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MIDWEST BLUES BEAT |
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by Eric Steiner HOT
AUGUST RELEASES
Before we get to some
hot August blues this month, I want to flashback on the last issue of Midwest
BEAT, and look at Linda
Matlow’s choice pics in her “On
the Town” column. And those of our other stellar photogs which
ran in the Chicago
Scrapbook pages. Each of these fine
pages triggered great memories, and since I celebrated the 20th
anniversary of my 25th birthday last month, I wanted to stumble down
memory lane just a bit... MEMORY
LANE…
Growing up near Chicago
Heights, I always looked forward to the bright lights of the big city,
and the endless entertainment possibilities of the City of the Big
Shoulders. I devoured everything
from the alt-press landmarks Chicago
Seed and the Triad Radio
newsletters, to the daily newspaper columns of Roger Simon, Sydney J. Harris, Mike
Royko and Irv Kupcinet.
Seeing Linda Matlow’s
pics of ol’ Kup and Carol
Channing and others brought me right back to the day.
And I was particularly pleased to see Studs
Terkel still hamming it up with Larry
King honoring the “60th Anniversary of Kup’s Column” at the Chicago Academy for the Arts...
As an intern at the Chicago
Film Festival in the late 70’s, I had the great, good fortune to
work at WFMT-FM, where I met
Studs on many occasions. To
me, he’s the voice of Chicago, and he’ll always have a special place
in my heart for the way he looks out for the underdog. Seeing a local band (for me here in Seattle) like Pearl Jam in the Scrapbook surprised me, but when I saw Terrible Ted Nugent tearing into his guitar, I knew that all was right with the world. Each month, I turn to the Scrapbook first, because Niva, Dan, Rob, Kent & Jules Follett and other BEAT shutterbugs, usually have some of best rock show photos around. SPEAKING
OF LOCAL BANDS…
I’d be remiss if I
didn’t shout about a new record from a local blues band.
The Pat Smilie Band
has released Letter
to Hampton on Fat Bank Records, and Pat was one of the many
local acts that strutted their stuff at this year’s Chicago
Blues Festival in Grant Park.
Pat’s been around,
and his career as a singer/songwriter has taken him from his native
Detroit to Windy City rooms like the Checkerboard
Lounge, the Beat Kitchen,
the Old Town School of Folk Music,
and Koko Taylor’s Celebrity.
Last year, he got some
exposure as part of the annual Fiesta
Bowl Block Party, which also featured the Charlie
Daniels Band and the reunited Go-Gos.
In doing research on
Pat, I found him sandwiched in between Fruteland
Jackson and Gloria Shannon
in the “Big City Blues Photo on
Maxwell Street” portrait by Robert
Jr. Whitall on Pat’s
web site, www.patsmillie.com/
. Whitall is the
editor and publisher of Detroit’s bi-monthly blues magazine, Big City Blues.
This month, make a point to check out the Pat Smilie Band.
Their disc covers a lot of blues styles, and the song “Letter
to Hampton” is a real fine Chicago blues rocker. HOT
NEW RELEASES
Delmark Records is celebrating its
50th anniversary this year, and West
Side Chicago Blues is a bargain-priced CD that features some of
the best guitar-fueled straightahead Chicago blues.
For my blue money, Willie
Kent’s “Do You Love Me?”, Magic
Sam’s “I Need You So
Bad,” and Luther Allison’s
“You Done Lost Your Good Thing,” all send chills up and down my
spine, thanks to outstanding, unrestrained fretwork. Johnny B. Moore, Clarksdale-born and
long-time player at Blue Chicago, contributes “Sitting Here Thinking,” and I’ve been thinking about his
health. I’ve heard that
he’s suffered a stroke and has been hospitalized in Chicago, and I
know that you’ll join me in wishing him well through your thoughts and
prayers. Pick up this gem of West Side blues for a true taste of
Chicago blues from Delmark’s five decades of blues inventory. August
marks a special month by the Telarc
debut of three bluesmen that have joined together with one of the finest
rhythm sections around. Telarc
will release the stellar CD, Triple Trouble , with Tommy
Castro, Lloyd Jones, Jimmy
Hall and Double Trouble on August 26th.
Portland, Oregon’s
Lloyd Jones and Jimmy Hall are the former lead vocalist and harpist for
Wet Willie, respectively. Jimmy
also received a Grammy nomination in 1985 for “Best Male Rock
Vocalist” on Jeff Beck’s amazing Flash album.
These three musicians
will certainly tear it up, backed by Double Trouble, keyboardist Reese
Wynans, bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, the rhythm
engine behind the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. We’ll see a bunch of
other new blues releases later this year that will coincide with PBS’
film series, “Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues -- A Musical Journey.”
The series will run September 28th
through October 4th on WTTW-TV/Channel 11. For
more info on this landmark series of films on the blues, go to:
www.pbs.org/theblues/
I’m particularly interested in a new series called Blues King
Pins on EMI, which features reissues from B.B.
King, Elmore James, Fats Domino, Ike Turner, John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’
Hopkins. Next month, I’ll have
reviews of these king pins as well as more details on the week-long
series of PBS films, beginning on September 28th.
As I’ve said in these pages before, 2003 is the Year of the
Blues, and I’m continuing to celebrate! While I’m certainly
no Kup, my monthly column in celebration of the blues in Midwest BEAT is one of the
high points of my month.
Until next month, let’s play the blues.
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