Some March Blues Births:
- March 6th.,1951-- Walter Trout
- March 17th.,1954-- Hollywood Fats (born Michael Leonard Mann)
- March 29th.,1968-- Sue Foley
Answer to the February Blues Question: the bluesman we were looking for is/was "Earring" George Mayweather, born September 27., 1927, in Montgomery County, Alabama. He received a harmonica as a Christmas present when he was six years old. He taught himself to play it after listening to John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson I. After George moved to Chicago he met and became friends with Little Walter (Jacobs), who would teach George techniques on the harp. This was in 1949 or thereabouts. In the February Blues Blog I mentioned that he lived next door to a blues guitarist of some note. That person was Joseph Benjamin "J.B." Hutto, the uncle of both James "Pookie" Young, a bass player, and "Lil' Ed" Williams (of "Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials"), a vocalist and slide guitarist, who were half-brothers. Early in the 1950's he teamed up with Eddie "Porkchop" Hines, a percussionist, to perform at/in the Maxwell Street market. In 1952, after Little Walter had left Muddy Waters' touring band to start his own solo career, George was offered that job, but turned it down. You have to remember that this was when Muddy was just starting to get big. What if George had taken that job? Would it have made him more well-known? Who knows? At that time, however, he was mostly working with Hutto, with occaisional work as a session man in the band backing Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel, born as Ellas Otha Bates) on recordings. By December 1953, J.B. Hutto had brought in/ hired Porkchop Hines on percussion and Joe Custom, on 2nd. guitar. He then hired "Earring" George on harp, and named the band "J.B. Hutto and the Hawks". In January/ February of 1954, they recorded four sides. In October, they added Johnny Jones on piano and recorded two more sides. All of these were on the Chance label. George got the "Earring" moniker from "Big Bill" Hill, a Chicago radio D.J., promoter, and T.V. host of blues and other music programs. In the late 50's, George recorded several sides with Eddie "Playboy" Taylor, some of which were released as singles, but they weren't as successful as those done with Hutto. In the 1980's he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he landed a permanent gig at the 1369 Jazz Club. In 1992 he recorded his only album, "Whup It,Whup It", on the Tone Cool Records label. He passed away in Boston on February 12th.,1995, of liver cancer.
Blues Question for March 2017: I usually give you questions about relatively "unknowns" in the blues, or ones that are mostly overlooked. How about this time I give you an easy one, even though this bluesman's life was anything but easy? Born in Mississippi, as were a lot of the blues musicians, he, at one time, moved to Chicago. That proved to be a rough time for him, as while he lived there his father, two of his own brothers, and two of his uncles were all murdered there. He, after that moved to Memphis for a time, and then back to Mississippi. He, himself, was incarcerated at/ in Parchman Farm, a prison, if you're not familiar with the name, for a murder that happened during a dispute over a crap game. He made his first recordings in 1967. Ring any bells? Any idea who this bluesman is/was??
Blues Trivia for March 2017: the music of today's "blues artists" shows the definite trend of merging rock, soul, rhythm & blues, country, jazz, and even sometimes, blues. If you go back quite a few years, however, you'll find that this is not something new. I have been told, more than a few times, that I'm a "blues purist". Well, maybe so, but I do go back to early rock & roll, rock, jazz, rockabilly, and many other genres of music, both to listen and enjoy, and for research to learn/ discover more about the blues. When you start really looking at these different genres of music, what you'll find is that they all have one thing in common-- how much each of them has been influenced by the blues! Let me give you just one example here -- Danny Gatton, guitarist. Ever hear of him? He was born September 4th.,1945, as Daniel W. Gatton Jr.. His father was also a guitarist, but gave it up to take care of his family. Danny was a teenager when he first started playing in bands. What he did was fuse be-bop, country, rock & roll, rockabilly, jazz, soul, and blues into his works. From out of his ability to do that, he was dubbed with the nickname "The Telemaster", as he played/favored a 1953 Fender Telecaster. He would later be called "the Humbler", because of his ability to out-play anyone who was foolish enough to compete with him in a match session. He has also been called "the world's greatest unknown guitarist". In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", had him ranked at 63rd. In 2010, Gibson guitars ranked him as 27th. best of all time. He was/is recognized by Eric Clapton, Steve Earle, and Les Paul. He is also admired by Les Paul, Bill Kirchen (Hot Rod Lincoln), Albert Lee, Steve Vai, Richie Sambora, "Slash", and many others. He performed with Roy Buchanan, Jorma Kaukonen, Lonnie Mack, Alvin Lee, and Jimmie Vaughan, among others. The trivia part is that he was a mentor to an eleven year old fledgling guitarist, someone you're probably familiar with-- "Smokin'" Joe Bonamassa!! You want to know more about Danny, or how we lost him-- look him up-- you'll be surprised or, maybe, saddened.
Some March Blues Passings:
- March 1st.,1989-- Odie Payne Jr
- March 19th.,1999-- Peppermint Harris (born as Harrison Nelson)
- March 28th.,2012-- Jerry "Boogie" McCain
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