Hear a classic Muddy Waters tune in our Beth's Blues Break with Beth Riley AND hear a NEW track from his son, the late Mojo Morganfield, later in the show too! We'll spin new tunes from Elvis Presley (studio outtake), Restless, Abby Girl & The Real Deal, Kim Wilson, Geoffrey Miller, John Fogerty, Duke Robillard, Brandon Cunning, Twang Gang, The Hoodoo Tones and we'll hear the latest from The Spiratones and Tammi Savoy & The Chris Casello Combo in our instru-Mental Breakdown! We'll take a trip to the Doo-Wop Corner, drop a coin in the Jammin' James Jukebox and play rockers from Jittery Jack and Hayden Thompson!
John Paul Keith provides 2 new songs this week...one from his new solo project and from Motel Mirrors which he's in with Amy Lavere and Will Sexton. We also get quite a few great new tunes as well from Webb Wilder, Marcel Riesco, Eddie & The Head-Starts, The Gold Stars, The Go Getters, The Delta Bombers, Ray Black & The Flying Carpets and Slim Sandy & The Hillbilly Boppers. Our instru-Mental Breakdown pays tribute to Nokie Edwards who passed away on March 12th with tracks from The Ventures and Venturesmania. Muddy Waters is the subject of our Heavy Hitter Triple Threat segment including covers by his son Mud Morganfield (with Kim Wilson) and Sleepy LaBeef. We also spin a track from a recent Record Store Day release from Elvis Presley and more!! Hear episode here:
Intro Voice Over- Rob "Cool Daddy" Dempsey Intro Music Bed: Brian Setzer- "Rockabilly Blues" Motel Mirrors- "The Man Who Comes Around" John Paul Keith- "Leave Them Girls Alone" Elvis Presley- "Tiger Man" Eddie & The Head-Starts- "Rock Everybody" The Gold Stars- "No One To Blame" Marcel Riesco- "Runnin' Fool" The Go Getters- "Thunderbird" The Delta Bombers- "Pressure and Time" instru-Mental Breakdown: The Ventures- "Driving Guitars (Ventures Twist)" Venturesmania- "The Lonely Matador"
Ray Black & The Flying Carpets- "Big Boy Rock" Betty James- "I'm A Little Mixed Up" Heavy Hitter Triple Threat: Muddy Waters- "Trouble No More" Mud Morganfield with Kim Wilson- "I Want To Be Loved" Sleepy LaBeef- "Young Fashioned Ways" Webb Wilder- "Make That Move" BR5-49- "Cherokee Boogie" Slim Sandy & The Hillbilly Boppers- "Done Gone" Warner Mack- "Roc-A-Chicka" Outro Music Bed: James Wilsey- "The Rattler"
Marcel Riesco and James Riley at 2017 Ameripolitan Music Awards
Austin, TX
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. passed away this day in 1988 in Detroit, MI. Son's music had a profound impact on artists as early as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Jack White in the current day. Jack still claims his favorite song is Son's "Grinnin' In Your Face". Here's some vintage clips of Son House, a White Stripes cover and a clip of Jack White talking about Son's influence here...
McKinley Morganfield (known as "Muddy Waters") was born this day in 1913. He is often considered the "father of modern Chicago Blues" and was ranked #17 on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time. His influence is impossible to measure. Quite simply, he was one of the most important figures in blues history.
Willie Dixon died this day in 1992 at the age of 76. One of his solo projects was titled I Am The Blues and it's hard to argue. He was proficient at both upright bass and guitar as well as his own vocals. His compositions have become blues standards and recorded by the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Elvis Presley, Dion, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, The Yardbirds and others. Some of his many songs include "Little Red Rooster", "I Ain't Superstitious", "My Babe", "Evil", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I Just Want To Make Love To You" and many more.
Wilbert Harrison dies this day in 1994 at the age of 65. His biggest hits "Kansas City" (1959) and "Let's Work Together" (1969) came 10 years apart but he toured regularly until the time of his death. The Beatles covered "Kansas City" on their Beatles For Sale LP. Several others covered "Kansas City" including Little Richard, Dion, Albert King, Muddy Waters, Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee. Canned Heat had a hit with "Let's Work Together" in 1970 on their Future Blues LP. The Kentucky Headhunters also covered it for the movie soundtrack of Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. Here's the originals and fun covers to enjoy...
When you speak with Kim Wilson these days you hear him speak with a joy over his life, music, choices to change for the better, etc. I talked with him about his days even before starting the Fabulous Thunderbirds with Jimmie Vaughan in 1974. Before then he was tutored by such Blues greats as Muddy Waters, Jimmie Rogers, Luther Tucker and others. His music career has been fascinating and it doesn't look like he's going to slow down any time soon!
When you and Jimmie Vaughan started the Fabulous Thunderbirds, you were really more of a straight up blues band. The sound has evolved over time to include Soul, Rock, Cajun, and other influences. What led to this evolution?
When I first heard that first James Cotton record and he
was doing “Knock On Wood”, Little Walter and Sonny Boy with Blues & Soul
songs all on the same record. I thought
“gee…that’s where I was going when I was a kid”. I decided why not do everything I like. A lot of it has to do with knowing the
material you have an affinity for and going in that direction. You can’t help but have your own voice. You really can’t sing like other people
anyway. It’s impossible to imitate
people. You can play the notes…you can
sing the notes…but it’s impossible to do it.
Once you get that in your mind and start deliberately having your take
on things, it wasn’t difficult to take off in that direction. Everything is improvised at the same
time. As long as you have the juice of
the old stuff in you…the Blues stuff, the Rock & Roll stuff, the Soul
stuff…it’s basically just spilling your guts.
Some people call it sincerity.
If you have that in you, you’re on your way to doing something with it.
So that’s really your main influences then…the
early Blues and Soul?
It is for me personally.
I think a lot of the directions I go in, the Fabulous Thunderbirds don’t
even encompass. It’s just my own
personal take on music and whatever vehicle I have at the time to express
whatever desire I have at that particular moment. It’s also a learning process. To get respectable as a vocalist in those
genres of music is a really tall order.
I think that’s why the standard has sunk so low over the years. It’s because a lot of white people have
picked up this music and realized “Wow…this isn’t really easy to do”. That’s the only way to satisfy yourself. Otherwise it’s just a hobby unless you’re
serious about competing with the old stuff and then standing up to that. There are a few great performances by people
since the mid sixties. But really it’s
based on an era when everyone could play and everyone can sing. You just kind of stay in your own world and
be respectable within the world you want to be in.
Tell me about the label you started called
Blue Collar Music.
Well, it didn’t last long. On paper it looked good. I think I was trying to gather up all the
people that could play. A lot of them
were already around me. Once you get a
label, you gain new respect for the labels you were bad-mouthing in the past
(laughs). There are certainly good
reasons to bad mouth some of them. They’re
the only ones who know where your money is going. In my case, we were dealing with people that
most of the time didn’t know what the hell we were doing. It was very difficult to do business with the
label unless you went into that contemporary area. Blues labels are sometimes hit or miss. There’s always somebody on a blues label and
you scratch your head and wonder “why is that person on a label?” But it was a cool experiment. We had some great sessions come out of it and
that really stood out. I had over 120
tracks from that period. I think people
are looking for a box-set of that stuff.
It’s really great sounding. It’s
direct to mono analog…no overdubs…none of that stuff. A lot of people say it’s my best work. I know that’s not true, however, it’s great
documentation of that time period. The
musicians are stellar on that group of sessions. You’re talking about my personal evolution
based on the people around me. Those
people are just excellent musicians.
They’re standouts.
How does it make you feel when you hear a
quote from Muddy Waters calling you “the greatest harmonica player since Little
Walter”?
How do you think it makes me feel? I compare it to that scene in Raging Bull…”Look
at me. And look at you. And look at me. And look at you”. It didn’t matter what Muddy said, it was the
greatest thing I’d heard in my life. The
stories I could tell and the conversations I had with them and the daily interaction
with legends….gods….that was incredible.
I couldn’t get my head full of it.
I knew he was wrong but it made me want to be what he said. There was no way in the world that was true
at the time. I had the tools but I just
needed to develop it and hone it. When
you’re not knocking off records and it’s not a cookie cutter thing, it takes a
lifetime to develop what you do. You can
have potential, which I did. There was a
foggy period of the whole substance abuse era and the only thing that saved me was
that I was on the stage for so many nights a year and developed when music was
the last thing I was concentrating on.
When all that stopped almost 25 years ago, that’s when the real
development started. I was able to clean
house. I was able to exercise my demons
both chemically and personally. It
really made a difference for me. I was
around all people that respected me and it just so happened those were people I
respected. It was an awesome place to
be. There comes a time when you have to
make that decision. A little while
longer and you might as well just keep going.
Unfortunately a lot of people do keep going.
Unfortunately a lot of people do. I never did the AA thing…I never did the
rehab thing. I never did any of that
stuff. Sometimes you can address it your
whole life and never fix it. You do
become slightly religious. You can sit
back and count your blessings that you’re able to progress to that level and play
at that level. It’s a lifetime thing.
The band has done so many great covers over
the years including “Diddy Wah Diddy”, “Rich Woman”, “Scratch My Back”, “Only
Daddy That’ll Walk The Line”, “Wrap It Up”, etc. Is it pretty random how these come about?
It’s pretty much random.
You put your iTunes on “ramble”.
James Cotton calls the shuffle putting it on “ramble” (laughs). You just do whatever you’re doing around the
house and something comes up and you run over to the computer to see what it
is. There are so many killer covers that are so off the
beaten path that are just bad-ass.
There’s just a never ending supply of them. If you have those Stompin’ compilations…Chicken
Shack Boogie…there’s volumes and volumes of this stuff. If you go deep into the Bo Diddley, Chuck
Berry or Stax catalogs, you’re going to find something that at least influences
you even if you don’t cover it. There
are little things to steal here or there.
That’s the beauty about traditional music is that you don’t become
influenced by one particular thing. You
might have your favorites but it’s all processed into your memory banks. It’s all beautiful. It makes it really easy to become
yourself. It’s impossible to dwell on
one or two people. There’s so much good
stuff there. Lee “Shot” Williams…how
about him? Or Jesse Thomas? Or Cecil Gant? You listen for enjoyment but you’re
constantly soaking it up. I’ve been
getting on this Specialty Records kick…Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. I could listen to that every day and I have
been. What about Julius Cheeks? Oh my God!
Of course don’t even try to emulate these people. At the same time you become influenced and
certain things hit you. There are
certain technical things you pick up and you can apply. Your technique is constantly
changing…instrumentally and vocally. I
can tell that guy is singing that way and using naturally that thing that I’m
working on. It’s pretty interesting.
What have been some of the more memorable
experiences touring with other artists over the years?
The Rockpile guys were a great band. It’s where we got our producers. Live they were incredible. Dave Edmunds got me on that thing with
Dion. The band was great. Steve Cropper, Phil Chen, Terry Williams,
Dave Charles, the horns. That was a
really cool gig. The Clapton tour...Bob
Seger…really cool tours. That was at the
tail-end of me being out of it. Some of
those things you wish you had back now.
The tours with B.B. (King), Buddy Guy and Dr. John were a lot of
fun. There was a tour we did at the end
of the 80’s called Antone’s West. We had
Albert Collins, James Cotton, Mel Brown, Jimmy Rogers, Luther Tucker and a few
more. That was my idea. It was a really fun thing. That’s something you’re never going to see
again and we knew it at the time. It was
very special. There are just so many
moments. When you look at your moments,
it’s like looking at a snapshot. I don’t
need any more snapshots of myself. I
like to dwell on the snapshots of other people.
Some are feature films! (laughs)
You have always toured a lot…whether it’s with The Fabulous Thunderbirds or with Kim Wilson’s Blues Revue. Is it a different mindset with those?
No. The thing is the Thunderbirds are on the same page. We’ve come full circle in a lot of ways. There’s a lot more blues in our set now. Whenever we want to do it we do it. We still have this hybrid thing in mind. Originally it was based on moving in a contemporary market. It really is just doing what you like.
You’ve been a guest on so many projects with people like Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Paul Burlison and others.
I just did Kid Rock last year. I worked with Rafael Saadiq on Austin City Limits which was killer. What a great artist he is.
Is it a different mindset to go in as a guest on an album for someone else as opposed to one of your own?
Not really. It really is an honor for these people to call you. Sometimes it’s people that you don’t even know that know you exist. There’s not much pressure. Very few are taskmasters. They just want you to come in and do your thing. They respect what you do. They bring you in for the way you played on that other record. They know me well enough to know that it will be totally different every time I go anywhere. There is some role playing as far as what part you are. When I come in, I have an open mind on the role I’m going to be playing. Am I going to be the main lyricist? Am I going to just go with the flow and fill in? It makes other people a lot more comfortable and not acting like a bad-ass and just ready to harmonize in any way you can. I’ve been on hundreds of things and people still keep calling me, so that’s a great thing (laughs).
My 11 year old son loves you guys and had a
question after hearing the line from Tuff Enuff where you say “I’d work 24 hours,
7 days a week/Just so I could come home and kiss your cheek”. He wondered how you would have the time to
come to kiss her cheek if you were working that much.
(laughs) Well, that’s a great question. I guess it says it makes you “want” to not
that you “will” do it. That’s a good
point. That kid has a mind like a steel
trap!
The new band and self-titled album has a raw
but tight band sound. These songs have
to be fun to play live.
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
You go through so many records where if they don’t hear
it on the radio it doesn’t go over. A
big thing for me now is doing songs that will go over live easily and appeal to
live audiences. If you go back to a
Louis Jordan concept, he would try songs out on an audience before he recorded
them. That’s kind of what we’re doing
these days. I think this record now is
going to be revamped and officially released on a label. A lot of people don’t know it exists. It never got officially released. We’ve got several more tracks to put on
there. We’ll probably keep some of it
and lose some of it. It’ll basically be
a whole new record. You can mess with as
much as you want when you own it yourself.
When it goes to a label then the label will own it. Even if it’s a long term lease, there’s a
lease in place. Even if it’s ten years
at least you get your masters back. You
don’t have to deal with the stereotypical record labels that have put
themselves out of business. They painted
themselves into a corner they can’t get out of. A lot of it is fairytale music not geared to
adults. It’s geared to children. The analogy is for me when I was a little
kid. My mother gave me one of those
cheap little record players you could get anywhere back in the 50’s and there were
those little Mother Goose records. Now
those are hit records. People enjoy no
substance. They don’t want to make the
emotional investment in a musical performance.
I think this is why this American Idol thing is so successful. Because people are on the tube, they have to
make an investment in the people they are voting for. It’s genius.
I’m not saying it’s a great concept …it’s an awful concept because it
helped destroy everything. However, it’s
a genius concept in the fact it’s more like a drug to people. They pick a person they want to root for and
it becomes their person…their kind of pet.
It’s based on everything traditional without the talent. That’s the way that goes. In general, when it comes to the record
industry and radio and what people surround themselves with, they don’t like to
have the hair stand up on the back of their necks like when you hear a Solomon
Burke song or anything on Chess Records.
They don’t want that feeling.
They’ve been slapped into their cubicle and have been fed this stuff
piped into them. It’s like a lobotomy
coming out of a speaker. (laughs) I
think with the demise of the record industry, you’re in control of your
destiny.
Anyone you’re a fan of currently?
I’m kind of a fan of Slash. I never bought the band Guns N Roses but I
liked him. I’d be thumbing through the
TV and he’d be on there. I thought “I
like this guy”. He’s got great
tone. He’s really doing something
here. I’ve followed him a bit. This latest band he’s had, he had some really
good rock singers in that band. That was
a legitimate outfit. I would enjoy working
with someone like Slash. I like the guys
from AC/DC. I like Malcolm (Young). I like the author of the blues chords. And by the way we have the same birthday
(January 6th). We’re both
blues freaks. It would be great to get a
couple of these guys in the studio and see what happens.
What does the new year look like for you?
It’s wide open.
Hopefully, there will be a new release…maybe 2 or 3 new releases. It’s just onward and upward. I’ve got a great bunch of guys playing. I’ve got the Moeller brothers on guitar
(Johnny) and drums (Jay). I’ve got Randy
Bermudes on bass. I’ve got Mike Heller
on guitar. I had Mike Finnigan play with
me up in Ventura recently which was a great addition on organ and piano. I can see things catching on with this
band. Hopefully it’s an example of the
era of the player.
The great Blues master Muddy Waters passes away this day in 1983 at the age of 70. In his memory, here's his classic tune "Got My Mojo Working" as only Muddy can do it.
