The Chicago Blues Fest received its share of thunderstorms, and yet a reasonably large crowd still attended. Sadly I believe that the festivities days are numbered. The City has reduced its size compared to years past. There were no B.B. King or Buddy Guy type big acts, although Billy Branch, John Primer, Billy Boy Arnold and Lurrie Bell headlined Saturday night. Sunday evening's line-up is sure going to get wet.
I attended Saturday with my good friend Jim and L V Banks (seen dancing in the opening of this video). The rain forced an early departure of 3:30 PM. Before we departed we got a chance to see Toronzo Cannon, He is an upcoming artist that will soon break nationally. Toronzo is a great artist. He played twice Saturday. Once as the headliner on the Gibson Stage then as a guitar player in the Chris Harper Band. Toronzo can also be seen in the same video with L V. Toronzo is the southpaw guitar player with the tilted hat. Great job Toronzo.
Sunday I attended with my Blues Mentor Smilin' Bobby. Bobby has played five years in a row at the fest and because of this they would not book him again. He called to see if I wanted to go with to help try to sell some CD's. I did. I was going anyway to pass out flyers for the "All Star Night Of The Blues" Electro Glide Records show September 11, 2010. Go to their site for more info.
It is amazing the amount of folks that come to the blues fest from all over the United States and the World. As Bobby walked through the crowd fans stopped to say hello. There was a couple from Cincinnati, Ohio that attended because of Smilin Bobby. They were overwhelmed with excitement that they finally got a chance to meet him. Brits sat at the table with us and we had a couple of good laughs. I like the Brits, my stepmother is one.
The rain stayed away until 4:00 PM and then the skies opened with a torrential, typhoon type downpour. Driving south on Lake shore Drive I glanced towards the festival grounds and observed a sea of Golf Umbrellas . There are at least a handful of die-hard blues fans left. God Bless them one and all.
Love to you all from America's Heartland and of course,
BLUES ME OR LOSE ME
Terry Lape AKA Gatotman
I was pretty excited when I heard that a new blues club opened up in a far southwest suburb of Chicago. Last Friday night I was treated to one of the best blue shows ever. T-Bird Huck. I previously hung out at a club that was cool. This one is even better. The manager, Sterling loves the blues and the other place got rid of the number one fan of the blues, Mike. It is a dimly lit venue that holds just about 100 people. The staff is very friendly and accommodating. I asked Linda, our waitress for some paper to write this article. She came back with a whole legal pad and pen. She is my favorite pirate or should I say wench she was dressed as one of those because it was the Halloween weekend. I cannot comment on the quality of cocktails served because I only drink non-alcoholic drinks such as cranberry juice. All drinks are $2 each. They should be at least 4 bucks considering the quality of entertainment that plays there every Friday night.
T-Bird Huck is an often misunderstood Blues Man. He credits Howlin Wolf as his inspiration. The Bird man told me a story about how a friend and he went to HW’s house and knocked on the door. He was about 20 years old at the time. The Wolf’s wife answered the door and invited the two of them in. He blabbered something about that HW is the greatest and he was his biggest fan. HW’s wife asked them to sit down. She went and disappeared for a minute and in walked Howlin Wolf. Greetings were exchanged all around and after that first meet they become friends. T-Bird opened up for Howlin Wolf on numerous occasions and considered him a close friend. T-bird eyes watered when he told me about going to Howlin’ Wolf’s funeral. If it had not been for that knock on the door we may not have had this great blues artist.
T-bird picked up his Telecaster, plucked that guitar and strutted across that stage just like I envision that little red rooster he was singing about. Jimmy (keys) Caleca provided an amazing Hammond M 3 counterpoint to T-Bird’s guitar wizardry. (I never thought I would ever write that word “counterpoint” in a blues post.) Ben Smith, Bassman and Kalbo held the rhythm section in very tight. I swear T-Bird was channeling the wolf during his performance. It was jammed packed with emotion and a bucketful of pain and absolutely the best rendition of “Little Red Rooster” ever. It is amazing the artistry that the Chicago land area has. It happens all the time around this town. I just wish I was able to hear them all, but I got to sleep once and awhile.
T-Bird is a musician who absorbs guitar licks like a sponge and plays them in an entirely different blues style. He is a musician’s musician. During his performance of “Boom, Boom” his shadow fell on a blank wall and that shadow looked like a profile of Stevie Ray. John Lee Hooker and all the “Kings” were manipulating his vocal cords. Muddy had his right hand and T-Bone held his left. He performed that song with such intensity and fury that it seemed like some of the candles dimmed in reverence to those departed souls.
“My Own Fault” is a song that is played and played and played over and over again. It has been beat to death. T-Bird’s version was beyond compare. It sizzled. He sang it like it was the last song he would ever sing. The emotion he bought to this song was as if he was pleading for his life in front of the woman he scorned and she is standing over him with a meat cleaver ready to strike. The thing about T-Bird is the songs that are not his, become his as soon as he picks the first note. He packs 2,000 pounds of creativity in each and every version and presents them to the audience as an audio delight of raw beauty. He is the Picasso of the Blues.
T-bird plays a damn wicked guitar. He also plays a gut wrenching, full throttle, damn the torpedoes type Mississippi saxophone (Harmonica). Oh almost forgot, he does a great impression of Vito Corleone from “The Godfather” movie.
You can see and hear T-Bird, Jimmy Caleca and Ben Smith, every Friday night at the D’Blue Room. It is located behind the House of Hughes 201East Maple Street (RT 30) New Lenox, Illinois. 1-815-462-9000 Call ahead to find out who is playing Saturdays, there is always a different act. $5 buck cover pays for the band. It is
worth it, every penny.
"Jimmy's Blues" Video has Doug "Rifleman" Horan on bass
Last Friday night my "hey let's go hear some blues buddy" Jim and I picked up LV Banks and headed to Kingston Mines. http://www.kingstonmines.com/ Magic Slim and the Teardrops were playing in the south room and Joanna Connor was in the north room. They play one room (Magic) for an hour then everyone goes over to the next room for an hour (Joanna). Back and forth it goes until 4am. They start at 9pm. We caught two sets of Magic. I pulled into my driveway at 3am. It was a long Night.
If anyone knows anything about Chicago they know that parking anywhere in Lincoln Park Friday night is nearly impossible. Let me rephrase that, if you want to park in a parking garage for 20 bucks go ahead or park illegally, but be prepared for about $150.00 parking ticket. Recently the city of Chicago sold all the parking meters to a private company. The new company raised the fees. What they forgot to do was increase the size of the coin boxes. The company cannot empty the cash fast enough and the city has issued more tickets than usual. I have friends that live within a ten minute walk of the Mines. Their house is in a very expensive area of the city. In this area of town you cannot touch a property for less than 1.5 mil. Pete and his wife always invite me to visit. My favorite reply is, "Where do I Park?” They solved the problem. Now when I come over they let me park on the apron of their garage. In Chicago almost everyone has an alley and the garages empty into the alleys. parking in that spot saved us money. We piled into a cab that was driven by a guy from Somalia. In Chicago cabs are driven by guys from Somalia. It is a rule. We took a cab because it was raining. Short 5 minute ride 10 bucks. Wild and short just like a tilt-a-whirl.
Kingston Mines has very tight and large security. His name is BJ. I do not know why people connected with the blues use initials instead of names. You know LV, BJ, BB. I told BJ that we were with LV. BJ gave us a free pass. The Mines charges a $15 cover. LV saved us $75. We entered through swinging doors and there it was the infamous Kingston Mines. The place is not much of a show palace. It’s just a bar, bunch of tables and some Mississippi river boat scenes on the walls, but it is the most famous blues club period. Frank the emcee climbed the three steps up to the stage and explained about fire rules, dancing and his dad doc. Doc And LV go way back and have not seen each other for 20 years. Doc started the mines about 200 years ago. I’m just kidding Doc, about 60 years ago. If there was a blues kingdom Doc would be King. He is BLUES royalty.The list of musicians he employed during those past years are as thick as a Chicago Phone book. Name one that's not on the list.
Magic Slim is a very large man at about 6 and 1/2 feet. When Magic saw LV he smiled from ear to ear. LV and Magic gigged together in the mid 60's. LV told me later about a woman they were both involved with. I do not know if that's true or not. Sure sounds like a good blues story.
John McDonald, Magic's guitar player, and my "hey let's go hear some blues buddy” Jim struck up a nice lengthy conversation. John told Jim that the group is on the road for three months and home for two weeks. Then that cycle repeats. That is a grueling schedule.They are a hardworking bunch.
Magic’s band took the stage. I listen to a lot of blues bands and in my opinion can tell from the first four beats if the group has been schooled in the blues.Magic’s band has three college professors and each member holds a Doctorate Degree with a discipline in Bluesology. Magic's band kicked and kicked it hard. They are a force to be reckoned with.
Magic was escorted to the stage. He sat in a bar stool mid stage. Mike, the goups manger, handed him his guitar while Magic settled back. BOOM that “workweek waiting for Friday night” note hit. The blues lovers went nuts. He knocked it out of the park, he shoots he scores (insert here all catch phrases you have ever heard to describe excellence in performance).
Believe me when I say,” Magic is traditional West Side Chicago blues”.He makes the guitar sing as much as he does. I’ll quote Magic and say his favorite catch phrase “I ain’t lying.”He is well worth the cost of admission and is very approachable. He is one of the old school blues men.As we say in the business he is “THE REAL DEAL.”
What is a true Blues man? I will utilize my 35 some odd years of hanging with the real deal Southside, Westside, East side, and North side Chicago Artists to try to answer this question. I have humorously answered this question in the past and will try to seriously answer it here.
Please realize that this is my opinion and mine alone. I will use the term blues man in a generic way as one would use the word mankind. You can substitute gender where you like.
A blues man can be defined in many different ways and in order to define him we must first identify or examine a definition of blues music. The “Blues” is a feeling that runs the gambit of all emotions from the happiest to the saddest. A blues artist uses music to communicate the emotional feeling he experiences. Just like any other artist he uses a certain type of media to express these feelings. A blues man in this case uses audio.
A text book characterization of the blues genre is built around a simple framework of the musical scale that utilizes notes of the key signature. It is principally played in a 12 bar framework. In the key of C the scale would be as follows; C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. If we number each note starting with the low C as the first note of the scale and the D as the second and so forth, we would play the first (C), the fourth (F) and the Fifth note (G) of the scale. This is not a definitive definition by all means, but rather I offer it as a foundation. John Lee Hooker made a considerable contribution to the genre and he primarily focused on the one or the root note of the key signature.
There are numerous variations to the above definition. Some examples are illustrated in these songs such as the 9 bar format of “The Mississippi sheiks’” “Sitting On Top Of the World” and the 16 bar format of Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man”.
John Lee Hooker’s format is clearly shown with his “Boogie Chillun”. This one song hit the top of the charts in 1948 and influenced songs such as; ZZ Top’s “LaGrange”, and Magic Sam’s “I Feel So Good”.
By the previous examples one would conclude that a blues artist is one who plays or uses the above musical framework. This is not the case. Rock and Roll (Baby of the blues) uses the I- IV- V twelve bar format throughout its genre. Some Rock And Roll musicians who have been labeled Blues men are in fact not. They are still Rockers. They primarily focus on rock and occasionally venture into the streets of Bluesdom.
A Blues Man can be defined as primarily playing, that’s right, the blues. An example of this is B. B. King. I do not believe that he has ever ventured away from the blues and tried to do play rock. Just because Rock and rollers have this desire to play the blues does not make them a blues man. I do not care if you are at the top of the music biz. If you earn your living by playing Rock and Roll you are not a blues man, you are a rocker.
Think of it this way. I served a five year apprenticeship in woodworking. My primary job was making complex wooden patterns for the steel casting industry. The training I received in those five years served me well over the years. I learned all phases of woodworking, including cabinetmaking. I could make cabinets, bookcases, furniture, chairs and the like. I could do a cabinet makers job, but I was a wood patternmaker, not a cabinet maker. If you play Rock and Roll and earn money at it you are not a blues man.
I discussed the above with my friend and blues mentor Wolf Records recording artist Smilin Bobby. I wanted to get his perspective on this essay. Bob and I have been hanging out together for over 30 years and he is a real Blues man. I read this article to him and he is in total agreement with it. It has a blues man’s stamp of approval.
Smiling Bobby’s new release on Wolf Records is out October 1.
It is called Big Legged Woman Catalog Number CD 120.821
Here is the news release direct from Wolf Records
Wolf Releases
SMILIN' BOBBY with the HIDDEN CHARMS - Big Legged Woman
CD 120.821
Smilin’ Bobby & Hidden Charms – Big Legged Woman
!!!new!!!
His first CD ever!!!
Release date is 1st October.
Smilin’ Bobby always played in small clubs or in corner taverns way out in the suburbs. He is for many blues lovers the favorite unknown bluesman in Chicago. His guitar style is a cross between Magic Slims stinging leads and Magic Sam’s cool little rhythm fills while his great singing doesn’t really sound like anyone else.
In 1958 Smilin’ Bobby started to play music in clubs and playing at Maxwell Street Sunday mornings beginning around 1961 or 62. He became a close friend to Magic Sam and used to hang around at his house. Smilin’ Bobby got his nickname around 62 or 63 because he was always grinning so much. He was influenced by Jimmy Reed and Willie Mabon, also Little Milton, Albert Collins and Albert King. His guitar style is not Delta Blues it is much more modern, somewhere in between R’n‘B and Chicago Blues.
He is now 69 years old and his son Carlos Showers is another great guitar player who played in Willie Kent’s band the Gents.
Nobody knows why Smilin’ Bobby has no CD out until now – but it doesn’t matter. On his Wolf CD you will listen to the best hidden Chicago Blues talent since Vance Kelly.
Smilin’ Bobby is very young with his 69 years!
Before I start I must inform the readers that I am a BLUES FANATIC. I would not be writing this review unless this DVD is the real thing. These are real people with real problems and it is the blues. Blues can fall anywhere between happy and sad. This runs more on the sad side, but that is to be expected considering the subject matter.
One man searches for his family and another man searches for a way to put his sorrow behind. Floyd Lee is a blues man of extraordinary talents and, after 60 years, returns to his roots in the hope of finding family he never knew. Joel Poluck is a young upcoming blues artist that uses song to heal from the loss of his soul mate.
John Gardiner was the driving force behind this project. He handled the role of editor, cinematographer, producer and director. One of those tasks would tend to overwhelm any one person. Judging from this DVD "Blues" Documentary, John handled those with ease. The story is concise and to the point. The editing is top notch and the direction is very easy to follow.
"Full Moon Lightnin'' is a journey into the blues that very few people take. I enjoyed it from the first scene of Floyd Lee dropping a needle on a record to the last parting shot of Floyd Lee saying "I may be almost gone, but the blues lives on. Mark that."
The soundtrack can stand on it's own two feet and along with the DVD presents a total package that belongs in any blues fanatics catalog. The music is the down home real deal stuff ladies and gentlemen, The real stuff. I recommend you buy it now.
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