Remembering Magic Sam (February 14, 1937 – December 1, 1969) | Don's Tunes

Samuel Gene Maghett was born on February 14th, 1937 in Grenada County, Mississippi. He learned to play the blues by listening to records by Chess label mates Muddy Waters and Little Walter. When he moved to Chicago at the age of 19, he was already playing well enough to get gigs in local clubs. Although his first few singles on the Cobra label didn’t chart, the influence of his music as well as that of Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, was being felt all through the blues world. The three musicians had created a new electric blues sound, that of Chicago’s West Side.

"Most of the guys were playing the straight 12-bar blues thing, but the harmonies that he carried with the chords was a different thing altogether. This tune “All Your Love”, he expressed with such an inspirational feeling with his high voice. You could always tell him, even from his introduction to the music."

Willie Dixon

Still riding high from the success of West Side Soul, Magic Sam kept the same soulful recipe of primarily cover songs when he recorded Black Magic. Mighty Joe Young appeared on both records as did drummer Odie Payne. Mac Thompson played bass on the all the Black Magic tracks where he had only played on three West Side Soul songs. Lafayette Leake played piano on Black Magic, but the main difference between the two albums was the addition of Eddie Shaw on tenor sax.

Magic Sam was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982, and Black Magic in 1990 in the category Classics of Blues Recordings – Albums.

Source: American Blues Scene

Photo Source: Marvels of Modern Music Auction

Don's Tunes

Magic Sam - Magic Sam's Boogie 1969 (live)

Remembering Skip James (June 9, 1902 – October 3, 1969)

Remembering Skip James (June 9, 1902 – October 3, 1969)

The haunting quality of Nehemiah “Skip” James’s music earned him a reputation as one of the great early Mississippi bluesmen. James grew up at the Woodbine Plantation and as a youth learned to play both guitar and piano. At his 1931 session for Paramount he recorded eighteen songs, including the dark-themed “Devil GotMy Woman” and “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.” He later became a minister, but returned to performing blues during the1960s “blues revival.”

The music of Skip James and fellow Bentonia guitarists such as Henry Stuckey (1897-1966) and Jack Owens (1904-1997) is often characterized as a genre unto itself. The distinctive approach is notable for its ethereal sounds, open minor guitar tunings, gloomy themes, falsetto vocals, and songs that bemoan the work of the devil. Stuckey learned one of the tunings from Caribbean soldiers while serving in France during World War I, and said that he taught it to James, who went on to become the most famous of Bentonia’s musicians.

content © Mississippi Blues Commission

photograph by David Gahr

Now that’s a handsome man!

Don's Tunes

Skip James - Illinois Blues

This from Gary Lucas’ Facebook page today

Gary Lucas 

Captain Beefheart - Meatball Fulton Interview (July 20th, 1969)

 MEATBALL INTERVIEWS THE CAPTAIN!

this is fun and back when he was healthy and full of vim! The Captain at his playful best . . . . 

Thomas Lopez, or Meatball Fulton, interviews Don van Vliet, or Captain Beefheart. Recorded on July 20th, 1969, during the moon landing . . . . .