Key to the Highway
2017-11-22 2-5pm (with Gil)
Chicago Blues All Stars
Booker T Laury, Sonny Blake plus
John Lee Hooker
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Today should be fun.
It will be the first time Gil and I have done a show together. It is a long tradition for the Wednesday
2-5pm alternating hosts to get together when there is a fifth Wednesday in the
month, which occurs four times a year. So
here’s a little history. When the Key to
the Highway show first aired on August 28th 1990, I alternated every
other week with Leslie Ann Knight until Roger Anderson (there’s a couple of
names from the past) suggested it would be easier for our listeners to follow
if one of us took the first and third and the other took the second and fourth
week, leaving the question of what to do when that fifth Wednesday comes along,
so pretty quickly the solution became clear -- do it together. Leslie did a Jazz show titled In the Groove
but, a number of months later, she turned to Blues herself and took on a Monday
morning slot and also had the inspiration to put together a Blues Marathon on
June 13th & 14th of 1992. Until then, we had marathons (I recall doing
a Mardi Gras weekend early on) but not a weekend devoted to a particular
genre. Leslie put on a second marathon
the next year which established it as an annual event every June thereafter
before she left KKUP.
Anyway, Leslie’s move to Monday mornings left a hole
in the schedule so I was asked if I wanted to do every week and while I was
considering maybe having different guest hosts every other week, I asked
Johnnie Cozmik to do a show and he accepted but misunderstood, thinking I meant
every other week. That has got to be the
best misunderstanding I have been involved in because Johnnie shared the show
with me for as near as I can recall about fifteen years including the fifth
Wednesdays. Every now and then I still
sneak in and visit Johnnie on his 3-5pm Thursday show and he’ll make me share
the mike and say it is like those old fifth Wednesdays. Johnnie is far and away my best friend at the
station although I seldom see him anymore.
At some point, Jammin’ Jim Farris had a conflict
between the show he had and his work hours so he asked Johnnie to switch shows
with him. That same conflict kept Jim
from being able to come in those fifth Wednesdays and ultimately to give up the
show entirely when he asked me to try to find a replacement. Jim is still with the station although currently
only on the fifth Saturdays from 6-9pm.
So, Paul Johnson requested and received the slot and
held it for about five years or so. Paul
was a very comfortable fit because I actually knew him back around 1970. His show, 50s R&B House Party (or
something like that), was more oldies oriented but, particularly on those fifth
Wednesdays, he weighted it more toward the Blues and R&B. Paul was a lot of fun but he decided he
needed a break and is still with KKUP but as an unassigned programmer at the
moment.
So that created the opening for Gil. I met Gil twenty-some years back before he came
to KKUP and for the past ten years or so I’ve helped him put together the June
Blues Marathons, through the 2017 event, but I would think we’ll still be helping
Eric in whatever capacity helps him keep them going.
This week is not the fifth Wednesday, but a band I saw
in Canada this summer will be playing in San Francisco on December 7th
so I wanted to air a show on three of the bands I caught while in Vancouver
next week, my last scheduled show before Harpdog Brown plays at Biscuits and
Blues, and Gil was kind enough to make the adjustment.
I
didn’t realize I was going to go into this much detail of ancient history but
it is kinda cool to have done it.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to sharing this first show with my friend
and let me tell you a little about the half of the show I have planned.
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You
guys have likely heard me extol the virtues of wearing KKUP tee shirts and how
getting them is a great reason to pledge during our marathons. So, I’m on my way out of a grocery store when
a lady says, not quietly but somewhat exhuberantly, “KKUP!” I ask her name, which leads her to recognize
my voice, which brings about a brief conversation. When she tells me her name is Gay, I realize
I have spoken to her a few times on the phone and the meeting was very pleasant
so, somewhere in the show, I intend to play Magic Sam’s tune I Found a New Love
which includes the line “and she makes me feel so gay”, part of the reason Gay
would call the couple of times I have played it in the past. I hope you guys have had similar good times
you can attribute to wearing a KKUP tee shirt or cap.
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I’m figuring Gil should start off the show, then I’ll
come in with a set recorded in Europe at the end of the 60s with a bunch of
American artists on tour. I’m thinking
it might have been in affiliation with one of the annual American Folk Blues
Festival tours which Willie Dixon coordinated back in those days but the
lineups don’t exactly match any of that annual event. On the first set, all the musicians take a
turn at the mike, starting off with an ensemble jam, Chicago Boogie Style. Then pianist Sunnyland Slim does She’s Got a
Thing Goin’ On before turning the mike over to bassist Dixon for 29 Ways. Drummer Clifton James gets his turn with Wee
Hour Blues, then guitarist Johnny Shines sings Fat Mama before another ensemble
number, Re Boogie, closes out the set.
These all came from a CD called the Chicago Blues Band, as does a later
set with John Lee Hooker backed by these same players for five of his tunes.
Sandwiched in between those sets, and a couple more
from Gil, is some stuff from a CD called Memphis Blues. I played a Memphis Slim portion from it a
couple of weeks ago, but I think this set might be even better, although the
artists are not listed in the liner notes.
However, I think I have figured part of it out. The last two songs on the set are piano
numbers and you will hear them state that it is Booker T. Laury, a Memphis born
keyboard man. Those two numbers are
preceded by a pair of harmonica tunes with the authorship credited to Sonny
Blake, so that is a presumption I am willing to make. The liner notes do mention Evelyn Young as
the saxophone player in the ensemble who sings He Flew the Coop, apparently
based on the music from Jessie Hill’s New Orleans classic Ooh Poo Pah Doo just
preceding those. But the four opening
songs of the set I will not venture a guess, but still … enjoy
Oh
yeah, Happy Thanksgiving!
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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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Chicago Boogie Style
She’s Got a Thing Goin’ On29 Ways
Wee Hour Blues
Fat Mama
Re Boogie
The Chicago Blues Band 24mins
Call Me the Boogie Man
Form 1040 BluesThat’s Where I Am Coming From
You’ll Soon Be Singing the Blues
He Flew the Coop
‘Fore Day Train
Shakin’ That Thing
Early in the Morning
Memphis Blues
Sonny Blake, Booker T. Laury + others 27mins
Crawling King Snake
Dimples (I Love the Way You Walk)It Serve Me Right to Suffer
Maudie
Boom Boom, I’m Gonna Shoot You Right Down
John Lee Hooker & Chicago Blues Band 20mins
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