Cool week for the Blues last week. Airing tonight on PBS, is 'In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues', a bash they had at the White House featuring B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Warren Haynes, Gary Clark Jr, Derek Trucks, Trombone Shorty, and a host of others, with Booker T. Jones as musical director and bandleader. The concert was part of Michelle Obama's series of shows honoring the American songbook. There's been a number of videos going around the past week but tonight's airing gives us a chance to put it all together. Gotta wonder about a DVD release...
Also happening last week was the 'Howlin' for Hubert' all star tribute to blues great Hubert Sumlin. Performing there were Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons, Warren Haynes, James Cotton, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Doyle Bramhall II, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Guy Clark Jr., Buddy Guy and Elvis Costello. The show featured Keith Richards' first live appearance in five years and was a high point of the show. Strolling out to join Clapton for "Going Down Slow", he was met with thunderous applause as they continued through for "Little Red Rooster" and "Spoonful". The night began with a film featuring classic Sumlin performance footage and a recent interview with him, where Sumlin described how he found his own sound after Wolf strongly urged him to lose the guitar pick. The stage lights then revealed two massive portraits of Sumlin behind the stage. His sunburst Stratocaster sat on a stand at center stage, with his trademark feathered cap hanging off of it. Clapton then came out with Cotton to start the night off with an acoustic "Key to the Highway," complemented by Cotton’s razor-sharp harp fills.
Sets flew by, with Willie Weeks, Ivan Neville, Steve Jordan and Jim Keltner as part of the house band. Now THIS is a show that I hope makes it out there on DVD!
Week three of live broadcasting for NOTIMEWARP RADIO begins today. There's been a number of listeners passing through to check out what's going out to the world. Time's definitely changed the world of music listening in just the short coupla years the station was on hiatus. There's just so many different sources to compete with these days. My goal is to still put out great music of varied genres and turn people onto stuff they've never heard and maybe go out and seek some of it for their own collections. Be sure to stop by and check it out! You'll notice the cool little widget in the top right corner of the page. It makes it easy for you to see what's on and to click and listen. Give it a shot! Groovin' on...
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