Dear John, Found the Top 10 article and learned a few things about some of the pioneers that I wasn't familiar with. Hope you do too.
Got a cool Women in Blues gig coming up on Sunday at the Steel Horse. Big Daddy is backing Lila Sherman and Betty Jo Vachon. Both of these ladies can belt it out. go there!
Miss Sarah Grace is making her Phoenix debut at the RR tomorrow night. She was a top finisher in last season's "The Voice." I saw her in Memphis and she can also raise the roof.
Getting some pretty nice interest in this year's AZ Blues Showdown coming up on Sept. 22. The more the merrier. This is a fun gig and the players lay it all out hoping to get a shot at the IBC in Memphis. More details soon.
Hot or not, get out and show your local players some support. Lots of goings on all over The Valley in any genre. It's all abot live music.
Have a great week and hug somebody!!
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford - PBS
|
Top 10
By Jacob McHugh
Early blues musicians were prototype rock and rollers. They traveled from town to town, playing their music and evading the law. The blues was a musical style created in the late 19th century in the Mississippi Delta. Many bluesmen were born into poverty on plantations and lived rough lives full of hard labor, whiskey, and women, all of which added to the authenticity of their music. This list is concerned with the lives of those true-blue blues artists. 10. Skip James Skip James was born in Bentonia, Mississippi to a father who was a bootlegger turned preacher. James' father left the family in 1907, one step ahead of the law. His mother scrounged together some money and bought him his first guitar when he was ten years old. James ran away from home for a year and later dropped out of high school to build levees and cut timber. He moved to Memphis and worked as a pianist in a brothel. At one time he even worked as a pimp. 9. Blind Lemon Jefferson Jefferson born on October 26, 1894, or at least that's what he wrote on his World War I draft registration. Like many blues artists, he was born into a family of sharecroppers. In the 1920 census, he listed his occupation as "musician" and his employer as the "general public." Jefferson spent most of his life traveling and playing music for anyone who would listen. For someone who was blind, music was one of the few professions available to him. He was buried in an unmarked grave until 1967, when a Texas Historical Marker was given to him. 8. Bessie Smith Smith was born in 1894, as one of ten children. Both her parents were dead by her eighth birthday. Her 1923 "Down Hearted Blues" recording session sold more than 780,000 records in six months. Unfortunately, by the 1930s, her Classic Blues style went out of popularity. The Depression and excessive alcohol affected her career as well. After a performance in 1937, Smith and her manager were driving down Highway 61 when their car struck an oncoming truck. Smith was severely injured in the accident and taken to the hospital, where she bled to death. 7. Muddy Waters Originally named McKinley Morganfield, Waters came to be in 1915 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. His mother died when he was three, and he was raised by his grandmother. His name came from his love of playing in the water of nearby Deer Creek. By thirteen, he was playing harmonica at local gatherings. At 17, he had saved enough money from sharecropping to buy a guitar, and he taught himself how to play. He traveled around Clarksdale playing parties, juke joints, dinner parties, and anywhere else with somebody around who would pay him. He later moved to Chicago, and hit it big on radio. 6. B.B. King B.B. remains one of history's most well-known blues artists. He's managed to live into old age, avoiding the early deaths that claimed so many musicians and blues artists. King was born on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi in 1925. In 1947 he hitched a ride to Memphis, Tennessee, chasing his music dreams. After a show in Arkansas, two men got into a fight and knocked over a gas stove, and the dance hall was soon engulfed in flames. B.B. ran outside with the rest of the people inside. He realized he forgot his guitar, so he ran inside after it. He later learned the two men who started the fire were fighting over a woman named Lucille. So King named his guitar Lucille, to remind him never to fight over a woman. 5. Blind Willie Johnson Willie Johnson was not born blind, and it is not known how he became blind. But legend holds that his stepmother threw lye in his face when he was 7, in retaliation for fighting his father. Johnson's daughter Sam Faye Kelly said she could remember him singing in the kitchen and reciting passages from the Bible. She was still very young when he "went away." Johnson's song "Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)" was put on the spaceship Voyager 1 in 1977, so aliens can listen to his music too. 4. Ledbelly Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Ledbelly, was born in 1889 in Mooringsport, Louisiana. After 8th grade, Ledbelly quit school and became a popular local musician in "sukey jumps" and "juke joints." When he couldn't find work as a musician, he picked cotton. He pissed off a lot of men with the seductive power of his music. He got into a fight with a man in Dallas in 1918, and ultimately killed him. He was sentenced to thirty years in the state prison in Huntsville, Texas. He wrote the governor a song, asking him for a pardon. The governor granted this pardon, despite making a campaign promise to never pardon a prisoner. In 1930, he got into a fight again. He was sentenced to work at the Angola Farm prison in Louisiana. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 1949, and died later that year. 3. Charley Patton In April 1891, Charley Patton entered the world as the son of sharecroppers in southern Mississippi. His guttural and whiskey-soaked voice was as thick as the Delta silt. At a time when most blues songs dealt with themes of unrequited love, Patton delved into topics of natural disaster (High Water Blues), and prison (High Sheriff Blues). He loved to drink and smoke, and was jailed at least once. He had some opinions on women too. In "Pony Blues," he says a brown skin woman is "like somethin' fit to eat" while a jet-black woman "better not put her hands on me." Later on in the song, Patton announced he "don't wanna marry, just wanna be your man." 2. Robert Johnson Johnson was born on the Mississippi Delta on May 8, 1911. He grew up on a plantation. The story most commonly associated with Johnson is that he sold his soul to the Devil at a crossroads, in exchange for incredible musical ability. Mere months after mastering his instrument, the Devil came to claim what was now his, and Johnson died at the young age of 27. The circumstances surrounding his death are unknown. Some allege poisoning by a jealous lover, but his death certificate claims syphilis. Johnson recorded only 29 songs in his lifetime, but his impact on blues music and rock music is indelible. 1. Son House House was born in 1902, near Lyon, Mississippi. He worked in the cotton fields as a teenager, and became involved with the Baptist church. He had a fallout with the church however, when he had an affair with a woman ten years older than him. House got in a fight at a house party in Lyon in 1928, and shot and killed a man. House was sent to work on Parchman Farm. His sermon-like music was infused with the passion for oration that he had developed as a preacher. His musical themes often waffled between the divine and the secular pleasures. House often sang and preached in a fierce a cappella style that became his trademark. |
|
| OUT & ABOUT
Tuesday, June 25 Mother Road Trio, 6:30 p.m., Arboretum, Flagstaff Wednesday, June 26 Sarah Grace & The Soul (from The Voice), 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Hans Olson, 7 p.m., Time Out Lounge, Tempe Chuck Hall, 6 p.m., Corrado's, Carefree Thursday, June27 Sugar Thieves Duo., 6 p.m., Culinary Dropout, Gilbert Paris James, 7 p.m., St. Armand Kitchen & Cocktails, Chandler Eric Ramsey Hosts OPEN MIC, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Hans Olson EVERY THURSDAY, 6 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Arizona Blues Project, 8 p.m., Harold's, Cave Creek Friday, June 28 44s CD Release Party, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 8 p.m., The Lounge, Phoenix JC & The Rockers, 8:30 p.m., Irene's Tap Room, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 7 p.m., Opa Greek Life Café, Tempe Saturday, June 29 Riley/Corritore Juke Joint Blues Band, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 9 p.m., Kazmierz, Scottsdale Rocket 88s, 8:30 p.m., Rosie McCaffery's, Phoenix JC & The Rockers, 6:30 p.m., Taco Guild, Phoenix Joe Kopicki, 7 p.m., Desert Eagle Brewing Co., Mesa Blues Review Band, 7 p.m., JD's Lounge, Scottsdale
Sweet Baby Ray & Blue Smoke, 9 p.m., Main Stage, Cottonwood
Nina Curri, 7 p.m., Voodoo Daddy's, Tempe Sugar Thieves Duo, 7 p.m., Spokes, Tempe AZ Blues All Stars w/Chuch Hall, 8:30 p.m., Gopher Hole, Flagstaff Sunday, June 30 Women of the Blues hosted by Big Daddy D & The Dynamites, 2 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Mike Eldred, 3 p.m., The Vig, Scottsdale True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, July 1
|
Jams
Sunday
Rocket 88s JAM, 4 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
JAM Hosted by The Scott O'Neal Band. Every other Thursday, Windsock, Prescott
Sir Harrison, JAM every other Sunday, The Windsock, Prescott MONDAY
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Weatherford Hotel JAM, 6:30 p.m., Flagstaff
TUESDAY OPEN JAM Hosted by Jilly Bean & The Flipside Blues Band, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix
JAM Sir Harrison, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, JAM, 6 p.m., The Last Stop (Old Hideaway West), Phoenix
Tool Shed JAM Party, 6 p.m. Gabby's, Mesa
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler
NEW JAM @ The Bench, Hosted by BluZone, 7 p.m., The Bench, Tempe
Friday
Saturday Bumpin' Bud's JAM 2nd & 4th Saturdays JAM, 6 p.m., Marc's Sports Grill |
| GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to info@phoenixblues.org and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter |
| Moved? Changed email addresses? Please let us know of any changes in your address, email, or phone number so we can keep you informed about the Blues community in Arizona. Email us at: info@phoenixblues.org or write to: Phoenix Blues Society P.O. Box 36874 Phoenix, Arizona 85067 |
|
|
