John Prine born October 10 1946

John Prine, (October 10 1946 - April 7, 2020) was a singer and songwriter whose folksy songs cut to the quick of quotidian American life with their themes of human frailty, loneliness and foolishness.

John Prine was born and grew up in Maywood, Illinois, a working-class suburb of Chicago, the son of William Prine, a tool-and-die maker at the American Can Company, and Verna née Hamm, a homemaker. His parents had migrated north to Chicago from Kentucky, and his father’s love of country music was to have a powerful influence on Prine. At home, the radio was tuned to a local country station and with a favourable wind could pick up WSM in Nashville, the home of the Grand Ole Opry. Prine grew up with the songs of Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, and as a teenager was taught to play the guitar by an elder brother. Leaving high school, he worked as a postman.

In 1966 he was drafted into the US Army, but escaped Vietnam by being sent to Germany to work as a mechanic. On his discharge he returned to his postal job, composing songs in his head as he completed his rounds. In 1969 he was at a club called the Fifth Peg in Chicago, which hosted open-mic nights when, acting on a dare, he got up and performed. His first song was his Vietnam ode Sam Stone. He went on to sing Hello in There and Paradise, about the calamitous effect of strip-mining in the Kentucky coal town where his father had grown up. The audience burst into applause, and later he wrote: “It was like I found out all of a sudden that I could communicate deep feelings and emotions. And to find that out all at once was amazing.” After the show, the owner offered him a residency.

One night the Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert was in the audience. Ebert did not usually write about music, but in a review for the paper he lionised Prine as a true original, and Sam Stone as one of the great songs of the century.Soon Prine was performing regularly at Chicago’s leading folk club, Earl of Old Town, earning $1,000 a week – three times what he was earning as a postman. When he told the postmaster that he was quitting to follow a singing career, the supervisor advised him not to cash out his pension, warning: “You’ll be back.” Prine cashed out his pension. With the help of Kris Kristofferson, who had seen him performing, Prine signed to Atlantic, and in 1971 released his eponymous debut album, with songs that would remain central to his repertoire for the rest of his career.

                                   

Initially, Prine’s drawling vocals and folksy songs led to him labouring under the thankless sobriquet of “the new Dylan”. Certainly Dylan was an influence, as was Johnny Cash. Prine admitted he could see no future for himself as a singer-songwriter until Dylan and Cash paired up on the album Nashville Skyline in 1969. But Prine was very much his own man, and no one recognised it more than Dylan himself. Prine enjoyed telling the story of how, before his first album had been released, he was invited to Carly Simon’s apartment with Kris Kristofferson and Steve Goodman. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Dylan walked in and to his astonishment Dylan began singing along on a number of Prine’s songs. Dylan, it transpired, had been listening to an advance copy of the album, and was unstinting in his admiration. Prine commanded a respect among his peers that far exceeded his popular recognition. Angelo Varias, a drummer who worked with Prine in the 1970s would recall his surprise when they performed at the Roxy in Los Angeles to find Phil Spector paying court. (Prine and Spector went on to collaborate on a song, God Only Knows).

Between 1971 and 1980 Prine released seven albums, firstly on Atlantic and then Asylum records. In 1981, feeling that the traditional relationship between artist and label weighed unfairly against the artist, Prine founded his own record label, Oh Boy, on which he would release all his recordings for the next 35 years. He toured constantly, usually preferring to drive himself between shows, building a loyal audience, lauded among his peers, but selling only a moderate amount of records. In 1991 he released his first album in five years, The Missing Years, where he was joined by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt on backing vocals. The title song was a humorous account of the unrecorded years between Jesus’s childhood and his ministry and going on to tell a rambling tale of the Messiah partying in Rome, discovering the Beatles and recording with the Rolling Stones, ending on a sobering note: “I’m a human corkscrew and all my wine is blood.” The album went on to win a Grammy Award as Best Contemporary Folk Album.

A genial, laconic man who liked fishing, drinking and smoking, in 1998 Prine was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer on the right side of his neck. He later told The New York Times that his surgeon had fashioned a shield for his vocal cords, joking that it was as if he were Pavarotti, instead of a performer who talked more than he sang. The surgeon removed a piece of his neck and severed nerves in his tongue, while the radiation damaged some salivary glands. He spent a year recuperating and undergoing speech therapy before he was able to perform again, but the operation left his head permanently slumped and would change his voice to a gravelly growl. In 2013, Prine’s health suffered a further setback when he underwent surgery for lung cancer. As part of his recuperation, an imaginative physical therapist had Prine running up and down the stairs in his home, then grabbing his guitar while still out of breath and singing two songs.

In 2017, Rolling Stone proclaimed him "The Mark Twain of American songwriting." In 2018, he released his 18th and final album, The Tree of Forgiveness, in which he brooded on the subjects of ageing, mortality and death. “Summer’s end came faster than we wanted” he sang in the song of that title, a meditation on the passing seasons as a metaphor for life. Prine was nominated for 12 Grammy awards, and was a three-time winner, twice for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Shortly before his death he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He was married three times, lastly to Fiona Whelan, whom he wed in 1996. The couple had a home in Galway, Ireland, where they spent part of each year, and where Prine was often to be found drinking and playing in Green’s pub or The Travellers Inn.

John & Fiona

On March 19, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Prine's wife Fiona revealed that she had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had been quarantined in their home apart from him. He was hospitalized at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 26 after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. On March 30, Fiona tweeted that she had recovered and that John was not improving. Prine died on April 7, 2020, of Covid-19 complications at the age of 73.

(Edited from The Telegraph obit & Wikipedia) 

Big Bo McGee born October 9, 1928

Big Bo McGee (October 9, 1928 - March 3, 2002) was a blues performer, songwriter, and harmonica player. Never as well-known as some of his contemporaries, he nevertheless benefitted from a resurgence in interest in traditional blues and toured Europe in the 1990s as part of the duo Little Whitt and Big Bo. He later achieved acclaim for his work visiting schools and educating students about the blues.

McGee was born as Cleo McGee, on the border between Emelle, Sumter County, and Porterville, Mississippi. Growing up straddling the state line, McGee later joked that his family could eat breakfast in Alabama and go to sleep in Mississippi. McGee's early musical training came from his grandmother, Emma Williams, a singer and harmonica player who had McGee practice in a closet so he could hear the music better. The inspiration and training from his grandmother helped propel McGee onto the stage at age five, when he began performing at parties, gatherings, and juke joints (all-black nightclubs known for blues music) around the area.

As McGee grew older, he began listening to the recordings of early blues artists such as Washboard Slim and Blind Lemon Jefferson, performers whose popularity helped expose a broader audience to the sounds of rural African American music. McGee's musical tastes were broad, and he also expressed admiration for the "hillbilly" records of more mainstream country stars such as Eddy Arnold and Jimmie Rodgers. McGee's chosen instrument—the harmonica—traditionally had played important roles in both genres, and, as the blues electrified in the 1940s and 1950s, players such as harmonica virtuoso Little Walter provided further inspiration for fans and other harmonica players. 

                     Here's "Walking Blues" from above album.

                         

McGee's musical talents did not provide him with a steady income, however; he worked for nearly 40 years as a truck driver, including a stint hauling dangerous chemicals and explosives. During the 1950s, McGee began playing acoustic blues with a fellow driver, Jolly "Little Whitt" Wells (born February 19, 1931); after they both retired from driving, Wells and McGee formed a full-time performing duo, known as Little Whitt and Big Bo. Although they began playing full-time only when well past middle age, Wells and McGee benefited from renewed interest in traditional blues during the latter part of the twentieth century, and they found a growing audience among younger fans who preferred the more authentic sounds of the earlier generations of blues players.

Never as famous as some of their contemporaries, Little Whitt and Big Bo did establish themselves as viable performers on the international blues circuit. In 1995, they toured Europe as part of a multi-act show that included several other American performers. As an acoustic duo with with Little Whitt Wells, McGee and Wells performed over 50 concerts in Ireland, Scotland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and England. They also played on several radio and television broadcasts, including a live session on BBC radio. The success of the European tour led to the 1997 release of the duo's (and McGee's) first album, Moody Swamp Blues, produced by the Alabama Blues Project. It was named CD of the Year in 1995 by Britain's Blueprint magazine. This collection featured Wells and McGee playing a combination of well-known blues numbers, along with three of McGee's originals: "Overseas Blues," "The Burning," and "You Go Your Way."

McGee remained an important figure in Alabama blues even after his resurgence in popularity waned in the later 1990s. In one of his most prominent projects, he travelled extensively to schools, performing for students and teaching them about the art and traditions of blues music. For these efforts, McGee received the Alabama Blues Ambassador award, presented by the Alabama Blues Project, in 2000. In 2001, McGee was named the recipient of the Folk Heritage Award, presented by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

On March 3, 2002, McGee (aged 73) was stabbed to death in his Eutaw, Greene County, home; his 22-year-old stepson, Johnny Pebbles, was charged with the killing. The Alabama Blues Society and Alabama Blues Project collaborated to help pay for his funeral, even agreeing to donate the proceeds from their already-scheduled anniversary show in Tuscaloosa. He was buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery, Eutaw, Greene County, Alabama. Jolly "Little Whitt" Wells died October 10, 2014, at the age of 82.

Once asked to describe his music, McGee said, "You know everybody got the blues. Old and young, black and white. Every livin' thing got the blues. The blues is everyday livin'. This music is a mind-pleaser and medicine for the soul."

(Sourced from the Encyclopedia Of Alabama, Tuscaloosa News & AllMusic)

 

Johnny Puleo born October 7, 1907

Johnny Puleo (October 7, 1907 – May 3, 1983) was an American musician and actor who specialized in playing the harmonica.

John D. Puleo was born a dwarf (he stood 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) as an adult) in Washington, D.C., he worked as a newspaper seller until being discovered at a contest in Boston held by bandleader Borrah Minevitch, of The Harmonica Rascals. Soon he joined a comedy variety act, during which time he learned the art of pantomime that contributed so much to his success. He then joined the Rascals, with whom he toured the world. 

Unfortunately, Puleo signed a long-term contract with Minevitch, being paid a small amount of what was collected from his performances.  In 1941, following a strike with Minevitch, Johnny, as well as many other Minevitch Rascals, left in attempt to start a different group. The entirety of the group had moved in with Johnny's parents, living and rehearsing in their basement. The group did not last long, as Minevitch threatened legal action and was able to acquire his players again.

                                  

Following Minevitch's death in 1955, Puleo formed his own group, Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang, which included: Eddie Gordon, Dominic Sgro, Tony Sgro, Frank Maquis, JoJo DeFluvio, Carl Ford, Les McGann, Gene DeMase and Dave Doucette. The group had many albums on Audio Fidelity records starting in 1957, and even released a two record album with the Chimes Family. He also acted in several films, most notably Trapeze (1956). 

The Harmonica Gang appeared at top supper clubs throughout the USA, including the famous Latin Quarter in New York and Miami Beach, the Riviera in Las Vegas, Palmer House in Chicago, The Roosevelt in New Orleans, and Twin Coaches in Pittsburgh, as well as venues like the Moulin Rouge and London Palladium overseas. 

Puleo performed in front of such notables as the Royal Command in England and the Presidents of the United States and France. In addition to his mastery of the harmonica, he was a past master of the art of pantomime and a dramatic actor of considerable ability. Puleo entertained three presidents, and appeared on the Ed Hollywood Palace, Sullivan, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, Dean Martin and Perry Como television shows.

Puleo and his five-member band released a series of high-energy light-pop LPs on Audio Fidelity Records. His first album was the first LP to be released in a single-tone-arm stereo format in 1957. More (at least seven) albums on the Audio Fidelity label followed well into the 1960s. Puleo was an early advocate for use of the zip code within the United States. In a 1963 TV commercial, he climbed up a small ladder and said, "Now remember, use your zip code," as he pointed to a letter going into the mailbox.

Puleo resided in his native Washington, D.C., throughout his adult life. Public records indicate he married Evelyn O'Shea in Nevada on December 31, 1968. He performed with his Harmonica Gang until 1973 when he retired. He nonetheless persisted in smaller-scale performances and occasional television spots into the early 1980s making his last professional appearance on SCTV the year before his death. Puleo died from respiratory failure at Holy Cross Hospital in his native Washington, D.C., May 3, 1983 at the age of 74.

(Edited from Wikipedia) 

Larry Young born October 7, 1940

Larry Young (October 7, 1940 – March 30, 1978) was an American jazz organist and occasional pianist. Young's early work was strongly influenced by the soul jazz of Jimmy Smith, but he later pioneered a more experimental, modal approach to the Hammond B-3. Being a practicing Muslim, Young was sometimes listed under his Muslim name of Khaled Yasin on recordings.

Larry Young was born in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were Larry Young Sr. and Agnes McCoy. Young Senior was an active musician and a professional organist who encouraged his sons playing at the family piano. Young Junior attended Newark's Arts High School, where he sang bass in a vocal group called The Challengers. Young took classical lessons from pianist Olga von Till through his teenage years. The piano was Young's primary instrument until his father opened up a nightclub in Newark called the Shindig. The Shindig had its own house organ, where Young began his long association with the instrument.

By the late 1950s, Young had become quite proficient on the organ, and began working around Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey with different r&b; bands. Larry Young began to use the "junior" tag to his name professionally to avoid confusion, as both he and his father were performing around the same local clubs and hot spots. In 1960, Young made his debut recording for the Prestige label. The album, Testifying, featured Young on organ, Thornel Schwartz on guitar, and Jimmie Smith on drums. This album featured several noteworthy songs including the title track. The next year Young recorded with well-known tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, who had a number one hit in 1952 with his cover of the song Night Train.

                                   

By 1962, Young was still recording for Prestige having released the album Groove Street which featured the same personnel as Testifying but added tenor saxophonist Bill Leslie. This trio toured Europe that same year, minus Leslie, who stayed in the United States. In 1963, Young appeared on Gildo Mohones's album I'm Shooting High, and vocalist Etta Jones's album Love Shout, both of which were released on Prestige. Young's stock value as an organist began to gain improve substantially in 1964. He appeared on guitarist Grant Green s Blue Note album Talkin About, which also featured drumming giant Elvin Jones. This album featured the song Talkin About J.C., a tribute to tenor great John Coltrane.

Young himself signed with Blue Note in 1964, enabling him to enlist the services of many of the most talented and influential figures in jazz during that time. Young released Into Somethin in 1964 and it featured Grant Green, Elvin Jones, and Sam Rivers on tenor saxophone. Young also appeared on Green's 1964 release, Street of Dreams, which highlighted Young with Elvin Jones once again and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. In 1965, Young appeared on two Grant Green releases, I Want To Hold Your Hand, which featured Elvin Jones along with tenor player Hank Mobley, and His Majesty King Funk, released on the Verve label.

That same year, Young released his heralded album Unity on Blue Note. This album, considered by many to be one of the finest jazz organ albums ever recorded, featured Young playing highly expressive harmonies and blistering modal solos. The album featured the song The Moontrane, which featured the album personnel of Elvin Jones on drums, Woody Shaw on trumpet, and tenor giant Joe Henderson. In 1965, Young also visited Europe once again playing piano on Nathan Davis's album Happy Girl. During 1965, Young, Jones, and Green played around the New York area very frequently and still performed with trumpeter Woody Shaw, who later went on to join Horace Silver along with Joe Henderson. By 1966, Young had released one of his last albums for Blue Note entitled Of Love and Peace, which featured altoist James Spaulding and drummer Jerry Thomas. That same year, he was awarded the Down Beat magazine award of talent deserving wider recognition on the organ in the 1966 Critic's awards.

With fusion entering the musical realm, Young was just as an integral part as his more famous counterparts, Miles Davis and Tony Williams. Young appeared on Davis s album Bitches Brew, playing electric piano on the song Miles Runs the Voodoo Down. Young's association with drummer Tony Williams and guitarist John McLaughlin formed the nucleus of Tony Williams' newly formed fusion trio Lifetime. The group recorded and released the double album Emergency, which featured the song Spectrum, and the title track Emergency. In 1969, Young also jammed and played with guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. Several bootlegs exist of this group, which also featured bassist Billy Cox and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

Young continued to play with Williams' Lifetime and appeared on the 1970 recordings One Word and 1971's Ego, both released on Polydor Records. Young also played on McLaughlin's 1970 album Devotion, along with Buddy Miles on drums. In 1972, McLaughlin and guitarist Carlos Santana teamed up for their Columbia release Love, Devotion, Surrender, featuring the John Coltrane composition A Love Supreme, with Young on organ. Young toured with the guitarists in support of the album and appeared on the 1973 recording Live In Chicago, which also featured drummer Billy Cobham.

By the mid 1970s, the organist was working with drummer Lenny White's group, and recorded several albums as a leader, including the 1976 Arista Records album Spaceball, which featured guitarist Larry Coryell on several songs. Young's recordings for Arista didn't sell well, leaving the musician with a rather twisted view of the record industry since musicians of his calibre were being outsold by far less capable performers. In 1978, Young signed a recording contract with Warner Brothers and had plans of releasing new material. Unfortunately, this wouldn't happen as he returned from California he began to have stomach problems. Upon being treated in the hospital he died suddenly on March 30, 1978 in New York City from what has been called pneumonia, although the actual causes of his death remain unclear.

Young left behind a very rich legacy on the organ, expanding its harmonic and melodic capacities as much as, if not more than Jimmy Smith. 

(Edited from Encyclopaedia of Jazz Musicians & Wikipedia)

Frank Hubbell born October 6, 1931

Frank Hubbell (October 6, 1931 - November 10, 2018) was an American jazz trumpet player best known for his work in dixieland, folk-jazz, and big band pop genres during the mid-20th century.

Following his service in the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict, he graduated from the University of Miami. I could not find much about his early musical activities, but early in his career, Hubbell performed as a trumpet player with big band ensembles, including Anson Weeks and His Hotel Mark Hopkins Orchestra. Later he formed the jazz band Sun City Six prior to leading The Village Stompers.

The Village Stompers were an American Dixieland jazz group who came from Greenwich Village in New York City and consisted of Dick Brady, Don Coates, Ralph Casale, Frank Hubbell, Lenny Pogan, Al McManus, Don Steele, Mitchell May, and Joe Muranyi. The eight of them had gotten together in New York in 1963, initially as Frank Hubbell & the Hubcaps, who cut one single early that year, which vanished without a trace. Later that year, they reorganized as the Village Stompers and were signed to Epic Records, where they cut "Washington Square." 

                                  

The piece itself was a folk-like Dixieland tune, heavy on the banjo as well as the winds, and written by Bob Goldstein, a Philadelphia-born composer, actor, and comedy writer (who'd once collaborated with Woody Allen); in subsequent recordings, they would draw on more of Goldstein's work, both on his own and in collaboration with David Shire, who later achieved renown in the field of film music. The record's success, however, could be traced very specifically to the accessible folk-like arrangement provided by Joe Sherman, who had previously worked with Tony Bennett and the Ames Brothers, among other artists. "Washington Square" was released as a single in the mid-summer of 1963 and entered the charts in late September, hitting the number two spot in December of that year. 

By that time, the group had cut an album built on the same pattern, made up on Dixieland-style renditions of folk and folk-like material including "If I Had a Hammer," "Green Green," "Blowin' in the Wind," "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd," as well as a virtual repeat of the album's title tune "The Poet and the Prophet." Some of Sherman's arrangements included surprising little touches, such as the electric guitar that turns up in the middle of the swinging "Cold Steel Canyons" and as the lead instrument on "Blowin' in the Wind" (where the cornets, clarinets, etc. are pushed into the background for the first verse, before coming to the fore on the chorus). The Washington Square album peaked at number five nationally, an extraordinary achievement for a Dixieland band in that era, and a major success by the standards of Epic Records in those days. 

By that time, the group had gotten a massive amount of exposure on-stage, playing in venues such as New York's Basin Street East. The Village Stompers entered 1964 on a roll, with a Top Ten single and LP to the their credit, and it was here that they began running out of originality. They never found another unknown tune as catchy as "Washington Square," and the title of their second album, More Sounds of Washington Square, only reminded potential listeners of the lack of any significant follow-up, although this was also a very different kind of album as there were only three folk songs present and the rest drew on popular tunes ("Dominique"), blues, and other sources for a more traditional Dixieland sound and little chance of being mistaken for a folk revival release. 

They did score a minor hit with their version of "From Russia With Love" in the spring of 1964, which showed up on their next LP, and chalked up another small success with their rendition of the theme from the then-current musical Fiddler on the Roof. By that time, however, the focus of the music business had shifted thousands of miles to the east, to England, with the advent of the British Invasion. The group's easy-going, accessible sound made them popular with deejays, and subsequent singles, such as "The La-Dee-Da Song," "Oh! Marie," and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" were played on the radio but never saw equivalent success in their actual sales. 

During the 60’s, Hubbell travelled with his band throughout the U.S. and toured Canada and Japan. They played concerts, nightclubs, colleges, hotels, etc., and made recordings for Epic, Atlantic and Phillips. Appearances on T.V. included The Tonight Show, The Jimmy Dean Show, Hootenanny, On Broadway Tonight and the Mike Douglas Show, and on trumpet, frequently opened for Louis Armstrong on the New Years Eve coast-to-coast radio broadcasts. 

A second album in 1964, Around the World, did passably well thanks to the presence of "From Russia With Love" and "Oh! Marie," but New Beat on Broadway sold more modestly despite the presence of "Fiddler on the Roof," and Some Folk, a Bit of Country, and a Whole Lot of Dixie, released in 1965, saw them recede to the level of a cult phenomenon. Two more albums, A Taste of Honey and Other Goodies and One More Time, they also backed Epic's top singer Bobby Vinton for his album Live At The Copa followed through 1966, and the group called it quits the following year. Around that same time, Epic released a greatest-hits album. 

Hubbell continued releasing music on Atco and Philips through 1968 as Frank Hubbell and the Stompers. Since the 70’s he was established mainly in Miami, but also throughout other areas in Florida. During the 1980,s and 1990's he led the Frank Hubbell Moonlighters. This band was broadcast many times over WKAT in Miami. Frank was also an active member of the Miami Elks Club where he played with his band every Monday night and brought fun, music and happy times to its members. His bands included some of the finest musicians. Hubbell played several instruments, but he was known for being an outstanding trumpet player.

Hubbell passed away peacefully in Florida on November 10, 2018 at the age of 87 and was laid to rest at the South Florida National Cemetery (Veterans cemetery) located in Palm Beach County in Lake Worth, Florida.

(Edited from AllMusic, Way Back Attack, Van Orsdel obituary & Chat GPT) 

Roy Book Binder born October 5, 1943

Roy Alan Bookbinder (October 5, 1943 – March 3, 2026), known professionally as Roy Book Binder, was an American blues guitarist, singer-songwriter and storyteller. A student and friend of the Reverend Gary Davis, he was equally at home with blues and ragtime. He was known to shift from open tunings to slide arrangements to original compositions, with both traditional and self-styled licks. His storytelling was another characteristic that made his style unique.

Roy Bookbinder was born in Queens, New York City, on October 5, 1943. Upon graduation from high school, he joined the Navy and undertook a tour of duty in Europe. He bought his first guitar at a military base in Italy. After completing his enlistment, he returned to New York, where he met and became friends with his guitar hero, Dave Van Ronk. Book Binder soon sought out the Reverend Gary Davis, who also lived in New York, and became his student and later his chauffeur and tour companion. Much of Book Binder's original material is based on his time on the road with Davis.

He started his recording career slowly, cutting some singles for Kicking Mule and Blue Goose in 1968. In 1969, he toured England with Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup and Homesick James. After meeting another of his musical influences, the bluesman Pink Anderson, Book Binder released his first album, Travelin' Man, on Adelphi. The album was named after one of the songs he learned from Anderson. In 1973, he began a partnership with the fiddler Fats Kaplin, and they recorded Git Fiddle Shuffle in 1973. They performed together for three years, playing numerous concerts and recording a second album, Ragtime Millionaire, in 1977. After this partnership dissolved, Book Binder began touring the country, living in a motor home, and concentrating on live performances.

                                 

Roy began playing with fiddler Fats Kaplin in 1973, recording Git Fiddle Shuffle the same year. Roy and Fats were a duo for three years, playing numerous concerts and recording a second album, Ragtime Millionaire, in 1976. Following the release of Ragtime Millionaire, the duo stopped performing together and Book Binder bought a motor home, which became his permanent residence. Live performances became his primary concern after the release of Goin' Back to Tampa in 1979. For nearly ten years, he toured the country in the motor home, driving himself from club to club, hitting numerous coffeehouses and festivals along the way.

Roy Orbison & Roy Book Binder

Roy returned to recording in 1988, releasing Bookaroo! on Rounder Records. In addition to his constant touring, he recorded regularly in the '90s and remained active into the new millennium; his albums during this period included The Hillbilly Blues Cats (1992, Rounder), Live Book...Don't Start Me Talkin'... (1994, Rounder), Polk City Ramble (1998, Rounder), Singer Songwriter Bluesman (2001, PEGleg), and Live at the Fur Peace Station (2005, PEGleg). “I don’t play gigs in places where I wouldn’t go socially,” Book Binder once told thecountryblues.com. “I don’t play the bar blues scene. It’s not my thing. I am just a folk player. Until I started my own label, I didn’t know you could make money from selling records. I had recorded plenty of times, but I never got paid by the labels. So I started my own, Peg leg Records.”

Notables that have shared the stage with Book Binder include Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, John Jackson, Sonny Terry, Doc Watson, Ray Charles, and Brownie McGhee. He has appeared regularly on Nashville Now. He is listed in Blues Who's Who, by the music historian Sheldon Harris. Book Binder was also a veteran guitar instructor and taught at the Fur Peace Ranch with Jorma Kaukonen and others whose lives have been influenced by Davis. There he demonstrated songs, turnarounds, chord variations, right-hand methods, and many of his own adaptations and unique approaches to the blues. His album Hillbilly Blues Cats (Rounder) was named as one of the ten most essential acoustic guitar albums of 1992. The 1992 category winners also included Eric Clapton's Unplugged, Lyle Lovett's Joshua Judges Ruth and Neil Young's Harvest Moon.

Throughout his career, Roy, always humble, promoted himself primarily as a singer, songwriter, storyteller, and a guitarist second. Roy would be the first to admit that other pickers with whom he shared his history, such as the late Woody Mann, Peter Berley and Ari Eisinger, were much more accomplished technicians. Bookbinder, however, was more concerned with the stories in the music—the telling of a good yarn, if you will—and in entertaining as wide an audience as possible. In his later years, one of Roy’s favorite sayings was that “It’s better to be lucky than talented, smart or good looking,” and he attributed his success to taking advantage of breaks that presented themselves in the course of his hard work.

In 2025, Roy ended his yearly touring and headed to Florida, where he had wintered since the late 1980s. Unfortunately, once home, his health rapidly deteriorated. By the end of February, he was in a hospice, where he passed away March 3, 2026. He was 82.

(Edited from AllMusic, Wikipedia & Folk Works) 

Pirkle Lee Moses, Jr. born October 4, 1937

 Pirkle Lee Moses, Jr.(October 4, 1937 - December 26, 2000) was a R&B singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer for 'The El Dorados'.

The El Dorados were an American doo-wop group, formed in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1952 whilst still students at Englewood High School: Pirkle Lee Moses Jr. on lead, Louis Bradley handling tenor, Jewel Jones covering second tenor and baritone, James Maddox alternating baritone and bass, and Robert Glasper supplying bass. Initially billed as the Five Stars, they attracted the interest of Johnny Moore, the school's custodian, who became their manager after recognizing their potential.

Shortly after graduation in 1954, Moses and Glasper enlisted via the Air Force's 90-day active-duty program. Moses returned to the group, yet Glasper stayed in service. Arthur Bassett stepped in temporarily on tenor for Moses, until his return, while Richard Nickens replaced Glasper on bass, expanding the Five Stars to six voices and prompting a name shift. Plans to adopt the Cardinals were abandoned amid a wave of car-model monikers; unable to use Cadillacs, they drew inspiration from the El Dorado, the luxury two-door variant of that marque. Although they practiced the songs of the Orioles, Dominoes, Clovers, Mills Brothers, and Ink Spots, they worked hard to develop their own style, often changing arrangements to fit their own voices. Local Chicago disc jockey Al Benson of WWCA noticed the El Dorados after they captured first prize at a talent contest held at the Club De Lisa. Impressed by their harmonic blend, Benson secured them an audition at Vee Jay's contest for amateur acts at the Park City Skating Rink, where they bested the label's own Spaniels and earned a recording contract.

                                    

Their debut single, the bluesy ballad "My Loving Baby," appeared in September 1954 and sold well regionally. The follow-up found the group supporting Hazel McCollum on "Annie's Answer," Vee Jay's entry in the "Annie" cycle launched by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. Bassett soon departed for the Air Force, reducing the sextet back to a quintet. Vee Jay issued "At My Front Door" in the third week of September 1955; it entered the Billboard R&B charts on September 24 and the Top 100 on October 15. Al Duricati's driving drum pattern and an energetic sax solo propelled the track, while Moses Jr.'s "baby talk" section near the close added further momentum. The line about the "crazy little mama" achieved lasting recognition comparable to the Annie saga, and by year's end the single stood at number 17 pop and number one R&B. Pat Boone's cover later reached number seven on the pop side.

December's second week brought the release of their next single, "I'll Be Forever Lovin' You". Though the track incorporated jazz, pop, and R&B flavours and reached number eight R&B in February 1956, it failed to register on pop listings. Nickens exited soon afterward, leaving the El Dorados as a quartet. Several subsequent singles enjoyed scattered local success without matching earlier peaks. "Tears on My Pillow," distinct from the Little Anthony and the Imperials hit, marked the final recording by the original members; shortly after its release, Pirkle Moses Jr. parted ways with the group over management differences. He promptly joined the Kool Gents, another Vee Jay act left without a frontman after Dee Clark launched a solo career. He combined with John McCall on tenor, Douglas Brown on second tenor, Teddy Long on second tenor and baritone, and Johnny Carter on bass to create the New El Dorados. Two 1958 Vee Jay singles failed to sell, leading to a financial dispute and eventual disbandment.

Meanwhile Jones, Bradley, and Maddox recruited Marvin Smith as their new lead. To sidestep Vee Jay legal issues, the act recorded 1958's "A Lonely Boy" for Academy Records of Chicago under the name Those Four El Dorados. The quartet later moved to the West Coast and aligned with former NBA player Don Barksdale's Rhythm Record Company in Oakland, adopting the Tempos moniker before returning to Chicago and splitting in 1961. Johnny Carter sought to sustain the El Dorados name by assembling another New El Dorados lineup in late 1959 with McCall, Danny Edwards, and Eugene Huff, formerly of the Valquins; that configuration lasted until 1965. Carter attempted a further revival in 1971 alongside Huff, Spence Goulsby Jr., and Lee Toussaint on lead for two Paula sides, yet the unit dissolved by the early 1980s.

The Squires

Moses Jr. cut "It's Time" with an unnamed group billed as the Squires on Boss in 1963 and later issued a solo track titled The Docks. In 1965 he united with Melvin Morrow and George Prager, both late of the Moroccos, to form the Major Minors. In 1969, Moses Jr resuscitated the group name with new members, at the same time as a former member of The Tempos, Johnny Carter, also toured with another set of El Dorados. The two competing groups merged in the late 1970s to make it somewhat less confusing for El Dorados' fans. But by 1979, Pirkle Lee was gone and John Carter's group consisted of Eugene Huff, Spencer Goulsby, Robert Goulsby (lead), and William Goulsby (second tenor) and subsequently continued to tour and record as The El Dorados.

By 1987 Moses got another group together to record a couple of sides: "Ease The Pain" and "Remember Sherrie". These were released, as by the "Fabulous Eldorados" (one word), on the Delano label. The other members were Norman Palm (tenor; of the Pastels on United), Larry Johnson (tenor; of the Moroccos), Eugene Huff (baritone), and original El Dorado Richard Nickens (baritone/bass).

In 1993, St. George Records released a CD called "The El Dorados: Chicago Street Corner Blues & Rhythm". The group consisted of Pirkle Lee Moses, Norman Palm, Larry Johnson, Clarence "Huffy" Wright and Rufus Hunter. Each of the members took turns leading the selections (which were all songs sung on Chicago street corners, even if not by Chicago artists). 

Sadly, Pirkle Lee Moses Jr passed away on December 26, 2000. After his death Norman Palm, a long-time member since the late 1970s, took over and renamed the group Pirkle Lee Moses Jr's El Dorados, in tribute to his long-time colleague and friend. As of 2008, Pirkle Lee Moses Jr's El Dorados actively tours the Midwest, and the East Coast from time to time. In 2013 The Lineup was, Norman Palm, Norman Palm Jr, Saalik Ziyad, and Clarence "Huffy" Wright.

(Edited from Coda Music, Wikipedia and Unca Marvy, especially for most of the photos)