373 posts tagged with blues.
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Some of the wealth of footage of the British folk/rock/jazz/blues quintet Pentangle to be found on YouTube: performing on Norwegian TV in 1968 (40m); concert and behind-the-scenes footage in a German TV documentary ca. 1970 (28m); in concert at the BBC in 1971 (30m); or playing in a Belgian TV studio in 1972 (30m). [more inside]
"Music and humor are for the healing of the nations"
This post started as a single video of veteran musicmaker Leonard Solomon performing Skrillex's "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" on a homemade "Squijeeblion."
That led to discovering his YouTube channel @Bellowphone, full of similarly whimsical covers on a collection of bespoke instruments hand-built in his Wimmelbildian workshop, from the Emphatic Chromatic Callioforte to the Oomphalapompatronium to the original Majestic Bellowphone.
Searching for more videos led to his performance in the Lonesome Pine One-Man Band Extravaganza special from 1991, where he co-starred with whizbang vaudevillians like Hokum W. Jeebs and Professor Gizmo.
But what was Lonesome Pine? Just an extraordinary, award-winning concert series by the Kentucky Center for the Arts that ran for 16 years on public radio and television -- an "all things considered" showcase for "new artists, underappreciated veterans and those with unique new voices" featuring such luminaries as Buddy Guy, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, k.d. lang, Koko Taylor, and hundreds more. You can get a broad overview of this televisual marvel from this excellent half-hour retrospective, see a supercut of director Clark Santee's favorite moments, browse the program directory from the Smithsonian exhibit, or watch select shows in their entirety: Lonesome Pine Blues - All-star Bluegrass Band - Nashville All-stars - Bass Instincts - Zydeco Rockers - Walter "Wolfman" Washington - Mark O'Connor - Alison Krauss & Union Station - Sam Bush & John Cowan - Maura O'Connell - Nanci Griffith - A Musical Visit from Africa [more inside]
Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from Mack McCormick
Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958–1971
I have not been this excited about a new collection of vintage blues and African-American music in years...And this is as good as it can get. [more inside]
Son House -- Full Live Performance (November 15, 1969)
Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, riffs, one riff wonders & primal voices
And here is Bo Diddley & Chuck Berry -- Bo's Beat from Chuck Berry & Bo Diddley -- Two Great Guitars
Only Solitaire blog gives it a bit of side eye
Chuck Berry & Bo Diddley Together LIVE (2009)
And down the tesseracted rabbit hole we go... [more inside]
Only Solitaire blog gives it a bit of side eye
More of an historical curiosity here than an actual good album — but a terrific historical curiosity all the same. ...the album is never remembered as a particular highlight for any of those guys; however, in some ways it is a rather unique artifact of the era. Even if you find it horrible, you won't ever forget how you found it horrible, that is for sure.All the same here are the two men in concert all of 45 years later:
Chuck Berry & Bo Diddley Together LIVE (2009)
And down the tesseracted rabbit hole we go... [more inside]
Potatoes are really kicking off
Bluegrass Potatoes – What Are They? (and How to Play Them) on mandolin (David Benedict: What are taters?), banjo (Banjo Ben Clark: Banjo Potatoes– Kick off them fiddle tunes with some spice!), and guitar (How to Kick Off Fiddle Tunes on Guitar with Potatoes! ). [more inside]
But I won't be blue always
Bob Neuwirth, born June 20th, 1939; died May 18th, 2022
Bob (Robert) Neuwirth, born June 20th, 1939; died May 18th, 2022
See also
Friend and confidant of Bob Dylan in the 1960s and Janis Joplin in the 1970s, he appeared in both Don't Look Back and Eat the Document as well as on the cover of Highway 61 Revisited. He was the OG hipster.
See also
Friend and confidant of Bob Dylan in the 1960s and Janis Joplin in the 1970s, he appeared in both Don't Look Back and Eat the Document as well as on the cover of Highway 61 Revisited. He was the OG hipster.
New Orleans renames Robert E. Lee Blvd. for Allen Toussaint
New Orleans City Council votes unanimously to rename Robert E. Lee Blvd for legendary musician Allen Toussaint (CNN, Chris Boyette and Keith Allen) [more inside]
May all your days be merry
The Christmas Blues by ChimyTina. ChimyTina are
bassist Dan Chmielinski and vocalist Martina DaSilva
This shit's gonna kill me but I wont let it.
Lawrence, a New York-based band founded by siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence, with an acoustic version of their song Don't Lose Sight. [SLYT]
Mississippi John Hurt Video Collection
Mississippi John Hurt Video Collection
Pretty much what it says on the tin, but, oh, the cameos — both aural and visual.
Pretty much what it says on the tin, but, oh, the cameos — both aural and visual.
A case of the Palestinian blues
Recording under quarantine, a musical trio gives a classic blues song an Arabic twist, exploring new depths for Black-Palestinian solidarity. [+972 Magazine] For Kareem Samara, a British-Palestinian multi-instrumentalist, composer, and sound artist, it was naseeb — meant to be. One day in 2020, American-Palestinian filmmaker and music producer Sama’an Ashrawi messaged asking him to play “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” an American blues standard, on the oud. Ashrawi was curious what the blues would sound like in the quarter tones of the Middle Eastern instrument. Minutes later, Samara sent him a recording of the tune.
“It’s a song I’ve always loved,” says Samara. “That song is in my bones.” [more inside]
Every field recording by Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax's field recordings are available on a newly-redesigned site. Alan Lomax started making recordings for the Library of Congress in 1933, with his father John, and recorded folk music and interviews from around the United States and the world on reel-to-reel tape between 1946 and 1991. These field recordings are the source material that sparked the American folk revival in the 1950s and 1960s. [more inside]
Janis Joplin sings the Bee Gees
The Original Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girl
The Charming Hostess lost its frontwoman, Jewlia Eisenberg, last week.
An article in the Forward (originally known in Yiddish as the Forverts) provides a good introduction to the life of Jewlia Eisenberg, who created music she called "Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly" by blending blues, folk music, and Jewish piyyut. [more inside]
Fabulous piano man Gene Taylor dead
Frozen to death in Austin: boogie-woogie pianist Gene Taylor, formerly with The Blasters, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Canned Heat and others. [more inside]
"I'm a song catcher."
The Guardian interviews Chris Strachwitz, founder of Arhoolie Records. Just in advance of a free stream of the documentary 60 years of Arhoolie (on Thursday Dec 10, 8 pm EST/5 pm PST), a discussion with the 89-year-old founder of one of the record labels instrumental in capturing, documenting, and popularizing many styles of folk and working-class music. [more inside]
"I'm thinking about doing those things I shouldn't be doing"
Kind of perfect for Halloween, Pokey LaFarge's Fuck Me Up off his new album Rock Bottom Rhapsody is wicked good (but the video is a wee bit intense, so if you're feeling like everything is too much, you may want to wait until a time you just need something to eff you up, ... because hell, eventually everyone feels like it). [more inside]
Metal, Meat, and Bone
Infamous anonymous music collective, The Residents, have released their 47th (or so) album, Metal, Meat, and Bone: The Songs of Dyin' Dog. The album is a collection of re-interpretations of blues songs by little-known Louisiana blues musician Alvin Snow, AKA Dyin' Dog, who had a connection with the group from their early days in Shreeveport... or, is it? [more inside]
Rhythm & Blues Review (1955)
Pipe line, blue note
Röhrenblues Armin Küpper : Tenor Sax with acoustic pipeline delayed looping.
(via MLTSHP, where Armin's Pipelinefunk was posted.)
(via MLTSHP, where Armin's Pipelinefunk was posted.)
Seen a lot of sh*t in my 2 1/2 years
Toddler sings the blues (SLTwitterVideo) Does what it says on the tin
Mose Knows
A proper memorial for DeFord Bailey, who changed Country music
In the fall of 1928, George D. Hay opened the newly syndicated WSM Barn Dance, following a classical performance that attempted to mimic a train* by saying “for the past hour we have been listening to music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.” DeFord Bailey then stepped onto the stage and played “Pan American Blues,” one of his trademark tunes, emulating the sound of a locomotive speeding down the tracks on—making him Grand Ole Opry's first musician, and first artist to record in Nashville (Tennessean). Despite making these and other country music landmarks, Bailey has become largely forgotten. Towards the end of his life, he had two wishes: a proper gravestone (Find a Grave) and for someone to tell his story (Narratively). [more inside]
Living in a Ghost Town
The Rolling Stones have released their first new song for eight years. It's rather good.
A Moment of Groove
Godmother of Rock and Roll
Rock-n-Roll was invented by a queer Black woman born in 1915 Arkansas. Your disordered hardcore punk rock was sanctioned by a kinky-haired Black girl born to two cotton pickers in the Jim Crow South. The electric guitar was first played in ways very few people could have ever imagined by a woman who wasn’t even allowed to play at music venues around the country. The Patron Saint of rock music is Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The original punk rebel from which we were all born, SRT is muva.[more inside]
Soundies: Black Music from the 1940s
Soundies: Black Music from the 1940s*
* With one exception
A potpourri of je ne sais quoi [more inside]
* With one exception
A potpourri of je ne sais quoi [more inside]
An ambulance can only go so fast: Neil Young's On the Beach at 45
An Ode to ‘On the Beach,’ Neil Young’s Most Beautiful (and Most Depressing) Album Forty-five years after its release, Young's melancholic search for meaning in a chaotic world feels more relatable than ever. [more inside]
It's all up in the air
Juzzie Smith busking blues with a unique technique. An infectiously happy and stunning to watch one man band. [more inside]
"The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits"
"I was becoming not only chauvinistic but fascistic, too."
Eric Clapton, by 1976, was an alcoholic former heroin addict who had recently succeeded in stealing the wife of his close friend, George Harrison. On the night of August 5, Clapton, who had already developed a reputation for erratic on-stage behavior, unloaded on the audience of the Birmingham Odeon: "Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands..."The Fairest Soul Brother in England—An unsolicited critique of Eric Clapton’s Unplugged [Andrew Marzoni, The Baffler]
Moonlight Benjamin: Priestess of Voodoo Blues Rock
Haitian singer and Vodou priestess Moonlight Benjamin combines majestic vocals and songcraft with ringing guitar rock on her breathtaking album, Siltane. Reviews: Black Grooves | Northern Sky | The Guardian [more inside]
"an intricate guitarist, an astute songwriter and a stylistic innovator"
Memphis Minnie — Guitar Queen, Hoodoo Lady and Songster is a site by guitarist Del Rey dedicated to blues musician Memphis Minnie. It has a biography, telling her story from her birth as Elizabeth "Kid" Douglas in 1897. It also includes an appreciative review from 1942 by Langston Hughes. Memphis Minnie recorded over 200 songs, most of whom are available on Spotify and other streaming services, but Del Rey curated a list of 28 songs on the website, and made a DVD tutorial on how to play the guitar like Memphis Minnie. She passed away in 1973, shortly after Led Zeppelin reworked one of her early recordings with Kansas Joe McCoy, When the Levee Breaks. Other well known songs by her include Me and My Chauffeur Blues, Hoodoo Lady Blues and Bumblebee.
The Enduring Mystique of The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues
Fisherman's Blues turns 30 "Sometimes you hear an album and there is no immediate way to make sense of it. There might be hints, small ways in which you can locate it in the ‘80s or ‘90s or ‘60s or whatever...But it still sounds like it occurred in a slightly altered version of that reality, emanated less from the world you know and recognize and more from an echo or reflection. ...These are the albums that exist out of time, not just removed from the trends of their era but seemingly the product of a visitor who isn’t even aware of that era, but is looking for something more eternal."
New music from the Twin Infinitives
Royal Trux have released their first new music since 2000's Pound For Pound. In 2015 Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty reunited as a duo for a series of shows and the live album Platinum Tips And Ice Cream (Domino/Drag City). These two new tracks, however, were recorded in Los Angeles in the summer of 2018.
"Every Day Swan"
"Get Used To This"
Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan coverage. [more inside]
"Every Day Swan"
"Get Used To This"
Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan coverage. [more inside]
Otis Rush, Blues Guitarist, R.I.P.
He helped develop West Side Blues and was a key figure of the city’s 50s and 60s blues resurgence Legendary Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush, whose passionate, jazz-like music influenced artists from Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton to the rock band Led Zeppelin, has died at the age of 84.
Here's an article from 1990 about his influence on Chicago and the West Side Blues: Otis & the West Side Blues [more inside]
"If you don't think I got my shit, just check out my lipstick"
Presenting "Brown Spot Blues,", an extempore paean to a boogie-woogie bulldog.
Nirvana fans may prefer the remix. [more inside]
Cruising Blues and Their Cure
Cruising Blues and Their Cure By Robert Pirsig
(originally published in Esquire, May 1977)
"This is the understanding that whether you are bored or excited, depressed or elated, successful or unsuccessful, even whether you are alive or dead, all this is of absolutely no consequence whatsoever. The sea keeps telling you this with every sweep of every wave."
Pocket pieces by Nahre Sol
Classical pianist and composer, Nahre Sol has produced a series of videos in which she reacts to music from various other genres and users them as a starting point for her own "pocket piece" compositions: the blues, funk, retro game music, bossa nova, minimalism [more inside]
A song about a girl
Are We Alone?
The Astrobiologist Blues | StarTalk All-Star Dr. David Grinspoon and comedian Chuck Nice co-wrote “The Astrobiologist Blues” to help you experience the inner-workings of an astrobiologist’s mind. Watch as they perform the song in front of Neil deGrasse Tyson, astronaut Mike Massimino, and a few fans and friends! (SLYT)
Matt "Guitar" Murphy, passes away at the age of 88
Matt "Guitar" Murphy, one of the last links to the heyday of Blues Scene in the 40's and 50's Chicago, passes away. [more inside]
Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land?
On April 1, Jesus Christ Superstar will be the latest (but not the last) musical to be performed live on broadcast TV in the U.S., but how the hell did the last week in the life of Jesus get to be an international mega-hit rock opera? It all started with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which launched a young Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice on the path of another biblical musical concept album set to more contemporary sounds and interwoven with modern themes. And then came the theater productions, the movie, and even more theater productions and tours.... [more inside]
It was awkward like F minor the first time I saw you naked
Lauren Ruth Ward: the raspy, queer soul singer we deserve or what happens when you mix Florence Welch And Janis Joplin. [more inside]
“...get a little positivity and listen to good music.”
Curtis Harding's Psychedelic Soul [GQ] “A veteran singer who cut his teeth over a decade ago doing backing vocals for Cee-Lo, Harding seems to do everything with soul: The way he talks about his passion for film, style, and music, is soulful. The ease with which he rocks a Saint Laurent jacket is soulful. Most importantly though, his music has soul in every note, every guitar lick. If soul is an "experience," unable to be confined by descriptors, the title track from Harding's new album, Face Your Fear, is an excellent illustration of it. The groove is slinking and relaxed, Harding riding the beat just behind the drums, delivering every word with an unwavering confidence, but also a very human tenderness. His voice never raises above a whisper, but the quiet energy he packs into every syllable will have you hearing his melodies in the back of your mind for days. It's the rare song that could soundtrack a wedding or a funeral, at once celebratory, sad, groovy, and of course, very soulful.” [more inside]
Larkin Poe
Larkin Poe covers Spoonful, Teardrop, Hey Sinner/Black Betty, The Thrill Is Gone, Come On In My Kitchen, Preachin' Blues, One Way Out, No Particular Place To Go. [more inside]
Les Filles de Illighadad
"Fatou Seidi Ghali is a pioneer of guitar in West Africa. She lives in Illighadad, a small scrubland village in the desert country of Central Niger, located outside of the Tahoua region—and she is one of only two known Tuareg women guitarists in Niger." [http://sheshredsmag.com] [more inside]
Death Rattle
There is a technical term for the kind of instrument it is, a wonderful word: idiophone. An idiophone is something that you hit to make a distinctive sound. That’s all there is to it. No strings, no flute-holes, just an object that you strike. A triangle would be the most obvious example. The root “idio” here means singularity or itself-ness or sole, as in, “alone.” Think idiosyncratic—not in sync with others, obeying its own rhythm. Or idiom—an expression that makes sense only in the language to which it belongs.In the African-influenced musics of Latin America one often hears a uniquely electrifying percussion instrument known as la quijada, the jawbone.