Friday night, The Beat Daddy's, "Big Thighs" From the April-May Blues Revue Sampler CD. "I don't like them skinny, small and petite, I like a big, fat, woman, lots of love, lots of meat, big thighs, lord I love those big thighs"...Things got off to a rockin' start as far as I was concerned.
"Playboy Party" Big James & The Chicago Playboys. Went to take pictures of the sun setting on the river, came back, it was dark and the party was "on". Who knew a trombone could be played like that? The Chicago Playboys were an extremely funky band. From the album, "Big James Funkin' Blues".
"Give it time", the Eric Lindell Band. I may have been hit harder by these guys than my com padres Joe and David, that New Orlenes by the way of Chicago and everywhere else in between sound just sat real well with me."Two Bit Town", also the Eric Lindell Band, this ones provides the first memorable line of the evening, "don't ever let them take away your smile, don't ever let them change your funky style", your preaching to the choir Eric, amen...from the album "Change in the Weather".
"Jambalaya", "Traveling South", Tab Benoit.
"Iko Iko" performed by Tab, but on the playlist I had to substitute Dr. Johns version. (That's what I mean by inspired by...). Who could ever forget that "Jambalaya", "Iko Iko", "When the Saints Come Marching In", back to "Jambalaya", medley? There is plenty I can't remember from that evening, but that medley I assure you is not one of them...
Saturday. Doug McCleoud "Turkey Leg Woman", "I have written a lot of protest songs in my day, but what I'm protesting against in this song is the skinny woman...everybody thinks the skinny woman is so pretty". It was good to see Doug again, I think he felt energized by the larger crowd this year. The blues faithful should check out his column, "Doug's Back Porch" in the Blues Revue magazine." Don't know if we missed Doug playing, "Devil been beatin his wife"or not as we were 15 minutes late.
"Angel from Montgomery" Miranda Louise, (John Prines original version whats on the playlist, I said "inspired by" remember?). She sounded better than we thought she would, and her guitar player was pretty good. "Dust my Broom" also Miranda Louise (playlist = the Elmore James original version). Led to the quote, "A lil Elmore James never hurt anybody", a week later on "the porch".
"Collins Shuffle", nobody played this song but Doug McCleoud mentioned a song he had written that appeared on the Albert Collins album, "Cold Snap" and Diunna Greenleaf said that Albert Collins was her babysitter, so I felt it's inclusion in the playlist was a no brainer.
"Blue Broadway", John Nemeth. That suit!, The cool 50's looking 25 year old guitar player..."
Black Cat Bone", Diuana Greenleaf. She played this. This is the Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland and Robert Cray version from the Grammy award winning album. "Showdown". Diuana Greenleaf mentioned "Hop Wilson", The version of this song here mentions him as well because this is his song. Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Hop Wilson were all based out of Houston Texas and Diuana knew all of them, her show proved that fact. "Let the good times roll", also Diuana. A B.B. King live version makes the playlist.
"Shake your moneymaker", and "She's nineteen years old" performed by Elmore James and Buddy Guy respectively. Performed by Lil Charlie and the Nightcats at the festival. These guys were by far the most hep-cat daddies I have ever seen in my life. That amp.....
"Superharp" and "No cuttin loose", James Cotton. I am confident he played "superharp", I don't honestly know about "No Cuttin Loose", by now things are a lil blurry. James Cotton's band!! I swear the bass player metamorphosized himself into Flea for a spell....I was glad we were right on the fence up front, It was incredible!
The original idea was to have this playlist embedded on the blog, unfortunately I have exceeded my monthly upload limit and not every song made it....oh well,........and on and on it goes.
Random ramblings from an amateur rock-n-roll historian and critic,self-professed bourbon aficionado, blackberry growin', jam makin', sometime tie-die shirt makin', ex hippie wannabe, turned punk rock lovein', blues festival going, middle aged pudgy bald white guy who loves to wear Hawaiian shirts in the summertime and happens to be more Stax than Motown, more Alman Brothers than Skynard, more Stones than Beatles, more NASCAR than Baseball, more freeware than license keys...
Friday, June 29, 2007
The "Music from or inspired by the 07 W.C.Handy Blues Fest Playlist"
Friday night, The Beat Daddy's, "Big Thighs" From the April-May Blues Revue Sampler CD. "I don't like them skinny, small and petite, I like a big, fat, woman, lots of love, lots of meat, big thighs, lord I love those big thighs"...Things got off to a rockin' start as far as I was concerned.
"Playboy Party" Big James & The Chicago Playboys. Went to take pictures of the sun setting on the river, came back, it was dark and the party was "on". Who knew a trombone could be played like that? The Chicago Playboys were an extremely funky band. From the album, "Big James Funkin' Blues".
"Give it time", the Eric Lindell Band. I may have been hit harder by these guys than my com padres Joe and David, that New Orlenes by the way of Chicago and everywhere else in between sound just sat real well with me."Two Bit Town", also the Eric Lindell Band, this ones provides the first memorable line of the evening, "don't ever let them take away your smile, don't ever let them change your funky style", your preaching to the choir Eric, amen...from the album "Change in the Weather".
"Jambalaya", "Traveling South", Tab Benoit.
"Iko Iko" performed by Tab, but on the playlist I had to substitute Dr. Johns version. (That's what I mean by inspired by...). Who could ever forget that "Jambalaya", "Iko Iko", "When the Saints Come Marching In", back to "Jambalaya", medley? There is plenty I can't remember from that evening, but that medley I assure you is not one of them...
Saturday. Doug McCleoud "Turkey Leg Woman", "I have written a lot of protest songs in my day, but what I'm protesting against in this song is the skinny woman...everybody thinks the skinny woman is so pretty". It was good to see Doug again, I think he felt energized by the larger crowd this year. The blues faithful should check out his column, "Doug's Back Porch" in the Blues Revue magazine." Don't know if we missed Doug playing, "Devil been beatin his wife"or not as we were 15 minutes late.
"Angel from Montgomery" Miranda Louise, (John Prines original version whats on the playlist, I said "inspired by" remember?). She sounded better than we thought she would, and her guitar player was pretty good. "Dust my Broom" also Miranda Louise (playlist = the Elmore James original version). Led to the quote, "A lil Elmore James never hurt anybody", a week later on "the porch".
"Collins Shuffle", nobody played this song but Doug McCleoud mentioned a song he had written that appeared on the Albert Collins album, "Cold Snap" and Diunna Greenleaf said that Albert Collins was her babysitter, so I felt it's inclusion in the playlist was a no brainer.
"Blue Broadway", John Nemeth. That suit!, The cool 50's looking 25 year old guitar player..."
Black Cat Bone", Diuana Greenleaf. She played this. This is the Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland and Robert Cray version from the Grammy award winning album. "Showdown". Diuana Greenleaf mentioned "Hop Wilson", The version of this song here mentions him as well because this is his song. Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Hop Wilson were all based out of Houston Texas and Diuana knew all of them, her show proved that fact. "Let the good times roll", also Diuana. A B.B. King live version makes the playlist.
"Shake your moneymaker", and "She's nineteen years old" performed by Elmore James and Buddy Guy respectively. Performed by Lil Charlie and the Nightcats at the festival. These guys were by far the most hep-cat daddies I have ever seen in my life. That amp.....
"Superharp" and "No cuttin loose", James Cotton. I am confident he played "superharp", I don't honestly know about "No Cuttin Loose", by now things are a lil blurry. James Cotton's band!! I swear the bass player metamorphosized himself into Flea for a spell....I was glad we were right on the fence up front, It was incredible!
The original idea was to have this playlist embedded on the blog, unfortunately I have exceeded my monthly upload limit and not every song made it....oh well,........and on and on it goes.
The John Lee Hooker Cell Phone
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Beer for my Horses
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Great things about the 07 W.C. Handy Blues Fest, in no particular order
Sunday, June 17, 2007
07 W.C. Handy Blues Fest Slideshow
Great Lines From The 07 W. C. Handy Blues Fest.
Blues Fest Check List
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Sunday, June 3, 2007
A Legend.............
When I first moved here the porch ceiling was all rotted out and had a big hole in it. I had to keep the door shut cause I didn't want to look at it. I was going for a “Polynesian” feel, and with the lightly stained wood and the white ceiling fan, I think we got it. (Many thanks to Dave for all the help, or it wouldn't have ever happened.)
Over the years it has become more than I ever thought it could have been. Me and my son sit out here and watch the thunderstorms, "watch the world go by", play with toys, watch the birds. People have passed out here, spilled nachos here, played their guitars here, grilled out here, gotten away from their wives/girlfriends here, tried to build fires here, sat out in the cold and the rain here,sat and watched so many lightning bugs they got dizzy here, and just gotten down right silly here. Mostly though it's just a good place to just hang out and "be".
The best times have always been when people just stop by out of the blue. It is the most laid back, unpretentious, relaxed place in the world to me. It's a small group, the porch goers, but we manage to get by. Gets spooky at night with the fog and the coyotes sometimes, especially with some old unknown acoustic John Lee Hooker song playing, or Doug McClouds, "Devil been beating his wife." I have always said I would like a bumper sticker that said, "I'd rather be on my porch". Oh, and the music, well, those of you that know, know, and those of you that don't, well you should...
One night late (go figure) me and my neighbor saw a coon come up while Pink Floyd was playing. I said, "So what's his name Christian, Pink or Floyd?" He said, "Floyd man, Floyd the raccoon" He came around a lot. He would hang on the tree while I threw soccer balls at him. I miss Floyd, but you know, there has been something digging around in the trash barrel lately, hum, maybe it's Floyd's cousin, and there you go, in a nut shell, you've got it , "The Porch", not just a place, but a relaxed state of mind.............
