1897 Memphis Minnie*
1916 Buster Pickens*
1924 Jimmy Rogers*
1943 Macavine Hayes*
1963 Matthias Stolpe*
1970 Joris Hering
1976 Philip Sayce
1980 Kyla Brox*
2009 Koko Taylor+
Happy Birthday
Buster Pickens *03.06.1916
Edwin "Buster" Pickens (* 3. Juni 1916 in Hempstead, Texas; † 24. November 1964 in Houston, Texas) war ein afroamerikanischer Blues-Pianist und -Sänger. Er begleitete Texas Alexander und Lightnin’ Hopkins bei mehreren ihrer Aufnahmen.
Er wurde als Edwin Goodwin Pickens in Hemstead, Texas geboren. In den 1930er-Jahren war er Teil des Santa Fe Circuit, benannt nach der Tatsache, dass die tourenden Musiker die Santa Fe-Güterzüge verwendeten. Nach Kriegsdienst während des 2. Weltkriegs kehrte er nach Houston, Texas zurück und spielte 1948 bei verschiedenen Aufnahmen für Gold Star Records. 1950 begleitete er für Freedom Records Texas Alexander. In den 1960er-Jahren spielte in der Band und bei Plattenaufnahmen von Lightnin´Hopkins so zum Beispiel auf Walkin' This Road By Myself (1962), Smokes Like Lightning (1963), Lightnin' and Co. (1963) und anderen. 1960 nahm er sein einziges Album, Buster Pickens (1960) - Heritage Records, auf.
Buster Pickens wurde im November 1964 nach einem Streit in einer Bar erschossen.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Pickens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPeqEbpDzPA#t=17
Buster Pickens (June 3, 1916 – November 24, 1964)[1] was an American blues pianist. Pickens is best known for his work accompanying Alger "Texas" Alexander and Lightnin' Hopkins, although he did record a solo album in 1960.
Life and career
He was born Edwin Goodwin Pickens in Hempstead, Texas.[2][3]
In the 1930s Pickens, along with Robert Shaw and others, was part of the "Santa Fe Circuit", named after touring musicians utilising the Santa Fe freight trains.[4] From that time, Pickens described people doing the slow drag to "slow low-down dirty blues" in barrelhouse joints.[5]
Following service in the United States Army in World War II, Pickens returned to Houston, Texas.[2] He appeared on his first disc recording on January 13, 1948, providing backing for Perry Cain on his single "All The Way From Texas" / "Cry Cry", released by Gold Star Records. Further recording work followed over the next eighteen months, as he played on different sessions as part of the accompaniment to Cain, Bill Hayes, and Goree Carter.[6]
Pickens later recorded for Freedom Records in 1950, playing accompaniment to Alger "Texas" Alexander on the latter's final recording session. Pickens later performed live on a regular basis with Lightnin' Hopkins, and played on several of Hopkins's albums in the early 1960s, including Walkin' This Road By Myself (1962), Smokes Like Lightning (1963), Lightnin' and Co. (1963).[6][7] Pickens had by this time also recorded his own debut solo album, Buster Pickens (1960), and appeared in the 1962 film, The Blues.[2]
Pickens was shot dead, following an argument in a bar in Houston, in November 1964.
Life and career
He was born Edwin Goodwin Pickens in Hempstead, Texas.[2][3]
In the 1930s Pickens, along with Robert Shaw and others, was part of the "Santa Fe Circuit", named after touring musicians utilising the Santa Fe freight trains.[4] From that time, Pickens described people doing the slow drag to "slow low-down dirty blues" in barrelhouse joints.[5]
Following service in the United States Army in World War II, Pickens returned to Houston, Texas.[2] He appeared on his first disc recording on January 13, 1948, providing backing for Perry Cain on his single "All The Way From Texas" / "Cry Cry", released by Gold Star Records. Further recording work followed over the next eighteen months, as he played on different sessions as part of the accompaniment to Cain, Bill Hayes, and Goree Carter.[6]
Pickens later recorded for Freedom Records in 1950, playing accompaniment to Alger "Texas" Alexander on the latter's final recording session. Pickens later performed live on a regular basis with Lightnin' Hopkins, and played on several of Hopkins's albums in the early 1960s, including Walkin' This Road By Myself (1962), Smokes Like Lightning (1963), Lightnin' and Co. (1963).[6][7] Pickens had by this time also recorded his own debut solo album, Buster Pickens (1960), and appeared in the 1962 film, The Blues.[2]
Pickens was shot dead, following an argument in a bar in Houston, in November 1964.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPeqEbpDzPA#t=17
Jimmy Rogers *03.06.1924
Jimmy Rogers (* 1924 in Ruleville, Mississippi; † 19. Dezember 1997; eigentlicher Name James A. Lane) war ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist und Komponist, der in den 1950ern in der Band von Muddy Waters spielte.Rogers wuchs in Memphis (Tennessee) auf. Seine musikalischen Vorbilder und Lehrmeister waren Big Bill Broonzy, Joe Willie Wilkins und Robert Junior Lockwood. In den 1940ern ging Rogers nach Chicago, wo er u. a. mit Sonny Boy Williamson I., Sunnyland Slim und Big Bill Broonzy auftrat.
1947 machte Rogers erste Aufnahmen unter eigenem Namen, die jedoch nicht veröffentlicht wurden. Zu dieser Zeit spielte er die zweite Gitarre bei Muddy Waters, mit dem er ab 1949 Aufnahmen für das kurzlebige Label Tempo-Tone machte.[1] 1950 kam bei Chess Records sein eigenes Stück That's All Right heraus, das ein Blues-Klassiker werden sollte. Es folgten weitere Erfolge, darunter Sloppy Drunk und Chicago Bound, beide 1954. Als Mitglied der Band von Muddy Waters spielte er im Mai 1952 Gitarre bei dem Mundharmonika-Instrumentalhit Juke von Little Walter.
1955 verließ Rogers die Band von Waters, um solo zu arbeiten. 1957 erschien Walking By Myself, 1959 dann Rock This House. Danach zog sich Rogers weitestgehend aus der Musikszene zurück, da der Rock'n'Roll dem Blues den Rang abgelaufen hatte.
Erst Anfang der 1970er kehrte Rogers ins Studio zurück. 1972 spielte er mit Leon Russell, 1977 auch wieder mit Waters. In Europa wurde er begeistert aufgenommen. Sein Sohn James D. Lane begleitete ihn bei seinen späteren Auftritten und Aufnahmen.
1995 wurde Jimmy Rogers in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen. Als Rogers 1997 starb, arbeitete er gerade an einem All-Star-Projekt mit Eric Clapton, Stephen Stills, Jeff Healey, Taj Mahal, Robert Plant und Jimmy Page sowie Mick Jagger und Keith Richards. Nach seinem Tod erschien das Album 1999 unter dem Titel Blues, Blues, Blues.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Rogers
Jimmy Rogers (June 3, 1924 – December 19, 1997)[2] was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player,[1] best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s.[3] He also had solo hits on the R&B chart with "That's All Right" in 1950 and "Walking By Myself" in 1954.
He withdrew from the music industry at the end of the 1950s, only returning to recording and touring in the 1970s.
Career
Jimmy Rogers was born James A. Lane in Ruleville, Mississippi on June 3, 1924 and was raised in Atlanta and Memphis.[4] He adapted the professional surname 'Rogers' from his stepfather's last name.[3] Rogers learned the harmonica alongside his childhood friend Snooky Pryor, and as a teenager took up the guitar and played professionally in East St. Louis, Illinois, where he played with Robert Lockwood, Jr. among others, before moving to Chicago in the mid-1940s.[citation needed] By 1946, Rogers had recorded as a harmonica player and singer for the Harlem record label run by J. Mayo Williams. Rogers' name did not appear on the record, which was mislabeled as the work of "Memphis Slim and his Houserockers."
In 1947, Rogers, Muddy Waters and Little Walter began playing together as Muddy Waters' first band in Chicago (sometimes referred to as "The Headcutters" or "The Headhunters" due to their practice of stealing jobs from other local bands), while the band members each recorded and released music credited to each of them as solo artists. The first Muddy Waters band defined the sound of the nascent "Chicago Blues" style (more specifically "South Side" Chicago Blues). Rogers made several more sides of his own with small labels in Chicago, but none were released at the time. He began to enjoy success as a solo artist with Chess Records in 1950, scoring a hit with "That's All Right", but he stayed with Muddy Waters until 1954.[3] In the mid-1950s he had several successful releases on the Chess label, most featuring either Little Walter Jacobs or Big Walter Horton on harmonica, most notably "Walking By Myself",[5] but as the 1950s drew to a close and interest in the blues waned, he gradually withdrew from the music industry.[3]
In the early 1960s Rogers briefly worked as a member of Howling Wolf's band, before quitting the music business altogether for almost a decade. He worked as a taxicab driver and owned a clothing store that burned down in the 1968 Chicago riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He gradually began performing in public again, and in 1971 when fashions made him a reasonable draw in Europe, Rogers began occasionally touring and recording, including a 1977 reunion session with his old bandleader Muddy Waters. By 1982, Rogers was again a full-time solo artist.
In 1995 Rogers was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[6]
He continued touring and recording albums until his death from colon cancer in Chicago in 1997.[2] He was survived by his son, Jimmy D. Lane, who is also a guitarist and a record producer and recording engineer for Blue Heaven Studios and APO Records.
He withdrew from the music industry at the end of the 1950s, only returning to recording and touring in the 1970s.
Career
Jimmy Rogers was born James A. Lane in Ruleville, Mississippi on June 3, 1924 and was raised in Atlanta and Memphis.[4] He adapted the professional surname 'Rogers' from his stepfather's last name.[3] Rogers learned the harmonica alongside his childhood friend Snooky Pryor, and as a teenager took up the guitar and played professionally in East St. Louis, Illinois, where he played with Robert Lockwood, Jr. among others, before moving to Chicago in the mid-1940s.[citation needed] By 1946, Rogers had recorded as a harmonica player and singer for the Harlem record label run by J. Mayo Williams. Rogers' name did not appear on the record, which was mislabeled as the work of "Memphis Slim and his Houserockers."
In 1947, Rogers, Muddy Waters and Little Walter began playing together as Muddy Waters' first band in Chicago (sometimes referred to as "The Headcutters" or "The Headhunters" due to their practice of stealing jobs from other local bands), while the band members each recorded and released music credited to each of them as solo artists. The first Muddy Waters band defined the sound of the nascent "Chicago Blues" style (more specifically "South Side" Chicago Blues). Rogers made several more sides of his own with small labels in Chicago, but none were released at the time. He began to enjoy success as a solo artist with Chess Records in 1950, scoring a hit with "That's All Right", but he stayed with Muddy Waters until 1954.[3] In the mid-1950s he had several successful releases on the Chess label, most featuring either Little Walter Jacobs or Big Walter Horton on harmonica, most notably "Walking By Myself",[5] but as the 1950s drew to a close and interest in the blues waned, he gradually withdrew from the music industry.[3]
In the early 1960s Rogers briefly worked as a member of Howling Wolf's band, before quitting the music business altogether for almost a decade. He worked as a taxicab driver and owned a clothing store that burned down in the 1968 Chicago riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He gradually began performing in public again, and in 1971 when fashions made him a reasonable draw in Europe, Rogers began occasionally touring and recording, including a 1977 reunion session with his old bandleader Muddy Waters. By 1982, Rogers was again a full-time solo artist.
In 1995 Rogers was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[6]
He continued touring and recording albums until his death from colon cancer in Chicago in 1997.[2] He was survived by his son, Jimmy D. Lane, who is also a guitarist and a record producer and recording engineer for Blue Heaven Studios and APO Records.
Jimmy Rogers & James Cotton - Walking By Myself
Jimmy Rogers - Chicago Blues Festival (1994) Part 1
June 3th Jimmy´s birthday 70 years.
Jimmy Rogers (vocal & guitar), Jimmy D. Lane (guitar) and Madison Slim (harp)
Jimmy Rogers (vocal & guitar), Jimmy D. Lane (guitar) and Madison Slim (harp)
Memphis Minnie *06.0.1897
Memphis Minnie (* 3. Juni 1897 Algiers, Louisiana; † 8. August 1973 in Memphis, Tennessee; eigentlich Lizzie Douglas) war eine US-amerikanische Bluesmusikerin.
Sie wurde als eines von 18 Kindern in Algiers auf der anderen Flussseite von New Orleans geboren. Im Jahre 1904 zog ihre Familie nach Walls nahe Memphis. Ein Jahr später erhielt Minnie, die zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch den Spitznamen Kid Douglas trug, ihre erste Gitarre zu Weihnachten. Mit 20 trat sie mit ihrem Freund Willie Brown in der Umgebung auf. Im Jahre 1929 machte sie zusammen mit Joe McCoy, ihrem damaligen Lebensgefährten, ihre erste Plattenaufnahme. In den nächsten fünf Jahren nahmen sie weitere Platten auf. Dort verwendeten sie als Pseudonym Kansas Joe und Memphis Minnie.
Chicago
1933 zogen beide nach Chicago, wo sie noch einige Stücke zusammen aufnahmen. Da Minnie in dieser Zeit schon öfter alleine Aufnahmen machte und es Joe gleichzeitig gelang, sich immer mehr aus ihrem Schatten zu lösen, kam es 1934 zu ihrer letzten gemeinsamen Aufnahme und zur Trennung. Allmählich begann Minnie sich in Chicago zu etablieren. Sie spielte zusammen mit wechselnden Partnern etliche Stücke ein, bis sie 1939 auf Little Son Joe traf, mit dem sie ab diesem Zeitpunkt zusammenspielte. Er erschien auch auf allen ihren Platten bis zu ihrem Tod als Komponist. Dies ist in der Hinsicht ungewöhnlich, dass er bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nie als Komponist in Erscheinung getreten war und Minnie zuvor ihre Lieder selbst komponiert hatte.
In dieser Zeit waren Minnie und Son Joe regelmäßig zu Gast im 708 Club in der East 47th Street in Chicago. Bekannt aus dieser Zeit sind auch ihre Monday Partys in der Gatewood's Taverne, wo sie unbekannten Kollegen eine Möglichkeit zum Auftreten gab. Auch nahm sie, wenn ein in ihren Augen ebenbürtiger Musiker auftrat, an Talentwettbewerben teil, welche sie auch mit schöner Regelmäßigkeit gewann. Es ist bekannt, dass sie einmal Muddy Waters für ein Glas Whisky herausforderte.
Rückkehr nach Memphis und Karriererückzug
In den 1940er Jahren pendelte sie zwischen Chicago und Memphis ständig hin und her, wohnte aber auch kurz einmal in Indianapolis und Maryland. 1953 machte dann Minnie ihre letzte kommerzielle Aufnahme für J.O.B. Records mit dem Pianisten Little Brother Montgomery, trat aber noch bis 1955 regelmäßig auf. 1958 kehrte sie mit Son Joe zusammen nach Memphis zurück. Dort trat sie noch des Öfteren auf und gab zudem Starthilfe für so manchen jüngeren Kollegen, dem sie nützliche Tipps gab. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt ging es ihr finanziell schon so schlecht, dass sie von Sozialhilfe leben musste. 1960 erlitt sie einen Schlaganfall, war ab diesem Zeitpunkt auf einen Rollstuhl angewiesen und musste schließlich in ein Pflegeheim. Auch dort bekam sie noch regelmäßig Besuch von ihren Fans. Son Joe starb 1961.
Memphis Minnie starb am 6. August 1973.
Wissenswertes
Memphis Minnie trat zu einer Zeit auf, als die Musiker den Blues noch als reine Männersache ansahen. Um sich in dieser Zeit durchzusetzen, lag ihre einzige Chance darin, sich noch männlicher zu geben als ihre männlichen Kollegen. Sie fluchte, trank, rauchte, spielte Karten und prügelte sich. Es ist überliefert, dass sie ihren Partner Little Son Joe einmal vor den Augen des Publikums auf der Bühne verprügelt hat.
Sie zählte zu den ersten weiblichen Musikern, die eine elektrische Gitarre verwendeten.
Sie wurde 1980 in die Blues Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Minnie
Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted from the 1920s to the 1950s. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being "Bumble Bee", "Nothing in Rambling", and "Me and My Chauffeur Blues". Her performances and songwriting made her well known in a genre dominated mostly by men.
Early life
Lizzie Douglas was born on June 3, 1897 in Algiers, Louisiana.[1] She was the eldest of 13 siblings. Her parents Abe and Gertrude Douglas nicknamed her "Kid" during her early childhood. Her family called her "Kid" throughout her childhood because she never liked the name "Lizzie",[2] and when she first began performing she played under the name Kid Douglas.
When she was 7 she and her family moved to Walls, Mississippi, a town a little to the South of Memphis. The following year she received her first guitar for Christmas, and learned to play banjo by the age of 10 and guitar by the age of 11, when she started playing local parties.[1] The family later moved to Brunswick, Tennessee, but after Minnie's mother died in 1922 her father moved back to Walls, where he died thirteen years later in 1935.[3]
Career
In 1910, at the age of 13, she ran away from her home to live on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. She played on street corners for most of her teenage years, although she would periodically return to her family's farm when she ran out of money.[4] Her sidewalk performances led to a four-year tour of the South with the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1916 to 1920.[5] Eventually she came back to Beale Street and got involved in the blues scene. At the time, women, whiskey, and cocaine were high in demand with the people and places she would be around. She made her money by playing guitar, singing, and prostitution, which was not uncommon at the time, since many female performers also worked as prostitutes because of financial desperation.[6]
In 1929 she and Kansas Joe McCoy, her second husband, began to perform together. They were discovered by a talent scout of Columbia Records in front of a barber shop where they were playing for dimes.[7] When she and McCoy went to record in New York, they were given the names Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie by a Columbia A&R man.[8] During the next few years she and McCoy released a series of records, performing as a duet. In February 1930 they recorded the song "Bumble Bee," which they had already recorded for Columbia but which had not yet been released, for the Vocalion label. This became one of Minnie's most popular songs, and she eventually recorded five versions of it.[9] Minnie and McCoy continued to record for Vocalion until August 1934, when they recorded a few sessions for Decca, with their last session together being for Decca in September.[10] They divorced in 1935.[1] She and McCoy introduced country blues to the urban environment and became very well known.
A famous anecdote from Big Bill Broonzy's autobiography Big Bill Blues recounts a cutting contest between Minnie and Broonzy. It took place in a Chicago Nightclub on June 26, 1933, for the prize of a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of gin. Each singer was to sing two songs, and after Broonzy sang "Just a Dream" and "Make My Getaway," Minnie won the prize with "Me and my Chauffeur Blues" and "Looking the World Over".[11] Paul and Beth Garon, in their book Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues, suggest that Broonzy's account may have combined various contests at different dates, as these songs of Minnie's date from the 1940s rather than the 1930s.[12]
By 1935 Minnie was established in Chicago, and had become one of the group of musicians who worked regularly for record producer and talent scout Lester Melrose.[13] Back on her own after a divorce from Kansas Joe, Minnie began to experiment with different styles and sounds. She recorded four sides for the Bluebird label in July 1935, then in August of that year she returned to the Vocalion label, and then in October of the same year recorded another session for Bluebird, this time accompanied by Casey Bill Weldon. By the end of the 1930s, in addition to her output for Vocalion, Minnie had recorded nearly 20 sides for Decca Records and eight sides for Bluebird Records.[10] During the 1930s Minnie also toured extensively, mainly in the South.[13]
In 1938 Minnie returned to recording for the Vocalion label, this time accompanied by Charlie McCoy, Kansas Joe's brother, on mandolin.[10] Around this time she married guitarist and singer Ernest Lawlars (a.k.a. Little Son Joe) and began recording material with him in 1939, with Son's playing adding a more rhythmic backing to Minnies's guitar.[13] Minnie and Little Son Joe also began to release material on Okeh Records in the 1940s, and the couple continued to record together throughout the decade. In May 1941 Minnie recorded her biggest hit, "Me And My Chauffeur Blues." A follow-up date produced two more blues standards, "Looking The World Over" and Joe's "Black Rat Swing" (issued as by "Mr. Memphis Minnie"). At the dawn of the 1940s Minnie and Joe continued to work at their "home club," Chicago's popular 708 club where they were often joined by Big Bill, Sunnyland Slim, or Snooky Pryor. They also played at many of the other better known Chicago nightclubs. During the 1940s Minnie and Son Joe performed both together and on separate gigs in the Chicago and Indiana areas.[14] Minnie often played at "Blue Monday" parties at Ruby Lee Gatewood's on Lake Street.[15] The poet Langston Hughes, who saw Minnie perform at the 230 club on New Year's Eve 1942, wrote of her "hard and strong voice" being made harder and stronger by amplification, and described the sound of her electric guitar as "a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill."[16]
Later in the 1940s Minnie lived in Indianapolis, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan, returning to Chicago in the early 1950s.[17] By the late 1940s, clubs began hiring younger and cheaper artists to play shows at their venues and Columbia began dropping Blues artists including Memphis Minnie.
Later life and death
Minnie continued to record into the 1950s, but her health began to become a problem for her. With public interest in her music declining, she retired from her musical career and in 1957 she and Lawlars returned to Memphis.[18] Periodically, she would appear on Memphis radio stations to encourage young blues musicians. As the Garons wrote in Women With Guitar, 'She never laid her guitar down, until she could literally no longer pick it up.' She suffered a stroke in 1960, which caused her to be wheelchair-bound. The following year her husband, Earnest “Little Son Joe” Lawlars died, and Minnie had another stroke a short while after. She could no longer survive on her social security income so magazines wrote about her and readers sent her money for assistance.[citation needed] She spent her last years in the Jell Nursing Home in Memphis where she died of a further stroke in 1973.[19] She is buried at the New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery in Walls, DeSoto County, Mississippi.[1] A headstone paid for by Bonnie Raitt was erected by the Mount Zion Memorial Fund on 13 October 1996 with 34 family members in attendance including her sister Daisy. The ceremony was taped for broadcast by the BBC.[20] Her headstone is marked:
Lizzie "Kid" Douglas Lawlers
aka Memphis Minnie
The inscription on the back of her gravestone reads:
"The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie's songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we will hear them as if they were our own."[21]
Character and personal life
Minnie was known for being a polished professional, and an independent woman who knew how to take care of herself.[4] Although she portrayed herself to the public as being feminine and “lady-like” by wearing expensive dresses and jewelry, she was aggressive when she needed to be and was not shy when it came to fighting.[22] According to bluesman Johnny Shines, "Any men fool with her she'd go for them right away. She didn't take no foolishness off them. Guitar, pocket knife, pistol, anything she get her hand on she'd use it".[4] According to Homesick James she chewed tobacco all the time including whenever she sang or played her guitar, and always had a cup at hand in case she wanted to spit.[23] Most of the music she made was autobiographical; Minnie expressed a lot of her personal life through her music.[citation needed]
Minnie was married three times.[1] Although no evidence has been found of any marriage certificates,[24] her first husband is usually said to have been Will Weldon whom she married in the early 1920s. Her second husband was guitarist and mandolin player Joe McCoy (aka Kansas Joe McCoy) whom she married in 1929. They filed for divorce in 1934, with McCoy's jealousy of Minnie's rise to fame and success often being said to be the reason.[25] Around 1938 she met guitarist Ernest Lawlars (aka Little Son Joe). He became her new musical partner and they married shortly thereafter,[26] with Minnie's name being given in her union records as "Minnie Lawlars" from 1939.[27] Son Joe dedicated songs to her including "Key to The World" in which he addresses her as "the woman I got now" and calls her "the key to the world." Minnie was also reported to have lived with a man known as "Squirrel" in the mid- to late 1930s.[28]
Minnie was not religious and rarely went to church; the only time she was reported to have gone to church was to see a Gospel group perform.[25] While she was baptised shortly before she died, this was probably done to please her sister Daisy Johnson.[29] The home she once lived in still exists at 1355 Adelaide Street in Memphis, Tennessee.[30]
Legacy
Memphis Minnie has been described as "the most popular female country blues singer of all time",[31] while Big Bill Broonzy said that she could "pick a guitar and sing as good as any man I've ever heard."[11] Minnie lived to see her reputation revived in the 1960s as part of the general revival of interest in the blues. She was an influence on later singers such as Big Mama Thornton, Jo Ann Kelly[1] and Erin Harpe[32] and was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980.[33]
"Me and My Chauffeur Blues" was recorded by Jefferson Airplane on their debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, with Signe Anderson as lead vocalist. "When the Levee Breaks", a 1929 Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy song,[34] was covered (with slightly altered lyrics and a different melody) by Led Zeppelin and released in 1971 on their fourth album. "I'm Sailin'" was covered by Mazzy Star on their 1990 debut album 'She Hangs Brightly'.
Early life
Lizzie Douglas was born on June 3, 1897 in Algiers, Louisiana.[1] She was the eldest of 13 siblings. Her parents Abe and Gertrude Douglas nicknamed her "Kid" during her early childhood. Her family called her "Kid" throughout her childhood because she never liked the name "Lizzie",[2] and when she first began performing she played under the name Kid Douglas.
When she was 7 she and her family moved to Walls, Mississippi, a town a little to the South of Memphis. The following year she received her first guitar for Christmas, and learned to play banjo by the age of 10 and guitar by the age of 11, when she started playing local parties.[1] The family later moved to Brunswick, Tennessee, but after Minnie's mother died in 1922 her father moved back to Walls, where he died thirteen years later in 1935.[3]
Career
In 1910, at the age of 13, she ran away from her home to live on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. She played on street corners for most of her teenage years, although she would periodically return to her family's farm when she ran out of money.[4] Her sidewalk performances led to a four-year tour of the South with the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1916 to 1920.[5] Eventually she came back to Beale Street and got involved in the blues scene. At the time, women, whiskey, and cocaine were high in demand with the people and places she would be around. She made her money by playing guitar, singing, and prostitution, which was not uncommon at the time, since many female performers also worked as prostitutes because of financial desperation.[6]
In 1929 she and Kansas Joe McCoy, her second husband, began to perform together. They were discovered by a talent scout of Columbia Records in front of a barber shop where they were playing for dimes.[7] When she and McCoy went to record in New York, they were given the names Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie by a Columbia A&R man.[8] During the next few years she and McCoy released a series of records, performing as a duet. In February 1930 they recorded the song "Bumble Bee," which they had already recorded for Columbia but which had not yet been released, for the Vocalion label. This became one of Minnie's most popular songs, and she eventually recorded five versions of it.[9] Minnie and McCoy continued to record for Vocalion until August 1934, when they recorded a few sessions for Decca, with their last session together being for Decca in September.[10] They divorced in 1935.[1] She and McCoy introduced country blues to the urban environment and became very well known.
A famous anecdote from Big Bill Broonzy's autobiography Big Bill Blues recounts a cutting contest between Minnie and Broonzy. It took place in a Chicago Nightclub on June 26, 1933, for the prize of a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of gin. Each singer was to sing two songs, and after Broonzy sang "Just a Dream" and "Make My Getaway," Minnie won the prize with "Me and my Chauffeur Blues" and "Looking the World Over".[11] Paul and Beth Garon, in their book Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues, suggest that Broonzy's account may have combined various contests at different dates, as these songs of Minnie's date from the 1940s rather than the 1930s.[12]
By 1935 Minnie was established in Chicago, and had become one of the group of musicians who worked regularly for record producer and talent scout Lester Melrose.[13] Back on her own after a divorce from Kansas Joe, Minnie began to experiment with different styles and sounds. She recorded four sides for the Bluebird label in July 1935, then in August of that year she returned to the Vocalion label, and then in October of the same year recorded another session for Bluebird, this time accompanied by Casey Bill Weldon. By the end of the 1930s, in addition to her output for Vocalion, Minnie had recorded nearly 20 sides for Decca Records and eight sides for Bluebird Records.[10] During the 1930s Minnie also toured extensively, mainly in the South.[13]
In 1938 Minnie returned to recording for the Vocalion label, this time accompanied by Charlie McCoy, Kansas Joe's brother, on mandolin.[10] Around this time she married guitarist and singer Ernest Lawlars (a.k.a. Little Son Joe) and began recording material with him in 1939, with Son's playing adding a more rhythmic backing to Minnies's guitar.[13] Minnie and Little Son Joe also began to release material on Okeh Records in the 1940s, and the couple continued to record together throughout the decade. In May 1941 Minnie recorded her biggest hit, "Me And My Chauffeur Blues." A follow-up date produced two more blues standards, "Looking The World Over" and Joe's "Black Rat Swing" (issued as by "Mr. Memphis Minnie"). At the dawn of the 1940s Minnie and Joe continued to work at their "home club," Chicago's popular 708 club where they were often joined by Big Bill, Sunnyland Slim, or Snooky Pryor. They also played at many of the other better known Chicago nightclubs. During the 1940s Minnie and Son Joe performed both together and on separate gigs in the Chicago and Indiana areas.[14] Minnie often played at "Blue Monday" parties at Ruby Lee Gatewood's on Lake Street.[15] The poet Langston Hughes, who saw Minnie perform at the 230 club on New Year's Eve 1942, wrote of her "hard and strong voice" being made harder and stronger by amplification, and described the sound of her electric guitar as "a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill."[16]
Later in the 1940s Minnie lived in Indianapolis, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan, returning to Chicago in the early 1950s.[17] By the late 1940s, clubs began hiring younger and cheaper artists to play shows at their venues and Columbia began dropping Blues artists including Memphis Minnie.
Later life and death
Minnie continued to record into the 1950s, but her health began to become a problem for her. With public interest in her music declining, she retired from her musical career and in 1957 she and Lawlars returned to Memphis.[18] Periodically, she would appear on Memphis radio stations to encourage young blues musicians. As the Garons wrote in Women With Guitar, 'She never laid her guitar down, until she could literally no longer pick it up.' She suffered a stroke in 1960, which caused her to be wheelchair-bound. The following year her husband, Earnest “Little Son Joe” Lawlars died, and Minnie had another stroke a short while after. She could no longer survive on her social security income so magazines wrote about her and readers sent her money for assistance.[citation needed] She spent her last years in the Jell Nursing Home in Memphis where she died of a further stroke in 1973.[19] She is buried at the New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery in Walls, DeSoto County, Mississippi.[1] A headstone paid for by Bonnie Raitt was erected by the Mount Zion Memorial Fund on 13 October 1996 with 34 family members in attendance including her sister Daisy. The ceremony was taped for broadcast by the BBC.[20] Her headstone is marked:
Lizzie "Kid" Douglas Lawlers
aka Memphis Minnie
The inscription on the back of her gravestone reads:
"The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie's songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we will hear them as if they were our own."[21]
Character and personal life
Minnie was known for being a polished professional, and an independent woman who knew how to take care of herself.[4] Although she portrayed herself to the public as being feminine and “lady-like” by wearing expensive dresses and jewelry, she was aggressive when she needed to be and was not shy when it came to fighting.[22] According to bluesman Johnny Shines, "Any men fool with her she'd go for them right away. She didn't take no foolishness off them. Guitar, pocket knife, pistol, anything she get her hand on she'd use it".[4] According to Homesick James she chewed tobacco all the time including whenever she sang or played her guitar, and always had a cup at hand in case she wanted to spit.[23] Most of the music she made was autobiographical; Minnie expressed a lot of her personal life through her music.[citation needed]
Minnie was married three times.[1] Although no evidence has been found of any marriage certificates,[24] her first husband is usually said to have been Will Weldon whom she married in the early 1920s. Her second husband was guitarist and mandolin player Joe McCoy (aka Kansas Joe McCoy) whom she married in 1929. They filed for divorce in 1934, with McCoy's jealousy of Minnie's rise to fame and success often being said to be the reason.[25] Around 1938 she met guitarist Ernest Lawlars (aka Little Son Joe). He became her new musical partner and they married shortly thereafter,[26] with Minnie's name being given in her union records as "Minnie Lawlars" from 1939.[27] Son Joe dedicated songs to her including "Key to The World" in which he addresses her as "the woman I got now" and calls her "the key to the world." Minnie was also reported to have lived with a man known as "Squirrel" in the mid- to late 1930s.[28]
Minnie was not religious and rarely went to church; the only time she was reported to have gone to church was to see a Gospel group perform.[25] While she was baptised shortly before she died, this was probably done to please her sister Daisy Johnson.[29] The home she once lived in still exists at 1355 Adelaide Street in Memphis, Tennessee.[30]
Legacy
Memphis Minnie has been described as "the most popular female country blues singer of all time",[31] while Big Bill Broonzy said that she could "pick a guitar and sing as good as any man I've ever heard."[11] Minnie lived to see her reputation revived in the 1960s as part of the general revival of interest in the blues. She was an influence on later singers such as Big Mama Thornton, Jo Ann Kelly[1] and Erin Harpe[32] and was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980.[33]
"Me and My Chauffeur Blues" was recorded by Jefferson Airplane on their debut album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, with Signe Anderson as lead vocalist. "When the Levee Breaks", a 1929 Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy song,[34] was covered (with slightly altered lyrics and a different melody) by Led Zeppelin and released in 1971 on their fourth album. "I'm Sailin'" was covered by Mazzy Star on their 1990 debut album 'She Hangs Brightly'.
Macavine Hayes *03.06.1943
Captain Luke, Macavine Hayes, Whistlin’ Britches, and I settled down to a table in the small front room, lit by Christmas lights strung around the ceiling, r&b playing on the boombox. It was a Saturday morning in April, and the three elderly bluesmen had offered to show me around the drinkhouses of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A round of “chicken,” or moonshine, was ordered, and Macavine and Whistlin’ Britches were one-upping each other with insults and dirty jokes. Captain Luke played it cool in the corner, sipping a can of Natural Light and smoking a cigar. After his doctor had ordered him to give up the moonshine years ago, Luke made the switch to beer, which helped out with his hobby of fashioning ashtrays, lamps, and model-sized cars from old beer cans.
Captain Luke and Macavine have been friends for decades, playing gigs together in juke joints and drinkhouses around the North Carolina Piedmont: Luke singing in his deep baritone voice and Macavine playing a rough and tumble acoustic guitar. They met Haskel Thompson (nicknamed “Whistlin’ Britches” by Captain Luke because of the way his pants swish together when he walks) a few years ago through the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a nonprofit in Hillsborough, North Carolina, that helps pioneering southern musicians gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs. Haskel’s unique talent is accompanying his friends’ songs by clicking his tongue in highly complex rhythms with a sound as loud as a drum rim shot (and by dancing suggestively). Over the past fifteen years the three of them have played both locally and internationally with Music Maker—everywhere from Argentina and Europe to Australia.
Our visit to the drinkhouses was two years ago now. These days Luke doesn’t spend as much time driving his friends around in his Buick and stopping by their favorite haunts for a drink and a couple laughs. After Haskel had his leg amputated from complications with diabetes, he was forced to move from Luke’s apartment to an assisted-living facility, where his old friends would visit him and sometimes break into an impromptu performance in the courtyard. But he has learned to dance with his prosthetic leg and still makes it to local gigs. And Captain Luke still finds time to entertain his new fans around the world, touring with Music Maker. This past January, though, Macavine Hayes passed away peacefully after spending his last afternoon in a drinkhouse. He will be missed.
Captain Luke and Macavine have been friends for decades, playing gigs together in juke joints and drinkhouses around the North Carolina Piedmont: Luke singing in his deep baritone voice and Macavine playing a rough and tumble acoustic guitar. They met Haskel Thompson (nicknamed “Whistlin’ Britches” by Captain Luke because of the way his pants swish together when he walks) a few years ago through the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a nonprofit in Hillsborough, North Carolina, that helps pioneering southern musicians gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs. Haskel’s unique talent is accompanying his friends’ songs by clicking his tongue in highly complex rhythms with a sound as loud as a drum rim shot (and by dancing suggestively). Over the past fifteen years the three of them have played both locally and internationally with Music Maker—everywhere from Argentina and Europe to Australia.
Our visit to the drinkhouses was two years ago now. These days Luke doesn’t spend as much time driving his friends around in his Buick and stopping by their favorite haunts for a drink and a couple laughs. After Haskel had his leg amputated from complications with diabetes, he was forced to move from Luke’s apartment to an assisted-living facility, where his old friends would visit him and sometimes break into an impromptu performance in the courtyard. But he has learned to dance with his prosthetic leg and still makes it to local gigs. And Captain Luke still finds time to entertain his new fans around the world, touring with Music Maker. This past January, though, Macavine Hayes passed away peacefully after spending his last afternoon in a drinkhouse. He will be missed.
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/southern_cultures/v015/15.3.welborn.html
Macavine Hayes was born in Tampa, Florida on June 3rd 1943. His family farmed and he was the oldest of 5 sisters and 5 brothers. He remembers, “There was always something to do down on the farm, we listened to the radio and got up on the back porch and played the music of Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed.”
In the 60s Macavine met Guitar Gabriel playing on the streets of Tampa. He followed his new friend back to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “Gabe taught me how to experience the road, sleep outside, go to some gals house and spend the night sometimes. Go to church on Sunday, we always carried nice suits and shoes. We would look good. We did a lot of travelin’. We went to Atlanta down to Augusta and all through Florida. We played at juke joints and lay a hat down. Gabe was a free spirit and taught me that you can go anywhere you want to go. We ran a drink house together for years down on Claremont Street. Living with Gabe was not a hard life; you just had to drink all the time.
In the 60s Macavine met Guitar Gabriel playing on the streets of Tampa. He followed his new friend back to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “Gabe taught me how to experience the road, sleep outside, go to some gals house and spend the night sometimes. Go to church on Sunday, we always carried nice suits and shoes. We would look good. We did a lot of travelin’. We went to Atlanta down to Augusta and all through Florida. We played at juke joints and lay a hat down. Gabe was a free spirit and taught me that you can go anywhere you want to go. We ran a drink house together for years down on Claremont Street. Living with Gabe was not a hard life; you just had to drink all the time.
Kyla Brox *03.06.1980
Kyla Brox (born 3 June 1980, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England) is a blues and soul singer from a musical family.
Her father is blues singer Victor Brox and her mother is Annette Brox, the 'maid by the fire' in the original Jesus Christ Superstar.
She has four siblings, Ginie (b. 1965), Anna (b. 1966), Buffy (b. 1971) and Sam (b. 1976). All are singers, but only the youngest two are professional musicians, Sam - singer with Dust Junkys - and Kyla herself who traces her interest in singing to a desire to be closer to her charismatic but distant dad. Upon Victor and Annette’s divorce, Kyla was brought up by Annette and her stepfather Laurie in Didsbury, Manchester.
Keen to encourage his daughter’s musical talents, Victor gave Kyla various instruments as a child, including the flute which still features in her live shows.
Kyla married long-time music partner Danny Blomeley in September 2008 and is the mother of Sadie (b. 13 June 2009).
Career
Kyla first sang with Victor onstage at the Band on the Wall in Manchester in 1992, at the age of 12. She joined his regular touring group the following year. The core of the Kyla Brox Band go back to this unit, nominally the Victor Brox Blues Train, but known informally as 'the child slavery band' because of the extreme youth of the players. As well as Kyla (13), the group contained bassist Danny Blomeley (13), and drummer Phil Considine (19).
In 2000, she accompanied her father on an extensive tour of Australia. Danny Blomeley had left the Blues Train two years earlier to travel the world, and promised to find Victor some dates in Australia. Kyla, now 20, found herself singing risque blues songs to hard men in mining camps in remote parts of the Australian outback.
Back in Manchester in 2001, Kyla and Danny formed a duo, occasionally augmented by old members of ‘the child slavery band’, and the line-up finally settled into the Kyla Brox Band - Kyla Brox (vocals, flute); Marshall Gill (guitar); Tony Marshall (saxophones); Danny Blomeley (bass) and Phil Considine (drums). The Kyla Brox Band started playing in North West pubs and clubs: the circuit that had once been the stomping ground of the Victor Brox Blues Train. Their performance at the Colne Blues Festival in 2002 established Kyla's reputation on the British blues scene.
The Kyla Brox Band toured Australia in 2003, 2004 and 2007, the same year they made their US debut.
Her father is blues singer Victor Brox and her mother is Annette Brox, the 'maid by the fire' in the original Jesus Christ Superstar.
She has four siblings, Ginie (b. 1965), Anna (b. 1966), Buffy (b. 1971) and Sam (b. 1976). All are singers, but only the youngest two are professional musicians, Sam - singer with Dust Junkys - and Kyla herself who traces her interest in singing to a desire to be closer to her charismatic but distant dad. Upon Victor and Annette’s divorce, Kyla was brought up by Annette and her stepfather Laurie in Didsbury, Manchester.
Keen to encourage his daughter’s musical talents, Victor gave Kyla various instruments as a child, including the flute which still features in her live shows.
Kyla married long-time music partner Danny Blomeley in September 2008 and is the mother of Sadie (b. 13 June 2009).
Career
Kyla first sang with Victor onstage at the Band on the Wall in Manchester in 1992, at the age of 12. She joined his regular touring group the following year. The core of the Kyla Brox Band go back to this unit, nominally the Victor Brox Blues Train, but known informally as 'the child slavery band' because of the extreme youth of the players. As well as Kyla (13), the group contained bassist Danny Blomeley (13), and drummer Phil Considine (19).
In 2000, she accompanied her father on an extensive tour of Australia. Danny Blomeley had left the Blues Train two years earlier to travel the world, and promised to find Victor some dates in Australia. Kyla, now 20, found herself singing risque blues songs to hard men in mining camps in remote parts of the Australian outback.
Back in Manchester in 2001, Kyla and Danny formed a duo, occasionally augmented by old members of ‘the child slavery band’, and the line-up finally settled into the Kyla Brox Band - Kyla Brox (vocals, flute); Marshall Gill (guitar); Tony Marshall (saxophones); Danny Blomeley (bass) and Phil Considine (drums). The Kyla Brox Band started playing in North West pubs and clubs: the circuit that had once been the stomping ground of the Victor Brox Blues Train. Their performance at the Colne Blues Festival in 2002 established Kyla's reputation on the British blues scene.
The Kyla Brox Band toured Australia in 2003, 2004 and 2007, the same year they made their US debut.
Kyla Brox
Philip Sayce *03.06.1976
Philip Sayce is a Welsh guitarist, born 3. June 1976, singer and songwriter from Canada.
Early life
Sayce was born in Aberystwyth, but his family moved to Canada when he was two years old, and he grew up in Toronto. His parents, Kenneth and Sheila, listened to music by Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder and Dire Straits, among many other artists. His parents’ love of music inspired his love for the guitar, and he also played the piano and trombone for over 10 years. He was fifteen years old when he played in his first band. Sayce and his best friend, drummer Cassius Pereira, played in bands together throughout high school, holding band practice in their basements. Sayce's style is strongly influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose untimely death in August 1990 greatly affected the young guitarist.
Sayce began playing in Toronto clubs at the age of sixteen. He quickly became a regular fixture on Toronto’s bar-scene. Some of the clubs Sayce frequented were Grossman's Tavern, The Silver Dollar, Blues on Bellair, The Horseshoe Tavern, and Albert's Hall in Toronto, known for their famous jam sessions with artists such as Robbie Robertson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Dylan and Jeff Healey. His other musical influences include B. B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray. Sayce joined Healey's band in 1997 and toured the world for three and a half years, playing such places as Baden Baden, Germany, Brazil, Finland and the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
Career
Sayce quickly gained notoriety as a teenage axe-slinger through his regular gigs at Toronto clubs, and he gradually developed a solid fan base.
Sayce moved to Los Angeles to expand his music career. He soon landed a gig with Uncle Kracker and toured with him for eighteen months. With Uncle Kracker, Philip appeared on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Regis and Kelly, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The CBS Early Show.
Sayce also wrote the music for the 2002 short film, Cockroach Blue, which he also starred in. It was produced and directed by award-winning Robert Crossman. The film was shown at the 2003 Woodstock Film Festival and received popular acclaim.
In the fall of 2003, Sayce unexpectedly met John Shanks at an impromptu jam session in the amp department at Westwood Music in Los Angeles. Coincidentally, just a week before, two-time Grammy award winner Melissa Etheridge had mentioned to Shanks that she was looking for a guitar player and was thinking of trying somebody different. Shanks referred Sayce to her and in December 2003, Sayce joined Etheridge and her band for her Lucky Tour. Sayce also appears on Etheridge's Lucky CD and the Lucky Live CD & DVD, released in September, 2004, Melissa Etheridge Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled released in 2005, The Awakening" released in 2007, and A New Thought For Christmas released in September 2008. He also performed on Etheridge's Oscar winning song "I Need To Wake Up" from the Al Gore 2006 documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. Sayce appeared with Etheridge at the 2007 Academy Awards, Live Earth in 2007, The 2005 Grammy Awards as part of a tribute to Janis Joplin (along with Joss Stone), and at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Sayce released his album Peace Machine, on Provogue Records in 2009. He released a second album Innerevolution in Europe, in May 2010. In July 2010, Philip Sayce supported the legendary ZZ Top in Europe and in December 2010, he supported Deep Purple on their French dates.
Early life
Sayce was born in Aberystwyth, but his family moved to Canada when he was two years old, and he grew up in Toronto. His parents, Kenneth and Sheila, listened to music by Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder and Dire Straits, among many other artists. His parents’ love of music inspired his love for the guitar, and he also played the piano and trombone for over 10 years. He was fifteen years old when he played in his first band. Sayce and his best friend, drummer Cassius Pereira, played in bands together throughout high school, holding band practice in their basements. Sayce's style is strongly influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose untimely death in August 1990 greatly affected the young guitarist.
Sayce began playing in Toronto clubs at the age of sixteen. He quickly became a regular fixture on Toronto’s bar-scene. Some of the clubs Sayce frequented were Grossman's Tavern, The Silver Dollar, Blues on Bellair, The Horseshoe Tavern, and Albert's Hall in Toronto, known for their famous jam sessions with artists such as Robbie Robertson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bob Dylan and Jeff Healey. His other musical influences include B. B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray. Sayce joined Healey's band in 1997 and toured the world for three and a half years, playing such places as Baden Baden, Germany, Brazil, Finland and the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
Career
Sayce quickly gained notoriety as a teenage axe-slinger through his regular gigs at Toronto clubs, and he gradually developed a solid fan base.
Sayce moved to Los Angeles to expand his music career. He soon landed a gig with Uncle Kracker and toured with him for eighteen months. With Uncle Kracker, Philip appeared on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Regis and Kelly, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The CBS Early Show.
Sayce also wrote the music for the 2002 short film, Cockroach Blue, which he also starred in. It was produced and directed by award-winning Robert Crossman. The film was shown at the 2003 Woodstock Film Festival and received popular acclaim.
In the fall of 2003, Sayce unexpectedly met John Shanks at an impromptu jam session in the amp department at Westwood Music in Los Angeles. Coincidentally, just a week before, two-time Grammy award winner Melissa Etheridge had mentioned to Shanks that she was looking for a guitar player and was thinking of trying somebody different. Shanks referred Sayce to her and in December 2003, Sayce joined Etheridge and her band for her Lucky Tour. Sayce also appears on Etheridge's Lucky CD and the Lucky Live CD & DVD, released in September, 2004, Melissa Etheridge Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled released in 2005, The Awakening" released in 2007, and A New Thought For Christmas released in September 2008. He also performed on Etheridge's Oscar winning song "I Need To Wake Up" from the Al Gore 2006 documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. Sayce appeared with Etheridge at the 2007 Academy Awards, Live Earth in 2007, The 2005 Grammy Awards as part of a tribute to Janis Joplin (along with Joss Stone), and at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.
Sayce released his album Peace Machine, on Provogue Records in 2009. He released a second album Innerevolution in Europe, in May 2010. In July 2010, Philip Sayce supported the legendary ZZ Top in Europe and in December 2010, he supported Deep Purple on their French dates.
Philip Sayce - A Mystic - Live in Los Angeles
Joris Hering *03.06.1970
Joris Hering:
Gitarrist und Sänger, 1970 ebenfalls in Halle geboren. Er begeistert sich seit dem 13. Lebensjahr für die Gitarre. Der erste Kontakt zum Blues im Alter von 14 Jahren: Muddy Waters als AMIGA-Lizenz-Schallplatte – „Eine aufregende Musik, die mich nicht mehr losließ”. 1985 erste Band, bis 2004 Mitwirkung in diversen Bands verschiedener Stilrichtungen vorwiegend in Halle und Leipzig, später auch in Berlin. Das meiste davon hatte wenig mit Blues zu tun und doch war der Blues immer da. Er mag Filme der Coen Brothers und kann aus jedem Schnaps „White Russian” mixen.
Gitarrist und Sänger, 1970 ebenfalls in Halle geboren. Er begeistert sich seit dem 13. Lebensjahr für die Gitarre. Der erste Kontakt zum Blues im Alter von 14 Jahren: Muddy Waters als AMIGA-Lizenz-Schallplatte – „Eine aufregende Musik, die mich nicht mehr losließ”. 1985 erste Band, bis 2004 Mitwirkung in diversen Bands verschiedener Stilrichtungen vorwiegend in Halle und Leipzig, später auch in Berlin. Das meiste davon hatte wenig mit Blues zu tun und doch war der Blues immer da. Er mag Filme der Coen Brothers und kann aus jedem Schnaps „White Russian” mixen.
Joris Hering Blues Band - Feierabend Blues - LIVE - Kulturbastion Torgau
R.I.P.
Koko Taylor +03.06.2009
Koko Taylor (gebürtig: Cora Walton; * 28. September 1928 bei Memphis, Tennessee; † 3. Juni 2009 in Chicago, Illinois) war eine US-amerikanische Blues-Sängerin.Geboren und aufgewachsen bei Memphis, Tennessee, zog Koko Taylor 1954 mit ihrem Mann, dem LKW-Fahrer Robert Pops Taylor, nach Chicago. Sie begann, in den Chicagoer Blues-Clubs zu singen, wo sie Willie Dixon 1962 entdeckte. Ab 1965 hatte sie einen Plattenvertrag mit Chess Records. Ihre Single Wang Dang Doodle, geschrieben von Dixon, wurde ein Hit.
Ende der 1960er- und Anfang der 1970er-Jahre trat Taylor überall in den Vereinigten Staaten auf. 1975 unterzeichnete sie einen Vertrag mit Alligator Records, unter dem sie eine beachtliche Anzahl von Alben veröffentlichte. 1980 erhielt sie den W. C. Handy Award als beste weibliche Blueskünstlerin, die Auszeichnung erhielt sie auch im Jahr darauf in derselben Sparte. 1985 erhielt sie einen Grammy für das beste Album des traditionellen Blues.
In den 1990er-Jahren hatte Koko Taylor Auftritte in verschiedenen Filmen, etwa Blues Brothers 2000. Sie eröffnete 1994 einen Blues-Club in Chicago, der allerdings 1999 wieder schloss. Sie starb aufgrund von Komplikationen nach einer Operation.
Koko Taylor beeinflusste viele Blues-Musiker, darunter Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman und Susan Tedeschi.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koko_Taylor
Koko Taylor, sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor (September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009),[2] was an American Chicago blues singer, whose style also encompassed many genres including electric blues, rhythm and blues and blues and soul blues popularly she was known as the "Queen of the Blues."[1] She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings.
Life and career
Born Cora Walton in Shelby County, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper.[3] She left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois, in 1952 with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor.[2] In the late 1950s she began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to wider performances and her first recording contract. In 1965, Taylor was signed by Chess Records subsidiary Checker Records where she recorded "Wang Dang Doodle", a song written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf five years earlier. The record became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B charts and number 58 on the pop charts[4] in 1966, and selling a million copies.[2] Taylor recorded several versions of "Wang Dang Doodle" over the years, including a live version at the 1967 American Folk Blues Festival with harmonica player Little Walter and guitarist Hound Dog Taylor. Taylor subsequently recorded more material, both original and covers, but never repeated that initial chart success.
National touring in the late 1960s and early 1970s improved her fan base, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed with Alligator Records in 1975. She recorded nine albums for Alligator, 8 of which were Grammy-nominated, and came to dominate the female blues singer ranks, winning twenty five W. C. Handy Awards (more than any other artist). After her recovery from a near-fatal car crash in 1989, the 1990s found Taylor in films such as Blues Brothers 2000 and Wild at Heart, and she opened a blues club on Division Street in Chicago in 1994, which relocated to Wabash Ave in Chicago's South Loop in 2000. (The club is now closed.)
Taylor influenced musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi. In the years prior to her death, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago in Country Club Hills, Illinois.
In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service said that Taylor owed $400,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest. Her tax problems concerned 1998, 2000 and 2001; for those years combined, her adjusted gross income was $949,000.[5]
Taylor's final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009. She suffered complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding on May 19, 2009, and died on June 3 of that year.[6]
Awards
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album – 1985
Howlin' Wolf Award – 1996
Blues Hall of Fame – Inducted 1997
Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award – 1999
NEA National Heritage Fellowship – 2004
Blues Music Award (formerly the W. C. Handy Award) – 24 times, including the following
categories:
Contemporary Blues Female Artist
Entertainer of the Year
Female Artist
Traditional Blues Female Artist
Vocalist of the Year
At age 75 in 2003, she appeared as a special guest with Taj Mahal on an episode of
Arthur.
At age 80 in 2009, she appeared as a special guest with Umphrey's McGee at their New
Year's Eve performance at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago.
Taylor won for Best Blues Album in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards
Life and career
Born Cora Walton in Shelby County, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper.[3] She left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois, in 1952 with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor.[2] In the late 1950s she began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to wider performances and her first recording contract. In 1965, Taylor was signed by Chess Records subsidiary Checker Records where she recorded "Wang Dang Doodle", a song written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf five years earlier. The record became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B charts and number 58 on the pop charts[4] in 1966, and selling a million copies.[2] Taylor recorded several versions of "Wang Dang Doodle" over the years, including a live version at the 1967 American Folk Blues Festival with harmonica player Little Walter and guitarist Hound Dog Taylor. Taylor subsequently recorded more material, both original and covers, but never repeated that initial chart success.
National touring in the late 1960s and early 1970s improved her fan base, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed with Alligator Records in 1975. She recorded nine albums for Alligator, 8 of which were Grammy-nominated, and came to dominate the female blues singer ranks, winning twenty five W. C. Handy Awards (more than any other artist). After her recovery from a near-fatal car crash in 1989, the 1990s found Taylor in films such as Blues Brothers 2000 and Wild at Heart, and she opened a blues club on Division Street in Chicago in 1994, which relocated to Wabash Ave in Chicago's South Loop in 2000. (The club is now closed.)
Taylor influenced musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi. In the years prior to her death, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago in Country Club Hills, Illinois.
In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service said that Taylor owed $400,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest. Her tax problems concerned 1998, 2000 and 2001; for those years combined, her adjusted gross income was $949,000.[5]
Taylor's final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009. She suffered complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding on May 19, 2009, and died on June 3 of that year.[6]
Awards
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album – 1985
Howlin' Wolf Award – 1996
Blues Hall of Fame – Inducted 1997
Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award – 1999
NEA National Heritage Fellowship – 2004
Blues Music Award (formerly the W. C. Handy Award) – 24 times, including the following
categories:
Contemporary Blues Female Artist
Entertainer of the Year
Female Artist
Traditional Blues Female Artist
Vocalist of the Year
At age 75 in 2003, she appeared as a special guest with Taj Mahal on an episode of
Arthur.
At age 80 in 2009, she appeared as a special guest with Umphrey's McGee at their New
Year's Eve performance at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago.
Taylor won for Best Blues Album in The 7th Annual Independent Music Awards
Piano C. Red *14.09.1933
b.
James Wheeler, 14 September 1933, Montevallo, Alabama, USA. By day a
cab driver, in the evenings James Wheeler transforms himself into
Chicago boogie-woogie legend, Piano C. Red. His first yearnings to be
involved in music were inspired by his mother, who sang spiritual songs
around the house. He was tutored by a local piano player known as Fat
Lilly, who was initially reluctant until Wheeler bribed him with
moonshine whiskey. Wheeler moved to Chicago in 1956. He began his
recording career with Chess Records in 1963, recording versions of "Slow
Down And Cool It" and "Hundred And Two". He also shared a stage with
many of the blues greats of the time, including Elmore James, Muddy
Waters and Memphis Slim. However, like many of his ilk, he never enjoyed
access to a full-time recording contract. By the 90s, when he finally
began to achieve more than local acclaim, he had retired to performing
only occasional sets at selected Chicago restaurants and cafés. Despite
this, he and his Flat Foot Boogie Band consistently play engaging,
Little Richard/Ray Charles-styled pop-blues well into the early hours.
Among his best compositions is the autobiographical "Cab Drivin' Man",
which was also the title of his debut album.
Chicago
blues piano player Piano C. Red, who performed with Muddy Waters, B.B
King, Fats Domino and Buddy Guy before being paralyzed in 2006, has died
on 03.06.2013.
Red's son, James Britton, confirmed Tuesday that his 79-year-old father died Monday. He says his father's health had been deteriorating since the shooting that paralyzed him. Red was shot during a robbery.
In a news release, publicist June Rosner says Red spent years driving a cab by day and playing in the city's blues clubs at night. She says Red began playing professionally in Chicago at age 19.
His given name was Cecil Fain. He was 16 years old and living in Atlanta when his professional career began.
In 1999, Red released a CD entitled "Cab Driving Man."
Red's son, James Britton, confirmed Tuesday that his 79-year-old father died Monday. He says his father's health had been deteriorating since the shooting that paralyzed him. Red was shot during a robbery.
In a news release, publicist June Rosner says Red spent years driving a cab by day and playing in the city's blues clubs at night. She says Red began playing professionally in Chicago at age 19.
His given name was Cecil Fain. He was 16 years old and living in Atlanta when his professional career began.
In 1999, Red released a CD entitled "Cab Driving Man."
Chicago Piano C Red - Miss Annie Lou
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