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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Peter Karp & Sue Foley

Part One

Beyond He Said She Said

By Kyle M. Palarino

Peter Karp and Sue Foley are back for round two as they release their second album together, Beyond the Crossroads. This is a gorgeous step forward in the growth of their time together. It takes off from the original He Said She Said album, which was one point of life for these two people, and really takes them past those initial letters and onto so many strong-feeling songs. Beyond the Crossroads uses the great Swingadelic Horns and James Alexander brings in some great gospel, soul-tinged background vocals to flavor the album. You get more flavors on this album than at a Baskin-Robbins.

Peter and Sue really took their time to write a strong album. This time it focuses on positive themes. The song titles tell the story: “We’re Gonna Make It,” “Beyond the Crossroads,” “Fine Love,” “Take Your Time,” “More Than I Bargained For,” and “Resistance.” These songs talk about real relationships that all of us have with people every day; sometimes it’s an intimate relationship, but you could apply it any relation in your life. These two writers have put a lot of thought into these songs and they benefit the listener as well. The best musicians grow with time so we can grow with them.

Peter Karp is an amazing songwriter and cutting slide guitarist that is the perfect cohort for Sue Foley. Sue blazed herself on the world through the rough and ready Austin music scene in the early 1990s. Not an easy place for a “girl” to grow up. Sue’s tough enough to do it. Her playing pushes Peter each night on the stage and don’t think he doesn’t put up a fight. Some songs turn into straight guitar duels until they respectfully go back to the song. Astonishing is not the word for the respect that these musicians and writers have for each other. They know how to play for the sake of the song, but have fun and push each other’s limits while keeping the audience engaged! Hot Damn!!

I sat down with Peter and Sue two years ago at the Hungry Tiger in Manchester, Connecticut, when He Said She Said came out and I am lucky enough to do the same thing again in the same place. These two are a fun interview – very willing to share their experiences and thoughts behind their tales. Even if I wouldn’t recommend the coffee at the Tiger doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hit the place up for a great show and sometimes a grand chat. Sometimes you have play Bukowski and be a barfly.

Kyle Palarino for BluesWax: OK, let’s get this underway. First off, I want to attack the songwriting since you two are both top-notch songwriters. This album does take a different approach than the last one did [He Said She Said].

Peter Karp: See, he got that.

Sue Foley: Yes.

PK: One guy I don’t think really listened to the record cause all he said was like here’s another back and forth album talking about their problems. I mean he liked the record a lot, but it was like a He Said She Said II. It’s not at all like that.

SF: Yeah, he said it’s like a continuation of the story.

BW: No, that’s what I totally loved about this. It’s a totally different album from the first one. The other thing too was that the two of you seemed to separate as songwriters on this. I mean there are songs that could have been on a Peter Karp album or a Sue Foley album, were there songs that were written for the last album that were on this one?

PK: The letters from the last album yielded those songs. There really were no remnants from that record on this one. It’s not like we had a few in the can and said oh let’s throw on the next one. So this was a brand new attack.

BW: Which is what it sounded like.

PK: Having worked together and doing He Said She Said together and coming together as artists and bandleaders we started to get comfortable. Things felt good, things got really good, so I think that yielded some of the songwriting we shared there like “We’re Gonna Make It,” “More Than I Bargained For.” It got very easy. And then we pulled out our own little things and said what do you think of this, what do think of that? We turned some into duets and some into our own. I think we both respect each other a lot. Well, in a professional mode.

SF: [Laughing] Not personally.

PK: Not personally.

BW: I would hope not.

PK: [Laughter continues] Professionally we have the utmost respect for each other as musicians and songwriters. So that was really fun. We both found to be a lot of fun I think.

SF: Yeah, and me personally I considered myself more of a guitar player for a long time. I think working with Peter kinda upped the ante as far as paying attention to the lyric. I can say he definitely upped my game and made me think more like a writer. So that’s been really good. And our focus on the show has been much more on the songs even though we have a heavy instrumental slant too, but we said that the song is the most important part. Whatever serves the song, that’s where we’re going.

PK: I’ll just quickly add that I had to raise my guitar playing game to play with Sue. When you are standing there on stage and do a solo…

SF: [interrupting with laughter] There’s a girl on the stage.

PK: Well, no, I didn’t say that at all. The thing is when I would do a solo and I would think hey that was a great solo. Then I would hear her do somethin’ and I’m like, fuck that was really! So now I have to up my game. So that’s been pretty healthy.

BW: And on the guitar playing, I love hearing “Plank Spank,” ’cause that takes me right back to one of your old songs, “Hooker Thing,” which was one of the first songs I fell in love with that you did because not enough people do Earl Hooker anything, let alone a female artist playing guitar.

SF: This is kind of an extension of that for sure. Same key. We had a lot of fun on that.

PK: When she brought that to the table I took it and I was like, hmm, I’m gonna play slide on this. What do I do on this because it’s such a busy tune? So we managed to integrate and break up the parts and make into something we could share back and forth. Again, I learned from her on that song a lot, how to write an instrumental. I’ve never really written instrumentals. I haven’t written an instrumental in 25 years, ya know, but I learned from her the power of the instrumental. It was a great challenge to play that with her.

BW: Onto your playing of the barrelhouse piano; you brought that onto this album more so.

PK: Yeah I’ve always played piano at my shows. I love it; it’s what I started on. The last record was a little more contemplative and this one was more of let’s just turn it up. Let’s just have some fun; let ‘er rip. That’s really about it. It lended itself to it.

BW: Alright, being on the road?

SF: Dot, dot, dot. [Laugh]

PK: First night of a six-week tour. So far, so good.

BW: I think I got you last time you were just starting out on the road. So you didn’t have much time on the road together, so tell me it’s been a couple years since we last sat down at this blue table here. Tell me a good story you have shared and learned from each other.

SF: [Rips into full laughter]

BW: Come on, keep it G-rated kids!

PK: [Starts pointing at his front teeth] Let’s see, this tooth, that tooth is false.

SF: Let’s just say that the dynamic and the things you hear on the stage also unfold elsewhere. So we didn’t write a song like “Rules of Engagement” about a fight because we had never fought. We had a lot of things to work out, are still working out stuff but it’s a process. It’s fun; it’s been good. We’re both leaders and had to renege some of our powers to make a proper power together.

PK: I think motivation, in this business is hard to stay motivated. You go on the road, play places, the same kind of places.

BW: Bad coffee.

PK: Bad coffee or whatever and night after night you start to feel like you are going through the motions. So working with Sue is you really can’t go through the motions. Because if somebody starts to go through the motions, somebody else stirs it up. And if we both go through the motions, then guaranteed we are going to have a knockdown, drag-out fight afterwards. We’ll criticize each other about not having our heads in the game.

SF: Let’s just say, we are both better for working together.

To be continued…

Kyle Palarino is a contributing editor at BluesWax.

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Slipped Discs

“Hoy, Hoy!”

A Visit To Planet Spo-Dee-O-Dee

By Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

Each week Rev. Billy C. Wirtz tells us about artists, albums, and music that we need to know about.

Last week I told the strange story of an innocent tune, reputed to contain all manner of lewd and lascivious lyrics, that became a rock ‘n’ roll anthem.

 That song, “Louie Louie,” has now trumped “Yesterday” as the most re-recorded song of all time, even the article generated more responses than any piece I’ve written so far.

This week’s tune was originally X-rated and sung by black soldiers in the segregated barracks of Petersburg, Virginia.

Celebrating their drink of choice, the lyrics went something like:

Drinkin’ that mess is our delight, 

And when we get drunk, start fightin’ all night. 

Knockin’ out windows and tearin’ down doors, 

Drinkin’ half-gallons and callin’ for more. 

Drinkin’ wine mutherf–ker, drinkin’ wine!

G–damn! 

Drinkin’ wine motherf–ker, drinkin’ wine!

 G–damn! 

Drinkin’ wine muthaf–ker, drinkin’ wine!

 G–damn! 

Pass that bottle to me! 

Rewind

In 1947, Granville “Stick” McGhee, brother of legendary bluesman Brownie McGhee, stepped into a studio in New York City, added a couple of verses, and recorded a cleaned-up version of the song. He substituted the phrase “Spo-Dee-O-Dee” for the M.F. word, and replaced G-Damn, with various manifestations (“Elderberry, Blackberry, or Cherry!”) of said beverage.

He named the song “Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.”

His first recorded version was performed with a guitar and slap bass, and began with the words:

“Down in Petersburg, everything’s fine.”

Much like “Louie, Louie,” it was recorded for a tiny independent label (Harlem Records) that had neither the time nor money to promote it, and within weeks it was forgotten about.

Fast Forward:

In 1949, Amhet Ertegun, president of Atlantic Records, was hanging around a record distributor’s office. He noticed an order come through for thousands of copies of a song called “Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee.”

Apparently, it had become a huge hit in New Orleans. No one seemed to know why, just another “go figure” moment in  music history.

Without bothering to inform anyone at Harlem Records, Ertegun tracked down Stick and re-recorded it, adding “Big Chief” Ellis on piano, Gene Ramey on drum,s and brother Brownie McGhee on guitar. They slowed down the tempo, changed the song’s location from Petersburg to New Orleans, and it took off.

Within the year, it rose to #2 on the R&B charts, and climbed all the way to #26 on the pop charts.

“Wine…” was the song that saved the young record label (Atlantic Records) from impending bankruptcy. Thanks to “Wine…”  Ertegun was able to pay off his creditors, offer lucrative contracts to such artists as Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, and Ray Charles, and build an empire.

The Legacy Of Spo-Dee-O-Dee

There was something about that song…

Everyone loved it and, almost immediately, everyone covered it.

Less than six months after Stick, Wynonie Harris did a rip-roaring version.

Later that same year, there was a “Hillbilly” cover.

Jerry Lee Lewis sings it virtually every time he sits down at the piano, recording it at least a half-dozen times, beginning when Sam Phillips let him cut it for Sun Records in 1956.

Go to Allmusic.com and notice, along with the staggering number of recordings, the numerous variations on it’s name. The most common:

“Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee”

Then there’s:

“Wine, Wine, Wine”

How about?

“Wine Spo-Lee-O-Lee”

As a social greeting:

“Hey Spo-Dee-O-Dee”

The simplified version:

“Wine”

And my favorite phonetic train wreck:

“Wine, Spo-Li-O-Li”

“Wine” and “Louie Louie “ share some notable similarities:

1) They were both recorded on small labels and then forgotten.

2) Both songs became accidental smash hits as a result of airplay in areas completely foreign to the artists.

     -  Two years after it’s release in New York, “Wine,” became a hit in New Orleans.

     -“Louie Louie,” recorded in Takoma, Washington, became a hit as a result of airplay in Boston.

2) Each of them featured an unusual and distinctive chord pattern.

     – In “Louie, Louie,” the V (Five) chord is a minor instead of the usual dom.7th configuration.

     – Stick’s original version of “Wine…” repeats the I-V turnaround.  The basic chord pattern goes I-IV-I-V-V#-V-I-V-I-       V.  Note: The original also holds the one chord for an unusually long eight bars. 

Virtual Spo-Dee-O-Dee

As a result of social media, it’s now possible to listen to both Stick’s version and two dozen others on YouTube.

-Should you wish to see the uncensored lyrics, go to Wikipedia.

-Along with “Sixty Minute Man,” the song is still played weekly in Beach Music clubs all across the Carolinas. Not bad for a sixty-three year-old song.

Although the original is still popular, a version by Larry Dale has a more pronounced backbeat, and is preferred by the dancers.

Forever Spo-Dee-O-Dee

Unlike Richard Berry, who created “Louie Louie,” Stick never received much in the way of fame or fortune, recording for Atlantic, then King, and finally Savoy, before retiring from the music business at the age of forty-three, in 1960.

 He died of cancer a short year later, leaving Brownie’s son his guitar, the one containing the secrets of an elixir he called “Spo-Dee-O-Dee.”

Rev. Billy C. Wirtz is a weekly columnist at BluesWax. Each week he finds artists, albums, and music that you should know about. He also plays piano. His radio show, Rev. Billy’s Rhythm Revival, is available in podcast. To hear the latest, go to Rev. Billy C. Wirtz’ page on Facebook and look for the link.

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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Jimmy Hall

Part One

By Mark Goodman

I first saw Jimmy Hall and Wet Willie around 1974. They were opening for Bachman-Turner Overdrive at the Philadelphia Convention Center. B.T.O. was huge at that time, and went to see them. I wasn’t familiar with Wet Willie, they were just the opening act.

Well, you can probably guess who stole the show. From that time on, I became a fan. I enjoyed Wet Willie as a band, but was infatuated by Jimmy Hall’s stage presence and musicianship. There was energy about him, and it’s still there today, some forty years on. As a singer of Southern Soul, he is unmatched. Listen to his version of “A Change is Gonna Come” and it will give you goose bumps.

However, Wet Willie is so much more than a one-genre band. When you go to see them, don’t plan to sit back and listen; it’s impossible. You’ll spend the night on your feet. That’s a fact!

Mark Goodman for BluesWax: Jimmy, for the younger fans, tell me a little about your early career and the start of Wet Willie.

Jimmy Hall: Really, my recording career started with Wet Willie. It started when my brother Jack and I got our first group together, and really that group morphed into what later became Wet Willie. I mean, it was trial and error and getting some of the best players we could get our hands on. We handpicked guys and moved through some players. So Wet Willie got together in Mobile and then decided that was not going to be the city to help us achieve our goals. So in 1969 we were rehearsing, writing, and just getting our sounds together. In the early part of 1970, we were trying to look ahead and see where we wanted to seek our fame and fortune in this country. Where we might end up trying to get a record deal, or where we were going to move to further our career. After considering several cities, we decided on Macon, Georgia. We were listening to a lot of music back then and we had heard the Allman Brother’s first record.

There was so much good music out, but the Allman Brothers were a beacon to us in many ways. They had taken the southern sound, with some old styles like blues and jazz, and were reinventing them in certain ways. We decided that was what we wanted to do. Not copy them, but go from that town, go for that attitude, and get on their label.

So through connections that we had, we managed to get names and numbers at Capricorn Records. They were very open to the idea of us coming down for an audition. The audition went well, so in July 1970 we became the second band to sign with Capricorn after the Allman Brothers. After we signed, we started working on our first record, and when that was finished, we started touring some with the Allman Brothers.

So that really started our ten-year run with Wet Willie. It’s become much longer now, but the first ten years were the golden years for us.

BW: Wet Willie ended around 1980. When did you decide to get it going again, and what was the inspiration?

JH: In 1980, music had changed and the band was floundering as far as direction, and the record company was not as happy with some of the material which we had. Also at that time, I had been offered a solo deal with Epic. So we put Wet Willie on the side burner, not the front burner. I said, “Let’s just wait and see what happens with that [solo project] and maybe we’ll do another record down the road a bit.” So I did a solo album for Epic in 1980.

I didn’t want to break the band up. You know, I wanted to do both things but there were certain guys in the band that weren’t of the same mind. So it led to a split at that point. I did two solo albums, then moved to Nashville and got into working with Jeff Beck.

We reunited in 1992. There’s lot’s of reasons why, but you know it was like, what was good once was still good. So my brother Jack and I started talking to Richie Harris and some of the original guys about doing some more shows. There were lucrative offers that made it worthwhile, and we haven’t been apart since.

BW: After all this time, why did you decide to release a live record?

JH: We had a coalition with Hitting the Note magazine and their labels. Hitting the Note is the magazine for the Allman Brothers Band. Cohorts and friends, including Randall Bramlett and Tommy Talton had recorded for this label. They said, “You should consider doing something for them, their doing really straight-up honest work”. We were doing some concerts in an area of Georgia that made it convenient to record live and they said to us, “why don’t you guys record at these shows while you’re touring. We’ll see what we come up with; let’s just get it on tape”. Nothing ventured, nothing gained so we agreed on a couple of shows. Macon was one, but most everything came from the Woodstock show. We recorded two nights and took the best of what we got. We were gambling that we were going to get what we needed out of the two nights. Everybody was happy – we got what we wanted.

BW: Back in the ’70s, you took the Taj Mahal song “She Caught the Katy” and really made it your own. Considering your style of music at the time, what was it about that song that caught your ear?

JH: Well, some of it had to do with the Allman Brothers. They were a big influence for us and we were all listening to a lot of music. It was like, “What do you guys listen to? What’s been turning you guys on lately?” We’d all talk blues and I’d talk about harp players. About that time some of their guys were saying, “Man, you got to listen to some of this stuff.” So I got the Nacthel Blues album and two or three others, I can’t remember which ones, but it just hit me that I love country blues. As it turned out, the Allman Brothers recorded more Taj’s version of “Statesboro Blues” than [Blind Willie] McTell’s. Later on I got to do some shows with him, and hang around with him a few times. He’s been a lifelong influence to me and I told him that he was my hero.

BW: Siblings Jack and Donna [Hall] return in the current lineup, how many other original members came back?

JH: When we had the opportunity to put it all back together, we put feelers out to all the original members. John Anthony had been involved until about a year ago, maybe a little longer. Then for personal reasons, he decided he wanted to discontinue the roadwork, so we had to opt for a great choice in Bobby Mobley. Now Rick Hirsch, who was our original guitar player and co-writer on many of our songs, lives in Los Angeles. With him working out there, he was not always available. Plus, we were trying to do tours and shows and it was just not cost effective to fly him from L.A. Along the way we decided to go with a couple of other guitar players, one from the Hank Williams, Jr., Band. Also on guitar are Ricky Chancey and Rick Seymour, who’ve been with us for more than twenty years. T.K. Lively is the original drummer from 1976 when we “sort of” had to reorganize with a couple guitarists and new drummer.

BW: Even though Miles of Smiles is mostly up tempo, there are a couple slow burners, “Lonely” is one of those. Tell me about the song.

JH: “Lonely” is a song that I co-wrote with a couple of guys here in Nashville. A friend of mine who was into R&B and I used to get together and write. I don’t remember how long ago it was written, but I think it was back in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s. There’s a little story about the song that may be interesting. I didn’t cut it on another record until we did it live, but we had pitched it to B.B. King when he was in town doing some work. I can’t remember the producer that worked with the Crusaders, but he liked the song. They wanted to do a demo with a rough vocal using a friend of mine named Troy Seals. He’s the guy that wrote so many great pop and rock ‘n’ roll songs, like “Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart” and “Drift Away.” Then they played it for B.B. The word I got was it was too high for him, or he just decided it was going to be too rangy. For whatever reason, he said he couldn’t do it, but I still have a copy of it somewhere with Troy Seals singing. We have been doing it live with Wet Willie for a while and we loved the harmony on it.

To be continued…

Mark Goodman is a contributing editor and photographer at BluesWax.

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The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra

With Featured Vocalist

Shakura S’Aida

 Blues in G Minor

April 20, 2012

Capital Theatre

Wheeling, West Virginia

Photographs by Dusty Scott

On Friday, April 20, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, based in Wheeling, West Virginia, presented “Blues in G Minor” with dynamic Canadian vocalist and entertainer Shakura S’Aida.

S’Aida was a hit at the Heritage Music Blues Fest in Wheeling in 2010 and the festival promoter saw the possibility for a collaboration with the WSO’s Pop Series. Fellow Canadian, composer Rob Teehan was brought in to do the arrangements for the blues-oriented program, along with Lance Anderson and Jeff Christmas. Anderson was also the guest conductor for the concert. The Tridelphia Middle School Jazz Band performed in the lobby prior to the concert.

Known for her high-energy performance and soaring vocals the combination of Shakura S’Aida had to be a treat for blues and symphony fans alike.

Blues Revue and BluesWax Photographer Dusty Scott was lucky enough to attend and on this week’s Photo Page he shares some of his photographs.

As always, our writers and photographers share their work with you for your enjoyment; if you wish to share photographs or use them for any other purpose, please contact the photgrapher or our offices.

Enjoy!

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Joel DaSilva & The Midnight Howl

Self-Titled

Self-Released

BluesWax Rating: 10

A Howling Good CD

There are many times after I review a CD that I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t like it enough to listen to it again, so the options are to give it away or to put it on my shelf to collect dust.

This is one CD I will be hanging on to and playing, regularly. This is truly a great CD, especially when you think that it’s a debut effort. Joel DaSilva’s guitar work is crisp with a unique tone I would recognize anywhere. His attack and varied dynamics create layers of sound that envelop you and hold your attention note after note. His restraint from sonic bombast (to which so many guitarists succumb) allows the band’s consummate musicianship to shine through. And when he plays solos, his style serves the entire song – he’s not just showing us how well he learned the blues scale for twleve bars.

DaSilva’s voice is strong and evocative – it may not have the raw power of Joe Bonamassa, but he delivers each song with genuine feeling and complete control.

As a songwriter, DaSilva shows a lot of diversity. The CD begins with the lustful “Let’s Not Fight, Let’s Make Some Love.” You gotta love a lyric that goes, “Let’s bump and grind until something falls off or gets loose.”

He also does a couple of terrific acoustic blues tunes, “Every Night” and “Hard Time.” The former is a very nice twelve-bar acoustic tune, played by a guitarist good enough to play the acoustic guitar as it is rather than if it were an unplugged electric. I especially like “Hard Time,” though. DaSilva is joined by Albert Castiglia and their voices blend to deliver a gritty tune worthy of the Mississippi Delta. DaSilva’s voice hits all the right notes and nuances.

Purists beware, there are a couple of rockin’ blues tunes here, too. And they work. The opening riffs of Hendrix’s “Who Knows” reach out and grab you as both smoking blues and driving rock.

One of the things I like best about this CD is that DaSilva never loses his anchor. A lot of times when today’s blues players try to “modernize” the sound by bringing in the blues’ offspring, the original blues voice is lost. But when DaSilva adds a rock sound on a tune, including his own “Hangin’ On,” he never loses the heart of the blues. This is no easy feat and a big reason that I’m going to predict that the world will be hearing a lot about Joel DaSilva very soon.

He also throws a very nice curve ball. “Heart of my Father” opens with a wistful acoustic guitar and accordion, as if it were 1938 Paris, before it smoothly transitions into an eight-minute, wrenching, soul-searching lament buoyed by Joseph Sant’ Angelo’s delicious Hammond B3 and DaSilva’s emotional guitar fills and solos.

I have reviewed a lot of CDs for BluesWax, including some very well-known names in the Blues World, and I can honestly say this one is my favorites. It is such a remarkably mature recording for a first effort. Dasilva hails from Chicago, which appears to have infused DaSilva with every ounce of blues mojo that storied town contains.

And he’s put it all on this CD. You should get it. Today. Right now.

Kim O’Brien is a contributing writer at BluesWax.

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Kipori Woods

Blues Gone Wild

Louisiana Red Hot Records

BluesWax Rating: 7

Big Easy Funky Blues

It’s been nearly twelve years since the last Kipori Woods album, so it’s great to have him back. I was fortunate to have seen him onboard with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band a few years back and enjoyed his spot in the band, but I think that might have been a one-time shot. Blues Gone Wild is Kipori’s third solo album, twelve tracks are offered, two covers, and the balance of the tunes were either authored or co-authored by Woods.

The album starts with two covers, first up is Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham’s classic “Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On,” its offered in a more swinging setting than the original, and also includes new and bawdy lyrics that makes it “R” rated, but it’s fun, and the band is tight. Earl King’s “Ya Mama” is next and it finds Kipori in wah-wah mode, which sounds odd to me, but kudos to bassist Roy Pope who provides lively contrasts. Woods’ “Me and My Baby (Getting’ Down)” is funky and playful, as is the instrumental “Tip Groove,” which sounds like a track that Tower of Power could stomp over; there’s more thumping bass from Pope, and nice B3 from David Tarantolo. “Uptown Blues” has good energy, with solid guitar work from the hands of Woods. A second instrumental, “Free Flow,” allows the entire band to share the spotlight with their leader, and it’s another funky romp. Reminiscent of another Crescent City star (Walter “Wolfman” Washington), there’s some cool stutters and stops on Woods’ “Full Circle,” that also shows off some of Woods’ hottest guitar playing on this very danceable recording. The so-called bonus track, “Back In New Orleans,” is different from all the previous tunes, it has a honky-tonk groove aided by Tarantolo’s piano as opposed to his B3 organ, but it’s nothing special.

So in summary this is a nice return to studio recording for Kipori Woods, his songwriting is good, his vocals have developed further, but it’s his guitar that receives and deserves the attention, and gets the spotlight. Hopefully it won’t be another twelve years till the next album. In the meantime, have some friends over, serve up a bunch of jambalaya, suck down some oysters, a few brews, and enjoy Blues Gone Wild. That’s what I did.

Bob Putignano is a contributing writer at Blues Revue and a contributing editor at BluesWax. He is also the heart and soul of  Sounds of Blues.

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Ryan Hartt & the Blue Hearts

Call My Name

Far-Tone Records

BluesWax Rating: 9

East Meets West…Coast

New England is a pretty swingin’ area of the country that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Roomful of Blues, the Radio Kings, and Monster Mike Welch all hail from these woods. Most of the time you think the west coast swings harder than the east coast, well, those names mentioned and Ryan Hartt will give the Delta Groove Records guys a run through the woods. Let’s see those city slickers hang with these country bumpkins.

Ryan Hartt is right out of the rockin’ swing clubs that could pack any dance floor. He has a little Kansas City flavoring that makes everything gel just right with the muscle of Eric Ducoff’s tough guitar tone. Ducoff has a tone that could be called a “tall Texas tone.” It’s just so big, but he has such a strong control of it. Hartt then expands on the strings with his screaming harmonica that has traveled the roads of Chicago, Austin, and L.A. to land into his own well-crafted lips. These two complement each other like peanut butter and jelly.

The album starts off with a lazy “Anti-Blues Pill.” I tell yo,u if you just want to sit back have a brew and chill to one song this year, here it is. Then they turn the heat up T-Bird style on “Love at First Sight.” Hartt channels his inner Kim Wilson and rips the song down with that laid-back southern pace. Another gem that lets the harp blow on one of those windy, sunny days you don’t want to end is “One More Night.”

On a different note, the songwriting on “I Choose the Blues” really sells this song. It’s the halfway point on the album and changes the whole face of what you have heard so far. It’s a dark, foreboding song; it tells their story – of musicians that have made the choice to play blues instead of work 9-5 every day. It reminds me of John Lee Hooker’s “I Cover the Waterfront” on his Real Folk Blues album. Although Hooker’s song was at the end, it was a total change in feel from the rest of the album; but it worked perfectly.

“Kaboom!” is a Spanish-flavored instrumental piece worth putting on your plate. I like the little reggae scratch in the middle of the song, too. These guys are all over the place, but right where they need to be. Even “Sleepwalkin’” doesn’t slow Ryan Hartt and his crew down. They just poke it along and drink some “caffeine in the mornin’/ and it’s beer at night/ that’s the only way I feel alright/ sleepwalkin’/ sleepwalkin’ through my life.” And of course to wrap it up they pick up the pace with “Dartboard.” They can’t let you down without gettin’ you out of your seat for one last dance.

Ryan Hartt & the Blue Hearts aim to please and they do from start to finish. It’s a slow ride through the New England woods where you test speed limits and sometimes get a little too close to the trees on the side of the road, but your blood will be pumping through your veins with excitement until the last note rings out.

Kyle M. Palarino is a contributing editor at BluesWax.

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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Corky Laing

By Art Tipaldi

Nowadays Corky Laing often finds himself living two very different musical lives. As the trend-setting drummer of Cream’s heir, Mountain, Laing sits at his kit in the rear of a massive stage show fronted by guitarist Leslie West. However, when he tours as the Corky Laing Band, the set moves to the front and he calls it, “an intimate evening with a rock ‘n’ roll drummer.”

“For me it’s a bigger challenge to get up in front of the audience and play,” says Laing from his Toronto home. “I consider this a musical journey. I call the show “Forty years of Rock ‘n’ Roll” because I basically tell the stories between the songs. Mountain has an amazing assortment of songs that Leslie never got to. So basically I play songs that have not been played in Mountain.”

With guitarist Ritchie Scarlet and percussionist Tito Pediford, the band Laing travels with uses the Mountain format as its take-off point. Scarlett, who plays bass in Mountain, handles the guitar and singing chores while Pediford and Laing keep more than just percussive time. Laing feels that he and Pediford are working on a nightly dialogue between a drummer and percussionist. Not a Santana-styled approach, but a storytelling concept.

“There is definitely a form of phrasing and finding ways to better tell the story. I think when you’re young, you just want to talk as fast as you can and get everything in. I remember seeing Tony Williams way back in the mid-1960s in Montréal. He told me, ‘I know the words, but I haven’t quite told the story yet.’ I know the technical parts, but can I tell the story on my drums in a way that somebody will care about it.”

That’s the perspective of this 64-year-old drummer’s journey from following on the heels of Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, and Mitch Mitchell to insights discovered through forty years of studying one’s craft.

Raised in Montreal, Laing made frequent trips to New York in the 1960s with his band Energy. At a beach house on Long Island, he met the band Vagrant and it’s flamboyant guitarist Leslie West. At the same time, Felix Pappalardi was producing Cream for Atco Records.

In 1969, West was booked to play Woodstock and asked Pappalardi to join him. That success opened talks about continuing and the need for a full-time drummer. Since both knew Laing, he was given the chance.

“At the time, you could feel this band was more then just a passing thing. That first gig was scary as hell. It was at the Boston Tea Party opening for Dion. That was weird because we were so fuckin’ loud and Dion comes out with his quiet set.”

From there, Laing and West penned classic tunes like “Mississippi Queen” and “Nantucket Sleigh Ride,” two songs essential to that era of infant hard rock. After the band’s break-up, West and Laing teamed up with Cream bassist Jack Bruce to form West, Bruce and Laing. Yet through the years the partnership of West and Laing has been key.

With a sense of humor as quick as his high-hat-to-snare run, Laing addressed the forty-plus-year friendship between he and West. “It’s based on trust and understanding. I don’t trust him and he doesn’t understand me. The inventory that we musicians deal with is straight outta the heart. So when somebody messes with the inventory, you tend to get violent about it. At this point, we’re feeling pretty good about everything. Before it was about destroying your health, now it’s about keeping your health. The good news is that we’re all still here to pass along something. It’s about giving back at a certain time.”

As a member of the drummer fraternity, Laing has his personal list of mentors who have added to his stylistic kit. Older jazz drummers like Art Blakely, Louie Bellson, and Ed Tighpen taught early, while Steve Gadd, Hal Blaine, and Ginger Baker offered ideas in the 1960s. However, two drummers, Levon Helm and Keith Moon stand at the top of Laing’s list.

“I was always listening to dance drummers, and it was always about the feel. When it came to the hardcore interpretation of expressing the heart of the music, then Levon Helm could articulate that feel.

“If you watch Keith Moon, he’ll make you want to play drums. Once I heard and saw him, I said, ‘That’s it. All I want to do is play drums.’ That’s what I try to do on stage, to make people realize how beautiful it is to play the drums.”

Art Tipaldi is the editor of Blues Revue.

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Slipped Discs

“Me Gotta Go Now”

By Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

Each week Rev. Billy C. Wirtz tells us about artists, albums, and music that we need to know about.

ME GOTTA GO NOW

OK, faithful readers:

Name this tune:

(Read it out loud)

Bomp-bomp-bomp

Bomp-bomp

Bomp-bomp-bomp

Bomp-bomp

Did ya get it?

How about if I told you that the progression goes I-IV-V minor-IV?

By now, I hope you’ve figured out that I am referring to a song written by Richard Berry and immortalized by a bunch of guys in Seattle, everybody grab your honey, it’s LOUIE LOUIE time!!!

The story:

First of all, after Richard Berry, there are numerous versions of the saga.

Here’s one of them:

Los Angeles, 1955 – A young black artist named Richard Berry was trying to compose a tune in the style of “Havana Moon” by Chuck Berry. He wrote some lyrics on a napkin between sets of a bar gig.

He ended up writing the song about a love-starved fellow sailing to Jamaica to meet his girlfriend.

Here are the words he scribbled down:

Louie Louie, me gotta go

Louie Louie, me gotta go

Fine little girl she waits for me

Me catch the ship for cross the sea

I sail the ship all alone

I never think I’ll make it home

(Chorus)

Three nights and days me sail the sea

me think of girl constantly

on the ship I dream she there

I smell the rose in her hair

(chorus)

Me see Jamaica moon above

It won’t be long, me see my love

Me take her in my arms and then

I tell her I never leave again

(Chorus)

Shortly thereafter, Berry needed money for an engagement ring and sold the rights to “Louie Louie”…for $750. That’s not a misprint.

1957 – “Louie Louie” by Richard Berry is released on Flip Records. Berry performs with an R&B revue at Eagles Auditorium in the Seattle area.

From here on, it gets really weird; I read about six different accounts, and this seems to be the majority opinion.

Tacoma, Washington – 1960: A white kid named Robin Roberts sings with various local bands.

His two favorite songs are “Rockin’ Robin” and a doo-wop obscurity, ”Louie Louie.” He records “Louie Louie” with The Wailers, a local group with the recent hit, “Tall Cool One.” They are frequent performers at The Spanish Castle, a club later immortalized in song by Jimi Hendrix.

Roberts’ version goes to #1 locally, but tanks on the national charts.

April 1963 – “Louie Louie” has become a regional standard played by all the bands. Two groups record versions of it in the same week.

The first version by Paul Revere and Raiders sells respectably, but they would find greater fame with a dozen other hits.

A group of teenagers known as The Kingsmen pony up $36 and record the song in one take. There are two microphones, one over the drums, and another one for the vocals and rest of the band. The words come out mumbled and virtually incomprehensible.

FACT: The original vocal was sung by Jack Ely, who quit the band two days later.

FACT: In the song, Ely makes a one glaring mistake, coming in too soon on the vocals after the guitar break, Lynn Easton covers it with a drum roll. It doesn’t matter; the mistake becomes part of the song, part of music history, and is included by The Kingsmen when they play it live.

FACT: At :54, Easton drops a stick and yells a clearly audible “F—ck,” in the background. (Go ahead, go listen, and then come back and finish the article).

The guys decide “Louie Louie” is a terrible recording and forget about it.

October, 1963 – A Boston D.J. plays “Louie Louie” declaring it the worst record of the week. His joke backfires and the song sells over 20,000 copies in a week. Wand Records buys the master from Jerden (Hell yes, it worth some serious cash), the original label in Seattle.

Jack Ely realizes his mistake, pleads with Lynn Easton to let him back in the band. “No way “ says Easton, and thus begins a series of The Kingsmen versus Jack Ely and The Kingsmen rivalries that will ultimately end up in multimillion dollar lawsuits.

Winter, 1963-64 – Rumors begin to fly that when played at 33 RPM the words describe a variety of sexual acts. School kids pass notes in class with the “secret lyrics.” “Louie Louie” sells two million copies and spends four months on the charts. It charts yet again in 1966.

The State of Indiana bans “Louie Louie.”

Radio stations refuse to play it.

My band, Thomas Tuff and The Soul Exhaustion, gets kicked out of Teen Club for playing it.

A senate investigation is launched; millions of dollars are spent, until finally, a year later the subcommittee confesses that it has been unable to discover any obscene lyrics. The “F” bomb at :54 goes unnoticed.

1965 – Yet another Seattle band, The Sonics, record a version of “Louie Louie.” Their version has a distinctly different feel, the progression being an edgy I-III-IV progression. The buzz-saw guitars and sneering vocals predate punk by almost fifteen years. Black Flag will record a cover of this version complete with spontaneous lyrics by Henry Rollins.

1978 – The movie Animal House begins spurs a resurgence in the song’s popularity.

1983 – Radio station KFJC in Los Altos Hills, California, plays over 600 versions in one weekend.

1995 – After years of legal wrangling, Richard Berry regains his rights to the song. He records an album featuring “Louie Louie,” “Have Love, Will Travel,” and “Yama-Yama, Pretty Mama,” for his good friend Johnny Otis. He buys an SUV and pays off his mom’s mortgage.

1997 – Richard Berry dies a rich and happy man. In the past two years he has collected more than two million dollars in royalties.

The Millennium – Richard Berry’s little song is now the most covered song, with somewhere around two thousand documented versions, in all of pop music.

In many respects, “Louie Louie” is the classic American story. From the B-side of a forgotten single to the floors of the U.S. Senate, from Jack Ely to J. Edgar Hoover, spur of the moment decisions made by teenagers, affecting the rest of their lives, and changing popular culture. The night before they recorded it, The Kingsmen played a ninety-minute version of it at a dance.

Dave Marsh wrote an entire book about it and due to legal hassles couldn’t print the lyrics.

When asked why he used a minor five chord instead of a major five, Ely admits it was a simple error.

If you were unaware of the :54 remark, don’t feel bad, I just found about this week.

I have recently gone into semi-retirement after thirty years on the road. In the world of itinerant musicians, there are certain annual events that help to make ends meet.

The Christmas season is always tough, people aren’t going out, too many private parties, and clubs traditionally book a light schedule.

At the end of the season however, there’s the New Year’s Eve gig. Every year I played one, I would of course, play “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight. Following that I’d pause and announce: “Ladies and Gentlemen, our national anthem.” Without missing a beat, I’d dive head first into “Louie Louie.” It killed ‘em, every time.

…And finally, according to LouieLouie.net, Richard Berry’s children divide a royalty check of around one hundred thousand dollars every year.

Rev. Billy C. Wirtz is a weekly columnist at BluesWax. Each week he finds artists, albums, and music that you should know about. He also plays piano. His radio show, Rev. Billy’s Rhythm Revival, is available in podcast. To hear the latest, go to William Wirth’s page on Facebook and look for the link.

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Blue Star Nashville

March 1, 2012

By Mark Goodman

Blue Star Connection has taken its show on the road. This charity, which is a passion for main organizer and founder John Catt, started out with the Blues From The Top Festival in Winter Park, Colorado. The event is used to raise money for the purchase of musical instruments for critically ill children.

Catt and associates have been using blues music as the stimulus to bring people together for this worthwhile cause. The children that receive the instruments usually have compromised immune systems and therefore can’t share items from, say a hospital’s music therapy room. When selected as a “Blue Star,” the instruments are theirs to keep.

Blue Star Connection now has its own festival in Littleton, Colorado, on August 4, 2012. This will be the second event of hopefully many more to come. As a volunteer at last year’s festival, I got a chance to see how Blue Star interacts with the hospitals to enhance their music therapy programs. After chauffeuring Deanna Bogart to Denver Children’s Hospital where she played in the lobby, we were taken on a tour of the music area. To show how much stock they put in the healing power of music, they have multiple music rooms and even two real recording studios.

Over the last few years, Blue Star has expanded it focus to other cities around the country. Their most recent event was in Nashville. Music City! There are a core group of musicians that have been involved with Catt and his events and the list keeps growing. Such well known names as Tab Benoit, Mike Zito, Jimmy Hall, Trampled Under Foot, Samantha Fish, Kate Moss, and Zac Harmon are only some of the artists that lend their name and talents to help improve the life of a sick child.

Blue Star Nashville featured a host of familiar names, as well as a few that might be new to blues fans. The familiar ones include Jimmy Hall, Samantha Fish, Zac Harmon, Kate Moss, and 2012 International Blues Competition finalist, The Bart Walker Band. The location was 3rd & Lindsley, a 500-seat club a short distance from downtown.

Jake Austin & The City Limits Band kicked off the show around 7 p.m. This band out of St. Louis released their debut CD in 2011, and features a “Red Bull” blend rock, blues, bluegrass, and country. Their tune “City People Need Some Country Love” was about how there would be much less violence in the city if they had a little more country ethics. Even though a bit of a rocker, its lyrics we’re poignant and true.

Following them was The Bart Walker Band from Nashville. First runner up at the 2012 International Blues Competition, Walker opened with “I See the Blues in Technicolor.” He then followed with “My Favorite Color Is the Blues,” at which time he challenged, “Tell me if you think this sounds like second place.”

Walker invited special guest Shaun Murphy, also a Nashville resident, up for a version of “Steppin Out.” It turned out that Walker had quite a few guests in the house. Next up was Tracy Nelson doing “Mother Earth,” followed by yet another Nashville denizen, Mike Faris. Faris might not be familiar to blues fans, but that’s our loss. This guy puts on an amazing, high-energy show with his own gospel revue-style band. Tonight he performed “I’d Rather Go Blind” by the late Etta James, and even she would have been satisfied. He followed up with a Hounddog Taylor tune before giving way to Walker’s final guest, Jimmy Hall.

Hall, started out with the title track from his solo release Rendezvous With The Blues. He followed that with another original slow burner, “The Long Goodbye.” He invited his oldest son up to replace Reese Wynans on keys for his signature tune, “Keep On Smilin’.” Originally recorded by Hall’s band Wet Willie, this song is considered by many to be one of the all-time southern rock classics. If you consider the bands that made up that genre in its heyday, that’s saying something.

This show featured a myriad of guests and local musicians that are too numerous for the purpose of this review. Some weren’t even on the bill, but wanted to be a part of the event, so other sets were cut short to accommodate them. Most weren’t obvious, except for the performance of Ronnie Fruge. The emcee abruptly walked on stage and said he was done so they could bring on local guitar favorite Jack Pearson. Fruge looked a little mystified and embarrassed, but handled it like the pro he is. The thing is that Fruge has worked with John Catt many times, but not so with Pearson. The emcee could have handled it a bit more respectfully in my opinion.

The only thing that was a disappointment was totally unavoidable. As a fan of Samantha Fish, I was looking forward to her set with Kate Moss as guest guitarist. Unfortunately, Fish had a terrible cold and could barely talk, much less sing. Bring on Jimmy Hall to the rescue. They worked out a set of standards right before the show and he took care of the vocals while Fish contributed her sizable guitar skills. If this had been any other genre than the blues, this probably wouldn’t have been possible; only in the blues are there such a number of songs that everyone can play along. Add the fact that Jimmy Hall is one of the most versatile vocalists around, and most didn’t even know there was a problem. During the set, Hall roamed the stage from one side to the other as if he couldn’t decide which of these stunning ladies he wanted to be next to.

You would never know that Samantha Fish has only been playing guitar for seven or eight years. She lights up the stage with both talent and personality, impressive even more for the fact she is only 23 years old.

Kate Moss has seen more and more stage time in the last few years and billed as guest guitarist with not only Samantha Fish, but also Ana Popovic. Long known as a bass player and graphic artist extraordinaire, it was only a couple of years ago that I even discovered she played guitar.

Being a photographer foremost, I was limited in the shots I could get due to low stage lighting except for a tiny spot at center stage (refuse to use flash). It was a small area of light so only those that chose that spot were photographed.

During a break before the final act, there was a presentation from Delaney Guitars to Blue Star Connection of a custom-built beauty. This will be auctioned to get the funds to buy multiple instruments for kids. That is the standard procedure when they receive a donation of real monetary value. This one instrument can be used to purchase a dozen in its place.

Zac Harmon came on to close the evening. The “birthday boy,” who was later presented with a cake, wasted no time in jumping right in with both feet. Harmon, an IBC winner himself, has crafted a solid career in the years since. Unfortunately, it was Thursday night and many had to work the next day. The crowd had thinned to about half capacity. Even so, the remaining fans let it show that they were getting their money’s worth.

I have no idea how much the event raised, but if the talent level and crowd response were any measure, Blue Star Nashville was a rousing success.

For more information about Blue Star Connection, please go to their website.  

To see some of Mark Goodman’s photographs from Blue Star Nashville, check out this week’s Photo Page.

Mark Goodman is a contributing editor at BluesWax.