'Come on Rock Little Girl' - Smokey Smothers

I played this song early in the night at Steel City Blues Festival 2017 before the Cash Box Kings took the stage. Joe Nosek of the Cash Box Kings heard the song, and came over all excited because I'd played a Smokey Smothers song. He was promptly disappointed that I didn't know more about this artist, and proceeded to provide a wonderful recommendation for more Smokey Smothers and his album Smokey Smothers Sings the Backporch Blues. I also highly recommend everyone give this a listen.

Fun Fact: the original LP of this album is rare, so if it's hiding somewhere in a relative's or your own collection you have a several hundred dollar vinyl on your hands. 

I appreciate how much this whole album lags, and this song specifically. The voice is always just behind the beat, in danger of sliding to the next one. Freddie King is playing guitar on this album. In trying to describe this song the phrase "in the pocket" seems the most appropriate. 

Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers was born in Mississippi and relocated to Chicago in 1946. He was a member of Howlin' Wolf's backing band and worked with powerhouse musicians like Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Ike Turner, and Willie Dixon. He had a younger brother called Little Smokey Smothers, which if course causes no confusion. 

Smokey in the 50s formed a Muddy Waters tribute band, which would play in Chicago when Muddy Waters was on the road. His most famous album is Smokey Smothers Sings the Backporch Blues, which he released in 1962. He didn't record a full album again until the 1980s that saw the release of Got My Eye on You. He died in July of 1993. 

Joe of the Cash Box Kings mentioned that they might be putting together a tribute concert in September of this year for Smokey Smothers. I'm looking for some information on that, hoping it to be true. 

Other Versions:
Come on Rock Little Girl - The Mannish Boys

Sources:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/sings-the-backporch-blues-mw0000225986
https://www.last.fm/music/Smokey+Smothers/+wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_%22Big_Smokey%22_Smothers
https://secondhandsongs.com/work/123196/all

'The Deacon' - Gerry Hundt

Reflecting on BluesSHOUT this weekend I am reminded how lucky we are in Chicago in the musicians we have who play for dancers. The band line up for SHOUT this year featured all local artists. For me, a particular highlight this year was the Sunday night band, the Gerry Hundt Trio with guest Corey Dennison. Gerry Hundt has been a staple sound of the Chicago Blues scene, both for dancers and the larger music scene as a whole. He has played for Bluetopia many times, sat in with the Cash Box Kings for previous SHOUTs, and helped put together groups last minute when other bookings have not worked out. He was also the band leader for SHOUT this year, helping organize and arrange the groups that performed.

For this particular feature I'm highlighting "The Deacon", which is the song playing in the linked video. It is the 2nd song of the Gerry Hundt Trio's EP, called GHT the EP, recorded in 2012. This is my favorite song off the EP. It has a great energy and a 'party' feel. It grooves hard with Gerry leading on electric guitar, Randy Nelson on bass, and Ralph Kinsey holding down drums. The song doesn't change a great deal over its course, but has enough swells and dips in energy to drive a dancer. It's a hard tune not to always DJ and overplay. To me, it's just that fun.

Gerry Hundt himself has an interesting background for a Chicago blues musician. According to rrstar.com, he picked up guitar after an injury kept him from playing varsity soccer his junior hear of high school (he was also the team captain). In college, studied Latin and Greek, along with some music theory. Hundt plays a variety of instruments, recording his first album Since Way Back on the mandolin. He also has a one man band set up with harmonica, guitar, and various percussion (and an album recorded with that kit).

Hundt introduces kids to the history and sound of blues music though the Blues in the School programs. In the rrstar.com piece he is quoted:

“Kids today only hear from people that blues is bad,” Hundt said. “In reality, the music relies on a principle that goes back to Aristotle — a purging of emotions by means of that emotion. You hear about what a person is experiencing emotionally because you go through it with them in the song. Blues is more about hope than sadness.”

Gerry Hundt regularly plays at Kingston Mines in Chicago, and also with the Corey Dennison Band. They have been nominated for a 2017 Blues Music Award for Best Emerging Artist (results to be released in May). The Corey Dennison Band also has an album that includes "The Deacon". I highly recommend picking up this album (I got a copy at SHOUT).

Gerry Hundt Trio live at Bluetopia

Other versions:
Instrumental Version, with slight rhythmic differences

The Corey Dennison Band - The Deacon

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Hundt
http://www.rrstar.com/entertainmentlife/20170304/rockford-native-gerry-hundt-shares-blues-with-new-generation
http://www.coreydennison.com/

'Early in the Morning' - C.W. Stoneking

"Well I'm never goin back, to that country again,
If I live for a long, long time,
Where my guitar played itself, leanin by the wall,
It give me a worried mind"

The first song by C.W. Stoneking I remember hearing was The Marching of the Drum, a song that was popular in Ann Arbor for ballroomin' (also elsewhere, but I'll keep to immediate experiences). I always assumed, based on the 'faded' quality of the recording that C.W. Stoneking was some obscure artist who recording in the 40s. As usual, my initial assumptions were incorrect. The ragged, weary voice and mournful plucking of the guitar that comes through on 'Early in the Morning' is actually that of a contemporary Australian. He varies how he records his music to get that almost stereo-typically vintage sound of his album Jungle Blue, of which 'Early in the Morning' belongs.

I enjoy 'Early in the Morning' for two reasons. The first, it is simply a unique song to dance to, and secondly, it falls under a 'crossover' category in my DJ brain. As a dancer, I appreciate this song for its overall simplicity with rhythmic subtlety. Instruments come in almost in a round and the song ends the same way, with first the vocals, percussion, bass, and finally the guitar fading into silence. In my own movement this inspires light traveling, moments of suspension, and if my partner is feeling it with me isolation exploration with the banjo line.

As a DJ, I appreciated the versatility this sound brings to the floor. The picking in the banjo keeps a delta/country feel to my ear pervasive throughout the song. However, the bass line is a tuba-possibly sousaphone-chugging underneath the voice and guitar. These elements combine to make a song that allows me to shift gears to go deeper in a delta/country blues feel, or Jazzier as the case may be. It's a song that is hard not to DJ too much, lest it become stale.

C.W. Stoneking himself, as said before, is Australian. He was first introduced to blues by rummaging through his father's music collection and listening to Living With The Blues, an early blues compilation album. In the biography section of his website, Stoneking writes:

“When I first heard it I thought it was kinda funny music”, he told a Dutch interviewer a few years ago, “because it was so deconstructed and not really adhering to any rules that I’d been told music [should] fit into. And the more I listened to it, I just liked it more and more.”

C.W. Stoneking received many ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Award nominations for Jungle Blues', eventually winning 'Best Blues and Roots Album' for Jungle Blues.

I was reminded of the Blues Dance World Podcast episode on the history of BluesSHOUT with Sara Cherny. She was musing on how blues dancing and the music has spread from the United States and been embraced the world over. Larger portions of the attendance of BluesSHOUT are made up of international dancers from European countries, Australia, and South Korea to name a few. Blues music and dance is appreciated the world over, and a young Australian really digging into that sound fits into the larger pattern.

I couldn't find any covers of this song, as it is an original composition.

Sources:
http://www.allmusic.com/song/early-in-the-mornin-mt0018683736
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._W._Stoneking
http://www.cwstoneking.com/
http://bluesdanceworld.com/2016/12/31/january-1st-2017-blues-dance-world-podcast-season-2-ep-09-a-decade-of-shout/

'I'm a Bad Luck Woman' - Memphis Minnie

I'm a Bad Luck Woman - Memphis Minnie

I was working on a post about C.W. Stoneking (still in the works), but in researching his influences I saw he credited the music of Memphis Minnie as inspiration. My library, as it turns out, has been sadly lacking her music. A few hours of listening and purchasing later, I've addressed that problem. The limited sample I've listened to so far is her earlier work. Later, as blues became amplified in Chicago, she started playing with an electric guitar instead of an acoustic. She was one of the musicians who changed her sound as the technology and the times/tastes changed.

I like her song "I'm a Bad Luck Woman" for it's energy. It has an infectious groove (and mostly because I've been practicing a lot of Struttin' recently I want to Strut to this song). The lyrics I found pretty humorous, sort of tongue and cheek about a lack of success in a relationship. Though I do not know who her accompaniment is here, I think it is her playing with one other musician to help create the driving beat.

About the artist herself, Memphis Minnie was born Lizzie Douglass in 1897. Her recording career spanned the 1920s to 50s, recording for labels Decca, Vocalion, Okeh, Bluebird, and Columbia Records. She recording over 200 sides during that time.

She ended up in Chicago in the 1930s. She and Big Bill Broonzy had a cuttin' contest. Broonzy is often cited as a one of the key figures in 20th century blues music. Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy each played a couple of their songs, and at the end she was judged to be the winner. She and Broonzy became friends and would often play together locally and also tour.

She would be in and out of Chicago, living alternatively in Indianapolis and Detroit in the 40s, and returning to Chicago in the 50s. As mentioned in the beginning, she started playing electric guitar in the early 40s. She would play at Chicago's 708 club, often joined by Big Bill Broonzy, Snooky Pryor, and/or Sunnyland Slim.

She would move to Mississippi in the 50s, as demand for her music began to decrease. She played for Big Bill Broonzy's funeral, was active in the local radio stations, and encouraging women to pursue blues music. She died in 1973 after suffering a stroke. Bonnie Raitt would later provide a headstone for Memphis Minnie, in 1996.

I think it's telling that a website devoted to her history poses the question:

Why has this musician, with her enormous body of recordings, who was well-loved by the Black blues audiences of the ’30s and ’40s been comparatively ignored by later, whiter audiences? Perhaps it’s because Memphis Minnie doesn’t fit the myth of the young, tragic, haunted blues man and she is too complex of a character to be easily marketed. She shaped a life very different from the limited possibilities offered to the women of her time. She lived a long life, was at her best in middle age, and would spit tobacco wearing a chiffon ball gown.

More fun than reading my synopsis, Del Rey wrote a song called 'Memphis Minnie' that catalogues Minnie's life. It is definitely worth a listen.
Memphis Minnie - Del Rey

Other Version:
I'm a Bad Luck Woman - Emiliana Torrini

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Minnie
http://memphisminnie.com/
http://www.mtzionmemorialfund.org/p/memphis-minnie.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bill_Broonzy

Everybody's Got To Change Sometimes - Barrelhouse Chuck

"Sooner or later
We all goin' down
in that lonesome ground"

Barrelhouse Chuck died on December 12th, 2016. I wanted to highlight one of my favorite songs he did as a way to acknowledge the enjoyment his music brought. It seemed appropriate that my favorite song by Barrelhouse Chuck (born Charles Goering) has the line about going down into the ground.  I always loved the force of this song, the power behind the percussive piano hits, the voice that carried throughout. The song itself is a cover, possibly of Sleepy John Estes' 1938 song of the same name (he is listed as the artist on the track information). I found another version by Taj Mahal (both versions are linked below). I enjoy the version Barrelhouse Chuck wrote because he drops the tempo, pulls in more instruments, and the piano is front and center. It's an emotionally full song that doesn't let up until the final chords ring out and the band goes silent.

The first time I met Barrelhouse Chuck was at the Winter Blues Intensive in 2015. There was a panel discussion about blues music: past, present, and future. Barrelhouse Chuck tottered in (I found out later he was fighting cancer) to sit along side Katherine Davis and Mud Morganfield. They talked openly and candidly about their careers, how they got to be blues musicians, and what they thought the future of the genre looked like. After the panel the three of them played and sang a few songs for us, and Barrelhouse Chuck came alive. Whatever hesitancy he had walking vanished when he played with evident and infectious joy.

And he was like that in person. I bought one of his CDs at the panel for him to sign and shared that my favorite song off one of his early albums was "Everybody's Got to Change Sometimes", though I didn't remember the title and could only sing the refrain back to him. He knew it immediately, his face lighting up, and he finished the next verse. "Oh, that's off my first album!" he said excitedly.

In the panel he was a good storyteller, too. He talked about following Muddy Waters around Florida, listening to his music, and eventually opening for him as well. He covered a Muddy song at one show. Afterwards, Muddy came backstage demanding to know who the piano player was. Nervous, Barrelhouse Chuck owned up. Muddy smiled and said, "you play my shit good".

Before that point, he learned to play blues piano from Sunnyland Slim, and eventually the artists Pinetop Perkins, Blind John Davis, Detroit Junior and Little Brother Montgomery. Barrelhouse was always quick to point out who he had learned from, who his influences were. We were fortunate in Chicago to have him play for Bluetopia on a couple of occasions, or get to see him Wednesday nights at Barrelhouse Flat.

Barrelhouse Chuck maintained a presence in the Chicago music scene in addition to tours and other projects. In February 2008, he assisted in recording the soundtrack for the film Cadillac Records. He had numerous appearances at the Chicago Blues Festival. In 2012 he played at the "Howlin' for Hubert" concert at the Apollo Theater. Some accolades included nominations for a Blues Music Award in the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Category, and his 2014 album 'Drinking from Town to Town' received a nomination for Traditional Blues Album of the Year.

Other versions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZdbO7v40g - Taj Mahal (Latin blues)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg9a71tQdMI - Sleepy John Estes (acoustic) - possibly Original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE_ublgroXo - Eric Clapton

Sources:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-barrelhouse-chuck-obit-ent-1214-20161213-column.html
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/barrelhousechuck8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrelhouse_Chuck
http://www.allmusic.com/album/salute-to-sunnyland-slim-mw0000242533

'Baby Doll' - Lavern Baker

I first heard this song to an instructor demo that Julie Brown and Shawn Hershey gave at Baltimore Blues. It quickly became my practice partner and my favorite song to dance to; one we would often end the practice session with.

The song itself I enjoy because of the brassy introduction and continued horns throughout. The textures change throughout the recording as well: quieter sections set the stage for her voices to pick up the lyrical story, muted trumpets punctuate the ends of phrases, and amid the driving feel of the song moments of stillness. Ultimately the song is also accessible. It's a song I like to use to introduce dancers to the jazzier side of blues movements and concepts.

It's also a cover off the album LaVern Baker Sings Bessie Smith released in 1958. I've included a link to Bessie Smith's original at the end of this post. It's interesting to compare the versions (setting aside the difference that 30 years of improvements in recording technology can make) for where the voices fall in the phrases, instrumentation, and what movements and ideas are supported.

Like many singers of the time Lavern Baker was a stage name for the woman born Delores Evans, in Chicago. In the mid to late 1940s she sang and recorded an album under the name 'Little Miss Sharecropper'. While recording for Okeh Records she changed her name to Bea Baker, and when she recorded with Todd Rhodes in 1952 she was billed under the familiar moniker of Lavern Baker. In 1953 she signed on to Atlantic Records and recorded 'Soul On Fire' (also one of my favorite songs she has done). She had a number 4 hit on the charts with 'Tweedle Dee' in 1954, which resulted in an attempted lawsuit against Georgia Gibbs who covered the song exactly and made it to number 1. This resulted in a suit to Congress to change the copyright laws. This is the third artist I've researched who has petitioned Congress with issues related to copyright law.

Baker had more success with Atlantic Records, with songs that reached into the top ten of the charts throughout the 50s and 60s. She later became the entertainment director of Marine Corps Staff NCO at a Phillipines naval base. She was recovering there from a bout of pneumonia after a USO tour in Vietnam. She ended up staying on as director for 22 years, returning to the United States after the base closed in 1988. Baker was among the first eight recipients of the Pioneer Award in 1990 from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, and the second female artist to be inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame (the first being Aretha Franklin). She died in 1997 at the age of 67.

I tried to find additional covers of Baby Doll, but I could only find Lavern Baker's and Bessie Smith's original. If anyone has found other versions of this song I would love to check those out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0FX1l7jdfk - Lavern Baker - 'Baby Doll'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSSsPZG3UOc - Bessie Smith - 'Baby Doll'


Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaVern_Baker
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1109573

On Movement Cross-Training

Cross-training is largely beneficial both for social dancing and competition. Socially, I feel more aware as a lead and better able to respond. Competition-wise, I feel better prepared to take certain risks, more confidence in my ability to move, and regardless of tempo or duration dance without fatigue. This is not to say that anything goes. I want to draw these points this way because I think of cross-training as distinct from Fusion as a philosophy/dance. Cross-training gives rise to options, abilities, and inspirations that accomplish better blues idiom dancing.

In reading Steppin' on the Blues by Jacqui Malone, cross-fertilization is discussed in reference to music: "Many African American musicians developed their artistry by composing and playing in several different, but mutually enriching arenas , including back minstrel bands, military bands, dance bands, marching bands, and bands that performed in traveling shows and musical theater”[emphasis mine] (pg. 144). Further, "many jazz musicians merged their vernacular training with the education they received from women and men schooled in European music." Historically, there has been cross-training within the music, and I do not think it is a stretch to suggest, given the writer's emphasis on the closeness of music and movement (in the same section the emphasis of cross over between military drill groups and dancers) that a person wouldn't just do one dance or kind of dance, rather participate in a range of dances and movement styles. While dancers have the ability to move in a number of ways, that movement is expressed based on the music supports..  

I'm defining cross-training as training in other movement sets outside of a primary set of movements and/or aesthetic. Granted, this is pretty general, so I turned to Wikipedia, which defines cross training as 'athletic training in sports other than the athlete's usual sport. The goal is improving overall performance. It takes advantage of the particular effectiveness of one training method to negate the shortcomings of another.' Dictionary.com offers a similar definition, though with the caveat of 'to learn different, usually related, tasks, skills, jobs, etc.'

In our modern blues scene many of our leaders, teachers, and organizers have multiple dance backgrounds while still being grounded in blues idiom movement. Looking at the BluesSHOUT 2016 All-Star JnJ in particular, most of the finalists have backgrounds or experience in addition to the modern iteration of blues dances. Our competition formats are interesting in that dancers are expected to know and adapt their movement to the genre of blues that is being played (see competitions like Nocturne’s 2016 Challenge Strictly and Snowbound Blues’ All Star Strictly).

I'll divide this into two major themes: cross-training as ability and cross-training as inspiration. I think of these ideas as two broader categories that have intersections, but I will provide few examples for each from my own and other’s experiences.

Cross-training as ability (CTaA)

CTaA I think of as getting access to strength, stamina, or movement I wasn't capable of doing before, mostly coming from non-dance activities like weight lifting, running, yoga, martial arts, etc. This might be in terms of flexibility, ability to dance for longer periods of time, or in my experience comfort with weight sharing. An aspect of the personal and group training I have done at my gym is strength training. We don't skip leg day. I've found that the number of people I can do various forms of weight sharing movements with has increased, more comfort and security in lunges, basing, and other kinds of supported forms. This kind of cross-training ultimately makes me feel like I can keep up or simply be more physically present, both in social dancing and competition.

Another, less physical, example of CTaA would be musical training. Do you have an ear for what the rhythms are likely to do? Laura Chieko, for example, has an ear for clarinet tonality as well as a marching band background. She cites this as her first movement style. Marching band, for those who may be less familiar, is basically about being on beat and keeping up with the tempo of the music.

Cross-training as Inspiration (CTaI)

CTaI I think of as pulling ideas from other dance styles. This could come in two models: the surprise 'hey this thing my body knows how to do works here' or the calculated 'I wonder if I can make this fit here'. Damon Stone gave a talk on the history of Struttin' and Lonestar Strut 2016 in Austin, TX and made a comment about a dance changing naturally over time versus specifically trying to change the dance from the inside.

One example of the 'surprise' idea for me is balboa footwork in Struttin'. This can be tricky, because struttin' has a particular aesthetic, the drop and roll through the hips, whereas balboa is more upright, moving as a unit without the isolation of the hips or torso. One idea I have pulled naturally into my blues movement from balboa is moving through the entire foot, rolling from the ball to the heel or side to side. Certain triple step ideas can be modified as well. These ideas make sense with a certain kind of music. Since these things have sprung up into my dancing I can reflect on how the movements appear within aesthetic and make modifications. These aren't tactical decisions when they happen the first time, but generally happy accidents that can be refined. Early incorporation of Argentine Tango ochos and similar movements into our shared vocabulary might also fall under this framework.

An example of the calculated approach is an idea to reimagine the Dean Collins Shim Sham in the blues aesthetic, humorously dubbed the Blues Collins Shim Sham. A group of us were exploring different choreography ideas and I happened to be learning a Balboa routine at the time which involved learning the whole Dean Collins Shim Sham. The whole break at slow tempos kept inspiring me as I collected under my left foot to drop further into the ground, breaking lines and engaging my hip in a more bluesy kind of way. We came up with a modified take on the line dance thinking about how grounding, posture, and musical structure (12 bar phrases versus 8) impacted how the dance. That was a very targeted and calculated approach when drawing inspiration.

Stepping outside of our normal movement routines can be a great way to get out of a dance rut. If nothing else, spending some gym time with a workout buddy or personal trainer can be a good way to correct movement technique and protect the all important knees. Try the fencing class, some running, yoga, or something else. Ultimately, our understanding of how we move can be informed by working another skill set and give us a different kind of ability and inspiration.

Boogie Chilluns Playhouse - Donnie Williams

Boogie Chilluns Playhouse by Donnie Williams
-Subtitled: when the internet doesn't have all the answers

I found this song off the album 'Fernwood Rhythm 'N' Blues From Memphis'. I originally bought this album to get a song by Willie Cobb (see this post on You Don't Love Me, Baby). I finally got around to sorting the rest of it, and I got to this song that I kept coming back to listen to. It has some similarities with Mississippi Hill Country blues, in that it vamps with sparse vocals. A harmonica and saxophone line bring in different layers, providing a driving melodic line that the vocals do not carry. It has a hypnotic groove punctuated by occasional stops, the electric guitar sustaining a note until the drums kick back in. It was a surprise find from this album, and one I wanted to write about.

The challenge? There is very little I could find about the artist, Donnie Williams. Most references to the song point to a John Lee Hooker song called 'Boogie Chillen' written in 1948. There are some rhythmic similarities, the vamp or repetition of the song. John Lee Hooker's version is just his voice, guitar, and foot stomps without any additional instrumentation. The stops are evident as well, with great opportunities for rhythmic play (from a dancer's perspective).

Wikipedia does have an article on the song itself. Like my initial reactions, "it resembles early North Mississippi Hill country blues rather than the boogie-woogie piano-derived style of the 1930s and 1940s". The chillen/chillun part of the name comes from 'is a phonetical approximation of Hooker's pronunciation of "children"'.

Donnie Williams' version, recorded in 1964, is almost certainly a cover of Hooker's. While the lyrics are absent or don't line up, the characteristic groove of the song is hard to dismiss. 'Boogie Chillen' has been extensively covered, ultimately leading to a suit against ZZ Top for their song 'La Grange', a suit that was settled out of court in 1997. Congress, in 1998, amended the Copyright Act protections for 'many songs recorded before 1978 from entering the public domain'.

As far as the album, Steve Leggett has a review on Allmusic.com, saying this history of the album stems from a garage recording studio set up by Slim Wallace on Fernwood Street in Memphis. Most of the songs apparently never saw reprinting after their initial release. Fernwood also had subsidiary studios, Pure Gold among them, and it was on the Pure Gold label that 'Boogie Chilluns Playhouse' was released.

I couldn't find anything more on Donnie Williams. As far as I could find he had two songs cut on the subsidiary of Fernwood. I really enjoy this recording, and it was a good exercise in research where the information isn't readily available. Hopefully someone will be able to find something more on this artist.

Sources:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/fernwood-rhythm-n-blues-from-memphis-mw0000040952
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie_Chillen'#cite_note-Koda-6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie_Chillen'
http://www.45cat.com/label/pure-gold-us
http://www.45cat.com/record/nc912861us
http://www.rockabillyhall.com/fernwood.html

"It's Love Baby (24 Hours Of The Day)" - Ruth Brown

While in Grand Rapids in October I was inspired to dig into artist Ruth Brown thanks to a phenomenal swing & blues DJ, Andi Hansen. A song Andi loves to listen to is Ruth Brown's "It's Love Baby (24 Hours of the Day)". As a consequence, I really enjoy it too.

Ruth Brown first signed with Atlantic records. Throughout the fifties Ruth Brown had hit after hit on the Billboard R&B chart. According to Wikipedia, between 1949 and 1955 records by Brown stayed on the R&B chart for a total of 149 weeks: 16 top 10 records, along with 5 number one hits. During the sixties she receded from the public view to care for her family. In 1975 she came back to a musical career that eventually included winning a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical as well as a Grammy for Best Female Jazz Artist.

Other notable awards include:  recipient of the Pioneer Award (1989), inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall Of Fame (1992), inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1993), and another Grammy nomination for R + B = Ruth Brown (1997).

Ruth Brown had hosted a program carried by NPR affiliates called BluesStage. I wasn't able to find any recordings of the program itself, but I did find an interview she did with NPR from 1993. In this interview Brown talks about her early life, admiration for Billie Holiday, and she sang as well while the host, Marian McPartland, accompanies on piano. One quality Ruth Brown highlights is the joy she injects into the songs she sings. In discussing Fine & Mellow she says she can't help but add more life and playfulness to the song than the Billie Holiday version, similarly with the song that got her inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "Mana, He Treats Your Daughter Mean".

According to Second Hand Songs the song itself was originally recorded by Louis Brooks and His Hi-Toppers in May of 1955. Brown's version was released in August of that year. I enjoy this song because of the energy. It's a driving song with a consistent rhythm section and a playful saxophone. There is a buoyant quality to her version that makes me want to dance (it's now going in the practice rotation).

Some Additional Versions:

It's love Baby - Earl Gaines with Louis Brooks & his Hi-Toppers

The Midnighters - It's Love Baby (24 Hours A Day)

Earl Gaines - It's Love Baby 24 Hours A Day

================
Sources
https://secondhandsongs.com/work/34960/originals#nav-entity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Brown
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/ruth-brown
http://www.npr.org/event/music/358587932/ruth-brown-on-piano-jazz

'You Don't Love Me, Baby' - Junior Wells

While at Bring Your Own Blues in Lansing, MI I was able to hear Mr. Harrison, a Lansing based blues band. The band was a welcome surprise.I'd never heard them before, or known them to play for dancers, but they are one of the most enjoyable blues bands I've heard in a long time. In part, I thoroughly enjoyed their breadth of blues sub-genres they played. Specifically, they played a cover of 'You Don't Love Me, Baby' by Junior Wells - a song I haven't heard covered by any other contemporary band, at least live (upon doing research Magic Sam has a fun version of this song, and the song itself is a cover of earlier artists such as Billie Cobb and Bo Diddley - though there is apparently some claim that Cobb covered a similar song by Diddley, but I digress).

This song is off of Junior Well's 1965 debut album, Hoodoo Man Blues. Personally, this is one of my favorite albums (along with Southside Blues Jam). This album was an early collaboration between Buddy Guy and Wells. The innovative album become one of Delmark Record's best sellers and has been included for preservation in the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."

Junior Wells himself moved to Chicago in 1948 with his mother from West Memphis, AK. He began playing for house parties and bars with the local musicians. Influenced by Little Walter, he played harmonica with an 'amplified style' that is on full display in Hoodoo Man Blues. On the cover of Hoodoo Man Blues, Wells tells the story of how he came to possess a harmonica: "I went to this pawnshop downtown and the man had a harmonica prices at $2.00. I got a job on a soda truck... played hookey from school ... worked all week and on Saturday the man gave me a dollar and a half. A dollar and a half! For a whole week of work. I went to the pawnshop and the man said the price was two dollars. I told him I had to have that harp. He walked away from the counter – left the harp there. So I laid my dollar-and-a-half on the counter and picked up the harp. When my trial came up, the judge asked me why I did it. I told him I had to have that harp. The judge asked me to play it and when I did he gave the man the 50 cents and hollered "Case dismissed!" (1948)

In 1952 he began to play and recorded a session with Muddy Waters for Chess Records. Wells went on to record several records including Southside Blues Jam, On Tap, and Come On In This House. He died in Chicago in 1998.

The song opens with Buddy Guy on the guitar, kicking into a high energy groove. Junior Wells comes in singing soon after. I love the energy of this song, the rhythm in the guitar, and the stops where the band drops out. The tempo also gradually increases as the song continues. Wells' harmonica comes in the last thirty or so seconds of the song.

Musicians on the album:

Junior Wells - Harmonica, Vocals
Buddy Guy - Guitar, Vocals
Jack Myers - Bass
Bill Warren - drums

Below are two additional versions of the song I think are worth a listen:

Bo Diddley - You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)

Willie Cobb - You Don't Love Me

Junior Wells - You Don't Love Me, Baby

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Sources:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/hoodoo-man-blues-mw0000208353
https://www.facebook.com/MrHarrisonBlues/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_Man_Blues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Don%27t_Love_Me_(Willie_Cobbs_song)
https://secondhandsongs.com/work/58716
http://www.delmark.com/rhythm.junior.htm

Marty Grosz's 'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You'

Love makes me treat you
The way that I do
Gee baby, ain't I good to you

Today's research was inspired by Marty Grosz's version of 'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You', linked here.

'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You' was written in 1929 (according to Wikipedia) by Andy Razaf and Don Redman and later popularized by the King Cole Trio in 1944. It has been covered ad infinitum since by artists like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Rushing, Ruth Brown, and the artist I'm interested in today: Marty Grosz. 

Grosz is an American jazz guitarist, banjoist, and composer who was born in Berlin. He has a long history of creating and performing with a variety of artists. He studied at Columbia University in New York and started recording in 1950. He afterwards moved to Chicago for 20 years before returning to New York City. I became aware of his work because of the Fat Babies in Chicago, who still play weekly at the Green Mill. In exploring more of the local Chicago music (and the music of the Fat Babies in particular) I found the album ,Diga Diga Doo, Grosz recorded with the Fat Babies and James Dapogny, a Michigan based jazz pianist who still plays on Sundays in Ann Arbor. In looking into Grosz's music I found this version of 'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You' off the album Ring Dem Bells. 

From a dancer's perspective, this is a jazz song that I'll have a ballroomin' dance to (Slow Drag as well). The song has a languid and relaxed feeling throughout. In the notes I keep for the song I think of it as flowing, but with moments of tension and release. Opening with a couple bars of Grosz's guitar, it's an instrumental version. Since there is not a vocal line different instruments take turns with the melodic 'verse'. A muted trumpet carries much of the lyrical burden followed by a woodwind instrument-likely clarinet-and Marty Grosz on guitar. All of this is backed by brushes on the drums, a steady bass, and piano. As a DJ, I love this song as a slower number that still has consistent and ever present energy. 

The musicians for this album:

Marty Grosz - Guitar, vocals
Jon-Erik Kellso - Trumpet
Scott Robinson - Clarinet, soprano sax, baritone sax
Martin Litton - piano
Greg Cohen - Bass
Chuck Riggs - Drums

For the interested a few notable versions of the song are below, as well as Marty Grosz's:

Nat King Cole Trio

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Billie Holiday

Marty Grosz

Sources and Links

-----------------------------

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee,_Baby,_Ain%27t_I_Good_to_You

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Grosz

http://www.allmusic.com/album/diga-diga-doo-hot-music-from-chicago-mw0002809003

http://www.martygrosz.com/biography.htm

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/marty-grosz-mn0000858488/biography

Robert Belfour's 'Go Ahead On'

I've been inspired by Katie Alexa of the Blues Dance World podcast to do my own digging into the history of an artist or a particular song I have been enjoying. This led me to thinking about the artist Robert Belfour and his song 'Go Ahead On'. It's one of my favorite songs to listen and move to. I've tried to quote him where I can to let his description of his work and music speak.

Belfour's music is characterized as Hill Country Blues. Other artists that exemplify this sound are Junior Kimborough, R.L. Burnside, Jessie Mae Hemphill [1]. Branching off from the wikipedia page I found http://www.hillcountryharmonica.com/hillcountryblues.html, a site that offers more detail and history. Hill Country Blues is described in contrast to the Chicago style blues of Muddy Waters, and also as distinct for Delta blues, as a subgenre of country blues "characterized by a strong emphasis on rhythm and percussion, steady guitar riffs, few chord changes, unconventional song structures, and heavy emphasis on the "groove" - more affectionately known as "the hypnotic boogie.""[2] Another description that stood out to me was "Hill country blues is functional:  it's all about the groove, and the dancers who move to the groove." [1]

In an interview with BluesinLondon.com Belfour said in response to a question about his career, "I'd been playing all my life - I thought myself by ear listening to the radio... started off by chord and I changed over - I wanted to do notes... I wanted something somebody else wasn't doing, because everybody was imitating somebody else you know - chords and stuff - and I wanted my own thing".  Belfour is distinguished by his own style of "percussive attack and alternate tunings" [3]. In the same London interview he described his tuning as 'cross tuned Spanish so that's the reason why can't nobody tune their guitar to find what I do - because it's cross tuned Spanish tuning." [4] 

Belfour expands on how he learned to play by telling a story about an older woman teaching him John Lee Hooker.'s 'Crawling Kingsnake'.  As he tells it "she told me "I'm gonna show you how to play this song, I want you to learn this." I sat there and she showed me. She did it about three or four times and then she handed me the guitar". He continued practicing and playing for his community, eventually in the 80s playin on Beale Street. He was able to tour extensively at home and abroad before his death in 2015 [4]. 

I credit Anna Washenko for introducing me to Robert Belfour during the BluesSHOUT 2015 Solo Cuttin' finals. For the final pairing, Anna threw on a song with a different character and feel than I'd heard all weekend, 'Breaking My Heart' by Robert Belfour. I purchased the album 'Pushing My Luck' the next day. 

BluesSHOUT 2015 Cuttin' Finals - 21:40 for Song

More information about Report Belfour is available from the Fat Possum label:
http://fatpossum.com/robert-belfour-1940-2015/

--------------------------------
[1] http://www.hillcountryharmonica.com/hillcountryblues.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_country_blues#cite_note-1
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Belfour#cite_note-2
[4] http://www.bluesinlondon.com/interviews/robert_belfour_2007.html

Edinburgh Bluez Cruize, 2011

Following my trend of dance posts, I decided to mock up a video of the blues exchange I went to last summer in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the Edinburgh Bluez Cruize, still one of my favorite exchanges. It was my first exchange since WCLX 2010, the previous year.

I met a lot of great people who reminded me why I should get back to dancing. I do in some sense owe them for the fantastic weekend I had in Ann Arbor.

Edinburgh Bluez Cruize 2011 from Ross Blythe on Vimeo.

Pirate Swing: The Rundown

I didn’t want this blog to be a diary, but I do want to mention my weekend and how it fit in with some thoughts of mine.

As I mentioned in my last post (http://rethinkmundane.blogspot.com/2012/03/meaningful-calendar-years-dancing.html) dancers often travel to other cities for workshops, social exchanges, etc, to meet new people and improve their dancing (or just party, because, well, do that, too). I had the opportunity to do all three this past weekend by going to Pirate Swing in Ann Arbor, MI. It was a five-hour drive from where I live to the event. I was fortunate to have a great traveling companion who put up with my pseudo-lectures about music, dancing, relationships, and secular life (she was of my basic metaphysical persuasion, so it was a comfortable topic).

Upon arrival, Friday, we jumped right into a class on socially acceptable ways to lift a partner in a dance. Immediately following we jumped into three hours of life music, then one hour of late night blues. Tired, we went back to our host’s house to sleep and clean up for the rest of the weekend: the workshop portion.

In the morning I tried out for the advanced track classes. I was excited to make it in, on the last dance no less. The advanced classes were, well, advanced! Even if I remembered only one thing from each class, I feel I became a much better dancer than before the class. For that day, Saturday, I took over 6 hours of classes, followed by 6 hours of dancing in the evening.

For Saturday evening we were graced by the music of Christabel and the Jons (http://christabelmusic.com/). I highly recommend this band, especially for their blues songs. Also, because it was Pirate Swing, there were people dancing in pirate costumes, some more functional for dancing than others. One of my favorite dances of the evening came at about 3am, to “O Mary Don’t You Weep”, the cover by Bruce Springsteen. But I can honestly say I didn’t have a bad dance the entire weekend. Everyone was wonderful. The people were fantastic.

Sunday was our last class, followed by dancing at Guy Hollerin’, food, drink, and dancing. I can’t think of a better combination. Unless it is food, drink, dancing, and good company to do it with. There was a Sunday late night party with blues and booze. It was a great way to unwind after a tiring but amazing weekend. I was reminded of why I love dancing in the first place and why I need to travel more than I do.

Another lesson we seculars can learn from religious calendars: the weekly stuff can get boring, but every now and then there is a festival occasion that reminds us why we stick around. Pirate Swing felt like one long party, even when it was work, because we love what we do. Dancing isn’t why I breathe, but it sure helps.

Meaningful Calendar Years: Dancing, Mostly

Given my recent reflections on secular life and its relation to religion, I began thinking about the parallels between dancing and religion. One of my earlier posts was Alain de Botton’s talk at TED Edinburgh on secular religion (watch it http://rethinkmundane.blogspot.com/2012/02/alain-de-botton-atheism-20.html) and certain aspects of religion that secular people can learn from. An idea I’ve been thinking about is a Secular ‘Liturgical’ calendar. The idea is that a secular ‘religion’ would have a calendar that directed thought towards various important topics or ideas at points throughout the year. What kinds of festivals would a secular religion that values inquiry, rational thought, and humanism have? I don’t have an answer, but I’d like to pursue this line of thought with someone.

But this brought me to dancing, specifically swing and blues dancing, and how our dance calendars can be like liturgical calendars. I have weekly meetings with my dance club, something like ‘worship’ where we all gather together to dance. We have weekly lessons that meet outside of the larger community togetherness time (sort of like Bible study). And we have pilgrimages. We travel; at least the more devout of us do, to other cities, sometimes other countries (Herrang Dance Camp is like our Mecca http://www.herrang.com/) to see other dancers in other dance halls, sometimes repeatedly, year after year. It becomes tradition to go certain places at certain times of year.

There are even orthodoxies and unorthodoxies in swing dance. For Lindy Hop, there are straight Lindy Hoppers…and then there are people like me who like their Lindy a little less fundamentalist and a little more playful. And with Charleston it can be the same thing. Even in blues there is a strict interpretation of what is acceptable practice and what is not.

Like a church, mosque, or synagogue, dancing fosters a community with similar, if not always the same, values and outlook. We differ in a lot of ways, us dancers, but we do share in basic loves of movement and music. And with our schedules we are oriented towards thinking about what we enjoy doing, where we enjoy dancing, and who we enjoy dancing with, whether they be Balboa or Blues, Lindy Hop or Charleston, or if we’re the Unitarian Universalists of swing, Fusion.

And we need this is the secular world, or at least I think we do. I have a framework like that in dancing, but it’s not true that every person who is nontheistic is a dancer, and every dancer doesn’t necessarily engage in the dance calendar (think Easter Catholics, and I can make that joke because I used to be Catholic). My musings on that will follow soon.

So if dancing can be a religion, I wonder if I can put that on the next census.