Archive for the ‘Blues’ Category

Looking Back To Beale Street, January 21, 2010   Leave a comment

Beale Street, Memphis (January 21, 2010) Image by kenne

The Houston Blues Society annually selects local musicians to participate in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis.
We were there in support of our good friend, Sonny Boy Terry. 

— kenne

Sonny Boy Terry — Image by kenne

Blues Brothers   4 comments

Kenneth and Kenne — Image by Mary

I was able to spend a few hours with Kenneth and Mary, re “Ken and Mary’s Blues Project” on Monday.
They are friends we try to spend some time with when we are visiting in the Houston area — love you guys!

— kenne

Singer-songwriter, Guthrie Kennard   2 comments

Guthrie Kennard at Ken & Mary’s Blues Project (October 15, 2013) — Image by kenne
 
 
In October of 2013, we were visiting family and friends in the Houston area. The timing was great since we could
attend one of Ken & Mary’s Blues Projects in Porter, Texas. The headliners for this event were Guthrie Kennard and Julie Bonk.
I just learned that Dallas singer-songwriter Guthrie has cancer and is undergoing radiation. However, it hasn’t stopped him;
he’s out on the road doing shows. Guthrie, may the force be with you.
 
— kenne
 

The Blues Is Poetry   2 comments

Ken and Mary Dancing to Porterdavis (October 2007) — Image by kenne

You Don’t Have to Go

 
Whoa, babyYou don’t have ta go
Whoa, babyYou don’t have ta go
I’m gonna pack up darlin’Down the road I go
Well now, I give you all my moneyThen ya go downtown,An’ you get back in the evenin’Told me, walked down town
Whoa baby, you don’t have ta goI’m gonna pack up darlin’Down the road I go
Whoa baby, honey what’s wrong wich’ you?Whoa baby, honey what’s wrong wich’ you?Well you don’t treat me darlin’, like you used to do

Two Years Later, Porterdavis was back in Porter, Texas, at The Ken & Mary Blues Project Doing A Muddy Waters Cover, “Can’t Be Satisfied.”

Four Houston Blues Legends   Leave a comment

Pete Mayes, Grady Gaines, Calvin Owens and Joe Guitar Hughes (1999)– Image by kenne

A Sunday Showcase of Some of Houston’s Blues Legends at Billy Blues BBQ Bar & Grill.

Flashback — Double Bayou Dance Hall   Leave a comment

Double Bayou Dance Hall (May 25, 2005) — Image by kenne

Opened in 1941
a blues dance hall
in a black community
in bayou country
not far from Houston.

Music lovers from
all over southeast Texas
came to dance 
drink beer, eat smoked brisket
and sweet potato pie.

Born in Double Bayou 
Texas bluesman Pete Mayes
provided the house band
at the “the place” before time
and hurricanes condemned it.

Still standing
surrounded by overgrown
weeds and Spanish moss-draped
trees fronted by a historical marker
by Eagle Ferry Road.

A Christmas Day matinee
became an annual event
where the House Rockers
rocked out the blues
for holiday merrymakers.

— kenne

Remembering Mike Durbin   3 comments

Mike Durbin Talking To Blues Friends (Ken & Mary’s Blues Project, May 2017) — Photo-Artistry by kenne

The Blues Project

They called it a project,
a Blues Project, but really,
it was a party — 
a party for
family and friends 
to share
happy times, 
talk about living life,
and a love for good old blues music.

Once this party began
there would be no stopping it,
even when forced undercover
of rain,
friends laugh and
talk 
about déjà vu the  
evening had become.

Just sitting on the front porch
doing that front porch thing
telling stories now embellished
by all the good times dancing
and singing the night away
in the woods off Old Houston Road.

The Blues Project may be over
so listen, the night will lead you
to the music, the stories told,
and smile one more time
for each house concert was just a
rehearsal
for what our tomorrow’s will bring.

— kenne

Kenneth Harris shares the story of how Ken & Mary’s Blues Project came about. (May 20, 2017)

“Well it’s bad news from Houston, Half my friends are dying. ”    Leave a comment

Mr. V (James Vaughn) of Mr. & Mrs. V on Houston’s 90.1, KPFT — HDR Image by kenne

Mike Durbin of the Moe Hansum Band — Image by kenne

The Houston Blues community is feeling the pain. Two of the communities well known personallities past away this past week. To hornor the memory of these Houston friends, I’m sharing a Diunna Greenleaf video I posted several years ago — Growing Up and Growing Old in the Fellowship of Family and Friends.

— kenne

A Memphis Blues Club   Leave a comment

A Memphis Blues Club — Abstract Art by kenne

“I’m a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration-
joy and pain sit side by side. The blues started off in some field, some plantation, in some mind, in some imagination, in some heart.
The blues blew over to the next plantation, and then the next state. The blues went south to north, got electrified and even sanctified.
The blues got mixed up with jazz and gospel and rock and roll.”

— Cornel West

Houston Blues   Leave a comment

Houston Blues (The Rhythem Room, 2005) — B&W Collage by kenne

“Working in black and white makes me feel like a painter, not a photographer.
Shooting this way allows me to focus my attention on the light and shade, textures, shapes and expressions.
It’s really a matter of personal choice, but in my opinion black and white can lead to a more abstract reading of reality,
which is arguably more demanding and more challenging to produce. Here photographers cannot use flattering
colours or coloured light to distract the eye. You cannot cheat in black and white.”

— Guy Gagnon

Follow Me Home   2 comments

Michael Stevenson has the blog The HOBBLEHOY.
Recently he posted a The Irish Times review of Rhiannon Gidden’s 
new album with Francesco Turrisi, “They’re Calling Me Home.

We first became aware of Giddens about 15 years ago as one of the founding members of the country,
blues, and old-time music band Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she is the lead singer, fiddle, and
banjo player. In 2008, we attended the annual Houston iFest where local and international musicians and the
“iFest New Artist of the Year,” the Carolina Chocolate Drops, were scheduled to appear.

Since then, this very talented musician and her unique artistry continue to blossom.

Carolina Chocolate Drops (April 2008) — Images by kenne

“For nearly a decade, Giddens has been heralded as a luminary in the world of Americana,
and for some time, she was one of the few African-American faces represented.”
— American Songwriter

There are no words for a voice that evokes so much complexity of emotion.
This music and video will transform you into a different place. — kenne

Down In Houston Blues   Leave a comment

Houston’s Little Joe Washington (April, 2008) — Image by kenne

“Personal inconvenience, experience, and environmental impact notwithstanding, a willingness to drive all over
and beyond Harris County has its rewards for the Houston blues aficionado wanting to make the rounds.
Not only is that travel necessary to access the various widely separated business establishments featuring live
performances on a weekly basis, but for those in the know, it’s also the key to experiencing some unique
presentations of the music — both of which evoke an earlier era.”

— Roger Wood (Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues, 2003)

The Blues On Campus   1 comment

The Blues On Campus (Lone Star College, Montgomery – 02/19/03) — Photo-Artistry by kenne

“The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits.
It’s better keeping the roots alive,
because it means better fruits from now on.
The blues are the roots of all American music.
As long as American music survives, so will the blues.”

— Willie Dixon (1915–1992)

Ground Zero Blues Club   Leave a comment

Ground Zero Blues Club Memphis (01/21/10) — Abstract Art by kenne

“There are only two kinds of songs; 
there’s the blues,
and there’s zip-a-dee-doo-dah.”

— Townes Van Zandt

Houston’s Shakespeare Pub   Leave a comment

Texas Johnny Brown at Houston’s Shakespeare Pub — Photo-Artistry by kenne 
(Click on Texas Johnny Brown to see archived blog posting on TJB)

Texas Johnny Brown is a major talent who simmered on the blues scene longer than all the beef stew cooked in the ’40s, the decade when he first began playing and recording. Like pianist Johnny Johnson of St. Louis, Brown is an artist who did not get a chance to record a full album as a leader until he had been in the music business more than half-a-century. Also like Johnson, the results of coming in so late in the game have been a pair of highly acclaimed, prize-winning albums including the righteous Blues Defender. Brown can take plenty of the credit, since he has taken over almost complete control of his ow arranging, production, and mixing, as well as the string bending and blues moaning. He began his career as a sideman for the Duke and Peacock outfits in the ’50s about which discographers make comments such as “… the record keeping at that time was less than desirable.” As a result, some of Brown’s playing on releases by artists such as Lightnin’ Hopkins and Joe Hinton remains uncredited. The guitarist, singer, and songwriter began his professional career as an original member of the great Amos Milburn band known as the Aladdin Chickenshackers. Brown’s picking is killer on early Aladdin recordings by both Milburn, and on Ruth Brown’s first Atlantic sides. Atlantic allowed Brown to make a few recordings of his own in 1949, buoyed by the enthusiasm the label had for Milburn, who played behind his sideman on these sessions along with the rest of the Aladdin Chickenshackers. T-Bone Walker is the dominating force in Brown’s stylistic palette, an influence that was considered something of a driving permit for any guitarist venturing out of Houston during this period. Before finally getting the biggie recording opportunities in the late ’90s, Brown did an ARC session in Houston in the early ’50s that was never released. He also performed regularly with Junior Parker during that decade, remaining based out of Houston. As a songwriter, Brown’s most famous work is “Two Steps from the Blues,” a big hit for Bobby “Blue” Bland, with whom he also toured as a lead guitarist in the ’50s and ’60s. By the ’80s, he was considered only sporadically active on the blues scene, but this turned out to be only a temporary brown-out, so to speak.

— Eugene Chadbourne Source: allmusic.com

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