Welcome to the October edition of BLUES JUNCTION. I apologize for the delay as we have traditionally “published” on the first Monday of each month. Over the past couple of months we have spent a great deal of time doing a complete overhaul of our rather extensive and ever expanding archive section of the site. Check that out as I believe that these changes should make the rather voluminous and admittedly heretofore cumbersome section of our site easier to reference.

This probably doesn’t warrant too much explanation, but the highlights are 1) We took the less is more approach and removed articles and features that our analytics indicated were read by so few people that they didn’t need to be taking up room on the site. 2) We have taken the various articles, interviews and features  and divided them up by type of piece. For instance, you can now find all the interviews in one place. 3) We have taken many of the features and have those listed alphabetically. So in the case of the interviews, they are simply arranged alphabetically by last name. We have the articles written by contributors organized alphabetically by author’s last name 4) We have a section which highlights our reader’s favorite articles as well as my personal favorites.

Check that out and let us know what you think. As always we have a whole batch of new articles and features here in October.

Let’s get started with the rundown.

If you live or plan to visit New Orleans may I recommend a visit to Hula Mae’s Tropical Wash. They are on 838 Rampart on the edge of the French Quarter. They are also across from Louis Armstrong Park. If you walk through the establishment towards the back of the building, back by the dryers you will be standing in one the most important places in American history, by my way of thinking anyway.

There is a tiny 15’ x 16’ space back there where they used to make records, lots of them, good ones. For parts of several decades, the records made in that tiny spot could be heard blasting out of jukeboxes across America. Those records remained ensconced on the rhythm and blues charts for decades. Some of the records made there crossed out of the race market as it was called back then and onto the pop charts. Twenty one of those were Gold Records. It was where T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton, Guitar Slim, Ray Charles, Lowell Fulson, Smiley Lewis, Professor Longhair, Alan Toussaint, Dr. John, Bobby Charles, Huey “Piano” Smith, Earl King, Lee Allen, Red Tyler and Earl Palmer made records. It is where Roy Brown and then later Fats Domino and Little Richard made records that had a sound that people began to call rock and roll. It was where both Art Neville and Aaron Neville made records. Most importantly it was where Dave Bartholomew made records. All of this joy came from a studio owned and operated by Cosimo Vincent Matassa. He died on September 11^th and I thought our readers might like to know a little bit more about this modest man and his enormous contribution to our culture.    

Our Monthly Artist Spotlight feature involves one of the great success stories in blues music over the past generation. That is B.B. and the Blues Shacks. This band from Hildesheim, Germany has been celebrating their 25^th anniversary in 2014. Part of that celebration includes an upcoming California tour. They also have a brand new album entitled, Businessmen. Check out a conversation I had with the two founding members of this great band, Andreas and Michael Arlt.

Our Monthly Album Spotlight discusses a brand new release by Chicago’s own Barrelhouse Chuck. The CD is entitled, Combo Classics.

I also review the brand, new album by one of our favorites here at the JUNCTION, Duke Robillard. His new Stony Plain Release is entitled, Calling All Blues.

It is always my great pleasure to go down the coast to what locals call the greatest city in America, San Diego. While that strikes me as being a bold claim, most of the time it is pretty difficult to mount an enthusiastic rebuttal. The second weekend of September during the San Diego Blues Festival is definitely not one of those times. Festival producer Michael Kinsman again did a marvelous job in putting this event together. The beneficiaries of the festival were the Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank. Enjoy a photo essay by Alex Gardner of one of my favorite weekends on the blues calendar.

Back in the blues boom of the 80’s and 90’ it wasn’t unusual to hear some of the great bands who were barnstorming on a regular basis. The amount of blues nightclubs allowed bands from anywhere in the country to skip across the vast expanses picking up gigs along the way. They could, and would, on a regular basis make it all the way out to California and play up and down the west coast. The bands would travel with their full normal touring ensemble intact making the performances consistently great.

Two of the biggest road warriors were Northern California’s own Little Charlie and the Nightcats and Dallas based Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets featuring Sam Myers. Myers passed away in 2006 pretty much putting an end to the Rockets orbiting the blues world. In 2008, Little Charlie Baty announced what he described as a soft retirement. He no longer has to contend with the extensive touring schedule that only a night cat could survive. This made the appearance of these two giants of the electric blues guitar in California as part of Mark Hummel’s Golden State - Lone Star Revue something very special. For those of you who missed it, and for those of you who were lucky enough to be in Long Beach on that warm Sunday evening, I am doing something that I haven’t done in awhile and that is, a concert review. Once again enjoy the fine photography of Alex Gardner.

Our Jukebox at the JUNCTION is again loaded with ten songs from ten new and soon to be released albums we think you might enjoy.

Last week was very special for me as the culmination of a two year mission to bring a group of Brazilian musicians called The Headcutters to the United States was realized. As I write this, the band is playing one of two dates at the legendary King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas. I first met the harmonica player, and one of the band’s two vocalists, Joe Marhofer online. He was an enthusiastic and earnest young man who wanted me to hear his music. I did and fell in love with these guys. I had never met them in person or spoken to them on the phone. However, we became cyber pen pals, I guess you could say, as we communicated frequently. I published an interview with Joe that ran in the March 2013 edition of BLUES JUNCTION. Their albums were picked up by Charlie Lange at Bluebeat Music. I sent their debut CD to Art Martel who began to spin them on his prestigious radio show (see our links page). Art booked some of their dates here in Southern California. On Thursday, October 2^nd, I met Joe for the first time. He, along with his bandmates, bassist Catuto, drummer Leandro and guitarist/vocalist Ricardo, spent the day at the beach and had a blast. A more delightful bunch of young men you'd be hard pressed to find. On Saturday I got a chance to hear them perform and I was even more impressed.

September has always been a month where a lot of live musical events take place. These days, I pick and choose my spots fairly judicially. However, I did get out and hear lots of live music in September. It was very gratifying to meet some of our readers at these various events. I really appreciate so many of you taking the time to come up to me and tell me how much you appreciate what we do around here. I try and make BLUES JUNCTION like the music we cover, for adults. Blues music is not for everybody and I get that. Neither are we. I am always shocked as to the amount of loyal readers that we engage each and every month on a deeper level. I like the fact that we challenge blues music fans to read old fashioned magazine style articles that have a pre-tweet/text/instant message/Youtube feel to them.

Until we meet again, be well and be in touch.

– David Mac