Fifth Wednesday      12-30-2015                                                                                          

T-Model Ford                                       1998
Larry Carlton                                        2004
Blind Blake                                          1926+
Bee Houston                                         1970?

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So it’s the last show of the year and another chance to get together with Paul before I begin the third year of my developing the British Blues saga and, boy, have I been looking forward to playing some good old American stuff.  I was kinda thinking of going Jazzy on my half of the show, but our first set is anything but.  T-Model Ford was recommended to me years ago by a friend who worked at one of our local CD stores and said he was a cross between Hound Dog Taylor and R.L, Burnside.  Well, any mention of Taylor creates a compulsion to hear it and, yes, there is a raw quality similar to Hound Dog’s music and listening to this album made me delve further into Burnside as well.

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When I was thinking Jazzy, the particular album I had in mind was Sapphire Blues by Larry Carlton.  I came across it in our new additions library maybe a decade ago and it was well worth digging it out of my archives.  It fits almost perfectly the mood I was in.

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And here’s something I wrote a few years ago for a project I’ll probably never finish:

Achieving popularity about the same time as Blind Lemon (Jefferson) was Blind Blake, Florida-based guitarist of whom extremely little is known.  On one recording, he stated his given name to be Arthur (he also recorded as Blind Arthur), and his sponsors claimed him to be from Jacksonville, Florida, a theory backed up by his accent on spoken asides.  What else is known is mostly about the music, not the man.

Blake first recorded in the autumn of 1926 for Paramount, and his initial success with West Coast Blues was the first (and last) solo instrumental race record.  He had a more structured style than his contemporaries, which leads to the belief that he was used to ensemble play, possibly in a jazz format.  It is fairly certain that in the late twenties he lived in Chicago, often playing house parties with pianists like Charlie Spand (with whom he recorded Hastings Street and Police Dog Blues) or Little Brother Montgomery.  As the go-to guy among Paramount's guitarist, he also performed and recorded with banjo players Papa Charlie Jackson and Gus Cannon as well as Classic Blues singers Ma Rainey and Ida Cox.  Blake toured with the vaudeville show Happy-Go-Lucky in parts of 1930 and 1931.  He would release 79 titles over six years until 1932 when Paramount ceased to exist, but unlike most Blues singers of the time, never recorded a spiritual.  His lack of reappearance in the recording studios presumes his death shortly afterwards.

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For a guy who I think only made this one record on his own, Bee Houston has long been one of my favorite guitarists.  Not in Houston but close enough, in 1938 Bee was born and then raised in San Antonio, Texas and infused Gospel-based Soul music into his powerful Blues style.  During the late 50s and early 60s, Edwin Wilson Houston could be found in the backing bands of artists Little Willie John, Bobby Bland and Junior Parker.  After his military service, Bee relocated to the west coast and I believe that when he made this album for Arhoolie, in my mind more of an acoustic Blues label, Houston had been backing Big Mama Thornton on tours and recordings.  I think I tend to go for this album more often than most of my other favorites because he is undeservedly less familiar to most of our listeners.

Anyway, all in all a great way to wind up the year, with good company and good music.  Paul’s playlist follows mine below and to all of you, thanks for the last many years and looking forward to sharing more stuff with you as the new year progresses.

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I’ll have another chance to hear some more of my American Blues as I fill in on John Fuller’s Backstroke program beginning at 10pm Monday January 18^th and ending three hours later at 1am, but that’s next year!

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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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To the Left to the Right
The Old Number
We Don’t Understand
These Eyes
Come Back Home
   T-Model Ford

A Pair of Kings

Sapphire Blue
Slightly Dirty
Take Me Down
   Larry Carlton

Hastings Street

Diddie Wah Diddie
Southern Rag
C.C. Pill Blues
Too Tight Blues #2
   Blind Blake

You Think I’m Your Good Thing

Busy Bee
The Hustler
So Proud to be a Black Man
Breakaway
Things Get Better
Never
   Bee Houston

·      

Paul’s list   2015 – 12-30

WATCH YOUR STEP - BOBBY PARKER  V-TONE 223  1960

THREE HUNDRED POUNDS OF JOY - HOWLIN' WOLF  CHESS 1870  1963

LET'S HAVE A NATURAL BALL - ALBERT KING  BOBBIN 126  1960

SOMETHING INSIDE ME - ELMORE JAMES  SPHERE SOUND 713  c.1966 rec.60

I CAN'T LOSE - B. B. KING  KENT 393  1964

SHAKE IT BABY - JOHN LEE HOOKER  AMERICAN BLUES FESTIVAL  (HAMBURG)  1962

IT WON'T BE LONG - LYDIA PENSE WITH THE NEW INVADERS   INVADER 401  1965

CAN'T AFFORD TO DO IT - HOMESICK JAMES  COLT 632  1962

JUVENILE DELINQUENT - T V SLIM AND THE SOUL BROTHERS  TIMBRE 510  1966

DON'T START CRYIN' NOW - SLIM HARPO  EXCELLO 2194  1961

GOT ME A NEW WOMAN - JOE HILL LOUIS (Lewis) rec.1952 Sun Studios  NranRel. 1989 CD

HARD HEARTED WOMAN - EDDIE BURNS  HARVEY 111  1961

PLAYHOUSE - FLOYD JONES  GENESIS; SWEET HOME CHICAGO (CHESS 6641 174) (LP) (U.K.) rec.1951

COME ON - DENNIS ROBERTS (Long John Hunter)  Yucca 133  1961

I'D RATHER GO BLIND - ETTA JAMES  CADET 5578  1967

NOBODY KNOWS - FiRD (Snooks) EAGLIN  IMPERIAL 5671  1960

BLUES WITH A FEELING - PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND  E;ECTRA EKL-294  1965

ROUGH TREATMENT - MOODY JONES  J.O.B. Unissued  1952 FLYRIGHT LP  FLY 565  1980

BEST DAYS - BABY FACE TURNER (rec.1952)  Nran Kent LP KST-9007 1969

GOOD MOANIN' BLUES - SHAKEY (Big Walter) HORTON   ARGO 5476 1964 CHESS LP CH 9268  1987

DETROIT MOAN - EUNICE DAVIS  L and R 42.016 (LP)  1980

BIG CAR BLUES - LIGHTNIN HOPKINS  FROM CONCERT AT  ASH GROVE, HOLLYWOOD  AUG, 1961

THAT MAN - EARL HOOKER AND THE EARLETTES  AGE 29114  1963

DO YOU WANT ME TO CRY - EDDIE TAYLOR  VIVID 104  1964

HENRY LEE - BETTY JAMES  CHESS 1837  1962

 

Development of the British Blues and Rhythm
  --- show 41 ---   12-23-2015

Foghat                                             1972-74

Jeff Beck Group II                          1971-72
Johnny Almond Band                        1968

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From this point on, let’s just consider any Blues content a bonus.  As we follow the players that influenced the Blues boom in Britain in the mid-60s, it is no wonder that the entire genre has transformed almost a decade later in a few diverse directions.  When we last heard from Foghat, or three quarters of them anyway, drummer Roger Earle, bassist Tone Stevens and guitarist “Lonesome Dave” Peverett were backing up vocalist Chris Youlden and guitarist Kim Simmonds in Kim’s group, Savoy Brown.  In shortening their name from The Savoy Brown Blues Band, these guys were acknowledging the expansion of the musical influences and effects.

Sharing vocals with Dave was their other guitarist, Rod Price, as Foghat kept a strong Blues foundation in their compositions but seemed to rock even harder than most of their contemporaries.  In this, our first listening to the band, we take a set from each of their first three LPs, 1972’s Foghat, 1973’s Rock and Roll, and 1974’s Energized, the last of which I did not have on vinyl so unfamiliarity and time restrictions likely brought on the shortness of the last set.

For quite a while now my blogs have been almost entirely written off the top of my head memories (could it possibly have coincided with the start of the baseball season when I watched almost three hours a day on MLB.com?), but it is my hope that in 2016 I will be going back to putting in more time researching the groups’ histories, etc.  As an example, there is a good story behind the formation of Foghat but that will just have to wait ‘til our next foray into their discography.

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So these are a couple of albums that I just never listened to.  By this time I was becoming more and more entrenched in at minimum Blues-based material, the first Jeff Beck Group which featured Rod Stewart being a worthy example, and these were just not “that”.  Backing up Beck’s guitar work in his second formation of The Jeff Beck Group were Cozy Powell behind the drum kit, Clive Chaman on bass, Max Middleton playing piano and Bob Tench providing the vocals.  While these are not among my favorites by the guitarist who is definitely my favorite from the Brit Blues era, the musicianship is up to his high standard and you should find these two sets wholly enjoyable.

Backing up a bit, Beck came out with the Truth album in July of 1968 and a year later, with the same ensemble excepting a change in drummers, issued Beck-ola and credited it for the first time to The Jeff Beck Group.  In between the two albums, they also backed Donovan on the single Goo Goo Barabajagal.  Stewart and Ron Wood would form Faces in September and Beck waited a full two years for his next release, October 1971’s Rough and Ready and its follow-up from July of 1972 simply titled Jeff Beck Group, and these are the two albums we have gleaned our two Beck sets from today.

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I spent a few hours earlier this month with Ginny Almond, the widow of saxophonist Johnny Almond, and had a lot of fun discussing all kinds of relevant things while she allowed me access to their personal collection of his music for me to rip to my computer.  (Coincidentally, I believe it was Beck-ola that Ginny was listening to when I entered her home.)  I first came across Johnny’s name as a musical contributor to John Mayall’s first American LP release, Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton from 1966, and then really never heard him again until Mayall’s innovative Turning Point album, released in 1969.  In between, I discovered, he had also recorded with Zoot Money, The Alan Price Set (who have been overlooked in this series), and Chicken Shack as well as studio work in general, but I never had access to that music or information until recently.

In 1969, just prior to his return to the Mayall ranks, Johnny put together The Johnny Almond Music Machine and put out two albums, Patent Pending and Hollywood Blues (most of the musicians were unfamiliar names to me except for Jazz guitarist Joe Pass and legendary New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer, both of whom appeared on the second LP), and Music Machine is how the handwritten paper CD sleeve lists its source, but in comparing its content (whose song list is accurate except for the last two titles not identified) to the song lists for the two aforementioned albums they do not appear indeed to be that source.  At the top of this posting I have listed this as the Johnny Almond Band from 1968, but in truth, unless someone provides me better knowledge, it is a mystery set … THAT MUST BE RESOLVED!

The discs provided were taken from vinyl recordings so there are some sounds of use but, HEY!, these are from the man’s personal library.

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We still have a good six months of programming in this series but I wanted to add a little bit of year-end holiday cheer to this year’s final edition so, even though I have put together two full 80 minute CDs, I hope to be able to fit in one Christmas tune to thank you all for faithfully listening to my show, indeed some of you for over 25 years.  A few years back, Ron Thompson included an instrumental version of Little Drummer Boy on his CD Magic Touch and while I rarely try to do a special Christmas Blues program, I have often thrown it in as a seasonal mood setter.

Ron is a friend of KKUP, having appeared often over the years at our Blues Marathons and also showed up on one of our own Johnnie Cozmik’s CDs.  I first heard some of his recordings from parties he played in Ben Lomond back in the late 70s and, of course, his career got a big boost when he played with John Lee Hooker.  I intend to hear him again today about an hour after the show ends because, for many years now, Ron and his small combo have held down the Wednesday evening (6-9pm, I think) slot at the Poor House Bistro.  I don’t stop down there very often, but today just sounds right for a couple of beers and some good music.
 

My sincere best wishes to all of you at this special time of year.  I have made many friends because of KKUP and this show, most of whom I have never seen, and I thank you all so much.  I'll talk to you again next week as I share the show with Paul, a good end to the year

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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 Just Want to Make Love to You
Maybellene
Double Trouble
Highway Killing Me
Leaving Again (Again)
   Foghat  

Got the Feeling

Situation
Max’s Tune
New Ways Train Train
   The Jeff Beck Group II 

You Can Fly

The Love of a Woman
Let It All Hang Out
Ventures
?Track 7
?Track 8
   Johnny Almond’s Music Machine   ?

Ride Ride Ride

Long Way to Go
What a Shame
Helping Hand
She’s Gone
   Foghat  

Ice Cream Cakes

Glad All Over
I Can’t Give Back the Love I Feel
Sugar Cane
Definitely Maybe
Going Down
   The Jeff Beck Group II 

Golden Arrow
Wild Cherry
That’ll Be the Day
Nothing I Won’t Do
   Foghat 

Development of the British Blues and Rhythm
  --- show 40 ---   12-9-2015

Traffic                                             1967-1970

Groundhogs                                1970-1972, 1988

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Oh crap!  I spent over an hour typing in some commentary for today’s show, then hit some button that wiped it all out, apparently beyond retrieval.  I guess I still don’t save often enough!  Oh well, here goes again.  Sorry if I don’t get done in time.

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I was originally planning on NOT including Traffic in our multi-year saga, hence it falls a little behind in our timeline, but finally figured I would be derelict to not include this portion of the Spencer Davis alumnus Stevie Winwood’s career.  Stevie provides most of the vocals as well as keyboards (and maybe guitar?) backed by guitarist Dave Mason, drummer Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood on flute and saxes, all but Wood adding vocals to the group’s music.

Our first set is taken from their debut LP, 1967’s Mr. Fantasy, while their second set is gleaned from the self-titled 1968 follow-up.  1969’s Last Exit was half live, but we took two studio tracks to start the third Traffic set, then finished off with a couple from the 1970 John Barleycorn Must Die.

In 1969 Winwood left to join Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech in Blind Faith, then reassembled the band without Mason, who had gone into a solo career, in time to put out the Barleycorn album, which also provides our show-closing number Glad / Freedom Rider.

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This is our second installment of T.S. “Tony” McPhee’s trio The Groudhogs (third if you count their earliest appearance backing John Lee Hooker) and we can see how the music has evolved away from its Blues roots.  Drummer Ken Pustelnik and bassist Pete Cruickshank backed guitarist McPhee through the first two sets presented here, the first being built from the two 1970-recorded albums Thank Christ for the Bomb and Split.  A very apt title as Split also gives us the first two tracks of our next set ahead of much of the 1972-recorded Who Will Save the World?  The Mighty Groundhogs.

McPhee comes back in his third set with a whole new backing pair (Mick Jones on drums and Dave Anderson on the bass) in their 1988 LP Back Against the Wall, which goes back a little more toward those Blues roots.  I particularly like the last tune of the set, the title being the serial number of a favorite guitar which was stolen from him a couple of years previous.  I have had so many occasions where someone apparently thought they deserved my axes more than me to fill an entire album playlist.

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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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Paper Sun
Dealer
Coloured Rain
House for Everyone
Dear Mister Fantasy /
      We’re a Fade You Missed This
   Traffic

Ship on the Ocean

Split One
Garden
Status People
Split Two
Eccentric Man
Split Four
   The Groundhogs

You Can All Join In
Pearly Queen
Feelin’ Alright
Vagabond Virgin
Forty Thousand Headmen
Crying to Be Heard
   Traffic

Cherry Red
Groundhog
Death of the Sun
Bog Roll Blues
The Grey Maze
Amazing Grace
   The Groundhogs

Something’s Got a Hold of My Toe

Medicated Goo
John Barleycorn Must Die
Every Mother’s Son
   Traffic

Back Against the Wall

Blue Boar Blues
Waiting in the Shadows
Stick to Your Guns
54146
   The Groundhogs

Glad / Freedom Rider

   Traffic