|
Topanga Canyon Blues Festival
The Topanga Canyon Blues Festival is an annual event held in California, attracting blues acts from across the United States. It began in 1982. Like the Orange County Blues Festival, it attracts some of the major blues artists in the United States. Over the years the festival has been running, it has seen major blues acts such as Etta James, Willie Dixon, Otis Rush, Big Joe Turner, Lowell Fulson, Junior Wells, Pee Wee Crayton, Phil Gates and Jimmy "Preacher" Ellis. Other acts such as Paul Butterfield, William Clarke, Linda Hopkins, Philip Sayce and Roy Gaines have appeared there. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 event to be cancelled and deferred to 2021. Background The festival is held in the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, an outdoor theater in Topanga Canyon. It is a day-long event of blues and roots music. In addition to music there is a harmonica workshop and family events. The festival draws people from areas such as Malibu, Southern California, Santa Monica, Topan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatricum Botanicum
The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, named for the English botanist John Parkinson's herbal, ''Theatrum Botanicum'' (1640), is an open-air theater founded in Topanga Canyon, near The Getty Villa by Will Geer in 1973. In the 1950s, Geer was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He had to sell his large Santa Monica home and move his family to a small plot in the canyon where they could grow their own produce. Geer's friend Woody Guthrie had a small shack on the property. They unintentionally founded what became an artists' colony. Since its founding in 1973, the Geer family has continued to operate the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Geer's former wife, Herta Ware, helped develop the outdoor summer theatre and continued to appear in plays there after her husband's death in 1978. The company features Shakespeare, as well as modern and contemporary authors. The theater, set in the natural amphitheater of a mountain canyon, is also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Gaines
Roy James Gaines (August 12, 1937 – August 11, 2021) was an American Texas blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He wrote and recorded the song "A Hell of a Night", which was first issued on his 1982 album ''Gainelining''. He was the younger brother of the blues musician Grady Gaines. Biography Gaines was born in Waskom, Texas on August 12, 1937, and relocated with his family to Houston when he was six years old. Originally a piano devotee, Gaines moved to playing the guitar in his adolescence. In his teens he was acquainted with another budding guitarist, Johnny Copeland. By the age of 14 he had performed onstage backing his hero, T-Bone Walker, and played in Houston nightclubs. He later moved to Los Angeles, California. In 1955, Gaines played as a backing musician on recordings by Bobby Bland, Junior Parker and Big Mama Thornton. He later backed Roy Milton and then Chuck Willis, and he worked again with Walker. He released two low-key albums in 1956 and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lightnin' Willie & The Poorboys
Lightnin' Willie & the Poorboys is an American blues band. They have released eight albums, with their self-titled debut being issued in 1994. The band have opened for musicians including John Mayall, Junior Wells, Robben Ford, and the Chicago Blues All-Stars, plus most recently Robert Cray. They have performed at many venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Brecon Jazz Festival, and Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic. Jonny Whiteside, writing in the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 2014, stated that the "Los Angeles based bluesman Lightnin’ Willie has developed a particularly intriguing wrinkle on the genre, one that's cool, airy, with a sinuous groove that infiltrates his audiences’ consciousness and invariably gets them on their feet. He has no quarrel mixing dancing with the blues". Their most recent album, ''No Black No White Just Blues'', was released in 2017. Career The band's frontman was born Willie Hermes in Texas, United States. In his early twenties, Hermes per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris James And Patrick Rynn
Chris James and Patrick Rynn are an American electric blues and Chicago blues duo, comprising James on lead guitar and vocals and Rynn on bass guitar and backing vocals. They first met in 1990 in Chicago. Their debut album, ''Stop and Think About It'', was nominated for a 2009 Blues Music Award. "Mister Coffee", a track from the album, was nominated for a Blues Blast Award as Best Blues Song and won third place in the Independent Music Awards. Their 2010 follow-up was ''Gonna Boogie Anyway''. Rynn has been nominated for a Blues Music Award as 'Best Blues Bassist' for seven consecutive years. Life and career Chris James' love of the blues was inspired by his stepfather's taste in music. He was able to play blues piano by the age of 11. Chuck Berry was an influence, along with Jay McShann's "Confessin' The Blues," a cover version of which appeared on the duo's debut album. He joined Tomcat Courtney's backing band when he was 13, initially playing the harmonica and later bass a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Johnson (blues Guitarist)
James Earl Thompson (November 25, 1928 – January 31, 2022), known professionally as Jimmy Johnson, was an American blues guitarist and singer. Early life Johnson was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on November 25, 1928. Several of his brothers had careers in music, among them soul musician Syl Johnson and bassist Mack Thompson, who played with Magic Sam. In his younger years, he played piano and sang in gospel groups. He and his family moved to Chicago in 1950, where he worked as a welder and played guitar in his spare time. He began playing professionally with Slim Willis in 1959, changing his last name to Johnson, as did his brother Syl. As a guitarist he was influenced by Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. He played with Freddie King, Albert King, Magic Sam, Otis Rush, and Eddy Clearwater, among others. Career In the 1960s, Johnson began to focus on soul, working with Otis Clay, Denise LaSalle, and Garland Green. He had his own group from the early 1960s, and by the mid-196 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chick Willis
Robert Lee "Chick" Willis (September 24, 1934 – December 7, 2013) was an American blues singer and guitarist, who performed and recorded from the 1950s to the 2000s. Biography He was born in Cabaniss, Monroe County, Georgia, the cousin of Chuck Willis. He served in the military in the early 1950s, before working as a chauffeur for Chuck Willis during his heyday. He won a talent show at the Magnolia Ballroom in Atlanta and made his first record in 1956, with the Ebb Records' single "You're Mine". Initially, he only sang, but learned guitar while touring with his cousin; Guitar Slim was one of his foremost influences. After Chuck's death in 1958, Willis played with Elmore James, recording singles through the 1960s for Atco and other labels. His 1972 release, "Stoop Down Baby Let Your Daddy See", was a jukebox hit but secured no radio airplay, due to its sexually explicit content. The song was one he had developed when working at a carnival show, where he would tease passers- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Dyer
Johnny Dyer (December 7, 1938 – November 11, 2014) was an American electric blues harmonicist and singer. He made numerous recordings, both as a solo performer and with other musicians. He was nominated for a Blues Music Award, Biography Dyer grew up in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and learned to play the harmonica from the age of seven. His initial inspiration came from hearing Little Walter on radio station from Nashville, Tennessee, and by his teenage years he was playing acoustic harmonica and had formed his own band. He started playing amplified harmonica in the early 1950s, when he first performed alongside Smokey Wilson. Dyer relocated to Los Angeles, California, in January 1958, where he met George "Harmonica" Smith. Together they played concerts with a "father and son" billing. Dyer commented on that time stating, "Smith was the hottest thing around and the blues was really swinging! He taught me a lot. Everybody loved George." Following this Dyer set up his own combo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finis Tasby
Finis Tasby (February 1, 1939 – November 2, 2014) was a Los Angeles based blues singer and frontman for the group The Mannish Boys. Background and career There is some confusion over his birth details, depending on which source is referenced. One year quoted is 1939, and that he was born on February 1, in Dallas Texas United States.''Blues: A Regional Experience'' Eric S. LeBlanc and Bob EaglPage 375, Artists by Ecoregion of Birth/ref> Another states that he was born in 1940 in Dallas, Texas. Early years: 1950s and 1960s While in his teens, he played drums for a local band called The Blues Blasters. In the early 1960s he had moved over to bass guitar. He became a member of a local group called The Thunderbirds, playing bass as well as contributing backup vocals. Later he would work with Z.Z. Hill, Clarence Carter and Lowell Fulson. He also worked with Freddie King when he toured in the region. 1970s onwards In 1971, he was in Beaumont, Texas, working with Joe Simon and Z.Z. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvyn "Deacon" Jones
Melvyn "Deacon" Jones (December 12, 1943 – July 6, 2017) was a trumpet player and an organist and founding member of Baby Huey & the Babysitters. Biography In 1963 along with Johnny Ross and Jimmy Ramey, Jones formed Baby Huey & the Babysitters who went on to become a well known live attraction in Chicago. After Ramey's death in 1970 Jones embarked on a career that would see him work with Curtis Mayfield, Freddie King, and John Lee Hooker. During his career he worked with many noted musicians, including Gregg Allman, Elvin Bishop, Lester Chambers, Albert Collins, Pappo, and Buddy Miles. His brother is the drummer Harold Jones. He is survived by his son, Jason Christopher Jones and daughter Sarah Lee Grace Jones. In 2008 his autobiography ''The Blues Man - 40 Years with the Blues Legends'' was published. 1990s onwards In 1992, the Bay Area Blues Society and the South Bay Blues Awards named Jones, "Keyboard Player of the Year". In 2008, Jones published his autobiography, ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey Champion
Mickey Champion (born Mildred Sallier April 9, 1925 – November 24, 2014) was an American blues singer. With a career spanning five decades, Champion is best remembered for her powerful vocals, and for guesting alongside other prominent musical acts. Biography Champion was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She was raised by her aunts and had her first experience as a singer at Lake Charles Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, where her grandfather was a bishop. Admired for the quality and intensity of her religious singing, she became part of a vocal trio, and while in high school was heard and praised by bandleader Louis Jordan. However, Champion, upon her family's insistence, was required to turn down an offer by Jordan to join his troupe. Shortly after graduating from high school, Champion married her first husband, Norman Champion, and in 1945 the couple moved to Los Angeles. Originally working as Little Mickey Champion, she soon lead an active career in the cities bustling n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Houston
Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated short about Joe Fortes Music and radio * "Joe" (Inspiral Carpets song) * "Joe" (Red Hot Chili Peppers song) * "Joe", a song by The Cranberries on their album ''To the Faithful Departed'' *"Joe", a song by PJ Harvey on her album '' Dry'' *"Joe", a song by AJR on their album ''OK Orchestra'' * Joe FM (other), any of several radio stations Computing * Joe's Own Editor, a text editor for Unix systems * Joe, an object-oriented Java computing framework based on Sun's Distributed Objects Everywhere project Media * Joe (website), a news website for the UK and Ireland * ''Joe'' (magazine), a defunct periodical developed originally for Kenyan youth Places * Joe, North Carolina, United States, a town * Jõe, Saaremaa Parish, Estoni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Vera
Billy Vera (born William Patrick McCord; May 28, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, and music historian. He has been a singer and songwriter since the 1960s, his most successful record being "At This Moment", a US number 1 hit in 1987. He continues to perform with his group Billy Vera & The Beaters and won a Grammy Award in 2013. Life and career Vera was born in Riverside, California, and is the son of the radio and television announcer Bill McCord. He grew up in Hartsdale, NY, and attended Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School and Archbishop Stepinac High School. His mother, singer Ann Ryan, was a member of The Ray Charles Singers backing Perry Como on his TV show and his hit records. 1960s Vera began his recording career in 1962 as a member of the Resolutions followed by the regional hit "My Heart Cries"/"All My Love" as Billy Vera & the Contrasts. He went on to a songwriting career in the 1960s, writing for Barbara Lewis, Fats Domino, The Shirelles and Ricky Nel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
