The Blues List

I'm not sure why this next one is not synched up, but the man can sing!

 

THE CASH BOX KINGS

Poison In My Whiskey


I previously mentioned, Hubert Sumlin's Iodine in My Coffee, this one is Poison in My Whiskey, which, you may notice, tastes like iodine.

Darn them women, when they get murder on their minds... That's when you better hide the iodine. ...apparently, if we are to learn a thing or two from bluesmen.

The Cash Box Kings named themselves after Cashbox, which was a publication that kept a music chart from the 1940's till the mid 90's that rivaled Billboard's charts. They are an incredible band that hails from Chicago and plays Chicago and Delta Blues.

Each member has a long impressive history in the blues. The band's founder, for example, Joe Nosek, who plays harmonica and sings, has played with Luther Allison and other greats. Another example is the drummer, Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith, who performed with Muddy Waters at the age of seven, and has also played with Pinetop Perkins, Junior Wells, and others.

I believe this song is sung by Oscar Wilson, the second front man after Joe.

This is a great band that puts out a lot of good and original stuff.

 

STEVE ARVEY

I'm a Poor Boy/Mississippi Winds


Let's take a trip back down to the swamps near the Delta and listen to some good cigar box guitar blues.

Steve Arvey was born in Chicago, spent time as a child in Cuba as his dad had a business down there--until Castro kicked them out. His mom was a jazz musician, he spent quite a bit of time in the South, and then there is his Chicago birth, so how could he not be a blues man?

He has played at quite a few blues festivals, and he's had a number of bands. He has toured internationally and is very popular in Australia as I understand, and I think the YouTube video I linked may have actually been recorded there.

But this here is some great Cigar Box Guitar playing. Two songs for one even.

His instagram is @stevearvey

 

As I posted the previous post this morning, I had to go to YouTube and find the video, as I always do. And I let it play out as I posted it, which I also always do. Then YouTube played another video which was by Justin Johnson----one I haven't heard before and it was really good, as he always is. (I know Scratcho will agree to that).

Then among the suggested videos, I happened to find this cool gem about Cigar Box Guitars. I bought my first CGB, by the way, as a kit from Guitar Center. All the hard stuff was done and all I had to do was put in a few screws, and put on the strings. It only cost $35.00, and that was just a few years ago.






A quote from the video---said by a working class lad from, I think it was, Yorkshire: "Somebody gave them to me. I didn't pinch them." (LMAO!)

 

And here's a good documentary if you want to learn more:






Quote from this video: "Is the cigar box guitar an art or a craft? (laugh) The cigar box guitar is a virus."

 

LITTLE BOBBY

Just Like My Old Man


Little Bobby is Bobby Houle, and he is one hell of a good bluesman.

What I didn't realize when I first started listening to his music, and this was the first song I heard of his, as it was played on Houston Blues Radio, is that he is Native American. We need more Native representation in the Blues!

In one account, Bobby was doing a stint in prison (apparently he was a good partyer like the best of us) when someone said he had a good blues voice. There are a lot of Natives with good blues voices. A good friend of mine, who runs a sweat lodge and a Sun Dance, has a voice just like B B King!

I don't know if Bobby's dad played guitar, but I do know he loved Rock, and Bobby grew up listening to Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Skynyrd, and so forth, and this gave him his introduction to the blues.

I think a lot of musicians can relate to this song. My dad certainly loved music. He played clarinet and other wind instruments mostly. He didnt dig rock like I did, he was a generation before. But his love for music certainly influenced me.

Bobby put out a number of successful albums and had a blues show on a radio station. This song came from his, God Made Me Blue album. He also has an Instagram page you can follow: @little_bobby_music . A great musician keeping the blues alive.

 

(Here's another post on the Cigar Box Guitar. This did not appear on my Instagram page, one reason being that, I don't know how to play YouTube videos on it, and the second being that I just discovered these yesterday as I was watching those two documentaries. BTW---those two posts also never appeared on my IG page.)

12-Bar Blues is one of the first actual blues boogies I learned on the guitar. But these videos have some good tips on how to just play the blues for any beginning musicians, as for example, he really gets into the standard beat of the blues. It is pretty amazing how much easier it is to do on the CGB, as this guy demonstrates:




and then he carries it further:




And then there is this-----look at how easy it is to play ZZ Tops,' La Grange

 

Justin can do a little gardening and play some blues too!

 

Yeah, he is great.

I havent done a post on him yet, but I have long planned to.

 

OH MAN---THOSE WOMEN CAN GET IT ON!!!!

 

CAN SHE PLAY THAT THING???????

 

Agreed, wow

 

Wow! I think I've seen Joanna Connor before, but I forget where---unless she is the guitarist playing on the side of their house----a video I have saved when I first came across it, and I think you shared it as well. I forget the song off hand, maybe Walking Blues. I looked up her image, to make sure which one she is (besides Ally) and I see that she was on the cover of Blues Blast magazine. I get that in my e-mails, but I usually don't have time to read it, and most of them are unopened (call me old fashioned, but I still want my magazines to come in the mail, Damn it!)


I will definitely need to do a post on her in the future!

 

(I haven't done a post on this guy yet, but we were eating dinner while I had a CD playing in the background, and thought I would post some of his songs----Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson----the album is Kidney Stew is Fine.

When I do write a post on him, it will probably start out: I'm not a real big jazz fan. I enjoy Kenny G, and easy listening jazz is nice in the background---perfect for a hotel lobby or a restaurant in Barcelona Spain, for example. Or playing at a restaurant on the beach in Barcelona---great memories... But generally speaking, I'm not a jazz fan. This might surprise some, because I really enjoy ethnic and indigenous music, and the roots of Jazz go back to Africa. But even if you see the same scales and notes modified to Western instruments, it is not the same. In fact, when I'm listening to Blues and someone says how much they like the jazz music, I will quickly correct them, "This is Blues!"

But I know, they are right in many ways. The term jazz, which also referred to sex, was generally applied to everything from the big bands, to Fusion Jazz, and the Blues. But in my vast CD collection, the only ones I have that I consider jazz are Kenny G, Louis Armstrong, and coincidentally, a Barcelona jazz album that was a gift from a hotel I stayed at there. I pull them out mainly for my wife to listen to, as she enjoys them. Oh, and a Tijuana Brass album that I enjoy every now and then--taking me back to my youth.

Speaking of coincidences, my dad loved playing the clarinet and the saxophone. He liked jazz, and today I have his collection of phongraphs in my basement---a bunch of Jazz albums.

But I do love jazz-blues played by Eddie Vinson, Big Joe Turner, and the like. The music has the same chord progressions, bridges, etc as just about any other blues piece. I regret not playing any of this for my dad when he was alive, as I'm sure it was a music that we both could have enjoyed. This is great music to accompany a good dinner, even an intimate candle light one.

Here are a couple from that album












What do you guys think?

 

Good voice--I like.