Son House News

Sometimes my ability to enact the inane in the midst of serious events dumbfounds even me.

"We will ideally be knocking patrons unconscious and stacking their out-cold bodies up like cord wood ... and then spray-painting them bright-orange," claims Ted Drozdowski, the notorious bandleader and slide guitarist of Nashville blues-rock act Scissormen, speaking of his upcoming show at the Sullivan's Island Home Team BBQ.

A little bit of Louisiana is scheduled to appear at the Southern Arizona Blues Heritage Foundation's 2009 Blues Festival.

Few guitars have the cool factor of a shiny, metal-bodied National. With a distinctively loud and penetrating voice, derived from a loudspeaker-like aluminum cone that's connected to the guitar's saddle, Nationals are in a category by themselves regardless of whether they're viewed from a sonic or design standpoint.

Published Tuesday 22 September 2009 10:37pm EST. During his long stretches on the road, Woody Guthrie sang the following to his daughter, "I'm-a-gonna wrap myself up in paper, I'm gonna daub myself with with glue, Stick some stamps on top of my head; I'm gonna mail myself to you." In Guthrie's time, a stamp cost three cents, and airmail was a ...

5)Manteca "Afro Funky" from the CD "Ritmo Y Sabor" Essential Media Group 6)Alborosie "Mama She Don't Like You" from the CD "Kingston Town Single" Greensleeves 7)Miles Davis "Black Satin" from the CD "On The Corner" 8)Devier "Keep Me Warm" from the CD "You're My Everything" Hitman Records 9)Pax Nicholas and The Netty Family "Na Six Feet" from the CD ...

Anyone who knows the difference between a guitar and a bass--guitar=six strings, bass =four--knows that legendary Rolling Stones riff-king Keith Richards loves himself some blues pickin'. He was inspired by all the greats, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Leadbelly, Son House and now Jack White, as it was reported yesterday on RollingStone.com that ...

Far, far away from the group once known for bubbly synth-pop anthems like "Just Can't Get Enough" and "Everything Counts," Depeche Mode circa 2009 has pressed its small army of keyboards and electronics into the service of primal urges and raw sexuality.

UNLIKE MOST OF ITS beard-rocking brethren, Richmond folk-rock band Ilad is more than a mere peddler of bygone sounds.

Joe Henry is tapped into the American past in unexpected ways. He lives in a roomy South Pasadena Craftsman designed for President Garfield's widow, and his preferred attire, a black suit and pointy boots, suggests that the 48-year-old singer and guitarist would have been at home playing in Elvis Presley's first band.

"St. Louis Blues" by W.C. Handy T here are so many firsts, so many "fathers" and so many "kings" of the blues, one wonders sometimes.

"St. Louis Blues" by W.C. Handy T here are so many firsts, so many "fathers" and so many "kings" of the blues, one wonders sometimes.

A t about the same that Mamie Smith was experiencing the stunning success she had with record sales of Crazy Blues , and Eck Robertson and Fiddlin' John Carson were being recognized for the first recordings of country music, Blind Lemon Jefferson was stirring up a blues storm down in Texas.

L ike Son House who somewhat proceeded him, Bukka White also called Parchman Farm his home for a while, and also like other bluesmen who "stayed" there too, one suspects that if they actually did call it home, he did so reluctantly.

The Delta Big 4, Willie Brown, Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton and Son House, were not the only thing going on in the evolution of the blues in the 1920's. They were just the most influential, and perhaps the most recorded.

L ike many of the cottonfield laborers, sharecroppers and poor itinerant black people of his time, Tommy Johnson led a particularly rough life.

W e call them the Delta Big Four. These are the guys who are the forefathers of the Delta Blues style.

This is the year of the saxophone trio. Mark Turner and Fly released an album. Joshua Redman raised the ante with a double-trio phalanx of two drums and two basses.

Big Road Blues has posted an interesting essay called "The Blues Ain't No Monkey Junk," part of their annual tribute to the legendary Son House : "Patton told Laibley about House and about two other musicians Willie Brown and Louise Johnson, setting the stage for one of the blues most legendary recording sessions.

An adept finger-style guitarist, natural singer and expressive songwriter, acoustic blues artist Paul Geremia has spent the last 40 years playing folk- and country-blues, creating a personal style influenced by his heroes, such as Howlin' Wolf, Son House and Skip James.