Hugh Laurie doesn't claim to be an authentic bluesman and his mannered vocals aren't easy listening; he is a neat piano player with an obvious enthusiasm for the form. We had the radio edit of his new single last night - the song was co-written by Dr John and the late (and underappreciated) Bobby Charles. We hope Laurie's celebrity status can point a few new fans in the right direction (which I'm sure he'd regard as a decent outcome). Brad Vickers and his Vestapolitans do old-timey stuff using fiddles and an upright bass and it was nice to show there's more to the current scene than screaming white-hot guitar wizardry.
I almost passed over the new EP from the Atomic Road Kill - the press release mentions rockabilly, hard rock and punk as influences. Lucky I read further and found the names Little Walter, Paul Butterfield and Jerry Portnoy - a far better indication of the nimble harp skills on offer. As a nice balance we went back to 1930 for "Coffee Grinder Blues" on Columbia by Jaybird Coleman to showcase one of the very first stars of blues harp. Coleman got a name for playing harp to the US Armed Forces and Cecil Gant was known as the GI Sing-Sation for his urbane vocal style on sides such as "I Wonder". He also had a muscular piano boogie style that he brought along to STAR BLUES.
The recent drama-documentary on Richard Feynmann solving the Challenger disaster included his refusal to work on the atomic bomb project in World War 2 - I went to the shelf for Pete Johnson's "Atomic Boogie" as another piano blues offering. Lafayette Leake did a fair number of sessions for blues and rock'n'roll records but very little under his own name (his first single came out in 1967). It was long thought to be his first work until the guys at MCA put together the Chess Blues box set - they found a December 1956 session with his name on: the loping instrumental with Willie Dixon and Odie Payne got the title of "Slow Leake" but no-one thought to make a note of the guitarists name. For tracks like this you wonder why there was no second track to create a single for the label, and if they didn't intend a single release what then? Nice skills in any case.
Nice guitar skills too at either end of our Vinyl Hour: Johnny Guitar Watson and Larry Dale. The former was a b-side to "Looking Back" on a local Los Angeles label miraculously picked up by John Mayall for his live set - and later into that of Dr. Feelgood, who also covered Solomon Burke's "Stupidity" on Atlantic. Lavern Baker was one of Atlatic's earliest female stars and in 1959 she was joined by the Alex Bradford Quartet for a gospel album, we chose her version of Mahalia Jackson's "In the Upper Room" for our sacred spot.
Mark Lamarr insists there is a law which says if you play Chuck Berry you must also play Bo Diddley - and rather than cause an international legal incident, we were more than happy to comply. Our Muddy Waters show was oh so brief (many thanks for the kind feedback: we will certainly plan to do more) and we didn't get time to include anything by either of his sons Big Bill Morganfield or Mud Morganfield. Put that right last night, the apple don't fall far from the tree is all we can say.
We're up for some more STAR BLUES next Sunday at 10pm (BST), you were absolutely magnificent last night and I was Gary Blue. Until next week take care of yourselves and take care of those that take care of you
| Track.Title | Track.ArtistSort | Index | Album.Title | Album.ArtistSort | Label |
| Attitude | Johnny Heartsman | 5 | Touch | Johnny Heartsman | Alligator |
| She's A Burglar | Freddie King | 7 | Burglar | Freddie King | POLYDOR |
| sugar sweet | freddie king | 8 | burglar | freddie king | rso |
| Look What You Done | Big Bill Morganfield | 1 | Blues With A Mood | Big Bill Morganfield | 101 Distribution |
| Dallas Blues-Bonus | Brad Vickers & His Vestapolitans | 15 | Great Day In The Morning | Brad Vickers & His Vestapolitans | manhattones |
| man or mouse | john primer w. bob corritore | 9 | knocking around the blues | john primer w. bob corritore | delta groove |
| automatic | atomic road kings | 2 | a r k | atomic road kings | rip cat |
| coffee grinder blues | jaybird coleman | 16 | harmonica blues | various artists | indigo |
| wild honey | hugh laurie | 1 | wild honey | hugh laurie | warner bros |
| I Feel So Bad | Mike Eldred Trio, The | 2 | Elvis Unleaded | Mike Eldred Trio, The | RIP CAT |
| elevate me mama | mannish boys w. mud morganfield | 1-6 | atomic blues | mannish boys | delta groove |
| just got to hold you tight | Billy Boy Arnold | 15 | Billy Boy Arnold Sings: Big Bill Broonzy | Billy Boy Arnold | Electro-Fi |
| The Eagle Is Back | Johnny 'Guitar' Watson | 4 | Untouchable! The Classic 1959-1966 Recordings | Johnny 'Guitar' Watson | ACE |
| Zig Zig Lightning | Little Johnny Taylor | 20 | The Galaxy Years | Little Johnny Taylor | ACE |
| Wise Man's Blues | Bobby 'Blue' Bland | 2 | The 3B Blues Boy. The Blues Years : 1952-1958 | Bobby 'Blue' Bland | ACE |
| Bullet Boogie | Cecil Gant | 20 | Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Nashville | Various Artists | Fantastic Voyage |
| Atomic Boogie | Pete Johnson | 1 | Jump 'N' Jive | Various Artists | METRO |
| Slow Leake | Lafayette Leake | 18 | Chess Blues | Various Artists | CHESS |
| Stupidity | Solomon Burke | 9 | Home Is In Your Heart | Solomon Burke | RHINO |
| You Never Can Tell | Chuck Berry | 14 | His Best Volume 2 | Chuck Berry | MCA/CHESS |
| Road Runner | Bo Diddley | 3 | White Lightning | Various Artists | INSTANT |
| T Model Boogie | Rosco Gordon | 17 | No More Doggin' : Introduction To Rosco Gordon | Rosco Gordon | PROPER |
| That Ain't Right | Jimmy McCracklin | 7 | Modern Recordings, Vol. 2: Blues Blastin' | Jimmy McCracklin | ACE |
| in the upper room | lavern baker | 2-8 | gospel celebrities | various artists | fantastic voyage |
| Sad Life Blues | Jimmy Witherspoon | 11 | Sings The Blues Sessions | Jimmy Witherspoon | ACE |
| Look What You've Done To Me | Little Willie John | 19 | Mule Milk And Fire Water | Various Artists | WESTSIDE |
| midnight hour blues | larry dale | 3-16 | Let Me Tell You About The Blues: New York | Various Artists | Fantastic Voyage |
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