American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader
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37 episodes with Bob Wills
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On this episode, Tony Brueski digs into the legends and lingering spirits of Cain's Ballroom, one of Tulsa's most iconic—and possibly most haunted—venues. Once the stomping ground of Western Swing legend Bob Wills, the ballroom still echoes with ghostly fiddle strings, phantom applause, and doors that lock all by themselves. But are these the signs of lingering spirits or the acoustics of an aging, memory-soaked hall? From the early days of oil-boom dance crowds to today's indie rock revival, Cain's Ballroom has never truly gone quiet. Join us as we explore its rich history, chilling encounters, and the unshakable feeling that someone—maybe everyone—is still listening from beyond the veil.
On this episode, Tony Brueski digs into the legends and lingering spirits of Cain's Ballroom, one of Tulsa's most iconic—and possibly most haunted—venues. Once the stomping ground of Western Swing legend Bob Wills, the ballroom still echoes with ghostly fiddle strings, phantom applause, and doors that lock all by themselves. But are these the signs of lingering spirits or the acoustics of an aging, memory-soaked hall? From the early days of oil-boom dance crowds to today's indie rock revival, Cain's Ballroom has never truly gone quiet. Join us as we explore its rich history, chilling encounters, and the unshakable feeling that someone—maybe everyone—is still listening from beyond the veil.
Send us a textBob Wills passed from this life on May 13, 1975, and almost 50 years to the day, I got to sit down with the daughter of the King of Western Swing - Carolyn Wills - to reminisce about her childhood, talk about what it was like at her house growing up, as well as celebrate her new success as an award-winning author with her children's book, "Glory Be! It's Punkin's Story!" about her father's horse, Punkin'.Many thanks to the folks at the Cowtown Birthplace of Western Swing Festival and its founder, Mr. Michael Markwardt for sponsoring this Western Swing series on Calling to the Good!For tickets to their annual Western Swing festival in Fort Worth, Texas each year check out their website at BirthplaceOfWesternSwing.com!To order a copy of Carolyn's children's book visit BobWills.comCallingToTheGood.com
Bec and Justin discuss their favorites of the many songs Elvis recorded or performed titled after the women and girls they're about by name. From Caroline to Petunia, Marguerita to Marie and Annie to Kathleen, the tunes span the breadth of love, heartbreak and stories of unique musical characters. For Song of the Week, Justin takes the opportunity to jump from Elvis's messy but fun home recording of "San Antonio Rose" to explore a bit of the history behind Bob Wills' iconic western swing hit, examine contemporary perspectives that challenge our ideas of what the boundaries of oldies "country" music were, and how the Texas Playboys' work paved the way for rockabilly and rock and roll. Then Bec celebrates a belated Easter, spotlighting Elvis's heartfelt 1973 cover of Dottie Rambo's "If That Isn't Love," a gospel record all about Jesus's sacrifice, as well as explore a bit of the detail behind the friendship Elvis and Dottie shared and his deep appreciation for the music of her family group, The Rambos. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.
Alright, honky-tonk heroes and country music fans, get ready for a trip down memory lane! We've got a fantastic lineup of classic country cuts comin' your way.First up, we're searchin' all the honky-tonks with Charlie O'Bannon. Then, we'll be sippin' some Wine with the legendary Mel Tillis. Get ready for a little heartbreak as Jimmy Dickens laments about his Stolen Steel Guitar. Carl McDonald will have you wonderin' If You'll Miss Me, and the wonderful Leona Williams takes us Somewhere Inside.Hang on tight, 'cause we're just gettin' started! Bob Luce and The Stardusters are bringin' the heat with Hot Shot Baby, followed by Dorval Lynn, and a tune about finally gettin' recognized with They Finally Named The Street After You. We've got a timeless classic from the one and only Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan with After All, and Jack Tucker will have you feelin' that Lonely World. Then, the smooth sounds of Lefty Frizzell with A Little Unfair.We're switchin' gears a bit with Bocephus and his quirky Meter Reader Maid, followed by Kenny Biggs ponderin' What To Do About Today. Eddie McDuff is goin' Part Time, and Jimmy Work knows just how it feels If I Should Lose You. Get ready for a real tear-jerker from Jerry Abbott about Living On An 8x10 Picture, $85 A Week & A Memory.And we're not done yet! We've got Jimmie Skinner tellin' the tale of Old Bill Dollar, and Bobby Barnett warnin' about those Bridges That I'll Never Cross. The great Floyd Tillman declares I'm Free From The Love I Had For You, and Al White might just have Foot In Mouth Disease. Finally, we'll be sayin' goodbye for now with Dave Dudley and This Is The Last Time.So tune in, turn it up, and let the good times roll with this incredible collection of classic country music!Charlie O'Bannon - Search All The Honkytonks ( Twilite )Mel Tillis - Wine ( RIC )Jimmy Dickens - They've Stole My Steel Guitar ( Decca )Carl McDonald - I Wonder If You'll Miss Me ( JB )Leona Williams - Somewhere Inside ( Hickory )Bob Luce and The Stardusters - Hot Shot Baby ( Love Lock )Dorval Lynn - They Finally Named The Street After You ( Avenue South )Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan - After All ( Liberty )Jack Tucker - Lonely World ( Toppa )Lefty Frizzell - A Little Unfair ( Columbia )Bocephus - Meter Reader Maid ( Verve )Kenny Biggs - Tell Me What To Do About Today ( Tiara )Eddie McDuff - Part Time ( Starday )Jimmy Work - If I Should Lose You ( Capitol )Jerry Abbott - Living On An 8x10 Picture, $85 A Week & A Memory ( Stop )Jimmie Skinner - Old Bill Dollar ( Starday )Bobby Barnett - Bridges That I'll Never Cross ( Marshal )Floyd Tillman - I'm Free From The Love I Had For You ( Major )Al White - Foot In Mouth Disease ( Chart )Dave Dudley - This Is The Last Time ( King )Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/thehonkytonkjukebox/exclusive-content
Another day, another tough challenge for our host. This week Ben gives it his best shot in a Bob Wills themed fashion contest. Bob Wills, known to have reigned over Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom along with his band The Texas Playboys during the 1930s and '40s, was and remains an influential icon of Western chic style. Hie reputation as a sharp dresser is so strong that this year they introduced a fashion contest during the annual Bob Wills Day celebration at the Oklahoma State Capitol. Ben is far from a ten-galloned fashionisto, but he is a bolo tie lover with a feel for style that can be best described as . . . marginally above average. Will that be enough to win the inaugural Bob WIlls fashion competition? Probably not, but let's find out. Also on this week's episode, the editors try their best to describe their own fashion styles, and podvents tells Mom where to find the sweetest cruise in town this Mother's Day.
The Spotlight on Muddy Waters! Pacific Street Blues & AmericanaMay 4, 2025Part 1 of 3 - Special PODCAST ONLY showSupport our Show and get the word out by wearin' our gear 1. Paul Rodgers / Muddy Water Blues2. John Hiatt / Crossing Muddy Water3. Van Morrison / Cleaning Windows4. Jeff Healey / Come Together5. Big Joe Williams / Baby Please Don't Go (Aerosmith, 6. Big Bill Broonzy / Night Time is the Right Time (Ray Charles) 7. Mississippi Shieks / Sitting On Top of the World8. Lead Belly / Midnight Special9. Muddy Waters (Lomax) / I Be's Troubled (I Can't Be Satisfied) 10. Ann Cole / I Got My Mojo Working (1956/1957) 11. Bo Diddley / I'm a Man 12. Earl Hooker / Blue Guitar 13. Led Zeppelin / You Shook MeSpotlights Shows14. BB King / Rock Me Baby 15. Buddy Guy / She's 19 Years Old 16. Chuck Berry / Maybellene17. Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys / Ida RedPlanting the Seed in England18. (1979) Chris Barber w/ Muddy Waters / Kansas City19. (1954) Cyril Davis w/ Alexis Korner / Hoochie Coochie Man20. (1951) John Mayall / Long Distance CallTest your Music Knowledge, Play What's the Common Thread, The Music Trivia Game
Sintonía: "Dancin´At The Rancho" - Tex Williams & His String Band"On a Slow Boat To China" y "Williams Rag" compuestas e interpretadas por Tex Williams & His String Band"Wooly Boogie", "Cornstalk Hop", "Slip In And Slip Out", "Oklahoma Hayseed", "My Window Faces The South", "Remember This", "Just Because" y "Pork Chop Stomp" compuestas e interpretadas por Grady Martin & His Winging Strings"Moonlight Cocktail", "Curtain Call", "Snow Deer", "Tippin´ In", "The Bandera Shuffle", "Tuxedo Junction", "Tennessee Stomp" y "Johnson Rag" compuestas e interpretadas por Billy Gray & His Western Okies"Todas las músicas extraídas de la colección (7x10") "Country & Western - Dance-O-Rama - The Complete Works" (Sleazy Records, 2022), una reedición de la serie de 7 vinilos de 10 pulgadas que publicó el sello discográfico Decca en 1955Relación de los dos programas anteriores de este tríptico coleccionable sobre el Western Dance (o Western Swing) estadounidense de la década de los 50:1- Emitido el 17/03/2025 con Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys y Milton Brown & His Brownies2- Emitido el 20/03/2025 con Adolph Hofner, Spade Cooley y Tex WilliamsEscuchar audio
durée : 00:03:38 - Chris Thile : une mandoline à travers les styles - par : Max Dozolme - Country, Blue grass, ces mots n'auront plus de secrets pour vous si vous lisez "Country et Americana : un panorama en 100 disques essentiels" d'Arnaud Choutet où l'on croise les pionniers Hank Williams, Bob Wills ou encore des réformateurs de la blue grass crossover comme le virtuose Chris Thile !
Neon Dream – Dan Lepien Mister Cowboy – Ryan Fritz Roly Poly – Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan Swinging Doors – Stacy Antonel What Do We Tell The Children? (feat. The Murphy Beds) – Wayne Brereton Della Jane’s Heart – Appalachian Road Show The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy – James McMurtry Farm Girl – Shelby Means In A Ditch – William Shirley Time Well Spent For A Man (feat. Charles Wesley Godwin) – Jesse Daniel
Hey y'all!Let's do a little Calling to the Good!Pull up a chair and join us around a table in the historic Guthrie Depot as the "boys" of Oklahoma Swing talk a little Bob Wills, limousines, Reba, barn fiddlin', dozens of dollars, and the journey that brought them together to revive Western Swing music north of the Red River!May all your pastures be belly-deep, your cattle be tick-fat, and may the good Lord take a liking to ya!Are you listening, Henry? ;)Oklahoma Swing band members:Greg BurgessHenry BurgessBobby BakerJoe SettlemiresRichard SharpBo Posey Steve Shortmissing: John BlairCallingToTheGood.comBirthplaceOfWesternSwing.comPawhuskaWesternSwingFestival.com
"Welcome back to the show, folks! We've got a real diverse lineup for you today, diving deep into the heart of classic country. We're kicking things off with the lively western swing of Bob Wills and his 'All Night Long,' setting a toe-tapping, dance-hall vibe. Then, we pivot to the raw emotion of Tommy Collins' 'Don't Wipe The Tears That You Cry For Him,' a real tearjerker.We'll hear Johnnie Lee Wills' melancholic 'Your Love For Me Is Losing Light,' followed by the classic country duet of Carl Butler and Pearl with 'Punish Me Tomorrow.' Leon Rausch gives us 'Heart Of A Clown,' another dose of soulful storytelling.Moving on, Perk Williams brings us 'I'm That Fool,' and Cal Smith hits us with the lonesome sound in 'That's What It's Like To Be Lonesome.' We've got Jimmie Skinner's take on 'Dark Hollow,' followed by Connie Hill's 'Mark On My Finger' and Norma Jean's powerful 'Put Your Arms Around Her.'Then, Bobby Barnett asks 'If I Was Me,' and Slim Willet reminds us 'Don't Let The Stars.' Carl Wayne delivers the bluesy 'What Makes A Broken Heart Blue,' and Linda Cassidy explores 'Legal Rights.' Kenny Valeck sings 'She's Helping Me Get Over You,' a song about moving on.Finally, we wrap things up with Billy Thompson's 'The Nearest Thing To You,' Rocky Topp's 'Did I Come Home Too Late,' Johnny Dollar's 'I've Got To Stay High,' Jerry Abbott's 'Did It Say Where It Was Going,' and Lynda K. Lance's 'Now That It's Over.'From western swing to heartbreak ballads, this playlist showcases the breadth and depth of classic country music. You'll hear stories of love, loss, and everything in between. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy this journey through some timeless tunes."Bob Wills - All Night Long ( Longhorn )Tommy Collins - Don't Wipe The Tears That You Cry For Him ( Columbia )Johnnie Lee Wills - Your Love For Me Is Losing Light ( Sims )Carl Butler And Pearl - Punish Me Tomorrow ( Columbia )Leon Rausch - Heart Of A Clown ( Sims )Perk Williams - I'm That Fool ( Allstar )Cal Smith - That's What It's Like To Be Lonesome ( Decca )Jimmie Skinner - Dark Hollow ( Starday )Connie Hill - Mark On My Finger ( Decca )Norma Jean - Put Your Arms Around Her ( RCA )Bobby Barnett - If I Was Me ( Sims )Slim Willet - Don't Let The Stars ( 4 Star )Carl Wayne - What Makes A Broken Heart Blue ( Wind )Linda Cassidy - Legal Rights ( Wizard )Kenny Valeck - She's Helping Me Get Over You ( KSS )Billy Thompson - The Nearest Thing To You ( Zak Tone )Rocky Topp - Did I Come Home Too Late ( Capitol )Johnny Dollar - I've Got To Stay High ( Chart )Jerry Abbott - Did It Say Where It Was Going ( Stop )Lynda K Lance - Now That It's Over ( Wayside )Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/thehonkytonkjukebox/exclusive-content
Texan Cindy Walker already was a well-established songwriter in the fall of 1955 when she attended Nashville's annual disc jockey convention.By then, she had worked with Bing Crosby, not to mention Gene Autry and Bob Wills. She had even scored her own hit in 1944 with her recording of Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan's "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again."But Cindy Walker's greatest contribution to American pop music was only now about to happen.How the Song Came to BeYears later, Walker would recall that day. She was leaving the Nashville conference when she was approached by country singing star Eddy Arnold.“He said, 'I've been wanting to see you. I've got a song title,'” she remembered. “He said, ‘I've showed it around a little bit and I haven't had any luck, but I know it's a good title.'” Walker liked the title Arnold suggested — “You Don't Know Me” — but at first she couldn't figure out what to do with it. Back home, though, “I was just sitting there and all of a sudden, here comes, 'You give your hand to me and then you say hello'.” "But I couldn't find any way to finish it,” she told a writer decades later during her Grammy Foundation Living History interview. “Maybe two or three weeks went by and nothing happened. Then one day, I thought, 'You give your hand to me and then you say goodbye' and when I said that, I knew exactly where it was going. I couldn't wait to get to the phone to call Eddy."Crossover GoldWalker's resulting song was a definitive crossover hit. The first rendition of “You Don't Know Me” was released by pop singer Jerry Vale, who in early 1956 carried it to #14 on Billboard's pop chart. Two months later, it entered the country music world when Eddy Arnold's version made it to #10.Then along came Brother Ray. In 1962, Ray Charles included the tune on his #1 pop album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. His single of “You Don't Know Me” (the song's overall biggest-selling version ever) went all the way to #2 on Billboard's “Hot 100.” That same year it also topped the Easy Listening chart for three weeks.Later the song was used in the 1993 comedy film Groundhog Day, and it was the 12th No. 1 country hit for Mickey Gilley in 1981.Walker's fellow Texan Willie Nelson honored her with his album You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker in 2006, the year she died at age 88. In her obituary, The New York Times noted that Walker had Top 10 hits in every decade from the 1940s to the 1980s.Our Take on the TuneMichelle Hoge brought her band mates this song about a decade ago. It immediately found a place on the next album they were working on and it became a standard feature in most of The Flood's shows. These days, the guys don't see Michelle so often — she and her husband Rich live more than two hours away — but whenever she rambles back this way, as she did last week, this enduring classic is sure to make an appearance.More from MichelleFinally, if you would like to fill your Friday with little more from the one whom the late Joe Dobbs lovingly dubbed “The Chick Singer,” tune in the Michelle Channel in the free Radio Floodango music streaming service.Click here to give it a spin. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com
Celebrating 19 years of this podcast with some of the host's favorite records, along with some memories of the show's origin. Songs include: Right Or Wrong by Bob Wills, Cherokee by Sarah Vaughn, Devil Got My Woman by Skip James, In a Mist by Frankie Traumbaur, The Half Of It Dearie Blues by Fred Astaire and Once In a While by Louis Armstrong.
This is one epic conversation!Here we were in the historic Stampede Dance Hall on the Snyder Highway outside of Big Springs, Texas with none other than Jody Nix - a legend in Texas dance hall music.We talked about his being invited to be part of the last Bob Wills album ever recorded - "For the Last Time" - as well as about growing up with the King of Western Swing coming over to his house after becoming friends with Jody's father, Hoyle Nix.Jody even brought Bob Wills' original fiddle to the Stampede that day, and took it out and played it!Enjoy this insightful look back into the days of the beginnings of Western Swing, as well as an inspiring look into the life of Mr. Jody Nix, himself!Thank you to Cowtown Birthplace of Western Swing Festival and Mr. Mike Markwardt for sponsoring this Western Swing series on the Calling to the Good podcast!Find out more about their festival at: BirthplaceOfWesternSwing.com!Host: Kelly Hurd
Bob Wills' Texas Playboys were synonymous with Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom through America's Great Depression years, becoming national stars with daily radio broadcasts. Wills died many years ago, but the band's legacy lives on, currently led by Jason Roberts. Roberts and the Texas Playboys band will once again return to Tulsa this week for the annual Bob Wills Birthday Bash. Later in the week the will head to Oklahoma City for Bob Wills Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol. Roberts joins the show this week to talk about his career path that led to this classic role. He is also joined by Texas Playboys manager and music historian Brett Bingham, and the pair of them discuss the larger musical legacy of this classic Western swing act. Also on this week's show, the editors huddle around the warmth of their laptops during this remotely recorded ice week show, and podvents previews a future family outing for our host Ben. You won't want to miss it!
Con B.B. King ft. Luciano Pavarotti, Original Chicago Blues Band, Slim Harpo, Solomon Burke, Billy Preston, The Excitements, Pony Bravo, DeVotchKa, Mike Bahía, Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, Amaral, Barry B ft Carolina Durante, Amaia, Soleado y Maestro Espada.
Sintonía: "Brownie Special" - Milton Brown & His Brownies"San Antonio Rose" - "Spanish Two-Step" - "Lone Star Rag" - "Four Our Five" - "Beaumont Rag" - "Don´t Let Your Deal Go Down" - "New Osage Stomp" - "Black and Blue Rag". Instrumentales y canciones interpretadas por Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys"St Louis Blues" - "Sweet Jenny Lee" - "Texas Hambone Blues" - "Right or Wrong" - "Washington and Lee Swing" - "Beautiful Texas" - "Little Betty Brown". Instrumentales y canciones interpretadas por Milton Brown & His BrowniesTodas las músicas extraídas de la colección (7x10") "Country & Western - Dance-O-Rama - The Complete Works" (Sleazy Records, 2022), una reedición de la serie de 7 vinilos de 10 pulgadas que publicó el sello discográfico Decca en 1955Escuchar audio
Slim Whitman - "Singing Hills" [0:00:00] Hank Williams - "Why Don't You Love Me?" [0:06:14] Webb Pierce - "There Stands The Glass" [0:08:58] Kitty Wells - "I Don't Want Your Money, I Want Your Time" [0:11:02] Austin Wood and his Missouri Swingsters - "Truck Drivers Night Run Blues" [0:13:19] Music behind DJ: Johnny Zorro - "Coesville" [0:16:05] George Jones - "Color of the Blues" [0:18:19] Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys - "San Antonio Rose" [0:21:58] York Brothers - "Why Did You Have to Go" [0:24:07] Eddie Jackson and his Swingsters - "Rock and Roll Baby" [0:26:26] Thomas Wayne with the DeLons - "Scandalizing My Name" [0:28:59] Music behind DJ: Johnny Zorro - "Road Hog" [0:30:56] Bill Keen & The Tradewinds - "Don't Call Me" [0:33:27] B. J. Johnson - "Shackles and Chains" [0:35:55] Darryl Jacobs and the Dixie Revelers - "Its Been Like Heaven" [0:38:05] Lee Finn - "Lonesome Road" [0:40:15] Don Carter - "Trying To Quit" [0:42:14] Music behind DJ: Johnny Zorro - "Coesville" [0:43:56] Jeannie Wright - "Walkin' The Dog" [0:46:32] Arizona Weston - "Two of a Kind" [0:49:16] Charlie Kellogg & Kathy Nelson - "Poison Love" [0:51:06] Larry Butler - "Zackly Like You" [0:53:27] Jerry Waddel - "One Sided Love Affair" [0:55:19] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/146765
Slim Whitman - "Singing Hills" [0:00:00] Hank Williams - "Why Don't You Love Me?" [0:06:14] Webb Pierce - "There Stands The Glass" [0:08:58] Kitty Wells - "I Don't Want Your Money, I Want Your Time" [0:11:02] Austin Wood and his Missouri Swingsters - "Truck Drivers Night Run Blues" [0:13:19] Music behind DJ: Johnny Zorro - "Coesville" [0:16:05] George Jones - "Color of the Blues" [0:18:19] Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys - "San Antonio Rose" [0:21:58] York Brothers - "Why Did You Have to Go" [0:24:07] Eddie Jackson and his Swingsters - "Rock and Roll Baby" [0:26:26] Thomas Wayne with the DeLons - "Scandalizing My Name" [0:28:59] Music behind DJ: Johnny Zorro - "Road Hog" [0:30:56] Bill Keen & The Tradewinds - "Don't Call Me" [0:33:27] B. J. Johnson - "Shackles and Chains" [0:35:55] Darryl Jacobs and the Dixie Revelers - "Its Been Like Heaven" [0:38:05] Lee Finn - "Lonesome Road" [0:40:15] Don Carter - "Trying To Quit" [0:42:14] Music behind DJ: Johnny Zorro - "Coesville" [0:43:56] Jeannie Wright - "Walkin' The Dog" [0:46:32] Arizona Weston - "Two of a Kind" [0:49:16] Charlie Kellogg & Kathy Nelson - "Poison Love" [0:51:06] Larry Butler - "Zackly Like You" [0:53:27] Jerry Waddel - "One Sided Love Affair" [0:55:19] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/146765
1 - By the Waters of Minnetonka - Princess Watahwaso – 19172 - Rainbow on The River - Perry Como with Ted Weeks and his Orchestra – 19363 - Blue River - Prairie Ramblers – 19334 - From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water - Mildred Bailey and her Orchestra – 19365 - I'm Like a Fish Out of Water - Dick Powell with Harry Sosnik and his Orchestra – 19386 - Low Bridge! Everybody Down! - Billy Murray - 19127 - Water Under the Bridge - Elmer Feldkamp with Freddy Martin and his Orchestra – 19348 - Theres Rhythm in the River - Blanche Calloway and her Joy Boys – 19319 - River of Jordan - Fisk University Male Quartet – 191510 - River, Stay 'Way from My Door - Jimmie Noone and his Orchestra – 193111 - Deep Water - Tommy Duncan with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys – 194512 - Cool Water - Vaughn Monroe and Sons of the Pioneers - 194813 - Water Boy (Convict Song) - Paul Robeson – 192614 - Koni Au I Ka Wai (Tasting the Waters) - Alvin Kaleolani with Harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiian Hotel Orchestra – 193715 - Water Faucet (Drip, Drip, Drip) - Jock Carruthers with Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra – 194716 - Dream River - The Revelers – 1928
Songs include: Shame On You by Spade Cooley, At the Mail Call Today by Gene Autry, Stay a Little Longer by Bob Wills, It Don't Matter To Me Now by Ernest Tubb and Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain by Roy Acuff.
Jay shares the fascinating history of the traditional American country folk song, “Cotton-Eyed Joe.” Sparked by the recent meme “Gegagedigedagedago (Cotton Eye Joe)” and a video by Polyphonic, Jay traces the song back to its 19th century roots and works his way to today. We listen to versions by the Rednex, Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers, Bob Wills, Burl Ives, Karen Dalton, Nina Simone (and a few others).Song: John Zorn Resource - “With Blinding Sight”Get ready for it, it's News with Nick! Finale's rough finale, Martin Shkreli loses his Wu Tang Clan album, and the Boss is here to stay.Song: Tune-yards - “Water Fountain”“Heard It Through the GREGvine” that Oasis is reuniting for a U.K. tour! Plus, what should we make of Linkin Park's countdown timer? Finally, the plot thickens in the Foo Fighters “My Hero” licensing disputes with Trump.Song: Nirvana - “Smells Like Teen Spirit (first live performance, from Hype!)”
Hank Williams - "I Saw The Light" [0:00:00] Music behind DJ: The Astronauts - "Movin'" [0:06:15] Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys - "All Night Long" [0:09:06] Arizona Weston - "Don't Keep Steppin' On My Heart" [0:11:46] The Cables - "Choo-Choo" [0:13:58] Gary Shope - "One Way Love Affair" [0:18:24] Music behind DJ: The Astronauts - "Pipeline" [0:18:45] Sam McGee - "Did She Mention My Name" - Thumb It Back to Whitehorse [0:22:13] Waylon Jennings - "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" - Love of the Common People [0:24:15] Waylon Jennings - "Don't Think Twice" - Don't Think Twice [0:26:17] Merle Haggard - "If I Had Left It Up To You" - Close-Up [0:29:43] Sam McGee - "Thumb It Back to Whitehorse" - Thumb It Back to Whitehorse [0:31:46] Music behind DJ: The Astronauts - "Movin'" [0:34:26] Johnny Burnette - "Cincinnati Fireball" [0:38:17] Rusty York - "That's Something Else" [0:40:20] Ric Castle - "Get Away" [0:43:54] Rusty Wellington - "Bottle Full Of The Blues" [0:46:42] Wayne & Ray - "I've Got Your Love On My Mind" [0:49:53] Henson Cargill - "Hemphill Kentucky Consolidated Coal Mine" [0:54:18] Lorraine Walden - "(The Answer to Buck Owens) Kansas City Song" [0:58:03] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/143250
Hank Williams - "I Saw The Light" [0:00:00] Music behind DJ: The Astronauts - "Movin'" [0:06:15] Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys - "All Night Long" [0:09:06] Arizona Weston - "Don't Keep Steppin' On My Heart" [0:11:46] The Cables - "Choo-Choo" [0:13:58] Gary Shope - "One Way Love Affair" [0:18:24] Music behind DJ: The Astronauts - "Pipeline" [0:18:45] Sam McGee - "Did She Mention My Name" - Thumb It Back to Whitehorse [0:22:13] Waylon Jennings - "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" - Love of the Common People [0:24:15] Waylon Jennings - "Don't Think Twice" - Don't Think Twice [0:26:17] Merle Haggard - "If I Had Left It Up To You" - Close-Up [0:29:43] Sam McGee - "Thumb It Back to Whitehorse" - Thumb It Back to Whitehorse [0:31:46] Music behind DJ: The Astronauts - "Movin'" [0:34:26] Johnny Burnette - "Cincinnati Fireball" [0:38:17] Rusty York - "That's Something Else" [0:40:20] Ric Castle - "Get Away" [0:43:54] Rusty Wellington - "Bottle Full Of The Blues" [0:46:42] Wayne & Ray - "I've Got Your Love On My Mind" [0:49:53] Henson Cargill - "Hemphill Kentucky Consolidated Coal Mine" [0:54:18] Lorraine Walden - "(The Answer to Buck Owens) Kansas City Song" [0:58:03] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/143250
Join Dave Stroud for two hours of the very best of country swing music on Deeper Roots Radio: A Century of America's Music. He'll excavate the archives for a show from over eight years ago, reminding us that the west had been long-settled when a new sound exploded. It blasted its way out of the dance halls and barn-dance venues of the Midwest with an upbeat blend of jazz, hillbilly, and down-home blues. The arrangements blended strings, guitar, fiddle and bass, with the rhythmic sounds of urban jazz to reveal something catchy and danceable…and marketable. Before the beat was modernized into the mass market country blandness that paralleled mainstream pop, there were the pioneers including Milton Brown, Bob Wills, Adolph Hofner, Spade Cooley, Light Crust Doughboys, and a host of others. Drop in and celebrate this classic fusion of America's best.
You'll like this week's episode as Cody and Jimbo were honored to visit with Rosetta Wills. Rosetta was born and raised in Pawhuska, and is the daughter of the iconic band leader and king of Western Swing, Bob Wills. Listen in as she shares some great stories of when Bob was courting her mother, and all the times the Texas Playboys played in Pawhuska. Don't miss this one!
THURSDAY AUGUST 1st NOON CST on EQUESTRIAN LEGACY RADIO... THIS WEEK WE GO BACK 7 YEARS FOR THIS SHOW...MANY OF OUR GUEST ARE NO LONGER WITH US BUT I KNOW YOU'LL ENJOY THE SHOW AND THE MEMORIES! We welcome to the CAMPFIRE CAFE' Hot Texas Swing Band's Alex Dormont. With one boot in Cowboy Music and the other in Swing, the Hot Texas Swing Band is riding the trail previously blazed by artists such as Bob Wills and Asleep at the Wheel. Backed by a passion for traditional Western Swing, the Hot Texas Swing Band pushes the genre forward with Rockabilly, Latin beats and original material for a fresh sound and high-energy live shows that have critics and fans raving. Jim McGarvey, Exec. Director of BCHA joins us for SADDLE UP AMERICA! Jim brings with him as guest Roland Cheek one of the founders of BCHA and Phyllis Ausk the wife of the late Ken Ausk co-founder BCHA. How have the challenges changed and stayed the same over the years and how should they be addressed today. EQUESTRAIN LEGACY RADIO is HEARD AROUND THE WORLD at Equestrianlegacy.net and on iHeart Radio, Apple Podcast, Spotify and Most Streaming Platforms...Just search for Equestrian Legacy Radio!
Ryan & Justin convene to revisit one of their all-time favorite live Elvis albums, "On Stage 1970," which was conceived as an album full of new songs, compiled from a mix of Vegas shows from February 1970, padded out with a couple leftovers from the August 1969 engagement. Both of the guys had the album early in their respective fandoms and have a huge appreciation for this period of Elvis's career, just a few months prior to the famous "That's The Way Is It" run in August 1970. The duo also briefly touches on the bonus tracks included on the 1999 expanded edition, the 2010 Legacy edition, and "The On Stage Season," the FTD release which featured a high quality soundboard of the closing show from February 23, 1970, which gives a better idea of what an Elvis show during this period felt like front to back than the sort of fantasy concert presented by the album. For Song of the Week, Justin goes back into the history behind Bob Wills' "Faded Love," which Elvis cut in mid-1970 for the "Elvis Country" album, which stretches as far back as an incredible, heartbreaking true story from the mid-19th century that inspired "Dear Nellie Gray," the song whose melody that became Faded Love. Ryan, on the other hand, takes it light with the breezy "There's A Brand New Day on the Horizon" off the 1964 "Roustabout" soundtrack. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. Your support allows us to continue to provide thoughtful, provocative, challenging and well-researched perspectives on Elvis's career, his peers and influences, and his cultural impact and legacy.
Like I've mentioned before, my dad liked his cowboy music too. So, we'll go back to a box set where we'll pull out the fourth of its seven records. The title of each of these sides is Deep in the Heart of Texas and Western Landscapes, hence the mashup title of this episode. Four songs from side one were all big hits and reference our second biggest state. The selections from side two are lesser known but paint a beautiful picture of the old west. So get ready to hear what is really Tumbling Tumbleweeds part 4 in Volume 187: Texas Landscapes. More information about this album, see the Discogs webpage for it. Credits and copyrights Various – Tumbling Tumbleweeds Label: Reader's Digest – RDA-229 / A Format: 7 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation Box Set Released: 1982 Genre: Folk, World, & Country Style: Country We will be listening to record 4, sides 1 and 2. We will hear 7 of the 11 tunes from this disk. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Deep In The Heart Of Texas written by Don Swander, June Hershey George Hamilton IV - Abilene written by John D. Loudermilk, Bob Gibson and Lester Brown Gene Autry - The Yellow Rose Of Texas It's a traditional song with lyrics added by Don George Jerry Reed - El Paso written by Marty Robbins The Sons Of The Pioneers - Moonlight On The Colorado written by Billy Moll, Robert King Jimmy Wakely - The Call Of The Canyon written by Billy Hill Hank Snow - Cross The Brazos At Waco written by Kay Arnold I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.
Time to bust out the fiddle and rosin up the bow!Today's guests--Sheryl, Reggie, and Jenifer Wrinkle--are fiddle virtuosos of the highest order. Hear them share how their early experiences playing the fiddle in Southeast Texas led them each on a musical journey of a lifetime.Their conversation with Buck and Wanda Carole covers a wide range of topics, including:Their early years playing the fiddle in performances and contests throughout the Southeast United States;The role that their mom and dad played in their development as artists;Sheryl's current endeavors as a band leader and a playwright;Reggie's current undertaking as a West Texas country music entrepreneur--the construction and opening of the new Lime Rock Amphitheater;Jenifer's thoughts on playing with country music's biggest stars, and also the on the release of her upcoming album;An update on the musical trajectory of Cameron Wrinkle, Reggie's son who is on the precipice of country music stardom;An added bonus of hearing Jenifer's latest hit song Living My Dreams (Momma's Song), and Cameron's latest hit single In My Heaven;and much, much, more!The podcast brings up a wide names from Southeast Texas and country music, including Jimmy Wrinkle, Carol Ann Wrinkle, Juanita Wrinkle, Tracy Byrd, Cameron Wrinkle, Reba McEntire, Martina McBride, Pam Tillis, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Trisha Yearwood, Blake Shelton, Scotty McCreery, Charlie Daniels, Grandpa James Wrinkle, Grace Wrinkle, Wallace Wrinkle, Neal Wrinkle, Hardy Wrinkle, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, MacDavis, Jimmy Dean, Tanya Tucker, Roy Orbison, the Gatlin Brothers, Bob Wills, Gary P Nunn, Natalie Maines, Benny Brocato, Frazier Moss, Dakota Wrinkle, Lainey Wilson, David Lee, Mark Mesler, Bud Lee, Dale Ernheart,...and more! So don't fiddle around! Spend a little over an hour with the Wrinkle Family Fiddlers--it's worth the price of admission!Right here, on Down Trails of Victory podcast!
Six String Hayride Classic Country Podcast Episode 43, The 70's Part TWO 1975-1979. A discussion of Outlaw Music and the late 1970's with Chris and Jim. For years, Artists have been wanting more creative control over their music and recording contracts. Waylon and Willie beat the system to finally earn a fair deal and make their finest albums. The Music Business calls this "Outlaw". Audiences notice the "Countrypolitan Sound" has gotten way too soft and pretty and start looking to music that gets back to its roots of Three Chords and the Truth. Waylon and Willie lead the way with Jessi Colter, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. Loretta Lynn, Freddy Fender, Merle Haggard, Linda Ronstadt, Emmy Lou Harris, and Tom T Hall deliver the hits we love. George and Tammy break up and then make their finest single. Glen Campbell and Charlie Rich go Pop. We're going to the movies for JAWS, Monty Python, Smokey and the Bandit, and Star Wars. We reflect on the loss of Bob Wills, Groucho Marx, ELVIS, Sara and Maybelle Carter. Recipe for Elvis Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich and a drink from the John Wayne Cocktail Guide. Available wherever you get Podcasts.https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086513555749https://www.patreon.com/user?u=81625843
Downtown Tulsa is home to one of the most storied live music venues not just in the state, but in all the country. Cain's Ballroom, first made famous in the 1930s as the home of Bob Wills' radio broadcasts, celebrates 100 years in 2024. The springy wooden dance floor is one of the best places to see a show, but don't just take our word for it. Ask the parents of pop star du jour Chappell Roan, who recently relayed their affection for the place to Cain's co-owner and operator Chad Rodgers. Chad joins the podcast this week to reflect on his journey as an owner of this historic gem and how the live entertainment industry has evolved in the past couple of decades. Also on this week's show, the editors give their picks for Oklahoma buildings that should be preserved forever, and podvents brings us a Christmas celebration . . . in December? You won't want to miss it.
Route 66—The Main Street of America— the first continuously paved highway linking east and west was the most traveled and well known road in the US for almost fifty years. From Chicago, through the Ozarks, across Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, up the mesas of New Mexico and Arizona, and down into California to the Pacific Ocean. The first road of its kind, it came to represent America's mobility and freedom—inspiring countless stories, songs, and even a TV show.Songwriter Bobby Troup tells the story of his 1946 hit “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.” Mickey Mantle says, “If it hadn't been for US 66 I wouldn't have been a Yankee.” Stirling Silliphant, creator of the TV series “Route 66” talks about the program and its place in American folklore of the 60s.Studs Terkel reads from The Grapes of Wrath about the "Mother Road," and the great 1930s migration along Highway 66. We hear from musicians who recall what life on the road during the 1930s was like for them, including Clarence Love, Woody Guthrie, and Eldin Shamblin, who played guitar for Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.We travel the history of the road from its beginnings through caverns and roadside attractions, into tourist traps and bunko joints, through the hard times of the Dust Bowl, Depression and the “Road of Flight,” and into the “Ghost Road” of the 1980s, as the interstates bypass the businesses and roadside attractions of another era.Produced by The Kitchen Sisters and narrated by actor David Selby. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of podcasts created by independent producers.
Welcoming a recent episode of the music history podcast American Songcatcher to our series, courtesy of host and producer Nicholas Edward Williams
Today on the program, we're proud to present the story behind the King of Western Swing, Bob Wills. One of the most influential and iconic bandleaders and musicians of the 1930's-1950's, Bob came from a humble life of a poor sharecropping family, and was deeply influenced by old time and breakdown fiddle through his Texas state champion family of fiddlers in his father and uncle. Bob also loved all the turn of the century and 1920's black music, and this confluence of cultures would help him create the craze that became Western swing, and the details of his journey to get there will surprise you. Story by Brent Davis and Nicholas Edward Williams Support Educational Programming: Join the Patreon Community Send a one-time donation on Venmo or PayPal Follow American Songcatcher: Instagram | TikTok | Facebook Credits: Brent Davis - Research, Writing Nicholas Edward Williams - Production, research, editing, recording and distribution Homecoming: Reflections on Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, 1915-1973, Charles R. Townsend. Country Music Hall of Fame Authentic Texas OW Mayo The Life and Times of Bob Wills Country Music, an Illustrated History, Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns. Country Music, a PBS documentary by Florentine Films, Ken Burns, director; Dayton Duncan, writer. OK History Life and Times of Bob Wills (TNN) Texas Monthly Birthplace of Western Swing The Country Music Pop-Up Book, by the staff of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard, Marc Elliot. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/americansongcatcher/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/americansongcatcher/support
Songs include: Sweet Georgia Brown, Little Brown Jug, Brown Eyes, Why Are you Blue?, Fine Brown Frame and The Little Brown Gal. Musicians include: Brother Bones, Rosemary Clooney, Glen Miller, Joe Turner, Bob Wills, Nick Lucas and Nellie Lutcher.
Un saludo amigos y oyentes. Hoy os ofrezco la segunda parte del Neocriticismo con las elaboraciones del neokantiano Cassirer ya en pleno siglo XX. 📗ÍNDICE COMPLETO 0. Resumen y definiciones. 1. SUBSTANCIA Y FUNCIÓN. 2. LA FILOSOFÍA DE LAS FORMAS SIMBÓLICAS. 3. ANIMAL RACIONAL Y ANIMAL SIMBÓLICO. Aquí puedes escuchar la introducción al Neokantismo >>> https://go.ivoox.com/rf/128446079 🎼Música de la época: 📀Música inicial: Concierto para oboe y pequeña orquesta en re mayor, Op. 144 de Richard Strauss escrita en 1945 año del fallecimiento de Cassirer. 📀Cierra el audio un tema que sonaba mucho en 1945 en los EEUU: Texas Playboy Rag de Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. 🎨Imagen: Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( (Breslau, 1874 – Nueva York, 13 de abril de 1945) fue un filósofo y sociólogo de origen prusiano y judío. 👍Pulsen un Me Gusta y colaboren a partir de 2,99 €/mes si se lo pueden permitir para asegurar la permanencia del programa ¡Muchas gracias a todos!
Six String Hayride Classic Country Podcast Episode 39. The 1940's Episode. We pay our respects to the recently departed Dickey Betts and Duane Eddy, then it's back in the time machine for the 1940s. Gene Autry, Sons of the Pioneers, and Bob Wills continue to dominate music. Rose Maddox ups the ante for Western Fashion. Franklin Roosevelt guides a nation through World War 2 with help from Rosie the Riveter. James Cagney, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Bogart and Bacall entertain us on the big screen. Jackie Robinson plays some Baseball. Chris and Jim discuss The Big Songs of the Decade, The War, and The Movies that shaped the 1940's. Chris serves up some SPAM MUSUBI and another John Wayne Cocktail and we explain our love for the music of the Andrew Sisters. In 1947, Hank Williams arrives as the Honky Tonk Poet of the Post War Years. All this and the usual shenanigans with Chris and Jim.
Dave Alexander's musical journey is a tapestry woven with accolades, collaborations, and a deep-rooted love for Texas music. From his early days as a Western Swing enthusiast to his status as a revered multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Dave has left an indelible mark on the music scene.Starting with the formation of "The Legends of Western Swing," Dave surrounded himself with musical luminaries, including former members of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys. This collaboration laid the foundation for a career marked by unforgettable performances and enduring musical partnerships.His talent caught the attention of the industry, leading to a prestigious role as the "House Band" for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, where he forged lasting connections with country and Western Swing icons like George Strait, Willie Nelson, and Lyle Lovett.Throughout his career, Dave has amassed a treasure trove of awards and accolades, including Grammy nominations and multiple Will Rogers Awards from the Academy Of Western Artists. He has been honored with inductions into several Hall of Fames, including the Texas Western Swing Hall Of Fame and the Oklahoma Country Music Hall Of Fame.Dave's musical journey is not just about accolades—it's about collaboration and connection. From sharing the stage with music legends to collaborating with a diverse array of artists, including George Strait, Willie Nelson, and Sheryl Crow, Dave's versatility and talent shine through in every performance.As he continues to uphold the rich tradition of Texas music, Dave Alexander's legacy is not just in the awards he's received or the stages he's graced, but in the hearts of fans who have been touched by his music, his passion, and his unwavering dedication to the art form he loves.http://www.davealexander.com/Support the Show.Thanks for listening for more information or to listen to other podcasts or watch YouTube videos click on this link >https://thetroutshow.com/
Six String Hayride Classic Country Podcast Episode 38. The 1930's Episode. The Carter Family Continues, Jimmie Rodgers dies from Tuberculosis. Patsy Montana, Roy Acuff, and Bob Wills enter the Country Music Charts. Gene Autry Rides in to Save the Day. FDR ends prohibition and guides a recovery from The Great Depression. Duke Ellington and Bob Wills bring swing music to theaters and dance halls. Frankenstein and King Kong pioneer a classic era in Movies. The Marx Brothers make us laugh and Orson Welles scares us with a radio broadcast of Martian Invaders. Radio rules the air to inform, entertain, and comfort a nation hurt by economic depression and the threat of war in Europe. Sons of The Pioneers inspire Chris to serve up some White Russian Drinks. All this and The Usual Fun with Chris and Jim. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086513555749https://www.patreon.com/user?u=81625843
The Hillbilly Boys are on the air! Please pass the biscuits Pappy. Playlist. Bob Wills (also called Mickey Wickey) and the boys play, Dufus. Pat extolls the benefits of using…
A quarter hour of great, classic Western Swing. Playlist: Mickey Wickey, also known as Bob Wills sings, Somebody Loves You. Pat offers some advice on making perfect biscuits, using Hillbilly…
Playlist: Mickey Wickey, also known as Bob Wills plays, while Leon sings, Chewing Chewing Chewing Gum. Bob Wills plays, Blue Hour. Mickey reads a poem about morality and doing what's…
To Support the Channel:Patreon https://www.patreon.com/AskZacTip jar: https://paypal.me/AskZacVenmo @AskZac Or check out my store for merch - https://my-store-be0243.creator-spring.com/Eldon Shamblin was Leo Fender's favorite guitarist, playing in his favorite band, Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys. Fender supplied the Playboys with amps and steel guitars but he wanted badly to get his new Spanish guitar, the Broadcaster, in their guitarist's hands. Unfortunately, Eldon had no interest in the plank with strings and politely passed on the offer. A few short years later, Leo was still bent on converting Shamblin, so he had his crew build a one-of-a-kind gold Stratocaster in the summer of 1954, and gifted it to the Playboy guitarist during one of their regular visits to the Fender factory. Eldon at first refused the golden solid body, but Leo convinced him to take it with him and try it on the bandstand. Shamblin soon dropped his hollow-body Gibson and became a lifelong Stratocaster player, using them until his passing on August 4th, 1998. Today we take a look at Eldon Shamblin's importance as a guitarist and arranger for Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys, and the fantastically rare and beautiful golden 1954 Stratocaster that Leo Fender gave him. Photos and video on my sitewww.askzac.com/post/eldon-shamblins-1954-gold-stratocasterPlaylisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/1efYMv1CjoK8jpJp7sqS55?si=77fd65af7a7b4568Gear used:2023 Headstrong Lil' King with 12" Eminence GA-SC64 speakerhttps://headstrongamps.com/lil-king-amp1955 Stratocaster built by my old college buddy, B. Paisley, using a mix of old and new parts. Ron Ellis 50/60 middle and neck, Duncan Twang banger in the bridge.https://www.ronellispickups.com/Strings: D'Addario NYXL 10-46Affiliate linkhttps://amzn.to/494qQ1yPick:Pick Boy Small Jazz, Tortoise Shell, 1.00mmEffects: Amp reverb#askzac #eldonshamblin #stratocasterSupport the show
Get your boots on and grab your partner for this two-step through singer Eric Diamond's country music career. He colourfully chronicles how performing in bars at 15 led to bands, Nashville connections and songwriting, then back home again before finding his footing on the Texas circuit. Diamond shares heartfelt stories of the legends who influenced him, from Bob Wills' western swing to Ray Price and Marty Robbins' honky tonk country, and the Texas greats he now calls friends. After persevering, awards, tours and a new album produced by an acclaimed Nashville musician have Diamond swinging and singing again. His love for western music shines through as he previews upcoming festivals, rodeos and his journey to make a new album in 2024. Two-step along to hear this genuine artist's tales from the road.
This week we welcome Dennis Stroughmatt! Known today as a master French Creole fiddler, Dennis Stroughmatt was raised with a love for the music of Bob Wills, Ray Price, Tony Booth, Johnny Bush, Spade Cooley, Wade Ray, and Darrell McCall by his father Jack Stroughmatt. Jack was an avid music buff with thousands of records in a collection that dated to the 1930s. When Dennis began to recognize the music that surrounded him, it was the sound of twin fiddle and steel guitar (as well as a driving horn section) that got him excited and bopping in the middle of the living room floor. With time and different moves, Dennis eventually became enamored with the French Creole music that was local to southern Illinois and southeast Missouri...but that Honky Tonk sound was every present, always in the back of his mind and his heart. The chance meeting of the legendary fiddler and singer Wade Ray would rekindle that feeling and remind Dennis that Western Swing was still in him. After the passing of Wade, Dennis would again passionately return to French Creole and then Cajun fiddling as his professional focus....but the sounds of his childhood never let go. Fast forward to the present....Dennis is still enjoying French Creole and Cajun fiddling...but the time to "swing it" is now and his focus on Honky Tonk and Western Swing has never been sharper. Ready to put his study with Wade Ray, Hadley J. Castille, and Buddy Spicher into play....Dennis Stroughmatt, The Honky Tonk Fiddler, is here! Also a strong vocalist in the Ray Price and Tony Booth style, Dennis is ready to hear from you........... For more information, visit his website: HonkyTonkFiddle.com
Amanda Shires is a Texas-born singer/songwriter who got her start at 15 when she joined Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys on fiddle. After starting her solo career in 2005, Shires continued to play with a number of other bands including her husband Jason Isbell's band, the 400 Unit. In 2019, she started the all-female country supergroup The Highwomen, which includes Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Maren Morris. After the 2022 release of Amanda Shires' seventh solo album, Take It Like A Man, she released an album of covers with the late Bobbie Nelson—who's primarily known for playing piano in her younger brother Willie Nelson's band. Amanda initially enlisted Bobbie to play on her version of Willie's classic, “You Were Always On My Mind,” but they continued to record together. The resulting collection of songs became the album Loving You, which was released this past June, nearly a year after Bobbie's death. On today's episode Justin Richmond talks to Amanda Shires about Bobbie Nelson's unfortunate start in the music business. Amanda also talks about why she feels more comfortable singing about society's big issues alongside The Highwomen. And she remembers the time she went to Vegas and gambled away all her band's tour money—only to win it all back after playing craps through the night. You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Amanda Shires songs HERE.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Episode 166 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Crossroads", Cream, the myth of Robert Johnson, and whether white men can sing the blues. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-eight-minute bonus episode available, on “Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips" by Tiny Tim. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I talk about an interview with Clapton from 1967, I meant 1968. I mention a Graham Bond live recording from 1953, and of course meant 1963. I say Paul Jones was on vocals in the Powerhouse sessions. Steve Winwood was on vocals, and Jones was on harmonica. Resources As I say at the end, the main resource you need to get if you enjoyed this episode is Brother Robert by Annye Anderson, Robert Johnson's stepsister. There are three Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Cream, Robert Johnson, John Mayall, and Graham Bond excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here -- one, two, three. This article on Mack McCormick gives a fuller explanation of the problems with his research and behaviour. The other books I used for the Robert Johnson sections were McCormick's Biography of a Phantom; Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson, by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow; Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick; and Escaping the Delta by Elijah Wald. I can recommend all of these subject to the caveats at the end of the episode. The information on the history and prehistory of the Delta blues mostly comes from Before Elvis by Larry Birnbaum, with some coming from Charley Patton by John Fahey. The information on Cream comes mostly from Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm by Dave Thompson. I also used Ginger Baker: Hellraiser by Ginger Baker and Ginette Baker, Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins, Motherless Child by Paul Scott, and Alexis Korner: The Biography by Harry Shapiro. The best collection of Cream's work is the four-CD set Those Were the Days, which contains every track the group ever released while they were together (though only the stereo mixes of the albums, and a couple of tracks are in slightly different edits from the originals). You can get Johnson's music on many budget compilation records, as it's in the public domain in the EU, but the double CD collection produced by Steve LaVere for Sony in 2011 is, despite the problems that come from it being associated with LaVere, far and away the best option -- the remasters have a clarity that's worlds ahead of even the 1990s CD version it replaced. And for a good single-CD introduction to the Delta blues musicians and songsters who were Johnson's peers and inspirations, Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson, compiled by Elijah Wald as a companion to his book on Johnson, can't be beaten, and contains many of the tracks excerpted in this episode. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start, a quick note that this episode contains discussion of racism, drug addiction, and early death. There's also a brief mention of death in childbirth and infant mortality. It's been a while since we looked at the British blues movement, and at the blues in general, so some of you may find some of what follows familiar, as we're going to look at some things we've talked about previously, but from a different angle. In 1968, the Bonzo Dog Band, a comedy musical band that have been described as the missing link between the Beatles and the Monty Python team, released a track called "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?": [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Band, "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?"] That track was mocking a discussion that was very prominent in Britain's music magazines around that time. 1968 saw the rise of a *lot* of British bands who started out as blues bands, though many of them went on to different styles of music -- Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Chicken Shack and others were all becoming popular among the kind of people who read the music magazines, and so the question was being asked -- can white men sing the blues? Of course, the answer to that question was obvious. After all, white men *invented* the blues. Before we get any further at all, I have to make clear that I do *not* mean that white people created blues music. But "the blues" as a category, and particularly the idea of it as a music made largely by solo male performers playing guitar... that was created and shaped by the actions of white male record executives. There is no consensus as to when or how the blues as a genre started -- as we often say in this podcast "there is no first anything", but like every genre it seems to have come from multiple sources. In the case of the blues, there's probably some influence from African music by way of field chants sung by enslaved people, possibly some influence from Arabic music as well, definitely some influence from the Irish and British folk songs that by the late nineteenth century were developing into what we now call country music, a lot from ragtime, and a lot of influence from vaudeville and minstrel songs -- which in turn themselves were all very influenced by all those other things. Probably the first published composition to show any real influence of the blues is from 1904, a ragtime piano piece by James Chapman and Leroy Smith, "One O' Them Things": [Excerpt: "One O' Them Things"] That's not very recognisable as a blues piece yet, but it is more-or-less a twelve-bar blues. But the blues developed, and it developed as a result of a series of commercial waves. The first of these came in 1914, with the success of W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues", which when it was recorded by the Victor Military Band for a phonograph cylinder became what is generally considered the first blues record proper: [Excerpt: The Victor Military Band, "Memphis Blues"] The famous dancers Vernon and Irene Castle came up with a dance, the foxtrot -- which Vernon Castle later admitted was largely inspired by Black dancers -- to be danced to the "Memphis Blues", and the foxtrot soon overtook the tango, which the Castles had introduced to the US the previous year, to become the most popular dance in America for the best part of three decades. And with that came an explosion in blues in the Handy style, cranked out by every music publisher. While the blues was a style largely created by Black performers and writers, the segregated nature of the American music industry at the time meant that most vocal performances of these early blues that were captured on record were by white performers, Black vocalists at this time only rarely getting the chance to record. The first blues record with a Black vocalist is also technically the first British blues record. A group of Black musicians, apparently mostly American but led by a Jamaican pianist, played at Ciro's Club in London, and recorded many tracks in Britain, under a name which I'm not going to say in full -- it started with Ciro's Club, and continued alliteratively with another word starting with C, a slur for Black people. In 1917 they recorded a vocal version of "St. Louis Blues", another W.C. Handy composition: [Excerpt: Ciro's Club C**n Orchestra, "St. Louis Blues"] The first American Black blues vocal didn't come until two years later, when Bert Williams, a Black minstrel-show performer who like many Black performers of his era performed in blackface even though he was Black, recorded “I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,” [Excerpt: Bert Williams, "I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,”] But it wasn't until 1920 that the second, bigger, wave of popularity started for the blues, and this time it started with the first record of a Black *woman* singing the blues -- Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] You can hear the difference between that and anything we've heard up to that point -- that's the first record that anyone from our perspective, a hundred and three years later, would listen to and say that it bore any resemblance to what we think of as the blues -- so much so that many places still credit it as the first ever blues record. And there's a reason for that. "Crazy Blues" was one of those records that separates the music industry into before and after, like "Rock Around the Clock", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", Sgt Pepper, or "Rapper's Delight". It sold seventy-five thousand copies in its first month -- a massive number by the standards of 1920 -- and purportedly went on to sell over a million copies. Sales figures and market analysis weren't really a thing in the same way in 1920, but even so it became very obvious that "Crazy Blues" was a big hit, and that unlike pretty much any other previous records, it was a big hit among Black listeners, which meant that there was a market for music aimed at Black people that was going untapped. Soon all the major record labels were setting up subsidiaries devoted to what they called "race music", music made by and for Black people. And this sees the birth of what is now known as "classic blues", but at the time (and for decades after) was just what people thought of when they thought of "the blues" as a genre. This was music primarily sung by female vaudeville artists backed by jazz bands, people like Ma Rainey (whose earliest recordings featured Louis Armstrong in her backing band): [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider Blues"] And Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues", who had a massive career in the 1920s before the Great Depression caused many of these "race record" labels to fold, but who carried on performing well into the 1930s -- her last recording was in 1933, produced by John Hammond, with a backing band including Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Give Me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer"] It wouldn't be until several years after the boom started by Mamie Smith that any record companies turned to recording Black men singing the blues accompanied by guitar or banjo. The first record of this type is probably "Norfolk Blues" by Reese DuPree from 1924: [Excerpt: Reese DuPree, "Norfolk Blues"] And there were occasional other records of this type, like "Airy Man Blues" by Papa Charlie Jackson, who was advertised as the “only man living who sings, self-accompanied, for Blues records.” [Excerpt: Papa Charlie Jackson, "Airy Man Blues"] But contrary to the way these are seen today, at the time they weren't seen as being in some way "authentic", or "folk music". Indeed, there are many quotes from folk-music collectors of the time (sadly all of them using so many slurs that it's impossible for me to accurately quote them) saying that when people sang the blues, that wasn't authentic Black folk music at all but an adulteration from commercial music -- they'd clearly, according to these folk-music scholars, learned the blues style from records and sheet music rather than as part of an oral tradition. Most of these performers were people who recorded blues as part of a wider range of material, like Blind Blake, who recorded some blues music but whose best work was his ragtime guitar instrumentals: [Excerpt: Blind Blake, "Southern Rag"] But it was when Blind Lemon Jefferson started recording for Paramount records in 1926 that the image of the blues as we now think of it took shape. His first record, "Got the Blues", was a massive success: [Excerpt: Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Got the Blues"] And this resulted in many labels, especially Paramount, signing up pretty much every Black man with a guitar they could find in the hopes of finding another Blind Lemon Jefferson. But the thing is, this generation of people making blues records, and the generation that followed them, didn't think of themselves as "blues singers" or "bluesmen". They were songsters. Songsters were entertainers, and their job was to sing and play whatever the audiences would want to hear. That included the blues, of course, but it also included... well, every song anyone would want to hear. They'd perform old folk songs, vaudeville songs, songs that they'd heard on the radio or the jukebox -- whatever the audience wanted. Robert Johnson, for example, was known to particularly love playing polka music, and also adored the records of Jimmie Rodgers, the first country music superstar. In 1941, when Alan Lomax first recorded Muddy Waters, he asked Waters what kind of songs he normally played in performances, and he was given a list that included "Home on the Range", Gene Autry's "I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle", and Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". We have few recordings of these people performing this kind of song though. One of the few we have is Big Bill Broonzy, who was just about the only artist of this type not to get pigeonholed as just a blues singer, even though blues is what made him famous, and who later in his career managed to record songs like the Tin Pan Alley standard "The Glory of Love": [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, "The Glory of Love"] But for the most part, the image we have of the blues comes down to one man, Arthur Laibley, a sales manager for the Wisconsin Chair Company. The Wisconsin Chair Company was, as the name would suggest, a company that started out making wooden chairs, but it had branched out into other forms of wooden furniture -- including, for a brief time, large wooden phonographs. And, like several other manufacturers, like the Radio Corporation of America -- RCA -- and the Gramophone Company, which became EMI, they realised that if they were going to sell the hardware it made sense to sell the software as well, and had started up Paramount Records, which bought up a small label, Black Swan, and soon became the biggest manufacturer of records for the Black market, putting out roughly a quarter of all "race records" released between 1922 and 1932. At first, most of these were produced by a Black talent scout, J. Mayo Williams, who had been the first person to record Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, but in 1927 Williams left Paramount, and the job of supervising sessions went to Arthur Laibley, though according to some sources a lot of the actual production work was done by Aletha Dickerson, Williams' former assistant, who was almost certainly the first Black woman to be what we would now think of as a record producer. Williams had been interested in recording all kinds of music by Black performers, but when Laibley got a solo Black man into the studio, what he wanted more than anything was for him to record the blues, ideally in a style as close as possible to that of Blind Lemon Jefferson. Laibley didn't have a very hands-on approach to recording -- indeed Paramount had very little concern about the quality of their product anyway, and Paramount's records are notorious for having been put out on poor-quality shellac and recorded badly -- and he only occasionally made actual suggestions as to what kind of songs his performers should write -- for example he asked Son House to write something that sounded like Blind Lemon Jefferson, which led to House writing and recording "Mississippi County Farm Blues", which steals the tune of Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean": [Excerpt: Son House, "Mississippi County Farm Blues"] When Skip James wanted to record a cover of James Wiggins' "Forty-Four Blues", Laibley suggested that instead he should do a song about a different gun, and so James recorded "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues"] And Laibley also suggested that James write a song about the Depression, which led to one of the greatest blues records ever, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues"] These musicians knew that they were getting paid only for issued sides, and that Laibley wanted only blues from them, and so that's what they gave him. Even when it was a performer like Charlie Patton. (Incidentally, for those reading this as a transcript rather than listening to it, Patton's name is more usually spelled ending in ey, but as far as I can tell ie was his preferred spelling and that's what I'm using). Charlie Patton was best known as an entertainer, first and foremost -- someone who would do song-and-dance routines, joke around, play guitar behind his head. He was a clown on stage, so much so that when Son House finally heard some of Patton's records, in the mid-sixties, decades after the fact, he was astonished that Patton could actually play well. Even though House had been in the room when some of the records were made, his memory of Patton was of someone who acted the fool on stage. That's definitely not the impression you get from the Charlie Patton on record: [Excerpt: Charlie Patton, "Poor Me"] Patton is, as far as can be discerned, the person who was most influential in creating the music that became called the "Delta blues". Not a lot is known about Patton's life, but he was almost certainly the half-brother of the Chatmon brothers, who made hundreds of records, most notably as members of the Mississippi Sheiks: [Excerpt: The Mississippi Sheiks, "Sitting on Top of the World"] In the 1890s, Patton's family moved to Sunflower County, Mississippi, and he lived in and around that county until his death in 1934. Patton learned to play guitar from a musician called Henry Sloan, and then Patton became a mentor figure to a *lot* of other musicians in and around the plantation on which his family lived. Some of the musicians who grew up in the immediate area around Patton included Tommy Johnson: [Excerpt: Tommy Johnson, "Big Road Blues"] Pops Staples: [Excerpt: The Staple Singers, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken"] Robert Johnson: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Crossroads"] Willie Brown, a musician who didn't record much, but who played a lot with Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson and who we just heard Johnson sing about: [Excerpt: Willie Brown, "M&O Blues"] And Chester Burnett, who went on to become known as Howlin' Wolf, and whose vocal style was equally inspired by Patton and by the country star Jimmie Rodgers: [Excerpt: Howlin' Wolf, "Smokestack Lightnin'"] Once Patton started his own recording career for Paramount, he also started working as a talent scout for them, and it was him who brought Son House to Paramount. Soon after the Depression hit, Paramount stopped recording, and so from 1930 through 1934 Patton didn't make any records. He was tracked down by an A&R man in January 1934 and recorded one final session: [Excerpt, Charlie Patton, "34 Blues"] But he died of heart failure two months later. But his influence spread through his proteges, and they themselves influenced other musicians from the area who came along a little after, like Robert Lockwood and Muddy Waters. This music -- or that portion of it that was considered worth recording by white record producers, only a tiny, unrepresentative, portion of their vast performing repertoires -- became known as the Delta Blues, and when some of these musicians moved to Chicago and started performing with electric instruments, it became Chicago Blues. And as far as people like John Mayall in Britain were concerned, Delta and Chicago Blues *were* the blues: [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "It Ain't Right"] John Mayall was one of the first of the British blues obsessives, and for a long time thought of himself as the only one. While we've looked before at the growth of the London blues scene, Mayall wasn't from London -- he was born in Macclesfield and grew up in Cheadle Hulme, both relatively well-off suburbs of Manchester, and after being conscripted and doing two years in the Army, he had become an art student at Manchester College of Art, what is now Manchester Metropolitan University. Mayall had been a blues fan from the late 1940s, writing off to the US to order records that hadn't been released in the UK, and by most accounts by the late fifties he'd put together the biggest blues collection in Britain by quite some way. Not only that, but he had one of the earliest home tape recorders, and every night he would record radio stations from Continental Europe which were broadcasting for American service personnel, so he'd amassed mountains of recordings, often unlabelled, of obscure blues records that nobody else in the UK knew about. He was also an accomplished pianist and guitar player, and in 1956 he and his drummer friend Peter Ward had put together a band called the Powerhouse Four (the other two members rotated on a regular basis) mostly to play lunchtime jazz sessions at the art college. Mayall also started putting on jam sessions at a youth club in Wythenshawe, where he met another drummer named Hughie Flint. Over the late fifties and into the early sixties, Mayall more or less by himself built up a small blues scene in Manchester. The Manchester blues scene was so enthusiastic, in fact, that when the American Folk Blues Festival, an annual European tour which initially featured Willie Dixon, Memhis Slim, T-Bone Walker, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and John Lee Hooker, first toured Europe, the only UK date it played was at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, and people like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Jimmy Page had to travel up from London to see it. But still, the number of blues fans in Manchester, while proportionally large, was objectively small enough that Mayall was captivated by an article in Melody Maker which talked about Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies' new band Blues Incorporated and how it was playing electric blues, the same music he was making in Manchester. He later talked about how the article had made him think that maybe now people would know what he was talking about. He started travelling down to London to play gigs for the London blues scene, and inviting Korner up to Manchester to play shows there. Soon Mayall had moved down to London. Korner introduced Mayall to Davey Graham, the great folk guitarist, with whom Korner had recently recorded as a duo: [Excerpt: Alexis Korner and Davey Graham, "3/4 AD"] Mayall and Graham performed together as a duo for a while, but Graham was a natural solo artist if ever there was one. Slowly Mayall put a band together in London. On drums was his old friend Peter Ward, who'd moved down from Manchester with him. On bass was John McVie, who at the time knew nothing about blues -- he'd been playing in a Shadows-style instrumental group -- but Mayall gave him a stack of blues records to listen to to get the feeling. And on guitar was Bernie Watson, who had previously played with Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages. In late 1963, Mike Vernon, a blues fan who had previously published a Yardbirds fanzine, got a job working for Decca records, and immediately started signing his favourite acts from the London blues circuit. The first act he signed was John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and they recorded a single, "Crawling up a Hill": [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "Crawling up a Hill (45 version)"] Mayall later called that a "clumsy, half-witted attempt at autobiographical comment", and it sold only five hundred copies. It would be the only record the Bluesbreakers would make with Watson, who soon left the band to be replaced by Roger Dean (not the same Roger Dean who later went on to design prog rock album covers). The second group to be signed by Mike Vernon to Decca was the Graham Bond Organisation. We've talked about the Graham Bond Organisation in passing several times, but not for a while and not in any great detail, so it's worth pulling everything we've said about them so far together and going through it in a little more detail. The Graham Bond Organisation, like the Rolling Stones, grew out of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. As we heard in the episode on "I Wanna Be Your Man" a couple of years ago, Blues Incorporated had been started by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, and at the time we're joining them in 1962 featured a drummer called Charlie Watts, a pianist called Dave Stevens, and saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, as well as frequent guest performers like a singer who called himself Mike Jagger, and another one, Roderick Stewart. That group finally found themselves the perfect bass player when Dick Heckstall-Smith put together a one-off group of jazz players to play an event at Cambridge University. At the gig, a little Scottish man came up to the group and told them he played bass and asked if he could sit in. They told him to bring along his instrument to their second set, that night, and he did actually bring along a double bass. Their bluff having been called, they decided to play the most complicated, difficult, piece they knew in order to throw the kid off -- the drummer, a trad jazz player named Ginger Baker, didn't like performing with random sit-in guests -- but astonishingly he turned out to be really good. Heckstall-Smith took down the bass player's name and phone number and invited him to a jam session with Blues Incorporated. After that jam session, Jack Bruce quickly became the group's full-time bass player. Bruce had started out as a classical cellist, but had switched to the double bass inspired by Bach, who he referred to as "the guv'nor of all bass players". His playing up to this point had mostly been in trad jazz bands, and he knew nothing of the blues, but he quickly got the hang of the genre. Bruce's first show with Blues Incorporated was a BBC recording: [Excerpt: Blues Incorporated, "Hoochie Coochie Man (BBC session)"] According to at least one source it was not being asked to take part in that session that made young Mike Jagger decide there was no future for him with Blues Incorporated and to spend more time with his other group, the Rollin' Stones. Soon after, Charlie Watts would join him, for almost the opposite reason -- Watts didn't want to be in a band that was getting as big as Blues Incorporated were. They were starting to do more BBC sessions and get more gigs, and having to join the Musicians' Union. That seemed like a lot of work. Far better to join a band like the Rollin' Stones that wasn't going anywhere. Because of Watts' decision to give up on potential stardom to become a Rollin' Stone, they needed a new drummer, and luckily the best drummer on the scene was available. But then the best drummer on the scene was *always* available. Ginger Baker had first played with Dick Heckstall-Smith several years earlier, in a trad group called the Storyville Jazzmen. There Baker had become obsessed with the New Orleans jazz drummer Baby Dodds, who had played with Louis Armstrong in the 1920s. Sadly because of 1920s recording technology, he hadn't been able to play a full kit on the recordings with Armstrong, being limited to percussion on just a woodblock, but you can hear his drumming style much better in this version of "At the Jazz Band Ball" from 1947, with Mugsy Spanier, Jack Teagarden, Cyrus St. Clair and Hank Duncan: [Excerpt: "At the Jazz Band Ball"] Baker had taken Dobbs' style and run with it, and had quickly become known as the single best player, bar none, on the London jazz scene -- he'd become an accomplished player in multiple styles, and was also fluent in reading music and arranging. He'd also, though, become known as the single person on the entire scene who was most difficult to get along with. He resigned from his first band onstage, shouting "You can stick your band up your arse", after the band's leader had had enough of him incorporating bebop influences into their trad style. Another time, when touring with Diz Disley's band, he was dumped in Germany with no money and no way to get home, because the band were so sick of him. Sometimes this was because of his temper and his unwillingness to suffer fools -- and he saw everyone else he ever met as a fool -- and sometimes it was because of his own rigorous musical ideas. He wanted to play music *his* way, and wouldn't listen to anyone who told him different. Both of these things got worse after he fell under the influence of a man named Phil Seaman, one of the only drummers that Baker respected at all. Seaman introduced Baker to African drumming, and Baker started incorporating complex polyrhythms into his playing as a result. Seaman also though introduced Baker to heroin, and while being a heroin addict in the UK in the 1960s was not as difficult as it later became -- both heroin and cocaine were available on prescription to registered addicts, and Baker got both, which meant that many of the problems that come from criminalisation of these drugs didn't affect addicts in the same way -- but it still did not, by all accounts, make him an easier person to get along with. But he *was* a fantastic drummer. As Dick Heckstall-Smith said "With the advent of Ginger, the classic Blues Incorporated line-up, one which I think could not be bettered, was set" But Alexis Korner decided that the group could be bettered, and he had some backers within the band. One of the other bands on the scene was the Don Rendell Quintet, a group that played soul jazz -- that style of jazz that bridged modern jazz and R&B, the kind of music that Ray Charles and Herbie Hancock played: [Excerpt: The Don Rendell Quintet, "Manumission"] The Don Rendell Quintet included a fantastic multi-instrumentalist, Graham Bond, who doubled on keyboards and saxophone, and Bond had been playing occasional experimental gigs with the Johnny Burch Octet -- a group led by another member of the Rendell Quartet featuring Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, Baker, and a few other musicians, doing wholly-improvised music. Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, and Baker all enjoyed playing with Bond, and when Korner decided to bring him into the band, they were all very keen. But Cyril Davies, the co-leader of the band with Korner, was furious at the idea. Davies wanted to play strict Chicago and Delta blues, and had no truck with other forms of music like R&B and jazz. To his mind it was bad enough that they had a sax player. But the idea that they would bring in Bond, who played sax and... *Hammond* organ? Well, that was practically blasphemy. Davies quit the group at the mere suggestion. Bond was soon in the band, and he, Bruce, and Baker were playing together a *lot*. As well as performing with Blues Incorporated, they continued playing in the Johnny Burch Octet, and they also started performing as the Graham Bond Trio. Sometimes the Graham Bond Trio would be Blues Incorporated's opening act, and on more than one occasion the Graham Bond Trio, Blues Incorporated, and the Johnny Burch Octet all had gigs in different parts of London on the same night and they'd have to frantically get from one to the other. The Graham Bond Trio also had fans in Manchester, thanks to the local blues scene there and their connection with Blues Incorporated, and one night in February 1963 the trio played a gig there. They realised afterwards that by playing as a trio they'd made £70, when they were lucky to make £20 from a gig with Blues Incorporated or the Octet, because there were so many members in those bands. Bond wanted to make real money, and at the next rehearsal of Blues Incorporated he announced to Korner that he, Bruce, and Baker were quitting the band -- which was news to Bruce and Baker, who he hadn't bothered consulting. Baker, indeed, was in the toilet when the announcement was made and came out to find it a done deal. He was going to kick up a fuss and say he hadn't been consulted, but Korner's reaction sealed the deal. As Baker later said "‘he said “it's really good you're doing this thing with Graham, and I wish you the best of luck” and all that. And it was a bit difficult to turn round and say, “Well, I don't really want to leave the band, you know.”'" The Graham Bond Trio struggled at first to get the gigs they were expecting, but that started to change when in April 1963 they became the Graham Bond Quartet, with the addition of virtuoso guitarist John McLaughlin. The Quartet soon became one of the hottest bands on the London R&B scene, and when Duffy Power, a Larry Parnes teen idol who wanted to move into R&B, asked his record label to get him a good R&B band to back him on a Beatles cover, it was the Graham Bond Quartet who obliged: [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "I Saw Her Standing There"] The Quartet also backed Power on a package tour with other Parnes acts, but they were also still performing their own blend of hard jazz and blues, as can be heard in this recording of the group live in June 1953: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Quartet, "Ho Ho Country Kicking Blues (Live at Klooks Kleek)"] But that lineup of the group didn't last very long. According to the way Baker told the story, he fired McLaughlin from the group, after being irritated by McLaughlin complaining about something on a day when Baker was out of cocaine and in no mood to hear anyone else's complaints. As Baker said "We lost a great guitar player and I lost a good friend." But the Trio soon became a Quartet again, as Dick Heckstall-Smith, who Baker had wanted in the band from the start, joined on saxophone to replace McLaughlin's guitar. But they were no longer called the Graham Bond Quartet. Partly because Heckstall-Smith joining allowed Bond to concentrate just on his keyboard playing, but one suspects partly to protect against any future lineup changes, the group were now The Graham Bond ORGANisation -- emphasis on the organ. The new lineup of the group got signed to Decca by Vernon, and were soon recording their first single, "Long Tall Shorty": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Long Tall Shorty"] They recorded a few other songs which made their way onto an EP and an R&B compilation, and toured intensively in early 1964, as well as backing up Power on his follow-up to "I Saw Her Standing There", his version of "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "Parchman Farm"] They also appeared in a film, just like the Beatles, though it was possibly not quite as artistically successful as "A Hard Day's Night": [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat trailer] Gonks Go Beat is one of the most bizarre films of the sixties. It's a far-future remake of Romeo and Juliet. where the two star-crossed lovers are from opposing countries -- Beatland and Ballad Isle -- who only communicate once a year in an annual song contest which acts as their version of a war, and is overseen by "Mr. A&R", played by Frank Thornton, who would later star in Are You Being Served? Carry On star Kenneth Connor is sent by aliens to try to bring peace to the two warring countries, on pain of exile to Planet Gonk, a planet inhabited solely by Gonks (a kind of novelty toy for which there was a short-lived craze then). Along the way Connor encounters such luminaries of British light entertainment as Terry Scott and Arthur Mullard, as well as musical performances by Lulu, the Nashville Teens, and of course the Graham Bond Organisation, whose performance gets them a telling-off from a teacher: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat!] The group as a group only performed one song in this cinematic masterpiece, but Baker also made an appearance in a "drum battle" sequence where eight drummers played together: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat drum battle] The other drummers in that scene included, as well as some lesser-known players, Andy White who had played on the single version of "Love Me Do", Bobby Graham, who played on hits by the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five, and Ronnie Verrell, who did the drumming for Animal in the Muppet Show. Also in summer 1964, the group performed at the Fourth National Jazz & Blues Festival in Richmond -- the festival co-founded by Chris Barber that would evolve into the Reading Festival. The Yardbirds were on the bill, and at the end of their set they invited Bond, Baker, Bruce, Georgie Fame, and Mike Vernon onto the stage with them, making that the first time that Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce were all on stage together. Soon after that, the Graham Bond Organisation got a new manager, Robert Stigwood. Things hadn't been working out for them at Decca, and Stigwood soon got the group signed to EMI, and became their producer as well. Their first single under Stigwood's management was a cover version of the theme tune to the Debbie Reynolds film "Tammy". While that film had given Tamla records its name, the song was hardly an R&B classic: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Tammy"] That record didn't chart, but Stigwood put the group out on the road as part of the disastrous Chuck Berry tour we heard about in the episode on "All You Need is Love", which led to the bankruptcy of Robert Stigwood Associates. The Organisation moved over to Stigwood's new company, the Robert Stigwood Organisation, and Stigwood continued to be the credited producer of their records, though after the "Tammy" disaster they decided they were going to take charge themselves of the actual music. Their first album, The Sound of 65, was recorded in a single three-hour session, and they mostly ran through their standard set -- a mixture of the same songs everyone else on the circuit was playing, like "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Got My Mojo Working", and "Wade in the Water", and originals like Bruce's "Train Time": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Train Time"] Through 1965 they kept working. They released a non-album single, "Lease on Love", which is generally considered to be the first pop record to feature a Mellotron: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Lease on Love"] and Bond and Baker also backed another Stigwood act, Winston G, on his debut single: [Excerpt: Winston G, "Please Don't Say"] But the group were developing severe tensions. Bruce and Baker had started out friendly, but by this time they hated each other. Bruce said he couldn't hear his own playing over Baker's loud drumming, Baker thought that Bruce was far too fussy a player and should try to play simpler lines. They'd both try to throw each other during performances, altering arrangements on the fly and playing things that would trip the other player up. And *neither* of them were particularly keen on Bond's new love of the Mellotron, which was all over their second album, giving it a distinctly proto-prog feel at times: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Baby Can it Be True?"] Eventually at a gig in Golders Green, Baker started throwing drumsticks at Bruce's head while Bruce was trying to play a bass solo. Bruce retaliated by throwing his bass at Baker, and then jumping on him and starting a fistfight which had to be broken up by the venue security. Baker fired Bruce from the band, but Bruce kept turning up to gigs anyway, arguing that Baker had no right to sack him as it was a democracy. Baker always claimed that in fact Bond had wanted to sack Bruce but hadn't wanted to get his hands dirty, and insisted that Baker do it, but neither Bond nor Heckstall-Smith objected when Bruce turned up for the next couple of gigs. So Baker took matters into his own hands, He pulled out a knife and told Bruce "If you show up at one more gig, this is going in you." Within days, Bruce was playing with John Mayall, whose Bluesbreakers had gone through some lineup changes by this point. Roger Dean had only played with the Bluesbreakers for a short time before Mayall had replaced him. Mayall had not been impressed with Eric Clapton's playing with the Yardbirds at first -- even though graffiti saying "Clapton is God" was already starting to appear around London -- but he had been *very* impressed with Clapton's playing on "Got to Hurry", the B-side to "For Your Love": [Excerpt: The Yardbirds, "Got to Hurry"] When he discovered that Clapton had quit the band, he sprang into action and quickly recruited him to replace Dean. Clapton knew he had made the right choice when a month after he'd joined, the group got the word that Bob Dylan had been so impressed with Mayall's single "Crawling up a Hill" -- the one that nobody liked, not even Mayall himself -- that he wanted to jam with Mayall and his band in the studio. Clapton of course went along: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan and the Bluesbreakers, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] That was, of course, the session we've talked about in the Velvet Underground episode and elsewhere of which little other than that survives, and which Nico attended. At this point, Mayall didn't have a record contract, his experience recording with Mike Vernon having been no more successful than the Bond group's had been. But soon he got a one-off deal -- as a solo artist, not with the Bluesbreakers -- with Immediate Records. Clapton was the only member of the group to play on the single, which was produced by Immediate's house producer Jimmy Page: [Excerpt: John Mayall, "I'm Your Witchdoctor"] Page was impressed enough with Clapton's playing that he invited him round to Page's house to jam together. But what Clapton didn't know was that Page was taping their jam sessions, and that he handed those tapes over to Immediate Records -- whether he was forced to by his contract with the label or whether that had been his plan all along depends on whose story you believe, but Clapton never truly forgave him. Page and Clapton's guitar-only jams had overdubs by Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart, and drummer Chris Winter, and have been endlessly repackaged on blues compilations ever since: [Excerpt: Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, "Draggin' My Tail"] But Mayall was having problems with John McVie, who had started to drink too much, and as soon as he found out that Jack Bruce was sacked by the Graham Bond Organisation, Mayall got in touch with Bruce and got him to join the band in McVie's place. Everyone was agreed that this lineup of the band -- Mayall, Clapton, Bruce, and Hughie Flint -- was going places: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Jack Bruce, "Hoochie Coochie Man"] Unfortunately, it wasn't going to last long. Clapton, while he thought that Bruce was the greatest bass player he'd ever worked with, had other plans. He was going to leave the country and travel the world as a peripatetic busker. He was off on his travels, never to return. Luckily, Mayall had someone even better waiting in the wings. A young man had, according to Mayall, "kept coming down to all the gigs and saying, “Hey, what are you doing with him?” – referring to whichever guitarist was onstage that night – “I'm much better than he is. Why don't you let me play guitar for you?” He got really quite nasty about it, so finally, I let him sit in. And he was brilliant." Peter Green was probably the best blues guitarist in London at that time, but this lineup of the Bluesbreakers only lasted a handful of gigs -- Clapton discovered that busking in Greece wasn't as much fun as being called God in London, and came back very soon after he'd left. Mayall had told him that he could have his old job back when he got back, and so Green was out and Clapton was back in. And soon the Bluesbreakers' revolving door revolved again. Manfred Mann had just had a big hit with "If You Gotta Go, Go Now", the same song we heard Dylan playing earlier: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] But their guitarist, Mike Vickers, had quit. Tom McGuinness, their bass player, had taken the opportunity to switch back to guitar -- the instrument he'd played in his first band with his friend Eric Clapton -- but that left them short a bass player. Manfred Mann were essentially the same kind of band as the Graham Bond Organisation -- a Hammond-led group of virtuoso multi-instrumentalists who played everything from hardcore Delta blues to complex modern jazz -- but unlike the Bond group they also had a string of massive pop hits, and so made a lot more money. The combination was irresistible to Bruce, and he joined the band just before they recorded an EP of jazz instrumental versions of recent hits: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"] Bruce had also been encouraged by Robert Stigwood to do a solo project, and so at the same time as he joined Manfred Mann, he also put out a solo single, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'" [Excerpt: Jack Bruce, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'"] But of course, the reason Bruce had joined Manfred Mann was that they were having pop hits as well as playing jazz, and soon they did just that, with Bruce playing on their number one hit "Pretty Flamingo": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "Pretty Flamingo"] So John McVie was back in the Bluesbreakers, promising to keep his drinking under control. Mike Vernon still thought that Mayall had potential, but the people at Decca didn't agree, so Vernon got Mayall and Clapton -- but not the other band members -- to record a single for a small indie label he ran as a side project: [Excerpt: John Mayall and Eric Clapton, "Bernard Jenkins"] That label normally only released records in print runs of ninety-nine copies, because once you hit a hundred copies you had to pay tax on them, but there was so much demand for that single that they ended up pressing up five hundred copies, making it the label's biggest seller ever. Vernon eventually convinced the heads at Decca that the Bluesbreakers could be truly big, and so he got the OK to record the album that would generally be considered the greatest British blues album of all time -- Blues Breakers, also known as the Beano album because of Clapton reading a copy of the British kids' comic The Beano in the group photo on the front. [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Ramblin' On My Mind"] The album was a mixture of originals by Mayall and the standard repertoire of every blues or R&B band on the circuit -- songs like "Parchman Farm" and "What'd I Say" -- but what made the album unique was Clapton's guitar tone. Much to the chagrin of Vernon, and of engineer Gus Dudgeon, Clapton insisted on playing at the same volume that he would on stage. Vernon later said of Dudgeon "I can remember seeing his face the very first time Clapton plugged into the Marshall stack and turned it up and started playing at the sort of volume he was going to play. You could almost see Gus's eyes meet over the middle of his nose, and it was almost like he was just going to fall over from the sheer power of it all. But after an enormous amount of fiddling around and moving amps around, we got a sound that worked." [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Hideaway"] But by the time the album cane out. Clapton was no longer with the Bluesbreakers. The Graham Bond Organisation had struggled on for a while after Bruce's departure. They brought in a trumpet player, Mike Falana, and even had a hit record -- or at least, the B-side of a hit record. The Who had just put out a hit single, "Substitute", on Robert Stigwood's record label, Reaction: [Excerpt: The Who, "Substitute"] But, as you'll hear in episode 183, they had moved to Reaction Records after a falling out with their previous label, and with Shel Talmy their previous producer. The problem was, when "Substitute" was released, it had as its B-side a song called "Circles" (also known as "Instant Party -- it's been released under both names). They'd recorded an earlier version of the song for Talmy, and just as "Substitute" was starting to chart, Talmy got an injunction against the record and it had to be pulled. Reaction couldn't afford to lose the big hit record they'd spent money promoting, so they needed to put it out with a new B-side. But the Who hadn't got any unreleased recordings. But the Graham Bond Organisation had, and indeed they had an unreleased *instrumental*. So "Waltz For a Pig" became the B-side to a top-five single, credited to The Who Orchestra: [Excerpt: The Who Orchestra, "Waltz For a Pig"] That record provided the catalyst for the formation of Cream, because Ginger Baker had written the song, and got £1,350 for it, which he used to buy a new car. Baker had, for some time, been wanting to get out of the Graham Bond Organisation. He was trying to get off heroin -- though he would make many efforts to get clean over the decades, with little success -- while Bond was starting to use it far more heavily, and was also using acid and getting heavily into mysticism, which Baker despised. Baker may have had the idea for what he did next from an article in one of the music papers. John Entwistle of the Who would often tell a story about an article in Melody Maker -- though I've not been able to track down the article itself to get the full details -- in which musicians were asked to name which of their peers they'd put into a "super-group". He didn't remember the full details, but he did remember that the consensus choice had had Eric Clapton on lead guitar, himself on bass, and Ginger Baker on drums. As he said later "I don't remember who else was voted in, but a few months later, the Cream came along, and I did wonder if somebody was maybe believing too much of their own press". Incidentally, like The Buffalo Springfield and The Pink Floyd, Cream, the band we are about to meet, had releases both with and without the definite article, and Eric Clapton at least seems always to talk about them as "the Cream" even decades later, but they're primarily known as just Cream these days. Baker, having had enough of the Bond group, decided to drive up to Oxford to see Clapton playing with the Bluesbreakers. Clapton invited him to sit in for a couple of songs, and by all accounts the band sounded far better than they had previously. Clapton and Baker could obviously play well together, and Baker offered Clapton a lift back to London in his new car, and on the drive back asked Clapton if he wanted to form a new band. Clapton was as impressed by Baker's financial skills as he was by his musicianship. He said later "Musicians didn't have cars. You all got in a van." Clearly a musician who was *actually driving a new car he owned* was going places. He agreed to Baker's plan. But of course they needed a bass player, and Clapton thought he had the perfect solution -- "What about Jack?" Clapton knew that Bruce had been a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, but didn't know why he'd left the band -- he wasn't particularly clued in to what the wider music scene was doing, and all he knew was that Bruce had played with both him and Baker, and that he was the best bass player he'd ever played with. And Bruce *was* arguably the best bass player in London at that point, and he was starting to pick up session work as well as his work with Manfred Mann. For example it's him playing on the theme tune to "After The Fox" with Peter Sellers, the Hollies, and the song's composer Burt Bacharach: [Excerpt: The Hollies with Peter Sellers, "After the Fox"] Clapton was insistent. Baker's idea was that the band should be the best musicians around. That meant they needed the *best* musicians around, not the second best. If Jack Bruce wasn't joining, Eric Clapton wasn't joining either. Baker very reluctantly agreed, and went round to see Bruce the next day -- according to Baker it was in a spirit of generosity and giving Bruce one more chance, while according to Bruce he came round to eat humble pie and beg for forgiveness. Either way, Bruce agreed to join the band. The three met up for a rehearsal at Baker's home, and immediately Bruce and Baker started fighting, but also immediately they realised that they were great at playing together -- so great that they named themselves the Cream, as they were the cream of musicians on the scene. They knew they had something, but they didn't know what. At first they considered making their performances into Dada projects, inspired by the early-twentieth-century art movement. They liked a band that had just started to make waves, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band -- who had originally been called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band -- and they bought some props with the vague idea of using them on stage in the same way the Bonzos did. But as they played together they realised that they needed to do something different from that. At first, they thought they needed a fourth member -- a keyboard player. Graham Bond's name was brought up, but Clapton vetoed him. Clapton wanted Steve Winwood, the keyboard player and vocalist with the Spencer Davis Group. Indeed, Winwood was present at what was originally intended to be the first recording session the trio would play. Joe Boyd had asked Eric Clapton to round up a bunch of players to record some filler tracks for an Elektra blues compilation, and Clapton had asked Bruce and Baker to join him, Paul Jones on vocals, Winwood on Hammond and Clapton's friend Ben Palmer on piano for the session. Indeed, given that none of the original trio were keen on singing, that Paul Jones was just about to leave Manfred Mann, and that we know Clapton wanted Winwood in the band, one has to wonder if Clapton at least half-intended for this to be the eventual lineup of the band. If he did, that plan was foiled by Baker's refusal to take part in the session. Instead, this one-off band, named The Powerhouse, featured Pete York, the drummer from the Spencer Davis Group, on the session, which produced the first recording of Clapton playing on the Robert Johnson song originally titled "Cross Road Blues" but now generally better known just as "Crossroads": [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] We talked about Robert Johnson a little back in episode ninety-seven, but other than Bob Dylan, who was inspired by his lyrics, we had seen very little influence from Johnson up to this point, but he's going to be a major influence on rock guitar for the next few years, so we should talk about him a little here. It's often said that nobody knew anything about Robert Johnson, that he was almost a phantom other than his records which existed outside of any context as artefacts of their own. That's... not really the case. Johnson had died a little less than thirty years earlier, at only twenty-seven years old. Most of his half-siblings and step-siblings were alive, as were his son, his stepson, and dozens of musicians he'd played with over the years, women he'd had affairs with, and other assorted friends and relatives. What people mean is that information about Johnson's life was not yet known by people they consider important -- which is to say white blues scholars and musicians. Indeed, almost everything people like that -- people like *me* -- know of the facts of Johnson's life has only become known to us in the last four years. If, as some people had expected, I'd started this series with an episode on Johnson, I'd have had to redo the whole thing because of the information that's made its way to the public since then. But here's what was known -- or thought -- by white blues scholars in 1966. Johnson was, according to them, a field hand from somewhere in Mississippi, who played the guitar in between working on the cotton fields. He had done two recording sessions, in 1936 and 1937. One song from his first session, "Terraplane Blues", had been a very minor hit by blues standards: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Terraplane Blues"] That had sold well -- nobody knows how well, but maybe as many as ten thousand copies, and it was certainly a record people knew in 1937 if they liked the Delta blues, but ten thousand copies total is nowhere near the sales of really successful records, and none of the follow-ups had sold anything like that much -- many of them had sold in the hundreds rather than the thousands. As Elijah Wald, one of Johnson's biographers put it "knowing about Johnson and Muddy Waters but not about Leroy Carr or Dinah Washington was like knowing about, say, the Sir Douglas Quintet but not knowing about the Beatles" -- though *I* would add that the Sir Douglas Quintet were much bigger during the sixties than Johnson was during his lifetime. One of the few white people who had noticed Johnson's existence at all was John Hammond, and he'd written a brief review of Johnson's first two singles under a pseudonym in a Communist newspaper. I'm going to quote it here, but the word he used to talk about Black people was considered correct then but isn't now, so I'll substitute Black for that word: "Before closing we cannot help but call your attention to the greatest [Black] blues singer who has cropped up in recent years, Robert Johnson. Recording them in deepest Mississippi, Vocalion has certainly done right by us and by the tunes "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" and "Terraplane Blues", to name only two of the four sides already released, sung to his own guitar accompaniment. Johnson makes Leadbelly sound like an accomplished poseur" Hammond had tried to get Johnson to perform at the Spirituals to Swing concerts we talked about in the very first episodes of the podcast, but he'd discovered that he'd died shortly before. He got Big Bill Broonzy instead, and played a couple of Johnson's records from a record player on the stage. Hammond introduced those recordings with a speech: "It is tragic that an American audience could not have been found seven or eight years ago for a concert of this kind. Bessie Smith was still at the height of her career and Joe Smith, probably the greatest trumpet player America ever knew, would still have been around to play obbligatos for her...dozens of other artists could have been there in the flesh. But that audience as well as this one would not have been able to hear Robert Johnson sing and play the blues on his guitar, for at that time Johnson was just an unknown hand on a Robinsonville, Mississippi plantation. Robert Johnson was going to be the big surprise of the evening for this audience at Carnegie Hall. I know him only from his Vocalion blues records and from the tall, exciting tales the recording engineers and supervisors used to bring about him from the improvised studios in Dallas and San Antonio. I don't believe Johnson had ever worked as a professional musician anywhere, and it still knocks me over when I think of how lucky it is that a talent like his ever found its way onto phonograph records. We will have to be content with playing two of his records, the old "Walkin' Blues" and the new, unreleased, "Preachin' Blues", because Robert Johnson died last week at the precise moment when Vocalion scouts finally reached him and told him that he was booked to appear at Carnegie Hall on December 23. He was in his middle twenties and nobody seems to know what caused his death." And that was, for the most part, the end of Robert Johnson's impact on the culture for a generation. The Lomaxes went down to Clarksdale, Mississippi a couple of years later -- reports vary as to whether this was to see if they could find Johnson, who they were unaware was dead, or to find information out about him, and they did end up recording a young singer named Muddy Waters for the Library of Congress, including Waters' rendition of "32-20 Blues", Johnson's reworking of Skip James' "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Muddy Waters, "32-20 Blues"] But Johnson's records remained unavailable after their initial release until 1959, when the blues scholar Samuel Charters published the book The Country Blues, which was the first book-length treatment ever of Delta blues. Sixteen years later Charters said "I shouldn't have written The Country Blues when I did; since I really didn't know enough, but I felt I couldn't afford to wait. So The Country Blues was two things. It was a romanticization of certain aspects of black life in an effort to force the white society to reconsider some of its racial attitudes, and on the other hand it was a cry for help. I wanted hundreds of people to go out and interview the surviving blues artists. I wanted people to record them and document their lives, their environment, and their music, not only so that their story would be preserved but also so they'd get a little money and a little recognition in their last years." Charters talked about Johnson in the book, as one of the performers who played "minor roles in the story of the blues", and said that almost nothing was known about his life. He talked about how he had been poisoned by his common-law wife, about how his records were recorded in a pool hall, and said "The finest of Robert Johnson's blues have a brooding sense of torment and despair. The blues has become a personified figure of despondency." Along with Charters' book came a compilation album of the same name, and that included the first ever reissue of one of Johnson's tracks, "Preaching Blues": [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Preaching Blues"] Two years later, John Hammond, who had remained an ardent fan of Johnson, had Columbia put out the King of the Delta Blues Singers album. At the time no white blues scholars knew what Johnson looked like and they had no photos of him, so a generic painting of a poor-looking Black man with a guitar was used for the cover. The liner note to King of the Delta Blues Singers talked about how Johnson was seventeen or eighteen when he made his recordings, how he was "dead before he reached his twenty-first birthday, poisoned by a jealous girlfriend", how he had "seldom, if ever, been away from the plantation in Robinsville, Mississippi, where he was born and raised", and how he had had such stage fright that when he was asked to play in front of other musicians, he'd turned to face a wall so he couldn't see them. And that would be all that any of the members of the Powerhouse would know about Johnson. Maybe they'd also heard the rumours that were starting to spread that Johnson had got his guitar-playing skills by selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads at midnight, but that would have been all they knew when they recorded their filler track for Elektra: [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] Either way, the Powerhouse lineup only lasted for that one session -- the group eventually decided that a simple trio would be best for the music they wanted to play. Clapton had seen Buddy Guy touring with just a bass player and drummer a year earlier, and had liked the idea of the freedom that gave him as a guitarist. The group soon took on Robert Stigwood as a manager, which caused more arguments between Bruce and Baker. Bruce was convinced that if they were doing an all-for-one one-for-all thing they should also manage themselves, but Baker pointed out that that was a daft idea when they could get one of the biggest managers in the country to look after them. A bigger argument, which almost killed the group before it started, happened when Baker told journalist Chris Welch of the Melody Maker about their plans. In an echo of the way that he and Bruce had been resigned from Blues Incorporated without being consulted, now with no discussion Manfred Mann and John Mayall were reading in the papers that their band members were quitting before those members had bothered to mention it. Mayall was furious, especially since the album Clapton had played on hadn't yet come out. Clapton was supposed to work a month's notice while Mayall found another guitarist, but Mayall spent two weeks begging Peter Green to rejoin the band. Green was less than eager -- after all, he'd been fired pretty much straight away earlier -- but Mayall eventually persuaded him. The second he did, Mayall turned round to Clapton and told him he didn't have to work the rest of his notice -- he'd found another guitar player and Clapton was fired: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, "Dust My Blues"] Manfred Mann meanwhile took on the Beatles' friend Klaus Voorman to replace Bruce. Voorman would remain with the band until the end, and like Green was for Mayall, Voorman was in some ways a better fit for Manfred Mann than Bruce was. In particular he could double on flute, as he did for example on their hit version of Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann "The Mighty Quinn"] The new group, The Cream, were of course signed in the UK to Stigwood's Reaction label. Other than the Who, who only stuck around for one album, Reaction was not a very successful label. Its biggest signing was a former keyboard player for Screaming Lord Sutch, who recorded for them under the names Paul Dean and Oscar, but who later became known as Paul Nicholas and had a successful career in musical theatre and sitcom. Nicholas never had any hits for Reaction, but he did release one interesting record, in 1967: [Excerpt: Oscar, "Over the Wall We Go"] That was one of the earliest songwriting attempts by a young man who had recently named himself David Bowie. Now the group were public, they started inviting journalists to their rehearsals, which were mostly spent trying to combine their disparate musical influences --
This week, 8-time Grammy-winner Ray Benson—one of Willie's best friends since moving his Western Swing band, Asleep at the Wheel, to Austin back in 1973...at Willie's urging, no less!—talks about a song Willie and the Wheel cut back in 1999, the Bob Wills classic, “Going Away Party.” Wills was, of course, a hero to both Willie and Ray, as was the song's composer, the great Cindy Walker, who Ray calls one of the single greatest influences on Willie's own songwriting. From there he'll describe fifty years of friendship and collaboration with Willie, with cameos by George Gershwin, Floyd Tillman, and Robert Duvall.
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