Donnerstag, 22. September 2016

22.09. Bobby Radcliff, Christian Dozzler, Jim Byrnes, Dan Sane, Yannick Laguide, Sweet Mama Dee * U.P. Wilson, Rudy Richard +







1896 Dan Sane*
1948 Jim Byrnes*
1951 Bobby Radcliff*
1958 Christian Dozzler*
1965 Yannick Laguide*
2004 U.P. Wilson+
2014 Rudy Richard+ *1935 1)
Renee DeAhl*


1) Die genauen Daten ist dem Autor nicht bekannt






Happy Birthday

 

Bobby Radcliff   *22.09.1951

 



Bobby Radcliff ist ein US-amerikanischer Blues-Gitarrist und Sänger. Seinen bisherigen Zenit erreichte Radcliff ab 45 Jahren. Vorher wirkte er wesentlich in seiner Heimat Washington DC, New York, und Chicago.
Am 22. September 1951 in Washington D.C., USA geboren, wuchs Radcliff in Bethesda und Chevy Chase, Maryland auf. Nach einem Auftritt von Magic Sam Maghett 1969 auf dem Ann Arbor Blues Festival begann Radcliff im Alter von 12 Jahren mit dem Gitarrenunterricht. Radcliff erinnerte sich später: „He showed me the way to sing in a clear concise way, with a crisp and clean sound on the guitar. And then there’s the freedom of working in a trio, but also the risks. Don’t forget, these were the days of Cream and Hendrix, with tons of distortion alternating with lavish studio production. I wanted something different!“
In seiner Heimat gab es eine kleine, aber wachsende Gruppe von Blues-Fans. Nachdem ihm sein Gitarrenlehrer erste Blues-Licks gezeigt hatte, war für Radcliff der erste Schritt getan. Er besuchte mehrfach Chicago um dort seinem Idol Magic Sam Maghett zu begegnen.
In der ersten Hälfte der 1970er trat Radcliff hauptsächlich in Washington mit seiner eigenen Band auf, in der Musiker wie Steve Shaw, Victor Spano, Dave Walker, Dick Heintze, Robbie Magruder und Danny Gatton mitspielten.1974 veröffentlichte Radcliff seine erste Single im „Aladin Label“.
1977 zog Radcliff nach New York, arbeitete tagsüber in einer Buchhandlung und spielte nachts in den örtlichen Clubs, wurde zum Hausemusiker im Lone Star Café und arbeitete mit Musikern wie Kinky Friedman, Bernard Purdie, und (man staune) The Original Blues Brothers, featuring John Belushi sowie den Roomful Of Blues.
Auch wenn seine erste Studioaufnahme 1985 erfolgte, wechselte Radliff erst 1987 ins Lager der Profimusiker. Von 1989 bis 1998 wurde seine Musik bei „Black Label Records“ verlegt. Hier wurde 1989 sein Debüt Album „Dresses Too Short“, sowie „Universal Blues“ 1991 und 1994 „There's a Cold Grave in Your Way” verlegt.
Ende der 1990er unterzog sich der Musiker einer Hand- und Armoperation. Dies führte jahrelang zu einer Reduktion seiner Live Auftritte.
2004 veröffentlichte Radcliff dann bei „Rollo Records“ „Natural Ball“ und nahm seine internationalen Live Auftritte wieder auf. Im Jahr 2011 folgte dann „Freaking Me Out“, diesmal bei „Krellno Records“.
Bobby Radcliff bleibt als Bandleader wie als Gast-Gitarrist ein gefragter Musiker. In den letzten Jahren spielte er mit Al Copley's Roomful of Blues Reunion Band, The Nighthawks, Bob Margolin's All Star Band, Jimmy 'Fast Fingers' Dawkins, Mark Hummel & Rusty Zinn, und Bruce Ewan.

Bobby Radcliff (born Robert Radcliff Ewan, September 22, 1951, Washington, D.C.) is an American blues guitarist and singer.
Radcliff was raised in Bethesda, Maryland, where he played in blues clubs after picking up the guitar at the age of 12. He also visited Chicago several times, where he met musicians such as Magic Sam. In 1977, he relocated to New York, where he took a job in a bookstore and played local clubs at night. In 1987 he began recording and performing full-time. His first studio recording was in 1985, and from 1989-1998 he recorded with Black Top Records.
Radcliff underwent hand and arm surgery in the late 1990s making minimal live appearances. In 2004 he released 'Natural Ball' (Rollo Records) and made a return to international performing. In 2011, he recorded "Freaking Me Out" (Krellno Records) which was his first all originals CD. This CD also features Radcliff's original artwork (on the front cover and inside).
Radcliff remains active as a bandleader and in demand guitarist. He has recently guested with: Al Copley's Roomful of Blues Reunion Band, The Nighthawks, Bob Margolin's All Star Band, Jimmy 'Fast Fingers' Dawkins, Mark Hummel & Rusty Zinn, and Bruce Ewan.


Bobby Radcliff Live Lugano 2008 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myoxoirxw4c 








Christian Dozzler   *22.09.1958 

 


http://www.christiandozzler.com/

Christian Dozzler (* 22. September 1958 in Wien) ist ein österreichischer Bluesmusiker.
Als Kind aus musikalischem Haus genoss er bereits mit fünf Jahren eine klassische Klavierausbildung. Mit vierzehn Jahren entdeckte er den Blues, der ihn seither begleitete. Neben dem Klavier spielt er auch noch Mundharmonika und Akkordeon. 1981 wurde er Profimusiker. Seit 2000 lebt er in den USA, derzeit in Fort Worth. Christian Dozzler zählt zu den stilistisch vielfältigsten Bluesmusikern in Europa (Chicago Blues über Boogie Woogie, Rhythm & Blues bis zu Swamp Blues und Zydeco).
Bands
    1976 Backyard Blues Band
    1984 Mojo Blues Band
    1993 Christian Dozzler & The Blue Waves
    1996 Michael Pewny auf der Schmelz und für ORF.
    2000 Mitglied in der Band von Larry Garner

Seither tritt er meist solo in Europa und den USA auf, aber auch mit texanischen Bluesgrößen wie Anson Funderburgh, Mike Morgan & The Crawl und Hash Brown & The Browntones.
Auszeichnungen
    2008 Blues Critic Award: Nominierung in der Kategorie "Best Blues Keyboardist".
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dozzler


Christian Dozzler was born into a musical family in Vienna, Austria on September 22, 1958. He started getting classical piano training when he was five years old. At age 14 he fell in love with the blues and has continued this romantic relationship ever since.

Solo piano blues and boogie woogie were the starting point and are until now a major part in Christian’s work. In 1976 he formed his first group, the "Backyard Bluesband", where he also played harmonica and guitar. 1981 was the year when he decided to make a profession out of his musical addiction, he also picked up the accordion after discovering Zydeco-music.

The years from 1984 till 1993 Christian spent as the co-frontman of Austria’s "Mojo Blues Band", and started recording and extensive touring throughout Europe. Frequently working with American blues artists on their European tours widened his musical horizon and made him an experienced player in many different styles of blues music.

From 1993 till 2000, he had his own band again, "Christian Dozzler & The Blues Wave", where he could finally bring the whole diversity of his talent into play. The program was a musical journey from Chicago Blues, Boogie Woogie, Rhythm & Blues to Swamp Blues and Zydeco, and anything in between. Especially the Louisiana music would soon become a trademark of this band. Four CDs resulted from these years. In 1999 the band recorded their fourth CD "Louisiana" right in the land of the bayous, together with some legendary figures of the Louisiana music scene.

In May 2000 Christian Dozzler accepted an offer that couldn’t be refused. He joined the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, based band of Larry Garner, moved to America, and toured the US and the rest of the world with Larry for two years.

In 2002 he settled in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, and continued his solo career. This Metroplex rightfully has the reputation of having one of the best blues scenes in the world, and is consequently the ideal home base for any blues man. In spring 2003 he released his fifth CD "All Alone And Blue", going back to his personal roots in solo piano blues and boogie woogie. The success of this album in the KNON Texas Blues Radio charts even got Christian on the cover of Southwest Blues Magazine. In 2008 the next CD "The Blues And A Half" followed with all original songs, accompanied by some of the finest Texas blues guitar players: Anson Funderburgh, Mike Morgan, Jim Suhler, Hash Brown.

2009 found Christian Dozzler and Robin Banks renewing their musical partnership to record a highly acclaimed duo CD. "Livin’ Life" reached #1 and stayed in the top 10 of the Texas Blues Radio charts for several months, and was also featured extensively on XM-Satellite-Radio. The Livin’ Life Tour 2010 took the two through Texas, Canada, Jamaica and five European countries.

These days, Christian Dozzler performs mostly solo on both sides of the Atlantic. But he also works with Texas blues legends like Anson Funderburgh, Mike Morgan or Hash Brown on a regular basis.

Christian Dozzler 18 2 13 Lagerhalle 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6RnO8HenfI


Christian Dozzler / Rockets
Christian Dozzler with Anson Funderburgh, Big Joe Maher, Eric P & John Street, live at the Lewisville Grand Theatre 7-5-2014


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaMQlJ7eqrE








Jim Byrnes   *22.09.1948

 




Jim Byrnes (* 22. September 1948 in St. Louis, Missouri als James Thomas Kevin Byrnes) ist ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler und Blues-Musiker.
Byrnes wuchs in St. Louis auf, wo er im Alter von fünf Jahren das Klavierspielen und mit dreizehn die Bluesgitarre erlernte. Er studierte sogar Theologie und arbeitete als professioneller Schäfer, bevor er sich als Schauspieler versuchte. Nach einem schweren Autounfall zog Byrnes 1972 nach Vancouver und hielt sich mit Gelegenheitsjobs und Musik spielen über Wasser. 1981 formierte er eine Band, die später ein Hauptbestandteil der lokalen Musikszene wurde.
Bekannt bei Millionen von Zuschauern für seine Rolle in der CBS-Serie Wiseguy, hatte Byrnes Gastrollen in verschiedenen Serien, wie Der Polizeichef, Der Hitchhiker, Neon Rider, Highlander, Danger Bay, Hat Squad und bei Outer Limits – Die unbekannte Dimension. Er trat auch in Fernsehfilmen, wie Omen IV: Das Erwachen, Ich will meine Kinder zurück!, Unternehmen Feuersturm, Serving in Silence: The Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer Story und Dream Man auf. Seine Filmographie enthält weiterhin Namen, wie Whale Music und Suspicious Agenda.
Zusätzlich zur Schauspielerei, war die Musik weiterhin eine treibende Kraft in Byrnes Leben, der momentan mit seiner Band durch Nord-Amerika tourt. Seine CD That River, für welche Byrnes einen Juno Award für die beste Blues-/Gospel-Aufnahme bekam, ist eine Sammlung von Liedern, welche er als „eine Reflexion seines Respekts für den Blues, R&B, Soul, Jazz, alles in einem“ bezeichnet und die selbst einen Song enthält, der während der Dreharbeiten zu Highlander in Paris entstand.
Byrnes wurde vor kurzem in die British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame aufgenommen.
Von 2008 bis 2011 spielte er eine Nebenrolle in der Fernsehserie Sanctuary – Wächter der Kreaturen als Gregory Magnus.


James Thomas Kevin "Jim" Byrnes[1] (born September 22, 1948) is a blues musician, guitarist, and actor.

Life and career

Byrnes was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a homemaker mother and a municipal accountant father.[1] He has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, since the mid-1970s. On February 26, 1972, he was struck by a passing car while he attempted to help a friend move a stalled truck, which caused him to lose both his legs. Fifteen years to the day after the accident, he started appearing on Wiseguy as Daniel Burroughs, better known as Lifeguard. It was his first major role and lasted until 1990. Later, he starred in the fantasy television series Highlander: The Series as Joe Dawson, a member of a secret society known as the "Watchers." He reprised his role as Joe Dawson in Highlander: Endgame and Highlander: The Source, later installments of the Highlander film series, as well as providing voices for the anime Highlander: The Search for Vengeance. He starred in his own short-lived TV show, called The Jim Byrnes Show. He played a recruiting sergeant for the Union Army in an episode of "Copper" called "The Children of the Battlefield."

His other television roles include Higher Ground and cartoon voices in Beast Wars: Transformers, Beast Machines: Transformers, Shadow Raiders, Stargate Infinity, Dinosaur Train as Percy Paramacellodus, Colonel Nick Fury in X-Men: Evolution and as Duke Dermail in Gundam Wing. He appeared in the Taken mini series, which broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel and an episode of Twilight Zone entitled "Harsh Mistress". He has also appeared on the Syfy series Sanctuary, appearing as the father of Helen Magnus, played by Amanda Tapping and as Shineoa San in an episode of Andromeda as well as the voice of Virgil Vox in nine additional episodes.

As a musician, Byrnes has won the Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year three times, for That River in 1996 and House of Refuge on Black Hen Music in 2007, and for "Everywhere West" in 2011.[2] Byrnes was also honoured at the 2006 Maple Blues Awards, as Male Vocalist of the Year, and at the 2006 and 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards.


Jim Byrnes "St. Louis Blues" @ Meneer Frits Eindhoven 31-3-2014 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DDieuQoGZc 






Dan Sane  *22.09.1896

 

http://www.pastblues.com/view-action-89.html?en=Dan+Sane

Dan Sane (September 22, 1896[2] – February 18, 1956) was an American Memphis and country blues guitarist and songwriter.[1] He was a working associate of Frank Stokes and, according to Allmusic journalist, Jason Ankeny, "they had emerged among the most complementary duos in all of the blues, with Sane's flatpicking ideally embellished by Stokes' fluid rhythms."[1] The best known of Sane's penned songs were "Downtown Blues" and "Mr. Crump Don't Like It." His surname was alternatively spelt as 'Sain'.[3]

Biography

Sane was born in Hernando, Mississippi.[4] He moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and played in Will Batts' string band,[1] before meeting guitar player Frank Stokes. Sane and Stokes busked together around Memphis' Beale Street at weekends.[4] During the 1920s the pair performed on Beale Street as a duo billed as the Beale Street Sheiks and played in white venues, including country clubs, parties and dances, as members of Jack Kelly's Jug Busters.[1][5][6] Their first recording was for Paramount Records in August 1927, under the Beale Street Sheiks name.[4] A National Park Service's tourist guide to the blues heritage of the Mississippi Delta says: "The fluid guitar interplay between Stokes and Sane, combined with a propulsive beat, witty lyrics, and Stokes's stentorian voice, make their recordings irresistible."[6]

They moved to Victor Records in 1928, where the recordings were under Stokes' own name.[4] They recorded a two-part version of "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do", a song well known in later versions by Bessie Smith and Jimmy Witherspoon, but whose origin lies somewhere in the pre-blues era.[7] A locally popular song was "Mr. Crump Don't Like It," whose lyrics referred to Memphis mayor E. H. Crump and his campaign to clean up Memphis' less salubrious areas. That song may have been based on an earlier song on the same topic by W. C. Handy.[4][8] The Sheiks also continued to busk the streets, and play informally at parties.

In 1929, Stokes and Sane recorded again for Paramount, resuming their 'Beale Street Sheiks' billing for a few cuts.[4] These 1929 sides were their last together, although Sane and Stokes continued their intermittent performing partnership up to the latter's retirement from music in 1952.[1]

In 1933, Sane and Batts (1904–1956), alongside Kelly, recorded as the South Memphis Jug Band.[4][9]

Sane died in Memphis in February 1956, aged 59.[1]

His guitar playing contributions have appeared on numerous compilation albums, including The Best of Frank Stokes (Yazoo Records, 2005).




Beale Street Shieks Frank Stokes Dan Sane IT'S A GOOD THING 








Yannick Laguide  *22.09.1955

 

 http://www.mupiz.com/yannick-laguide



Philippe GRANCHER & his G-Men - "The sky is crying" - Royale Factory de Versailles - 29 mars 2012 
Philippe Grancher, Guitare/Chant
Yannick Laguide, Basse/Direction artistique
Clément Duventru, Batterie
Jérémie Tepper, Guitare













Renee DeAhl   *22.09

Sweet Mama Dee




https://www.facebook.com/sweetmamadee/photos_albums

A native Daytonian, Sweet Mama Dee was born and raised in the buckeye state of Ohio. She began singing in the Trinity Presbyterian Choir at age six. Continued singing in High school choir and Glee club. She grew up singing in school halls and garages with members of local bands like, The Imperials, The Ohio Players, Slave, Heatwave, Sun, and Dazz Band. After high school graduation Sweets moved to California and attended Theater of Arts, where she studied voice with Ron King and Don Benjamin. She paid her way through acting school singing in a piano bar on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angles. A Viet Nam War Era Veteran, Sweets served in the South Pacific with ComSubPac 7th Fleet. While serving her country, Sweets would occasionally sit in on gigs with local bands on the island of Guam. Sweets returned to Dayton in the 80’s, where she sang with the gospel group, The Maria Scott Singers, and in the chorus for Franklin Ballard Productions. She returned to school and studied Opera with Dr. William Shapell, Singing for Musical Theater with Dr. Paul McGill and also received a degree in Radio & Television Broadcasting. Sweets also acquired her recording engineering certification during that time. Returning to California in the 90’s, Sweets studied voice Seth Riggs at U.C.L.A., Nijola Sparkis of The Vocal Point Grammy winner, Darlene Koldenhoven and, award winning vocalist Terri Brinegar. She attended The Singers Workshop with Liz Lewis, vocal coach and author of “Singing for a Living”, Martha Woodhull. She sang and recorded with the Heavenbound Sound Ministry directed by Alan Satchwell.
When she wasn’t studying voice and music, she worked as a radio D.J. and producer, Chyron and master control operator, congressional staffer, Physician’s Assistant, Production Assistant, actress, voice-over announcer, a Media buyer, and a Physical Performance evaluator for a Homeland Security contractor. Her last “day job” was working for Big Band leader Ray Anthony, (the man who gave us “The Bunny Hop”).
Sweets is an active member of the Screen Actors Guild, AF.T.R.A, and the Recording Academy.



https://www.reverbnation.com/musician/sweetmamadee


Blu at Casanovas 
Kristine Nicole, Jamie Gallo, Tempa Singer, and Sweet Mama Dee belt out "Chain of Fools" at Casanovas Upcountry Sunday.




 
Sweet Mama Dee Blues











R.I.P.

 

U.P. Wilson  +22.09.2004



U.P. Wilson (September 4, 1934 – September 22, 2004)[1] was an African American electric blues guitarist and singer who performed Texas blues. He recorded five albums for JSP Records, the first being Boogie Boy! The Texas Guitar Tornado Returns!, and was known for playing a style of deep Southern soul blues that was gospel inflected.
Huary Perry Wilson was born on a farm in Catto Parish, Shreveport, Louisiana, to parents Carrie Lee and Tommy Wilson.[3] Raised in West Dallas, Wilson learned the blues from ZuZu Bollin, Cat Man Fleming, Frankie Lee Sims, Mercy Baby and Nappy "Chin" Evans. Wilson later relocated from Dallas to Fort Worth and formed a duo, the Boogie Chillun Boys, with the drummer and vocalist, Robert Ealey. Later he worked with Cornell Dupree before Dupree left to become a session musician.[2] The Boogie Chillun Boys provided inspiration to fellow Texan singer and guitarist Ray Sharpe.[3]
From 1967 onwards he raised his family, and worked in Fort Worth during the day as a school janitor. At night, Wilson performed as a sideman in local nightclubs.[3] By the late 1970s, Wilson and Ealey played at a Fort Worth club named the New Bluebird, where they attracted crowds of Texas blues fans. By 1987, Wilson had began solo recording, and touring around Texas.[2] However, he subsequently rejoined Ealey in his new band, The Lovers, the following year.[3]
Music journalist, Tony Russell, noted that Wilson put on a show, playing one-handed while drinking, smoking and greeting his fans, but behind the tricks and the hyped language used in his billings ('Texas Tornado', 'Atomic Guitar' etc.,) Wilson was a musician with a talent for more than just getting boys to boogie down. His peculiar decision to sing in falsetto flawed his 1995 release This Is U.P. Wilson, but subsequent releases re-discovered his blend of Texas shuffles and low-down blues.[4]
For most of the last decade of his life, Wilson toured both the European blues circuit and throughout the United States. Activities included appearances at the Chicago Blues Festival, and playing accompaniment to Albert Collins. Wilson was imprisoned for six months in the John R.L. Jacksboro State Penitentiary for cocaine possession between 1997 and 1998, and on his release moved to live in Paris, France.[3]
Wilson went to hospital in Paris for surgery, and he died there on September 22, 2004, at the age of 70. His wife Rosie, predeceased him, and he was survived by two daughters and a son.[3]



U.P Wilson / I'll be comin' home 












Rudy Richard  +22.09.2014  *1935

 




Rudy was just 17 when the man they called Slim Harpo pulled a Buick into the drive of the Richard's 100-acre farm. The day was probably hot, as most days in south Louisiana are. Rudy Richard remembers seeing Harpo step out of the car, dressed sharply and with a fancy hat highlighting his out-of-placeness on the plot of land that produced the cotton, sweet potatoes and corn that were the family's lifeblood.
Harpo was there for Richard. He was there because he'd heard the young man could play guitar with the best of them. He was there because Harpo wanted to take Richard out of Church Point and bring him 80 miles down Interstate-10 to Baton Rouge.
It took some convincing from the uncle Richard was named after, but Valentine and Josephine Richard ultimately let their son go. It was a decision that led to Rudy Richard becoming one of the most sought-after guitar players a Baton Rouge blues band leader could get their hands on for the past 60 years.
Some five years before Slim Harpo drove that Buick up the Church Point farm driveway, Richard got it in his mind to look into playing guitar. He'd heard the blues while growing up, and the impression it made on him is still at the front of his mind.
"Oh Lord, I love it," Richard said of the blues. "I guess I will always like it. When I heard it, I was like, 'Oh no, you got to get a hold of this.'"
What he got his hands on was a brand new Stella guitar.
"My mother asked me, she said, 'Rudolph, you think you're gonna learn how to play that? I said, 'Mom, I'm gonna learn how to play this guitar,'" Richard said. "And it wasn't long. I was turnin' little tunes. That's how it all got started."
Richard was familiar with Lonesome Sundown, a swamp blues legend who recorded a handful of songs with Excello Records before eventually taking a step off the stage and into the church to devote his life to God. But before then, Lonesome Sundown had a regular gig at a place in Opelousas Richard would frequent.
"It'd be like on a Monday night, and … I would be there to check Sundown out and I'd get to the point where I was playing just like him," Richard said. "I liked what he was doing. … He was just my good friend, and he took the time to teach me how to play."
Richard took those lessons with him to Baton Rouge, where the success of Slim Harpo's band kept him busy.
I was a country boy. I wasn't used to all that.
"We had a job Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays," Richard said. "I was rollin'."
One night at Streamline in Baton Rouge, Richard noticed a particularly beautiful woman in a red coat.
"She looked so well," Richard said. "I said, 'Oh Lord, looky yonder. I need to get me a little shot of whiskey to build my nerves to go talk to her.' And I went, and she was the baby of the family and her brothers were with her. … Sure enough, I start talking with her, and we made it. I married her."
He and Willie Bell married young -- she was just 22 -- and they eventually expanded their family to include three daughters and a son.
Richard enjoyed the blues lifestyle, and he did knock back a shot or two or three to calm his nerves every now and again.
"I wasn't really no big drinker, but to build your nerves, I said, 'Look at the people in here.' I said, Lord, I got to do something,' Richard laughed. "I was a whiskey head then."
Richard's guitar licks appear on all of the Slim Harpo recordings, including "Rainin' in My Heart," "Scratch My Back," "The Best of Slim Harpo," "Slim Harpo Knew the Blues," and "Blues Hangover." The success of those recordings and Harpo's reputation took the band on the road (and today, Harpo's songs have been covered by the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and others).
"We left from here one June. We got a call to go to Chicago, the record was going so good, so I got a chance to be on stage with the Temptations, Sam & Dave … and I tell you what, I'm going like, 'Rudolph, what's happening man? Look at all this good stuff happening,'" Richard said. "I was a country boy. I wasn't used to all that."
Richard remembers playing in Chicago with the band the first time, peeking out from behind a long curtain on the stage.
"The people, oh Lord, it looked like a bunch of wasps," Richard said. "I'm going, 'Oh Rudolph, look what you got to face.' But I did pretty good."
While on the road, Richard tried to convince Slim Harpo to shape up a bit and dress nicer. He saw the other Chicago blues acts wearing crisp suits and bright colors, and Richard tried -- and failed -- to get Harpo to follow along.
"Because Slim was kind of shaggy, I would say, 'Man, you have to tighten that because we're going on a big band stand, and you dress kind of shaggy,'" Richard laughed. "I wouldn't tell him exactly like that because I didn't want to make him mad and get rid of me, and he would say, 'Yeah, Rudolph, you right. Those guys are dressed to kill.'"
Another time in Chicago, while playing with Buddy Guy, Richard remembers receiving one of what he considers the biggest honors of his career.
"Buddy had a polka-dot guitar, and he said, 'Rudy, there you go. Play it like it's yours,'" Richard remembered with a grin. "Boy, that was a big nice feeling for me."
Slim Harpo's own career was unexpectedly and unfortunately short. He suffered the heart attack that killed him on Jan. 31, 1970, leaving behind the skeleton of a band, which Richard tried to revive but couldn't get off the ground.
"About a month after he died, … I said, 'I'm gonna take this band and we're gonna play some music,'" Richard recalled. "They all turned it down, 'Oh no, I'm not playing no more.' So everything was that."
Richard eventually joined up with Raful Neal's band and, later, Major Handy's zydeco-blues band, touring the country a couple times over, but always keeping his base in Baton Rouge where he worked for about 20 years as a handyman at local insurance company, according to Richard's friend and sometimes-agent Johnny Palazzotto.
Richard still sometimes leads his own band, Rudy Richard and the Zydeco Express, but diabetes complications make it difficult for the blues guitarist to make big time commitments these days. He also doesn't have the benefit of a blues record in his name, never having gotten in the recording studio to make a case of his own.
"I've been after him for a decade or more (to record), but he just never felt confident enough to do it," Palazzotto said. "We discussed three or four songs. One from Lonesome Sundown, Raful Neal, even one of Tabby Thomas', because (Richard) doesn't write his own."
But it doesn't seem Richard thinks he needs a record to be remembered by in the blues community.
"When they come to one of my shows, I try to do the best I can," Richard said. "I try to do that always. I try to let the people know they are very important to me because -- a lot of times I say it -- if it wasn't for y'all, I wouldn't be playing no music."

Baton Rouge bluesman and guitar great Rudy Richard died Monday, Sept. 22, according to longtime friend and family representative Johnny Palazzotto. He was 75 years old and had been fighting an illness.
Richard never recorded anything under his own name, but his guitar licks can be heard on Slim Harpo tracks like "Rainin' in My Heart," "King Bee" and "Scratch My Back."
Richard grew up on his parents' 100-acre cotton farm in Church Point, but at 17 he was carted away by Slim Harpo in the elder blues musician's Buick. He'd picked up the guitar about five years earlier after hearing the work of Lonesome Sundown, and from then on, Richard joined Slim Harpo's band and he never put it back down.
He married his wife, Willie Bell, after meeting her during a show one night at Streamline in Baton Rouge. The pair eventually raised three daughters and a son.
Outside of Baton Rouge, Richard went on tour with Slim Harpo and his band, traveling across the country and getting the chance to play with other legends like Major Handy, The Temptations and Buddy Guy.
Slim Harpo suffered the heart attack that would be the end of his life and career on Jan. 31, 1970, which simultaneously put Richard out of work, but he continued playing with and inspiring other locals like Raful Neal and his son, Kenny Neal.
"My dad ... used to tell us, 'do not touch the guys' instruments,'" recalled Kenny Neal in an interview with NOLA.com last year. "And that's the first thing we did. I used to go out there and open up Rudy's guitar case, and I smell that old smoke from the case, and it had the scent of music."



Rudy Richard at Phil Brady's TeeNiNeeNiNu 
Rudy Richard at Phil Brady's 4/17/08 workin out on Slim Harpo's Tee Ni Nee Ni Nu. Rudy played with Slim in his band and on records. Rudy on guitar and vocals, Johnny Rosetti on guitar, Dave on bass, Kirk on drums, Hoodoo Jimmy on keys.




Rudy Richard at Kenny Neal Blues Fest





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