Monday 4 November 2024

James Peterson born 4 November 1937

James Peterson (November 4, 1937 - December 12, 2010) was an American blues guitarist and singer. 

James Peterson was born in Russell County, Alabama.  He was strongly influenced by gospel music in the rural area he grew up in, and he began singing in church as a child. Thanks to his father's juke joint, he was exposed to blues at an early age, and later followed in his footsteps in upstate New York. After leaving home at age 14, he headed to Gary, Indiana, where he sang with his friend John Scott. While still a teen, he began playing guitar, entirely self-taught. Peterson cited musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett), Jimmy Reed, and B.B. King as his early role models. After moving to Buffalo in 1955, he continued playing with various area blues bands. 

On July 12, 1965, Peterson opened Governor’s Inn: The House of Blues in Buffalo, the first of many blues clubs he would run throughout his life. Peterson booked the big names of the day including Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Lowell Fulson, Junior Wells and many others. Over the years Peterson ran several other clubs including the Inn after Dark in St. Petersburg, Florida, One Stop Inn in Tampa, the New Governor’s Inn in Buffalo and Club 49 in Eufaula, Alabama. 

In 1970, he recorded his first album, The Father, the Son, the Blues on the Perception/Today label. While he ran his blues club at night, he supplemented his income by running a used-car lot during the day. Peterson's debut album was produced and co-written with Willie Dixon, and it featured a then-five-year-old Lucky Peterson on keyboards. Peterson followed it up with Tryin' to Keep the Blues Alive in 1981. 

                                    

His intermittent career as a recording artist began again with "Rough and Ready" and "Too Many Knots" for the Kingsnake and Ichiban labels in 1990 and 1991, respectively. Next he was signed by Malaco Records' sister label Waldoxy in 1995. His first disc, the critically acclaimed Don’t Let the Devil Ride was recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio with Peterson and Big Mike Griffin on guitar and includes songs from George Jackson, John Ward, Sidney Bailey and James Peterson, himself. This album put Peterson back on the road as a national touring act. His second disc for Waldoxy, Preachin’ the Blues, followed in 1996, again with Griffin on guitar but this time all ten songs were penned by Peterson. 

On his own he released the obscure "Wrong Bed!" on his own HownDog imprint in 1998. Throughout the '90s and up to the mid-2000s, Peterson was also an active live presence on the Tampa, Florida blues scene. 2004 saw Peterson record another duo album with son Lucky,  "If You Can't Fix It" on the JSP label. Peterson returned to Alabama in the mid-2000s, and died of a heart attack there on December 12, 2010 at the age of 73. A master showman who learned from the best and knew how to work an audience, James Peterson left a legacy not only as an accomplished blues guitarist, but also as a crafty songwriter endowed with a deep, gospel-drenched singing style. 

(Edited from Soul Blues Music, AllMusic & malaco.com)

 

Sunday 3 November 2024

Bea Abbott born 1925


Beatrice  Abbott was born in 1925 and came from Rhode Island and started singing as a high-school student in Providence. Her good looks and pretty voice soon got her a break in New York at the age of 19, as the featured vocalist of the Boyd Raeburn orchestra for a few weeks in June 1944 after which she then moved on to Henry Jerome’s thirteen piece band. She went on to work with a number of little known dance bands before working the Eastern club circuit, she also worked with her husband Leon Ruby who she married in 1948. He was a well-known trumpeter, and he had his own Dixieland band. 


In the early Fifties she settled in Chicago, and sang to lounge audiences for the most part of the following two decades. In the 1950s, Bea sang with the Hal Otis Orchestra, opening a new room at the Sheraton Blackstone Hotel called Cafe Bonaparte. She also performed at the Melody Mill Ballroom in North Riverside. She sang with the Andy Powell Orchestra and the Vic Cesario Trio and performed with pianist Joe Vito and jazz violinist Johnny Frigo. 

Bea s only album, The Too, Too Marvelous Bea , was recorded in 1957 by Westminster Records. It includes a collection of rhythm tunes and ballads, which allows her to swing but also to demonstrate her more tender and sensitive side. Her warm and pliant voice was deftly backed by the quintet of violinist Hal Otis, who reinforced the set s general atmosphere of lighthearted swinging, not only responding tastefully to Bea s moody vocals, but also contributing eight instrumental sides from his own Westminster album Out of Nowhere. 

                                   

Unfortunately during the period of her formative working life there were many singers making it big after the decline of the big band business such as Peggy Lee, Jeri Southern, Ella Fitzgerald etc. so although she possessed a fine voice with a nice intimate delivery the odds were stacked against her. 

Bea continued to perform into the 1980s, appearing with the Dixieland Jazz Band in Grant Park as part of the city's free summer entertainment. From 1991 she worked at Oak Bank in Chicago as a secretary to the vice president also caring for her husband who became very ill with Parkinsons disease and died in 1992. She retired in 2006 and died of cancer on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. 

(Scant information edited from Fresh Sound Records, Jazz Views & Chicago Tribune. "So Long" mp3 from Internet Archive)

Any more information regarding Bea will be greatly appreciated.

Saturday 2 November 2024

J.D. Souther born 2 November 1945

J.D. Souther ( November 2, 1945- September 17. 2024) was a prolific songwriter and musician who helped shape the country-rock sound that took root in Southern California in the 1970s. 

John David Souther was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of John Souther and Loty (nee Finley), and was raised in Amarillo, Texas. His father sang in a jazz band and later ran a store selling records and musical instruments. His grandmother was an opera singer, and the first song he learned as a child was Puccini's "Nessun Dorma". He learned to play the violin, and later clarinet, saxophone and guitar. He attended Amarillo college, but dropped out to play drums with his first band, The Cinders. 

His first recordings were made with The Cinders at the nearby Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico. The band's first 45 rpm record was released on the RIC label in 1965. The following year, Norman Petty successfully shopped their recordings to Warner Bros. Records for a second single release under the name John David and The Cinders. After living in New York and Florida, Souther moved to Los Angeles in 1969 and met musician and songwriter Glenn Frey. They became room-mates and musical collaborators and briefly performed as a folk duo using the name Longbranch Pennywhistle. They released an album in 1970 on Jimmy Bowen's Amos Records. 

Linda Ronstadt & J.D.

Souther helped Frey form the Eagles as a backing band for Linda Ronstadt and when they branched out on their own, he played with them at the Troubadour on LA's Sunset Strip. Souther declined an offer to join The Eagles and instead signed to David Geffen's Asylum label and recorded a debut solo studio album under his own name. In 1972 he formed the Souther–Hillman–Furay Band with Chris Hillman of The Byrds and Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield. The group released two albums which failed to sell and the band split up. Souther wrote the song "Run Like a Thief" which appeared on Bonnie Raitt's 1975 album, Home Plate. 

J.D. with the Eagles

1976 saw the release of Souther's second solo LP Black Rose, produced by Peter Asher and considered by many to be his finest work. It featured a duet with Ronstadt, "If You Have Crying Eyes". Souther contributed as a singer to works written by other artists, including backing vocals with Don Henley; on "The Light Is On" for Christopher Cross on his debut album; on the songs "False Faces" and "Loose Ends" on Dan Fogelberg's 1976 LP Nether Lands; and, with Fogelberg, as the Hot Damn Brothers on Fogelberg's 1975 LP Captured Angel. 

                                    

Souther co-wrote several songs for the Eagles including "Best of My Love", "James Dean", "New Kid In Town", and "Doolin-Dalton". The Eagles recording "Heartache Tonight", written by Souther, Bob Seger, Frey, and Henley, was released in 1979 and became the band's final chart-topping song on the Billboard Hot 100. Souther scored his biggest solo hit with the 1979 song "You're Only Lonely" from the album of the same name, which reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the number 1 spot on the Adult Contemporary chart for five consecutive weeks. He was an accomplished performer, and Frey commented that the only reason he was not a bigger solo star was that "he gave the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt most of his best songs". 

Souther dated Ronstadt in the 1970s and co-produced her Don't Cry Now album. He also wrote songs for several of her multi-platinum albums, including "Faithless Love" from Heart Like a Wheel and "White Rhythm and Blues" on Living in the USA. He recorded other duets with Ronstadt and collaborated with his friend James Taylor on "Her Town Too" from Taylor's platinum-certified Dad Loves His Work album; it reached number 11 on the Hot 100 and number 5 on the AC chart in 1981. 

In 1987 he contributed to, performed on, and arranged the vocals for the Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night concert and video. That same year he collaborated with Clannad, providing guest vocals for their album Sirius. He sang the Platters' "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in Steven Spielberg's 1989 film Always, and wrote the theme song to the 1989–92 sitcom Anything But Love. At the end of the 1980s, Souther retired from music for more than twenty years years "to build a great house and have a life". He returned to recording in 2008 and in October released an album recorded with a jazz band, If the World Was You, his first new studio release in nearly 25 years. 

In the fall of 2009, Souther released a follow-up live album, Rain − Live at the Belcourt Theatre, featuring a blend of old and new material followed by 2011’s release of Natural History, featuring new versions of his songs recorded by other artists. In 2012, he released Midnight in Tokyo, a live EP. On June 14, 2013, Souther was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. JD Souther died at his home in Sandia Park, New Mexico, on September 17, 2024, at the age of 78. He was due to begin a tour in less than a week with songwriter Karla Bonoff.

(Edited from NPR, 106.5 The Arch Music News)

 

Friday 1 November 2024

Little Johnny Jones born 1 November 1914

Little Johnny Jones (November 1, 1924 – November 19, 1964) was an American Chicago blues pianist and singer, best known for his work with Tampa Red, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James. 

Johnnie Jones was born in Jackson, Mississippi and was a cousin of Otis Spann. His mother, Mary, played piano in the local and his father, George was an amateur guitarist and harp player. He was already an accomplished pianist when he arrived in Chicago in 1945 in the company of Little Walter and "Baby Face" Leroy Foster and soon replaced pianist Big Maceo Merriweather in Tampa Red's band after Merriweather suffered a stroke paralysing his right hand. Like several other Chicago pianists of his era, his style was heavily influenced by Merriweather, from whom he had learned and for whom he played piano after Merriweather's stroke. 

Jones later backed Muddy Waters on harmonica and recorded a session (on piano and vocals) with him for Aristocrat Records in 1949. At the tail end of this session Jones cut his lone 78 for the label “Shelby County Blues b/w Big Town Playboy” with Muddy Waters, Baby Face Leroy and Jimmy Rogers backing him up on both sides. Big Town Playboy is regarded as a classic of the genre, and was covered by the guitarist Eddie Taylor in 1955. Jones also played on ten sessions with Tampa Red for the Victor label between 1949 and 1953. 

During the 50’s Jones was best remembered as the pianist at Sylvio’s, the huge tavern at Lake & Oakley that was the blues capital of Chicago’s West Side. Johnnie played there with Elmore, with the Wolf, with second Sonny Boy Williamson, with Billy Boy Arnold, and with Magic Sam. Most nights Sylvio’s had three bands, and Johnny would play with all of them! Dressed immaculately and with his hair and mustache perfectly groomed, he would open the shows singing his favorite risque classics, “The Dirty Dozens” and ”Love Her With A Feeling.” Billy Boy remembers, “He didn’t sit there like a lot of piano players and just play– he rocked with the rhythm, he bounced. He used to sing “Dirty Mother F’or Ya” and that would just crack the house up! Johnnie and Elmore had Sylvio’s sewed up five nights a week!” 

                                   

Jones’ most famous association began in 1952 when he became the pianist for Elmore James and His Broomdusters. He remained with James through 1956 playing on classic recordings for the Bihari brothers’ Meteor, Flair and Modern labels as well as dates for Checker, Chief and Fire. The Broomdusters (with saxist J.T. Brown and drummer Odie Payne) held court on the West Side playing at Sylvio’s for five years. It was this association with James that resulted in his second stint as leader recording in 1953 for Flair. “I May Be Wrong” and “Sweet Little Woman” were issued as Johnny Jones and the Chicago Hound Dogs with backing from Elmore James and J.T. Brown. 

Jones, Otis Spann & George "Mojo" Buford

Jones was a heavy drinker and had a reputation as a wild character. According to Homesick James, who worked and toured with them in the 1950s, "Elmore and Johnnie used to just have a fight every night". Jones married his wife, Letha, in 1952. His last official stint as leader came in 1953 when Atlantic Records came through Chicago and teamed Elmore and the Broomdusters behind Big Joe Turner resulting in the classic “TV Mama.” Once again he recorded a couple of sides at the tail end of a session resulting in four songs: “Chicago Blues”, ‘Hoy Hoy’, “Wait Baby” and “Doin’ the Best I Can (Up the line).” Jones was backed by the full Broomdusters plus Ransom Knowling on bass. 

Johnny & his wife Letha

Jones wasn’t caught on tape again until 1963 where he was working with Billy Boy Arnold in a Chicago folk club called the Fickle Pickle run by Michael Bloomfield. Norman Dayron recorded Johnny on portable equipment which has been released on the Alligator record titled Johnny Jones with Billy Boy Arnold. A few additional sides appear on the Flyright LP Live At The Fickle Pickle. Jones last session was recorded in 1964 and is something of a mystery. Possibly backed by Boyd Atkins on sax and Lee Jackson guitar he cut three songs: “Prison Bound Blues”, “Don’t You Lie to Me” and “I Get Evil” the last being unissued. 

Little Johnny Jones & Junior Wells

He died from lung cancer November, 19, 1964 leaving a huge space on the Chicago scene. Mike Leadbitter wrote at the time of Jones death, “In a Chicago full of guitarists and with comparatively few top-rate pianists, the death of Little Johnny Jones is a great loss, as it is to us, who were never really given a chance to appreciate him.” 

On May 14, 2011, the fourth annual White Lake Blues Festival took place at the Howmet Playhouse Theater, in Whitehall, Michigan. The event was organized by executive producer Steve Salter, of the nonprofit organization Killer Blues, to raise monies to honor Jones's unmarked grave with a headstone. The concert was a success, and a headstone was placed in June 2011.

(Edited from Wikipedia & Big Road Blues)

Thursday 31 October 2024

Moon Martin born 31 October 1945

John David "Moon" Martin (October 31, 1945 – May 11, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and one of the more curious characters of the new wave movement. Moon Martin issued several critically acclaimed yet commercially underappreciated releases from the late 1970s through the early '80s before reappearing in the mid-'90s. 

Born John Martin in Altus, Oklahoma, he played in local bands, including a rockabilly group, the Disciples, while attending the University of Oklahoma. Martin relocated to Los Angeles in the late '60s and paid the rent as a session musician, playing on albums by Del Shannon and Jackie DeShannon. Soon, however, his former Disciples band-mates followed him to the land of surf and sun, changing their name to Southwind  whose style shifted towards country rock. They issued a total of three underappreciated country-rock albums on the Blue Thumb label between 1969 and 1973: a self-titled debut, Ready to Ride, and What a Place to Land. 

Upon the group's split, Martin returned to session work, contributing to Jesse Ed Davis' Ululu, Linda Ronstadt's Silk Purse, and a few Gram Parsons songs. Martin also began to focus on a solo career at this time, adopting the nickname "Moon" from friends after it became an inside joke because of the songwriter's penchant for mentioning the word in his compositions. 

                                    

Initial plans to record a solo album in 1974 with noted producer/arranger Jack Nitzsche failed to pan out, but several of Martin's original compositions were used by other recording artists, including the Nitzsche-produced Mink DeVille (the track "Cadillac Walk" subsequently became a moderate hit), as well as Michelle Phillips and Lisa Burns. By 1978, Martin (who by this time was known simply as Moon Martin) was finally ready to launch his solo career, with his look and music often compared to such new wave hitmakers as Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. 

A total of five albums in a five-year span followed, including Shots From A Cold Nightmare (1978), Escape From Domination (1979) which featured the Top 30 hit Rolene and Street Fever (1980) which featured the hit Bad News which reached the Top 10 in France, and Mystery Ticket (1982)  all of which were issued on the Capitol label. His Victim Of Romance EP from 1978 included "Bad Case of Lovin' You" which would become a hit when covered by Robert Palmer. Martin also had some minor singles hits in Australia with “Signal For Help”, Aces With You” and “X-Ray Vision” which also became an MTV hit music video in 1982. 

He was also featured on guitars and vocals with rock legends Linda Ronstadt, Del Shannon, Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Michelle Phillips among others, while also gaining recognition both in the United States and France as a solo artist and composer. Martin then dropped out of the music scene for the rest of the '80s and the early part of the '90s, before resurfacing in 1995 with a pair of releases, Cement Monkey and Lunar Samples. The same year, the British label Edsel reissued Martin's first four full-length releases as two-for-one CDs (Shots from a Cold Nightmare was paired with Escape from Domination, while Street Fever was combined with Mystery Ticket). 

Producer Craig Leon, who had worked with Moon Martin, confirmed that the rocker died on May 11, 2020 of natural causes in Encino, California, at the age of 74. On October 31, 2022, Midnight Moon, a posthumous album, was released, only available on several music streaming services. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & LA Times) 

 

Wednesday 30 October 2024

Dave Myers born 30 October 1926

Dave Myers (October 30, 1926 - September 3, 2001) was an American blues guitarist and (electric) bassist, who with his brother Louis (September 18, 1929 - September 4, 1994) formed the Chicago blues band The Aces. 

The Myers brothers Dave, Louis, Bob and Curtis were born into a musical family in the country near Byhalia, Mississippi. Dave and  Louis played the guitar, Curtis played the piano, and Bob played the harmonica.

Their parents Mary and Amos Myers were musical, but Mary played the guitar only at home, while Amos played the guitar at parties in private homes. Dave grew up as a child listening to Lonnie Johnson, a pioneering blues and jazz guitarist and banjoist who lived in the basement of Myers’ family home. Dave along with his brother Louis, sang in the local Baptist church choir. They moved to Chicago 1941. Louis had started playing guitar in Mississippi and took it up again in Chicago, followed by Dave, who later switched to electric bass. They played with other blues artists on the South Side and on their own, without a drummer until their longtime friend Fred Below (pronounced BEE-low) joined forces as the Three Aces. 

Below, (September 6, 1926 - August 13, 1988) who was born in Chicago, brought experience from playing in high school and U.S. Army bands and studying at a percussion school. Trained in jazz, he found the blues difficult at first but before long he had developed his own backbeat style, which set the standard for generations of blues drummers to come.

The Aces were one of Chicago’s premier blues combos, in the early 1950s. Also known as the Three Dukes, the Four Aces (when they hooked up with Junior Wells), the Jukes (when they teamed with Little Walter), or more often just the Aces, the band was in demand to play behind various singers, but also could deliver top-notch blues with Louis Myers taking a lead role. 

                                   

The group first recorded in 1952, backing Little Walter on “Mean Old World” and other numbers for Checker, a subsidiary of Chess Records in Chicago. Other sessions, club dates, and tours with Little Walter followed. The foursome toured widely as one of the country’s most popular and energetic young blues acts. Although Dave and Louis played with Junior Wells before Walter, they recorded with Wells only in 1953. Louis and Below also recorded with him 1954. All three Aces later backed Wells on a live recording in Boston. Dave was also hired by Fender Guitarist during the 1950’s to promote and demonstrate the electric bass around Chicago. His percussive style earned him the nickname Thumper. 

As a unit the Aces were not a constant presence on the blues scene, although the individual members stayed busy in town or on the road. In testament to their prowess as an all-purpose band, the Aces backed Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Koko Taylor, Lightnin’ Slim, Jimmy Dawkins, and others at the 1972 Montreux Jazz Festival, in addition to doing their own set, and all the proceedings were recorded, resulting in several albums. They also recorded behind Jimmy Reed, Roosevelt Sykes, Billy Boy Arnold, Louis Jordan, Jimmy Rogers, Robert Lockwood Jr., Eddie Taylor, and numerous others in the U.S., Europe, or Japan. 

As the Aces, they recorded albums of their own for three French labels and a few tracks on various compilations. Louis Myers, heralded primarily for his skills on guitar, also possessed a potent harmonica attack and was featured on an instrumental single for the Abco label in Chicago in 1956. He later recorded albums on Advent, JSP, and Earwig. Both Dave and Louis also recorded a few songs for the Wolf label. 

Dave concluded his recording career with the album “You Can’t Do That” for Black Top in 1996. He later performed at the 1999 Chicago Blues Festival and was the last living member of the Aces until his death. In March of 2000, Myers’s left leg had been amputated due to diabetes. Then his right leg was amputated on August 29, 2000. He never fully recovered from the surgery and retired from the profession. 

On September 3, 2001, Myers died at the Waterfront Terrace Nursing Home in Chicago at the age of 74. His funeral was held on Chicago’s south side at the Rayner Funeral Home” 

(Edited from The Blues Foundation & article by Latisha Cherrelle Tucker)

 

Tuesday 29 October 2024

Lee Clayton born 29 October 1942

Lee Clayton (October 29, 1942 – June 12, 2023) was an American songwriter and musician. He notably wrote Waylon Jennings' 1972 outlaw country song "Ladies Love Outlaws". 

Born Billy Hugh Shatz in Russelville, Alabama, he grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He first started to play harmonica and guitar at age of 7, encouraged by his father (a country music fan), and received his first steel guitar at age of 9. He also took guitar lessons. After just one year of playing the guitar, he got to play a radio gig on “Saturday Night Radio Show”, where he played “Steel Guitar Rag” by Leon McAuliffe. Not long after this, young Lee took a break of playing the guitar until he was 16 years old. 

Just before he graduated from college, he got married, and it was time to put guitar down again. Clayton got a regular job, and was ready to settle down. Shortly after he felt that his life was boring, so he decided to get some flight lessons to fill the gap in his life. Within a year he had divorced from his wife and joined the US Air Force as a trainee pilot in 1965, and after working three years as a pilot it was time to get back to music again. He moved to Nashville in 1969 and began his career as a songwriter. In 1972 he wrote "Ladies Love Outlaws" for Waylon Jennings. In 1973 he released his debut album for MCA simply titled Lee Clayton, with which, as Clayton would later say, he was very dissatisfied. 

Clayton left Nashville for Joshua Springs, California, but continued to pen songs for other artists; among his most notable contributions were Jerry Jeff Walker's "Lone Wolf" and Willie Nelson's "If You Could Touch Her at All." His success as a songwriter encouraged him to return to Nashville, and he signed a solo deal with Capitol in 1977. His first album with the label was 1978's Border Affair but his most successful album was 1979's Naked Child. The songs' style was reminiscent of Bob Dylan and the single, "I Ride Alone", became very notable. In 1979, he went on a big world tour, which became a huge success. In 1981 he released his fourth studio album, The Dream Goes On, which had a harder sound than his previous work.

                                    

Then he abruptly quit the music business, instead devoting his energies to writing; the '80s produced two autobiographical books and a play, Little Boy Blue. Clayton did eventually return to recording with Another Night, a live album recorded on September 9, 1988, at the Cruise Cafe, Oslo, Norway. In 1990 The Highwaymen, an outlaw country supergroup comprising Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, had a minor hit with a song of his, "Silver Stallion", which had previously appeared on Border Affair (1978). In 1994, he released the album Spirit of the Twilight. Cat Power also covered "Silver Stallion" on the 2008 cover album Jukebox. 

In 2008 a new acoustic song "We The People" was 'released' on YouTube, after which little was heard from him until according to Josie Kuhn, Nashville singer and friend, he took  his own life at a motel room in White House, Tennessee on June 12, 2023. Kuhn is the only source who published his death on her Facebook page. A sad picture emerges of a man who died at the age of 80 in complete anonymity and loneliness. 

The fact that no significant media has paid attention to his death is somewhat understandable. Clayton had fallen completely into oblivion. Aside from performing at local bars in Nashville, he had not been a part of the music industry for years. A few weeks after Kuhn's message, the administrators of his website confirmed his death, although a cause of death was not mentioned. 

(Eited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Heaven Magazine.nl)