Welcome to the Daily Juke Joint

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Grab Something Cool to Drink, Put Your Feet Up, Adjust The

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Artists Performing Feb 21, 2012

The White House

Honors the Blues for Black History Month

Join Our Page On FaceBook

Buddy Guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQDfim2ofHo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTyC7Z96_-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQqNTgnJmpE

]]> http://bluesrevue.com/2012/02/the-juke-joint-daily-2-23-12/feed/ 0 http://bluesrevue.com/2012/02/the-juke-joint-daily-2-21-12/ http://bluesrevue.com/2012/02/the-juke-joint-daily-2-21-12/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:50:32 +0000 jenni http://bluesrevue.com/?p=14584

Welcome to the Daily Juke Joint

At Blues Revue

Grab Something Cool to Drink, Put Your Feet Up, Adjust The

Volume on Your Speakers, and Have a Listen…

Artists Performing Feb 21, 2012

The White House

Honors the Blues for Black History Month

Join Our Page On FaceBook

Mick Jagger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSqj9hlG9t4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-ywrGolhIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGjkxyD_Atw

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Don’t Explain

By Joe Bonamassa and Beth Hart

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Welcome to the Daily Juke Joint

At Blues Revue

Grab Something Cool to Drink, Put Your Feet Up, Adjust The

Volume on Your Speakers, and Have a Listen…

Artists Performing Feb 21, 2012

The Whitehouse

Honors the Blues for Black History Month

Join Our Page On FaceBook

B.B. King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMto6_9khxg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNXkWcpda5U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9Y7CoV54VI

Welcome to the Weekly Juke Joint

At Blues Revue

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The Grammy Awards

Congratulations to

The Grammy Award Nominees and Winners!

Grammy Winner

Tedeschi Trucks Band

Best Blues Album

Revelator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ubH7dLJJiE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkL5-uZRqvo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZOBUcnNp04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-_EYXYR8RY

Grammy Finalist/Runner-Up

Gregg Allman – Low Country Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbypZwpkOs4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lS6GDjyapM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Uh8jdEfY4

Interview – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz24oE2GDaU

Marcia Ball - Roadside Attractions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqA1BRvVYvU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6caQ44tkbw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHETPRFo4PY

Warren Haynes - Man In Motion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT4Lal3W5Tg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo3rcChODdQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59fV0LCccn0

Keb Mo - The Reflection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u7Q6m5tHws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgu2BG3G3i0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4BVgSebRYw

Welcome to the Daily Juke Joint

At Blues Revue

Grab Something Cool to Drink, Put Your Feet Up, Adjust The

Volume on Your Speakers, and Have a Listen…

Congratulations to Grammy Finalist/Runner-Up

Best Blues Album

Keb Mo - The Reflection

Join Our Page On FaceBook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u7Q6m5tHws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgu2BG3G3i0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4BVgSebRYw

Cyndi Lauper

Two Memphis Albums Solidify

Lauper as a Blues Singer

Part One 

By Charley Burch

Cyndi Lauper (born June 22, 1953) has recorded 13 albums, embarked on 19 tours, won six Grammys from 19 Grammy nominations, and released over 40 singles, sold one million DVDs, 20 million singles, and as of 2012 has sold more than more 50 million albums worldwide in her career. Whew!

When Lauper released her 1983 album She’s So Unusual, becoming the first female singer to have four top five singles released from one album, most of the music community was unaware that she was not only a fan and student of blues, but would also go on to record a fabulous Grammy-nominated blues album, Memphis Blues, and one year later release a Blues DVD/Live CD, To Memphis, With Love. Lauper was kind enough to discuss these projects and give us an insight of her as a blues singer, writer, arranger, historian, and a beautifully complex human being whose true love is music and its heritage.

Lauper recorded her introductory narration for To Memphis, With Love on her iPhone (she commented that “Everything is going digital”) as she walked the rainy streets of Memphis reminiscing about her childhood and preparing us for her evolution as a musician and blues artist.

“Most people’s introduction to the blues is at a concert or hearing a blues singer on the radio. Mine was at 104th street in Queens, New York, in a pink and white shingled house that looked like the color of Good & Plenty candy. There, on Saturdays when my mom was off from work and my sister and I were off from school, she would pull out her old Phillips stereo and play a Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong duet called “All That Meat And No Potatoes.” And there in the living room, my sister, aged eight, my brother, two, and I, seven, would dance wildly to it with my mom.”

Discussing the history of blues, rock, and their origins in Memphis in the Delta, one comes to understand that Lauper has done her homework. She walked the streets of Memphis for hours and days searching for the ghosts and origins of the project and character she was about to produce. When discussing the origins of blues and the famous W.C. Handy moment in Tutwiler, Mississippi, where the term “blues” was coined and codified by Handy in “St. Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues,” Lauper immediately contributed to the legacy of these songs reminding me that “St. Louis Blues” was renamed “Memphis Blues” and recorded by the Victor Military Band in 1914, and was used as a campaign song for early 20th century Memphis mayoral candidate Edward Crump. This later became the title of the album after toying with “Memphis Queen” (after the famous riverboat), which Lauper scrapped because she thought that it would come across as “arrogant” implying that she was the Memphis Queen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Y6V1EnnKs

“The title of the DVD was a whole conflict as well because I didn’t want to say From Memphis with Love like a postcard, because I felt that the title should be honoring and putting a spotlight on Memphis more than on myself.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r3BGXwH23E

I then asked had she produced a blues or soul genre recording project before this one?

“No. I had recorded a classics album with standards, but not blues per se. I had studied blues my whole life but just had not found the correct opportunity to record it. I met up in the studio with Jeff Beck on Valentine’s Day in 2004 and we recorded a Big Maybelle tune and I realized ‘Wow! I can do this!’ So I started going to record stores and buying everything I could get my hands on that I liked. There was this Bobby Blue Bland album that the cover alone made me want to buy…Those shoes! I went through different phases, first a masculine phase, then a feminine phase being absorbed by Big Mamma Thornton. I studied the history of the blues, its evolution from both a recording and writing point of view. I learned that Mamie Smith‘s session recordings actually were supposed to be sung by Sophie Tucker. I am kinda glad it was Mamie Smith because, watching the minstrel shows of the period, it pissed me off that these performers were putting on blackface paint and impersonating the actual people. I found it to be twisted.”

The songs for the album that ultimately found their home on the DVD were selected by Lauper over a period of six years prior to her deciding upon Memphis and the artists as the album’s foundation. Lauper further proves her love of history and Memphis music heritage when she recollects about her tour of the STAX Museum and learning about the Soul Front. “I realized how ignorant I was …When I went to the museum and saw the pictures and story in front of me I went “Oh my G-d! that’s the Soul Front?! They sent the black men to the front [front line in Vietnam] and let them get killed first?” Lauper is extremely socially and morally conscious and very involved with activities/interest groups that include those that defend and support equal rights for women, gays, and people of color.

Lauper went on to describe the process of making the DVD To Memphis, With Love and the studio album Memphis Blues before that.

“The whole idea is how to preserve the sound and how to bring it forward. As I traveled around the world most of my audience didn’t want me to perform blues songs, but I played them anyway. I started to mix it with my music and weave it all [the different genres] together, mix it together, and ground it with my own work. Everything you have ever heard [from me] came from me. The center of everything has to sound like it comes from me, because if it didn’t sound like it came from me, it should have someone else’s name on that cover, not mine. The thing about the blues is, it is the root of everything. All of the modern music is blues. There’s no way that anything you play that you think is new really is, because it’s not.”

“All of the modern music is blues.”

Charley Burch for BluesWax: How did you hook up with Scott Bomar?

“I was looking for a partner to work this project with after signing with Downtown Records. I had two options: one was a person I had known and one that I didn’t. The one I knew was out in L.A. but I didn’t want to record this album out in L.A. because I didn’t think that would be much of a blues album for me. I knew I had to go south to have a real southern experience. So I was referred to this young man [Scott Bomar], who had begun a kind of renaissance down in Memphis. I researched him online, called him on the phone, and I decided to take a chance by going down to Memphis, record a couple of songs, and see how things worked out between us. So he met me at the hotel, we had a drink, next day went to his studio, and that’s how it happened. He’s the nicest guy; he’s very talented and has a sense of what he hears. He’s very quiet and not as direct as me and that is probably what makes us such a great team.”

BW: There are a great number of Memphis session players on this DVD that I have had the pleasure of recording with on a number of occasions. Had you worked with any of these guys before this project?

“I first met with Allen Toussaint at the Katrina benefit [2005]. I knew that he was this New Orleans gem. I started researching him more and the record people wanted me to record with him songs like “I Know You Don’t Love Me No More.” I found another song that I was able to mash up with that called “Last Train,” which was when I found out how adventurous Allen is. We’d planned on recording for several years, but things like The Apprentice and both our other projects got in the way. We took advantage of this album to bring Allen in and record another song, “You Promised Love,” by the blues singer Annie Laurie [not to be mistaken with the Scottish singer/actress]. However this was not the song [in my opinion] that would allow Allen to shine. So I went to Scott and said, ‘What can we record that B.B. King might want to play on’ and they said, ‘B.B. is a huge Louis Jordan fan.’”

To be continued…

Charley Burch is a writer and producer in Memphis, Tennessee.

Kenny Neal

Part One

Veteran Blues Cruiser Now Focused On His Upcoming Festivals

Lineup to Feature Neal Family Reunions, Louisiana Legends,

 Four Original Members of Slim Harpo’s Band.

By Dan D. Harrell

Artwork by Robert Korhonen

Kenny Neal, 54, is no stranger to the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise (LRBC). “I can’t remember the ones I’ve missed,” he told this reporter on the cruise in January. “I’ve been here since the beginning, I think.” More From Neal about the Cruise follows.

He was certainly “there” on this trip, just as good as a perfect gumbo and a Cajun fiddle. His late night pro-jam had me transfixed as I watched Neal, Chris Cain, Jimmy Johnson, and Debbie Davies turn in a blistering, extended version of … something. I was happy to hear from the Swamp Blues star that he doesn’t remember what song it was either. He does remember the feelings he had that night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhSxSHnGZUA

Neal’s credentials are outstanding. Prior to his long, award-winning solo/family career, he spent many years touring with Buddy Guy as his bassist. Neal gives Buddy credit for encouraging him to play lead guitar, which he has now mastered, along with the harmonica and several other instruments.

Guy, a son of the bayou also, got his start in Neal’s father Raful Neal’s band back when, and Neal has nothing but praise for him. The acclaimed Slim Harpo was also a regular in their circle. The elder Neal, an accomplished harmonica player, singer, and bandleader, is often referred to as the “Father of the Baton Rouge Blues.”

Double Take, Kenny Neal’s 2004 release with Billy Branch, won the W.C. Handy award for best album. After an illness sidelined Kenny for a spell a few years ago, he came roaring back in 2009 with the blockbuster Let Life Flow. That CD was named BluesWax Album of the Year and CD of the Year at the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame Awards, where Neal also was named Blues Band of the Year. The title cut won the Blues Music Award for Song of the Year. There’s more, but you get the point. His newest album is Hooked On Your Love, and it’s getting great reviews, too.

At the moment, Neal is working full time on a pair of festivals that he’s billing as Kenny Neal’s Family & Friends Heritage Blues Festivals. The first is March 3 in Baton Rouge and it is a swamp-sized bargain at just fifteen bucks for what promises to be at least twelve hours of some one-of-a-kind, great music, food, and fun.

“One-of-a-kind” includes a reunion of four original members of Slim Harpo’s band and reunifications of many far-flung Neal family members who have gone on to great success in other high places. Patriarch Raful has given the world no less than a dozen professional musicians. Also on hand will be some of the region’s best acts, such as Big Luther Kent, Floyd Patterson, Elvin Killerbee, and more than a dozen others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp6l0XgUNWU

If that’s not reason enough, the four artists from Harpo’s band (James Johnson, Rudy Richard, August Ransom, and Lazy Lester) will be inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, which so honored Neal and his father last year. It’s also a benefit to support the St. Paul DeVince Food Bank, another good reason to be there.

Kenny has a lot more to say about these festivals below (the second will be in the Sacramento area in April), but all the details are on his website. Just six days after LRBC #18 returned to Fort Lauderdale, this reporter was able to grab forty-five minutes of the star’s time in Baton Rouge – as he juggled appearances and interviews to promote his festival with preparations for being the headliner at that night’s Mardi Gras parade and musical ball.

Dan Harrell for BluesWax: Hi Kenny. How are you doing?

Kenny Neal: Aw man, I’m moving and moving, working on that festival. People are calling me to do interviews. And I got the Mardi Gras parade at six and then the ball later, where they’re expecting about ten thousand people.

BW: You’re now living part time in California and part time in Louisiana. What’s the reason for that?

KN: Well, my wife is from the Bay Area, so that’s what brought me out there, but I still manage to make it back home to Baton Rouge at least once a month. I’ve got my house here and my grandkids are here, you know it’s still home. And I’m here now enjoying it, getting ready for the Mardi Gras.

BW: Were there any special moments for you on this recent Blues Cruise?

KN: Oh man, you know the whole trip was just wonderful and the whole week was special for me. I had my mom with me every day and my sisters, so it was like a family get-together, and then enjoying a cruise, so that was special for me.

BW: What performers did you enjoy playing with?

KN: The ones I really wanted to play with were the jammers and the newcomers that are trying to break through for themselves, so that’s why I would drop by the Crow’s Nest unexpectedly and jam with them. That was great because they appreciated that I took the time out to come and jam with them. So that was my special moments, jamming with the newcomers who are trying to make a way for themselves.

BW: How many Blues Cruises have you been on?

KN: Oh man, quite a few. I’m not sure, but I’ve been there since the beginning.

BW: Speaking of the late-night jams, I thought the one you hosted on Monday was really special for me, with Chris Cain, Jimmy Johnson, Debbie Davies, and you. I was amazed, transfixed, and overjoyed all at the same time. How do you get players and how were you feeling that night?

KN: Well you know, all these guys been knowing me for a long, long time. Me and Jimmy go back to 1975, when we’d to on tour to Europe with Buddy Guy, Jimmy would be on that. I was only eighteen, nineteen years old back then, and Jimmy was one of the guys who was around. I had a picture I gave him of us in France in 1975 or ’76. Anyway, the guys know that this is their chance to come out and jam, and we’re good friends with everybody, so when they know I’m hosting a jam, they just come out and play. That’s the way it works; I didn’t even have to ask them. [laughs]

BW: Those late-night jams are really terrific.

KN: That’s right. Nobody is trying to do a show, they’re just jamming and enjoying the music. That’s what is so good, you’re getting the pure, pure thing right there when it happens like that. I mean, me and Chris and Jimmy probably weren’t even thinking about the song that we were playing, we were just enjoying playing.

BW: Do you remember which song you were playing? [I couldn’t remember either.]

KN: No, none of us remember. I just remember it was good, and that’s what is magical about moments like that. We could probably go back and figure out what we were doing, but it didn’t matter. The playing and the coming together is what mattered.

To be continued…

Dan D. Harrell is contributing writer for BluesWax and president of The Write Answer in San Jose, CA, specializing in writing, public relations and marketing consulting. Contact him by commenting below or at dan@writeanswer.biz.

A Photo Gallery By Bob Gerzstyn

On this week’s Blues Beat page, Bob Gerzstyn talks about and with Ty Curtis, leader of one of the most promising bands in the Northwest Pacific. On The Photo Page, Bob shares some photographs from that interview and from live performances of the band.

As always, our photographers share their work with you for their enjoyment only. If you wish to share or use the photographs for any other purpose, please contact us or the photographer.

Enjoy!

Choice Cuts

Delta Groove

BluesWax Rating: 9

Sweet and Tasty!

CD reviews are a challenge, but usually are completed in a day or two. This review was like opening a can of worms! Not slimy earthworms. More like gummy worms … sweet and tasty! Just doing a bit of research on the dynamic harpist Pieter van der Pluijm AKA Big Pete, I discovered a wealth of information on an interesting character from the ‘burbs of Rotterdam in The Netherlands.

His father’s record collection turned his head away from acts like Alice in Chains by introducing him to the blues … British Blues! It was much later that he peeled back the layers and found out where the blues actually came from, much like American audiences in the 1960s (yours truly in that number). He was a guitarist feasting on Texas blues like Stevie Ray Vaughan until, in 1993, then in his late twenties at the time, he saw The Red Devils on television and, as he has said, “It blew my mind!” He became an instant fan of Lester Butler’s electrifying performance and went out the next day and bought his first harmonica.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhY3SNFYDvE

After success fronting bands like The Backbones, The Strikes, The Lester Butler Tribute Band and M.O.C.T.* (Men of Considerable Taste), Pete had made many contacts with major American players,** most notably Alex Schultz. He credits Schultz with “being the glue” that held together the three-day session that produced Choice Cuts. Recorded for Delta Groove in three days the week after playing at the Simi Valley Cajun and Blues Festival on May 29, 2011. The session included Alex Schultz, Kid Ramos, Paul Oscher, Al Blake, Johnny Dyer, Kirk Fletcher, Rusty Zinn, Kim Wilson, Shawn Pittman, John Marx, Mojo Mark, Rob Rio, Willie J. Campbell, and Jimi Bott. Most of the 18 tunes recorded (13 on CD) were first or second takes and the next CD due in the fall of 2012 or early 2013 will be mostly originals. These were covers picked by Big Pete to facilitate a quicker session as everybody involved knew the songs.

Randy Chortkoff first thought about a Delta Groove release of M.O.C.T., but scrapped that for Choice Cuts, which they truly are. The opening tune is a faithful rendition of Lester Butler’s “Driftin’.” As all cuts have a blues legend playing on them, they are all really great. My second favorite is a thumping Jody Williams cover of “I Was Fooled” with Shawn Pittman on lead guitar and Rob Rio hammering the piano. Then, on “Just To Be With You,” Pieter applies a Paul Butterfield vocal style with Kirk Eli Fletcher providing the scorching staccato of Elvin Bishop from the original LP version on “In My Own Dream.”

As this was to be a review of a CD, I’ll finish by predicting that Big Pete will become the biggest thing to come out of The Netherlands since Focus, Golden Earring, or Shocking Pink (OK, not blues artists, but remember them?). I guess I’d need to include the Van Halen brothers …or not. Go buy this CD, you will NOT be disappointed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PciAprQ70A

* To experience music from all these bands, plus solo Big Pete, listen to a “Tribute to Lester Butler Via Big Pete” on my weekly podcast with my harp-playing co-host from The Netherlands, Tilburg Slim.

** In order to keep this review from becoming a full-blown bio, I’ll keep the list of names of all the artists he has played with for another time.

Beardo is a contributing editor at BluesWax.