Girl sings the blues

Beth Hart has a nice set of pipes. This cover of Sam Cooke's Change is Gonna Come was recorded five years ago in Los Angeles.

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Woodstock... The voice that kicked it all off

RIP Richie Havens.

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Modern lungs

The more I hear, the better I like.

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The lungs and heart of a septuagenarian

RIP Janis

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The past is quickly fading

One of the most dynamic voices of my childhood has passed. RIP Patti...

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Early Rock & Roll and modern history

My good friend Valerie came up with this video, posting it on Facebook. It's an old YouTube from 1998. Several of my friends these days are younger and may never have heard either of the band or the song... but I do and I was surprised to learn what the video revealed. Utterly cool!

 

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Iz

 

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Jon Lord

It seems that the artists of my young life are dropping like flies. Today we lost another. Jon Lord playing with the hard rock band Deep Purple was one of the early pioneers of the psychedelic keyboard, morphing the style into the early roots of metal.

This video was recorded in 1970.

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Kitty Wells, dead at 92

The one true Queen of Country. I was a year old when this song hit the charts and it was still on the radio when I was old enough the sing along.

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Why I support PBS

Sitting here watching Frankie Laine, at age 90, performing on stage live. This is part of the pledge drive, and Mr. Laine came out of retirement for no other reason. That voice still reverberates.

This is why I support PBS.

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Music can teach lessons

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The showmen...

A little E Street break for Saturday morning...

Pay close attention to the lyrics.

"A big promise has been broken. You can't have a United States if you are telling some folks that they can't get on the train. There is a cracking point where a society collapses. You can't have a civilisation where something is factionalised like this."

And then, live from the Meadowlands... RIP Clarence



H/T Libby

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Ten years ago today

... the music world, indeed the whole world lost a pillar for peace... a genius for good. If you will forgive me, I'll take this moment to remember. He did better performance... far better... but this is the best I could do with You Tube. I guess much of what he did went unrecorded. This will have to do.









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Dave Van Ronk, the acclaimed blues and folk singer, guitarist, songwriter and teacher, died February 10, 2002 at the age of 65. His death came three months after surgery for colon cancer. Since then there has been none stepping forward to fill his shoes, and there is little liklihood anyone ever will. Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton... dozens of others have a debt owed to this one insignificant picker and singer... a man who wrote the music made famous by others, but never considered himself an artist.

Humans die. Art lives so long as someone remembers. Origins are important.

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Musical interlude

Late in the afternoon of August 17^th, 1969, Country Joe and the Fish wrapped up a performance that lasted about an hour and a half on a muggy stage erected on a dairy farm in the Catskills of New York. That humid weather was murder on the technology of the day, most detectible in the tuning of the guitars. Seems like every few minutes the band would have to take five to re-tune. It had been like that all afternoon, and would continue into the night.

It also screwed up the equipment the film crews were supposed to use to record the next act. It messed them up badly enough that only a single tune of the hour-long performance by the band that followed Country Joe managed to make it to video.

Damn shame, but at least they captured the best that the British band formerly known as the Jaybirds had to offer. The performance firmly enshrined Ten Years After and their upstart, young blues-rock guitarist in the legend of Woodstock.

Presenting Alvin Lee performing I’m Going Home.

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Music break

A little picking for Saturday.



Stevie Winwood with Eric Clapton performing a Blind Faith tune, Can’t find my way home. Winwood wrote the song and sang lead when it was first released in 1969 on the only album the band ever recorded. The original album art caused a bunch of controversy in the U.S.

The album was later released with an alternate cover, since several large record stores refused to carry original.

The original album had only six tunes, and every one was a hit. My favorite was an 18-minute version of Ginger Baker’s, Do what you like. A later deluxe version of the album was release containing several previously unreleased jam sessions.

I’ll close with a briefer concert version of Do what you like.

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Woodie Guthrie would approve

Held on the 50-acre Quiet Valley Ranch, just nine miles south of  the quaint Texas Hill Country town for which it gets its name, the Kerrville Folk Festival is the longest-running Folk fest in the country.

From a rather rough start in 1972, participation and attendance have grown to make it one of the largest events of its kind. Many new artists have picked a few licks at the late night, impromptu jam sessions, only to go on to become major artists in their own right.

“For 18 straight days and nights each May and June, over 30,000 guests come from all over the world to experience the magic of what we simply call “Kerrville”. The Festival is known internationally as a Mecca for singer songwriters of varying musical style. It’s a place where those just developing their skills have the opportunity to play their music along- side master craftsmen.”

Musicians making a mark on Kerrville have included the likes of Steven Fromholz, Vince Gill, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Gary P. Nunn, Peter Paul & Mary, Jerry Jeff Walker and Rusty Wier This year, among many up and comers we’ll see veterans like Asleep at the Wheel, Christine Lavin, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Martyn Joseph, Trout Fishing in America and Judy Collins.

Since it's been around so long, Kerrville gets several top bill artists every year. Because the venue caters to the singer/songwriter crowd, the main attractions tend to be the late night jam sessions, known as “song circles,” and the judged contest called the "New Folk competition." Each of these has spawned new careers and new recording contracts, and both are fan favorites.

The coming festival starts May 26th and ends June 12th. The biggest names play on the weekends. Camping is available, or if you’re quick enough to get a reservation there are several hotels in the area. Food vendors and restaurants are plentiful. Showers are available on site, but you better not be shy as they are “family style.”

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Music brief

T-Bone Burnett



Palestine Texas, with John Mayer on guitar.




Earlier Baghdad - - Burnett recorded this tune several years ago with studio musician accompaniment. This version from the 2006 album, The True False Identity, is all T-Bone.

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Monday Music

Bob Wills my still be the king, but the Texas Playboys was not the first western swing band. That honor goes to vocalist Milton Brown.

James Robert (Jim Bob) Wills was an established musician by 1930 when, along with guitarist Herman Arnspiger, he formed the Wills Fiddle Band, playing dances around Stephenville and Fort Worth, and on a regular, weekly radio program in North Texas. Stephenville native, amateur vocalist and cigar salesman Milton Brown joined the band, which in 1931 changed their name to the Light Crust Doughboys. This was due to the sponsorship of the band and the radio program by the soon to be Texas Governor, Wilbert Lee (Pappy) O’Daniel. O’Daniel was then the vice-president of the Burrus Mill & Elevator Company, which produced the popular Light Crust brand flour.

Does any of this remind you of a popular movie?

In 1931, in an attempt to keep the Light Crust name clean and pristine, the politically astute O’Daniel ordered the Light Crust Doughboys to stop playing at those sinful dances. This removed a rather large source of revenue for the band members, so Milton Brown quit, setting out on his own. Brown’s father was in ill health and Milton was providing support. He gathered together a crew of talented musicians, including stealing his younger brother Durwood from the Doughboys, and formed his own band.

Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies was the first true western swing band, with Wanna Coffman playing standup bass, Ocie Stockard on tenor banjo, Fred (Papa) Calhoun on the jazz piano, and twin fiddles played by Cecil Brower and Jesse Ashlock, both of whom had learned the fiddle from Bob Wills. Brother Durwood played guitar and sang while Milton became known as one of the finest vocalists of his time. Later, in 1934, the band added steel guitarist Bob Dunn, taking the genre to levels never before seen.

From 1932 to 1936, this band produced more than 100 recordings for the Victor and Decca labels while performing live at dances and concerts throughout the North Texas region. They were regulars at the Fort Worth Chrystal Ballroom and had a weekly radio show on Fort Worth’s KTAT AM. Milton Brown and Bob Wills remained friends, and Wills' original Waco-based band, the Playboys, was modeled on the success of the Brownies.

Milton Brown was killed in an auto accident at the prime of his career, in 1936. The Brownies soon disbanded, but not before they helped create a reputation for Fort Worth as the Cradle of Western Swing. Because of this reputation, another musician who would become rather well known and very influential came to Fort Worth to take a job as a disk jockey and write a few songs.

Western music owes much to the influence of Milton Brown.

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Tunsey Tuesday

Tallan has talent…



That is Tallan "T-Man" Latz, in 2007 at age 7, performing the Hendrix tune Voodoo Child, accompanied by the band Real Deal. Tallan was born September 22, 1999 in Elkhorn, WI. His first musical instrument was a drum set he got at the age of three. T-Man began playing acoustic guitar at four and soon graduated to electric instruments.

At five years old Tallan saw a video of Joe Satriani, and told his parents "That's what I want to do." By the time he reached eight years of age, he had played on-stage with Jackson Browne and Les Paul.





At nine, T-Man got his shot on Americas Got Talent…



Tallan got the boot by the show, but attracted a hardcore following. He is eleven years old now and still hitting it strong. Here he is in July at the Prairie Dog Bluesfest, rocking hard with Guitar Shorty.



And a fitting close to the show, and this blog post…



Any doubts who this born-with-talent kid has been studying?
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Imagine

On a day that would have been his 70th birthday, Morning Joe remembers John Lennon.



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