Saturday, January 5th, 2008 ... 6:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. ... KZSU, 90.1 FM

Taking the morning shift for the Blues Marathon, a midnight-to-midnight, all-blues stretch shared by 7 DJs and fronted by Byrd of Paradise. Luckily, our blues library is extensive and includes lots of compilations that make it easy to find the old, old stuff that you don't want to neglect.

Shows outside my comfort zone are always a learning experience, particularly after the first couple of hours, when I've settled in and gotten time to sample more of the music. This one was no exception. I got into the music of Joe Turner and had the wherewithal to get a Zydeco set together. Great experience, and thanks to Byrd for letting me do this shift, which I think he'd been planning to take himself.

Format:
ARTIST -- "TRACK TITLE" -- ALBUM TITLE (LABEL, YEAR)
Horizontal lines denote microphone breaks.

The Lonnie Brooks Blues Band -- "Cold, Lonely Nights" -- V/A: Living Chicago Blues, Vol. II (Alligator, 1991; compilation orig. released 1978)

Slim Harpo -- "Baby Scratch My Back" -- V/A: Tuesday's Just As Bad (K-Tel, 1991; orig recorded 1950? 1960?)

For those who don't remember K-Tel, it's a purveyor of cheesy greatest-hits and best-of collections that used to sell records via television ads. This was what spam was like before the Internet, in a sense. The albums tended to be geared toward 12-year-old girls or to midlife-crisis parents -- the latter in two ways: nostalgic '50s compilations or, worse, purportedly hip and "rockin'" collections, leaning heavily on white-man disco and its ilk. Truly awful stuff.

Who'd have thought that from that wellspring would come a legitimate blues collection? Granted, it's got some of the obvious answers on it -- B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf -- but they still managed to not screw it up, which for K-Tel is a plus.

I started the show with little idea of what I'd play, and a plan to mix the older and newer stuff ad hoc, since it would be easier than trying to create sorted sets of music. Slim Harpo was my first stab at the older stuff.

Lonnie Brooks -- "Things I Used To Do" -- Sweet Home Chicago (Evidence, 1992)

I was in such a 6:00 a.m. daze, it wasn't until back-announcing the set that I realized I'd played Lonnie Brooks twice. Nothing wrong with that, but it came as a surprise.

Odetta -- "Joshua" -- Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues (Empire Musicwerks, 2005; orig. released 1956)

An influence to Bob Dylan and a catalyst of the '50s folk movement. I'm ashamed to admit that I first learned of Odetta from an appearance on A Prairie Home Companion.

I'd intended to keep a stack of female singers, and another stack of guitarless/piano-led blues, for when I needed to insert different sounds into the show. That idea basically starved to death.

Tad Benoit -- "Train I Ride" -- Preachin' the Blues: The Music of Mississippi Fred McDowell (Telarc, 2002)

Otis Clay -- "Nickel and a Nail" -- Respect Yourself (Blind Pig, 2005)

More a soul session than a blues one, with backup singers and all. Nice stuff. Better yet, it was six minutes; I'd hoped to stumble onto some longer tracks to give me more prep time for upcoming sets, and the library gods came through for me (see below).

Benjie Porecki --"Last Train to Aalter" -- Servin' It Up (Severn, 1998)

Very nice album, but ... There are so many signs of trouble when you pick up certain albums. Here -- first, it's organ. Which I know can be a lip-smackingly funky instrument but can also be the instrument of Lawrence Welkian torture. Then, on the back cover, you see a skinny young white guy at the organ, with a suburban goatee. And then you notice his name is "Benjie Porecki" ... there's nothing about this package that screams "crisp, tough-stepping blues." But that's what it is, real and for true. And yes, I'm exaggerating all the "warning signs" just to be funny, and apolgies to Benjie if he happens to actually see this.

Charlie Musselwhite -- "Tennessee Woman" -- The Blues Never Die (Vanguard, 1994; track orig. released c.1964)

Lynne Jordan -- "I'm Shakin'" -- V/A: Women of Blue Chicago (Delmark, 1996)

One of a few exclusive tracks from the various singers on this album. This one's powered by a deep little horn vamp, a showy little number.

Bobby Bland -- "Stormy Monday Blues" -- V/A: Tuesday's Just As Bad (K-Tel, 1991; track orig released 1973)

See above for the K-Tel schtick. Had to give that thing another spin.

* Ike Turner -- "Rockin' Blues" -- Risin' with the Blues (Zoho, 2006)

From what I belive is Ike's last album. Played it as a late tribute, since his death is still rather recent, and because I'd wanted to use the marathon to investigate what's in rotation a bit. "Rockin'" turns out to refer to a rocking chair.

Detroit Count -- "Hastings Street Opera, part 1" -- V/A: Hastings Street Blues (St. George, 2001; recorded c.1954)

Quite the showman, Detroit Count played blues stride piano and rambled these little monologues alongside. The "opera" describes the bars and characters populating Hastings street, talking about who'd mooch drinks or which places had a "mile-long" walk to get to the bar. Pretty funny stuff. I'm sure he was quite the entertainer.

Professor Longhair -- "Tipitina" -- Mardi Gras in Baton Rouge (Bearsville, 1991; recorded 1971)

-- 7:00 a.m. --

Blind Willie McTell -- "The Razor Bell" -- Atlanta Twelve String (Atlantic, 1972; recorded c.1950)

From the vinyl collection, McTell on his famous ringing 12-string guitar.

The Hoodoo Kings -- "Mean and Evil Woman" -- The Hoodoo Kings (Telarc, 2001)

Steve Freund -- "'C' for Chicago" -- V/A: This Is the Blues Harmonica (Delmark, 2000; orig. released 1999)

Clever: The back of the CD lists the name of each track's harmonica player, not the band or the session leader. In this case, it's Kim Wilson on the harmonica (I got Freund's name from inside the CD booklet).

Rusty Zinn -- "It Hurts Me" -- Sittin' and Waitin' (Black Top, 1996)

Bay Area blues fave, with Kim Wilson on harmonica, coincidentally. Rather blunt blues lyric: "Why don't you just kill me."

Lloyd Price -- "Too Late for Tears" -- Heavy Dreams (Specialty, 1993; orig. released 1953)

A piece with some boogie-woogie piano, kicking off a no-guitar set.

Boogie Woogie Red -- "Old Time Shuffle" -- V/A: Blue Ivory (Blind Pig, 1991; track orig released c.1977)

Between the artist name, track name, and album name, you can figure out what this one's like. 'Red was a long-working pianist, born in the '20s, who finally got some recording work and a European tour later in his career, thanks to Blind Pig.

Nathan Abshire -- "Crying Pinegrove Blues" -- V/A: Cajun Honky Tonk (Arhoolie, 1995; recorded c.1950)

Old, old Cajun music, lo-fi recordings thick with accordion and more removed from the blues than today's Zydeco stuff is. Not sure it even really counts as blues, but it's in the right stomping kind of mood.

Chuck Smith -- "Tin Pan Alley" -- V/A: Detroit After Hours (Trix, 1995; album orig. released 1973)

Tin pan-influenced blues piano.

Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton, and Sonny Stitt -- "Martin Luther King Southside" -- Everyday I Have the Blues (Pablo, 1978)

I'd grabbed the Sonny Stitt album that I

played yesterday, since it's got a bluesy track that could be a fallback if I got stuck for ideas. Right near it was this album, clearly more blues than jazz based on the cover photo of Turner and Crayton. Opening it up, I was delighted to see ... a nine-minute track! Had to play it. It's not a political song (although I could be missing something), more the usual man/woman themes, to paraphrase the liner notes, and a mention of someone who's named after MLK. It's all at a savory slowish blues pace, and of course Crayton and Stitt get solos. Great stuff.

With time to spare, I looked up Turner's other stuff in our library, since he was obviously an old timer. That led to the following track ...

-- 8:00 a.m. --
Joe Turner -- "Old Piney Brown's Gone" -- Tell Me Pretty Baby (Arhoolie, 1992; recorded c.1949)
... which was a shorter and more boogie-woogie piece, reflective of the 78rpm era. The bio of Turner in here mentions his roots in 1930s Kansas City, and that, along with the mention of Pete Johnson as a contemporary in those free-wheeling days, got me inspired somehow. The next set was devoted to those two guys: A Turner track from the 1950s; one of the few Pete Johnson tracks in our library, possibly recorded back in the '30s; and Midnight Special, which deserves a little note of its own.
Big Joe Turner -- "Poor Lover's Blues" -- Rhythm & Blues Years (Atlantic, 1986; recorded 1952)
Pete Johnson -- "627 Stomp" -- V/A: Le Hot Club de France Sampler (Milan, c.1990; recording c.1940?)
Joe Turner -- "Stoop Down Baby" -- The Midnight Special (Pablo, 2002; orig. released 1976)
Pablo apparently took an interest in Turner in the mid-'70s. He was 65 at the time of this recording. While the Crayton/Stitt album, mentioned above, had a bare-bones blues feel, this one's got a nine-piece band, some more jazzy sounds, and an overall rollicking good-time feeling. Like a nice big party for the big man.

Louisiana "Guitar" Red -- "Alabaman Blues" -- You Crazy Baby (Uptown Video, 1993)
Louisiana Red -- "Alabama Train" -- (Severn, 2002)

The first album is an obviously DIY EP of six songs. We don't have a CD booklet for it, just a piece of paper with track listings, a composer credit (all six songs to one guy who's not Louisiana Red) and an address for Uptown Video, in the Tower District of Fresno. You'll forgive me for wondering if maybe this was some other "Louisiana Red." I mean, I don't know much about his career, but considering we have more commercial CDs from him, this Fresno one seemed a bit of a stretch. Addition of the nickname "Guitar" would also suggest that this guy was trying to distance himself from the first Louisiana Red -- except that in blues recordings, these nicknames seem to come and go at will.
I wanted to compare that Red with a "legit" Red to see if they were the same guy, so I simply spun both on-air. Sounds the same. I've since looked up his bio, and it seems he lived in Europe for a time, the kind of exile jazz expats underwent in the '60s. Maybe that explains the Fresno thing, or maybe this EP was a set of songs for some video project -- I don't know. In any event, we've got what I'd guess is a rare CD of his in the library. Score.
* Corey Ledet -- "Going Back Home" -- Don't Shut Me Out (self-released, 2006)
The Cajun set. Started with Ledet, who happens to be in rotation right now and is part of the upcoming generation of players. I've since been told by Byrd that the real young lion of this set is Andre Thierry, who learned at the feet of Boozoo.
Clifton Chenier -- "Louisiana Stomp" -- V/A: Louisiana Swamp Blues (Capitol, 1996; recorded 1954)
Back to lo-fi oldie goodness, from a master of the genre.
Boozoo Chavis -- "Worried Life Blues/Oh Bye Bye/Farewell" -- Live! at the Habibi Temple (Rounder, 1994)
The great Boozoo, caught in a live setting. This was the closing song, a six-minute blues at a nice, slow, ground-out pace. "Oh Bye Bye" is a blip of fast happy playing that came after the applause for "Worried Life Blues," and the "Farewell" is one of the vocalists (Charles Chavis, I think) saying bye to the crowd.

* Anders Osborne -- "Oh Katrina" -- Coming Home (M.C., 2007)
Seemed like an appropriate closer. The lyrics follow the pattern of being wronged by a woman, bemoaning all that she's taken away ... but of course, it's about the hurricane. Sad but evokes some sympathy, like chums at the pub who've all been laid off but take comfort in knowing they've got each other's friendship. And of course you can't help but smile at the dual-edged nature of the lyrics.

* = Item in KZSU rotation
? = Item not in KZSU library
-- Go back to Memory Select playlists.
-- Bay Area free/improv music calendar: http://www.bayimproviser.com.