We had a bit of modern business to attend to at the top end of the shop, with some surprise bits and bobs: not the least of which featured JT Laurensen on accordion. Kirsten Thien covered Sippie Wallace, Samantha Fish enlisted the skills of Johnny Sansome on harp and Ivan Neville wrote and put a decent blues as title track to his new project on Ruf.
I count myself as the luckiest man on blues radio and a slight twinge of triskaidekaphobia wasn't about to hold me back in proving beyond reasonable doubt how we do things different around here. Take this. In my FB previews for this episode I've been mentioning one track you'd hate - something I also mentioned to our rock god Neil Jones who now thinks it is time to send for for the man with the white jacket that does up with straps at the back The extreme Marmite nature of "My Babe" by Napolean Strickland's Fife and Drum Band is to do with its rawness, this stuff can't be taught it's intuitive. No guitar anywhere with the fife as lead instrument fighting the insistent brash drum rhythm. Couldn't get it at all the first time I heard it, now it's on my Desert Island list. Put out on an album for Pete Welding's Testament label, David Evans caught it on a field trip in the early Sixties but it sounds much much older.
In 1969, Bob "The Bear" Hite did the vocals on Canned Heat's worldwide hit "Goin' Up The Country" - along with Al Wilson, he had an enormous appetite for blues with a collection of 78's numbering into four digits by all accounts. There's no doubt he will have known all about Henry Thomas' "Bull Doze Blues" from 1929. The singer was hesitant at first and helped himself to a pan-pipe accompaniment. Though he couldn't hold the tempo to the end it's a landmark recording. We stayed a while longer in the hokum and jug band styles with Gus Cannon' Jug Stompers and the Mississippi Sheiks.
Our music has a fantastic heritage and it touches a fair number of bases, we did our best to show that on last night's STAR BLUES. What other explanation is there for having those alongside 1960's Muddy Waters and 1950's John Lee Hooker performances hijacked in the early Nineties to advertise clothing? My dodgy memory believes it was John's "Baby Lee" for those denim keks - the almighty Wikipedia says otherwise. Lonnie Brooks started out under the name Guitar Junior and we went to that period for "Family Rules" as marker of his pair of adverts for lager in 1992. To avoid the obvious choice from the force of Nature named Screamin' Jay Hawkins, we chose a song he recorded in Hawaii for the Ermine outfit - taken from a suitably barmy collection of curios and vocal oddities on Ace called "Great Googly Moo".
The idea to play Slim Green came from an internet posting; two more blues guitar masters (Jimmy Nolen and Jimmy Spruill) were my own work Spruill was in cracking form on Tarheel Slim's "Number 9 Train" and Nolen deserves to be better known especially when considering the singles he did for Dig and others. The advent of cds gave a certain latitude to compilers with 79 minutes to fill, hence the easy availability of alternate takes previously only found by the dedicated collector: we had one from Elmore James and *eventually) one from T-Bone Walker. Two Tiny contributions wrapped up STAR BLUES as I slipped into the fourteenth year of trivia and tomfoolery. You are very kind with your invitation every week and I'd be thrilled skinny to be asked back on Sunday night at ten; until then take care of yourselves and take care of those that take care of you.
| Track.Title | Track.ArtistSort | Index | Album.Title | Album.ArtistSort | Label |
| Magic Honey | Cyril Neville | 1 | Magic Honey | Cyril Neville | Ruf |
| Who's Been Talking? | Samantha FishJohnny Sansome | 6 | Black Winds Howlin' | Samantha Fish | Ruf |
| Women Be Wise - Solo Live | Kirsten Thien | 22 | Solo Live From The Meisenfrei Blues Club | Kirsten Thien | screen doo |
| I Could Die Happy | Buddy Guy | 4 | Rhythm & Blues | Buddy Guy | Sony Music Entertainment |
| These Blues Keep Me Right Here | CD Woodbury Band, The | 1 | Monday Night! | CD Woodbury Band, The | wide willie |
| Memphis Boggie | JT.Lauritsen | 5 | Play By The Rules | JT.Lauritsen | Hunters Records |
| will you love me tomorrow | william bell | 1 | Stax O'soul | Various Artists | STAX |
| it took a long time | finis tasby | 2 | Shattered Dreams - Funky Blues 1967-1978 | Various Artists | BGP |
| My Love Strikes Like Lightning | Muddy Waters | 16 | His Best 1956 - 1964 | Muddy Waters | MCA/CHESS |
| Baby Lee | John Lee Hooker | 10 | John Lee Hooker | John Lee Hooker | EUK |
| Family Rules | Guitar Jr. | 7 | On Bended Knee - The Birth Of Swamp Pop | Various Artists | GREAT Voices Of The Century |
| Shake 'em Up | Slim Green | 1 | Shattered Dreams - Funky Blues 1967-1978 | Various Artists | BGP |
| Come on Home | Jimmy Nolen | 1 | The Rhythm & Blues Years | Jimmy Nolen | MASTER Classics |
| No. 9 Train | Tarheel Slim (Aka Alden Bunn) | 45 | The Fire And Fury Story | Various Artists | CHARLY |
| whoa mule | Jesse Fuller | 6 | san francisco bay | Jesse Fuller | original blues classics |
| Show Me What You Got | Mississippi Sheiks | 23 | Show Me What You Got | Mississippi Sheiks | CATFISH |
| Bull Doze Blues | Henry Thomas | 3 | Roots Of Rock | Various Artists | ACROBAT |
| walk right in | cannon's jug stompers | 18 | Roots Of Rock | Various Artists | ACROBAT |
| My Babe | Napolean Strickland Fife & Drum Band | 20 | Sampler | Various Artists | Testament |
| I Hear Voices | Screamin' Jay Hawkins | 22 | Great Googly Moo & More Undisputed Truths | Various Artists | ACE |
| The Sun is Shining (Alt.) | Elmore James | 10 | Slidin' | Various Artists | CHARLY |
| wise man blues (Alt.) | T-Bone Walker | 8 | The Complete Capitol/Black And White Recordings | T-Bone Walker | Capitol |
| You Shocked Me | Tiny Topsy | 9 | Just A Little Bit: Federal's Queens Of New Breed R&b | Tiny TopsyLula Reed | ACE |
| Tiny's Boogie Woogie | Tiny Grimes | 10 | The R'n'b Years 1947: 100 Hot Rhythm And Blues Tunes From 1947 | Various Artists | BOULEVARD VINTAGE |
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