Big Mama Thornton

"Early life

Thornton was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Her introduction to music started in the Baptist church. Her father was a minister and her mother was a church singer. She and her six siblings began to sing at a very early age. Thornton's musical aspirations led her to leave Montgomery in 1941, after her mother's death,[4] when she was just fourteen, and she joined the Georgia-based Hot Harlem Revue.[5] Her seven-year tenure with the Revue gave her valuable singing and stage experience and enabled her to tour the South. In 1948, she settled in Houston, Texas, where she hoped to further her career as a singer. Willa Mae was also a self-taught drummer and harmonica player and frequently played both instruments onstage.

Career

Thornton began her recording career in Houston, signing a contract with Peacock Records in 1951. While working with another Peacock artist, Johnny Otis, she recorded "Hound Dog", a song that composers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had given her in Los Angeles.[6]. The record was produced by Johnny Otis, and went to number one on the R&B chart.[7] Although the record made her a star, she saw little of the profits.[8] She continued to record for Peacock until 1957 and performed with R&B package tours with Junior Parker and Esther Phillips. In 1954, Thornton was one of two witnesses to the death of blues singer Johnny Ace.[9] Her career began to fade in the late '50s and early '60s. She left Houston and relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she mostly played local blues clubs.

In 1966, Thornton recorded Big Mama Thornton With The Muddy Waters Blues Band, with Muddy Waters (guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums). Songs included "Everything Gonna Be Alright", "Big Mama's Blues", "I'm Feeling Alright", "Big Mama's Bumble Bee Blues", "Looking The World Over", "Big Mama's Shuffle", and "Since I Fell For You", among others.

Her Ball 'n' Chain album in 1968, recorded with Lightnin' Hopkins (guitar) and Larry Williams (vocals), included the songs "Hound Dog", "Wade in the Water", "Little Red Rooster", "Ball 'n' Chain", "Money Taker", and "Prison Blues".

One of Thornton's last albums was Jail (1975) for Vanguard Records. It vividly captures her charm during a couple of mid-'70's gigs at two northwestern prisons. She became the talented leader of a blues ensemble that features sustained jams from George "Harmonica" Smith, as well as guitarists B. Huston and Steve Wachsman, drummer Todd Nelson, saxophonist Bill Potter, bassist Bruce Sieverson, and pianist J.D. Nicholas.

Thornton performed at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968, and at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979. In 1965 she performed with the American Folk Blues Festival package in Europe.[10] While in England that year, she recorded Big Mama Thornton in Europe and followed it up the next year in San Francisco with Big Mama Thornton with the Chicago Blues Band. Both albums came out on the Arhoolie label. Thornton continued to record for Vanguard, Mercury, and other small labels in the '70s and to work the blues festival circuit until her death in 1984, the same year she was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame.

During her career, she appeared on stages from New York City's famed Apollo Theater in 1952 to the Kool Newport Jazz Festival in 1980, and was nominated for the Blues Music Awards six times .[11] In addition to "Ball 'n' Chain" and "They Call Me Big Mama," Thornton wrote twenty other blues songs.[12]

Death

On July 25, 1984, Willie Mae Thornton died in Los Angeles of heart and liver complications, probably brought on by years of alcohol abuse which had reduced the one-time 350-pound "Big Mama" Thornton to a mere ninety-five pounds.[13] Johnny Otis conducted her funeral services, and she was laid to rest in the famous Inglewood Park Cemetery,[14] along with a number of notable people, including entertainment and sports personalities.

Legacy

As an influence over the music and musicians which followed her, her importance cannot be overstated. Her name and legacy will forever remain among the very greatest of blues legends. Thornton's mighty voice, take-no-guff attitude, and incendiary stage performances influenced generations of blues and rock singers and carried on the tradition of tough "blues mamas" like Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, and Ma Rainey.

In 2007, in the movie Hounddog, singer Jill Scott played "Big Mama" Thornton.[15]

Thornton is also the namesake of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.[16]

[edit] Selective discography
Year Title Genre Label
2007 Big Mama Thornton Texas blues Vanguard
1994 The Complete OKeh Sessions 1952-55 Texas blues Sony
1975 Jail (Live) Texas blues Vanguard
1975 Sassy Mama! (Live) Texas blues Vanguard
1973 Saved Texas blues Backbeat
1970 The Way It Is Texas blues Mercury
1969 Stronger Than Dirt Texas blues Mercury
1968 Ball 'n' Chain w/Lightnin' Hopkins Texas blues Arhoolie
1967 Big Mama Thornton Vol. 2 Texas blues Arhoolie
1966 Big Mama Thornton With The Muddy Waters Blues Band Texas blues Arhoolie
1966 Big Mama Thornton in EuropeTexas blues Arhoolie" Wikipedia



Barbara Morrison portrays Big Mama Thornton in the blues musical "Howlin blues & Dirty Dogs"

Hound Dog



They Call Me Big Mama



Down Home Shakedown :)



Ball and Chain w/ Lightnin' Hopkins



Rock Me



I'm Feelin' Alright w/ The Muddy Water's Blues Band



Wade in the Water



I wasn't going to post these videos 'cause it breaks my heart to see how she deteriorated in her last years, how tired she was and in how much pain but even then she still had it, so here they are...

Live



Hound Dog



I hope she knows how much she is truly missed...

You can find a listing of her albums here for sale

Bill Withers

Lately I've been hearing a voice that I recognized but couldn't put a name to until today. Then I kicked myself for not being able to recall it right away. How can you possibly forget the name of the man with songs like "Lean on Me", Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me" and "Grandma's Hands"?

Bill Wither's Page on Soulwalking has this to say:

"b. 4th July 1938, Slab Fork, West Virginia, U.S.A.

Bill Withers was the youngest of six children.

His father died when he was a child and he was raised by his mother and grandmother.

Bill moved to California in 1967 after nine years in the U.S. Navy, posted in Guam and other parts of the Far East.

He then began promoting his original songs around several west coast companies.

He was eventually signed to Sussex Records, by Clarence Avant, in 1971, however, Bill still maintained a day job, at the time, fitting toilets into airplanes for Boeing!

He then secured an immediate hit with his debut single, 'Ain't No Sunshine'.

Produced by Booker T. Jones, with Stephen Stills among the guest musicians, this fine performance was a million-seller, a feat emulated in 1972 by two more excellent releases, 'Lean On Me' and 'Use Me'.

In 1974, his song 'Let Me In Your Life' became the title track of an album for Aretha Franklin.

In 1975, Bill moved to CBS Records.

Withers' light, folksy / soul continued to achieve further success with 'Make Love To Your Mind' (1975), the sublime 'Lovely Day' (1977, a single revamped by a remix in 1988) and 'Just The Two Of Us' (1981), an excellent duet with saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. that earned the two artists a Grammy award in 1982 for the Best R & B performance.

Bill also guested on tracks by the Crusaders and Ralph MacDonald, with 'Soul Shadows' and 'In The Name Of Love', respectively.

In 1985, he released 'Watching You, Watching Me' for CBS, which featured the popular track 'Oh Yeah'.

After that release he toured in the same year with background vocalists James Varner and Lynn Roderick.

At one of these concerts these background vocalists were spotted by show producer Stan Sheppard, who persuaded them to form a group, who later became the soul band By All Means.

Bill also performed on a 'Quiet Storm' tour over the following two years alongside artists including the late Phyllis Hyman, Cherelle and Gerald Albright.

'Lovely Day' re-entered the UK pop charts in 1988 as a result of its use in a British television commercial, reaching the Top 5.

A professional performer, Withers remains a skilled songwriter, whose melodies have been recorded by various bands, including Creative Source, Margie Joseph, Thelma Houston, The Winans and The Blossoms.

These days Bill can be found working as a gardener in his local neighbourhood!

Albums:

Just As I Am (Sussex 1971)

Still Bill (Sussex 1972)

Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall (Sussex 1973)

+Justments (Sussex 1974)

Making Music (Columbia 1975)

Naked And Warm (Columbia 1976)

Menagerie (Columbia 1977)

Bout Love (Columbia 1979)

Watching You Watching Me (Columbia 1985)

Still Bill (1993)

Ain't No Sunshine (Ariola Express 1997)

Top Bill (AMW 1999)"

Here's Bill Withers for your listening pleasure:

A Great Interview with Bill Withers



Grandma's Hands



Ain't No Sunshine



Kissin' My Love



mmm mmm Hello Like Before



Lean on Me



Use Me

Bettye LaVette

Well, crap. Since HBO is being so stingy with the Betty LaVette/Jon Bon Jovi video from the Inaugural celebration, I wanted you all to know that The Kennedy Center is not being so stingy and are allowing enabling of her performance there honoring The Who and singing Love Reign O'r Me. It highlights Betty's voice and emotion extremely well. Have a listen. But hey, guess what? You can find the video on Bettye's homepage here. For her biography go here. Cool, huh?

*edit*

You can find her interview on NPR here What a history lesson! It's 20 minutes long and pricelessly worth every minute! Thanks Fitz!



Take Me as I Am--I love this one :)



He Made a Woman Out of Me



Surrender



Let Me Down Easy

Pete Seeger

I grew up loving folk music. From Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Buffy St. Marie, Peter, Paul and Mary, Woody Guthrie and many others led me to my love of the blues. Click the title link for Mr. Seeger's Wikipedia page, which includes the two previously unsung verses from This Land is Your Land" a Woody Guthrie song.

Honestly, I thought surely Pete Seeger had passed on until I watched HBO's Obama's Inaugural Celebration. I first lost it when Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi did the duet "Change is Gonna Come"



then tears kept on rolling down my face through the program until Pete Seeger took the stage. The man is 90 and frail and did not have a coat on but you could almost see his chest bursting with pride as he was up on stage with his grandson, Tao Rodriquez-Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. Thank God the program was almost over when they came on. I don't think I could have stood much more. If you haven't seen this HBO program check your local listings they are re-running it. I'm going to post the Bettye Lavette/Jon Bon Jovi and the Pete Seeger et.al videos on here but if they disappear because of copyright issues they can probably still be found on youtube.



We Shall Overcome



With Peter, Paul and Mary singing Where Have All the Flowers Gone



With Buffy St Marie Cindy



The Power of Song--PBS Awesome!

So, My Heart is Broken...

I know I've neglected this blog for awhile now but I just found out today about the passing of Delaney Bramlett, teacher to most of the great blues players of today and include George Harrison, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Gram Parsons, Leon Russell, Dave Mason and Rita Coolidge, among others.

He met Bonnie in Los Angeles in 1967, and they married seven days later. They formed Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, acknowledged as the first rock ‘n’ roll traveling road show.

"Bramlett was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi[2] and after a stint in the United States Navy, moved to Los Angeles, California. There he established himself as a singer-songwriter, writing with fellow musicians Joey Cooper, Mac Davis and Jackie DeShannon. Bramlett also became a regular on the U.S. television show Shindig! as member of the show's house band, the Shindogs. During this time, he also worked with J.J. Cale, who was his first guitar player, and Leon Russell and released some unsuccessful solo singles.

Bramlett's musical history spans four decades. Known as a songwriter, singer and musician, he has also mentored other musicians, including Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Leon Russell, George Harrison, and J.J. Cale.

Over the years, some of his songs have reached "standard" status, such as "Superstar" originally titled, "Groupie Superstar" which was co-written with Leon Russell and has been covered by scores of artists, (recorded most recently in 2006 by Usher and in the past by Luther Vandross, The Carpenters and many others).

Bramlett's other hits included "Let It Rain," which was co-written with and recorded most notably by Eric Clapton; and "Never Ending Song Of Love" which has appeared on the soundtracks of the films, RV and A Good Year. "Never Ending Song of Love" has been recorded by more than 100 artists, including Ray Charles, and Patty Loveless and Dwight Yoakam.

Eric Clapton joined Delaney, Bonnie & Friends on tour[3], Bramlett produced and co-wrote songs for Clapton's first solo album, "Eric Clapton". Clapton still credits Delaney for pushing him to sing and teaching him the art.[4] Bramlett produced King Curtis' last LP[5], which had two hit singles: "Teasin'" and "Lonesome Long Way from Home". He produced an assortment of artists, such as Etta James, Elvin Bishop, John Hammond, Dorothy Morrison (of "Oh Happy Day" fame), and The Staple Singers.

George Harrison had his first slide bottle placed in his hand by Bramlett, who taught Harrison how to play slide guitar, which led into a gospel jam that resulted in Harrison's hit "My Sweet Lord"[6]. Bramlett wrote, recorded, or appeared on stage with many notable performers, including Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix[7], Janis Joplin, Dave Mason, Billy Preston, John Lennon, The Everly Brothers, Spooner Oldham, Steve Cropper, Billy Burnette, Mac Davis, Dennis Morgan, and his own daughter, Bekka Bramlett. In 2006 Bramlett was one of the duet artists on the Jerry Lee Lewis album Last Man Standing[8], singing and playing guitar on "Lost Highway".

Producer Jerry Wexler, the founder of Atlantic Records, says some of the best music he ever heard was played by Duane Allman and Bramlett on deck of his home in Long Island[5],New York. The two musicians remained friends until Allman's death in 1971.

In 2008 Bramlett released his first CD in six years, A New Kind of Blues.[9]

On[10] December 27 at 4:55 a.m., Bramlett died from complications of gall bladder surgery. He is survived by his widow, Susan Lanier-Bramlett and three daughters, Suzanne, Michele, and Bekka Bramlett and a son, Dylan Thomas."

Wikipedia

Here is a tribute... all I could find on YouTube.

At Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarkesdale, MS



Kulak's Woodshed



Rise Up--Photo Montage at Ground Zero



My all time favorite blues song is a Robert Johnson original "Come on in My Kitchen"



Going Down the Road Feeling Bad



With Eric Clapton in 1969



Living on the Open Road with Duane Allman



Where There's a Will There's a Way




If you want to read more go here

Rest in Peace, dear friend...

Rest In Peace Odetta

"Odetta, the classically trained folk, blues and gospel singer who used her powerfully rich and dusky voice to champion African American music and civil rights issues for more than half a century starting in the folk revival of the 1950s, has died. She was 77.

She was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City for a checkup in mid-November but went into kidney failure. She died there Tuesday of heart disease, her manager, Doug Yeager, told the Associated Press.

With a repertoire that included 19th century slave songs and spirituals as well as the topical ballads of such 20th century folk icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Odetta became one of the most beloved figures in folk music.

She was said to have influenced the emergence of artists as varied as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and Tracy Chapman.

"The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta," Dylan once said. "From Odetta, I went to Harry Belafonte, the Kingston Trio, little by little uncovering more as I went along."

Her affinity for traditional African American folk songs was a hallmark of her long career, along with a voice that could easily sweep from dark, husky low notes to delicate yet goose bump-inducing high register tones.

"The first time I heard Odetta sing," Seeger once said, "she sang Leadbelly's ‘Take This Hammer’ and I went and told her how I wish Leadbelly was still alive so he could have heard her."

She was born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 31, 1930. Her father died when she was young and she moved to Los Angeles at age 6 with her mother, sister and stepfather. She took the surname of her stepfather Zadock Felious, but throughout her career she used just her given name.

And although Los Angeles wasn't as overtly racist as the Deep South, she suffered some of the same indignities that came with being black.

"We lived within walking distance of Marshall High School," Odetta told The Times some years ago, "but they didn't let colored people go there, so we had to get on the bus and go to Belmont High School."

She attended Los Angeles City College after high school and earned a degree in music.

Trained as a classical vocalist as a child, she won a spot with a group called the Madrigal Singers in junior high school. She also realized early that despite her classical training, her options in that area were going to be limited because of the racism at the time.

By 19, Odetta had turned her attention to other forms of music and landed a part in a production of "Finian's Rainbow" as a chorus member. When the musical went on the road to San Francisco, she went with it.

The trip marked an important crossroads in her emergence as a folk singer.

She met an old friend from school who had settled in the city's North Beach neighborhood, and during a visit Odetta was exposed to a late-night session of folk songs.

"That night I heard hours and hours of songs that really touched where I live," she told The Times. "I borrowed a guitar and learned three chords, and started to sing at parties."

The traditional prison songs that she learned in her early days hit home the hardest and helped her come to terms with what she called the deep-seated hate and fury in her.

"As I did those songs, I could work on my hate and fury without being antisocial," she recalled. "Through those songs, I learned things about the history of black people in this country that the historians in school had not been willing to tell us about or had lied about."

Odetta left the theater company in 1950 and took a job at a folk club in San Francisco. She soon began to tour and recorded her first album, "The Tin Angel," in 1954. She soon caught the attention of such folk-music icons as Guthrie, Seeger and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. She was a fixture on the folk music scene by the time the genre's commercial boom came in the late 1950s and early '60s.

She played at the Newport Folk Festival, the showcase event for folk music, four times between 1959 and 1965. She also had a recording contract with Vanguard Records, which at the height of the folk music craze was the genre's leading label.

Over the years, Odetta branched into acting, with dramatic and singing roles in film and television including "Cinerama Holiday," "Sanctuary" and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman."

But traditional folk music remained her forte.

"The folk repertoire is our inheritance. Don't have to like it, but we need to hear it," she said. "I love getting to schools and telling kids there's something else out there. It's from their forebears, and its an alternative to what they hear on the radio. As long as I am performing, I will be pointing out that heritage that is ours."

In 1999, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. In 2004, she was a Kennedy Center honoree. A year later, the Library of Congress honored her with its Living Legend Award.

Information on survivors and funeral services was not immediately available."
Los Angeles Times, December 3, 2008

Playing at Newport



Cotton Fields
I used to sing this to the boy when he was in the crib, not as awesome as this though.



Amazing Grace--if this doesn't make you cry....



Midnight Special



What a Friend We Have in Jesus w/ Tennessee Ernie ford



Down by the Riverside w/ Robert Sims



Glory, Glory Hallelujah w/ Robert Sims

Emmylou Harris

There's not a lot that you can download on youtube of Emmylou Harris, most have embedding disabled. I was on the Crook & Liars Late Night Music Club very early this morning and they reminded me of Emmylou Harris and I thank them for that :) Not that she's ever very far from my heart. I credit her with giving me my freedom as a woman way back when I wasn't yet a full grown woman, but just a child.

You can't hardly do a post about Emmylou without including Gram Parsons.

"One night in 1971 members of the country rock group The Flying Burrito Brothers happened to be in the audience. Former Byrds member Chris Hillman, who had taken over the band after the departure of its founder Gram Parsons, was so impressed by Harris that he briefly considered asking her to join the band. Instead, Hillman ended up recommending her to Parsons, who was looking for a female vocalist to work with on his first solo album, GP. Harris toured as a member of Parsons' band, The Fallen Angels, in 1973, and the couple shone during vocal harmonies and duets. Harris was quite pleased, and invested a lot emotionally in their relationship. Later that year, Parsons and Harris were working together to record a studio album, Grievous Angel. Parsons died in his motel room near what is now Joshua Tree National Park on September 19, 1973, from an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol. Parsons's Grievous Angel was released posthumously in 1974 and three more tracks from his last sessions with Harris were included on another posthumous Parsons album, Sleepless Nights, in 1976. There was one more album of recorded material from that period of time that was packaged with the name, Live 1973, but wasn't released until 1982."

"Harris was instrumental in bringing attention to Parsons's vision and achievements. Harris' earliest signature song, and arguably her most personal one, "Boulder to Birmingham", written shortly after Gram's death, showed the depth of her shock and pain at losing Parsons. It was, according to her friend Linda Ronstadt, the beginning of a "lifetime effort to process what had happened", noting the number of songs written and/or performed by Harris about her life with (and without) Parsons." Wikipedia


Here is an interview with Gram Parsons on how they met :)



That's All It Took



This video emitomizes their harmony.



Boulder to Birmingham



My favorite--Til I Gain Control Again



In My Dreams



Prescious Memories w/ Chet Atkins on Mandolin



Wafaring Stranger



Another Favorite--One of These Days



Have to include this one because you can't grow up in the south without having this gospel song embedded in your soul

w/Johnny Cash



ok, that's it...have a great Sunday!