As promised, here's a look at a few more new releases. There have really been a lot of fine efforts in the past couple of months, and there are actually more new ones than we've discussed. It's an embarrassment of riches for blues fans these days. Let's check out several more great new releases. As always, you can find expanded reviews of most of these releases at Blues Bytes.
Candice Ivory - New Southern Vintage (Nola Blue Records): Ms. Ivory's roots are in Memphis, physical and musical. She had family who sang gospel and blues (her great-uncle Will Roy Sanders was a member of The Fieldstones), and she had a residency in Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead at the age of 18, recorded her first album at 21, and is equally skilled in blues and jazz. Her 2023 tribute to Memphis Minnie's music was one of that year's best efforts, and just blew me away upon hearing it. Well, her newest release also blew me away. She works in a variety of blues styles on this new album, moving from traditional to comtemporary blues, Mississippi hill country, piano blues, and Delta blues.. Contributors include Ivory's Memphis-based band the Blue Bloods, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Ben Levin, Damian "Yella P" Pearson, and Chris Stephenson, with several international artists as well. However, it's Ms. Ivory's show and her vocals are a marvel throughout. This is an album that any blues fan will enjoy, and hopefully, Candice Ivory will continue on her blues journey for a long time to come.
Mud Morganfield - Deep Mud (Nola Blue Records): One thing that's always stood out from me about Morganfield is that he's always tried to expand his blues sound beyond that of his legendary father, Muddy Waters. Of course, there are a couple of his father's songs present, but he also takes a more urban approach to the blues on several tracks, and mixes in a bit of funk from time to time. There are some familiar Chicago faces chipping in on this one, including keyboardist Roosevelt Purifoy, Melvin "Pooky Styx" Carlisle, Rick Kreher, Mike Wheeler, and Studebaker John, who also produced. Mud can't help but sound like his father when he sings, but it is nice to hear in a new setting and I've always liked that he has never settled for being an imitator of his father, preferring to carve out his own niche in the Chicago blues world. For some reason, he's sort of bounced around labels in recent years, so hopefully he will settle in with Nola Blue and reward us with more fine Windy City blues soon.
Jimi "Prime Time" Smith - It's My Time (New Folk Records): I've heard singer/guitarist Smith on a couple of Bob Corritore releases, including their 2022 colloboration, The World In A Jug, but I was not aware that this new album is his first solo album in 15 years. Chicago native Smith is the son of Johnnie Mae Dunston, one of the first female drummers who backed Jimmy Reed on stage and as manager. Smith is a first rate guitarist and strong vocalist and he wrote eight of the 11 tracks. Corritore guests on several tracks and other contributors include Allen "The Captain" Kirk on drums, Toby Lee Marshall on keys, and co-producer (with Smith) John Wright on bass and acoustic guitar. This is a rock solid set of original tunes (with a couple of Luther Allison covers to boot) and it sounds like Smith was more than ready to release an album of his own after playing on everyone else's for the past 15 years. This one is his best album to date and maybe we won't have to wait another 15 for more.
D.K. Harrell - Talkin' Heavy (Alligator Records): Harrell's debut from a couple of years ago was an amazing release. Now 27 years old, the Ruston, LA native was really inspired by B.B. King, and his sound will remind you of the King of the Blues at times. His newest release, like his debut, was recorded at Greaseland Studio with Kid Andersen producing and it's a monster. It's just a fantastic set of blues, nearly all written or co-written by Harrell that touch on familiar blues themes with a modern flair, even throwing a gospel tune in for good measure. Harrell is as good a vocalist as he is a guitarist and he has outstanding support from a host of singers and musicians, the core unit being Andersen, Andrew Moss, Jim Pugh, June Core, and Derrick "D'Mar" Martin. To these ears, this release tops his debut, which is really saying something.
Anthony "Big A" Sherrod - Torchbearer of the Clarksdale Sound (Music Maker Foundation): I first saw Big A on the documentary We Juke Up in Here around 2012. He got his start playing with Johnnie Billington, who taught many of the kids in the Clarksdale area about the blues, and played with Billington until his death in 2013. He's stayed in the Clarksdale area, working with the Delta Blues Museum and playing the clubs regularly, so he's definitely a torchbearer for the Clarksdale brand of the blues. His 2016 release is a must-buy if you can find it (Right On Time), but so is this five-song EP, a down and dirty set which was produced by Jimbo Mathus and recorded in just two hours at an old storefront in town called Clarksdale Reels, with Mathus, Lee Williams, and Heather Crosse backing Big A on these tracks. He mixes the blues with the other music styles that he loved growing, mainly soul and R&B and he's a powerful vocalist and guitarist and a talented songwriter. He's proof positive that the blues is alive and thriving in the Mississippi Delta.
Various Artists - The Last Real Texas Blues Album (Antone's/New West Records): Austin's great club Antone's is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. Back in the mid 70's, the club gave the blues a real shot in the arm, providing a place for blues veterans to ply their trade, and not only did they come to play, but the club also gave a start to a host of newcomers - SRV, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli, Marcia Ball, Denny Freeman and many others. Last year, in advance of the celebration, a host of Antone's veterans gathered and created this tribute album, which consists of 18 songs, all blues classics associated with the many legends who performed over the years. There's not a bad track in the bunch with performances by Ball, Jimmie Vaughan, Bobby Rush, Benny Turner, Anson Funderburgh, Lil' Ed Williams, Derek O'Brien, Lurrie Bell, Ruthie Foster, Doyle Bramhall II, Big Bill Morganfield, John Primer, Johnny Moeller, Mike Keller Eve Monsees, Charlie Sexton, Lynn August, C.J. Chenier, Sue Foley, Kam Franklin, McKinley James, a special appearance from Billy F. Gibbons and a sweet message from 95-year-old Miss Lavelle White.
This is a magnificent set of tunes that is being sold as a single CD, or as part of a huge 5-disc, 41-track box set called Antone's: 50 Years of the Blues, that includes a couple of discs of rare live and studio tracks, a 7" single from Los Lobos, a bound book of liner notes from author Joe Nick Patoski, and a reissue of Susan Antone's book Picture The Blues, loaded with rare photos. I've only got the CD so far, but I'm dropping hints right and left around the house for the whole shebang as a Christmas gift.
Blues fans have been rewarded over the past few months with some outstanding new releases. It's been a lot of fun to listen to them. The state of the blues right now is fantastic with a lot of younger voices stepping up to the mic and producing high quality music. Let's look at a few new recordings for readers to be on the lookout for.
Christone "Kingfish" Ingram - Hard Road (Red Zero Records): It had been several years since blues fans had heard a new studio release from Kingfish. Alligator Records did release the phenomenal live set from London in 2023, so that gave fans something to enjoy (and they did!), but two years is a lifetime in the music world. It turns out that Ingram and his manager decided to create their own record label, Red Zero, with the goal of not only showcasing his music, but also other up-and-coming blues artists (the label recently signed Dylan Triplett and Matthias Lattin). Hard Road is Red Zero's first release, and is a most personal musical statement for Ingram, with some excellent songs (written or co-written by him). There's plenty of his incredible guitar work, but some of it is balanced out with more of an R&B/hip hop musical setting. It's not an overwhelming change, just enough to blend in seamlessly with the blues. There are three sets of songs with different producers, but it works really well. I think this is the music that Ingram wants to play and that certainly helps the process. I've listened to this one quite a bit and, with the live set, this is probably my favorite Kingfish release yet because it goes beyond his previous efforts, branching out with satisfying results.
Garry Burnside - It's My Time Now (Strolling Bones Records), Kent Burnside - Hill Country Blood (Strolling Bones Records): Garry Burnside is R.L. Burnside's youngest son and Kent Burnside is R.L.'s grandson. Both have played extensively, Garry with Junior Kimbrough, the North Mississippi Allstars, nephew Cedric Burnside, Bobby Rush and Jessie Mae Hemphill, and Kent working with Jimbo Mathus and Buddy Guy in addition to leading his own band. Strolling Bones Records released these two albums simultaneously in mid-August, so you can't really help but compare them. Garry's release is more Hill Country-oriented (though both have plenty of that groove) and Kent's album incorporates a bit more of the rocking blues sound associated with Buddy Guy. Both artists pay tribute to their predecessors, Kent modifying a few lyrics here and there. I think the elder Burnside and Kimbrough would be proud of these efforts and I have had a hard time picking a favorite between the two, maybe leaning a bit toward Garry's effort because it’s a little grittier and the Hill Country groove is a little more prevalent in his release to these ears, but don't let that stop you from checking both of these fine releases out.
Yates McKendree - Need To Know (Qualified Records): 24-year-old McKendree is the son of session keyboardist Kevin McKendree and he released the superb Buchanan Lane back in 2023. He's skilled on both guitar and keyboards and has developed into a strong vocalist on this excellent sophomore effort. He has also become a great songwriter with some canny original tunes that sound like long lost blues classics and some cool reimagining of blues standards mixed in. There's a real New Orleans feel on several of the songs, and McKendree really shines both vocally and instrumentally. I'm pretty sure this release, like McKendree's debut, will make an appearance on my end-of-the-year favorites list. It should make yours as well.
North Mississippi Allstars - Still Shakin' (New West Records): NMA's last release, Set Sail, was only okay for me, though I loved the William Bell soul ballad, "Never Want To Be Kissed." It was a little too laid back for me and the songs weren't quiet as memorable, so I wasn't really sure about this latest release, waiting a while to purchase it. This is more of a return to form as the band locks into a groove and carries forth for most of the album. There are imaginative reworkings of many blues favorites from Robert Johnson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Furry Lewis, and others. NMA is slide guitarist Luther Dickinson, drummer Cody Dickinson, Rayfield "Ray Ray" Hollomand on pedal steel and bass, and Joey Williams on guitar, bass, and vocals. Guests include Duwayne Burnside, Panic keyboardist Jo Jo Hermann, Robert Kimbrough, and Grahame Lesh (son of Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, to whom the album is dedicated. I saw these guys about ten years ago, not long after their World Boogie Is Coming album and have been a fan ever since. This album actually celebrates the 25 anniversary of their debut album and it shows that the band is still a force to be reckoned with.
Piper & The Hard Times - Good Company (Hard Times Records): This Nashville-based band enjoyed a banner year in 2024, winning the I.B.C. and releasing their debut album, Revelation several months later, which won the 2025 I.B.C. Best Independent Produced Album and the 2025 BMA Award for Best Emerging Artist Album. Their new release features a dozen original songs. Singer Al "Piper" Green is a robust vocalist who can handle blues, soul, or rock and The Hard Times is a rock-solid ensemble. The songs cover blues, soul, rock, funk, and roots and the album actually improves from their debut, which was one of my favorites of 2024. In June of this year, Green was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatments, but has continued to tour with the band across the country. A benefit concert was held in July and a GoFundMe page has been set up to offset his medical bills. He gives regular updates on the band's Facebook page, so follow that page and follow this band. You can thank me later.
Finally, a personal note.....in August, my wife discovered her cancer had recurred after a couple of months of health issues. We were sitting in the hospital, pondering our next move, when I got a call from Grady Champion. Grady had been faithfully checking on my wife ever since he found out she had cancer and when he found out about the recurrance, he showed up at the hospital to give her (and me) some words of encouragement and to let us know we were in his prayers. He had continued to check on her weekly and we are so appreciative. While visiting with us in the hospital, he played her his new song, "Plug In The Sunshine," and dedicated its release to her. We were both on Cloud Nine when he left and she even got to go home later that day. She is currently undergoing treatments and is doing well and I think her visit from Grady was the best medicine of all. Meanwhile, check out Grady's new song for yourself.
This is not all of the great new releases, by any means. We'll be checking out a few more in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Mississippi Music Museum in Hazlehurst, MS with my friend and fellow retiree Michael. The museum, located at the town's old railroad depot, had actually been around for a while, but closed sometime in the last year or two and the depot was remodeled. It was reopened around the first of September. I had not been able to visit previously because it was not always open during the week and was closed on the weekends. The new hours for the museum are Wednesday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm.
If you're a blues fan living in the Jackson, MS area, or traveling I-55 toward New Orleans or Baton Rouge, this is a great stop. There are lots of cool displays that track not just the blues genre, but every other genre of music and it's really impressive when you see how many Mississippi natives were involved in the development of blues, rock n' roll, country, jazz, and gospel music. It's also the location for the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame as many award plaques are here and there's also a list of members to view.
A walk-through takes about an hour, and the museum is still a work in progress....we were told that there are other displays in the works. Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, so there are a couple of nice displays about him, as well as another local resident - Crystal Springs native Tommy Johnson. There are also a couple of guitars made by Super Chikan, plus a display of cigar box guitars and sections on Elvis Presley and Jimmie Rodgers. The museum is free admission, but donations are welcome. It's a great place for any music fan, but especially blues fans.
The museum also has a collection of used albums, cassettes, and CDs for sale that have been donated. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for checking out a bin of used CDs, so I had to thumb through them. I found two B.B. King CDs, one that I'd previously owned in cassette form and one that I'd never actually seen before. They were basically a steal, and in great condition, so I picked them up and wanted to share them with fellow blues fans in case you missed them....after all, he just turned 100.
The first one was a set I picked up in the late 80's on cassette. In the pre-internet days, I was wondering what would be a great B.B. King album to pick up. I had picked up a couple of his latter-day releases up to that point and they were not particularly memorable to me in that they didn't really sound like the B.B. King I had heard on TV on numerous shows. I saw Great Moments With B.B. King (MCA Records) at a record store and noticed it had a lot of music (23 tracks) at a very nice price, so I picked it up.
I was familiar with a few of the songs on the set, which was released originally in 1981.....probably about a third of them. There was also a mix of live and studio recordings, which was pretty cool. I found out much later that this was a compilation of some of King's "Great Moments" taken from some of his mid to late 60's recordings with ABC and BluesWay.
I have to agree with the "Great Moments" assessment because it's an excellent summation of B.B. King' musical career up until around 1970. That was actually a portion of his career that I was not as familiar with. The live tracks are particularly good, and you may remember some of them from other great King albums (such as Blues Is King), but it's a great capsule summary of B.B. King's music at a great period in his career.
The other CD I grabbed was a unique album in the B.B. King catalog. Spotlight on Lucille (Flair Records) was released in 1991, and it collects twelve instrumentals recorded between late 1960 and late 1961 with the focus completely on Lucille in a variety of settings. Four of the tracks had never been released prior to this collection and the other eight tracks had only been recently heard on the UK label Ace Records.
Lucille sounds fantastic on these tracks, which drift from downhome gritty blues to classy soul and jazz. I had never even heard of this release, not sure how it slipped through my fingers the first time around, but I'm glad I happened to run across it in this used CD collection. This is a great set to just plug into your stereo and just go about your day. Anytime you get a chance to put the spotlight on B.B. King's guitar is an opportunity you need to seize upon.
As
long as I've been listening to the blues, I've rarely listened to any
Tampa Red recordings. In retrospect, I'm kind of surprised that I
haven't. Granted, I've only recently gone back into the pre-war
recordings, and when I did, I focused on the Mississippi Delta
variety. I don't think I avoided him intentionally....his music just
didn't happen to fall in my particular choices.
Now
that doesn't mean that I wasn't familiar with Tampa Red....I've heard
his songs from numerous other blues artists over the years. It's
safe to say that nearly all blues fans are familiar with Tampa Red's
songs - "New Stranger Blues," "Black Angel Blues,"
"Crying Won't Help You," "It Hurts Me Too," "Love
Her With A Feeling," "Things 'Bout Coming My Way,"
"Anna Lou Blues," "Let Me Play WIth Your Poodle,"
and "Early In the Morning" were among his hits, and were
also recorded by many other blues artists. I just didn't realize
when I first heard them that they were written by Tampa Red.
I've
always been a huge fan of slide guitar, particularly the work of
Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters. Well,
Tampa Red was a major influence on all of these guitarists and many
more (B.B. King was a huge fan), and these artists' versions of Red's
songs might be the versions that you are familiar with. Upon
listening to Tampa Red, his influence made complete sense. I can
only imagine the impact his single-string slide guitar technique had
upon both artists and listeners when his first recordings hit the
streets in the late 20's, when it would have been considered a new
concept.
Tampa Red with Leroy Carr
Though
I hadn't listened to a lot of Tampa Red's music, I had read about
him...mainly because I wondered, given his body of work that has been
covered by so many blues stars who followed him, why he is not
mentioned as much as other blues pioneers. One of the things you
read about is that he sort of mixed genres, recording songs that were
considered to more pop songs or R&B songs or even hokum. Hokum
music is suggestive, or “dirty” blues, which were popular at the
time, but are sort of disregarded by some blues scholars as
lightweight these days.
Another
factor was his use of the kazoo, which he began incorporating into
his songs from the mid 30's onward. At the time, with the various
styles of music played in the pre-electric era, it made sense to Red
to use the kazoo, and it was popular to his listeners as well, but it
was often used in lieu of Red's amazing guitar work. Listeners at
the time were probably fine with it because, to them, it was fun and
entertaining, but for modern listeners, it can be somewhat jarring.
That
being said, listening to Tampa Red's sides, recorded from the late
20's through the mid 50's with only a couple of pauses in-between,
can be a rewarding experience and for blues fans, it's definitely
worth your time. The story of his life is interesting as well.
Tampa
Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia....the actual
date is a bit of a question mark because he gave varying dates from
1900 to 1908. The date usually recognized is January 8, 1904 because
that's what's listed on his death certificate. His parents died when
he was very young and he was moved to Tampa, Florida to live with an
aunt and grandmother, whose last name was Whittaker, so he adopted
their name, Hudson Whittaker.
Whittaker's
older brother played the guitar around the Tampa area, so he learned
a bit from him, but his primary inspiration was an old street
musician named Piccolo Pete, who taught him his first blues licks.
He had also heard Hawaiian guitar played and he learned to play it in
standard position instead of lap style, using a thumb pick to strike
the springs and a bottleneck, which helped him develop his unique
slide sound. He also learned from listening to recordings from many
of the female blues singers at the time.
Whittaker
started playing the vaudeville circuit in the 20's, eventually
settling in the Chicago area around 1925, where he adopted the “Tampa
Red” moniker referring to his childhood home and his light skin.
His playing style was a combination of his country blues roots and a
newer, more polished style that would work better in an urban setting
and his guitar work was a mix of Mississippi and Hawaii with his
precise bottleneck work which sounded like no one else at the time.
In
1928, Red found his ideal partner in “Georgia” Tom Dorsey, a
singer/piano man who eventually left the blues and became known as
the “Father of Gospel Music.” That career change for Dorsey was
several years down the road when the pair recorded “It's Tight Like
That” on Vocalion Records in late 1928. The hokum number was a
huge smash and eventually sold over seven million copies, which
launched Red and Dorsey's recording careers in a big way. He also
managed to insert some recordings that highlighted his guitar playing
along the way.
Red
also formed a Hokum Jug Band, a mix of guitars, piano, bass,
washboard, and jug players), but once Dorsey left and the novelty of
the hokum craze subsided, he formed Tampa Red's Hot Five, which
included clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone, and occasionally the
aforementioned kazoo (check out "Anna Lou Blues" below). The audiences apparently like the kazoo, it
was a fun sound, and Red must have liked it too, because it became a
regular part of his repertoire from 1936 onward.
The
mid 30's through early 40's were the period that generated most of
Red's greatest songs, such as “Black Angel Blues,” which became
“Sweet Black Angel” in B.B. King's hands. Another King, Freddy,
covered “Love With A Feeling,” while slide master Robert
Nighthawk transformed Red's “Anna Lou” into “Anna Lee”
(Nighthawk also covered “Sweet Black Angel”), and Elmore James,
another slide master, covered “It Hurts Me Too” and “New
Stranger Blues.”
Red
cut these sides during his tenure with RCA's Bluebird Records,
signing on with the label in 1934. His recordings were so successful
that he eventually was responsible for the overall sound of most of
the label's releases, dubbed “The Bluebird Beat.” He played on
his own sides and appeared on other Bluebird artists recordings as
well, notably Big Maceo Merriweather, Sonny Boy Williamson I, and
Memphis Minnie. He also began incorporating electric guitar into his
music as well. Other notable tracks from this period included “She
Wants To Sell My Monkey,” “Let Me Play With Your Poodle,” and
“Don't You Lie To Me.”
In
1947, Red moved from Bluebird to RCA's main label, Victor, where he
remained until 1953, recording new songs and reworking some of his
previous hits for a new audience, even moonlighting for a small
independent label, Sabre, using the name Jimmy Eager for several
tracks in the fall of 1953.
Red
enjoyed much success and prosperity during the 30's and 40's and his
house became a center for the blues community in Chicago. Many
musicians rehearsed there, set up their gigs, even stayed there when
making their way up north. His wife, Frances Whittaker helped him do
all of this, offering new arrivals a place to stay and a meal.
Sadly, she passed away in late 1953 and her loss devastated Red. He
became an alcoholic and developed mental problems, which curtailed
his music career and eventually left him destitute.
Red
recorded a couple of albums for Bluesville Records in 1960, in hopes
of capitalizing on the blues revival, the new interest in blues from
a white audience, but returned to obscurity soon afterward. His
mental problems worsened. Blues expert Jim O'Neal found him in 1974
on Chicago's South Side, living in poverty with an older lady serving as caregiver (who passed away
near the end of the same year), and he ended up in a nursing home,
where he died from a heart attack on March 19, 1981 in his late
seventies.
Tampa
Red recorded over 300 78's during his career, making him one of the
most prolific blues artists of his era. He only recorded two albums,
the two on Bluesville Records, but there have been numerous albums
released that collect his early sides and they're all worth
listening. My two choices cover most of his career from beginning to
end. It Hurts Me Too – The Essential Recordings, on Indigo
Records, covers the period from 1928 to 1942, and I'll Find My Way
– Hot Chicago Blues 1947 – 1953 takes in most of the rest of
his career.
Dear readers, it's time once again for Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. This makes our 23nd edition. For a long time, this was one of our favorite themes and it dates back to FBF's early days as a weekly email sent to co-workers. It serves as a great way to introduce new and old tunes to new and old blues fans.
For those unfamiliar with the format, we offer a song from the early days of the blues (Something Old), a song from a recent blues artist (Something New), a blues artist covering a rock song or vice versa (Something Borrowed), and finally, someone who epitomizes the blues.....usually a legendary artist (Something Blue). Here we go......
For Something Old, let's go way back to 1929, with one of T-Bone Walker's first recordings. Recorded for Columbia Records, "Trinity River Blues" was the B-side of his recording debut ("Wichita Falls Blues" was the A-side). The 19-year old Walker was billed as "Oak Cliff T-Bone" on this record, Oak Cliff being the community in Dallas where he lived and T-Bone was a variation of his middle name (Aaron Thibeaux Walker). Walker, playing acoustic guitar, is backed by Douglas Fernell on piano. The youngster had already been a working performer on the blues circuit since the age of 15. Of course, he went on to become one of the most influential blues guitarists and performers with incredible recordings in the 40's and 50's with Black & Blue Records, Imperial Records, and Atlantic Records.
For Something New, meet Kirk Fletcher, guitarist extraordinaire. Fletcher has been recording since the late 90's as a solo artist, but he also spent four years with the Fabulous Thunderbirds and also appeared on T-Bird front man Kim Wilson's album Smokin' Joint. he also collaborated with Charlie Musselwhite, the Mannish Boys, Joe Bonamassa, and many others (including an appearance on William Shatner's blues album in 2020). He returned to his own recordings around 2010. He also developed into a very good singer and his recordings show he's a fine guitarist who's not afraid to branch out from the blues, mixing in funk, soul, rock, and jazz. Fletcher recovered from a stroke he suffered a couple of years ago, but his latest release, the dynamic Keep On Pushing (on the VizzTone Label Group), shows that he's still a wonderful guitarist. FBF recommends that blues fans track down this excellent release as soon as you can.
For Something Borrowed, we go to K.C. Douglas, born in 1913 in Sharon, MS. He played around the Jackson, MS area in the early 40's with Tommy Johnson and others, but migrated to Vellejo, California in his late 20's to work in the navy shipyards and was soon playing the blues around the San Francisco/Oakland area. He was strongly influenced by Johnson, recording several of his songs when he had the opportunity. His first recording, in 1948 as the K.C. Douglas Trio, was "Mercury Boogie," which was later renamed "Mercury Blues." Most music fans have heard this song played in one genre or another....David Lindley recorded a great version in the early 80's on his El-Rayo-X album. Others recording it were Steve Miller, Ry Cooder, and Alan Jackson, whose version hit #2 on the country charts in 1992. Even today, the Ford Motor Company bought the rights to the song and used it in their TV spots. Douglas, sadly, didn't get to see much success of royalties in his lifetime...he passed away in October of 1975 at the age of 61.
Finally, for Something Blue, we salute the King of the Blues, who was born 100 years ago on September 16. There's not much that we can say about B.B. King that hasn't already been said. He was the first blues artist I ever heard and over the years, I've come to appreciate him more and more. His incredible, distinctive guitar work and his powerful, gospel-influence vocals have inspired countless musicians since his earliest days. Every blues fan should visit his museum at Indianola, MS (where he's also buried) if you make a trip to the Mississippi delta. It's well worth your time. Happy Heavenly Birthday to B.B. King and thank you for all the great music!
Around 25 years ago, I was visiting a record store in search of some inspiring new blues. The store that I visited was one that usually included a few surprises on the blues aisle....the manager was a blues fan himself and we had many conversations while I was in the store. On this particular visit, I ran across a CD from The Daddy Mack Blues Band called Fix It When I Can.
On the cover was this burly middle-aged guy sitting in a chair playing his guitar (the original cover). The back cover showed ten tracks and a picture of three musician around their cars. It was from a Memphis label (Inside Memphis/Inside Sounds via High Water Recording Company), and I'm always interested in the Memphis brand of blues, so I picked it up. When I was checking out, the manager just said, "You'll love that one. It's great!!"
It was great, a whole album's worth of gritty, gutbucket blues with a healthy dose of Memphis grease in the terrific rhythm section work. Daddy Mack was a strong vocalist and guitarist and he wrote eight of the ten tracks. It was familiar and fresh at the same time. I listened to it all the time for a long time and I still listen to it frequently, several of the tunes remain among my favorite blues tracks.
As I usually do when I hear a new (to me) artist, I dug into his background. I discovered that Daddy Mack was Mack Orr, born in Como, Mississippi in 1945. He spent his early years working in the cotton fields until he was 18. He grew up listening to many of the blues greats at the time like B.B. King, Albert King, and Little Milton. He hung out around the local juke joints around Como listening to whoever happened to be playing.
Eventually, Orr moved north to Memphis, got married and worked as a heavy machine operator until he opened his own business, Mack's Auto Repair, where he settled in as a mechanic and helped raise his four kids.
In his mid 40's, he heard Albert King's "I'll Play The Blues For You" on the radio and decided to start playing music himself. He went to a pawn shop after work one day and bought a guitar and amplifier on layaway and, determined to practice and make a name for himself, he was able to listen to the styles of his favorites and develop his own unique style that combined his favorites' sound with his own.
Several of those favorites played in Memphis' premier blues band at the time - the Fieldstones. Though there are only a couple of recordings by the Fieldstones, they are regarded as one of the best, if not the best, blues bands in Memphis......many of the city's best blues musicians played in the band at one time or another.
The Fieldstones at Green's Lounge (Eric Lindahl)
The Fieldstones played regularly at the South Memphis nightclub Green's Lounge and it was there, in the early 90's, that Fieldstones guitarist Earl "The Pearl" Banks invited Orr to play with the band. He soon became part of the Fieldstones family, and a few years later, he was invited to take over residency at Green's. At that time, Orr formed the Daddy Mack Blues Band with two Fieldstones vets - Harold Bonner on bass and James Bonner on guitar, with Wilroy "Wolf" Sanders Jr. on drums.
In 1999, the band released Fix It When I Can. By that time, William Faulkner had replaced Sanders as drummer. Later that year, the band played a party for the Rolling Stones at the Rendezvous, during the Stones tour stop in Memphis and Keith Richards and Ron Wood joined them onstage. The Daddy Mack Blues Band was drawing attention almost immediately from the right people.
Daddy Mack with a couple of rock n' rollers from Britain.
Before he started playing the blues, Orr had only visited four places - Wisconsin, Chicago, Kansas City, and Jackson, MS. The blues enabled him to travel all over the world. Despite the extensive travel, he still spent a lot of time in Memphis, playing locally on Beale Street and at the Center of Southern Folklore, plus he still worked on cars in his spare time.
The Daddy Mack Blues Band released seven other albums over the years. There was about a six year gap between his first and second releases, but the band released two albums in 2006, the first being Slow Ride, an interesting concept in which the group covered a number of blues rock classics from Foghat, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Santana, the Rolling Stones, and others (I remember reading, maybe in the liner notes, that Orr wasn't even familiar with most of the songs prior to recording them).
The second 2006 release was Bluestones, which added keyboardist Charlie Wood and was a great mix of originals and soul/soul blues covers. Subsequent releases included Bluesfinger (2010), Pay The Piper (2012), Blues Central (2014), and A Bluesman Looks At Seventy (2015). Over time, there were some personnel changes....the Bonner brothers remained stalwarts, but Faulkner passed away in 2011. He was replaced by Fast Eddie Lester (Brian Wells played drums on Pay The Piper).
Other major contributors on the music end and the songwriting end included Matt Isbell, Wally Ford, and Inside Sounds chief Eddie Dattel. Ford and Dattel had spent a lot of time with Orr and their songwriting captured the essence of the man as well as if Orr had written the songs himself. Of course, Orr and the Bonners continued to contribute songs as well. I bought each of these albums upon release and it amazed me that the quality of each subsequent release topped its predecessors. There are usually a few misfires on most blues artists’ albums from time to time, trying to do something new or different, but that was not the case with the Daddy Mack Blues Band. They knew what they did well and they did it
Around 2008, Dattel and Inside Sounds released a documentary about Orr's life, Plain Man Blues - Daddy Mack Orr's Inspiring Story of Struggle and Triumph. The DVD featured scenes of Orr visiting his hometown and remembering his working in the cotton fields and listening to the blues in the local clubs (now vacant lots), working in his garage, playing local clubs, and a deep dive into the recording process during the making of Bluestones. It was very enjoyable and certainly presented Orr in a positive light - as a man that everyone would want to meet and talk to.
After his 2015 release, I assumed that Daddy Mack was not going to record any more albums, really just basing it on the A Bluesman Looks At Seventy title more than anything. However, I heard via the internet that the Daddy Mack Blues Band had returned for a recording in late 2024, called Doctor's Orders.
Of course, it's difficult to find information on some releases now and that was the case with this album when I started looking, so I went to Inside Sounds website and managed to connect with Dattel. I ordered the new disc and a copy of the DVD, which I had been meaning to get for years. The new CD was very good and included songs from his longtime bandmates (the Bonners and Lester), songs from his current band (Charles and John Gage, drums and organ respective), plus contributions from Brad Isbell (guitar) and Andrew McNeil (drums) from Ghost Town Blues Band, Brad Webb (bass) and longtime contributor, harmonica player Billy Gibson.
The additional musicians give Doctor's Orders a slightly more modern feel, but most of them have been guesting on Orr's previous albums, so it's been a gradual move toward the contemporary. However, it doesn't diminish the power of Daddy Mack Orr by any means. That greasy, gutsy Memphis guitar is still present, as are Orr's good-natured vocals and that funky backbeat.
I can't describe how excited I was to see a new Daddy Mack Blues Band release hit the racks, especially one that's so good and includes so many other Memphis artists that I admire taking part. Doctor's Orders was just what the doctor ordered for this blues fan.
Sadly, this will be the last Daddy Mack Blues Band release. A couple of months ago, Orr was in the hospital with some issues for a few days, was discharged but had to return for some medication adjustments. He suffered a heart attack unexpectedly while in the hospital on June 16. He was 80 years old.
Despite the fact that he didn't pick up guitar until he was 45 years old, Daddy Mack Orr ended up being a Memphis mainstay for the next 35 years, as well as one of the best of the current blues scene worldwide. If you're not familiar with his music and you are a blues fan, I highly recommend any of his recordings. They are all excellent, downhome blues.
I apologize for the lack of activity on the blog over the past few months. I'm in the process of retiring from my day job and there's been much to do to get things in order....I've worked there for almost forty years (which seems astonishing to type), so there have been a lot of loose ends to tie.
Hopefully, retirement will allow me to work on the blog on a more regular basis. I can't believe I actually kept this up on a weekly basis for so long.
In the meantime, I wanted to share a post that I contributed to another site, The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. Several years ago, I met T. Dwayne Moore, who oversees the site and the foundation. He actually commented on this blog and made some recommendations to improve it and, hopefully, attract more blues fans. How this post came about is discussed on the linked post to the Mt. Zion site. I sent the write-up to him several years ago and I think it got lost somewhere along the way. Dwayne contacted me a couple of weeks ago and told me he was going to run it, so it's now live.
If you're a fan of the early blues, be sure to check it out. The post is a look at the roots of the blues in Bolton, MS, home of several significant pre-war blues artists. Also, while you're there, please donate to their cause if you're able. It's a worthy one for blues artists of the past and present who didn't get the flowers (or other items) they deserved when they were alive.
Hopefully, you will see more activity at Friday Blues Fix in the near future. Stay tuned.
Well, it's not exactly in the "near" future as promised (I actually started working on this post in mid-November), but this week, Friday Blues Fix will look at Volume 2 of the Living Chicago Blues series. Our look at Volume 1 can be found here.
As previously mentioned, this was originally a six-volume series when released on LP in the 70's. Volume 1 of the LP series featured Jimmy Johnson, Eddie Shaw, and Left Hand Frank and Volume 2 included Carey Bell, Magic Slim, and Big Moose Walker. When shifting to the CD format, Bell's set was added to Volume 1 and two artists from the Volume 3 LP (Lonnie Brooks and Pinetop Perkins) were added to the Volume 2 CD, so only one group from the first three volumes didn't make it onto the first two CD volumes - nothing like "not making the cut" or anything like that....they would get their chance in the next CD volume, which was released at the same time. There was no two-year gap, like the LP's....three in 1978 and three in 1980.
So, Volume 2's artists were The Lonnie Brooks Band, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, and Pinetop Perkins featuring Sammy Lawhorn (Lawhorn was billed on the LP, for some reason, but not on the cassette or CD format issued in the early 90's). Each act got four songs to show their talents, and each act took full advantage and made an impression.
Louisiana native Lonnie Brooks (born Lee Baker, Jr.) got his start in the 50's, where he was billed as "Guitar Jr." and recorded for Eddie Shuler's Goldband label, focusing mostly on R&B rockers and ballads. His first single. "Family Rules," was a regional hit in 1957 and earned him some appearances on tours throughout the southeastern US, mostly in Texas and Louisiana. His later Goldband recordings were less successful, so after a 1959 tour in Atlanta, he decided to follow Sam Cooke, who was on the same tour, up to Chicago to try his luck in the Windy City.
Growing up in Louisiana and Texas, Brooks got to hear many of the great blues bands at the time, including T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown, B.B. King, and others, but he got his first job as a guitarist with Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco, and he really loved the New Orleans R&B of Fats Domino and Little Richard. Once he got to Chicago, he began to add more blues to his repertoire and managed to combine aspects of all the music he loved into his brand of blues, giving him a unique sound.
Brooks recorded a couple more sides as Guitar Jr., but changed his stage name to Lonnie Brooks since there was already a Guitar Jr. in Chicago (Luther Johnson, Jr., who we'll hear from later in the series), and formed his own band, playing regularly on the South and West sides of the city and into Indiana, cutting sides for various labels, and eventually an album that's now a collector's item.
Brooks' band for the Alligator session included Bob Levis (second guitar), Rob Waters (keyboards), Harlan Terson (bass), and Casey Jones (drums). The opening track is a pretty faithful cover of "Don't Answer The Door," originally recorded by Jimmy Johnson in 1964 on Magnum Records, and later covered by B.B. King, Phil Guy, and Melvin Taylor, among others. The remainder of his tracks are all originals, a couple of which remained part of his act for most of his life, "Two Headed Man," "Cold, Lonely Nights." The closer, "Move Over Little Dog," was reminiscent of his earlier recordings - a mix of blues, R&B, and rock n' roll.
Brooks would go on to work for Alligator for the rest of his career, recording eight albums for the label, beginning with 1979's Bayou Lightning and wrapping up with 1999's Lone Star Shootout, a collaboration with Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker. He passed away in 2017 at 83, but his sons, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Wayne Baker Brooks are fine blues guitarists in their own right, with Ronnie recently releasing his own album on Alligator, the excellent Blues In My DNA.
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker was born at Stoneville, MS in 1927 near Leland. He learned to play several instruments as a youth.....organ, guitar, vibraphone, bass, tuba, and piano. He got his stage name as a child from his long, flowing hair. He got his start as a piano player backing such luminaries as Ike Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Elmore James, Lowell Fulson, and others.
After a stint in the army during the Korean War, he recorded several sides that didn't sell, but still worked a lot over the next 20 years behind Earl Hooker, Elmore James, Otis Rush, Sunnyland Slim, Muddy Waters (playing bass), Ricky Allen, Howlin' Wolf, Eddie Shaw, and Junior Wells, backing him on "Messin' With The Kid." He played on memorable tracks with Muddy Waters ("You Shook Me") and Elmore James ("Shake Your Moneymaker") in the 60's. He also recorded with Earl Hooker, Son Seals, and Rush and, in the 70's, he backed Jimmy Dawkins, Mighty Joe Young, and Louis Myers, and released his own album on ABC Records in 1970.
On his Alligator sessions, Walker was backed by Myers on guitar, Bob Stroger on bass, and Chris Moss on drums. Walker was a master on the keyboards and his vocal style was warm and relaxed. His set list included a Willie Dixon track (the rollicking "Would You, Baby"), one from Joe Josea and Jules Taub (the driving "Sunnyland Blues") and two Walker originals (the slow blues "Worry, Worry" and "Cry, Cry Darling"). The latter two feature some nice fretwork from Myers as well as Walker's stellar piano.
Walker continued to record and perform, his second album was released in the mid 80's, but he suffered a stroke in 1991 and subsequent strokes left him unable to perform. He died in a Chicago nursing home in 1999 at age 72. Despite his lack of recordings, the ones he did release are all worth hearing and it's sad that he wasn't better known than he was, but his appearance here did increase his standing in the blues world for sure.
Believe it or not, there was once a time when Magic Slim and the Teardrops had not recorded very much at all. At the time of these sessions for Alligator, Slim had only released a few 45's and one album for the French MCM label. He had only been a full-time bluesman for a couple of years, having quit his construction job in 1976.
Slim was born Morris Holt in Torrence, MS in 1937, where he first picked up the guitar at age 11. His family later moved to nearby Grenada, where he learned more guitar from a schoolmate named Sam Maghett. Later, he followed Sam, now known as Magic Sam, to Chicago and became his bass player. Sam gave Holt (who was tall and skinny at the time) his nickname of Magic Slim, but Slim soon became frustrated with his lack of opportunity...he wanted to play guitar and lead his own band and just wasn't good enough at the time.
Slim moved back to Grenada, where he drove a truck and worked on his music, teaching his brothers Nick and Douglas to play. They formed a band and played throughout the Grenada area. In the mid 60's, he returned to Chicago and reformed the Teardrops, the band he had been playing with before he moved back to Mississippi and began working a number of clubs in the Windy City, becoming one of the tightest bands in town.
The 1978 edition of the Teardrops included Slim's brother, Nick Holt, on bass, Coleman "Daddy Rabbit" Pettis on second guitar, and Joel Poston on drums. Their four-song setlist included several songs that became regular selections on Slim's future albums, "Stranded On The Highway," "Dirty Mother For You," and "Spider In My Stew." The last tune was Jimmy Reed's "Don't Say That No More," which was as good as those tunes that preceded it.
Slim went on to become one of Chicago's most prolific blues recording artists, with albums on Rooster Blues and Blind Pig Records in the U.S., Wolf Records and Black and Blue in Europe, and even a collection of French recordings that ended up on the Alligator album Raw Magic not long after these sessions. I probably have more Magic Slim recordings that any other blues artist and they are always top notch...his musical repertoire was amazing and his live sets are always entertaining.
Slim moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in the mid-90's, home of the Zoo Bar, which was the source for five excellent live releases for the band, and continued to record and perform until his death in 2013 at age 75.
The final act for Volume 2 was the piano legend Pinetop Perkins. Born in 1913 in Belzoni, MS, Joe Willie Perkins had been performing since the 1920's, getting his start as a guitarist. However, a knife fight with a chorus girl in Helena, AR in the mid-40's left him with severed tendons in his left arm and prompted his move to the piano.
In Helena, Perkins eventually joined Robert Nighthawk's radio program on KFFA before switching to Sonny Boy Williamson's King Biscuit Time radio show, where he stayed for a while. He did continue to play with Nighthawk and backed the slide master on his 1950 Chess side, "Jackson Town Gal." He soon joined Earl Hooker and toured with him, recording Clarence "Pinetop" Smith's "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" for Sam Phillips' Sun Records in 1953). Perkins learned to play piano by listening to Smith's old records, and his association with "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" earned him his nickname.
Perkins moved to Illinois and left the music business for a number of years before he rejoined Hooker, backing the guitarist on an Arhoolie Records album in 1968. Near the end of the decade, he joined Muddy Waters' band after Otis Spann left in 1969. He backed Waters for ten years before forming the Legendary Blues Band with Waters drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith in the late 70's, and they played together through the early 90's, recording several albums for Rounder Records.
Prior to Perkins' association with the Legendary Blues Band, the piano man had released an album for the French Black & Blue label in 1976 and these superb four tracks for Living Chicago Blues in 1978...a terrific cover of Willie Love's "Take It Easy, Baby," Avery Parrish's slow burning "Blues After Hours," Memphis Slim's "Little Angel Child," and J.B. Lenoir's boisterous "How Much More Long."
Perkins' amiable vocals and nimble keyboards are backed by a fine band of Waters alumni - Sammy Lawhorn and Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson on guitars, Calvin Jones on bass, and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on drums.
In 1980, Perkins, Smith, Jones, and Johnson (with guitarist Bob Margolin and harmonica player Jerry Portnoy) quit Waters' band over a salary dispute and all except Margolin and Johnson formed The Legendary Blues Band. Perkins eventually became a solo artist and recorded multiple albums over the next 25 years, remaining active until his death in March of 2011 at the age of 97.
So there you have Volume 2 of Living Chicago Blues. Three of the four artists featured on this set went on to have lucrative recording and performing careers....sadly Walker's subsequent health issues rendered him unable to capitalize like the others. Looking back, it's hard to imagine that prior to this volume's release, Lonnie Brooks, Magic Slim, and Pinetop Perkins would have had to have been considered underrecorded. Thanks to this release, their fortunes changed. Stay tuned for a future post looking at the third volume of this indispensible series.
