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The purpose of this podcast will be to pull your coats to some of the influential and notable blues artists who have contributed mightily to our genre. I won’t be talking about the folks you probably already know about: Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King and the like, instead we’ll explore the lives and music of some of the greats who have either become forgotten or perhaps never quite made the “A list.”. The blues has a deep and rich history and the more you broaden your listening scope the more you’ll appreciate and understand this music we all love so much.
42 Episodes
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Send us a text Blues You Should Know goes True Crime! Two programs about actual crimes enshrined in the blues. In Pt.1 we listened to different versions of a single case: the murder of Wm. Lyons by "Stack" Lee Shelton. In Pt.2 we check out several different crimes, from the 1890's through the 1950's. All true and all sung about by Blues Singers including John Hurt, Bukka White, Chuck Willis, & Eric Bibb. Always free and available on your favorite podcast platform. Support the show
Send us a text Blues You Should Know goes True Crime! Two programs about actual crimes enshrined in the blues. Program #1 focuses on a single crime: the murder of William Lyons by "Stag" Lee Shelton, in St. Louis, MO, on Christmas 1895. How is it that a 130 year-old crime has become so embedded in our national zeitgeist? Over 502 different performers have recorded songs about “Stagolee”. Obviously, we won’t play all of them but we’ll tell the real story of what happened as opposed...
Send us a text This program features what I, and the original interviewer Ron Weinstock, believe is the first ever extended interview with Robert Lockwood, Jr. This took place at the studios of radio station WRUW-FM on the campus of Case-Western Reserve University in early 1971. Present in the studio were Weinstock, Lockwood, Dave Griggs, and myself. Robert had recently emerged from a ten year semi-retirement and was playing as a featured guest in the Dave Griggs band, in clubs ar...
Send us a text The second half of our two part series on blues mandolin features several of the post-war stars of the mandolin including Johnny Young, Martin, Bogan & Armstrong, Steve James, and more. This program also includes our first ever live interview, here with mandolin player/educator/promotor Rich DelGrosso. By the conclusion of this program we hope you'll agree that the mandolin is indeed a blues instrument that should be used a lot more. Blues You Should Know is always free and...
Send us a text Do you think of the mandolin as a blues instrument? You should and you will after hearing these two programs. In part 1 we'll hear some of the early practitioners of blues mandolin like Coley Jones, Yank Rachell and Charlie McCoy. We'll even hear from mandolin slingers heavily influenced by the early masters, Bill Monroe and Ry Cooder. Part 2 will feature mandolinists from the post-war era and will also include our first ever live interview with mandolin player/promoter/educato...
Send us a text In part two we explore Lonnie's post-war recordings and life. We hear how he adapts his music to a new era. Lonnie has his biggest hit, "Tomorrow Night" for King Records, in 1947 and becomes a favorite of British trad-jazz fans. In the '60s Lonnie has yet another comeback (he was the king of comebacks) and records a series of albums for Prestige Bluesville. Lonnie tours Europe again with the AFBF and eventually moves to Toronto. In 1969 he is struck by a car, which he sur...
Send us a text Lonnie Johnson may arguably be the most influential guitarist of all time. He was the first guitarist to play single string solos in both jazz and blues styles long before even Django Reinhardt or Charlie Christian. Robert Johnson imitated him on record and BB King and many others cited him as a major influence. He was also a superb singer with a gentle, mellow voice and was a terrific and prolific songwriter. His career, which began in the mid 1920s, before the advent of elect...
Send us a text One of the most interesting characters in genre full of interesting characters was J.B. Long of North Carolina. Long was a shopkeeper who, for reasons we may never fully understand, made recording great bluesmen a hobby/passion/obsession. In the summer of 1935 Long, along with his wife and baby girl, drove Blind Boy Fuller, Rev. Gary Davis, and George Washington (Bull City Red) to New York where they made their first recordings. Davis's records did nothing commercially, but Ful...
Send us a text One of the most interesting characters in genre full of interesting characters was J.B. Long of North Carolina. Long was a shopkeeper who, for reasons we may never fully understand, made recording great bluesmen a hobby/passion/obsession. In the summer of 1935 Long, along with his wife and baby girl, drove Blind Boy Fuller, Rev. Gary Davis, and George Washington (Bull City Red) to New York where they made their first recordings. Davis's records did nothing commercially, but Ful...
Send us a text Known today mainly for his sensitive and evocative compositions like Hit the Road Jack, Please Send Me Someone to Love, and Rivers Invitation, Percy Mayfield began his career as a big band vocalist of the Bronze Baritone genre, until a serious auto accident nearly killed him, disfigured his face, and ended his career as a matinee idol/singing heartthrob. After his recovery, he continued his career as a songwriter writing hit records for others and making the occasional recordin...
Send us a text Every blues fan knows about the three Kings of the Blues, Albert, BB & Freddie, but we're going to add two more: Saunders King and Earl King. In Part 2 we explore the music and life of Earl King of New Orleans. Earl was a singer, guitarist, songwriter, record producer and mentor to dozens of young New Orleans musicians. He may be best known for his two part record, Come On, also known as Let the Good Times Roll , recorded by Jimi Hendrix and many more. His first hit w...
Send us a text Every blues fan knows about the three Kings of the Blues, Albert, BB & Freddie, but we're going to add two more: Saunders King and Earl King. Part 1 takes a look at the music and life of Saunders King who was in fact, the first blues artist to solo on electric guitar, preceding T-Bone Walker by two months. Saunders was a fine guitarist in the Charlie Christian mold, and also a marvelous vocalist, able to sing blues, pop and ballads with equal facility. He was also the fathe...
Send us a text We kick off season three with a special program about blues from my home-town, Cleveland, Ohio. We start by explaining why Cleveland has never the blues center that Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, or Mississippi were, then move on to feature some great musicians either born in Cleveland or who lived a significant portion of their lives here. Cow Cow Davenport, Montana Taylor, Bullmoose Jackson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Wallace Coleman, Travis Haddix, Kristin...
Send us a text The Blues on King. King wasn't a hard-core blues label the way Chess was, but blues was a significant part of its catalog. Hear John Lee Hooker, Smokey Smothers, Tiny Topsy, Cleanhead Vinson, Johnny Guitar Watson, and of course, the voice of Syd Nathan himself explaining just how things are and are going to be! Coming up next: Part 3, King Bluegrass. Support the show
Send us a text While Louis Jordan was clearly the most successful recording artist of the jump-blues era of the late '40s-early '50s, there were also quite a few great performers of that era including Tiny Bradshaw, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Roy Milton, and our featured artists for this episode: Joe and Jimmy Liggins. The Los Angeles based Liggins Bros., who led separate bands, had several popular hit records and recorded some great, light-hearted blues records. There's is not the deeply Sou...
Send us a text According to legend, a young Bob Wills once rode 50 miles on horseback to hear Bessie Smith sing. Throughout his long career, Wills mined the blues for some of his best and most popular numbers. His band, Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys, were by no means strictly a blues band, but the blues was always present in his music. In this episode we take a look at his blues sources and how he interpreted and transformed them to suit his purposes and his audiences. Support the ...
Send us a text Blues You Should Know Podcast presents our final (yes, I mean it this time) program on the music of King Records, Ohio's great eclectic record label. There was just too much great music, and too many great artists left over, so we offer one more program we're calling King Records 7.1. Hear blues from Champion Jack Dupree, & Baby Boy Warren, jazz from Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Do-Wop from Linda Hays & the Platters & Otis Williams, rockabilly from Charlie Feathers ...
Send us a text Here in Part 7 we go over the life of King Records founder and president Syd Nathan. We also spotlight some great King artists we haven't been able to fit into the programs so far. These include some of King's biggest selling artists like Earl Bostic, Five Royales, Mainer's Mountaineers, Roland Kirk, Bill Doggett and more. Oh, and despite what you hear me say at the beginning of the episode, we're not done with King yet! Support the show
Send us a text Part 6 of our series on King Records is devoted to one artist-James Brown. We cover the recordings he made for King from his debut single, Please, Please, Please through his recordings with Bootsy & Catfish Collins. Brown was King's biggest star and certainly his most socially significant artist. Learn about the origin of the "Cape Routine" and much more. Support the show
Send us a text There were indeed Kings at King Records. Two of the best known were Albert and Freddy King, but there were more! Kings of King on Blues You Should Know. Support the show
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