Some October Blues Births:
- October 3rd.,1932—Albert “The Iceman” Collins
- October 18th.,1925—Vernon Harrison, aka Boogie Woogie Red
- October 30th.,1925—Tommy Ridgley
Answer to the September Blues Question: There was no specific question, the reason for that being that the answer to the August question about Jesse Fuller and the August trivia about W.C.Handy took up a lot of bytes, so I opted to not ask the regular style question. However, I did ask if anyone recognized to whom the nickname of “Killer-Diller”, which was shortened to “Killer”. That person was/is Jerry Lee Lewis. His first big hit was “Whole Lotta’ Shakin’ Going On” in 1957. Did you know it was originally recorded in 1954 by Big Maybelle (Mabel Louise Smith)? Jerry Lee was influenced by music coming out of a black juke joint, Haney’s Big House, which was across the tracks from where he lived when he was a young boy.
Blues Question for October 2015: This bluesman, born in Alabama, started out at a young age singing gospel music. Growing up, he worked mostly outside the music field. Later he served in the U.S.Army and , later still, owned a bowling alley/bar and then founded a recording studio. He started out performing as a singer and later learned to play the guitar and harmonica. Any idea who this bluesman was /is ??
Blues Trivia for October 2015: Alden “Allen” Bunn, aka Allen Bunn and/or Tarheel Slim, was born September 24th.,1924, in Bailey, North Carolina. His father, Henry, was a guitarist and his mother, Leonia, was a church singer. He learned guitar at 12 years of age. He mostly sang in the gospel groups The Gospel Four, the Southern Harmonaires (his own group), and with The Selah Jubilee Singers from the early 1940’s up to 1950, when he moved to New York City. There he performed with the Four Barrons (an R&B group) and recorded with the Larks (originally the Four Barrons) on the Apollo label. He also recorded on that label with Sonny Terry in 1952. He recorded with his future wife, Anna Sanford, as The Lovers, both pop songs and R&B. He also recorded R&B songs with another group, The Wheels. The Tarheel Slim name first showed up in 1957/1958. He and Anna would become known as Tarheel Slim and Little Ann when they recorded on/for the Fire-Fury labels. Besides the Fire-Fury and Apollo labels he also recorded on the Continental, Regal, Decca, Red Robin, Lamp, Aladdin, Premium, Jubilee(mostly as a session man), Atco, Trix, and Flyright labels over the years. His best blues recordings are/were on the Trix & Flyright labels. In 1952 he toured/performed with the Percy Mayfield (known as “the Poet of the Blues) package show, as a member of the Larks. The trivia part is that when he started to use the Tarheel Slim name, he recorded some rockabilly (as in Jerry Lee Lewis,etc.) songs. Most notable among them are “Number Nine Train” and “Wildcat Tamer”. A very talented performer who is, for the most part, unknown and underrated. Sadly, he passed on August 21st.,1977, in a Bronx, New York hospital, of pneumonia.
Some October Blues Passings:
- October 7th.,1966—Smiley “Smiling” Lewis
- October 19th.,2011—John-Alex Mason
- October 22nd.,1963—Walter “Hooker Joe” Davis
RSS Feed