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National Steel (album)
''National Steel'' is a blues album by Canadian musician Colin James, released in 1997 (see 1997 in music). The album was recorded at ''Rat's Ass Studios'' and ''Mushroom Studios'' in Vancouver, British Columbia and mastered at ''MasterDisk'' in New York City. James teamed up with his longtime friend Colin Linden to record a predominantly acoustic album running the gamut from delta blues, to jug band and Chicago blues. The album covers songs written by some of the greatest bluesmen including Otis Redding, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon. The CD liner notes offer a brief commentary by James on many of the tracks. The album is named after the resonator guitar made by the National guitar company, also pictured on the album's cover. ''National Steel'' earned James the 1998 Juno Award for "Best Blues Album". Track listing # "Shout Baby Shout" (Yank Rachell) – 3:15 # " Rollin' Stone" (Muddy Waters) – 3:21 # "National Steel" (Colin James, Daryl Burgess, Chris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin James
Colin James (born Colin James Munn, August 17, 1964) is a Canadian rock and blues singer and songwriter. Biography Early years James was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His grandpa was Serbian. He got his break opening for Stevie Ray Vaughan in Regina in 1984. When the scheduled opening act did not show, he only had a few hours' notice to put together a set of blues standards with members from the local Regina band "Flying Colours". Vaughan invited James to perform with him during the encore, and then join his tour as a permanent opening act. He and his band The Hoodoo Men opened for Vaughan for several tour dates in the United States. According to legend, Vaughan himself suggested the stage name "Colin James", because when announced over arena P.A. systems, "Munn" sounded like "Mud". James also played guitar on Richard Marx's song "Thunder and Lightning". Rock, swing and blues career In 1988, following his association with Vaughan, James released his self-titled debut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude". Muddy Waters grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, and by age 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica, emulating the local blues artists Son House and Robert Johnson."His thick heavy voice, the dark colouration of his tone, and his firm, almost solid, personality were all clearly derived from House," wrote the music historian Peter Guralnick in ''Feel Like Going Home'', "but the embellishments, which he added, the imaginative slide technique and more agile rhythms, were closer to Johnson." He was recorded in Mississippi by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. In 1943, he moved to Chicago to become a full-time professi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mose Allison
Mose John Allison Jr. (November 11, 1927 – November 15, 2016) was an American jazz and blues pianist, singer, and songwriter. He became notable for playing a unique mix of blues and modern jazz, both singing and playing piano. After moving to New York in 1956, he worked primarily in jazz settings, playing with jazz musicians like Stan Getz, Al Cohn, and Zoot Sims, along with producing numerous recordings. He is described as having been "one of the finest songwriters in 20th-century blues."Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris, eds. (2003). ''All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues''. Hal Leonard. p. 7. His songs were strongly dependent on evoking moods, with his individualistic, "quirky", and subtle ironic humor.Komara, Edward; Lee, Peter, eds. (2006). ''The Blues Encyclopedia''. Routledge. p. 22. His writing influence on R&B had well-known fans recording his songs, among them Pete Townshend, who recorded his "Young Man Blues" for the Who's ''Live at Leeds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk music and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. At about the age of four he contracted polio, which incapacitated his right leg. His brother Granville "Sticks"(or "Stick") McGhee, who also later became a musician and composed the famous song "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee," was nicknamed for pushing young Brownie around in a cart. Their father, George McGhee, was a factory worker, known around University Avenue for playing guitar and singing. Brownie's uncle made him a guitar from a tin marshmallow box and a piece of board. McGhee spent much of his youth immersed in music, singing with a local harmony group, the Golden Voices Gospel Quartet, and teaching himself to play guitar. He also played the five-string banjo and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiny Bradshaw
Myron Carlton "Tiny" Bradshaw (September 23, 1907 – November 26, 1958) - accessed July 2010 was an American and bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer. His biggest hit was "Well Oh Well" in 1950, and the following year he recorded "", important to the development of ; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred to as the " King of Soul" for his distinctive vocals, notable contributions to the genre and significance in popular music. Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi and later relocated to Chicago with his family at a young age, where he began singing as a child and joined the Soul Stirrers as lead singer in the 1950s. Going solo in 1957, Cooke released a string of hit songs, including "You Send Me", " A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", " Wonderful World", " Chain Gang", "Twistin' the Night Away", " Bring It On Home to Me", and "Good Times". During his eight-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the ''Billboard'' Pop Singles chart, as well as 20 singles in the Top Ten of ''Billboard'' Black Singles chart. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bukka White
Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White (November 12, 1906 February 26, 1977) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer. Biography White was born south of Houston, Mississippi. He was a first cousin of B.B. King's mother (White's mother and King's grandmother were sisters). ''Bukka'' is a phonetic spelling of White's first name; he was named after the African-American educator and civil rights activist Booker T. Washington. He played National resonator guitars, typically with a slide, in an open tuning. He was one of the few, along with Skip James, to use a crossnote tuning in E minor, which he may have learned, as James did, from Henry Stuckey. He also played piano, but less adeptly. White started his career playing the fiddle at square dances. He claimed to have met Charley Patton soon after, but some have doubted this recollection. Nonetheless, Patton was a strong influence on White. "I wants to come to be a great man like Charlie Patton", White told his friends. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fixin' To Die (song)
"Fixin' to Die Blues" is a song by American blues musician Bukka White. It is performed in the Delta blues style with White's vocal and guitar accompanied by washboard rhythm. White recorded it in Chicago on May 8, 1940, for record producer Lester Melrose. The song was written just days before, along with eleven others, at Melrose's urging. History White was resuming his recording career, which had been interrupted by his incarceration for two and one-half years at the infamous Parchman Farm prison in Mississippi. While there, White witnessed the death of a friend and "got to wondering how a man feels when he dies". His lyrics reflect his thoughts about his children and wife: White provides the vocal and acoustic slide guitar (which was borrowed from Big Bill Broonzy) with backing by Washboard Sam. Despite the somber lyrics, "the music throbs with a restless energy" with White's "bottleneck guitar crying in urgent counterpoint to his imagery". Music historian Ted Gioia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. (born May 17, 1942), better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments,Evans, et al., xii. often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.Komara, 951. Early life Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, New York City. Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was raised in a musical environment: his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father, Henry Saint Claire Fredericks Sr., was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and piano player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rollin' Stone (Muddy Waters Song)
"Rollin' Stone" is a blues song recorded by Muddy Waters in 1950. It is his interpretation of "Catfish Blues", a Delta blues that dates back to 1920s Mississippi. "Still a Fool", recorded by Muddy Waters a year later using the same arrangement and melody, reached number nine on the Billboard R&B chart. "Rollin' Stone" has been recorded by a variety of artists. Earlier songs In 1928, Jim Jackson recorded "Kansas City Blues Parts 3 and 4", a follow-up to his highly successful "Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues Parts 1 and 2". Jackson's lyrics included: Several other early songs also explored variations on the catfish and/or fishing theme. In 1941, Tommy McClennan and his sometime partner Robert Petway each recorded versions of the song. Petway's was the first to be titled "Catfish Blues" and is sometimes cited as the basis for Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone". However, according to one biographer "They'd been singing "Catfish Blues" for years in the Delta, but it never sounded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yank Rachell
Yank Rachell (born James A. Rachel; March 16, 1903 or 1910 – April 9, 1997) was an American country blues musician who has been called an "elder statesman of the blues". His career as a performer spanned nearly seventy years, from the late 1920s to the 1990s. Career Rachell grew up in Brownsville, Tennessee. There is uncertainty over his birth year; although his gravestone shows 1910, researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc conclude, on the basis of a 1920 census entry, that he was probably born in 1903. In 1958, during the American folk music revival, he moved to Indianapolis. He recorded for Delmark Records and Blue Goose Records. He was a capable guitarist and singer but was better known as a master of the blues mandolin. He bought his first mandolin at age eight, in a trade for a pig his family had given him to raise. He often performed with the guitarist and singer Sleepy John Estes. "She Caught the Katy," which he wrote with Taj Mahal (musician), Taj Mahal, is considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juno Award
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame are also inducted as part of the awards ceremonies. The Juno Awards are often referred to as the Canadian equivalent of the Brit Awards in the United Kingdom or the Grammy Awards given in the United States. Members of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), or a panel of experts, depending on the award, choose the award winners. However, sales figures are the sole basis for determining the winners of nine of the forty-two categories like Album of the Year or Artist of the Year. CARAS members determine the nominees for Single of the Year, Artist and Group of the Year. A judge vote by experts in the relevant genre, determines the nominees for the remaining categories. The names of the judges remain confidential. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
