Category Archives: Road Rambles

Special Guest: Big Creek Slim



Big Creek Slim is a blues man as sure as the day is long. Don’t believe it? Hear that voice. Feel the passion and intensity that he brings to the blues. Big Creek Slim’s trademark is authentic pre-WWII country blues and early Chicago Blues. Right now he’s the hottest Scandinavian blues name and has received a rain of awards, and has excited the blues crowds all over Europe.

Big Creek Slim Website

www.bigcreekslim.dk

Welcome


Special Guest: John Nemeth



John Németh is an American electric blues and soul harmonicist, singer, and songwriter. He has received five Blues Music Awards for Soul Blues Male Artist, Soul Blues Album, Traditional Blues Album of the Year, Instrumentalist – Vocals and Instrumentalist – Harmonica. He has recorded ten albums since 2002, having also backed Junior Watson, Anson Funderburgh and Elvin Bishop. He has opened for Robert Cray, Keb’ Mo’, and Earl Thomas.

AllMusic noted that he is a “vocalist with great range, ability, and soulfulness, Németh had also developed into a top-notch blues harmonica player…”  In 2013 alone, he was nominated five times for a Blues Music Award, making nine such nominations in total.


Special Guest: Fito de la Parra



#cannedheat #woodstock #blues #rock&roll

Fido is a founding member of Canned Heat. Canned Heat rose to fame because their knowledge and love of blues music was both wide and deep. Emerging in 1966, Canned Heat was founded by blues historians and record collectors Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson and Bob “The Bear” Hite. The band attained three worldwide hits, “On The Road Again” in 1968, “Let’s Work Together” in 1970 and “Going Up The Country” in 1969 became rock anthems throughout the world with the latter being adopted as the unofficial theme song for the film Woodstock and the “Woodstock Generation.”

cannedheatmusic.com

Mark Hummel

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Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg


Special Guest: Magic Dick



Magic Dick, (Richard Salwitz) plays harmonica for the J. Geils Band.

Salwitz was born in New London, Connecticut. He attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he met John “J.” Geils and Danny Klein and became a founding member of the J. Geils Band in 1965. Salwitz’s harmonica playing became a major and distinctive element in the J. Geils Band’s sound during their hard-rocking 1970s heyday. His performance of “Whammer Jammer” on the band’s live album Full Househas been particularly noted. In The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979), music critic Dave Marsh described Salwitz as possibly “the best white musician to ever play blues harmonica.” He was often referred to as “Magic Dick and his Lickin’ Stick”.

Mark Hummel

Patreon

Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg


Special Guest UK Blues Legend Bob Hall



#ukblues #bluesharmonica #bluespiano #petergreen #fleetwoodmac

Mark and Bob hanging out at Bob’s house in Sheffield, England telling stories about the famous and infamous in UK music. Founder&member of several British blues bands including The Groundhogs, Tramp, The Sunflower Blues Band and The De Luxe Blues Band, Hall has worked and recorded with artists such as Peter Green, Danny Kirwan and Mick Fleetwood, of Fleetwood Mac, and is also a long serving member of Savoy Brown, and guests with The Blues Band, featuring Paul Jones, Dave Kelly and Tom McGuinness. Hall was also a founder-member, with Ian Stewart, of the Boogie Woogie Big Band which later became Rocket 88, and which included Hal Singer, Don Weller and Dick Morrissey, Charlie Watts, Alexis Korner, and Jack Bruce. Bob has accompanied: John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Witherspoon, Chuck Berry, Homesick James, Lightnin’ Slim, Lowell Fulsom, Charlie Musselwhite, Snooky Pryor, J. B. Hutto, Lazy Lester, Dave Peabody, Baby Boy Warren, Eddie “Guitar” Burns, Eddie Taylor, Big John Wrencher, Mickey Baker, and Eddy Clearwater.

Mark Hummel

Patreon

Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg


Special Guest Big Joe Louis



#bluesharmonica #bluesguitarist

Marks talks with Big Joe Louis while touring the UK together. Big Joe Louis was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to the UK during the 1970s. The Blues Kings were formed 18 years ago and have taken their special kind of real down-home Blues to venues the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland and with great success in virtually every country in Western Europe and Scandinavia. 1998 and 1999 brought two invitations to play in the USA, leading to exceptional reviews.

Mark Hummel Website

Big Joe Louis Website

Patreon https://www.patreon.com/markhummel

Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg


Special Guest: Angela Strehli



#antones #fabulousthunderbirds #stevierayvaughan #austinmusicians

Angela discusses her long career and talks about her friends in the music biz: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muddy Waters, Huey Lewis, Gregg Allman, Janis Joplin and more.

In the early 1960s, Strehli learned the harmonica and bass guitar before becoming a vocalist. In 1966 she visited Chicago, and attended concerts given by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy. In her final university year, Strehli and Lewis Cowdrey formed the Fabulous Rockets. Strehli then sang as a backing vocalist for James Polk and the Brothers and assisted with Storm, which had been formed by Cowdrey and Jimmie Vaughan. In 1972, she was a founding member of Southern Feeling, along with W. C. Clark and Denny Freeman. Three years later Strehli became the stage manager and sound technician at Antone’s, a nightclub in Austin, Texas. By 1986, Strehli had recorded Stranger Blues (EP) which help launch Antone’s own record label. Her debut album was Soul Shake (1987, Antone’s Records), and she appeared on Dreams Come True, with Lou Ann Barton and Marcia Ball (1990). Her own effort Blonde and Blue (1993, Rounder Records) assisted in building the Austin, Texas blues scene, alongside nightclub owner Clifford Antone, Kim Wilson, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan. In 1998, Strehli released Deja Blue, and Blue Highway followed in 2005.

Mark Hummel www.markhummel.com

Patreon https://www.patreon.com/markhummel

Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg


Special Guest: Nick Gravenites



#electricflag #sanfranciscoscene

Nick Gravenites played in clubs with Mike Bloomfield, Charlie Musselwhite and others. In 1967 he formed the Electric Flag with Bloomfield. Gravenites also wrote the score for the film The Trip and produced the music for the film Steelyard Blues.

Gravenites is credited as a “musical handyman”, helping such San Francisco bands as Quicksilver Messenger Service and Janis Joplin‘s first solo group, the Kozmic Blues Band. He wrote several songs for Joplin, including “Work Me, Lord and the unfinished instrumental track “Buried Alive in the Blues”. Gravenites was the lead singer in the re-formed Big Brother and the Holding Company (without Joplin) from 1969 to 1972. He also worked extensively with John Cipollina after producing the first album by Quicksilver Messenger Service.

Gravenites produced the pop hit “One Toke Over the Line” for Brewer & Shipley and the album Right Place, Wrong Time for Otis Rush, for which he was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Mark Hummel www.markhummel.com

Patreon https://www.patreon.com/markhummel

Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg


Special Guest: Tad Robinson



Tad Robinson (born June 24, 1956) is an American singer, harmonica player, and songwriter. Robinson was born and raised in New York City. He graduated the New Lincoln School and attended Indiana University‘s school of music and graduating in 1980. He played regionally with a group called the Hesitation Blues Band, then moved to Chicago, where he became the vocalist for Dave Specter & the Bluebirds, singing on their 1994 album Blueplicity for Delmark Records. In 1994, he released his first album under his own name on the same label; seven more have followed, five on the Severn imprint. Robinson has performed at notable festivals in several countries, including the United States, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. He has been a Hohner harmonica endorsee since 1985.

Tad Robinson https://tadrobinson.com/

Mark Hummel www.markhummel.com

Patreon https://www.patreon.com/markhummel

Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg


Special Guest: Lee Oskar



#leeoskar #summeroflove #sanfranciscomusic #lowridersong #blackpanthers

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1948, Oskar was six years old when a family friend gave him his first harmonica. “I came from an area where every kid on the block had a harmonica”, he remembers. He grew up listening to Danish radio, enjoying all types of music and cites Ray Charles as the biggest influence from that period. At 17, Oskar decided that the United States was where a harmonica player should make his career. So he moved to New York at the age of 18 with little more than a harmonica in his pocket. With no money, Oskar played harmonica in the streets of New York. Eventually arriving in Los Angeles, via Toronto and San Francisco, Oskar soon met and joined forces with Eric Burdon who had recently disbanded The Animals and was searching for new collaborators. Together, the harmonica-playing Dane (born Lee Oskar Levitin ) and the British blues-rock singer made the rounds of the L.A. clubs, eventually hooking up with the soon-to-be members of War. Burdon agreed to the novel idea of pairing up Oskar’s harmonica with Charles Miller’s saxophone to form a horn section. This team-up set War apart from the start, giving Oskar room to display the full spectrum of his improvisational prowess. Oskar’s harmonica magic was always a vital element in War’s music and performances. Oskar continued with War for 24 years non-stop. At the end of 1992, during the time of dispute over the WAR trademark, Oskar took a few years to continue his solo career and to focus on his Lee Oskar Harmonica manufacturing.

Mark Hummel www.markhummel.com

Patreon https://www.patreon.com/markhummel

Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg