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Dennis is one of the greatest Harmonica players working today.
Tag Archives: Boz Scaggs
Special Guest: Boz Scaggs
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:37:44 — 67.1MB)
Boz is one of the greats. Case Closed
Special Guest Dick Shurman – Blues Hall of Fame Producer
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:34 — 42.3MB)
#johnnywinter #chicagoblues #grammywinners #aligator
Richard L. Shurman He has produced numerous recordings by notable musicians including Johnny Winter, Lurrie Bell, Eddie C. Campbell, Albert Collins, Little Smokey Smothers, Jody Williams, Roy Buchanan, Big Bill Morganfield, Larry Garner, Robert Cray, Hip Linkchain, Magic Slim, Charlie Musselwhite, Otis Rush, Johnny Heartsman, and Fenton Robinson. Shurman has also written many liner notes, and is the publisher of Chicago Blues News. In 2005, he was the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s “Keeping the Blues Alive” award.[6] He co-produced Showdown!, an album which won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1987.
Shurman was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2014 for his multitudinous contributions as a ‘non-performer’.
https://www.markhummel.com
Special Guest: Greg Piccolo
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:34 — 38.1MB)
At age nineteen, Duke Robillard recruited Greg as one of the earliest members of what became the Rhode Island based powerhouse, Roomful of Blues. The unifying magnet within the group in its early years, 1969 -1971, was focus on the rootsy, retro, danceable, swing sound of the ‘40s and ‘50s. This “new” sound to teenage ears and the recall of this music to the older folks, filled dance floors all over the band’s New England home-base and eventually on the global stage.
For the next twenty-four years, Greg Piccolo had amazing experiences playing with and/or recording with such music legends as Big Joe Turner, Earl King, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson”, Pat Benetar, Red Prysock, Stevie Ray Vaughan, to mention only a few.
As Roomful players would come and go, Greg’s twenty-five year contribution evolved to lead singer and bandleader, all the while being noticed world-wide for his signature “fat” tenor sound, unique sax style, and distinguishable vocals.
After nearly twenty-five years with Roomful of Blues, Greg sensed a calling to go back to his roots and develop his “heavy juice” sound. This “less is more” approach gave him the freedom to cover the gamut of his musical longings, which include traditional jazz, r&b, and rock’n roll. He had compiled a well of songs which demanded their own arrangements and band configurations outside of the classic “Roomful sound.” In 1994 he stepped away and officially formed his own band, Heavy Juice, which led to his first solo release, self-titled, “Greg Piccolo Heavy Juice,” on the legendary Louisiana-based Black Top label.
Following were two releases, Red Lights and Acid Blue, on the famous California-based Fantasy Label (now Concord), and his first all instrumental tenor sax release titled “Homage” on the Pennsylvania-based Emit Doog label.
His most recent release, “Who Did This?” is a tribute to his favorite sax recordings and includes an original recorded tenor instrumental.
Now at seventy years of age, Greg Piccolo is still practicing his horn every day, writing his own material, and traveling the world with Heavy Juice.
Piccolo is an example of someone who has always played from his heart.
Austin de Lone – Elvis Costello, Boz Scaggs, Nick Lowe, Bonnie Rait
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:01 — 53.2MB)
#elviscostello #lindaronstadt #bozscaggs #bonnieraitt #nicklowe Austin de Lone is an American keyboardist who records and tours with his own bands as well as with other artists, such as Bill Kirchen, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs, Nick Lowe, Commander Cody, and Loudon Wainwright. De Lone grew up in suburban Philadelphia, taking piano lessons at age 12. His early influences included Ray Charles and George Shearing. After stints as a student at the New England Conservatory of Music, Harvard University, and University of California, Berkeley, he moved to Greenwich Village.[3] While at Harvard, de Lone composed the song “One for One,” which was the first single released by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. Eggs over Easy In 1969, de Lone formed the band Eggs over Easy with Jack O’Hara and Brien Hopkins.[4] In 1970, Chas Chandler persuaded the band to record in London, but those recordings were not released. A four-night-a-week residency at a pub called the Tally-Ho in Kentish Town lasted more than a year. Eggs over Easy played a blend of blues, country, and rock that became known as pub rock. Regular attendees of their shows included members of Brinsley Schwarz and BBC disc jockey John Peel. In 1972, they returned to California and released their first album Good ‘N’ Cheap produced by Link Wray. The Moonlighters De Lone moved to Marin, California in 1972, where he met Bill Kirchen, who had been performing with Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. In the late 70s, de Lone joined Kirchen’s side-project band, the Moonlighters. Their 1983 album Rush Hour was produced by Nick Lowe. Both de Lone and Kirchen later worked with Lowe and Elvis Costello. De Lone and Kirchen still record and perform together. In 2016, they released their duet album Transatlantica. The Christmas Jug Band De Lone is a member of the Christmas Jug Band, a collection of musicians who have been touring locally each holiday season since 1976, and releasing albums since 1987. The band has included musicians such as Dan Hicks, Tim Eschliman, Jim Rothermel, Lance Dickerson, Brien Hopkins, and Norton Buffalo. Richard de Lone Special Housing Project De Lone coordinates an annual fundraiser for eventual construction of the Richard de Lone Special Housing Project, a residential facility for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome, which de Lone’s son Richard is afflicted with. As part of the 2007 event, Elvis Costello reunited with Clover, the band who backed him on his first album My Aim is True.
Bill Champlin – Sons of Champlin | Chicago
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:56 — 31.6MB)
Bill Champlin was born in Oakland, California on May 21, 1947 to a musical family. His grandparents, mother and sisters have all been singers. After forming the Sons of Champlin in 1967, he focused his songwriting talents on material for the Sons. “They were breathing fire. They were the most talented of all the San Francisco bands”, said Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. The Sons’ first album, “Loosen Up Naturally,” was released in 1969 and followed by six more albums before the Sons disbanded in 1977. After the breakup of the Sons, Bill moved to Los Angeles and worked as a session vocalist on numerous recordings from 1977 to 1985. The artists he worked with included Patti LaBelle, Lou Rawls, Elton John, Boz Scaggs, Donna Summer, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Jimmy Smith, Amy Grant, Neil Diamond and Kenny Rogers. In 1978 he released his first solo album, “Single.” In 1979 he won his first Grammy award for co-writing “After the Love is Gone,” which was later recorded by Earth, Wind & Fire. During the Chicago/EWF tours in 2004 and 2005, Champlin was asked to perform this song with them, as lead singer. In 1982 he joined Chicago to record “Chicago 16.” His unique and expressive voice can be heard on “Hard Habit to Break” from Chicago 17. Bill’s 1988 recording of the song “In the Heat of the Night” was picked up as the show opener by the TV show of the same name. The following year Chicago released what turned out to be it’s biggest-selling single and their last No. 1 hit, “Look Away,” once again with Bill on lead vocal. Four more solo albums followed from Bill’s fertile mind: “Burn Down The Night” (1992), “Through It All” (1994), “He Started To Sing” (1995) and “Mayday” (1996). In July 1997 Chicago topped the adult contemporary chart with “Here in My Heart,” as the band once again turned to Bill for lead vocals. That same year also rendered the release of “West Coast All Stars,” an a cappella project he did with Jason Scheff of Chicago and Toto’s Bobby Kimball and Joseph Williams. The Sons of Champlin reunited in 1997, with a loyal group of enthusiastic fans traveling great distances to see them perform. They recorded “Live At The Luther Burbank Center” in 1998, as well as “Secret” (CD and DVD) and “Hip Lil’ Dreams” in 2002. Bill’s solo release “No Place Left To Fall” (CD and DVD), recorded at The Barber Shop Studios in Hopatcong, NJ for the Dream Makers Music label. It was first released by JVC Japan in September 2008, as well as being released for digital downloading, and later released in Europe by Zync Music in December. The U.S. release by Dream Makers came in August 2009. On the heels of that US release and after 28 years with Chicago, Bill parted ways with the band to focus more on his solo career. “This music is callin’ me,” he said.
Bill Kirchen of Commander Cody’s Lost Planet Airmen
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:46 — 48.3MB)
In 1969, Kirchen took Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen to California and they developed a reputation as musical “outlaws” that were praised by other outlaw musicians and bands like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, The Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band.Kirchen’s band “played a collection of rock ‘n’ roll, hard-core country, boogie and rockabilly sounds produced in a “high-octane mix” that made them a “happening” group in the San Francisco Bay area.
Kirchen began to develop as guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and performer. He became known for his vocal and guitar work on such songs as “Mama Hated Diesels”, “Down to Seeds and Stems Again Blues” from the band’s albums, Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers’ Favorites and Lost in the Ozone. His live performance work was captured on the 1973 album Live From Deep in the Heart of Texas, recorded at the Armadillo World Headquarters in 1973.Kirchen’s Commander Cody band broke apart in 1976 and he formed a “swing orchestra” called the Moonlighters and began a decades-long collaboration with British musician Nick Lowe. Lowe produced the Moonlighters’ second album Rush Hour, and Kirchen toured with Lowe and joined him in the studio from time to time. During this period Kirchen also worked on albums with Elvis Costello, Gene Vincent, and Link Wray.
Kirchen was one of the musicians that pioneered the Americana movement in the 1980s, and also with being a founding father of “twangcore,” along with Dave Alvin, Wilco and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. Kirchen’s signature sound has been dubbed “dieselbilly” and incorporates elements of country, blues, rockabilly, Western swing and boogie-woogie, laced with themes of American truck driving music. Kirchen’s work in the early 1970s with Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen helped set the stage for the singers like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson and other outlaw country bands with his recordings of songs like “Seeds And Stems.”Kirchen is said to have “one of the most distinctive, pure-Fender Telecaster tone guitar sounds in modern music”.
Kirchen was named “The Titan of The Telecaster” by Guitar Player magazinefor his musical prowess on the Fender Telecaster guitar. He played a 1959 model with a maple fretboard and sunburst finish that he calls the “coal burner” and acquired in 1967 when he exchanged his Gibson SG with a stranger on a bus.He retired that guitar in the early 2010s in favor of a Telecaster with a wider neck.
Special Guest Jim Pugh
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:16 — 61.6MB)
Jim Pugh’s international performing music career spans 40 years and includes multiple Grammy Award, platinum and gold records. He has recorded and performed with a star-studded array of musicians including B.B. King, Chris Isaac, Etta James, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Boz Skaggs, Syl Johnson and Van Morrison. He created Little Village Foundation in 2014 to share the diverse music that has always inspired him.
Special Guest Terry Hanck
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:34 — 29.0MB)
#elvinbishop #terryhanck #blues #funk
erry Hanck is an American electric blues saxophonist, singer, songwriter and record producer, who won a Blues Music Award in 2016 in the ‘Instrumentalist – Horn’ category. Previously Hanck earned both a Blues Music Award and a Living Blues Award for ‘Best Horn’ in 2012, and was nominated for the latter prize in the ‘Best Song’ category. In May 2015, he won the International Songwriting Competition for his soul ballad, “I Keep On Holding On.” Born in Chicago, Hanck was influenced by the blues, soul and jazz of the 1950s and early 1960s. After moving to California in 1965, Hanck later toured with Elvin Bishop for over a decade, before leaving to tour and record with his own band for now almost 30 years.
Living Blues writer Lee Hildebrand has written that “Hanck is one of the most formidable saxophonists in the blues and soul business. He has a virile tone and attack and an uncanny command of upper-register notes.”
Accidental Productions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOOnWFbj8SGiV34ixhO0Cwg
Special Guest: Angela Strehli
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:29 — 48.1MB)
#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