1892 Bo Carter*
1936 Dave Van Ronk*
1942 Klaus Renft*
1942 Mac Arnold*
1961 Mike Wheeler*
2015 Jimmy
Lloyd Rea+
Rusty Burns*
Happy Birthday
Bo Carter *30.06.1892
Bo Carter (* 21. März 1893 in Bolton, Mississippi; † 21. September 1964), eigentlich Armenter Chatmon, war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist.
Carter war zwar gelegentliches Mitglied der Mississippi Sheiks, der Musikgruppe der Chatmon-Familie, war aber auch solo erfolgreich. Zwischen 1928 und 1940 nahm er über 100 Stücke unter eigenem Namen auf.
Die bekanntesten Songs von Bo Carter sind seine Hokum-Aufnahmen, darunter Banana in Your Fruit Basket, Pin in Your Cushions, Your Biscuits Are Too Big und Please Warm My Wiener. Daneben gehörte auch Mainstream-Blues zu seinem Repertoire.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Carter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFRGTP7zwA
Armenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon (June 30, 1893 – September 21, 1964)[2] was an American early blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts, and on a few of their recordings. Carter also managed that group, which included his brother, Lonnie Chatmon, on fiddle and occasionally Sam Chatmon on bass, along with a friend, Walter Vinson, on guitar and lead vocals.[1][2]
Career
Since the 1960s, Carter has become best known for his bawdy songs such as "Let Me Roll Your Lemon",[3] "Banana in Your Fruit Basket", "Pin in Your Cushion", "Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me", "Please Warm My Wiener" and "My Pencil Won't Write No More".[1][4] However, his output was not restricted to risqué music.[1] In 1928, he recorded the original version of "Corrine, Corrina", which later became a hit for Big Joe Turner and has become a standard in various musical genres.[2]
Carter and his brothers (including pianist Harry Chatmon, who also made recordings), first learned music from their father, ex-slave fiddler Henderson Chatmon, at their home on a plantation between Bolton and Edwards, Mississippi. Their mother, Eliza, also sang and played guitar.
Carter made his recording debut in 1928, backing Alec Johnson. Carter soon was recording as a solo artist and became one of the dominant blues recording acts of the 1930s, recording 110 sides.[1] He also played with and managed the family group, the Mississippi Sheiks, and several other acts in the area. He and the Sheiks often played for whites, playing the pop hits of the day and white-oriented dance material, as well as for blacks, using a bluesier repertoire.
Carter went partly blind during the 1930s.[1] He settled in Glen Allan, Mississippi[5] and despite his vision problems did some farming but also continued to play music and perform, sometimes with his brothers. Carter moved to Memphis, and worked outside the music industry in the 1940s.
Carter suffered strokes and died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Shelby County Hospital, Memphis, on September 21, 1964.
Career
Since the 1960s, Carter has become best known for his bawdy songs such as "Let Me Roll Your Lemon",[3] "Banana in Your Fruit Basket", "Pin in Your Cushion", "Your Biscuits Are Big Enough for Me", "Please Warm My Wiener" and "My Pencil Won't Write No More".[1][4] However, his output was not restricted to risqué music.[1] In 1928, he recorded the original version of "Corrine, Corrina", which later became a hit for Big Joe Turner and has become a standard in various musical genres.[2]
Carter and his brothers (including pianist Harry Chatmon, who also made recordings), first learned music from their father, ex-slave fiddler Henderson Chatmon, at their home on a plantation between Bolton and Edwards, Mississippi. Their mother, Eliza, also sang and played guitar.
Carter made his recording debut in 1928, backing Alec Johnson. Carter soon was recording as a solo artist and became one of the dominant blues recording acts of the 1930s, recording 110 sides.[1] He also played with and managed the family group, the Mississippi Sheiks, and several other acts in the area. He and the Sheiks often played for whites, playing the pop hits of the day and white-oriented dance material, as well as for blacks, using a bluesier repertoire.
Carter went partly blind during the 1930s.[1] He settled in Glen Allan, Mississippi[5] and despite his vision problems did some farming but also continued to play music and perform, sometimes with his brothers. Carter moved to Memphis, and worked outside the music industry in the 1940s.
Carter suffered strokes and died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Shelby County Hospital, Memphis, on September 21, 1964.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFRGTP7zwA
Dave Van Ronk *30.06.1936
Van Ronk besuchte eine High School in Queens, die er mit 15 Jahren vorzeitig verließ. Seit 1949 spielte er in einem Barbershop Quartett, Anfang der 1950er ging er zur Handelsmarine. Ab 1956 trat er als professioneller Musiker auf. Van Ronk interessierte sich intensiv für Jazz und Blues, entschied sich aber schließlich für den Blues. Seine Lieder orientierten sich am Werk von Blues-Legenden wie Furry Lewis und Mississippi John Hurt. Sein letztes Konzert gab er wenige Monate vor seinem Tod im Februar 2002.
Die meiste Zeit seines Lebens verbrachte Van Ronk im New Yorker Künstlerviertel Greenwich Village. 2004 wurde dort eine Straße nach ihm benannt. Seine Autobiografie diente als Inspiration für den Film Inside Llewyn Davis der Coen-Brüder.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Van_Ronk
David Kenneth Ritz "Dave" Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street".
He was an important figure in the acoustic folk revival of the 1960s. His work ranged from old English ballads to blues, gospel, rock, New Orleans jazz, and swing. He was also known for performing instrumental ragtime guitar music, especially his transcription of "St. Louis Tickle" and Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag".
Van Ronk was a widely admired avuncular figure in "the Village", presiding over the coffeehouse folk culture and acting as a friend to many up-and-coming artists by inspiring, assisting, and promoting them. Folk performers whom he befriended include Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Patrick Sky, Phil Ochs, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Guthrie Thomas, and Joni Mitchell.
Bob Dylan recorded Van Ronk's arrangement of the traditional song "House of the Rising Sun" on Dylan's first album. A few years later the Animals had a No. 1 hit single with a rock version of the Van Ronk arrangement of the song,[1] a hit which helped to inaugurate the folk-rock movement.[2]
Van Ronk received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in December 1997. He died in a New York hospital of cardiopulmonary failure while undergoing postoperative treatment for colon cancer.[3]
Life and career
Van Ronk was born in Brooklyn to a family that was "mostly Irish, despite the Dutch name."[4] He moved from Brooklyn to Queens in 1951 and began attending Holy Child Jesus Catholic School, whose students were mainly of Irish descent. He had been performing in a barbershop quartet since 1949, but left before finishing high school, and spent the next few years bumming around lower Manhattan and twice shipping out with the Merchant Marine.
His first professional gigs playing tenor banjola were with various traditional jazz bands around New York, of which he later observed: "We wanted to play traditional jazz in the worst way...and we did!" But the trad jazz revival had already passed its prime, and Van Ronk turned to performing blues he had stumbled across while shopping for jazz 78s, by artists like Furry Lewis and Mississippi John Hurt. Van Ronk was not the first white musician to perform African-American blues, but became noted for his interpretation of it in its original context. By about 1958, he was firmly committed to the folk-blues style, accompanying himself with his own acoustic guitar. He performed blues, jazz and folk music, occasionally writing his own songs but generally arranging the work of earlier artists and his folk revival peers. At one point, he was considered for a folk-pop trio with Peter Yarrow. Van Ronk's voice and style were considered too idiosyncratic and the role eventually went to Noel Paul Stookey,(who became the "Paul" in Peter, Paul and Mary).
He became noted both for his large physical stature and his expansive charisma, which bespoke an intellectual, cultured gentleman of many talents. Among his many interests were cooking, science fiction (he was active for some time in science fiction fandom, referring to it as "mind rot",[5] and contributed to fanzines), world history, and politics. During the 1960s he supported radical left-wing political causes and was a member of the Libertarian League and the Trotskyist American Committee for the Fourth International (ACFI, later renamed the Workers League,[6] predecessor to the Socialist Equality Party).[7] In 1974, he appeared at "An Evening For Salvador Allende", a concert organized by Phil Ochs, alongside such other performers as his old friend Bob Dylan, to protest the overthrow of the democratic socialist government of Chile and to aid refugees from the U.S.-backed military junta led by Augusto Pinochet. Although he was less politically active in later years, he remained committed to anarchist/socialist ideals and was a dues-paying member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) almost until his death. After Ochs's suicide in 1976, Van Ronk joined the many performers who played at his memorial concert in the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden, playing his bluesy version of the traditional folk ballad "He Was A Friend Of Mine".[8]
In 2000, he performed at Blind Willie's in Atlanta, clothed in garish Hawaiian garb, speaking fondly of his impending return to Greenwich Village. He reminisced over tunes like "You've Been a Good Old Wagon," a song teasing a worn-out lover, which he ruefully remarked had seemed humorous to him back in 1962. He was married to Terri Thal in the 1960s,[9] lived for many years with Joanne Grace, then married Andrea Vuocolo, with whom he spent the rest of his life. He continued to perform for four decades and gave his last concert just a few months before his death. He found it amusing to be called "a legend in his own time".
Van Ronk died before completing work on his memoirs, which were finished by his collaborator, Elijah Wald, and published in 2005 as The Mayor Of MacDougal Street.
In 2004, a section of Sheridan Square, where Barrow Street meets Washington Place, was renamed Dave Van Ronk Street in his memory.[10]
Cultural impact
Van Ronk can be described as an irreverent and incomparable guitar artist and interpreter of black blues and folk, with an uncannily precise ability at impersonation. Joni Mitchell often said that his rendition of her song "Both Sides Now" (which he called "Clouds") was the finest ever.
He is perhaps underestimated as a musician and blues guitarist. His guitar work, for which he credits Tom Paley as fingerpicking teacher, is noteworthy for both syncopation and precision. It shows similarities to Mississippi John Hurt's, but Van Ronk's main influence was the Reverend Gary Davis, who conceived the guitar as "a piano around his neck". Van Ronk took this pianistic approach and added a harmonic sophistication adapted from the band voicings of Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington. He ranks high in bringing blues style to Greenwich Village during the 1960s, as well as introducing the folk world to the complex harmonies of Kurt Weill in his many Brecht-Weill interpretations, and being one of the very few hardcore traditional revivalists to move with the times, bringing old blues and ballads together with the new sounds of Dylan, Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. During this crucial period, he performed with the likes of Bob Dylan and spent many years teaching guitar in Greenwich Village, including to Christine Lavin, David Massengill, Terre Roche and Suzzy Roche. He influenced his protégé Danny Kalb and The Blues Project. The Japanese singer Masato Tomobe, American pop-folk singer Geoff Thais and the musician and writer Elijah Wald learned from him as well. Known for making interesting and memorable observations he once said, "Painting is all about space, and music is all about time." In his autobiography Bob Dylan states, "I'd heard Van Ronk back in the Midwest on records and thought he was pretty great, copied some of his recordings phrase for phrase. [...] Van Ronk could howl and whisper, turn blues into ballads and ballads into blues. I loved his style. He was what the city was all about. In Greenwich Village, Van Ronk was king of the street, he reigned supreme."[11]
Thanks to what he had learned from Davis, Van Ronk was among the first to adapt traditional jazz and ragtime to the solo acoustic guitar. His guitar arrangements of such ragtime hits as "St. Louis Tickle", "The Entertainer", "The Pearls" and "Maple Leaf Rag" continue to frustrate and challenge aspiring guitar players. He also did fine compositions of his own in the classic styles, such as "Antelope Rag".
His song "Last Call" is the source of the title of Lawrence Block's book When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.
Van Ronk was among the thirteen people arrested at the Stonewall Inn June 28, 1969—the night that the Stonewall Riots, which many cite as the start of the gay rights movement, began. The New York Times reported the next day that he was arrested and later parolled on his own recognizance for having thrown a heavy object at a patrolman.[12] City records reveal he was charged with felony assault in the second degree[13] and pled guilty to the lesser charge of harassment, classified in 1969 as a violation under pL 240.25. Articles published at the time in The New York Post and the Village Voice reveal that Van Ronk was pulled by police from the crowd outside and dragged inside the Stonewall.[14][15]
The Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis follows a folk singer similar to Van Ronk, and incorporates anecdotes based on Van Ronk's life.[16][17] The release of the film coincides with Down in Washington Square: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection from Smithsonian Folkways which was released on October 29, 2013.
Unlike the title character in the Coen Brothers' film, Van Ronk was actually a swanky dresser who initiated many clothing styles in Greenwich Village during the early and mid 60s.
Personal characteristics
Van Ronk refused for many years to fly and never learned to drive (he would use trains or buses or, when possible, recruit a girlfriend or young musician as his driver), and he declined to ever move from Greenwich Village for any extended period of time (having stayed in California for a short time in the 1960s).[18] Van Ronk's trademark stoneware jug of Tullamore Dew was frequently seen on stage next to him in his early days.
Critic Robert Shelton described Van Ronk as "the musical mayor of MacDougal Street":
He was an important figure in the acoustic folk revival of the 1960s. His work ranged from old English ballads to blues, gospel, rock, New Orleans jazz, and swing. He was also known for performing instrumental ragtime guitar music, especially his transcription of "St. Louis Tickle" and Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag".
Van Ronk was a widely admired avuncular figure in "the Village", presiding over the coffeehouse folk culture and acting as a friend to many up-and-coming artists by inspiring, assisting, and promoting them. Folk performers whom he befriended include Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Patrick Sky, Phil Ochs, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Guthrie Thomas, and Joni Mitchell.
Bob Dylan recorded Van Ronk's arrangement of the traditional song "House of the Rising Sun" on Dylan's first album. A few years later the Animals had a No. 1 hit single with a rock version of the Van Ronk arrangement of the song,[1] a hit which helped to inaugurate the folk-rock movement.[2]
Van Ronk received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in December 1997. He died in a New York hospital of cardiopulmonary failure while undergoing postoperative treatment for colon cancer.[3]
Life and career
Van Ronk was born in Brooklyn to a family that was "mostly Irish, despite the Dutch name."[4] He moved from Brooklyn to Queens in 1951 and began attending Holy Child Jesus Catholic School, whose students were mainly of Irish descent. He had been performing in a barbershop quartet since 1949, but left before finishing high school, and spent the next few years bumming around lower Manhattan and twice shipping out with the Merchant Marine.
His first professional gigs playing tenor banjola were with various traditional jazz bands around New York, of which he later observed: "We wanted to play traditional jazz in the worst way...and we did!" But the trad jazz revival had already passed its prime, and Van Ronk turned to performing blues he had stumbled across while shopping for jazz 78s, by artists like Furry Lewis and Mississippi John Hurt. Van Ronk was not the first white musician to perform African-American blues, but became noted for his interpretation of it in its original context. By about 1958, he was firmly committed to the folk-blues style, accompanying himself with his own acoustic guitar. He performed blues, jazz and folk music, occasionally writing his own songs but generally arranging the work of earlier artists and his folk revival peers. At one point, he was considered for a folk-pop trio with Peter Yarrow. Van Ronk's voice and style were considered too idiosyncratic and the role eventually went to Noel Paul Stookey,(who became the "Paul" in Peter, Paul and Mary).
He became noted both for his large physical stature and his expansive charisma, which bespoke an intellectual, cultured gentleman of many talents. Among his many interests were cooking, science fiction (he was active for some time in science fiction fandom, referring to it as "mind rot",[5] and contributed to fanzines), world history, and politics. During the 1960s he supported radical left-wing political causes and was a member of the Libertarian League and the Trotskyist American Committee for the Fourth International (ACFI, later renamed the Workers League,[6] predecessor to the Socialist Equality Party).[7] In 1974, he appeared at "An Evening For Salvador Allende", a concert organized by Phil Ochs, alongside such other performers as his old friend Bob Dylan, to protest the overthrow of the democratic socialist government of Chile and to aid refugees from the U.S.-backed military junta led by Augusto Pinochet. Although he was less politically active in later years, he remained committed to anarchist/socialist ideals and was a dues-paying member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) almost until his death. After Ochs's suicide in 1976, Van Ronk joined the many performers who played at his memorial concert in the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden, playing his bluesy version of the traditional folk ballad "He Was A Friend Of Mine".[8]
In 2000, he performed at Blind Willie's in Atlanta, clothed in garish Hawaiian garb, speaking fondly of his impending return to Greenwich Village. He reminisced over tunes like "You've Been a Good Old Wagon," a song teasing a worn-out lover, which he ruefully remarked had seemed humorous to him back in 1962. He was married to Terri Thal in the 1960s,[9] lived for many years with Joanne Grace, then married Andrea Vuocolo, with whom he spent the rest of his life. He continued to perform for four decades and gave his last concert just a few months before his death. He found it amusing to be called "a legend in his own time".
Van Ronk died before completing work on his memoirs, which were finished by his collaborator, Elijah Wald, and published in 2005 as The Mayor Of MacDougal Street.
In 2004, a section of Sheridan Square, where Barrow Street meets Washington Place, was renamed Dave Van Ronk Street in his memory.[10]
Cultural impact
Van Ronk can be described as an irreverent and incomparable guitar artist and interpreter of black blues and folk, with an uncannily precise ability at impersonation. Joni Mitchell often said that his rendition of her song "Both Sides Now" (which he called "Clouds") was the finest ever.
He is perhaps underestimated as a musician and blues guitarist. His guitar work, for which he credits Tom Paley as fingerpicking teacher, is noteworthy for both syncopation and precision. It shows similarities to Mississippi John Hurt's, but Van Ronk's main influence was the Reverend Gary Davis, who conceived the guitar as "a piano around his neck". Van Ronk took this pianistic approach and added a harmonic sophistication adapted from the band voicings of Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington. He ranks high in bringing blues style to Greenwich Village during the 1960s, as well as introducing the folk world to the complex harmonies of Kurt Weill in his many Brecht-Weill interpretations, and being one of the very few hardcore traditional revivalists to move with the times, bringing old blues and ballads together with the new sounds of Dylan, Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. During this crucial period, he performed with the likes of Bob Dylan and spent many years teaching guitar in Greenwich Village, including to Christine Lavin, David Massengill, Terre Roche and Suzzy Roche. He influenced his protégé Danny Kalb and The Blues Project. The Japanese singer Masato Tomobe, American pop-folk singer Geoff Thais and the musician and writer Elijah Wald learned from him as well. Known for making interesting and memorable observations he once said, "Painting is all about space, and music is all about time." In his autobiography Bob Dylan states, "I'd heard Van Ronk back in the Midwest on records and thought he was pretty great, copied some of his recordings phrase for phrase. [...] Van Ronk could howl and whisper, turn blues into ballads and ballads into blues. I loved his style. He was what the city was all about. In Greenwich Village, Van Ronk was king of the street, he reigned supreme."[11]
Thanks to what he had learned from Davis, Van Ronk was among the first to adapt traditional jazz and ragtime to the solo acoustic guitar. His guitar arrangements of such ragtime hits as "St. Louis Tickle", "The Entertainer", "The Pearls" and "Maple Leaf Rag" continue to frustrate and challenge aspiring guitar players. He also did fine compositions of his own in the classic styles, such as "Antelope Rag".
His song "Last Call" is the source of the title of Lawrence Block's book When the Sacred Ginmill Closes.
Van Ronk was among the thirteen people arrested at the Stonewall Inn June 28, 1969—the night that the Stonewall Riots, which many cite as the start of the gay rights movement, began. The New York Times reported the next day that he was arrested and later parolled on his own recognizance for having thrown a heavy object at a patrolman.[12] City records reveal he was charged with felony assault in the second degree[13] and pled guilty to the lesser charge of harassment, classified in 1969 as a violation under pL 240.25. Articles published at the time in The New York Post and the Village Voice reveal that Van Ronk was pulled by police from the crowd outside and dragged inside the Stonewall.[14][15]
The Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis follows a folk singer similar to Van Ronk, and incorporates anecdotes based on Van Ronk's life.[16][17] The release of the film coincides with Down in Washington Square: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection from Smithsonian Folkways which was released on October 29, 2013.
Unlike the title character in the Coen Brothers' film, Van Ronk was actually a swanky dresser who initiated many clothing styles in Greenwich Village during the early and mid 60s.
Personal characteristics
Van Ronk refused for many years to fly and never learned to drive (he would use trains or buses or, when possible, recruit a girlfriend or young musician as his driver), and he declined to ever move from Greenwich Village for any extended period of time (having stayed in California for a short time in the 1960s).[18] Van Ronk's trademark stoneware jug of Tullamore Dew was frequently seen on stage next to him in his early days.
Critic Robert Shelton described Van Ronk as "the musical mayor of MacDougal Street":
Klaus Renft *30.06.1942
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Klaus Renft (* 30. Juni 1942 in Jena als Klaus Jentzsch; † 9. Oktober 2006 in Löhma) war ein deutscher Musiker. Er wurde in der DDR vor allem durch seine Bands Butlers und Klaus Renft Combo bekannt. Sein Künstlername Renft war der Geburtsname seiner Mutter.
1957 erste Auftritte mit der Schülerband „Kolibri“. Im Jahre 1958 gründete Renft mit einigen Freunden in Leipzig die „Klaus Renft Combo“. Sie bestand bis zum Auftrittsverbot 1962 und wurde daraufhin in „The Butlers“ umbenannt. 1963 legte Klaus Renft die Facharbeiterprüfung als Möbeltischler ab. Am 1. März 1964 gab es den ersten offiziell erwähnten Auftritt der „Butlers“. Im gleichen Jahr erhielt die Band beim Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend eine Auszeichnung. Bereits 1965 wurde den populären „Butlers“ jedoch aufgrund ihres westlichen Stils diesmal ein „unbefristetes Spielverbot“ ausgesprochen. Das geschah zeitgleich zum Verbot vieler anderer Bands in Leipzig, was die in dieser Form einmalige Leipziger Beatdemonstration auslöste.
Ab 1967 durfte die „Klaus Renft Combo“ nach ihrem Verbot wieder öffentlich auftreten, seit 1971 waren auch Rundfunkaufnahmen möglich.
Ihre Songs, deren Themen häufig von staatlicher Repression (Ketten werden knapper) handelten oder vielschichtig/zweideutig waren, wie (Zwischen Liebe und Zorn, Ermutigung, Nach der Schlacht) hinterfragten das durch die Staatsmacht vorgegebene Bild. Die Jugendlichen verstanden sehr wohl die enthaltenen Metaphern. Daher geriet die bereits 1964 unter dem Decknamen „Wanderer“ geführte Band verschärft ins Visier der Staatssicherheit. Neue Musikaufnahmen wurden ab 1974 nach ihrem Song Aber ich kanns nicht verstehen ( Platz 2 bei der „NBI-Beatparade“) nicht mehr zugelassen.
Im September 1975 wurde die Klaus Renft Combo erneut verboten. Die Musiker beschwerten sich beim damaligen Kulturminister der DDR, Hans-Joachim Hoffmann. In der Folgezeit entstanden heimliche Aufnahmen wie die Ballade vom kleinen Otto, welche eine mögliche Republikflucht zum Inhalt hatte oder das Lied Glaubensfragen das zum Thema Bausoldat ein staatliches Tabu ansprach.
Ende Oktober 1975 verlor Renft seine Zulassung durch das Kulturministerium. Er besuchte darauf den Regimekritiker Robert Havemann und gab persönlich am 8. Dezember 1975 einen Brief an Erich Honecker ab. Zeitgleich erscheint im Spiegel ein Artikel zur Band und ihrer Situation.[1]
Nachdem am 15. Januar eine Vorladung durch den Rat des Bezirkes Leipzig erfolgt war, stellte er im April 1976 einen Ausreiseantrag. Im Mai reiste er durch Heirat mit seiner griechischen Freundin aus und lebte im Anschluss in West-Berlin. Mehrere Versuche, musikalisch wieder Fuß zu fassen, unter anderem mit der Gruppe Windminister, misslangen. Olaf Leitner, Rundfunkmoderator beim RIAS, verschaffte Renft einen Job als Musikredakteur beim Sender. 1981 wechselte er an das Renaissance-Theater, wo er bis 1990 als Inspizient und Tonmeister tätig war. Am 20. Juli 1981 wurde Renft die DDR-Staatsbürgerschaft aberkannt.
Nach der friedlichen Revolution in der DDR kehrte Klaus Renft zurück und trat ab 1990 wieder gemeinsam mit der „Klaus Renft Combo“ auf, die weiterhin auf eine treue Fangemeinde zählen konnte. Dennoch gelang es ihr wie vielen anderen DDR-Bands nicht mehr, an die früheren Erfolge anzuknüpfen. 1996 musste er die Band wegen interner Differenzen vorübergehend verlassen. Ab März 1998, zu den Jubiläumskonzerten „40 Jahre Klaus Renft Combo“ trat er wieder gemeinsam mit seinen Weggefährten aus den 1970er Jahren auf.
Bereits im Oktober 2000 musste sich Renft einer Chemotherapie wegen einer Darmkrebserkrankung unterziehen, die 2000 diagnostiziert worden war. Er erholte sich zunächst und arbeitete wieder intensiv als Musiker. Doch im Sommer 2005 stellten die Ärzte bei ihm einen neuerlichen Tumor fest, an dessen Folgen er in der Nacht zum 9. Oktober 2006 auf dem Weg in die Klinik verstarb. Seine Urne wurde am 21. November 2006 auf dem Leipziger Südfriedhof beigesetzt.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Renft
http://www.renft.de/pages/weggefaehrten/klaus-renft-dagger.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohSkm-m_MNU
http://www.renft.de/pages/weggefaehrten/klaus-renft-dagger.php
Klaus Jentzsch (Klaus Renft), rock musician: born Jena, Germany 30 June 1942; married (two sons, two daughters); died Löhma, Germany 9 October 2006.
The East German rock scene spawned many beat and rock acts whose very livelihoods depended on concert income, rather than making records. The Klaus Renft Combo and Renft count among the finest that the GDR (German Democratic Republic) ever produced. Klaus Renft's chequered history and repeated brushes with GDR officialdom made him a perfect witness for Stasiland (2003), Anna Funder's examination of life under the Stasi (secret police) regime.
Funder called Renft "the bad boy of East German rock'n'roll" and the Klaus Renft Combo "the wildest and most popular rock band in the GDR". The Puhdys rank as the GDR's most successful band commercially and City, Pankow and Silly had their moments and high jinks, but when it came to flouting rules Renft was in a league of his own. He courted disaster and official censorship rather assiduously. Accordingly, the state took revenge, as it did against any elements deemed malcontent, decadent, long-haired. Yet, as the Berliner Zeitung summarised so succinctly, "If there ever was a rock legend made in the GDR, then it was Renft."
Born Klaus Jentzsch in Jena, Thuringia, he borrowed his mother's maiden name for his stage name. "Renft" also means "bread crust" in the dialect of Saxony. Somehow he managed to earn his crust playing beat and rock music. He made his first appearance aged 16 in the Leipzig-based Klaus Renft Combo in 1958.
By 1962 they had fallen foul of the authorities - so easy in so many ways in the GDR's era of multiple prohibition. So in 1964 he founded the Butlers, a name as redolently English in Leipzig as the Beefeaters was for the pre-Byrds in Los Angeles. The Stasi duly opened a file code-named "Wanderer".
In 1965 the Butlers were banned from performing. GDR jargon created several variations on Auftrittsverbot (stage ban) and it is unclear which one the Butlers were subject to, but the authorities did not lift the ban until 1967. The new Klaus Renft Combo worked on creating original material, sometimes, as with "Cäsers Blues", setting lyrics to jams. Throughout Rendt's career he remained partial to covering, amongst others, the Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. He once said he thought he would be reprimanded for playing the Stones' "Tell Me"; instead a rebuke was given for the length of his hair.
The group learned this decadent Western filth phonetically, taping Rias (Radio in the American Sector) broadcasts, since Russian was the second language on the GDR school curriculum. Of "Satisfaction", Renft told Funder, "We didn't know what it meant." Coded Renft staples like "Wer die Rose ehrt" ("He Who Honours the Rose") and "Der Apfeltraum" ("The Apple Dream") were heavily scrutinised by fans and state watchdogs alike. Their "Autostop" ("Hitchhiking") not only bottled the Zeitgeist but provided the theme song for a generation thumbing to Erfurt, Prague or Krakow.
The lyricist Gerulf Pannach's arrival in 1969 took the group in a more political, socially critical direction. (Later, in 1986, Pannach appeared as a dissident GDR folksinger in Ken Loach's Fatherland.) The politicking ushered in divisions and divisiveness. In his autobiography Zwischen Liebe und Zorn ("Between Love and Anger", 1997), Renft said,
At the end we Renfts were six musicians with seven opinions, never a homogenous troupe, very often arguing, constantly searching . . . Only on stage were we a group. Sometimes I believe if we hadn't been banned back then, we'd have soon broken ourselves up.
The state record company Amiga was not just the only game in town, but the only game in the nation. Lyrics always came under the burning magnifying glass of argus-eyed apparatchiks. Götz Hintze's Rocklexikon der DDR ("Rock Lexicon of the GDR", 2000) describes the next débâcle. On 22 September 1975, the group were called before the authorities to be told that they didn't exist any longer. Renft had had enough foreign currency to buy a cassette recorder and he taped the interview. He later let on that the incriminating tape was in West Berlin. Overnight, gigs stopped and Renft vanished from the Amiga catalogue. Although some group members stayed, a splinter group, Karussell, became the state-sanctioned shadows of their former selves.
Renft reached West Berlin in 1975, finding employment with the radio station Rias. He later toured, revisited old material and recorded new material. But the title of his 1999 album, Als ob nichts gewesen wär ("As If Nothing Had Happened"), could be taken as a cry of frustration.
Renft's place in the annals of cult European rock music is assured. As the photographer Harald Hausmann wrote in Bye Bye Lübben City: Bluesfreaks, Tramps und Hippies in der DDR (2004), one of the definitive texts about the GDR rock scene,
Music was the bridge. If Renft played [Deep Purple's] "Child in Time", I felt myself freer for the rest of the week. Then I travelled in my thoughts around the globe, became part of the universe.
Ken Hunt
The East German rock scene spawned many beat and rock acts whose very livelihoods depended on concert income, rather than making records. The Klaus Renft Combo and Renft count among the finest that the GDR (German Democratic Republic) ever produced. Klaus Renft's chequered history and repeated brushes with GDR officialdom made him a perfect witness for Stasiland (2003), Anna Funder's examination of life under the Stasi (secret police) regime.
Funder called Renft "the bad boy of East German rock'n'roll" and the Klaus Renft Combo "the wildest and most popular rock band in the GDR". The Puhdys rank as the GDR's most successful band commercially and City, Pankow and Silly had their moments and high jinks, but when it came to flouting rules Renft was in a league of his own. He courted disaster and official censorship rather assiduously. Accordingly, the state took revenge, as it did against any elements deemed malcontent, decadent, long-haired. Yet, as the Berliner Zeitung summarised so succinctly, "If there ever was a rock legend made in the GDR, then it was Renft."
Born Klaus Jentzsch in Jena, Thuringia, he borrowed his mother's maiden name for his stage name. "Renft" also means "bread crust" in the dialect of Saxony. Somehow he managed to earn his crust playing beat and rock music. He made his first appearance aged 16 in the Leipzig-based Klaus Renft Combo in 1958.
By 1962 they had fallen foul of the authorities - so easy in so many ways in the GDR's era of multiple prohibition. So in 1964 he founded the Butlers, a name as redolently English in Leipzig as the Beefeaters was for the pre-Byrds in Los Angeles. The Stasi duly opened a file code-named "Wanderer".
In 1965 the Butlers were banned from performing. GDR jargon created several variations on Auftrittsverbot (stage ban) and it is unclear which one the Butlers were subject to, but the authorities did not lift the ban until 1967. The new Klaus Renft Combo worked on creating original material, sometimes, as with "Cäsers Blues", setting lyrics to jams. Throughout Rendt's career he remained partial to covering, amongst others, the Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. He once said he thought he would be reprimanded for playing the Stones' "Tell Me"; instead a rebuke was given for the length of his hair.
The group learned this decadent Western filth phonetically, taping Rias (Radio in the American Sector) broadcasts, since Russian was the second language on the GDR school curriculum. Of "Satisfaction", Renft told Funder, "We didn't know what it meant." Coded Renft staples like "Wer die Rose ehrt" ("He Who Honours the Rose") and "Der Apfeltraum" ("The Apple Dream") were heavily scrutinised by fans and state watchdogs alike. Their "Autostop" ("Hitchhiking") not only bottled the Zeitgeist but provided the theme song for a generation thumbing to Erfurt, Prague or Krakow.
The lyricist Gerulf Pannach's arrival in 1969 took the group in a more political, socially critical direction. (Later, in 1986, Pannach appeared as a dissident GDR folksinger in Ken Loach's Fatherland.) The politicking ushered in divisions and divisiveness. In his autobiography Zwischen Liebe und Zorn ("Between Love and Anger", 1997), Renft said,
At the end we Renfts were six musicians with seven opinions, never a homogenous troupe, very often arguing, constantly searching . . . Only on stage were we a group. Sometimes I believe if we hadn't been banned back then, we'd have soon broken ourselves up.
The state record company Amiga was not just the only game in town, but the only game in the nation. Lyrics always came under the burning magnifying glass of argus-eyed apparatchiks. Götz Hintze's Rocklexikon der DDR ("Rock Lexicon of the GDR", 2000) describes the next débâcle. On 22 September 1975, the group were called before the authorities to be told that they didn't exist any longer. Renft had had enough foreign currency to buy a cassette recorder and he taped the interview. He later let on that the incriminating tape was in West Berlin. Overnight, gigs stopped and Renft vanished from the Amiga catalogue. Although some group members stayed, a splinter group, Karussell, became the state-sanctioned shadows of their former selves.
Renft reached West Berlin in 1975, finding employment with the radio station Rias. He later toured, revisited old material and recorded new material. But the title of his 1999 album, Als ob nichts gewesen wär ("As If Nothing Had Happened"), could be taken as a cry of frustration.
Renft's place in the annals of cult European rock music is assured. As the photographer Harald Hausmann wrote in Bye Bye Lübben City: Bluesfreaks, Tramps und Hippies in der DDR (2004), one of the definitive texts about the GDR rock scene,
Music was the bridge. If Renft played [Deep Purple's] "Child in Time", I felt myself freer for the rest of the week. Then I travelled in my thoughts around the globe, became part of the universe.
Ken Hunt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohSkm-m_MNU
Klaus Renft Combo (2006)
Mac Arnold *30.06.1942
Mac Arnold (born June 30, 1942), is an American blues musician from South Carolina.
Arnold was born in Ware Place South Carolina, one of 13 children born and raised on a sharecropper's farm.[2]
His musical journey began in the 1950s when he and his brother Leroy fashioned a guitar from a steel gas can, wood, nails, and screen wire. His early career included working with a young James Brown in the band, J. Floyd & the Shamrocks. Arnold moved to Chicago in 1965, where he worked with A.C. Reed prior to joining Muddy Waters' band in 1966.[3] Arnold appears on the November 1966 live recording with Muddy released in 2009 as Muddy Waters - Authorized Bootleg. He formed the Soul Invaders in 1967, finding work backing up B.B. King, The Temptations, and others. His studio work in the 1960s includes playing bass on several notable blues albums, including Otis Spann's The Blues Is Where It's At, and John Lee Hooker's Live At Cafe Au Go Go. He performed in various session work after moving to California in the 1970s. Arnold's distinctive bass line can be heard on the theme for the TV show Sanford and Son. His TV work also included a four year gig as part of the set band on Soul Train.[4]
By the 1990s, Arnold had grown weary of the road life and returned home to Pelzer, South Carolina and virtual retirement from the spot light until 2006 when he was convinced to front his own band, Plate Full O' Blues. Arnold's return to the stage was the subject of a documentory, Stan Woodwards final film, Nothing to Prove: Mac Arnold's Return to the Blues]].
Awards and recognition
The Blues Foundation Awards[6]
Nominee, Best Traditional Blues Male Artist 2012, Mac Arnold.
Nominee, Best DVD 2011, Woodward Studio, Nothing to Prove, Mac Arnold.
Winner, Best Historical Album of the Year 2010, Chess - Authorized Bootleg (Muddy Waters)Mac
Arnold appears on the album and accepted the award in Memphis.
Winner 2006 Folk Heritage Award [7]
Music in schools
Arnold and the band support the preservation of music education in public schools through the, "I Can Do Anything Foundation", an organization that was started following the release of a song by the same name, written by Mac Arnold and Max Hightower and performed by Plate full O' Blues.
Arnold was born in Ware Place South Carolina, one of 13 children born and raised on a sharecropper's farm.[2]
His musical journey began in the 1950s when he and his brother Leroy fashioned a guitar from a steel gas can, wood, nails, and screen wire. His early career included working with a young James Brown in the band, J. Floyd & the Shamrocks. Arnold moved to Chicago in 1965, where he worked with A.C. Reed prior to joining Muddy Waters' band in 1966.[3] Arnold appears on the November 1966 live recording with Muddy released in 2009 as Muddy Waters - Authorized Bootleg. He formed the Soul Invaders in 1967, finding work backing up B.B. King, The Temptations, and others. His studio work in the 1960s includes playing bass on several notable blues albums, including Otis Spann's The Blues Is Where It's At, and John Lee Hooker's Live At Cafe Au Go Go. He performed in various session work after moving to California in the 1970s. Arnold's distinctive bass line can be heard on the theme for the TV show Sanford and Son. His TV work also included a four year gig as part of the set band on Soul Train.[4]
By the 1990s, Arnold had grown weary of the road life and returned home to Pelzer, South Carolina and virtual retirement from the spot light until 2006 when he was convinced to front his own band, Plate Full O' Blues. Arnold's return to the stage was the subject of a documentory, Stan Woodwards final film, Nothing to Prove: Mac Arnold's Return to the Blues]].
Awards and recognition
The Blues Foundation Awards[6]
Nominee, Best Traditional Blues Male Artist 2012, Mac Arnold.
Nominee, Best DVD 2011, Woodward Studio, Nothing to Prove, Mac Arnold.
Winner, Best Historical Album of the Year 2010, Chess - Authorized Bootleg (Muddy Waters)Mac
Arnold appears on the album and accepted the award in Memphis.
Winner 2006 Folk Heritage Award [7]
Music in schools
Arnold and the band support the preservation of music education in public schools through the, "I Can Do Anything Foundation", an organization that was started following the release of a song by the same name, written by Mac Arnold and Max Hightower and performed by Plate full O' Blues.
Mac Arnold & Plate Full Of Blues at Fall For Greenville.2010.Jimmy Gilstrap Video
Rusty Burns *30.06.
Rusty Burns, pictured with his band Point Blank in 2012, passed away late Friday night.
1974 wurde Point Blank in Houston/Texas gegründet. Leider konnten Rusty Burns (slide, g, voc), Kim Davis (g, voc), Peter Gruen (dr, perc), John O'Daniel (voc) und Philip Petty (b) niemals aus dem Schatten ähnlicher Bands treten. Der Südstaaten-Rock der Texaner hat große Ähnlichkeit zu ZZ Top und in den Gitarrensoli auch zu frühen Outlaws. Sechs Alben veröffentlichten Point Blank von 1976 bis 1982, dann wurde die Band aufgelöst. Die letzten drei Alben waren weniger Southern, als mehr Heavy Rock der schlichten Art, das letzte stark auf Mainstream orientiert. Die talentierte Band ging den Weg alles Irdischen.
Point Blank waren in den 70ern ständig auf Tour, eröffneten für unter anderem ZZ Top und Black Sabbath.
Die beiden ersten LPs, die Evangeline jetzt auf einer CD zusammen wieder veröffentlicht, blieben seltsamer Weise Ladenhüter. Der harte Southernbluesrock hat gut komponierte und gespielte Songs, harte Gitarrensoli und den harten, leidenschaftlichen, oftmals geschrieenen Rockröhren-Gesang von John O'Daniel.
Die Songs sind nicht zu billig und straight, haben ungemein Energie und rocken vital. Einige der Stücke, wie "Wandering" oder "In This World" haben viel Rhythm'n'Blues im Blut, letzterer klingt in der Gitarrenarbeit SEHR ZZ Top verwandt. Trotzdem sind Point Blank keine Kopisten, sondern haben eigenständigen, eindrucksvollen Heavy Southern Rock gespielt. Die zweite LP ist etwas gemäßigter, jedoch immer noch kraftvoll und heavy. Country und Mainstream Ansätze wie etwa in "Beautiful Loser" sind bereits auszumachen. Der ZZ Top Vergleich ist noch deutlicher geworden. Am Ende waren die Kompositionen von ZZ Top eingängiger und trafen genau den Nerv des damaligen Publikums. Point Blank sind aus heutiger Perspektive kein Stück weniger interessant. Die krachlauten Hardrocker werden die Herzen der Southern Rock Fans erfreuen und sollten darüber hinaus bei Hardrock Maniacs für positive Erregung sorgen.
Ya’acov
“Rusty” Burns played his guitar until the very end. Sitting up in his
hospital bed at a hospice in Denver, draped in a hospital gown, the
63-year-old Texas guitar slinger caressed the neck of his Martin one
final time in a photo posted on Facebook. It was a love affair that
began when he was five years old and lasted more than five decades. “I
plan to be buried with it,” he’d often say.
Burns considered himself a “hired gun,” musically speaking, and he was a hitman who shared the stage with legends such as Johnny Winter, the Allman Brothers Band and ZZ Top. He played lead guitar in Point Blank, a Southern rock band that reformed in 2005 after 20 years apart. But now he’s gone to join his former bandmates Kim Davis, Phillip Petty and William “Wild Bill” Randolph on stage in the afterlife.
He died just before midnight on Friday, February 19, after a long battle with lung cancer.
Burns’ wife, Gavriela “Marsha” Fletcher Burns, shared the news on her Facebook page the next day. “My heart truly goes out to those of you who dearly loved him and are having to receive this information through a Facebook post instead of a personal phone call,” she wrote. “But ‘Rusty’ has so many ‘friends’ around the world and many who considered themselves family [that] I didn’t know where to begin.”
Fans, fellow musicians, friends and loved ones took to social media not long after receiving word about Burns’ passing to share their condolences and memories, some in the form of old photos and videos.
“He was a friend, a mentor and teacher,” posted a fellow Texas guitarist. “What I admired most about Rusty is he never stopped learning and progressing on his instrument.”
“I would not be the person or musician I am today if it wasn’t for this man,” Burns’ nephew and fellow guitarist posted. “He was the sole reason that made me want to pick up a guitar and to keep pushing no matter the trials of a hard-working musician.”
Burns first learned to play the guitar in the late 1950s when he picked up his father’s old Martin D-28. “It was like the whole world stopped for a minute,” he wrote on his Facebook fanpage. He soon devoted his time to learning the instrument as he grew up in Cleburne, a small city south of Fort Worth, and Euless, a suburb in east Fort Worth.
“The musical fire burning inside me was so hot that going to school was like going to prison because I was separated from the guitar,” he wrote. “I slept with it, watched The Three Stooges with it, did my homework on the back of it and generally dreamed of the day that I could play guitar as much as I wanted.”
Burns played in bands throughout his school years, jamming three or four days a week with bands who were booking, although he attributes much of what he learned to his father, who he described as a "tasty country player." After high school, he began playing at nightclubs, park festivals and an occasional battle of the bands. Then he moved to Houston and started playing The Cellar located on Market Square in downtown Houston.
A seasoned drug user at this time, he continued to play and focus on music despite living in a “fog bank” and being truly out of control. He was continuing his music education as a guitar technician for ZZ Top when he got sick with hepatitis.
“During those months of recovery, I was bedridden and very close to death,” he recalled. “But my mind was working overtime. Lying flat on my back, I wrote a number of songs and, for a change, surprisingly meant what I was saying. I had a lot of time to reflect and plan on what I was really going to do with the rest of my life ... if I lived.”
Burns nearly died but was saved by an experimental drug. He strapped on his guitar and took the next step: forming the band Southpaw with John O’Daniel (vocals) and Phillip Petty (bass). They picked up drummer Buzzy Gruen and exploded on the Dallas-Fort Worth music scene.
Playing in clubs across Dallas and Fort Worth, Burns ran into Kim Davis, a guitarist whom he’d known since he was 14 years old. By this point in time, he’d already been jamming with Stevie Ray and Jimmy Vaughan. He even went to Austin to jam with Stevie and his band the Nightcrawlers, whose lineup also included Doyle Bramhall on drums and vocals, bassist Keith Ferguson and organist Billy Ethridge.
“The only drawback was that all they wanted to play was the blues, and I wanted to rock,” he said. “When we came into contact with Kim Davis, we knew he was ready to rock too, so he was definitely the man for us.”
The band changed its name to Point Blank in 1974 and eventually released six albums, including Point Blank in 1976, The Hard Way in 1980 and their final album On a Roll in 1982, before calling it quits in 1984. They would reunite 20 years later at a benefit show in 2005 and release two more albums: 2006’s Reloaded, a live album, and 2009’s Fight On!, their first studio album in 27 years.
In the summer of 2015, Burns was diagnosed with inoperable squamous cell carcinoma with two small tumors in his right and left lung and on his trachea. According to his wife Marsha's Facebook post, the doctors gave him a possible survival time of six to 12 months if left untreated.
On January 11, they decided to leave their home in Fort Worth and move to Denver where he could receive medical treatment that was currently not legal in Texas. “We were climbing the cancer mountain,” Marsha wrote.
He was doing much better a couple of weeks prior to their move. It was New Year’s Day, and his wife posted that Burns had been in his home recording studio on and off all day creating what she called “beautiful new worship music to our Lord God Most High.”
A GoFundMe account soon appeared online with the goal of raising $20,000 to help with medical expenses: "As most of you know, Rusty Burns has played numerous benefits for all of his music brothers and sisters in need. He has a heart of gold, and you can always count on his help. This time he needs yours."
Like many self-employed musicians, Burns did not have health insurance and fighting cancer is a costly battle. To fight lung cancer costs anywhere between $60,000 to $92,000, according to data from the National Cancer Institute. It’s a price that most people can’t afford even with health insurance.
Sadly, it was a battle that he couldn’t win. He died nearly seven months after his initial diagnosis.
"For a guy that played everything upside down and backwards, he did pretty good for himself," says Burns' friend and fellow musician Buddy Whittington. "Rusty had the gift of music — not just the guitar, but he had an innate understanding of music itself. "
In a 2009 interview, Burns was asked about the sorry state of the blues in Texas since most blues artists struggle to find the limelight and are regulated to playing small bars.
“There’s an old saying about record labels in America,” Burns said. “Labels are looking for 23-year-olds with a 28-inch waist. I’m 57 with a 30-inch waist so it doesn’t seem that I fit that criteria. So what do you do? You continue to play wherever you can for people who appreciate your music because it touches them."
“Point Blank was never fashionable but is definitely appreciated,” he added, “and I can live with that.”
Burns considered himself a “hired gun,” musically speaking, and he was a hitman who shared the stage with legends such as Johnny Winter, the Allman Brothers Band and ZZ Top. He played lead guitar in Point Blank, a Southern rock band that reformed in 2005 after 20 years apart. But now he’s gone to join his former bandmates Kim Davis, Phillip Petty and William “Wild Bill” Randolph on stage in the afterlife.
He died just before midnight on Friday, February 19, after a long battle with lung cancer.
Burns’ wife, Gavriela “Marsha” Fletcher Burns, shared the news on her Facebook page the next day. “My heart truly goes out to those of you who dearly loved him and are having to receive this information through a Facebook post instead of a personal phone call,” she wrote. “But ‘Rusty’ has so many ‘friends’ around the world and many who considered themselves family [that] I didn’t know where to begin.”
Fans, fellow musicians, friends and loved ones took to social media not long after receiving word about Burns’ passing to share their condolences and memories, some in the form of old photos and videos.
“He was a friend, a mentor and teacher,” posted a fellow Texas guitarist. “What I admired most about Rusty is he never stopped learning and progressing on his instrument.”
“I would not be the person or musician I am today if it wasn’t for this man,” Burns’ nephew and fellow guitarist posted. “He was the sole reason that made me want to pick up a guitar and to keep pushing no matter the trials of a hard-working musician.”
Burns first learned to play the guitar in the late 1950s when he picked up his father’s old Martin D-28. “It was like the whole world stopped for a minute,” he wrote on his Facebook fanpage. He soon devoted his time to learning the instrument as he grew up in Cleburne, a small city south of Fort Worth, and Euless, a suburb in east Fort Worth.
“The musical fire burning inside me was so hot that going to school was like going to prison because I was separated from the guitar,” he wrote. “I slept with it, watched The Three Stooges with it, did my homework on the back of it and generally dreamed of the day that I could play guitar as much as I wanted.”
Burns played in bands throughout his school years, jamming three or four days a week with bands who were booking, although he attributes much of what he learned to his father, who he described as a "tasty country player." After high school, he began playing at nightclubs, park festivals and an occasional battle of the bands. Then he moved to Houston and started playing The Cellar located on Market Square in downtown Houston.
A seasoned drug user at this time, he continued to play and focus on music despite living in a “fog bank” and being truly out of control. He was continuing his music education as a guitar technician for ZZ Top when he got sick with hepatitis.
“During those months of recovery, I was bedridden and very close to death,” he recalled. “But my mind was working overtime. Lying flat on my back, I wrote a number of songs and, for a change, surprisingly meant what I was saying. I had a lot of time to reflect and plan on what I was really going to do with the rest of my life ... if I lived.”
Burns nearly died but was saved by an experimental drug. He strapped on his guitar and took the next step: forming the band Southpaw with John O’Daniel (vocals) and Phillip Petty (bass). They picked up drummer Buzzy Gruen and exploded on the Dallas-Fort Worth music scene.
Playing in clubs across Dallas and Fort Worth, Burns ran into Kim Davis, a guitarist whom he’d known since he was 14 years old. By this point in time, he’d already been jamming with Stevie Ray and Jimmy Vaughan. He even went to Austin to jam with Stevie and his band the Nightcrawlers, whose lineup also included Doyle Bramhall on drums and vocals, bassist Keith Ferguson and organist Billy Ethridge.
“The only drawback was that all they wanted to play was the blues, and I wanted to rock,” he said. “When we came into contact with Kim Davis, we knew he was ready to rock too, so he was definitely the man for us.”
The band changed its name to Point Blank in 1974 and eventually released six albums, including Point Blank in 1976, The Hard Way in 1980 and their final album On a Roll in 1982, before calling it quits in 1984. They would reunite 20 years later at a benefit show in 2005 and release two more albums: 2006’s Reloaded, a live album, and 2009’s Fight On!, their first studio album in 27 years.
In the summer of 2015, Burns was diagnosed with inoperable squamous cell carcinoma with two small tumors in his right and left lung and on his trachea. According to his wife Marsha's Facebook post, the doctors gave him a possible survival time of six to 12 months if left untreated.
On January 11, they decided to leave their home in Fort Worth and move to Denver where he could receive medical treatment that was currently not legal in Texas. “We were climbing the cancer mountain,” Marsha wrote.
He was doing much better a couple of weeks prior to their move. It was New Year’s Day, and his wife posted that Burns had been in his home recording studio on and off all day creating what she called “beautiful new worship music to our Lord God Most High.”
A GoFundMe account soon appeared online with the goal of raising $20,000 to help with medical expenses: "As most of you know, Rusty Burns has played numerous benefits for all of his music brothers and sisters in need. He has a heart of gold, and you can always count on his help. This time he needs yours."
Like many self-employed musicians, Burns did not have health insurance and fighting cancer is a costly battle. To fight lung cancer costs anywhere between $60,000 to $92,000, according to data from the National Cancer Institute. It’s a price that most people can’t afford even with health insurance.
Sadly, it was a battle that he couldn’t win. He died nearly seven months after his initial diagnosis.
"For a guy that played everything upside down and backwards, he did pretty good for himself," says Burns' friend and fellow musician Buddy Whittington. "Rusty had the gift of music — not just the guitar, but he had an innate understanding of music itself. "
In a 2009 interview, Burns was asked about the sorry state of the blues in Texas since most blues artists struggle to find the limelight and are regulated to playing small bars.
“There’s an old saying about record labels in America,” Burns said. “Labels are looking for 23-year-olds with a 28-inch waist. I’m 57 with a 30-inch waist so it doesn’t seem that I fit that criteria. So what do you do? You continue to play wherever you can for people who appreciate your music because it touches them."
“Point Blank was never fashionable but is definitely appreciated,” he added, “and I can live with that.”
Point
Blank is an American rock and roll band hailing from Texas. The band
formed in 1974 and recorded six albums between 1976 and 1982. Garnering
occasional airplay on AOR radio stations, the band is best known for
their 1981 hit single, "Nicole".
History
The band was discovered and managed by Bill Ham's Lone Wolf Productions (ZZ Top, Jay Boy Adams, and Eric Johnson). The original six albums were recorded in Memphis with Engineer/Producer Terry Manning. Point Blank's sound is rooted in southern rock and boogie, but drifted towards hard rock and mainstream AOR by the early 1980s. In 1981 they released their fifth album, American Exce$$ which included the hit single "Nicole". With strong air-play on AOR radio stations the track reached #20 on Billboard Magazine's Rock Tracks chart. Subsequently, "Nicole" was also released as a 45 RPM single and peaked inside the Top 40, at #39 on Billboard's Hot 100. In their heyday they were known for their relentless touring, sometimes playing more than 200 shows per year.
In 1984 the band broke up.
The band's core members reunited for a benefit concert in 2005. The benefit concert, held on September 17, 2005 was recorded and became a new "Live Album" for the band titled Reloaded. After its initial release they continued touring and in late 2009, Point Blank released their seventh album titled "Fight on", their first studio album in 27 years. Both the Reloaded and Fight On! albums were released on the Dixiefrog label. Bassist Phillip Petty died from cancer on June 7, 2010. Guitarist Kim Davis died on October 18, 2010 (born October 6, 1952). Dallas, Texas, studio musician Michael Hamilton, who played keyboards for the group, died, also from cancer, on May 13, 2011.
In January 2014, the band completed Volume 9, a Kickstarter-funded project originally titled Locked, Stocked and Two Smoking Barrels.
Replacing bassist Philip Petty after his death is Kirk Powers (ex-American Tears - born November 24, 1957) and in 2012, after receiving a phone call from ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons recommending him, the band hired drummer Greg Hokanson (ex Houston, Texas based bands "Pitbull[1]" and "Two Ton Jack").
Ya'acov (James) Russell Burns better known as Rusty Burns, guitarist, passed away from cancer on February 19, 2016. Posted on his Facebook page. He inspired many. He joins his friends Kim Davis and Phillip Petty. Rusty Burns is from Fort Worth, Texas. He leaves behind a devoted wife Gavriela Marsha Burns who posted a picture of her and Rusty. She also posted this loving thought on her personal Facebook page "My heart Truly goes out to those of you who dearly loved him and are having to receive this information through a Facebook post, instead of a personal phone call, but "Rusty'" has so many 'friends' around the world and many who considered themselves family, I didn't know where to begin.[2]" Rusty Burns passed away in a hospice center in Denver Colorado, with his wife by his side. Texas, where he is from, does not offer the cancer treatment he needed.
History
The band was discovered and managed by Bill Ham's Lone Wolf Productions (ZZ Top, Jay Boy Adams, and Eric Johnson). The original six albums were recorded in Memphis with Engineer/Producer Terry Manning. Point Blank's sound is rooted in southern rock and boogie, but drifted towards hard rock and mainstream AOR by the early 1980s. In 1981 they released their fifth album, American Exce$$ which included the hit single "Nicole". With strong air-play on AOR radio stations the track reached #20 on Billboard Magazine's Rock Tracks chart. Subsequently, "Nicole" was also released as a 45 RPM single and peaked inside the Top 40, at #39 on Billboard's Hot 100. In their heyday they were known for their relentless touring, sometimes playing more than 200 shows per year.
In 1984 the band broke up.
The band's core members reunited for a benefit concert in 2005. The benefit concert, held on September 17, 2005 was recorded and became a new "Live Album" for the band titled Reloaded. After its initial release they continued touring and in late 2009, Point Blank released their seventh album titled "Fight on", their first studio album in 27 years. Both the Reloaded and Fight On! albums were released on the Dixiefrog label. Bassist Phillip Petty died from cancer on June 7, 2010. Guitarist Kim Davis died on October 18, 2010 (born October 6, 1952). Dallas, Texas, studio musician Michael Hamilton, who played keyboards for the group, died, also from cancer, on May 13, 2011.
In January 2014, the band completed Volume 9, a Kickstarter-funded project originally titled Locked, Stocked and Two Smoking Barrels.
Replacing bassist Philip Petty after his death is Kirk Powers (ex-American Tears - born November 24, 1957) and in 2012, after receiving a phone call from ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons recommending him, the band hired drummer Greg Hokanson (ex Houston, Texas based bands "Pitbull[1]" and "Two Ton Jack").
Ya'acov (James) Russell Burns better known as Rusty Burns, guitarist, passed away from cancer on February 19, 2016. Posted on his Facebook page. He inspired many. He joins his friends Kim Davis and Phillip Petty. Rusty Burns is from Fort Worth, Texas. He leaves behind a devoted wife Gavriela Marsha Burns who posted a picture of her and Rusty. She also posted this loving thought on her personal Facebook page "My heart Truly goes out to those of you who dearly loved him and are having to receive this information through a Facebook post, instead of a personal phone call, but "Rusty'" has so many 'friends' around the world and many who considered themselves family, I didn't know where to begin.[2]" Rusty Burns passed away in a hospice center in Denver Colorado, with his wife by his side. Texas, where he is from, does not offer the cancer treatment he needed.
POINT BLANK - My Soul Cries Out - Paris,France 2010 [HD]
Point Blank - Thank You Mama (Live in Washington, DC - June 24th, 1980)
Mike Wheeler *30.06.1961
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Mike Wheeler
Seit über 28 Jahren dem Blues verfallen hatte er seinen ersten Auftritt 1984. In den frühen 90ern spielte er zusammen mit dem Sänger und Bassisten Joan Baby, bevor er zur Band „Cadillac Dave & The Chicago Redhots kam. Hier ist er auf deren CD „Checking On My Baby“ zu hören. Die musikalische Reise von Mike Wheeler geht über die Zusammenarbeit mit „Sam Cockrell & The Groove“ über „Nellie Tiger Travis“, „Big Ray & The Chicago’s Most Wanted“. 1998 entschloss sich Mike Wheeler zu einer Kooperation mit Big James & The Chicago Playboys, wo er immerhin auf 5 CDs zu hören ist. Dann erfolgte der Wechsel zu Peaches Staten in ihre Band „The Grooveshakers“. Mike Wheeler hat mit Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Shemekia Copeland, Jimmy Johnson, Son Seals, Willie Kent und so ziemlich mit jedem anderen der modernen Chicagoer Blues-Szene bereits zusammen gespielt.
Seit über 28 Jahren dem Blues verfallen hatte er seinen ersten Auftritt 1984. In den frühen 90ern spielte er zusammen mit dem Sänger und Bassisten Joan Baby, bevor er zur Band „Cadillac Dave & The Chicago Redhots kam. Hier ist er auf deren CD „Checking On My Baby“ zu hören. Die musikalische Reise von Mike Wheeler geht über die Zusammenarbeit mit „Sam Cockrell & The Groove“ über „Nellie Tiger Travis“, „Big Ray & The Chicago’s Most Wanted“. 1998 entschloss sich Mike Wheeler zu einer Kooperation mit Big James & The Chicago Playboys, wo er immerhin auf 5 CDs zu hören ist. Dann erfolgte der Wechsel zu Peaches Staten in ihre Band „The Grooveshakers“. Mike Wheeler hat mit Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Shemekia Copeland, Jimmy Johnson, Son Seals, Willie Kent und so ziemlich mit jedem anderen der modernen Chicagoer Blues-Szene bereits zusammen gespielt.
Mike Wheeler (born June 30, 1961) is a Chicago blues songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist. His first gig was with Muddy Waters' piano player, Lovie Lee. He performed with numerous Chicago bands and well-known artists such as Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, and Shemekia Copeland. He formed his own band, the Mike Wheeler Band, in 2001.His CD, Self Made Man, was released by Delmark Records in 2012 with critical acclaim. He was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2014. He is a regular performer at the famed Chicago blues club, Kingston Mines.
Life and career
Wheeler (Michael Lewis Wheeler) was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 30, 1961.[1] His music career spans more than 30 years. He played his first gig in 1984 with Muddy Waters' piano player, Lovie Lee, at Lilly's, a Lincoln Park bar in Chicago.[2][3] His mother was his first musical influence by playing blues (such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King), R&B, and soul records in their home.[2][3] He recorded and played on numerous Chicago blues bands including Dave Cadillac and the Chicago Redhots, Sam Cockrell and the Grooves, Nellie Tiger Travis, Big Ray and Chicago's Most Wanted, Big James and The Chicago Playboys, and Peaches Staten and the Grooveshakers. He performed with well-known blues artists such as Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Shemekia Copeland, Jimmy Johnson, Son Seals, and Willie Kent.[2] He tours in Europe[2][4] and he has played at the Chicago Blues Festival.[5] In 2014, he was inducted into the Chicago Blues Halls of Fame as a Master Blues Artist.[6] He is a regular performer at the famed Chicago blues club, Kingston Mines.[7]
Wheeler formed his own band in 2001, the Mike Wheeler Band. The band has all of its original members.[4] Bassist Larry Williams was a childhood friend of Wheeler.[3] He has played to national and international audiences. He known for his stage presence and charisma. Drummer Cleo Cole started playing drums at the age of 10, studied at the Music Conservatory of Chicago, and has performed before international audiences. Keyboardist Brian James has an associate's degree in Fine Arts. He was the music director for numerous artists, including Lonnie Brooks.[8]
Music and performance style
Reviewer Read noted that Wheeler has a recognizable sound that includes funk and jazz while telling stories and maintaining a positive attitude and uplifting energy in his music.[3] Critic Cummings-Yeates wrote, "Wheeler possesses the perfect blend of musicianship, storytelling, and singing skills."[9] Chicago Reader critic Whiteis described Wheeler's guitar playing as a "typical Chicagoan blend of Texas-to-Memphis panache and back-alley aggression."[10] Blues critic Hensley found that Wheeler's "red-hot" guitar style is "reminiscent" of Carl Weathersby, Jimmy Johnson and Eddie Hazel. Hensley stated of the 12 songs that Wheeler wrote on the CD, Self Made Man, that he has "extraordinary talent as a songwriter".
Life and career
Wheeler (Michael Lewis Wheeler) was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 30, 1961.[1] His music career spans more than 30 years. He played his first gig in 1984 with Muddy Waters' piano player, Lovie Lee, at Lilly's, a Lincoln Park bar in Chicago.[2][3] His mother was his first musical influence by playing blues (such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King), R&B, and soul records in their home.[2][3] He recorded and played on numerous Chicago blues bands including Dave Cadillac and the Chicago Redhots, Sam Cockrell and the Grooves, Nellie Tiger Travis, Big Ray and Chicago's Most Wanted, Big James and The Chicago Playboys, and Peaches Staten and the Grooveshakers. He performed with well-known blues artists such as Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Shemekia Copeland, Jimmy Johnson, Son Seals, and Willie Kent.[2] He tours in Europe[2][4] and he has played at the Chicago Blues Festival.[5] In 2014, he was inducted into the Chicago Blues Halls of Fame as a Master Blues Artist.[6] He is a regular performer at the famed Chicago blues club, Kingston Mines.[7]
Wheeler formed his own band in 2001, the Mike Wheeler Band. The band has all of its original members.[4] Bassist Larry Williams was a childhood friend of Wheeler.[3] He has played to national and international audiences. He known for his stage presence and charisma. Drummer Cleo Cole started playing drums at the age of 10, studied at the Music Conservatory of Chicago, and has performed before international audiences. Keyboardist Brian James has an associate's degree in Fine Arts. He was the music director for numerous artists, including Lonnie Brooks.[8]
Music and performance style
Reviewer Read noted that Wheeler has a recognizable sound that includes funk and jazz while telling stories and maintaining a positive attitude and uplifting energy in his music.[3] Critic Cummings-Yeates wrote, "Wheeler possesses the perfect blend of musicianship, storytelling, and singing skills."[9] Chicago Reader critic Whiteis described Wheeler's guitar playing as a "typical Chicagoan blend of Texas-to-Memphis panache and back-alley aggression."[10] Blues critic Hensley found that Wheeler's "red-hot" guitar style is "reminiscent" of Carl Weathersby, Jimmy Johnson and Eddie Hazel. Hensley stated of the 12 songs that Wheeler wrote on the CD, Self Made Man, that he has "extraordinary talent as a songwriter".
Mike Wheeler has a vast knowledge of music and a voice that's reminiscent of the late Sam Cooke. He can sing and play everything so well that you may forget what the original record even sounds like. From Jazz to Rock, from popular music to Top 40, he slides in and out of musical genres with sophistication, ease and indulgence. Mike Wheeler is a brilliant staple in the Chicago blues community, playing and writing songs for a variety of Chicago artists including, Nellie Tiger Travis, Peaches Staten, Sam Cockrell, Demetria Taylor, Big Ray & Cadillac Dave. Mike was a well known member of Big James &The Chicago Playboys, a notable band in Chicago and recorded five albums with the group. He has travelled the world as an ambassador for Chicago blues music. He's been to Monaco, France, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium, just to name a few. He's also shared the stage with the most elite musicians the world has known, including Willie Kent, Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, George Benson, Jimmy Johnson and Shemekia Copeland. Mike was inducted in the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2014.
Mike uses Elixir Strings.
Mike uses Elixir Strings.
Mike Wheeler Blues Band - Somebody Have Mercy
House of Blues: Mike Wheeler Band (8-16-2014)
Mike Wheeler-2012- Self Made Man
01. Here I Am 06:20
02. Big Mistake 03:55
03. Self Made Man 06:14
04. I'm Missing You 03:11
05. Join Hands 04:11
06. Let Me Love You Baby 04:40
07. You're Doing Wrong 07:24
08. Walkin' Out The Door 06:06
09. Get Your Mind Right 05:21
10. I Don't Like It Like That 04:18
11. Moving Forward 05:45
12. Chicago Blues 04:59
13. I'm Working 04:06
02. Big Mistake 03:55
03. Self Made Man 06:14
04. I'm Missing You 03:11
05. Join Hands 04:11
06. Let Me Love You Baby 04:40
07. You're Doing Wrong 07:24
08. Walkin' Out The Door 06:06
09. Get Your Mind Right 05:21
10. I Don't Like It Like That 04:18
11. Moving Forward 05:45
12. Chicago Blues 04:59
13. I'm Working 04:06
R.I.P.
Jimmy Lloyd Rea +30.06.2015
Jimmy Lloyd Rea
JLR is a Blues Hall of Fame celebrity and is respected by blues fans and players worldwide. His early years touring and playing with many blues greats shaped his drive and passion to keep that kind of blues music alive. JLR is cranking out his own real from the heart, raw and grinding, rockin’ blues. He spent the early years listening to a long list of great musicians talk about life and music. During that time he states, “I just shut up and listened”.
Jimmy’s parents were from Arkansas before moving to Oregon. His father was a great guitar player and his mother was a ballerina. JLR was born in Baker City, Oregon. At 9 he started playing bass and hasn’t ever stopped. At 15 he started his first band ~ The Perils. During High School he played with Paul Revere of Paul Revere and The Raiders. After college JLR played in a variety of bands until becoming the bass player & doing some vocals for the Pete Karnes Band.
In 1973 he joined Canned Heat, which gave him the opportunity to meet and play with some of the greatest blues artists. The music played during those years had more emotion than he had ever heard. In 1980 he moved back to Baker City to raise a family. After years of living with a free style, grooving, fiery blues lurking in his heart, mind, & soul he finally met the right musicians to start Jimmy Lloyd Rea and The Switchmasters! The band is named after his fathers Gibson Switchmaster.
In 1981 at Blues Hat Studio in Walla Walla, JLR first recorded his new band with Vince Hozier ~ famed member of the Sunrays ~ on lead guitar. During the
coming years JLR & the SwitchMasters recorded some of the best original power blues which are included in this amazing 2 CD set.
JLR is a Blues Hall of Fame celebrity and is respected by blues fans and players worldwide. His early years touring and playing with many blues greats shaped his drive and passion to keep that kind of blues music alive. JLR is cranking out his own real from the heart, raw and grinding, rockin’ blues. He spent the early years listening to a long list of great musicians talk about life and music. During that time he states, “I just shut up and listened”.
Jimmy’s parents were from Arkansas before moving to Oregon. His father was a great guitar player and his mother was a ballerina. JLR was born in Baker City, Oregon. At 9 he started playing bass and hasn’t ever stopped. At 15 he started his first band ~ The Perils. During High School he played with Paul Revere of Paul Revere and The Raiders. After college JLR played in a variety of bands until becoming the bass player & doing some vocals for the Pete Karnes Band.
In 1973 he joined Canned Heat, which gave him the opportunity to meet and play with some of the greatest blues artists. The music played during those years had more emotion than he had ever heard. In 1980 he moved back to Baker City to raise a family. After years of living with a free style, grooving, fiery blues lurking in his heart, mind, & soul he finally met the right musicians to start Jimmy Lloyd Rea and The Switchmasters! The band is named after his fathers Gibson Switchmaster.
In 1981 at Blues Hat Studio in Walla Walla, JLR first recorded his new band with Vince Hozier ~ famed member of the Sunrays ~ on lead guitar. During the
coming years JLR & the SwitchMasters recorded some of the best original power blues which are included in this amazing 2 CD set.
Jimmy Lloyd Rea and the Switchmasters@ Untapped!
