Back In The Day

Rockin' At Gilleys

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:54:00 +0000

Thought I'd post a video of the band that placed first (in their category, which was non-country) at the Texas Battle of the Bands last weekend (November 7), held at Gilleys Roadhouse. The band is sort of a jam band type aggregation, so they ain't blues--but some of those kind of licks do seep into to what they are doing. The main reason for posting up the band, Liquidious, is that my brother-in-law (JD) was serving up some of the guitar licks for that event. He's the one stage left, slingin' the tone with the Les Paul. Lead singer/guitarist is Dave Hanlin, Chad MacManus is on bass, John Chapin beats the drums, and Jeff McCabe plays the keyboard.

Gilley's Roadhouse is the old Henry's Hideout, between Plantersville and Magnolia, Texas and it was once billed as the Horniest Place in Texas, due to the multitude of antlers decking every inch of wall space in the joint. Mickey Gilley's son, Keith, bought the place awhile back and has it jumping in the spirit of his dad's famous dance hall.

There are a few more videos from the gig at the same site and the band has a myspace page.

Where The Buffalo Roamed

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Sitting here listening to Sirius Radio crank out Norton Buffalo's music in memory of one of the truly great harmonica players reminded me that I needed to post my own tribute to the man. He passed away a couple of months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Back when I began this blog, I mentioned him as a big part of my history with the instrument, so I repeat a piece of that here.

When I first picked up the harmonica with intentions of seriously learning how to play it, I couldn't play anything but chords and couldn't for the life of me coax single hole notes out of the thing. The two embouchure methods, mentioned in the little Hohner pamphlet, to achieve this goal were to pucker the mouth or block the unwanted holes with the tongue. I couldn't do it without slurring the adjacent holes. THEN--one day I accidentally curled my tongue around a note and, WHAM, the single note sounded out. So, I just began working my way around the harp with my curled tongue and it worked. As I ran across other harmonica players, I began to think that I was pretty much a weird duck, because they would just look at me strangely and asked, "You do what?" Now, this was way before I had access to any type of internet harmonica discussion sites, such as the Harp-l.

One of the few mail order harmonica businesses back then was Kevin's Harps. Seeing that Norton Buffalo had two instructional videos available, I ordered both. I had seen Norton play with the Steve Miller band back in the day and I knew that he had played the scorching harmonica on Bonnie Raitt's Runaway . His solos on that one song rank up there with Magic Dick's Whammer Jammer or James Cotton's The Creeper in the minds of harmonica aficionados as a creative gem. He swapped out four differently keyed harmonicas to achieve what he wanted. Those that saw him play it live will testify that it was a sight to behold.

To cut to the chase--in the opening segment of video one the Buffalo said that he got his single notes by curling his tongue. What! I felt vindicated. Here was a pro saying that he just learned to do it that way and kept with it. I had a new friend. Now, since then, someone on the Harp-l discussion site (might have come from elsewhere, I dunno) named the style as a U-Block, which sounds better. Also, since then, I've accumulated quite a bit of Norton's stuff and he's his own man in terms of technique and style. He's way more than just a blues player. Go to his www.norton-buffalo.com while it's still available and click on the photo button to see the myriad of musicians that this man has played on stage with.

When my wife walked in a few minutes ago, she recognized his warm vocals sounding throughout the house, because of all the tons of music I have, she liked Norton Buffalo better than anything I have--especially his work with slide monster, Roy Rogers. She couldn't believe that he had passed. I can't either. He was my same 58. Ride On Buffalo!
P.S.--Here's a nice vid of Norton Buffalo with Steve Miller. It also features some nice stuff from James Cotton:

Leader of the (Wolf) Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:36:00 +0000

My daughter, Megan and husband Brad, made a jaunt to the Windy City last weekend. Before they left, I told them that Eddie Shaw was playing at Kingtons Mines, and that he would be absolutely worth catching in action and they did. They met up with their friends and enjoyed a performance by this legendary bluesman. He even sent a thank you back to me for sending her to him.

Here's an entry from All Music Guide explaining the importance of Eddie Shaw better than I ever could:

Biography by Bill Dahl
When it comes to blues, Chicago's strictly a guitar and harmonica town. Saxophonists who make a living leading a blues band in the Windy City are scarce as hen's teeth. But Eddie Shaw has done precisely that ever since his longtime boss, Howlin' Wolf, died in 1976.

The powerfully constructed tenor saxist has rubbed elbows with an amazing array of luminaries over his 50-plus years in the business. By the time he was age 14, Shaw was jamming with Ike Turner's combo around Greenville, MS. At a gig in Itta Bena where Shaw sat in, Muddy Waters extended the young saxman an invitation he couldn't refuse: a steady job with Waters's unparalleled band in Chicago. After a few years, Shaw switched his onstage allegiance to Waters's chief rival, the ferocious Howlin' Wolf, staying with him until the very end and eventually graduating to a featured role as Wolf's bandleader.

Eddie Shaw also shared a West side bandstand or two along the way with Freddy King, Otis Rush, and Magic Sam. The saxist did a 1966 session with Sam that produced his first single, the down-in-the-alley instrumental "Blues for the West Side" (available on Delmark's Sweet Home Chicago anthology). Shaw also blew his heart out on Sam's 1968 Delmark encore LP, Black Magic.

Shaw's own recording career finally took off during the late '70s, with a standout appearance on Alligator's Living Chicago Blues anthologies in 1978, his own LPs for Simmons and Rooster Blues, and fine recent discs for Rooster Blues (In the Land of the Crossroads) and Austrian Wolf (Home Alone). Eddie Shaw, who once operated the hallowed 1815 Club on West Roosevelt Road (one of Wolf's favorite haunts), has sired a couple of high-profile sons: diminutive Eddie Jr., known as Vaan, plays lead guitar with Eddie's Wolf Gang and has cut a pair of his own albums for Wolf, while husky Stan Shaw is a prolific character actor in Hollywood.

Sonny Boy Terry Live @ IBC Houston Finals

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:57:00 +0000

Go to www.youtube.com/sonnyboyterry and click on Sonny Boy Terry @ IBC Dan Electros for their fine performance of his original, "Miss Ann's Playpen", recorded during the IBC finals at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar. Darned fine blues being played! I tried my darnest to embed the link and something wouldn't let me. Dunno what the heck is up with that, but just type in the youtube address and enjoy it.
UPDATE: NEVER MIND ALL THAT. HERE IT IS: (if it doesn't work, then do the preceding)

Blues For Food '09

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:06:00 +0000

If you ain't been to one of these, then you owe it to yourself to go and listen to some of the best musicians in Houston. This is the BEST food drive in town! I'll let the press release do the talking.

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Here is the line up for our Umpteenth Annual Blues For Food Festival '09 at Shakespeare's Pub located at 14129 Memorial Drive, Houston, TX 77079. The official date is Sunday, November 15th, 2009. Music begins at 12 Noon and runs for 14 hours.

This holiday season’s honored guest artist is Excello recording artist, swamp blues legend Jimmy Louisiana Dotson. “Jimmy was always a big part of Blues For Food in it’s early days. He is unique blues performer and a Houston treasure. This a wonderful opportunity to pay our respects,“ say Blues For Food music director Sonny Boy Terry.

Any non-perishable food items and cash donations are accepted. There will also be raffles and a silent auction. All proceeds benefit the Houston Food Bank. A free Texas style BBQ plate comes to all those who donate. With 15 acts and numerous special guests, NEARLY FIFTY musicians and a total of one hundred volunteers are donating their time and energy to this great Houston tradition.

It's the LARGEST COLLECTION OF HOUSTON BLUES ARTISTS ON ONE STAGE OF THE YEAR!

20 years running now with over 24 Blues For Food events under our belt (Blues for Food founder Big Roger Collins was doing them twice a year at first), Blues For Food, a precursor to the development of the Houston Blues Society, has set the bar for charities on the local Houston music scene raising close to 100 Thousand Dollars and 150 thousand pounds of food in it's long history.

Please visit www.myspace.com/houstonbluesforfood or www.shakespearepub.net for continuous updates as more details develop. Feel free to pass the word and promote it within your social groups, businesses, organizations and/or church activities. For more information, call Sonny Boy Terry at

713.869.7746 or 713.822.0437.

Hosted by 2009 IBC Houston Regional Finals Champ Sonny Boy Terry. Masters of ceremonies and guest announcers 90.1 KPFT’s James “The Blueshound” Nagel, Nuri Nuri, Mr and Mrs Vee. As usual, we a have top drawer steller and diverse line-up of blues and roots artists

Steve the Chief - 12 Noon - 12:45PM

Brad Abshur Band - 1PM - 1:30PM

Don Kesee and the Bluesmasters - 1:45PM - 2:15PM

Erin James and her Bad Habits - 2:30PM - 3PM

James Reese Band - 3:15PM - 3:45PM

Mojofromopolis - 4PM - 4:30PM

Dave Nevling and the Blues Kats - 4:45PM - 5:15PM

John McVey and the Stumble - 5:30PM - 6PM

Texas Johnny Brown and the Quality Blues Band - 6:15PM - 6:45PM

Sonny Boy Terry - 7PM - 8:15PM

(W/Rich Delgrosso/Jimmy Louisiana Dotson sitting in on their set)

The Texas Destroyers featuring Doug Black - 8:30PM - 9PM

Snits Dog and Pony Show - 9:15PM - 9:45PM

Sonny Boy Terry Wins Regional IBC

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Well, it's official. Sonny Boy Terry's blues band will represent Houston and its blues society by winning the finals of the regional International Blues Challenge held this past Sunday, October 25, 2009 at Dan Electro's Guitar Bar. I wasn't in attendance, but I expected that his band would do-the-do, get 'er done, pull out all the stops, and generally play the "Real" blues the way it's supposed to be played-- to the extent that the judges would have no choice but to send them boys on to Memphis. Now, I'm sure that The Clay Melton Band, Bourbon Street, and the Blues Mafia put up the good fight, and that they all went at it tooth and nail. I know that Sonny Boy and his band put everything they had into this competition, and that they wanted to win and have a chance to display their chops along with the best unsigned blues bands from around the world. I've never met anyone more dedication to the genre than Sonny Boy Terry and if his band doesn't whip the competition in January, then it will not be from a lack of effort. NOW GO GET 'EM GUYS.

P.S.--Here's a link sent to me by a representative for the Blues Mafia for anyone wanting to know what they put down. http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/1947150
P.S.S--Here's a video of the same--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_7-_rMo69o

SBT @ The IBC

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:14:00 +0000

Travelled over to Houston's Big Easy Club Social and Pleasure Club last Sunday to support my buddy, Sonny Boy Terry (SBT) in his quest to represent Houston in Memphis at the International Blues Challenge (IBC)at the end of January. Each year, blues societies around the world select an unsigned blues artist to represent them at this premier event. Actually they choose a band and also a solo/duo act to send to the challenge. Each society schedules a series of competitions to narrow the field down to the best of the blues bunch. The past two weekends were set aside for two different groups of bands to sling it at the judges and blues enthusiasts. Two bands from seven in each group were selected to proceed. I'd toss out some of the parameters that the judges must adhere to here, but I'd probably muck it up, so go over to the IBC site or to the Houston Blues Society's and read 'em yourself. By the time I put in my appearance at The Big Easy, a band calling themselves the Blues Mafia and another named Bourbon Street had won their prelims the weekend before and were tap to head to Dan Electro's Guitar Bar for the finals (set for 2:30 pm, October 25).

So, the SBT band needed to beat out five other bands to be chosen as one of the two additional finalists. I'll just say (in my biased opinion) that it was no contest. They were simply the best blues band of the bunch--case closed. His band could easily call themselves a blues mafia. They came out dressed to the nines in dark suits with names like Sonny Boy and JZ and JD and Lenny from Pittsburgh. They followed five of the bands (selected by drawing lots), so I they knew what they faced by the time they hit the stage. TC and the Cannonballs followed them, and Sonny Boy's group knew that group of veterans. Not to diss any of the bands, because I enjoyed them all, and they all had something to offer. Brown and Swerve's vocalist sang strong covers of soul type blues, The Snake Charmers' tight red dressed female vocalist did the hoochie mama thang, The Clay Melton Band slung out Stevie Ray Vaughan/Hendrix style of fiery notes, TC and the Cannonballs torched the stage with a loud roadhouse rumble, and Jack Edery and Ultra Suede and the Texas Bluzecats added variety to the blues mix. BUT--Sonny Boy Terry's band just exists on a higher musical plateau that none of the other bands have reached yet, and I think they proved that very well. JZ chose the tastiest guitar notes of the evening to lay on the crowd, and no one plays drums better than JD, and Lenny stayed steady, drove the rhythm, and remained unflappable even as his bass amp crapped out on him. Sonny Boy chose three originals and a cover (which I guarantee no one else on the planet has covered) by the late Ashton Savoy. Let's just say that he boys nailed it, and the judges must have thought so also.

I figured that the well seasoned band, TC and the Cannonballs would join Sonny Boy as the other finalist, but the young pups took the other spot. I don't know how young members of the trio, The Clay Melton Band, are, but they do kick up a fuss with guitar fed through a Marshall stack by the Clay man. I know they pumped the crowd into a frenzy.

So, Sonny Boy will meet up with the young gun again and they'll match blues riffs with the Blues Mafia and Bourbon Street for a little Sunday afternoon showdown. Anyway--I'm pulling for SBT.

Happy Birthday To Me (and Ricky Estrin)

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:04:00 +0000

I turned 58 on Friday without much fanfare. My wife was still in Corpus Christi attending CPS foster parent seminars, my son crawled out of bed with his mind on school and my birthday slipped his mind. My daughter called with discussion topics unrelated to the day I was born, and I had to jog her memory. I had already put the pedometer, that she sent me for the event, to task a week ago--so she actually offered her congratulations early. So, the house felt a bit emptier than it normally does on a Friday morning. I did go over to my mom's in the afternoon to eat the chocolate birthday cake that she had ordered from HEB and to accept her cash donation to my birthday fund.

I also sampled the Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood Live from Madison Square Garden DVD birthday present and really enjoyed watching these two guys perform with same passion that they had when they played together as 20 year olds--this time unenhanced by chemical assistance. Eddie C. Campbell's new Delmark release, Tear This World Up, played a part in my one man birthday celebration. Maybe I'll get back to these two worthy musical productions later, but right now I'll get on to the main event.

First, I'll explain using Ricky for Estrin's first name. I've always gone by Ricky for Richard and plenty of times that gets shortened to Rick. I just happened to hear crackerjack bassist, Ronnie James Webber, call Estrin by the name of Ricky at one point after he was invited to sit in with the Nightcats (more on that in a bit). It seemed to drop a few years from Rick's 60, hearing him called Ricky. I was once told that I should go my Richard, because Ricky seemed to be more juvenile. I'll take juvenile. Of course, when I watch Ricky Estrin, I think more in terms of juvenile delinquency, if he lived anywhere close to some the tales he sings about. So, the name Ricky fits the Bad Boy of the Blues persona just fine.

I'll back up a bit here and explain that I had ordered an online e-ticket from Dan Electro's Guitar Bar for the Rick Estrin and the Nightcats' show. My expectations were that the club would be extremely packed and getting an advanced ticket would be wise. My only reservation about the reservation was the possibility of stormy weather. Stormy weather + Houston traffic = nightmare. So, I sort of sat around listening to my new birthday music and the downpour on my rooftop, debating whether or not to weather the weather. By six o'clock the rain had slacked enough for me to make the dash to Houston.

I left early in order to make it by the time the doors opened at 8 and to find parking in the lot, which I knew would be limited. As I stood under the front porch awaiting entry with only five other folks, one of life's missed opportunities arose as a character stepped out from the club's door for a smoke. The thought crossed my mind that the shaggy looking, bearded fellow might just be the band's guitarist, Kid Andersen, but I just as quickly dismissed the thought. Once we got into the club and he picked up a Les Paul and started slinging out notes for the sound check, then I figured that I could have at least said hello to him outside. I did get the opportunity to meet local harp player, Larry Bernal, who was among the five waiting with me outside, along with his 7th grade son. Steve Schneider had mentioned Larry to me several times in the past and I always wondered about this guy who at one time had one of the only Sonny Junior III amplifiers ever made. So, I entered the club with Larry and his son and we took a front row table that also ended up being occupied by Steve, Carlos Ramirez, and Andy Edwards--all Houston harp guys. I really enjoyed their company. My good friend Sonny Boy Terry also showed up with his lovely wife, Jenny. Those two make such a beautiful couple; they are so proud of each other. So, I was in great company for a show featuring one of the world's greatest blues harp players.

If you are still reading this, I'll get to the birthday heading now. Somewhere (I can't remember where, maybe I dreamed it) I read that Rick Estrin's birthday was either on October eighth or on the ninth like mine. So, when Larry enticed him to our table saying that Scott Berberian said hello,(Scott's the wizard behind the Meteor harp amps and Larry has two of his Mini-Meats and is ordering the 15" speaker version), I wished Rick a happy birthday and he appreciated it and didn't deny it and I told him that I was celebrating my 58th with him and he appreciated it and said, "Man, I turned 60". Oh, and then he kicked ass all night long.

I used to carry a note pad with me back in the day when I seriously tried to get someone to publish my blues articles, but I'd rather just sit back and enjoy the show--what I'm saying is that I don't recall set list songs and such things as that. I'll tell you this, though. I meant to pack a camera, but didn't do that either. The Nightcats opened with a number that absolutely smoked the place and it would have been an encore tour de force for lesser bands. The smiles at our table indicated that, "It just don't get any better than this"--but it did and did and did. Rick turned Kid Andersen loose on that first number and he never did get him back in his cage--not that he had any intentions of doing that.

I say cage, because Kid Andersen is absolutely a wild man on guitar. I need to mention that once he donned his stage clothes and slicked back his long blond hair, this bearded Norwegian proved to be an excellent sidekick for Estrin's ultimate showmanship. Superman jumped from the phone booth. He wowed us! Yep, he really did and the room was filled with a bunch of Houston musicians eating up his tonal grooves--that varied immensely. He'd rock the billy awhile like Johnny Burnette, shoot out reverbed ladened staccato jabs, ride a slow down low down wave that washed out over the club, sling a few leg kicks to the air, pick with his teeth, and basically just do the do. Take Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Hubert Sumlin, Guitar Slim, and Junior Watson, roll them up and feed 'em a mushroom or two, and it might get close to describing what comes out of the Kid's amplifier. Once he gets rolling, it ain't no telling what notes will be firing out from the stage. I think back a few posts ago about Rick Estrin's Alligator Records release, Twisted, in which I described his instrumental Earthquake, as sounding quite like Freddy King on meth. He did that one (which Estrin said was a hit in Russia) and burned it down to the filter. Strange thing about it all, is that he showed immaculate restraint when called for and proved that he's a master at backing a harmonica player. Those types are rare. With all his guitar antics, though, there is still no way that Rick Estrin got upstaged at any point during the night. Estrin just reclaims his turf once the slinging is done and sometimes with one well placed harp note, blown with the finest tone known to man (or blues man) at least.

Most of the night's set came from the aforementioned CD or the one right before it called On The Harp Side, with a few chestnuts from his Little Charlie albums. I could run down each and every one of those, but I'm not. Let's just say that if you have those two CDs, then you have a good idea of what the Nightcats laid on us last Friday night. He did throw down an outstanding version Little Walter's Off The Wall, just in case us harp players thought that we were somebody. He nailed it down wonderfully, blowing through a digital reverb pedal and analog delay fed into his Harp King amp with 6x10" speakers. Got some kind of wall of sound going--which he also kicked in when he whipped out his chromatic harp. He prefaced a few of his witty, humorous songs with a humorous tale as how the idea entered his cranium. Those snippets were priceless. He had us all eating out of his hand.

Of course, if you've seen a Little Charlie and the Nightcats show, then you know what a cool cat daddy Rick Estrin is, which no one in show business comes close to matching, and few can match his blues harp skills. The difference now is that Rick leads the Nightcats and he puts his harp in his mouth a whole lot more often and proves that point song after song. You've also seen him put the whole harp in his mouth (like a cigar) during a Sonny Boy Williamson II number and he pulled that trick out for us, too. He amazes me with just how solid his acoustic intonation is when he's emulating this master.

These are Rick's Nightcats. J Hansen impressed every harp player in the club with his knack for driving what Rick wanted driven on drums. My buddy, Sonny Boy Terry said that he wished that every drummer in town could witness how a drummer should back a harp player by listening to Hansen. He proved quite the witty lyricist and singer himself when he took the mic to sing the double entendre, I'm Taking Out My In-laws. Lorenzo Farrell slapped the standup bass and locked stepped with Hansen all night. Seems that they spent some time together in the past and both have a little jazz in their resume. Rick gave them a bit of time to showcase themselves a time or two during the night. Great rhythm section duo dudes. Farrell even slid over to the keyboards to add a bit of spice to the stage sound. The last set he slid over there and stayed awhile for an unexpected treat. Ronnie James Webber was in the house and Rick brought him to the stage to plunk the Fender electric bass. Ronnie James played with the Nightcats for about a decade and with the Fabulous Thunderbirds and with Mark Hummel and recently with the Mannish Boys and, and, and...Let's just say that he knows how the blues is suppose to go and he knows how to go about doing it really well. I enjoyed watching him pick the bottom out of things. It was a real treat watching him work. He seemed to really get off on a low down harp instrumental that he claimed that someone named Greg requested. Estrin sucked the song for all that it was worth.

Of course, that brings me back to the Nightcats' guitarist. He's just plays the best guitar that I've heard in a long, long time and he co-produced the Alligator release with Estrin, so he knows his way around the sound board. His last employer was Charlie Musselwhite (he's plays on the Delta Hardware release, so that seals the deal for his credentials as the real deal. Charlie don't hire no slouches on the six string. I've heard his work previously from what he laid down on John Nemeth's and RJ Mischo's last recordings, but nothing prepared me for the what he kicked out live and in person. He's a phenom! I'm heading to CD Baby to pick up his own Greaseland.

Rick Estrin has himself one hell of a band and I feel privileged to have witnessed them perform their magic. It's the Estrinman, though, that makes the whole engine work and he has definitely mastered the master of ceremonies better than a carnival barker, and did I mention that he plays some of the best blues harp in the land?

Bottom line--this was the best birthday gift that I've ever given myself. Great night! Great band! Great company! Get over to Rick's site and get yourself a Nightcat fix. Anyway--'nuff for now.

Hot Rod

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:03:00 +0000

Rod Piazza
& The Mighty Flyers
Soul Monster
Delta Groove Music

There are only a handful of harpmen working the circuit today that have risen to the professional level of Rod Piazza. He's in the company of Charlie Musselwhite, Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin, and perhaps Mark Hummel as far as paying his dues,demanding respect for the instrument, and commanding decent pay for his talents. Piazza began playing and recording the blues way back in the '60s and he's still on top of his game and his twenty fourth album, Soul Monster, stands as a testament to that fact.

The challenge for a blues harp veteran such as Piazza is to avoid recycling what he's blown before in order to keep things fresh. He's always acknowledged this challenge and met it head on by employing different techniques. He's used low keyed harps on some albums, added a little funk to spice up blues covers, varied the amount of amplified nastiness, or he's messed with the meter or tempo of a classic. Regardless, though, Piazza's style shows through and is instantly recognizable. You know what you're getting with him, even though you don't really know what you're gonna get--other than top notch musicianship. What you know that you're gonna get is an album chock full of variety and Soul Monster is no exception to his formula.

Big, fat, chromatic octave chords open the proceedings on the title cut and there just ain't no mistaking that it's Rod Piazza producing those deep tones on this funky instrumental. It represents one of the four originals on the thirteen cut disc. One of the other originals is also an instrumental called Expression Session, but he worries the hell out of a diatonic harp on this one, with a musical head similar to what I've heard Charlie Musselwhite play on Hard Times from his According To album. The vibe is light, but Piazza's throwing all manner of note bending and low end runs all over the tune. Piazza's albums always include such instrument numbers to highlight his harp chops, Honey Piazza's estimable piano skills, his guitarist's string bending prowess, or even his drummer's stick wizardry. Soul Monster's third instrumental comes from Rod's main mentor, George "Harmonica" Smith, and it's called Sunbird and has that ol' amped up nasty sound and some stupendous lick ideas from one of the best. I can't recall a Piazza album void of paying homage to this West Coast master blaster.

One of my favorite cuts from Piazza's Alphabet Blues album was the slow burner, Blues in '92. He reprises it here, but re-christens it Tell Me About It Sam and introduces the tune with an anecdote about the late, great Sam Myers. Seems that the Mighty Flyers were sharing a bill with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets (Sam's band) and Sam requested that song from Piazza. He told Sam that he didn't think that he could remember the words. Sam told him, "Hell, I'll sing it." During the set, Sam was introduced to the crowd and when he got to the mic, he said, "You know, it's a shame when a man doesn't know the words to his own song." The song, about hard economic times, fits today's financial climate perfectly. Just goes to show that times were tough back in '92 too.

This disc certainly isn't challenging Piazza's lyrical ideas, since two of the originals are instrumentals and one is the aforementioned re-do and the fourth, called Cheap Wine, sounds down right silly to me. I think they were sitting around drinking the stuff when he came up with the words. It does make a darned good excuse to give everyone a chance to shine with their instruments,though, especially Dave Kida. He drums the song into submission and makes us forget the insipid lyrics. Actually, my favorite Piazza licks on the album make up for the song's short comings.

Honey's not granted the solo showcase that's standard on numerous Might Flyer's releases, but her talents sweep through the proceedings. The weaving of her notes throughout Jimmy Reed's Can't Stand To See You Go raise the song way above the standard shuffle and keeps it there. When Rod has her take it home, she lights into her keys intensely and does her own mentor, Otis Spann, proud. She also carries the bass line for the ensemble, because they have no bass player employed on this disc.

Speaking of Jimmy Reed. Piazza doesn't shy away from covering well worn chestnuts from the masters and he always does such justice to their memory. Little Walter is never far from the surface of what he's laying on us and Piazza has covered way more than many of Walter's tunes, but he throws in just enough Piazza style to keep it honest. So, I really don't mind hearing Key To The Highway again, particularly played with such feeling as Piazza gives it. You know, I'm quite sure that this Big Bill Broonzy song was worn out by everyone and their dog back when Little Walter chose to cover it, but he darned well made it his own. Piazza certainly doesn't make it his own as much as he's just paying a well played tribute. You Better Watch Yourself is pretty much a straight up LW cover, also, but hell, I like it. He does take Slim Harpo's Queen Bee out for a ride that has a significantly different vibe than the original Louisiana swamp groove.

Jimmy Liggins' That's What's Knocking Me Out has the West Coast style blues covered, along with Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So), which is sort of a duet with guitarist Henry Carvajal, who's also given a solo vocal turn on the '50s style do wop flavored Talk To Me, on which his voice fits appropriately--a bit like a middle aged Frankie Avalon. The song is replete with horns from Jonny Viau and Allen Ortiz. By the way, Carvajal's guitar slinging has grown on me since his first Mighty Flyer's outing. He just seems like a more comfortable fit for the group now than he was then. He also seems to shift styles a lot smoother than before and that is the bands forte.

They cover Hey, Mrs. Jones (a Jimmy Witherspoon hit), but they plant it firmly with a Cha Cha rhythm and Piazza employs a deep in the well echo to the vocal track. So, its a bit removed from the West Coast type of stuff that's associated with Witherspoon. That's the kind of stuff you gotta watch (or listen to) to understand how Piazza makes the old, new again, and keeps it fresh.

So, if you know Piazza, you know what to expect--plenty of variety, some old, some new, some West Coast, some Chicago, but all played well by one of he best blues bands in the country and of course, with harp blown by one of the best in the business. By the way, Delta Groove Music certainly seems like a great fit for Rod Piazza. The owner, Randy Chortoff lets Rod be Rod in the studio and we are rewarded with some great blues. Anyway--'nuff for now.

Nurbergring World Superbike Races

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:24:00 +0000

What a Labor Day Weekend--so I just have to blog about it. My crazy brother-in-law, George, called me Wednesday night of last week and said, "Hey, Rick, I've got tickets to fly to Amsterdam and then we'll drive over to the World Superbike races in Germany. Do you want to go?"

"When are you flying over there, George?," I asked.

"Tomorrow at 3:40 p.m.," he answers.

Long story short--I agreed and off we flew Continental Business First Class for a mighty fine price for a round trip. Which was the deal that he couldn't pass up, especially since some of the best motorcycle riders in the world would be racing within driving distance.

We arrived in Amsterdam at 8:30 on Friday morning, rented a car, and headed out to the Zuiderzee dams. Amazing feat of human environment interacton out there--and the 50 mph+ winds whipped at us pretty darn good once we embarked from the rental Volvo. We took our pictures and enjoyed a rest at a unique snack bar on the dam and headed back to Amsterdam.

After checking into our downtown hotel, we walked down to the Rijks and the Van Gogh museums and snapped some pictures around the downtown area. Way too much jet lag convinced us to forgo waiting in line for a museum ticket and then end up wandering around the halls like zombies on drugs. We headed back to the hotel at around 3 p.m. and soundly sacked out until 8:30, then caught a cab in a torrential monsoon for the Dam Square shopping district--where you can literally buy anything you want. Yep, anything. So, we sloshed around with umbrellas to window shop in the world famous Red Light Distict--which has to be the most unique city blocks on the planet. We eventually plopped ourselves down under the canopy of a restaurant and watched the world go by. Never seen that many people trekking around in a city in the rain.

What really struck me about Amsterdam was just how immaculately clean the city is. That goes for the Netherlands in general. The countryside is all picture postcard and the roadsides aren't used for garbage receptacles. The Dutch are just neat.

We hopped in our Volvo on Saturday for a four hour trip to the Nurbergring race track to watch the practice runs and the bikes compete for pole positions. I don't know much about motorcycle racing, but George spent many a weekend racing for real in his younger days and knows the sport inside out and also many world class riders. The one rider that he was most excited about was Ben Spies from Longview, Texas, who is tearing up the World Super Bike circuit at age 24. I thought that it was fabulous that we had a Texan in the fight. George explained that Spies had the disadvantage of never racing this course, when most of the European riders had many times. We were quite bummed out watching Spies total his bike out on one of the curves as it flipped and flopped off the track. Unhurt and undeterred, he rode the course well enough on his back-up Yamaha to gain a starting position on the second row.

At the end of the day, we programmed our GPS (which we named Ingrid) to get us to our hotel--somewhere in Germany. George had no clue where, so Ingrid took us on the most scenic route she could find, winding through very beautiful German mountains and quaint villages. We ended our trip in the city of Cochem, which we could see right off was a popular tourist resort on the Mosul River. It looked exactly like you picture a German town to look or want it to look--complete with a 1000 year old castle overlooking the inhabitants.

After Ingrid guided us to our hotel, it didn't take us long to discover that George had booked us into a romantic getaway spot. While checking in, George did ask about the room having two beds. The female desk clerk said that she was sure it did, but that she would take us to the room and make sure. I'm pretty certain that she wanted to discreetly hide the heart that was pasted to the door with George's name on it. There were two beds--singles--pushed together. Well, regardless, this was a great place, with a great view.

After breakfast on Sunday, we headed back to the races. Two Super Bike races are run at every venue on the circuit; so as George said, "You get more bang for your buck". In between the 1000cc Super Bikes are the 600cc races. Our spot on the track was at the first curve, which was hairpin and took more than a few racers out of the race. It was the curve immediately following that one that got the first race of to a very bad start. Several bikes flew off the curve, one caught fire, and one rider had his neck run over by a bike. A restart was necessary and Ben Spies found himself running fifth after the first set of curves.

It didn't take the Texan long to begin the process of picking the riders off in front of him. It was exciting watching his world class work. By the half way point he had worked himself up to second place and then we watched him overtake the Japanese rider,Nuriyuki Haga, for first at the curves within our view with two laps to go. He never relinquished the lead and beat the daylights out of the best riders in the world. It was GREAT! And there were a whole host of Germans behind us that loved the Texan and cheered him at every turn.

Spies started off the second race bogged down in ninth position and George figured that he was sunk. But, the boy from the Lone Star state methodically worked his way through the pack until he was riding the back tire of the first place rider, Britain's Jonathan Rea. He tried his best to take him on several turns, but his opponent fought him off. Spies took second. Not a bad day at all for the young man. It also propelled him to the lead in the World Super Bike circuit points. Whoop! Go to Spies' website and check the guy out--he's for real.

We left the race track at around 5 pm and let Ingrid do her thing back to Amsterdam and George did his thing also--which was to see how fast our Volvo would do on the Autobahn. 143.6 mph is what he calculated the kilometers per hour to mean. So, we flew back without wings--just on a wing and a prayer on my part. Of course, he didn't keep it topped out at that speed, but we be cruising most of the time.

We made once last round viewing the Amsterdam sights that evening and hung out on the sidewalk of a bar and George bribed the waiter to have them keep playing blues music over their programmed sound system. Mighty whirlwind trip and one that I'll always remember. Anyway--'nuff or now. I'm still jet lagged.

In The Beginning...

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:23:00 +0000

In the beginning, my wife's Aunt Norma's Motorola AM/FM tube radio sat on the floor waiting for me to decide what I should do with it. Aunt Norma figured that if anyone had use for an old radio with tubes in it, that it would be me. I did pull the back from it a few weeks ago just to check out what type of tubes operated the unit. She had told my wife that one tube didn't work.

I found the usual array of radio/television type tubes, which I am not familiar with because they are never applied in musical instrument amplifiers. I've buttoned the radio back up or I would name them off here. There was one nice Motorola 12AX7 which I've identified as a Mullard. I pulled it and tried it in one of my amps and it does have a sweet sound for a tube that's been at it for 50 years. By the way, the Motorola label completely disappeared after that short test run. Glad the paint stuck on there long enough to tell me that it was a 12AX7. I wouldn't of had the knowledge to identify it and tell it from its close cousins. I did recognize the rectifier as being common in smallish guitar amps--EZ80 or maybe it was EZ90, one of those.

The radio is a table top model, but with nothing indicating which model. At some point I may delve into the electronics and spark something up, but what I decided to do yesterday was check out the two speakers hanging on either side of the radio. Each speaker box could detach from the unit and be spread out about 10 feet from the radio. I figured from the get go that they possibly would make decent harp amp speakers with a little alternate wiring.

First, though, I wanted to try and identify what I had. Removing the back of one of the little cabinets revealed a 6" alnico speaker with "Golden Voice" stamped on it, with code numbers on the side. Through the marvels of the internet, I discovered that I had two 1962 Oxford alnico speakers and that convinced me to continue my little experiment. I checked the Ohms and got a reading of 6.9 ohms at the terminals and since I would be using an amp that prefers an 8 Ohm load, I decided to wire them up for half of that--figuring that lower would be better with a tube amp. After wiring the speakers together with a spare 15' speaker cab cable on which I kept one 1/4" plug attached to plug into the amp, I found that the Ohms read 5.4 at the end of the plug--so the load may just not be as low as I figured since the length of the wires came into play.

Bottom line is that I plugged these dudes into my Voice of Music 8 watt amp, wailed away, and got some really nice rawkus tones going. I had a bit of fun sticking the speakers around me in different positions and playing with the acoustics they provided. Of course, these will seldom have a use outside of my house, but within these walls, they be cranking. Anyway--

Lone Wolf Harp Break

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Yipee Ki Yi Yay II! Randy Landry, over at the Lone Wolf Company, has been in his mad science lab again and has another winning pedal to help us harp players achieve the tonal nirvana that we all seek. This time, though, I've got my hands on his latest creation called the Harp Break--and the best part is that it was FREE! Followers of my posts here have read my glowing reports of his inventions and possibly listened to the linked demos. I've been very, very tempted to buy one or more of his gizmos, but my playing out days are so limited that I've just haven't done it. My loss.

He ran a contest for the new Harp Break and I won--I didn't have to play harp better than anyone, he simply drew my name from his hat. Luck of the draw, thank goodness. The Harp Break is a distortion type pedal designed to add grit, grind, and fat to an amp that's a bit too clean sounding or to plug directly into a p.a. for a tone that has more mojo or just to twist a little variety into your favorite harp amp. Click on the link in my opening sentence and check out his site and scroll down to the Harp Break in the sidebar and take a listen to the demos. Houston harp whiz Dave Nevling shows just how well the Harp Break performs through his p.a. at a live gig and Ron Sunshine puts the pedal through its paces plugged into a Fender Bassman Reissue. I'll let that web page fill you in on the pedal's details and I'll fill you in on what my impressions are here.

First off, it is very simple. I like simple. The Harp Break has three knobs--drive, volume, and bass boost. Plug and play baby. The true bypass feature makes for seemless A/B testing. The first thing I stuck it to was my Ol' Smoky amp (described in one of my very early posts). It is a Bell Sound 3725 p.a. amp, driven by two 6L6 tubes, that I rejuvenated quite some time ago, but never really got it to produce the tone that I wanted. Enter the Harp Break. Using my JT30 style 5 meg crystal mic to push my harp notes, the Ol' Smoky suddenly sprang to life with the pedal. The volume increase before feedback was significantly substantial--the presence jump out at me and the bass boost gave it more whomp. That really caught me by surprise. I played around with the drive knob and it added or substracted the amount of grit that I wanted it to put out. The only trick is to balance the drive with the volume to avoid too much clipping or feedback. I wound the volume wide open and eased the drive knob up to get some great tone and then I backed the volume down and wound the drive knob up to get something slightly different going on and achieve a bit of tonal variety. I got what I liked best with the bass boost up 3/4, the drive a bit past a 1/4 and the volume up at slightly less than 3/4. The Ol' Smoky was smokin'.

I pushed this all through a couple of less than optimal 10" speakers, just to see if I could get a decent tone from them for a change--and they came alive with the Harp Break. Once I plugged the rig into my 4x10 cab with Webers, I had a tonally different animal on my hands. It rocked!

My experimental session moved on to my old Voice of Music amp with two 6V6 tubes, which also had something lacking in the tone department. Again, the first thing I noticed was the volume boost. The sound just leaps from the speakers. The Harp Break transformed the amp from one that was so-so into a blues harp amp that I enjoy playing now.

I then put the Silvertone 1483, which I heavily modded for harp, through the test. Of the four channels, I've got a couple that are set up more for crystal or ceramic mics and they need absolutely no help getting the vibe going. The 1483 gets my favorite tone when plugged into those with a crystal mic. I can't play my controlled reluntance or controlled magnetic microphones through those because the tone gets clipped too hard and chops the notes off. They sound decent through the other two channels,especially it I tack my J-Phat impedance matching box into the signal chain. So, channels one and two were excellent candidates for the Harp Break to work its magic. And, man, did it ever. Those channels rival my crystal mic inputs when the Harp Break kicks into action. The bass bomp from the cystal channels always seemed to be missing on channels one and two--not any longer. Now my CR/CM mics can get those cranking with the Harp Break cranking. Oh, and my crystal mics are just as awesome through those channels, because the pedal performs the same buffered impedance matching as my J-Phat.

Okay. That's my story. Not the end. Just the beginning. The Harp Break got me off my butt and has me practicing like I should have been doing all along. Long live Lone Wolf. I thought Randy would have run out of ideas for pedals by now, but he just keeps coming up with winners. Check 'em out. Anyway--

More Cowbell Please!

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:32:00 +0000

Alabama Mike
Day to Day
Jukehouse Records
JHCD0010

Ever heard of Mike Benjamin? No? How about Alabama Mike? Me neither, until I kept seeing advertising for his debut CD Day to Day. I mentioned him back in June in the post entitled, Ramble On. I also stated that since it looked like that guitarist Steve Freund and harpguy R.J. Mischo were on board that it just might be a worthy release. As it turns out, it is--but don't go out and get it based on my reasoning. Those two exhibit their talents on only two cuts each. Just get this to hear a new guy on the block sing the holy heck out of some traditional blues styles.

He may be called Alabama, but Mike woos them on the West Coast and is surrounded in the studio with plenty of those cats from out yonder. Seems like the days of making a go of it as just a blues shouter passed several decades ago--with the likes of Big Joe Turner, Percy Mayfield, Jimmy T-99 Nelson, and Jimmy Rushing. For a long time now, the blues has revolved around laying it down with guitar, piano, sax, and harmonica and if you could belt out lyrics along the way, well, so much the better. So many of the aforementioned singers fronted bands that swung more than just blues--lots of R&B and big band jazzy stuff. NOT Alabama Mike. This cat is a BLUES singer.

Day to Day is just chocked full of what the blues is all about. Most of it is of the gritty, down-in-the-alley, gutbucket type, which is illustrated quite well by the slam bang sliding whines of Jon Lawton's guitar. I'm not a guitar guy, but it sure sounds like he's got a Resonator cranked up on the title track, along with Mike's intense vocals. Did I say intense? Wait until you hear him channel the ghost of Son House on Death Letter Blues where he gets absolutely ferocious. Oh, and I just thought Lawton's slide was nasty on the opener, as he proves he knows his Book of House also and really bangs the box.

Charle Wheal (of Mark Hummel's Blues Survivors) slaps on the straps to get a bit more B.B. Kingish on Religion, which showcases what the Alabama guy can do with penning blues lyrics. I mean, really, how can someone talk to you about religion when they give you so much hell--that's what he's talkin' 'bout. Seven of the ten cuts are his originals and they are solidly written blues stories. The weakest may just be the one chord boogie, Lay My Money Down. That type of groove doesn't call for a lot of lyrical invention--just boogie on. The aforementioned Son House tune, Willie Dixon's Too Many Cooks, and two Elmore James' tunes (Strange Angels and Knocking At Your Door) are nicely sung covers, or should I say nastily sung covers. He has quite a bit of Buddy Guy melded with B.B. in his delivery.

With all the slide playing going down on this disc, neither of the two Elmore James'cuts have a whiff of the bottleneck. Charles Wheal breaks down the former and Freund stabs nice single picked licks on the latter--he even throws a bit of broomdusting on it. Speaking of Dust My Broom, that exactly the vibe that Lawton brings out on Sara Brown when he breaks that nasty ol' slide back out. It kind of bounces into Freddy King's Tore Down territory also and that's kind of how this CD goes. Most of the songs remind me of some other blues song from back in the day, but that's alright mama, mama that's alright. By the way, R.J. does blow the reeds away on Sara Brown.

I've never heard of Scot Brenton before, but his blues harp tones are pretty tasty on a couple of the cuts. I have to keep tabs on this guy, because he also plays rhythm guitar and waves the wah on Naggin'--which brings me to the point of the post title. Sorry it took so long to explain why I stole Christopher Walken's legendary line from my son's favorite Will Farrell Saturday Night Live skit. I'm just not used to seeing cowbell listed in the credits of any song; and there it is, Myles Silveira: Cowbell. So, there you have it. I don't know, but he must be related to the drummer, Scott Silveira, who ramrodded this project and brought a wonderful vocalist out of the shadows for us all to hear. Oh, yeah, John Nemeth sits in on harp on I've Been Rocked and is excellent per usual--BUT don't buy this for the harp playing, because with only five out of eleven cuts having harp it may disappoint you. Buy it and discover a new real blues singer. Anyway--'nuff for now.

100 Posts Old

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:26:00 +0000

Yipee Ky Yi Yay! I guess a celebration is in order since I just noticed that my last post represented #100 for Back In The Day and the Bushdog Blues. What a milestone! Naw. Some folks write a post a day and since my first post appeared in April 2008, well, I'd say that I'm way behind that curve.

Now that I'm a novelist (unpublished, but what the hey), my research indicates that most bards are sort of expected to promote the fact that they write and plan on publishing or have published and should promote what they have written in a blog. Part of today's Marketing 101 for publicizing the published. Many, if not, most published authors also have a website dedicated to getting the word out there and information as to just how to order their latest (or the one before that and the one before that, etc...).

Many of these blogs have oodles of information in regards to writing right (at least in their blog roll sidebars). We can follow them through the trials and tribulations of the tasks facing their writing efforts and read the myriad of comments egging them on to stick with it and get her done. In some cases, they'll post unpublished snippets of their unpublished work in progress.

You might say that this post here is an example of what I probably should be doing. Writing about my writing. Maybe I'll start up another blog, someday, for doing just that. In the meantime, I'll just blog about the blues as the muse strikes (and mention my unpublished novel on occasion, since it does contain a little blues). Anyway--'nuff for now.

Guitar Hero Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:20:00 +0000

The son-in-law Brad came in with my daughter Megan this weekend and he was bearing a gift for my guitar prodigy son, John. The initial plans were to travel to Dallas to visit them, but Brad had his eye out for a Reverend guitar and the Backstage Pass Music Center in Waco just happened to be on the way to our house and just happened to be one of the closest dealers to Dallas. Hard to believe that Dallas doesn't have a dealer.

So, Brad came in and lit John's eyes up with a Dunlop Crybaby 535Q Wah pedal. It is the copper model, which according to Brad's axe mate, Justin, just may be better than the models on the market today. It didn't take long before they were wah-wahing the dickens out of the air.

John plugged his new Cruzer into the Sear 5XL (which, by the way, he's getting great distorted tones from now) and Brad plugged his brand new Reverend into my Kalamazoo. I thought I could remember the Reverend model that Brad bought, but alas, I can't. Really nice looking and sounding guitar, though. Meant to get pictures of the two jammin' down--Brad even mentioned it once, and alas again. Not like me to disregard that type of photo op.

John's rendition of Voodoo Chile sounded really good with the wah waving the notes around. He and Brad bounced back and forth and then I brought out my Dan Echo to give Brad's Reverend a little alternative vibe. Brad has been a very positive influence on this new hobby of John's and had some nice licks to throw at him. Things got wild when he suggested to John to chain both pedals together. Can you say psychodeliac?

They spent some time afterwards looking for wah-wahed guitar examples on the Internet, so I just had to break out my Earl Hooker and lay some of his Wah Wah Blues on 'em. They were impressed. Not too many bluesmen took to that pedal like Hooker did.

John's playing is progressing rapidly. He impressed his guitar teacher (of only three lessons), who said that he has never been able to move so fast with a student and that he thought that John could actually teach guitar. Don't know about that, but he sure picks things up quickly. Now, to lock him in a room with some Hubert Sumlin and Otis Rush. Anyway--'nuff for now.

P.S.--I'll get Brad to send me a photo of the Reverend and post it.
P.S.S--Here's Brad's Reverend Charger 290 & his Fender Blues Deluxe:

Let's Just Say I Write

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:04:00 +0000

At some point, I guess I'll consider myself as a writer. I have been doing that for a good portion of my adult life--dating back to my days in the journalism department at Southwest Texas State University (still hurts my jaws to say Texas State). Back then, I wrote pieces for the campus newspaper and magazine.

I taught high school students how to write for their newspaper and yearbook in my journalism classes. During that time, I wrote articles for the school district's newspaper and began to try my skills at freelance writing about the subject that I knew best--blues music with an emphasis on the role of the harmonica. I've pumped out oodles of articles and music reviews over the years and I'm pretty sure that I made a grand total of $50. The blues sure could give a writer the blues. I do have have dozens upon dozens of CDs that publications considered to be my pay. Pretty positive that I really liked only about a dozen of those and haven't listened to the rest since I wrote about them.

I still never called myself a writer. Others have introduced me as such, but it hasn't been a term to which I labeled myself.

Now that I no longer have the high school teacher identity to fall back upon, lets just say that I write. If that makes me a writer, then that's okay with me. If I needed to have made oodles of money at the craft to be considered a writer in some people's mind, let's just say that I'm working at that. You might say that I've spent a good portion of my life writing in spite of the pay. Could say the same thing about my teaching career also, though.

Having written and revised my novel, which by the way is now entitled River Bottom Blues, I've been slogging through the process of trying to find an agent with the query-go-'round. Write to them and pitch the story with maybe a few pages thrown in and sit back and wait for the rejections to pile up with automated responses, such as--"Thanks, but sorry that it is not right for me", "Lovely ideas, but it doesn't fit what we want" and so on and so forth.

I've been studying up on the process of networking within the industry. Seems that maintaining a blog or a website is almost mandatory for writers and most of the blogs are aimed at writing and writers and the industry. This blog here doesn't fit that mold, but what the heck. Also, have you ever sat around on a clear night and just wondered how many billions of stars are beaming down? Well, my research indicates that there are just about that many NEW writers working at getting something published.

You know what, though? It doesn't really matter if my work gets published, because I wrote it and I like it. So, ask me what I do now and I'll tell you--I write. Call me what you want. Anyway--

The Harpmaster

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:17:00 +0000

I had my television tuned to the satellite blues channel while I worked on a few novel revisions and suddenly superb blues harp tones caught my ear and I had to stop and listen before it dawned on me who the heck had those kind of chops. There just ain't many that can lay it out there like those notes that were being produced. Jerry Portnoy came to mind and sho' nuff that's who it was.

It then dawned on me that I really haven't given Portnoy his due here at Back In The Day. I mentioned his Legendary Blues Band recordings in an earlier post and lauded him a bit--but just having my head whipped around at the first fat notes sucked on that tune today reminded me that, yes indeed, he is one of my favorites--me and Eric Clapton, anyway. Darn it, though, I wish he would get more prolific and put that stuff to work on some new stuff. It's been awhile since Down In The Mood Room-which I thought needed more nasty Chicago licks thrown onto it.

Of course, by now, EVERY harmonica player has a copy of his Harpmaster instructional CDs and has improved their chops considerably if they let him sink in to their soul and practiced what he preached. He put it all out there for us. If not go over to his website and order a copy. I haven't visited the website in quite sometime, but I noticed that he has a signature custom Marine Band that he's hawking. Now, that peaked my interest. I'll have to investigate that offer a little more.

So, here I was listening to Jerry Portnoy and it caused me to check around and see if he had anything new recorded that I didn't know about. The first thing I stumbled across was this video and he just knocked my sock off, playing with an Italian band called Guitar Ray and the Blue Gamblers. So to make amends for not praising Portnoy enough around here, well, check this out:

Wow! What a tone monster, huh? Anyway--

John Nemeth

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:18:00 +0000

I had big plans to travel over to Houston's best blues club, The Big Easy, and catch John Nemeth's gig last night, but circumstances got in the way. Bummed me out! My ol' buddy Steve Schneider filled me in on the fact that, "John Nemeth rocked!", with his scary good vocals, great harp playing, and top shelf band. Darned it! And I have to say that waayy too often.

Oh, and for the Rick Davis blog rant fans--Nemeth blew harp through a vintage '59 Fender Pro and not his Harp Gear amp. Some of you know what I'm talking about.

John Nemeth grabbed my attention a few years ago when I was trying to track down a Bill Rhoades CD (great harpman, by the way) and I ran across some Nemeth stuff. Both of these guys were blowing the blues in the Pacific Northwest. I came across an e-mail for Nemeth, so I inquired as to how to get his stuff. At that time he had Jack of Harps out there and Come And Get It. He mentioned that Jack of Harps was chocked full of more of his harp playing. I grabbed it and immediately fell under his spell.

That release opens with Junior Parker's Mother-in-law Blues. What struck me was the fact that Nemeth absolutely nailed down Parker's vocals. Whoa! I thought. This guy can sing. He does a couple of more covers, but eight of the cuts are originals. Nice debut disc. But the Come And Get It CD blew me away.

Come And Get It showcased just what Nemeth could do singing classic grooves associated with soul and R&B. His individuality emerged on this disc and the idiosyncratic guitarist Junior Watson did his thang--which is one of my favorite twang thangs. He shelves the harp a lot more than I like, but he music is outstanding.

The Blind Pig follow-up, Magic Touch pushed the formula further on up the the road. Hearing him torch Sit and Cry The Blues was enough for me. That one tune will convince anyone that John Nemeth is the best blues singer alive today--period.

His current entry into proving my last statement is Love Me Tonight. The man rejuvenates that ol' R&B vibe so darned well and makes it all so fresh again. I'll say it again--the man can just flat sing--anything. He can channel Ray Charles, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Sam Cooke, and, and, and,...I do believe that he could put out country and western, rock and roll, jazz, gospel, and it wouldn't matter. He would just nail it. Oh, and he doesn't forsake the harp--it just is not the focus of his releases.

Go over to his website or myspace page and order his stuff. In the mean time check this out:

Gettin' Muddy Again

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:58:00 +0000

Muddy Waters
Authorized Bootleg
Live At The
Fillmore Auditorium
Geffen

Back when I posted my thoughts about the Muddy Waters' Classic Concerts DVD, I wrote in the last paragraph that I had my mind wrestling with whether or not to get Muddy's Fillmore show stuff. Well, you know, I forgot until recently, that I went ahead and jumped on iTunes and did just that a couple of nights later (back in May by the way). Between writing my novel, editing my novel, jotting down blog stuff, and then planning and taking the long road trip--it plum slipped my mind. I hadn't even listened to it until it popped up while barreling through West Texas and shuffling through my tunes.

My hesitance revolved around the fact that I have lots and lots of Muddy--but I always give in and get some more. George 'Harmonica' Smith sucked me into this one and because every time I played a online snippet from the set list of this release, I kept hearing his blues harp up front and prominent--so heck, what else could I do?

These shows come from November 1966 at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco and Smith had replaced James Cotton sometime in late spring of that year and wasn't just picked up for the West Coast gig. Matter of fact, he recorded with Muddy's band while backing both John Lee Hooker and Otis Spann on his Bluesway release in New York during the summer, so he was a touring member of the Waters' ensemble and had his stuff down by the time the Fillmore dates rolled around. Strange thing to me is that Otis Spann isn't playing with Muddy at the venue. Maybe he loved New Yorkers so much that he just couldn't leave, because he did record with Muddy this band later in November and back in the Big Apple for Victoria Spivey.

Regardless, this just proves that one can't have too much Muddy Waters. Along with Smith, guitarists Sammy Lawhorn, Luther 'Georgia Boy' Johnson, bassman Mac Arnold, and drummer Francis Clay fill out another one of Muddy's great bands. Spann simply would have put a stellar collection of songs over the top. These fifteen songs represent three consecutive nights that Bill Graham shared the best blues band in the country with the hippies of San Francisco. I'd say that they didn't disappoint anyone with Muddy and the band firing through his best known numbers mainly from the fifties with You Can't Lose What You Never Had and Thirteen Highway being the exceptions. Four numbers do a repeat and sound pretty much the same--doesn't bother me though. The set list offers no surprises. Muddy's bands had been running through these numbers for quite some time, but they do represent some of his greatest hits and I think, maybe other than the Newport Festival recordings, the best live Muddy on the market.

Muddy wails on his slide like a man possessed, especially on a version of his lesser known Thirteen Highway on which the band jams down upon for over eleven minutes. He whips out a twelve bar solo, takes a breath, then lights into another before giving Smith his turn to suck and blow his notes, then Lawhorn, then Georgia Boy. These guys smoked the tune. Seriously.

They all get some kind of fat, nasty guitar tones cranking that I think has something to do with the rock and rollers that preceded their shows and followed their act. When in Rome. Don't get me wrong, they ain't rocking the blues or trying to, they're are just cranking on it. I just think Muddy and Sammy are slinging some tones that I haven't heard before.

I love George 'Harmonica' Smith's blues harp--he just rips through solos with such ease and his fills between vocal lines are always superb and they have recorded his contributions to these nights in high fidelity. For me, his playing is easily recognized. He plays in such a smooth style, but exhibits as much energy as his predecessor, Cotton, on such tunes as Baby Please Don't Go, Trouble No More, and Got My Mojo Working.

All the musicians are well recorded here, which many times failed to happen with live recordings back in 1966. I think that this is the best that Muddy's vocals have been reproduced on a set of live recordings--his dynamics really show through. Francis Clay's drumming has always been impressive, but they've captured his every sharp snap, powerful bass stomp, and quick roll with a clarity I'm not used to hearing. He's driving the devil out of the blues on his kit on these nights and the sound comes through loud and clear.

So, I like this release. Seems that someone has bought into the Wolfgang Vaults of Bill Graham, where this came from, and has been busy putting them out on the market. Kudos to Geffen once again for getting it to us. Solid band, solid sound, solid blues, and solid Muddy Waters. Anyway--

Pick On It Two

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:51:00 +0000

John picked up his seafoam green Cruzer guitar on Wednesday afternoon (the day before his birthday) and we went out and ate pasta with daughter Erica and son-in-law Danny. John bought the Fight Night 4 video game, so he and Danny duked it out after the meal.

Early the next morning, John sprang from the bed that he rarely has crawled from before 9am this summer and plugged the Cruzer into my Sears 5XL (that I posted about in the past). I cranked the little booger's 3 watts, or whatever, for him and he played the snippets that he had been woodshedding on with his acoustic. His favorite piece is the intro to Jimi's Purple Haze, that the Washburn classical cat gut strings just never quite did justice to, and he soon had the Cruzer whomping the distortion from the speaker. Sounded quite good.

He moved into All Along The Watchtower, Led Zep's Stairway To Heaven, a little generic blues shuffle intro,and then Tears In Heaven (which does sound great on the acoustic, of course). He quickly wanted to try out another amp and we plugged into my 5 wattish Kalamazoo, which got amazingly loud (his neighbor friend heard it while walking his goats down the road). Great natural distorted tones come from that dude. It's one of my favorite harp amps and really made the Cruzer sing and zing.

Not being satisfied, yet, he wanted to play through my Silvertone 1483/4X10 cab (the Python also posted earlier). The 23 watt Silvertone pumped up the Cruzer's volume and he went to whomping and stomping. This amp has plenty of harp mods soldered into it and is my all time favorite blues harp amplifier, but it really brought swell tones out to the Cruzer. Just as I seldom get away with cranking this one up around the house, unless it is vacant of other human inhabitants, he'll run into the same volume restrictions. My signal for him to stop immediately, because the phone might be ringin, will be flipping the light switch to the upstairs amp loft off and on. I might have to install red bulbs up there for more emphasis.

The volume of the 23 watter amazed him and I had to remind him of his brother-in-law Brad's Fender Blues Deluxe trial run here at the house and to remember the volume that the 40 watter put out. Hard to imagine needing that much volume--until one steps on stage at real world jams and it swallows up anything below those 40 watts.

So far I'm impressed with this Korean made clonish Strat and I think that John will have a ball picking on it. We've got three lessons lined up with the owner of Brazos Arts Music School and Supplies where we bought the guitar in Bryan, Texas. That'll pump up the enthusiasm even a bit more, so until we meet again--'Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky. Anyway--

Pick On It

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:42:00 +0000

I took my son John out looking at electric guitars for his birthday. He's been holding up his part of the bargain by practicing on his Washburn classical acoustic steadily and is progressing quite well. His mom wanted him to take lessons before we sprang for a guitar, but he hasn't had the time, yet, and he has balked at the idea. He'd rather just pull up one of the vast quantities of youtube vid lessons and pick away. Amazingly useful technology happening today. He's picked out Tears in Heaven within a few days by doing that.

So, we headed to the two shops that stock guitars in any kind of numbers withing a 50mile radius from us. I grabbed a CD on the way out the door that I knew had plenty of guitar licks for him to listen to during the drive. He's slowly beginning to listen a bit more carefully to the old man's music than before. He quickly gained a appreciation for Peter Green's guitar skills from disc one of a 3 CD compilation called Fleetwood Mac Men Of The World/The Early Years released in 2005 from the Sanctuary Record Group.

I explained how much of a stone cold blues band these English cats were back in the day. That was sort of lost on him because he's never really listened to post-Peter Green Fleetwood Mac with diva Stevie Nicks. Now, my daughter and son-in-law (who are in their 20's) were floored when I played the same on the way to take them out to lunch during our trip.

I went ahead and explained to him just how close Peter Green was nicking at BB King's guitar style and that he needed to pull out my BB collection. I also pointed out Jeremy Spencer's love for Elmore James' slide skills informed what he was all about.

All this got me to digging through some of my stuff when we got back home to set out for him to get into. Of course, he's been listening to and ignoring my blues most of his life, but I don't think he realizes that not all of my stuff is harpcentric.

Since I greased the wheels with that set from the Englishmen, I pulled out John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton to continue his lesson abroad. To counter with an American counterpart, Mike Bloomfield's slinging on the first Paul Butterfield LP had to be thrown down (yeah, I know--it has blues harp). The BB King Flair compilation Do The Boogie/Early 50s Classic should provide ample proof of his estimable influence on those guys.

Since he had heard the Allman Brothers' licks on the Guitar Hero game (remarkable how many youngsters have gained an appreciation for classic rock through that series), I pulled my old record of the Brothers' first album off the shelf. I'd forgotten just how quickly I had to turn the album over to continue listening to Duane Allman's superior skills on slide. That prompted me to search for my cassette copy of Rhino Records The Sky Is Crying: The History Of Elmore James--wonderful, wonderful. I've got tons of blues cassettes from the period of time when the LP faded from planet Earth and my refusal to buy a CD player.

I had already sat him down and force fed him 17 Original Greatest Hits from a Freddy King tape once he indicated that he wanted to go electric. Since he's familiar with Stevie Ray Vaughan, since I have most of what the man recorded, then I might as well tie him down and get him into Albert King by playing the recording of the two in the studio. Then I'll slip the Stax stuff his way. And maybe also towards the other brother Vaughan and Jimmy's tasteful T-Birds picking and his unique style on his solo albums.

I can point him to my stack of Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, and Magic Sam before getting into some of the more modern guys. I'd forgotten just how good Bobby Radcliff's playing is on Blacktop Records Dresses Too Short until I dusted it off. Of course John's got to have a dose of fellow Texan Anson Funderburgh, even if his partner is a blues harp man and then I can bounce back to Albert Collins to show him what a Telecaster master can do with the blues. Then, I can turn him loose to dig deeper into my vault.

Of course, I'm doing all this so that when he plugs in around here that maybe he'll give me something that we can jam together upon and not something that'll drive me out of my ever loving mind. We'll see.

Back to the trip to the guitar shop. We ran across a relatively new addition to the Strat clone zone by the name of Cruzer by Crafter, which is priced along the lines of the Fender Squier. John like the touch and feel of the Cruzer over the Fender budgeteer, so we'll probably go with it and pick it up next week before his 16th. I think it'll suffice as a starter model. I think he'll go for lessons from the shop owner also. Of course, I'd get him into a standard Fender Strat if my money didn't argue otherwise and besides, if he gets into playing heavy metal, I won't feel any pain by chunking the cheap one in the dumpster. Anyway--p.s. That's John artwork from quite awhile back at the top of the post.

Collard Greens & Lone Wolf

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:11:00 +0000

Just had to post this up. Collard Greens and Gravy working their thing at the Broadbeach Festival playing the Wolf's Moanin at Midnight and Sammy Lewis' So Long Baby GoodBye. I've got a couple of reasons to post this--first is, of course, it's Ian Collard singing and blowing and the second reason is that he's been supplied with a Fender Twin Reissue amplifier which is less than an optimal harp amp---but, Ian has his Lone Wolf Delay, Lone Wolf Tone+, and his Lone Wolf Harp Attack pedals helping to boost the amp's harp quotient. Good stuff here.

Ramble On

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:47:00 +0000

I didn't mention in the post below that I had plans to turn my pickup truck over to my son John, who gets his license on July 2, so I bought a new Ford F-150 crew cab for the trip to the canyons. Shame on me for buying a gas guzzler. Actually, I thought the 21 mpg that I got on the trip was darned good and the back seat area is way spacious for a road trip. Plus, the iPod connection allowed me to plug in as much Little Walter as my wife and son could possibly stand. I do have need for a truck bed for hauling something fairly often around my 5 acres. Enough excuses. I've driven pickups since college and I like 'em and this 'un is a good 'un if the 3,000 mile journey to the canyons indicates anything.

Oh and why is Rod Piazza pictured above? Well, since I need to count up just what this vacation trip might have tallied, I should hold off adding to my substantial stash of blues music. Shouldn't I? So, I thought that I would mention a few new releases that I ain't buying (yet), that may hold some promise for blues harp fans; and the new Piazza Soul Monster from Delta Groove Productions tops the list. He's one of the main men out there doing it today, so we've got to get his stuff. Right? Right.

Bobby Jones impressed me with his vocals on the last Mannish Boys CD (also on Delta Groove). Apparently, he happened by the studio, by invitation, and they talked him into singing a few and then a few more and a couple after that and before long he had his own release--backed by those Mannish Boys, who play the blues righteously. The man can sing. He goes from sounding like BB, to Muddy, to the Wolf, to himself, depending on the song selection.

I ran across a CD entitled Day To Day by Alabama Mike and featuring Steve Freund and RJ Mischo. Never heard of Alabama Mike, but those other two guys convince me to get this one. Can't go wrong when Mischo's on board.

Speaking of those unknowns to me. I purchased Severn Records Diamonds In The Rough a few years back featuring some Chi-Town harp players still doing the do around town. I knew not of anyone blowing the blues on that disc and some, like Russ Green, proved to be hugely talented. Others proved why they'll remain second or third tier level players. Enjoyable release, though. Severn repeats the process with a new release called Chicago Blues Harmonica Project--More Rare Gems. Russ Green is back and I know of Little Arthur Duncan (who sadly has passed away), but the rest of the blowers are new to me. Might be a good one.

Along the same lines comes Juicy Harmonica featuring blasts from the past by some folks I've certainly never heard blowing the blues. Ever hear of Leslie Lewis? How about Model T Slim? Or Little Daddy Walton? No? Okay, what about Tim Whisett or Harmonica Slim? No? Me neither. Never heard of the Sundown label, neither. Which makes it all the more intriguing.

How about Big Walter Horton? Okay, now we're talking. JSP plans to release a retrospective of sorts that might be of value to any of us that would like to have his scattered discography in one place. Just might turn out to be a MUST HAVE on the wish list. Anyway--'nuff for now.

Back In Fat Air

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:59:00 +0000

Just got back from traveling to the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon and points in between with the wife, Virginia and son, John. Great trip! Along the way, we spied the Petrified Forest and the Painted Deserts of Arizona and they proved to be wonderful landscapes, but just warmed us up for the main events. We rode the Grand Canyon Train from Williams, Arizona to the Grand Canyon, more for the historical aspect of the trip than anything else. Our tour conductor warned of the higher altitude's skinny air and the resulting breathing difficulties as a result. He certainly was correct and our lungs complained more than once during our canyon hikes. We really enjoyed the mild temperatures that rarely exceeded a high of 75 degrees.

So, here I sit back in the Fat Air of Texas with a current temperature of 100 degrees. Now that will oppress any kind of attempt to draw a breath. I have to say that Bryce Canyon turned out to be our favorite landscape. The Hoodoos and Grottos won us over.

Blues content---We spent two nights of our trip in Santa Fe and we ventured into the La Fonda hotel bar that promised a blues band featured. Once I saw that a double decker keyboard dominated center stage and that the guitarist planned to sling his notes through a small solid state amp, I had my doubts. Since we were within five minutes of show time, we hung around until the first song proved that they wouldn't be my cup of tea. Mellow R&B, which my son aptly nailed as elevator music. Anyway--here's a few flicks of the 310 photos we shot.

Rick Estrin and the Nightcats

noreply@blogger.com (Ricky Bush) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:27:00 +0000

Rick Estrin
& The Nightcats
Twisted
Alligator Records

He's baaack! Seems just yesterday that I plugged Rick Estrin's On The Harp Side and his DVD just before that and now he's back with a new Alligator release with his version of the Nightcats. Twisted. Now that title perfectly fits Estrin's personality.This new Nightcats' recording adheres more or less to the old Nightcats' formula--instead of Charlie Baty leading the guitar charge and shining on jazzy or swinging instrumentals, Kid Andersen turns loose his different flavored chops. Where On The Harp Side was an Estrin vehicle, Twisted does the ensemble band thang that we've grown to love about a Nightcats' release. Estrin's still front and center as always, but he certainly allows Andersen to stretch out and put the pedal to the metal on occasion--such as on his instrumental, Earthquake where Kid approximates what Freddy King might have sounded like on meth. Rockabumping stuff, indeed. Oh, and Estrin gets the shaking going right along with him.

Estrin's witty lyrical behavior lives up to his reputation as an astute observer of real life stories, siphoned through his wise ass demeanor. The opener Big Time takes off where his last CD left off--with some nasty, honking Estrin licks. The amped up tone sounds very similar to what he squeezed out on the solo release. He aims his message at those folks who think that they are 'big time' and basically tells 'em to get out of his face with the attitude. The tune rocks. No, really. Kind of an old time rock and roll vibe kicks things off right.

Back From The Dead answers the song he wrote called Circling The Drain from that great, last Nightcats' CD, Nine Lives. That tune had Estrin ready to throw in the towel, this one has him saying that even though some may have thought that he did---well, he's got news for them because he's back from the dead despite the laundry list of reasons he offers why he should have croaked by now. Hilarious stuff and with the Kid slinging hash with his guitar, I think it should be on every Top 40 play list. Riiight.

UBU is another about minding your own damn business as he says "Let me be me and you be you" on this driving shuffle and Catching Hell is about, well, catching hell and slows the pace down with Kid showing off what he can really do with blues licks. P.A. Slim Is Back jumps the boogie with Estrin's harp leading into a tale about a cool daddy hitting town again after fleeing cold Chicago winters.

And so it goes and if you know Estrin like I know Estrin and his work with the Nightcats, then you know what the rest of the program is all about. He does keep his harp stuck to his mouth throughout the proceedings a little more so than on a typical Little Charlie and the Nightcaps release and he sucks the tonal variety out of the instrument, as usual, to keep things sounding fresh. He does the sweet and low chromatic thing on the Cool Breeze instrumental, gets his exquisite Sonny Boy II style going on You Can't Come Back, and displays some original acoustic licks during the brooding, Someone, Somewhere (which also showcases the Kid's acoustic flair).

The rhythm section of J Hansen (drums) and Lorenzo Farrell (bass) rode along on Estrin's solo release and they prove adept at swinging the variety of rhythmic changes thrown at them--or hell, maybe it is they who set the vibes. Regardless, they prove to be quite the groove monkeys. Hansen is turned loose on rough-hewn vocals on his own, I'm Taking Out My In-Laws, which is right up the Nightcats' alley.

Can't say enough about Kid Andersen, though. This ex-Norwegian seems to pretty much play "in-the-moment", sort of like a twisted Hubert Sumlin might or Junior Watson and it ain't no telling where he's coming from, going, or ending up. Darned unpredictable. Then, again, so is Estrin--even when you think you know what he's all about, he'll pull his own stunts with a harp in his mouth. He plays outside of himself everytime he takes a solo and way outside of what a wealth of other harp can achieve. Hurray for this one!

Anyway---This may be my last post for awhile. I'm going to try like the dickens to finish typing my novel before leaving for a Grand Canyon/Bryce Canyon trip June 14-23, which should be a great ride. I'll see if I can stick something up here before pulling up stakes and heading that direction.