands as the Little Sonny Cooper Band and Earl Payton's Blues Cats. In 1953 he recorded with the latter for Parrot Records, but these recordings were never released. As the 1950s went on, King played with several of Muddy Waters's sidemen and other Chicago mainstays, including guitarists Jimmy Rogers, Robert Lockwood Jr., Eddie Taylor, Hound Dog Taylor, bassist Willie Dixon, Pianist Memphis Slim and harpist Little Walter.
In 1956 he cut his first record as a leader, for El-Bee Records. The A-side was a duet with a Margaret Whitfield, "Country Boy", and the B-side was a King vocal. Both tracks feature the guitar of Robert Lockwood, Jr., who during these same years was also adding rhythm backing and fills to Little Walter's records.
King was repeatedly rejected in auditions for the South Side's Chess Records, the premier blues label, which was home to Muddy, Wolf, and Walter. The complaint was that Freddie King sang too much like B.B. King. A newer blues scene, lively with nightclubs and upstart record companies, was burgeoning on the West Side, though. Bassist and producer Willie Dixon, during a late 1950s period of estrangement from Chess, had King come to Cobra Records for a session, but the results have never been heard. Meanwhile, King established himself as perhaps the biggest musical force on the West Side. King played along with Magic Sam and supposedly did uncredited backing guitar on some of Sam's tracks for Mel London's Chief and Age labels, though King does not stand out anywhere.
In 1959 King got to know Sonny Thompson, pianist, producer, and A&R man for Cincinnati's King Records and King owner Syd Nathan signed King to the subsidiary Federal label in 1960. King recorded his debut single for the label on August 26, 1960: "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" backed with "You've Got To Love Her With A Feeling" (again as "Freddy" King). From the same recording session at the King Studios in Cincinnati, Ohio, King cut the instrumental "Hide Away," which the next year reached #5 on the R&B Charts and #29 on the Pop Singles Charts, an unprecedented accomplishment for a blues instrumental at a time when the genre was still largely unknown to white audiences. "Hide Away" was originally released as the B-side of "I Love the Woman". "Hide Away" was King's conglomeration of a theme by Hound Dog Taylor and parts by others, such as from "The Walk" by Jimmy McCracklin and "Peter Gunn", as credited by King. The song's title comes from Mel's Hide Away Lounge, a popular blues club on the West Side of Chicago. Willie Dixon later claimed that he had recorded King doing "Hide Away" for Cobra Records in the late 1950s, but such a version has never surfaced. "Hide Away" has since become a blues standard.
After their success with "Hide Away," King and Sonny Thompson recorded thirty instrumentals, including "The Stumble," "Just Pickin'," "Sen-Sa-Shun," "Side Tracked," "San-Ho-Zay," "High Rise," and "The Sad Nite Owl". Vocal tracks continued to be recorded throughout this period, but often the instrumentals were marketed on their own merits as albums. During the Federal period King toured with many of the R&B acts of the day such as, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and James Brown, who performed in the same concerts.
King's contract with Federal expired in 1966, and his first overseas tour followed in 1967. King's availability was noticed by producer and saxophonist King Curtis, who had recorded a cover of "Hide Away," with Cornell Dupree on guitar in 1962. Curtis signed King to Atlantic in 1968, which resulted in two LP's, Freddie King Is a Blues Master (1969) and My Feeling for the Blues (1970), produced by Curtis for the Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion Records.
In 1969 King hired Jack Calmes as his manager, who secured him an appearance at the 1969 Texas Pop Festival, alongside Led Zeppelin and others, and this led to King's being signed to Leon Russell's new label, Shelter Records. The company treated King as an important artist, flying him to Chicago to the former Chess studios for the recording of Getting Readyand gave him a backing line-up of top session musicians, including rock pianist Leon Russell. Three albums were made during this period, including blues classics and new songs like, "Goin' Down" written by Russell and Don Nix.
King performed alongside the big rock acts of the day, such as Eric Clapton and for a young, mainly white audience, along with white tour drummer Gary Carnes for three years, before signing to RSO. In 1974 he recordedBurglar, for which Tom Dowdproduced the track "Sugar Sweet" at Criteria Studios in Miami, with guitarists Clapton and slide guitarist George Terry, drummer Jamie Oldaker and bassist Carl Radle. Mike Vernon produced all the other tracks. Vernon also produced a second album Larger than Lifewith King, for the same label. Vernon brought in other notable musicians for both albums such as Bobby Tench of The Jeff Beck Group, to complement King.
Near-constant touring took its toll on King (he was on the road almost 300 days out of the year), and in 1976 he began suffering stomach ulcers. His health quickly deteriorated and he died on December 28 of complications from that and acute pancreatitis at the age of 42.
According to those who knew him, King's untimely death was due to both stress and poor diet (he was in the habit of consuming Bloody Marys in lieu of solid food so as not to waste time when setting up shows).

Monday Morning Blues 19/05/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 19/05/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Lonnie Brooks - A Man's Got To Do What A Man's Got To Do

The Groundhogs - Groundhog

Bobby Blue Bland - I'm Not Ashamed

Anthony Gomes - Voodoo Moon

Geoff Muldaur, Jim Kweskin and John Sebastian - New Minglewood Blues

Jarekus Singleton - Sorry

Creedence Clearwater Revival - I Put A Spell On You

The Groundhogs and Tony McPhee - Country Blues

Eva Cassidy - I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again

The Groundhogs and Tony McPhee - Got My Mojo Workin'

Rick L. Blues - Lucky Boogie

Jarekus Singleton - I Refuse To Lose

Terry Blankley - My Feets Keep Walkin'

Woody Guthrie - Worried Man Blues

Arthur Smith and The Crackerjacks - Guitar Boogie

R.B. Stone - Mississippi Woman

The Groundhogs - Blue Boar Blues

The Bootleggers feat. Nick Cave - Burnin' Hell

Washboard Sam - Buckets Got A Hole In

Featured Artist: The Groundhogs

The Groundhogs

The band was originally formed as The Dollar Bills in New Cross, London in 1962 by brothers Pete and John Cruickshank (born in 1943 and 1945 respectively in Calcutta, West Bengal, India). Tony McPhee (born 1944), the lead guitarist in an instrumental group called the Shcenuals, joined the group later that same year. McPhee steered them towards the blues and renamed them after a John Lee Hooker song, "Groundhog's Blues".
John Cruickshank suggested they became John Lee's Groundhogs when they backed John Lee Hooker on his 1964 UK tour: they later supplemented Little Walter, Jimmy Reed and Champion Jack Dupree when they toured the UK. McPhee featured on Dupree's From New Orleans to Chicago (1966) alongside Eric Clapton. The Groundhogs issued "Shake It" b/w "Rock Me" on the Interphon record label in January 1965.
Their line-up on their first album, “Scratchin' The Surface”, released in November 1968, consisted of McPhee as singer and guitarist: bassist Peter Cruickshank (born 2 July 1945, in Calcutta, Ken Pustelnik on drums (born 13 March 1946 on a farm near Blairgowry, Angus, Scotland) and Steve Rye on harmonica (born 8 March 1946 in London – died 14 July 1992, in London). In 1969, the single "B.D.D." (Blind Deaf Dumb) flopped in the UK but hit number one in Lebanon.
The group's album releases “Thank Christ For The Bomb” (May 1970); “Split” (March 1971); and “Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs” (March 1972), recorded as a trio without Rye, all reached the Top 10 in the UK Album Charts. “Split” reached number 5, spending 27 weeks in the UK Albums Chart and achieved gold record status.
They supported The Rolling Stones on their 1971 British tour at the request of Mick Jagger and released an album of their live set on the Stones tour, recorded at Leeds University and called “Live at Leeds”. All these albums and live shows were performed by the classic power trio of Cruickshank, McPhee and Pustelnik. 1974's album “Solid” saw a last return to the charts.
After breaking up in 1976 they returned with a different line-up a decade later. At times in the 1990s, McPhee alternated two line-ups. After years of performing and recording for a loyal following, original manager Roy Fisher put together a short-lived 'original line-up' to celebrate their fortieth anniversary. McPhee left the band again in order to pursue an acoustic career, leaving Cruickshank and Pustelnik to continue, subsequently forming 'The Groundhogs Rhythm Section' with invited frontmen, latterly with Eddie Martin, while McPhee embarked on a major tour in 2004 with Edgar Winter and Alvin Lee and issued an acoustic blues album “Blues at Ten”.
McPhee put together a new band in 2007, with long-time Groundhogs bassist Dave Anderson (ex- Hawkwind) and Marco Anderson on drums. This trio toured England in 2008 with Focus and Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash. The 2009 line-up of Tony McPhee's Groundhogs comprised McPhee, Anderson and previous long-term drummer Mick Jones. The Groundhogs Rhythm Section's latest recruits, Bob Bowles (guitar, vocals) and Jon Buckett (guitars, keyboards, vocals), joined Ken Pustelnik and Pete Cruickshank in February 2011. As of 2011, the new Groundhogs' lineup consists of McPhee, Anderson, Joanna Deacon (vocals), and Carl Stokes (drums).

Monday Morning Blues 12/05/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 12/05/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

John Lee Hooker - Baby Lee
Peetie Wheatstraw - Weeping Willow Blues
Snooks Eaglin - Oh Lavinia
Debbie Davis - Don't Put The Blame On Me
3am - For The First Time
Frank Frost - My Back Scratcher
Mig and The Mudz (feat. Lady Loretta) - Down
Elder Richard Bryant and His Sanctified Singers - Come Over Here
Buddy Guy - My Time After Awhile
ScottyBoy Daniel Blues Band - Drinkin' Beer

Roy Newman and His Boys - Match Box Blues
Joe Bonamassa - Dust Bowl
Jack Derwin - Blues For Me
Geno Washington - Dust My Broom
Eric Bibb - Money In Your Pocket
John Earl Walker - Earl's Boogie
Bob Dylan - Early Roman Kings
Matt Anderson - I Lost My Way
Professor Longhair - Every Day I Have The Blues

Monday Morning Blues 05/05/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 05/05/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Status Quo - Spinning Wheel Blues
Bo Carter - Corrine, Corrina
Bob Margolin - Ice On Fire
Blind Willie McTell - Lonesome Day Blues
John Lee Hooker - Cuttin' Out
Lemon Nash - Papa Lemon Blues
Ghost Town Blues Band - Finish What You Started
Dallas String Band - Hokum Blues
Black Tongue Bells - Comin' Back For More
Bo Carter - Doubled Up In A Knot
Chris Rea - Can't Stay Blues

Tak Matsumoto - Blue
Bo Carter - Bo Carter's Advice
The Some X 6 Band - Curveball
David 'Honeyboy' Edwards - I Was In New Orleans Last Night
Shemekia Copeland - Livin' On Love
Lucky Peterson - Over My Head
TV Slim - Flat Foot Sam
The Black Keys - Work Me
Memphis Minnie - Doctor Doctor Blues
Bo Carter - Banana In Your Fruit Basket Riverside Ramblers - Dissatisfied

Featured Artist: Bo Carter

Bo Carter

June 30th 1892 - September 21st 1964

Bo Carter (Armenter “Bo” Chatmon) had an unequaled capacity for creating sexual metaphors in his songs, specializing in such ribald imagery as "Banana in Your Fruit Basket," "Pin in Your Cushion," and "Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me." One of the most popular bluesmen of the '30s, he recorded enough material for several reissue albums, and he was quite an original guitar picker, or else three of those albums wouldn't have been released by Yazoo. (Carter employed a number of different keys and tunings on his records, most of which were solo vocal and guitar performances.) Carter's facility extended beyond the risqué business to more serious blues themes, and he was also the first to record the standard "Corrine Corrina" (1928). Bo and his brothers Lonnie and Sam Chatmon also recorded as members of The Mississippi Sheiks with singer/guitarist Walter Vinson.

Monday Morning Blues 28/04/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 28/04/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Live From Nantwich Town Square

Monday Morning Blues LIVE from the 18th Nantwich Jazz, Blues and Music Festival.

This Week's Playlist

Memphis Minnie - Black Rat Swing
Chicken Shack - I'd Rather Go Blind
Eddie Boyd - Blue Coat Man
Led Zeppelin - Bring It On Home
Dr Feelgood - Bonie Maronie/Tequila
Champion Jack Dupree - Meal Ole 'Frisco
Lonnie Brooks - A Man Got To Do What A Man Got To Do
Ezra Buzzington's Rustic Revellers - Brown Jug Blues
Josh White - Blood Red River
Chicken Shack - Reconsider Baby
Mississippi John Hurt - Coffee Blues
Walter Trout - Deepest Shade Of Blue

Bonzo Do Doo Dah Band - Can Blue Men Sing The Whites
Chicken Shack - When The Train Comes Back
Seasick Steve - My Home (Blue Eyes)
Sleepy John Estes & Hammie Nixon - Drop Down Mama
Mance Lipscomb - Captain Captain
Zydeco Party Band - Earthquake & Hurricane
Danny Overbea - Forty Cups Of Coffee
Elmore James - Dust My Broom
Status Quo - Good Thinking
Billy Boy Arnold & Tony Mc Phee - Catfish
Chicken Shack - Remington Ride
Simon Prager & Rob Mason - Cakewalk Into Town
Arlo Guthrie - The Motorcycle Song
Ry Cooder - On A Monday
The Harpoonist and The Axe Murderer - Mellow Down Easy

Featured Artist - Chicken Shack

Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), Andy Silvester (bass guitar), and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine Perfect (McVie) (vocals and keyboards) in 1968. After Christine departed in 1969, Paul Raymond played keyboards.

Chicken Shack was formed as a trio in 1965, naming themselves after Jimmy Smith's Back at the Chicken Shack album. 'Chicken shacks' (open-air roadside chicken stands) had also been frequently mentioned in blues and R&B songs.

They made their first UK appearance at the 1967 National Jazz and Blues Festival, Windsor and signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon record label in the same year; releasing Forty Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve in early 1968. A mainstay of the British blues boom, and a regular at UK festivals (Stan Webb's wandering through the crowd with a 200ft extension to his guitar lead during the band's set was a regular occurrence), Chicken Shack enjoyed some commercial success, with Christine Perfect voted Best Female Vocalist in the Melody Maker polls two years running. They had two minor hits with "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "Tears In The Wind", after which Perfect left the band in 1969 when she married John McVie of Fleetwood Mac. She was replaced by Paul Raymond from Plastic Penny.

After being dropped by Blue Horizon, pianist Paul Raymond, bassist Andy Silvester, and drummer Dave Bidwell all left in 1971 to join Savoy Brown. At this point Webb reformed the band as a trio with John Glascock on bass and Paul Hancox on drums, and they recorded Imagination Lady. The line-up didn't last; Glascock left to join Jethro Tull, while Webb was recruited for Savoy Brown in 1974 and recorded the album Boogie Brothers with them.

From 1977 until the present Webb has revived the Chicken Shack name on a number of occasions, with a rotating membership over the next 30 years of British blues musicians including, at various times, Paul Butler (ex-Jellybread, Keef Hartley Band)(guitar), Keef Hartley, ex-Ten Years After drummer Ric Lee and Miller Anderson, some of whom came and went several times. The band has remained popular as a live attraction in Europe throughout.

Webb remains as their only constant band member.

Monday Morning Blues 14/04/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 14/04/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Special Trans Continental Kinda Show

This week, touch wood, Jen will be presenting the show from the Nantwich studio, whilst co-host Kev will be presenting all the way from Chicago!

Monday Morning Blues 07/04/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 07/04/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This Week's Playlist

Blind Blake - "Night and Day Blues"
Nine Below Zero - "Ridin' On The L&N"
Jazz Gillum - "Down South Blues"
Ivory Joe Hunter - "Can't Explain How It Happened"
Clifton Chenier - "Zodico Stomp"
Dr Feelgood - "All Through The City"
Luther Allison - "Cherry Red Wine"
Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah - "The Spasm (You Rascal You)"
Steve Earl & The Del McCoury Band - "Leroy's Dustbowl Blues"
Southside Denny Snyder - "Perfectionist Blues"
Mike Stevens - "Lee Highway Blues"
Lisa Mills - "My Happy Song"
Willie Nix - "Prison Bound Blues"
Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Black Snake Dream"
Ry Cooder - "Goodnight Irene"
Little Milton - "Somebody Told Me"
Mahalia Jackson - "What Could I Do"
Lowell Levinger (feat. Ry Cooder) - "Married To The Blues"
Heritage Blues Orchestra - "Chilly Jordan"
Memphis Slim - "My Baby"

This week's playlist

The Veldman Brothers - "2 Times 360"
Long John Baldry - "Digging My Potatoes"
Jeff Black - "All Right Now"
Champion Jack Dupree - "24 Hours"
Peetie Wheatstraw - "Weeping Willow Blues"
Son House - "Death Letter"
Status Quo - "A B Blues"
Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers - "Noah's Blues"
Charley Patton - "A Spoonful Blues"
Clarence 'Frogman' Henry - "Ain't Got No Home"
Long John Baldry - "Gallows Pole"
Bonnie Raitt - "Ain't Nothin' In Ramblin'"
Bessie Smith - "Alexander's Ragtime Band"
Long John Baldry - "East Virginia Blues"
Matt 'Guitar' Murphy and Memphis Slim - "All By Myself"
The Timothy Hay - "Feral Beast"
Willie And The Poor Boys - "All Night Long"
Deborah Magone - "Queen Bee"
John Lee Hooker - "Baby Lee"
The Deluxe Blues Band - "All Your Love"
Jon Amor Blues Group - "Angel In A Black Dress"
Long John Baldry - "Right To Sing The Blues"
Bob Margolin - "Aliens Blues"

Featured Artist: Long John Baldry

John William "Long John" Baldry

(12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005)

Baldry grew to 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m), resulting in the nickname "Long John". He was one of the first British vocalists to sing blues in clubs. Baldry appeared quite regularly in the early '60s in the Gyre and Gymble coffee lounge, around the corner from Charing Cross railway station, and at the Brownsville R. & B. Club, Manor House, London, also "Klooks Kleek" (Railway Hotel, West Hampstead). He sometimes appeared at Eel Pie Island on the Thames at Twickenham and at the Station Hotel in Richmond, one of the Rolling Stones' earliest venues.
In the early 1960s, he sang with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, with whom he recorded the first British blues album in 1962, R&B From The Marquee. At stages, Mick Jagger, Jack Bruce and Charlie Watts were members of this band while Keith Richards and Brian Jones played on stage, although none played on the R&B at the Marquee album. When The Rolling Stones made their debut at the Marquee Club in July 1962, Baldry put together a group to support them. Later, Baldry was the announcer introducing the Stones on their US-only live album, Got Live If You Want It!, in 1966.
Baldry became friendly with Paul McCartney after a show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool in the early 1960s, leading to an invitation to sing on one of The Beatles 1964 TV specials, Around The Beatles. In the special, Baldry performs "Got My Mojo Workin'" and a medley of songs with members of The Vernon Girls trio; in the latter, the Beatles are shown singing along in the audience.
In 1963, Baldry joined the Cyril Davies R&B All Stars with Nicky Hopkins playing piano. He took over in 1964 after the death of Cyril Davies, and the group became Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie Men featuring Rod Stewart on vocals and Geoff Bradford on guitar. Stewart was recruited after Baldry heard him busking a Muddy Waters song at Twickenham station after Stewart had been to a Baldry gig at Eel Pie Island. Long John Baldry became a regular fixture on Sunday nights at Eel Pie Island from then onwards, fronting a series of bands.
In 1965, the Hoochie Coochie Men became Steampacket with Baldry and Stewart as male vocalists, Julie Driscoll as the female vocalist and Brian Auger on Hammond organ. After Steampacket broke up in 1966, Baldry formed Bluesology featuring Reg Dwight on keyboards and Elton Dean, later of Soft Machine, as well as Caleb Quaye on guitar. Dwight adopted the name Elton John, his first name from Dean and his surname from Baldry.
Baldry was openly gay during the early 1960s, at least amongst his friends and industry peers. However, he did not make a formal public acknowledgement of this until the 1970s—possibly because until 1967 in Britain, homosexuality was still a criminal offense that could lead to forced medication and/or jail time.
Baldry had a brief relationship with lead-guitarist of The Kinks, Ray Davies and supported Elton Johnin coming to terms with his own sexuality. In 1978 his then-upcoming album Baldry's Out announced his formal coming out, and he addressed sexuality problems with a cover of Canadian songwriter Bill Amesbury's "A Thrill's a Thrill".
In 1967, he recorded a pop song "Let The Heartaches Begin" that went to number one in Britain, followed by a 1968 top 20 hit titled "Mexico", which was the theme of the UK Olympic team that year. "Let the Heartaches Begin" made the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
Bluesology broke up in 1968, with Baldry continuing his solo career and Elton John forming a songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin. In 1969, Elton John tried to commit suicide after relationship problems with a woman. Taupin and Baldry found him, and Baldry talked him out of marrying the woman, helping make Elton John comfortable with his sexuality. The song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" from “Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy” was about the experience.
In 1971, John and Stewart each produced one side of It Ain't Easy which became Baldry's most popular album and made the top 100 of the US album chart. The album featured "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll" which became his most successful song in the US. Baldry's first tour of the US was at this time. The band included,Mick Waller, Ian Armitt, Pete Sears, and Sammy Mitchell. Stewart and John would again co-produce his 1972 album Everything Stops For Tea which made the lower reaches of the US album charts. The same year, Baldry worked with ex-Procol Harum guitarist Dave Ball.
Baldry had mental health problems and was institutionalised for a brief time in 1975. The 1979 album Baldry's Out was recorded after his release. He played live at Zolly's nightclub in Oshawa, underneath the Oshawa Shopping Centre, shortly after releasing Baldry's Out. In a 1997 interview with a German television program, Baldry claimed to be the last person to see singer Marc Bolan before Bolan's death on 16 September 1977, having conducted an interview with the fellow singer for an American production company, he says, just before Bolan drove away and had his accident.
He played his last live show in Columbus, Ohio, on 19 July 2004, at Barristers Hall with guitarist Bobby Cameron. The show was produced by Andrew Myers. They played to a small group, some came from Texas. Two years previously the two had a 10-venue sell-out tour of Canada. Baldry's final UK Tour as 'The Long John Baldry Trio' concluded with a performance on Saturday 13 November 2004 at The King's Lynn Arts Centre, King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. The trio consisted of LJB, Butch Coulter on harmonica and Dave Kelly on slide guitar.

Monday Morning Blues 31/03/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues - 31/03/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

John Lee Hooker - "Time Is Marchin"
Jim Jackson - "I Woke Up This Morning She Was Gone"
Jimmy Reed - "Going By The River Pt. 1"
The Yardbirds - "Train Kept A-Rolling"
Buddy Guy - "Stone Crazy"
Johnny Winter - "Trick Bag"
Cannon's Jug Stompers - "Viola Lee Blues"
Harry Bodine - "Travellin' The Southland"
Bowden and Williamson - "You Got It"
Jim Jackson - "My Monday Woman Blues"
Jo-Ann Kelly - "Try Me One More Time"
Dr. Feelgood - "Sugar Bowl"
Jim Jackson - "I Heard The Voice Of A Porkchop"
Deborah Bonhan - "What It Feels"
The John Pippus Band - "Two Hearts On The Run"
Magic Slim - "Give Me Back My Wig"
J.J. Cale - "Unemployment"
Big Bill Broonzy - "Long Tall Mama"
Doc Watson - "Rising Sun Blues"
Janiva Magness - "Use What You Got"
Jim Jackson - "Bye, Bye Policeman"
Mississippi Mathilda - "Hard Workin' Woman"

Featured Artist: Jim Jackson

Jim Jackson

(1884 - 1937)

Jackson was born in Hernando, Mississippi, and was raised on a farm, where he learned to play guitar. Around 1905 he started working as a singer, dancer, and musician in medicine shows, playing dances and parties often with other local musicians such as Gus Cannon, Frank Stokes and Robert Wilkins. He soon began traveling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, featuring Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, and other minstrel shows.
He also played clubs on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. His popularity and proficiency secured him a residency at Memphis's prestigious Peabody Hotel in 1919. Like Lead Belly, Jackson knew hundreds of songs including blues, ballads, vaudeville numbers, and traditional tunes, and became a popular attraction.
In 1927, talent scout H. C. Speir signed him to a recording contract with Vocalion Records. On October 10, 1927, he recorded “Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues”, which became a best-seller, and in the melody and lyrics of which can be traced the outline of many later blues and rock and roll songs, including “Rock Around The Clock” and “Kansas City”. Following his hit Jackson recorded a series of 'Kansas City' follow-ups and soundalikes. It also led to other artists covering and reworking the song, including Charlie Patton, who changed it to "Gonna Move To Alabama". Jackson moved to Memphis in 1928, and made a series of further recordings, including the comic medicine show song "I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop". He also appeared in King Vidor's all-black, 1929 film, “Hallelujah!”.
Jackson ran the Red Rose Minstrels, a traveling medicine show which toured Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. As a talent scout for Brunswick Records, he discovered Rufus “Speckled Red” Perryman, gaining him his first recording session. Shortly afterwards, in February 1930, Jackson recorded his own last session. He later moved back to Hernando, and continued to perform until his death in 1937.
Janis Joplin later recorded a version of "Kansas City Blues", inserting the lines "Babe, I'm leavin', yeah I'm a-leavin' this mornin' / Goin' to Kansas City to bring Jim Jackson home".
Jackson was a major influence on the Chicago bluesman J. B. Lenoir, and his "Kansas City Blues" was a regular fixture of Robert Nighthawk's concert set list.
The song "Wild About My Lovin'" was covered by The Lovin' Spoonful and released on their 1967 album, “The Best Of The Lovin' Spoonful”.

Monday Morning Blues 24/03/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 24/03/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

This week's playlist

Jimmy Yancey and Faber Smith - "East St. Louis Blues"
Dr. Ross - "Call The Doctor"
Eddie Martin - "Flowers To The Desert"
Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - "How Blue Can You Get"
Delta Reign - "Columbus Stockade Blues"
Mississippi Sheiks - "The World Is Going Wrong"
Collins, Cray and Copeland - "Something To Remember You By"
Minnie Wallace - "The Old Folks Started It"
Dr. Ross - "Sunnyland"
Alger Texas Alexander - "The Risin' Sun"
The Rolling Stones - "The Spider And The Fly"
Dr. Ross - "Numbers Boogie"
The City Shakers - "Get Out Of The Car"
Guitar Slim - "The Things That I Used To Do"
All Cued Up 2 - "Best Suit On"
The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - "The Money Goes"
iReedMan and Merry Clayton - "Backyard Bulldog"
Lemon Nash - "I'm Blue Every Monday"
Wesley Pruitt Band - "Thief In The Night"
Dr. Ross - "San Francisco Breakdown"
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - "This Is All"

Featured Artist: Dr. Ross

Charles Isaiah Ross

(October 21, 1925 – May 28, 1993),

 (aka Doctor Ross, the harmonica boss)

Ross played various forms of the blues that have seen him compared to John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson I, and is perhaps best known for the recordings he made for Sun Records in the 1950s, notably "The Boogie Disease" and "Chicago Breakdown".
Isaiah “Doc” Ross was a throwback to a bygone era; a true one-man band, he played harmonica, acoustic guitar, bass drum, and hi-hat simultaneously, creating a mighty racket harking back to the itinerant country-blues players wandering the Delta region during the earlier years of the 20th century. Born Charles Isaiah Ross on October 21, 1925 in Tunica, Mississippi, he took early inspiration from the music of Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller and Sonny Boy Williamson I; primarily a harpist -- hence his nickname "The Harmonica Boss" -- he only added the other instruments in his arsenal in order to play a USO show while a member of the Army during World War II. (The "Doc" moniker was acquired because he carried his harmonicas in a doctor's bag.)
Upon his release from the military, Ross settled in Memphis, where he became a popular club fixture as well as the host of his own radio show on station WDIA; during his club residency he was witness to a number of brutal murders, however, and swore off appearances in such venues during the later years of his life.
In 1951 Ross began to be heard on Mississippi and Arkansas radio stations, now nicknamed Doctor because of his habit of carrying his harmonicas in a black bag that resembled a doctors bag. Over the next three years he recorded in Memphis, Tennessee for both Chess and Sun, creating exhilarating harmonica or guitar boogies made distinctive by his sidemen playing washboard (with a spoon and fork) and broom.
In 1965 he cut his first full-length LP, “Call The Doctor”, and that same year mounted his first European tour; as the years passed Ross performed live with decreasing frequency, however, and was infamous for backing out of shows to catch his beloved Detroit Tigers on television.
Upon winning a Grammy for his 1981 album Rare Blues, he experienced a career resurgence, and played festival dates to great acclaim prior to his death on May 28, 1993.

Monday Morning Blues 17/03/14 (1st hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud

Monday Morning Blues 17/03/14 (2nd hour) by Kev "Legs" on Mixcloud