Roadhouse Blues                                                 September 3, 2019 
Dear John,
I realize these two-parters might get old but this stuff lately harks back to the Summer of Love era and there was a lot of shit going on then. Larry Taylor was in the middle of it all. A read about his history/legacy is like a walk in the past. Awesome dude. I had the opportunity to meet him and had to pinch myself to see if it was real. Read on...
Showdown is fast approaching. The entry form should be available tomorrow. We had some glaring mistakes we found and had to take it down and start over. Patience please...
Lots o' music going down around town this week. Looks like things are picking up in hopes of cooler temps.
In the meantime, hug somebody this week. Even your mother in law. you'll be glad you did.
Have a week!!
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford - PBS
 The Mole 
 
 
 
 
 
by David Mac @ Blues Junction

David Mac (DM): I thought we would cover or at least try and cover your long and distinguished career in music as best we can. With that in mind let's start at the beginning when and where did you join us here on planet earth?
Larry Taylor (LT): (laughs) That would be Brooklyn, New York, June 26th 1942.
DM: I thought you told me once that you grew up in Tennessee.
LT: We kind of toggled back and forth for a few years. It was kind of a culture shock going from eastern Tennessee back to Brooklyn and back to Tennessee. We also moved out to California and Texas.  
DM: What was some of your early exposure to music?
LT: It was through my brother. He was nine years older than me. There was a time when I was living with him and his family. It was kind of a poverty stricken situation. That is just what it was. My mother sent me back to Tennessee from California because I was an incorrigible child or what they would now call a juvenile delinquent. In Tennessee, back in those days, they had mandatory R.O.T.C in schools, so my mom figured that would help, maybe that would be a good place to straighten me out.
DM: Great, so you got to be both incorrigible and impoverished. How did that work out?
LT: I did go to school for about a year and then I dropped out. I would just take my lunch money down to the local coffee shop and put it in the jukebox. They had the jukebox right on the counter. I would just plop down there, have a cup of coffee, put in a quarter and listen to ten songs. I would just soak up all the 50's music which was going on at the time.
DM: Do you remember some of your first exposures to live music?  
LT: I would go around with my brother and he was playing guitar back in those days in a bluegrass band. We were in an area near Bristol, Tennessee, that was right there in the middle of that melting pot of the bluegrass world. That was huge back in that part of the country. He also played drums and ended up playing drums on a local T.V. show. I would hang out with him on the set of the T.V. show. I would go to gigs with him. So that was my first exposure to live music.
DM: Your brother's name is Mel and he too became a well-known musician in his own right.
LT: Thanks for bringing this up. He was with a band called the Ventures. I don't know if you remember them. They made over 100 albums. They are the biggest selling instrumental group of all time. I was like a lot of people, as I was influenced by instrumental music. It was very big back in those days.
DM: Let's talk about some of your earliest experiences out playing music.
LT: One of my first gigs was at a club right on Sunset Boulevard near La Cienega called the Sea Witch. It was a little joint that served hamburgers and beer. It was right next to Dino's Lodge. I was playing guitar at the time.One night I was at the Sea Witch and there was this long haired guy named Wesley Reynolds playing. When I got to the gig there was an electric bass leaning up against an amp. On the break I asked him if I could pick up that bass and play it during the next set. As it turned out the regular bass player on the gig had some sort of health issues and couldn't make it. At the end of the night he asked me if I could come back the next night. I did and that's how I got my first gig.
I ended up running away from home and going back to Oklahoma with Wesley Reynolds to play music. He said we could get all kinds of gigs back there. So we ended up driving back in a 1955 Pontiac.
Anyway we stayed back there for nine or ten months got some gigs, but weren't all that successful.
The name of the band was Wesley Reynolds and the House Rockers. We made a couple of records. Anyway, I drove back to Oklahoma in a 55 Pontiac without a bass and hitchhiked back to California with a bass that Wesley's father bought me.
I ended up back in La Puente, you know off the I-10 east of L.A. I ended up playing with this guy named Gerry McGhee at the Sea Witch about six months later. We played just about any type of instrumental music. We played surf songs, rock & roll, blues shuffles...any type of instrumental music that was popular at the time. I was playing at the Sea Witch all the time and I got paid $4.00 a night and my rent was $16.00 per week. The Sea Witch was a popular place where celebrities might come by and hang out. Even some musicians might come by and sit in with the trio. Glen Campbell came by and jammed with us. He knew Gerry and he was a real good guitar player. Sometimes we would get hired to play at a private Hollywood party, which was great because we might get paid $25.00 a piece.
DM: At some point during this phase of your early career you hooked up with Jerry Lee Lewis. How did that come about?
LT: Some girl came into the Sea Witch and told me that Jerry Lee Lewis was playing down the street at Jimmy Maddin's Sundown Club on Sunset. She knew Jerry Lee somehow and told me he was looking for a bass player. She set up the introduction. I had to put on a suit to look presentable which at the time meant you had to wear a suit. We met. He hired me and I ended up going on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis.
DM: That must have been quite an experience.
LT: We played all these joints in the south. The places had chicken wire in front of the stage and had pianos with some of the strings hanging out. He would get there early to see which keys worked and then tune the piano himself. We traveled all over in his 1959 Fleetwood Cadillac. It was me, Jerry Lee, of course, and our drummer Russ Smith.
This would have been around 1961. I was with him for about a year. We went to Australia. We also did some shows out here in California including the Pioneer Club in Long Beach and the Palomino in North Hollywood.
We did a big show up at the Oakland Auditorium. Check out this line-up Dave...James Brown, Duane Eddy, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Larry Williams and B.B. King. So it is important to note that before Michael Bloomfield came along and all the '60s British artists got hip to these various influences, I had already been there. It is hard to put it in words, but I would love to paint a picture of what all of that was like in those days.
DM: Now would be the time to try.
LT: By the time these guys got hip to this stuff, I already had a ten year head start with this music. I was on the chitlin' circuit with Jerry Lee at the same time Hendrix was playing with Little Richard. I don't think too many people know that about me.
I went to Australia with Jerry Lee Lewis on that tour with promoter Lee Gordon. We had not only the great Jerry Lee Lewis on the bill, but Johnny and the Hurricanes, Freddie Cannon, Jack Scott, Tommy Sands and others. We came back and toured the south some more. I actually lived with Jerry Lee and his family in Lafayette and in Faraday where he actually started his career.
I came back to the Sea Witch after things just stopped for Jerry Lee. He was being hounded by lawyers, ex-wives and the I.R.S. He had all kinds of problems.
LT: Now it leads us to Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. They co-wrote some of the hits with Teddy Randazzo back in the '50s and then started writing and performing under the name Boyce and Hart. Boyce and Hart along with me, Gerry and drummer Billy Lewis formed a band called the Candy Store Prophets.
DM: What years are we talking about here Larry?
LT: This would be about '64...'65...right around that time. Boyce and Hart were brought in by Don Kirshner to write songs for the Monkees and our band the Candy Store Prophets performed the songs that became the first two Monkees' albums. We even toured with the Monkees opening up for and backing the band on stage for their first tour in 1966. We were flying all over the country in Lear jets and playing in these big arenas.
DM: How did your association with the band Canned Heat come about?
LT: I came back to L.A. and kicked around awhile when I got a call from Henry Vestine to play bass in a band they were putting together called Canned Heat. I had known Henry from the early '60s and we played together off and on. We even had a topless bar gig on Sunset. We would play instrumentals, you know shuffles, Jimmy Reed stuff, Freddie King inspired instrumentals, that kind of thing while the girls did their thing. It was a day gig; we played from 2pm-6pm. One day I remember Frank Zappa coming into the club when our set was over to pick up Henry to take him to a gig. Henry was playing with Zappa at the time.
Anyway, Henry told me it was himself, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite. Bob was a record collector and Alan was a musicologist from Boston. He was brought out to California by John Fahey. They started out as a jug band. I know that there are those who put us down because we had some commercial success, but let me tell you Alan Wilson was as much of a bad ass mother fucker as anybody out there. We were the band that took country blues and introduced it to white people.  
cont'd next week
In This Issue


Out & About
Tuesday, September 3
Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., Priceless Prime Time, Chandler
 
Wednesday, September 4
Hans Olson, 7 p.m., Time Out Lounge, Tempe
 
Chuck Hall, 6 p.m., Corrado's, Carefree
 
Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., Bone Haus Brewing, Fountain Hills
 
Thursday, September 5
Sugar Thieves Duo, 6 p.m., Culinary Dropout, Gilbert
 
Paris James, 7 p.m., St. Armand Kitchen, 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
 
Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., The Lounge, Phoenix
 
Mother road Trio, 5 p.m., Molly Blank Jewish Community Center, Flagstaff
 
Friday, September 6
Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix
 
Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Gallgher's, Phoenix
 
Rocket 88s, 9 p.m., Maverick Saloon, Phoenix
 
Eric Ramsey, 7 p.m., Americana Fest, Prescott
 
Leon J, 6:30 p.m., Mary D Fisher Theater, Sedona
 
Sugar Thieves, 7:30 p.m., Janey's, Cave Creek
 
Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., All American, Fountain Hills
 
Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., Paramount Theatre, Casa Grande
 
Paris James, 6:30 p.m., Scratch Pub, Mesa
 
Mother Road Trio, 8 p.m., Fire Creek Coffee Co., Flagstaff
 
Saturday, September 7
Popa chubby, 8:30 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix
 
Hans Olson, 2 p.m., AZ Folklore Preserve, Sierra Vista (Ramsey Canyon)
 
Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., Rip's, Phoenix
 
Chuck Hall Band, Sedona Blues Festival @ Posse Fair Grounds, Sedona
 
Big Daddy D & The Dynamites, Sedona Blues Festival @ Posse Fair Grounds, Sedona
 
JC & The Rockers, 7 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction
 
Blues Review Band, 11 a.m., Desert Wind H-D, Mesa
 
Blues Review Band, 6:30 p.m., Stone & Barrel, Sun Lakes
 
Tommy Grills Band, 8 p.m., West Alley BBQ, Chandler
 
Outback Blues Band, 5 p.m., Cowboy Cookin' Bar, Wickenburg
 
Carvin Jones, 9 p.m., Scorpion Bay Club, New River
 
Mother road Trio, 2 p.m., Posse Fair Grounds, Flagstaff
 
Sunday, September 8
Hans Olson, 2 p.m., AZ Folklore Preserve, Sierra Vista (Ramsey Canyon)
 
Carvin Jones, 2 p.m., Roadrunner, New River
 
True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix
 
Eric Ramsey, 9 a.m., Roastery, Scottsdale
 
Monday, September 9
Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., Chicago Dog House, San Tan Valley

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

JAM @ The Bench, Hosted by BluZone, 7 p.m., The Bench, Tempe
 
THURSDAY
Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix
 
Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler


Friday

Saturday 
Bumpin' Bud's JAM 2nd & 4th Saturdays JAM, 6 p.m., Marc's Sports Grill 
GOT BLUES?
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