Facebook seems to be working well for STAR BLUES at the moment with a number of playlist regular artists taking an active interest in the show and station. So it came to pass that we got the new album from Zakiya Hooker, daughter of the inimitable legend John Lee, onto last night's show. To judge her by her famous name is to do her something of a disservice, her portfolio includes both jazz and soul as well as top quality blues. We did her updated version of "Crossroads" as evidence. There's also a brand new album from George Thorogood called "Dirty Dozen" wherein he brings us 6 new songs and six rarities from 1989-1993 - from the first half dozen we took a stinging slide rendition of the Sleepy John Estes composition "Drop Down Mama". You can pretty much expect a return to this one as he's a real crowd pleaser.
Our winner of the tickets to see Maximum R&B at the Corn Exchange had to cancel through illness and generously allowed us to put his prize back into the pot. My question on the band that covered "Handbags and Gladrags" fooled no-one - congratulations to Lyn and to Roger who will see Alan Price, Maggie Bell, Zoot Money and the songs first hitmaker (Chris Farlowe) in concert. Incidentally, the song was written by Mike D'Abo but he doesn't have the gorgeous soul phrasing that Chris had and still has.
The piano spot was a welcome outing for "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith and I noted that within a couple of years Bing Crosby did a rather surreal and expectedly understated version. For the gospel tent, there were the Alphabetical Four sublimely supple on "I'm Gonna Walk Right In" and the uplifting lap steel mastery of Robert Randolph on the instrumental "Joyful Sound". I'd not done that one for over five years - why the Dickens not I'll never know, its not possible to hear it without smiling.
One of the satellite channels is using Freddie King's "Goin' Down" in a promo, so I played it in full on STAR BLUES to mark Freddie's upcoming birth date and that of the song's writer Don Nix. We remembered Sam Carr, legendary drummer, through his final recordings and for his partnership with Frank Frost as a "Jelly Roll King". This year has seen the deaths of number of blues giants but there are plenty of good things upcoming, of which Robert Randolph is one: in the next few weeks we'll feature a few more ... Watch this space as they say (a bit daft on radio but I didn't coin the phrase). There'll be more blues next week on Sunday night at 10 on the Commercial Radio station of the year 2009 - on FM and online at http://www.star107.co.uk/ Until then take care of yourselves and take care of those that take care of you.
Gary Blue
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