Joe Murphy at Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival, Fredericton (photo Stephen Pate)
Joe Murphy heats up Kings Place with the blues
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Category Archives: Blues
Harvest Blues Festival ignores disabled
Buddy Guy opens Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival
21st year of Fredericton’s popular Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival kicks off with renowned blues musician Buddy Guy
Bob Dylan borrowed liberally from Robert Johnson
Bob Dylan borrowed heavily from the blues throughout his career
Visions of the Village with Suze Rotolo
Suze Rotolo / Bob Dylan circa 1962 (photo credit Don Hunstein @ Sony Music)
Suze Rotolo’s A Freewheelin’ Time takes you back to the 60′s in the Greenwich Village
I’m re-reading Suze Rotolo’s memoir this August, which speaks to how cold and wet this summer has been.
Rotolo was Bob Dylan’s first NYC girlfriend and the girl on his arm on the cover of Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
Continue reading
Seasick Steve bringing it all back home to iTunes Festival
New cult of old bluesman featured at Roundhouse iTunes Festival 2011
Seasick Steve (Gene Wold) is a 70 year old bluesman from Oakland California who is enjoying his career break when most musicians are retiring.
After kicking around the States all his life, playing street corners, dives and juke joints, Steve is finally a hit in Britain with his primitive, delta blues played on homemade guitars.
Robert Johnson 100th Birthday Tribute
Robert Johnson, born May 8 1911
Wolfgang’s Vault has put together a 18 song multi-blues artist tribute to the famous blues man
Born 100 years ago on May 8, 1911 Robert Johnson only recorded 29 songs but influenced scores of blues musicians.
He was influential in the Mississippi delta but his memory waned after his early death at 27 years old from poisoning. Continue reading
Time to get back to the studio
Recording desk with monitor bridge, a work in progress
One day to finish wiring studio monitor bridge before recording Dylan’s Birthday song
I’m under the gun to finish re-wiring the studio today if I want to get a song recorded for Bob Dylan’s 70th Birthday on May 24, 2011.
Last week I tore down my home recording studio to renovate. After a week of small projects, this body is protesting “too much work.” Continue reading
Rare Bob Dylan video from The Last Waltz
Bob Dylan singing Hazel with The Band at Winterland 1976 (image Wolfgang's Vault)
Wolfgang’s Vault releases Dylan singing Hazel and I Don’t Believe You
When The Band got together with their rock and roll friends in 1976 at San Francisco’s Winterland, Martin Scorsese filmed the concert.
Hours of film never hit the screen including rare videos of Bob Dylan and The Band which are now released by Wolfgang’s Vaults. Continue reading
The Band 1983 streaming live rock concert
Wolfgang’s Vault has added video streaming including concerts by The Band, Stones, Byrds, Tom Petty – you name it
The Band in concert 1973, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko (pic Wolfgang's Vault)
Wolfgang’s Vaults has added streaming videos of rock concerts to the existing thousands of audio streams.
I should be working but I’m so buzzed after listening to The Rollin Stones from 1981 and this 1983 concert from The Band. (corrected from my error “1973″)
Click on the link now. Don’t wait. Try it. It’s free.
The link opens in another window so you can finish reading while the music plays.
Early releases include an impressive list of who’s who of rock music: The Band, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Grateful Dead, Lynryd Skynyrd and Muddy Waters. Continue reading
Not Dark Yet: Bob Dylan at 70
Remembering to appreciate a cultural treasure
By Noam Shpancer, Ph.D., Psychology Today
Once in a while one wishes to take a break from the brokenness of life and turn one’s mind to the goodness of it–its delicate pleasures; the art, the music, the poetry. Continue reading
Blind Willie McTell by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan’s love for the blues reached new heights in his ode to Blind Willie McTell.
Bob Dylan Blind Willie McTell
Bob Dylan wrote Blind Willie McTell in 1983 for the CD Infidels but it was left off the release. The song had been circulating in bootlegs for almost a decade when Columbia release it 1991 on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991.
The song is a classic tale from Dylan and is one of his better “long” songs. The lyrics are cryptic and evocative, with rich images of the South, slavery and blues. The tune is largely snatched from St. James Infirmary which gets a mention in the last verse.
I was playing in a bar one night and a 22 year old young man asked me to play it. I couldn’t believe that this obscure Dylan song had reached into his age. Video follows the break. Continue reading