We flirted with the birthday book over the last week or so with tracks from Debbie Davies, Freddie King and Little Milton. Debbie did a Duke Robillard tune, Freddie King was magnificent on guitar and vox for Federal in 1962 and Milton on Malaco was a ditty that is widely touted as the International Anthem of the Blues. A word of advice here: if you ever have to hear a version by someone other than Little Milton you should run screaming from the room with hands firmly clasped over your ears. He was at his most potent, most raw at the start of his career when recording for the Sun label, and we included "LOokin' For A Woman".
Before the show I promised John Primer and Bob Corritore and Sugar Ray Rayford - two top notch projects from the Delta Groove imprint; it's hard to believe Bob and John haven't recorded together more frequently and Sugar Ray just keeps getting better with a rich tone to his voice I thought had almost gone from blues singing. To prove I'm a man of my word our promise went on to cover Skip James and Furry Lewis from that pre-war era. We did focus on guitar players last night, sorry - but surely no real apology is needed when the list included Larry Davis and Left Hand Frank (Craig)?
Our gospel spot marked ten years since Johnny Cash died and his take on Bill :Landford / Elvis Presley's "Run On" was called "God's Gonna Cut You Down". Produced by Rick Rubin and posthumously issued on the "American V" project, the man in black rarely sounded so raw, so visceral. Marie Knight's "Today" album came out on Tradition and though she got famous through her partnership with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, that album gave us our companion gospel outing as evidence of her solo power. The piano duties fell to Hadda Brooks in her days with the Okeh label.
A while back we had a weekly feature called "You Me and 1001 Blues"; its gone to the back burner for the time being, except this weeks STAR BLUES to re-enact the tale of the 1957 recording session Ray Charles had which gave birth to "Losin' Hand". Mickey Baker was sumptuous on guitar; noted songsmith Jesse Stone was there but he and Ray didn't see eye-to-eye and Ahmet Ertegun was on hand to try to fathom why Ray's signing to Atlantic had fallen into barren times commercially. Biographer Michael Lydon got the out-take tape fragments and pieced together the story of the day. The phone went in the booth during one of the takes of "Losin' Hand" with news of the death of Ray's mother. The engineer reluctantly interrupted the session expecting things to wrap up for the time being. However Ray said there was nothing he could do and opted to continue putting down some of his finest work in the hope of cementing an empathy with Ertegun.
The two hours were concluded with what many consider to be the last ever blues record, the original recording of "Cummins Prison Farm\" that Calvin Leavy did in 1970 for Blue Fox. Our trivia quotient was up there but the tomfoolery had to yield somewhat in favour of the blues and nothing but.
Next Sunday for more? Hope the answer will be yes. 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 |
Fishnet | Debbie Davies | 1 | Holdin' Court | Debbie Davies | TELARC |
The Blues is Alright | Little Milton | 1 | The Last Soul Company | Various Artists | Malaco Records |
When I Get Lonely | John Primer & Bob Corritore | 3 | Knockin' Around These Blues | John Primer & Bob Corritore | Delta Groove Productions |
Country Boy | Sugaray Rayford | 1 | Dangerous | Sugaray Rayford | Delta Groove |
Ya Ya | Sonny Rhodes | 7 | Disciple Of The Blues | Sonny Rhodes | Wild Dog |
Burning Fire | Sam Myers | 4 | Coming From The Old School | Sam Myers | Electro-Fi |
losin' hand | ray charles w. mickey baker | 1-6 | ray charles | ray charles | REAL GONE |
The Years Go Passing By | Larry Davis | 22 | Slow 'N' Moody, Black & Bluesy | Various Artists | Kent |
He's Cool One, She's Hot | Roscoe Shelton | 12 | Save Me | Roscoe Shelton | SPV |
God's Gonna Cut You Down | Johnny Cash | 2 | American V: A Hundred Highways | Johnny Cash | American/Lost Highway |
Move on Up a Little Higher | Marie Knight | 14 | In The Tradition | Various Artists | BLUES ALLIANCE |
Someday After a While (Youll Be Sorry) | Freddie King | 10 | Texas Sensation | Freddie King | CHARLY |
One Room Country Shack - Left Hand Frank | Left Hand Frank | 12 | Living Chicago Blues, Vol. 1 | Various Artists | Alligator |
Lookin for My Baby | Little Milton | 20 | Sun Records - Ultimate Blues Collection | Various Artists | VARESE |
V-8 Baby | Tommy Brown | 9 | Let Me Tell You About The Blues: Atlanta | Various Artists | Fantastic Voyage |
Rhumboogie Jive | Frank 'Floorshow' Culley & His Band | 14 | Let The Boogie Woogie Rock'n'roll | Various Artists | ACE |
Brooks' Boogie | Hadda Brooks | 18 | Okeh R'n'b Story 1949-1957 | Various Artists | COLUMBIA |
TEXAS TONY | Yank Rachell | 1 | Mandolin Blues | Various Artists | delmark |
Cypress Grove Blues | Skip James | 16 | Blues Images Presents 1920's Blues Classics Cd - Volume 3 | Various Artists | BLUES IMAGES |
Falling Down Blues | Furry Lewis | 9 | Roll And Tumble Blues : History Of Slide Guitar | Various Artists | INDIGO |
Tom Cat Blues | Lightnin' Slim | 12 | Rollin' Stone | Lightnin' Slim | FLYRIGHT |
Cut That Out | Junior Wells | 34 | Down Home Blues Classics | Various Artists | BOULEVARD VINTAGE |
love my baby | magic slim | 1 | love my baby | magic slim | ja-wes |
Cummins Prison Farm | Calvin Leavy | 25 | Southern Soul Showcase | Various Artists | Kent (U.K.) |
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