Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
With all apologies and a hat tip to Joe, whose Evening Blues do this far better than I ever could, here's the Blues Edition of Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.
Blues was one of my first loves, musically. Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker, Son House and Buddy Guy were my favorites, though I also liked Memphis Minnie and BB King. (Pretty obvious that my favorite kind of blues is Delta blues. But the Chicago guys were convincing enough they got me to branch out).
I should include one more hat tip before we dive in. Like many of my generation, I might have had no idea at all of the blues, were it not for this movie:
Kudos to Dan Aykroyd, who used his celebrity to truly good purpose here. Somehow, a movie written by a white guy based on a comedy sketch about the blues by two white guys--and directed by a third white guy, John Landis--ended up being respectful to the music and the artists, to the extent that it sparked a renaissance in this country. Suddenly blues were cool again and people were interested in hearing it. Thank god, I say.
Something/Someone Old
Might as well start with the clip that got me started! Many of you will remember this. It's great not only for Hooker's performance, but also for the view of a Maxwell Street that no longer exists.
A little bit about John Lee Hooker, whose life seems almost a classic narrative of what you'd expect a bluesman's life to be. This year was the centenary of his official year of birth, though nobody's quite sure exactly when he was born. He was born in Mississippi (nobody's quite sure which county) to a Baptist preacher/sharecropper, William Hooker, and his wife Minnie Ramsay. His father's religious calling provided both an introduction to music and a repressive influence: only religious music was allowed in the house. However, Hooker was still young when his parents separated and his mother remarried, this time to a bluesman. William Moore was the one who introduced Hooker to the guitar, and, according to Hooker, taught John Lee his distinctive style, though his sister's boyfriend, Tony Hollins, gave him his first guitar and taught him to play.
Hooker ran away from home at 14, ending up, like so many others, on Beale Street in Memphis. He migrated further north to Detroit, getting a job at Ford and playing at the blues clubs. Detroit was where he first became popular. It's also where he discovered the electric guitar. By the late 40s, Hooker was being recorded by a major label and paid very little. His song "Boggie Chillen" was the best-selling "race album" of 1949.
This music makes my soul wake up and stretch.
Later, he was popularized with a larger number of white people through his associations with Canned Heat, who recorded an album with him in the 60s, and, of course, Aykroyd and Landis, who immortalized him for a generation of teenagers.
Something New
My Something New is a collaborative album that was put out this year by Taj Mahal and Keb Mo.
For those of you who don't know them....
Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Taj Mahal is a living legend in the world of roots and blues music, a singer-songwriter who plays many instruments and draws from many musical influences.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/blues-greats-taj-mahal-keb-mo-team-mak...
Here he is, in his youth...
with Buffy Sainte-Marie...
and in his old age.
A taste of his music:
I'm stunned to realize I remember this song from when I was a little, little girl! I didn't know I listened to Taj Mahal in the 70s. My parents must have had it on.
I remember this one too!
Kevin Moore, Keb’ Mo”s given name, spent many years in various R&B, rock, and pop bands, until he went out on his own in the early 1990s and focused on his first love, the blues, gaining renown as a master guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/blues-greats-taj-mahal-keb-mo-team-mak...
Here's some pictures of Keb Mo:
Damn, he is one sharp dude.
Here's some of his music:
He's performed at Farm Aid:
and with Playing for Change. If this doesn't cheer you up, nothing will:
These two gents have come together to form the superband TajMo. This was recorded this year:
Here's what Taj Mahal has to say about their project:
That’s what we like about music. That’s why we do music, to share the fun. Life brings a lot of strife. In the digital age, it’s even more intense. And a lot of people don’t know how to get loose of it.
So, our job as musicians is to help them get loose and have a good time and feel good about themselves.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/blues-greats-taj-mahal-keb-mo-team-mak...
Something Borrowed
U2 borrowed some music from a street musician for their album (and their movie) Rattle and Hum
His name was Sterling "Mr Satan" Magee (the guy on the harmonica is Adam Gussow).
I think U2 meant no harm, but the record company execs were assholes. Not sure they've come out of the 40s, at least as far as how they deal with Black street musicians goes:
I just wanted to correct a longstanding misperception. The song "Freedom For My People" was written by my longtime musical partner, Sterling Magee (aka "Mr. Satan"). He wrote the lyrics with no help from anybody. We worked up the musical portion of the song--the chords, melody, and rhythm--together on the street. In 1988, when U2 were cutting together RATTLE AND HUM, Bobby Robinson, a Harlem record producer and record store owner, gave them (and BMI) improper information about the song. He put himself and Sterling's girlfriend, Macie Mabins, on the track as co-writers and left me off. At some point over the past twenty years, Robinson and/or his heirs have managed to remove Magee's name (and Mabins's name) from the BMI listing for the song, so that Magee has been deprived of many years of royalties that should rightfully have been his. The situation is a mess, and has been a mess for a long time. Determined to right the situation, I recently re-registered the song with BMI in Sterling's name and my own, 75%/25%, as it should have been all along. --Adam Gussow (I'm the guy in the white hat on the left, playing harmonica)
Wow. They even took the man's girlfriend off the listing. So nobody even connected to the man got royalties. Spectacular.
Something Blue
This is some dazzling blues, of a less rural style than my favorite. This is pretty much what my second-favorite blues sounds like (that's not as much a left-handed compliment as it sounds).
This man clearly likes Buddy Guy, who's basically the proponent of my second-favorite blues sound. This song is called "Blues for Buddy."
Meet Danny Bryant's Redeye Band:
Seems he's a Gen-Xer from Britain who's been in the business since he was 18. He's backed up both Buddy Guy and Carlos Santana, which sure as hell earns my respect.
Hope you guys find something in all this you like to listen to!
UPDATE: Turns out I will not be back from my mini-vacation till Wednesday afternoon (I'm going to meet some friends of my partner who live across the country), so I won't be here when the OT comes out. I hope you all have a great week, and I will see you next Wednesday for the next installment of Something Old, Something New!
Comments
Oh wow, I envy for your life's memories and experiences
all I got were the first introductions by my former husband, who was the one who bought the record labels of Chuck Berry and Ray Charles and the book by Daniel Ellsberg way back in the 1967/8 in Germany when we were young students.
Now I get introduced to similar thingies with regards to race, ethnicities, blues, homelessness, poverty and hate by my son.
I am tired, or may be just very sad. Need to rest my mind already and it's only 1:42 pm around my woods here.
Thanks. I will hopefully click through everything later on.
https://www.euronews.com/live
I got the blues and I can't be satisfied...
I love the story of Mississippi John Hurt. His records from 1928 were unappreciated until he was rediscovered in 1963....still sharecropping in Mississippi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_John_Hurt
Here he is playing I shall not be moved (3.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLc8YeXP8FY
one more...since I laid my burdens down (2.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXEtNknolKY
Well we had a light dusting of snow, and it is 7 degrees this morning...but the entire state of Alabama is under a declared "state of emergency". Talk about over reacting.
Well, I hope you are all warm and secure as the blue moon waxes.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Like a tree planted by the water
I shall not be moved. What a beautiful rendition of that song you posted lookout. I don't think I've ever heard that one although I've heard this song many times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZnoO2pAOE
Have a good mini-vacation.
I love, love, love this blues stuff. I've been listening to it since I was a kid. We lived in Chicago in the mid 60's and my parents listened to that radio station (I don't remember which) that had Studs Terkel. I just remember that stationed played a lot of blues, folk, and roots-type music. Studs was all about the historical root of 'people's' music. Or so it seemed to me. He was also in tune with what was going on at the time (which was a great deal). My parents listened to that station all the time so we were exposed to some pretty neat stuff including Buffy Sainte-Marie and Pete Seeger.
This was a theme song to one of the programs that Studs hosted. It brings back memories for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu7gafphe9M
Studs interviewed so many of fascinating musicians and artists including this guy;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWQwTBAdblg
I really appreciate the EB here as well and I visit often but rarely join in the conversation as I am a morning person.
I was lucky to know Studs
He included a chapter about my political mentor in his book Working. He came down and spent time in Alabama where I got to know him a little bit. I love oral histories and appreciated his approach to collecting and telling people's stories.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Yes, I love oral history as well.
Studs seemed so respectful of the people he interviewed. He influenced my young brain and developing synapses in that way I think
You are fortunate to have known him. He is sort of a hero to me.
Taj Mo
Nice album.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Same bear photo is on Jim Wood page
It is jarring to see the same photo in your avatar as those listed on his page, number 3 of 20. A rawr coincidence. https://mobile.twitter.com/JimWoodAD2/media/grid?idx=2
Wood is the rep I just named chicken for not voting to advance consideration on repealing a terrible law, something the Ds just never do. I mean they never undo, it's always "don't look back" whereas the Rs seem to get busy immediately taking apart any progress previously achieved, at the Fed level anyway. The state's big club didn't even run an R last time against Mr. Wood, he's so darn popular, I think that was my first vote ever for a Libertarian, the lesser evil in 2016.
https://ballotpedia.org/Jim_Wood
Nobody 2018
Huelga!
Fixed
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Thanks, now I'm all "The one you feed."
that is lovely, doesn't pull the same trigger. Totally different.
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TwoWolves-Cherokee.html
ta
Tis better to feed
than to be fed-up
I would love to see Taj Mahal and Keb Mo'
play together live. CSTtMS: Rec'd!! Excellent, educational O/T. Hope you are having a good time, and staying warm. They're predicting the low being 32 tonight in O-ville. It will freeze up north. My favorite music has always been rhythm and blues dance/uptempo songs. I know about the blues. Big Mama Thornton (sp) comes to mind. You have some really good stuff on here. You ever check in with NCTim when he does his funk/jazz O/T on Fridays? I love it. MarkfromQueens used to do one, but family matters made him quit. JoeSh is the expert. I am not a geek. That's why I don't do diaries.
Two of my very favorite tunes. First, Taj Mahal.
Keb Mo'.
I will watch to see if they come by here on a tour. Take care!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Here you go
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Greetings from cancer breadbasket of California
Sonoma County. Looking at the 2016 crop report is interesting, if you believe the addiction science: Alcohol consumption as a cause of cancer
Sonoma County "Million Dollar Crops" from the report:
That is unhealthy. Let's recapitulate:
More wine, less vegetables. Fake sustainability. What the taxman wants to see now is cannabis taking top bill, it is insane. Coho salmon return to west Marin County watershed . All three of them. Just kidding, but not really.
Coho at Cronin Pools 2018 01 08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3UIwpDICt4
good luck
Nine below zero
Stay warm everyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBW9hYLsSHE
Hint
Left click on YouTube video and copy embed code. Change #s for size to 420X236 to get small, comment size, embed.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Thanks
I'll give it a try.
I'll see if this works
I just may have followed your directions, at least partially.
Two more and then I will stop
promise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bY0vcg2F-I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s9M-52fRGU
blues
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qePHCNoEtqQ]
thanks, Can't Stop
reminds me of meeting John Lee in NOLA mid 70's at a small club called Tipitina's on Tchoupitoulas Street Uptown one night. Knew him as soon as he walked in. People have aura's and his was a very cool blue. He played a few of his signature songs with a couple of friends. Great session.
Tipitina's
You call Tipitina's small? You should try The Checkerboard Lounge.
I love going to Tipitina's, except for catching a cab, in the wee hours. Also highly recommended is The Maple Leaf.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Yeah, don't know what it's like now
but the Maple Leaf used to have washers and driers in the back. Would bring the dirty clothes, listen to some Scott Joplin on the juke box, and suck down a few Dixies while the machine spun. Lived just down the street. Maybe they opened up Tip's cause at that time it wasn't much bigger than Maple Leaf.
Tips
... is two stories. About the size of an elementary school gym. Checkpoint Charlie's still has washing machines. It is not that unusual to sit down next to someone in their underwear. It is New Orleans, so no telling whether they are doing wash or just came out in their underwear.
The late night drive to Houma would suck ->
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Yeah, that's some good stuff NCT
the ride down to bayou LaFourche usually had my face shield covered with bugs in the fog, crunching crawfish under the wheels as they were crossing over.
not the song I was looking for...but in keeping
about the bayou
I am considering doing the ECT now
Maybe it will make me forget where I am.
Sonoma County home sales jump 10 percent to $3.97 billion
Santa Rosa City Council to set its post-fire policy goals this week, and their hair is on fire because:
Maybe they should meet outside of the Hyatt, like in a tent on the street. just a thought.
Prosecutor: Windsor couple increased rent 60 percent after fires
LOL! See? I guess you have to be here to eXperience the disconnect first hand. On MLK's bday someone dumped a funky couch in front of the Land's razed lot next door, where the sidewalk is supposed to be. It is ugly trash harshing my buzz but too big for my can. Meanwhile, a non-stop stream of pale faces are populating the place across the street, remodeling as the whitening proceeds apace.
My downstairs neighbors are Laotian and they are all about the face, "looking good billy ray". In fact I was scolded by them for not advertising my volunteer trash pickups, they do it with their church to "be seen", otherwise what's the point? I don't know. Often I pick up the trash that falls out of their cadillac escalade. Last time it was a $20 EBT receipt for Chocolate Flan and Snapple, and here I am hungry every day 'cause I don't want another damned subsidy. I feel sorry for them, and what they may suffer in the ongoing collapse of this rotten system.
P.S. Thanks a lot President Fat Ass Trump for making "overweight" seem "healthy" after his first medical report. 29.5 BMI, wtf? Mine is 18.2, I am hungry all the time but can hardly eat.
crickets
Goophabet updates their creators
1. Make us laugh.
2. Teach us about our world.
3. Warm our hearts.
https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2018/01/additional-changes-to-youtube-partner.html
good luck
30 out of 30
Montreal Cognitive Assessment
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
what's that all about?
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
That is the cognitive test taken by 45 /nt
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Seems like a gimmie except for folks like me. Got much of my
life I never kept track of the date in between important ones because that's why people carry calendars and watches. Now I know, because I log certain things daily and hence enter the date in my log first thing each day.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Oh shit, I thought dementia was like the fifth
dimension. Glad I keep a calendar. Now I can look up why the moon is in the seventh house.
so, okay, to be fair, it's SUPPOSED to be a gimme.
having now read a bit about it (i hadn't even heard this news story), i see that it's not a comprehensive psychological battery, it's a simple test intended to signal the onset of senile dementia. that's a lot different from trying to diagnose whether the subject thinks rationally.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I had difficulty ...
Waiting until 11:10 to draw the clock.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
the test
was devised by a man who emigrated to Canada at age 15 from the shithole countries.
Now we know Dotard Twitler can draw a clock, identify a camel, and say "the cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room."
she caught the Katy
and I got the mule to ride
A favorite of my brother's and mine.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Taj
Fillmore East 1971 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CRTrleRhX0&list=RD8CRTrleRhX0&t=59
I was sort of into blues from day one. My dad was into Jazz, but
the whole spectrum of Jazz, which included a lot of blues (think some of WC Handy's stuff, for example). My elder brother was born in '42 and was slightly musically precocious and had a taste for R&B among other things, so there was some back-tracking from Ike Turner, Bo Diddley, all of the Johnny Otis performers and proteges, etc. Later, the very thin edge of the folk/roots revival led some of in my high school to go to local alcohol free coffee houses and next thing you know I had purchased
1) a $5 "guitar" from the local Mr. Fixit shop,
2) a paperback book showing what the funny symbols on sheet music meant, how a guitar was tuned and basic chords
3) a Leadbelly song book.
I was mostly into so called "folk blues" and delta blues, and then got introduced to Piedmont blues and only then to Chicago Blues. Ignoring "schools of blues", I had a thing for the ladies, Minnie, KoKo, Big Mama, and for the refined and smooth moods, Ella, Dinah and mental block; plus, of course, Billie, Bessie and Odetta.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Heh
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Indeed, in triplicate. Thanks for the tune.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Love Big Mama! But Billie Holiday melts my heart.
Billie at her best
was hard to find a better. Maybe Janis Joplin? Different genre and time, but about as much talent to squeeze the ever loving soul out of you.
As always, this is outstanding.
I have zero doubt that the Evening Blues guru approves.
Thank you so much.
The Music Biz Blues (and the Blues Brothers)
I know it's the standard call but the music bizness sucks unless you are owner class or that 1% of acts who "make it". (Many of whom are subsidized by contracts so generous that the label could never hope to recoup, but they wouldn't dare lose a band like The Rolling Stones or U2 to a rival label either. But I digress...)
I always thought Lightning Hopkins may have been the one artist who had it figured out. You wanted a Lightning Hopkins album? You paid the man $10,000, up front, in cash, and you had one. The recording, the publishing, the songs, everything. You own it all and he walks away, $10G in pocket, never expecting another dime from you. Of course he also had a habit of re-selling the same songs, but that makes me kinda like the guy even more.
Also, I totally agree with you about the Blues Brothers. I've seen people try to make the argument about them "whitefacing" the blues and r&b or the usual exploitation charges, but I really think the guys were sincere and used their celebrity to do a good thing. I've read both Ray Charles and James Brown offering gratitude for helping put them back in the spotlight by their cameos and long before people knew anything about Motown's Funk Brothers, they brought the Stax guys into the public eye. Sure, it annoys me when I hear a Blues Brothers cover of a tune on the radio knowing they could have played the real deal, but I don't think they were trying to replace anyone.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
... and Cab Calloway!
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
That picture made me go look
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Cab Was the Best
No doubt about it. I recently saw a 1978 Guy Lombardo New Year's show where Cab was a special guest. Even though he did a then trendy disco Minnie, the guy was still selling it. Unbelievable performer, to be sure.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Once pot-friendly Calaveras County bans marijuana
Frog jumpers are not chillin', it is a mess. Edited to add, cannabis is not legal everywhere, not even close. This is going in reverse already and the politics are shit.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7884752-181/once-pot-friendly-calaveras-county-bans
So much for "coming out of the shadows". Let the lawsuits begin.
...? that's it the article ends right there at the moment. Copy pasta mistake, or perhaps sampling a bit too much of the subject? I mean "has deeply divided financially Calaveras" sounds kinda funny. Maybe it's just me.