1. Sonny Boy Williamson – Good Evening Everybody
2. Snooky Pryor – Crosstown Blues
3. Jimmy Reed – Honest I Do
4. Elmore James – The Sky Is Crying
5. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – The Sky Is Crying
6. Son House – Pearline
7. Johnny Young – Money Talking Woman
8. Howlin’ Wolf – Evil
9. Rev. Gary Davis – How Happy I Am
10. Tony Hollins – I’ll Get A Break
11. Jimmy Smith – Hoochie Coochie Man
12. Washboard Sam – Barbecue
13. Muddy Waters – Turn The Lamp Down Low
14. Jimmy Rogers – Out On The Road

Link to archived shows.

This is the third time I’ve seen uncanny 1920s blues throwback C.W.Stoneking this year (see also here, where I try to describe what he sounds like, and here, where I get to meet him), and by now I’m familiar enough with him to not spend the set wondering where he got the time machine that let him assimilate and replicate this style of music so authentically but instead relax and enjoy the subversive faux-vaudevillian showmanship he’s also a master of. This is a brilliant performance. After a few numbers featuring his distinctive and highly talented band he takes the stage solo for a while, prefacing the songs with rambling, surreal monologues that are worth the ticket price on their own. Blues singer Jimmy Rogers is recast as an African fertility deity,  a shipwreck leads to death by banjo and a sinister discovery of an “I love Jesus” tattoo, and tales of New Orleans fortune tellers and abandoned weddings take unexpected turns when Coldplay and techno DJs are incongruously namedropped. Stoneking seems more relaxed and comfortable in his master of ceremonies role and his ninety minute set flashes by. The audience are eating out of his hand by the end. Great gig all round.

A superb new 4CD box set, titled 100 Years of the Blues, has been released to celebrate the centenary of Robert Johnson’s birth, and also to mark the 60th anniversary of Muddy Waters’ first recording sessions on Stovall’s Cotton Plantation in Mississippi.

The set comprises 91 tracks and traces the story of the blues from the early 20th century right up to the present day.

It comes with a 126-page book and detailed liner notes that describe each stage in the evolution of the blues.

Each CD covers a different era of the blues: Pre War Blues, Urban Blues, The Sixties and Modern Day Blues.

Watch a video and READ THE FULL STORY HERE…

# # # #

Check out our SH-BOOM! digital magazine. It’s FREE! You can read a sample HERE…

If you’d like to receive a FREE personal copy of each issue, simply SIGN UP at http://www.sh-boommagazine.com/.

Tell your friends about us too!

We’d love to hear what you think in our ‘oldies music’ poll below:

Which artist do you find most uplifting? Leave a comment below and let us know…

Made of premium materials, Yoke shelves are built to last. Custom stainless wall brackets take the load from above and below. The Baltic Birch plywood frames and shelves, free of unsightly voids, provide a solid structure. A clear coat finish protects the wood.

The unique slotted configuration is sturdy and makes assembly easy. The frame is sandwiched by the wall bracket and fixed in place with a pin.

The wood and filleted corners make the Yoke 33 approachable and tactile. This neatly constructed, well executed shelf unit will be available in preorder on ideacious shortly!

Dimensions: 1016 X 1321 X 254 mm

Launched: Wangaratta Jazz & Blues festival 2011

Well, Wangaratta Jazz & Blues is being launched tonight in Wangaratta, but Ausjazz can bring you the bones of the program as artistic director Adrian Jackson is telling the event’s home town denizens what’s in store.

As predicted by Ausjazz blog, American trombonist Josh Roseman is the headline international artist, performing in two concerts with New York band members Australian expatriate pianist Barney McAll, drummer Ted Poor and multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum on tenor sax, keyboard and percussion. The Josh Roseman Unit has explored “progressive funk, electro and jazz”, and the composer has been described as having “vision” and someone who “plays ideas”.

At a media briefing, Jackson revealed that Australian pianist, composer and festival director Paul Grabowsky heard Roseman in New York last year and said he’d like to do something with the young trombonist/composer and the Australian Art Orchestra. That will happen, with Roseman bringing some of his compositions for a 14-piece AAO to explore.

Breaking news: How Ausjazz spilled the beans in the first Wangileak.

As well, Barney McAll will unveil a new suite in a premiere performance with two pianos (B. McAll and Andrea Keller), vibraphone and a 16-voice choir led by Gian Slater, who Melburnians will recall for her brilliant commission concert at BMW Edge for the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival. This should be a real highlight.

Apfelbaum will also perform a solo piano concert.

Keeping the expatriate spirit going, Malaysian-born bassist Linda Oh, who grew up in Perth and has since moved to New York, will bring a quartet to Wangaratta to celebrate the launch of her second album. Her line-up has Fabian Almazan on piano, but differs from that on the album, with Sam Sadigursky on tenor sax and Kendrick Scott on drums. Linda Oh featured in April’s DownBeat magazine.

Another expatriate, pianist composer Walter Lampe, will travel from Amsterdam — his home of 20 years — to perform in a trio. I believe Lampe was in Sydney early this year, playing at 505 with Sydney bassist Jonathan Zwartz and former Melburnian, drummer Danny Fischer, but the line-up for Wangaratta will be Zwartz and James Hauptmann on drums.

Bright idea: Gian Slater joins Linda Oh in the duet at Bennetts Lane.

In a demonstration of just how good Adrian Jackson is at picking up on interesting new combinations, Oh will perform with Gian Slater in a concert of duets for bass and vocals. Jackson had the idea when he heard them together at Bennetts Lane during a recent concert with another expatriate, saxophonist Jacam Manricks.

Cuban pianist Almazan, now living in America, has toured the US, South America, Asia and Europe with Terence Blanchard and will come to Wangaratta direct from the release of his first album at the Village Vanguard. Almazan will play with Linda Oh on bass and Rodney Kendrick on drums.

Denis Colin (bass clarinet) from France and Adam Simmons (saxophones etc.) from Australia will join Benjamin Moussay on keyboards and Chander Sardjoe on drums to celebrate their collaboration as La Societe des Antipodes.

Headline artist for the blues marquee will be American singer/guitarist Jimmy D Lane, son of Chicago blues great Jimmy Rogers (it’s a stage name). Adrian Jackson said Jimmy D., who grew up with Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf as regular guests in his house, and listening to Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, is making his first visit to Australia.

Others on the blues stage will include the consistently and quietly brilliant Collard Greens & Gravy, Jim Conway’s Big Wheel and Blue Heat. But a blues gig bound to be a huge hit will be saxophonist Paul Williamson’s Hammond Blues Revue, in which Williamson’s usual Hammond Combo line-up will be joined by guests Chris Wilson, Shannon Bourne, vocalist Ella Thompson (who sang at Wangaratta when she was 15) and James Black. Thompson has emerged through the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society’s Youth in Blues program, which helps young artists.

Luckily for anyone who has heard Paul Williamson’s Hammond Combo at Stonnington Jazz (or the Rainbow Hotel), with brilliant Hammond B3 organist Tim Neal and drummer Mike Jordan, the combo will also play a concert in the jazz program. Don’t confuse this with trumpeter Paul Williamson‘s Inside Out (with Marc Hannaford on piano, Sam Zerna on double bass and James McLean on drums), which will be very different. Both gigs are sure to be hits.

Highlight: James Greening's 'bone frames Sandy Evans at Stonnington Jazz 2011

A later post will cover other festival highlights, such as a new Sandy Evans suite and her duets with Paul Grabowsky, what Allan Browne will get up to with Elliott Dalgleish, and who’s going to judge the National Jazz Awards.

ROGER MITCHELL

Check out the kickstarter page raising funding now for the production of MURDER LOVES COMPANY,  and get involved with rising film maker Jimmie Rogers on his latest production.

Jimmie Rogers is an film maker born in 1986 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Being from a military family, he grew up traveling and experiencing all forms of entertainment from around the world. Having asthma as a child, prevented him from taking part in most physical activities, so at the age of thirteen he picked up a camera instead. Since then he has studied many aspects of film, from the inner technical areas to the styles of acting and directing. He hopes to one day inspire kids to follow in his steps at taking their teenage aggression and turning it into a creative work.

Jimmy and his team have their act together, they are making their way in the indie film industry in Alabama, and they’ve got some short films already completed on their slate.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thhon/murder-loves-company-a-dark-comedy/widget/card.html

Here’s what you need to know:

Where You Come In

The great thing about how I wrote this film is that every location used is a place I know exists and can gain access to with very little or no problems at all. So the backing donations needed have the ability to go to many other places.

Travel: The film will be shot in both Prattville and Montgomery, Alabama. With the rising cost of gas, I want the crew to be able to get where they need to be with no worries about gas in their cars.

Food: I have learned on previous short films that food is the main ingredient to keep the crew awake and moving into the long hours of the night. With about twenty people expected to work on this project, food will definitely be needed.

Equipment: We have nothing to work with at the moment. After working on a few other films and learning cost effective ways at buying and using equipment, we can make this money go a very long way. Cameras, sound equipment, and lighting equipment are a few of the things this money will go to.

The opportunity to work on film in Alabama is basically nonexistent. Many larger production companies take their work to other states such as Georgia or Louisiana due to recent tax breaks for their production companies. This leaves the film makers of Alabama incapable of pursuing what they want and love to do. Last summer film maker and photographer Stephen Poff took his time to teach us how to use this equipment with first hand training on two short films. Under his guidance and the help of Rory Anglin (director of Black Bayou) we learned how to create amazing film.

RT
June 10, 2011

America is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. As the country goes deeper into the hole, how worried should we be? Congressmen shouldn’t be worried about our credit rating, says Quantum Fund’s Jim Rogers. America is already bankrupt, he says, and the only solution is to cut spending dramatically by “taking a chainsaw” to the budget. Unless something is done quickly, says Rogers, a disaster is imminent.

—————————————————————————–

Paul Joseph Watson Breaks Down The Full Official Bilderberg 2011 Attendee List

Bilderberg Behind Rick Perry 2012 Run

Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
June 10, 2011

BREAKING: Bilderberg 2011 Attendees List

Texas Governor Rick Perry is dipping his toes into the 2012 presidential race, coincidentally, as the Bilderberg conference convenes in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Bilderberg, notorious kingmakers in the U.S. and Europe, tapped Perry in 2007, inviting him to the conference meeting in Istanbul and presumably vetting him for higher office. Has his moment now arrived?

With a GOP primary field weak in viable-but-malleable globalist candidates, Perry may well prove to be a rising star. Current U.S. media is buzzing with speculation of his imminent entry. Bilderberg have long worked to own both horses in each cycle of U.S. presidential races. Bill Clinton, an obscure governor when he attended Bilderberg in 1991 before his 1992 presidential run, is a prime example of a candidate selected and run by Bilderberg. Bilderberg is also responsible for selecting British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron.

Gov. Rick Perry has been building his credentials as a pseudo-Tea Party leader and supposed proponent of succession, so he may prove to be a marketable product to the grassroots populists rebelling against the establishment GOP. In reality, of course, he is another pawn. His own rise in politics in the mid-80s came at the hands of one Karl Rove, known alternately as “Bush’s Brain,” who convinced Perry to flip from Democrat to Republican. Perry became George W. Bush’s Lt. Governor, rising to Governor once Bush the Younger gained the White House in 2000. He is now the longest serving governor in office.

Weeks ago, Perry’s office discussed the possibility of his entering the GOP primary at the end of the Texas legislative session. Now fresh rumors about his entering the race coincide with the end of the regular session. His speculative run is buoyed by the news that his top political aide David Carney has just quit the Gingrich campaign, which has fallen flat. Carney and related aides are considered key to Perry’s campaign viability. CBS News writes that Perry is “serious” about a run, but “There was no way Perry would run for president without his top political consultant, Dave Carney… Unfortunately for Perry, both of those guys were working on Gingrich 2012… Now, Gingrich’s entire team has up and quit. And all of a sudden Carney/Johnson are available. And Rick Perry is for real.”

The June 9-12 conference is well-timed for Bilderberg’s influence in the GOP primary, with potential voters still undecided and no clear frontrunner yet established.

Veteran Bilderberg sleuth Jim Tucker wrote last week about Perry’s likely entry into the 2012 field, pointing out that he may be Bilderberg’s “Ace in the Hole” as backlash against typical GOP candidates has given little promise for other establishment candidates. Tucker writes:

Perry has repeatedly denied that he is running for president, but several campaigns have been put forth to draft the three term Texas governor. In addition, Perry keeps pushing himself as a Bilderberg wild card. At Republican events, he has described the type of nominee the GOP needs (like himself) without naming himself.

Bilderberg, true to form, wants the U.S. recession to continue throughout 2012 and for oil prices to remain high and increase further. This could make Obama a one-term president. But at this point it appears Bilderberg’s “other horse” is headed for the stable, to be groomed as their ace in the hole.

Tucker identified Perry as a likely presidential contender back in 2007. President Barack Obama reportedly attended Bilderberg in Chantilly, Virginia in 2008, alongside Hillary Clinton, whom he had just dominated in the primary. Undoubtedly, he gained approval and backing during their shadowy meeting. Bilderberg regular James A. Johnson admittedly led the search for Obama’s running mate in 2008, vetting potential VPs.

Perry could now prove to be a strong challenger to Obama in 2012.

Our BIlderberg 2011 coverage is sponsored by Midas Resources, the trusted name in precious metals. Visit them at http://www.midasresources.com/

—————————————————————————-

New NASA research points to possible HAARP connection in Japan earthquake, tsunami

Ethan A. Huff,
Natural News
June 10, 2011

Recent data released by Dimitar Ouzounov and colleagues from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland highlights some strange atmospheric anomalies over Japan just days before the massive earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11. Seemingly inexplicable and rapid heating of the ionosphere directly above the epicenter reached a maximum only three days prior to the quake, according to satellite observations, suggesting that directed energy emitted from transmitters used in the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) may have been responsible for inducing the quake.

Published in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) publication Technology Review, the findings are presented alongside a different theory called Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling, which hypothesizes that the heating in the ionosphere may have been caused by the impending earthquake as the fault line released radioactive radon. This theory, of course, is not actually proven, but is instead presented as a possible explanation for the presence of the high-density electrons and emitted infrared radiation that was observed.

Another explanation for this strange heating — and one that, upon analysis, seems much more likely — is that it was an indication that concentrated energy was used to induce the earthquake, and not the other way around. Numerous credible reports and scientific observations reveal that HAARP technology is fully capable of being used as a scalar weapon, meaning it can emit strong electromagnetic pulse bombs that can alter weather or trigger seismic fault lines.

Evidence that HAARP is not only capable of inducing earthquakes, but that it appears to have been used on Japan

A casual glance at the graphics presented as part of Ouzounov’s research data shows near-perfect heat rings present above the epicenter of the quake. If radon emissions from the fault line were truly responsible for creating these heat zones, they would more than likely have had irregular, scattered appearances, rather than concentric circles. This anomaly by itself debunks the theory that the impending earthquake caused the heat patterns.

Also, readings from the HAARP Induction Magnetometer, which visualizes the frequency spectrum of signals detected in the earth’s geomagnetic field, show that a steady, ultra-low frequency (ULF) of roughly 2.5 Hz was being broadcast days before the earthquake. The 2.5 Hz ULF happens to be the exact same frequency as the natural resonance produced by an earthquake — and since there were no constant earthquakes occurring on the days before the quake as the HAARP Induction Magnetometer appeared to indicate, the logical conclusion is that the signal was being broadcast to induce the quake (http://presscore.ca/2011/?p=1624).

Some would argue that HAARP is not capable of producing such frequencies, especially at the power levels that would be required to induce a massive earthquake like the 9.0+ that occurred in Japan. But testimony by various governments says otherwise.

On April 28, 1997, then US Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen gave an important keynote address at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and US Strategy at the University of Georgia in Athens. When asked a question about terrorism, Cohen had this to say as part of his response about the type of technology that existed, even back then:

“Others are engaging even in an eco-type terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves” (http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/…).

This admission counters the claims made by some that no such technology exists, and that it is impossible to create seismic activity using directed energy. Clearly the technology has been around for a while, and the notion of it being used as a weapon is anythingbuta baseless conspiracy theory.

Then, there is the EU report on the environment, security and foreign policy, that was released on January 14, 1999 (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides…). This report outlines various types of weapon threats, including a section entitled, “HAARP – a weapons system which disrupts the climate.”

The paper explains that HAARP is “run jointly by the US Air Force and Navy,” and that one of its purposes is “to heat up portions of ionosphere with powerful radio beams.” It also states the following important details:

“HAARP can be used for many purposes. Enormous quantities of energy can be controlled by manipulating the electrical characteristics of the atmosphere. If used as a military weapon this can have a devastating impact on an enemy. HAARP can deliver millions of times more energy to a given area than any other conventional transmitter. The energy can also be aimed at a moving target which should constitute a potential anti-missile system.”

Later references to HAARP describe it as “a matter of global concern,” emphasizing that most people have no idea it even exists. This was written, of course, more than a decade ago — and yet not much has changed since that time, despite several pushes to make HAARP more transparent. But if HAARP is truly responsible for helping to induce some of the seemingly natural disasters that occur in the world, it is no surprise that the program continues to be kept largely under wraps.

You can view the HAARP Fluxgate Magnetometer for yourself at the following link:
http://maestro.haarp.alaska.edu/cgi…

Sources for this story include:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blo…

1140  French scholar Peter Abelard was found guilty of heresy.

1326 Treaty of Novgorod delineated borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark.

1539  Hernado de Soto claimed Florida for Spain.

1608  Samuel de Champlain completed his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.

1620 Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, began in Quebec City.

1621  The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands.

1658  Pope Alexander VII appointed François de Laval vicar apostolic in New France.

1659 David Gregory, Scottish astronomer and mathematician, was born  (d. 1708).

1665  James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England) defeated the Dutch Fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.

1770  Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo was founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

1726 James Hutton, Scottish geologist, was born  (d. 1797).

1800 U.S. President John Adams took up residence in Washington, D.C. (in a tavern because the White House was not yet completed).

1808 Jefferson Davis, American politician and President of the Confederate States of America was born (d. 1889).

1839 Lin Tse-hsü destroyed 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.

1861  Battle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races) – Union forces routed Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia in first land battle of the War.

1864 American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor – Union forces attacked Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia.

1865 George V  was born  (d. 1936).

1866  The Fenians were driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States.

1885 In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil Cree leader Big Bear escaped the North West Mounted Police.

1888 The poem “Casey at the Bat“, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published in the San Francisco Examiner.

1889  The coast to coast Canadian Pacific Railway was completed.

1889  The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States was completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.

1916 The Reserve Officer Training Corp, ROTC , was established by the U.S. Congress.

1916 – The National Defense Act was signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.

1921 Forbes Carlile, Australian Olympic swimmer and coach, was born.

1924 Jimmy Rogers, American blues guitarist, was born  (d. 1997).

1935 One thousand unemployed Canadian workers boarded freight cars in Vancouver,  beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario.

1936 Sir Colin “Pine Tree”  Meads, farmer and former All Black, was born.

1937  The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson.

1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ended with a German victory and Allied forces in full retreat.

1947 Mickey Finn, British guitarist and percussionist (T.Rex), was born  (d. 2003).

e.

1950 Suzi Quatro, American musician and actress, was born.

1956 British Railways renamed ‘Third Class’ passenger facilities as ‘Second Class’ (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).

1962 Susannah Constantine, British fashion guru, was born.

1962  An Air France Boeing 707 charter, Chateau de Sully crashed after an aborted takeoff from Paris, killing 130.

1963  The Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attacked protesting Buddhists in Huế,  with liquid chemicals from tear gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments.

1963  A Northwest Airlines DC-7 crashed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia, killing 101.

1965  Launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performed the first American spacewalk.

1968 Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, attempted to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.

1969  Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cut the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.

.

1973  A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashed near Goussainville  killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.

1979  A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico caused at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters.

1982  The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, was shot on a London street. He survived but was permanently paralysed.

1989  The government of China sent troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.

1989  SkyDome was officially opened in Toronto.

1991 Mount Unzen erupted in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.

1992 Aboriginal Land Rights were granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (1988), a case brought about by Eddie Mabo.

1998  Eschede train disaster: an ICE high speed train derailed in Lower Saxony causing 101 deaths.

2006 The union of Serbia and Montenegro endedwith Montenegro’s formal declaration of independence.

2007  USS Carter Hall engaged  pirates after they boarded the Danish ship Danica White off the coast of Somalia.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

The death of Joseph William “Pinetop” Perkins on Monday March 21, 2011 marks the end of an era of true, original Mississippi Delta blues pianists.  Perkins was born in Belzoni, Mississippi and was nicknamed “Pinetop” for his highly regarded renderings of Pinetop Smith’s 1928 classic Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie. Eventually, he recorded it himself at Sam Philip’s Sun Records studio in Memphis in the early 1950s.

Perkins’ professional career started on the KFFA radio show of the great blues singer and slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk, out of Helena, Arkansas. He then switched to harmonica pioneer Sonny Boy Williamson’s more popular show “King Biscuit Time,” which debuted such legends as B.B. King, Robert Lockwood Jr., Elmore James, and  Perkins’ young piano student Ike Turner.

Joseph William "Pinetop" Perkins

Upon learning about the success of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, helped along by the coaxing of  long time collaborator and guitar genius Earl Hooker, Perkins moved to Chicago in 1968.  When Waters’ longtime pianist Otis Spann quit Muddy’s group in 1969, Perkins stepped in as his replacement.  He stayed with him until the late ‘70s when he and Waters’ drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith formed The Legendary Blues Band, with Louis Myers (harmonica/guitar), Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, bass, and Jerry Portnoy on harmonica.

At a time when most blues pianists were copying the styles of Spann, Little Johnny Jones, and Big Maceo Merriweather, Perkins asserted his own aggressive barrelhouse style.

He toured and recorded throughout the ‘90s with Chicago blues greats Hubert Sumlin and Jimmy Rogers.  As the blues made a semi-mainstream comeback in the early ‘90s, Pinetop finally started getting the worldwide recognition he had deserved for so many decades.  His style was capable of complimenting anyone’s music and he became sought after by blues and rock musicians alike.

Despite a serious accident in 2004 in which a train hit his car, Perkins – 91 years old — continued recording and touring.

To celebrate his 95^th birthday, Pinetop recorded Pinetop Perkins And Friends (Telarc), a well crafted collaboration with artists whose lives Perkins had influenced, including B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Kim Wilson, Willie Kent, Jimmy Vaughan, and many more.  That same year, he won a Grammy for best traditional blues album for his recording Last Of The Great Mississippi Bluesmen: Live In Dallas With Henry James Townsend, Robert Lockwood Jr., and Honeyboy Edwards (The Blue Shoe Project).

Seeming to get better with age, Perkins became the oldest ever Grammy winner when he won another award at the age of 97 for Joined At the Hip, with his old partner Willie “Big Eyes” Smith.

Artists from Dr. John to Marcia Ball have sung Pinetop’s praises.  Ball stated “Pinetop plays in his ‘90s the way I and most people wish they were playing in their prime 40s, having learned everything they could right at the peak of their power.”

Perkins was also a humble gentleman.  I had the honor of sitting in with Pinetop at the now defunct Mondo Cane blues bar in NYC in 1993.  He walked into the club, shook hands with the house-band members, sat down at the piano and started playing with a kind of energy I had never experienced before or since.

When he eventually stopped to take a break and a shot of gin, I approached him with my guitar, asking if I could play with him, and he replied with a smile,  “Well if you can be good to it, then let’s go.”  I surely hope I was at least good enough to it for him.  I remember after several hours of playing pure blues, he waved his black hat at me, patted me on the back and left.

My life has never been the same since. He was gracious enough to let me, a young white blues lover from Brooklyn, play with him on Blues Everywhere I Go and Eddie Boyd’s Done Got Lonesome Here. I was in such awe and terror at the same time.  I worshiped this man and owned all of his records.

Perkins died at his home in Austin, Texas on Monday, March 21^st, 2011.  He was 97.

What goes up, eventually comes down, and what goes down, eventually comes up. Like an adolescent jumping on a trampoline, emotions in the financial markets jump sky high before crashing down to earth…and then the process repeats itself. The underlying reasons behind every market gyration are different, but the emotions of fear and greed are similar. Since 1919, there have been 29 recessions, and 29 recoveries (pretty good recovery batting average). Over that 92 year period we have also witnessed the Dow Jones Industrial Average go from around 100 in 1919 to over 12,300 today – not too shabby.

The blood curdling panic experienced in 2008 and early 2009 has turned to ordinary fear among retail investors – although the doubling of the equity markets from two years ago has instilled a good dosage of animal spirits into professional traders and speculators. When trillions of low yielding cash and Treasuries ultimately come barreling into equity markets, thereby extending equity valuations, then I will become extra nervous. Until then, plenty of opportunities still exist – there just is not nearly as much low-hanging fruit as two years ago.

More of the Same

To make the point that “the more things change, the more things stay the same,” you can go all the way back to 1932 and read the words of Dean Witter – I also wrote about the history of panic in the 1970s (see Rhyming History).

Even some 80 years ago, Witter was keenly aware of the doomsday bears:

“People are deterred from buying good stocks and bonds now only because of an unwarranted terror…All sorts of bugaboos are paraded to destroy the last vestige of confidence. Stories of disaster which are incredible and untrue are told to foolish and credulous listeners, who appear willing to believe the worst.”

The bugaboo purveyors I called out in 2009 included Peter Schiff, Nouriel Roubini, Meredith Whitney, and Jimmy Rogers. I’m not sure who the next genius du jour(s) will be, but I am confident they will be prominently paraded over the media airwaves.

Cherry Price for Consensus

As firmer signs of an economic recovery finally take hold, investors slowly regain confidence about investing in risky assets. The only problem is that prices have skyrocketed!  Witter captures this dynamic beautifully back in 1932:

“Some people say that they wish to await a clearer view of the future. When the future is again clear the present bargains will no longer be available. Does anyone think that present prices will continue when confidence has been fully restored? Such bargains exist only because of terror and distress.”

Herd Gets Slaughtered

History proves over and over again…the general investing public suffers the consequences of following the herd of fear and greed. Or as Witter states:

“It is easy to run with the crowd. The path of least resistance is to join in the wailings that are now so popular. The constructive policy, however, is to maintain your courage and your optimism, to have faith in the ultimate future of your country and to proclaim your faith and to recommend the purchase of good bonds and good stocks, which are inordinately depreciated.”

In the short-run, markets move up and down in an unpredictable fashion, like an irresponsible teenager jumping on a trampoline. In the long-run, investors can do themselves a favor by ignoring the masses, and sticking to a disciplined, systematic investment approach that includes controlled valuation metrics and contrarian sentiment factors. That way, you won’t fall off the investment trampoline and permanently break your portfolio.

Wade W. Slome, CFA, CFP® 

Plan. Invest. Prosper. 

www.Sidoxia.com

DISCLOSURE: Sidoxia Capital Management (SCM) and some of its clients own certain exchange traded funds, but at the time of publishing SCM had no direct position in any other security referenced in this article. No information accessed through the Investing Caffeine (IC) website constitutes investment, financial, legal, tax or other advice nor is to be relied on in making an investment or other decision. Please read disclosure language on IC “Contact” page.

John Guthrie, Ray City, GA

RAY CITY – It was another typical Ray City weeknight with lots of pickin’ and grinnin’ coming from the back room studio of John Guthrie,  country storekeeper and musician extraordinaire.

Guthrie is a local music legend, dating back 20 years and more when he would teach public school classes of 30 kids – some tone deaf – to play guitar.

Musicians from hereabouts, nearby towns like Lakeland, Valdosta and Adel, gather nightly in Guthrie’s cozy studio -  a slightly oversized room crammed with instruments, especially guitars.

Other folks come too; they want to listen and learn. Guthrie teaches “all fretted instruments and saxophone,” his card says.

But he has strict rules, “teaching only on Saturdays and Sundays. And I won’t teach a kid to play piano. They can’t reach an octave,” he declared.

Guthrie figured he could have easily made the big time long ago… if he had been willing to turn his back on his beloved Ray City and south Georgia.

“This is the best place in the world,” he exclaimed.

It was the tug of Ray City friendships which brought the native son home from a couple of years of drifting with different bands through Florida.

Those were lean times, Guthrie recalled, back during the Depression.

More than once he earned a free supper by masquerading as Jimmy Rogers, a country and western pioneer referred to “as the grandfather of folk music” by Guthrie.

People believed Guthrie when he introduced himself as Rogers whose plaintive ballads seemed to help sooth the Depression’s wounds.

“I’d play and sing. It wasn’t anytime before we’d get a big crowd around. Someone would come along and ask me home for supper,” he recalled.

Guthrie considers himself a very honest man. But those tough days put rigorous demands upon a young musician.

“I was hungry boy. I tell you, I was hungry.”

Conveniently, Guthrie had mastered the guitar by playing along with Jimmy Rogers recordings on an old windup Victrola.

Guthrie explained he could have stayed with the band. Several friends did make it to the big time, finding spots in the Nashville scene or with television or radio.

Although the days of  “all night dances” had an appeal, Guthrie explained he needed something more stable for when he got married.

“Of course, at that time I wouldn’t have married the Queen of Sheba.  I was just on my own without responsibility, playing music and having a good time.”

But a pretty South Carolina girl, vacationing in Winter Haven, Fla., derailed Guthrie’s career plans.

“She smiled at me while the band was on intermission. I went over and we had a talk,” he recalled.

Actually it was several years before Guthrie and the young woman from Chesterfield, S.C. married.

She returned home, but they corresponded.

“Then one day I went up and got her and brought her back to Ray City,” he said.

Guthrie called his wife “my first love.”

“But an old Spanish guitar is my second love,” he said.

“A guitar can talk back to you,” he explained. “It can cry with you, sing with you, be happy with you. There’s no other instrument that can produce the twangy sounds of an old Spanish guitar.”

Electric guitars also have a hold on Guthrie’s affections, but, he noted, “a guitar loses something out of its sound when you use an amplifier.”

Guthrie loves country music. But he also plays classical, Spanish, Mexican and gypsy style guitar music.

And the pop songs of his youth, “songs like Stardust,” he said, “had something to them.”

Contemporary music, he said, is based upon three chords.

“There’s too much repetition,” he complained.

“But those old jazz bands … when they put out a tune, it had something in it.”

Years ago, Lessie Guthrie Futch wrote in the margins of that newspaper clipping:

 ”My youngest brother. If he was hungry, he should have been home on the farm with the family picking cotton.”

In his troubadour days, John hung with the ‘Genteel’ set.  While all his brothers wore overalls and worked the farm, he wore a white sports coat and worked the dance halls and social events. But later, he worked hard running a business and working in music to support his family.

http://ia700204.us.archive.org/2/items/JimmyRogers-DaddyAndHome1928/JimmyRogers-DaddyAndHome1928.mp3

Related Posts:

• Ray City Carnival Photos
• Lessie & Rossie Futch at Home on Possum Creek
• Samuel G. Guthrie of Ray City, GA
• Effie Guthrie and the Knight Brothers of Ray City, GA
• Checking on Citizens Bank of Ray City
• Eyewitness Accounts of the Berrien Tiger

The band went on immediately at showtime, and they were good. The new keyboardist was the star of the show and took most of the solos. The white guy playing rhythm guitar had some unfortunate heavy metal tendencies but his Gibson’s sweet, sustained tone took the edge off. After the band had run through a few standards, Jimmy Rogers came up with his big, hollowbody Gibson and tentatively launched into Rock This House. He’s an uncommonly subtle, urbane player, fond of big, sustained jazzy chords: he doesn’t bear much resemblance to the guy who provided all that deceptively simple chordal work behind Muddy Waters back in the fifties. He rarely soloed, once trading off a few licks with the keyboardist, but that’s about it. The harp player who marred Rogers’ previous New York show at Downtime with his ridiculous ostentation was wisely kept in the background this time; the keyboardist stepped all over him every time he tried to solo. If that’s what it takes – other than outright firing the guy – to keep him in check, that’s what the band needs to do. After Rogers had been up there about 35 minutes, they decided to take a “break” which at this venue can mean a couple of hours, so it’s anybody’s guess if they ever came back or if there was anyone left at the bar when they did.

[Postscript: Rogers’ performance at this show was vital and energetic, at least as energetic as the relatively phleghmatic guitarist ever got; his death about about two years later came as quite a shock]

Jeff Healey a toujours été un fonceur.  Ayant perdu la vue dès l’âge d’un an, des causes d’une rare forme de cancer, il a commencé à jouer de la guitare à 3 ans.  Il avait une façon particulière de jouer; il posait sa Fender Stratocaster sur ses genoux.  Il a formé son premier groupe à l’âge de 17 ans, puis plus tard, forma le trio qui porta le nom de Jeff Healey’s Band.  Il a fait partie de la distribution du film Road House, en 1989, auprès de Patrick Swayze, Ben Gazzara, Kelly Lynch et Sam Elliott.  Il a connu le succès sur disque avec l’album See The Light, contenant entre autres le succès Angel Eyes.  Après d’autres albums rock, il se tourna, au cours des années 1990, vers l’une de ses passions, soit le jazz des années 1920, 30 et 40.  Il devint une vedette internationale, partageant la scène avec les plus grands noms, dont B. B. King et Stevie Ray Vaughn, et enregistrant avec George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, ainsi qu’avec une légende du blues, le regretté Jimmy Rogers.

Malgré tout ce succès, il préférait rester près de chez lui, avec sa femme et ses enfants, et ne faisait plus beaucoup de grandes tournées.  Il a animé une émission de radio, sur les ondes de CBC, intitulée My Kinda Jazz, pendant plusieurs années, et une autre, plus récemment, du même titre, sur Jazz-FM, à Toronto.  Il aimait particulièrement faire tourner des pièces rares, et très peu entendues, issues de sa propre collection de plus de 30,000 disques 78 tours.

Les détails de ses obsèques seront connus plus tard, cette semaine.

Personnellement, Jeff Healey m’a toujours impressionné.  Quelques-unes de ses chansons tournent régulièrement à CHOM, la station classic rock montréalaise que j’écoute constamment, dont sa propre version de While My Guitar Gently Weeps, des Beatles.  Il était la preuve que peu importe les écueils que la vie peut mettre sur son chemin, il y a moyen de voir l’espoir, et d’aller au bout de ses rêves.  Il a perdu la vue, il s’est pratiquement toujours battu contre le cancer, mais il est quand même parvenu, en tenant sa guitare comme personne d’autre, à devenir une vedette, à jouer sur scène, comme en studio, avec les plus grands, et à prendre sa place parmi eux.  Par ces mots, je tente de passer le message à ceux qui se prétendent pauvres, dans la misère, rejetés, qu’il y a toujours de l’espoir, et qu’il faut croire en ses rêves.

Évidemment, il ne faut pas seulement y croire; il faut aussi passer à l’action.

J’espère que la vie de Jeff Healey sera portée à l’écran, afin de bien montrer que même avec des handicaps, on peut aller au bout de ses rêves.

By FRANK ELTMAN Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

— The man who co-wrote the song “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” had the unsettling experience this week of reading his own obituary _ the result of an impostor who went through life claiming to be the author of the 1960s smash hit.

On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported on the death of a 68-year-old man named Paul Van Valkenburgh of Ormond Beach, Fla., who claimed to have written the song under the name Paul Vance. The story cited the man’s wife as the source for that claim.

But the music industry’s real Paul Vance, a 76-year-old man from Coral Springs, Fla., is alive and well, and says the other Paul Vance appears to have made the whole thing up!

September 28, 2006

Like most people who know “The Real” Paul Vance, I freaked out when I heard he died a few days ago. Today I was overjoyed when I found out he was still alive!
When I was released from Aldon music as a writer in 1962, the first office I walked into was owned by writer/producer Paul Vance. I had seen his name on records as the co-writer of “Catch a Falling Star”, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, etc. and I hoped he would like my style of pop/country/r+b. He not only co-wrote with me but encouraged me to write with other writers that were coming around at the time, which included Cirino Colacrai (“Runaround”), Joey Powers (“Midnight Mary”), Al Byron (“Roses Are Red, My Love”), Ellie Greenwich (“Be My Baby”, “Da Doo Run Run”), Ben Raleigh (“Tell Laura I Love Her”, “Wonderful, Wonderful”) and Paul’s nephew Danny Jordan (who later became one of the Detergents who sang,”Leader Of The Laundermat”)

One day, singer Frankie Sardo, a friend of Danny’s came by looking for material. He had a minor hit with “Fakeout” but was best known for having been on the last Buddy Holly Tour. After a strong B.S. session, which included Frankie telling us that he gave up the last seat on the small plane to Buddy the night of the fatal crash, the three of us started writing a song, “Find a Little Happiness”. The next day, we finished the song and played it for Paul. He was so excited that he ran us down the hall to play it for Joe Kolsky who owned Diamond records. Joe flipped out as well and suggested that Danny and I record it as a duo with Paul as a producer.

Initially, this didn’t really sit well with Danny or myself since we both were aspiring to be single artists. I knew Joe was a dynamite record promoter since I had an earlier release on Diamond that I wrote with Paul, “Mommy and Daddy were Twistin’” by Susan Summers, but I was still aprehensive. Paul was pissed off that we didn’t jump at the chance to record for the man who was behind some of the biggest acts at Roulette records( Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, Jimmy Rogers, Joey Dee and the Starliters) so we reconsidered.
In the year and a half that I wrote with Paul we had our songs recorded by the Fleetwoods, The Playmates, etc . He also got songs of mine that he published recorded by the Brian Poole and Tremoloes, Frankie Sardo, and the Angels. Although I wasn’t getting a salary, he did let me have a key to the office where I held many late night “auditions”. I haven’t seen or spoken to him in thirty years, but I want him to know how much I appreciate what he taught me about songwriting, the music buisness and life itself!