Key to the Highway 

2017-01-25                  

Deanna Bogart                                               

Luther “Snake Boy” Johnson

Louis Jordan

*************************

I had originally planned this show to be aired immediately before or after the November Presidential election but that got sidelined when I had a surgery to remove my gall bladder and have missed a few shows, but I think I was made even sicker by the unexpected result.  I showed my disgust with the American voting public since then when I did a full show with only Canadian and British Bluesmen.  Anyway, I opted not to rewrite the intro to this piece.  It does seem more appropriate now, just after the inauguration, as you will find.

As we approach this, the most bizarre Presidential election this country has ever had, I wanted to make this show a little bit of a commemoration by adding one of my personal experiences.  It was 1992 after I had been driving cab for a little over a year (I started this show in 1991 so the name Key to the Highway has nothing to do with the taxi business) that one of the other drivers, Mike, who knew I was also a Clinton-Gore man, asked if I wanted to go to D.C. for the inauguration.  I answered back, “Yeah, sure, like I can afford it”.  He said, “No, man, I’ve got family there”.  So a friend of mine’s wife got us reasonable air fare and off we went.

It was a great experience, as much as I hoped it would be.  I swear, Mike’s brother and sister-in-law must have thought I slept all the time but, you must realize, I had busted my tail working through the holidays and when one works almost every night until about 10am they shouldn’t be expected to be alive very early in the day once they get to sleep.  Anyway, Mike’s family was great people, and I managed to get up early often enough to take the Metro into D.C. a few times to see some of the sites like the Washington and Lincoln monuments and the Viet Nam War Memorial.  And anyone who’s been there would surely agree that you could probably spend a month at the Smithsonian Museum.  And of course we went to join the masses at the inauguration.  In fact, I recently resurrected a well-worn commemorative  baseball cap I got that week after letting it sit on the shelf for more than a couple of decades.  I had actually bought two of them, but the night before I flew home I went to a bar by the hotel and, after a few beers and not being used to wearing a hat (there was a time I didn’t have such a bald spot to cover) I left it behind.

So, all that said, aside from the actual inauguration itself, the main thing I was hoping for that week was to catch Deanna Bogart in a local performance.  Deanna is a native of the D.C. area, living then in Maryland as I recall, but I figured with my luck she’d be out on tour in California while I was there.  But she indeed was in the area and we did get to hear her and that is when she told us she had played for one of the several inaugural balls that evening.

Deanna is a vocalist and Boogie Woogie piano player who also plays saxophone, sometimes playing her sax in one hand and piano with the other.  Now, if only she would sing while blowing sax I would really be impressed!  In fact, I was wearing a pin showing Bill Clinton playing sax that said something like “He blew and he blew, and he blew them all away”, with little Republican elephant icons floating out of the horn’s bell, which Deanna admired so I gave it to her.

I first heard her when she played at J.J’s Mountain View club and picked up a copy of her first CD, 1991’s Out to Get You.  She played at the Monterey Blues Festival that summer and I went down to see her with the express purpose of asking her to join me on the show if it fit her schedule and she was kind enough to make it happen.  Now, if you listen to me enough to read this blog, you are likely aware that I know I do not do interviews well at all, but this was before I was so insightful.  Deanna was so gracious, humorous and generally so comfortable in what she does that I think the interview went well, with probably no thanks to me.

So Deanna was at Monterey again, must have been the next year because this was all before the 1993 inauguration, and the Conductor (Thursdays 5-7pm on KKUP), whom I rode down with, and I had our lunch plates in our hands looking for a place to sit when Deanna saw us and called us over to join her at her picnic table, a very welcoming gesture.  I think she did another show with me soon afterward, but maybe not.  That was six Presidential terms ago so my memory is not that reliable.  Anyway, all in all, she is just a very warm person who happens to put out some great music as you will hear.

Deanna was born in Detroit but her early years were also spent in Phoenix and New York City.  She must have taken to the piano remarkably early because around the age of six she was asked to leave the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music due to the fact that, instead of learning to read music, she was playing by ear.  It was in middle school that she wanted to add the saxophone to her instrument list but was directed to the clarinet because it was more ladylike.

Anyway, things worked out pretty much as Deanna must have desired because she has won the Blues Music Award’s Horn Instrumentalist of the Year three years in a row (2008-2010) and in 2 013 earned a nomination to be the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year.  All that and more than twenty Wammies, the local music \award organization for the D.C. area

Being a bigtime fan of the Cincinnati Reds, a team half a continent away which I have never been closer to than my layovers in St. Louis on that trip in 1993, I feel fortunate to have seen them win a World Series game in 1972 when a friend of my wife-at-the-time could not make the game because the postponement due to a rainout put it to a day he could not attend.  The seats were so far back that if you stood up and looked behind you and down you were staring at the pavement surrounding the Oakland Coliseum, so absolutely the very last row of the upper deck,  but still we were there.  I mention this because if Deanna is as much a fan as I am, she must have been delighted and honored to play the national anthem at the first All Star Game at the D.C. area’s only Major League ballpark, Baltimore’s Camden Yards.  Stashed away somewhere that I will likely never come across, I must still have a VCR tape of the event.  At risk of this blog sounding more about me than Deanna, I would like to add the only other event important in my life that the fates allowed me to enjoy in person, the Monterey International Pop Festival the evening of June 18^th 1967, but this year being the 50^th anniversary of that weekend means that is a story for a different day a few months from now.

Just before she started her own recording career, Ms. Bogart was a part of the oxymoronically named Cowboy Jazz, but I was unable to find much about that ensemble or I’d tell ya.  More recently, Deanna took part in the annual Legendary Blues Cruise series (I believe more than one year) and, in addition to her own performance, teamed up with San Jose’s own Tommy Castro in the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue.  We have a CD at KKUP put together from those shows, which also included former J. Geils’ harmonicist Magic Dick.  As I recall, this was a great set of live material but it is not in my personal library so I couldn’t add it to today’s show.

The three sets here were taken from Deanna’s first three discs, 1991’s Out to Get You and Crossing Borders from 1992, both released on Blind Pig, and 1996’s New Address for the Viceroots label.

*************************

A few months back (September 28^th to be precise should you desire to read his bio), we used Louis Jordan as our featured artist and it was my intention to cover his charting hits, but my recollection was a little off.  The man had 26 #1 songs and we just got those in, so I’m coming back today with another dose, this time presenting all of his #2 and #3 recordings, leaving lots more great material to air on future shows.  All the tunes come from the Bear Family’s 9CD collection Let the Good Times Roll; The Complete Decca Recordings, 1938-54.

*************************

If you look up guitarist/singers named Luther Johnson, you can’t say you don’t get options! There is Luther “Guitar, Jr.” Johnson also, but today we visit the music of Luther “Snake Boy” Johnson, and to confuse the issue even further they both played in Muddy Waters’ bands in the 60s.  And since they began recording, a third Bluesman of the same name has entered the scene.

The album we hear today, Lonesome in My Bedroom, was recorded in Paris on December 18^th 1975 and was released on CD in 1992 by the Evidence label.  I don’t consider Luther an exceptional Blues player, indeed it is the fact that he was relatively typical as mostly a sideman that speaks so highly of the Chicago players of his day.  At least, that is how I see it.  What is exceptional is the band he got behind him for this occasion.  Starting with the rhythm session, drummer Fred Below was one the most sought out session men of his day and, along with bassist Dave Myers, formed two thirds of The Aces who most notably backed up Junior Wells and then became known as Little Walters’ Jukes.  The other member of The Aces (not included in this session) was Dave’s cousin, Louis Myers, who would play guitar or harmonica depending on who they were backing.  Not many have more bona fide credentials than guitarist Hubert Sumlin who for so long was the man for Howlin’ Wolf.  The other axe man, Lonnie Brooks had an outstanding recording career on his own.  Pianist Willie Mabon is a familiar name and Little Mac Simmons provides the harmonica.

Luther’s father got him started on the guitar which he sharpened while in reform school and then the Army.  Born Lucius Johnson in Davisboro, Georgia on August 30^th 1934, hence another of his monikers Georgia Boy, Luther relocated to Chicago and by the early 60s had played with Elmore James, formed his own band and recorded as Little Luther.  During the mid- to late-60s, Luther toured with the Waters’ group, culminating in two albums under his own name backed by Muddy and his band for the Douglas label. 

Johnson moved to Boston in the 70s and often performed there until he came down with cancer.  He passed away on March 18^th 1976, exactly three months after the recording of this music.

*************************

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.

*************************

Thrash Boogie

Over Thirty

All Night Long

Good Times

Cold Outside

Morning Glory

Ethel’s Place

Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar

   Deanna Bogart   25mins

You Can’t Get That No More

Salt Pork, West Virginia

Reconversion Blues

Beware (Brother, Beware)

Let the Good Times Roll

Open the Door, Richard

Barnyard Boogie

   Louis Jordan’s #2 hits   28mins

Rock Me Slow and Easy

They Call Me the Popcorn Man

Little Queenie

Lonesome in My Bedroom

Please Give Me That Love

She’s My Babe

Please Don’t Take My Baby Nowhere

   Luther “Snake Boy” Johnson   28mins

I Know You Don’t Love Me

Tell Me

Don’t Know a Thing About Love

It’s High Time

Backstage Boogie

Blind Leading the Blind

I Know What You’re Thinkin’

Morning Skies

   Deanna Bogart   27mins

I’m Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town

Five Guys Named Moe

Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby

Somebody Done Changed the Lock on My Door

Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying

Petootie Pie   (w Ella Fitzgerald)

That Chicks Too Young to Fry

I Know What You’re Puttin’ Down

Early in the Mornin’

You Broke Your Promise

   Louis Jordan’s #3 hits   32mins

Alright

Checks and Love Letters

Boogie Woogie Baby

You Give Me Reasons

Time to Change

Slipped, Tripped, Fell in Love

Can’t Get Enough of You

   Deanna Bogart   26mins