1898 Blind Willie McTell*
1918 Erbie Bowser*
1934 Johnnie Taylor*
1968 Jim Thieß*
1972 Gary Davis+
1991 Andrew Tibbs+
2015 Randy Chortkoff +
Happy Birthday
Blind Willie McTell *05.05.1898
Blind Willie McTell (* 5. Mai 1901 in Thomson, Georgia; † 19. August 1959 in Milledgeville, Georgia) (eigentlich William Samuel McTear) war ein einflussreicher US-amerikanischer Blues-Musiker und ein herausragender Repräsentant des Piedmont Blues.
In seiner frühen Kindheit komplett erblindet, war McTell aber in der Lage, mittels Braille-Musikschrift Noten zu lesen. 1934 heiratete er Ruth Kate Williams, mit der er bis zu seinem Tod verheiratet blieb. 1957 gab er den Blues auf und wandte sich der Religion zu, 1959 starb er an einer Hirnblutung. 1977 interviewte der Bluesforscher David Evans seine Witwe und förderte so erstmals Daten zu McTells Leben zutage.
Zu Lebzeiten war Blind Willie McTell kaum bekannt, trotzdem konnte er regelmäßig aufnehmen, indem er Agenten, die ihn ansprachen, jedes Mal ein anderes Pseudonym angab. So veröffentlichte er ab 1927 als „Blind Sammie“ für Columbia, „Georgia Bill“ für OKeh, als „Hot Shot Willie“ für Victor, als „Blind Willie“ für Vocalion und Bluebird, 1949 als „Barrelhouse Sammy“ für Atlantic und 1950 als „Pig n' Whistle Red“ für Regal. Trotz seiner relativ umfangreichen Diskographie lebte er hauptsächlich von seiner Tätigkeit als Straßenmusiker. Seine Musik ist ausgezeichnet durch seine klare Stimme und seine eigene Technik, 12-saitige Gitarren zu spielen.
Erst nach seinem Tod griffen viele andere Musiker, wie etwa die Allman Brothers, sein Werk auf, Bob Dylan schrieb 1983 das Lied Blind Willie McTell über ihn und coverte 1993 McTells Broke Down Engine.
McTell wurde 1981 in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Willie_McTell
Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was a Piedmont and ragtime blues singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues, although, unlike his contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voice types employed by Delta bluesmen, such as Charley Patton. McTell embodied a variety of musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music and hokum.
Born in the town of Thomson, Georgia, McTell learned how to play guitar in his early teens. He soon became a street performer around several Georgia cities including Atlanta and Augusta, and first recorded in 1927 for Victor Records. Although he never produced a major hit record, McTell's recording career was prolific, recording for different labels under different names throughout the 1920s and 30s. In 1940, he was recorded by folklorist John A. Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax for the Library of Congress's folk song archive. He would remain active throughout the 1940s and 50s, playing on the streets of Atlanta, often with his longtime associate, Curley Weaver. Twice more he recorded professionally. McTell's last recordings originated during an impromptu session recorded by an Atlanta record store owner in 1956. McTell would die three years later after suffering for years from diabetes and alcoholism. Despite his mainly failed releases, McTell was one of the few archaic blues musicians that would actively play and record during the 1940s and 50s. However, McTell never lived to be "rediscovered" during the imminent American folk music revival, as many other bluesmen would.[1]
McTell's influence extended over a wide variety of artists, including The Allman Brothers Band, who famously covered McTell's "Statesboro Blues", and Bob Dylan, who paid tribute to McTell in his 1983 song "Blind Willie McTell"; the refrain of which is, "And I know no one can sing the blues, like Blind Willie McTell". Other artists influenced by McTell include Taj Mahal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Ralph McTell, Chris Smither and The White Stripes.
Biography
Born William Samuel McTier[2] in Thomson, Georgia, blind in one eye, McTell had lost his remaining vision by late childhood. He attended schools for the blind in the states of Georgia, New York and Michigan and showed proficiency in music from an early age, first playing harmonica and accordion, learning to read and write music in Braille,[1] and turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens.[1][2] His family background was rich in music, both of his parents and an uncle played guitar; he is also a relation of bluesman and gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey.[2] His father left the family when McTell was still young, and, when his mother died in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became a wandering musician, or "songster". He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta.[3]
McTell married Ruth Kate Williams,[1] now better known as Kate McTell, in 1934. She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. Most of their marriage from 1942 until his death was spent apart, with her living in Fort Gordon near Augusta and him working around Atlanta.
In the years before World War II, McTell traveled and performed widely, recording for a number of labels under many different names, including Blind Willie McTell (Victor and Decca), Blind Sammie (Columbia), Georgia Bill (Okeh), Hot Shot Willie (Victor), Blind Willie (Vocalion and Bluebird), Barrelhouse Sammie (Atlantic), and Pig & Whistle Red (Regal). The "Pig 'n Whistle" appellation was a reference to a chain of Atlanta barbecue restaurants, one of which was located on the south side of East Ponce de Leon between Boulevard and Moreland Avenue, which later became a Krispy Kreme. McTell would frequently played for tips in the parking lot of this location. He was also known to play behind the nearby building that later became Ray Lee's Blue Lantern Lounge. Like his fellow songster Lead Belly, who began his career as a street artist, McTell favored the somewhat unwieldy and unusual twelve-string guitar, whose greater volume made it suitable for outdoor playing.
In 1940 John A. Lomax and his wife, Ruby Terrill Lomax, Classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, interviewed and recorded McTell for the Library of Congress's Folk Song Archive in a two-hour session held in their hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia. These recordings document McTell's distinctive musical style, which bridges the gap between the raw country blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more conventionally melodious, Ragtime-influenced East-Coast Piedmont blues sound. Mr. and Mrs. Lomax also elicited from the singer a number of traditional songs (such as "The Boll Weevil" and "John Henry") as well as spirituals (such as "Amazing Grace"), which were not part of his usual commercial repertoire. In the interview, John A. Lomax is heard asking if McTell knows any "complaining" songs (an earlier term for protest songs), to which the singer replies somewhat uncomfortably and evasively that he does not. The Library of Congress paid McTell $10, the equivalent of $154.56 in 2011, for this two-hour session.[3] The material from this 1940 session was issued in 1960 in LP and later in CD form, under the somewhat misleading title of "The Complete Library of Congress Recordings", notwithstanding the fact that it was in fact truncated, in that it omitted some of John A. Lomax's interactions with the singer and cut out entirely the contributions of Ruby Terrill Lomax.[4]
Postwar, McTell recorded for Atlantic Records and Regal Records in 1949, but these recordings met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta, but his career was cut short by ill health, predominantly diabetes and alcoholism. In 1956, an Atlanta record store manager, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and enticed him with a bottle of corn liquor into his store, where he captured a few final performances on a tape recorder. These were released posthumously on Prestige/Bluesville Records as Last Session.[5] Beginning in 1957, McTell occupied himself as a preacher at Atlanta's Mt. Zion Baptist Church.[1]
McTell died in Milledgeville, Georgia, of a stroke in 1959. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia, his birthplace. A fan paid to have a gravestone erected on his resting place. The name given on his gravestone is Willie Samuel McTier.[6] He was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1981,[7] and into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1990.[1]
Influence
One of McTell's most famous songs, "Statesboro Blues," was frequently covered by The Allman Brothers Band and is considered one of their earliest signature songs[citation needed]. A short list of some of the artists who have performed it includes Taj Mahal, David Bromberg, Dave Van Ronk, The Devil Makes Three and Ralph McTell, who changed his name on account of liking the song.[8] Ry Cooder covered McTell's "Married Man's a Fool" on his 1973 album, Paradise and Lunch. Jack White of The White Stripes considers McTell an influence, as their 2000 album De Stijl was dedicated to him and featured a cover of his song "Southern Can Is Mine". The White Stripes also covered McTell's "Lord, Send Me an Angel", releasing it as a single in 2000. In 2013 Jack White's Third Man Records teamed up with Document Records to reissue The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order of Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and The Mississippi Sheiks.
Bob Dylan has paid tribute to McTell on at least four occasions: Firstly, in his 1965 song "Highway 61 Revisited", the second verse begins with "Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose", referring to one of Blind Willie McTell's many recording names; later in his song "Blind Willie McTell", recorded in 1983 but released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3; then with covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, World Gone Wrong;[9] also, in his song "Po' Boy", on 2001's "Love & Theft", which contains the lyric, "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".[10]
Also, Bath-based band "Kill It Kid" is named after that song.
A blues bar in Atlanta is named after McTell and regularly features blues musicians and bands.[11] The Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival is held annually in Thomson, Georgia.
Born in the town of Thomson, Georgia, McTell learned how to play guitar in his early teens. He soon became a street performer around several Georgia cities including Atlanta and Augusta, and first recorded in 1927 for Victor Records. Although he never produced a major hit record, McTell's recording career was prolific, recording for different labels under different names throughout the 1920s and 30s. In 1940, he was recorded by folklorist John A. Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax for the Library of Congress's folk song archive. He would remain active throughout the 1940s and 50s, playing on the streets of Atlanta, often with his longtime associate, Curley Weaver. Twice more he recorded professionally. McTell's last recordings originated during an impromptu session recorded by an Atlanta record store owner in 1956. McTell would die three years later after suffering for years from diabetes and alcoholism. Despite his mainly failed releases, McTell was one of the few archaic blues musicians that would actively play and record during the 1940s and 50s. However, McTell never lived to be "rediscovered" during the imminent American folk music revival, as many other bluesmen would.[1]
McTell's influence extended over a wide variety of artists, including The Allman Brothers Band, who famously covered McTell's "Statesboro Blues", and Bob Dylan, who paid tribute to McTell in his 1983 song "Blind Willie McTell"; the refrain of which is, "And I know no one can sing the blues, like Blind Willie McTell". Other artists influenced by McTell include Taj Mahal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Ralph McTell, Chris Smither and The White Stripes.
Biography
Born William Samuel McTier[2] in Thomson, Georgia, blind in one eye, McTell had lost his remaining vision by late childhood. He attended schools for the blind in the states of Georgia, New York and Michigan and showed proficiency in music from an early age, first playing harmonica and accordion, learning to read and write music in Braille,[1] and turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens.[1][2] His family background was rich in music, both of his parents and an uncle played guitar; he is also a relation of bluesman and gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey.[2] His father left the family when McTell was still young, and, when his mother died in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became a wandering musician, or "songster". He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta.[3]
McTell married Ruth Kate Williams,[1] now better known as Kate McTell, in 1934. She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. Most of their marriage from 1942 until his death was spent apart, with her living in Fort Gordon near Augusta and him working around Atlanta.
In the years before World War II, McTell traveled and performed widely, recording for a number of labels under many different names, including Blind Willie McTell (Victor and Decca), Blind Sammie (Columbia), Georgia Bill (Okeh), Hot Shot Willie (Victor), Blind Willie (Vocalion and Bluebird), Barrelhouse Sammie (Atlantic), and Pig & Whistle Red (Regal). The "Pig 'n Whistle" appellation was a reference to a chain of Atlanta barbecue restaurants, one of which was located on the south side of East Ponce de Leon between Boulevard and Moreland Avenue, which later became a Krispy Kreme. McTell would frequently played for tips in the parking lot of this location. He was also known to play behind the nearby building that later became Ray Lee's Blue Lantern Lounge. Like his fellow songster Lead Belly, who began his career as a street artist, McTell favored the somewhat unwieldy and unusual twelve-string guitar, whose greater volume made it suitable for outdoor playing.
In 1940 John A. Lomax and his wife, Ruby Terrill Lomax, Classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, interviewed and recorded McTell for the Library of Congress's Folk Song Archive in a two-hour session held in their hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia. These recordings document McTell's distinctive musical style, which bridges the gap between the raw country blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more conventionally melodious, Ragtime-influenced East-Coast Piedmont blues sound. Mr. and Mrs. Lomax also elicited from the singer a number of traditional songs (such as "The Boll Weevil" and "John Henry") as well as spirituals (such as "Amazing Grace"), which were not part of his usual commercial repertoire. In the interview, John A. Lomax is heard asking if McTell knows any "complaining" songs (an earlier term for protest songs), to which the singer replies somewhat uncomfortably and evasively that he does not. The Library of Congress paid McTell $10, the equivalent of $154.56 in 2011, for this two-hour session.[3] The material from this 1940 session was issued in 1960 in LP and later in CD form, under the somewhat misleading title of "The Complete Library of Congress Recordings", notwithstanding the fact that it was in fact truncated, in that it omitted some of John A. Lomax's interactions with the singer and cut out entirely the contributions of Ruby Terrill Lomax.[4]
Postwar, McTell recorded for Atlantic Records and Regal Records in 1949, but these recordings met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta, but his career was cut short by ill health, predominantly diabetes and alcoholism. In 1956, an Atlanta record store manager, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and enticed him with a bottle of corn liquor into his store, where he captured a few final performances on a tape recorder. These were released posthumously on Prestige/Bluesville Records as Last Session.[5] Beginning in 1957, McTell occupied himself as a preacher at Atlanta's Mt. Zion Baptist Church.[1]
McTell died in Milledgeville, Georgia, of a stroke in 1959. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia, his birthplace. A fan paid to have a gravestone erected on his resting place. The name given on his gravestone is Willie Samuel McTier.[6] He was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1981,[7] and into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1990.[1]
Influence
One of McTell's most famous songs, "Statesboro Blues," was frequently covered by The Allman Brothers Band and is considered one of their earliest signature songs[citation needed]. A short list of some of the artists who have performed it includes Taj Mahal, David Bromberg, Dave Van Ronk, The Devil Makes Three and Ralph McTell, who changed his name on account of liking the song.[8] Ry Cooder covered McTell's "Married Man's a Fool" on his 1973 album, Paradise and Lunch. Jack White of The White Stripes considers McTell an influence, as their 2000 album De Stijl was dedicated to him and featured a cover of his song "Southern Can Is Mine". The White Stripes also covered McTell's "Lord, Send Me an Angel", releasing it as a single in 2000. In 2013 Jack White's Third Man Records teamed up with Document Records to reissue The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order of Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and The Mississippi Sheiks.
Bob Dylan has paid tribute to McTell on at least four occasions: Firstly, in his 1965 song "Highway 61 Revisited", the second verse begins with "Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose", referring to one of Blind Willie McTell's many recording names; later in his song "Blind Willie McTell", recorded in 1983 but released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3; then with covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, World Gone Wrong;[9] also, in his song "Po' Boy", on 2001's "Love & Theft", which contains the lyric, "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".[10]
Also, Bath-based band "Kill It Kid" is named after that song.
A blues bar in Atlanta is named after McTell and regularly features blues musicians and bands.[11] The Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival is held annually in Thomson, Georgia.
'Dying Crapshooters Blues' BLIND WILLIE McTELL, Blues Guitar Legend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGzVC6sB7FUJim Thieß *05.05.1968
https://www.facebook.com/jim.tiess/media_set?set=a.149362015087303.26459.100000405174033&type=3
Seine ersten musikalischen Gehversuche waren Darbietungen bei verschiedensten Heavy Metal-Projekten im Alter von 15 Jahren auf der E-Gitarre. Mit seinem 18. Lebensjahr wurde der 1968 Geborene von seinem Bruder Günter zum Bassspielen in dessen Kommerzband Black & White überredet. Parallel zu dieser Kommerzband erfolgte ein Engagement bei den legendären Dawn.
Bei dieser Band gelang es ihm, sich am Bass zu etablieren.
Mit seinem langjährigen Freund ,,Bubu'' grüdete er die Ausnahmeband Big Wha-Wha Fuss. Danach erfolgte eine Reunion mit der Dawn-Formation in Originalbesetzung. Gespielt wurden einige sehr erfolgreiche Konzerte im südlichen Burgenland. Doch die Zeit meinte es mit den Dawn nicht mehr gut und somit kam es zu deren Ende. Für Jim war die musikalische Sache gelaufen. Jahre später nahm Gernhard Nimmervoll Krampen und Schaufel in die hand, buddelte Jim aus seinem musikalischen Grab frei und machte ihn zum Bandleader einer neuen Band.
Jim's first steps down a long musical road were playing the electric guitar with various heavy metal projects at the age of fifteen. Three years later, his brother persuaded him to play bass in his cover band Black & White. In parallel to this highly commercial project he started playing with the legendary Dawn.
It was with this band that he established himself as a bass player.
With an old friend, "Bubu", he later formed Big Wah-Wah Fuzz. After this came a Dawn reunion with the original members. Several very successful concerts took place in southern Burgenland, but it wasn't meant to be and the band broke up once again. Jim's musical career was at a standstill and he lost himself in the Blues. Years later, he got together with Gerhard (who had previously been sent as a substitute at one of Jim's gigs) convinced him to pick up his guitar again ... Gerhard pronounced Jim Band Leader ... and thus Lazy Diamonds was born!
Bei dieser Band gelang es ihm, sich am Bass zu etablieren.
Mit seinem langjährigen Freund ,,Bubu'' grüdete er die Ausnahmeband Big Wha-Wha Fuss. Danach erfolgte eine Reunion mit der Dawn-Formation in Originalbesetzung. Gespielt wurden einige sehr erfolgreiche Konzerte im südlichen Burgenland. Doch die Zeit meinte es mit den Dawn nicht mehr gut und somit kam es zu deren Ende. Für Jim war die musikalische Sache gelaufen. Jahre später nahm Gernhard Nimmervoll Krampen und Schaufel in die hand, buddelte Jim aus seinem musikalischen Grab frei und machte ihn zum Bandleader einer neuen Band.
Jim's first steps down a long musical road were playing the electric guitar with various heavy metal projects at the age of fifteen. Three years later, his brother persuaded him to play bass in his cover band Black & White. In parallel to this highly commercial project he started playing with the legendary Dawn.
It was with this band that he established himself as a bass player.
With an old friend, "Bubu", he later formed Big Wah-Wah Fuzz. After this came a Dawn reunion with the original members. Several very successful concerts took place in southern Burgenland, but it wasn't meant to be and the band broke up once again. Jim's musical career was at a standstill and he lost himself in the Blues. Years later, he got together with Gerhard (who had previously been sent as a substitute at one of Jim's gigs) convinced him to pick up his guitar again ... Gerhard pronounced Jim Band Leader ... and thus Lazy Diamonds was born!
Lazy Diamonds - Roadhouse Blues
Erbie Bowser *05.05.1918
BOWSER, ERBIE (1918–1995). Erbie Bowser, blues, jazz, and boogie-woogie pianist, was born in Davila, Texas, on May 5, 1918, the youngest of ten children. Bowser's parents moved the family to Palestine, Texas, when he was five. His father played the violin, and his mother played piano, violin, and accordion. Erbie began playing piano and singing in the church choir, as his musical parents expected. While still attending Lincoln High School he joined the North Carolina Cotton Pickers Review and began performing throughout the South during summer vacations. After high school he joined the Sunset Entertainers and toured Texas with the Tyler-based band, playing blues, jazz, and big band tunes. He soon toured Europe and North Africa with the Special Services Band, playing at USO shows in England, Sicily, Italy, and Africa. Upon his discharge from military service he worked as a brick mason, and then attended Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas, for two years. His parents' death prevented him from finishing college. He married a woman from Greenville, Texas, in 1948. Around 1949 the couple moved to Odessa. There Bowser found a job with Midwestern Drilling Company, while his wife went to work at the local hospital. Bowser met guitarist T. D. Bell working in the oilfields of West Texas. The two began playing together with Johnny Holmes at nightspots in West Texas and New Mexico. Their musical partnership lasted five decades.Bowser and his wife moved to Austin in the mid-1950s, so she could attend Huston-Tillotson College. In Austin Bowser began a twenty-year career with the National Cash Register Company. He also participated in jam sessions with musicians from nearby colleges, performed with fraternity bands such as the Sweetarts, and played solo at the Commodore Perry Hotel. When Bell moved to Austin around 1960, he and Bowser began playing together at the Victory Grill (owned by Johnny Holmes), the Club Petit, and Charlie's Playhouse. Eventually various combinations of Bowser, Bell, and such musicians as Roosevelt T. Williams (the Grey Ghost), Mel Davis, James Jones, Lenny Nichols, and Fred Smith became known as the Blues Specialists. Bowser and the Blues Specialists were regular fixtures on the Austin music scene throughout the 1960s and 1970s. After a hiatus, in the late 1980s Bowser and Bell returned to the stage. In 1991 they released an LP entitled It's About Time (Spindletop). Sponsored by folklorists and blues and jazz enthusiasts such as Tary Owens and by organizations such as the Texas Commission on the Arts, Bowser made national and international appearances, including performances at the Smithsonian Institution and Carnegie Hall. This return from semiretirement resulted in a revival of the Blues Specialists, and Bowser and Bell became regular performers at venues such as the Continental Club.
Listen to this artist
Bowser credited the influence of his parents, his wife, and a high school music teacher, B. G. Bradley, for his success and his early interest in music. His wife of forty-seven years coached him through difficult songs, because, although he had an excellent ear, he could not read music. Bradley, who had played with Erskine Hawkins before becoming a teacher, encouraged Bowser to play from his heart. Other influences included Dorothy Campbell, Nat Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and the Ink Spots. During his fifty-year career, Bowser worked with many other fine performers, such as Jim Watts, George Rains, Mark Kazanoff, Ed Guinn, Jonathan Foose, Long John Hunter, Little Daddy Lot, Spec Hicks, and Marcia Ball.
Among the honors and recognitions extended to him are a proclamation of honor from the Texas Commission on the Arts and induction into the Austin Chronicle's Texas Music Hall of Fame. Displays and holdings honoring Bowser include biographical and charcoal portraits in the "Texas Piano Professors" exhibit at the Texas Music Museum in Austin and interviews and biographical sketches in the keeping of the Austin Blues Family Tree Project. Bowser died of cancer on August 15, 1995, at St. David's Hospital in Austin. His piano can be heard on such recordings as Tary Owens's Texas Piano Professors (1987); the Blues Specialists Liveset: January 15, 1989; Long John Hunter's Ride with Me (1992); and Blues Routes: Heroes and Tricksters (1999). The Blues Specialists continued to perform in 2008. Bowser was inducted into the Austin Music Memorial in 2010.
T.D. Bell & Erbie Bowser - Erbie's Bounce
Johnnie Taylor *05.05.1934
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Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000)[1] was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.Biography
Early years
Johnnie Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas. As a child, he grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas and performed in gospel groups as a youngster. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Chance Records label in the 1950s, as part of the gospel group Highway QCs, which had been founded by a young Sam Cooke. His singing was strikingly close to that of Sam Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place in the latter's gospel group, the Soul Stirrers, in 1957.
A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent SAR Records, Taylor signed on as one of the label's first acts and recorded "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" in 1962. However, SAR Records quickly became defunct after Cooke's death in 1964.
In 1966, Taylor moved to Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of Soul". While there he recorded with the label's house band, Booker T. & the MGs. His hits included "I Had a Dream", "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (both written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter) and most notably "Who's Making Love", which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1968. "Who's Making Love" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[2]
During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone", which reached No. 23 on the Hot 100 chart, "Cheaper to Keep Her" (Mack Rice) and record producer Don Davis's penned "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)", which reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 chart. "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" also sold in excess of one million units, and was awarded gold disc status by the R.I.A.A. in October 1973.[2] Taylor, along with Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers was one of the label's flagship artists. He appeared in the documentary film, Wattstax, which was released in 1973.[3]
Columbia Records
After Stax folded in 1975, Taylor switched to Columbia Records, where he made his best known hit, "Disco Lady", in 1976. It spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and six weeks on the Billboard R&B chart in the U.S. It peaked at #25 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1976.[4] "Disco Lady" was the first certified platinum single (two million copies sold) by the RIAA.
Malaco Records
After a brief stint at Beverly Glen Records, Taylor signed with Malaco Records after the label's founder Tommy Couch and producing partner Wolf Stephenson heard him sing at blues singer Z. Z. Hill's funeral in the spring of 1984.
Backed by members of The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as well as in-house veterans like former Stax keyboardist Carson Whitsett and guitarist/bandleader Bernard Jenkins, Malaco gave Taylor the type of recording freedom that Stax had given him in the late 1960s and early 1970s, enabling him to record ten albums for the label in his sixteen-year stint.
In 1996, Taylor's eighth album for Malaco, Good Love!, reached number one on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart (#15 R&B), and was the biggest record in Malaco's history. With this success, Malaco recorded a live video of Taylor at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas in the summer of 1997. The club portion of the "Good Love" video was recorded at 1001 Nightclub in Jackson, Mississippi.
Taylor's final song was "Soul Heaven", in which he dreamed of being at a concert featuring deceased African American music icons from Louis Armstrong to Otis Redding to Z.Z. Hill to Notorious B.I.G., among others.
Radio
In the 1980s Johnnie Taylor was a DJ on KKDA-FM, a Dallas/Fort Worth radio station. The station's format was mostly R&B and Soul oldies and their on-the-air personalities were often local R&B, Soul, blues, and jazz musicians. Mr. Taylor was billed as "The Wailer, Johnnie Taylor".
Death
Taylor died of a heart attack at Charlton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on May 31, 2000, aged 66.[5] Stax billed Johnnie Taylor as "The Philosopher of Soul". He was also known as "the Blues Wailer". He was buried beside his mother, Ida Mae Taylor, at Forrest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.
Awards
Taylor was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1999.
Musical influence
In 2004, the UK's Shapeshifters sampled Taylor's 1982 "What About My Love?", for their #1 hit single, "Lola's Theme".
Johnnie Taylor Live in Dallas 1989
1. Who's Makin' Love
2. Little Bluebird
3. It's Still Called The Blues
4. Just Because
5. Wall To Wall
6. Medley: Love Bones~ Stop Doggin' Me Around~ Take Care Of Your Homework~ Hello Sundown~ Steal Away
7. I Don't Want To Lose Your Love
8. Jody's Got Your Girl
9. It's September
10. Stormy Monday Medley
11. I'm Changing
2. Little Bluebird
3. It's Still Called The Blues
4. Just Because
5. Wall To Wall
6. Medley: Love Bones~ Stop Doggin' Me Around~ Take Care Of Your Homework~ Hello Sundown~ Steal Away
7. I Don't Want To Lose Your Love
8. Jody's Got Your Girl
9. It's September
10. Stormy Monday Medley
11. I'm Changing
R.I.P.
Andrew Tibbs +05.05.1991
Tibbs was born Melvin Andrew Grayson,[3] in Columbus, Ohio, United States.[1] As a boy he sang in Baptist choirs in Chicago, directed by Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington. He was influenced by Ivory Joe Hunter and Arnold "Gatemouth" Moore.[4]
From 1947 to 1949, Tibbs originally recorded for Aristocrat Records.[5] His debut single was "Bilbo Is Dead" b/w "Union Man Blues", recorded whilst Tibbs was eighteen years old.[4] The tracks were both co-written by Tibbs and Tom Archia,[2] and caused controversy. The A-side criticized Theodore Bilbo's policies, whilst the B-side caused displeasure from the Chicago based teamster trade unions. Six further singles were released by Aristocrat. Following its eventual acquisition by Leonard and Phil Chess, the newly formed Chess label signed Tibbs in 1950, but he released only one record, "You Can't Win", before being dismissed.[4][5]
Tibbs recorded the "Rock Savoy Rock" single for Peacock Records in 1951, followed by some unissued sessions for Savoy. With his brother, Kenneth, Tibbs recorded one session for Atco in 1956, which featured King Curtis. His final recordings in 1962 for M-Pac Records included his last single release, "Stone Hearted Woman".[4]
He worked for West Electric thereafter,[4] but made sporadic live appearances in Chicago clubs.[5]
Tibbs died in Chicago in May 1991, aged 62.
Gary Davis +05.05.1972
Reverend Gary Davis (* 30. April 1896 in Laurens, South Carolina; † 5. Mai 1972 in Hammonton, New Jersey) war ein einflussreicher und technisch herausragender Blues-Gitarrist.Gary Davis ist während seiner Kindheit vollständig erblindet. Er lernte autodidaktisch Gitarre, Banjo und Mundharmonika. Zunächst trat er bei Partys in seinem Heimatort auf, danach zog er nach Durham, North Carolina und lebte dort als Straßenmusiker. Um 1927 wurde er Baptistenprediger, daher der Titel Reverend (Pfarrer/Pastor).
Anfang der 30er Jahre lernte er Blind Boy Fuller kennen. Mit ihm machte er im Juli 1935 seine ersten Aufnahmen für AMC in New York.
1942 zog Gary Davis mit seiner zweiten Frau nach New York. Ab Mitte der 1950er nahm er für verschiedene Labels auf und hinterließ sein reichhaltiges Repertoire bestehend aus Blues und Gospelmusik.
Durch das Folk Revival wurde er "wiederentdeckt" und Musiker wie Stefan Grossman, Ry Cooder, Jerry García, Jorma Kaukonen und David Bromberg lernten von ihm. Coverversionen seiner Stücke nahmen u.A. auch Bob Dylan und Peter, Paul and Mary auf. Das Stück "Kokain" von Hannes Wader ist eine deutsche Adaption des "Cocaine Blues" von Davis.
Auf dem Weg zu einem Auftritt erlitt Gary Davis einen Herzinfarkt. Er starb darauf im William Kessler Memorial Hospital. Sein Grab ist im Rockville Cemetery, Lynbrook (NY). Posthum wurde er 2009 in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
Im Gegensatz zu den meisten Fingerpickern spielte er nur mit dem Daumen und dem Zeigefinger der rechten Hand. Stilistisch zählt er zu den Ragtime-Gitarristen.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Davis
Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis, (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972) was a blind African American blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo guitar and harmonica. His finger-picking guitar style influenced many other artists and his students include Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Roy Book Binder, Larry Johnson, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Rory Block, Ernie Hawkins, Larry Campbell, Bob Weir, Woody Mann, and Tom Winslow.[1]
He has influenced Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Resurrection Band, and John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful.
Biography
Gary Davis was born in the Piedmont region of the country, in Laurens, South Carolina, and was the only one of eight children his mother bore who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant. Davis reported that his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama, when Davis was ten, and Davis later said that he had been told that his father had been shot by the Birmingham High Sheriff. He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that before his death his father had given him into the care of his paternal grandmother.[2]
He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multi-voice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing not only gospel, ragtime and blues tunes, but also traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony.
In the mid-1920s, Davis migrated to Durham, North Carolina, a major center for black culture at the time. There he taught Blind Boy Fuller and collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene including Bull City Red.[1] In 1935, J. B. Long, a store manager with a reputation for supporting local artists, introduced Davis, Fuller and Red to the American Record Company. The subsequent recording sessions marked the real beginning of Davis' career and are available in his Complete Early Recordings. During his time in Durham, Davis converted to Christianity; in 1937, he would be ordained as a Baptist minister.[1][3] Following his conversion and especially his ordination, Davis began to express a preference for inspirational gospel music.
In the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline and Davis migrated to New York.[1] In 1951, several years before his "rediscovery", Davis's oral history was recorded by Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold (the wife of Alan Lomax) who transcribed their conversations into a 300+-page typescript.
The folk revival of the 1960s re-invigorated Davis' career and included a performance at the Newport Folk Festival and having Peter, Paul and Mary record his version of "Samson and Delilah", also known as "If I Had My Way" which is originally a Blind Willie Johnson song that Davis had popularized. "Samson and Delilah" was also covered and credited to Davis on the Grateful Dead's "Terrapin Station" album. Eric Von Schmidt credits Rev. Davis with three-quarters of Schmidt's Baby, Let Me Follow You Down which Bob Dylan covered on his debut album for Columbia.[4] Blues Hall of Fame singer and harmonica player Darrell Mansfield has also recorded several of Rev. Davis' songs.
Davis died in May 1972, from a heart attack in Hammonton, New Jersey.[5] He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York.
He has influenced Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Resurrection Band, and John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful.
Biography
Gary Davis was born in the Piedmont region of the country, in Laurens, South Carolina, and was the only one of eight children his mother bore who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant. Davis reported that his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama, when Davis was ten, and Davis later said that he had been told that his father had been shot by the Birmingham High Sheriff. He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that before his death his father had given him into the care of his paternal grandmother.[2]
He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multi-voice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing not only gospel, ragtime and blues tunes, but also traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony.
In the mid-1920s, Davis migrated to Durham, North Carolina, a major center for black culture at the time. There he taught Blind Boy Fuller and collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene including Bull City Red.[1] In 1935, J. B. Long, a store manager with a reputation for supporting local artists, introduced Davis, Fuller and Red to the American Record Company. The subsequent recording sessions marked the real beginning of Davis' career and are available in his Complete Early Recordings. During his time in Durham, Davis converted to Christianity; in 1937, he would be ordained as a Baptist minister.[1][3] Following his conversion and especially his ordination, Davis began to express a preference for inspirational gospel music.
In the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline and Davis migrated to New York.[1] In 1951, several years before his "rediscovery", Davis's oral history was recorded by Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold (the wife of Alan Lomax) who transcribed their conversations into a 300+-page typescript.
The folk revival of the 1960s re-invigorated Davis' career and included a performance at the Newport Folk Festival and having Peter, Paul and Mary record his version of "Samson and Delilah", also known as "If I Had My Way" which is originally a Blind Willie Johnson song that Davis had popularized. "Samson and Delilah" was also covered and credited to Davis on the Grateful Dead's "Terrapin Station" album. Eric Von Schmidt credits Rev. Davis with three-quarters of Schmidt's Baby, Let Me Follow You Down which Bob Dylan covered on his debut album for Columbia.[4] Blues Hall of Fame singer and harmonica player Darrell Mansfield has also recorded several of Rev. Davis' songs.
Davis died in May 1972, from a heart attack in Hammonton, New Jersey.[5] He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York.
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Pete featuring Randy Chortkoff "Got My Eyes On You" - Blues
Now! 2011
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