THE BEAT WiTHiN

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My old friend David Inocencio is Director/co-founder of a project called The Beat Within, a weekly publication of writing and art by young people in the juvenile justice system. Starting out in the San Francisco bay area, today, "The Beat Within staff and volunteers hold weekly workshops in many California county juvenile halls: San Francisco, Marin, Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Monterey, and Fresno. The Beat workshop model is replicated in Maricopa Arizona, in San Bernalillo New Mexico, Miami Florida, and in our new satellite program in Washington DC. Each week, we serve up to 700 detained youth and our San Francisco office provides internships and social services to more than a dozen formerly detained youth. Today the full-fledged weekly magazine is at 70 pages." Please friend The Beat Within and check out the writing. If you can spare a couple dollars they can always use your support.

Here's the story of The Beat Within:

SF State Beat Within Video from New America Media on Vimeo.

AMANAR

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HiLLSTOMP - Live Recording from Johns Alley - Moscow, Idaho - April 14th 2011

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Here's a great full set by Portland's Hillstomp recorded by my old pal Jeff Tomas (sound man/Bass player/guitar tech/roadie extraordinaire) from their set at Moscow, Idaho's John's Alley April 14th 2011.  As Jeff says, "the vocals are a little low at first, as my first concern is the house mix, but they get louder." Thanks, Jeff!

If you are a touring band I highly recommend you include a stop at John's Alley.   

Moscow is located about half way between Seattle and Boise and with two large universities nearby (UI in town and WSU a mere eight miles away) it's tough to have a bad gig.

The set is split into five tracks. Get 'em HERE.

-

SMOKE FAiRiES - When You Grow Old

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SCOTT H BiRAM - Still Drunk. Still Crazy, Still Blue

Scott Biram- Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue from Milk Products on Vimeo.

MiCHAEL TARBOX - My Primitive Joy

Michael Tarbox @ BandCamp // CDbaby // MySpace // Tarbox Ramblers

Michael Tarbox is best known for his band The Tarbox Ramblers, a seriously tough and dextrous roots/blues outfit from Massachusetts, but for his first solo album titled My Primitive Joy, recorded at Nashville's Fry Pharmacy studio, Tarbox has moved towards a more introspective, somewhat blues infused folk/baroque pop-infected sound that reminds me a bit of perhaps a rootsier Fred Neil, or the new work of Chris Cotton, while still retaining a good amount of the Tarbox Ramblers darkness. It's a lovely, poetic, and personal album that I think you'll treasure. 
Go download it for a paltry $7 at Bandcamp.

I hesitate to post these videos because the recording quality does not do the album true justice. But with that in mind, here's a taste:

THE CiGAR BOX GUiTAR REVOLUTiON

I have a gig writing a monthly column called (what else) Deep Blues for our local music magazine here in Saint Augustine, FL, Ignition. Here's a piece I did on the cigar box guitar revolution. Thanks to photographer Dan Florez for the use of the shots he took of my Lowebow.

“ So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it onto that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune and I played from then on. "  —Lightnin' Hopkins

         Have you noticed how everybody, their mom, and Warren (no relation to Jimmy) Buffet, is playing a ukulele these days?  The Uke has a new found respectability, with it’s own superstars like Jake Shimabukuro, Nellie McKay, the late George Harrison, YouTube darling Danielle Ate The Sandwich, and of course, Tiny Tim. Kudos to those who have taken up the long neglected little four-stringer.  You saved it from its lowly fate as a Hawaiian theme party prop and the instrument of choice for those pretending to relive great grandma’s flapper days.
The ukulele, roughly translated from Hawaiian to mean jumping flea, was introduced to Hawaii sometime in the late 1800s by Portuguese cabinetmakers who immigrated to the islands. The cigar box guitar (cbg) is believed to date back to as early as 1840 although the first illustrated documentation comes from an 1876 etching of two civil war soldiers from the Union side, one playing a cbg as his compatriot plays a fiddle.
When comparing the ukulele to the cbg, it’s not the Beatles vs. the Stones, or Lady Gaga vs. Black Flag. It’s closer to a Van Gogh vs. whittling thing.  And I heart whittling.  The ukulele has rules. Rules as to size, number of strings, tuning, and construction. 
The cbg, on the other hand, has virtually no rules.
As stated in the cbg documentary Songs Inside The Box  
“If you build a homemade cigar box guitar, you're going to have to try and tame this beast to play your own music.” “There’s no rules of how to play it, how to tune it, how to string it, how many strings are on it. So now you're making your own music.” “It’s freedom. I could never play anything before because I didn’t have the patience to learn the way people wanted me to learn.”
The cbg community has its stars too.  Shane Speal is the runs the Cigar Box Nation website and is owner of Pennsylvania’s amazing Cigar Box Guitar Museum.  Speal is also the self-proclaimed (though no one really disagrees) King of the CBG.  Speal made his first cbg in 1993 after reading about a cbg that the legendary Carl Perkins once had.  He’s gone on to make countless more guitars since then.  Memphis luthier John Lowe makes a one, two, three, and four-string CBGs called the Lowebow in acoustic and electric models.  The electrics feature pickups hand-wound by Lowe and use a 25 cent piece for the pickup contact.  Richard Johnston was one of the first to own a Lowebow. He used it at the 2001 International Blues Competition to blow the judges minds and garner the IBC’s first place, as well as the Albert King Award.   This was the first time a cbg had won an IBC award, let alone the first time a diddley-bow (one string guitar) had won.   John Lowe has hand-made hundreds of cigar box guitars; and his instruments are owned by the likes of Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, Kid Rock, who got his Lowebow from Dickinson and proudly displayed it on CNN’s Larry King Show, Bo Ramsey, guitarist for Greg Brown and Lucinda Williams, singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett, and me.
Lowe was honored last month at the first annual Lowebow Fest in Orlando, FL.  It featured four nationally known Lowebow CBG-based bands: Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin's Purgatory Hill, a two-piece led by Pat McDonald, known for his hit The Future’s So Bright, Philadelphia’s Hymn For Her, Florida’s Ben Prestage, and John Lowe, who performs as Johnny Lowebow.
 
Bill Jagitsch, whose nom-de-blues is Blues Boy Jag, is another well-regarded CBG builder. Since seeing plans for a cigar box guitar in a copy of Make Magazine in 2006,  Jagitsch, who numbers each guitar, has built over a thousand guitars and has become a one-stop shop for the one-man band genre.   Developing his own cottage industry, Jagitsch builds cool little amplifiers housed in cigar boxes, as well as bass drums built from thriftstore suitcases, fretted and fretless cbgs, as well as wooden carrying cases for his guitars.  In an interview I did last week with Bill Jagitsch he said, “I also make Dobro style resonators cbg's, cb basses, dulcimers, ukuleles, acoustic cbg's and 6 string cbg's.  Over the years I've added other items such as my Boogie Board Foot Stomper which is an electric bass drum/stomp board for solo acts, my hand wound pickups which are designed specifically for cbg's, a how to play dvd with several gigs of videos and tunings as well as fingering tricks, slide tips and so forth.”
The cigar box guitar scene is not limited to the U.S. England has it’s own happening scene with artists (who have certainly more colorful names than the Americans) like Chicken Bone John, Blues Beaten Redshaw, Seasick Steve ( actually a Yank ), and Hollowbelly, who said in a recent cbg documentary titled Cigar Box Revolution:
“It’s a sort of anti-commercial, anti-technological, anti-establishment thing to do.  They are just unbelievable instruments. They’re very democratic.  That’s what I like about it.  You don’t have to be rich; you can make one, and get playing it.  I thought, even I could make one. It’s a stick in a box, right?  I strung it up and I thought, there’s no way it’s going to work.  But not only did it work it sounded super-fabulous!”
Hollowbelly has risen quickly to become the best known cbg player in the U.K. Seasick Steve is perhaps more well known but he uses an eclectic choice of instruments including the cbg and Hollowbelly sticks solely to the cbg.  With the howl and blues feel of an English Jack White and a U.K.-centric punk and political sense, Hollowbelly pounds new nails in the old timey bridge between the British mines and isles, and the American blue ridge mountains punk, piney hill country hollers, and dirty south soul.  In an interview I did with Hollowbelly for my Deep Blues blog in May of last year I asked him how he got into playing cigar box guitars:

“Well, I'd moved out of London 10 years ago and headed West. I had money for the first time ever- I was bored with standard tuning guitar so I found out about blues open tuning and resonator guitars- I can laugh at myself now- I blew the money on this stupidly expensive National resonator guitar from California- you know- those steel guitars you see the old black bluesmen play- I thought 'yeah man-now I'm a real bluesman' -ha ha ha!! An arsehole is what I was. 
Well, to my dismay it didn't sound anything like Son House or Fred McDowell.  I sold it at a loss, then stumbled across cigar box guitars on the web.  Two characters need to be mentioned really- Shane Speal, an American who was out there promoting cbg's long before they became better known about- and Chickenbone John, a Brit who I often refer to as the Godfather of the cbg movement here in the UK.  I bought a little £30 CBG from 'bone, and holy cow- there was the sound I was after- I shoulda guessed that an instrument that was made from poverty would give that sound, given where blues came from.  So then I made my own very crude CBG out of a bannister rail and an old tin and started writing some tunes.  Nine months later I'm at (London’s famous) the 100 club.” 
“You can’t get much closer to the punk ethic of do it yourself than making your own guitar, right?  Can't afford a Gibson?  No problem- shove a stick in a box, stretch some strings across it and you're good to go. It ties in with my loathing of social inequality.   That whole 'anybody can do it' thing is so appealing and central to the movement.   I mean you need zero cash- so its 100% inclusive.  Open tuning also democratizes- put a slide on your finger and away you go- you don't need to know scales or read music or whatever- start picking and sing what's in your soul.  There- you're playing your blues- how cool is that?  Very damn cool I'd say.   No more staring into music shop windows dreaming about a Gibson or a Fender.   When the CBG revival was started in the States there was, and still is, a 'no rules' policy- which is also true to the original punk ideology- heavy metal on a cbg-why not?  Funk music on a 2 string? Go for it.  Oh yeah, that's the way things should be.”

Shane Speal, known as The King Of The Cigar Box Guitar, has a story about his discovery of the cbg that runs somewhat parallel to that of Hollowbelly, and it will be familiar to most blues fans.  It involves the usual fanboy tale of the reverse engineering of musical history. In an email interview I did with Speal he said,
 
“In high school, I played bass in heavy metal and thrash bands.  When I went to college, I discovered the blues and was totally blown away.  It started with the usuals...Hendrix, Ten Years After and Led Zeppelin.  Then  I started asking the question, "who came before them?" That's when I discovered Muddy, The Wolf and Hound Dog Taylor.  I kept searching for the deeper links to the blues, ending up with the delta guys like Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie Johnson.  I was beating an old Stella acoustic and struggling to play slide on it just like them.  In the meantime, I kept wondering, what came before the delta guys?  That's when I discovered the stories of guys building cigar box guitars. It was the one step deeper than the delta blues...a music so primal that you had to build your own damn guitar to play it.” 
 
Playing a cbg puts you in good company.  Jimi Hendrix played one as a kid, George Benson played a ukulele-style cbg, the aforementioned Carl Perkins and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Ted Nugent, Charlie Christian, Roy Clark, Albert King, Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Pete Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Eddie Lang, Josh White, Johnny Depp, Billy Gibbons, and Scott Dunbar who played his like a violin.  Countless more musicians either got their start on the cbg or picked one up later in life. Here’s the thing that I dig about cigar box guitars: It’s an elitism-free instrument and totally egalitarian.  You can make a guitar for ten bucks that can sound just as good as one that cost a lot more.  There are no rules.  No worries about structural acoustics or whether or not your neck is made of some exotic wood or cut from scrap.  Nobody cares if you play a Lowebow, a Shane Speal, a Blues Boy Jag model, or a homemade thing you slapped together out of that cigar box your dad kept spare change in or grandma’s old jewelry box.  It doesn’t matter if the parts to build it came from the big box hardware store or some box of junk in the back of your shed.  You put it together; you string it up, you figure out how to play it in the way that sounds good to you.  Anywhere you take it you’ll hear people say, "Wow! That's so cool! Can I see it? Can I hear it? How can I make one?" Each cigar box guitar is different and unique, and as long as it plays, is completely valid as an instrument and, perhaps more importantly, valid as a work of art as well.
Do you want to build your own cbg or a cigar box uke, fiddle, banjo, violin, diddley-bow, amp, or bass?  For the beginner or the expert craftsman, cigarboxnation.com has all the plans you’ll need.  Join the nation and your fellow members will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have along the way. Need a real Ukulele?  Check out our local favorite uke store Grampa’s Uke Joint in Flagler Beach or at grampasukejoint.com/

 

           

POSSESSED BY PAUL JAMES @ Mac's 06.22.11

 Possessed By Paul James Previously // Video shot by Lil' Devilish Productions

DELANEY DAViDSON - "An empty space, a puff of smoke, you blink, and she's there."

Delaney Davidson @ Facebook //  Voodoo Rhythm Records  

Thanks to my new pal Helen Keivom from New Zealand for the tip!

JESSE FULLER - Buckin' Wing (1966) & San Francisco Blues (1968)

Jesse Fuller @ WiKi

THE SiGNiFYiNG MONKEY

Via Wikipedia:

The Signifying Monkey is a character of African-American folklore that derives from the trickster figure of Yoruba mythology, Esu Elegbara. This character was transported with Africans to the Americas under the names of Exu, Echu-Elegua, Papa Legba, and Papa Le Bas. Esu and his variants all serve as messengers who mediated between the gods and men by means of tricks.The Signifying Monkey is “distinctly Afro-American” and is thought to derive from Cuban mythology, which depicts Echu-Elegua with a monkey at his side. Numerous songs and narratives concern the Signifying Monkey and his interactions with his friends, the Lion and the Elephant. In general the stories depict the Signifying Monkey insulting the Lion, but claiming that he is only repeating the Elephant’s words. The Lion then confronts the Elephant, who soundly beats the Lion. The Lion later comes to realize that the Monkey has been signifyin(g) and has duped him and returns angrily.
The Signifying Monkey is a classic routine originally on a comedy album by Rudy Ray Moore aka Dolemite.

RL Burnside - Bad Luck Monkey - mp3

R.L. Burnside - Monkey In The Pool Room - mp3

Smokey Joe Baugh - The Signifying Monkey - mp3

Signifying Monkey - mp3

Partytime Monkey - mp3

Signifying Monkey - mp3

Poolshooting Monkey - mp3

Willie Dixon - Signifying Monkey - mp3
R.L. Burnside - Mr. Shtbug - mp3

Way, way down in the jungle deep
The badass lion stepped on the signifying monkey's feet.
The monkey said, "Motherfucka, can't you see?
You're standing on my god damn feet!"
The lion said, "I ain't heard a word you said."
Said, "If you say three more I'll be steppin on yo muthafuckin head!"
Now, the monkey lived in the jungle in an old oak tree
Bullshittin' a line every day of the week.
Everyday before the sun go down,
That lion would kick his ass all through the jungle town.
But the monkey got wise and started using his wit,
Start telling "I'm gonna put a stop to this old ass kickin shit."
So he ran up on the lion the very next day
He said, "Oh, Mr. Lion.  There's a big, bad motherfucka coming your way.
And he's somebody that you don't know.
He just broke aloose from the Ringling Brother's Show."
Said, "He talked about your people in a hell of a way.
He talked about your people til my hair turned gray. 
He said your daddy's a freak and your momma's a whore.
Said he spotted you running through the jungle sellin asshole from door to door!
Said your sister did the damndest trick.
She got down so low and sucked a earthworm's dick.
Said he spotted yo niece behind the tree,
Screwin a muthafuckin flea!
He said he saw yo aunt sittin on the fence
Givin a goddamn zebra a french.
Then he talked about yo mammy and yo sister Lou,
Then he start talkin about how good yo grandmaw screw.
Said yo sister's a prostitute and yo brother's a punk,
And said I'll be damned if you don't eat all the pussy you see when you get drunk!
He said he cornholed your uncle and fucked your aunty and niece,
And next time he see yo grandmaw he gonna get him another good piece.
Said your brother died with the whoopin cough and your uncle died with
the measles
And your old grandpaw died with a rag chunked up in his ass, said he's 
goin on home to Jesus.
And you know yo little sister that ya love so dear
I fucked her all day for a bottle of beer.
So, Mr. Lion, you know that ain't right.
So wherever you run up on the elephant, I want you to be ready to fight."
The lion jumped up in a hell of a rage
Like a young man smoking some gage.
He ran up on the elephant talking to the swine.
He said, "All right, you big, bad motherfucka,
It's gonna be your ass or mine."
The lion jumped up and made a fancy pass,
But the elephant side-stepped him and knocked him dead on his ass.
He fucked up his jaw, messed up his face,
Broke all four legs and knocked his ass out of place.
They fought all night and all the next day.
Somehow the little lion managed to get away.
He drug his ass back to the jungle more dead than alive,
Just to run into the monkey and more of his signifying jive.
The little monkey said, "Look here, partner, you don't look so swell.
Looks to me like you caught a whole lot of hell."
Said, "Your eyes is red and your ass is blue.
I knew in the first place it wasn't shit to you.
But I told my wife before you left
'I should have whipped your ass my motherfucking self.'
Shut up! Don't you roar!
'Cause I'll jump out of this tree and whip your dog ass some more.
And don't look up here with your stuck 'ol case
Because I'll piss through the fork of this tree in your motherfuckin' face!"
The little monkey got happy; started jumping up and down
His feet missed the limb, and his ass hit the ground.
Like a ball of lightning and a streak of white heat,
That lion was on his ass with all four feet.
Thus, rolls of tears came in the little monkey's eyes,
Nothing he could see and nothing he could hear
But he knew that was the end of his bullshittin' and signifying career
And SIGNIFYING CAREER!!!! 

1962 AMERiCAN FOLK BLUES FESTiVAL Vol. 1-4 - Watch!

SONNY FORD - DELTA ARTIST (James "Son" Thomas)

Black and White 16mm documentary film based on fieldwork Bill Ferris conducted with Leland, Mississippi, bluesman and folk artist James "Son" Thomas. Included is footage of Thomas performing at juke houses, his wife preparing dinner, and Thomas making skulls out of clay. The film was made before the advent of 16mm cameras that could take syncronized sound.

Film by Bill Ferris, Josette Ferris
Produced by William Ferris, Josette Ferris
Cinematographer: William Ferris
Sound: Josette Ferris
Editing: Josette Ferris
Copyright: 1969, William R. Ferris.

Thx to T.Tex Edwards!

iMMORTAL LEE COUNTY KiLLERS @ Sin-E - Lower East Side NYC 2003

THE BUDROWS - Free ep download - Limited Time Only!

Via Cigar Box Nation: 

"In preparation of the release of The Budrows NEW CD coming your way very soon, we are giving away our 8 song demo CD download for FREE....you read it right, FREE. If you haven't gotten this foot stompin' demo yet, now is your chance. This will be available for a limited time as a FREE download, but only until the NEW album comes out.
Feel Free to share this link and enjoy your FREE music."

JUNiOR KiMBROUGH and CHARLiE FEATHERS

DJ Hillfunk reminded me that yesterday was Charlie Feathers birthday. I thought it fitting that I remind you what Mr. Feathers said about his friend Mr. Kimbrough:

Junior Kimbrough Is The Beginning And End Of All Music.

You'll find those words on Mr. Kimbrough's gravestone.

The Art of JUSTiN DeGARMO

Going back thru some files I came across a couple images that Chris Johnson had sent me ages ago of some Black Keys-related art work. I asked Chris to remind of the story behind this work:

Back in 2005, The Black Keys put that lawnmower painting on their website as the home page. I searched out the gallery that had it for sale, but it was already sold. I contacted the artist and we worked out a commission piece. Justin Degarmo lives in Phoenix, and I met him there on a trip and picked up my original (the van):

Here’s his website.

http://www.justindegarmo.com

Here’s the illustration of the lawnmower on his website

http://www.justindegarmo.com/illustrations.html

I also purchased another piece he had for sale in a charity auction. A lunchbox he painted. His isn’t the one I purchased, but similar.

Another website with more of his work.

http://jdegarmo.deviantart.com

Justin did the 2007 original deep blues logo with the guitar player. I have it on display the bbq.

-Chris

R.L. BURNSiDE- Photos by David Ray Burke

shot by

David Ray Burke

FAT POSSUM RECORDS OLD SCHOOL PROMO SHOTS

thx to DJ HWY 7 for the Junior shot!

T-MODEL FORD - The Ladies Man.

NOT THE SAME OLD BLUES CRAP!

Click to embiggin:

DEEP BLUES FESTiVAL:: UPDATE!

For more info, contact Ted Drozdowski at 615-730-7916 or dbf2011@gmail.com

 

DIRTY ROOTS BANDS FROM ACROSS AMERICA GATHER FOR
DEEP BLUES FESTIVAL 2011
AT CLEVELAND’S BEACHLAND BALLROOM on SAT, JULY 16

Blues, country, punk rock, folk and old timey music all intersect at Cleveland’s historic Beachland Balllroom on Saturday, July 16, for the fourth Deep Blues Festival — a unique event that spans the deepest American musical traditions and the cutting edge.

The festival features 10 dirty roots bands from the rising “Deep Blues” underground movement. These bands, many of whom tour internationally, will play continuously in the Beachland’s main room from 5 p.m. until closing. The Beachland Ballroom is at 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland. Call 216-383-1124. Tickets are $20 and available in advance at http://dbf2011.com/l/9xao9d/8352463;http://www.beachlandballroom.com. The Beachland also offers special hotel discounts, etc., for travelers. Please visit their web site for details.

ABOUT THE DEEP BLUES FESTIVAL

The Deep Blues Festival was started in 2007 outside of Minneapolis by Chris Johnson, a fan of dirty blues based and influenced music of all kinds. He based its name on a term coined by the late, great musicologist Robert Palmer, who borrowed the phrase “Deep Blues” from the giant Muddy Waters to describe the gritty, artful sound of music rooted in the Mississippi Delta and hill country — both electric and acoustic blues that bridges the traditional and the modern. Palmer published a book of the same title in 1982 and collaborated with director Robert Mugge to make a film of the same name in 1990. Mugge’s film, in turn, took the music to a much broader audience.

After the 2009 Deep Blues Festival, founder Johnson chose not to continue the event — but in the two years since the last Deep Blues Festival an underground movement has continued to grow. Today the Deep Blues scene has a community of bands and fan throughout the world and Deep Blues Festival 2011 provides a gathering place for that community to once again come together and enjoy a living blend of some of the most deeply rooted and cutting edge sounds in blues-based music today.

Deep Blues Festival 2011 is unique because it is an entirely band driven event. It is being organized by the participating bands and the Beachland. Johnson remains the event’s spiritual father and a volunteer advisor.

THE TOUR

In the weeks before the festival, many of the bands involved will be traveling across the country and in particular in the Midwest as they gather and head to the festival. Look for the Misery Jackals in the Akron area; Boom Chick heading west from NYC; Molly Gene as she travels east from Kansas, and various combinations of Scissormen, 10 Foot Polecats and Left Lane Cruiser banding together with other artists, including Molly Gene and Mark Holder, in Nashville, Chicago, the Minneapolis area, Lansing and Fort Wayne. Details are available on the band’s web sites, listed below.

THE BANDS

• Boom Chick: Frank Hoier and drummer Moselle comprise this electric guitar and drums rock ‘n’ roll duo out of Brooklyn, NY, who mix surf music, ’50s ballads and slide guitar blues to make good on all the things rock ‘n’ roll promised us so long ago. http://dbf2011.com/l/799hfn/8352463;http://www.boomchickboomchick.com

• Cashman: Led by Houston raised singer-guitarist Ray Cashman, the Nashville-based group that bears his name weaves the sound of Mississippi hill country juke joint blues ala R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough into a powerful stew captured on two riveting, raucous albums. http://dbf2011.com/l/jeumuk/8352463;http://www.reverbnation.com/cashman

• Left Lane Cruiser: The pride of Fort Wayne, Indiana’s garage roots scene, this duo blend the authority and soul of Muddy Waters and R.L. Burnside into their own bone-crunching sound. As their name implies, they are road warriors extraordinaire, touring widely in the U.S. and Europe. Their music appeared in the 2010 season of TV’s Breaking Bad. Their fourth and latest album Junkyard Speedball has just been released. http://dbf2011.com/l/evhrv1/8352463;http://www.myspace.com/leftlanecruiser

• Mark “Porkchop” Holder: One of the true pioneers of the modern Deep Blues scene thanks to his earlier role as guitarist in the Black Diamond Heavies, Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Mark Holder puts his own spin on country blues, writing songs and delivering them in a solo performing style that’s an perfect mix of truth and virtuosity. His latest disc is Fry Pharmacy. http://dbf2011.com/l/xbk3cb/8352463;http://www.myspace.com/markholdermusic

• Misery Jackals: This Akron, OH, quintet bust out their special blend of old school punk rock on acoustic instruments. They wail on banjo, accordion, guitar, bass, drums and whatever else they can find to produce a one of a kind experience of “Pillbilly Browngrass.” One time a patron at a music venue asked “The Misery Jackals? What kind of music do they play?” The bartender replied “I don’t know man, they’re just f$<#ing awesome!” http://dbf2011.com/l/e54xia/8352463;http://www.themiseryjackals.com

• “Mississippi” Gabe Carter: Solo dirty blues with a Mississippi regional flavor is this Chicagoan’s specialty, reminiscent of the MS hill country’s Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, and his Bentonia mentors Jack Owens and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. His latest album is LIVE At Duke’s With Uncle Walt. http://dbf2011.com/l/xky3xv/8352463;http://www.myspace.com/mississippigabecarter

• Molly Gene One Whoaman Band: True to her name, Warrensburg, Missouri’s Molly Gene cuts her music to the bone, playing guitar, harmonica and foot drum while singing like a ghost from the Delta flatlands out for vengeance. She tours extensively and had a wildly successful tour with Bob Log III in 2010. Molly Gene is rapidly earning a reputation for her high-powered performances.

Her latest album is Hillbilly Love. http://dbf2011.com/l/4eur5t/8352463;http://www.mollygene.org

• Old Gray Mule featuring C.W. Ayon: Juke joint blues is this Austin band’s specialty — once again echoing, in particular, the electric blues sounds of the Mississippi hills as minted by the Burnside and Kimbrough families. For the Deep Blues Festival 2011 they’ll be joined by Las Cruses, New Mexico’s C.W. Ayon, who usually performs as a foot stompin’, guitar slingin’ one-man band. http://dbf2011.com/l/tfv22c/8352463;http://www.oldgraymule.wordpress.com
http://dbf2011.com/l/z5isl8/8352463;http://www.reverbnation.com/cwayon

• Scissormen: This Nashville-based guitar and drums duo carry a style straddling the oldest blues traditions and modernist turns like daring improvisation and sonic experimentation, without betraying the music’s lowdown, dirty roots. With four albums and a new Robert Mugge directed movie starring Scissormen called BIG SHOES: Walking and Talking the Blues now playing at festivals, they are earning a reputation for high-energy live concerts in the US and Europe. http://dbf2011.com/l/hhtky4/8352463;http://scissormen.com

• Ten Foot Polecats: This blazing trio is from the Boston-area, but they sound like hard-bred juke joint dogs from the Mississippi hills. Nonetheless, their appeal is wide and their churning, psychedelic-yet-downhome sound is gaining them fans in the rock, punk and psychobilly circuits along with the traditional blues scene. Their latest album is I Get Blamed For Everything I Do. http://dbf2011.com/l/zmz5gl/8352463;http://www.tenfootpolecats.com

LUCiUS SMiTH - I'm Going Back To Jiles County

JESSiE MAE HEMPHiLL

Thx to the Teels!

CHRiS JOHNSON's Customized Death's Door White Whiskey Bottles

Check out these custom painted Death's Door White Whiskey bottles that artist Rob Jones made for Bayport BBQ and Deep Blues Festival Capo Tutti Capi, Chris "Wisconsin" Johnson. They are, in a word, wicked.
click pic to embiggen!

PEARLENE

WHO THE HELL iS BiG SHANTY?

Big Shanty @ iTunes // Facebook // OnLine // MySpace

Who the hell is Big Shanty?   
Big Shanty is a festival held in Kennesaw, Georgia but I ain't talking about that. I'm talking about The Man Big Shanty.  The mystery. The enigma.  Never heard of him have you?  Me neither. I found him via a spanish language garage/punk/blues/blog I subscribe to.  Yet the dude has well over a million downloads via his website. 
Big Shanty has a voice like a soulful foghorn.  His slide guitar sounds like a red hot buzz saw cuttin' wood for a new Georgia whore house bedroom.  His sound has been described "acid blues, techno blues, death metal blues, and heavy metal funk." The true sound is (D) All of the above, and somewheres in between there.  It's like a loud n' grownass southern arena-rock-sized Jon Spencer playing serious ZZ Top blues, backed by Kid Rock's band, with Massive Attack occasionally walking thru the room. It's an odd dichotomy that totally works.

Big Shanty - Walking Shoes - mp3

Big Shanty - Born Up In Trouble - mp3

By the way, Big Shanty has a fascinating back story. In a previous life he was instrumental in the development of southern rock and Capricorn records. More more HERE.

CUZN WiLDWEED FEELZ THE NOIZE

HiPBONE SLiM

HiPBONE SLiM @ MySPACE

Q-BURNS ABSTRACT MESSAGE VS ELMO WiLLiAMS & HEZEKiAH EARLY ~ Mother's Dead

Tom Vadakan's amazing artwork stolen and
used without permission via his blog right HERE.

I thought i'd posted this track ages ago but it seems that I never did. Let's rectify that, shall we? It fits right in with the blues remixes Fat Possum Records used to do. Perhaps it was done for them and not used? Eh. Dunno. But it's worthy and you should have it. Go give DJ Q-Burns some ducats of respect, y'all.

Q-BURNS ABSTRACT MESSAGE VS ELMO WiLLiAMS & HEZEKiAH EARLY ~ Mother's Dead - mp3

Photo of The Masters: R.L. BURNSiDE and JUNiOR KiMBROUGH

Here's a great shot from the archives of Ted Drozdowski. This photo was taken by Allen Dines at The House Of Blues in Cambridge, MA. during the first Fat Possum Juke Joint Caravan tour. Ted says:

"This is an amazing and historic photo, of course, and Allen, who shot it, was the house photographer at the original House of Blues in Cambridge. He does very good work. Thanks to the place's booking agent Teo Leyasmeyer, this was a magical period for the first House of Blues. I was sitting next to the photographer, basking in the experience. From time to time I'll be posting more photos like this from my collection. Thanks to my relationship with Teo and Susan McGuire and other friends from the early days of HoB (when the Blues in the name meant something) I found myself in that green room sitting and talking with Henry Gray, Phillip Walker, Otis Rush, Son Seals, Junior Wells, Little Milton, Ike Turner, Solomon Burke and the list goes on. I am thankful for all of those experiences and I miss Teo, who was taken away from us suddenly in 2006, very much."

REVEREND GARY DAViS on Seattle's KCTS TV - June 1967

"In the late 1960's, the Seattle Folklore Society and KCTS public television

video taped various acts that came through town." 

Thanks to Mr. Dante Fontana for the find!

SON HOUSE on Seattle's KCTS TV - 1960s

"In the late 1960's, the Seattle Folklore Society and KCTS public television

video taped various acts that came through town." 

Thanks to Mr. Dante Fontana for the find!

ROSCOE HOLCOMB on Seattle's KCTS TV - 1960s

"In the late 1960's, the Seattle Folklore Society and KCTS public television

video taped various acts that came through town." 

Thanks to Mr. Dante Fontana for the find!

MANCE LiPSCOMB on Seattle's KCTS TV - 1960s

"In the late 1960's, the Seattle Folklore Society and KCTS public television

video taped various acts that came through town." 

Thanks to Mr. Dante Fontana for the find!

LiGHTNiN' HOPKiNS on Seattle's KCTS TV - 1960s

"In the late 1960's, the Seattle Folklore Society and KCTS public television

video taped various acts that came through town." 

Thanks to Mr. Dante Fontana for the find!

JOHN LEE HOOKER on Seattle's KCTS TV - 1960s

"In the late 1960's, the Seattle Folklore Society and KCTS public television

video taped various acts that came through town." 

Thanks to Mr. Dante Fontana for the find!