AFBF 1966/ The Complete Sessions

 

AFBF 1966/ The complete sessions

 

All tracks recorded all over Europe during october 1966

To my great dismay, I couldn’t attend the Paris concert of this AFBF 1966 (october 1966). In fact, Uncle Charles (De Gaulle) had called me and I was drafted in September 1966. I made a two year military duty in the French West Indies. But my (little) brother Cisco with whom I shared the same love for folk and blues attended the show and made me a complete and detailed account what happened this very evening. He also sent me the programme and recordings of the concert that a French radio (Europe 1) had recorded and broadcasted during that month. I have included some of those recordings in this compilation despite a rather poor sound. 

Roosevelt Sykes, vcl/pno; Jack Myers, bs; Fred Below, dms.

01. Running the boogie

02. Sail on

03. Tall heavy woman

04. Boot that thing

05. Night time is the right time

Sleepy John Estes, vcl/g; Yank Rachell, mdln/vcls.

06. You shouldn’t do it

07. Tan little daddy

08. Yellow yam blues (vcl: Yank Rachell)

Junior Wells, vcl/hca; Otis Rush, g; Jack Myers, bs; Fred Below, dms.

09. Hoodoo man blues

10. Checkin’ upon my baby

11. Over yonder walls

12. Shake my hand

13. A tribute to Sonny Boy Williamson

14. Vietnam blues

15. What’d I say

Little Brother Montgomery, vcl/pno; Jack Myers, bs; Fred Below, dms.

16. I keep on drinking

Robert Pete Williams, vcl/g.

17. Louise

18. Don’t the moon lokk lonesome

Sippie Wallace, vcl; Little Brother Montgomery, pno; Jack Myers, bs; Fred Below, dms.

19. Suitcase blues

20. Up the country

21. Woman be wise

Otis Rush, vcl/g; Little Brother Montgomery, pno; Jack Myers, bs; Fred Below, dms.

22. All your love

23. It takes time

24. Sweet little angel

Big Joe Turner, vcl; Otis Rush, g; Little Brother Montgomery, pno; Jack Myers, bs; Fred Below, dms.

25. Well, oh well!

26. Chains of love

27. Flip flop and fly

Big Joe Turner, vcl; Otis Rush, g; Roosevelt Sykes, pno; Jack Myers, bs; Fred Below, dms.

28. Roll’em Pete

 

         

All photos come from my AFBF 1966 programme by Ray Flerlage, Horst Lippman, Valerie Wilmer, Stephanie Wiesand, Gunther Kieser

A lot of thanks to Xyros for his help.

Les Rolls Royce de l'harmonica se trouvent sur Harmonicaland 

The Rolls Royces of the harmonica are at Harmonicaland

BLOWIN' IN THE SOUTH

 

BLOWING IN THE SOUTH

 

           

Une anthologie qui sort de l'ordinaire pour cette fois! Blues et Country Music ont, dans les Etats du Sud, toujours été très liés, pratiquement deux faces d'un même arbre musical. Les titres que nous proposons ici sont presque tous fortement ancrés dans le blues et joués à l'harmonica, bien que les musiciens soient des noms connus surtout dans la Country Music.

            On commence avec une séance - jamais rééditée - réalisée par le bluesman Jerry Mc Cain à Nashville en 1962, entouré de certains des musiciens de studio les plus réputés d'alors, notamment le grand guitariste Grady Martin, le saxophoniste Boots Randolph, le pianiste Floyd Cramer et même les Anita Kerr's singers qui représentaient alors le prototype du Nashville Sound. Mc Cain est parfaitement à l'aise dans ce contexte et nous donne plusieurs instrumentaux juteux à souhait qu'il serait dommage de laisser dans l'ombre.

             Barefoot Beefus est devenu presque une icône du mouvement dit "popcorn" et bien des chroniques (notamment sur la Toile) en parlent encore comme d'un bluesman noir. On a parfois avancé l'idée qu'il s'agissait du chanteur de Country Mack Vickery mais on a aujourd'hui la certitude que Beefus était un pseudonyme (afin de vendre vers le public afro-américain) pour le chanteur et guitariste de Rockabilly Al Jones dont nous joignons ici son succès Loretta, réalisé quelques années auparavant.

             Il n'est plus nécessaire de présenter Billy Lee Riley (1933-2009), un des grands créateurs du Rockabilly. Après ses célèbres séances pour Sun, Billy a joué et enregistré jusqu'à sa mort. Guitariste, chanteur, compositeur, arrangeur (il a arrangé et produit un des plus gros succès du blues You don't love me par Willie Cobbs), Billy a gravé de nombreux titres à l'harmonica et certains sous le nom de Lightnin' Leon qui, pendant très longtemps, fut considéré par la critique - notamment britannique - comme un bluesman noir.

             

Enfin, l'harmoniciste Jimmie Riddle est surtout connu pour avoir joué durant des décennies dans l'orchestre de Roy Acuff. Il n'a gravé sous son nom qu'une poignée de titres, notamment cet album de 1963 avec l’excellent guitariste Grady Martin, qui permettent d'apprécier ses talents d'harmoniciste.

                                                           Gérard HERZHAFT

 

            We are exploring some new territories with this post, where through harmonica led titles, Country Music meets the blues, two Southern genres that, in fact, are nothing but two branches of the same tree.

           

We start with Jerry Mc Cain's Nashville 1962 session that, to my knowledge, has never been reissued. We find Jerry at ease among some of the main musicians of the so-called Nashville Sound of the day: guitarist Grady Martin, sax-player Boots Randolph, piano pounder Floyd Cramer and even the Anita Kerr's Singers! Jerry delivers some very juicy harmonica numbers that are certainly too good to be forgotten.

            Barefoot Beefus was (and still is when you read some articles on the Web) for a long time considered a mysterious black bluesman. Some sources have then suggested he was Mack Vickery, a noted Country Musician but it is now well established that Barefoot Beefus was only a nickname (to sell towards black audiences) for white Rockabilly singer Al Jones (we have here also included Al's main hit, the excellent Loretta).

           

Rockabilly pioneer Billy Lee Riley (1933-2009) also recorded for the Rita label under different names, like Lightnin' Leon, a piece so downhome that most of the blues critics thought he was a black bluesman. Guitarist, singer, composer, arranger (he produced and arranged one of the most popular blues riffs of all time with You don't love me by Willie Cobbs), Billy was also an excellent harp player.

            At last, harmonicist Jimmie Riddle is mostly known for having played in Roy Acuff's band for years. But he has also recorded some tracks under his own name – particularly this album from 1963 - where one can appreciate his blowing talents.

                                               Gérard HERZHAFT

 

Les Rolls Royce de l'harmonica se trouvent sur Harmonicaland 

The Rolls Royces of the harmonica are at Harmonicaland

BLOWING IN THE SOUTH

Jerry Mc Cain, vcl/hca; Grady Martin, g; Henry Strzelcki, g; Joe Perkins, tpt; Boots Randolph, t-sax; Floyd Cramer, pno/og; bs; dms; Anita Kerr's singers, vcls. Nashville, Tn. December 1962

01. Red top

02. Twist 62

03. Jet stream

04. Popcorn twist

05. Run back home

06. Turn the lights on popeye

Al Jones, vcl/g; band. Nashville, Tn. 1959

07. Loretta

Al Jones (Barefoot Beefus), vcl/g; prob. Charlie Mc Coy, hca; band. Nashville, Tn. 1966

08. Go ahead on baby

09. Barefoot Beefus

Al Jones (Barefoot Beefus), vcl/g; band. Nashville, Tn. 1967

10. Hold on

11. Well, looka here

Billy Lee Riley (as Lightnin' Leon), vcl/g/hca; Larry Mohoberac, pno; Roland Janes, bs; Jimmy Van Eaton, dms. Jimmy Van Eaton, dms. Memphis, Tn. 1960

12. Reposession blues

13. Dark muddy bottom

Billy Lee Riley, vcl/g/hca; Roland Janes, g; Jimmy Wilson, pno; Jimmy Van Eaton, dms. Memphis, Tn. 1962

14. Honey girl

15. Long gone

16. Memphis blues

17. Willie's tune

18. Arkansas Traveler

19. Buster's theme

Jimmie Riddle, hca; prob; Grady Martin, g; band. Nashville, Tn. 12 December 1963

20. Coon hound

21. John Henry

22. Colombus Stockade blues

23. Careless love

24. Sally Goodin’

25. Bill Bailey

26. Stoney Point

27. Little Brown jug

28. Wildwood flower

29. Arkansas traveler

 

AMERICAN FOLK BLUES FESTIVAL 1965/ Complete Sessions

AMERICAN FOLK BLUES FESTIVAL 1965/ The Complete Sessions

 

    

Although it occurred 55 years ago (!), I vividly remember this show that I attended at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. The Salle Pleyel was a famous concert hall where mostly classical concerts were shown. For most of the artists featured on the American Folk Blues Festival 1965, the European experience was their very first and they were quite shy before an audience that certainly didn’t react the same way than on Chicago clubs, Mississippi juke joints or even a Newport Folk Festival. A very young Buddy Guy was particularly nervous although he played great guitar licks during all the show. J.B. Lenoir, coached by Willie Dixon, came as an acoustic solo act. But if in 1962, the French audiences (mostly then coming from the jazz circles) booed sometimes a T-Bone Walker whom they found too histrionic, too electric and too flashy for the idea they had of the “real” blues, the 1965 audiences were certainly not still in that mood. In three years, largely thanks to those AFBF tours, a growing number of hardcore blues fans formed a large amount of the audience and they had now records and fanzines exclusively dealing with the blues. And the poor J.B. Lenoir playing a restrained (and to my ears very emotional) country blues instead of the flashy Chicago, sax-lead, of his Chess records was booed by some! The great Eddie Boyd buried behind his too large piano seemed somewhat lost on this wide concert hall. Of course, a John Lee Hooker who was already a familiar figure on those shores and who had enjoyed a smash hit in France with his record of “Shake it baby” from the AFBF 1962 (I remember this 45 was on all the jukeboxes for years), handled very well the audience, playing solo and then backed by the band. And Big Mama took the audience by storm with a rocking set.

           

Well, 55 years after, the records made during this tour stand as pure classics by true blues greats and their music is the real blues of the 1950’s-60’s, before any rock-influence would somewhat change the beat and the solos as well as the music altogether.

            I don’t know why – in contrary to the other years – those tracks were recorded in studio instead of live in concert although I know for sure all the live performances – at least in France but I suppose almost everywhere in Europe as well – were recorded and broadcasted on French radio stations like Europe1. I heard them during those times. In which vaults those sessions are buried? It’s pretty sure that they still exist somewhere and maybe some hard researchers will find them and issue on records like it has been done by the Fremeaux label for the AFBF Paris sessions some years ago.

            I have tried to gather all the known tracks recorded in October 1965 by those fine bluesmen (and woman). Thanks a lot to Xyros for his help.

                                                                        Gérard HERZHAFT

 

All tracks recorded 7 october 1965, Hamburg, Germany.

J.B. Lenoir, vcl/g.

01. Everybody crying about Vietnam

02. If I get lucky

J.B. Lenoir, vcl/g; Fred Below, dms.

03. I feel so good

04. Down in Mississippi

J.B. Lenoir, vcl/g; Big Walter Horton, hca.

05. Slow down

Big Walter Horton, vcl/hca; Buddy Guy, g; Jimmy Lee Robinson, bs; Fred Below, dms.

06. Blues harp shuffle

07. Christine

08. Walter’s blues

Fred Mc Dowell, vcl/g.

09. Highway 61

10. Going down the river

11. Got a letter this morning

Roosevelt Sykes, vcl/pno; Buddy Guy, g; Jimmy Lee Robinson, bs; Fred Below, dms.

12. Come on back home

13. Sail on

Eddie Boyd, vcl/pno; Buddy Guy, g; Jimmy Lee Robinson, bs; Fred Below, dms.

14. Five long years

15. Five more long years

16. The big question

Jimmy Lee Robinson, g; Buddy Guy, bs; Fred Below, dms.

17. Rosalie

John Lee Hooker, vcl/g; Buddy Guy, bs; Fred Below, dms.

18. Della May

19. Della Mae

20. King of the world

Buddy Guy, vcl/g; Jimmy Lee Robinson, bs; Fred Below, dms.

21. First time I met the blues

22. Southside jump

Big Mama Thornton, vcl; Buddy Guy, g; Jimmy Lee Robinson, bs; Fred Below, dms.

23. Hound dog n°1

24. Hound dog n°2

Doctor Isaiah Ross, vcl/g/hca/dms.

25. Farewell baby

26. My black name is ringing

Everybody: Big Walter Horton, hca; Big Mama Thornton, hca; Dr Ross, hca; John Lee Hooker, hca; J.B. Lenoir, hca; Eddie Boyd, pno; Roosevelt Sykes, pno; Buddy Guy, g; Jimmy Lee Robinson, bs; Fred Below, dms.

27. Down home shakedown