Hello John, I realize the piece about Guitar Johnny is lengthy but it was interesting to me. The dude played with them all and kind of got buried in history. Lots of stuff to do and lots coming up in the middle of this fantastic weather. Miss Francine and friends are staging a fundraiser for the homeless Sunday at the RR. She's an icon in the Valley Blues/Jazz community. Please check it out and lend your support to a worthy cause. We are excited to team up with Frasher's BBQ recently. They are providing the backstage grub at Blues Blast and are hosting a cool fundriser at Frasher's Smokehouse on the 27th. Y'all give their a try BBQ if you haven't already. You'll be glad you did. Get out and about and see and hear the vast array of talent we have among us. Nice folks and bad-ass playrs. Stay safe and have a great week, Jim Crawford Phoenix Blues Society phoenixblues.org/ | |
OUR FRIENDS COLD SHOTT and The Hurricane Horns www.coldshott.com The Sugar Thieves www.sugarthieves.com Gary Zak & The Outbacks www.outbackbluesband.com Eric Ramsey https://www.ericramsey.net/ Hans Olson www.hansolson.net Rocket 88s www.rocket88s.net JC& The Rockers www.thejukerockers.com Smokestack Lightning https://www.facebook.com/sslblues Carvin Jones www.carvinjones.com Poppy Harpman & The Storm https://poppyharpman.com/ Hoodoo Casters www.hoodoocasters.com RHYTHM ROOM www.rhythmroom.com WESTSIDE BLUES & JAZZ https://westsideblues.com/ Nina Curri www.ninacurri.com Paris James www.parisjames.com Mother Road Trio www.motherroadtrio.com Blues Review Band Reverbnationbluesmanmike Mike Eldred www.mikeeldredtrio.com Big Daddy D & The Dynamites Facebook www.bigdadddyd.com Cadillac Assembly Line Facebook https://cadillacassemblylineband.com/ Innocent Joe and the Hostile Witnesses Facebook Dry Heat https://www.facebook.com/dryheatbluesband Chuck Hall Facebook Pop Top Facebook Tommy Grills Band Facebook Sweet Baby Ray SweetBabyRaysBlues.com Thermal Blues Express Thermal Blues Express.com Common Ground Blues Band Facebook Billy G & The Kids billgarvin.com OUT & ABOUT Tuesday, February 15 Carvin Jones, 6:30 p.m., Florigino’s Pizza, Gilbert Gypsy & Hooter’s Blues JAM, 6 p.m., Pho Cao, Scottsdale Wednesday February 16 Sugar Thieves, 6 p.m., Jolie’s Place, Chandler Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., American Legion Post 91, Chandler Tool Shed JAM, 7 p.m, Blooze Bar, Phoenix Johnny Miller JAM, 7 p.m., Coop’s, Glendale Thursday,February 17 GB Leighton, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., 12 West Brewing, Chandler Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Handlebar Pub, Apache Junction Friday, February 18 John Primer/Bob Corritore CD Release Party, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 7:30 p.m., Westside Blues & Jazz, Glendale Blues Review Band, 9 a.m., Wigwam Fine Arts Festival, Litchfield Park JC & The Rockers, 7:30 p.m., Fibber Magee’s, Chandler Carvin Jones, 8:30 p.m., Jolie’s Place, Chandler Leon J, 12:30 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville Saturday, February 19 Rocket 88s, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Big Daddy D & The Dynamites, 2 p.m.,, 10-12 Lounge, Clarkdale Cadilla Assembly Line, 6 p.m., Desert Ridge Marketplace, Phoenix JC & The Rockers, 7 p.m., Handlebar Pub, Apache Junction Blues Review Band, 9 a.m., Wigwam Fine Arts Festival, Litchfield Park Blues Review Band, 6 p.m., Voodoo Daddy’s, Tempe Eric Ramsey, 3:30 p.m., Belle’s Nashville Kitchen, Scottsdale Sugar Thieves, 6 p.m., Main Stage, Cottonwood Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., State 48 Rock House, Phoenix Leon J, 1 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville Sunday, February 20 Francine Reed/Alice Tatum & Friends, 3 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Blues Review Band, 9 a.m., Wigwam Fine Arts Festival, Litchfield Park Eric Ramsey, 3 p.m., Fatso’s Pizza, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 5 p.m., Golden Stallion Restaurant, Gold Canyon Leon J, 12 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville Monday, February 21 Hans Olson, 7 p.m., Time Out Lounge (Every Monday) | BLUES BLAST 2022 Tickets https://www.brownpapertickets.com/nomob?event=5333098 ******************* Note: If you did NOT request a refund for your 2020 tickets, your 2022 tickets will be available at Will Call. We'll be in touch with you to confirm. Thank you for your support of our Annual Blues Blast and Phoenix Blues Society! Blues Blast 2022 Saturday March 19th, 2022 Margaret T. Hance Park Visit the PBS WEBSITE for TICKET DETAILS: https://phoenixblues.org/ | Blues Blast 2022 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED !! | A message from the PBS Volunteer Coordinator regarding Blues Blast 2022: The volunteer sign-up is now live. Yes, LIVE! Here it is: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040E4FA4AD2FA1F85-blues Blues Blast 2022 is being held on Saturday, 3/19/2022 at Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix. We start setting up at 7AM. Gates open at 10AM. The music starts at 11AM and ends at 6PM. We need volunteers for many different fun jobs. Most shifts are two hours, but you can work more if you want to. And you know you do! If you've volunteered at prior Blues Blasts, I will be bugging you about filling the same position at the same time again. You can also email me at [email protected] with questions, special need requests, compliments, monetary gifts, etc. Looking forward to a great Blues Blast 2022! MANY THANKS!! James Becker, Volunteer Coordinator Phoenix Blues Society | | Mr Guitar by Mike Watson Left alone to produce himself, Watson began forging a sound that suited the times: a combination of blues and slow-jamstyle funk—think Barry White and Bill Withers, and you’ve got the idea. Fantasy released Listen and I Don’t Want to Be Alone, Stranger, later combining them on CD as Lone Ranger. Both albums featured a lot of great guitar playing, though it was wrapped in a veneer of smooth soul. While white audiences had by then discovered Buddy Guy and the three Kings of blues (B.B., Freddie, and Albert), and were lapping up British blues rock, Watson was trying to keep the blues relevant to African Americans by combining it with the soul and funk sounds being heard in their communities. “Just because [blues] has been presented in a way that they can’t grasp doesn’t mean the love of blues isn’t there—it is,” Watson told Rolling Stone in 1976. At this stage of his career, the flamboyant picker’s tone shifted from switchblade sharp to a warmer, more liquid and vocallike sound. He had forsaken his ’50s Fender Stratocaster and ’60s Martin F-65 electric for Gibsons, including ES-125, Explorer, ES-335, ES-347, and (in the ’90s) SG models. He also owned Fender Telecasters and Jazzmasters, as well as a Vega acoustic. Fantasy’s promotion of Listen left Watson wanting, leading him to hire his own independent promoter, who propelled a single from the record into the Top 20 of the R&B charts. The momentum helped his next release, I Don’t Want to Be Alone, Stranger, sell nearly half a million copies. While at Fantasy, Watson added guitar to records by trumpeters Nat Adderly and Freddie Hubbard, and used the studio time afforded him there to hone his production skills. He even got gigs producing records for Percy Mayfield and Betty Everett. By 1975, Watson was label-less again. But he was still productive, partnering with singer Lenny Williams to compose “Don’t Change Horses (In the Middle of the Stream)” for Tower of Power.If English publisher Dick James’ name sounds familiar, it is because his company, DJM, handled copyrights for the Beatles and Elton John in the ’60s. In 1976, legendary British blues producer Mike Vernon (Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac) introduced Watson to James, who promptly signed the guitarist and gave him complete creative control. For his DJM debut, Watson overdubbed most of the instruments himself, save for co-producer Emry Thomas’ drumming. The result, Ain’t That a Bitch, went gold, and the second stage of Watson’s career took off. The title tune is essentially a blues number dressed up with some funk flourishes. The record also yielded “I Need It,” a dance hit on both sides of the Atlantic. At first, that tune sounds like Earth, Wind & Fire gone disco, but eventually Watson’s guitar enters to play the melody followed by a few tasteful riffs. At the time, this is how Watson explained his style to Blues and Soul Magazine: “I guess you would call it progressive R&B—almost a blues approach [to] pop music,” he said. “Superman Lover” also featured a rare wah-wah solo and became a staple of Watson’s live shows. The 1977 follow-up, A Real Mother for Ya, also went gold. Once again, Watson played everything but drums and horns. The title tune is a real guitar workout over synth bass and drums, with just a taste of talk box thrown in. With back-to-back successes, the Watson finally put the lie to Tom Vickers’ 1977 assertion in Soul and JazzRecord magazine that he had “more gold in his teeth than on his wall.” The follow-up, Funk Beyond the Call of Duty, featured Watson wielding his Gibson Explorer on the cover. It sold respectably but failed to go gold despite solid tunes and a classic Watson solo on “Barn Door.” For “It’s a Damn Shame,” he even sang along with his solo—long before the world at large had heard of George Benson. Next came Giant, which was ostensibly geared to the European market. It was all over the map: Disco tunes like “Tu Jours Amour” [sic] and “Guitar Disco” butt up against yet another rocking remake of “Gangster of Love” and a cover of War’s “Baby Face (She Said Do Do DoDo),” while “Miss Frisco (Queen of the Disco)” was a fantastic funk-guitar workout. Love Jones from 1980 is remembered largely for “Telephone Bill,” a spoken-word tune that is considered to have “anticipated” rap. “Anticipated? I damn well invented it!” Watson claimed to interviewer David Ritz in a 1994 interview in the liner notes to The Funk Anthology. Guitarists may be less interested in that than in the terrific, bebop-infused licks in Watson’s outro solo—which includes a quote of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts.” On his next effort, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and the Family Clone, the guitarist pays tribute to Sly Stone only in that he plays every instrument. The good news is that his tone is a warm and natural improvement over the previous two records, which were effects heavy, and “Rio Dreamin’” features a rare jazzy acoustic solo. The bad news is that DJM had run out of promotion money, so it was time for Watson to move on. A guest guitar spot on Herb Alpert’s Beyond record in 1980 led to a deal with Alpert’s A&M records, and the first release, That’s What Time It Is, was the first record in many years that Watson had not produced himself. The result was minimal guitar, and what there was reverted to the thin, direct sound of Love Jones. After A&M rejected three self-produced efforts, Watson found himself without a label again. The disappointment, combined with the murders of his friends Larry Williams and Marvin Gaye, found the performer spending much of the ’80s in a downward spiral of drugs. (In his 1996 New York Times obituary on Watson’s life, Lawrence Van Gelder quoted the guitarist as saying: “I got up with the wrong people doing the wrong things.”) He managed to release the lessthan- stellar Strike on Computers for Valley Vue records in 1984, but it did little to revive his career—not to mention, the title tune was out of character for a man who had spent his life embracing new technology. Though he was still able to tour Europe, Watson virtually disappeared from the recording world for a decade. His flame was kept alive by the respect peers who covered many of his songs. Robert Cray recorded “Don’t Touch Me,” while Albert Collins and Gary Moore made “Too Tired” famous on the blues circuit. Even the French pop star Johnny Hallyday got in on the action, recording surprisingly soulful versions of “Cuttin’ In” and “Sweet Lovin’ Mama.” By 1994, Watson had gotten rid of the “wrong people” referenced in Van Gelder’s obit, and he cleaned himself up and started writing again. The resulting record, Bow Wow, was more than a return to form— “My Funk” featured a heavily distorted solo (a first for Watson) that was as good as anything he ever recorded. The opening track, “Johnny G. Is Back,” offers a killer phased solo reminiscent of a hyper Eric Gale, as well as the opening lyric, “Where has he been?” Watson then answers the question himself by name-checking Al Bell, the famous Stax records executive. Wary of record labels, Watson had started his own— Wilma Records (which was named after his mother)—and Bell had agreed to distribute the first release, Bow Wow, through his Bellmark imprint. Bell obviously made the right decision: The record hit the R&B charts and was nominated for a Grammy in the Contemporary Blues category that year. Recognition, and eventually money, started coming as well, including from hiphop artists who liberally sampled Watson’s music. Redman based his “Sooperman Luva” on Watson’s “Superman Lover,” and marquee artists such as Ice Cube, Eazy-E, Jay-Z, and Mary J. Blige all appropriated elements of the original gangster’s music. In classic postmodern fashion, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre borrowed P-Funk’s adaptation of Watson’s catchphrase “Bow Wow Wow yippi-yo yippiyay” for Snoop’s hit “What’s My Name.” The success of Bow Wow allowed the guitarist/singer/songwriter/producer to tour in style, mostly in Europe and Japan. It was on tour in Japan in May of 1996 that Johnny “Guitar” Watson died as he had lived—in performance. At the Ocean Boulevard Blues Café in Yokohama, Watson had begun singing “Superman Lover” when he collapsed with his hand to his chest. He was pronounced dead of a heart attack at 9:16 p.m. on May 17, 1996. Watson lived to receive the prestigious Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation in February of that year. It was justly deserved—John Watson Jr.’s take-no-prisoners style had indeed helped pioneer the role of electric guitar in modern pop music. But as impressive as that is, it would be unfair to his brilliance to limit his legacy to his earliest achievements. His playing continued developing until the end, and his unique take on funk still influences musicians every day. One of Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s biggest influences on the 6-string was bluesman Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Like Brown, Watson played with a capo (or “clamp,” as Watson called it), moving it up and down the neck to change keys, allowing him constant access to open strings. Like B.B. King, Watson rarely played chords in live performance, sticking mostly to single-note solos and fills. Watson loved the stinging sound of Fender guitars, and when he switched to Gibsons he continued to seek that brightness. His first Gibson ES-335, nicknamed “Fred the First,” gave him some of the top end he sought, but it was the Gibson ES-347 that delivered a more Fender-like sound when he needed it. It is likely he owned the version with coil taps, as he talked about having the “filter” down for a clean sound. His later use of SGs rather than Les Pauls was doubtless due to their greater clarity and top end. Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s style ran the gamut from sophisticated, jazz-influenced lines to blatant, crowd-pleasing showmanship. But whether smart or flashy, his playing never left the pocket. Plucking the strings with his fingers and using a capo, he generated a vocal sound in the tradition of Texas pickers like Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. The important thing to remember is to “make that guitar sing.” | |
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