Woman, You Don't Have To Go - Luther 'Snake Boy''Johnson

Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson (August 30, 1934 – March 18, 1976) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was also known as Luther "Snake" Johnson or Luther "Georgia Boy" Johnson, and was otherwise billed as both Luther King and Little Luther (under the latter he recorded for Chess Records in the 1960s). Allmusic journalist, Ron Wynn, stated "Johnson's own inimitable vocals, raspy lines and tart guitar eventually create his own aura... a good, occasionally outstanding blues artist."[ He is not to be confused with Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson. He was born Lucious Brinson in Davisboro, Georgia, United States. He was raised on a farm and taught himself to play guitar. After service in the US Army up to 1953, Johnson played guitar with a local gospel group called the Milwaukee Supreme Angels. However, he graduated towards blues and set up his own trio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before relocating to Chicago, Illinois in the early 1960s. He backed Elmore James prior to his death, and in 1964, released a solo single on the Chess Records label entitled "The Twirl", billed as Little Luther. He then joined Muddy Waters backing band in 1966. Johnson worked with various musicians over this period, including Chicago Bob Nelson, before recording his debut album, Come on Home in 1969. In 1970, Johnson moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and found work on the blues festival and college circuits for the next few years. Black & Blue Records released Johnson's Born in Georgia in 1972, and this was followed by Chicken Shack (1974), Lonesome in My Bedroom (1975), and the final album issued in his lifetime, Get Down to the Nitty Gritty (1976). Johnson died of cancer in Boston in March 1976, aged 41. He was interred at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan, Massachusetts. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Easy Rider - Sonny Terry

Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (24 October 1911 - 11 March 1986) was a blind American Piedmont blues musician. He was widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts. Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and lost his sight by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work himself. In order to earn a living Terry was forced to play music. He began playing in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died he began playing in the trio of Piedmont blues-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died in 1941, he established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and the pair recorded numerous songs together. The duo became well-known among white audiences, as they joined the growing folk movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This included collaborations with Styve Homnick, Woody Guthrie and Moses Asch, producing Folkways Records (now Smithsonian/Folkways) classic recordings. In 1938 Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals to Swing concert, and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress. In 1940 Terry recorded his first commercial sides. Some of his most famous works include "Old Jabo" a song about a man bitten by a snake and "Lost John" in this he demonstrates his amazing breath control . Despite their fame as "pure" folk artists, in the 1940s, Terry and McGhee fronted a jump blues combo with honking saxophone and rolling piano that was variously called Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers or Sonny Terry and his Buckshot Five. Terry was also in the 1947 original cast of the Broadway musical comedy, Finian's Rainbow. Terry died from natural causes at Mineola, New York, in March 1986, the year he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. He died three days before Crossroads was released in theaters.

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Doodle Hole Blues - Laughing Charlie Lincoln

Charley Lincoln (also known as Charley Hicks or Laughing Charley) (March 11, 1900 – September 28, 1963), was an early American country blues musician. He often recorded with his brother Robert Hicks (who was billed as Barbecue Bob). He was born Charley Hicks in Lithonia, Georgia, United States. In his teens he was taught guitar by Savannah Weaver, the mother of Curley Weaver, and performed in the Lithonia area until 1920. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia and worked outside the field of music, while also performing occasionally with his brother. He recorded with his brother for the Columbia label 1927–30. An example is the two part duet with crosstalk, "It Won't Be Long Now" that the brothers recorded in Atlanta on November 5, 1927. After Robert's early death in 1931, Charley Lincoln continued to perform into the 1950s. From 1955–63 he was imprisoned for murder in Cairo, Georgia, where he became a prisoner trustee. He died there of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 28, 1963.  

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Mississippi Blues - Lucille Hegamin

Lucille Nelson Hegamin (November 29, 1894 – March 1, 1970) was an American singer and entertainer, and a pioneer African American blues recording artist. Hegamin was born as Lucille Nelson in Macon, Georgia, United States. From an early age she sang in local church choirs. By the age of 15 she was touring the US South with the Leonard Harper Minstrel Stock Company. In 1914 she settled in Chicago, Illinois, where, often billed as "The Georgia Peach", she worked with Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton before marrying pianist, Bill Hegamin.[3] She later told a biographer: "I was a cabaret artist in those days, and never had to play theatres, and I sang everything from blues to popular songs, in a jazz style. I think I can say without bragging that I made the "St. Louis Blues" popular in Chicago; this was one of my feature numbers." Lucille Hegamin's stylistic influences included Annette Hanshaw and Ruth Etting. The Hegamins moved to Los Angeles, California in 1918, then to New York City the following year. Bill Hegamin led his wife's accompanying band, called the Blue Flame Syncopators; Jimmy Wade was a member of this ensemble. In November 1920, Hegamin became the second African American blues singer to record, after Mamie Smith. Hegamin made a series of recordings for the Arto record label through 1922, then a few sides for Black Swan, Lincoln, Paramount and Columbia. From 1922 through late 1926 she recorded for Cameo Records; from this association she was billed as 'The Cameo Girl'. Like Mamie Smith, Hegamin sang in a lighter, more pop-tune influenced style than the rougher rural-style blues singers such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith who became more popular a few years later. Two of her earliest recordings, "The Jazz Me Blues" and "Arkansas Blues" became classic tunes. On January 20, 1922, she competed in a blues singing contest against Daisy Martin, Alice Leslie Carter and Trixie Smith at the Fifteenth Infantry's First Band Concert and Dance in New York City. Hegamin placed second to Smith in the contest, which was held at the Manhattan Casino. In 1926, Hegamin performed in Clarence Williams' Review at the Lincoln Theater in New York, then in various reviews in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey through 1934. In 1929 she appeared on the radio show "Negro Achievement Hour" on WABC, New York. In 1932 she recorded for Okeh Records. About 1934 she retired from music as a profession, and worked as a nurse. She came out of retirement to make more records in 1961 and 1962. Lucille Hegamin died in Harlem Hospital in New York on March 1, 1970, and was interred in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn, New York
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Worried Life Blues - Big Maceo Merriweather

Big Maceo Merriweather (March 31, 1905 – February 23, 1953) was an American Chicago blues pianist and singer, active in Chicago in the 1940s.
Born Major Merriweather (or Merewether) in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, he was a self-taught pianist. In the 1920s he moved to Detroit, Michigan and began playing parties and clubs. In 1941, a desire to record led him to Chicago where he met and befriended Tampa Red. Red introduced him to Lester Melrose of Bluebird Records, who signed him to a recording contract.

His first record was "Worried Life Blues" (1941), which promptly became a blues hit and remained his signature piece. Other classic piano blues recordings such as "Chicago Breakdown", "Texas Stomp", and "Detroit Jump" followed. His piano style developed from players like Leroy Carr and Roosevelt Sykes, as well as from the Boogie-woogie style of Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons. He in turn influenced other musicians like Henry Gray, who credits Merriweather to helping him launch his career as a blues pianist.

His style had an impact on practically every post World War II blues pianist of note. His most famous song, "Worried Life Blues" is a staple of the blues repertoire, with artists such as Eric Clapton featuring it regularly in concert. "Worried Life Blues" was in the first batch of songs inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame "Classic Blues Recordings - Singles or Albums Tracks" alongside "Stormy Monday," 'Sweet Home Chicago," "Dust My Broom," and "Hellhound On My Trail."

His career was cut short in 1946 by a stroke. Poor health and a lifetime of heavy drinking eventually led to a fatal heart attack. He died on February 23, 1953 in Chicago, and was interred at the Detroit Memorial Cemetery in Warren, Michigan.

His sparse recordings for Bluebird were released in a double album set as Chicago Breakdown, in 1975. They have since been reissued on a variety of labels.

In 2002 he was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

On May 3, 2008 the White Lake Blues Festival took place at the Howmet Playhouse Theater in Whitehall, Michigan. The event was organized by executive producer, Steve Salter, of the nonprofit organization Killer Blues to raise monies to honor Merriweather's unmarked grave with a headstone. The concert was a success, and a headstone was placed in June, 2008.
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How Long - Eddie Chamblee

Edwin Leon Chamblee (24 February 1920 – 1 May 1999), known as Eddie "Long Gone" Chamblee, was an American tenor and alto saxophonist, and occasional vocalist, who played jazz and R&B. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Chicago where he began learning the saxophone at the age of 12. After leaving Wendell Phillips High School, he studied law at Chicago State University, playing in clubs in the evenings and at weekends. He played in US Army bands between 1941 and 1946. After leaving the army, he joined Miracle Records. He played on Sonny Thompson's hit record "Long Gone" in 1948, and on its follow-up, "Late Freight", credited to the Sonny Thompson Quintet featuring Eddie Chamblee. Both records reached no. 1 on the national Billboard R&B chart. Two follow-up records, "Blue Dreams" and "Back Street", also made the R&B chart in 1949. From 1947, he led his own band in Chicago clubs, as well as continuing to record with Thompson and on other sessions in Chicago, including The Four Blazes' no. 1 R&B hit "Mary Jo" in 1952. In 1954 he joined Lionel Hampton's band for two years, touring in Europe, before returning to lead his own group in Chicago. He accompanied both Amos Milburn and Lowell Fulson on some of their recordings, and then worked as accompanist to Dinah Washington on many of her successful recordings in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The two performed vocal duets in a style similar to that later adopted by Washington with Brook Benton, and were briefly married; he was her fifth husband. Chamblee also recorded for the Mercury and EmArcy labels, and with his own group in the early 1960s for the Roulette and Prestige labels. In the 1970s he rejoined Hampton for tours of Europe, where he also played with Milt Buckner, and he recorded for the French Black & Blue label. He also performed with the Count Basie Orchestra in 1982, and from the 1980s until his death with the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, as well as in clubs in New York City. He died in New York in 1999 at the age of 79.
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Little Wing - Gitlo Blues Band

Gitlo Lee was born on a turpentine farm among nine brothers and three sisters in Menola -- that's a town on the skirts of the Okefenokee Swamp in lower Georgia, where the South couldn't get any deeper. Gitlo was raised by Church of God in Christ parents, his father a minister, his mother extremely devout. Religion, which from time to time has a reputation for maintaining a relatively humorless environment, resigned in the Lee home, and eventually kept Lee from beginning his blues career earlier that he could have. In addition to attending Sunday services, Gitlo went sneaking around juke joints to hear the sultry, what some called devilish, sounds of the blues. Just listening didn't get him close enough to the action, so Gitlo made his first guitar out of Prince Albert tobacco cans, a burned tire and wire tied to pennies. "Gitlo is Gitlo, and he's a unique phenomenon," said the bass player for Gitlo's Blues Roadshow. He typifies the real blues experience. Like all good blues-experience stories, the next ingredient involves the special combination of luck and divine intervention that leads to a close brush with early fame: a notorious and established bluesman, Sonny Boy Williamson, just happened to be playing a New Year's Eve gig in Darien and needed a guitar player when word spread of a 13-year old prodigy. There are two Sonny Boy Williamsons. This one was of King Biscuit radio fame, was younger than the first and was sometimes called Sonny Boy Williamson #2. He knocked on the Lee's door to inquire after the young man he'd heard so much about. The New Year's Eve gig was a success that impressed the seasoned and elderly performer so much that he invited the 13-year old Gitlo to hit the road with him. It may sound young, but according to Gitlo, "I was already a grown dude at 10, 11 years old." Under Williamson's tutelage, Howlin' Wolfe became a household blues name. So you can imagine the disappointment the young man must have felt when Gitlo's mother said, "absolutely not." "I feel like I really missed a big one," he said. "But I love doing it anyway. I'm excited about playing tonight as I was about playing with Sonny Boy." Among musicians, the term "chitlin circuit" refers to gigs that old-school, hard-knocks, unpolished blues performers play in. And for years, Gitlo has fit the chitlin-circuit bill, which can be summed up as carrying blues players good enough to be famous, but too real to be transmogrified into market fodder by the music industry. So Gitlo remains about as grassroots as the blues can get. "I always thought a lot of those older guys (on the circuit) were part of a by-gone era, but Gitlo's about as close to legitimate as you can get to the real blues experience." Gitlo is always ready to hit the road. His van is a self-contained unit that allows him to take off at a moment's notice for gigs all over the country. "It doesn't matter who he's playing for. Even if it's a bunch or doctors or lawyers, he can go out and work a crowd anywhere," said his drummer. And work he has. Gitlo has played everywhere from a command performance at the governor's mansion to the smelliest honky tonk, juke joint the red clay ever coughed up. Just about every local musician has sat in with Gitlo to experience what some call the phenomenon of playing with him. For some it's a chore to be next to a man who consistently steals the show. For others, it's a blessing. But the gospel according to Gitlo remains clear in his world: "Everybody wants to play with me because I got that old time religion like Elvis or James Brown. Seeing him perform will doubtlessly convert you to Gitlo's old-time, bluesded-in-the-wool ways. He will have you up dancing and shouting. Forget your troubles, the good times are here now!

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Old Original Kokomo Blues - KOKOMO ARNOLD

Kokomo Arnold (February 15, 1901 – November 8, 1968) was an American blues musician. Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana. A left-handed slide guitarist, his intense slide style of playing and rapid-fire vocal style set him apart from his contemporaries. Having learned the basics of the guitar from his cousin, John Wiggs,[2] Arnold began playing in the early 1920s as a sideline while he worked as a farmhand in Buffalo, New York, and as a steelworker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1929 he moved to Chicago and set up a bootlegging business, an activity he continued throughout Prohibition. In 1930 Arnold moved south briefly, and made his first recordings, "Rainy Night Blues" and "Paddlin' Madeline Blues", under the name Gitfiddle Jim for the Victor label in Memphis. He soon moved back to Chicago, although he was forced to make a living as a musician after Prohibition ended in 1933. Kansas Joe McCoy heard him and introduced him to Mayo Williams who was producing records for Decca. From his first recording for Decca on September 10, 1934, until his last on May 12, 1938, Arnold made 88 sides, seven of which remain lost. Arnold, Peetie Wheatstraw and Bumble Bee Slim were dominant figures in Chicago blues circles of that time. Peetie Wheatstraw & Arnold in particular were also major influences upon musical contemporary seminal delta blues artist Robert Johnson and thus modern music as a whole. Johnson turned "Old Original Kokomo Blues" into "Sweet Home Chicago", "Milk Cow Blues" into "Milkcow's Calf Blues", while another Arnold song, "Sagefield Woman Blues", introduced the terminology "dust my broom", which Johnson used as a song title himself. Arnold's "Milk Cow Blues" was covered by Elvis Presley (as "Milk Cow Blues Boogie") at the Sun Studios produced by Sam Phillips and was issued as one of his early singles, it was later performed by Tyler Hilton who played Elvis in the 2005 film Walk the Line. Aerosmith covered "Milk Cow Blues" on their 1977 album Draw the Line, In the eighties, a version appeared in Spanish by Marco T y los Gatos Montañeros.Dead Moon covered it on their 1990 album Defiance, George Strait on his 1991 album Chill of an Early Fall and Willie Nelson on the 2000 album Milk Cow Blues. In 1938 Arnold left the music industry and began to work in a Chicago factory. Rediscovered by blues researchers in 1962, he showed no enthusiasm for returning to music to take advantage of the new explosion of interest in the blues among young white audiences. He died of a heart attack in Chicago, aged 67, in 1968, and was buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

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Keep It Clean - Rufus & Ben Quillian

Rufus Quinlan, 2 February, 1900, Gainesville, Georgia, USA, - 31 January 1946; piano, vocals - Ben, 23 June, 1907, Gainesville, Georgia, USA; vocals) worked in various combinations, but mostly in a group named the Blue Harmony Boys. This group, which also included other singers or musicians at various times, such as guitarist James McCrary, was notable in that the vocalists sang blues and related material in sweet, close harmonies. Ben was not with them at their first recording session in 1929, but was present at sessions in the following two years. The brothers were well known as performers around Atlanta at this time and had a regular spot on a local radio station. Although their material on record was of a goodtime nature, Rufus was also known for composing religious songs. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

The 12 Days of Turquoise - Starting Feb 1

Devon Allman: The 12 Days of Turquoise:

Audio Love Notes From Devon To His Fans:

Debut Solo CD, on Ruf Records, Out on February 12

Atlanta, GA – Starting on Friday February 1^st, Ruf Records recording artist, Devon Allman, will be sharing his thoughts on his debut solo release, Turquoise,  each day with an audio note gift for his fans leading up to the official release date, February 12^th. This will be posted on his social media sites:  Facebook page, his Twitter feed, YouTube Channel and website.

So tune in at 12PM Eastern Time, each day to get your dose of Devon Allman talking about Turquoise.

“These songs are very special to me,” says Allman. “It’s part ‘dusty road driving music’ and part ‘tropical getaway’ music. These are the stories, feelings and reflections from my last couple of decades of forging my musical path.”

Turquoise was produced and mixed by multi-Grammy winner Jim Gaines and recorded at his Bessie Blue Studios in Stantonville, Tennessee, as well as at Ardent Studios in Memphis. Devon Allman (vocals and guitars) is joined on the new CD in a core trio set-up that features his fellow Royal Southern Brotherhood bandmate Yonrico Scott (drums and percussion), as well as Myles Weeks (upright and electric bass). Special guests include Luther Dickinson (guitar), Samantha Fish (vocals), Ron Holloway (sax), Bobby Schneck Jr. (guitar) and Rick Steff (Hammond B3 organ).  Ruf Records is distributed by Allegro worldwide.

We here at Mark Pucci Media will also be posting these snippets of this so check us out on Facebook to tune in.  www.facebook.com/markpuccimedia

The following Devon Allman sites will be included:

www.devonallmanband.com

www.facebook.com/devonallman

www.twitter.com/devonallman

www.youtube.com/user/devonallmanmusic

"That's why musicians lose their minds... because the highs are so high and the lows are so low and there's no middle ground. Ever. And if there's a middle ground, you're a boring player."
--Col. Bruce Hampton

San Francisco Bay Blues - Jesse Fuller

Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 — January 29, 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues" Fuller was born in Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta. He was sent by his mother to live with foster parents when he was a young child, in a rural setting where he was badly mistreated. Growing up, he worked a multitude of jobs: grazing cows for ten cents a day, working in a barrel factory, a broom factory, a rock quarry, on a railroad and a streetcar company, shining shoes, and even peddling hand-carved wooden snakes. He came west and in the 1920s worked briefly as a film extra in The Thief of Bagdad and East of Suez. Eventually he settled in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco, where he worked for the Southern Pacific railroad. During World War II, he worked as a shipyard welder, but when the war ended he found it increasingly difficult to find work. Around the early 1950s, Fuller's thoughts turned toward the possibility of making a living playing music. Up to this point, Fuller had never worked professionally as a musician, but had certainly been exposed to music, and had learned to play guitar and picked up quite a number of songs: country blues, work songs, ballads, spirituals and instrumentals. And he had carried his guitar with him and played for money by passing the hat. When he decided to try to work as a professional, he found it hard to find other musicians to work with: thus his one-man band act was born. Starting locally, in clubs and bars in San Francisco and across the bay in Oakland and Berkeley, Fuller became more widely known when he performed on television in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles, and in 1958 his recording career started with his first album on the Good Time Jazz record label. Fuller's instruments included 12-string guitar, harmonica, kazoo, cymbal (high-hat) and fotdella, several of which could be played simultaneously, particularly with the use of a head-piece to hold the harmonica and kazoo, often at the same time. Much later, the Grateful Dead covered a few of Fuller's songs, including "The Monkey and the Engineer" and "Beat It on Down the Line". Others who have covered his work include Hot Tuna, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glenn Yarbrough, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, and Bob Dylan, on his debut in 1962 The fotdella was a musical instrument of Fuller's own creation and construction. As a one-man band, the problem was how to supply a more substantial accompaniment than the typical high-hat (cymbal) or bass drum used by street musicians. Fuller's solution was the fotdella. It was a foot-operated percussion bass, consisting of a large upright wood box, shaped like the top of a double bass. Attached to a short neck at the top of this box were six bass strings, stretched over the body. And finally, there was the means to play those strings: six foot pedals, each connected to a padded hammer which struck the string, in a homemade wooden contraption. The six notes of the fotdella allowed him to play a bass line in several keys, though he occasionally would play without it if a song exceeded its limited range. The name was coined by his wife, who took to calling the instrument a "foot-diller" (as in a "killer-diller" instrument played with the foot), which was shortened to fotdella. Fuller died in January 1976 in Oakland, California, from heart disease.He was 79 years of age. He was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Dupree Blues - Baby Tate

Baby Tate (January 28, 1916 – August 17, 1972) was an American Piedmont blues guitarist, who in a sporadic career spanning five decades, worked variously with guitarists Blind Boy Fuller and Pink Anderson, as well as harmonica player Peg Leg Sam. His playing style was influenced by Blind Blake, Buddy Moss, Blind Boy Fuller, Josh White, and Willie Walker, and to some extent Lightnin' Hopkins Born Charles Henry Tate in Elberton, Georgia, he was raised in Greenville, South Carolina. In his adolescence, Tate started performing locally, after seeing Blind Blake in Elberton. Tate later formed a trio with Joe Walker (the brother of Willie Walker) and Roosevelt "Baby" Brooks and, up to 1932, played in the local area. As The Carolina Blackbirds, they appeared on the radio station, WFBC, broadcasting from The Jack Tar Hotel, but for the rest of the 1930s worked for a living, mainly as a mason. Baby Tate served in the United States Army infantry during World War II in the south of England, and did not return to the Spartanburg/Greenville club circuit until 1946. Nevertheless, in 1950 Tate claimed to have recorded several (unreleased) tracks for the Kapp label. Relocating to Spartanburg, South Carolina, he performed solo before forming an occasional duo with Pink Anderson; a working relationship that endured through to the 1970s when Anderson suffered from stroke. Tate released his only album, Blues of Baby Tate: See What You Done Done, in 1962, and twelve months later appeared in Sam Charters' documentary film The Blues. Throughout the 1960s Tate performed irregularly across the US. Utilising harmonica player, Peg Leg Sam, or guitarists Baby Brooks or McKinley Ellis, Tate recorded nearly sixty tracks in 1970 and 1971 for Peter B. Lowry, but the proposed album remained unreleased once Tate unexpectedly died in the summer of 1972.[5] He appeared at a concert at the State University of New York at New Paltz, New York as a result of Lowry's efforts in the Spring of 1972. Tate died from the effects of a heart attack, in the VA Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, in August 1972, at the age of 56. In January 2011, Baby Tate was nominated for The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Blues Song category for "See What You Done". Smithsonian Folkways released a compilation album on February 16, 2010, titled Classic Appalachian Blues. It featured the Baby Tate number, "See What You Done Done If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Every Day in the Week Blues - Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley

Simeon "Blind Simmie" Dooley (July 3, 1881 - January 17, 1961) was an American country blues singer and guitarist. Dooley was born in Hartwell, Georgia. Dooley met Pink Anderson in 1916 and taught him to play guitar. The two played on the street and at parties when Anderson was not traveling with Dr. Kerr's Medicine Show. In 1928 Dooley and Anderson went to Atlanta to record four pieces for Columbia Records. Two were published in the same year, the other two the following year. The records sold well. Anderson was invited to make further recordings without Dooley, however Anderson refused to be without Dooley. Dooley died from heart disease in Spartanburg, South Carolina, at the age of 79. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Hard Times Blues - Buddy Moss

Eugene "Buddy" Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984) was, in the estimation of many blues scholars, one of two the most influential East Coast blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's debut in 1935 (the other being Josh White). A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Barbecue Bob, Moss was part of a coterie of Atlanta bluesmen, and among the few of his era who had been involved in the blues revival of the 1960s and 1970s. A guitarist of uncommon skill and dexterity with a strong voice, he began as a musical disciple of Blind Blake, and may well have served as an influence on the later Piedmont-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. Although his career was halted in 1935 by a six-year jail term, and then by the Second World War, Moss lived long enough to be rediscovered in the 1960s, when he revealed his talent had persevered throughout the years. He was reputed to have been cankerous and mistrusting of others, the extent to which this is a case is subjective. In later years, Moss credited friend and band-mate Barbecue Bob with being a major influence on his playing, which would be understandable given the time they spent together. Scholars also attribute Arthur "Blind" Blake as a major force in his development, with mannerisms and inflections that both share. It is also suggested by Alan Balfour and others that Moss may have been an influence on Blind Boy Fuller, as they never met and Moss' recording career ended before Fuller's began — Moss's first recordings display some inflections and nuances that Fuller had not put down on record until some years later. Moss was one of 12 children born to a sharecropper in the Warren County town of Jewell, Georgia, midway between Atlanta and Augusta. There is some disagreement about his date of birth, some sources indicating 1906 and many others of more recent vintage claiming 1914. He began teaching himself the harmonica at a very early age, and he played at local parties around Augusta, where the family moved when he was four and remained for the next 10 years. By 1928, he was busking around the streets of Atlanta. "Nobody was my influence," he told Robert Springer of his harmonica playing, in a 1975 interview. "I just kept hearing people, so I listen and I listen, and listen, and it finally come to me." By the time he arrived in Atlanta, he was good enough to be noticed by Curley Weaver and Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks, who began working with the younger Moss. It was Weaver and Bob that got him onto his first recording date, at the age of 16, as a member of their group the Georgia Cotton Pickers, on December 7, 1930 at the Campbell Hotel in Atlanta, doing four songs for Columbia: "I'm On My Way Down Home," "Diddle-Da-Diddle," "She Looks So Good," and "She's Comin' Back Some Cold Rainy Day." The group that day consisted of Barbecue Bob and Curley Weaver on guitars and Moss on harmonica. Moss would not record anything more for the next three years. By 1933, Moss had taught himself the guitar, at which he became so proficient that he was a genuine peer and rival to Weaver. He frequently played with Barbecue Bob until his death of pneumonia on October 21, 1931, he found a new partner and associate in Atlanta blues legend Blind Willie McTell, performing together at local parties in the Atlanta area. In January 1933, however, he made his debut as a recording artist in his own right for the American Record Company in New York City, accompanied by Fred McMullen and Curley Weaver, easily cutting three songs cut that first day, "Bye Bye Mama," "Daddy Don't Care," and "Red River Blues." Another 8 songs followed over the next three days, and all 11 were released, far more than saw the light of day from McMullen or Weaver at those same sessions. The debut sessions also featured Moss returning to the mouth harp, as a member of the Georgia Browns - Moss, Weaver, McMullen and singer Ruth Willis - for six songs done at the same sessions. But it was on the guitar that Moss would make his name over the next five years. Moss's records were released simultaneously on various budget labels associated with ARC, and were so successful that in mid-September 1933, he was back in New York City along with Weaver and Blind Willie McTell. Moss cut another dozen songs for the company, this time accompanied by Curley Weaver, while he accompanied Weaver and McTell on their numbers. These songs sold well enough, that he was back in New York City in the summer of 1934, this time as a solo guitarist/singer, to do more than a dozen tracks. At this point, Moss's records were outselling those of his colleagues Weaver and McTell, and were widely heard through the Southern and Border states. His "Oh Lordy Mama" from these sessions became well known as "Hey Lawdy Mama", a song interpreted by a variety of artists. This body of recordings also best represents the bridge that Moss provided between Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller - his solo version of "Some Lonesome Day," and also "Dough Rollin' Papa," from 1934 advanced ideas in playing and singing that Blind Boy Fuller picked up and adapted to his own style, while one could listen to "Insane Blues" and pick up the lingering influence of Blind Blake. By August 1935, Moss saw his per-song fee doubled from $5 to $10 (in a period when many men were surviving on less than that per week), and when he wasn't recording, he was constantly playing around Atlanta alongside McTell and Weaver. When Moss returned to the studio in the summer of 1935, it was with a new partner, Joshua Daniel White, "The Singing Christian". The two recorded a group of 15 songs in August 1935, and it seemed like Moss was destined to outshine his one-time mentors Weaver and McTell, when personal and legal disaster struck. In an incident that has never been fully recounted or explained, Moss was arrested, tried, and convicted for the shooting murder of his wife and sentenced to a long prison term. (The above photograph was taken of Moss at the prison where he was incarcerated.) With the death of Blind Boy Fuller in 1941, his manager, J.B. Long, made efforts to secure Moss's release as a Fuller replacement, all to no avail until 1941, when a combination of Moss' own good behavior as a prisoner, the bribery of two parole boards, coupled with the entreaties of two outside sponsors (Long and Columbia Records) willing to assure his compliance with parole helped get him out of jail. J.B. Long finally effected his release to his custody with the understanding that Moss stay out of the State of Georgia for a decade. It was while working at Elon College for Long under the parole agreement that he met a group of other blues musicians under Long's management that included Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. In October 1941, Moss, Terry and McGhee, a.o. went to New York City to cut a group of sides for Okeh Records/Columbia, including 13 numbers by Moss featuring his two new colleagues. Only three of the songs were ever released, and then events conspired to cut short Moss's recording comeback. The entry of the United States into World War II in December of the same year forced the government to place a wartime priority on the shellac used in the making of 78-rpm Gramophone records - there was barely enough allocated to the recording industry to keep functioning, and record companies were forced to curtail recordings by all but the most commercially viable artists; a ban on recording work by the Musicians' Union declared soon after further restricted any chance for Moss to record; and the interest in acoustic country blues, even of the caliber that he played, seemed to be waning, further cutting back on record company interest. Moss continued performing in the area around Richmond, Virginia and Durham, North Carolina during the mid-'40s, and with Curley Weaver in Atlanta during the early 1950s, but music was no longer his profession or his living. His decade ban from Georgia is probably why he missed out on recording for Regal Records in Atlanta in 1949; the likes of Curley Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, and Frank Edwards were recorded then. He went to work on a tobacco farm, drove trucks, and worked as an elevator operator, among other jobs, over the next 20-odd years. Although he still occasionally played in the area around Atlanta, Moss was largely forgotten. Despite the fact that reference sources even then referred to him as one of the most influential bluesmen of the 1930s, he was overlooked by the blues revival. In a sense, he was cheated by the fact that his recording career had been so short - 1933 to 1935 - and had never recovered from the interruption in his work caused by his stretch in prison. His difficult character made it difficult for many, Black and White, to deal with him. Fate stepped in, in the form of some coincidences. In 1964, he chanced to hear that his old partner Josh White was giving a concert at Emory University in Atlanta. Moss visited White backstage at the concert, and the fans hanging around established legend White suddenly discovered a blues legend in their midst. Moss was persuaded to resume performing in a series of concerts before college audiences, most notably under the auspices of the Atlanta Folk Music Society and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. He also had new recording sessions for the Columbia label in Nashville, but none of the material was issued during his lifetime. A June 10, 1966 concert in Washington, D.C. was recorded and portions of it were later released on the Biograph label. Moss played the Newport Folk Festival in 1969, and appeared at such unusual venues as New York's Electric Circus during that same year. During the 1970s, he played the John Henry Memorial Concert in West Virginia for two consecutive years, and the Atlanta Blues Festival and the Atlanta Grass Roots Music Festival in 1976, and later at The National Folk Festival held at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Vienna, VA. Moss died in Atlanta on October 19, 1984, once again largely forgotten by the public. In the years since, his music was once again being heard courtesy of the Biograph label's reissue of the 1966 performance and the Austrian Document label, which has released virtually every side that he released between 1930 and 1941. While there were some who tried to get him to record, his difficult personality made that impossible – once again, he was his own worst enemy – in spite of his immense talent and importance. As a result, his reputation has once again grown, although he is still not nearly as well known among blues enthusiasts as Blind Willie McTell or Blind Boy Fuller. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

LINA BLUES - JABBO SMITH & the HOT ANTIC JAZZ BAND

Jabbo Smith, born as Cladys Smith (December 24, 1908 – January 16, 1991) was a United States jazz musician, known for his hot virtuoso playing on the trumpet. Smith was born in Pembroke, Georgia. At the age of 6 he went into the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina where he learned trumpet and trombone, and by age 10 was touring with the Jenkins Band. At age 16 he left the Orphanage to become a professional musician, at first playing in bands in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey before making his base in Manhattan, New York City from about 1925 through 1928, where he made the first of his well regarded recordings. In 1928 he toured with James P. Johnson's Orchestra when their show broke up in Chicago, Illinois, where Smith stayed for a few years. His series of 20 recordings for Brunswick Records in 1929 are his most famous (19 were issued), and Smith was billed as a rival to Louis Armstrong. Unfortunately, most of these records didn't sell well enough for Brunswick to extend his contract. In March 1935 in Chicago, Smith was featured in a recording session produced by Helen Oakley under the name of Charles LaVere & His Chicagoans, which included a vocal by both Smith and LaVere on LaVere's composition and arrangement of "Boogaboo Blues". It is an early example of inter-racial blues recordings, although far from the first as such had been made at least since c. 1921. In the 1930s, Smith moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin which would be his main base for many years, alternating with returns to New York. In Milwaukee he collaborated with saxophonist Bill Johnson. Subsequently, Smith dropped out of the public eye, playing music part time in Milwaukee with a regular job at an automobile hire company. Jabbo Smith made a comeback starting in the late 1960s. Many young musicians, fans, and record collectors were surprised to learn that the star of those great 1920s recordings was still alive. Smith successfully played with bands and shows in New York, New Orleans, Louisiana, London, and France through the 1970s and into the 1980s. Concerts in France, Italy, Switzerland and Netherlands with the HOT ANTIC JAZZ BAND. Recorded live: Jabbo Smith, European Concerts w. the Hot Antic Jazz Band (MECD 004) If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Precious Bryant has passed. My thoughts are with her family and friends.

George Mitchell: My friend Precious Bryant, the great blues singer and guitarist from Waverly Hall, Georgia, who I had the pleasure of first recording in the 1960's, died today, I am very sad to say. I have so many fond memories of her. To tell all of them would take a book. But she was a courageous country woman who continued to compose her own songs in the lower Chattahoochee Valley tradition, and they were fantastic! My friend Amos Harvey produced two superb albums by her issued by Terminus Records. Here she is at the National Downhome Blues Festival:

Canaan Land - Blind Gussie Nesbit

Gussie Nesbit was a guitar evangelist from Georgia. His first recording session was in 1930 in Atlanta for Columbia. Four titles were recorded but only two were issued. Five years later he had his second and final session in New York City for Decca. Ten songs were recorded in one day, but only four made it onto shellac. Between his two sessions, Nesbit also recorded two duets with Jack Gowdlock for Victor in 1931. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

BABY,I STILL LOVE YOU - T.BLUES MOB

T.Blues Mob is a band from Tbilisi, Georgia, which play is own uncompromising version of blues based and hard-driving rock, jazz & soul. The repertoire of the band consists of both their original re-workings of standard or lesser known traditional blues songs and the groups own rock and soul compositions driven by improvising and energetic performance style. T.Blues Mob was formed in 1998 by the member of famous Georgian band Blues Mobile band - Koka Tskitishvili. Nowadays the band consists of: Koka Tskitishvili - the bands leader, vocal & bass. He has a very rhythmic, aggressive & improvising bass style. Koka also writes songs & makes the bands original arrangements & has singing style in the best of the blues, soul & rock music. Tamaz Tkhinvaleli - lead guitars, one of the best blues guitar player in Georgia. With finesse blues sensitive & super technical playing. Roma Rtskhiladze - virtuosic boogie & blues piano & keyboard player, his playing characterized by great technical & creativity. DavitManizhashvili - explosive & technical, blues & jazz drummer. During the period between 1998 - 2010, T.Blues Mob had many tours in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Russia, Thailand, Finland, Netherlands and Norway, where along the regular concert dates (about 400) where the group members already have large groups of devoted followers. The group's performances in these countries were always very highly praised in local press. The band also participated in a number of large rock, pop, blues and jazz festivals such as: Midtfyns (Denmark, 1998), Nottoden Blues Fest. (Norway, 2001, 2004), Samso Fest. (Denmark, 2001), Kloften (Denmark, 2002), Loftoden (Norway, 2002) Harley-Davidson Rock Fest. (Denmark, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2008),Lillehammer(Norway,2005) Skandeborg Rock Fest. (Denmark, 2005, 2007), Koh Samui Blues Fest. (Thailand, 2005), Flashboda Blues Fest. (Sweden,2005,2007), Aalborg Blues & Jazz Fest. (Denmark, 2005,2006,2008), Copenhagen Blues Fest.(Denmark, 2005,2008,2009) etc… If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Sweet Soul Music - Arthur Conley

Arthur Lee Conley (January 4, 1946 – November 17, 2003) was an American soul singer, best known for the 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music" Conley was born in McIntosh County, Georgia, U.S., and grew up in Atlanta. He first recorded in 1959 as the lead singer of Arthur & the Corvets. With this group, he released three singles in 1963 and 1964 ("Poor Girl", "I Believe", and "Flossie Mae") on the Atlanta based record label, National Recording Company. In 1964, he moved to a new label (Baltimore's Ru-Jac Records) and released "I'm a Lonely Stranger". When Otis Redding heard this, he asked Conley to record a new version, which was released on Redding's own fledgling label Jotis Records, as only its second release. Conley met Redding in 1967. Together they re-wrote the Sam Cooke song "Yeah Man" into "Sweet Soul Music", which, at Redding's insistence, was released on the Atco-distributed label Fame Records, and was recorded at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It proved to be a massive hit, going to the number two position on the U.S. charts and the Top Ten across much of Europe. "Sweet Soul Music" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. After several years of singles in the early 1970s, he relocated to England in 1975, and spent several years in Belgium, settling in Amsterdam, Netherlands in spring 1977. At the beginning of 1980 he had some major performances as Lee Roberts and the Sweaters in the Ganzenhoef, Paradiso, De Melkweg and the Concertgebouw, and was highly successful. At the end of 1980 he moved to the Dutch village of Ruurlo legally changing his name to Lee Roberts (his middle name and his mother's maiden name). He promoted new music via his Art-Con Productions company. Amongst the bands he promoted was the heavy metal band Shockwave from The Hague. A live performance on January 8, 1980, featuring Lee Roberts & the Sweaters, was released as an album entitled Soulin' in 1988. Conley died from intestinal cancer in Ruurlo, Netherlands aged 57 in November 2003. He was buried in Vorden. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

Go Down, Moses - Roland Hayes

Roland Hayes (June 3, 1887 – January 1, 1977) was a lyric tenor and is considered the first African-American male concert artist to receive wide international acclaim as well as at home. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills with songs in French, German and Italian. Hayes was born in Curryville, Georgia, near Calhoun, on June 3, 1887, to Fanny and William Hayes, who were former slaves. When Hayes was eleven his father died, and his mother moved the family to Chattanooga, Tennessee. William Hayes claimed to have some Cherokee ancestry, while his maternal great-grandfather, Aba Ougi (also known as Charles) was a chieftain from Côte d'Ivoire. Aba Ougi was captured and shipped to America in 1790. Hayes was a singer trained with Arthur Calhoun in Chattanooga as well as at Fisk University in Nashville. As a student he began publicly performing, touring with the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1911. He furthered his studies in Boston with Arthur Hubbard. During his period studying with Hubbard he was a messenger at the Hancock Life Insurance Company to support himself. Then in London he studied with George Henschel and Amanda Ira Aldridge. He began with arranging his own recitals and coast-to-coast tours from 1916–1919. He sang at Craig's Pre-Lenten Recitals and several Carnegie Hall concerts. He performed with the Philadelphia Concert Orchestra, and at the Atlanta Colored Music Festivals and at the Washington Conservatory concerts. In 1917, he toured with the Hayes Trio which he formed with baritone William Richardson and pianist William Lawrence who was his regular accompanist. His London debut was in April 1920 at Aeolian Hall with pianist Lawrence Brown as his accompanist. Soon Hayes was singing in capital cities across Europe and was quite famous when he returned to the United States in 1923. He made his official debut on 16 November 1923 in Boston's Symphony Hall singing Berlioz, Mozart and spirituals, conducted by Pierre Monteux, which received critical acclaim. He was the first African-American soloist to appear with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1924. Hayes finally secured professional management with the Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Company. He was reportedly making $100,000 a year at this point in his career. In Boston he also worked as a voice teacher. One of his pupils was the Canadian soprano Frances James. He published a collection of spirituals in 1948 as My Songs; Aframerican Religious Folk Songs Arranged and Interpreted. Hayes is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. He and his wife Helen Alzada Mann had a daughter, Afrika, in 1933. After Hayes' wife and daughter were thrown out of a Rome, Georgia shoe store for sitting in the white-only section, Hayes confronted the store owner. The police then arrested both Hayes, whom they beat, and his wife. Hayes and his family eventually left Georgia. He taught at Black Mountain College for the 1945 Summer institute where his public concert was, according to Martin Duberman, "one of the great moments in Black Mountain's history (215)." If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band! See Video