The Blues (music)

Paris was hot in Milwaukee circa 1970. His band opened for the Grateful Dead in March 1971. He's still active in New York, AFAIK.
 
mystang52 said:
In late 60's I was, like everyone else, a fan of the "new" hard rock. But I was alone among my circle of friends in also enjoying Blues. My first blues album was Kooper and Bloomfield's Super Session. A few years back I went to a blues concert of multiple artists, including BB. His performance was disappointing. My favorite performer is Buddy Guy.
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+1 for Super Session.
 
I first heard "Loan me a Dime" on FM radio in the early 70's. Boz Scaggs with guitar by the late Duane Allman. Still one of my fav Rock & Roll/Blues songs.

 
Good stuff in this thread, a few artists I'm going to have to check out.

As I see Milwaukee mentioned, remember Leroy Airmaster? I don't know how many times I saw them in the 80's, but many.

For everyone else, WMSE is a radio station affiliated with the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The show on Fridays from 3 to 6 is Sonia's Blues Drive. Shows can be streamed or downloaded. Sonia has interviewed everyone who's anyone in blues. There are several other blues shows as well, peruse the whole schedule. I like The Chicken Shack Friday mornings from 9 to noon as well. https://www.wmse.org/program/blues-drive/
 
Blues artists I have heard at small venues who I really like...

Tab Benoit, Janiva Magness, Joe Louis Walker, Smokin' Joe Kubek

Others I've seen that I like... Susan Tesdeschi, Bo Didley, Stevie Ray, BB, Bonnie Raitt, Brophy Dale, Doyle Bramhall Jr., Eric Clapton, Rod Piazza, Robert Cray (plus too many to remember)

And a ton of others... I love the blues and have since I was a teen in the 60's.
 
Slotracer said:
Good stuff in this thread, a few artists I'm going to have to check out.

As I see Milwaukee mentioned, remember Leroy Airmaster? I don't know how many times I saw them in the 80's, but many.

For everyone else, WMSE is a radio station affiliated with the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The show on Fridays from 3 to 6 is Sonia's Blues Drive. Shows can be streamed or downloaded. Sonia has interviewed everyone who's anyone in blues. There are several other blues shows as well, peruse the whole schedule. I like The Chicken Shack Friday mornings from 9 to noon as well. https://www.wmse.org/program/blues-drive/
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I remember Leroy Airmaster well. They did a regular show at the old Murray Tap on Milwaukee's east side. Steve Cohen was the front man, similar to Corky Siegel in the '70s.

Another white kid playing the blues was Jim Liban, who fronted a band called Short Stuff. Google turns up a brief New York Times article on the band in 1979 by Robert Palmer. I don't subscribe, so I can't read it.

STILL ANOTHER white Badger State bluesman was Bryan Lee, the "Braille Blues Daddy" of New Orleans. After gigging around Wisconsin for a while he moved to NOLA and became a regular performer in the French Quarter. And yes, he was blind.

Might as well beat this horse to death. One of my favorite new performers of blues-tinged music is Jake La Botz. Jake is from Chicago and got some mentoring from some of the "golden age" bluesmen such as Dave "Honeyboy" Edwards. He is more of a singer/songwriter, but the Blues Kitchen posted a YouTube video interview with him that's pretty good. The music starts around 8:55.
 
I remember Leroy Airmaster from Summerfest and area clubs. I’ve seen Jim Liban often but I don’t think I ever saw Short Stuff.. Milwaukee and Madison had great blues and folk scenes. I dion’t get out much for live shows anymore—except outdoors, and our summers are short.
 
I really like Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. They came up in the 1990s.

My all time favorite blues guitarist is Stevie Ray Vaughan. In my opinion, a true legend.
 
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I've seen Joe Bonamassa a couple times in concert, kind of a combo blues/rock musician, in any case an excellent guitarist. He's done a couple 'unplugged' concerts that are on video where everything is acoustic, well worth watching.
 
Mr._Graybeard said:
Might as well beat this horse to death. One of my favorite new performers of blues-tinged music is Jake La Botz. Jake is from Chicago and got some mentoring from some of the "golden age" bluesmen such as Dave "Honeyboy" Edwards. He is more of a singer/songwriter, but the Blues Kitchen posted a YouTube video interview with him that's pretty good. The music starts around 8:55.
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Jake has been around for quite a while. Used to be friends back in the day in L.A. He also acts and played and sang in a Rambo movie. Great guy and very talented. He did a tattoo tour across America playing in tattoo parlors at one time. My wife still has the t-shirt. He was playing acoustical slide one night we saw him near us and said he had to stop off and get a socket from a hardware or auto parts store to fit his finger.
 
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ronin said:
Jake has been around for quite a while. Used to be friends back in the day in L.A. He also acts and played and sang in a Rambo movie. Great guy and very talented. He did a tattoo tour across America playing in tattoo parlors at one time. My wife still has the t-shirt. He was playing acoustical slide one night we saw him near us and said he had to stop off and get a socket from a hardware or auto parts store to fit his finger.
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Yeah, with "new" I was thinking 21st-century vs. other artists I've mentioned. I do like Jake -- he is also in a Steve Buscemi film, I think. I caught his act in an unusual venue in Madison, Wis., Kiki's House of Righteous Music. It's a basement in a woman's '50s-era ranch home.
 
Great thread!


Made me google for old heroes. And found these guys - fond memories from back in the day:


 
Christine said:
Great thread!


Made me google for old heroes. And found these guys - fond memories from back in the day: ...
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It's great how this American music (and the Electric Blues is even more specific to Chicago) is loved around the world. A Norwegian Blues Band? Why not? They sounded great to me.

Reminds me that when I went to Budapest with my buddy, after we settled in and got dinner, we just roamed around the city randomly for the evening before getting to any planned events the next day. The first place of interest we stumbled on was a bar with a Blues band, and man, they were hot. Had the electric Chicago Blues down. It was funny to hear Hungarian (Magyar) spoken between songs, with near perfect inflection of the song lyrics ("I was born in Chicago, in 19 and 41"). I told them they sounded as good or better than any Chicago Blues band I might stumble upon back home, they really had that authentic sound. Pretty cool.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
It's great how this American music (and the Electric Blues is even more specific to Chicago) is loved around the world. A Norwegian Blues Band? Why not? They sounded great to me.
-ERD50
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Absolutely. The British Invasion of the '60s rode on a blues revival wave. Animals, Yardbirds, Stones. "British blues" was a common musical category back then.

A Finnish friend sent me a CD a while back of an accordion artist who likes to play Cajun and Norteno music. The Tex-Mex master Flaco Jimenez sat in for some of the tunes. Good stuff. The pic on the back of the CD is funny, with Flaco relaxed and smiling while the Finns stand stiffly at attention.
 
Mr._Graybeard said:
Absolutely. The British Invasion of the '60s rode on a blues revival wave. Animals, Yardbirds, Stones. "British blues" was a common musical category back then. ....
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I find it ironic that I first learned of the Blues through the British Invasion artists as a young teen. They were thousands of miles away, bringing this music back to us - and here I was, growing up outside Chicago, and visiting the city often as we had relatives there, and I was just a few miles from where it all was happening. Fortunately, I learned what it was all about, and was able to experience it directly a few years later.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
I find it ironic that I first learned of the Blues through the British Invasion artists as a young teen. They were thousands of miles away, bringing this music back to us - and here I was, growing up outside Chicago, and visiting the city often as we had relatives there, and I was just a few miles from where it all was happening. Fortunately, I learned what it was all about, and was able to experience it directly a few years later.

-ERD50
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You could say the same about rockabilly. By 1964, Carl Perkins was viewed as a has-been and even Elvis was struggling outside the big screen. The Beatles recorded two Perkins tunes ("Honey Don't" and "Everybody's Trying to be My Baby") for their '65 album.

Of course, rockabilly itself is an outgrowth of the blues.
 
Little Milton and Robert Ward. I caught some good blues at Hal and Mal's in Jackson, MS on my trip this spring. I'd like to hit the MS blues trail on a future trip and work my way up to Memphis with a stop in Muscle Shoals as well.
 
It's been a while, but I've really enjoyed the blues clubs in New Orleans and Chicago. NOLA and CHI Town blues are different, but both great in their own ways.



Not too many blues clubs in Hawaii.:LOL::cool:
 
Koolau said:
...
Not too many blues clubs in Hawaii.:LOL::cool:
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well, here's the Ukulele Blues, which might explain that!

While this is goofy, Martin Mull actually was a pretty solid player, I saw him once on his "Martin Mull & His Fabulous Furniture In Your Living Room" Tour.



-ERD50
 
I used to regularly fly down to go to 6th street in Austin (especially Joe's Generic Bar).

Fantastic Blues and incredibly talented musicians who were never going to "make it" for any number of reasons. Guys just wailing! You could just walk down the street and get a mind-blowing ear full.
 
FLSUnFIRE said:
Little Milton and Robert Ward. I caught some good blues at Hal and Mal's in Jackson, MS on my trip this spring. I'd like to hit the MS blues trail on a future trip and work my way up to Memphis with a stop in Muscle Shoals as well.
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West Helena, Ark., has a blues festival in August. You might want to add that to your intinerary.

I've never been to it, but it looks interesting.

In the '80s I went to several Chicago Blues Festivals. Little Milton was there one year.
 
I'm a huge blues fan too... I go back to Son House and Robert Johnson, though I really enjoy contemporary blues performers as well... starting with Joe Bonamassa of course (his work with Beth Hart is incredible!). I see someone already mentioned "Kingfish", his playing is jaw-dropping. My latest "find" is Philip Sayce (although he's closing in on 50 years old and has been playing since the 1990's, I hadn't heard of him until earlier this year). Great voice and incredible player. He has a few live videos on YouTube that are worth checking out, and his studio track "Give Me Time" is currently on heavy rotation for me.

 
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