This Week In The Blues: February 4 - February 10, 2024

HEY BLUES FANS - Here's the latest episode of "This Week In The Blues" for the week of February 4 - February 10, 2024

Some of the highlights include blues and jazz pianist Abie "Boogaloo" Ames, blues and jazz guitar pioneer Lonnie Johnson, blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Catfish Keith, and Chicago blues bass guitarist Robert "Big Mojo" Elem.

We just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:
https://bigtrainblues.com
https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Photo credits (if known) and past episodes are posted on our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@BigTrainBlues

Here are links to a few of the artists or songs we've referenced in this week's episode:

Boogaloo Ames - "Boogie-Woogie" - https://youtu.be/vPhjkw8c7qM?si=mkBaITEBsdjobvkt

Lonnie Johnson - "Another Night to Cry" - https://youtu.be/n8fyb9vpIc0?si=9-iDsGYMTt9S4Vuw

Catfish Keith - "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes" - https://youtu.be/UJHK7eoYLzs?si=uafS-X9tmTzGGcKa

Big Mojo Elem Talk To Your Daughter - https://youtu.be/T3-NNe90dXw?si=YxKx1X-6rN4svQMU


We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!

ARE YOU A FAN OF BLUES HISTORY? US TOO!

 If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to visit our website or follow our Facebook page:

     https://bigtrainblues.com

     https://www.facebook.com/BigTrainBlues

Transcript

 This Week In The Blues Feb 04 – Feb 10 2024

We lost blues and jazz pianist Abie "Boogaloo" Ames on February 4, 2002.  Ames was a master of the boogie-woogie piano style and he taught himself to play the piano by listening to songs on the radio and playing with them.  When he was fourteen, his family moved to Detroit, where he played gigs regularly in the 1940’s at local clubs and eventually led a popular local band there.  He also worked as a session player in the Motown Studios when Motown was just beginning.

Chicago blues bass guitarist Robert "Big Mojo" Elem born February 5, 1928. Although he recorded only one studio album in his long career, Elem was a part of the Chicago blues scene for over forty years. During that time he variously backed Arthur "Big Boy" Spires, Lester Davenport, Freddie King, Magic Sam, Junior Wells, Shakey Jake Harris, Jimmy Dawkins, Luther Allison, and Otis Rush just to name a few.

Here’s another “Mississippi Ghosts Story, although this one is from Chicago. Jerome Green was a percussionist known for playing maracas helping shape that Bo Diddley in the 1950s and early 1960s. Green grew up in Chicago, and was a neighbor of Ellas McDaniel, later known as Bo Diddley. Needing to add percussion to boost his sound, but not wanting to have to carry a drum kit between venues, he recruited Green to play maracas that he made out of toilet floats filled with black-eyed peas.

Rhythm-and-blues pianist and singer Floyd Dixon was born February 8, 1929. He’s considered to be one of the pioneers of the West Coast blues sound and a major influence and mentor to Ray Charles, B. B. King, and Robert Cray. Dixon’s expansive career had him taking on a variety of styles—boogie-woogie, swing, mournful blues, R&B, and gospel. but his strongest suit was jump blues. 

blues and jazz guitar pioneer Lonnie Johnson was born February 8, 1899. Johnson's early guitar recordings are the first to display a single-note soloing style with string bending and vibrato. Johnson’s influence is obvious in the playing of Django Reinhardt, T-Bone Walker and virtually all electric blues guitarists. In March 1969 he was hit by a car while walking on a sidewalk in Toronto and never fully recovered. 11 months later, with the help of a cane he returned to the stage for one final performance to sing a couple songs with Buddy Guy.

Acoustic blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Catfish Keith was born February 9, 1962 in East Chicago, Indiana. He is best known for his work on National Reso-Phonic Guitars. his 1984 debut album, Catfish Blues (1984), released by Kicking Mule Records He’s released several albums since, including 2020's Blues at Midnight. Twice a Blues Music Award nominee for 'Best Acoustic Blues Album', he’s had ten #1 independent radio chart hit albums. In 2008, Keith was inducted into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame.

blues singer and multi-instrumentalist Arbee Stidham who was born February 9, 1917.  Stidham was the sort of singer that thrived in the R&B market after World War II; although essentially a bluesman, he wasn't a blues purist... his mixture of blues, jazz and gospel made him popular in the following decades. Stidham also made many festival and club appearances nationwide and internationally. He did occasional blues lectures at Cleveland State University in the ’70s.

blues guitarist and singer Willie Trice born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina February 10 in either 1908, 1910 or 1911 and played in the Piedmont blues guitar style. In July 1937, Trice recorded two sides with his brother playing second guitar, "Come On in Here Mama" and "Let Her Go God Bless Her". Without any commercial success, Trice did not record again until the 1970s. However, he was well known for playing locally in the 1930s and 1940s in North Carolina. 

blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Oscar "TV Slim" Wills, was born February 10, 1916 in Houston, Texas. His best-selling work was 1957’s "Flat Foot Sam", which helped propel his recording career through to the date of his death. He was not a full-time musician, as his main source of income was working as a television repairman. And that’s where his blues name came from, courtesy of Jewel Records owner Stan Lewis.

Well blues fans, we just covered some of the highlights here. If you want to know more about these artists or other things that happened this week in the blues, be sure to follow our social media pages or visit our website at Big Train Blues.com. We’ll have a new episode next week – we’ll see you then!