Greetings!
Something went haywire with this damned computer again so I'll start over.
Thanks to everyone who helped out with BB '17 this year. That's 26 PBS has under its belt. And...it would never take place without the help of our Board and volunteers.
Our friends Bob Corritore and Big John Atkinson have been nominated for a Blues Music Award for Best Contemporary Album...and Sugaray Rayford has garnered two nominations: one for Entertainer of the Year; and for Contemporary Blues Male Artist.
These are our friends guys and gals. They are putting Valley Blues on the map.
Get out and soak it up!!
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford, PBS
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| | | The Bear would have turned 74 on Sunday but the boogie got him first.
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Boogie Bear
(Note: this weeks feature was supposed to highlight our friend Eric Ramsey, but Blues Blast and old age slowed me down a bunch. Next week fo' sho...JC)
Bob "The Bear" Hite was the lead singer of blues-rock band Canned Heat from 1965 to 1981. As a young man he acquired a job in a record and musical instrument store called Rancho Music on Westwood Blvd., just north of Pico in Los Angeles. Along the way he had amassed a huge collection of old Blues records, which were his inspiration for becoming a musician. The store primarily sold sheet music and instruments, but had a small Top-40 record section. Bob wore the same thing to work every day...a white shirt (not always the freshest), black slacks and a thin black tie (not always tied well). His hair was greasy and long for the time (early '60s). He looked remarkably like John Belushi's Blues Brosthers character. Each day he would bring a portable 45 r.p.m. record player with him and plug in behind the counter. He would bring a different selection of blues 45s each day and play them on his little player. The store was very quiet...every once in awhile a customer would wander in, but it was dead. High school kids who loved music would drop by and Bob would tell them "You gotta hear this!" and then play a Jimmy Reed or Lightnin Hopkins or John Lee Hooker record for them. When he quit work, he'd pack up his records and player, put on his shades and leave, frequently with his tough looking girlfriend. The kids who would drop by thought he was the coolest guy around. In 1965 he was introduced to Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson by Henry Vestine and the two of them helped convince legendary blues pianist, Sunnyland Slim to get back into the studio to record. In 1965, aged 22, he formed a band with Wilson. Henry Vestine joined soon after and this trio formed the core of Canned Heat. The trio were eventually joined by Larry Taylor (bassist), and Frank Cook (drums). The Bob Hite of Canned Heat was exactly the same guy as the one at Rancho Music, but with slightly longer hair and a different outfit. Originally formed in 1965 as a jug band they took their name from Tommy Johnson's Canned Heat Blues. Their first incarnation included Hite who hailed from the LA area; Bostonian, AI 'Blind Owl' Wilson, Frank Cook and Henry Vestine from Washington. Their original bass player was Stuart Brotman who later emerged in the US band Kaleidoscope, alongside David Lindley, he was soon replaced by Mark Andes (who later co-founded Spirit), before New Yorker, Samuel Larry Taylor came in as permanent bassist; he had served his apprenticeship with the likes of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as playing on several of the Monkees hits. In 1967 the group signed to Liberty Records after appearing at the Monterey Pop Festival. In July 1967 they released a selftitled album that made No.76 on the album chart, following it with Boogie With Canned Heat in 1968, which spent three months on the Billboard chart. Living the Blues a double album came out in 1968 after which came Hallelujah in 1969, just before their Woodstock appearance. Technically, Vestine and Wilson were quite possibly the best two-guitar team in the world and Wilson had certainly become one of the finest white blues harmonica men. Together with powerhouse vocalist Hite, they performed the country and Chicago blues idiom of the 1950s so skillfully and naturally that the question of which race the music belongs to became totally irrelevant. (from 1967 Downbeat magazine article). In 1968 Cook had been replaced by Fito De La Parra who hailed from Mexico City and that's when the band began to have hits with their unique blues sound. On The Road Again went to No.16 in the USA in the late summer of 1968, while AI Wilson's Going Up The Country peaked at No.11 in the US early in 1969. In the spring of '69 Time Was went to No.67 on the Billboard charts. The band was also very popular in Britain where On The Road Again went Top-10 and Going Up The Country Top-20. Going Up The Country became something of an unofficial theme song from the Woodstock festival after it was featured in the movie. Coupled with On The Road Again, which the band played as an encore it helped catapult the band to even greater recognition. Woodstock Boogie was very much a jam lasting close to 15 minutes, including the obligatory drum solo; it was a reworking of Fried Hockey Boogie from Boogie With Canned Heat. "The Woodstock performance which, although there were a couple of tunes which weren't too good, 'Going Up The Country' was one of them, there were some which were killers, stone killers," Hite said at the time. In September, 1970 AI Wilson was found dead from a barbiturates overdose in Bob Hite's Topanga Canyon garden. He had suffered from depression and his death robbed the world of "the most gifted harmonica player I've ever heard," as John Lee Hooker described him. The band had been working with the blues legend on an album that became Hooker 'N' Heat. The following month Let's work Together from Hallelujah reached No.26 on the Billboard chart becoming their last single of any note; it reached No.2 in the UK. In September 1970 AI Wilson was found dead from a barbiturates overdose in Bob Hite's Topanga Canyon garden. He had suffered from depression and his death robbed the world of "the most gifted harmonica player I've ever heard," as John Lee Hooker described him. "Wilson had for a long time been subject to fits of depression," wrote Geoffrey Stokes in Rock of Ages, "which he had increasingly been holding at bay with heroin." The band had been working with the blues legend on an album that became Hooker 'N' Heat. The following month Let's work Together from Hallelujah reached No.26 on the Billboard chart become their last single of any note; it reached No.2 in the UK. By the mid '70s only Vestine, who had returned to the fold, and Hite remained of the original line up. Many critics felt that the band never recovered after Wilson's death. Hite steered Canned Heat through still more personnel changes during the 1970s, but the band lost its major-label backing after 1974. Bob Hite died on April 5, 1981, which ended that chapter in the band's history. The band somehow carried on with Taylor and De La Parra, guitarist Junior Watson (late of the Mighty Flyers) and Walter Trout. By the time the band featured on John Lee Hooker's album, 'The Healer' in 1989, Vestine had rejoined the group yet again. Vestine died in October 1997 in a hotel outside Paris from heart and respiratory failure. He wanted his ashes to be scattered in a crater on the dark side of the moon named after his father, a noted astrophysicist. Some of Canned Heat's longevity can be put down to their material regularly being featured in advertising campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic, which have included General Motors, Miller Beer, Levi's, and Pepsi. And the band played on.... |
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| Out & About Tuesday, February 28 Hoodoo Casters, 5 p.m., Papadeaux's, Phoenix Paris James, 7 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Wednesday, March 1 Hans Olson, 6 p.m., JJ Madison's, Mesa Paris James, 7 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Bad News Blues Band, Every Wed., 9:30 p.m., Chicago Bar, Tucson Thursday, March 2 Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Friday, March 3 Sugar Thieves, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Hoodoo Casters, 7 p.m., Draw Bar, Phoenix Eric Ramsey, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Paris James, 7 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Saturday, March 4 Ian Moore (early show), 6 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Harp Blast, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 8a p.m., Ak-Chin Casino, Maricopa Big Pete Pearson, 6:30 p.m., G's BBQ Lounge, Litchfield Park JC & The Juke Rockers, 7 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Hoodoo Casters, 8 p.m., Lucky Strikes, Apache Junction Eric Ramsey, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Nina Curri, 7 p.m., Wild Vine Uncorked, Chandler Outback Blues Band, American Legion Post 26, Mesa Paris James, 8 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Chandler Sunday, March 5 Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 2 p.m., Sunday A'Fair, Scottsdale
Two Flavor Blues, NOON, Copper Star, Phoenix Sugar Thieves Duo, 11 a.m., Herb Box, Scottsdale Monday, March 6 |
Weekly Jams
Sunday
Ray Ray & BluZone, 5 p.m., Wild Willy's, Avondale
R.d. Olson JAM, 2 p.m., Sally's BBQ, Prescott
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
MONDAY Ray Ray & Bluzone Every other Monday, Opa Life Cafe, Tempe
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
TUESDAY Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Front Page Blues Band, EVERY THIRD Tuesday, 6 p.m., Far From Folsom, Prescott
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, 7 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., El Dorado, Scottsdale
Bumpin' Bud's 1st & 3rd Wednesdays JAM, 7 p.m., Marc's, Glendale
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler Brad's Place JAM, 7 p.m., Ahwatukee (Every other Week)
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| GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to [email protected] and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter |
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