Cafe R&B is a five-piece band from the Los Angeles area consisting of female singer Roach, guitarist Byl Carruthers, keyboardists John "JT" Thomas, Harry Cohen and Stevie Utstein, bassist Bobby Pickett, and drummer Don Swanson and Adam Gust. Longtime music fans may remember lead singer "Roach" from her days fronting Los Angeles' "Roach and the White Boys" in the early 1980s. Critics in the U.S. and Europe have compared her hard-rocking vocals to the likes of Etta James, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin. HITS Magazine declared: "Imagine Etta James riding a Harley out of an active volcano, and you'll have some vague inkling as to the vocal power…"
This set includes music perfect for Halloween that isn't actually about Halloween, although everything included here is definitely scary on one level or another. Consisting of vintage jazz and blues tracks issued between 1925 and 1961, there are plenty of songs here about devils and witches, including Tampa Red's "Witchin' Hour Blues," Sippie Wallace's "Devil Dance Blues," and the Mississippi Sheiks' "I Am the Devil," among others. There's also a classic version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins doing his signature tune, "I Put a Spell on You," this one done with the Leroy Kirkland Orchestra.
Memphis was the town blues musicians passed through on their way to Chicago. But some of them stayed and the record companies sent their mobile units to record them. Over a three-year period from 1927, an astonishing amount of talent was recorded: local stars like the Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, Jim Jackson, Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins, Bukka White, Memphis Minnie, Joe Callicott and Sleepy John Estes.
Monnville Charles (Monty) waters was born in Modesto, California on April 14th 1938 and passed away in Munich on December 22nd 2008. He is another of Jazz's unsung heroes and his death went virtually un-noticed by the International jazz community, as indeed had most of his career. This is indeed regrettable as Monty was clearly an artist of consummate talent in both his playing and writing ability.
Monty studied music at Modesto High and cust his teeth in the vibrant R and B scene in the late '50s, touring with the bands of B.B. King, Little Richards, James Brown and others before settling in San Francisco. playing around the scene there lead to associations with the likes of King Pleasure and Red Garland - who is credited with bringing him into jazz…
Crawling Up A Hill is a fascinating document of a genre that, though relatively short-lived, would have a seismic influence on the subsequent development of rock music.
10-CD box set that contains 250 original Rockabilly recordings. Featuring Jonny Cash, Carl Phillips, Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hank Thompson, Faron Young, Bill Haley & The Saddlemen and many others. All the tracks were recorded between 1947 and 1960 but with the vast majority coming from the 1950's.
3CD compilation focussing on the mid-60s haunt of the emergent folk and blues scene in London. Featuring a host of big names who visited the venue many of whom went on to national success. Les Cousins was a folk and blues club in the basement of a restaurant in Greek Street, in London’s Soho, which became a home and the epicentre for the folk revival of the mid-1960s, a venue where musicians met and learnt from each other. As such, it was influential in the careers of so many pioneers – Al Stewart, Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, John Martyn, Alexis Korner, Strawbs, Roy Harper, Paul Simon and many others.