International Blues Challenge in Memphis: the Blues Begin at Home

Pictured above, guitarist-singer Preston Shannon is just an example of the type of homegrown talent found in Memphis. If you want several samples of Preston's formidable skills, including blistering covers of Prince's "Purple Rain" and the Rolling Stones' "I Miss You," go to this link:
http://beldonsbluespoint.blogspot.com/2011/09/2011-dc-blues-festival-with-preston.html
We had the opportunity to hear other fine Memphis musicians during the 2012 International Blues Challenge a few weeks back. One was Vince Johnson and the Plantation All-Stars, which represented the Memphis Blues Society at the Challenge. Led by harmonica player Vince Johnson, the band boasts on its website that half of its members are from Chicago and half are from Memphis. Here they are performing at the IBC:

There were also a couple of talented house bands at B.B. King's, which seems informally to be the anchor club for the entire Beale Street scene.
One of them, the B.B. King All-Stars, was the most versatile cover band I've ever seen, doing everything from Al Green to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Here they are with "Love and Happiness:"
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Also at B.B. King's, the Will Tucker Band, headed by 18-year-old guitarist Will Tucker, who began playing with the club's house band at 14 and is now a regular attraction there with his own group. Tucker also played on the soundtracks of the movies "The Jenson Project" and "A Walk in My Shoes."
Here's the Will Tucker Band with its version of "Johnny B. Goode:"

And here they are with a song we could not get the title of, but we liked. Yeah, we know it's out of focus, but you can still hear the music:

Also, one of our readers was kind enough to send us video from an IBC competitor we missed. Robbie Antone's Blues Machine hails from London, Ontario and represented that city's Great Lakes Blues Society at the IBC. The band is led by harmonica player Robbie Antone, who was born on the Oneida Nation near the city and grew up with a collection of Chess and Sun Records. Quite a source of inspiration. The group's latest CD is Red Road Blues. The following music video comes with a series of pictures of the band in action:

Since we started this with Preston Shannon, we're going to leave with him. Here's an interview he gave us last fall in which he talks in depth about the Memphis scene. We had fun doing it and we're sure you'll have fun reading it:
http://beldonsbluespoint.blogspot.com/2011/08/straight-out-of-memphis-bluesman.html

Beldon's Blues Points 3/1/2012

Here is a formula for a Saturday well-spent:

Head on over to the Barebones Grill and Brewery in Ellicott City, Maryland on Saturday, March 3, to hear singer Nadine Rae and her All Stars perform. The Brewery is located at 9150 Old Baltimore National Pike. The show starts at 9 p.m. with food, lots to drink, free places to park your car, and lots of other things to make your evening easier and more fun.
Keep in mind....Nadine is good!!! If you want to know what you'll be missing if you don't show, check out this video:

Memphis Blues Around the World

The International Blues Challenge is just what it says--international--and there were some good acts from outside of the U.S. One was guitarist Fred Chapellier and his trio, who made the semi-finals representing the France Blues Society. Born in Metz, France in 1966, Chapellier started playing guitar in 1981. After experimenting with different styles for a while, he formed a blues band in 1992. Roy Buchanan is a major influence of his and the inspiration for his 2007 album A Tribute to Roy Buchanan. We concluded that Chapellier has a large fan base: this video we made of him picked up over 600 views in three weeks time: Here's an encore performance from Chapellier: I have to admit I personally really liked Pristine, the group representing Norway's Norsk Blues Union. I thought they had a good lead singer in Heidi Solheim, and their style--how do I put this--kind of looks at the traditional through a slightly different lens. They made the semi-finals. This video is a little out of focus, but the music comes in clear, thank God: This next group, the Bleu Rascals, made it to the quarter-finals representing the Phillipines Blues Society. The group, consisting of Paul Marney Leobrera, 18, on guitar/vocals; Spencer Rymonte,19, on bass and Darwin Quinto, 19, on drums first started making their mark on the Manila music scene last year. Here is their version of "Little Wing:" We're going to end this post with some hot blues from the good ole U.S.A., specifically Texas by way of Massachusetts. Willie Laws is a Texas bluesman in the spirit of Phillip Walker who ended up in Massachusetts, which he was representing when he made the semi-finals in Memphis. Here's the Willie J. Laws Band once: And here it is again: We'll have more from Memphis in the days ahead. Remember: represent! Become a member of Beldon's Blues Point!

Memphis Here I Come: International Blues Challenge 2012

I have always wanted to go to Memphis, Tennessee. I mean over the years, I have heard that it is not only a blues city, but the blues city in America.
On February 2, I decided to see if Memphis lived up to its reputation. I traveled down there to check out the 2012 International Blues Challenge, in which blues bands and performers from around the world compete for prizes of cash, professional consultancy and guaranteed gigs.
Now I have to say that Chicago has been my "blues capital" ever since I first attended the Chicago Blues Festival in 2004. You can see how I feel about it if you check out this post: http://beldonsbluespoint.blogspot.com/2011/08/since-1984-chicago-blues-festival-has.html But when I first hit Beale Street, I couldn’t help but be impressed. Whereas the blues clubs in the Windy City are spread all around town, the ones in Memphis are located in the same area and are next door to one another! How’s that for convenience?
The winning band at this year’s competition was The WIRED! Band, which represented the Washington (State) Blues Society. We did not shoot any video of them, but someone else did, and here they are on YouTube:

But being from D.C., I was pulling for Clarence “The Bluesman” Turner, the band sent by the D.C. Blues Society. He made it to the quarter-finals, the first elimination round. Here’s Clarence and his crew playing some tight blues at the College Park (Maryland) Blues Festival last November:

Keep in mind that Clarence is also a strong bass player. Here he is playing bass with guitarist Memphis Gold at a recent D.C. Blues Society event. Keep watching, because he has a solo:

Still, having lived in Pennsylvania, I also was familiar with harmonica player Andrew Michael “Mikey Jr.” Hudac and his band, the Stone Cold Blues, who were representing the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation and became finalists. The band’s bassist, Jimmy Pritchard, had been part of a house band led by guitarist Randy Lippincott that had hosted Tuesday night jams I used to attend at Warmdaddy’s in Philly. He used to throw me a few tips on playing bass from time-to-time. I wrote about him in the following Beldon's Blues Point post, http://beldonsbluespoint.blogspot.com/2011/01/delaware-in-house-bassist-jimmy.html.
Here’s Mikey Jr. and the Stone Cold Blues playing the IBC competition at Alfred’s on Beale Street:

Over at B.B. Kings’, arguably the anchor of whole Beale Street scene, a number of bands caught my attention. One was Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers, which made the quarter-finals representing the Marietta Ohio Blues, Jazz and Folk Music Society at the IBC:

Another band at B.B. King’s was Ed Wills and Blues 4 $ale, which made it to the finals representing the Voodoo Blues Krewe New Orleans Blues Society:

We’ll have more on the IBC in the days ahead. In the meantime, let us know what's going on in your blues world by emailing us at beldonsbluespoint@yahoo.com. Also, join our site!

Melvin Taylor Plays the Blues For You

Not long ago I went to a concert by blues guitarist Melvin Taylor, who has made his mark on both the blues and the jazz worlds.
Born in Mississippi and raised in Chicago, Taylor started out in his adolescence with a band called the Transistors.
During the 1980's he toured Europe for a year with Pinetop Perkins and the Legendary Blues Band. He has since been touring Europe with his own group, sharing the bill with B.B. King, Carlos Santana and Buddy Guy, among others.
His recorded work includes Blues on the Run (1982), Plays the Blues for You (1984), Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band (1995) and Rendevous with the Blues (2002). He recorded his seventh and most recent CD, Beyond the Burning Guitar, in 2010 here in the D.C. area at Misty Creek Studios in Fairfax, Virginia.
At this event, held courtesy of the D.C. Blues Society, I had a chance to talk with him about what he's been up to lately:

Also had a chance to hear him play this song made famous by Albert King:

He also broke into this slow, bluesy version of "Who Knows?" made famous by Jimi Hendrix and Band of Gypsys:

He also came out with this Chuck Berry-style crowd pleaser. Check out how he uses the mike stand to play his guitar:

Last but not least, his wa-wa'ed up version of jazz saxophonist John Handy's 1970's hit, "Hard Work:"

Bottom line, it was a good time!
Let us know what's going on in your blues world by emailing us at beldonsbluespoint@yahoo.com. Also join this site if you like what we're doing!

Beldon's Blues Points

We hear this from blues harmonica player and newsletter writer Bob Corritore about the passing of a great blues artist:

RIP Iverson Minter AKA Louisiana Red March 23rd, 1932- to February 25, 2012. It is with a heavy heart that we report the passing of one of the greatest and most beloved traditional blues artists. Louisiana Red died this afternoon at a hospital in Germany (Note Europe is 9 hours ahead) after a few days in a coma brought on by thyroid imbalance. He was 79. Louisiana Red was a powerful downhome blues artist who could channel his teachers (among them Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Robert Nighthawk, Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker) into his own heartfelt musical conversation, delivered with such moving passion and honesty that it would leave his audiences indelibly touched. He was fine singer with a distinctive voice, and an amazing guitarist who could play all of the traditional blues styles and excelled as one of the world's greatest slide guitarists. He could create moods and textures, both musically and spiritually, and had the ability of falling so deep into his own songs that he would go to tears, making his audience cry with him. That was the gift of this great artist.
Wikipedia lists Louisiana Red as being born in Bessemer, Alabama but his own reports have fluctuated from various Southern towns and cities. Red lost his mother at birth and his father was killed in a Ku Klux Klan lynching when Red was just 5 years old. He lived in an orphanage in New Orleans for a few a his childhood years until his grandmother took him to Pittsburgh to live. A few years later she bought him his first guitar, a $12 Kay. Red would play along with records and the radio and begged some guitar lessons from his first mentor, Crit Walters. It was early in life that Red made the decision to become a blues musician. In the late 1940s Red would follow his passion to Detroit where he would become friends with Eddie Burns and John Lee Hooker. He would make his first recordings in Detroit for producer Joe Von Battle under the moniker of Rocky Fuller, a pair of these recordings were leased to Chess records. He would accompany John Lee Hooker on a session for Modern Records and you can hear Red shouting "Lord Have Mercy" in the middle of JLH's "Down Child". Red would also land a 1953 recording session in Chicago for Chess in which he is accompanied by Little Walter on the brilliant "Funeral Hearse At My Door" which remained in the vaults unreleased for decades. Red's next stop would be New York where he would record for producer Bobby Robinson and for Atlas Records. But it was Louisiana Red's 1962 Roulette label recordings that garnered him national recognition as a bluesman. His single "Red's Dream" with its humorous political commentary became a major hit and was followed by the Roulette album The Lowdown Back Porch Blues. This was followed by the 1965 release of Louisiana Red Sings The Blues on Atco. In the mid 70s he became the cornerstone of the Blue Labor label cutting two excellent solo acoustic albums; Sweet Blood Call and Dead Stray Dog and also appearing on that label as a featured sideman on albums by Johnny Shines, Roosevelt Sykes, Brownie McGhee, and Peg Leg Sam. He was romantically involved with folk legend Odetta for a small period of time in the 1970s. European promoters and booking agents took an interest, and Red found a new audience with his annual overseas tours. Labels such as L+R from Germany and JSP from England began recording Red, the latter debuting their catalog with Red, Funk and Blue, a duet album with Sugar Blue. Red appeared as himself in the movie Come Back featuring Eric Burdon of Animals fame. Red lived in Chicago for awhile in the early 1980s where he worked at the Delta Fish Market. He would then move to Phoenix in late 1981 where he lived and played with Bob Corritore for about a year.

Red left Phoenix for a European tour in late 1982, and it was then and there that he met his true love, Dora, who he married and spent the rest of his life with. Dora gave Red an uncompromised love and the constant companionship and protective looking-out-for that Red needed. Dora also provided the family situation that Red yearned for in his life as Red took great pride in his love and adoption of Dora's sons. The positive impact and dedication that Dora provided Red was simply amazing. Red would live in Hanover Germany for the rest of his life with Dora and each year in January, the two would vacation in Ghana, Africa, Dora's country of origin. He found work so plentiful in Europe that for a period of time he rarely would come to the USA. In 1995 Earwig Records would release Sittin' Here Wondering. which had been recorded by Bob Corritore in 1982 and sat on the shelf for over a decade. This CD created a relationship between Red and Earwig label chief Michael Frank who would record 2 more records by Red and book annual US tours. Releases followed on High Tone and Severn as well as a documentary DVD released only in Europe. In 2009 Little Victor struck gold with his production of Red's Back To The Black Bayou CD released first on the Bluestown Label and then picked up by Ruf Records. Victor had idolized and studied under Red for years and lovingly coaxed this brilliant album from his mentor. Back To The Black Bayou swept Europe and the US with awards and nominations. Simultaneously, Red's collaboration with pianist David Maxwell produced You Got To Move, and in 2010 Red would go to the Blues Music Awards with 5 nominations and receive 2 wins! Little Victor also produced Red's final critically acclaimed CD Memphis Mojo.

It is sad to say goodbye to the loving persona of this great bluesman who's music warmed our hearts Louisiana Red's vulnerability became his strength and he filled his heart with an unstoppable passion for music and acceptance. His legacy is great and his friendships are many. He can now rest in peace after a lifetime of giving us everything he had through his amazing blues. God bless you Red.

We thank Bob for putting this together. Remember, if you like what we're doing with Beldon's Blues Point, become a subscriber. Any suggestions for us? E-mail us at beldonsbluespoint@yahoo.com.

We Know it's Been A While.....

Hey! We know it's been a while. Some folks have gone on to blues heaven, and there have been blues at the White House! Who'd of thought? Anyway, couldn't think of a better way to start again after a long absence than to post a few videos from the D.C. area's Memphis Gold. He and a band that included Charlie Sayles on Harp and Clarence "the Bluesman" Turner on bass were in rare form as they played at an event held Saturday in Wheaton, Maryland for the D.C. Blues Society. Check out these three songs from the gig:









By the way, if you like at least some of what we do at Beldon's Blues Point, let us know....subscribe! Otherwise we might get a complex.....