Blues / Blues Rock

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dirty-blues-band-mn0000907551/biography wrote: Artist Biography by Bruce Eder

The Dirty Blues Band was a white blues outfit best known as the stamping grounds, for a time, for Rod Piazza and Glenn Ross Campbell. The group was spawned in Riverside, CA, from a convergence of members of a handful of notable local outfits -- their rhythm section, John Millikan (drums) and Les Morrison (bass), were high school classmates who'd previously played in the L-J's, whence also came keyboard player Pat Moloney. The L-J's had started out playing jazz in 1964, but by the end of 1965 had evolved into the Mystics, a much more blues-focused outfit, whose ranks included Bob Sandell on rhythm guitar and Rod Piazza on lead vocals and harp. Their main influences were such British Invasion bands as Them (whose "Mystic Eyes" had provided their name), the Animals, the Yardbirds, and the Rolling Stones -- although nominally a blues band, their sound was really more an amalgam of blues and R&B as done by those groups

That all changed when Piazza and a couple of his bandmates went to a performance by the Byrds at The Trip in Los Angeles, where the opening act was the still mostly unknown Paul Butterfield Blues Band. What they saw and heard that night convinced the Mystics, especially Piazza, that they had to switch over to playing a purer form of blues. They ceased being the Mystics, taking on the name House of DBS (meaning Dirty Blues Sound) in 1966. There followed a lot of gigs in and around Los Angeles, where they honed their new sound and also lost their original lead guitarist, Jeff Ray -- in his place, Piazza recruited a friend of his from a band he'd once hung out with, the Misunderstood, named Glenn Ross Campbell. the Misunderstood had broken up and he was available and willing, and once he joined, the group's sound fairly blossomed, as Campbell became known for stretching out on his solos and improvisations for long minutes at their shows.

Stone Dirt
By the summer of 1967, with the beginnings of a serious rock music press, the House of DBS was getting proper coverage, and by the end of that season, they had a management and production deal with Lee Magid, who was best known in the business at that time as the manager of singer Della Reese. Magid produced their debut album and sold it to ABC Records, also facilitating a name-change to The Dirty Blues Band. Their self-titled debut album appeared in early 1968 on the ABC imprint Bluesway, and although the members weren't entirely happy with the results of the two days of rushed recording, they seemed to have a promising future ahead of them. The military draft then reared its ugly head, and suddenly Millikan, Morrison, and Sandell -- the group's whole rhythm section -- were called up. Campbell exited by choice a little while later, seeing no future for the group. Ironically, they did carry on, however, with Rick Lunetta (guitar), Greg Anderson (bass), and Dave Miter (drums). That group, augmented by trumpet man Freddie Hill and saxmen Jimmy Forrest and Willie Green, got a second album together, entitled Stone Dirt. But by the end of 1968, even that second lineup had collapsed, and all concerned were pursuing solo and new group projects. Piazza and Campbell were the most visible alumni and, indeed, their presence in the band accounts for a significant part of the interest in their work, on the part of people who never did get to hear the original albums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Boy_Arnold wrote:Born in Chicago, he began playing harmonica as a child, and in 1948 received informal lessons from his near neighbour John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, shortly before the latter's death. Arnold made his recording debut in 1952 with "Hello Stranger" on the small Cool label, the record company giving him the nickname "Billy Boy".

In the early 1950s, he joined forces with street musician Bo Diddley and played harmonica on the March 2, 1955 recording of the Bo Diddley song "I'm a Man" released by Checker Records.[1] The same day as the Bo Diddley sessions, Billy Boy recorded the self-penned "You Got to Love Me" which was not released until the box set, Chess Blues 1947-1967, in 1992.

Arnold signed a solo recording contract with Vee-Jay Records, recording the originals of "I Wish You Would" and "I Ain’t Got You".Both were later covered by The Yardbirds."I Wish You Would" was also recorded by David Bowie on his 1973 album, Pin Ups and by Sweet on their 1982 album, Identity Crisis.

In the late 1950s Arnold continued to play in Chicago clubs, and in 1963 he recorded a LP, More Blues From The South Side, for the Prestige label, but as playing opportunities dried up he pursued a parallel career as a bus driver and, later, parole officer.

By the 1970s, Arnold had begun playing festivals, touring Europe, and recording again. He recorded a session for BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel on 5 October 1977.

In 1993, he released the album Back Where I Belong on Alligator Records, followed by Eldorado Cadillac (1995) and on Stony Plain Records with the Duke Robillard Band Boogie ’n’ Shuffle (2001). In 2012, he released Blue and Lonesome featuring Tony McPhee and The Groundhogs.

In 2014, he was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the 'Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year' category.

http://www.last.fm/music/Little+Johnny+Taylor wrote: Little Johnny Taylor (born Johnny Lamont Merrett, 11 February 1943, Gregory, Arkansas – 17 May 2002) was an American blues and soul singer who made recordings throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and continued public performances through the 1980s and 1990s.

http://www.last.fm/music/Smokey+Wilson wrote:Smokey Wilson remains one of America’s most precious and irreplaceable treasures, the Bluesman. Born in Mississippi in 1936, Robert Lee ‘Smokey’ Wilson learned the blues at the feet of legends like Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf and B.B. King.

As a child, Smokey’s burning desire to play the blues had to be satisfied on a home-made broom handle and bailing wire guitar until his mother bought him his first acoustic at thirteen. He would soon be known as ‘Mississippi Smokey’ in and around his hometown of Glen Allan. Nearby Greenville was a hot bed of blues activity and spawned a new generation of blues men that carry on the tradition today. Artists such as Little Milton, Tyrone Davis, Frank Frost, Sam Carr, Big Jack Johnson along with Smokey were nur¬tured in the juke joints around Greensville. Smokey played drums and bass in his older brother’s band until he could outplay his sibling on guitar. The band was then renamed “Little Robert & the Soul Searchers” and toured southern juke joints with Roosevelt ‘Booba’ Barnes.

After the death of his mother in 1970, Smokey went west to Los Angeles where the blues scene was still burgeoning. He soon opened the Pioneer Club just outside the tough LA neighbourhood of Watts and Smokey recalls with pride that he kept it packed for twenty years.

http://www.last.fm/music/Joint+Effort wrote:Joint Effort are from Detroit but don’t deny the mystic and loner hippie Westcoast feeling. They recorded all songs at home, most of the tracks were first takes and reflect a kind of freaky The Beatles meeting Nirvana (Unplugged) jam session. They play tripped out raga-folk tunes with homemade effects, catchy vocals, very intense songwriting and Bob Dylan like protest against society. The songs stand perfectly for the summer, peace and love feeling!”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_%22Gatemouth%22_Brown wrote:Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 - September 10, 2005) was an American musician from Louisiana and Texas. He is best known for his work as a blues musician, but embraced other styles of music, having "spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing old blues, country, jazz, Cajun music and R&B styles". His work also encompasses rock and roll, rock music, folk, electric blues, and Texas blues.
He was an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, who played an array of musical instruments such as guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola as well as harmonica and drums. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!. He is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of blues fiddle and has had enormous influence in American fiddle circles.
Brown's two biggest musical influences were Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker.

http://outlawbluesband.com/ wrote:THE LATE 1960s was a period of experimentation musically, culturally and socially. In America, bands mixing rhythm sections with brass instruments to experiment and produce a music that was new, exciting, radical and crossed boundaries was the norm rather than the extreme. Santana and The Electric Flag set the pace with line ups of mixed ethnicity and musical prowess freely mixing Latin, Jazz, Blues and Rock. Jazz band leaders like Don Ellis and Buddy Rich were investigating Rock-styled arrangements and even legendary Bluesman Muddy Waters was beginning to experiment by adding brass sections to his upfront Blues.
Emerging from Los Angeles in the same time frame, The Outlaw Blues Band recorded two influential albums for ABC Bluesway Records – 1968’s ‘The Outlaw Blues Band and The People’ and ‘Breaking In’, released in 1969 – which were destined for obscurity initially.
While they retained some underground appeal, their rediscovery decades later by Cyprus Hill, and De La Soul’s sampling of the atmospheric Jazztinged instrumental ‘Deep Gully’ alerted a whole new audience to The Outlaw Blues Band’s music.

http://www.allmusic.com/song/i-idolize-you-mt0011885627/lyrics wrote:If you want some loving,
That I can give to you.
And if you want some hugging,
Said I can hug some, too.

All I want, baby, now
Is some thought of you
And just a little of your affection,
You know, will see me through.

'Cause you know that you are my man,
And I want you to forever be mine.
I idolize you (Yes, she idolize you)

---

written by Turner, Ike

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Jenkins wrote:Johnny Edward Jenkins (March 5, 1939 – June 26, 2006) was an American left-handed blues guitarist, who helped launch the career of Otis Redding. His flamboyant style of guitar playing also influenced Jimi Hendrix.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Harvey_%28musician%29 wrote:Alexander James "Alex" Harvey (5 February 1935 – 4 February 1982) was a Scottish blues/rock musician. Although Harvey's career spanned almost three decades he is best remembered as the frontman of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, with whom he built a reputation as an exciting live performer during the era of glam rock in the 1970s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Flag wrote:
The Electric Flag was an American blues rock soul group, led by guitarist Mike Bloomfield, keyboardist Barry Goldberg and drummer Buddy Miles, and featuring other musicians such as vocalist Nick Gravenites and bassist Harvey Brooks. Bloomfield formed the Electric Flag in 1967, following his stint with the Butterfield Blues Band. The band reached its peak with the 1968 release, A Long Time Comin', a fusion of rock, jazz, and R&B styles that charted well in the Billboard Pop Albums chart. Their initial recording was a soundtrack for The Trip, a movie about an LSD experience by Peter Fonda, written by Jack Nicholson and directed by Roger Corman.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoy_Brown wrote:Savoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are an English blues rock band formed in Battersea, South West London in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they promoted their albums with non-stop touring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graham_Bond_Organisation wrote:The Graham Bond Organisation were a British jazz/rhythm and blues group of the early 1960s consisting of Graham Bond (vocals, keyboards, alto-saxophone), Jack Bruce (bass), Ginger Baker (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith (tenor/soprano saxophone) and John McLaughlin (guitar). They recorded several albums and further recordings were issued when the group's members achieved fame in progressive rock and jazz fusion. The spelling of the band's original name varied between releases, often depending on the intended audience. The British English spelled as "Organisation" or "ORGANisation" (Bond's original plan), while in many other countries outside the U.K. spelled "Organization".

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jimmy-dawkins-mn0000352524 wrote: Chicago guitarist Jimmy Dawkins would have preferred to leave his longtime nickname "Fast Fingers" behind. It was always something of a stylistic misnomer anyway; Dawkins' West Side-styled guitar slashed and surged, but seldom burned with incendiary speed. Dawkins' blues were generally of the brooding, introspective variety -- he didn't engage in flashy pyrotechnics or outrageous showmanship.

It took a long time for Dawkins to progress from West Side fixture to nationally known recording artist. He rode a Greyhound bus out of Mississippi in 1955, dressing warmly to ward off the Windy City's infamous chill factor. Only trouble was, he arrived on a sweltering July day! Harpist Billy Boy Arnold offered the newcomer encouragement, and he eventually carved out a niche on the competitive West Side scene (his peers included Magic Sam and Luther Allison).

Fast Fingers
Sam introduced Dawkins to Delmark Records boss Bob Koester. Fast Fingers, Dawkins' 1969 debut LP for Delmark -- which remained his best album -- was a taut, uncompromising piece of work that won the Grand Prix du Disque de Jazz from the Hot Club of France in 1971 as the year's top album. Andrew "Big Voice" Odom shared the singing and Otis Rush the second guitar duties on Dawkins' 1971 encore, All for Business. But after his Delmark LP Blisterstring, Dawkins' subsequent recordings lacked intensity until 1991's oddly titled Kant Sheck Dees Bluze for Chicago's Earwig Records. After that, Dawkins waxed discs for Ichiban and Fedora, and continued to tour extensively until health problems slowed him down. Jimmy Dawkins passed away April 10, 2013.

https://www.facebook.com/TheLoneCrows/info/?tab=page_info wrote:The Lone Crows are a Heavy Blues Rock band based in Minneapolis, MN. With a sound and style focused on improvisation, soul, and dynamic song-writing, The Lone Crows combine Blues Rock, Grunge, Reggae, Heavy Metal, Psychedelic, Stoner Rock, Post Rock, and Funk, harkening back to the classic 60s and 70s Rock gods while defying all but the most abstract categorization.

The Lone Crows have been rocking the Minneapolis scene since forming in 2010, and signed with the German based record label World In Sound in 2012. With 2 studio albums and one live album recorded at the 2014 Freak Valley Festival in Siegen, Germany, the band is at work bringing their brand of Heavy Blues Rock to the rest of the world.