Earlier today, I listened to Just to Be with You by Johnnie Johnson. In fact, I listened to it twice. It was so good that I went back and listened again. It’s originally an old Muddy Waters song written by Bernard Roth. This version features Phoebe Snow on vocals and Buddy Guy on lead guitar….
Charles Brown is a fascinating figure in American music. He’s great, first of all. Absolutely great. He’s legendary in the blues and traditional R&B worlds, but most people now probably don’t know him by name. He was a singer, pianist, and songwriter. The easiest way to describe Brown’s sound is he is where Ray Charles…
Mac Rebennack, whose alter ego was the much more famous Dr. John, died today. I am a big fan of his music. True to form for me, I know virtually nothing about his life. Apparently he was 77 years old. That’s a little older than I would have guessed. So, I can’t say much about…
I’ve always had a bit of a problem separating things like music by genres. In a recent piece I wrote, I made the statement, “I tend to think of all worthwhile American music as being a type of blues.”* I knew when I typed it that the statement would bother some people. People have a…
A long time ago, I wrote this piece about collecting classical music. It was so long ago that it was on a different blog. I’m still working on the project of cataloging my record collection. After I finished classical, I moved on to blues. It’s taken me a while to get everything in, but now…
The first time I saw B.B. King perform live was 1992 or 1993. I’m pretty sure it was my senior year of high school, but I don’t remember which side. Before I went, a guy that I worked with told me that seeing B.B. is, “like going to church.” I didn’t really understand what he…
Towards the end of last year, I was browsing in a record store and ran across a new release of a Freddie King concert from 1968. Since I’m a fan, I took a closer look. The bulk of the album was record live at the Fillmore West in 1968. There are two bonus tracks, one from…
Update: Wendell Holmes died today from complications due to pulmonary hypertension. This isn’t surprising since he posted this open letter a few days ago. In honor of his life, I thought I’d re-post the piece I wrote in January when we lost Popsy. Willie “Popsy” Dixon died on Friday of bladder cancer. For those who…
I was lucky enough to attend the final Allman Brothers Band concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. When I first found out I was going, I thought I might write a review and post it here. But, I soon realized that to write a review correctly, I would need to take notes…
