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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Louisiana Red wins big at the Blues Music Awards
Louisiana Red wins big at the Blues Music Awards
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waltertore
514 posts
May 07, 2010
11:30 AM
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I am so happy for Red I just got to write it out _ Way to go RED!!!!!!!! He sure has come a long way from when I lived with him in Long Island. There were no gigs to be had for him and we would jam around the clock. Life sure can suprise you if you keep living! Walter
2010 Blues Music Award Winners:
Acoustic Album of the Year
David Maxwell & Louisiana Red - You Got to Move
Acoustic Artist of the Year
Louisiana Red
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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"
2,000 of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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barbequebob
796 posts
May 07, 2010
12:15 PM
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Amen to that!! It's also why Red lives in Germany rather than in the USA, as he is constantly gigging out there are more than he ever did the US.
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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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waltertore
516 posts
May 07, 2010
12:29 PM
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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.
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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"
2,000 of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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Nastyolddog
678 posts
May 08, 2010
7:57 PM
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Yo Waltor Bro your personality intrigues me,
What year was it that you lived with Louisiana Red?
from what i read RED relocated to Germany in
1982 you say you caught up with him five years later.??????
your storys have stired the Machanical side of me there is a 22 year age gap????????
Last Edited by on May 08, 2010 7:58 PM
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waltertore
530 posts
May 09, 2010
5:43 AM
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Nastyolddog: Dates and not my strongest point. Red was born in 1932 and me in 1957. So there is a 25 year difference in our ages.
here is a basic timeline thanks to the internet for letting me search dates!
late 70's met him, he offered me to come by his house and hang out. I took him up on it and spent days and weeks sleeping on his couch. During this time Eric Burdon came by his house to ask him to play some dates on his firehouse tour. Eric had me buy him a bag of qualudes for his short visit. The net is great for putting dates on things. Here is an excerpt from eric burdons wikipedia entry:
"In March 1979 he played a concert in Cologne and changed the band's name to "Eric Burdon's Fire Department", whose lineup included backing vocalist Jackie Carter of Silver Convention, Bertram Engel of Udo Lindenbergs "Panik Orchester" and Jean-Jaques Kravetz. In mid 1980 they recorded the album The Last Drive. "Eric Burdon's Fire Department" toured Europe with this lineup and Paul Millins and Louisiana Red made special appearances in Spain and Italy."
Red soon left for Germany under the management of Rolf Shubert. Rolf set him up living with Champion Jack Dupree (that is how I got to play with Jack when he came stateside for the first time in something like 30 years). Shubert got him lots of gigs, exposure, recording deals. He also didn't pay him much and used bands to back him that were not paid. They usually stunk. Red sounded pretty bad in a lot of those days due to this. He wanted me and my band to back him and when I met with shubert, he refused to pay us anything more than room and board. I said no way and just would sit in with red whenever our paths crossed in Europe. He then married Dora and she took over watching over Red. This was a great move for his career. He doesn't know how to say no to jammers. Often his gigs would end up with 5 guitar players shredding notes. Dora clamped down on all that and his career continues to flourish with new management.
Here is a picture from about 1983 when I played the banana peel with Red
I caught up to him when I moved to Belguim. On the above photo of dates we both played the banana peel seperately. I had played there with him at least a year or two earlier. I just pulled out an lp I recorded in brussels that is dated 1984. I know the record was recorded in late 83 and took till 84 to get it out.
back stateside- summer 2005- this is when I reconnected with Red in Oregon as he was coming down the coast to play SF and I was going north to play seattle. the picture in the above post of us is from then. I haven't seen him since then, but mutual friends keep us updated. Walter
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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"
2,000 of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on May 09, 2010 5:43 AM
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barbequebob
805 posts
May 09, 2010
1:42 PM
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I had a blast whenever I played with Red. The man's the real deal. Back in 1994, when I worked with him for part of a tour subbing for Carey Bell, he often would tell me that even if I wanted to not be a front person, I could still gig on an off night in Europe back then for more money than what most bands were making for an entire night just by myself (that being $300-500 a night back then), but I never pulled the trigger on doing that. For a number of years, Sugar Blue stayed in Europe for a very similar reason and as luck would have it, once he did that famous session with the Rolling Stones, things changed for him in the US.
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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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waltertore
535 posts
May 09, 2010
2:23 PM
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Bob: I moved to europe on Red's urging. We stayed in touch via mail and he told me such things. I lived there 2.5 years and it was some of the best musical times I have had. Many of the clubs are (were) government funded and only opened for shows. If they made money or not was not that big a concern. I would average 3-500 a night in belguim. Scandinavia was closer to a grand and this was back in the early -mid 80's when the dollar was stronger.
We lived a life of lesiure. The rent on our brownstone in downtown brussels was cheap. We shopped at the corner markets, rode the trains to most gigs, ate out every meal, and had more money at the end of the month than I ever did stateside. We only left because we didn't have permits for living/playing. I am a good talker and I talked my way out of a lot of potential trouble at border crossings. This was before all this terrorist crap started. Things were pretty loose and we never had much trouble. Only once, when we were coming back from a week of dates in Holland did I get worried. My drummer, a native Belgian who spoke only french (and I only english), like the hash over there. I told him not to bring any in the vehicle. When we hit the border, they stopped us. He started frantically going through his bags as I was slowing down and came out with a softball size piece of hash. I told him if we went to prision my only thoughts would be killing him. Luckily I told the border cop that we were hurrying to catch a plane back home to NYC. He said go and get out of his country. Luther Tucker got deported while were there. He lived around the corner. It got scary because there were a couple musicians that were jelous of my success and threatened me, when they were drunk, to call the gendarmes on me (police). I got a spot on a documentary called the roots of rock and roll. It made me fairly reconizable in belguim. Then one day 2 cops, with big dogs, full length black leather coats and uzi machine guns came knocking on our door. We didn't answer and booked tickets back home. Who knows what they wanted, but we didn't want to find out.
One night after playing with Red we went back to our apt. I woke up the butcher on the corner and had him cut us some ribs. They never did that over there but once I gave him some slow smoked ones, he insisted on giving me them to me whenever I wanted. We fired up the smoker around midnight and played. the butcher and his wife came by and a few cops stopped by too. That kind of scared me, but they loved the music. We ate ribs and had a blast.
I was treated with a lot of respect overseas. When we got off the plane at NYC, I was ready to take up where I left off in Europe. Was I wrong! Nobody would book me except Freddie "the German" Cowboy. He owned the Hillside Inn in NJ and was a big radio dj on the country station in NYC. He owned this big converted bowling alley that hosted big country acts. He dug what I did. Other than him, NYC clubs wouldn't give me the time of day and my NJ club connections had disapeared. So, I went from playing gigs at the brussels jazz club to kings, queens, dukes, dutchesses, to cutting grass. We saved up enough money to get us to austin. That was a real good move! Walter
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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"
2,000 of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on May 09, 2010 2:32 PM
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Hobostubs Ashlock
757 posts
May 09, 2010
6:51 PM
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wow cool story Walter,i cant wait for the book,You do look more at peace, now in your face,you had a mean dont mess with the kid look on your younger face:-)but the older the dog the harder they bite.
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waltertore
539 posts
May 10, 2010
5:59 AM
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Thanks Hobostubs. I was trying to be a tough guy when I was younger. My area of growing up and playing in mostly black blues clubs/navigating those neighborhoods alone, sort of got me that way. Those clubs were in bad neighborhoods and often I was the only white face for miles. It led to some brushes with trouble I prefer to forget. I am really a softie. Real deep trouble never really came too close to me and it continues that way today. I enjoy having a happy spirit vs. an angry one. Walter
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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"
2,000 of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on May 10, 2010 6:07 AM
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