Blue Monday: Two Nights @ Club 47, '66

Just across the Charles River from Boston, we find ourselves in Cambridge. Through the middle Sixties, few towns in the north-east could boast as being "blues towns". Given the amount of dazzling recordings coming out of that city through those years, one can only think Boston & Cambridge can stake that claim.

Boston had the Unicorn Coffee House and Paul's Mall. Cambridge had Club 47. Into the summer of '66, Club 47 would see both Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters.

It's Blue Monday, so why don't I keep the jabbering to a minimum and let these men sing for themselves...












Howlin' Wolf
Club 47
Cambridge, MA
May 1966

1. 300 Pounds Of Joy
2. I Walked From Dallas
3. I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
4. I Told My Baby
5. Country Boy
6. Down In The Bottom
7. 300 Pounds Of Joy
8. I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
9. Tell Me What I've Done
10. Poor Boy
11. Dust My Broom
12. Goin' Down Slow

Howlin' Wolf - Vocals, Harmonica
Hubert Sumlin - Guitar
Eddie Shaw - Sax
??? - Bass
Sammy Lay - Drums




Link



Muddy Waters
Club 47
Cambridge, MA
August 24, 1966


Set 1

1. Chicken Shack
2. You Gotta Live
3. Treat Me Right
4. Little Red Rooster
5. Harp Instrumental
6. Louisiana Blues
7. She Moves Me
8. Baby Please Don´t Go
9. Long Distance Call
10. Tiger In Your Tank
11. Hold It (Instr. Closing)

Set 2

12. Chicken Shack (Instr. Intro)
13. Band Intro
14. Treat Me Right
15. I Feel Good
16. Johnny B. Goode
17. How Long
18. Sometimes You Win
19. 24 Hours
20. Just To Be With You
21. Got My Mojo Working
22. Hold It (Instr. Outo)

Set 3

23. Chicken Shack (Instr. Intro)
24. 40 Days & 40 Nights
25. Hoochie Coochie Man
26. Please Have Mercy
27. Got My Mojo Working
28. Still A Fool
29. Muddy Introduces*
30. Stranger Blues*
31. Nobody´s Fault But Mine
32. Hold It (Instr Outro)



Muddy Waters - Vocals, Guitar
Otis Spann - Piano, Vocals
George "Harmonica" Smith - Harp, Vocals
Sammy Lawhorn - Guitar, Vocals
Luther Johnson - Guitar, Vocals
Francis Clay - Drums
Mac Arnold - Bass, Vocals
Unknown Female Vocalist

Link

Blue Monday: One Night @ The Unicorn, '66

Having spent a few Blue Mondays in Boston, we should be checking in there yet again, zeroing in 1966, a year which found electric blues in hippie ballrooms and coffee houses reaching its zenith. Coming out of Chicago's south side, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's influence on "bringing the blues to the masses" really can't be underestimated. Today's Blue Monday installment finds the Butterfields' classic line-up holding court at Boston's Unicorn Coffee House for an evening of blues right from the beltline.

Peace, Mudcatz




Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Unicorn Coffee House
Boston, MA
Spring, 1966



set 1

1. Look Over Yonders Wall
2. Born In Chicago
3. Love Her With A Feeling
4. Walking Blues
5. Don't Say No To Me
6. One More Heartache
7. Work Song

set 2

8. Thank You Mr. Poobah
9. Serves You Right To Suffer
10. Got A Mind To Give Up Living
11. Walking By Myself
12. Baby Please Don't Go
13. World Is In An Uproar
14. Got My Mojo Working



Paul Butterfield - harp, vocals
Mike Bloomfield - guitar
Elvin Bishop - guitar
Mark Naftalin - keyboard
Jerome Arnold - bass
Billy Davenport - drums



Link

Blue Monday: Muddy in Paris, '72

I'm a believer in life's "simple, perfect pleasures." A misty dawn breaking across this lake. Your lady's thighs cleaving about your hips. Muddy Waters sliding into a juicy Rollin 'n' Tumblin'. Sometimes life just don't seem finer.


Muddy Waters in Paris, 1972 never did kick up much of a fuss when the obscure Pablo label released it in 1997. And that's a crying shame. Muddy's got a spate of live releases, of both the official and bootleg varieties, and it's easy for exceedingly strong material to get lost in the shuffle. As seems to be the case here.

From an infrequently-played treat of Clouds in My Heart to the romping Blow Wind and Walkin' Thru the Park, Muddy's playing from right in the pocket, out in front of a band that includes Mojo Buford, Louis Myers, and Pinetop Perkins. I've a few Muddy in Paris shows here and they all seem to kick ass. There was just something about the City of Light that brought out a spark from Muddy.


Peace, Mudcatz




Muddy Waters
Paris, 1972
Pablo, 1997

1. Intro
2. Clouds In My Heart
3. Lovin' Man
4. County Jail
5. Hoochie Coochie Man
6. Blow Wind Blow
7. Honey Bee
8. Walkin' Thru the Park
9. Rollin' and Tumblin'
10. Walkin' Blues
11. Got My Mojo Working


Link

Blue Monday: Freddie @ Hamburg & Bremen, '75

Continuing on with a theme that seems to have emerged through some of these more recent posts, we should give some notice to another official release--and the bootlegs from which it came. As we've seen, often-illicitly recorded live concerts have frequently ended up on store shelves, sold, licensed, and prettied-up. It isn't the least bit uncommon to find these sets released and re-released, most often on small, independent labels like King Biscuit and New Rose Blues or more established "re-issue" labels like Charly. Freddie King's Live in Germany is near-perfect example, unquestionably drawn from a pair of bootlegs that had been freely traded for years (technically speaking, they still are...) and finding recurrent life on the indy label circuit.

Live in Germany seems to have surfaced for the first time as an official release in Belgium of all places, on the obscure King Biscuit Records label, in September of 1993. It would pop up again in 2007 and 2008 as Live in Europe on the even-more obscure Music Avenue and Phantom Light & Sound labels. Call it what you will, these European releases present what is essentially a "best of" compilation for a pair of King concerts, the first in Hamburg on 10/19/75 and from the previous December (12/10/74) in Bremen.

Even with its source material alongside, Live in Germany stands as a potent document of King's live performances, bringing down that serious West Side thunder with frenetic drive and panache, giving us powerhouse readings of Big Legged Woman, Let the Good Times Roll and Have You Ever Loved a Woman, with the driving and intense stacks of Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman and Stormy Monday>Little Bluebird. A surprisingly soulful Ain't Nobody's Business just rounds the package out nicely. As live "official" releases go, this may not be Freddie's best, but it is up there and merits far more than passing notice.


Freddie King
Live in Germany
King Biscuit Records, 1993

1. Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman
2. Have You Ever Loved a Woman
3. The Moon is Rising
4. T'Ain't Nobody's Business
5. Big Legged Woman
6. Woman Across the River
7. Key to the Highway
8. Let the Good Times Roll
9. Stormy Monday>Little Bluebird

Link


Solid as Live in Germany is (I'd put it at 4 out of 5 stars), it almost has to be taken on its own merits to hold onto that esteem when compared to the shows from which it was drawn. There's a hefty stack of live Freddie King shows out there and both the Hamburg and Bremen bootlegs are up close to the top of the mark. They are both sprawling, blistering documents of what an energized performer Freddie was, most especially when he had the time and space to spread out and jam. The 9 tracks from Live in Germany are in fact cherry-picked (its Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman opener is actually Bremen's 11th track, for example...) and, one assumes, ordered for balance. I would argue that, on their own, either the Bremen or Hamburg shows would have made stronger, more representative releases, as well as affording us a plethora of under-covered tunes such as Something You Got, Rock Me Baby and 56th and Wichita, all of which appear in the Hamburg show.

But then, you haven't got to take my word for it. Let Freddie do the talking...


Freddie King
Bremen GE
December 10, 1974

1. Intro
2. That's Alright
3. Woman Across the River
4. Key to the Highway
5. Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone
6. Goin' Down
7. Instrumental
8. Outro
9. Let the Good Times Roll
10. Instrumental
11. Sweet Home Chicago>Ghetto Woman
12. Instrumental>Have You Ever Loved a Woman
13. Instrumental>Drum solo
14. Ain't Nobody's Business
15. Outro

Link


AND for those of you who just need to check out that Hamburg show, I posted it last June HERE


Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Albert @ The Cue, '69

Since losing string-bending powerhouse Albert King in 1992, posthumous King releases have been surfacing, on average of one more each year. Glancing at the sheer numbers of major and minor labels getting in on the act, it looks damn near like a feeding frenzy. Stax and Rhino, P-Vine, Fuel and Thirsty Ear.

And Tomato.

The New York City-based indy label released a trio of LP's from King between '77 and '78, after Albert had been cut adrift by Stax's initial bankruptcy in 1975. After releasing the underwhelming New Orleans Heat in 1978, 25 years would pass, as well as Albert himself, before Tomato Records finally joined in the posthumous rush, serving up Live '69 in September of '03.

The spring of '69 found Albert still playing the clubs and hippie ballrooms that, coupled with his tenure on Stax, proved to be such a springboard to his career. May 29th of that year found him in Madison, Wisconsin, playing to a packed house at a large club called The Cue. The resultant tape has earned itself some mixed reviews, though praise for King and the strength of his playing seem to be universally positive. This album's detractors invariably hover over its sound issues--and there are a couple. While covering Albert very well, the mix does push his band well into the background. There are moments of tape hiss and bits of distortion when the thunder reaches its higher pitches. In order to give it a more balanced evaluation, we must be mindful of which yardstick we are using to measure here. If this were a professionally-recorded live show from the last decade or two, I would agree that the mix could have been better. But it is not that. This is a 40-year old bootleg recording that found its way to official release. As far as boots from that era go, this sounds more than amply tasty, at times approaching the extraordinary. I have never found its sound issues to detract from my affection or appreciation one bit. This is some ripping Albert here, getting busy with a 45 minute set heavy with tunes from Born Under a Bad Sign.

The Introduction (track one) is a bit confusing. This very much sounds like it was Albert's first "song" of the set as he's asking the audience to give some applause to "the band that just left, the band that just got through playing..." He never actually identifies who they were--but then, Tomato doesn't let us know who was backing Albert for this gig either. After dedicating this opening track, in a couple directions, King joins in for all of about 40 seconds, riffing instrumentally on Willie Cobb's You Don't Love Me, before heading off into Why Are You So Mean to Me? instead.

Highlights here include a spirited, workmanlike Why Are You So mean to Me?, a deeply soulful As the Years Go Passing By, affording King the opportunity to spread out and jam, and a soaring, wondrous 17-minute Please Come Back to Me that's damn near an Albert opus. King wraps things up with a beefy Personal Manager.

Forget the pissing and moaning of the nitpickers; this is live-action blues rendered by a master.

Peace, Mudcatz


Albert King
Live '69
Tomato 2003


1. Intro (You Don't Love Me vamp)
2. Why Are You So Mean to Me?
3. As the Years Go Passing By
4. Please Come Back to Me
5. Crosscut Saw
6. Personal Manager

Link

Blue Monday: Albert & the Hound @ Joe's Place, '72 & '73

I think we'll spend just a bit more time in Boston--or at least across the Charles River, in Cambridge. The sheer concentration of universities in that area, or more specifically their thirsty, music-loving student bodies, served to make Boston a curious hotbed for blues music, but a hotbed it became indeed. Forty and fifty years later, we're still finding ourselves loving on music that came out of that scene. Boston had legendary nightspots like the Unicorn Coffee House, Paul's Mall, and the Tea Party. Cambridge had Club 47 and the humbly-named Joe's Place.

It seems if you were a bluesman in the early '70's and managed to get anywhere near New England, you played Joe's Place. The sheer volume of unofficial recordings--and quality blues-- to come out of that club has guaranteed that we're still talking about the joint four decades on.

When Albert Collins showed up in January, '73 he was into the long, lean years between moving on from Imperial and finding his way to Alligator. In Cambridge, he's in front of a potent, stripped-down quartet that gives us, at times, a funkier feel than we would see in later Ice Breakers years (see the Thaw Out opening and "by request" Frosty for examples...) Through an hour-long set, the Iceman gives us vintage, ripping readings of Gonna Walk With You Baby, Conversation with Collins, and Back Stroke. This is lean and mean Albert, grinning all the way...


Albert Collins
Joe's Place
Cambridge MA
January 17, 1973

FM

1. Thaw Out
2. Can't You See What You're Doin' To Me
3. Gonna Walk With You Baby
4. Get Down
5. Frosty
6. Conversation With Collins
7. Stormy Monday
8. Back Stroke
9. Instrumental

Albert Collins: Guitar, Vocals
B.C. Hill: Bass
Dave Maxwell: Piano
Mark David: Drums


Link


Less than two months before, Hound Dog Taylor, Brewer Phillips, and Ted Harvey played a spate of shows through late November...and provided we blueshounds with hours of enjoyment and fits of confusion. Bootlegs of Hound Dog's November, 1972 run at Joe's Place first began being traded, then started popping up, years later on labels like Wolf and New Rose Blues. New Rose issued the most famous of these, Live at Joe's Place, in 1992, the same year that Wolf gave us Have Some Fun. They would follow this latter album up two years later with Freddie's Blues. This trio of albums provide the backbone of Taylor's non-Alligator discography.

And they were all cut at Joe's Place, in November of '72.

In 2006, British re-issue label Charly released Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers: Live in Boston. Though (as usual) light on citing their source material, Charly essentially released a "best of" compilation from these three Joe's Place albums. The best of these, New Rose's Live at Joe's Place, contributes 6 of of the 15 cuts and some of its strongest moments, though the Roll Your Moneymaker and Take Five offerings from Freddy's Blues are right tasty as well. Taylor, Phillips, and Harvey were, all three, liquored up and having a ball throughout these sets, giving it to Joe's like they were used to giving it to Florence's every Sunday: loose and raw, primal and raucous, blues that makes a man feel good 'bout being alive.

Peace, Mudcatz




Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers
Live in Boston
Charly, 2006

1. Wild About You Baby
2. The Sky is Crying
3. Dust My Broom
4. Give Me back My Wig
5. Mama, Talk To Your Daughter
6. Gonna Send You Back To Georgia
7. Rock Me Baby
8. Jumping With Symphony Sid
9. Just Can't Take It
10. It Hurts Me Too
11. Roll Your Moneymaker
12. Freddie's Blues
13. Let's Get Funky
14. Take Five
15. Goodnight Boogie

Link

Blue Monday: Muddy @ Jazz Workshop, '72

Those of you who suffered through my Paul's Mall post a few weeks back (or you folks who just happen to know Boston...) might recall that both Paul's Mall and the Jazz Workshop were under one roof, both downstairs and separated by a wall. Through their 15 year run (1963-78), these very small clubs would see the undisputed musical giants of their era. A great many of these shows were broadcast by Boston's WBCN radio...which almost always means that somebody bootlegged it...

In August of '72, it was Muddy's turn to take the stage at the Jazz Workshop, leaving us a woefully short set that is amply pleasing nonetheless. Muddy brought a fierce little line-up with him to Boyleston Street that night; behind him were Pinetop Perkins working the keys, PeeWee Madison and the legendary Louis Myers on guitar, Mojo Buford on harp and the fierce little rhythm section of Fuzz Jones and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith.


One of the joys of this set is Madison warming the room for the first 2 (actually 3 tunes) tracks, bringing some of that West Side goodness into mix with a Big Legged Woman>You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now and I Need Your Lovin'. Following Buford's standard circus barker intro, Muddy steps forward...and gives us his standard band intro banter. Listen to a stack of Muddy's band intros through this period and you'll see how little he seemed to wander from his script.

Muddy's leading the way through just 4 songs here, a by rote Stormy Monday, backed by a version of Jimmy Reed's You Don't Have to Go that gets to cooking. Long Distance Call was a fixture of Muddy's sets through the '70's, a ready-made moment for Muddy to break out his nasty slide and join the fun. After a romping, if predictable Mojo, Muddy's down the road and the band wraps things up with a spirited outro.

Short-dose Muddy it may be, but a tasty little nug it remains. And a fine way to kick off Blue Monday...

Peace, Mudcatz


Muddy Waters
Jazz Workshop
Boston MA
August 22, 1972

(FM) WBCN, Boston

1 Big Legged Woman>You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now
2 I Need Your Lovin'
3 Muddy intro
4 Band intros>Stormy Monday
5 You Don't Have to Go
6 Long Distance Call
7 Got My Mojo Workin'
8 Instrumental Outro


Link

Collins: Doubling Down

HighPing, Duncan, this one's for you...

Your comments had me getting on a Collins kick this last day or so--for that alone, I owe ya some thanks. I been going blind researching some of the posts that are coming right up and a heaping dose of Albert has always been one of the best reasons around to say "screw it," turn the volume up a notch or three, and get to loving life.

I don't know how these selections will do ya, most of the live Collins I've got here has been fairly well circulated and you may well have bumped into them before... They're definitely a pair to be had...

First up is some vintage Albert, circa 1969, treating the hippies of the Fillmore West to a roaring set, mixing Collins originals like Thaw Out and Backstroke with standards such as a grooving Mustang Sally and BB's How Blue Can You Get? I've seen several reviews whining about the sound quality of this performance...and I disagree. This show was a bootleg recording that, as many do, ended up "officially" released--just not by Collins. The obscure Red Lightnin label first issued this set in 1971, when Collins was still under contract to Imperial. Given its vintage, this
show has a decent sound indeed--and the Iceman's playing is hot.

The Japanese label, Pony Canyon, would be the first to reissue this set on disc, in 1999 under its original title, Alive & Cool. It would be released twice more in just the next 5 years, both on British labels, Catfish in 2000 and Snapper (as Thaw Out at the Fillmore) in 2004.

This is the Catfish issue...


Albert Collins
Live at the Fillmore
Catfish 2000

1. Instrumental
2. How Blue Can You Get?
3. Thaw Out
4. So Tired
5. Funky
6. Deep Freeze
7. Baby, What You Want Me To Do?
8. Mustang Sally
9. Backstroke

Link


Twenty-three years later, Collins had spent more than a decade having his career rejuvenated--and doing some of his best work--on the Alligator label. June of '92 found him at Grant Park's Petrillo Band Shell, headlining the Chicago Blues Festival. Wrapping up a weekend that had seen, among others, Honeyboy Edwards, Hubert Sumlin, Sunnyland Slim and Jimmy Dawkins, Sunday night's performance was a thing of thunderous beauty, made all the more special by the guest appearance of fellow Texas blues legend, Lowell Fulson. Albert backs Fulson for a pair of tunes, including the souful Reconsider Baby. From a ripping Iceman to a strutting Black Cat Bone, a funky Do You Feel It? to his ringing, blistering instrumentals, we are are on the receiving end of a late career blast from a master showman.

This is an FM-sourced boot, broadcast by 91.5 Public Radio in Chicago and includes a brief interview segment with Collins shortly after he leaves the stage. Albert is tickled that the show had been broadcast nationally. He is in great humor, though he expresses some light regret that he was unable to get down into the audience, owing to time constraints for his set. Using a 175-foot cord, Collins was famous for walking through his crowds to the bar, the men's room, or out into the street, playing all the while. It was trademark Collins and Albert explains it this way:

"I like being around people when I play, you know...get close to 'em and feel like you know each other...feel like family..."



Albert Collins
Chicago Blues Festival
Grant Park Chicago IL
June 7, 1992

1. Intro
2. Instrumental
3. Iceman
4. Lights Are On But Nobody's Home
5. Put the Shoe On the Other Foot
6. Black Cat Bone
7. Instrumental
8. Same Old Thing
9. Mr. Collins
10. Things I Used To Do
11. Lowell Fulson intro
12. Do You Feel It
13. Reconsider Baby
14. Instrumental
15. Radio Wrap-up
16. Interview

Link


Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Freddie @ Cain's Ballroom, '75

Some boots have just had more miles on 'em than others. Freddie King has usually had a fair brace of concert tapes in circulation since before he left us, tragically too soon, in December of '76. King's legacy and impact on both blues and rock is still being assessed even now. When turned loose, the Texas Cannonball was close to an intuitive genius, playing from the guts and flying when the spirit told him to soar.

Unlike many of King's early '70's boots, which have been in tape circulation almost as long, his April, '75 show at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma seems to have bobbed to the surface somewhat more recently. As far as I can tell, it first started popping up in trading circles only about 6 years ago, having been cleaned up and sound adjusted along the way. The end result is a crisp-sounding, high-octaned show that just rips.

Playing the ballroom circuit, as opposed to festival or televised slots, usually meant Freddie had the time and space to stretch out, as he treats us to here, producing a two-disc beast of a show that comes on strong and keeps on swinging.


Freddie King
Cain's Ballroom
Tulsa OK
April 15, 1975


1. Big Legged Woman
2. Hey Baby (Part 1)
3. TV Mama
4. Look On Yonder Wall
5. Woman Across The River
6. San-Ho-Zay
7. Have You Ever Loved A Woman>
8. Rock Me Baby>
9. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
10. Goin' Down //


1. Sweet Home Chicago>Hey Baby (Part 2)>Palace of The King
2. Please Accept My Love
3. Shake Your Booty
4. Mojo Boogie


Link

Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Collins @ Monterrey, '78

Those of you folks anywhere near the north-eastern U.S. hardly need any reminder of the blizzard that's frolicking about out there. It's been coming down for more than 24 hours now and there ain't a whole lot of point to be poking my head out of the cabin.

It seems more than appropriate to bring on the Iceman...

1978 would prove to be a key year for Collins, the year he would sign with the still-fledgling Alligator Records and not only rejuvenate his lagging career but also vault his career into his most successful period.

That September, Albert took the stage at the Monterrey Jazz Festival and delivered a short, if incendiary set. None of the material Collins covered at Monterrey that afternoon would be among the songs released that year on Ice Pickin'. It is an on-time dose of under-exposed Collins, backed by a tight band that includes the swinging, venerable A.C. Reed.


Albert Collins
Monterrey Jazz Festival
September 16, 1978

sbd @320/kbs

1. Somebody's Got to Go
2. I'm Ready
3. Instrumental/Collins intro
4. Have Mercy
5. Don't Lose Your Cool
6. Do What You Wanna Do
7. The Things I Used To Do
8. Frosty

Link


Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: John Lee @ University Aula, '76

These cold wet nights must have been invented to get a wood fire going and sprawl out with the blues. Something smooth and deep. I have seen this John Lee Hooker show as having taken place in Salzburg--and that just ain't so. This gig actually hails from the Aula Der Universitat in Koln. But it don't really matter where this one took place; it's a spot-on dose of Hooker on anybody's road-map.

John Lee's out in front of the Coast To Coast Blues Band for this outing, a line-up that featured Jim Kahr on guitar, Roger Brouse on bass, and Ken Swank on the drums. Kahr also handles vocal duties on As the Years Go Passing By. Kahr's guitar work for this gig, and especially this song, is tight and tasty indeed.

But John Lee Hooker's at center stage and he delivers a roughly half-hour set mixing live Hooker staples such as Crawlin Kingsnake and Serves Me Right to Suffer with juicy little rarities like Charles Brown's Black Night.

Time to turn the lights low and get you & your lady into something more comfortable. It's plenty warm in here. John Lee Hooker's in the house.

Peace, Mudcatz


John Lee Hooker
Aula Der Universitat
Cologne, Germany
June 18th, 1976


1. Intro
2. Goin' To California
3. Crawlin' King Snake
4. You're So Fine
5. It Serves Me Right To Suffer
6. As The Years Go Passing By
7. Black Night Is Falling
8. Can't Stop Groovin'

Link

Blue Monday: Mississippi Fred @ Court Coffee House, '71

Stepping off from yesterday's "Sunday Spirituals" offering and Fred & Annie Mae McDowell's My Home Is In the Delta, it seems only appropriate that Fred gets to take another turn, showing up in Tacoma, Washington for this two-set glory of stripped-down blues.

While touring through '71, Fred would be diagnosed with the cancer that would ultimately claim him in July of the following year. Finding renown at the tail end of his life, Fred became one of the blues' few success stories, leaving us some of the finest blues ever recorded.

This April, 1971 bootleg finds Fred at the Court Coffee House, doing what he did best: entrancing a crowd with a guitar on his knee, coming on with blues so deep BP couldn't dig a well that far down.

Peace, Mudcatz


Mississippi Fred McDowell
Court Coffee House
Tacoma WA
April 14, 1971

sbd

Set 1

01 Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
02 Louise
03 John Henry
04 My Babe
05 I woke Up This Morning
06 When I Lay My Burden Down
07 Jesus On The Mainline
08 You Got To Move
09 Worried Blues
E:
10 Baby Take My Rest

Set 2

01 Mojo Hand
02 Instrumental
03 I feel So Bad
04 Unknown Instrumental
05 Lord I Wonder What I Have Done Wrong
06 Kokomo Blues
07 Lord,When You Get Home
08 Bye Bye Little Girl
09 Someday Baby
10 61 Highway
E:
11 Oh, That´s Alright
12 (false start)
13 Unknown Instrumental
14 Lord I Wonder What I Have Done Wrong
15 Lord My Head Don´t Hurt Me

Link

Blue Monday: Buddy & Junior @ Newport Folk, '68

This is some Junior & Buddy for your ass!

A vintage treat from front to back. Guy and Wells, caught in middle of the Golden Age of their partnership, and serving up a short & sublime blast of Chicago blues on the closing night of 1968's Newport Folk Festival.

Enough talk. This one sings for itself.


Buddy Guy & Junior Wells
Newport Folk Festival
Newport RI
July 28, 1968

(sbd @ 320)

1. Intro
2. One Room Country Shack
3. Checkin' On My Baby
4. Hoodoo Man Intro
5. Hoodoo Man Blues
6. Messin' With The Kid
7. Help Me Intro
8. Help Me
9. Crowd/Talk
10. Stormy Monday/I Feel Good


Link

Buddy Guy - Guitar, Vocals
Junior Wells - Vocals, Harmonica
A.C. Reed - Sax
Jack Myers- Bass
Fred Below - Drums


Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Buddy & Junior @ Lone Star, '85

Getting back into my Blue Monday features here at Backwoods, I figure it's been well past time to bring it on home with a couple of rollicking sets from a pair of my favorite bluesmen, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.


Our first outing finds this legendary duo on stage at New York City's Lone Star Cafe in February, 1985. Long before this date it had become Standard Operating Procedure with their club dates for the band to warm up with a few tunes, then for Buddy to take center stage for a set before bringing out Junior. In the case of this boot, we see this very template. The first couple tracks has guitarist Pete Allen fronting a band that includes Ike Anderson on bass and Jerry Porter on the drums. It's a dandy warm-up, too. Buddy joins them for a fully-charged and decidedly-Buddy take on Dust My Broom (while also riffing on Sweet Home Chicago) Buddy's playing throughout this gig is razor's-edged and ripping.

Everyone's in good humor tonight and Buddy is clearly having fun through his "Guitar Imitations," mimicking the styles of his Chicago mentors. He concludes this by saying, "...now let me show you how Junior Wells sounds," thundering then into his Low Down Dirty Shame opening riffs.

Junior comes out strong, giving Low Down Dirty a healthy, slicker-than-greased-owlshit reading. Heading into Ships on the Ocean, Junior's vocals just aren't quite hitting the spot. "Sing, motherfucker!" Buddy goads him playfully, and Junior slides a whole lot closer into the pocket.

And he stays there, right along with a band that's just getting it on through the balance of the this off the radar bootleg.


Peace, Mudcatz




Buddy Guy & Junior Wells
Lone Star Cafe
New York City NY
February 18, 1985

sbd @ 256/k

Set 1

1. Teenie Weenie Bit
2. Hush Hush
3. Dust My Broom
4. Five Long Years
5. Crazy About You
6. I Just Want To Make Love To You
7. Stormy Monday
8. Buddy's Guitar Imitations
9. Low Down Dirty Shame (tape flip)

Set 2

1. Ships On The Ocean
2. Trouble No More
3. (banter/tuning)
4. Sweet Home Chicago
5. Hoochie Coochie Man
6. James Brown Medley

Link

Hurt @ NYU '63

Through the early 1960's, when the folk blues revival was reaching fever pitch, a good deal of that interest was fueled by New York City's Friends of Old Time Music. This group staged more than a dozen concerts in the city between 1961 and 1965, shining the spotlight directly on folk and blues artists who had long been relegated to obscurity. Most of these concerts were recorded by Peter Siegel, to whom we are indebted for preserving this legacy.

1963 was a significant year for Mississippi John Hurt. Presumed by many to be dead--and by everybody to be lost to Time--a musicologist by the name of Tom Hoskins adopted a novel approach: he simply went to Avalon, Mississippi, the town of which Hurt had sang about 35 years before, and began to ask around. Avalon was mythical in its own right, a hamlet that didn't even appear on highway maps of that time. Certain that it, and presumably the only link to Hurt, was there, Hoskins located the town just outside Greenwood, MS, in an atlas, circa 1878. He located Hurt himself shortly thereafter.

In December of that year, the Friends of Old Time Music staged a concert at NYU's School of Medicine, a double bill that had Hurt sharing the stage with Dock Boggs, who, like Mississippi John, had also recorded his obscure sides in that city, more than 30 years before. I have never been able to locate Boggs' set from this legendary night. Mississippi John Hurt's contributions that evening were a love letter to us all.


Mississippi John Hurt
NYU School of Medicine Alumini Hall
New York University
New York NY
December 13, 1963

1. Do Lord Intro
2. Do Lord Remember Me
3. Since I've Laid My Burden Down
4. C.C. Rider
5. Casey Jones
6. Nobody's Dirty Business
7. Richmond Woman Blues Intro
8. Richmond Woman Blues
9. Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me
10. Spike Driver's Blues
11. Stack O'Lee Blues
12. Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor
13. Coffee Blues Intro
14. Coffee Blues
15. My Creole Blues
16. Frankie and Al
17. Talking Casey //

Link

Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Otis & Luther @ Chicago Blues Festival, '95

For tonight's Blue Monday installments, we'll be revisiting the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival. Through the years, across Grant Park's 3 stages, the Chicago Blues Festival has come to represent the pinnacle of blues festivals, featuring the very best the idiom has got to offer. For 3 days in June 1995, there was just something in the air and the festival would produce at least 3 sets that have become the stuff of legend, from Luther Allison, Otis Rush, and Brownie McGhee. We would lose Brownie to stomach cancer the following February...and as we would soon find out, Luther wouldn't be around much longer either.

Blazing through Saturday evening's performances at the Petrillo Band Shell were sets by Eddie C. Campbell, followed by Allison. Otis Rush headlined that night, delivering a blistering performance, climaxed by Luther and Campbell sitting in with Otis for the Gambler's Blues>Sweet Little Angel Medley.

If this recording is any indication, then Otis Rush could not have felt more at home on that stage than he did, rendering a near-perfect dose of West Side Chicago blues.



Otis Rush
Chicago Blues Festival
Grant Park
Chicago, IL
June 3, 1995

Sbd @320

01. Everything's Going To Be Alright
02. Big Legged Woman
03. Otis Rush Introduction - Crosscut Saw
04. Right Place, Wrong Time
05. Somebody Have Mercy
06. Homework
07. 1 It's My Own Fault
08. All Your Love
09. Tore Up
10. A Fool For You
11. Tell Me The Reason
12. I Don´t What Love Is>Gambler's Blues>Sweet Little Angel*

*with Luther Allison & Eddie C. Campbell


Link



Few people had more to prove than Luther Allison did that night. Allison had been away from Chicago for years, having emigrated to Paris in the early 1980's. Like Memphis Slim (who headlined the following night's performances...), Luther felt he was getting more respect in Europe than he was in a United States that was once again leaving the blues behind...in favor of soul music and pop dreck.

Luther had famously been reintroduced to his domestic public, and his career launched to heights that had always eluded him, when he signed to Alligator in 1994. Soul Fixin Man and its follow-up, Blue Streak were revelations and made Luther an overnight star...more than 35 years after his career began.

Luther was very much aware of how important his set at the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival was to his reestablishment and to making his presence known. When Luther took the stage that Saturday evening, he hadn't seen a a bed in two nights. He'd played a festival in Nantes, France, before grabbing a Paris to Chicago flight to be on time for his set. Luther was a bluesman renowned for high energy sets and for always delivering the goods. Drawing heavily on material from his recently-released Blue Streak, Luther pulled off a career high point that night, with ripping renditions of Cherry Red Wine, Bad Love, a wild Give Me Back My Wig and a soaring take on Tampa Red's It Hurts Me Too.

When Alligator Records released Luther's set as the first disc of Live In Chicago, they tacked on the Gambler's Blues>Sweet Little Angel medley from Otis Rush's set. The second disc features material from a further pair of Allison concerts, a November, '95 gig at Buddy Guy's Legends and a May 1997 outing from Lincoln Nebraska's Zoo Bar.

The 1999 release would prove to be the first (and my opinion best) of a spate of posthumous live Allison releases, a double-disc blast of a legend at the top of his game.




Luther Allison
Live in Chicago
Alligator, 1999

Disc 1

1-intro
2-Soul Fixin Man
3-Cherry Red Wine
4-Move from the Hood
5-Bad Love
6-Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
7-Big City
8-Give Me back My Wig
9-It Hurts Me Too
10-Gambler's Blues>Sweet Little Angel

Disc 2

1-Party Time
2-All the King's Horses
3-What Have I Done Wrong?
4-Walking Papers
5-Think With Your Heart
6-What's Goin On In My Home?
7-Will it Ever Change?
8-You're Gonna Make Me Cry
9-Everything's Gonna Be Alright


Link


AND...for those of you who would like to explore just one more from the 1995 Chicago Blues festival, I would invite you to check out Mitch Lopate's recent post over at Voodoo Wagon...

Brownie McGhee, June 4, 1995


Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Lockwood @ Chicago Blues '95 (Re-post)

It's only been about 5 weeks since I first put this gemstone of a gig up. I'm re-posting it to give it some continuity with the sets that will be following on this blog momentarily...

For tonight's Blue Monday installments, I'll be revisiting the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival and throwing some attention on four sets from those three days, each one blue gold to the core...


A couple years back, when I first came across this Robert Junior Lockwood set, I thought it was manna from Heaven, a late-career gem that has never gotten notice, much less the love it deserves. Lockwood had just turned 80 when he took the stage at Grant Park for this set and would still have another decade's worth of playing ahead of him. On stage at that year's Chicago Blues Festival, Lockwood more than proved he was still one of the best there ever was.


Robert Lockwood Jr.
1995 Chicago Blues Festival
Grant Park
Chicago IL
June 2, 1995

(@ 320/kps)

1. King Biscuit Time
2. I'm Just Your Fool
3. Lockwood's Boogie
4. Tell Me What's In Store
5. Hangin' On
6. Ramblin' On My Mind
7. Stop Breakin' Down
8. This Is The Blues
9. Everyday I Have The Blues
10. Mojo Hand

Link


Don't ask, just do.

Enjoy.

Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Janis in Honolulu, '70

Rounding out this evening's Janis Joplin highlights, we find ourselves in moonlit Hawaii, or more specifically at the International Centre Arena in Honolulu, fronting her recently-convened Full-Tilt Boogie Band. This gig was put together almost as an after-thought, booked largely because Janis had taken her band on vacation to the islands--and rather than waste an opportunity...

As bootleg Janis goes, this one isn't without its issues. There are equipment/guitar amplifier issues on stage, prompting some interesting banter and moments through Track 4. Coming out of this into an otherwise strong reading of Maybe, we are getting some distortion. Sound fluctuations will follow, scattered throughout the balance of this show.

I would suggest that Janis' stronger moments in this gig are actually in the front half, with Tell Mama, Half Moon, and a Move Over that begins with Janis inciting the crowd to "rock."

"Do you hear that rhythm?" she implores the audience over Clark Pearson's insistent beat. "Do you understand that rhythm? Alright, get it on..."

Jose Cuervo is definitely on stage with Pearl through this outing and I'm thinking that is precisely why the first half of this show is stronger than its second. She's gassed the whole way through and becomes increasingly inflammatory as the show goes on, winding up the audience and, coming in for her encore, admonishing the MC who has been trying in vain to get the raucous audience to calm down and take their seats.

"I'll be responsible for any damages," Janis tells him. "So split and leave me alone. You figure out what it costs and I'll pay for it, man..."

Still, the bottom half of the show is not without its high points, which include Kozmic Blues (though sound issues mar Richard Bell's sweet piano intro...)and Get It While You Can, which Janis describes as new and "gets about as close to the truth as I've ever heard..."


Janis Joplin
International Centre Arena
Honolulu Hawaii
July 6, 1970


1. Tell Mama
2. Half Moon
3. Move Over
4. Stage Problems
5. Maybe
6. Summertime
7. Banter
8. Get It While You Can
9. Kozmic Blues
10. Encore Break
11. Piece of My Heart


Link


Peace, Mudcatz

Blue Monday: Janis, Frankfurt & Stockholm, '69

Much to my surprise, it appears that my recent Joplin boot, Amsterdam '69, ended up being quite popular among you folks. I didn't know how it'd go over, but good Janis is all the reason I'll ever need to feature these shows...

The response I've gotten from last week's post has had me rooting about through my Janis bootlegs to separate the wheat from the chaff as it were. As I mentioned in my last post, Janis' boots are rife with shoddy, at times hideous sound quality.

So let's just stick with the ones that are the best of the lot...

From the same European tour that produced Janis' Amsterdam show comes her Kosmic Blues Band lighting up the stages in Stockholm and Frankfurt-am-Main.

We are rewarded by sticking with the Frankfurt show as both the sound quality and performance improve a short ways in. Playing at the legendary Hundred Year Hall to an audience that was largely American servicemen and dependents, Janis goads the audience to "get up and move!" as they head into Snooky Flowers' instrumental, Me. Coming back off this break, Janis tears into a spot-on Maybe and stays strong through the balance of the set. A later-era Ball & Chain provide some of this set's stand-out moments.

Both the Frankfurt and Stockholm shows share Summertimes that are things of beauty. Sam Andrew had followed Janis into the Kosmic Blues from Big Brother and was still on hand to lend his superlative licks through these readings. Recorded for Swedish television just a week after Janis' Frankfurt gig, Stockholm's show is further enhanced by a stand-out cover of Nick Gravenites' Work Me Lord.

Don't wonder, just enjoy...


Janis Joplin
Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
April 12, 1969


Raise Your Hands
Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
Me
Maybe
Summertime
Ball and Chain
Piece of My Heart


Link


Janis Joplin
Groena Lund
Stockholm, Sweden
April 19, 1969



Piece of My Heart
Interview
Summertime
Me
Raise Your Hand
Work Me Lord

Link


Peace, Mudcatz