:: Saturday, May 08, 2004 ::

Blues Drummer Robert Plunket dies at 72

Former Elmore James, Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk drummer, Robert Plunkett passed away on Saturday after a long illness. He was 72.

Born October 19, 1931 in Benton, Mississippi, Plunkett worked with a host of blues artists. In 1998 he was featured on Cannonball records Blues Across America: The Chicago Scene along with Emery Williams Jr. and Little Arthur Duncan, allowing a good introduction to the contemporary Windy City blues community.

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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Van Hunt down with Detroit

Van Hunt has been rolling around selling out shows in L.A., Chicago and New York, and critics, musicians and fans -- black and white, young and older, hip and conservative -- are jumping on the Vanwagon.

The 26-year-old Atlanta resident's self-titled album is an inviting amalgam of rock, blues and soul that "I call classic American and exotic Negro music," he says.

Thank goodness he doesn't need radio to thrive, because Hunt is getting no love in Detroit, which is ironic because "Detroit happens to be my favorite city," Hunt says.

No urban Detroit station has Hunt on its playlist. This, he says, can be attributed to "black radio's unwillingness to do anything creative. They don't have any faith in their listenership.

"They're like, 'I like your record but I can't play it.' It's never like, 'I'm afraid to move my people in that direction,' and that's very disappointing considering black radio broke Prince."

Hunt, a huge Prince fan, recently met the artist in L.A. "He said, 'I've heard a lot about you. Stick around a bit 'cause I want to talk to you.' "

He never did, says Hunt, who's been compared ad nauseam to the Purple One, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Sly Stone.

Hunt's musical canvas was shaped in his native Dayton, Ohio, home of funk groups Zapp, Slave, Heatwave, Faze-O and Lakeside.

Dayton, Hunt says, "had everything to do with my music. Every time I go into the studio I feel the spirit of the Ohio Players."

But he still has an affinity for radio-lite Detroit. During a trip in February, Hunt played at the Shelter and on Martin Bandyke's program on WDET-FM (101.9).

"I love it," he says of the Motor City. "I like the grime in the people there. They play to eat -- it's not just a bunch of posing like it is in Atlanta."

His attraction to Detroit, he says, "is linked to the rawness I hear in the records."

He's talking about groups like the White Stripes.

Hunt says he was "a big fan before they were even popular" and that Jack White is "a very talented dude -- a good singer and songwriter." He's also a fan of the Detroit Cobras and MC5.

"Iggy Pop? Anything he puts out I like," Hunt says.

Source: Detroit Free Press

On the Web:
Van Hunt

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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10th Hookahville Music Festival

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 7 /PRNewswire/ — Ohio's premier music festival returns in its tenth year Memorial Day Weekend, May 28-29, to Frontier Ranch Music Center in Kirkersville, Ohio, approximately 20 miles east of Columbus.

The Hookahville festival lineup centers on progressive improvisational phenomena and event headliner, ekoostik hookah, for two sets each night. Expanding upon its lucid treatment of rock 'n' roll, blues, funk, jazz and bluegrass layered with rich harmonies the sextet is known for its high-energy, creatively improvisational shows.

Since the festival's inception in 1994 Hookahville has always presented an all-star lineup featuring top performers from a wide variety of styles.

The 'It Came From Kentucky' tour performs Saturday afternoon and features a group of artists representing some of the best of what bluegrass has to offer. This lineup includes The Del McCoury Band: Grammy-nominated, eight-time International Bluegrass Music Association Entertainer of the Year, member of the legendary Grand Ole Opry, and the 'first family of bluegrass.' Mandolin maestro Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver and Mountain Heart will begin the music on Saturday with their all-acoustic sets.

Appearing Friday afternoon are ekoostik hookah's long-time collaborators and friends Leftover Salmon. The band first appeared at Hookahville Fall 1997 and brings its combination of bluegrass, Cajun, funk, Southern rock, boogie, Caribbean, Latin, and jazz influences to the festival stage.

The spot before the headliner on Saturday belongs to the multi-talented Keller Williams, making his first Hookahville appearance since Hookahville Fall 1999. The innovative Williams has been dubbed a "one man band for the new century," as Keller is the only musician on his stage performing on guitars, basses, synthesizers, drums, and assorted percussion using loops and other technologies.

Opening the festival on Friday is Jen Durkin & The Bomb Squad. Durkin appeared at Hookahville Spring 2000 with her former band Deep Banana Blackout, and has since embarked on a solo career that earned The Bomb Squad "Best Unsigned Artist in the U.S." recognition from The Coca-Cola American Music Awards in 2003.

The tree-lined Frontier Ranch is the perfect serene setting for an intimate weekend of music, camping, and culture. Located just 20 minutes east of Columbus and among rolling hills, Frontier Ranch Music Center is truly one of Ohio's best keep secrets. The event is all ages and children under 10 years old are free with a paying adult. Hookahville is a rain or shine event and pets are not allowed.

Tickets are on sale now online and at all Ticketmaster locations for $75 and include music, on-site camping, and parking. Day of show tickets will be $85 at the gate and Saturday-only tickets will also be available at the gate for $55.

On the Web:
www.hookahville.com

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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2004 Handy Winners—Nick Curran

Over the next few weeks, The Blues Blog will be taking a look at the winners of this year's W.C. Handy Awards. The spotlight today falls on Blind Pig recording artist Nick Curran

Nick Curran and the Nitelifes won the "Best New Artist Debut" W.C. Handy Award for their Blind Pig release titled Doctor Velvet at the 25th Handy Awards Show on April 29.

"It was a great evening. It felt great to hang around with all the talented folks there. And we were totally surprised to win. It's a great honor," Curran said of the awards show.

Blind Pig label head Edward Chmelewski said, "I think it was pretty cool that we had two out of the five nominees for Best New Artist Debut (singer Reneé, Austin was the other). It shows we're certainly doing something right as far as signing new talent. I was thrilled that Nick won the Handy. This young man has a great future."

Shortly after being presented with the Handy, Nick and the Nitelifes confidently strode to center stage and launched into a rousing performance, complete with a pair of identically dressed go-go dancers who emerged from the wings. The band played "One More Time" and then the title track from Doctor Velvet. For their last number, a Fabulous Thunderbirds song titled "True Love," Kim Wilson joined the band on harmonica. Wilson also won a Handy that evening for cowriting the "Blues Song Of The Year."


(l to r) Paul Klemperer, Kim Wilson, Nick Curran, Damien Llanes, Preston Hubbard backstage at the 2004 Handys
(Photo: Kathleen Minke)

Since the release of Doctor Velvet in February 2003, Nick's career has been on a meteoric rise. With head-turning performances at festivals and clubs across the country, the young guitarist and singer has established himself as one of the freshest, most exciting new talents on the scene.

Blues Revue declared, "Nick Curran is making his mark with a personal style that blends jump with nasty Texas guitar, rockabilly, T-Bone Walker sophistication, and down-and-dirty roots and garage rock. Curran is a don't-miss performer."

More than just a twenty-first century cross between Little Richard and T-Bone Walker or Eddie Cochran and Louis Prima, and far more that a mere revivalist, Nick Curran is a genuine original, infusing a freshness and vitality into the old school idioms.

Nick and his band—Preston Hubbard on bass, Damien Llanes on drums, and Paul Klemperer on saxophone—have just completed recording their latest album for Blind Pig. The CD was produced by Billy Horton at Fort Horton Studios in Austin, Texas, who has helmed all of Nick's previous recordings. Entitled Player, the album is scheduled to be released by Blind Pig on June 29th. It features special guests Kim Wilson playing harmonica on three tracks as well as the horn section from Roomful of Blues, 2004 Handy winners for "Blues Band Of The Year."


Nick Curran's 'Doctor Velvet'

Related Blues Blog article: Renee Austin In "Blues Divas" TV Series (April 24)

On the Web:
Blind Pig Records





For more information visit www.blindpigrecords.com.

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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Jazz Guitarist Barney Kessel Dies

SAN FRANCISCO (May 9) — Barney Kessel, a jazz guitarist who played in number of celebrated bands in the 1940s and enjoyed a long career as a studio musician, has died, friends said.

Kessel died of brain cancer at his home in San Diego on Thursday. He was 80 and had been in poor health since suffering a stroke 12 years ago.

The Oklahoma-born Kessel began his career as a teenager when he toured with a number of black dance bands in the state.

In 1942 he moved to Los Angeles and continued touring with the bands of Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnet and Benny Goodman. Over the next decade, he earned a reputation as being an extremely versatile musician, and was frequently voted the most popular jazz guitarist in music magazine polls.

"Barney was a wonderfully lyrical and melodic player and could also swing very hard," jazz critic Nat Hentoff told the Los Angeles Times. "He was a guy who could sit in and play with everybody."

Kessel also played as a sideman for Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, the Beach Boys and other rock musicians. In 1944 he appeared in the classic jazz film "Jammin' the Blues."

He began a second career as a studio musician to help pay bills, but returned to jazz full-time in the 1970s.

The 1968 photo shows Kessel playing a Gibson Barney Kessel Regular model.

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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This man was your man, this man was my man

Link-rot sets in at The Daily Yomiuri Online within a week or so, so here's the archived version of my review of Ed Cray's Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie published by W.W. Norton & Company, 488pp, 29.95 dollars


Woody Guthrie was the voice of working America, expressing in words the feelings of Dust Bowl farmers, factory hands laid off during the Depression, itinerant laborers and organized labor.

Born in Oklahoma in 1912, the third of five children, Guthrie became a larger-than-life figure who captured the spirit of his times in his enduring songs: 'This Land Is Your Land," "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You," "Going Down This Road Feeling Bad," and so many more.

The working man could not have asked for a more eloquent expression of his woes than Guthrie, and Guthrie could not have asked for a more eloquent biographer than Ed Cray, whose Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie makes use of hitherto unexplored material to sketch a haunting portrait of an American original who profoundly influenced Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and U.S. popular music itself.

Cray was the first biographer to be granted access to the Woody Guthrie Archive, which contains previously unpublished letters, diaries and journals. He interviewed 72 of the people who knew Guthrie best, many of whom were speaking on the record for the first time. The resultant book, which contains 16 pages of photographs, some of which also are being published for the first time, threatens to supplant Joe Klein's Woody Guthrie: A Life (1980) as the definitive work on Guthrie.

Although at times Cray's narrative may seem a bit too thick with detail, it provides the background essential to understanding the times and events that affected and shaped not only Guthrie, but working-class America as a whole.

Logically enough, Cray starts with Guthrie's family and his birth, setting the scene for the environment that created and shaped Guthrie.

Although always proud to be called an "Okie," Guthrie wasn't born into a dirt-poor family--it just ended up that way. His father was a small businessman who had wheeled, dealed and speculated in the boomer days, building up a fortune.

"We wasn't in that class that John Steinbeck called the Oakies because my dad was worth 35,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars and everything was hunky-dory an' he had a little bit of bad luck...," Cray quotes Guthrie as saying in a 1940 conversation with musicologist Alan Lomax.

But with the Depression, the family lost everything, and Guthrie got a first-hand experience of poverty and life on the streets that stuck in his mind for life.

The book is a gold mine of information. In the Introduction, Cray presents the following nugget that aptly illustrates Guthrie's sense of social realism in music.

Sickened by the saccharine sweetness of Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America," Guthrie went home and wrote in response:

One bright sunning morning in the shadow of the steeple

By the Relief Office I saw my people-

As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if

God blessed America for me.

This verse, which he later scrapped, was the inspiration for what is probably Guthrie's most famous song, "This Land Is Your Land," the de facto national anthem of Working America.

Guthrie witnessed the despair of the Great Dust Bowl first hand, making the journey from Pampa, Texas, to the promised land of California with his wife, along with thousands of others.

The FBI branded him a subversive for singing songs at workers' rallies organized by the American Communist Party, compiling a 109-page file on him.

Guthrie's reputed response to allegations of subversion was, "Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me."

Although Guthrie would rile against the social injustices he witnessed in his travels, he also developed a deep love for the land he was traveling over, and that feeling comes through in his songs as well. He saw both a desperate people and a beautiful country, making him a patriot in the truest sense of the word.

Although Guthrie would go on to hobnob with writers such as John Steinbeck and grace a U.S. postage stamp, in reality, and at heart, his life was on the road.

He was a patriot, a political radical, a traveling troubadour. He lived in fear of the deadly fires that stalked his family, and of the illness--Huntington's disease--that snared his mother, and which would cruelly silence the voice of this common man at the age of 42 after he had penned around 6,000 songs.

And where do you look for this hope that you're seeking?

You can go to the church of your choice, or you can go to the Brooklyn State Hospital.

You'll find God in the church of your choice.

You'll find Woody Guthrie in the Brooklyn State Hospital.

--Bob Dylan "Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie."




Listen to Bob Dylan read "Last thoughts on Woody Guthrie"

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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Testicle Festival

"The beer is helping," Micki Barna, 24, said above the tavern din. "They're very chewy."

"We told her she didn't get a ride home unless she had one," said her companions, Ben Brasko, 25, of Willard; Danny Brasko, 21, of Mansfield; and their dad, Mike Brasko, 51, of Willard.

"We had to throw in a T-shirt, too."

Barna and the Braskos had the tavern equivalent of front-row seats - stools at the bar only a few feet from where proprietor Al Cramer presided over a deep fryer, fixing the free treats being celebrated by a crowd that spilled out both tavern doors and filled the street for a village block.

Bucyrus has its bratwurst. Tiro has testicles.

"We've heard about it all these years," Mike Brasko said of the gathering. "This year we found out the date and put it on the calendar."

"You have to experience it before you know what it's about," Danny Brasko added, tipping his glass. "Even if you don't eat the fare, it's still a good time."

Joanne Mabry, 47, of Shiloh was skipping the main course and sustaining herself on liquid refreshment and the memory of "mountain oysters" consumed in much earlier versions of what has become known far and wide as the Tiro Testicle Festival.

The curious and the committed came last month from all around Crawford and neighboring counties as well as adjoining states. All day long black-leather-clad motorcyclists roared into and out of town on Harleys, parking cheek by jowl on both sides of Main Street, turning heads and turning up the sex appeal of what tavern employee Robin Davis said was the 29th annual edition of the event.

"This is a great time," said former Shelby resident Roger Merriman, 52, of Peru, Ind., as he listened to an early set by Gopher Baroque, a New Washington folk/mountain/rock band featuring a guitar, electric washboard and washtub bass.

The band fit the festival so well that I couldn't resist asking vocalist Jim Kenny if it was the group's only gig of the year. "Yeah," he grinned. "Can't you tell?"

This year, for the first time and with volunteer firefighter/tavern owner Cramer's blessing, the Tiro-Auburn VFD set up a food tent to provide some alternative food choices to festival goers who were more hungry than brave. And despite the amount of hormones present and alcohol being consumed, it was a tame, self-policing crowd.

"These Harley riders, they're pretty good guys," said Tiro-Auburn volunteer firefighter Jeanette Brown who is Auburn Township clerk and married to Tiro Mayor Ron Brown. "We've never had any fights."

Asked how the community felt about being known far and wide (have T-shirt, will travel) for this particular event, Brown said, "I haven't heard no major complaints." She said Cramer and his crew make all the festival arrangements and do all the work, and the April celebration serves as advance advertisement for the community's other bash of the year, the Tiro-Auburn Firefighters Festival on the fourth weekend of June. For that important fund-raising effort, Cramer closes the tavern in a gesture of community goodwill and support.

Back at the tavern, employee Bridgette Cole argued a point good naturedly. "Oh, this is way bigger than the firemen's festival," she said.

No one was forthcoming with numbers, except that between 3 p.m. and 1 a.m., the tavern would have fried up and served 350 to 500 pounds of hog morsels. Tiro residents either participate or leave town for the day. In any case, the evidence is gone by Sunday church, though the smell of fried hog nuts may hover and cling for a day or two.

The event is among a number of festivals given to gonads around the world, a quick Internet search reveals. There are even other "Testicle Festivals," though at first blush none appears to be as long-running as Tiro's. A lodge at Rock Creek, Mont., near Missoula has a five-day affair that lodge owner Rod Lincoln (hey, I'm not making these names up) says "celebrates the tradition of adulthood and fellow man... Let's just get together and have some good old fashion fun, imbibe and partake in the sacred testicle."

A fascinating tidbit was reported in early 2003 when a shortage of sheep testicles threatened to put a damper on Iceland's "Thorria," a four-week long Viking festival that features a traditional dish, "minister's sausage." Testicles are apparently also being served at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, currently under way.

Someplace between "Fear Factor" and Thorria is Tiro, an ordinary rural place in the most ordinary state, doing something fun, good-natured and elemental to secure its spot on the map. Even with a sprinkle or two from above and even without alcohol, a night at the Tiro T.F. is a good way to spend an April night.

My advice? Go. Go while it's still daylight and, if you plan to partake of the delicacy of the day, keep the ketchup handy.

Source: The Marion Star

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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Waymon 'Buttermilk' Meeks"

Waymon "Buttermilk" Meeks is a civil engineer who has worked for companies such as defense industry giant Lockheed Martin. He saves his passion, however, for the blues.

Meeks is the opening act for the 18th Annual Carolina Blues Festival Saturday in downtown Greensboro. He won the opening slot by taking first-place honors at last year's Piedmont Blues Preservation Society Talent Showcase.

A University of North Texas graduate, Meeks, 38, is part of the changing portrait of a modern bluesman.

The acoustic blues guitarist said the music first took hold of him while he was living in Memphis, Tenn., during an ice storm there in February 1994.

He had moved to Memphis three months before from the home in East Texas where he grew up.

"Me, to keep from becoming stir crazy, started, you know, driving around the city, and hey, there's some lights in there.

"I rolled into this bar, and there was some old guy, sitting there, drinking, playing cards, playing dominoes. And there's this old guy, in the back of the club, just playing his heart out," he said last month at his Hillsborough home.

"Every now and then you'd think no one was listening, then all of a sudden when this musician said some funny line in his music or said something that required testifying, you'd hear the whole club, 'All right man!, That's right! Play it!'

"I'm sitting here listening to this, the interaction between the musician and the audience, and, and things began to click."

What clicked was the link between testifying and the celebration in black church services and blues music.

"All of a sudden, all of these influences just came together at that point and perked my ears up to what was special about the music," he said.

For the last 10 years, Meeks, who also is an environmental consultant, has been playing acoustic blues. He's played semi-professionally (for pay) for five years.

One month each year he travels in Europe, playing most of his shows there at festivals and small venues. He's performed in 27 countries, playing gigs in France, England, Switzerland and Italy, among others. He counts as his most memorable gig one in the Netherlands, where he played to almost the entire town of 800, he said.

He's also appeared in a documentary film on David "Honeyboy" Edwards that featured B.B. King.


Meeks grew up around the blues, specifically, acoustic blues.

Generations of black musicians dot his background. His great-great-grandfather, Peat Balwin, an East Texas fiddler, moved to the Lone Star State in 1881 after shooting a white man in Louisiana, Meeks said. He has a copy of the arrest warrant.

Meeks' gospel-singing father, the original "Buttermilk" Meeks, was a light-skinned black man, hence the name. His grandfather was friends with Texas blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins, and the two families stay in touch still, Meeks said.

His favorite guitars are a beautiful 1931 National Steel Duolian and a 1965 Gibson L-50 that spent 20 years at Mississippi's dreaded Parchman Farm prison camp with a convict named Robert Lovejoy.

Even with the love of blues he now has and his rich background in the music, the road to playing the blues wasn't as natural.

"It took 25 years, 25 years later, for me to understand what this music was," Meeks said.

After moving to Memphis, Meeks picked up what he said was the bad habit of hanging out with the late-night blues crowd: "The blues musicians, people who stay up until sunrise, people who were not typical of the people I was accustomed to hanging out with," Meeks said.

In early 1994, Meeks decided to learn to play the blues. Even though he had a musical background - he played trumpet and euphonium in grade school - it wasn't easy.

"Learning to replicate the blues was a horrible thing at the beginning. I was one of those types of people who was determined to learn to do this," he said.

"So I set out to doing it. I would play 30 to 40 hours a week, three or four or five hours after work each day and eight to 10 hours on the weekends."

"And then after two or three months, the cocky kid comes out: 'Well I'm good enough to get out and start playing.' So, you know, I go out and go to a few open mikes and just realize I had no clue about what this music is about," Meeks said.

While learning to play, he also was making connections at guitar shops and shows. Through the Memphis blues scene, he met Keith Brown and Blind Mississippi Morris.

Brown, now rising to prominence in the acoustic blues world, recently played the role of Skip James in Wim Wenders' film "The Soul of a Man," which was part of the Public Broadcasting Service's series "Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues."

Morris is a harmonica player and kin to perhaps the most prolific blues songwriter ever, Willie Dixon, who wrote "I Just Want to Make Love to You."

"Those two opened up doors for people I never knew existed. And that was how I was able to get into the music aspect of it, understanding what the music was," he said.

"It's just not slamming out chords and drinking beer and going home."

"Everyone has the perception that this music is simple because it's so fundamentally simple: 'Oh, it's three chords, how hard could that be?' But the way you express those three chords makes all the difference in the world. Every musician who's ever touched those three chords can have a different impact."

Meeks started playing more, began picking up some gigs and eventually honed his repertoire to a T by mastering the textural nuances of the music, he said. He learned to convey despair, melancholy, happiness, anger, feelings that invoke trouble and an I-got-to-leave feeling, he said.

He can mimic the sound of a train slowly leaving the station on his guitar, and he rings tones with the slide to sound the bell.

"There's so many different ways to present the same set of chords to invoke different memories," Meeks said.

"Anyone can sit down and strike out three chords you know . . . but that ain't blues."

In April, Meeks moved from North Carolina and now lives two blocks from the beaches of Indialantic, Fla. While Florida is nice, he said, being a workaholic leaves him with little time to go to the beach.

Eventually he'd like to take on full-time work as a blues musician, but that must wait until all his finances are in order, he said. He's not ready for that career yet, even though he's had offers and advice on how to carry it out. Even if he does perform music full time, he'd still like to do environmental consulting on the side, he said.

"I have to do the things that are important first," he said. "Music is not the career track I want to encompass. If I never pick up a guitar again, so what? Would the world stop turning? No."

Part of the reason he won't leave his full-time career is because of values instilled by his parents, he said. His parents were insistent about the value of education, and he gravitated toward the sciences. They wanted Meeks to have opportunities blacks in the South struggled to find.

"I'm part of the first manifestation of the Civil Rights struggle. It culminates in me. I could have been much worse off," he said.

The draw of the blues on Meeks is more than just musical, he said.

While white families were able to leave legacies of wealth and power, he said, black families left a rich cultural heritage of art and music.

Being a blues musician allows him to perpetuate that.

Meeks describes himself as a frugal man. He drives a Chevy truck with cracks in the windshield that's carried him from Memphis to Hillsborough many times.

"I've never been a flaunty person; I'd rather tuck my money in the bank for a rainy day," Meeks said.

He's not a heavy drinker or smoker. He avoids playing in bars, preferring an intimate setting where he doesn't have to vie for audience members' attention.

"I want the music to have the respect that it deserves," Meeks said.

He has chosen - or perhaps his path is forced by necessity - to play acoustic blues mostly in Europe. Some years he'll play 50-60 shows total, but while in Europe, 10 or 12 of those will be in one month.

"The music is the scene in Europe. More or less America has turned its back on this art form that the rest of the world has just taken a liking to," he said.

All Meeks asks is that audiences pay a little respect to blues musicians, whose ventures into the field often produce fleeting success.

"A, you're playing blues, which is not a popular music. And B, you're playing it acoustically, which is like a double whammy. You know, the only way you could make it worse is ... I don't know," he said.

"It's a beautiful body of work. It's just a thing of getting people to understand how to get to this point (and) perpetuate (it) a little bit further."

On stage
Who: Waymon "Buttermilk" Meeks
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
Where: Center City Park, S. Elm Street and Friendly Avenue, Greensboro


On the Web:
http://www.buttermilkmeeks.com/

:: Les Coles Saturday, May 08, 2004 [+] ::

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Annie Leibovitz 'American Music' Exhibit Opens at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

CLEVELAND, May 6 /PRNewswire/ — Annie Leibovitz's photographs have become defining icons of Western culture. On May 27, the renowned rock photographer will open a new exhibit of previously unpublished photographs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The exhibit is sponsored by Getty Images.

For more than 30 years, Leibovitz has vividly captured the artists behind the music, and produced many significant images of our modern-day icons. In her latest collection, American Music, Leibovitz exposes an intimate, human side of some of our best-known and undiscovered musicians.

"I started out as a photographer at Rolling Stone more than 25-years-ago," Leibovitz says, "and I wanted to go back to the subject of music with a mature eye. We worked on the American Music project for over four years. We started by photographing the great bluesman R. L. Burnside in the Mississippi Delta, where the roots of American popular music are, and we traveled all over the country. It was a very powerful experience for me - and a privilege, really - to meet these wonderful musicians, many of whom are not well known to a big, popular audience, and to hear them play."

From juke joints to Graceland, Leibovitz traveled through the landscape of blues, gospel, jazz and country. Her travels took her to places and people that have played central roles in our country's musical past and present. Her subjects include the American icons B.B. King, the late Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Etta James and Dolly Parton, as well as Eminem, Dr. Dre and the White Stripes.

The exhibit features over 60 portraits, many of which have never before been shown. The American Music exhibit, which was curated by Experience Music Project (EMP), coincides with the publication of Leibovitz's new book of the same title.

"Annie Leibovitz turned rock and roll photography into an art," said Jim Henke, chief curator of the Rock Hall. "She has created some of the most memorable images of the last three decades, and we are honored to showcase some of her latest work here at the Hall of Fame."

Leibovitz's previous touring exhibits, a 1991 retrospective organized by the International Center of Photography in conjunction with the National Portrait Gallery, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art's 1999 Women show, garnered critical acclaim and broke attendance records worldwide. American Music promises to repeat these triumphs.

"Annie Leibovitz is one of the most important photographers of our time," said Deb Trevino, senior vice president of communications for Getty Images. "Getty Images is dedicated to supporting photographers who share our passion for pictures and our commitment to excellence in photography."

American Music, sponsored by Getty Images, debuted at Experience Music Project in Seattle and traveled next to The Hospital in London, England. The exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will open on May 27 and run through September 6, 2004.

About the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum exists to educate its visitors, fans and scholars from around the world about the history and significance of rock and roll music. The Museum carries out this mission through its efforts to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret this art form.

The Museum is open seven days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. On Wednesdays the Museum is open until 9:00 p.m. Museum admission is $20.00 for adults, $14.00 for seniors (60+), $11 for children (9-12), and children under 8 and Museum members are free.

About Getty Images Inc.
Getty Images is the world's leading imagery company, creating and providing the largest and most relevant collection of still and moving images to communication professionals around the globe. From sports and news photography to archival and contemporary imagery, Getty Images' products are found each day in newspapers, magazines, advertising, films, television, books and Web sites. Getty Images' Web site, www.gettyimages.com , is the first place customers turn to search, purchase and download powerful imagery. Seattle-headquartered Getty Images is a global company, and has customers in more than 50 countries.

:: Les Coles Friday, May 07, 2004 [+] ::

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PA TROC TSOP vs HOB?

Could Philadelphia's Trocadero be turning into a House of Blues music club/restaurant? Sounds possible. More immediately, HOB's concert-booking division just struck a deal with the landmark venue in Philly's Chinatown to produce more than 250 shows a year, in a variety of genres. (The Troc's longtime booker, Jon Hampton, recently left to join rival Clear Channel Entertainment.) House of Blues, which has branches in seven cities, recently indicated plans to open a club at Harrah's or the Showboat in Atlantic City.

The suits are scrambling at WIOQ-FM (102.1), which had been hyping its June 19 "Q Concert" starring Christina Aguilera and Chingy, a major promotion expected to draw many thousands to the Tweeter. Late Thursday, Aguilera halted her tour at doctors' orders, and the show was canceled. The station is working on getting new acts for a new date.

:: Les Coles Thursday, May 06, 2004 [+] ::

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Blues Briefs

Willie Nelson & Friends

On May 5, Willie Nelson hosted his third "Willie Nelson & Friends" concert. The show took place at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles.

Cable television's USA Network taped the event for a Memorial Day special broadcast on May 31. Lucinda Williams, the Holmes Brothers and Toots & the Maytals' Toots Hibbert joined Willie at his May 5 "One More For The Road" concert.

Nelson's first special, "Willie Nelson & Friends: Stars & Guitars," took place in Nashville in 2002. Last year, he celebrated his 70th birthday with "Willie Nelson & Friends: Live & Kickin'," which was held in New York.

Both concerts were released on CD

Ex-Pointer Sister held on drug rap

A former member of the Pointer Sisters was arrested on April 26 and charged with cocaine possession. June Pointer Whitmore, 50, has a history of substance abuse problems. A few years ago, her older sisters, Ruth and Anita, obtained a court order barring June from the group, and gained rights to the Pointer Sisters name. Ruth's daughter Issa took June's place in the trio.

China gets a little 'Back Porch' music

On May 2, the Front Porch Country Band arrived in Beijing, China to begin a series of concerts. Jiali Zhu, Supervisor of Art and Culture Exchange Department of U.S.-China Foundation (USCF), which invited the group, says, "Country music is a symbol of U.S. culture. It's very popular in China." The Front Porch Country Band will perform songs from their latest album Somebody Tonight and will preview material from its upcoming CD, due out later this year. The group also plans to play a tribute song from American Standing Tall The American Trilogy, which was released one week after the September 11 terrorist attacks. In addition to its performance in Beijing, the band will visit Shanghai and Ning Bo. USCF may add other stops before the group ends its tour on May 17.

Patti LaBelle releases 1st album in 4 years

The first new album in four years by rhythm-and-blues diva Patti LaBelle hit record stores on May 4. The 13-track CD, titled Timeless Journey, is her first release for Def Soul Classics. She previously recorded for MCA Records, which folded in 2003. Her 2004 concert itinerary includes appearances at several major jazz festivals in the U.S. and abroad.

Fleetwood Mac U.S. tour kicks off tomorrow

On May 8, Fleetwood Mac will kick off a North American tour in Madison, Wisconsin. It's the band's second swing through the U.S. and Canada in support of the CD, Say You Will. The 36-city tour is currently scheduled to end on July 14 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

New Lionel Richie CD released

lionel_ritchie_150.jpg
May 4, Island Records released Lionel Richie's new CD, Just For You. The collection was recorded in London, Miami, Los Angeles and New York and is described as his "broadest-reaching effort to date." Lenny Kravitz appears on two of the tracks.

:: Les Coles Thursday, May 06, 2004 [+] ::

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National Guitar Music Showcased At NCRT

Eureka, CA (May 7)—The North Coast Repertory Theatre will present slide guitar players Don Haupt and Mike Selfridge in "A Night of Nationals" Saturday, 8 pm., in the theater, 300 Fifth St., in Eureka.

Haupt is known locally for his traditional Delta blues music, while Selfridge plays eclectic tunes, with the occasional ukulele music thrown in.

They will perform separate sets and the concert will be played exclusively on National metal-body instruments — those "funky" guitars with the hubcaps on them.

Advanced tickets are $10; $12 at the door. They are available in The Metro Music & Gifts and in The Works.

For more information, phone (707) 442-NCRT or e-mail don@donhaupt.com.

:: Les Coles Thursday, May 06, 2004 [+] ::

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No Cover Productions — May Newsletter

Release Party: The Whoodo Band is having a release party for their CD Bringin' Home The Blues Thursday May 5th at the Tenny Street Roadhouse 22361 West Village Drive, one block east of Military and one block south of Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, MI (313)278-3677
(Blues Blog Note: This is the debut release from the band that won the 2004 International Blues Challenge in Detroit and went on to compete in Memphis.)

Just Released: Ben Moore & The Blues Express has just signed on with No Cover. We have re-issued the band's first two releases Live Blues and Funky Blues (go to the release section to get your copy today) Ben's association with No Cover pre-dates the start of the company to when Mike Boulan used to do live sound for the band in the early 90's. The Express is starting a brand new project too - so look for it here!

Just Started Recording: After a 3 year search we have located one of the Detroit Bluesmen that we have wanted to capture on tape (Living only 3 miles from No Cover's Straight Ahead Studios)....Billy Davis has started a new recording project for the No Cover label. We are honored to work with Billy who played and recorded with the great Hank Ballard & The Midnighters for 25 years and also gave guitar lessons to the greatest guitarist of all time...none other than Jimi Hendrix!

Just Signed: Not a true signing but more of a mass signing! The Bonzai Bob's Blues Bash recording went very well. We are going to release a CD from it in June, or July, depending how the schedule works out. Artists to be included will be announced at the time of the release.

Nearly Signed: It seems we are very close to making a deal to record the great John Sinclair — Poet & Writer! John is a legend in Detroit, among many acomplishments he wrote the book Guitar Army, which spawned 2 awesome concerts of the same name in the 80's. No Cover President Mike Boulan attended both shows and thought they were incredible. We will be honored to work with such a great activist.

Other recent releases now available from No Cover:

April's Release: Jeff Maylin has a new CD available on No Cover titled Jeff Maylin with 12 songs 11 of which are originals

March's release: New CD from the Heatstock Festival titled Best of Heatstock Vol. #2

The Whoodoo Band has released Bringin' Home The Blues, a 12-song project that features all original songs penned by three different bandmembers.release party at Tenny Street on May 6th

The first CD in the series "Blues All Over Michigan" — The East is here!

We have also re-issued the live CD from Wailin' Inc. (which has been
out of print for 4 or 5 years)

And we have issued the No Cover Samplers (a 2-CD set) The First 14 — 14 songs from the first 14 CDs and The Next 14 — 14 songs from the next 14 CDs ( which means we now have over 30 CDs to choose from!)

Other upcoming projects include, The Best of the Flatrock Riverfest. A Jeff Grand CD titled Therapy, a new release from Bobby Murray, and Mystery Train with Motor City Josh. But thats not all...

On the Web:
No Cover Productions

:: Les Coles Thursday, May 06, 2004 [+] ::

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Elvin 'Jazz Machine' Jones—Good News

A few days back I posted an article on Elvin "Jazz Machine" Jones, being seriously ill. Here's an update from Blues/Jazz Brother Tim Niland who runs
Jazz & Blues
Les - This was on the Jazz Times web site:

We’ve received dozens of e-mails claiming that Elvin Jones (pictured) was dying and/or dead—all because of an e-mail sent to various places by Len Dobbin. Most of the e-mails addressed to JazzTimes about Jones were tinged with sadness, but some were filled with odd vitriol toward us for not immediately dignifying an unsubstantiated rumor that flew around Internet chat rooms and list-serves with the speed of the recent Sasser virus. Here was Lee Ann Carpenter’s charming note: "Elvin is dying and all you can write about is Diana Krall's tour schedule? Excuse me, but aren't you guys going to choke on all the fluff you produce?" After JazzTimes cleared its collective throat and put down Kenny G’s summer concert itinerary, we contacted Adam Mansbach to set the record straight. Mansbach is the co-author of Elvin Jones' forthcoming memoirs, Different Drummer (Da Capo). He agreed to have his response to our inquiry printed at JazzTimes.com because, he writes, “I know [the rumors] are quite disturbing to Elvin and [his wife] Keiko.”

I just called Keiko after reading your email. Elvin is alive and recuperating. I was at Yoshi's with him all week, and while he was weak and has lost weight (and had difficulty playing at some points), the whole experience was, for me, tremendously uplifting: To see him walk onstage with an oxygen tank and proceed to not only play an entire set, but also an amazing fifteen-minute solo while the room was being cleared (as he did on two of the nights) was truly inspiring. Set by set, there was a lot of variation in terms of Elvin's strength -- largely due to whether or not he had the oxygen with him, which he only did about half the time. A lot of the reports circulating have seemingly been from people who only saw one set and thus didn't really get a full picture. Elvin is certainly in very grave condition, but he's still full of tremendous love -- for the music and for life -- and that, along with his many friends and loved ones, seems to be keeping him going.

Related Blues Blog Article: Jazz drummer Elvin Jones gravely ill (April 29)
On the Web:
Jazz & Blues Blog
Elvin Jones Official Site
Jazz Times

:: Les Coles Thursday, May 06, 2004 [+] ::

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Slain festival-goer leaves fun legacy

Kara Bourg, left, of Baton Rouge dances a two-step with Daniel Breaux of Houma during a performance at the Festivals Acadiens in Lafayette in September 2003. Breaux was shot and killed Saturday during the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. A 14-year-old Prairieville boy is being accused of the slaying. An artist and musician, Breaux was a frequent participant of south Louisiana music festivals.
Advocate staff photo by Bryan Tuck


LAFAYETTE — Funeral services were held Tuesday for Daniel Breaux, who was shot Saturday as he left the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. A 14-year-old Prairieville boy is being accused of the slaying.

Breaux, 57, of Houma, was a frequent visitor to Acadiana's festivals and music venues, and was well known to the area music community.

"I've known Danny for 25 years," said Michael Doucet of the music group, Beausoleil. "He was very artistic and a very special, special person. He didn't follow the acceptable norms. He did his own thing. That's what made him so wonderful, what made him an individual. His presence will definitely be missed."

Breaux, an artist, often was seen dancing at Lafayette's Festivals Acadiens and Festival International de Louisiane. His snowy hair, unique and energetic dancing style and bright red clogs were a fixture on the concrete and dirt that served as festival dance floors.

"You have to die somewhere, and I always thought he would die on the dance floor," Doucet said.

Some people who knew Breaux didn't see him anywhere but on the dance floor.

"I danced a lot with Daniel, more in years past," said Jodi Hebert, executive director of Louisiana Folk Roots. "I didn't know him real well, the only time I really saw him was on the dance floor, but he was a good dancer, and just a nice guy."

Hebert said she saw Breaux over the years, anywhere there was good dancing music.

"He liked dancing, and he liked the music," she said. "You could always see him at festivals, especially in the New Orleans area."

Tommy Michot, accordion player in Les Freres Michot, also remembered "Breaux," as he was called by the Michots. "I saw him last weekend, he was here for Festival International, and we were talking to him and everything. We've known him for probably 20 years," Michot said. "He used to dance for us all the time in New Orleans, and over here in Lafayette at the festivals."

Doucet said Breaux also had been dancing to Beausoleil's music for years.

"Beausoleil was one of the first Cajun bands to play in New Orleans. We used to play at the Maple Leaf," Doucet said. "In those days, in the late '70s and early '80s, people in New Orleans did not really readily accept Cajun music. It was good to find somebody like that, who lived in the city, who did."

Michot said Breaux was a talented artist, and he used to watch Breaux paint portraits in front of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. Michot's brother, state Judge Rick Michot, another member of the band, said he had visited Breaux's Magazine Street studio years ago.

Breaux was the kind of person you wanted to see in your audience, Rick Michot said.

"He always had a pair of clogs on, premature gray hair and a smile," Rick Michot said. "He was a very positive guy, all the time. Just a tremendous person."

While living in New Orleans, Breaux ran a successful art studio and was an instructor at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. In Houma, he also was known for his restorations of historic houses.

Breaux also was a musician who taught himself to play piano and violin. He worked as a social worker for the federal program VISTA, helping teenagers fight drug addiction and truancy problems.

He is survived by Claudia Dumestre, his companion of more than 20 years; his parents, George Breaux and Dot Thibodaux Breaux of Houma; a brother, a sister, a niece and nephew, and numerous friends and family.

The Associated Press reports that a 14-year-old boy from Prairieville is accused of fatally shooting Breaux, with a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old also suspects.

They were booked on counts of first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery. Their names were not released because of their age. They had a juvenile court hearing scheduled Tuesday, the AP reported.

:: Les Coles Thursday, May 06, 2004 [+] ::

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B.B. King, Hungarian composer winners of Polar Music Prizes

STOCKHOLM (May 7) — Former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and conductor Elgar Howarth will be on hand to award the 2004 Polar Music Prize to American bluesman B.B. King and Hungarian composer Gyoergy Ligeti, organizers said Tuesday.

Page will read the prize citation for King and Howarth will do the same for Ligeti at the May 24 prize ceremony where King Carl XVI Gustaf will hand out the award to both winners.

The award was founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, through a donation to The Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

King and Ligeti will each receive 1 million kronor (US $130,887).

The academy cited King, 78, for his "significant contributions to the blues" and a "total dedication to his music, a rich recording history and tireless touring lasting more than half a century (that has) made him one of the most prominent figures within the blues."

The 80-year-old Ligeti was cited for "stretching the boundaries of the musically conceivable from mind-expanding sounds to new astounding processes in a thoroughly personal style that embodies both inquisitiveness and imagination."

The prize is typically split between pop artists and classical musicians. Previous winners include Paul McCartney, Isaac Stern, Bruce Springsteen, Pierre Boulez and Quincy Jones.

On the Net:
http://www.polarmusicprize.se/
http://www.bbking.com

:: Les Coles Thursday, May 06, 2004 [+] ::

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Pamela MacCarthy at Jazz Spot 'J'

My favorite jazz vocalist, Pamela MacCarthy, will be playing Jazz Spot 'J' in Shinjuku, Tokyo, on Friday (May 7).

Although I said jazz, Pamela has a lot of blues and soul in her voice and choice of material. Pamela is one of the greatest vocalists around. She has tremendous power and range in her voice, and the technique to control it. She also has excellence, and extremely deep taste in the numbers she performs, pushing the envelop of "jazz standards" to include some of the truly great songs that are not heard as much as they should be.

In addition to the superb sounds of Keisaku Takahashi on piano, Tomoya Hara on guitar, Kazuo Midorikawa on bass and Yosuke Hase on drums; the audience is in for a special treat Friday night as Pamela will be accompanying herself on a couple of numbers on a resonator guitar. This promises to be something not to be missed.

If the name Hara has rung a bell in your head somewhere, it might be because Tomoya is the son of Japanese big band jazz legend Nobuo Hara of Sharps & Flats Jazz Orchestra fame. Nobuo celebrated his 50th year in the business in 2000, and Pamela is featured on the That's Big Band CD recorded to celebrate the event.


To whet your appetite for tomorrow's show, here are a couple or three sample tracks from Pamela's debut album, for which Pamela also painted the self-potrait:





(Mighty Oaks Records)




Tracks

How About You?

Cheek To Cheek

At Last

I Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues

Look For The Silver Lining

Always

Goodbye

Travlin' Light

Wild Is The Wind

Summertime

Young And Foolish



On the Web:

Pamela MacCarthy's Web site (includes printable flyer for Friday's gig)
Meladramas (Pamela's blog)

:: Les Coles Wednesday, May 05, 2004 [+] ::

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'Sir Coxsone' Dodd dies age 72

May 5—Four days after the City of Kingston honoured him by naming a street for his famous Studio One recording label, Jamaican music pioneer Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd died suddenly yesterday.

He apparently suffered a heart attack at his offices at 13 Studio One Boulevard, which, until last Friday's big civic ceremony in honour of Dodd, was Brentford Road.

Dodd was 72.

Sources who were at the studio when he died, shortly after 4:00 pm, said that the veteran record producer and label boss was sitting around his desk chatting and joking with them when Dodd suddenly left for the bathroom. The next time they saw him, he was sitting on a chair outside the bathroom holding his chest and choking.

"I held him in my arms and tried to revive him and Jennifer Lara kept trying mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," said Bunny Brown, former lead singer of the Chosen Few, and one of Dodd's protégés. "He seemed like he was going to revive, then his eyeballs just turned over."

Dodd was rushed into one of the cars on the premises and taken to the Medical Associates Hospital, Tangerine Place, St Andrew where he was pronounced dead.

Dodd's close associate at the studio, Kingsley Goodison, said that it was obvious he was dead from before he left the premises.

However, Dodd's workers, artistes and others still gathered at the studio, apparently hoping for a miracle, until the news came back from the hospital confirming his death.

After doctors pronounced him dead, Dodd's body was immediately taken to the Madden's Funeral Parlour, North Street in the same car that had taken him to the hospital.
Outside the morgue, dozens gathered as the news spread of Dodd's death. At Studio One, the mood was sombre among his associates and artistes, who lingered.

His wife, Norma, couldn't understand Dodd's sudden death.

"He didn't have a history of heart problems," she said last night, choking back tears at the Studio One complex. "He never had a heart attack before."

In a statement last night, Opposition leader, Edward Seaga, a contemporary of Dodd in the music business in the 1950s and 1960s, described him as "one of the fathers of Jamaican music". He said that Dodd was "an extraordinary talent".

Born Clement Seymour Dodd in Kingston on January 26, 1932, he earned the nickname "Coxsone" after a Yorkshire, England cricketer, while attending All Saints School in West Kingston. He was considered a good cricket all-rounder.

But it was as a pioneer of Jamaica's sound system and popular music, from rocksteady to ska and reggae that Dodd was to find fame.

He started out playing bebop and jazz records for customers visiting his parents' liquour store on Laws Street, and later Beeston Street, in Kingston. During a turn at farm work in the United States he widened his knowledge of rhythm and blues music and imported numerous original 45 rpm records, which became the hallmark of his sound system, Sir Coxsone Downbeat.

He started the sound system in the early 50s relying on his imported originals to outplay his competitors, chiefly the late Arthur "Duke" Reid of Treasure Isle fame.

He opened his studio at Brentford Road in 1963 and since then the name, Studio One, has become synonymous worldwide with the best of early Jamaican pop rhythms — ska, rocksteady and reggae.

Dodd is probably best known outside Jamaica for bringing Bob Marley and the Wailers to national attention and producing some of their most memorable hits, including the international peace anthem, One Love.

In later days, he has been in constant legal battles with newer Jamaican record producers who have relied on his rhythms of the 60s and 70s for the basis of their dancehall rhythms.

But last Friday Dodd was hailed by Kingston's mayor, Desmond McKenzie, and other officials, including finance minister and South St Andrew MP Omar Davies — in whose constituency Brentford Road/Studio One Boulevard is located - for his and Studio One's contribution to the development and success of Jamaican music. This was based on a resolution passed last year by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), the city government

:: Les Coles Wednesday, May 05, 2004 [+] ::

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Blondie Hopes To Be 'Cursed' With Another Hit

It's too soon to tell if The Curse Of Blondie will be the one to do it, but Debbie Harry says the band would like to have another hit record in the U.S.

"That would be great," she said. "It would be really meaningful for us at this stage of the game." Blondie did rack up four No. 1 hits — "Heart Of Glass," "Call Me," "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture."

Harry said she was pleased with the reception for Blondie's reunion album, No Exit, five years ago. "But," she pointed out, "the way that the industry is now, sales don't mean anything. Going gold is practically meaningless because everybody's downloading. So there's no way of knowing what the numbers are and whether you're having a hit or not. I guess it is really up to radio and what they're playing. I don't know if it's really reflected in sales all that much."

Since "Heart Of Glass" got its start in clubs, it's not surprising that Harry uses club play as a barometer of what's popular. The real value of having songs that have become popular to Harry is that it has enabled her to accomplish her goal and that is to have a long career.

"Rock & Roll is a relatively new field in music. The idea of it being sort of like a youth movement — all of that has changed because we've all grown up with it and lived with it. It still is the music of the day. I'm not a kid anymore but it's my music."

Harry always admired jazz artists for having such long careers. "They kept on working for their entire life," she explained. "Their careers would really span a long period of time. Why wouldn't I want to keep on doing it? I think in some people's minds it really is a contradiction, but I think we're doing the best stuff that we've ever done and I know that I'm writing better than I ever have, so it would be sort of sad really not to be able to keep on."





(Sanctuary)

Tracks
Shakedown
Good Boys
Undone
Golden Rod
Rules For Living
Background Melody (The Only One)
Magic (Asadoya Unta)
End To End
Hello Joe
The Tingler
Last One In The World
Diamond Bridge
Desire Brings Me Back
Songs Of Love


Blondie tour dates:
May 4: Pontiac, Mich., Clutch Cargo
May 5: Cleveland, Odeon
May 7: New York, A&E Live by Request
May 8: Boston, Avalon
May 10: Washington, 9:30 Club
May 12: Richmond, Va. Insbrook Pavilion
May 13: Atlanta, Earthlink Live
May 15: Cincinnati, Jammin' on Main Festival
May 16: Dallas, 12th Annual Taste Addison
June 2: Reading, England, Rivermeade
June 3: Brighton, England, Brighton Centre
June 5: Bournemouth, England, Bournemouth International Centre
June 6: Cardiff, Wales, Cardiff International Arena
June 8: Bristol, England, Colston Hall
June 9: Plymouth, England, Plymouth Pavilions
June 11: Manchester, England, Manchester Apollo
June 12: Hull, England, Hull Arena
June 14: London, Hammersmith Apollo
June 16: Nottingham, England, Royal Centre
June 18: Birmingham, England, NIA Academy
June 19: Cambridge, England, Corn Exchange
June 22: Glasgow Scotland, Clyde Auditorium
June 23: Edinburg, Scotland, Edinburg Playhouse
June 24: Newcastle, England, City Hall
June 29: Tillburg, Holland 013 The Choice
July 2: Heilbronn, Germany, Gaffenburg Festival
July 3: Nostell, England. Nostell Priory
July 9: Shrewsbury, England, Attingham Park.
July 10: Oxford, England, Cornbury Music Festival.
July 11: Dyrham, England, Dyrham Park.
July 16: Guilford, England, GuilFest 2004, Stoke Park.
July 21: Marbella, Spain, Marbella Resort.
July 23: Kent, England, Rochester Castle.
July 24: Monte Carlo, Monaco, Monte Carlo Sporting Club.
July 25: Monte Carlo, Monaco, Monte Carlo Sporting Club.

:: Les Coles Tuesday, May 04, 2004 [+] ::

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Music Maker's Tim Duffy on ABC's World News Tonight

Music Maker's founder Tim Duffy was ABC World News Tonight's "Person of the Week", on Friday, April 30.

Click here to see what ABC News has to say about Tim Duffy.

About Music Maker Relief Foundation

Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern musical traditions gain recognition and meet their day to day needs. Today, many such musicians are living in extreme poverty and need food, shelter, medical care, and other assistance. Music Maker's aid and service programs improve the quality of recipients' lives. Our work affirms to these artists that we value the gifts of music and inspiration they have delivered to the world.

Our mission is to give back to the roots of American music.

Our criterion for recipients is they be rooted in a Southern musical tradition, be 55 years or older and have an annual income less than $18,000.

Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. is a tax exempt, public charity under IRS
code 501(c)3.

Related Blues Blog Article:
These blues are killing them (April 11)

:: Les Coles Monday, May 03, 2004 [+] ::

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Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues & Heritage Festival

MOSS POINT, Miss. —The Mississippi Gulf Coast Blues & Heritage Festival will return for the 14th year, taking place Sept. 11. Beginning at 11 a.m. at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, the festival will take place rain or shine.

"We have eight gospel acts that will perform in the arts building and eight blues acts that will perform under a covered pavilion," said Addie Brent, president of the Blues Commission, which is sponsoring the event. "It's important for everyone to know they don't have to be out in the rain or hot sun."

She said Willie Clayton will be the headliner and the commission will announce other acts closer to the time of the festival. There also will be arts and crafts, vendors and children's events. The commission is looking for additional vendors, she said.

The organizers hope to have a contest prior to the festival for children who would like to perform. Winners will take the stage Sept. 11.

"Last year 3,000 people attended the Blues Festival," Brent said. "It has really grown. We have people coming from all over. Some even adjust their vacations to come."

She said the Blues Commission was organized to put on the festival each year for people in the area and beyond. They were surprised three years ago when someone from Japan attended. The Japanese visitor read about the festival in an international blues magazine. Brent said the festival is advertised all over and that fliers are put in the state welcome centers where visitors see them.

Each year the Blues Commission recognizes someone who has contributed to the festival or to blues music in general. This year's honoree is radio station owner and personality Rip Daniels. Brent said Daniels helps promote the festival with free publicity on his station and by being part of the American Blues Network, which reaches 30 to 40 states.

"We will feature him on the cover and with an article in our brochure," she said. "He will also be presented with a plaque."

Brent said this year's festival T-shirt, designed by a local artist, is expected to go on sale June 15.

For more information about the festival, call Brent at 497-5439 or Sam Walley or at 497-5615.

:: Les Coles Monday, May 03, 2004 [+] ::

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Winters spring out for summer tours

Johnny and Edgar Winter are both out and about on tours this spring/summer. Johnny is touring Arizona and California, and brother Edgar will be hitting the shores of Japan.

Johnny is set to embark on a May tour through Arizona and California in support of his new CD in nearly eight years. His new Virgin Records disc, I'm a Bluesman, arrives in stores June 15.

On the tour, Johnny will introduce audiences to his new material while reacquainting them with his iconic guitar playing. For more than 30 years, Johnny has been at the forefront of modern blues and blues-rock, and his new CD and tour figure to add to his Texas-sized reputation.

Backing him on the CD and throughout the tour is his road-tested touring band of ace harmonica man James Montgomery, bassist Scott Spray and drummer Wayne June along with guitarist Paul Nelson. For I'm a Bluesman, Johnny has again paired up with his long-time producer Dick Shurman (Robert Cray, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan), as well as Tom Hambridge (Susan Tedeschi, George Thorogood). The CD features guest appearances by such friends as keyboardist Reese Wynans (from Stevie Ray Vaughan's celebrated backing group Double Trouble) among others.

Johnny will begin a full national tour shortly after the album's release.


May 16 PHOENIX, AZ The Rhythm Room
May 18 SANTA ANA, CA Galaxy Concert theater
May 19 SOLANA BEACH, CA Belly Up Tavern
May 21 KELSEYVILLE, CA Konocti Harbor Resort
May 22 LAKE TAHOE, CA Harrah's
May 23 SAN FRANCISCO, CA The Independent
May 25 MODESTO, CA State Theater
May 26 SACRAMENTO, CA The Roadhouse
May 27 LOS ANGELOS, CA House of Blues

The Edgar Winter Band will be touring extensively throughout the United States and Europe in 2004, in support of Edgar's new Edgar Winter - Live at the Galaxy DVD release and will be playing Duo Music Exchange, Tokyo, June 18-20..

Edgar is joined by Doug Rappoport on guitars, Mark Meadows on bass and Chris Frazier on percussion. Alvin Lee of Ten Years After has replaced Peter Green on the Edgar Winter U.K. tour. And Tony McPhee of the Ground Hogs has been added to the bill. I'm not sure of the exact line-up for the Japan tour, but will post it here as soon as I know.

Edgar Winter is currently working in the studio on two new CD releases, Jazzin' The Blues and Keep On Rockin'.

:: Les Coles Monday, May 03, 2004 [+] ::

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Fred Carl selected chairman of Blues Commission

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour signed legislation Monday creating a Mississippi Blues Commission that will be chaired by Greenwood businessman Fred Carl Jr. Later that same day, the state Senate will formally recognize Carl, the president and chief executive officer of Viking Range Corp., for his career and civic achievements, said state Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood.

Jordan said the Blues Commission was created in December 2003 by the executive order of then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. When Musgrove left office in January, all his executive orders expired. Barbour issued his own executive order reauthorizing the commission, with the same members, shortly after taking office. Making the commission formally recognized by the Legislature will add to its stature, Jordan said. The Blues Commission bill will be signed by Barbour at 3 p.m. in the governor's office on the third floor of the capitol building. The Senate will honor Carl at 4 p.m., he said.

Jordan spearheaded the Blues Commission bill through the state Legislature. It formally establishes the 17-member commission. Under the legislation, the commission will operate from July 1, 2004, to July 1, 2008. The commission is required to issue a report to Barbour and the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2005 "on the best method to market and foster an appreciation of the blues, to include tourism, academic study and blues archives, blues historical preservation, blues cultural education and the support of performing artists," the legislation's language reads.

Under the legislation, blues is defined as "African-American roots music and the culture that created it."

The commission will be charged with establishing a "Blues Trail" in conjunction with the Mississippi Department of Transportation. The commission also is authorized to purchase "Blues Trail" markers for placement along the route. No state funds will be used to fund the commission's work. Instead, it will rely on grants and private donations. Commission members receive no compensation for their service.

Jordan said he knows Carl naturally shunned the spotlight, but his efforts in creating a homegrown upscale industry are fitting of recognition by the state Senate. "Whether he likes it or not, he is deserving of it. He is deserving of recognition by this state Legislature. He saved us at a time when jobs were leaving Greenwood," Jordan said. Similarly, the state Senate has honored other Greenwood natives over the years, such as actors Morgan Freeman and Tonea Stewart.

Barbour's signing of the Blues Commission bill will mean good things for Greenwood. "Once this is signed, Greenwood will become part of the loop," Jordan said. -- By: Bob Darden, Greenwood Commonwealth Staff Writer 04/25/2004

Related Blues Blog Stories:
Blues Commission bill heading to gov. (Apr 10)
Mississippi Senate passes Blues Commission bill (Feb. 22)
Sen. Jordan gets strong support for blues commission bill (Jan. 21)

:: Les Coles Monday, May 03, 2004 [+] ::

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18th Annual Carolina Blues Festival

Blues Brother John Amberg reminds me in an e-mail that the 18th Annual Carolina Blues Festival is taking place May 8, in downtown Greensboro at Center City Park.

Blues legends from Mississippi and Texas highlight the line up for the 18th Annual Carolina Blues Festival to be held on Saturday, May 8th at the new Center City Park, at the corner of Elm and Friendly in downtown Greensboro.

Big Jack Johnson, who honed his unique blues style in the Mississippi juke joints with the Jelly Roll Kings, will make his first Carolina Blues Festival appearance. W.C. Clark, considered by music critics as the Godfather of the Austin, TX blues scene, is also making his debut appearance at the annual blues event.

Also performing will be Ronnie Baker Brooks, the son of Chicago blues great Lonnie Brooks and a successful national recording artist in his own right; blues guitar virtuoso Cyril Lance of Carrboro; and acoustic delta bluesman Waymon "Buttermilk" Meeks, winner of the 2003 PBPS Talent Showcase.

Schedule of Performers
12:00 Doors Open
1:00 Waymon "Buttermilk" Meeks
Waymon "Buttermilk" Meeks is "genuine as dirt" and his roots-based blues performances demand that his audiences take notice. He is an emerging artist who has taken up the mantle of performing traditional blues and interpreting this form of expression to a new generation of listeners.

Winner of the 2003 PBPS Talent Showcase, Buttermilk has been called a "bluesman for the new millennium" by the Raleigh News & Observer. Darrell Stover, an organizer of the Bull Durham Festival, states that Buttermilk has "a fired-up soul tempered with a quiet rage -- places each note surgeon-like in the hearts of his audience." Learn more about him at www.buttermilkmeeks.com.


1:45 Cyril Lance
Cyril Lance plays heart-felt and emtional music, his writing is honest and thought-provoking, his experiences and influences diverse. Every performance, every time he picks up his instrument, Cyril digs deep into his soul and lays in that groove wherever it takes him.

Billboard Magazine says that "Lance has masterminded one of the best contemporary blues albums of the year. His virtuosity on guitar and lap steel is undeniable, and his songwriting makes him an instant item in bluesville." Check him out at www.dogtalkmusic.com.


3:00 W.C. Clark
"If blues is played right," says Austin, Texas native W.C. Clark, "it makes your soul feel clean." Indeed, master guitarist/vocalist Clark - known as "The Godfather of Austin Blues" - has been playing the blues right and cleansing souls from the East side of Austin to stages around the world for over 40 years. And he's been mentoring countless young blues and soul players in the finer points of the music for almost as long. Blues stars from Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan to Angela Strehli to Lou Ann Barton to Marcia Ball have all perfected their craft under Clark's tutelage.

Clark's mix of modern Texas blues, searing guitar and heartfelt, Memphis-style soul vocals have made him a favorite of blues and R&B fans alike. The Houston Chronicle said Clark is "one of Austin's most pervasive live performers… He is a powerful and poignant soul man with hard-earned blues wisdom." Living Blues says, "W.C. Clark has it all…everything from good old rock 'n 'roll and gritty R&B to strutting Memphis soul, second-line funk and contemporary blues."

W.C. Clark has won several W.C. Handy awards, including the 2003 Song of the Year award for "Let It Rain." Check him out at www.wcclark.com.


4:30 Big Jack Johnson
Big Jack first recorded in 1961 at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis. He gained national prominence in the late seventies in the critically acclaimed group the Jelly Roll Kings. He went on to record several solo records in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Big Jack has garnered many awards, including the 1994 Best Live Performer and 1995 Most Outstanding Blues Musician from the Living Blues Magazine, three Living Blues nominations (winning the 1995 Song of the Year), NAIRD nomination for Blues Record of the Year, and nine W.C. Handy Award nominations (including a 1998 nomination for Best Blues Guitarist). Learn more about him at www.mc-records.com.


6:00 Ronnie Baker Brooks
Ronnie is the son of blues rocking recording star Lonnie Brooks. He first stepped on stage when he was nine years old, playing with Lonnie at Pepper's Lounge in Chicago. Ronnie recalls, "Dad told me if I learned to play 'Messin' With the Kid' and 'Reconsider Baby,' he would allow me to perform with him on stage to celebrate my birthday." Ronnie did learn the songs, performed with his dad, captured the audience and was bitten by the blues bug. "That's one birthday I'll never forget!" says Ronnie.

Ronnie joined Lonnie's band full-time in 1986 and has grown to be an accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter. Until he struck out as a solo artist in January 1999, Ronnie opened his Dad's live gigs with a blistering set of his own and closed each show playing a few acoustic numbers with Lonnie.

Ronnie has jammed on-stage with many blues giants such as Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Luther Allison, and Buddy Guy. He has worked alongside talented artists including Junior Wells, Eric Johnson, Jonny Lang, Slash, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Keb' Mo'. Check him out at www.ronniebakerbrooks.com.


For tickets, call (336) 333-2605, anytime M-F 12 p.m.-5:30 p.m., at the Carolina Theatre Box Office.
After April 30, all tickets ordered by phone or on-line (www.carolinatheatre.com) will be at the Will Call window day of show.

On the Web:
The Official Piedmont Jazz And Blues Web site
Piedmont Blues Org.

:: Les Coles Sunday, May 02, 2004 [+] ::

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Blues, Brews & BBQ in Colorado

BEAVER CREEK Colo. —Beaver Creek, Colorado, is set for a weekend of Blues and Brews at the end of the month featuring the music of Piedmont bluesmen Cephas & Wiggins, Joe Bonamassa and the Duke Robillard Band.

The two-day event will include live blues music, kids activities, food and beer pairings, barbecue cooking demonstrations and the largest exclusively Colorado micro brew beer tasting in the state. Guest chefs will compete for a $1,000 prize purse in a barbecue cook-off contest.
The price is $20 a person at the door.
For more information, call (970) 845-9090, or visit: http://vailresorts.com

Events (selected events only listed)
SATURDAY, MAY 29
1 p.m. -- 5 p.m.
Colorado Micro Brewery Beer Tasting and Seminar

Noon -- 6 p.m.
Some of the finest barbecue chefs from Kansas City, MO offer mouth-watering BBQ treats for purchase.
Live blues bands rock the plaza. Catch Cephas & Wiggins (Noon - 1:30 p.m.), Joe Bonamassa (2 - 4 p.m.) and the Duke Robillard Band (4:30 - 6 p.m.)

SUNDAY, MAY 30
Noon -- 3 p.m.
Beaver Creek Food and Micro Brew Pairing. Local and guest chefs unite with select Colorado micro brewers to offer special beer and food pairings. Price is $20 per person at the door.

Noon -- 6 p.m.
Some of the nation's finest barbecue chefs offer mouth-watering BBQ treats for purchase. Participating restaurants from Kansas City, MO include KC Masterpiece BBQ & Grill, Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ, Smokin' Guns BBQ, Danny Edwards Famous KC Barbecue and Richard McPeake of Haddad Restaurant Group.

Live blues bands rock the plaza. Catch Cephas & Wiggins (Noon - 1:30 p.m.), Joe Bonamassa (2 - 4 p.m.) and the Duke Robillard Band (4:30 - 6 p.m.)

3 -- 4 p.m.
BBQ Cook-Off. Guest barbecue chefs create mouth-watering barbecue and vie for a $1,000 cash purse in a special cook-off contest.

OVERNIGHT PACKAGES
One and two night packages are offered by the Park Hyatt and are as follows:
$159 per room includes an overnight accommodation Friday, May 28, or Saturday, May 29, and admission for two to the Park Hyatt’s Colorado Micro Brewery Beer Tasting on Saturday and two tasting mugs.

$289 per room includes a two-night stay and admission for two to the Park Hyatt’s Colorado Micro Brewery Beer Tasting on Saturday and admission for two to Beaver Creek Resort’s Food and Beer Pairing on Sunday.

For room package reservations call (970) 949-1234 or visit www.beavercreek.hyatt.com. Packages are subject to availability.

:: Les Coles Sunday, May 02, 2004 [+] ::

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2004 Handy Winners—Charlie Musselwhite

Over the next few weeks, The Blues Blog will be taking a look at the winners of this year's W.C. Handy Awards. First up to bat is harp man Charlie Musselwhite

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (May 2)—I always say blues is a feeling, first of all," says Charlie Musselwhite.

On his latest album, Sanctuary, the songs (by Ben Harper, Randy Newman, Charlie Sexton, Musselwhite and more) mostly eschew the standard blues forms. But through Musselwhite's singing and especially his keening, wailing harmonica playing, they evoke the same hurt, fear and menace that the best blues does.

"I think it has the spirit of the blues in it. "A lot of people say that blues must be three chords and 12 bars, but you can play 12 bars and three chords, and if you don't put any feeling in it, it's not blues....," Musselwhite said.

"To me, one of the beauties of blues is how you can apply it to other forms. To me, this is just another way of expressing blues."

On Sanctuary, things are not good. "Nowhere here to call my own," Musselwhite sings on the opener, Harper's "Homeless Child." "I know what's next; I don't even try to fight it/ Just about invite it," goes Sexton's "The Neighborhood."

"I think these are dark times in America, and in the world," he explains over the phone. "And just like blues is a comfort to the listener, I hope that the listener would find this album a place to rest. . . . Even though it's dark, I don't think it's depressing."

"Just keep traveling, see what's waiting around the bend," Musselwhite sings in his own "My Road Lies in Darkness."

Songs about feeling homeless, the road and the river are a dime a dozen, and most renditions of them sound like it. Authenticity is an issue in blues music like virtually no other.

"So how is a master such as Musselwhite able to raise goosebumps while so many others sound like a tourist stumbling through Budapest with a phrasebook?

"Well, you have to connect with your heart and be able to put that feeling across, which I hope I do. I don't know if you have to have had hard times to be able to sing about hard times, but it helps, probably. Everybody, in all walks of life, has ups and downs, so they should be able to identify with that feeling. . . .

"A lot of people play from their head, and their music is based on technique. You hear people, and you can just tell that they're trying to cram as many notes as they can into a bar, or play as fast as they can, because they're just on that technique level.

"And I guess you can say that's valid, but if you want to talk about blues, you've got to come from the heart. And a good blues player might not need but three notes if he says it with the right expression or the right feeling.

"On this album, I remember thinking, 'I'm going to see how many notes I can get away with not playing.' "

Musselwhite, 60, was born in Mississippi and grew up in Memphis, two of the centers of blues music. Did he have a built-in advantage?

"Probably not. [I mean,] it certainly helps. For me, it was like part of my environment. But I've heard guys from Brazil, or Norway, play blues with feeling, and there's no doubt about it -- they're playing with feeling, and they get the point. And they may never have been to Mississippi. But they know about the feeling, and they recognize it."

So what is that feeling?

"Life is just not a piece of cake. Life has sorrow in it. People die. Your friends die. Your parents die. Your children die.

"On the other hand, children are born, and grandchildren are born. You yourself are born. And your life can be a life of being born, and discovering, and growing spiritually as a human being.

"So despite the holes in the road, and the pitfalls and the hard times that life can throw at you, something like blues can help you get through all that."

It does so, he says, not so much through direct, self-help-style advice, but just by letting the listener know he's not alone.

"It's like, 'We're in this together, and we can get through this together, too. We can do this.'

"And blues is like a comforter. It might not tell you how to handle your problems, but it'll wrap itself around you and make you feel good until you get through."

Charlie Musselwhite is at Chan's, 267 Main St., Woonsocket, tomorrow night for shows at 8 and 10 p.m. Tickets are $25 for the 8 p.m. show, $20 for the 10 p.m. show and $30 for both. Call (401) 765-1900.

Source: RICK MASSIMO, Providence Journal

---

Charlie Musselwhite's Blues 'Sanctuary'
Blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite has played with some of the biggest legends of the genre. Now young lions such as Ben Harper are contributing to his latest CD, Sanctuary. Hear live tracks of songs the duo recorded at NPR West and an extended interview with Musselwhite. April 29, 2004

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On the Web:
Official Charlie Musselwhite site

:: Les Coles Sunday, May 02, 2004 [+] ::

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SRV's guitars step out of vaults onto block

AUSTIN, Texas — In the nearly 14 years since Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a Wisconsin helicopter crash, his collection of 40-50 guitars has been kept in storage vaults by older brother Jimmie Vaughan, the executor of the SRV estate. None have ever been sold or put on display.

But on June 24 in New York, Christie's will auction one of Stevie Ray's most famous guitars— the Fender Stratocaster he named "Lenny" — as well as a replica of the beloved, beat-up Strat he called "Number One."

It's all for a cause the guitarist, who was sober the last four years of his life after a stint in rehab, would have eagerly supported. The six-stringed instruments will join the charity auction of more than 70 guitars by famous musicians to benefit Eric Clapton's Crossroads Centre for drug and alcohol rehabilitation in Antigua.

The replicated Vaughan guitar is one of 100 copies being made by the Fender Guitars company after receiving permission from the Vaughan estate last fall. The brownish, paint-chipped "Number One," the electric counterpart to Willie Nelson's cherished "Trigger" acoustic, was Stevie's favorite in the studio as well as onstage. Fender has painstakingly reconstruced the 1959 Stratocaster, right down to its well-worn finish and those reflective "SRV" letters. With a retail price of $10,000 each, the limited allotment was snapped up by dealers, collectors and artists when the project was unveiled at a musical instrument merchandising show in January.

"There have been false reports floating around for some time that someone else owns 'Number One,"' says Jimmie Vaughan's manager Cory Moore. "These reproductions should dispel those rumors. Fender couldn't have made them without the original guitar, which Jimmie has."

The handmade replicas take several weeks each to complete. The first guitar was finished early this month at Fender's Custom Shop in Corona, Calif.

The restoration process began late last year when a team of Fender designers and technicians came to Austin to dissect and analyze "Number One," which Jimmie Vaughan keeps in an undisclosed location. The techs took the guitar apart and scientifically recorded every aspect of the original, measuring the output of the three pickups, digitally weighing each piece of wood and testing the tension of each wire and string. Using calipers, the Fender team meticulously measured every nick, scratch and scuffed-up area.

"This is certainly not a money-making venture," Fender's head of custom guitars Mike Eldred said. "It's a labor of love. We see it as a way of acknowleging Stevie Ray Vaughan's immeasurable contribution to the Stratocaster."
While earlier Strat icon Jimi Hendrix played hundreds of different guitars and often set them on fire as a finale, Stevie Ray was devoutly loyal to "Number One" and treated it more like a member of the family than a musical instrument.

"It just fit him like a perfectly broken in pair of shoes," says Ray Hennig, whose Heart of Texas Music shop on South Lamar had the ugly guitar on a hook in 1974 when a 19-year-old Stevie stopped in, just as he did every day. "I thought it was the biggest piece of junk in the store, but Stevie fell in love with it the first time he held it."

The wider neck was perfect for the young musician's big hands and the heavy gauge strings he preferred. Then, when he played the guitar through an amp, Vaughan finally heard the thick tone he'd always wanted.

Hennig recalls the negotiations for "Number One" with a laugh. "Stevie said, 'How 'bout if I trade you my blue Strat for this one,' and I said, 'Stevie, I loaned you that blue Strat.' But I went ahead and traded it because the blue Strat was worth more."

Not any more.

So where did Hennig get what would become one of the most famous and influential electric guitars of all time? A few months after Hennig opened his Austin shop in 1974, a local musician named Chris Geppert brought in the 1959 Fender and traded for an easier-to-play Les Paul guitar.

Chris Geppert? You may know him better as Christopher Cross, the stage name he assumed a few years later, when he had easy-listening pop hits with "Sailing" and "Ride Like the Wind."

Although the curiosity factor at the charity auction probably will be highest for the replica of Stevie Ray's old Strat, "Lenny," the guitar SRV used on "Riviera Paradise" and other jazz-inflected numbers, should bring in more money. Christie's lists the guitar's value at about $20,000. The guitar expected to received the highest bid is "Blackie," Clapton's favorite guitar of the '70s. Christie's puts the estimated value of that 1956 Fender Strat, which Clapton constructed from the parts of three guitars, at $100,000 to $150,000. In all, Clapton is donating 56 guitars he calls "the cream of my collection," including the 1937 Martin acoustic he played on the "Unplugged" album and the red Gibson ES-335 from his trailblazing years in Cream.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitars

The entire cache of guitars, including Jimmie Vaughan's red double-neck Robin guitar that he and his brother played together on the "Family Style" tour, plus guitars donated by Pete Townshend, B.B. King and others, will be displayed before the auction at the Crossroads Music Festival in Dallas. The festival, which also benefits Clapton's treatment center, will be at Fair Park June 4- 6. The exhibits and guitar clinics will culminate with a blowout guitar jam at the Cotton Bowl June 6, starring Clapton, Carlos Santana, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, J.J. Cale, Eric Johnson, Queen's Brian May and many more.

Source: MICHAEL CORCORAN, COX NEWS SERVICE

Related Blues Blog stories:
Jan. 27: The Lost Stevie Ray Vaughan Interview
April 29: Clapton announces line-up for Crossroads Guitar Festival

On the Web:
Great site listing SRV's guitars
Boss site, from which I stole the graphic of Number One

:: Les Coles Sunday, May 02, 2004 [+] ::

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