This recording has been a thorn in my side for over twenty years. When I first came across it, I could not find any information as to the performance’s provenance; in all of my research, I could not find any confirmation that showed that the band had ever recorded this song. The title could not […]
Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA – February 19, 1971 Fifty-two years after it was recorded and forty-nine years after it first appeared on the bootleg LP, “Merely a Portmanteau’ (The Amazing Kornyphone Record Label) (TAKRL)* the full “Jam” appended to their closing number, ‘Tell Me all the Things You Do’, at the first show that […]
In May of 1952, during the sessions for what would be Little Walter’s first release under his own name on Checker Records, he and the band recorded two takes each of both ‘Juke’ and ‘Can’t Hold Out Much Longer’; the latter would be chosen as the B-side. Little Walter and His Night Cats Little Walter: […]
Three months to the day after Green performed a cover of Robert Johnson’s ‘Dead Shrimp Blues’ for the BBC, he chose to do another Johnson song at a marathon session meant to build a backlog of material for broadcast during the band’s upcoming American tour. The band cut eleven songs that day; Green performed four […]
Otis Spann w/ FM ‘Ain’t Nobody’s Business’ Otis Spann was born on March 21, 1930 into a musical family (his mother played guitar, his father, piano), in Jackson, Mississippi. His informal schooling on piano began around the age of eight, under the supervision of a local musician named Friday Ford. By fourteen he was playing […]
“Sherman, set the controls on the Way Back Machine to Chicago, the Chess Studios, January fourth, 1969” All books, whether fiction or non-fiction serve as “time machines”, allowing us to vicariously experience the ancient, or recent past; speculative futures or imagined worlds and realms. “Fleetwood Mac in Chicago January 4 TH 1969 – The Legendary […]
A few years back, I got an e-mail from a Peter T. who was writing to inform me that in an earlier blog about various covers of ‘Show-Biz Blues’ https://smilingcorgipress.com/remembering-rory-gallagher-2/ I had neglected to mention that Peter Green’s original performance of the number owed a debt to Bukka White’s ‘Aberdeen, Mississippi Blues’. And while I […]
‘Silly Mean Old World’ & ‘Tell Me Mama’ The last two titles that Boilerhouse recorded are both variations of existing songs. T-Bone Walker’s ‘Mean Old World’ recorded in 1942 but not released until 1945, is considered a milestone in the history of electric guitar. It was covered by B.B. King in 1964 and by Otis […]
Both of these songs were among the dozen listed on the reproduced live set list found in 150-page booklet accompanying the 4 CD set “Something Inside of Me – Unreleased Masters & Demos from the British Blues years 1963 – 1976” (Wienerworld Records 2021) A discussion of the songs found on the set list can […]
The background to these recordings, Boilerhouse the band, and a review of ‘Something Inside of Me’ can be found here: https://smilingcorgipress.com/tag/boiler-house/ Along with rare photos of the band (courtesy of Trevor Stevens and Peter Moody) one of the illustrations accompanying Christopher Hjort’s in-depth liner notes is a reproduction of a hand written Boilerhouse set list. […]
