Sorry :-(

Due to circumstances beyond our control, I have been unable to upload the show to the Mixcloud/ Listen Again facility.
Hopefully we will be able to rectify the situation in the near future.
Sorry about that but, like I say, it's not our fault
In the meantime, there are some great shows from previous weeks, if you want you dose of the blues.

This week's playlist

Cats And A Fiddler - "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water"
Son House - "Death Letter"
Rod Stewart - "I'd Rather Go Blind"
Robert Johnson - "If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day"
Bert Deivert - "Big Road Blues"
Clarence 'Hound Dog' Jackson - "Country Swing"
Corey Harris - "If You Leave Me"
Mississippi Sheiks - "The Jazz Fiddler"
Dr. Feelgood - "Roxette"
Ben Reel - "Darkness And The Light"
Son House - "Pony Blues"
Bo Diddley - "I'm A Man"
Free - "I'm A Mover"
Son House - "Empire State Express"
Mr. Groove - "Rocket 88"
Jack Derwin - "Chemistry"
Tippy Agogo and Bill Bourne - "Mud Bears Park"
Maria Muldaur and Alvin Youngblood Hart - "I'm Going Back Home"
Jeff Olson - "Look For The Headlines"
Wily Bo Walker - "I Want To Know"
Tim and Roddy Smith - "Louisiana Women"
Canned Heat - "I'm So Tired"
Son House - "Grinning In Your Face"
Soulstack - "In My Time Of Dying"

Featured Artist: Son House

Son House
March 21 1902 – October 19 1988

Son House's place, not only in the history of Delta blues, but in the overall history of the music, is a very high one indeed. He was a major innovator of the Delta style, along with his playing partners Charley Patton and Willie Brown. Few listening experiences in the blues are as intense as hearing one of Son House's original 1930s recordings for the Paramount label. Entombed in a hailstorm of surface noise and scratches, one can still be awestruck by the emotional fervor House puts into his singing and slide playing. Little wonder then that the man became more than just an influence on some white English kid with a big amp; he was the main source of inspiration to both Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, and it doesn't get much more pivotal than that. Even after his rediscovery in the mid-'60s, House was such a potent musical force that what would have been a normally genteel performance by any other bluesmen in a "folk" setting turned into a night in the nastiest juke joint you could imagine, scaring the daylights out of young white enthusiasts expecting something far more prosaic and comfortable. When the man hit the downbeat on his National steel-bodied guitar and you saw his eyes disappear into the back of his head, you knew you were going to hear some blues. And when he wasn't shouting the blues, he was singing spirituals, a cappella. Right up to the end, no bluesman was torn between the sacred and the profane more than Son House.
He was born Eddie James House, Jr., on March 21, 1902, in Riverton, MS. By the age of 15, he was preaching the gospel in various Baptist churches as the family seemingly wandered from one plantation to the next. He didn't even bother picking up a guitar until he turned 25; to quote House, "I didn't like no guitar when I first heard it; oh gee, I couldn't stand a guy playin' a guitar. I didn't like none of it." But if his ambivalence to the instrument was obvious, even more obvious was the simple fact that Son hated plantation labor even more and had developed a taste for corn whiskey. After drunkenly launching into a blues at a house frolic in Lyon, MS, one night and picking up some coin for doing it, the die seemed to be cast; Son House may have been a preacher, but he was part of the blues world now.
If the romantic notion that the blues life is said to be a life full of trouble is true, then Son found a barrel of it one night at another house frolic in Lyon. He shot a man dead that night and was immediately sentenced to imprisonment at Parchman Farm. He ended up only serving two years of his sentence, with his parents both lobbying hard for his release, claiming self defense. Upon his release -- after a Clarksdale judge told him never to set foot in town again -- he started a new life in the Delta as a full-time man of the blues.
After hitchhiking and hoboing the rails, he made it down to Lula, MS, and ran into the most legendary character the blues had to offer at that point, the one and only Charley Patton. The two men couldn't have been less similar in disposition, stature, and in musical and performance outlook if they had purposely planned it that way. Patton was described as a funny, loud-mouthed little guy who was a noisy, passionate showman, using every trick in the book to win over a crowd. The tall and skinny House was by nature a gloomy man with a saturnine disposition who still felt extremely guilt-ridden about playing the blues and working in juke joints. Yet when he ripped into one, Son imbued it with so much raw feeling that the performance became the show itself, sans gimmicks. The two of them argued and bickered constantly, and the only thing these two men seemed to have in common was a penchant for imbibing whatever alcoholic potable came their way. Though House would later refer in interviews to Patton as a "jerk" and other unprintables, it was Patton's success as a bluesman -- both live and especially on record -- that got Son's foot in the door as a recording artist. He followed Patton up to Grafton, WI, and recorded a handful of sides for the Paramount label. These records today (selling scant few copies in their time, the few that did survived a life of huge steel needles, even bigger scratches, and generally lousy care) are some of the most highly prized collectors' items of Delta blues recordings, much tougher to find than, say, a Robert Johnson or even a Charley Patton 78. Paramount used a pressing compound for their 78 singles that was so noisy and inferior sounding that should someone actually come across a clean copy of any of Son's original recordings, it's a pretty safe bet that the listener would still be greeted with a blizzard of surface noise once the needle made contact with the disc.
But audio concerns aside, the absolutely demonic performances House laid down on these three two-part 78s ("My Black Mama," "Preachin' the Blues," and "Dry Spell Blues," with an unreleased test acetate of "Walkin' Blues" showing up decades later) cut through the hisses and pops like a brick through a stained glass window.
It was those recordings that led Alan Lomax to his door in 1941 to record him for the Library of Congress. Lomaxwas cutting acetates on a "portable" recording machine weighing over 300 pounds. Son was still playing (actually at the peak of his powers, some would say), but had backed off of it a bit since Charley Patton died in 1934. House did some tunes solo, as Lomax asked him to do, but also cut a session backed by a rocking little string band. As the band laid down long and loose (some tracks went on for over six minutes) versions of their favorite numbers, all that was missing was the guitars being plugged in and a drummer's backbeat and you were getting a glimpse of the future of the music.
But just as House had gone a full decade without recording, this time after the Lomax recordings, he just as quickly disappeared, moving to Rochester, NY. When folk-blues researchers finally found him in 1964, he was cheerfully exclaiming that he hadn't touched a guitar in years. One of the researchers, a young guitarist named Alan Wilson (later of the blues-rock group Canned Heat) literally sat down and retaught Son House how to play like Son House. Once the old master was up to speed, the festival and coffeehouse circuit became his oyster. He recorded again, the recordings becoming an important introduction to his music and, for some, a lot easier to take than those old Paramount 78s from a strict audio standpoint. In 1965, he played Carnegie Hall and four years later found himself the subject of an eponymously titled film documentary, all of this another world removed from Clarksdale, MS, indeed. Everywhere he played, he was besieged by young fans, asking him about Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, and others. For young white blues fans, these were merely exotic names from the past, heard only to them on old, highly prized recordings; for Son House they were flesh and blood contemporaries, not just some names on a record label. Hailed as the greatest living Delta singer still actively performing, nobody dared call himself the king of the blues as long as Son House was around.
He fell into ill health by the early '70s; what was later diagnosed as both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease first affected his memory and his ability to recall songs on-stage and, later, his hands, which shook so bad he finally had to give up the guitar and eventually leave performing altogether by 1976. He lived quietly in Detroit, MI, for another 12 years, passing away on October 19, 1988. His induction into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980 was no less than his due. Son House was the blues.

This week's playlist

The Chicago Blues Summit and Sunnyland Slim - "I Can't Stop"
Blodwyn Pig - "Drive Me"
Bobby Blue Bland - "I Don't Want No Woman"
Bare Bones Boogie Band - "Love In Vain"
J.J. Cale - "I Got The Same Old Blues"
Camille! - "Desperate"
Ted Hawkins - "I Got What I Wanted"
King David's Jug Band - "Rising Sun Blues"
Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley - "Honey Babe Blues"
Etta James - "I Just Wanna Make Love To You"
Blodwyn Pig - "Mr. Green's Blues"
Lil Johnson - "I Lost My Baby"
Narvel Felts - "My Babe"
Blodwyn Pig - "Summer Day"
Detroit Memphis Experience - "Just A Little Bit"
Detroit Memphis Experience - "Let's Straighten It Out"
David Migden and The Dirty Words - "I Can't See Her Face"
The Rev Jimmie Bratcher - "Check Your Blues At The Door"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "I Put A Spell On You"
Blodwyn Pig - "Slow Down"

Featured Artist: Blodwyn Pig

Blodwyn Pig

A quirky detour of late-'60s British progressive/blues rock, Blodwyn Pig was founded by former Jethro Tull
guitarist Mick Abrahams, who left Tull after the “This Was” album. Abrahams' falling-out with Anderson was said to have originated in differences between the two on original materia - Abrahams wishing to stay close to Jethro Tull's blues and jazz roots, Anderson wishing to develop less overt blues and jazz material.
Abrahams was joined by bassist Andy Pyle, drummer Ron Berg, and Jack Lancaster, who gave the outfit their most distinctive colorings via his saxophone and flute.
On their two albums, they explored a jazz/blues/progressive style somewhat in the mold of (unsurprisingly) Jethro Tull, but with a lighter feel. They also bore some similarities to John Mayall's jazzy late-'60s versions of The Bluesbreakers, or perhaps Colosseum, but with more eclectic material. Both of their LPs made the British Top Ten, though the players' instrumental skills were handicapped by thin vocals and erratic (though oft-imaginative) material.
With Abrahams and Lancaster in the lead, Blodwyn Pig recorded two albums, “Ahead Rings Out” in 1969 and “Getting To This” in 1970. Both reached the Top Ten of the UK Album Chart and charted in the United States; “Ahead Rings Out” displayed a jazzier turn on the heavy blues–rock that formed the band's core rooted in the British 1960s rhythm and blues scene from which sprang groups like The Yardbirds, Free and eventually Led Zeppelin.
Saxophonist–singer Lancaster (who often played two horns at once, like his idol Rahsaan Roland Kirk) was at least as prominent in the mix as Abrahams; some critics thought this contrast bumped the band toward a freer, more experimental sound on the second album.
The single "Summer Day" from “Ahead Rings Out” failed to chart, but the quartet became something of a favourite on the underground concert circuit.
Largely due to Abrahams's disillusionment with the business side of music, Blodwyn Pig eventually became an on-again, off-again concern; Lancaster at one point became a record producer, and Pyle eventually joined Savoy Brown.
Over the years since their original formation, Blodwyn Pig reformed several times, usually with Abrahams and Lancaster leading the group, and recorded two more albums in the 1990s.

This week's playlist

Loretta and The Bad Kings - "Honest I Do"
Anni Piper - "Live To Play"
Geno Washington and The Ram Jam Band - "High Heel Sneakers"
Muddy Waters - Honey Bee
Ray Bonneville - "Canary Yellow Car"
Asleep At The Wheel - "That's Your Red Wagon"
Grandpa Banana - "Blue Driver"
Noah Lewis Jug Band - "Selling The Jelly"
Paul Lamb - "Hootin' And Screamin'"
Mississippi John Hurt - "Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight"
Nicole Hart and Anni Piper - "Ain't Nobody Watchin'"
John Pippus - "House Of Cards"
Robert Nighthawk - "Back Water Blues"
Harmonica Frank - "Howlin' Tomcat"
Mill Billy Blues - "Railroad Worksong"
Anni Piper - "Jailbait"
Nicole Hart and Anni Piper - "Can't Let You Go"
The Jeff Beck Group - "I Ain't Superstitious"
Isaiah B Brunt - "Beale Street"
Big Bill Broonzy - "I Can't Be Satisfied"
James Harman - "Crazy Mixed Up World"

Featured Artist: Anni Piper

Anni Piper

Australian performer Anni Piper’s sultry vocals have attracted significant worldwide interest and she secured a deal with USA label Blues Leaf Records in 2008. Piper’s latest CD was recorded at Showplace Studios in New Jersey, USA and was released in February 2013. ‘Split Second’ features Piper’s bass playing talents throughout and she shares vocal duties with talented Florida based Nicole Hart. The blues songstresses beguile listeners with butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-your-mouth harmonies and heart-rending ballads of love gone sour. But as well as showing their sweet side, there’s a little spice with diverse originals and covers from Janis Joplin to Ronnie Earl.
Anni Piper began playing electric guitar at 12 years old, but became a devoted musician when she was given her first bass at age 14. She quickly discovered an affinity with the instrument, preferring to lay down a groove rather than scream out a solo. Piper’s musical ability and strong focus led her to complete a Bachelor of Arts (Contemporary Music) at Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW, at only 19 years of age.
Piper remembers with clarity the first time she heard the blues back in her school days (“It was Paul Butterfield Blues Band playing ‘Born in Chicago’ - I knew straight away this was the direction I was heading.” she says).
In early 2004 Piper made the decision to record ‘Jailbait’, her debut CD. The album was an immediate success, winning the category of ‘Best New Talent’ at the 2005 Australian Blues Music Awards, plus making finalist for ‘Best Female Vocal’. Piper also achieved first place in the 2004 ABC Radio ‘Fresh Air’ competition. These weren’t the only accolades for ‘Jailbait’ and Piper went on to become a top 5 finalist in the blues category of the 2004 MusicOz competition, and 2nd place winner in the blues category of the 2005 Australian National Songwriting Contest.
To promote the album Piper toured Australia extensively, particularly the east coast. Festival appearances include the Woodford Folk Festival (QLD), Optus National Music Muster (Gympie, QLD), Wangaratta Jazz Festival (VIC), Echuca Blues Festival (VIC), Backwater Blues Festival (SA), Bruthen Blues and Arts Festival (VIC), Queenscliff Music Festival (VIC), and the Australian Blues Music Festival (Goulburn, NSW).
Piper’s second album ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ was recorded in early 2007. It was a much ‘rawer’ recording, and represented Piper’s live sound at the time more effectively than her first album. Already acknowledged as being an accomplished bass player and singer, this album showed that Piper had blossomed into a songwriter of distinction; her songs having a blues sensibility whilst still addressing the issues of today.
Piper’s USA debut, titled ‘Two’s Company’ was released in January 2009 and hit #1 on the Australian Roots music charts and # 21 on the USA ‘Living Blues’ chart.
Her CD ‘Chasin’ Tail’ was launched in February 2010 at the Australian Blues Music Festival, NSW. ‘Chasin’ Tail’ has also been released by Blues Leaf Records throughout the rest of the world to rave reviews. For this album, Anni chose a tougher sound, influenced by the blues / rock idols she enjoyed in her youth.
Other career achievements include nomination as a top five finalist in the 2010 Musicoz Awards in the Blues / Roots category, and finalist in the 2009 APRA Professional Development Awards. Piper was also a finalist for ‘Best Female Vocal’ at the 2008 Australian Blues Music Awards and received a nomination for the ‘Rudy Brandsma’ award at the 2007 Australian National Songwriting Contest.

This week's playlist

Nine Below Zero - "Hard Goin' Up (Twice As Hard Comin' Down)"
The Mustangs - "The Line"
Chris Thomas King - "Hard Time Killing Floor"
Rabbit Foot - "Down The Road"
Paul DeLay Band - "Harpoon Man"
Little Walter - "Hate To See You Go"
Memphis Jug Band - "He's In The Jailhouse Now"
Sunday Wilde - "He Thrills Me Up"
Roy Gaines and The Crusaders - "Hell Of A Night"
The Mustangs - "Payback"
Sandi Thom - "Help Me"
Eric Bibb - "Bayou Belle"
Bessie Smith - "He's Got Me Going"
Poplar Jake - "Five And Some Change"
Freddie King - "Hide Away"
Savoy Brown - "Highway Blues"
Seasick Steve and The Level Devils - "Hobo Blues"
The Mustangs - "Gotta Be Good"
The Mustangs - "When God Met The Devil"
Flyin' Saucer Gumbo Special - "New Orleans"
Earl Hooker - "Hold On"

Featured Artist: The Mustangs

 The Mustangs

The Mustangs are a British blues rock band that were formed in Hampshire in 2001. They are unusual on the blues rock circuit as their albums are made of entirely original material.
The Mustangs were formed by Adam Norsworthy and Derek Kingaby after an impromptu jam session in the Fountain Pub in Rowland's Castle, Hampshire, in 2001. The Mustangs first came to national attention after winning the Eel Pie Club's Search for New Blues Talent competition in 2004.
The Mustangs have played and headlined a wide variety of gigs and blues festivals across the UK and Europe including Colne, Maryport, Blues on The Farm, Newark, Swanage, Skegness, Hyde Park, Goodwood, Zinc Paris, Gosport and Southsea. Their concerts showcase singer Norsworthy's dynamic energy: he runs and jumps about the stage throughout each concert, whilst maintaining a visible camaraderie with the other band members.
As well as their own material, in concert the group often plays some blues standards, though radically reinterpreting the arrangement to suit the band's "truly storming... ferocious" sound. These include Leadbelly's "Hands Off", Troyce Keane's "Annie Maybe" and Cyril Davies "Countryline Special".
Chiefly influenced by the British blues rock bands of the 1960s such as Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac as well as Dr. Feelgood, the Mustangs also draw on more traditional blues influences such as Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Robert Johnson. The band's use of blues harp, played by Derek Kingaby, adds to an authentic, traditional blues sound.
The majority of the songwriting is by Norsworthy, but all four members of the band have contributed songs to the albums.
The band's fifth album, Cut Loose, received a 5 star review in the May 2010 issue of R2 magazine. In the same year, as well as being nominated for best band at the British Blues Awards, Ben Mckeown and Jon Bartley were nominated for an award in their own instrument categories, Mckeown for Best Bass Guitarist and Bartley for Best Drummer.
The band's sixth album, Shaman & the Monkey, was released in October 2011. The band supported the release with a number of shows at high profile blues festivals across the UK including Maryport, Cambridge, Swanage, Newark and the Isle of Wight. The Mustangs left Cross Border later in 2011 and signed to the Trapeze Music label, who subsequently took over the release of the Shaman & the Monkey album, as well taking over the distribution of the band's entire back catalogue.
In December, 2012 Shaman & the Monkey was voted Best UK and European blues rock album by the prestigious Blues Underground Network. The song 'Highwire', from Shaman & the Monkey, was nominated as Best Original Blues Song at the 2012 British Blues Awards. This was the band's fourth ever nomination at the Awards.
The band's seventh album, Speed of Love, was released on April 8th.
In 2012, as Adam & the King Bee, Norsworthy and Derek Kingaby released Pow Wow, a collection of blues- and country-tinged songs that they had written while rooming together on tour with the Mustangs

This week's playlist

Sunny Blair - "Glad To Be Back Home"
The Jeff Healey Band - "Confidence Man"
Leadbelly - "Good Morning Blues"
Wesley Pruitt Band - "Gone Gone Gone"
James Cotton - "Bird Nest On The Ground"
John Primer and Bob Corritore - "Harmonica Joyride"
Josh White - "Good Gal"
Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe - "Greenville Strut"
The Mighty Mojo Prophets - "Sweetness"

The Jeff Healey Band - "Nice Problem To Have"
Status Quo - "Good Thinking"
The Jeff Healey Band - "I'm Ready"
Charlie Mosbrook - "Catnipped"
Charlie Mosbrook - "I Will Be Coming Home To You"
Alexis Korner and Peter Thorup - "Gospel Ship"
The McCarthys - "Feed The Hand"
Eric Bibb and Habib Koite - "Goin' Down That Road Feelin' Bad"
James Buddy Rogers - "Guitar Sue"
The Jeff Healey Band - "Yer Blues"

Featured Artist: Jeff Healey

Norman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey
(March 25, 1966 – March 2, 2008)

What made Jeff Healey different from other blues-rockers was also what kept some listeners from accepting him as anything other than a novelty -- the fact that the blind guitarist played his Fender Stratocaster on his lap, not standing up. With the guitar in his lap, Healey could make unique bends and hammer-ons, making his licks different and more elastic than most of the competition. Unfortunately, his material leaned toward standard AOR blues-rock, which rarely let him cut loose, but when he did, his instrumental prowess could be shocking.
Healey lost his sight at the age of one, after developing eye cancer. He began playing guitar when he was three years old and began performing with his band Blues Direction at the age of 17. Healey formed The Jeff Healey Band in 1985, featuring bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tm Stephen. This trio released one single on its own Forte record label, which led to a contract with Arista Records. The Jeff Healey Band released their debut album, “See The Light”, in 1988 and the guitarist immediately developed a devoted following in blues-rock circles. Featuring the hit single "Angel Eyes," the record went platinum in the U.S. While The Jeff Healey Band's subsequent records were popular, none were as successful as the debut.
As the 21st century dawned, Healey began to change his direction. He taught himself to play the trumpet and began to lean toward the kind of traditional 1920s and '30s jazz that had always fascinated him. He released two classic jazz albums, 2002's “Among Friends” and 2004's “Adventures In Jazzland”, on his own HealeyOphonic label, and a third traditional jazz outing with “It's Tight Like That”, which appeared on Stony Plain in 2006. And while he continued to do shows in his earlier blues-rock style, he increasingly gigged with his jazz combo, The Jazz Wizards.
In 2008, a month before the release of his last studio-recorded blues album, “Mess Of Blues”, Healey died from cancer.
“Songs From The Road”, a collection of live blues-rock performances from 2006 and 2007, was released by the Ruf imprint in 2009, nearly 18 months after Healey's death. His final studio jazz album, “Last Call”, was issued by Stony Plain in April 2010.

This week's playlist

Timothy Hay - "Feral Beast"
Grateful Dead - "When Push Comes To Shove"
Ray Manzarek and Roy Rogers - "Fives And Ones"
Big Twist and The Mellow Fellows - "Flip Flop"
Kathy Frank - "Florida Blues"
Frank Crummit - "Frankie And Johnnie"
Cincinnati Jug Band - "George Street Stomp"
Bill Bourne and The Free Radio Band - "Forever Truly Bound"
The Paul Rose Band - "Rollin' And Tumblin"
Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band - "Blue Yodel"
Grateful Dead - "Truckin"
Paul Rose - "Ball And Chain"
Paul Rose - "Just A Little Bit"
Memphis Minnie - "Georgia Skin"
King Biscuit Boy - "Get It Right"
Zoot Money - "Get On The Right Track Baby"
Dr Feelgood - "All Through The City"
Lonnie Johnson - "Get Yourself Together"
Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band - "Casey Jones"

Featured Artist: Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia

August 1, 1942 - August 9, 1995

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Jerry Garcia was best known as a founding member of The Grateful Dead, the rock band for which he served as de facto leader for 30 years, 1965-1995.
Jerome John Garcia, named after the show tune composer Jerome Kern, was born August 1, 1942.
Garcia displayed an early interest in music and took piano lessons as a child.
He showed great interest in art, attending the California School of Fine Arts during the summer of 1957, and for his 15th birthday that year, his mother gave him a guitar
18 years old, Garcia moved to Palo Alto, CA, where he lived informally over the next several years, playing in clubs and bookstores near the campus of Stanford University and encountering many of the people he would work with for the rest of his career.
The early '60s was the period of a folk music revival, and Garcia became an avid student of folk, old-time country, and bluegrass music, playing both the acoustic guitar and banjo in ad hoc groups with names like the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers, the Wildwood Boys, and the Hart Valley Drifters over the next two years.
During 1964, he began playing in a jug band, Moter McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, that also featured guitarist/singer Bob Weir and singer/harmonica player/keyboardist Ron McKernan (aka Pigpen). At the turn of 1965, the group took up electric instruments and became a rock & roll band, adding drummer Bill Kreutzmann and renaming themselves The Warlocks. Phil Lesh, another friend of Garcia's joined on bass by June 1965, and in December the quintet first performed under its new name, The Grateful Dead. Their first single, comprised of the traditional songs "Stealin'" and "Don't Ease Me In," was released by Scorpio Records in June 1966, The Grateful Dead signed to Warner Bros. Records for the release of their first album,'The Grateful Dead', in March 1967.
Taking up the pedal steel guitar, he helped form The New Riders Of The Purple Sage with singer/songwriter John Dawson and guitarist David Nelson, the latter one of his old friends from his Palo Alto days, the band filled out by Grateful Dead members Lesh and Mickey Hart.
His first track as a solo performer was "Love Scene," which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1970 film Zabriskie Point. He also began playing in a pickup band in a club in San Francisco with keyboardist Howard Wales, beginning a string of gigs that would lead to The JGB, although the more immediate result was his first "solo" album, an LP actually credited to Wales and him, called 'Hooteroll?', released by Douglas Records in 1971.
In June 1974, Round Records released Garcia's second solo album, which, like his first, was called Garcia. To avoid confusion, fans began calling it 'Compliments Of Garcia' because of the legend "Compliments Of" that appeared on a sticker on promotional copies sent to radio stations, and it later was officially retitled 'Compliments'. The album featured no new compositions by Garcia and was more in the mode of his club band, with numerous cover songs. Nevertheless, it reached the Top 50
It has been suggested that the dearth of recordings by either Garcia or The Grateful Dead in the early and mid-'80s was partly the result of the guitarist's drug usage during the period. Always known for his affection for psychedelic drugs Garcia apparently had moved on to harder drugs by this time. On January 18, 1985, he was arrested for possession of cocaine and heroin. He avoided jail time by agreeing to seek treatment, attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and do a benefit concert. Along with his drug usage, his smoking and other unhealthy behavior contributed to a physical decline during what turned out to be the last decade of his life.
Garcia did a special series of shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on Broadway in New York City in October 1987, leading an acoustic string band in the first set and The JGB in the second. The shows resulted in a live album, 'Almost Acoustic', credited to The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, released by Grateful Dead Merchandising in 1988.
In February 1991, Garcia added a third steady group to his schedule, appearing in an acoustic duo with his old friend Dvid Grisman at the Warfield and, shortly after, releasing the album 'Jerry Garcia/David Grisman' through Grisman's Acoustic Disc label. Warfield shows from 1990 with The JGB were the source for Arista's two-CD set Jerry Garcia Band, released in May 1991.
The summer of 1995 found The Grateful Dead as usual playing outdoor stadiums, and they finished the run with a show at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9. It was the band's last concert. A week later, Garcia checked into the Betty Ford Clinic, his first-ever attempt at formal rehab to kick his heroin habit. He stayed a couple of weeks, but did not complete the clinic's one-month program. On August 8, he entered another rehab facility in Forest Knolls, CA. In the early hours of August 9, 1995, he died there in his sleep of a heart attack at the age of 53.
Although Garcia eschewed the title of leader of The Grateful Dead, his significance to the band was obvious, and the surviving members' announcement in December 1995 that the group was breaking up without him was no surprise.

This week's playlist

Keef Hartley - "Me And My Woman"
Woody Guthrie - "End Of The Line"
French Blues Explosion - "El Mariachi"
Phillipp Fankhauser - "Jealous Kinda Fella"
John Lee Hooker - "It Serves Me Right To Suffer"
Jimmy Dawkins - "Gittar Rapp"
Snake Mary - "Lay By The River"
Mississippi Sheiks - "The Sheik Waltz"
Nick Drake - "Here Come The Blues"
Big Mama Thornton - "Hound Dog"
Woody Guthrie - "Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road"
Joe Bonamassa - "Dust Bowl"
Hilda Lamas - "Blues Man In A Three Piece Suit"
Woody Guthrie - "Railroad Blues"
Kevin Selfe - "Last Crossroad"
Kevin Selfe - "Second Box On The Left"
Slim Harpo - "I'm A King Bee"
Bonnie Raitt - "I Ain't Blue"
Pam Taylor Band - "All I Got Left"
Woody Guthrie - "Washington Talkin' Blues"
John Pippus - "One World"

Featured Artist: Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie
July 14, 1912 - October 3, 1967

Woody Guthrie was the most important American folk music artist of the first half of the 20th century, in part because he turned out to be such a major influence on the popular music of the second half of the 20th century, a period when he himself was largely inactive.
His songs have been performed and recorded by a wide range of artists, including a veritable who's who of folksingers.
During his heyday, in the 1940s, he was a major-label recording artist, a published author, and a nationally broadcast radio personality. But the impression this creates, that he was a multi-media star, is belied by his personality and his politics. Restlessly creative and prolific, he wrote, drew, sang, and played constantly, but his restlessness also expressed itself in a disinclination to stick consistently to any one endeavor, particularly if it involved a conventional, cooperative approach.
Guthrie had begun to write his own songs as early as 1932. On April 14, 1935, he found inspiration in a natural disaster, when a major dust storm hit Pampa, as drought conditions and subsistence farming across the Great Plains combined to strip off tons of topsoil and send it flying into the wind, contributing to the financial catastrophe suffered by farmers during the Great Depression. Guthrie wrote "So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh" (aka "Dusty Old Dust"), which was full of bitingly comic observations about the troubles suffered by people in the storm.
Meeting his cousin Leon Jerry "Oklahoma Jack" Guthrie in Los Angeles, Guthrie began performing with him, and the two were hired to do a radio program on the local station KFVD, launching the daily 15-minute program The Oklahoma and Woody Show on July 19, 1937.
In March 1940 Guthrie performed at a benefit for migrant workers sponsored by John Steinbeck at the Forrest Theater, California. His appearance was a sensation; with his demeanor and accent, he seemed the living embodiment of the Okies, and his songs and wry humor called to mind a combination of the country singer Jimmie Rogers and the homespun monologuist Will Rogers. At the event, Guthrie met a number of prominent folksingers, among them Leadbelly and Aunt Molly Jackson, as well as the 20-year-old aspiring folksinger Pete Seeger and Alan Lomax, the assistant in charge of the Archive of Folk-Song at the Library of Congress.
Lomax had other media connections that gave Guthrie greater exposure. On April 2, 1940, he presented Guthrie on his nationally broadcast CBS radio program, Columbia School of the Air, and later in the month Guthrie made the first of several appearances on another CBS show, The Pursuit of Happiness. Lomax also talked Guthrie up to RCA Victor Records, which signed him to a contract that resulted in the release of two albums, each consisting of three 78 RPM discs, in July 1940, Dust Bowl Ballads, Vol. 1 and Dust Bowl Ballads, Vol. 2.
In 1946, Guthrie played concerts under the auspices of People's Songs, an organization founded by Seeger and other folksingers as a clearinghouse to promote political folk songs. He also continued to record for Asch, who released a new album, Struggle: Documentary #1, and commissioned him to write a series of songs about Sacco and Vanzetti, the immigrant anarchists who had been convicted of a robbery in which two guards were killed and had been executed in 1927, their case long a cause célèbre of the American left. (The album was not released until 1960.)
Inspired by his daughter Cathy, Guthrie also had begun writing children's songs, and he recorded these for Asch as well, starting in February 1946. After being released later in the year on Asch's Disc Records label on the album Songs to Grow On: Nursery Days, these became among Guthrie's most popular recordings, and he made more of them. Work Songs to Grow On followed in 1947.
By late 1951, Guthrie's erratic behavior had led to his separation from his wife. On January 7, 1952, he did a recording session for Decca Records as part of proposed contract with the label, but his performing skills had deteriorated noticeably; the contract was withdrawn, and the recordings have never been released. This was Guthrie's last serious attempt to record, although there was a final session for Asch two years later that also proved fruitless. Guthrie was hospitalized on May 16, 1952, and was in and out of hospitals over the summer until a neurologist finally recognized his symptoms as Huntington's disease in September.
Since discovering that his mother had suffered from Huntington's disease shortly after her death, Guthrie had feared that he would inherit the illness, as he confided to friends on several occasions in the 1930s and '40s. By the late '40s, he had begun to exhibit symptoms of the disease, although, since his behavior had always been idiosyncratic, they were not recognized as such by him or others, and tended to be ascribed to excessive drinking.
On September 16, 1954, no longer able to function, Guthrie checked himself into Brooklyn State Hospital, where he had received his diagnosis two years earlier. This was a voluntary commitment that allowed him to leave the hospital on weekends, which he spent with his ex-wife Marjorie Guthrie. On May 23, 1956, Guthrie checked himself out, intending to hit the road again, but within days he was arrested for vagrancy in New Jersey and involuntarily committed to Greystone Park Hospital, where he remained for five years, until Marjorie Guthrie was able to get him moved back to Brooklyn State, an easier commute from her home in Coney Island.
Guthrie was moved to Creedmore State Hospital in Queens, NY, in July 1966 and put under the care of a doctor specifically studying Huntington's disease. He died there on, October 3, 1967 at the age of 55.
Guthrie defined an era in his Dust Bowl ballads, his outlaw tales, his work and labor songs, anti-war songs, children's songs, political songs, and a host of love songs and songs that touched on philosophy, geography and the hard work of living day to day in an emerging industrial world. He wrote constantly, a bit like a maverick beat reporter, and new poems, writings, drawings and even previously unknown songs kept turning up into the 21st century. In 2012, the centennial year of his birth, several books, anthologies and box sets of his work appeared, and Guthrie was firmly enshrined as a one-of-a-kind American icon and treasure.

This week's playlist

Son House - "Walking Blues"
Dr. Feelgood - "Get Rhythm"
Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell - "How Long, How Long Blues"
Hooker 'N' Heat - "Meet Me In The Bottom"
Barrence Whitfield and The Savages - "Bloody Mary"
58 Deluxe - "Thrill Is Gone"
Dr. Feelgood - "Looking Back"
Dr. Feelgood - "My Babe"
2BLU and The Lucky Stiffs - "Dead Man's Blues"
Duffy's Nucleus - "Hound Dog"
Kenny Davine Fine - "This Is My Song"
Dr. Feelgood - "Highway 61"
Rick L. Blues - "Lucky Boogie"
Pickering White - "Bye Bye Baby"
Birmingham Jug Band - "Cane Brake Blues"
Otis Spann - "Pretty Girls Everywhere"
Texas Alligator Blues Band - "Let's Call It The Blues"
The Mighty Mojo Prophets - "Sweetness"
Eliza Neals - "Money (That's What I Want)"
Zoot Money - "Get On The Right Track Baby"
Dr. Feelgood - "Mad Man Blues"
Graham Bond Organisation - "Strut Around"

Featured Artist - Dr Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood are a British pub rock band formed in 1971.

Formed at Canvey Island, Essex, they are best known for early singles like "Back in the Night" and "Roxette". Although their most commercially productive years were the early to mid 1970s, they continue to tour and record to this day.

The original band line-up included Wilko Johnson on guitar, singer Lee Brilleaux and the rhythm section of John B. Sparks, known as "Sparko", on bass guitar and John Martin, known as "The Big Figure", on drums.

Like many pub rock acts, Dr. Feelgood were known primarily for their high energy live performances, although studio albums like Down by the Jetty (1974) and Malpractice (1975) were also popular. Their breakthrough 1976 live album, Stupidity, reached number one in the UK Albums Chart. But after the follow-up Sneakin' Suspicion, Johnson was replaced by John 'Gypie' Mayo, and enjoyed their only Top Ten hit single in 1979, with "Milk and Alcohol".

Despite Mayo's departure in 1981, and various subsequent line-up changes which left Brilleaux the only remaining original member, Dr. Feelgood continued touring and recording through the 1980s, until Lee Brilleaux died of cancer in 1994.

Dr. Feelgood reunited in May 1995, initially with vocalist Pete Gage, and started touring again in 1996.

The current line up features the rhythm section Kevin Morris on drums and Phil Mitchell on bass, both 29 years in the band and Steve Walwyn on guitar who has been with the band for 23 years. Vocalist Robert Kane (formerly of the Animals) is the most recent addition – joining in 1999. The band continues to tour extensively throughout the World and enjoy a loyal following at home and abroad.

This week's playlist

Arne Bang Huseby - "Stormy Blues"
Eric Lindell - "It's A Drag"
ZZ Top - "La Grange"
Johnny Winter -  "Bad Girl Blues"
Fit & The Conniptions - "Got My Modem Working"
Paul Lamb & The Blues Burglars - "Spaced Out"
Fleetwood Mac - "Shake Your Money Maker"
The Memphis Jug Band - "On The Road Again"
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - "Hole In Her Stocking"
Albert Collins - "I Ain't Drunk"
Geno Washington - "Seven Eleven"
Mississippi John Hurt - "Candy Man"
Delbert McClinton - "You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover"
Jim Jackson - "Hesitation Blues"
Big Woody - "People Are Talkin'"
Jimmy G - "A Rasiny Night In Georgia"
My Bubba & Mi - "Nothing Much"

Charlie Mosbrook - "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane"
Josh White - "Blood Red River"
Coco Montoya - "Last Dirty Deal"
Solo Dja Kabako - "Souba"

Featured Artist: Alligator Records

Alligator Records

Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label, founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.
Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylorn & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record. Nine months after the release of the first album, he stopped working at Delmark Records to concentrate fully on the band and his label. Iglauer was also one of the founders of the Living Blues magazine in Chicago in 1970.
In 1982, the label won its first Grammy Award for the album, “I'm Here”, by Clifton Chenier. The second Grammy came in 1985 for “Showdown!” by Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland and Robert Cray.
Since its founding, Alligator Records has released over 250 blues and blues/rock albums, as well as a now-defunct reggae series. Present and past Alligator artists include Marcia Ball, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, Sam Lay, Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Roomful Of Blues, Eric Lindell, JJ Grey & MOFRO, Lee Rocker, Cephas & Wiggins and Michael Burks. More recently, veterans Charlie Musselwhite and James Cotton have re-signed to the label.

This week's playlist

Lonnie Johnson - "Playing With The Strings"
Magic Slim and The Teardrops - "Hard Luck Blues"
Big Woody - "Blues This Morning"
Dr. Feelgood - "All Through The City"
Eden Brent - "Darkness On The Delta"
Blind Blake - "Come On Boys, Let's Do That Messin' Around"
Even Dozen Jug Band - "Take Your Fingers Off It"
International Blues Family - "Let The Spirit"
Walter Trout - "Wrapped Up In The Blues"
Magic Slim and The Teardrops - "I Got Money"
Blind Gary Davis - "Cross And Evil Woman Blues"
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - "Tulsa Sounds Like Trouble To Me"
Magic Slim and The Teardrops - "Matchbox Blues"
Peter Karp and Sue Foley - "More Than I Bargained For"
Josh White - "Good Gal"
Skip James - "Devil Got My Woman"
Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Black Snake Moan"
Mig and The Mudz (featuring Lady Loretta) - "Down"
Leroy Carr - "Mean Mistreatin' Mama"
John Pippus - "Tell Me Why"
Magic Slim and The Teardrops - "Someone Else Is Steppin' In"
Little Brother Montgomery - "The First Time I Met The Blues"