walterharp
1482 posts
Aug 15, 2014
11:23 AM
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Hey all,
My close friend Wayne Goins has just published a biography titled “Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers story”.
It is a deeply researched volume on Jimmy Rogers, who with Muddy Waters and Little Walter defined the Chicago blues sound. The book has an intro written by Kim Wilson and endorsements from Taj Mahal, Charlie Musselwhite and Dick Shurman among others. Adam Gussow liked and commented on an earlier draft helping push the project forward and our own BBQ Bob was interviewed for this as well as many other musicians who played with Rogers over the years.
If you are into blues scholarship and history, this is a must have addition to your collection.
The link to the University of Illinois site is here
The Jimmy Rogers story
And of course it is available on Amazon and elsewhere.
If any of you happen to be near Manhattan Kansas, on Sept 11th, there will be a release party in the Kansas State University Library from 5-7pm. In the process of getting material for the book, Wayne discovered somebody had bought all of Rogers’ stuff from the family and had it in a storage unit in Reno. He negotiated for the University library to purchase all the stuff and they are putting up a curated display of the photos, old records, letters and other things from the large number of personal mementos in this Rogers collection. There will also be a short tribute show… Wayne started his guitar career in Chicago playing blues as a teenager (his dad used to hang out with Little Walter) before he branched out to jazz and can bring it when playing the blues.
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Frank
5144 posts
Aug 15, 2014
1:31 PM
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I remember when first got hip to Jimmy Rogers catalog of music...I loved each and every song that I heard form him, Awesome music he made - a book about him will be a great read for sure....thank you for the heads up Walter :)
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walterharp
1486 posts
Aug 20, 2014
10:36 AM
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too add a couple things to this.. if you want that blues groove idea, listen to Rogers and how he plays rhythm guitar on those chess recordings. He is the one who taught Little Walter groove and time.
Also, working on the Rogers tunes for the short tribute concert, it is really rough to play that music and stay true to the tradition... funk and rock stuff creeps in that does not belong. Kim Wilson is pretty amazing how he does that traditional thing, the more I play the more I realize! Also following along with the thought process of Little Walter is difficult at times as many of you know!
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barbequebob
2688 posts
Aug 20, 2014
11:29 AM
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Walterharp, unless you surround yourself with musicians who truly understand it and can play it well plus spend time hanging with them and assimilating as much as possible from them, it'll always be difficult to learn and rockers rarely ever play behind the beat and the stuff Muddy, Walter and Jimmy played, you have to play FAR behind the beat and I can count on one hand the number of rockers I've met in my lifetime who could pull that off without royally screwing the groove up.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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kudzurunner
4882 posts
Aug 20, 2014
12:06 PM
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It's an incredible book. It does in its own way what CADILLAC RECORDS does in a slightly different way: it puts you in the shoes of Muddy and Jimmy as they arrive in Chicago from Mississippi: two young guys on the make, hungry to birth the new music they've got banging around in their heads, rehearsing nonstop in their apartment, and then tumbling onto the street, heading down to Maxwell Street, and kicking ass as the tips pour in. He shows you the romance and the musical seriousness. I lived a very different, NYC-based version of this same romance with a couple of different guitarists, and it was a revelation to realize that two Chicago legends, before they were legends, were just wild and serious young musicians determined to perfect their sound and broadcast it to the world. I was amazed at how many new shades Wayne added to the story, evan as he captured that deep and powerful impulse. He interviewed a lot of people--white musicians, too, from the early days as well as later days--and he takes you through every phase of Rogers's story, from first to last. He evokes Chicago's tumultuous racial dynamics without ever making race more of the point of the story than it needs to be. This is a book about MUSICIANS, pure and simple. You won't be able to put the book down.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Aug 20, 2014 12:08 PM
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JTThirty
249 posts
Aug 20, 2014
12:22 PM
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Sounds like a must have to me. Order placed.
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Ricky B
http://www.bushdogblues.blogspot.com
RIVER BOTTOM BLUES--crime novel for blues fans available at Amazon/B&N and my blog
THE DEVIL'S BLUES--ditto
HOWLING MOUNTAIN BLUES--due out early 2015
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MP
3255 posts
Aug 20, 2014
12:57 PM
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LOVE JIMMY ROGERS!!!
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Affordable Reed Replacement
Marks Harmonica Tune-up
Click user name MP for contact info
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walterharp
1487 posts
Aug 20, 2014
12:58 PM
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I liked the bits where they were the Headcutters (Headhunters) and going in and taking over gigs on nights when they did not have their own, and when they had to send guys down to Maxwell street to drag Little Walter off so they did not violate union rules and get fined while they were recording for Chess
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Tweedaddict
157 posts
Aug 20, 2014
6:38 PM
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NICE
Thanks guys!
I will order it asap.
I only got to see him once...
That was back in my native New Zealand on June 23 1994.
HELLUVA good gig that night in my opinion...
BTW - moderators? why is there always a blank LINE before my posts... I don't hit the enter key b4 I start typing...?
Last Edited by Tweedaddict on Aug 20, 2014 6:39 PM
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WinslowYerxa
701 posts
Aug 21, 2014
12:27 PM
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You only see that blank line on your own posts,and then only when you're logged in.
It's not actually a blank line. In the upper right corner, ant the end of that otherwise blank space is the word"Edit" which you can click on to go back and edit what you wrote after you've already posted it, like I'm doing right now
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Winslow
SPAH connects the world of harmonica
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
Last Edited by WinslowYerxa on Aug 21, 2014 12:28 PM
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WinslowYerxa
702 posts
Aug 21, 2014
12:31 PM
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I remember reading a long interview with Rogers in Living Blues circa 1974. He was very articulate, and had a lot to say about how the Chess Brothers operated in relation to artists - again Cadillac Records does some of that and may have been drawing on that interview in part.
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Winslow
SPAH connects the world of harmonica
Deepen your playing at the Harmonica Collective
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SuperBee
2167 posts
Aug 21, 2014
3:56 PM
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they just sold another copy. Thanks for the heads up. I reckon my local bookseller will order a couple for the shelf too
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Frank
5211 posts
Sep 03, 2014
4:22 PM
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Anyone read this book, any good?
Chicago Blues: Portraits and Stories (Music in American Life) David G. Whiteis (Author)
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walterharp
1523 posts
Oct 07, 2014
9:49 AM
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here is the clip from the show...
also word is his daughter is planning to donate "ludella" his guitar to the KSU library collection..
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SuperBee
2216 posts
Oct 07, 2014
2:00 PM
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I'm about halfway into 'blues all day long'.
I'm very happy to have the book. I appreciate the work which has gone into it, and I understand it probably has a relatively small potential market. I don't expect Wayne expects to make his fortune from sales...
I've read Robert Gordon's biography of Muddy Waters, which covers some of the same ground particularly relating to the headhunters/cutters and the recording sessions/relationship with chess. Interesting to read some different perspective on this, although I found blues all day long was not easy to read throughout this section. The lack of editing on the one hand allows the reader an insight into the way popular history is often written; i.e. that the editorial process often involves choice about presentation which presents a particular view at the expense of another. In that way, it's rather nice to see the transparency in this book. But at the same time, the many redundancies, non-sequitur paragraphs and dead-end tangents are quite distracting.
Still, it's an interesting insight into just how challenging and time consuming it is to create such a book, and probably led me to a greater appreciation of the work which has gone into it.
Now that I'm reading the section dealing with Jimmy's return to playing music in the late 60s, I'm finding it much easier going.
And overall, I'm very happy to have this book. A very worthwhile exercise and my hat is off to the author. Thank you for this book.
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Michael Rubin
980 posts
Oct 08, 2014
7:00 AM
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I've ordered it. One book is ahead of it in line and I read incredibly slowly. Just finished Charles Mingus' autobiography Beneath the Underdog. Now THAT is an incredible book.
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Little roger
25 posts
Oct 08, 2014
7:19 AM
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I am about half way through and am thoroughly enjoying it. Very well researched and presented. I always listen to the tracks as they come up and have picked up on several things that I have never heard in certain numbers before. I didn't realise I owned a track where Jimmy plays harp himself but I do!
Very interesting and highly recommended.
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walterharp
1524 posts
Oct 08, 2014
10:15 AM
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Yes, Wayne has elected for the scholarly approach rather than trying to dig up dirt and sensationalize. This is why Jimmy Rogers' family trusted him and worked with him on this. I talked to his daughter at length about this, as she was gracious enough to come down and see the book release. She talked about going on some of his last tours of his and how it all seemed normal to jet off to japan to see dad play. Wayne's intent is not to make money here, but to truly document what happened. That can make for a slower read, and lots of detail, but in the end it should make for a more lasting contribution.
If you guys get a chance to throw up a review on Amazon, I am sure Wayne would appreciate it.
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walterharp
1660 posts
Aug 06, 2015
7:35 AM
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The book won readers poll best blues book of the year!
https://livingblues.com/2015-living-blues-awards/#comment-1039
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marine1896
308 posts
Aug 07, 2015
6:11 AM
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Great book one that you will easily read again.
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"Those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do"
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Owen Evans
74 posts
Aug 07, 2015
10:11 AM
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Best book that I read this year and I'm still chasing some of the albums described in it.
Luckily, I found a perfect 1990 - CD copy of "Ludella" from Antones - ANTOO12
Hands down it is the best album I bought this year. It has the following musicians joining Mr. Rogers:
Kim Wilson; Pinetop Perkins; Hubert Sumlin; Bob Strogher;Ted Harvey; Derek O'Brien and Bill Campbell
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