May 29, 2013

Rock Around the Clock


Marshall Lytle, 'Rock Around the Clock' Bassist, Dead at 79 Musician recorded influential Fifties track with Bill Haley and the Comets
Marshall Lytle, whose snappy bass work anchored Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock," died Saturday at his home in New Port Richie, Florida. He was 79. According to The New York Times, Lytle died of lung cancer.
Lytle was a teenage guitar player working at a Chester, Pennsylvania, radio station when Haley, who worked at another station, recruited him to play bass. Lytle notably didn't play the instrument, but Haley taught him the rudiments of slap-bass in a 30-minute session. The technique was key for country music, which was the focus of Haley's band – then known as Bill Haley and His Saddlemen.

Marshall Lytle (pictured far right) of Bill Haley and the Comet

February 5, 2013

Billy Wright 1949 51


01 - Thinkin' Blues (Wright) 02 - After Dark Blues (Reig, Wright) 03 - Fore Day Blues (Reig, Wright) 04 - You Satisfy (Reig, Wright) 05 - Billy's Boogie Blues (Reig, Wright) 06 - Blues for My Baby (Reig, Reig, Wright) 07 - I Keep Drinking (Reig, Wright) 08 - Back Biting Woman (Wright) 09 - Heavy Hearted Blues (Wright) 10 - Gotta Find My Baby (Wright) 11 - Married Woman's Boogie (Wright) 12 - Empty Hands (James, Peck, Wright) 13 - When the Wagon Comes (Wright) 14 - Keep Your Hands on My Heart (Brounzey) 15 - Mercy, Mercy (Wright) 16 - Stacked Deck (Wright) 17 - Mean Old Wine (Wright) 18 - Drinkin' and Thinkin' (Wright) 19 - New Way of Lovin' (Wright) 20 - Restless Blues (Darnell, Wright) 21 - This Love of Mine (Parker, Sanicola, Sinatra) 22 - Hey Little Girl (Wright)

Amos Milburn 1946 47


01 - After Midnite 02 - My Baby's Boogying 03 - Darling How Long 04 - Down the Road a Piece 05 - Amos' Blues 06 - Amos' Boogie 07 - Don't Beg Me 08 - Operation Blues 09 - Cinch Blues 10 - Everything I Do Is Wrong 11 - My Love Is Limited 12 - Blues at Sundown 13 - Money Hustlin' Woman 14 - Sad and Blue 15 - That's My Chick 16 - I've Tried to Prove My Love, Dear 17 - Mean Woman 18 - Aladdin Boogie 19 - Nickle Plated Baby 20 - Real Gone ) 21 - Rainy Weather Blues 22 - Train Whistle Blues 23 - Train Time Blues

February 4, 2013

Amos Milburn 1952-53


Performed by: Amos Milburn & His Aladdin Chickenshakers
01 - Thinking and Drinking
02 - Put Something in My Hand
03 - Trouble in Mind
04 - Squeeze My Blues Away
05 - Flying Home
06 - Roll Mr. Jelly
07 - I Won't Be a Fool Anymore
08 - Long, Long Day
09 - I'm Still a Fool for You
10 - Boo Hoo
11 - Rocky Mountain
12 - Greyhound
13 - Kiss Me Again
14 - Stormy Weather
15 - Kiss Me Again
16 - Rock, Rock, Rock
17 - Three Times a Fool
18 - Why Don't You Do Right
19 - Let Me Go Home Whiskey
20 - Please Mr. Johnson
21 - Let's Have a Party
22 - Without Someone to Call Your Own
23 - One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
24 - Sorrowful Heart

January 31, 2013

Otis Blackwell - 1952-54


Otis Blackwell - 1952-54
01 - Wake Up Fool (Blackwell)
02 - Fool That I Be (Blackwell)
03 - Number 000 (Blackwell)
04 - Please Help Me Find My Way Home (Blackwell)
05 - Tears, Tears, Tears (Blackwell)
06 - Daddy Rolling Stone (Blackwell)
07 - On That Powerline (Blackwell)
08 - Don't Know How I Loved You (Blackwell)
09 - You're My Love (Blackwell)
10 - Go Away Mr. Blues (Blackwell)
11 - Bartender Fill It Up Again (Blackwell)
12 - I'm Travelin' On (Blackwell)
13 - My Josephine (Blackwell)
14 - Ain't Got No Time (Blackwell)
15 - I'm Coming Back Baby (Blackwell)
16 - Nobody Met the Train (Benjamin, Cray, Dash, Weiss)
17 - I'm Standing at the Doorway to Your Heart (Blackwell)
18 - I Face This World Alone (Blackwell)
19 - O-O-O-Oh! (Blackwell)
20 - Oh! What a Babe (Blackwell)
21 - Here I Am (Blackwell)

Otis Blackwell Born: Feb 16, 1932 in Brooklyn, NY Died: May 6, 2002 in Nashville, TN

Stompin 12

January 27, 2013

Stompin 23

1.Joe Boots - Well Alright (2:07) 2.Prince Love & The Royal Knights - Don't Want No War (2:05) 3.Elroy Peace & The Bow Ribbons - Quick Like (2:15) 4.Slim Cole - They Call Me Slim Cole (2:12) 5.Evelyn Freeman - Didn't It Rain (2:17) 6.Jimmy Raye - Hey Let's Dance (2:21) 7.Silvertones - Midnight Thunder (2:27) 8.Ben Hughes- Sack (1:59) 9.Johnny 'Blues' Sparrow - The Last Laugh Will Be On You (2:26) 10.Harvey & Doc - Oh Baby (2:03) 11.Fabulous Silvertones Tones - Dimples (2:36) 12.Sherman Williams - I Lost My Baby (2:26) 13.Slim Saunders - Let's Have Some Fun (2:17) 14.Tommy LaMonte - Yeah Yeah Yeah (2:10) 15.Joe Boots - Rock 'n' Roll Jungle Girl (2:55) 16.Big Red McHouston - I'm Tired (2:14) 17.George Young - Buggin' Baby (2:20) 18.Citations 7 - Justine (2:13) 19.Sonny's Nu Kat Orchestra - She Is Mine (2:07) 20.Shirley Ann Lee - How Can I Lose (2:02) 21.George Young - Shakin' Shelly (2:00) 22.Slim Saunders - Get Away (3:07)

January 25, 2013

Harold Burrage - Messed Up



1. You Eat Too Much
2. One More Dance
3. Hot Dog And A Bottle Of Pop
4. Messed Up
5. I Don't care Who Knows (Master)
6. Satisfied (Master)
7. Stop For The Red Light ( Overdubbed Master)
8. A Heart (Filled With Pain)
9. She Knocks Me Out
10. Betty Jean
11. I Cry For You (Master)
12. She Knocks Me Out (Alternate Take)
13. Satisfied (Alternate Take)
14. I Cry For You (Alternate Take)
15. Stop For The red Light (Undubbed Master)
16. I Don't care Who Knows (Alternate Take 1)
17. I Don't care Who Knows (Alternate Take 2)

Elmore James - 1951-53 (BRCC 5082)



01 - Dust My Broom (I Believe My Time Ain't Long) (James)
02 - Please Find My Baby (James)
03 - Hand in Hand (James, Josea, Ling, Taub)
04 - Long Tall Woman (James)
05 - Rock My Baby Tonight (James, Josea, Ling, Taub)
06 - My Baby's Gone (James)
07 - One More Drink (James)
08 - Baby, What's Wrong (James, Taub)
09 - I Believe (James, Taub)
10 - Sinful Women (James, Taub)
11 - I Held My Baby Last Night (James, Taub)
12 - Round House Boogie (Brown)
13 - Kickin' the Blues Around (Brown)
14 - Sax-Ony Boogie (Brown)
15 - Dumb Woman Blues (Brown)
16 - Country Boogie (Tool Bag Boogie) (James)
17 - My Best Friend (James)
18 - I See My Baby (James)
19 - She Won't Do Right (Dust My Broom) (James)
20 - Whose Muddy Shoes (James)
21 - Sweet Little Woman (James)
22 - I May Be Wrong (James)

Elmore James Born: Elmore Brooks on Jan 27, 1918 in Richland, MS Died: May 24, 1963 in Chicago, IL
Biography by Cub Kodak, All Music
No two ways about it, the most influential slide guitarist of the postwar period was Elmore James, hands down. Although his early demise from heart failure kept him from enjoying the fruits of the '60s blues revival as his contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf did, James left a wide influential trail behind him. And that influence continues to the present time -- in approach, attitude and tone -- in just about every guitar player who puts a slide on his finger and wails the blues. As a guitarist, he wrote the book, his slide style influencing the likes of Hound Dog Taylor, Joe Carter, his cousin Homesick James and J.B. Hutto, while his seldom-heard single-string work had an equally profound effect on B.B. King and Chuck Berry. His signature lick -- an electric updating of Robert Johnson's "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" and one that Elmore recorded in infinite variations from day one to his last session -- is so much a part of the essential blues fabric of guitar licks that no one attempting to play slide guitar can do it without being compared to Elmore James. Others may have had more technique -- Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker immediately come to mind -- but Elmore had the sound and all the feeling.
A radio repairman by trade, Elmore reworked his guitar amplifiers in his spare time, getting them to produce raw, distorted sounds that wouldn't resurface until the advent of heavy rock amplification in the late '60s. This amp-on-11-approach was hot-wired to one of the strongest emotional approaches to the blues ever recorded. There is never a time when you're listening to one of his records that you feel -- no matter how familiar the structure -- that he's phoning it in just to grab a quick session check. Elmore James always gave it everything he had, everything he could emotionally invest in a number. This commitment of spirit is something that shows up time and again when listening to multiple takes from his session masters. The sheer repetitiveness of the recording process would dim almost anyone's creative fires, but Elmore always seemed to give it 100 percent every time the red light went on. Few blues singers had a voice that could compete with James'; it was loud, forceful, prone to "catch" or break up in the high registers, almost sounding on the verge of hysteria at certain moments. Evidently the times back in the mid-'30s when Elmore had first-hand absorption of Robert Johnson as a playing companion had a deep influence on him, not only in his choice of material, but also in his presentation of it.
Backing the twin torrents of Elmore's guitar and voice was one of the greatest -- and earliest -- Chicago blues bands. Named after James' big hit, the Broomdusters featured Little Johnny Jones on piano, J.T. Brown on tenor sax and Elmore's cousin, Homesick James on rhythm guitar. This talented nucleus was often augmented by a second saxophone on occasion while the drumming stool changed frequently. But this was the band that could go toe to toe in a battle of the blues against the bands of Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf and always hold their own, if not walk with the show. Utilizing a stomping beat, Elmore's slashing guitar, Jones' two-fisted piano delivery, Homesick's rudimentary boogie bass rhythm and Brown's braying nanny-goat sax leads, the Broomdusters were as loud and powerful and popular as any blues band the Windy City had to offer.
But as urban as their sound was, it all had roots in Elmore's hometown of Canton, MS. He was born there on January 27, 1918, the illegitimate son of Leola Brooks and later given the surname of his stepfather, Joe Willie James. He adapted to music at an early age, learning to play bottleneck on a homemade instrument fashioned out of a broom handle and a lard can. By the age of 14, he was already a weekend musician, working the various country suppers and juke joints in the area under the names "Cleanhead" or Joe' Willie James." Although he confined himself to a home base area around Belzoni, he would join up and work with traveling players coming through like Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. By the late '30s he had formed his first band and was working the Southern state area with Sonny Boy until the second world war broke out, spending three years stationed with the Navy in Guam. When he was discharged, he picked off where he left off, moving for a while to Memphis, working in clubs with Eddie Taylor and his cousin Homesick James. Elmore was also one of the first "guest stars" on the popular King Biscuit Time radio show on KFFA in Helena, AL, also doing stints on the Talaho Syrup show on Yazoo City's WAZF and the Hadacol show on KWEM in West Memphis.
Nervous and unsure of his abilities as a recording artist, Elmore was surreptitiously recorded by Lillian McMurray of Trumpet Records at the tail end of a Sonny Boy session doing his now-signature tune, "Dust My Broom." Legend has it that James didn't even stay around long enough to hear the playback, much less record a second side. McMurray stuck a local singer (BoBo "Slim" Thomas) on the flip side and the record became the surprise R&B hit of 1951, making the Top Ten and conversely making a recording star out of Elmore. With a few months left on his Trumpet contract, Elmore was recorded by the Bihari Brothers for their Modern label subsidiaries, Flair and Meteor, but the results were left in the can until James' contract ran out. In the meantime, Elmore had moved to Chicago and cut a quick session for Chess, which resulted in one single being issued and just as quickly yanked off the market as the Bihari Brothers swooped in to protect their investment. This period of activity found Elmore assembling the nucleus of his great band the Broomdusters and several fine recordings were issued over the next few years on a plethora of the Bihari Brothers'owned labels with several of them charting and most all of them becoming certified blues classics.
By this time James had established a beach-head in the clubs of Chicago as one of the most popular live acts and regularly broadcasting over WPOA under the aegis of disc jockey Big Bill Hill. In 1957, with his contract with the Bihari Brothers at an end, he recorded several successful sides for Mel London's Chief label, all of them later being issued on the larger Vee-Jay label. His health -- always in a fragile state due to a recurring heart condition -- would send him back home to Jackson, MS, where he temporarily set aside his playing for work as a disc jockey or radio repair man. He came back to Chicago to record a session for Chess, then just as quickly broke contract to sign with Bobby Robinson's Fire label, producing the classic "The Sky Is Crying" and numerous others. Running afoul with the Chicago musician's union, he returned back to Mississippi, doing sessions in New York and New Orleans waiting for Big Bill Hill to sort things out. In May of 1963, Elmore returned to Chicago, ready to resume his on-again off-again playing career -- his records were still being regularly issued and reissued on a variety of labels -- when he suffered his final heart attack. His wake was attended by over 400 blues luminaries before his body was shipped back to Mississippi. He was elected to the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980 and was later elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a seminal influence. Elmore James may not have lived to reap the rewards of the blues revival, but his music and influence continues to resonate.

January 21, 2013

Tennessee Whistling Man


1. Billy Gray - Tennessee Toddy
2. Tabby West - I Can't Stop Loving You
3. Grady Martin - Long John Boogie
4. Al Petty - Steeling the Boogie
5. Red Foley - Tennessee Whistling Man
6. Tommy Sosebee - All Nite Boogie
7. Billy Carlisle - Doggie Joe
8. Jimmy Collett - Four Alarm Boogie
9. Carl Smith - Baby I'm Ready
10. Tennessee Ernie Ford - Rattlesnake Daddy Live
11. Chuck Bowers with Grady Martin - Milk 'Em In The Morning Blues Live
12. Red Foley - Freight Train Boogie Live
13. Carl Smith - Go Boy Go Live
14. Ferlin Husky - Ill Baby Sit With You
15. Jimmy Thomason - Big Deal
16. Luke Wills - Texas Special
17. Bill Mack - Sue Suzie Boogie
18. Bobby Grove - Whistle Of The Gravy Train
19. Billy Walker - Whirlpool
20. Andy Wilson - Hillbilly Boogie

Bopville Rockabilly Volume 12


1. Billy Fury - Turning My Back On You (2:01)
2. Skip Morris - Talk To Your Daughter (2:27)
3. Patsy Cline - There He Goes (2:27)
4. Billy Fury - Pretty Blue Eyes (1:26)
5. Link Davis - Permit Blues (2:24)
6. Frankie Ervin - Wilhelmina (2:12)
7. Gordon Terry - It Ain't Right (2:00)
8. Morgan Twins - TV Hop (2:14)
9. Warner Mack - Falling In Love (15:48)
10. The Philharmonics - Teen Town Hop (2:05)
11. Warren Smith - Black Jack David (3:08)
12. Patsy Cline - When Your House Is Not A Home (2:19)
13. Kenny Parchman - I Feel Like Rocking (2:29)
14. Bill Hayes - Bop Boy (1:49)
15. Maylon Humphries - Weep No More (2:48)
16. The Sportesmen - Sand Storm (1:42)
17. Don Edwards - Answer Your Telephone (1:59)
18. Clarence Samuels - We're Goin' To The Hop (1:55)
19.Chuck Howard - Crazy, Crazy Baby (1:58)
20. The Shondells - Thunderbolt (2:02)