Blues
Bobby Rush – Chicken Heads
15th August 2022 · UncategorisedHere’s a steamy gumbo of blues, soul and funk from Louisiana to suit the last day of sultry summer weather, from Bobby Rush. (more…)
Jim Capaldi – Whale Meat Again
29th July 2022 · UncategorisedLet’s celebrate the Commonwealth Games like they did – with some miusic from Birmingham. Not Sabbath or The Streets, and not the organisers’ choice of Duran bloody Duran. Not even UB40 or my preference, Steel Pulse. (more…)
Chuck Norris – After Hours
10th July 2022 · UncategorisedChuck Norris didn’t do karate but he earned his chops playing session guitar in California in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He also cut a handful of solo singles like this. (more…)
Ernie K-Doe – Here Come The Girls
10th July 2022 · UncategorisedThere have been plenty of crazy characters and egotists in the history of popular music, and Ernie K-Doe was one of them. A bit of a blues and soul legend in his native New Orleans, he performed in a cape and crown and billed himself as “Emperor of the Universe.” (more…)
Elmore James – Dust My Broom
3rd March 2022 · UncategorisedNo one played the slide guitar like Elmore James. Well, they did – but he did it first. This was his first recording, and became his signature song. (more…)
Big John Greer – Bottle It Up And Go
1st March 2022 · UncategorisedSaxman Big John Greer is another of those seminal figures turning jump blues into rock’n’roll in the postwar era. (more…)
The Loading Zone – Can I Dedicate
28th January 2022 · UncategorisedHere’s a lost masterpiece blending jazz, funk, blues and soul – and psychedelia – by The Loading Zone, a long-forgotten late-1960s band from San Francisco. (more…)
The Rolling Stones – The Spider And The Fly (Live 1965)
22nd January 2022 · UncategorisedThe Rolling Stones, recorded live at the BBC in 1965, just as they were transitioning from a band playing blues and R&B covers. (more…)
Big Mama Thornton – Hound Dog
29th December 2021 · UncategorisedI’m sure everyone has heard Hound Dog by Elvis. I’m equally sure most have never heard the original, recorded by Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton four years earlier in 1952.
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Earl Hooker – Move On Down The Line
21st December 2021 · UncategorisedI have to confess that while I know plenty of music by John Lee Hooker, I didn’t even know the name of his equally talented cousin. (more…)