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

This week's playlist

Joe Louis Walker - "Hellfire"
Kevin Breit - "Field Recording"
Jack Derwin - "Bone House Blues"
The Mustangs - "The Line"
CC Bronson - "Thank You"
Carolina Chocolate Drops - "Trouble In Your Mind"
Michael Jerome Brown - "Doin' My Time"
Eric Bibb - "Booker's Guitar
Isaiah B. Brunt - "Just A Beautiful Thing"
Aynsley Lister - "Sugar"
The Paul Rose Band - "Rollin' And Tumblin'"
Todd Wolfe - "It's All Over Now"
RB Stone - "Loosen Up"
Dr. Feelgood - "Because You're Mine"
Sean Pinchin - "High Heel Shoes"
Anni Piper - "Jailbait"

This week's playlist

Elvin Bishop - "Little Drummer Boy"
The Nic Nacs with Mickey Champion - "Gonna Have A Merry Xmas"
Sterling Koch - "Merry Christmas Baby"
Blind Lemon Jefferson - "Christmas Eve Blues"
Cecil Gant - "Hello Santa Claus"
Shemekia Copeland - "Stay A Little Longer Santa"
C.J. Chenier - "Zydeco Christmas"
The Christmas Jug Band - "Christmas Iz Coming"
Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women - "Really Been Good This Year"
Leroy Carr - "Christmas In Jail"
Frankie 'Sugar Chile' Robinson "Christmas Boogie"
Gary U.S. Bonds - "It's Christmas In Nu Awlins"
Hilda Lamas - "Christmas Won't Be Christmas"
Otis Reading - "Merry Christmas Baby"
Larry Sparks - "Christmas Time's A-Comin'"
The Ravens - "White Christmas"
Marcia Ball - "Christmas Fais Do Do"
Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials - "I'm Your Santa"
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - "Merry Christmas Darling"
Bo Carter - "Santa Claus"
Southside Johnny - "Please Come Home For Christmas"
Titus Turner with The  Danny Kessler Orchestra - "Christmas Morning"

This week's playlist

Paul Lamb - "Hootin' And Screamin'"
Elmore James - "Cry For Me Baby"
Jimmy Butler - "Trim Your Tree"
Jason Daniels - "Early In The Morning"
Lloyd Glen - "(Christmas) Sleigh Ride"
John Pippus - "House Of Cards"
Kim Trusty - "Comfort And Joy"
The Carolina Chocolate Drops - "Trouble In Your Mind"
Dan Sowerby - "Messin' Round"
Sandy Carroll - "Leave It Alone"
Elmore James - "Elmore's Contribution To Jazz"
Black Ace - "Christmas Time (Beggin' Santa Claus)"
Trampled Under Foot - "You Never Really Loved Me"
Elmore James - "Take Me Where You Go"
Charles Brown and Johnny Otis - "Christmas Comes But Once A Year"
John Lee Hooker - "Wheel And Deal"
Lawrence Lebo - "(I'm Your) Christmas Present"
Will Wilde - "Numb"
John Hammond - "Get Behind The Mule"
The Rides - "Only Teardrops Fall"
Duffy's Nucleus - "Hound Dog"
Elmore James - "One Way Out"
J.B. Summers with Doc Bagby's Orchestra - "I Want A Present For Christmas"

Featured Artist: Elmore James

Elmore James
(January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963)

The most influential slide guitarist of the postwar period was Elmore James, hands down. Although his early demise from heart failure kept him from enjoying the fruits of the '60s blues revival as his contemporaries Muddy waters and Howlin' Wolf did, James left a wide influential trail behind him. And that influence continues to the present time -- in approach, attitude and tone -- in just about every guitar player who puts a slide on his finger and wails the blues. As a guitarist, he wrote the book, his slide style influencing the likes of Hound Dog Taylor, Joe Carter, his cousin Homesick James and J.B. Hutto, while his seldom-heard single-string work had an equally profound effect on B.B. King and Chuck Berry. His signature lick -- an electric updating of Robert Johnson's "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" and one that Elmore recorded in infinite variations from day one to his last session -- is so much a part of the essential blues fabric of guitar licks that no one attempting to play slide guitar can do it without being compared to Elmore James. Others may have had more technique – Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker immediately come to mind -- but Elmore had the sound and all the feeling.
A radio repairman by trade, Elmore reworked his guitar amplifiers in his spare time, getting them to produce raw, distorted sounds that wouldn't resurface until the advent of heavy rock amplification in the late '60s. This amp-on-11-approach was hot-wired to one of the strongest emotional approaches to the blues ever recorded. There is never a time when you're listening to one of his records that you feel -- no matter how familiar the structure -- that he's phoning it in just to grab a quick session check. Elmore James always gave it everything he had, everything he could emotionally invest in a number. This commitment of spirit is something that shows up time and again when listening to multiple takes from his session masters. The sheer repetitiveness of the recording process would dim almost anyone's creative fires, but Elmore always seemed to give it 100 percent every time the red light went on. Few blues singers had a voice that could compete with James'; it was loud, forceful, prone to "catch" or break up in the high registers, almost sounding on the verge of hysteria at certain moments. Evidently the times back in the mid-'30s when Elmore had first-hand absorption of Robert Johnson as a playing companion had a deep influence on him, not only in his choice of material, but also in his presentation of it.
Backing the twin torrents of Elmore's guitar and voice was one of the greatest -- and earliest -- Chicago blues bands. Named after James' big hit, The Broomdusters featured Little Johnny Jones on piano, J.T. Brown on tenor sax and Elmore's cousin, Homesick James on rhythm guitar. This talented nucleus was often augmented by a second saxophone on occasion while the drumming stool changed frequently. But this was the band that could go toe to toe in a battle of the blues against the bands of Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf and always hold their own, if not walk with the show. Utilizing a stomping beat, Elmore's slashing guitar, Jones' two-fisted piano delivery, Homesick's rudimentary boogie bass rhythm and Brown's braying nanny-goat sax leads, The Broomdusters were as loud and powerful and popular as any blues band the Windy City had to offer.
But as urban as their sound was, it all had roots in Elmore's hometown of Canton, MS. He was born there on January 27, 1918, the illegitimate son of Leola Brooks and later given the surname of his stepfather, Joe Willie James. He adapted to music at an early age, learning to play bottleneck on a homemade instrument fashioned out of a broom handle and a lard can. By the age of 14, he was already a weekend musician, working the various country suppers and juke joints in the area under the names "Cleanhead" or Joe' Willie James." Although he confined himself to a home base area around Belzoni, he would join up and work with traveling players coming through like Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. By the late '30s he had formed his first band and was working the Southern state area with Sonny Boy until the second world war broke out, spending three years stationed with the Navy in Guam. When he was discharged, he picked off where he left off, moving for a while to Memphis, working in clubs with Eddie Taylor and his cousin Homesick James. Elmore was also one of the first "guest stars" on the popular King Biscuit Time radio show on KFFA in Helena, AL, also doing stints on the Talaho Syrup show on Yazoo City's WAZF and the Hadacol show on KWEM in West Memphis.
Nervous and unsure of his abilities as a recording artist, Elmore was surreptitiously recorded by Lillian McMurray of Trumpet Records at the tail end of a Sonny Boy session doing his now-signature tune, "Dust My Broom." Legend has it that James didn't even stay around long enough to hear the playback, much less record a second side. McMurray stuck a local singer (BoBo 'Slim' Thomas) on the flip side and the record became the surprise R&B hit of 1951, making the Top Ten and conversely making a recording star out of Elmore. With a few months left on his Trumpet contract, Elmore was recorded by the Bihari Brothers for their Modern label subsidiaries, Flair and Meteor, but the results were left in the can until James' contract ran out. In the meantime, Elmore had moved to Chicago and cut a quick session for Chess, which resulted in one single being issued and just as quickly yanked off the market as The Bihari Brothers swooped in to protect their investment. This period of activity found Elmore assembling the nucleus of his great band The Broomdusters and several fine recordings were issued over the next few years on a plethora of the Bihari Brothers'owned labels with several of them charting and most all of them becoming certified blues classics.
By this time James had established a beach-head in the clubs of Chicago as one of the most popular live acts and regularly broadcasting over WPOA under the aegis of disc jockey Big Bill Hill. In 1957, with his contract with the Bihari Brothersat an end, he recorded several successful sides for Mel London's Chief label, all of them later being issued on the larger Vee-Jay label. His health -- always in a fragile state due to a recurring heart condition -- would send him back home to Jackson, MS, where he temporarily set aside his playing for work as a disc jockey or radio repair man. He came back to Chicago to record a session for Chess, then just as quickly broke contract to sign with Bobby Robinson's Fire label, producing the classic "The Sky Is Crying" and numerous others. Running afoul with the Chicago musician's union, he returned back to Mississippi, doing sessions in New York and New Orleans waiting for Big Bill Hill to sort things out. In May of 1963, Elmore returned to Chicago, ready to resume his on-again off-again playing career -- his records were still being regularly issued and reissued on a variety of labels -- when he suffered his final heart attack. His wake was attended by over 400 blues luminaries before his body was shipped back to Mississippi. He was elected to the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980 and was later elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a seminal influence. Elmore James may not have lived to reap the rewards of the blues revival, but his music and influence continues to resonate.

This week's playlist

Big Daddy O - "Heavenly Joy"
Big Bill Broonzy - "Out With The Wrong Woman"
Marshall Brothers - "Mr. Santa's Boogie"
Felix Gross - "Love For Christmas"
Anders Osborne - "On The Road To Charlie Parker"
Funkyjenn - "Just Me And The Mistletoe"
The Allman Brothers Band - "Desert Blues"
Washboard Pete - "Christmas Blues"
Fiona Boyes - "City Born Country Girl"
Frank Bey & The Anthony Paule Band - "Don't Mess With The Monkey"
Big Bill Broonzy - "She Caught The Train"
Lionel Hampton Orchestra with Sonny Parker - "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus"
Mud Dog - "Testify"
Big Bill Broonzy - "Stuff They Call Money"
Isaiah B. Brunt - "Pathway Home"
Guy Davies - "Lost Again"
Samantha Fish - "Kick Around"
Johnny Rawls - "Eight Men. Four Women"
Moreland and Arbuckle - "Red Bricks"
Larry Darnell - "Christmas Blues"
Shawn Holt and The Teardrops - "Daddy Told Me"
Big Bill Broonzy - "Make My Getaway"
Bertha 'Chippie' Hill - "Christmas Man Blues"

Featured Artist: Big Bill Broonzy

Big Bill Broonzy

(June 26, 1893 – August 15, 1958) 

Big Bill Broonzy was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in the tiny town of Scott, Mississippi, just across the river from Arkansas. During his childhood, Broonzy's family -- itinerant sharecroppers and the descendants of ex-slaves -- moved to Pine Bluff to work the fields there. Broonzy learned to play a cigar box fiddle from his uncle, and as a teenager, he played violin in local churches, at community dances, and in a country string band. During World War I, Broonzy enlisted in the U.S. Army, and in 1920 he moved to Chicago and worked in the factories for several years. In 1924 he met Papa Charlie Jackson, a New Orleans native and pioneer blues recording artist for Paramount. Jackson took Broonzy under his wing, taught him guitar, and used him as an accompanist. Broonzy's entire first session at Paramount in 1926 was rejected, but he returned in November 1927 and succeeded in getting his first record, “House Rent Stomp”, onto Paramount wax. As one of his early records came out with the garbled moniker of Big Bill Broomsle, he decided to shorten his recording name to Big Bill, and this served as his handle on records until after the second World War. Among aliases used for Big Bill on his early releases were Big Bill Johnson, Sammy Sampson and Slim Hunter.
Broonzy's earliest records do not demonstrate real promise, but this would soon change. In 1930, The Hokum Boys broke up, and Georgia Tom Dorsey decided to keep the act going by bringing in Big Bill and guitarist Frank Brasswell to replace Tampa Red, billing themselves as "the Famous Hokum Boys." With Georgia Tom and Braswell, Broonzy hit his stride and penned his first great blues original, "I Can't Be Satisfied." This was a hit and helped make his name with record companies. Although only half-a-dozen blues artists made any records during 1932, the worst year in the history of the record business, one of them was Big Bill, who made 20 issued sides that year.
Through Georgia Tom and Tampa Red, Big Bill met Memphis Minnie and toured as her second guitarist in the early '30s, but apparently did not record with her. When he did resume recording in March 1934 it was for Bluebird's newly established Chicago studio under the direction of Lester Melrose. Melrose liked Broonzy's style, and before long, Big Bill would begin working as Melrose's unofficial second-in-command, auditioning artists, matching numbers to performers, booking sessions, and providing backup support to other musicians. He played on literally hundreds of records for Bluebird in the late '30s and into the '40s, including those made by his half-brother, Washboard Sam, Pete Chatman (aka Memphis Slim), John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, and others. With Melrose, Broonzy helped develop the "Bluebird beat," connoting a type of popular blues record that incorporated trap drums and upright string bass. This was the precursor of the "Maxwell Street sound" or "postwar Chicago blues," and helped to redefine the music in a format that would prove popular in the cities. Ironically, while Broonzy was doing all this work for Melrose at Bluebird, his own recordings as singer were primarily made for ARC, and later Columbia's subsidiary Okeh. This was his greatest period, and during this time Broonzy wrote and recorded such songs as "Key to the Highway," "W.P.A. Blues," "All by Myself," and "Unemployment Stomp." For other artists, Broonzy wrote songs such as "Diggin' My Potatoes." All told, Big Bill Broonzy had a hand in creating more than 100 original songs.
When promoter John Hammond sought a traditional blues singer to perform at one of his Spirituals to Swing concerts held at Carnegie Hall in New York City, he was looking for Robert Johnson to foot the bill. Hammond learned that Johnson had recently died, and as a result, Big Bill got the nod to appear at Carnegie Hall on February 5, 1939. This appearance was very well received, and earned Broonzy a role in George Seldes' 1939 film Swingin' the Dream alongside Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. In the early '40s, Big Bill appeared at the Café Society, the Village Vanguard, and the Apollo Theater, in addition to touring with Lil Greenwood, all of which kept Big Bill busy during the AFM recording ban. By the mid- to late '40s, the operation in Chicago with Melrose had finally begun to wind down, just as electric blues started to heat up. Big Bill continued to record for labels ranging from majors Columbia and Mercury to fly-by-nights such as Hub and RPM. In 1949, Broonzy decided to take some time off from music, and got a job working as a janitor at the Iowa State University of Science & Technology in Ames.
In 1951 Broonzy was sought out by DJ and writer Studs Terkel and appeared in the latter's concert series I Come for to Sing. Suddenly, Broonzy started to get a lot of press attention, and by September of that year, he was in Paris recording for French Vogue. On this occasion Broonzy was finally able to wax his tune "Black, Brown and White," a song about race relations that had been in his book for years, but every record company he had ever sung it for had turned it down. In Europe, Broonzy proved incredibly popular, more so than at any time in the United States. Two separate documentary films were made on his life, in France and Belgium, respectively, and from 1951 until ill health finally put him out of the running in the fall of 1957, Broonzy nearly doubled his own 1927-1949 output in terms of new recordings.
Broonzy updated his act by adding traditional folk songs to his set, along the lines of what Josh White and Leadbelly had done in then-recent times. He took a tremendous amount of flak for doing so, as blues purists condemned Broonzy for turning his back on traditional blues style in order to concoct shows that were appealing to white tastes. But this misses the point of his whole life's work: Broonzy was always about popularizing blues, and he was the main pioneer in the entrepreneurial spirit as it applies to the field. His songwriting, producing, and work as a go-between with Lester Melrose is exactly the sort of thing that Willie Dixon would do with Chess in the '50s. This was the part of his career that Broonzy himself valued most highly, and his latter-day fame and popularity were a just reward for a life spent working so hard on behalf of his given discipline and fellow musicians. It would be a short reward, though; just about the time the autobiography he had written with Yannick Bruynoghe, Big Bill Blues, appeared in 1955, he learned he had throat cancer. Big Bill Broonzy died at age 65 in August, 1958, and left a recorded legacy which, in sheer size and depth, well exceeds that of any blues artist born on his side of the year 1900.

This week's playlist

Leadbelly - "Good Morning Blues"
Magic Sam - "Call Me If You Need Me"
Del McCoury Band - "Brakeman's Blues"
Davis Coen - "One Arm At A Time"
The Mills Brothers - "Goodbye Blues"
Townes Van Zandt - "Diamond Heel Blues"
Taj Mahal - "Fishing Blues"
Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe - "Greenville Strut"
Bessie Smith - "At The Christmas Ball"
Lou Reid and Carolina - "Kentucky Blues"
Magic Sam - "Everything Gonna Be Alright"
Nick Curran and The Nitelifes - "Beautiful Girl"
The Outliers - "Guilty Of The Blues"
Magic Sam - "21 Days In Jail"
Littler Jimmy King and The Memphis Horns - "Happy Christmas Tears"
Soulstack - "This May Be The Last Time" (live)
Little Esther with Johnny Otis - "Far Away Christmas Blues"
Mike McGuire - "Leaving New Orleans"
Nine Below Zero - "Hard Goin' Up (Twice As Hard Comin' Down)"
Big Maceo - "Winter Time Blues"
Jimmy Rogers - "Money, Marbles And Chalk"
Nappy Brown - "You Were A Long Time Coming"
Magic Sam - "My Love Is Your Love"
Pete 'Snakey Jake' Johnson - "Strange Fruit"

Featured Artist: Magic Sam

Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett
(February 14, 1937 – December 1, 1969) 

No blues guitarist better represented the adventurous modern sound of Chicago's West side more proudly than Sam Maghett. He died tragically young (at age 32 of a heart attack), just as he was on the brink of climbing the ladder to legitimate stardom, but Magic Sam left behind a thick legacy of bone-cutting blues that remains eminently influential around his old stomping grounds to this day.
Maghett (one of his childhood pals was towering guitarist Morris Holt, who received his Magic Slim handle from Sam) was born in the Mississippi Delta. In 1950, he arrived in Chicago, picking up a few blues guitar pointers from his new neighbor, Syl Johnson (whose brother, Mack Thompson, served as Sam's loyal bassist for much of his professional career). Harpist Shakey Jake Harris, sometimes referred to as the guitarist's uncle, encouraged Sam's blues progress and gigged with him later on, when both were Westside institutions.
Sam's tremolo-rich staccato fingerpicking was an entirely fresh phenomenon when he premiered it on Eli Toscano's Cobra label in 1957. Prior to his Cobra date, the guitarist had been gigging as Good Rocking Sam, but Toscano wanted to change his nickname to something old-timey like Sad Sam or Singing Sam. No dice, said the newly christened Magic Sam (apparently Mack Thompson's brainstorm). His Cobra debut single, "All Your Love," was an immediate local sensation; its unusual structure would be recycled time and again by Sam throughout his tragically truncated career. Sam's Cobra encores "Everything Gonna Be Alright" and "Easy Baby" borrowed much the same melody but were no less powerful; the emerging Westside sound was now officially committed to vinyl. Not everything Sam cut utilized the tune; "21 Days in Jail" was a pseudo-rockabilly smoker with hellacious lead guitar from Sam and thundering slap bass from the ubiquitous Willie Dixon. Sam also backed Shakey Jake Harris on his lone 45 for Cobra's Artistic subsidiary, "Call Me If You Need Me."
After Cobra folded, Sam didn't follow labelmates Otis Rush and Magic Slim over to Chess. Instead, after enduring an unpleasant Army experience that apparently landed him in jail for desertion, Sam opted to go with Mel London's Chief logo in 1960. His raw-boned Westside adaptation of Fats Domino's mournful "Every Night About This Time" was the unalloyed highlight of his stay at Chief; some other Chief offerings were less compelling.
Gigs on the Westside remained plentiful for the charismatic guitarist, but recording opportunities proved sparse until 1966, when Sam made a 45 for Crash Records. "Out of Bad Luck" brought back that trademark melody again, but it remained as shattering as ever. Another notable 1966 side, the plaintive "That's Why I'm Crying," wound up on Delmark's Sweet Home Chicago anthology, along with Sam's stunning clippity-clop boogie instrumental "Riding High" (aided by the muscular tenor sax of Eddie Shaw).
Delmark Records was the conduit for Magic Sam's two seminal albums, 1967's “West Side Soul” and the following year's “Black Magic”. Both LPs showcased the entire breadth of Sam's Westside attack: the first ranged from the soul-laced "That's All I Need" and a searing "I Feel So Good" to the blistering instrumental "Lookin' Good" and definitive remakes of "Mama Talk to Your Daughter" and "Sweet Home Chicago," while “Black Magic” benefitted from Shaw's jabbing, raspy sax as Sam blasted through the funky "You Belong to Me," an impassioned "What Have I Done Wrong," and a personalized treatment of Freddy King's "San-Ho-Zay."
Sam's reputation was growing exponentially. He wowed an overflow throng at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival, and Stax was reportedly primed to sign him when his Delmark commitment was over. However, heart problems were fast taking their toll on Sam's health. On the first morning of December of 1969, he complained of heartburn, collapsed, and died.
Even now, more than a quarter-century after his passing, Magic Sam remains the king of Westside blues. That's unlikely to change as long as the subgenre is alive and kicking.