Country Club 52: Bloodshot Eyes from Western Swing to Jump Blues

Hank Penny was a Western Swing musician from the late 1930s to the 1970s with an affinity for jazz (and comedy). He employed jazz-oriented sidemen like Jimmy Wyble, Benny Garcia, and Noel Boggs, as well as Merle Travis. He even recorded "Hillbilly Be-Bop" for King Records in 1949. In 1950, he wrote a hit "BloodShot Eyes," which became a souped-up jump blues hit for Wynonie Harris a year later. He had a long stretch in Las Vegas and worked for a while at a Wichita radio station.

Let's start with the Penny original.



And, here is Harris.



Both Penny and Harris were largely performing on the West Coast at the time, but they recorded for Cincinnati-based King Records, which specialized in "hillbilly" and "race" records and encouraged the sharing of songs between the two sides of the label.

There is a chapter on Penny in Rich Kienzle's 2003 book "Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky-Tonk, Western Swing and Country Jazz."

And, this fascinating article "Hank Penny's Cowboy Swing" by Burgin Matthews and "Forgotten Artists: Hank Penny" by Paul W. Dennis are also recommended.

There are a number of CDs of Penny's career which would be worth checking out.

Blues on a Saturday: John Primer "Hideaway"

Blues on a Saturday: Magic Slim "That Will Never Do"

Magic Slim (Morris Holt)a very fine Chicago bluesman, who had relocated to Omaha, died on Thursday February 21 at the age of 75. (Here is his wikipedia entry.) /He started his career playing bass for his friend Magic Sam, who bestowed his nickname. Slim won the W. C. Handy Blues Band of the Year six times. Having seen Slim perform live many times in Chicago in the 1980s, I can attest that the awards were well deserved.

Bill Dahl, writing on allmusic.com says "Magic Slim & the Teardrops proudly uphold the tradition of what a Chicago blues band should sound like...His guitar work dripped vibrato-enriched nastiness and his roaring vocals were as gruff and uncompromising as anyone's on the scene."

Blues on a Saturday: Jimmy Johnson "Cold, Cold Feeling"

Here's a nice Jimmy Johnson cut performed live at a Chicago blues club.

Blues on a Saturday: Guy Clark, Jr. "Catfish Blues"

This generation's blues savior Gary Clark Jr. performed "Catfish Blues" at In Performance at the White House: Red, White & Blues. Hosted by President and Mrs. Obama on February 21, 2012 and aired on PBS on Feb 27, 2012. There are shots of the Obamas grooving and, more interestingly to me, of Booker T. on the organ. You can see the entire show at http://video.pbs.org/video/2202801749.

Blues on a Saturday: Otis Rush "Gamblers Blues"

Blues on a Saturday: Jerry Hahn "Now's the Time"

I just came across this excellent performance of Charlie Parker's blues tune "Now's the Time" by guitarist Jerry Hahn. The video mixes a couple of Hahn performances with cute cat photos and pictures from throughout Hahn's long career. I heard Hahn live in 1970 with the jazz-rock fusion group Jerry Hahn Brotherhood with Wichita legend Mike Finnegan. And, before that on Country Roads and Other Places by the Gary Burton Quartet.

For those, who don't know the full story, "Now's the Time," recorded by Parker in 1945 was redone by Paul Williams four years later and became a massive best seller and a dance craze. Here the Williams version here on Youtube. It has been recorded myriad times by some very surprising artists and was a top 10 hit for Chubby Checker in the 1960s.

Blues on a Saturday: Jimmy McCracklin "The Walk"

Jimmy McCracklin, West Coast bluesman, died on December 20, 2012 after a career that spanned seven decades, having recorded over 30 albums with four gold records and written hundreds of songs including classics like "Tramp" "Think," and "Every Night, Every Day."

Tom Mazzolini of the San Francisco Blues Festival said of him, "He was probably the most important musician to come out of the Bay Area in the post-World War II years." But Kub Coda notes on allmusic.com "McCracklin has always been one of those artists whose currency always ran higher in the black blues community than it has in the subsequent years of white historical revision." On a NPR roundup of musicians who died in 2012, I didn't hear McCracklin's name,so its appropriate to feature this clip."

This is a 1991 recording of McCracklin's 1958 hit "The Walk" with Ry Cooder at the Village Music Anniversary Party. It features Wayne Bennett, long-time guitarist for Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Here are a few other McCracklin songs on Youtube "Georgia Slop," "Get Back," "Get Together."

Blues on a Saturday: Fontella Bass

Fontella Bass, most famous for her 1965 hit "Rescue Me" died this week on December 26 at age 72. ht: Mick Hartley

The song has been described in Allmusic as "the greatest record Aretha never made." It was certainly an immense hit. It went "pop." I heard it on the radio in small town Kansas and a few years later found it in the bins at a little operation that stocked jukeboxes in the area.

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Bass got her start on the blues scene in St. Louis where she played piano in Little Milton's band and met her husband trumpet player Lester Bowie. After unpleasant experiences, to put it mildly, with Chess Records where she had recorded "Rescue Me" she performed with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and recorded the acclaimed The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass. Here is a AEC song featuring Fontella Bass from a movie soundtrack.

I'm putting the AEC with FB album on my "listen to" list, but for now it seems right to close with Rescue Me."

Blues on a Saturday: B. B. King "Three O'Clock Blues"

Three O'Clock Blues was B.B. King's first big hit in 1952.

West Coast(via Tulsa) bluesman Lowell Fulson recorded it first in 1946 and it was a hit when it was released in 1948. I think you will recognize how B.B. made it a classic.(Fulson also was the first to record "Tramp" which Otis Redding made a hit.)

Naturally, the tune became a staple of B.B. King's live shows over the years.

And here's the up and coming Gary Clark Jr. playing it very much in a B. B. vein.

Blues on a Saturday: Mickey Baker and Coleman Hawkins

Mickey Baker playing with Coleman Hawkins, probably recorded in France.

Blues ona Saturday: Big Bill Broonzy "Summertime Blues"

Big Bill Broonzy, Wikipedia tells us "began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with working class Black audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century."

Broonzy was picked to replace Robert Johnson at the legendary 1938 From Spirituals to Swing , but there was no Big Bill craze similar to that for Johnson. Which is a shame because Bronzy was a very important bluesman and made some very great music. Here's a 1947 performance "Summertime Blues"--not the Eddie Cochran/Who/Blue Cheer rocker. It's very interesting, starting with piano and guitar lines that might been played in the 1930s,then horns enter with lines from swing and jump blues. This was a dominant sound in Chicago and other African-American urban centers. Even the very early Chess Records and Willie Dixon sides were in this vein. Then in 1948, Muddy Waters recorded "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "Rolling Stone" and a blues styles that had been considered out-of-date was again relevant. A preservationist stream keeping country blues alive was created on the white folk circuit, meanwhile Waters went electric and the modern Chicago blues was created.

If you want to learn more about Broonzy, there are over 100 YouTube videos.Bob Riesman has written a highly-regarded biography I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy Bob Riesman. which has a very nice website, which includes an appreciation by Pete Townsend, Foreword by Peter Guralnick, multimedia, and other features.

This seems like a good place to put in a plug for Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. While it is focused on Johnson, it is essential to understanding the whole scope of blues and American popular music. Including Broonzy.

Blues on a Saturday: Magic Sam "Easy Baby"

 Magic Sam had a short career, dying in 1969 at the age of 32, but among blues afficianados he has a very high reputation.  His two albums on Delmark, West Side Soul and Black Magic, are highly regarded. Here's a sample.

Blues on a Saturday: Taj Mahal "Bourgeois Blues"

On Labor Day weekend what better BoaS selection than Taj Mahal's 1991 performance of Ledbetter's "Bourgeois Blues." The instrumental backing of Taj's barreelhouse piano and mandolin may seem a little odd to modern ears. But the mandolin did make appearances on some early blues records and there was a vibrant black string band tradition, which was neglected by both commercial recording companies and folklorists.

Blues on a Saturday: Allman Borthers Band

The Allman Brothers Band perfroms Elmore James' "The Sky is Crying" at on 12/3/2011 at the Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA.For some fans this is a controversial and inferior lineup with neither Duane Allman or Dickey Betts, the twin guitars who made the band's sound. To my ears, Warren Hayes and Derek Trucks play at a level barely below Duane and Dickey.

Blues on a Saturday: Mose Allison Parchman Farm

Mose Allison was named a jazz master this week, so naturally I'm going to pick one of his great songs. Listen carefully all the way to the end. Mose stopped performing this live at some point. I've previously posted Allison songs here ("Your Mind is on Vacation" and here ("Ever Since the World Ended".

Blues on a Saturday: Jimmy McGriff and Hank Crawford

Jimmy Mcgriff on organ and piano with Hank Crawford on alto sax, Bob Devos on guitar, and Jimmie Smith on drums. Performing the blues classic "Every Day I Have the Blues"

Blues on a Saturday: Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins, and Roy Buchanon--Further on Down the Road

Blues on a Saturday: Buddy Guy --two songs from 1969

Here is Buddy Guy in the UK 1969 with Jack Bruce of Cream on bass and Buddy Miles of Electric Flag and Jimi Hendrix on drums, along with some horn players, most likely from Colosseum or one of John Mayall's bands. They perform two tunes from Guy's classic "A Man and the Blues" album:"Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "My Time After a While." Pay special attention to Guy's use of dynamics.

Blues on a Saturday: B.B. King Session

Okay, I've missed a few Saturdays, so I'll make it up with this full concert featuring B.B. King with guests Eric Clapton, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Etta James and others.  Pay special attention to some great harmonica from Paul Butterfield.