My opinion of Sonny grows every time I get to watch him. I love youtube for the reason that I get to watch a lot of artist who I assumed I would never get to see.
I went into an internet dive on Sonny Boy II last night and found this.
It may be Elmore James's first recording of Dust My Broom (1951).
It has Sonny Boy II playing on it and may be his first recording under the name Sonny Boy Williamson. (Sonny Boy Williamson I was murdered in 1948). It's really solid. I've heard plenty of recordings of this song by James, but I don't think I'd heard this one.
Buchanan's life changed in 1971, when he gained national notice as the result of an hour-long PBS television documentary. Entitled Introducing Roy Buchanan, and sometimes mistakenly called The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World, it earned a record deal with Polydor Records and praise from John Lennon and Merle Haggard, besides an alleged invitation to join the Rolling Stones which he turned down and which gave him the nickname "the man who turned the Stones down". He may have turned the Stones down for two reasons. He may have feared abusing drugs and alcohol more if he joined them, and dying, like Brian Jones. And he may have felt that his own career as he was then pursuing it had promising directions that he couldn't follow as well if he joined the Stones. In 1977, he appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits during Season 2. He recorded five albums for Polydor, one of which, Second Album, went gold, and after that another three for Atlantic Records, one of which, 1977's Loading Zone, also went gold. Buchanan quit recording in 1981, vowing never to enter a studio again unless he could record his own music his own way. Four years later, Alligator Records coaxed Buchanan back into the studio.
His first album for Alligator, When a Guitar Plays the Blues, was released in the spring of 1985. It was the first time he had total artistic freedom in the studio. His second Alligator LP, Dancing on the Edge (with vocals on three tracks by Delbert McClinton), was released in the fall of 1986. He released the twelfth and last album of his career, Hot Wires, in 1987. Buchanan's last show was on August 7, 1988, at Guilford Fairgrounds in Guilford, Connecticut.
This could go in Jazz thread, or anywhere, but I'll put it here for Blues Brother fans. Listen to this one song where Matt "Guitar" Murphy goes country:
I saw Slim and Murphy play in Austin in the late 80s. I don't know who could hang with Murphy. Hendrix on a good day? Beck or Clapton when they were young? Probably some session musicians in the studio...
in this video Jimi is playing rhythm chops until 1:29 actually, when
he takes the lead until Larry almost immediately takes it back at 1:41.
Jimi plays rhythm chops, until 7:15, when he takes back the reins.
I got educated today listening to a radio station that sometimes plays blues
I'm from DC and have been a blues lover for a long time but I just learned that the DC area and the Tidewater, Virginia area has a rich blues tradition particularly in acoustic blues. I'm somewhat embarrassed that I didn't really know about this
the link is to a museum just outside of DC that exists to honor and preserve specifically acoustic blues
I know Phat loves harmonica - I think will like this guy
I used to have a vinyl album of Tidewater blues recorded in the 20s and 30s, maybe by Alan Lomax. I'll try to look for it and see if I can get some names off of it. The quality musicianship was just as good as the stuff coming out of Memphis during the same period, but I think a lot of the Memphis players made it north to St. Louis and Chicago, got recorded, and so are better remembered, whereas a lot of the Virginia players were forgotten.