https://yplocal.us/b4sf5238 Stevie Ray Vaughan had some of his best performances at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and the amazing clip from the 1988 Jazz Festival featured 3 of the greatest blues guitar legends of all time – Stevie Ray, BB King and Albert Collins.
https://www.vertaglia.com/m4cplgrzhxc I love the interaction in this clip between Stevie and BB King on a version of often performed SRV Texas Flood. You can see Stevie tearing into the intro of Texas Flood intending to play all of the inter-verse blues guitar lead as he always did…but at about the 56-second mark you can tell he hears something special in BB’s lead and from that point on gives BB the entire guitar part.
https://grannysglasses.com/?p=9pu7lobm9 For all of you who are used to seeing BB slow and sweet, this is the “fast and nasty” BB – and man it sounds incredible.
https://annmorrislighting.com/jna08na79 I can tell you right now, I would not want to be the one standing in playing the guitar accompaniment to Texas Flood – that is pure energy, tone and muscle with an does of finesse from Stevie – it often was his signature song of the night – but BB is up to the challenge and perhaps my favorite all-time guitar from the King of the Blues.
https://someawesomeminecraft.com/2024/05/13/m12lrge5ix What do you guys think?
https://thegreathighway.com/feprt8q876 Filed under bb king, blues guitar, Blues Legends by on Nov 23rd, 2009. Comment. 
go to link Robert Johnson Gibson L-1
https://restoreredspruce.org/2024/05/13/a8o2cxzil6 Every great movement has its legends, for blues – and blue guitar especially – no legend is greater than that of Robert Johnson.
https://www.jacobysaustin.com/2024/05/xns06liw A mystery man that was known by many names, by all accounts a transient who never stayed in one place very long, and a man who died young under very suspicious circumstances. Born in 1911, Johnson’s life was cut short in 1938.
https://aguasamazonicas.org/qt2m659od4c Along the way, there was the odd disappearance of an “average” blues guitar player and the re-emergence of a masterful, almost “beyond-human” guitar man leading to the legendary story of how Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads of Highway 61 and U.S. 49 in the Mississippi Delta.
go here Today I came across this story in the hometown newspaper of Johnson’s confirmed birth – Hazlehurst Mississippi – “Hazlehurst To Restore Blueseman’s Home” where the county is close to reaching its objective of raising funds to restore the house.
Will the restored house bring tourist dollars to the county? Perhaps – in any case it is good to see reminders of the great musical artists in history, sort of a snapshot in time.
What is your favorite Robert Johnson song? Sweet Home Chicago? Crossroad Blues, Hellhound on My Trail? Others?
Filed under blues guitar, Blues Legends by on Nov 13th, 2009. Comment.
Did you know that the original Blues Brothers – Dan Akroyd and John Belushi were inspired by a Canadian band called The Downchild Blues Band – take a listen to this clip and you will see why…
Talk about some great jump blues on that second number.
I remember seeing them back in the 90’s at many local Ottawa and Toronto bars – they always put on a great, tight and swinging blues show.
With some great blues harp, blues guitar and excellent portfolio of traditional blues and swing blues numbers – you knew when you went out to see Downchild, you were going to be entertained.
What did amaze me is this article in The Globe about the upcoming 40th anniversary of Downchild – wow where the hell has the time gone? Great to hear that they are on a celebration tour for their 40th anniversary hosted by non other than Dan “The Man” Akroyd himself. With stops planned in Ottawa, Toronto, Belleville, Niagra Falls and Montreal this should be a terrific blues event.
Check out their tour schedule and help vote for them on the several nominations they received for the Maple Blues Awards by visiting their website.
What about you – have you ever been in the audience for Downchild?
Filed under Blues Legends, maple blues awards by on Nov 10th, 2009. Comment.
With 11 albums (12 counting the 1995 compilation title “Then Again”) blues guitar great Colin James is now well into his 3rd decade in music here in Canada. Having honed his chops with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan – Colin is one of the few that has mixed elements of raw blues guitar with soul, R&B, straight ahead rock and jump/big band blues.
His new album is on the away out – titled “Rooftops and Satellites” I’m excited to hear what this innovative blues artist is up to next.
I’ll also be watching this Tuesday November 10th at 10PM Eastern on Canadian cable channel Bravo when Colin appears as part of the Motown 50th anniversary special filmed in Toronto.
For those of you who can’t catch him on Bravo – here are a couple of clips of Colin at his finest:
This legendary show is where Colin got to share the stage with blue guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. While this wasn’t his best performance, there is still magic and obvious chemistry between Stevie and Colin. Ever since these early days spent with Stevie, I swear there is some of Stevie’s soul that was transferred to Colin – it comes out on his best solo’s and best nights – you almost swear you see flashes of Stevie Ray as he hits the perfect note!
And now…for some new stuff, this one’s on Colin’s new album “Rooftops and Satellites” – a rockin blues guitar tune titled “Man’s Gotta Be A Stone”. This one has a ZZ Top feel to it, but with Colin’s smooth voice and some Colinesque guitar parts – whatta you think?
And last but not least – a really improvisational version of his hit single “Keep On Loving Me Baby” where he loses himself totally in the solo and touches on “Third Stone From The Sun” and then finishes with the rhythm to “Hidden Charms” with lots of other goodies thrown in for good measure – take a listen:
Finally – Colin is heading out on tour across Canada in early 2010 – take a look at his new website to find out where he will be and how you can catch up with him – his live shows are ALWAYS awesome!
Oh..and if there are any other Canadians (or U.S.) people who have heard Colin and want to weigh in – leave a comment and let us hear from you.
Jeff
Filed under blues guitar, Blues Legends by on Nov 9th, 2009. Comment.
Nice to see that some of the newer blood – Jonny Lang is active with one of the more experienced members of the blues guitar scene – Robert Cray. I’ve had the chance to see Jonny 3-times at different venues and Robert Cray at least that many times, often at the Ottawa Blues Festival.
They are appearing together at bergenPAC November 11th in Englewood NJ at 8PM, a show you won’t want to miss
Not only is this a great combination in terms of styles – the rough and powerful with the smooth and tasteful Robert Cray – but these guys could really feed off one another. Robert Cray can feed off of Jonny’s energy and Jonny can tap into some of Robert’s amazing soul.
If you get the chance to see either one of them…and you have even a moderate interest in blues guitar, then get out and see them as soon as you can.
According to Robert Cray’s website, he will be visiting Southern Ontario, Northern New York, Boston, NJ and Indiana before the end of the year, followed by some California dates in the New Year.
I really like to listen to Robert’s playing because he constantly moves across many scales from traditional blues into major and minor scales always channeling his feeling and coming up with great melodies as he moves through his songs.
Bending, shaking and interacting with his Fender Stratocaster guitar, Robert has a unique sound that will infect you when you get out and see him live.
Filed under blues guitar, Blues Legends by on Oct 22nd, 2009. Comment.
Wow – I have to admit, I was taken a little off guard by the amazing line-up that appeared at this year’s Dutch Mason Blues Festival in Bible Hill, Truro, Nova Scotia – a fine Maritime province up here in Canada.
It seems that Jimmy Vaughan has been touring with the James Cotton band for some gigs, Jimmie is the ultimate in groove with some of the most rock-steady, hit you in the gut blues rhythms that have ever been played on guitar.
So many people comment on how different Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s styles were, yet every time I listen to Jimmie I immediately pick out the shuffles and rhythm’s that Stevie used to root each and every one of his classic blues guitar tunes.
Also at the show was Kenny Wayne Shephard – and as you can see in this video – Chris “The Whipper” Layton was the drummer for Kenny’s set – cool!
Other names that were on the bill include the fabulous Downchild Blues Band from Canada – great to see they are touring again and of course a personal favorite up here in Canada – Colin James (who seems to have gone into hiding of late up here).
In its 5th year, this one looks like a blues festival I’m going to need to keep on my radar next year – how about you?
Jeff
Filed under Blues Festival, Blues Legends by on Aug 16th, 2009.
It always makes me smile when I see how crazy the tour schedule is for some of these blues musicians. Take Sugar Blue, the grammy award winning blues harp player that has been on the scene for some time, but has a renewed passion and fire to his performances lately.
He was in our home town of Ottawa, Canada and Cisco Systems Bluesfest on the July 17th where he put on a terrific show – coming from Mt Tremblant the night before (a ski resort about 2-hours from Ottawa). Then I see that he played the Bay City Blues Festival in Michigan on the 19th and brought the house down on a night that saw blues legend Kenny Neal and blues guitar great Johnny Winter in the headliner slot.
I still recall a special evening in downtown Ottawa at the Rainbow – one of our mainstay blues venues in the city – seeing Sugar Blue, it must be more than 15-years ago. That too was an incredible show of blues standards with the fire and passion than Sugar Blue brings to every performance.
From all reports it turned out to be a magical evening of music where three very different artists managed to communicate their passion for blues music to the crowd, each in their own way.
You’ve got to love the summer – remind me next year, I’m going to take 3-4 months and just travel from blues festival to festival – to hell with working!
Filed under Blues Festival, Blues Legends by on Jul 22nd, 2009. Comment.
Larry Garner Blues Guitar
After 15-years of attending Ottawa bluesfest, this year was no exception – each year continues to get better and better.
As usual, it’s often the side stages that bring the performances that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and those moments of pure musical genious when talented musicians combine to meet that perfect moment of synchronization with the heavens. For the audience, suddenly the 40 or 50 feet between us and band disappears and we are the blue guitar god, the masterful beat master drummer or the honkey tonk keyboard player.
With 6-stages, every musical genre covered, Ottawa bluesfest has world musical event. Only at this festival could you have rapper Ludicrous playing on a stage right before Lynard Skynard take the stage with their Southern Rock experience.
Blacksheep Stage
So – who was great, who was good and who wasn’t?
That’s a subjective thing of course and any one person’s opinions can only be issued based on the acts he is able to take in – after all, we are only human.
Here’s a quick summary from my perspective —
1. Los Lonely Boys were my walk-away favorites. They had it going on…Henry Garza (one of the 3 brothers) is an incredibly talented guitar player, the closest I’ve seen to Stevie’s ability to channel his soul through the guitar and touch the crowd. Not to slight the JoJo and Ringo on bass and drums respectively – they were incredibly tight while the entire night they knew exactly how far to push it to the line.
2. My second favorite was Doyle Bramhall – yes the senior one. Not exactly the showman many may have thought, but a terrific songwriter, musician and entertainer just the same
Hard Rock Cafe Stage
3. Larry Garner put on a terrific show and although one would have liked to have had more time to hear his blues guitar shine -his show was certainly one of the best received with his gracious ode to the crowd, festival organizers and Sugar Blue who contributed his drummer when Larry’s was unable to come at the last minute because his mother had broken a hip in a fall.
4. Oh yes, and a big positive for the Subway Rockband Guitar tent – an esecially big hit with my two kids while Dad watched some more blues
5. Who had off nights – the sound was horribly muddy at Lynard Skynard, they faught through and put on a giant show, but much of the fine guitar work all sounded like one big electrical surge – too bad on that one.
Ottawa Cisco Systems Bluesfest
6. Jeff Beck – he may be one of the world’s finest technical guitar players – but he could learn a thing or two from Eric Clapton on keeping it simpler, but really touching the soul of his audience. Many stared in wonder, but then wondered why they left unfulfilled
All in all, it was a terrific festival this year – for us fans of blues guitar, there was enough to keep us happy, though I can’t help but notice there seems to be a little less each year – hopefully Mark Monahan sticks with the blues and keeps us coming back for more.
Filed under Blues Festival, Blues Legends by on Jul 20th, 2009. Comment.
Well, tonights headline act at The Ottawa Bluesfest is KISS – needless to say, I’ll be skipping that one which gives me time to tell you a little about my meeting with Doyle Bramhall – a great blues song writer, drummer, singer and performer.
Many people know about Doyle Bramhall II – the son of Doyle Bramhall 1 (in case you hadn’t figured that out, I’m a little punchy from the late nights and libations!).
Doyle Bramhall II is one of the two guitarists that made up the Arc Angels along with Double Trouble (Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton of SRV fame) back 17-years ago (1992) when they hit the scene with one of the coolest CD’s the blues/rock world has ever heard – it was a self-titled CD “Arc Angels”
Since then Doyle II has come out with solo albums, extensively toured with Eric Clapton along with Derek Trucks – learning a ton about life, the business and guitar I would imagine and done a ton of work with others – all of it incredibly creative and great.
Back to Doyle Bramhall 1 who brought his act to Ottawa Bluesfest for two shows this past weekend, along with Casper Rawls – a cool country-flavored guitar picker who once played with Buck Owens.
I had to chuckle as a bunch of us waited in line to see Doyle’s first show inside the Barney Danson theatre – I overheard several of them saying how good he was in the Arc Angels (I had to break it to them that this was the other Doyle Bramhall!) All was well though – he blew them away just the same.
An intimate theatre that holds around 200 people with only about 75 people in attendance, incredible acoustics and some great music made for a very memorable evening.
Top that off with being able to walk up and chat with Doyle for a few minutes after the show and you have a night to remember – that I will!
Doyle has a knack for writing tastey rhythms surrounded by straight ahead rock (how about The House is Rocking from Stevie Ray Vaughan – or as Doyle called refers to him – Stevie Vaughan) and “Shape I’m In” with his son Doyle II to straight ahead blues on the co-written (again with SRV) “Change It” all the way to “Lost In The Congo” off of his newest CD “Is It News”
Check out Doyle’s latest CD Doyle Bramhall: Is It News
I sometimes imagine being around theVaughan’s and the Bramhall’s in Texas back in the 70’s and 80’s when things were rich with music and creativity – great to see that Doyle 1 and Doyle II are still pushing the envelope, stretching music but always keeping it real, with feeling – maybe there is still hope for music after all.
Filed under Blues Legends by on Jul 16th, 2009. Comment.
What better way to kick off the Smokin Blues Guitar blog than to pay homage to one of greatest blues guitarists and all around nice guys still on the blues circuit today.
Hubert Sumlin was born on November 16th, 1931 in Mississippi and raised in Arkansas – endorsed by the great Howlin” Wolf who brought him up to Chicago. There he learned his chops, developed his style and created the sound behind some of the best blues classics of all time.
Do yourself a favor and head over to his official website now – check out his Gallery where you will see nearly every influential music star that matters, all of them want to be with Hubert.
I had the chance to see Hubert up close this past weekend here at the Ottawa Blues Festival where he hung out for 3-days before moving on to Mt Tremblant – a couple hour drive from here to join Robert Cray.
My first siting was watching local band Monkey Junk (a hugely talented trio in their own right), where I see this person doing some mean air drumming and air guitar to the tastey blues licks of the boys. Since I was right up front, I poked my ahead around to see stage right and there is Hubert Sumlin jiving away with Monkey Junk – that was Friday evening, he had arrived for a set of gigs on Saturday and Sunday.
The local guys – Tony D, Steve Mariner and Matt Sobb were humbled and giddy at the fact that Sir Hubert was taking in their set, and purely enjoying what he was hearing by the way.
Along came Saturday and Hubert took the Hard Rock Stage (one of 6 stages at Ottawa Bluesfest), it was a terrific set with some very tastey blues.
It struck me like thunder how many giant blues hits he has put his own flavor to over the last 50-years – Killing Floor, Going Down Slow, and my personal favorite from this concert, Sitting On Top of The World!
As if that weren’t enough, I got to say hi to him (and received a huge Hubert smile and wave) as he passed by a group of us lined up to see Doyle Bramhall perform later that afternoon.
Sunday came, and yet another priveledged Hubert Sumlin concert – this time he put something extra into the mix throwing some additional songs into the mix, sometimes completely mystifying his band, but he sure knew what he was doing – they had to catch up.
Here’s a terrific set of clips of “Hubert blues licks” – see if you don’t recognize some of these:
What struck me more than anything else though over these 3 days is how vibrant, energetic and positive a person Hubert is. He brought the festival to life – he walks with the aura of thousands of blues greats before him and will have influenced thousands after…their aren’t many gentelman left in this world like Hubert Sumlin…it just so happens he is also a living legend of the blues guitar.
Do you have a Hubert Sumlin story or favorite moment to share? Leave a comment and let us hear about it.
Filed under Blues Legends by on Jul 15th, 2009. Comment.
