December 28, 2016

Key to the Highway 
2016-12-28
The Wailin’ Walker Band
Carlos del Junco Band
The Boppin’ Blues Band
Selected British Blues highlights
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Okay, it’s been over a decade since I had to do this, but it is not the first time. You will not be hearing any Americans on this show; we heard enough from them on Election Day.  It is good to be back with you after my recovery from a minor surgery and non-medical complications caused me to miss four shows, so my thanks go out to Gil, Jim and the Razzberry for covering in my absence.
I must admit to not being fully in gear for this show; I have put together a very solid musical show for you, especially the three sets of Canadian artists, but I was unable to put together the profiles you are used to seeing here.  Instead we have the biographies from their websites which I normally use, along with liner notes, to construct my own work.  I would like to point out the highlighted mention of KKUP in about the middle of the section on The Boppin’ Blues Band.  It is not often (as in never before) that my research brings it all back home. 
Early in the 90s I acquired the three Canadian albums you will hear today.  My recollection of them all was positive and when I gave them each another spin I found their styles to be perfectly complementary for today.  The English half of the show is a cheat in that I took it from an airing about a year and a half ago when we covered the years 1964 to 1969 in our two and a half year British Blues study.  I had ordered a CD box set to occupy that time but it never showed up.  Oh well, enjoy anyway.
And I hope you all enjoyed or are still enjoying your holiday traditions.
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Al “Wailin” Walker was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada and is well known for his infectious brand of Rockin’ Rhythm and Blues. His stunning electric guitar solos and commanding vocals have been thrilling large crowds for more than 4 decades.

The first recording of Wailin Walker was with his band The Houserockers in 1978. Since then, three outstanding rock n' blues recordings of the Wailin Walker Band, "The Devil Made Me Play It", "Buzzsaw Boogie" and "Crazy at Night", have been released. The "Devil Made Me Play It", released under Double Trouble in Amsterdam, climbed to the top of the blues charts in the Netherlands, Spain and Australia.

Walker has played with and been personally mentored by many great artists such as Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Pee Wee Crayton and Otis Rush.

As leader, guitarist and singer of the Wailin Walker Band, Walker has shared the stage with Johnny Winter, George Thorogood and Stevie Ray Vaughan to name a few. He continues to work with a tight rhythm section... that keeps dance floors packed....
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Carlos del Junco (born May 17, 1958[when?] Havana) is a Cuban-Canadian harmonica musician.
Mr. del Junco immigrated with his family when he was one year old. He started to play the harmonica at 14 years old. He graduated from college with honours at the Ontario College of Art majoring in sculpture.
He specializes in playing the ten hole diatonic harmonica. He was taught to play chromatically by using an "overblow" technique taught to him by Howard Levy, a jazz virtuoso.
In the 1980s, Mr. del Junco performed with many bands including Latin/Reggae/R&B band "Eyelevel", "Ontario College of Art Swing Band" with Bill Grove and for six years with the rhythm and blues group "The Buzz Upshaw Band".
In 1990, he formed a blues/jazz/fusion band, "The Delcomos" with Kevin Cooke. He also has recorded with Marcel Aymar, Cassandra Vasik, Oliver Schroer, and Holly Cole.
In 1993, he won two gold medals at the Hohner World Harmonica Championship held in Trossingen, Germany. He was judged world's best in both the diatonic blues category and the diatonic jazz category. In November of that year he released his first CD with Bill Kinnear (musician).
He is currently signed with Toronto's NorthernBlues Music.
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Born in 1965 in Newport, Vermont into a musical family with an English mother and a French-Canadian father, Mike Goudreau picked up his first guitar at age 14 and hasn't stopped playing since. His early influences included the Beatles, Chuck Berry, Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and later, Albert King, Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Powder Blues and Downchild - to name a few. Such diverse interests help to explain why Mike is comfortable in so many musical genres, especially jazz and blues.
Since 2007, Mike's songs have been heard on hundreds of network TV shows such as NCIS Los Angeles (CBS), Gotham (FOX) , the TV movie North Pole (Hallmark Channel), The Fosters (ABC Family) , Defiance (FX), Hung (HBO), Auction Kings (Discovery), Oddities (Discovery), Memphis Beat (TNT), Friday Night Lights (ABC), Let's Make A Deal (CBS), Scoundrels (ABC) , Justified (FX) , George Lopez Show (TBS), Dirty Sexy Money (ABC ), Army Wives (Lifetime) , Kath & Kim (NBC) and Everybody Hates Chris (CW), just to name a few.
Mike’s original song ‘’ Look For The Sunshine ‘’ was featured in the Hollywood film ‘’West End”. Mike’s song ‘’ Miss Wonderful ‘’ was featured in the trailer for the French film ‘’Love Is In The Air’’, and another of his compositions was used in the TV movie ‘’Bonnie & Clyde’’ on HBO.
 
Mike's produced 18 Albums ( 1994-2016)
In the early 90s Mike formed the Boppin Blues Band. Taking its name (and some of its style) from Vancouver's Powder Blues Band, the BBB blew into the Canadian music scene with an independently CD - Sold Out (1994) with 10 songs running the gamut from solid Chicago blues to jazz influenced 40s & 50s swing/jump/shuffle and a few country and gospel tunes thrown in for good measure. It showcases superb guitar work and vocals from Mike with a great back line of drums, bass, piano, horns and harp. Upon hearing it, Andy 'Blues Boy" Grigg of Real Blues Magazine called them one of the most talented bands in Canada.
I Dig My Job (1996) featured mostly original tunes including a couple en français, which was unique. Real Blues Magazine continued its love affair with the band rating it as one of the 5 best blues CDs in Canada that year and named them as Best Group in Eastern Canada for 1996-97. They were also nominated as Best New Artist at Canada's Maple Blues Awards in 1997. A California radio station (KKUP FM) placed I Dig My Job in the Top 25 Blues CDs for that year!
Happy Go Lucky (1999) with 9 of 13 songs originals. More accolades: Real Blues Magazine called it one of the 5 best CDs of the Year and named the Boppin Blues Band as Best Swing Band and Best Unsigned Band in Canada. It was also nominated by Maple Blues for Best Album.
Stardust Memories (2000) , Mike indulged his passion for his other favorite musical genre - jazz - when he released Stardust Memories , a compilation of 14 classics including Route 66, The Lady is a Tramp, and Don't Get Around Much Anymore.
Nous avions rendez-vous (2001),  Mike received a Research and Creation Grant from the Quebec Arts Council and produced ''Nous avions rendez-vous'', on the Montreal based Bros label ... 12 original blues tunes all sung in French! They were invited to the " Francofolies " in Montreal as well as a live recording captured by CBC's " Silence On Jazz " broadcast coast to coast.
Thank You Louis (2002), a tribute to the great Louis Armstrong. It was, and still is, very popular in Quebec garnering him numerous interviews with Radio-Canada, CBC Radio/TV and sell-out live shows.
My Favorite Time (2004) of the Year is a sweet, personalized collection of original and classic Christmas tunes featuring silky smooth vocals, great horns, clarinet, piano, cello and jazzy guitar work guaranteed to put you in the Christmas spirit .
The Grass Ain't Greener (2006), Mike moved away from the big band style that characterized the Boppin Blues Band. The Mike Goudreau Band stripped down to guitar, drums, bass, keyboards and some great wailing harp and slide guitar from Harmonica Zeke. You get a great mix of rockin, swingin, up-tempo blues - 8 of the 12 songs are originals!!
Boppin 15 (2007) 15 cuts with 11 originals and 4 covers. Over the years some of the band members have changed but this album, as with all the previous, still boasts some of the best rhythm and brass musicians in Quebec along with some very special guests including Peter Brown on piano, Didier Dumoutier on accordian and the great Harmonica Zeke on harmonica.
Blues Et Cetera (2009), rich with 15 new original songs. The works include various styles and grooves such as reggae, singer/songwriter, rock, country and world music influences as well as Texas, Chicago, funk and swing blues for which Goudreau has been renowned for the past 17 years. Mike's 11th album:
Look For The Sunshine (2010): 17 tracks featuring 12 brand new original songs and 5 jazz classics, not to mention one song in French, ''La Gentille Fille'', co-written with Michel Aubin. Whether it's a Sinatra-style crooner, groovy instrumental, dreamy bossa-nova, romantic ballad, New Orleans-style Dixieland or a finger snappin' blues, everyone from the most particular connaisseur to the jazz newbie will be enchanted with this eclectic mix of jazz.
Dancing Shoes (2011), Mike with organist Lorrie Goodman form '' The Goodmen Band '' with drummer Stéphane Jetté . The album features a great mix of Blues, Funk, Southern Soul, New Orleans and Jazzy original material which was well received by blues media and fans alike. Please visit www.thegoodmenband.com to know more.
Live At The Haskell Opera House (2011). Recorded live at this one of kind venue which was inaugurated in 1903, the Haskell Opera House is situated on the border of Mike 's hometown of Stanstead, Quebec and Derby-Line Vermont. Mike with his long time cronies play a mix of Jazz standards as well as a few blues favorites and some original compositions.
20 Years Of Bop & Blues ( 2012 ) with Mike Goudreau & The Boppin Blues Band: The album features 13 new original songs ranging from swinging to funky, from New Orleans to blues-rock, with some southern soul & gospel thrown in for good measure! This latest Boppin’ offering features Mike Goudreau on vocals and guitar, Jonathan Boudreau on bass, Jean-François Bégin on drums, David Élias on tenor and baritone sax, Serge Arsenault on trombone, and Maxime St-Pierre on trumpet. The BBB is joined by guests Lorrie Goodman on B3 organ, and special guest Pierre Lacocque, of the Chicago band Mississippi Heat, on harmonica.
Time For Messin’ Around (2013) – a 15th album for Mike Goudreau, comprising 11 songs with 8 new compositions and 3 covers from the Eastern Townships blues and jazzman. For the occasion, Goudreau is accompanied by long-time cronies Jonathan-Guillaume Boudreau on bass, Jean-François Bégin on drums, and the saxophonist David Élias on one song. Also appearing as special guest is Pascal “Per’’ Veillette, a very unique and talented harmonicist who brings a particular exotic flair with his participation on two songs. This is a “party” vibe album, with the first track that sets the tone immediately, right on to the last one. A few funk rhythms, Texas shuffle, country blues, blues rock, Southern rock vibes that’ll make you want to dance your blues away! Also a sizzling authentic and soulful slow blues sung “en Français”, which has been one of Mike’s trademarks for the past 20 years and counting.
T.G.I.F. (2014) - His 16th album, “T.G.I.F.” (Thank God It’s Friday), comprising 12 new compositions from the Eastern Townships blues and jazzman. For the occasion, Goudreau sings, plays bass, guitars and 6-string banjo, as well as being the composer and writer on all 12 tracks. He’s accompanied by long-time cronies, brilliant saxophonist Dany Roy (Garou, Bet.e & Stef, Susie Arioli), Maxime St Pierre on trumpet (Michel Cusson, Alain Caron, Pagliaro ), Serge Arsenault on trombone, Stéphane Jetté on drums and the fleet-fingered Nino Fabi on keyboards.
Je reste accroché (2015) - Mike Goudreau presents his 17th album : « Je reste accroché », featuring 12 new original songs, 11 of which are sung in French ! With « Je reste accroché », you'll discover a good-timing mix of contemporary Blues and traditional Blues with diverse influences : Chicago Blues, Swing, Jazz, Rock, R&B, Country and even Reggae !
Sweet Blues (2016) Mike Goudreau & The Boppin Band present their 6th release ( This being Mike's 18th album since 1993 ) . Now in their 25th year of performing and recording their brand of blues, this album features a dynamic mix of Swing, Rock, Soul , Gospel and Jazzy Blues that they have become we'll known for with accolades from their peers as well as blues media and aficionados ! 12 brand new original songs, all written and sung by guitarist Mike Goudreau who's accompanied by an all star band featuring the stellar horns of tenor saxophonist Dany Roy and trumpet player and arranger Maxime St-Pierre. Also on board is legendary bassist Norman Lachapelle, pianist John Sadowy, drummer Alain Bourgeois, bass trombonist Olivier Lizotte, organist and co- songwriter Lorrie Goodman and keyboardist Steve Soucy. Recorded and mixed by one of Canada's top recording engineers Dany Legendre and mastered by Steve Corrao in Nashville, Tennessee, this album will keep blues fans swinging and snapping their fingers from track one to twelve ! Get ready to Bop Till You Drop ! 
 
Over the past two decades, Mike has performed at some of the most prestigious Jazz & Blues Festivals in Canada including 10 times at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, (9 times at the Tremblant International Festival de Blues, 7 appearances at the Edmundston Jazz and Blues Festival, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Rimouski, 3 times at the Maximum Blues de Carleton, Fredericton's Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, Saint John Jazz Festival and Festival by the Sea. In September of 2008 Mike was invited to the '' Playing With Fire '' Blues Festival in Omaha Nebraska accompanied by members of Chicago's ''Mississippi Heat '' and had raving reviews for their performance. When asked why he plays both jazz and blues Mike replies: "I get bored doing just one type of music. I love jazz for its beautiful melodies, chords, and improvisation. I love blues for its energy, soul and milking its three-chord structure. I enjoy playing rock 'n roll too. But no matter what music I play it has to SWING!"
 
 
What some of the blues media have to say about Mike Goudreau:
''Listening to his music it almost seems he is searching for the musical Holy Grail but in actuality he is the musical Holy Grail. He is already there – but he just doesn’t let up on his drive to do more, write better songs, record more, play live more.'' - Sandy Graham - Cashbox Canada
“Du Mike Goudreau en français, cela représente pour moi un style en soi ou la qualité à tous les niveaux s'avère toujours indédiable ! Bonne écoute !” Pierre Jobin - Québec Audio & Vidéo
“Aussi bon en spectacle que sur disque, Mike Goudreau saura vous faire apprécier un blues savoureux avec un son différent grâce à une excellente section de cuivres. Une fois qu’on commence à écouter du Mike Goudreau, on ne peut plus arrêter, vous aussi direz comme moi, JE RESTE ACCROCHÉ et j’aime ça !” Pierre Lamontagne - Le Net Blues
''Je reste accroché'' , vous propose non pas un remède à la morosité ambiante, mais LE remède miracle pour non seulement effacer vos soucis mais faire briller le soleil dans vos yeux, tant il est rempli de bonnes choses, joué non seulement avec le coeur mais aussi avec l'âme.” Arol Rouchon - BCR La Revue, France
 “Un titre approprié d’album, puisqu’effectivement on reste accroché par ce blues qui rock et swing en français et qui nous parle de la vraie vie. Ce prolifique auteur-compositeur-guitariste et producteur estrien nous offre un beau mélange de blues contemporain et traditionnel avec des influences : Blues, Swing, Jazz, Rock, R & B, Country et même Reggae. -” Marie-Josée Boucher - Info-Culture.biz
“Mike Goudreau a encore trouvé le moyen de nous surprendre et de nous convaincre qu'il est un indispensable membre de la famille blues du Québec. Il a accompli le tour de force de présenter un album tout en français sans tomber dans les clichés, sans faire folklorique et en gardant l'intérêt de l'auditeur par la variété des styles comme des thèmes abordés. Oui, moi aussi ' Je reste accroché'” Michel Dubois - RUE D'AUTEUIL, CKRL 89.1 Québec
“ Well, if Mike Goudreau and his boys were looking for the sunshine with their new album, they certainly found it! Lay the sunscreen heavy ‘cause this one is a real scorcher!” Dan Behrman, Producer/Host, Espace Musique / Radio-Canada
 I love Mike's easy going, confident approach to music. Backed by sympathetic players, that approach results in a cool effortless swing whatever the groove. He shows his 'big picture' love and understanding of the blues in his guitar playing and songwriting. I'm happy to help spread the word by playing his music on CBC Radio's Saturday Night Blues and on Galaxie. " Holger Petersen 
"A hearty vocalist and effective guitarist who plays snarling, tightly wound leads...A highly enjoyable set. Tom Hyslop, Blues Revue Magazine, USA, Dec/Jan 2008 "Goudreau plays lead guitar with the tone and taste of greats like Otis Rush and Albert King, and writes compelling, original songs". Jeremy Loome, Edmonton Sun
"Quality Canadian blues...solid and unpretentious...swings with snappy sincerity and crisp energy” Hal Horowitz, Blues Revue Magazine, USA Oct/Nov 2006 Issue
 “Undiluted blues from one of the purest players on the Canadian scene” Al Kirkcaldy, CFFF 92.7 FM, Peterborough, ON “
 … A rockin’, rompin’, stompin’ good time….solid, creamy, tight and tasty licks executed with precision and class” Billie Lucas, CHLY 101.7 FM, Nanaimo BC
“Goudreau is a natural. He leads a great band with exciting original songs that dare you to sit still” John Valenteyn, Maple Blues, Toronto Blues Society
 " The Grass Ain't Greener " est un de ces albums racés qui font figure de référence dans une carrière, aussi riche et chargée soit elle ! Fred Delforge, zicazic.com, France
 
FOR INFO/BOOKINGS contact : Mike Goudreau – tel. : 819-876-2109 195 Passenger Stanstead Qc J0B 3E2 Info@mikegoudreau.com or mikegoudreau@hotmail.com Web sites : http://www.mikegoudreau.com or http://www.myspace.com/mikegoudreauband and the French website at : http://www.mikegoudreau.ca
 
The Various bands :

Mike Goudreau Band ( Blues )

Mike Goudreau has returned to more stripped-down blues with this band. On the CD - “The Grass Ain’t Greener” you'll hear a solid backline of artists who have obviously played together for a long time and it shows. This show is a bit more Blues/Rock than The Boppin' Blues Band show but every bit as authentic in their aproach of the Blues. This band varies from 4 to 5 musicians

Mike Goudreau & Boppin Blues Band ( Blues )

Mike Goudreau was rocked from the cradle by the voices of Nat King Cole,. Frank Sinatra, Elvis and the Beatles. As a musician, he travelled the requisite roads of classic rock and country music, and moulded his style in the wake of Albert King and Kenny Burrell, whose traces can be felt to this day.

From his very first contacts with blues, he started the Boppin' Blues Band, with his crony Richard Bergeron. Featuring a great 3 piece horn section that gives this band a Jazzy,R & B sound that leaves audiences wanting more. The band has performed on television, in all sorts of festivals and special events, on hundreds of stages big and small, and has earned many titles and distinctions. Mike Goudreau Lays claim to five albums with the Boppin' Blues Band.

With those albums containing many original pieces, Mike Goudreau and the Boppin' Blues Band have demonstrated the multiple voices of blues, proving it can also be sung in French! Check out clips from all 5 albums on the music page
This band varies from 6 to 8 musicians.

Mike Goudreau & Friends ( Jazz Band )

Mike Goudreau & Friends presents the '' Great American Songbook '' , featuring songs made famous by Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Mel torme, Duke Ellington, Carlos Antonio Jobim just to name a few. This band varies from 3 to 8 musicians.

Mike Goudreau & Friends also presents : ''Thank You Louis ! '' a tribute to the music of Louis Armstrong.Check out songs from the album '' Thank You Louis ! '' on the music page.
This band varies from 4 to 8 musicians.

Mike Goudreau ( Classic Rock )

For the past 20 years this band has wowed audiences with a repertoire that keeps them on the dance floor from start to finish. They cover a wide variety of Classic Rock hits with a repertoire of over 500 songs from beloved artists as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, C.C.R. , Doobie Brothers, The Doors, Bob Seger, George Thorogood, Santana, Chuck Berry and much more.
This group available for Corporate functions, Festivals and private parties.
The band varies from 3 to 7 musicians.

Mike Goudreau ( Acoustic Solo/Duo/Trio)

Mike Goudreau also presents a Solo/Duo/Trio acoustic show with a variety of styles ranging from Jazz, Blues and Folk Rock available for Festivals, small venues, restaurants, cafe's , corporate events and private parties.
Available solo, duo or trio ( with upright bass ,harmonicist, piano
or sax )
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Since it is still relatively new, I thought I’d mention that KKUP is now streaming on the internet and, while it is still in a developing stage, we have been putting out the word.  I’m not all of that good with high-tech stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access.  If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will see on the home page a strip of options immediately above the pictures of the musicians the next to the last option being LISTEN ONLINE.  By clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop or mobile.  I can only speak for the desktop but after maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed.  As already mentioned, this is still a work in progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any one time.  I mention this so you will be aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening.  (I put the player in my favorites bar for the easiest of access.)  Now we can reach our listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada.  Let your friends elsewhere know they can now listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they can check out our schedule.
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Pretty Girls Everywhere
Gasoline Annie
Dawn ‘til Dusk
Outlaw Blues
I Feel Fine
While You’re Down There
Tryin’ to Find My Baby
Buzzsaw
   The Wailin’ Walker Band   30min
Water
   Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band
She Said Yeah
   The Rolling Stones
Let Me Love You Baby
   The Savoy Brown Blues Band
Catfish Blues
   The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Remington Ride
   Chicken Shack
Go On Home
   Dave Berry
Driva Man
   Manfred Mann (with Jack Bruce)
The Cat
   Zoot Money
Every Day I Have the Blues
   Alexis Korner (featuring Herbie Goins)   25min
B Thing Intro
Just Your Fool
Forty-Four
Quiet Whiskey
B Thing Outro
   The Carlos del Junco Band   19min
Watch and Chain
   The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation
Buy You a Diamond Ring
   Dave and Jo Ann Kelly
Cat’s Squirrel
   Cream
Jailhouse Rock
   The Jeff Beck Group (featuring Rod Stewart)
Hellhound on My Trail
Fighting for Madge
   Fleetwood Mac
I Tried
   The Aynsley Dunber Retaliation
Don’t Gimme No Lip
   Dave Berry
Sweet Wine
   Cream
Sabre Dance
   Love Sculpture   30min
Happy Go Lucky Blues
Bad John
Come Home Baby
Way Down South
Love This Rhythm
Swingin’ and Grinnin’
Country Cabin Hideaway
Swingne to Peine
Jumpin’ the Blues
   The Boppin’ Blues Band   30min
All Your Love
You Don’t Love Me
Snowy Wood
   John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
Change Your Low Down Ways
   The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation
Shake ‘em on Down
   The Savoy Brown Blues Band   19min
Key to the Highway
   The Carlos del Junco Band  6min

October 12, 2016


Key to the Highway 
2016-10-12                                                                                            

Jimmy Dawkins
Blind Willie Johnson
Nappy Brown
Jimmy Blythe
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.For today, I kinda recycled a show I put together for John Fuller's Backstroke show, part of KKUP’s Monday night Blues rotation from 10pm to 1am Monday.  The first three artists listed above were included in that show so I had two write-ups all prepared and I did one on Jimmy Blythe this week, but if I run out of time we may not get to him.  Unless you finf the harsh voice of Blind Willie Johnson irritating, I think you will be very happy with this presentation.   Enjoy.
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Jimmy Dawkins is one of those perfect examples of the way I used to introduce myself to new artists.  If you have followed my airings over the last quarter century here at KKUP, you might be aware that Magic Sam’s second album for the Delmark label, Black Magic from 1969, is to this day still my favorite album, EVER, so when I saw that three of the sidemen from that album were on another one backing some guitarist with the nickname “Fast Fingers” (also the title of the LP) there was an extremely good chance this would be my kind of music.  To be found here are saxophonist Eddie Shaw, piano man Lafayette Leake and guitarist Mighty Joe Young, Young having been on both of Sam’s Delmark studio sessions, and indeed I was not disappointed.  Players of note on his second album, All for Business and again for Delmark with three tunes making up our second set, are guitarist Otis Rush and tenor sax player Jim Conley.  Sonny Thompson, who had done so much for King Records (songwriting, arranging and producing), particularly for Freddie King, is relegated here to only playing keyboards.  Jimmy only sings two songs for the album, and we hear him on Down So Long, while Andrew “Big Voice” Odom takes care of all the rest.  Odom also served in the same capacity on some of Earl Hooker’s stuff.

Jimmy had honed his chops on the club scene of Chicago’s West Side for more than a decade before Delmark gave him this, his first recording opportunity under his own name.  Mississippi born and moved to Chicago in 1955, Jimmy gave up his day job in the factory in 1957 once he bought a guitar in order to pursue his music.  “I’m determined at what I do.  I set out to play music, so I play it.  No money, cheap money, small money, no gigs.  And we stayed with it.  I stayed out there.  I didn’t quit . . . scared I couldn’t make it in the business.”  When he came to the attention of Delmark’s Bob Koester, Dawkins backed recordings by Carey Bell, Luther Allison, Mighty Joe Young and Sleepy John Estes before recording three albums of his own.  Later in the 70s, Willie Dixon used Jimmy many times as a sideman.  “He just kept me in the studio, teaching me a lot, helping me.”  For a couple of years, while Jimmy Rogers was with Muddy Waters, Dawkins was part of Rogers’ road group.

In 1971 Jimmy received France’s Grand Prix du Disc award for the Fast Fingers album and at one point, Downbeat magazine voted him the best Rock / Pop / Blues act worthy of more attention.  Health issues in the 80s, however, caused Jimmy to cut back on his club work and restrict his performances to festivals and foreign tours.  He released two European LPs and started up his own label, Leric, to produce albums by lesser known West Side Blues artists.  Putting in much of his time on the business side of the music world, he also involved himself in booking, promotion and publishing.  Jimmy also contributed articles about the Chicago Blues scene to the British magazine Blues Unlimited.

I skipped a couple of his European albums in my collection because there is plenty of better music for today’s show.  Jimmy came back with a fury in his axe in 1991 when he released an album on the Earwig label, Kant Shek Dees Bluze.  Yeah, my computer’s editor tried to tell me that most of the titles were misspelled but it irritates me like that fairly often.  Nora Jean Wallace takes a couple of the vocals on the album (we only hear A Love L:ike That) and he employs a couple of familiar names in his band – pianist “Professor” Eddie Lusk, who I know had been in the bands of Otis Rush and Luther Allison, and Johnny B. Gayden, who provided some of the best bass playing ever recorded when he backed Albert Collins.  Second guitarist Jimmy Flynn had been in the Legendary Blues Band since 1984 and drummer Ray Scott was a longtime member of the Dawkins ensemble.

While Jimmy didn’t quite reach the pinnacle of my favorites like Howlin’ Wolf or his contemporaries Freddie King, Magic Sam and Luther Allison, he fits comfortably atop the second tier among the likes of Otis Rush and Buddy Guy.
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Blind Willie Johnson was a gospel-based Bluesman, backing up his mostly religious lyrics with an excellent slide guitar technique.  Oftentimes heard contrasting his raspy bass vocals was the more angelic voice of his first wife, Willie B. Harris.  Johnson's was the earliest recording that I am aware of, and much more uniquely gruff than those who followed, in the style that became the trademark of Charlie Patton and Howlin' Wolf.
Blind Willie was believed born in Marlin, Texas in 1902. His mother died in his infancy, but it was his stepmother who, while in an argument with his father, made the boy blind by throwing lye in the face of the seven year old.  Like so many of his era with this handicap, teaching himself guitar and singing on the streets became a viable life option.

Johnson recorded for Columbia and his first session in 1927 produced "Dark was the Night (Cold was the Ground)", an eerie instrumental accompanied only by his moans, which was chosen to be included as an artifact on the Voyager One probe into space.  Sorry, I’ve heard it but don’t have it.  Another of his songs got him thrown in jail when, unaware that he was in front of a Federal building in Dallas, he made the innocent choice of playing "If I Had My Way I'd Tear this Building Down".  Although his recording sessions only lasted into 1931, as the Great Depression brought about the demise of numerous recording careers, many of his songs would be included in the repertoires of artists as varied as Son House, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Al Kooper, Hot Tuna and Peter, Paul and Mary.
Johnson's ambitions lay elsewhere, and after his brief recording career, he became a Baptist minister whose congregation could be found on the street corners as he performed spirituals just as fervently as he had played his Blues on the streets of his past, and continued doing so until he died of pneumonia in 1947.
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I saw Nappy Brown at the San Francisco Blues Festival one year and the girl I took with me purchased a 2CD set of his early material.  So, years afterward, I borrowed it from her and ripped it to my computer for a purpose such as this.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to copy any of the biographical info and I’ve been spending too much time listening to our political situation lately to put something together, but that does nothing to negate the quality of his great R&B.
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.In the early twenties, before it became commonplace to hear piano players on record, the easiest way of making a permanent record of the best players was through piano rolls.  These could be heard in homes or nickelodeons, and possibly the most prolific of these players was Jimmy Blythe, with around 300 rolls, and in his short life he amassed a similar number of 78 releases, and the Jazz / Blues / Boogie Woogie pianist / composer’s Chicago Stomp is considered to be one of the first recorded examples, if not the first, of Boogie Woogie.  We don’t have access to that one, but we do have his solo performances of Society Blues and Alley Rat.  Sandwiched in between those, we have placed a recording with Johnny Dodds, clarinetist for Louis Armstrong (Weary Way Blues), and Don’t Fish in My Sea, where he backs the vocal of Ma Rainey.
Born James Louis Blythe on May 20th 1901 in South Keene, Kentucky, he was the youngest of five siblings brought into the world by Rena and Richard Blythe. His parents were born into slavery but were then sharecroppers.  His interest in piano was piqued by local Ragtime players, and soon after moving to Chicago in 1917 he began studying under orchestra leader Clarence M. Jones.  It is likely that in the next few years, Blythe began his composing in Jones’ recording studio as well as working his way around the club scene, but for a while he supported himself with his job at the Mavis Talcum Powder Company.
Early in 1922, Jimmy took on a job at the Columbia Piano Roll Company, later to become Capitol when the company re-organized in 1924.  Writer Bill Edwards remarked that Blythe "was able to take simple popular songs and create an engaging performance from them in short order. Many of these were taken from the simple sheet music and expanded to include Blues riffs, stride or boogie-woogie bass, and even pseudo-novelty figures. Musicians around Chicago and beyond worked to emulate his engaging style as his fame grew".
Jimmy went into the Paramount studio in 1924 along with Alex J. Robinson, who co-wrote several tunes with Blythe and, in his first session, laid down Chicago Stomp, which would become his best known recording.  In his authoring, Jimmy sometimes used the pen names Duke Owens or George Jefferson.  Over the next few years, Blythe accompanied many of Paramount’s artists in addition to his own sessions, but the Great Depression slowed everything down and Jimmy only recorded two sides in 1930, these for Robinson’s band, the Knights of Rest.  He came down with meningitis and passed away on June 14th 1931 at the young age of thirty.
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Since it is still relatively new, I thought I’d mention that KKUP is now streaming on the internet and, while it is still in a developing stage, we have been putting out the word.  I’m not all of that good with high-tech stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access.  If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will see on the home page a strip of options immediately above the pictures of the musicians the next to the last option being LISTEN ONLINE.  By clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop or mobile.  I can only speak for the desktop but after maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed.  As already mentioned, this is still a work in progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any one time.  I mention this so you will be aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening.  (I put the player in my favorites bar for the easiest of access.)  Now we can reach our listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada.  Let your friends elsewhere know they can now listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they can check out our schedule.
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I Wonder Why
Triple Trebles
I’m Good for Nothing
Night Rock
It Serves Me Right to Suffer
Breaking Down
   Jimmy Dawkins   24mins

Lord, I Just Can’t Keep From Crying
John the Revelator
You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond
Let Your Light Shine on Me
Everybody Ought to Treat a Stranger Right
If I Had My Way I’d Tear This Building Down
I’m Gonna Run to the City of Refuge
Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There
Take a Stand
The Soul of a Man
   Blind Willie Johnson   31mins

Moon Man
Down So Long
Sweet Home Chicago
   Jimmy Dawkins   16mins

Don’t Be Angry
Two Faced Woman (and a Lying Man)
I’m in the Mood
That Man
Just a Little Love
Well, Well, Well Baby La
Open Up That Door
My Baby
A Long Time
Am I
Pleasin’ You
I’m Gonna Get You
Coal Miner
Little By Little
   Nappy Brown   35mins

I Ain’t Got It
Wes Cide Bluze
A Love Like That
My Man Loves Me
Luv Sumbody
Made the Hard Way
Rockin’ D Blues
Gittar Rapp
   Jimmy Dawkins   38mins

Society Blues
Weary Way Blues
Don’t Fish in My Sea
Alley Rat
  Jimmy Blythe

September 28, 2016


Key to the Highway 
2016-09-28                                                                                               

Louis Jordan                          
Frankie Lee Sims
Big Maybelle
John Littlejohn
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There were at least two factors in the collapse of the Big Band Swing era.  One was the fact that touring during the World War II years was just no longer practical for many of the large bands with such things as gas rationing and the tire shortage.  As Dave Bartholomew saw things, "It got too costly to keep up a big band.  Band leaders had to scale down so they could keep working and keep making money, and they had a lot to do with the evolution of the sound."  Smaller bands also meant smaller clubs could also support live music, for both spatial and financial reasons.  Another reason was that the musicians were feeling stifled in the large orchestras. Just as the name itself implies, there was not enough room for improvisation when everything had to be orchestrated.  Add to that the fact that most black Americans felt that the whole Big Band Swing movement had been hijacked from their culture and turned into a white bread commercial product.  In general, two new directions were taken as the smaller combos were formed.  One was the birth of bop, which falls out of the area of our discussion at the moment, and the other would be the paring down and returning to a more blues-based form that would be called jump blues, or in general an early form of rhythm and blues.
The archetypal performer of this new art form would be alto saxist Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.  He was born in Brinkley, Arkansas on July 8th, 1908 and became involved in music at an early age.  His father was skilled in many instruments: "My papa was a fine musician, and he played just about all the horns.  But as little as he was -- five feet three inches and about 105 pounds -- I think the instrument he liked best was the bass. ... He had a band for close to thirty years.  I started off with him myself when I was about seven years old playing clarinet".  Jim Jordan played on several occasions with Fat Chappelle's Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a group which could claim in its membership such notable artists as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.  Louis performed with the Minstrels as well, starting as a musician and dancer in his pre-teens, all the way into his time at Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, which he left in 1928.
Louis went to New York City in 1929, where he met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb and participated in two recording sessions for him on the Brunswick label in June of that year.  Unable to find enough work, Louis returned to Little Rock, then in 1932 moved east with the family, eventually settling in Philadelphia.  Louis also had recording sessions backing Louis Armstrong in December of 1932 and two sessions for Clarence Williams in 1934.   About this time, Louis started living in New York City, whose union required six months residency before becoming eligible for membership and therefore able to play the big gigs.  Until then he was able to keep working with drummer Joe "Kaiser" Mitchell's band in out of town, even out of state clubs.   He joined Webb's swing orchestra fulltime in the autumn of 1936 as an altoist and one of the singers, as Webb was becoming one of the hottest commodities in New York.  Among the recordings Louis made with Webb was the extremely popular Ella Fitzgerald tune, "A Tisket, a Tasket".  With the expanding role taken by Fitzgerald, who was only 16 years old when Webb took her under his wing in 1934, Louis' opportunities to sing were diminishing and in the summer of 1938, Louis left the ensemble.  According to Jesse Stone, "I was doing arrangements for Chick Webb at the time, and Louis was playing third alto in Chick's band.  He asked Chick could he sing, and Chick said yeah.  Louis said, 'Well, Jesse's gonna make a couple arrangements for me.'  So I made the arrangements.  He tried 'em out one night and he went over great.  Chick didn't like that.  He wouldn't call the tunes again after that.  So Louis quit.  I encouraged him, told him that if he wanted to sing, he should get away from Chick.  He took my band, and they became the Elks' Rendez-vous Band, the group on his first recordings."  Louis' first recording session under his own name was for Decca Records on December 20th, 1938, and for their third session on March 29th, 1939, the same personnel acquired its long-enduring name Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.  Tympani drums (the correct spelling) took up a lot of space and the band only used them on stage the three years they played at the Elks, "but we held on to that name, even when the five was actually seven or eight men." 
One break came when the band was booked into Chicago's Capitol Lounge in May of 1941 as the second-billed act behind the Mills Brothers and also featured Maurice Rocco.  The shows were broadcast on WGN radio, and the crowds kept increasing; according to Jordan, "the Capitol Lounge couldn't hold two hundred people.  But they would have a hundred twenty sittin' down and maybe a hundred eighty standin' at the bar.  After that booking, I was gone."  The club's stage was so small that the piano player had to play standing up, which pleased the crowd so much that Rocco began to perform similarly and became billed as the "Stand-Up Pianist', a tradition later taken up by Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis to much success. 
As Louis' new manager, Berle Adams, explains, the lounge "would not pay more than scale.  And scale then was thirty-five a man per week -- a dollar per working hour -- plus a dollar extra for the leader.  I closed the deal.  It was a big accomplishment for me personally.  After Jordan opened, I received an increase in salary from twenty dollars a week to thirty-five.  I was quite pleased."  Adams continued, "Then we had a problem.  Jordan came to me to say that he had to quit; he just couldn't live on sixteen dollars a week.  Then I discovered that Jordan couldn't get the musicians to come to Chicago unless they got forty dollars a man.  So he was taking the money out of his salary and paying each man five dollars above what the lounge paid.  When I learned this, I went to the owners and had them fire the band. ...  But when they received their notice, the band went to the union, and the union summoned Jordan on the ground that he was playing for below scale. ...  I had read the musicians' contract and union bylaws.  I found a technicality that prevented Jordan from being fined.  But as a result of the interrogation, we learned that the troublemaker in the band was the bass player. ...  So I gave Louis the money to send the bass player back to New York -- that was required when you brought a musician away from his home base."
Regarding the next job Adams got them, at the Fox Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, he recalled, ''Now, they were not in New York or Chicago.  They were not known, and they could make fools of themselves.  That was where they developed all the novelty songs that later made Jordan."  Indeed, unlike session habits of the day, when Jordan went into the studio he picked songs that had been proven on the bandstand to have a known popularity.  Louis' personality shone onstage, and his charismatic mugging enhanced more than just the novelty numbers.
Jordan's first hits were "Knock Me a Kiss" and "Outskirts of Town", released together on a 78 in January of 1942.  While both sides received much jukebox play and the record sold well, they were quickly copied by other artists on different labels so Louis' versions didn't make the charts.
Wartime restraints culminating on April 25th of 1942 brought a rationing of shellac down to 30% of the record-making material the companies had used in 1941, followed quickly in July by the American Federation of Musicians' strike refusing to allow union members to make any recordings.  Louis' last pre-strike recording date was a nine track session on July 24th of 1942, and since Decca was among the earliest to come to agreement with the AFM, he was back in the studio on October 4th, 1943.  That marathon session in July produced Louis' first Number One hit, "What's the Use of Getting Sober (When You Gonna Get Drunk Again)", hitting the Harlem Hit Parade on November 14th of 1942 and staying there for 14 weeks.  While unable to record in the studio, Jordan was popular enough to be able to make several Soundies -- three minute movies that theater patrons could pay to view -- and often appeared on the Armed Forces Radio Service's Jubilee worldwide radio broadcasts to the military, both on their own as well as backing other artists.
From his first session back, Louis had another Number One with "Ration Blues", which stayed on the R&B charts for 21 weeks beginning in mid-December1943, and then also made the pop chart and hit Number One on the Folk and Western (Country) chart.  "Deacon Jones", from the same session, only hit the Country chart, topping out at #7.  Jordan was now a true crossover artist and a draw nationwide, pleasing audiences everywhere he went on his many tours during the mid-40s, while basing himself out of Los Angeles.
To avoid the occasional racial tensions when artists appeared before mixed audiences, Billboard reported on July 22nd, 1944, that Jordan "recently played two dates in Oakland, California, where he drew 4,200 colored dancers at the auditorium and 2,700 whites at Bill Sweet's the following night" and would continue dual settings in several of the cities on his tour.
When Adams bought out his partner Lou Levy, the contractual agreement was that Adams would manage Jordan, but all his songs would be published by Levy's company, Leeds Music.  But for the song "Caldonia", Louis listed the author as his current wife Fleecie Moore. Levy would recall, "they put Louis Jordan's wife's name on the song and gave it to another publisher.  But actually Jordan and Adams both got outsmarted. When the Jordans got divorced, Louis tried to get the song back and his ex-wife thumbed her nose at him."  Even though Jordan had done the song in a highly popular movie short of the same name, Decca was reluctant to release it due to the remaining restrictions on shellac.  It wasn't until Woody Herman and Erskine Hawkins each successfully released their versions that Decca finally put the original into circulation.  Due to Decca's hesitation, the Jordan disc only reached #6 on the Pop chart, while Herman's got to #2 and Hawkins' made it to #12; on the Harlem Hit Parade, Jordan was able to sustain at #1 for seven weeks during its six month run and Hawkins took the tune to the number two spot while charting for ten weeks.  As for the Jordan-Moore marriage, it came to a violent end when, early on Sunday morning, January 26th, 1947, as Jordan put it, "We had a quarrel when I came home from work.  I got into bed and turned out the light.  Next thing I know, I felt the knife go into my chest.  This is the second time Fleecie cut me.  There's not going to be another time."
In October of 1945, for the first time since his days with Chick Webb, Louis was again recording with Ella Fitzgerald.  Their Caribbean-flavored duet "Stone Cold Dead in the Market" would be the first of six #1 hits he would have in 1946 including its follow-up, Choo Choo Ch- Boogie, which spent an astounding 18 weeks at #1.  Jordan's foray into feature length movies began with the June 14th, 1946 debut of "Beware", a 55-minute melodrama which Newsweek reviewed on July 8th: "The presence of Jordan, who has just made his third personal appearance at the Paramount Theater in New York, assures 'Beware's' box office success.  The most successful negro film to date was 'Caldonia', another Astor production with Jordan and his Tympany Five."
Three Monday sessions in fifteen days in 1947 (November 24th, December 1st and 8th) produced 13 songs as once again the record companies were facing another strike scheduled for the first tick of the clock in 1948.  That year would not be a particularly good one for Jordan, what with no recording sessions, recurring bouts of illnesses brought on by his years of rigorous touring schedules, slipping record sales...  But when it came to live performances, Louis could still pack 'em and please 'em.  San Francisco bay area promoter John Bur-Ton was to say in March, after booking a series of one-nighters, that "Louis Jordan will make me more money than any four other attractions I can get."
Louis wasn't the only one beginning to physically suffer.  As Adams explained, "I was the president and founder of Mercury Records and I became ill.  Had a problem with my spine.  Sold my stock in the company because I had to move to California. ...  I didn't want to travel as much as I had.  My doctor didn't think it was advisable. ... and I decided to give up the band.  When I sat down with Louis to explain my thinking, I never forgot the look on his face.  His reaction was, 'You think I'm over the hill.'  I responded, 'How can that be?  You still have one hit record after another.  Your income is tremendous.  Your percentages are high, and you can work as many days of the year as you please.'  But he kept staring at me and shaking his head.  "You're too smart to walk out on something that's that good.  You must see something in the future.'"
Exhausted and thinking that his old friend and manager abandoned him because he had lost confidence in him, Louis announced plans to retire when his contract with Decca was due to expire in March of 1951.  But Louis had no other way of making money, so he renewed his contract for another three years.  Now that he was no longer advised by Adams, Jordan disbanded the Five, something he had done numerous times in the past, but this time created a full-blown orchestra.  But the pulse of the people, particularly the black people, had long since left behind the Big Band music and only the best known and most well established few were achieving any success at all.  Even though Louis went back to the smaller format for recording sessions, his hit-making heyday was behind him; not because his song quality had diminished any, but because the ears of the youth were turning to the developing rock 'n' roll, a music that Louis was so much an influence upon.
When it became apparent that Decca was not going to renew Louis' contract, he signed with Aladdin   According to keyboard man and arranger Bill Doggett, "No one ever got real close to Louis, although the public thought he was just the friendliest, warmest guy.  Actually, he was a very decent and fair man, just kind of cold."
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John Littlejohn was born John Wesley Funchess on April 16th 1931 in Lake, Mississippi.  His father was not a musician (it was his friend, Henry Martin, who first taught young John the guitar), but he was a gambler and one night part of his winnings was a guitar which John would pick up.
In his youth, John’s parents worked on a pecan and peach farm where John would earn forty cents a day hauling water to the workers.  In 1946, John and his brother left home for nearby Jackson to where they earned $1.25 a day working on an ice truck, listening to the Blues being played at some of their delivery stops.  John and a friend moved along to Arkansas in 1949 to chop cotton and there were recruited to pick cherries in New York state, but neither were adequate pickers and they moved on to Rochester, New York.  There John got a good job driving a bulldozer but, when the construction company had completed the job and offered him $200 a week in Florida, he chose to not return to the south and instead took a Greyhound bus to Gary, Indiana, in hopes of finding good paying work in the steel mills.  Unfortunately, all that could be found was a $40 a week job working at a service station which he held onto for six months.
It was 1951 and the northern industrial migration had brought lots of black workers wishing to hear the music of the Delta, albeit in a more electric way so, even though he hadn’t played guitar since leaving home, John saved enough money to get a guitar, amp and microphone and set about making music.  Not long after a six-month practice period, John had assembled a band that was playing seven nights a week around Chicago and its suburbs.  Their popularity soon got them a gig at the 99 Club in Joliet, Illinois, working weekends only but earning more than ever before.  They held it for three years.  In Gary, he met up with Joe Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson 5, and John’s band occasionally backed the boys up in rehearsal sessions.
Littlejohn did not get the opportunity to record until 1968 when the slide guitarist put out singles for several record labels.  Later in the year, he recorded this album followed up by four unreleased tracks for the Chess label.  A few releases from local companies followed and in 1985 he was able to put together the So-called Friends album for the label Rooster Blues.  Shortly afterward, John fell into ill health and passed away almost a decade later from kidney failure on February 1st 1994 at the age of 62.
Here is something I cannot verify but it seems I read a long time ago regarding the album we hear today.  Arhoolie Records’ owner Chris Strachwitz, based right here in the Bay Area’s El Cerrito, wanted to put his label into more than just the acoustic Blues it was noted for and approached Buddy Guy to do a session but, most likely for contractual reasons, Buddy declined and recommended Littlejohn.  Don’t take that to the bank because I can’t come up with where I read it, but I don’t think my mind is capable of fabricating the story.
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When I first came to KKUP, before I took a regular time slot 25+ years ago, I was still earning my living tending bar and I had one buddy / customer who put together a cassette of all kinds of his favorite Blues from his 45s.  He wrote short notes about the songs or artists and I remember one said something like, “It’s cracked but it still plays!”  Many of them were stuff I was well aware of, but one of the hidden gems was a thing called Walking with Frankie from the Ace label.  I haven’t looked for a long time for that tune, but when I found this compilation I promptly burned a copy for Marvelous Marv.
Frankie Lee Sims is about as different in his style from Louis Jordan as any artist I could think of for today’s show, with a twangy, crude, country electric Blues style.  He is believed to have been born on April 30th 1917 in New Orleans, Louisiana despite his claiming February 29th 1906, because 1906 was not a leap year.  Both his parents, Henry Sims and Virginia Summuel, were guitarists, and his uncle, Texas Alexander, was an often recorded Bluesman, but it was most notably his cousin Lightnin’ Hopkins, who has as many discs in my collection as anyone except maybe John Lee Hooker, and I have never really been a Hopkins fan.
The family moved to Marshall, Texas, in the late twenties but, shortly after learning to play guitar from Little Hat Jones, Sims left home at the age of twelve to sing his Blues.  By the late thirties, having graduated college, he was working weekdays teaching at a Palestine, Texas, school while playing dances and parties on the weekends.
After three years service in the Marines during World War II, Frankie Lee made Dallas, Texas, his home, devoting all his time to his music.  Besides gigging with Texas Bluesmen like T-Bone Walker and Smoky Hogg, Sims put out two singles for the Blue Bonnet label in 1948 before hitting regionally with Lucy Mae Blues (also the title of this CD) in 1953 for Specialty Records, the only one of his nine singles to reach even that status.  The songs on today’s collection are from his time with Specialty, which ended by 1957.
Frankie then moved to Ace Records where he was successful with Walking with Frankie and She Likes to Boogie Real Low.  Frankie later recorded with Lightnin’ and other musicians, but by the mid-60s he was out of all but the most local earshot.  Chris Strachwitz got Sims into a recording studio for his El Cerrito-based Arhoolie label in 1969, but on May 10th 1970, Frankie Lee’s health had deteriorated to the point that he passed away from pneumonia back in Dallas at the age of 53.
From the liner notes of this disc, Frankie discusses departing Dallas.  “I left there and went to Chicago, that where me and Muddy Waters, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Little Milton, Etta James, we all played at the Regal Theater on 42nd and South Parkway in Chicago for about three months, and then we went to American Bandstand, me and Jimmy McCracklin.  King Curtis put out a record called the Soul Twist, I’m the one playin’ the guitar on that.”  To fit this into a time line, soul Twist came out in 1962.
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I have a full show prepared for today but am strongly considering pre-empting a portion of it in favor of checking some of the new discs that have come to the station, so it is likely we will not hear Frankie Lee Sims or Big Maybelle, and maybe not even the last Louis Jordan set but, just in case, I will still take the time to introduce you to the artist born as Mabel Louise Smith on May 1st 1924 in Jackson, Tennessee.  Mabel’s earliest public singing took place in her church’s choir but she soon became enamored of Rhythm & Blues, turning professional in 1936 with Dave Clark’s Memphis Band.  She also toured with the popular all-female International Sweethearts of Rhythm before signing on with Christine Chatman’s Orchestra with whom she did her first recording in 1977.  She also recorded with Tiny Bradshaw’s Orchestra between 1947 and 1950.
Her first solo session was released as by Mabel Smith for the King label in 1947.  It was in 1952 when signed to Okeh Records that their producer, Fred Mendelsohn, gave her the name Big Maybelle and their first release, Gabbin’ Blues, climbed to #3 on Billboard’s R&B listing, followed in 1953 by two more platters, Way Back Home (#10) and My Country Man (#5).  Jerry Lee Lewis took her 1953 Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On and two years afterward made it one of the classic Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rockabilly masterpieces. 
Also known as America;s Queen Mother of Soul, Maybelle moved to Savoy Records in 1955 where her 1956 #11 disc Candy would be recognized in 1999 with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.   1957 found her appearing at New York City’s Apollo Theater, while her rendition of Jazz on a Summer’s Day was filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival as she shared the stage with Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington.
Even though she was out of her prime by the 60s, Maybelle was recorded by several more labels, but she only made the R&B charts twice more -- 1966’s Don’t Pass Me By at #27 and her 1967 remake of the ? and the Mysterions hit 96 Tears, which climbed to #23 as well as getting on the Pop list at #96,  Maybelle died in a diabetic coma on January 23rd 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 47.  When Epic Records released The Okeh Sessions it won the 1983 W.C. Handy Award for best Vintage or Reissue Album of the Year.  She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011.
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Since it is still relatively new, I thought I’d mention that KKUP is now streaming on the internet and, while it is still in a developing stage, we have been putting out the word.  I’m not all of that good with high-tech stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access.  If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will see on the home page a strip of options immediately above the pictures of the musicians the next to the last option being LISTEN ONLINE.  By clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop or mobile.  I can only speak for the desktop but after maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed.  As already mentioned, this is still a work in progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any one time.  I mention this so you will be aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening.  (I put the player in my favorites bar for the easiest of access.)  Now we can reach our listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada.  Let your friends elsewhere know they can now listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they can check out our schedule.
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Jordan for President
Barnacle Bill the Sailor
Jake What a Snake
You Run Your Mouth and I’ll Run My Business
But I’ll Be Back
I’m Alabama Bound
   Louis Jordan   16mins

How Much More Long
Treat Me Wrong
Slidin’ Home
Catfish Blues
Kiddeo
Reelin’ and Rockin’
Dream
Dust My Broom
   John Littlejohn   30mins

What’s the Use of Getting Sober
         (When You Gonna Get Drunk Again)
Ration Blues
G.I. Jive
Mop!  Mop!
Caldonia
Buzz Me
Don’t Worry ‘Bout That Mule
Choo Choo Ch’Boogie
   Louis Jordan   22mins

I’ve Got a Feelin’
Rain Down Rain
Gabbin’ Blues
One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show
Way Back Home
Please Stay Away From My Sam
Don’t Leave Poor Me
   Big Maybelle   19mins

Ain’t That Just Like a woman
         (They’ll Do It Every Time)
Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens
Texas and Pacific
Jack, You’re Dead
Boogie Woogie Blue Plate
Run Joe
Beans and Corn Bread
Saturday Night Fish Fry
Blue Light Boogie
   Louis Jordan   31mins

Lucy Mae Blues
Don’t Take It Out on Me
Married Woman
Jelly Roll Baker
Hawk Shuffle
Raggedy and Dirty
Yeh, Baby
Long Gone
Cryin’ Won’t Help You
Frankie Lee’s 2 O’clock Jump
   Frankie Lee Sims   27mins

Stone Cold Dead in the Marketplace
Ain’t Nobody’s Business
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
   Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald   8mins