Seasick Steve

[ljs]

Not heard any Seasick Steve. Did he later become Stugeron Steve?
oR Is he anything like Blind Melon Chitlin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8_OyiZtOdc

[ljs]

Impressed! Is he related to anyone from zz top?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W5v8qvyPmg

[aquaplane]

I'm quite a devotee of the Irwell Delta Blues myself. Blind Lemon Clegg, Sleepy John Arkwright and of course, Whistling Willie Ramsbottom.

[lady_stormrider]

I seem to remember he had quite a few problems did old Willie

[Telo]

Is he anything like Blind Melon Chitlin?

Steve's a bit more entertaining, though I liked the bit where the record producer says "Can I call you by your first name?"

The story goes that, allegedly, when Chester Burnett was recording Little Red Rooster in London, the record producer wanted to work out the time signature for the the session musicians (who I think may have included Brian Jones and Stevie Winwood).

Not knowing his real name, and not wanting to call him Howlin', the story goes that the producer cut in and asked "What's the time, Mr Wolf".

[ljs]

Excellent. Steve Winwood has a new record out soon but like everyone he should know when to quit. How are things in the Bampotteries?
Think the better zz top link would have been
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLUl8xkKSTk

[Telo]

I saw Howlin' Wolf in in the 60s, and this video clip of Smokestack Lightnin' gives a real sense of the man's "presence". He was very different from most of the musicians he toured with - a huge guy, very powerfully built, and, as I recall, much "blacker" than the other musicians. Even before he scraped the mike with the rusty nails of his voice, there was an electric atmosphere. He could intimidate an audience; I don't know, but I suppose he must have been aware of the effect he had on people.

This is a fine piece of footage, and is probably, I guess, BBC film of one of the 60s National Folk Blues Festivals; Fairfield Halls, Croydon perhaps? Bellevue Manchester and the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow were venues as well. Certainly doesn't look like US work, which, at that time, was pretty crappy on the whole. In any event, that type of R&B was almost unknown by young white Americans of my age. It was said, at the time, that it was the Stones who brought black R&B to white audiences in the US. R&B was very popular in Europe though, with guys like Memphis Slim, then resident in Paris, playing regularly in the dear green place.