yea barbequebob is practically a elder himself sounds like,And thats nothing to say about your age,Im so impressed i feel weird saying how weird i feel saying it.:-) great stories thanks for sharing
"With diminishing live opportunities, what is the adaptation that will supplant the "sitting in with elders"?"
this right here is the adaptation. We have the opportunity to communicate with one another over great distances. We can search any song and find it instantly online. We can use software to slow things down (And remain in tune) and try to dissect it.
I think following around, being mentored, having the info passed down -- that's all beautiful, it's how things were done and how some of the best learned.
Sure, we can't go up to people like Jason and ask to follow him around or live with him for a while. But I don't mind that. We have something better. We can be sitting in the comfort of our home and communicate with the best players of our generation.
This forum is the blues. We come here everyday. We read. We debate. We talk. We share stories. we post videos and listen to each other play. Isn't that what you would do with an old mentor?
"BOB, OT. you ever use volume controls? my volume control is just playing softer."
@MP: The mic I mainly use is a crystal JT30 with the Piazza mod, which is basically if you have the newer types with the XLR connector, retrofitted with the old screw on connector, with a set screw to steady it, placed in the spot where they have the volume knob is presently, and using a 5meg pot (the correct pot value for a crystal or ceramic cartrdge) and a low value cap so that when the pot is rolled down, the mids and highs stay the same as if it pot is all the way open.
What I mainly use it for is that knowing crystals have a tendency to be affected by body heat and room temperature, and when either of those two rises, the output of the volume and also the mids and lower high s tend to drop, and what I do is set the pot on the mic at 3/4 of the way up and then set the volume on the amp, so once this occurs, I'll open the pot more.
In situations where even a low powered amp like a Pro Junior may be too loud in some instances, I can lower the pot without losing the mids and lower highs at any volume, but everything else is controled by sheer breath control.
I used to see BW do all sorts of things just by manipulating the volume control so that it almost acts like a wah-wah with your hands.
BTW, MP. Which Smokey Smothers did you mean because tere were two of them, both brothers, and one was known as Big Smokey, who recorded on King Records in the early 60's, and then there's Little Smokey, who played for a time with Jimmy Rogers and was Paul Butterfield's guitarist before Paul got recorded for Elektra, where they had Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield in the deal??
@Oda: The videos you see on the internet are nice, but it will never truly take the place of one on one contact and there's always tons of things that players aren't gonna necessarily make public. Some of the software available I would've loved to have available back then, but even with recordings, nothing takes the place of true person to person contact.
I'm gonna take a bit of a break from these and later give a little more on some of those older players I met and/or gigged with.
In the intenet sham thread from Walter Tore, there's one thing I do agree with him with when it comes to many of the old guys like Louisiana Red, Jimmy Rogers, and Luther Guitar Junior Johnson is that they NEVER used a set list at all. Jimmy would show your his fretboard and the position of his fingers on it and if you play guitar, as I also do, you can see the key, and Luther wouldn't even do that, but after a day or two, I'd see certain patterns happening in certain keys, so calling keys out wasn't necessary, but it also means as a player, you gotta do your homework on the artist you're working with and most players often are too lazy to do that and need everything spoon fed to them. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Apr 27, 2010 3:00 PM
Nice stories. I got a bunch, mostly hanging out and shooting the shit with blues great but only one I consider personal. A few years back, my buddy Harmonica Todd, brought me over to SP Leary's house in Chicago. SP was pretty sick at the time, but was still gigging with Barrelhouse Chuck. It turned out we had some mutual friends in common and we spent a nice afternoon drinking coffee. SP's wife Annette was so sweet and SP delighted in showing us his scrapebook with old clippings,posters and photos. Lot of fun.
I haven't had the time to write any. I will have to look on the blindmans blues forum. I posted lots of stories of playing, living with, and touring with the old blues men. I hate to type. That is why I put them to songs at the begining of this thread.
A quick one- Lightning Hopkins had a wicked vibe live. His energy is not conveyed via a video. I have watched just about everyone on youtube. Some are better than others, but they just take me to the time I spent with him. Being onstage with him was even at another level than being in the audience. these things can not be found in a video. Go find a blues player that inspires you if you want to really know what I am talking about. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " No one can control anyone, but anyone can let someone control them"
SP, who was sometimes called Kelly, was one of the all time best blues drummers, but he had some major drinking problems. The first time I ever got to see Howlin' Wolf in 1973, he was the drummer and in between tunes when Wolf was talking to the crowd, hw would sometimes say some really stupid stuff and the face Wolf made to him was enough to scare anyone to death, including me. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
quick one on Roy Buchanan. I got to be good friends with Roy over the years. He told me about his meeting with Jimi Hendrix. Some guys came in where he was playing and said there was a guy down the street playing so loud he was getting fired for it. They said he was a hot player too. Roy said anybody can play loud and never went to the club. Hendrix came up to where he was playing and studied him many a night. That is how they met. Jimi must have been playing really loud (I never did see him live) because Roy was one loud player himself. Roy also prefered to cut hair and hang out an talk vs. touring. I also heard from my good friend Evan Johns (the last of the tele guys from the DC area) that Roy was hung by the police. He was always getting loaded and rude and physical with the local cops. They got tired of it. May he rest in peace. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " No one can control anyone, but anyone can let someone control them"
quick one on Roy Buchanan. I got to be good friends with Roy over the years. He told me about his meeting with Jimi Hendrix. Some guys came in where he was playing and said there was a guy down the street playing so loud he was getting fired for it. They said he was a hot player too. Roy said anybody can play loud and never went to the club. Hendrix came up to where he was playing and studied him many a night. That is how they met. Jimi must have been playing really loud (I never did see him live) because Roy was one loud player himself. Roy also prefered to cut hair and hang out an talk vs. touring. I also heard from my good friend Evan Johns (the last of the tele guys from the DC area) that Roy was hung by the police. He was always getting loaded and rude and physical with the local cops. They got tired of it. May he rest in peace. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " No one can control anyone, but anyone can let someone control them"
The most obvious would be Jason Ricci. I was a newspaper reporter, he was in town, I was doing a story on him, then whenever he was in the state, we'd get together and hang out. Jason Ricci taught me how to overblow. What he REALLY taught me, and I think this is Jason's magic - the hands, how he moves his hands to vary tone and volume is like Jack Dempsey footwork. You don't see it as much when he's on stage with all the fancy pedals and whatnot, but when he's sitting around just vamping, not holding a mic or anything,those hands are worth a million pedals.
Something comes to mind after reading y'all posts... who says these elders have to be famous, or tour? Look at the old musicians around you. Doesn't matter what instrument they play, you can learn.
I think about guys like my grandpa and Bill Duncan (grandpa played with him back in the 1950s). Bill fronted the Harmony Mountain Boys and was a member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. Bill Duncan's "Slipping Banjo" is something of a bluegrass standard. Bill Duncan and grandpa were equally talented musicians.(story on Bill http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/501346.html)
I learned a hell of a lot about blues from my grandpa, who was a bluegrass player. He could hit flatted fives in this crazy way that it seemed he could stop time and twirl it around his finger.
Then there's John Williams. Not the guy who wrote the Star Wars music, another John Williams. I went to his wake today. In his coffin, he had a harmonica in his hands. Nobody's heard of him, but a hell of a lot of people have been inspired by and learned music from him.
I don't know if this falls into the elders category, since he's only a few years older than me, but guitarist/singer Irving Louis Lattin is somebody I wrote about in JOURNEYMAN'S ROAD and he's still one of my favorite artists. He's one of the guys I used to play occasional gigs with back in NYC. Maybe once a year. He's a Chicago guy who ended up in NYC in the mid-1980s and who I saw busking in the subways--the 116th st. station by Columbia--right around the time I started playing with Mr. Satan. He and I still remember the day I first saw him busking, because a couple of days later he was walking through his new home of Harlem and saw ME playing on 125th Street. Later he became part of the Dan Lynch scene.
He's from the Keb' Mo' school of blues, with a twist. He has legitimate Chicago blues credentials, but he came to NYC hoping to make is as a pop artist. That didn't work out, so he ended up working the blues scene. But he still has the pop sweetness in his R&B voice.....
This is what happend on there Birthday 1951, October 3,
The New York Giants captured the National League pennant in game three by a score of 5-to-4 as third baseman Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer off the Brooklyn Dodgers' Ralph Branca in the "shot heard 'round the world.
Allso the great Flue Epidemic spread in October 1951:)
thats trivia my Boy:)
Last Edited by on Apr 29, 2010 4:31 AM
My younger brother was going to college, playing guitar and working in a record store in 1979. One day after lunch, four guys came in, odd-looking enough that he kinda kept an eye on them till he saw that they were just cruising around, checking out the stock innocently. One of them came over to the counter and chatted him up, asking if he'd heard of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. My brother said, "Yeah, we got their new record over there, you'd think they were black if you didn't see their pictures on the cover, their harp player's incredible, sings great, writes good songs, and their guitar player's this guy named Jimmie Vaughan who used to play all that Cream and Hendrix stuff note for note, only guy in the state who could do that, but now he leaves all that out and just . . . and just . . . ," belatedly realizing that the guy in sunglasses he was talking to was, in fact, the guy he was talking about.
Jimmie laughed and said, "Aw, man, I feel bad about doing that to you, you're doin' exactly what we need you guys in the stores to do. What's your name? Bring a friend to our show tonight, you'll be on the guest list."
My bro did the smart thing and took a date, not his sibling, who was still a few years away from picking up the harmonica. By their fourth record, in 1984, his boss was good enough friends with the band's manager that he detailed my brother to chauffeur the band around town to their in-stores, errands, etc. So my brother took the opportunity to ask if Kim Wilson had any advice for me, the novice blues harp player. Kim said, "Yeah, tell him to work on his phrasing."
And left it at that.
The next day, Kim was indisposed and had to pass on the in-store appearances. Somebody else in the band said what a relief it was not to have him playing harp in the car. My brother asked if Kim did that much, and their drummer Fran Christina said, "The man never walks without one."
I was actually relieved that Kim wasn't at the in-store that day, because I was scared to death he'd ask me to play something on the harp. At that time I didn't know what phrasing was, and was using only (1980s) Marine Bands to learn on, and wound up giving up for a few years. Once I did get over the hump, I eventually realized how much of the way Kim Wilson became Kim Wilson was contained in those two short sentences.
Dunno if those are great stories, but harpdude61's gig report reminded me of them--
This is a great thread. I'm reading Mr. Satan's Apprentice right now. Hearing the stories from Bob and Walter and Adam are awesome.
It reminds me of sitting around the fire in the summer when I was a boy and my "granddad" (didn't know my real granddad but "Red" was a family friend who was my "surrogate granddad") and his friends would tell stories about their experiences in WWII. Me and my buddy would sit there all night long tending to the fire and shagging beers from the cooler for them just to keep them talking. I miss Red.
I can only number two brushes with the elders of which I have written about in other threads so I won't repeat myself other than to say that the first was meeting James Cotton a year ago and then meeting Mr. Sterling McGee along with Adam last summer. Zach and I had the honor of sitting with Mr. Satan while Adam played his OMB portion of the show. I have share my observations of that with Adam via PM. I'll just say it was a moving, personal and special experience.
---------- "Take out your false teeth, momma, I want to suck on your gums."-P. Wolf
jaymcc28: I am glad you are enjoying the reflections. The experience you had with Sterling is what I am talking about when I say that one has to get with a master to really move to the true art of the music. You will learn more from spending time with a master than you comprehend at the time and I am not talking about him showing you things. They rarely did that. It was their energy, presence, life, that you get with in the flesh meetings. To do it without such encounters leaves the main piece of the art out of the equation if you want to become a master of an art. Anyone can be taught to play notes, scales, riffs, songs, tones. Look on this forum. There are a lot of guys that have a year or a few under their belts and sound good. But they still lack that depth that steps beyond imitation and moves to having your own sound. This process takes a lifetime and meetings with masters along the way is a must.
I continue to have insights into meetings, gigs, etc, I did with the greats from over 30 years ago. I have a ton of stories, but to reflect on them has to happen at the right time. I go back to that time. That is a mixed bag of emotions. I prefer to let them come out in my songs. I do have a book in the works. It has been a 7 year affair with an author from england. We are close to publishing I think? These things have a mind of their own it seems.
Another quick reflection- I remember playing a gig with cool papa (haskel sadler). He is one of those little known great bluesmen. He would regularly play an entire set on the bass strings of his guitar. Then out of nowhere he would ignite, start shaking, and tear up the high end of that triple pick up sg he played. That always tore the crowd up. His son, Haskel junior was a great dancer. He would add a great dimension to the music dancing all night to the beats. Cool papa also taught me to use vaseline on my old shoes to give them a shinny look onstage. He was a big mentor in my life, encouraging me to play guitar in the band. He would just walk off the stage and hand me his guitar, sit down at the front table and cheer me on more than anyone in the club. I learned to hold back from him. It isn't really holding back, bad choice of words. He taught me to not push anything until the mood struck. Just wailing on things is a waste of time he would say. He could work the bass strings like no one else and still have the joint jumping. He toured with guys like t bone walker, lowell fulsom, and other of that smooth jump sound.
He would also play a trick on wise guy harp players. If they wanted to jam and were disrespectfull, he would have them put their harps up on a table onstage on the break. Then he would sneak up and steal the harp he was going to play the song in. It was funny to watch these guys going over and over their harps looking for the right key when the band kicked in and papa called the key. Back then everyone did either straight harp - key on key, or cross harp. He then would produce the harp from his pocket, give it to the guy and say he is welcome to play a song if he shows a little more respect. Walter
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " No one can control anyone, but anyone can let someone control them"
htownfess: Living in austin for 11 years (during the T birds rise to fame) I too had a lot of encounters with them. After gigs were done, a bunch of us musicians would meet in the austin opera house parkig lot. Most of us were into cars. It was kind of an informal car club gathering of musicians. Jimmie was into custom hot rods. Charlie Sexton too. Keith Ferguson walked barefoot. He didn't drive. I had a 63 cadillac park ave model that was featured in dwight yokums video - guitars, caddilacs song. It paid my rent for the month! Kim would pull up in his restored vw bug. That was so out of character for the "bluesman". He is a california boy and they love them bugs out there.
A funny story with the t-birds- they had just got the big hit with tough enough and were touring like mad. We crossed at the austin airport and were both going to OK City. THey to the big arena and us to a wedding reception. Some guy saw me playing at the black cat lounge in austin and asked me to play his wedding. I was not into a drive to OK city for one gig, so gave a crazy price of 8 grand and first class plane tickets, PA , amps, drums, provided, and airport pick up. He didn't bat an eye (I almost fell over!). So here we are in the airport and the t-birds get on regular class and we go to first class. We all laughed about how a private gig will often pay more than a hit record will. We said goodbye at the OK City airport, left in a limo to the country club where the reception was. We get there and Jimmy Carl Black (frank zappa and the mothers original drummer) says to me "walter where are the drums?" There in a corner was a peavey solid state practice amp! Long story short, the guy hired to do the sound came through but only after I sat and played a set of solo instrumental guitar. I was sweating bullets figuring the guy would not pay and I was ready to kill the soundman hired to supply the gear. We did another set with the bass and drums. Afterwards the old people came up to me and said it was a perfect show. The first set let the old folks socialize and the second the young ones got to dance. I breathed a sigh of relief when he handed me 8k in cash. To date it is my highest paid gig and also the one that almost gave me a heart attack.
One more quick one on BIg Jay Mc Neely_ I was living in Brussels and he came through the brussels jazz club on the grand place. I got to hang out with him for the day because the owner, madame Linda, took a liking to me and had me play the club regularly. Jay had just come from france where they had spray painted his horn some orange like color so it would appear only the horn was moving around. This was for a tv special. The paint was still on it and he was pissed because they said it would wipe right off. I helped out with the sound check and he wanted a coffee. We went across the street and he got into all kinds of conversations with the locals. He was in no hurry to get back for the show. We barely made it. Jay tore up the place with those wicked horn lines and his gyrations in front of the ladies in the audience. He taught me a ton about showmanship, and the art of being a real musician. Walter
Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " No one can control anyone, but anyone can let someone control them"
The first time I got to see the T-Birds was back in 1975, about 4 years before they were signed by Takoma, a label of John Fahey's, but with the parent company being Chrysalis Records, which had in it's roster, Blondie and Pat Benatar.
Having heard tons of stuff saying how good they are, like many pros, I don't impress easily and neither do I give out compliments easily and I wanted to see for myself.
It was at the Speakeasy in Cambridge, MA, and I see both Kim Wilson and Jimmy Vaughn both using two 4-10 Bassmans in series (back then, you could buy a tweed Bassman for $250-350 apiece), and Jimmy was using a cheapo Lafayette Echo Verb reverb unit with his Strat.
Those two hit the bandstand wearing 3 pice suits and their clothes wee spotlessly clean and neat as was the rest of the band, which was totally opposite of most white blues bands back then (who often looked really sloppy and kinda like someone just kicked their butts out of bed 5 minutes earlier), which was more like watching the way black music bands were, and black music bands hit the stage dressed to the nines, big time, and Kim had a goatee and wore a white wrap around turban, which white audiences usually never see (but more common with black bands at the time, and in the 50's, there was a doowop group called The Turbans and they always wore them on stage and an old 50's R&B singer, Chuck Willis, who had a big hit "Feel So Bad" had 54 of them.
White blues bands at the time NEVER dressed like that at all, taking most of their cues from rock bands of the day.
First tune in, Kim gets into George Harmonica Smith's cover of a 50's TV show theme called "Hawaiian Eye" on chromatic, playing it straight up George Smith style, who as I found from talking with him, was his teacher (and he was also teacher to Rod Piazza and William Clarke as well).
Now most white bands did the usual Muddy, Wolf, LW, SBW things (almost to death, often not very good), plus almost standard as warm up tunes like Chicken Shack, and two tunes by Bill Doggett called Hold It (the tune Muddy often left the bandstand on) and Honky Tonk Parts I & II.
They not could do that stuff, but they were playing it AND singing it with more of a REAL black blues groove feel (playing behind the beat and phrasing largely off the 2 and the 4), but they also played a lot of the Louisiana sound of guys like Slim Harpo, Lightnin' Slim, Lazy Lester, Arthur Gunther, which was stuff no one was doing in the North East at the time.
Having heard that they could get loud, I found that they weren't anywhere near as loud as the more heavily rock oriented blues bands, but they had something most white bands rarely could do and that was dynamics and playing fade outs like you'd hear on a recording, which completely blew me away, and at 98% of open jams, try doing that and you're asking for trouble.
Jimmy was a very understated player who left a lot of space, but was an incredible rhythm player, something that was missing in most white guitar players game big time, and this ability allowed him to sound more like there were two guitar players on the bandstand.
One time I saw them at Paul's Mall in Boston opening up for Muddy, which was an amazing show. Most of the time, when there was an opening act, you'd never see any of Muddy's band members see an opening act and just stay in the band room area, but not this time!
Other than Muddy relaxing in back, taking it all in with a smile, ALL of his band members had front row seats digging what they were doing, cheering louder than the rest of the crowd did, and I was sitting next to Jerry Portnoy, watching him look at Kim with his jaw hanging out of his mouth saying, "How the hell does he think of these things to play???"
I defintiely enjoyed what they were doing and I'm still friends with Kim and also Jerry to this day.
In 1988, I finally got some business cards printed up and when I went to see Luther Guitar Junior Johnson play at the long defunct Nightstage in Cambridge, MA, I gave him one of my cards (having known him since he was with Muddy).
A week later, I got a call from Luther to join his band and meet him where he was staying at the time in Dorchester, MA (Luther had moved to the Boston area when he left Muddy in 1980). Having seen him, I knew I would have to play differently in terms of rhythm and 'comping becausetho he was with Muddy, who did classic 50's South Side Chicago blues, Luther's sound was clearly the sound of West Side Chicago, where the guitar is definitely front and center, ala guys like Jimmy Dawkins, Otis Rush, and the sound Luther was closest to, Magic Sam and any of the LW/BW/Cotton kinda sound as far as backing him wasn't gonna fly and so I had to think more like a sax player along the lines of guys like AC Reed, Eddie Shaw, etc., and it was a good think that, unlike most harp players, I made damned sure I did my homework listening not just to his recordings, but his influences as well, and being prepared for things NOT to be like the record as well.
At his place, we went over about 5 tunes, and nothing more.
The tour started out in the province of Ontario in Canada, gigging 6 out of 7 nights in a row, in Kitchener, London, and Ottawa.
Luther often went straight into a tune and not even tell you what key it was in, which for many of you, it would scare you to death, but having worked with older bluesman, it was nothing new, but also having the advantage of playing guitar, I would watch where his hands were on the fret board, but within less than a day, I would see certain opening phrase patterns happening in certain keys and so the minute I heard it, I knew what I had to do from there.
Luther was along the lines of a classic old school black bandleader who was as whole on the strict side and wouldn't think twice of getting in your face quick when he heard something he didn't like, especially with drummers and bass players in that order, and everyone I know who worked with him had names for him like Lex Luthor, Gunther, and some others as a way to describe that.
One time, we played at a festival in Chattanooga, TN, where the headliner was country/rockabilly great Dwight Yokum, who I wanted to get the chance to see, but unfortunately, couldn't make it and so we wound up doing a second show to replace him.
I remember it being a heavily pouring rain and thank goodness we had an awning on the stage. We were hitting it hot and heavy and watching those people fill up the dance area going nuts dancing in the mud was more like when I had watch the Woodstock movie some years back.
After we finished our first show, the crowd waited for our second show, and once we got motoring along, they kept dancing in that mud full tilt and it was something that just blew me away seeing.
It was quite an experience going on the road in Canada with him because, being used to how musicians are too often treated is the US, more like a commodity, or a piece of meat, aka someting to draw in business, the Canadian crowds treated us like gold, so much that even tho we didn't have roadies, they often acted as roadies for us, going crazy just on the fact that they do anything for us at all, which for me, was sheer culture shock, just like seeing streets in Canada clean as a whistle, no litter, no cigarette butts on the ground, no broken bottles despite not having a bottle bill, and if you were from either Boston or New York, that alone was culture shock as well.
I'll have a few more things next time out. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Apr 30, 2010 1:35 PM
I was born and raised in Chicago. I had never heard of the Fabulous Thunderbirds until 1983. I heard a radio broadcast of one of their shows from the Park West auditorium. I remember thinking that they were really good, but at the time, I was going out every night.
I never really thought about going to see the T-Birds, because I was going out five nights a week seeing Junior Wells, Billy Branch, James Cotton, The Aces, Johnny Littlejohn, Sunnyland Slim, Big Smokey Smothers, Lefty Dizz, Johnny Dollar, Son Seals, Mark Hannon, Mighty Joe Young, Magic Slim and a zillion other guys.
Other than Sunnyland and Floyd Jones, I never really thought of most of those guys as old or elders. Some of them had been around in the 50's, but there were still people like Little Brother, Sunnyland and Arbee Stidham that were around in the 30's and 40's.
It was a weird time. Many of us thought it would last forever. It's weird to think that a lot of those guys are gone. In retrospect, I wish I had thought to take a camera along with me.
Last Edited by on Apr 30, 2010 4:51 PM
The one time I had a chance to gig with Sunnyland Slim was in 1977 at the Speakeasy in Cambridge, MA, and at the time, he was just doing a duet with himself and a drummer, but for this gig, the club owner (the only club owner I ever met who had to have his picture on all of his newspaper ads, and I'll leave it at that) wanted a fuller band, and so I was part of the band hired to fill in the rest.
Sunnyland was a terrific vocalist with sort of a semi-high pitched sort of voice (for a lack of a better description) and heck of a piano player, tho not with the kind of heavy duty left hand technique of guys who came from the Big Maceo Merriweather school of guys like Otis Spann and Elmore James' piano player Little Johnny Jones, who also, like Spann, learned from Big Maceo.
Without a single rehearsal and no set list, it was a killer night and after a few tunes, he would always in between, do this little thing with his voice that was kinda like the old Woody Woodpecker theme in kind of a laugh with it.
It was classic old school piano and a blast. Even tho he didn't have the super heavy duty left hand technique of a guy like Otis Spann, his still was pretty good (and when I look for piano players for blues, if he/she doesn't have a good, powerful left hand technique, forget it because that's useless to me).
Slim also acted for a time as a talent scout in the late 40's-early 50's for Chess (first when it was known as Aristocrat).
In 1978, Robert Jr. Lockwood came to Boston for the first time with his own band that had clearly a bit more of a jazz feel to it, tho he still did quite a few very low down, gut backet blues, very much influenced by his stepfather, Robert Johnson.
Along with Louis Myeers, Luther Tucker, and Eddie Taylor, or later generation players like Junior Watson, Jimmy Vaughn, or my ex-guitar player, Troy Gonyea, Robert was basically the textbook for guitar players on how to back up harmonica in a blues situation, especially for Chicago blues, and when I had a chance, I asked him how he liked playing behind harp players, and much to my amazement, he said, outside of Rice Miller (the 2nd SBW), he actually hated playing behind harp players for one reason and I quote "because their time tends to fucking suck!"
I know in spots in LW's recordings, LW did mess up the time on a session that produced "Shake Dancer" and his uptempo cover of Ella Johnson's "Just Your Fool," where I can hear Robert Jr hitting a lick on his guitar that pretty much said he got pissed off with Walter for screwing the time up on it.
My reaction to him saying it was kind of a surprise to hear it, but in a way, not really a shock because far too often, unfortunately, I've also found thast to be true.
Later that year, I spent a couple of weeks during the summer staying at my sister's house in Bronx, NYC, and went down to The Lone Star Cafe to catch a double bill of him together with Johnny Shines, with the headliner being Mighty Joe Young, who was one of the most versatile guitar players I've ever seen who could be so equally at home with down how gut bucket blues or the most modern and funky soul-blues you could get at a drop of a hat (I always loved his cover of the Bobby Rush classic "Chicken Heads").
While hanging out in the back room with all of them, in comes Tommy Tucker, who had a classic tune called "High Heeled Sneakers," which its groove is often played when people think of Jimmy Reed's classic "Big Boss Man," and use that tune as the groove, and hearing some of those stories about old times was something, and Tommy had mentioned that Johnny Winter was in the audience but just never bothered to stop by and say hit, which they clearly took offense to.
Mighty Joe's very modern show was quite a contrast to the down home sounds of the duet of Robert Jr Lockwood and Johnny Shines, that for sure.
One night in 1977 at the Speakeasy, James Cotton came by just to hang out and so I asked him if he wanted to sit in, and he said he didn't bring any harp s with him, so (unusually for me) I offered to let him use mine, and he did two tunes, and flat out proceeded to take me to school, not bothering to mess with tone controls or anything else, but he told me he like what I was doing that night. The rig I had at the time was the old JT30 with a screw on connector straight into a pre-CBS Super Reverb, which was a rig he had himself used at one time. A lot of players would spend time messing with the tone controls, but he didn't and just proceeded to kick my butt all over the place.
On the last tour I had done with Jimmy Rogers, we just picked Jimmy up at Logan Airport in Boston and we had some time to hang so we went over to the Speakeasy to hang and we ran into James Cotton, and so we went into Cotton's van, talking trash, getting high (that was the thing with damned near everybody back then), and then we went into the club to hang.
Jimmy began telling us this story about when he gigged a couple of years earlier with a band from Rhode Island and one Sunday afternoon, he, this drummer that used to be called "Foot" and his father went to this all you can eat restaurant special and told us that Foot and his father each had eaten literally 5 pounds of beef plus a ridiculously huge salad, not leaving anything on their plates, and Jimmy had been watching this in amazement (I don't even want to eat that much beef in a freaking month), and then they all paid their bill, and th erestaurant owner, who looked like the stereotypical Mafioso kind of a guy, told them "Don't you ever come in here ever again!!!!"
The way Jimmy had told this story, Cotton and I were just crying from laughing so hard and whenever I see Cotton and mention that story, he just loses it in laughter. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Thanks for indulging us Bob, I love these stories. Steve Freund has some hilarious Sunnyland stories. The late Paul Delay toured with Sunnyland for a time, I've just always loved Sunnyland's voice, haunting.
Otis Spann is also one of my favorite bluesmen, and is my favorite for blues piano, no question. I suppose you probably know Dave Maxwell? JD
Last Edited by on May 07, 2010 3:26 PM
Robert has said similar things about harp players for years. Robert was a musical genius and an icon in the formation and evolution of American music. He was an influence on a whole generation of musicians.
I miss Sunnyland. He was great. I used to see him a lot when he was playing Sundays and BLUES on Halsted. He was a very influential guy behind the scene. If Sunnyland hadn't been on the scene, the history of the Blues would be dramatically different.
Mighty Joe Young was a bad ass guitar player and a fantastic singer.
The last time I saw Mighty Joe Young, he was playing at Fitzgeralds in Berwyn, Illinois. There were a lot of musicians in the house. Little Brother Montgomery was there. He was in poor health and very old. Howard Levy was there, too. Joe brought both of them up for a couple of tunes.
Brother was very weak. He had to be escorted to the stage. It was one of his last performances prior to his death. It may have been his last. He still sounded pretty good.
Joe's son, Mighty Joe Young Jr, was active on the blues scene. He played with Koko Tayle for a while. He appeared at the Chicago Blues Festival in 2007. His vocal phrasing sounded a lot like his father's. He passed away about a year ago. He was a good guitar player, too.
JDH, I've known Dave Maxwell for many years. Great blues pianist, but also a heck of an avant garde jazz player as well.
The first time I ever saw Dave was when I first saw Big Walter, and he was part of the backup band, which was John Nicholas & The Rhythm Rockers back in 1975.
When I did a recording session in 1991 for MCA Records, which was for part of the soundtrack of the movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes," which starred Jessica Tandy and Kathleen Bates, the line up for that recording was myself on harp, Peter Wolf (yes, that one, the former J. Geils Band front man), Ronnie Earl on guitar, Dave Maxwell on piano, Mudcat Ward on bass, and Per Hansen on drums. We recorded two tunes, but did 5 takes of everything and they tweaked every track on every take, and the producer for the session was Arthur Baker). The one tune that was used on the movie was a cover of the Lightnin' Slim classic "Rooster Blues," and they only used the last 10 seconds on the movie in the accident scene, but the soundtrack and that tune was issued in its entirety on the soundtrack CD (tho it may be out of print).
At the 2005 Boston Blues Festival, me and Dave Maxwell backed up Louisiana Red for a set (just us three and no one else), which was a blast. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I loaned my tweed Super (knock off) to Kim Wilson at a T-Birds gig - and it sounded monstrous. Halfway through the set the stage was shaking so much, the amp fell of the chair and bounced across the stage. It played out the set just fine but died soon afterwards. After I put some new power tubes in it, it was fine like wine. (There's a vid of it on my Youtube page).
That's the only story I have that involves one of the great players. I have had a couple of informal lessons from Rick Estrin after gigs, just standing around chatting.
I posted this on the louisiana red thread but figured it would fit here:
that is what ended our living together. Eric Burdon came by the house and asked red to open a tour for him. He went and when he returned he was so excited he could hardly pack fast enough. Rolf Shubert managed him and put him up with champion jack dupree, got him lots of gigs, and he was respected. It was sad seeing him leave but I caught up with him about 5 years later when I moved over to belguim for the same reasons. We did a lot of festivals together and were even on a live lp by a band called the zoots. They asked us up to jam when they opened the show. We had no idea they were recording and a few months later I see this record in the stores - the zoots live at the banana peel featuring louisiana red and walter tore!
Red comes stateside during the summer months lately. Unless it is a big festival gig, the crowd is usually so small you can count them on one hand. I caught up to him about 5 years ago when he was coming down the west coast and I was going up to seattle for festivals and club gigs. He was in a small bar playing and I called and convinced the bartender to give red the phone. Red stopped playing and took the call onstage and we set up a get together. Here is a photo from that day. Maybe now the usa will wake up to the fact he is one of the last of the old school blues guys left. He is pushing 80 and stil has his sound! Walter
here is a photo of the wall at the banana peel in belguim. It still has live music going strong.
---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " No one can control anyone, but anyone can let someone control them"
