Todays Featured Blues Artist - Willie Brown

 Life and career

Born Willie Lee Brown in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Brown played with such notables as Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson. He was not known to be a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians. Little is known for certain of the man whom Robert Johnson called "You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown" (in his prophetic "Cross Road Blues") and whom Johnson indicated should be
notified in event of his death. In an alternate take of the song, Johnson introduced a Neologism with "tell my friendboy Willie Brown." Brown is heard with Patton on the Paramount sessions of 1930, playing "M & O Blues," and "Future Blues." Apart from playing with Son House and Charlie Patton it has also been said that he played with artists such as Luke Thomson and Thomas "Clubfoot" Coles. At least four other songs he recorded for Paramount have never been found.

"Rowdy Blues", a 1929 song credited to Kid Bailey, is disputed to have Brown on backup, or Brown himself using the name of Kid Bailey. Both "M & O Blues" and "Future Blues" appear on the album Son House & The Great Delta Blues Singers (1994), recorded between 1928 and 1930, on the Document Records label. They
also appear on JSP's Charlie Patton box set.

David Evans has reconstructed the early biography of a Willie Brown living in Drew, Mississippi, until 1929. He was married by 1911, meaning he was 10 or 11, to a proficient guitarist named Josie Mills. He is recalled as singing and playing guitar with Charley Patton and others in the neighbourhood of Drew.

Informants with conflicting memories led Gayle Dean Wardlow and Steve Calt to conclude that this was a different Willie Brown. Evans rejects this, believing that the singing and guitar style of the 1931 recordings is clearly in the tradition of other performers from Drew such as Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, Kid Bailey, Howling Wolf and artists recorded non-commercially.

Alan Lomax added further confusion in 1993, suggesting that the William Brown he recorded in Arkansas in 1942 was the same man as the Paramount artist. The recording was for a joint project between Fisk University and the Library of Congress documenting the music of Coahoma County, Mississippi in 1941 and 1942. Writing over fifty years later, Lomax forgot that he had actually recorded Willie the previous
summer with Son House, Fiddlin' Joe Martin and Leroy Williams. Brown played second guitar on three performances by the whole band, and recorded one solo, "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor". The later biography is clear. Willie Brown, the Paramount artist, lived in Robinsonville, Mississippi from 1929 and moved to Lake Cormorant, Mississippi by 1935. He performed occasionally with Charley Patton, and continually with Son House until his death.

Brown died of heart disease in Tunica, Mississippi in 1952, at the age of 52.

Source and Additional Info Here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Brown_(musician)

Todays Featured Blues Artist - Memphis Willie B.

Memphis Willie B. (November 4, 1911 – October 5, 1993) was an American Memphis blues guitarist, harmonica player, singer and songwriter.

He was known for his work with Jack Kelly's Jug Busters, the Memphis Jug Band, and his resurgence in the 1960s after years away from the music industry. He recorded "The Stuff Is Here" and "Stop Cryin' Blues". H...is 1961 song, "Overseas Blues", retrospectively expressed the fear of World War II servicemen who had survived the conflict in Europe, of joining the Pacific War.

Biography

William Borum was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. He was taught to play the guitar by his father, and busked with Jack Kelly's Jug Busters in his teenage years. He quickly moved on to work with the Memphis Jug Band, who played both locally and at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. He extended his repertoire after being taught to play the harmonica by Noah Lewis.

Willie B. slowly developed away from a disciplined jug band style, and played at various locations with Robert Johnson, Garfield Akers, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Willie Brown, who periodically travelled up from the Delta to play. Willie B. first recorded at the age of 23, in September 1934 in New York, for Vocalion Records. However, that part of his career was brief as he returned to working locally, in the company of Little Son Joe, Will Shade and Joe Hill Louis. He signed up with the U.S. Army in January 1942, and served in the North African invasion (Operation Torch) in December 1942, and later in Italy.

When demobilized he discovered musician's work hard to find, and eventually took up regular paid employment. He only returned to the music industry in the early 1960s, and recorded sufficient material for two albums for Bluesville Records in Memphis in 1961. This provided the impetus for a resurgence in his musical career, and Willie B. played at various music festivals and in coffeehouses. Often he worked alongside Gus Cannon and Furry Lewis, reliving their mutual early Memphis days.

Willie B. once stated, "A blues is about something that's real. It's about what a man feels when his wife leaves him, or about some disappointment that happens to him that he can't do anything about. That's why none of these young boys can really sing the blues. They don't know about the things that go into a blues".

However, Willie B. abruptly stopped playing in the late 1960s, and little was heard of him prior to his death in 1993.

Source and Additional Info Here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Willie_B.

Todays Featured Blues Artist - Joe Hill Louis

Joe Hill Louis (September 23, 1921 – August 5, 1957), born Lester Hill, was an American singer, guitarist, harmonica player and one-man band. He is significant, along with fellow Memphis bluesman Doctor Ross as one of only a small number of one-man blues bands to have recorded commercially in the 1950s, and as a session musician for Sun Records.

Early life

Louis was born Lester (or possibly Leslie) Hill on September 23, 1921 in Raines, Tennessee. His nickname “Joe Louis” arose as a result of a childhood fight with another youth. At the age of 14 he left home to work as a servant for a wealthy Memphis family, and also worked in the Peabody Hotel, Memphis, in the late 1930s. From the early 1940s onwards he worked as a musician and one-man band.

Recording and Radio Career

Louis’ recording debut was made for Columbia in 1949, and his music was released on a variety of independent labels through the 1950s, most notably recording for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records, for whom he recorded extensively as a backing musician for a wide variety of other singers as well as under his own name. His most notable recording was probably as guitarist on Rufus Thomas’s “Bear Cat”, recorded as an answer record to Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog”, which reached No. 3 on the R&B chart and resulted in legal action for copyright infringement. He also shared writing credit for the song “Tiger Man”, which has been recorded by Elvis Presley, among others.

Around 1950 he took over the “Pepticon Boy” radio program on WDIA from B.B. King.

He was also known as “The Pepticon Boy” and “The Be-Bop Boy”.

Death

Louis died on August 5, 1957 in John Gaston Hospital, Memphis, at the age of 35, from tetanus contracted as a result of an infected cut to his thumb, sustained while working as an odd job man.

Source and Additional Info Here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill_Louis

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Todays Featured Blues Artist - Willie Nix

Willie Nix (August 6, 1922 — July 8, 1991) was an American Chicago blues singer and drummer, active in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, in the 1940s and 1950s.

Life and Career

Born in Memphis, as a child he learnt to tap dance, later working as a teenager as part dancer, part comedian, with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. This led to work in various variety shows in the 1940s, and Nix later became a part of the blues scene that grew up around Beale Street (see Memphis Blues). His musical work saw him appear on local radio with Robert Lockwood Jr., and work alongside Willie Love, Joe Willie Wilkins and Sonny Boy Williamson II, billed as the Four Aces, who toured the Deep South. Further Memphis based radio work in the mid 1940s, saw Nix appear with both B.B. King and Joe Hill Louis, and later the same decade Nix worked with the Beale Streeters. In 1951, Nix made his first recording for RPM Records in Memphis, and a year later he later recorded for Checker Records.

He recorded for the Sun Records label and others in the 1950s, including the Chicago, Illinois based duo of Chance and Sabre. Nix wrote the songs "Nervous Wreck" and "Prison Bound Blues", and variously worked with Elmore James, Johnny Shines, and Memphis Slim.

By the end of the 1950s, Nix returned to Memphis, and spent a short time in prison before the 1960s started. The next twenty years saw Nix perform spasmodically, and as his health declined, his behaviour became more eccentric. He did not record again, although his mid 1950s work is held in high regard for his lyrical dexterity and compelling beat.

Nix died in Leland, Mississippi, in 1991.

Source and Additional Info Here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Nix

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Todays Featured Blues Artist - Guitar Slim

Eddie Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959), better known as Guitar Slim, was a New Orleans blues guitarist, from the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song, produced by Johnny Vincent at Specialty Records, "The Things That I Used to Do". It is a song that is listed in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Early life

Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, United States. His mother died when he was five, and his grandmother raised him, as he spent his teen years in the cotton fields. He spent his free time at the local juke joints and started sitting in as a singer or dancer; he was good enough to be nicknamed "Limber Leg."

Recording career

After returning from World War II military service, he started playing clubs around New Orleans, Louisiana. Bandleader Willie D. Warren introduced him to the guitar, and he was particularly influenced by T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. About 1950 he adopted the stage name 'Guitar Slim' and started becoming known for his wild stage act. He wore bright-colored suits and dyed his hair to match them, had an assistant follow him around the audience with up to 350 feet of cord between amplifier and guitar, and would occasionally get up on his assistant's shoulders, or even take his guitar outside the club and bring traffic to a stop.[citation needed] His sound was just as unusual — he was playing with distorted guitar more than a decade before rock guitarists did the same, and his gospel-influenced vocals were easily identifiable.

He got together with Muddy Waters in Los Angeles, California for some lively playing.

Recordings

His first recording session was in 1951, and he had a minor rhythm and blues hit in 1952 with "Feelin' Sad", which Ray Charles covered. His biggest success was "The Things That I Used to Do" (1954). The song, produced by a young Ray Charles, was released on Art Rupe's Specialty Records label. The song spent weeks at number one on the R&B charts and sold over a million copies, soon becoming a blues standard.

He recorded on a few labels, including Imperial, Bullet, Specialty, and Atco.[9] The recordings made in 1954 and 1955 for Specialty are his best.

Death

His career having faded, Guitar Slim became an alcoholic, and then died of pneumonia in New York City at age 32. Guitar Slim is buried in a small cemetery in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where his manager, Hosea Hill, resided.


Source and Additional Info Here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Slim

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Todays Featured Blues Artist - Papa Charlie Jackson

Papa Charlie Jackson (c. 1885 – 1938) was an early American bluesman and songster. He played a hybrid banjo guitar and ukulele, his recording career beginning in 1924. Much of his life remains a mystery, but it is probable that he was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and died in Chicago, Illinois in 1938.

Career

Born Charles Alexander Jackson, he originally performed in minstrel and medicine shows. Jackson was playing all around Chicago in the early 1920s. He was noted for busking at Chicago's Maxwell Street Market. He soon recorded "Papa's Lawdy Lawdy Blues" and "Airy Man Blues", the first commercially successful, self-accompanied recordings, by a male singer of the blues. One of his following tracks, "Salty Dog Blues", became his most famous song. He soon began cutting records with Ida Cox, Hattie McDaniel and Ma Rainey.

The late 1920s saw Jackson reach the pinnacle of his career, recording "Papa Charlie and Blind Blake Talk About It" (a two-part song) with Blind Blake. A few more recordings followed before the 1930s, but then Jackson left Paramount Records and moved to Okeh Records, recording with Big Bill Broonzy.

His importance in the history of the blues has been lessened by several factors. His flair for unique and irreverent material, similar to that of Charley Patton, along with his fast upbeat tempo which made his records sell, did not fit into the traditional blues category. His records were of poor quality since about half of his 66 sides were recorded with an acoustic horn, not a microphone. The rest contained a lot of "hiss" since Paramount used inferior quality materials in their pressing of records. Also, his banjo was not viewed as a traditional blues instrument. However, no one has duplicated his unique performances.

Legacy

Jackson's "Shake That Thing" was covered by Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions in 1964. "Loan Me Your Heart" appeared on The Wildparty Sheiks eponymous album in 2002. The Carolina Chocolate Drops recorded "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine" on their Grammy Award winning 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, and often played the song in interviews after its release.

In 1973 Jackson's song "Shake That Thing" was briefly featured in the Sanford and Son episode, "The Blind Mellow Jelly Collection". Fred, played by Redd Foxx, could be seen dancing and singing to it at the beginning of the episode.

Source and Additional Info Here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papa_Charlie_Jackson

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Todays Featured Blues Artist - Daddy Stovepipe

Johnny Watson (April 12, 1867 - November 1, 1963) was an African American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his recordings under the name Daddy Stovepipe. Watson also recorded as Jimmy Watson, Sunny Jim and Rev. Alfred Pitts. He may have been the earliest-born blues performer to record.

Many of his recordings were jug band duets with his wife, Sarah Watson, who was usually credited as Mississippi Sarah.

 

Life

Watson was born in Mobile, Alabama. His career began before 1900 in Mexico as a twelve-string guitarist in early mariachi bands. He then established himself as an entertainer with the Rabbit's Foot Minstrels touring around the southern states.

By the 1920s, he was working as a one-man band on Maxwell Street in Chicago, where he acquired the name "Daddy Stovepipe" from the characteristic top hat he wore. He first recorded in 1924, in Richmond,

Indiana, recording "Sundown Blues" which is regarded as one of the most primitive blues on record. In 1927 he made more recordings, this time in Birmingham, Alabama for Gennett Records, as one half of the duo "Sunny Jim and Whistlin' Joe".

He made more recordings back in Chicago in 1931 for the Vocalion label with his wife, "Mississippi Sarah", a singer and jug player. The couple's humorous banter made their recordings unique. They recorded together again in 1935 for Bluebird Records, by which time they were living in Greenville, Mississippi, but Sarah's death in 1937 sent her husband back out on the road. He then worked for a while around Texas, playing in cajun bands and, again, with Mexican mariachi bands.

By 1948 he had returned to work as a street musician in Chicago, and was recorded in 1960, aged 93, with his repertoire having widened to include traditional popular music tunes such as "The Tennessee Waltz".

He died in Chicago in 1963, from bronchial pneumonia after a gall bladder operation, aged 96.

Source and Additional Info Here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_Stovepipe

 

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Todays Featured Blues Artist - Alger "Texas" Alexander

Alger "Texas" Alexander (September 12, 1900 – April 18, 1954)[1] was an American blues singer from Jewett, Texas. Some sources claim that he was the cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins, but no direct kinship has ever been established. It was also claimed that he was the uncle of Texas country blues guitarist Frankie Lee Sims.

Career

A short man with a big, deep voice, Alexander started his career performing on the streets and at local parties and picnics in the Brazos River bottomlands, where he sometimes worked with Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1927 he began a recording career that continued into the 1930s, recording sides for the Okeh and Vocalion labels in New York, San Antonio, and Fort Worth.

In November 1928, Alexander recorded what has been believed by some to be the earliest version of "The House of the Rising Sun." Other songs he recorded include "Mama's Bad Luck Child," "Sittin' on a Log," "Texas Special," "Broken Yo Yo" and "Don't You Wish Your Baby was Built Up Like Mine?".

His early records for Okeh are notable not only for the personal originality of his songs, but for the musical motifs against which they are set. On April 9, 1934, Alexander recorded backed by the Mississippi Sheiks. Their line-up featured Bo Carter on violin, plus Sam Chatman and Walter Vinson on guitar. The eight tracks recorded included "Seen Better Days", and "Frost Texas Tornado Blues", the latter of which spoke of the tornado which destroyed Frost, Texas on May 6, 1930, leaving 41 dead.

Alexander did not play an instrument himself, and over the years he worked with a number of other musicians, including King Oliver, Eddie Lang, Lonnie Johnson, Little Hat Jones, the Mississippi Sheiks, and Lightnin' Hopkins. He sang in the free rhythm of work songs, such as the migrant cotton pickers he performed for might have sung, which posed a challenge for those accompanying him. Indeed, his singing is difficult to follow, and on his gramophone records his accompanists can often be heard resetting their watches to 'Alexander Time'. His finest collaborator was Lonnie Johnson, who devised free-form guitar melodies in counterpoint to the vocal lines.

In 1939, Alexander murdered his wife, resulting in a stay in the state penitentiary in Paris, Texas from 1940 to 1945. After that he returned to performing and recording, and Alexander made his last recording in 1950 with Benton's Busy Bees (Leon Benton, guitar and Buster Pickens, piano), before dying at the age of 53 of syphilis in 1954.

Alexander's body is buried in Longstreet Cemetery, Montgomery County, Texas.

Source and Additional Info Here...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alger_%22Texas%22_Alexander

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The Blues Report Now Todays Featured Blues Artist

The Blues Report  Is Now Todays Featured Blues Artist...

Each Day Will See A New Blues Artist Featured...

Featured CD Review - Chris Murphy "Hotwired"

 Chris Murphy has been a celebrated Canadian Bluesman, Songwriter, and Multi-Instrumentalists for many years now. Based in London, Ontario, Chris has been the frontman in his own band since 1985.

Accolades have certainly come his way over the years with no less than 11 Maple Blues Award Nominations gathered already, and that was in a span of 12 years, in the category of Horn Player of The Year. Chris tours extensively and has been called "by the London Free Press as "one of the busiest musicians in South-Western Ontario." In addition to touring with his band, you can also catch him performing with "two time Juno Award Winning Guitarist, Jack de Keyzer, Alberta Adams (Detroit’s Queen of the Blues), The Maple Blues Revue (Canada’s 11 piece All Star Blues Ensemble)." "Hotwired" marks Chris Murphy's 3rd Solo release and his 7th release, as a bandleader.

"Hotwired" consists of 12 great Tracks, split evenly between originals and covers. Of the 6 originals, all were written by Chris Murphy. Fellow Canadian Blues and Roots artist Mike Clark is featured on Track 3 with his cover "Forget About You", a blazing bar room guitar fused tune. Other interesting covers included Track 5, "Funkalishus" a Dr. John instrumental, and "Just My Imagination", a standard by the Legendary Soul group, The Temptations. In addition to "Funkalishus", "Hotwired" contained 2 other great instrumentals, which included Track 2, the title Track and Track 8 "Burnin' Rubber", both of which were Chris Murphy originals, and both of which not only show off Chris's exceptional Sax playing, but also the band as a whole, especially Guitarist Teddy Leonard and Lance Anderson on Organ and Piano.

In addition to Teddy Leonard, whom is Canada's Iconic Band Fathead's Guitarist and Producer, and Lance Anderson, whom also Produced "Hotwired", this album also features Garth Vogan (Bass), Tim Tyler (Drums/Background Vocals), Howard Moore (Trumpet), Amoy & Ceceal Levi (Background Vocals), and Ryan Spong (Background Vocals on Track 9 "Hold It Right There"). Special Guest Jack de Keyzer makes an appearance on Tracks 1 & 9 "Something Else"/Hold It Right There", in the capacity of Guitar Solo's, and simply sizzles.

"Hotwired" has no problem showing us that Chris Murphy is not only an accomplished Singer, Writer, and Saxman, but it also shows us his skill as a seasoned Frontman, whom seems to effortlessly guide his troupe of amazing artists through the many textured layers of this amazingly good album.

With the release of "Hotwired", Chris Murphy not only follows in the styles of Canadian greats, Downchild, Powder Blues Band, and Fathead, but he also takes his style to a creative and unique level.

"Hotwired" is a rare treat...

Review by John Vermilyea (Blues Underground Network)
http://www.bluesundergroundnetwork.com/


Listen To Samples Here...

Additional Artist Info... http://www.chrismurphysax.ca/