Category Archives: BLUES

EUGENE “HIDEAWAY” BRIDGES                                                                                           Roots and Vines                                                                                                                         Armadillo 00034 Glory Glory/Farewell, My Darling/My Baby Loves Me/Good Old Days/Hold on/They Call the Wind Mariah/Rise Above It/I Will Still Be in Love With You/A Thing Called Love/Under my Roof/17 Miles to Go/How Long … Continue reading →

BIG MAMA THORNTON: The Life and Music.                                                                    Michael Spörke                                                                                                                          McFarland (2014) Jefferson, NC. (188 pp) What a great idea for a book! And it begins well for the first thirty-some pages and then falls into a bit of a hole. … Continue reading →

PHIL WIGGINS & DOM TURNER                                                                                               Owing the Devil a Days Work                                                                                                           No label/no release # OK, folks, it’s recent LB cover guy Phil recorded with Turner in Sydney, Australia last October: They are old friends and will be playing the … Continue reading →

Encyclopedia of the Blues. 2 volumes. Edited by Edward Komara.                             (New York: Routledge, 2006.                                                                                                                 Pp lxii (x2 [sic]) + 1208; introduction, photographs, musical notation, bibliographies, discographies, indices. ISBN 0-415-92699-8                                                                 US$295.00 (cloth). This is a set of books that I have … Continue reading →

BLACK EUROPE: The Sounds and Images of Black People in Europe pre-1927. Edited/produced by: Jeffrey Green, Rainer Lotz, and Howard Rye w. Hans-Jürgen Mahrenholz, Konrad Nowakowski, Holger Stoecker, Horst Bergmeier, and Susanne Zeigler.                                                                                                                                                Bear Family Records BCD 16095                                                                                              (2013) Hambergen,Germany.                                                                                              … Continue reading →

EUGENE “HIDEAWAY” BRIDGES                                                                                                    The Brass Monkey                                                                                                                                  2 April, 2009: Cronulla, NSW Bridges – vo/gtr; Clayton Doley – org; Rowan Lane – bs gtr; Declan Kelly – dms. Once again, Eugene Bridges is playing all the usual places in Australia, festivals … Continue reading →

REALLY THE BLUES?                                                                                                                            A Blues History, 1893 – 1959                                                                                                          Vol. 1 (1893 – 1929)                                                                                                                        West Hill Radio Archives WHRA-6028 [9 CDs] Some of you with a broader focus than “merely” blues may be aware of Allen Lowe, a jazz tenor … Continue reading →

JOHN CEPHAS One of my NYC meetings in the mid-1970s with Brownie McGhee resulted in getting an address for Wilbert “Big Chief” Ellis in the Washington, DC area where he and his brother ran a liquor store. That resulted in … Continue reading →

ACOUSTIC BLUES: The Roots of it All                                                                                          The Definitive Collection Vol. 1-4                                                                                                 Bear Family BCD 17229 – 17232 BS Vol. 1; Disc 1 – The 1920s: SYLVESTER WEAVER: Guitar Blues (sic); PAPA CHARLIE JACKSON: Shake That Thing; LONNIE JOHNSON: Mr. … Continue reading →