Chicago blues guitarist Carl Weathersby passed away about two months ago. He had been battling diabetes-related health issues for some time but managed to still perform live and in the studio on occasion. He played occasionally at Kingston Mines and also appeared at Rosa's Lounge. In total, Weathersby played on more than 33 albums, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, either as a solo artist, band member, or guest artist. His fierce guitar playing was easily recognizable and he also possessed a vocal style that was a snug fit in the blues and R&B genres, which he put to good use on his own recordings.
When I started listening to the blues in the mid-80's, I caught some of his recordings with the Sons of Blues, the group formed by harmonica ace Billy Branch in the 70's, along with guitarist Lurrie Bell and bassist Freddie Dixon (sons of Carey Bell and Willie Dixon, respectively, hence the Sons of Blues moniker). Weathersby joined he band in the early 80's, filling in initially for their regular guitarist, Carlos Johnson, but eventually he was asked to join full-time, playing guitar and sharing lead vocals for the next 15 years.
I didn't really get into his talent in depth until the mid-90's, when I picked up a copy of Branch's The Blues Keep Following Me Around recording on Verve Records' Gitanes Blues Productions subsidiary. It was originally set to be released as a Sons of Blues recording, but the label opted to credit it to Branch alone. Truthfully, the recording only included Branch and Weathersby among the band, the rhythm section being from the Louisiana area where the album was recorded, but Weathersby took lead vocals on four of the album's eleven tracks and wrote three of the songs, including the title track. I remember thinking, "This guy could go out on his own pretty easily"....and pretty soon, Carl Weathersby did just that.
Carl Weathersby was born in Jackson, MS in 1953 on February 24th. In the fall of that year, his family moved to Meadville in the southwestern part of the state, where they stayed until Weathersby was 13, when they moved to East Chicago, Indiana. He spent a lot of time in both places, going to school in East Chicago but going back to Mississippi in the summers. Of the two, Weathersby preferred living in the south because he remembered "havin' more fun down there."
Growing up, he listened to a variety of music in the blues, R&B, and soul genres. Motown was extremely hot, but his family listened to a lot of blues, such as Albert King and Little Milton, plus on the radio, there was the O'Jays, Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis, Sam Cooke. Armed with this information, Weathersby's musical diversity on his albums and live shows probably make a lot more sense to his listeners.
Weathersby started playing the guitar as a teenager, playing along to records in the house. The story goes that he was practicing "Cross Cut Saw" over and over and decided to show his father and one of his father's friends, a diesel mechanic. As Weathersby played over the record, the mechanic said, "Man that ain't the way that song goes, that ain't the way I played it." The mechanic knew the song very well because he was Albert King.
Weathersby later served in the Army during the Vietnam War, serving from 1971 until 1977. He also worked a number of jobs including prison guard and security guard at a steel mill in Indiana until it shut down. From that point, he decided to devote himself to the blues, playing rhythm guitar with none other than Albert King for several years on short road trips. He actually quit and rejoined King three times while his children were younger to stay off the road for extended periods to be with his young family.
"Albert would stay on the road for five, six months at a time. I couldn't do that. But if you were a guitar player with a good work reputation with him, and I did, he'd always take you back."
In 1982, Weathersby joined the Sons of Blues, graduating to a full-time spot and appearing on a couple of albums with the band over the next few years. He also backed other artists on their albums, including Buster Benton, Robert Covington, and Carey Bell. He occasionally shared lead vocal duties with Branch on the Sons of Blues albums, and it encouraged him to try to step out on his own, as he was building a big reputation in the Windy City.
In 1996, he released his first solo album, Don't Lay Your Blues On Me, on the Evidence label. It was a hearty mix of Chicago blues, soul, and R&B. He subsequently released three more albums (1997's Looking Out My Window, 1998's Restless Feeling, and 2000's Come To Papa) plus a "Best of" collection for Evidence. Weathersby's soulful vocals and King-influenced fretwork were a potent combination on all four releases. With each album, Weathersby moved more toward the soul side of the blues, which worked very well and really demonstrated his versatility.
Not long after his last Evidence release, Weathersby began developing health issues, most notably diabetes, which left him too weak to perform, much less record, and he soon was released from Evidence. After a nearly five year absence from the studio, he was able to regain his strength enough to record and release Hold On on Woodcutter Records. It was as strong as any of his Evidence releases with that powerful guitar work and several soul tracks to highlight his vocals.
In late 2005, Weathersby teamed with fellow guitarists Bernard Allison and Larry McCray (with Lucky Peterson on keyboards) for Triple Fret, an all-star release that also included Johnny B. Gayden on bass, Steve McCray on drums, John Colby on keyboards, and The Nutmeg Horns. As might be expected, there was some great guitar work on this release (from JSP Records) though the songwriting is not that memorable. In 2004, CrossCut Records released a live set, In The House: Live at Lucerne Vol. 5 that captured his live performance and energy, and Magnolia Records (Larry McCray's label) released Weathersby's final studio effort, 2009' I'm Still Standing Here, which was more R&B-based, but he still had plenty to say, both instrumentally and vocally. His final effort was a live LP-only release, Live at Rosa's Lounge (NOTE - this is available on CD…I bought a copy at Antones Record Store…it’s definitely worth a listen! Also on Spotify), in 2019, but there's another release I've seen on Discogs, Alone In The Darkness, that I know nothing about...if anyone does, please share what they know.
Weathersby also appeared on multiple albums as a sideman over the next 20 years for Branch, Mississippi Heat, Rico McFarland, Trudy Lynn, Charles Wilson, Nora Jean Bruso, Biscuit Miller, Little Milton, and Toronzo Cannon (his broken-string solo on "Hard Luck" is most intense).
Weathersby at Rosa's - June, 2021
In 2019, he had surgery to amputate his right toe and this quickly led to amputation of his right leg up to his knee. The diabetes also led his kidneys to start failing. He kept right on playing guitar during rehab and Rosa's Lounge began putting together a benefit to help him with his expense, with several musicians detouring their ongoing tours to appear at the show. Although he was unable to attend, Weathersby insisted that the show would be at Rosa's....he had played there for over 30 years, including the first night it opened, and continued to play after the benefit.Carl Weathersby was induced into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2017 and even though he moved to Texas around 2016, he continued to travel back to Chicago to play and also played in clubs around Austin until his health failed him. He died on Friday, August 9. He was 71 years old.
To these ears, Carl Weathersby was one of the most formidable of his generation of blues artists. He was a positively fierce guitar player and his vocals were just as impressive. His songwriting was also top notch and any of his albums are worth hearing from start to finish.....all killer, no filler. If you missed out on his talents, your blues collection is incomplete.
A couple of weeks ago, I made a trip to the Little Big Store in Raymond, MS to check out their used vinyl and CDs. I've always been able to find some really cool blues and jazz recordings and this visit was no exception. Someone had unloaded a stack of New Orleans piano CDs since my last visit. A lot of them I already had, but there were a couple that caught my eye. One of them was Champion Jack Dupree's Blues From The Gutter, which I had always wanted, and the other was an album that I bought in cassette form many years ago, but never picked up a CD version.....Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah: Live at the Maple Leaf Bar from James Booker.
I first heard about Booker in Wavelength magazine, the late, great New Orleans music magazine, in the late 80's. I can't remember the article, maybe it was about New Orleans piano players in general, but I do know Booker was referenced in the article as one of the great, unsung Crescent City piano masters. At the time, there weren't a lot of Booker recordings (like now, only less so), so I tracked down two of his releases on Rounder at the time, New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live! and Classified, a studio album Rounder released about a year before Booker's death in 1983.
After I got a taste of Booker's music, live and studio, I understood what the article was saying. I had been on a New Orleans kick for a while, after my first visit to Jazz Fest, grabbing copies of releases from Professor Longhair, the Nevilles, Fats Domino, Tuts Washington, Dr. John, Johnny Adams, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, plus several collections of New Orleans R&B (Rhino had a great three volume set, and Rounder had a few collections). Those two recordings from Booker were jaw-dropping....I had never heard such masterful piano playing, combining blues, jazz, soul, classical, boogie woogie. He could play at a breakneck pace, or he could slow it down and nearly bring you to tears. Combined with his vocals, which were distinctive, to say the least, it was a pretty heady mix.
Booker was born James Carroll Booker III on December 17, 1939 in New Orleans. He was a child prodigy, trained from six years old as a classical pianist and he played the organ in his father's churches. Due to his father's health problems, Booker's mother took him and his sister to Bay Saint Louis, MS to live on several occasions, near his aunt. He returned to New Orleans to stay at the age of eight, befriending several school classmates and future musical collaborators ......Art and Charles Neville, and Allen Toussaint.
When Booker was nine, he was hit by an ambulance in New Orleans. Booker said that it was traveling at a high speed, and he was dragged about thirty feet, breaking his leg in eight places. He spent months in the hospital, his leg was nearly amputated and he was given morphine for the pain. Booker later said that this was the beginning of his lifetime battle with drug addiction.
He also learned to play the saxophone, having been gifted one for his tenth birthday, but continued to focus on the piano and organ, performing blues and gospel every Sunday on New Orleans' WMRY radio station. He continued his classical training mastering Bach's "Inventions and Sinfonias" at the age of 12.
He worked as a musician during his teens and managed to do well in his studies as well, and even recorded several songs during high school, including his first release, "Doing The Hambone" on Imperial Records in 1954 at 14 years old. In 1960, his groovy organ instrumental, "Gonzo," made the charts on Duke Records (where Don Robey got composer credits as "Deadric Malone"). On many of his 45's, he was backed by some of New Orleans' finest musicians - sax masters Lee Allen, Red Tyler, and Robert Parker, drummer Earl Palmer among them.
He also toured and recorded with numerous stars of the time, "ghosting" on piano for Fats Domino occasionally, and performing with Huey "Piano" Smith (sometimes impersonating Smith on the road), Shirley & Lee, Joe Tex, Larry Davis, Junior Parker, Earl King, Smiley Lewis, Lloyd Price, and many others. He also played regularly in New Orleans nightclubs.
In the mid 60's, Booker was hit by two tragedies. His sister died in 1966 and his mother passed away less than a year later in 1967. Not long after his mother's death, he was arrested outside the Dew Drop Inn for possession of heroin. He had begun using the drug in the early 60's and this arrest resulted in a conviction and one-year sentence to Angola Prison (often called "the Ponderosa" in some of Booker's later songs and performances). While in prison, he lost his left eye in an assault (he gave different reasons for this over his lifetime).
James Booker at 1978 Jazz Fest (photo by Michael P. Smith)
He continued to play sessions with Fats Domino upon his release, and also recorded with Freddy King. He also became friends with New Orleans D.A. Harry Connick, Sr., who served as his legal counselor occasionally. Booker and Connick had an agreement where a prison sentence for Booker would be nullified in exchange for piano lessons for Connick, Sr.'s son, Harry Jr. The pair formed a musical and personal friendship.
Booker cut a session in 1973 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood with Dr. John's band, but the master tapes mysteriously disappeared. Booker also played during this time with Dr. John on tour and performed on albums by Ringo Starr, John Mayall, The Doobie Brothers, LaBelle, and Geoff Muldaur, and his performance at JazzFest in 1975 earned him a recording deal with Island Records, which resulted in one release, Junco Partner.
Booker enjoyed some success in Europe in the late 70's, with several concert performances being professionally recorded and/or filmed for TV. One of these album releases was New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live! on Rounder Records. This time in Germany was essential to Booker's musical and personal life, since there was less racism, and more tolerance toward his drug use and his flamboyant personal life and the European audiences really appreciated his jazz and classical leanings with his piano playing.
Returning to New Orleans in 1978, Booker became the house pianist at the Maple Leaf Bar, but the shift from concert halls to cafes and bars was a bit of a let down to the piano master and he wasn't as widely recognized or appreciated in his home country and even in his hometown. His mental health suffered as a result and his drug use increased.
He made his last recording, Classified, in 1982, considered to be the definitive James Booker release. Producer Scott Billington describes the frustration of working with Booker during this period in his autobiography, Making Tracks: A Record Producer's Southern Roots Music Journey. Booker wasted several days noodling around on the piano, starting and stopping songs, or just wandering out of the studio, then came in and recorded the album (plus many alternate tracks that appeared on an extended release a few years later) in four hours on the last day of studio time and disappeared into the street soon after.
Booker died on November 8, 1983 at age 43, sitting in a wheelchair in the E.R. at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. No one knew how he got there. The cause of death was renal failure related to chronic heroin and alcohol abuse. He was mourned by all of the New Orleans music scene, especially the piano players. Dr. John called him "the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced," but that description, while accurate, really doesn't do him justice. James Booker was a one-of-a-kind piano prodigy whose performances and recordings regularly blew people's minds. Listen to this track and understand that this was an ALTERNATE take that wasn't used on the original Classified release (please check out the expanded release, you can thank me later).....just Booker noodling around on the piano on that last day of recording.
Since Booker's death, numerous albums have surfaced that capture him in amazing form. Those lost Paramount recordings were rediscoverd, or at least a tape of the mixes were found in 1992 and released as The Lost Paramount Tapes by DJM Records in 1993. These recordings capture Booker in great form backed by a funky New Orleans band (Dr. John's).
Multiple live recordings have also appeared as well. The standouts include the twin set from Rounder, the previously mentioned Resurrection of the Bayou Maharajah and it's companion, Spiders on the Keys, a collection of Booker's instrumental tunes.
JSP Records released a pair of live shows, King Of New Orleans Keyboard Volumes 1 and 2 in the mid 80's, which they have compiled into a single CD. All of these sets and the others have pretty good sound and each offer some noteworthy performances by Booker as a piano player and a vocalist....Booker's voice was almost as awesome as his fingers.
There is also a compilation of Booker's early recordings on Night Train International Records, More Than All The 45s that was released in the 90's. Jasmine Records in the UK has recently repackaged some of those songs as The Ivory Emporer: 1954 - 1962 Sides.
About ten years ago, Lily Keber produced and directed a documentary about Booker, Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker that pays tribute to his talents and his background with lots of performance footage and fond remembrances from many of his peers and admirers. It also shows some of Booker's personality quirks along the way, so it's a pretty even-handed portrait of a troubled musician and soul.
Like many other musicians, particularly blues musicians, James Booker didn't really get recognized for his talents until after he passed away. The documentary, and these recently discovered live performance, will make you wish that you'd been on board while Booker was still here to appreciate it.
Back in the early 90's when Billy Boy Arnold signed with Alligator Records, I grabbed his Alligator debut, Back Where I Belong, as soon as I could and I was really impressed with him as a harmonica player and a singer. Being the blues novice I was, I wished that I could find more music from him.
I was rewarded a few months later when I found a cassette tape from Charly Records called I Wish You Would that collected his Vee-Jay sides recorded between 1955 and 1957, plus a couple of sides he recorded with Chess Records while backing Bo Diddley. Those sides weren't released at the time. Arnold was in his early 20's at the time of these recordings, but he sounded like a seasoned veteran and several of those tracks ended up being Chicago blues standards...."I Wish You Would," "I Ain't Got You," "Don't Stay Out All Night Long," and "Prisoner's Plea," for starters.
Several years later, when I finally made the conversion from cassettes to CDs, I tried to update some of my previous collection and the Billy Boy Arnold albums were part of the set. I was able to get both of his Alligator sets....1993's Back Where I Belong and 1995's Eldorado Cadillac, but was never able to track down the Charly set at a price that wouldn't require me refinancing my house.
In the meantime, I was able to track down a copy of his 1963 classic More Blues On The South Side, and received a couple of his Stony Plain releases for review from the label in the early 2000's and, amazingly, though there was a considerable time gap between More Blues On The South Side and the two Stony Plain releases, it was apparent that Arnold hadn't lost an inch off his fast ball. I promise if you're not familiar with Billy Boy Arnold, if you listen to any release from any time period of his nearly 70 year career, you will become a fan.
In the meantime, the UK label Jasmine made my day when they reissued those great Arnold 50's sides on a wonderful collection called Come Back Baby, I Wish You Would, which not only included those Chess tracks and the Vee-Jay sides, but also his first recordings for the Cool label as a teenager ("I Ain't Got No Money" and "Hello Stranger") and several tracks from the Chess label where he backed Bo Diddley.....wonderful stuff.
If you're a fan of early Chicago blues and don't have these sides in your collection, I highly recommend this set. The liner notes are great and informative, which is the case for all of Jasmine's releases. It's also a good place to start your Billy Boy Arnold listening experience, but by all means, don't stop there. Everything he recorded is worth a listen and he sounds as good now as he did in 1955.
Also, check out his autobiography, which we discussed here way back in January. His recollection of details throughout his life, dating back to meeting Sonny Boy Williamson I as a youth is remarkable. He recently signed a recording deal with Delmark Records, so hopefully we will get to hear new music from the soon-to-be 89 year old.
(By the way, if you run through the FBF archives, you'll find a more-detailed post devoted to Billy Boy Arnold from nearly ten years ago if you'd like more information.)
(Another BTW, check out Jasmine Records' website. If you're a blues fan, you will more than likely find an album to your liking that you'll want to purchase.)
Here's another theme that FBF hasn't visited in a long time - over eight years. With this theme, we look at five recordings released over the years that listeners might have missed for one reason or another when they were first on the shelves. Some of them may not have ever made the streaming venue and may be out of print, but they are well worth seeking out for blues fans.
Like we posted last week, a lot of people don't listen to physical product anymore, but those that don't are missing out on a lot of treats, such as liner notes - which enabled me to learn so much more about my favorite blues artists, band and recording info - who played what instruments and where the albums were recorded, discovering songs on albums that I never heard on the radio that I really liked, and even the great album art and pictures that accompanied many of these albums.
Music is more convenient and accessible these days for sure, but I sure miss the days of thumbing through the music sections in record stores and finding a treasure that I wasn't expecting. That's actually how I got into the blues in the first place nearly forty years ago - seeing the cover of Showdown!, in the JAZZ section of a record store of all places. If I had not stumbled onto that album, I might never have stumbled onto the blues.
Okay, enough of that....here are five excellent albums that you might have missed over the years.
John Watkins - Here I Am (Blues Reference): I first heard Watkins on Alligator's The New Bluebloods collection and his featured track, "Chained To Your Love" was my favorite song on the album. Loved the passionate vocals and crisp guitar work and keyboards (Jimmy Johnson played rhythm guitar - I think Watkins was in his band at the time, and St. James Bryant played keyboards). Seems like the liner notes mentioned that Watkins had an album released in France, which he did on Blue Phoenix in 1985. I was not able to track that album down for many years, but finally tracked down a used copy of the reissued release on Blues Reference.
It was a long search, but well worth it. I really liked his mix of blues, soul, and R&B. He offered fine covers of several blues classics, adding his own personal touches to his versions, his original songs and his band support was first rate. That was the only release that Watkins had during his heyday. I heard that he left Chicago and ended up in Detroit. I was able to find him on Facebook and have chatted with him a couple of times on Messenger, telling him I tracked down his album. He seems to be doing fine, said he had fond memories of making the record. He is still performing as evidenced by several videos on YouTube.
Hip Linkchain - Airbusters (Evidence Records): I had no idea about Hip Linkchain (born Willie Richard in Jackson, MS in 1936 and died from cancer in Chicago in 1989). In my correspondence via email with Twist Turner during the late 90's, I heard about him - Twist played drums for him frequently. I was able to hear a couple of tracks on a UK anthology around that time and I liked what I heard, rock-solid Chicago blues, for sure, but had not ever seen any other releases except for this album, which was originally released on the Dutch label Black Magic in the mid-80's and reissued by Evidence in the early 90's.
Dick Shurman produced the album and features some top notch musical support (Barrelhouse Chuck, Jon McDonald, Ted Harvey, Robert "Huckleberry Hound" Wright, Big John Trice, etc...). Ten of the fourteen songs are originals and while there's nothing fancy on these tracks, if you're a big fan of good ol' down and dirty Chicago blues, you will love this set. I'm going to revisit Twist Turner's book, Blues With A Twist, to read some of the stories he wrote about Hip Linkchain - hey, grab that book if you haven't already. It's a keeper, too. This was actually Hip's last recording before he passed, and it's not very difficult to find a copy online - I found my copy at the Little Big Store - a surprise purchase while thumbing through the stacks of CDs.
Big Mojo Elam and his Chicago Blues Band - Mojo Boogie! (St. George): Another album I found thumbing through the Blues section of the Little Big Store. Elam was a bass player in Chicago, playing with Luther Allison and appearing on Delmark's Sweet Home Chicago anthology, and also appearing on the wonderful And This Is Maxwell Street collection on one track with Robert Nighthawk.
Elam only recorded one studio album (he also cut a live set in the late 70's for the Storyville label, which was also titled Mojo Boogie). This is a really hot set of traditional Chicago blues with Studebaker John on guitar (his slide work is superb), Twist Turner on drums, and Little Mac Simmons on harmonica. Elem sounds great on vocals and the song list is pretty good, too. I kind of bought this as an afterthought the day I was shopping, but it ended up being my favorite of the bunch.
Smokey Wilson - Round Like An Apple: The Big Town Recordings 1977 - 1978 (Ace Records UK): Yet another surprise find at the Little Big Store, I first heard Wilson when he recorded for Bullseye Blues in the 90's and he was quite electrifying to me. His gravelly Wolf-like vocals and his gritty guitar work really grabbed you by the collar. I loved all three of his Bullseye releases.....I really miss that label and the others listed here as well.
Wilson released two albums on the Big Town label, which was owned by the Bihari Brothers, who recorded numerous blues and R&B artists in the 50's and 60's, such as B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Elmore James, Lightnin' Hopkins, and many others. By the late 70's, their recordings had dwindled down, but they managed to release two albums on Smokey Wilson (Blowin' Smoke and Sings The Blues). This set captures songs on those albums, plus five unreleased tracks. Wilson sounds fine on these tunes, not quite as menacing as his later releases, but still pretty powerful. It was a nice predecessor for what was to come.
Ben Wiley Payton - Diggin' Up Old Country Blues (no label): Payton was born and raised in Greenwood, moving to Chicago as a teen, later worked in several industries and eventually he became a pastor in a church in Chicago, also serving as a minister of music during his earlier years, accompanying the choir often on guitar. He performed as a youth in local soul bands, playing guitar and singing backup, He was able to play the blues in several bands in Chicago including the Wolf Band, subbing for an ailing Hubert Sumlin, and played with Bobby Rush's road band for a time before stepping back to help his wife raise their five daughters.
In his later years, he returned to Mississippi, where he began to get into the blues of his home state. He relocated to Clarksdale and managed to release a pair of albums of his own unique approach to the Delta blues he grea up listening to and playing. This 2006 release was his first one and he wrote all new songs that were a snug fit with the traditional sounds of the region. His relaxed vocals and guitar playing make this a great album to listen to when you're just chilling out at the end of the day. This one might be a little harder to find than the others, but if you do find it, you'll be glad you did.
