I said it, you heard it...

I'm only aware of 6 singles by Jay Dee Bryant, that is if he's the same Jay Dee Bryant who recorded one single with a vocal group for the Cee Jay label in the late fifties? Other than that, there are three 45's on Josie, another on Island, and this one on Enjoy.

There could be more, but that's it for my info. Anyone else know anything? Anything at all?

Ya'll like the funky stuff, don't ya?

You know what's on my mind....

Been awhile since I pulled out any Lee Dorsey.

Can't say this is the rarest Dorsey 45, but I had a tough time getting my hands on a copy. Fyi, my "toughness" scale has a lot to do with how badly I want the record, and I wanted this one very badly.

This is the funkiest cut off the album "Yes We Can"....an album everyone should own. It's some of Dorsey's best work, not to mention Mr. Toussaint's. And yeah, certainly some of the Meters were involved, although it's unclear who's playing drums on the album. As I recall, the amazing James Black was called in for some of the sessions.

Turn-it-up.....

All I want is an average girl.....

Sir Shambling's got the scoop on Johnny Thompson, here. And you're in luck, 'cause he's got the flip-side of this 45 posted as well. You should def check out, "I Lost Everything" it's a truly great deep soul tune. I'd be posting it if Shambling hadn't done so already.

I'd bet five bucks Andre Williams was more involved with this single than the record label would lead you to believe. Maybe it was his label? Just sayin' because not only did he write both tunes on the 45, there's also a few touches here and there that seem very familiar.

I have the feeling someone posted this fairly recently, but I've been unable to find out who or where, so maybe I'm just making it up? Anyway, my sincere apologies if I'm stepping on anyones toes with this one.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Do it like crazy.....

I'm surprised to see I haven't posted this before.

A great cut that combines dancing with a piss-take on the Book of Ecclesiastes. What could be better?

Hope ya'll enjoy....

The game is over.....

One of my favorite Allen Toussaint penned tunes......

Hope ya'll enjoy....

I need your arms around me oh so tight...

Very good news from the Doc yesterday morning. I'm now on "modified best rest", which is more or less the equivalent of being under house arrest. And that's great, I'll take it, but I can't help thinking my new license to putter about the place has something to do with cleaning the toilets.

I've also been given some time off for good behavior. In a little while I'll be allowed to attend the usual family gathering. It'll be good to get out of the house.

Here's another killer tune by Eddy Giles from up by Shreveport. As far as I know, it made no waves at all. Which is a total shame, all of his 45's on Murco are unbelievably good, the man deserved better.

Hope ya'll enjoy the tune and have a very pleasant holiday.

C'est Pour Cleoma

Last night I noticed a comp of early cajun music being spotlighted on WFMU's "Beware Of The Blog", and when I took a look at it, all I could think was....I've got something much much better than that.

This is a collection of Cleoma Breaux recordings I put together several years ago and then posted on another blog.

Cleoma Breaux Falcon was more or less "the mother" of recorded cajun music, in fact the first female inducted into the Cajun Music Hall of Fame. She played, along with her then husband-to-be, Joe Falcon, on what is generally considered to be the first cajun record. This was in 1928.

At the time I decided to put this collection together, I couldn't see that anyone had bothered to gather her recordings before, not in a comprehensive way. Usually, she's lumped in with her husband, when she was absolutely a major regional recording artist in her own right. But more than that, the band she grew up playing with before her marriage were the fabulous Breaux Freres. and her father was the legendary [unrecorded] accordion player Auguste Breaux.

My point being that Cleoma can be viewed as central to a musical clan, and that her role within that clan, musically speaking, is often more obscured than need be. Her brothers recorded with her and her husband after she was married, she at times recorded with her brothers without him. And she played the guitar with both, which in those days was the rhythm instrument. Now, the way she plays may sound ham-handed to modern ears, but it's to be remembered that there was no such thing as amplification in those days, and these were dance bands. The only other "percussive" instrument used at that time was a triangle.

Initially, my thought was to only gather the recordings on which Cleoma sang, but as I got into the project, I thought....why not include those songs on which she also played guitar?.....and even, why not include the work of what was once her family band even if it's unclear if she's playing at that moment?...in short, why not put Cleoma at the center of it all, just this once. Ya know, just this one time, let's give her what's due.

There were problems. First, the availability of recordings...as far as I can tell [I have a fairly accurate discography] there are at least 12 recordings missing. Secondly, where to draw the line with the Breaux Freres. Cleoma died in 1941. Whereas Joe Falcon refused to record after her death [bless his heart], the Breaux Freres, together and separately, continued to record after that time.

Thus I can't say this collection is either totally complete or even 100% correct, but I gotta tell ya....after several years, I've yet to find another obvious Cleoma Breaux recording to add to the mix. I don't remember where all of these recordings came from, but I do know that some are direct from the 78's.

And ya know what? Even if all these songs are all available on comps at this point, I've still yet to see anyone put them together in this form. As far as I know, this is the most complete collection available of recordings by the Falcon/Breaux clan up to Cleoma's death.

Just my way of saying thanks to all of you for stopping by, commenting, sending me emails, and in general being so very kind. To those of you in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving. To those of you elsewhere, my best wishes. I thought I'd put this up now in case I don't have time to do so over the next couple of days.

I call it, "C'est Pour Cleoma", I hope ya'll find it as interesting as I did putting it together. Truly a labor of love.

Got a rag tied round your head..........

There were a number of reasons why almost everybody wanted to record in New Orleans in the late fifties....of those reasons, I'd say about six or eight were involved in cutting this tune. I don't care what anyone says, the original version of this song is the best. 53 years later and it still kicks ass.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Ain't no telling what poor little Lucy Mae do....

The Hound does his usual excellent job of laying out all the info on Frankie Lee Sims, here. Unfortunately, the links on that post appear to be broken. But then again, if they were working there wouldn't be much use in me offering up this tune, would there?

I haven't posted a lot of hard blues in the past, but I'll probably be offering more in the future, mostly 'cause I'm picking up more blues 45's than I have in the past. Which isn't because I'm just now becoming hip to the sound. I own a very nice stack of blues albums released in the late sixties/early seventies which were originally my dad's. I've been doing my best to wear them out since I was a kid.

Which brings me to the question: If you already own the albums, "Hate To See You Go", "Confessin' The Blues", and "Boss Blues Harmonica", all by Little Walter.....do you really need to own his Checker label 45's too?

Answer: Not really, not unless the sight of a Checker web-top 45 of "Mellow Down Easy" makes you break into a sweat.

So, is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Hope ya'll enjoy....

From 5 o'clock, in the early evening.....

I got a box of records from Austin yesterday, there was even a little surprise inside [thanks a bunch darlin'].

I found this 45 in a shop when I was last in Austin for the record convention. I'd already spent my budget by that time, so I had a friend put it on "layaway" for me. Given that my friend and I send records back and forth on a regular basis, it only makes good sense to wait until there's a nice sized stack. It saves on the postage, but it also means sometimes you gotta wait. On the other hand, it's totally awesome to get eight or ten records all at once in the mail.

This is a nice copy. So nice, I had my friend check it against his beat up old 45 just to make sure it's not one of the many Excello re-pops. It may not be exactly mint, but jeeze, the thing is 55 years old, she's lucky to be around at all, much less looking as good as she does.

As I recall, this was a fair sized hit in it's day.....and then of course Hank Ballard and James Brown got a hold of it later on and made the version most of you are probably familiar with.

Hope ya'll enjoy....as the label sez, that's Earl Gaines singing .

Somebody's gonna steal the show....

So, I check the blog this morning and there are 12 comments from one person. What a nice present............................

Seems I've been bad. Baby doctor sez "bed rest" for the coming week, then we''ll see if it's to continue. I doubt very much there's any real evidence that bed rest helps, but it's certainly a good way to get rid of a troublesome pregnant female. I feel very much like I've been grounded, a feeling only made stronger by my mom moving in temporarily.

Don't get me wrong, I take this stuff very seriously. And I'm glad of the help. Im extremely lucky to have it. Pain has been a problem for the last couple of months and more recently I'm having a lot of trouble walking. Stairs are off limits. Getting me in and out of the tub has become a community project.

Anyway, I'm stuck with very little to do and far too much on my mind. The doctor suggested I work on my scrap books, which about made me choke and my mother laugh out loud [nothing wrong with it, it's just not my thing]. I have a much better idea, I'm cataloging my records for insurance purposes, which is a more complicated project than you might imagine, especially when you're not allowed to lift boxes.

So, I'm having the stacks delivered to my bed one at a time. I have my portable player, laptop, and scanner all close at hand. In between napping, and playing Fable 3, I'm scanning each 45, making notes about condition, and then referencing each to a realistic price quote [I don't want the valuation so high I can't afford the policy rider].

While I'm at it, I'm ripping a few nice ones I've overlooked in the past. The rips sound pretty good since I replaced the original cartridge with a nicer one.

Now that I think about it, my little project isn't all that different from scrapbooking, is it?

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This is probably one of the first ten 45's I ever bought. Just had to have it.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Get on your ding-a-ling...

I meant to feature the other side of this 45 but Sir Shambling's already got it posted along with some pertinent info and a few other cuts by Billy Mack as well, here. Not that this side is bad, in fact it's the funkier of the two, it's just that the man was a natural born deep soul singer, and the other side is a killer example of that style. Sir Shambling has every right to be in awe.

As is pointed out on the Shambling site, this 45 is exactly the same as a record on the Tina label. While I don't know enough to say for sure, I suspect the two records may have been issued fairly close together in time. That said, this pressing on Miss Betty has the Tina release number etched in the run-out, which as far as I'm concerned means the Tina issue was released first.

Shambling fails to mention that Billy Mack aka Willy MacDougal [yes indeed, it's his real name] also recorded as Little Mack, as in Little Mack & the Boss Sounds. Oddly enough for such a great singer, the Little Mack single on Atlantic is an instrumental on one side and uses a female lead on the other. Still, that's clearly him trying to rip the keys off the organ on their cover of "In The Midnight Hour".....sounding much the same as he does during the break on this side.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

...coming after while

I haven't been able to find much info on this record. It looks to me as if there were several groups using the name Sensational Travelers. And then there's Chuck Johnson...several men by that name around too, although I presume this is the same Chuck Johnson who recorded several 45's for small New Orleans labels.

Actually, that's lame, I really should know more about Chuck Johnson....did he own a label?....maybe Vision?....or Booker? [now that I think about it, I'm certain he owned at least one label called C&E]. Anyway, I associate the name with gospel, but I'm pretty sure it's not the same Chuck Johnson who sang with the Sensational Nightingales.

Co-writing credit goes to Leo Torregano. He's the brother of Joe Torregano, a well known clarinetist and major player in the brass band revival of the 70's and 80's.

This is one of those "gospel train" records that picks up steam as chugs along.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Now who gonna pop me?

Shit. I suck at this.

Awhile back I considered offering up some of the harder Bounce tracks...those I wouldn't think most folks get to hear. In particular, I was thinking of the Ward/project anthems. This is one of them.

Messy Mya was murdered last night. Wish I'd have posted it before. Just makes me sad now.

You're my cup of tea...

Yep it's a Chicago label, but the band was from Little Rock Ark., part of the pool of talent around that city's superb True Soul label. Thomas East was, I think, the guy they all thought as going to be very big. And I'm pretty sure this 45 did well, although I can't find any info to back that up.

This is the less often played b-side of the group's first single....

Hope ya'll enjoy....as far as I'm concerned, Andre Williams outdid himself on this one. The production is tough as nails.

Chop off her head....

So, I'm making groceries and accidently knock a big can of tomatoes off the shelf into the shopping cart and onto my bag. And this 45 is inside the front pouch of that bag.

I could have waited to unpack the record till I got home, but no, I had to take it out of the box after it was delivered to the office and stuff it in my bag unprotected. Anyway, the 45 is now cracked all the way through one side.

But you won't notice. It's the cleanest break I've ever seen, hardly even shows up on the waveform [if you bother to look]. Too bad, it was a very nice copy. Fortunately, the three Jessie Hill 45's on Downey don't usually sell for much, but on the other hand, I can't say they grow on trees.

Downey was an odd little label run out of the back of Wenzel's Music Town [a record store] in L.A. Hill apparently hooked up with them fairly soon after heading to the west coast.

Hope ya'll enjoy....it's from 1964.

I don't look like the girls in the movie shows...

Given that I'll be lucky to find another copy of this 45...and that the only comp I'm aware of which includes it is out of print....here's my totally beat up copy of Ruby Johnson's first single, circa 1960.

The girl was ferocious straight-out-of-the-gate.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

...make my body ache

I feel like I should know more about Alvin Christy than I do. Given the records I've heard, my impression is that he was capable of moving between RnR, rockabilly, soul, and funk with out breaking a sweat. Similar in some ways to Roy Head.

I'm only aware of about 7 or 8 singles by Christy, a good 50% of which are on Pin Point. Strangely enough, I've never seen a record by anyone other than Christy on that label. Perhaps he owned it?

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Mercy!

I don't usually go for jokey records, but this one's less obnoxious than some, in fact it's pretty amusing. Funky too, otherwise I wouldn't bother, would I?

Usually you see this record on the X-Spect-Mo label. I have no idea what this issue on Gossip Tree is about, it's the only one I've run across. Perhaps it's a later pressing, or a bootleg?

Joe Cobb was a Chicago DJ. I seem to recall that he made some other recordings, but I don't remember anything more than that.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

C'mon and give it to me...

What a beautiful day. A high in the low 60's, but bright and clear outside. Positively chilly for this part of the world.

Yesterday, there was a neighborhood party more officially known as the Mirliton Festival. Which is an intended joke. In case ya'll don't know, a mirliton is a very ordinary looking squash-like thing. They really don't taste like much unless you combine 'em with something flavorful like shrimp or tasso. My mom always has a few plants in her back yard. As kids we used set 'em out in the street for the cars to hit.

Anyway, it was a nice low-key event. Lots of food. Cold beer and wine for those allowed to drink such things. And music. We got there about the time Kermit Ruffins started playing. All that was missing was a contest to see who could throw a mirliton the farthest.

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"No one is quite sure who Roy Ward was, [Eddie] Bo says that he doesn't recall, but personally I think its safe to assume that Roy Ward was simply Bo in the studio with the Bobby Williams Group laying down yet another raw funk instrumental heavy on the rhythm section."

So sayeth Martin Lawrie over at the Soul Generation site. And I think he's probably correct, but I did run into something recently where Roy Ward was mentioned in passing as if he was a real person. Which makes me wonder, because the source being quoted was a guy who used to play with Earl Stanley and the Stereo's [who were, of course, renamed Roger and the Gypsies on their own outing with Bo].

There's one other thing that nags at me about this record. I'm not sure I think that's Eddie Bo doing the vocal bit, even though the scream at the beginning sounds familiar. But if it's not Bo, then who is it?

I'm only posting Part 1 because Part 2 is the exact same track without the added vocal. While I can't brag that my rip is necessarily the best, this is taken from a near mint copy of the 45. The smudges on the label are "offsets" from when the labels were stacked after printing.

Hope ya'll enjoy....

Just get up out of your seats...

I love this kind of record. Cheap, not that hard to find, absolutely kills on the dance floor. With some slight speed adjustment you can sandwich any number of records between the two sides....Don Covay's "Sookie Sookie" being a favorite in that regard.

I'm probably just showing my ignorance here, but I'm only aware of one other record by Jimmy Graham. It's also on the Revue label and not nearly as funky as this.

A record to pull out when people say they don't dance. From 1968....

Soul Walk

A Soul Walk In

....that my love is true

Probably best if I just post the records these days. No caffeine is bad enough, but how many of you haven't had a drink in four+ months? Believe me, it makes for some screwy writing.

Out of Dallas Tx, here's Bobby Patterson's first record on the Abnak/Jetstar label, circa 1966.

You can thank me in the comments, can't ya.

2:17 bring her back some day...

It's a rainy day....

Both my, and my husband's, family follow the tradition of visiting tombs on All Saints Day. We tidy up a bit, lay out fresh flowers....in some cases, leave a bottle of red wine.

This morning we visited both St. Louis 2 and the benevolent society crypts on Valence St. Very soon we'll head out by Lakelawn in Metairie where many of my relatives have been interred over the last 40 years.

But before the visit to Lakelawn, I'll make a stop at the Botanical Gardens in City Park. A much loved cousin/friend of mine's ashes are scattered in the rose beds surrounding the lily pond. I know I'll find at least three people there, probably more like six or eight.

One of those will be a very cute 5 year old girl whom I haven't seen in 4 months. I need to show her my baby bump. I'm hoping she'll be as delighted as her mama would have been.

I'm sure I'll wanna play something more cheerful by the end of the day, but right now.....

Mamie's Blues