The Day The Music Burned – The 2008 Universal Fire

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Tony

A New York Times investigation has revealed that decades of Universal Music Group treasures burned in 2008.

By Niraj Chokshi

From The New York Times. June 12th 2019

Eleven years ago this month, a fire ripped through a part of Universal Studios Hollywood.

At the time, the company said that the blaze had destroyed the theme park’s ‘King Kong attraction and a video vault that contained only copies of old works.

But, according to an article published on Tuesday by The New York Times Magazine, the fire also tore through an archive housing treasured audio recordings, amounting to what the piece described as “the biggest disaster in the history of the music business.”

The fire started in the early hours of June 1st, 2008.

Overnight, maintenance workers had used blowtorches to repair the roof of a building on the set of New England Street, a group of colonial-style buildings used in scenes for movies and television shows. The workers followed protocol and waited for the shingles they worked on to cool, but the fire broke out soon after they left, just before 5 a.m.

The flames eventually reached Building 6197, known as the video vault, which housed videotapes, film reels and, crucially, a library of master sound recordings owned by Universal Music Group.

Almost all of the master recordings stored in the vault were destroyed in the fire, including those produced by some of the most famous musicians since the 1940s.
In a confidential report in 2009, Universal Music Group estimated the loss at about 500,000 song titles.

The lost works most likely included masters in the Decca Records collection by Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland. The fire probably also claimed some of Chuck Berry’s greatest recordings, produced for Chess Records, as well as the masters of some of Aretha Franklin’s first appearances on record.

Almost of all of Buddy Holly’s masters were lost, as were most of John Coltrane’s masters in the Impulse Records collection. The fire also claimed numerous hit singles, likely including Bill Haley and His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock,” Etta James’s “At Last” and the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie.”

A master recording is the one-of-a-kind original recording of a piece of music. It’s the source from which other vinyl records, CDs, MP3s and all other recordings are made.

According to the article, documents show that the vault contained masters dating back decades, including multitrack recordings on which individual instruments remained isolated from one another. There were also session masters, including recordings that had never been commercially released. The recordings within the vault came from to some of the most important record labels of all time.

Audiophiles and audio professionals view such recordings with special regard.

“A master is the truest capture of a piece of recorded music,” Adam Block, the former president of Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog arm, told the magazine. “Sonically, masters can be stunning in their capturing of an event in time. Every copy thereafter is a sonic step away.”

Why are we only finding about this now?

At the time, the fire made news around the world, and the vault featured heavily in that coverage. But most articles focused only on the video recordings in the archive and, even then, news outlets largely characterized the disaster as a crisis averted.

Jody Rosen, the writer of the article, described the successful effort to play down the scope of the loss as a “triumph of crisis management” that involved officials working for Universal Music Group on both coasts. Those efforts were undoubtedly aimed at minimizing public embarrassment, but some suggest the company was also particularly worried about a backlash from artists and artist estates whose master recordings had been destroyed.

The real extent of the loss was laid out in litigation and company documents obtained by Mr. Rosen, a contributing writer for the magazine.

Mr. Rosen described the loss as historic, and even Universal Music Group itself — privately — viewed what happened in bleak terms: “Lost in the fire was, undoubtedly, a huge musical heritage,” reads one 2009 internal assessment.

Record companies have had a troubled history with such recordings and have been known to trash them in bulk. Decades ago, employees of CBS Records reportedly took power saws to multitrack masters to sell the reels as scrap metal. In the 1970s, RCA destroyed masters by Elvis Presley in a broader purge.

Because of that history, industry professionals have long questioned how committed the major music labels are to preserving what they see as priceless artifacts.

Today, most commercial recordings from the past century and beyond are controlled by only three giant record companies: Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and, of course, Universal Music Group.

Read the full investigation here: “The Day The Music Burned.”

Niraj Chokshi is a general assignment reporter based in New York. Before joining The Times in 2016, he covered state governments for The Washington Post. He has also worked at The Atlantic, National Journal and The Recorder, in San Francisco.
Posted in 45 rpm, 78rpm, Americana, Blues, Cassette, Compact Disc, Film -TV, Gospel, Jazz, Rare Records, Rhythm & Blues, Rock, Rock & Roll, Roots, Soul, Vinyl, World Music | Leave a comment

Up Jumped The Devil – The Real Life Of Robert Johnson

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Tony

Gayle Dean Wardlow and Bruce Conforth: Up Jumped The Devil – The Real Life of Robert Johnson (Chicago Review Press)

Tony Burke, Published in the Morning Star, May 2019

Though he only made 40 recordings, US blues artist Robert Johnson’s legacy has endured for over eight decades and his songs are now part of the blues canon.

Those recordings — some were never issued at the time and others were alternate takes — were made in 1936 and 1937, yet even with such a modest catalogue Johnson’s influence has stretched from the late 1930s to the post-war Chicago blues era of Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Howlin’ Wolf through to the 1960s, 1970s and beyond.

The list of the great and the good who’ve interpreted Johnson’s material is pretty endless. ‘Cross Road Blues’ got a thunderous version by Cream at their 1969 farewell concert in London, while ‘Love In Vain’ was covered by the Rolling Stones on the album Let It Bleedand ‘I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom’ by Ike & Tina Turner.

Other interpreters have included Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac (‘Hell Hound On My Trail’), Led Zeppelin (‘Travelling Riverside Blues’) and Eric Clapton (‘I’m A Steady Rollin’ Man’), not to mention the endless performances of ‘Sweet Home Chicago’, now a staple of every touring blues artist as well as every Blues Brothers show.

The myths and stories surrounding Johnson, his prowess as a guitarist, his untimely death and the search for a final resting place following his murder at the age of 27 in 1938 are the stuff of legend. The most enduring is that he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi in order to become an extraordinary guitar player and that his shyness led to him recording facing the wall.

Johnson’s eventful and ultimately tragic life has long cried out for an authentic account and that’s exactly what the book Up Jumped The Devil, published next month, provides. It’s the result of over 50 years of research by blues writer Gayle Dean Wardlow and Bruce Conforth, who has studied Johnson’s life and music since 1970.

Between them, they provide much new information in a book that not only destroys every myth that ever surrounded Johnson but also details all his recordings, travels and relationships. This is his true story.

Johnson was already a brilliant guitar player from the get-go. He didn’t need to meet the devil to become one and he was already a popular performer of his own blues and the pop songs of the day. He recorded with his face to the wall as he didn’t want other musicians in the room to see his guitar technique.

And it was a liaison with a plantation overseer’s wife which led to his fatal poisoning with mothballs dissolved in a jar of corn liquor which caused near paralysis and severe bleeding from the mouth. The perpetrator is said to have only wanted to give Johnson a “warning” — apparently this sort of poisoning could be overcome! No surprise that he was quickly buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

He was originally contracted to record for Vocalion Records in 1936 by producer John Hammond, who was so enthused by what he had recorded and heard he wrote in the March 1937 issue of the communist magazine New Masses that Johnson was “the greatest Negro blues singer who has cropped up in recent years”. Compared to Johnson, the blues singer Leadbelly — a favourite of the New York left — sounded “like an accomplished poseur,” according to Hammond.

Johnson’s record sales were not high, with the exception of 1936’s ‘Terraplane Blues’, referencing the model made by the Hudson car manufacturers, but even so Hammond wanted him to appear at Carnegie Hall for the Spirituals To Swing concert in December 1938, featuring Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Albert Ammons and the Golden Gate Quartet.

He was going to be the big surprise of the show but Johnson was already dead. Hammond wrote about Johnson’s demise in “unknown circumstances” in New Masses and read the article from the stage of the concert shortly after.

In 1961 and 1970, Columbia Records issued two Johnson albums with released and unreleased tracks but the clincher was the Columbia Sony box set issued in 1988. Expected to sell no more than 10,000 copies over five years, it sold hundreds of thousands in a few weeks and racked up more than 500,000 sales in the US alone.

Since then, other CDs of his recordings have been released, from cheap budget releases to deluxe vinyl box sets costing hundreds of pounds.

In recent years, the Robert Johnson industry has cranked up. A silent film of a street performer, shot after he died, was hyped on eBay but there were no takers. US magazine Vanity Fair ran a feature on a photo bought on eBay of Johnson with Chicago bluesman and travelling companion Johnny Shines.

That story was picked up by the world’s media until it was proved that it was neither Johnson or Shines as both men were wearing “zoot” suits, not a popular style until the early 1940s.

There are in fact only three known photos of Johnson — a dapper studio portrait, a photo-booth picture which Johnson took and a photo of him with his half sister and her son.

There have been many books written about Johnson, but none have carried such weight of information and sheer detail, unearthed over the decades by Wardlow and Conforth. Not only have they roundly debunked many myths, they’ve come up with the definitive biography of one of the 20th century’s greatest and most influential musicians.

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Me And Big Joe by Michael Bloomfield

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Tony

In 1980 great white blues guitar player and session player Michael Bloomfield (1943 – 1981) –  ex-Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, Bob Dylan, Al Kooper, Taj Mahal, Janis Joplin and many others wrote a short 60 page book called ‘Me And Big Joe’ recounting his travels in the 1960s with bluesman Big Joe Williams.

The book is a humorous travelogue as Big Joe, sets of with Bloomfield as his traveling companion across the USA visiting friends and blue artists, playing gigs along the way all the while drinking and carousing, getting thrown out of joints and bars, out-staying his welcome with his ‘people’ including relatives – many of whom live in appalling conditions and poverty.

Bloomfield at first is a wary companion to the street wise and sometimes violent Big Joe but they became firm friends.

Click here to download the Me and Big Joe article from High Times – the text in this version is a bit different from the book – but basically they are the same. Robert Crumb did the illustrations for High Times version which are not in the book. Enjoy the snoots!

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Don’t Worry ‘Bout The Bear – The Music Memoirs of Jim Simpson

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Tony

‘Don’t Worry ’Bout The Bear – From The Blues To Jazz, Rock & Roll and Black Sabbath’ is written by Jim Simpson and his brother Ron and is published by Brewin Books on June 22nd 

Jim was the original manager of Black Sabbath – but Sabbath were not typical of the music he promoted and recorded.

In the 1960s Jim played trumpet and managed the UK pop/ska band Locomotive who hit the UK charts in 1968. He later managed the Birmingham rock band Bakerloo, edited the  Birmingham music magazine ‘Brum Beat’ from 1968 to 1982 and ‘The Jazz Rag’ magazine and launched Big Bear Music promoting four American Blues Legends tours, between 1973 and 1979, as well as promoting many individual tours by US blues artists.

Among those who appeared on the ABL tours and toured individually for Big Bear include Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup, Champion Jack Dupree, Billy Boy Arnold, Willie Mabon, Eddie Taylor, Eddie C. Campbell, Big John Wrencher, Boogie Woogie Red, Eddie ‘Guitar’ Burns, Lightnin’ Slim Doctor Ross, (14 tours for Big Bear), Billy ‘The Kid’ Emerson, Cousin Joe Pleasant, Shuggie Otis and many more!

Jim has also been the director of the Birmingham International Jazz Festival for over 30 years, promoting Miles Davis, Illinois Jacquet, B. B. King and Dizzy Gillespie. He was also the programming and publicity manager at Ronnie Scott’s Birmingham until its demise.

Jim Simpson has been at the epi-centre of the UK music industry for over half a century promoting and recording  jazz and blues in the UK and Europe – and he is still busy supporting new acts as well as his stalwarts such as the jive and R&B combo King Pleasure and The Biscuit Boys.

Besides jazz, blues and Black Sabbath there are plenty of stories and anecdotes about musicians and artists such Nina Simone, Muddy Waters, The Moody Blues, Stevie Winwood, and broadcaster John Peel.

Watch out for reviews in Blues & Rhythm Magazine and in other UK music publications.

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Interview With Charlie Gillett From 2008

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Tony


The late Charlie Gillett was a renowned broadcaster, journalist and author. He wrote the acclaimed and influential ‘Sound Of The City’ (“the first serious and comprehensive history of rock & roll”) and the story of Atlantic Records ‘Making Tracks’.

He wrote for the first serous music magazine I ever read ‘Let It Rock’, for ‘Rolling Stone’, ‘The Observer’ and the ‘NME’

As a radio DJ he appeared on the national and world service BBC, and presented the influential BBC Radio London show ‘Honky Tonk’.

Ace Records released two volumes of ‘Charlie Gillett’s Radio Picks Honky Tonk’ which included some of the classic records he played on his show including a demo by Dire Straits of ‘Sultan’s Of Swing’ which lead to world wide fame for the band.

On London’s Capital Radio he began playing ‘world music’ and developed an unparalleled knowledge of world/global music scene (check out his multi volume issued between 2000 and 2009 ‘World’ and ‘Sound Of The World’ series of double CDs).

He was the boss of Oval Music, a label named after the local south London cricket ground that he formed with Gordon Nelki in 1972, which released the influential ‘Another Saturday Night’ a compilation of South Louisiana and Cajun music.

Charlie was the recipient of  a Sony Gold Lifetime Achievement Award and the John Peel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio by the Radio Academy.

In July 2006, after eleven years of broadcasting his regular Saturday-night show of world music, Gillett had to end his weekend slot due to ill health, but until his death he continued to present his half-hour show, ‘Charlie Gillett’s World Of Music’.

Charlie died on 17th March 2010, following a series of health problems, including being diagnosed with Churg-Strauss syndrome in 2006.

Music fans will enjoy this hour lone interview with a great man.

 

Posted in 45 rpm, 78rpm, Americana, Blues, Books, Film -TV, Gospel, Rare Records, Rhythm & Blues, Rock, Rock & Roll, Roots, Soul, Vinyl, Website, World Music, You Tube | Leave a comment

Down Home Blues: Chicago Volume 2: Sweet Home Chicago

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Tony

‘Down Home Blues: Sweet Home Chicago’ is the second volume of Chicago Blues post war down home blues music from Wienerworld, recorded from the mid-1940s through the golden decade years of the 1950s up to the early 1960s Sweet Home Chicago features 46 artists who were influential in developing the Chicago blues scene including Elmore James, Howling Wolf and Jimmy Rogers. Includes early down home blues recordings from Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley just before they were on the cusp of taking their music into the new big world of rock and roll

A five CD set, packaged in a deluxe digipak with an outer slip case, featuring 135 tracks all remastered and including alternate takes of well-known recordings. All unissued and alternate take records are from Peter Moody’s private collection, many of which are otherwise unavailable

Includes an outstanding 94 page book, featuring a new essay by renowned blues historian  Mike Rowe on the post war Chicago scene; over fifty rare period photographs illustrate the essay throughout; full track details, as well as full sessionography. A feature page section on some of the artists and a five page gallery of original 78 and 45 record labels

Features eight unique unpublished photos: Chuck Berry (inside cover), Johnnie Johnson (p.1), Memphis Minnie (p.2), Robert Lockwood with Sonny Boy Williamson (p.25), Honey Boy Edwards (p.31), Elmore James, Little Walter & Muddy Waters (p.34), Bo Diddley (p.42), Billy Boy Arnold (p.44)

Peter Moody, the compiler, was frustrated that as he worked on the Chicago 5 CD Fine Boogie set that was released in 2017, he was finding that he had many more prime recordings and ideas to bring to the ears of the blues music audience so he started work on this follow up collection.

Continuing the mix of well-known artists to the lesser-known, all the recordings are prime Chicago masterworks. With big hitters like Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson, all their tracks are alternate takes or originally unissued masters by the record companies, most of which are currently not available on release.

Mixing with these three there are many more stars of this down home genre including Albert King, Jimmy Reed and Memphis Minnie, again with alternate recordings of their best well-known music. In this golden age of blues, there were so many superb recordings being made it was impossible to issue many of them into the singles record buying market place. Eventually when the new long playing albums began to surface they began to cater for this wealth of music when recording in later years.

CD 1
1 WHO BUT YOU *
James Clark
2 DRIFTING
Memphis Jimmy (James Clark)
3 DELTA PINE BLUES *
Johnny Shines
4 RIDE, RIDE MAMA *
Johnny Shines
5 EVIL-HEARTED WOMAN BLUES *
Johnny Shines
6 I’M GONNA CUT YOUR HEAD*
Homer Harris
7 TOMORROW WILL BE TOO LATE *
Homer Harris
8 DUE RESPECTS TO YOU
Willie ‘Long Time’ Smith
9 NO SPECIAL RIDER HERE
Willie ‘Long Time’ Smith
10 LITTLE BOY BLUE
“Blues Boy” Bill
11 BURYING GROUND BLUES * -ALT
Muddy Waters
12 COME TO ME BABY
James (Beal Street) Clark
13 YOU CAN’T MAKE THE GRADE
James (Beal Street) Clark
14 XMAS BLUES * -TEST
Herman Ray
15 SPECIAL DELIVERY MAN *
Forest City Joe
16 SHADY LANE WOMAN *
Forest City Joe
17 ATOMIC BOMB BLUES *
Homer Harris
18 TOMORROW WILL BE TOO LATE * – ALT
Homer Harris
19 DEVILMENT ON MY MIND *
Willie ‘Long Time’ Smith
20 HOMELESS BLUES *
Willie ‘Long Time’ Smith
21 MEAN MISTREATIN’ WOMAN*
Forest City Joe
22 LONESOME DAY BLUES *
Forest City Joe
23 MOTHER FUYER
Dirty Red
24 YOU DONE ME WRONG
Dirty Red
25 MR CHARLEY *
Pete Franklin
26 WATER COAST BLUES
Big Bill Broonzy

CD 2
1 HARD DAYS *
Muddy Waters
2 BURYING GROUND *
Muddy Waters
3 SCHOOL DAYS
Floyd Jones
4 COME ON, IF YOU’RE COMING
Tampa Red
5 I’LL FIND MY WAY
Tampa Red
6 BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAY
Johnny Temple
7 SIT RIGHT ON IT
Johnny Temple
8 HARD WORKING MAN *
Jimmy Rogers
9 MY LITTLE MACHINE *
Jimmy Rogers
10 CRYING SHAME *
Jimmy Rogers
11 GLORY FOR MAN *
Robert Lockwood Jr.
12 MY DAILY WISH *
Robert Lockwood Jr.
13 HOW MANY MORE YEARS -ALT
Howling Wolf
14 JUST MY KIND *
Howling Wolf
15 BROKEN HEART -ALT
Memphis Minnie
16 LAKE MICHIGAN *
Memphis Minnie
17 ME AND MY CHAUFFEUR -ALT
Memphis Minnie
18 LONESOME DAY *
Muddy Waters
19 STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH *
Muddy Waters
20 CRYING – ALT
Blue Smitty
21 ELGIN MOVEMENT *
Blue Smitty
22 IN LOVE AGAIN *
Memphis Minnie
23 WHAT A NIGHT *
Memphis Minnie
24 FUNERAL HEARSE AT MY DOOR *
Rocky Fuller
25 DRIFTIN’ -ALT
Little Walter
26 OFF THE WALL -ALT
Little Walter

CD 3
1 SWEET HOME CHICAGO *-TAKE 2
Honey Boy Edwards
2 DROP DOWN MAMA *
Honey Boy Edwards
3 I DECLARE THAT AIN’T RIGHT * – TAKE 4
Henry Gray
4 MY BABY LEFT ME *
Big Boy Spires
5 THAT’S IT *
Little Walter
6 THAT’S IT * – EDITED VERSION
Little Walter
7 BLUES WITH A FEELING -ALT
Little Walter
8 I SEE MY BABY *
Elmore James
9 COUNTRY BOOGIE
Elmore James
10 I HAD A DREAM -ALT
Lazy Bill
11 SHE GOT ME WALKIN’ -ALT
Lazy Bill
12 LITTLE BOY BLUE * -ALT
Albert King
13 HAND ME DOWN * (SWEET WOMAN)
Albert King
14 MURDER *
Albert King
15 UNTITLED INSTRUMENTAL *
Morris Pejoe
16 HURT MY FEELINGS
Morris Pejoe
17 LONESOME BLUES *
Homesick James
18 12th ST STATION *
Homesick James
19 LONG LONESOME DAYS *
Homesick James
20 EIGHT BALL*
Gus Jenkins
21 (I’M YOUR) HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN-ALT
Muddy Waters
22 IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE DEVIL
Otis Spann
23 FIVE SPOT
Otis Spann
24 I LOVE YOU SO (OH BABY) *
Little Walter
25 LAST NIGHT * – FIRST VERSION
Little Walter
26 GOODBYE BABY *
Henry Gray
27. YOU MESSED UP *
Henry Gray

CD 4
1 WEE WEE HOURS
Chuck Berry
2 NO MONEY DOWN
Chuck Berry
3 I’VE CHANGED *
Chuck Berry
4 I WAS FOOLED
Billy Boy Arnold
5 DON’T STAY OUT ALL NIGHT
Billy Boy Arnold
6 LITTLE GIRL -ALT
Bo Diddley
7 I’M A MAN -ALT
Bo Diddley
8 YOU DON’T LOVE ME (YOU DON’T CARE)
Bo Diddley
9 WATCH YOURSELF *
Henry Gray
10 THAT AIN’T RIGHT *
Henry Gray
11 THIS PAIN *
Muddy Waters
12 I WANT TO BE LOVED -ALT
Muddy Waters
13 LITTLE GIRL *
Little Walter
14 TEMPERATURE – FIRST VERSION
Little Walter
15 HURRY HOME *
Dusty Brown
16 GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY*
Sonny Boy Williamson
17 HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE *
Sonny Boy Williamson
18 SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING
Herby Joe
19 DREAMED (LAST NIGHT)
Herby Joe
20 I NEED YOU PRETTY BABY FOR MY OWN
Harmonica ‘Blues King’ Harris
21 BLUES KING MANGO
Harmonica ‘Blues King’ Harris
22 GOIN’ BACK
Po Joe Williams
23 MY BABY LEFT
Po Joe Williams
24 YOU GOT ME WRONG
Billy Boy Arnold
25 MY HEART IS CRYING
Billy Boy Arnold
26 I DON’T KNOW -ALT
Sonny Boy Williamson
27 LIKE WOLF *
Sonny Boy Williamson
28 THIS IS MY APARTMENT *
Sonny Boy Williamson

CD5
1 I’M GONNA RUIN YOU *-FIRST VERSION
Jimmy Reed
2 HONEY, WHERE YOU GOING?
Jimmy Reed
3 LITTLE RAIN
Jimmy Reed
4 HURTS ME SO MUCH * -TAKE 2
Sonny Boy Williamson
5 FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES – ALT
Sonny Boy Williamson
6 KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR
Elmore James
7 LOOK OUT MABLE
G. “Davy” Crockett
8 HONEY, WHERE YOU GOING? -ALT
Jimmy Reed
9 LITTLE RAIN -ALT
Jimmy Reed
10 SIGNALS OF LOVE -ALT
Jimmy Reed
11 WELL YOU KNOW (I LOVE YOU)
Dusty Brown
12 I LOVE THIS CARRYING ON
Freddie Hall
13 SHE’S A UPSETTER
Freddie Hall
14 MY WALKING BLUES
Little Mack Simmons
15 COME BACK
Little Mack Simmons
16 NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
Eddie Boyd
17 HER PICTURE IN THE FRAME
Eddie Boyd
18 FIVE LONG YEARS
Eddie Boyd
19 I CAN’T HOLD OUT
Elmore James
20 THE SUN IS SHINING
Elmore James
21 MR AIRPLANE MAN
Howling Wolf
22 LITTLE BABY
Howling Wolf
23 BABY’S COMING HOME
Hound Dog Taylor
24 FIVE, TAKE FIVE
Hound Dog Taylor
25 CAN’T AFFORD TO DO IT
Homesick James
26 SET A DATE
Homesick James
27 RUNNING AROUND
Slim Willis
28 NO FEELING FOR YOU
Slim Willis

KEY
* Track originally not issued
-ALT = Alternate Take (originally not issued)

 

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Joe Louis Walker – Live In Las Vegas

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Tony

Joe Louis Walker – a Blues Hall of Fame guitarist and singer and songwriter and his band storm through ten 10 tracks live in concert at the Boulder Station Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This great live performance is captured iDVD and complimentary CD disc packaged in a  four-panel Digipak.

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Netflix Documentary On Robert Johnson

Posted on April 25, 2019 by Tony

Netflix has made a new documentary about the life of legendary Delta blues guitarist Robert Johnson, whose guitar playing in the 1930’s was pioneering for the genre and laid the template for rock’n’roll.

The film is called ‘Remastered: Devil at the Crossroads’ because Johnson was said to have made a deal with the Devil at a crossroads in rural Mississippi, and it explores how people believed that everything he touched was cursed.

This film examines more worldly interpretations of these myths and how they might have affected today’s blues stars, including contributors Keb’ Mo’, Keith Richards, Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt.

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Unissued R&B Track Gets Release On 45rpm After 69 Years

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Tony

Ace records recently found an unissued track, ‘Bartender Knock Me A Zombie’ in the the vaults of Sensation Records.

Recorded almost seventy years ago by The Four Shades of Rhythm for the Detroit based label Ace made it available to BBC Radio 6’s Cerys Mathews who played the track on air generating much interest amongst listeners.

So much so they have released it on a 45rpm disc. Click on the graphic at the top and read the Ace ‘Right Track’ press booklet for more information!

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Skiffle Tribute On BBC Four April 12th

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Tony

65 years ago Lonnie Donegan started a music revolution in the UK with his recording of Lead Belly’s ‘Rock Island Line’ – it started the skiffle boom when thousands of skiffle bands spread throughout the land.

On April 12th at 9:00pm UK songster Billy Bragg presents a tribute to the song and to the skiffle boom – and it looks like it is well worth watching. Washboard’s at the ready!

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