LIVE with Henry and John!
Join us this week (12/9/12) as Time for the Blues features all live performances by blues greats! We certainly can't fit them all in the studio (wouldn't that be cool!), but you'll love the live recordings just as well! Some of the best will come from this great compilation from the legendary PBS series Austin City Limits! (By the way, you can see Austin City Limits Fridays at 11:00 PM on WCVE PBS 23!)
So, John picked just about everything we'll play this week--he wanted to do a show of ONLY live recordings and I can see why! The immediacy of live performance is one of the key ingredients of the blues! I've never seen a bad blues show--even if the musicianship is not the best, there's an energy about blues live that can overcome anything--it can make moderate players good, good players great and great players...well...legendary!
About Big Blues Extravaganza: The Best of Austin City Limits--John brought this in one day awhile ago and I borrowed it and...wow!...I know there would be great live highlights and legends of the blues, but this CD literally brings down the house! We featured a Stevie Ray Vaughan track some weeks back and we'll sample some more this week including show stoppers from Albert Collins and Delbert McClinton! We'll also play a sweet classic ballad or two (one from Dr. John) and you'll hear what we're talkin' 'bout! We plan to feature more from this gold mine of great live blues in future shows as well!
Now John didn't stop there--he brought in a couple of Muddy Waters' tracks from the rare Chess early 70's release "Live at Mr. Kelly's"--weirdly enough, one of the tracks is best known for John Lee Hooker so you'll want to check it out! Add in a new live track from The Blues Broads (Tracy Nelson, Dorothy Morrison, Annie Sampson and Angela Strehli--hold your letters, please--they named themselves!) along with a classic houserocker from Etta James and you'll think you're in the clubs all through the show!
We'll also share an extra live track with you in tribute to Michael "Iron Man" Burks, who we featured last week when he suddenly left us way too young after his last recording session. This time you'll hear some smoking guitar work from him on his own "Voodoo Spell" from one of our favorite CDs from the past couple of years, "The Legendary Rhythm and Blues Revue" where Tommy Castro took a group of hot blues players and vocalists out on a bus (and a cruise) and they captured it all for us to enjoy!
Add in a couple more hot live tracks, our silly premise this week (where you can get involved!) and we have a fun and rollicking show for you! So get your shopping done early, grab that nap, make your s'mores and stay up late with us! You can sleep late Sunday morning--we said you could! Time for the Blues with John Porter and Henry Cook airs Sundays at 1:00 AM!
Tell us your favorite live blues show experience! One of mine was seeing the Legendary Blues Band in the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill in the 80's!
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