Ten years ago, this month I had a serendipitous meeting that changed my life.

I was at a coffee shop in Costa Mesa, California, and was woodshedding from six in the morning to six at night, six days a week back in the summer and fall of 2009. I had decided to marry my two great loves in my life, blues music and writing. It was an extremely scary proposition because if it didn’t work out there would be no going back. I was hell bent on obliterating the old and somewhat pervasive notion that “man is destined to destroy that which he loves most or be or be destroyed by it.”

I would write various pieces and float them out into cyber space via a small “Word Press” website and see if I would get a response and what that response would be. I did get a response. It was immediate and universally positive.

My inbox quickly filled up with letters that read, “You have obviously been doing this (writing about blues music) for a very long time, where can I read your stuff.” The answer was always the same, “You can’t…I’m new.”

That wasn’t entirely true. I could have said I founded, edited and published an intra-company newsletter called The Vanguard for Dun and Bradstreet, a Fortune 500 company with one less zero. For that Fortune 50, I also wrote training manuals, sales material, brochures and even collection letters. That’s right, I had been a cog in the cruel world of capitalistic culture. My only salvation in that soulless world was the comfort I found in the deep soul of blues music. 

During this woodshedding period, I was writing press kits on musicians that I could care less about under the strict understanding that I got paid (up front) and they didn’t use my name or bi-line.  I even wrote press releases and bios for some kind of association of Black Rodeo Cowboys based in Nashville. What can I say? I could turn copy around quickly, get paid and then turn my attention back to what in a few short months would become BLUES JUNCTION.

I even entered weekly writing contests with an outfit out of San Diego where the prizes were a gift certificates to the restaurant of your choice. I could now afford to “pay rent” i.e. eat lunch and drink coffee at my “office.”

On a Friday evening at around 6pm I was wrapping up and leaving “work” when I spotted a blues musician. I recognized him as Al Blake. I had every record he had ever made up to that point in his career. I had attended many performances by him and his band The Hollywood Blue Flames at their residency at an upscale restaurant in nearby Laguna Beach. I had seen him perform on a handful of occasions at the Doheny Blues Festival, as well as other festivals and other prestigious showcases. I was already familiar with his band and their history, as well as Al Blake’s solo career.

I was also familiar with Blake as result of his occasional guest spots on a local radio program hosted by my friend, Jeff Scott Fleenor. Al’s insight into the blues world was astonishing. It was also astute and entertaining. Jeff and Al were the perfect radio pairing, as Jeff was as knowledgeable on these subjects in his own way that Al was in his.

Al and I started a conversation that evening in front of that coffee shop that has yet to show any signs of slowing down.

About five years ago Al told me his plan to release an album that would be a career defining retrospective of his solo, mostly acoustic sides. It turned out to be much more than that as 21 of the 29 tracks are of material that has never been released. I was proud to have been asked to write the liner notes on the album. Those notes are part of a twelve-page booklet that include a song by song annotated discography by Al Blake which gives the material the perspective and context it deserves. This is all part of a two-disc, six panel digi-pack that was put together with the help of Kate Moss. Her design and layout are wonderful. Kate’s input was invaluable.  It is the music however that is the real star.

The album is entitled Al Blake’s XXL Bag of Blues: Volume One. It is of course part of our Recommended Listening feature here in the October 2019 edition of BLUES JUNCTION.

I also thought it was about time to revisit what I believe is the most important piece of journalism I have been able to publish. It is an interview that I conducted with Al Blake. If you have read it already…read it again and share it with a friend. If you haven’t, strap in and enjoy. I am constantly moving forward. Out of necessity I have to turn the page quickly. Yet, I reread this interview every so often. In this upside-down blues world where mediocrity has become the coin of the realm, Al Blake’s words are very comforting to me. I urge you to read the piece entitled Blake’s Blues.

Just a couple of years ago, on one of our Sunday morning hikes, the subject of Rick Estrin came up, as Al asked me if I had heard any new music that I liked. I had and it was, at that time, the latest album by Rick Estrin & the Nightcats. Al then proceeded to tell me the story of how he first met Rick in San Francisco in 1968. I had to laugh, as the day before Rick had told me the exact same story which would soon appear in an interview I was conducting with Rick. That story and the rest of the two-part Rick Estrin interview appears in this month’s edition of our Monthly Artist Spotlight feature.   

Rick Estrin & the Nightcats have a brand-new album out on Alligator Records. It is called Contemporary and is the subject of our Monthly Album Spotlight. This past weekend Rick celebrated his 70^th birthday. With this in mind, as noted above, Rick Estrin also sits in our Monthly Artist Spotlight. This marks the first time a single artist is the subject of both features in a single month.  

Our Re-Visited feature takes a look at one of my favorite bands of the new millennium. They are the Hacienda Bothers. At this point they are now gone…almost. This past summer they released a brand-new album called Western Soul. It is marvelous. It includes original demo sessions, rough mixes, alternate takes and unreleased studio tracks all laid down just over a decade ago. In addition to that, they have scheduled a couple of reunion shows this month. The first show will be at the PCH Club in Long Beach on October 18^th. The second will be at the Casbah in San Diego on October 19^th. These shows, like this piece, are dedicated to the late Chris Gaffney.

We urge you to check out another edition of Charlie’s Re-Issue Rodeo and a very special album that sits in our Re-Issue Spotlight. It is an album entitled Down Home Blues - Sweet Home Chicago. This box set should be in the library of every blues music fan. It of course can be found at Charlie’s Bluebeat Music.

Getting back to Al Blake and his brand-new album, I have been calling it an instant collector’s item and for a very good reason. Stay with me here…

Al had been in contact with a gentleman named Richard Chalk from Dallas, Texas. He was the owner and sole proprietor of a record label entitled Top Cat Records. Chalk had been that label’s chief cook and bottle washer, to paraphrase a popular bit of nomenclature that Richard liked to use to describe himself and his relationship with his labor of love.

He and Al struck up a business relationship as Top Cat Records wanted to put out a series of vintage live recordings of the Hollywood Fats Band. The first record was entitled Blues by the Pound: Volume One. It came out last summer.

The second in this series of albums is a 1980 live album where the Fats Band opened up and backed the great Otis Rush at the Belly-Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California. The record has superior sound quality when compared to the first volume in this series of releases. It also has OTIS RUSH not to mention George “Harmonica” Smith playing on one track.

Richard reached out to me to write the liner notes for this release which was scheduled to be out sometime this fall. He knew that I had written the liner notes to an Otis Rush re-issue a few years ago and I have (or had) a relationship with all of the surviving members of the Hollywood Fats Band.

It was my plan to share those liner notes with you this month and include that release in this month’s Recommended Listening feature. 

Al and Richard agreed to also put out Al Blake’s XXL Large Bag of Blues on The Top Cat Records label. Richard had all the contacts in the biz including domestic and European distribution channels. He also knew Charlie Lange who has carried other Top Cat Record releases on his Bluebeat Music website.

On Friday, September 13th, Richard mailed a box of CDs to Charlie. On Saturday, September 14^th, 2019, Richard Franklin Chalk, 67 years old, died peacefully in his home in Dallas.

My thoughts are with Richard’s family and close friends.

I know this is a secondary consideration at a time like this, but my thoughts are also with my dear friend Al Blake. It would be disingenuous of me not to acknowledge that here. Al had been working on this CD in earnest for the past five years. Not to put too fine a point on it, the past thirty years is really more accurate.

Al and I were in celebratory mood on our weekly Sunday hike in the hills on September 15th. Al had talked to Richard on Wednesday the previous week. Richard assured him that he had received the CDs from the manufacturer just days earlier and had mailed him a handful of CDs. We couldn’t wait to finally hold them in our hands. Al had finally gotten to the finish line.

That scorching hot morning which was about to turn into afternoon, Al found a beautiful old oak tree and sat down in the shade. I can’t sit down, so I pressed on. When Al and I met back up at the trail head at the end of the hike, he told me that he had heard that it was reported on Facebook that Richard had passed the night before. That sad news was quickly confirmed.

We were of course in shock and devastated, as we both became quite fond of Richard over the past few months. Like the both of us, he was an old school guy whose choice of communication was the telephone and I’m not talking texting here. We all shared the same passion for the blues and for the guitar playing of Hollywood Fats, as well as the great band that bore his name.

Richard Chalk was one of those unsung heroes, whose passion for the blues could be interpreted as “borderline crazy.” If blues history tells us anything, it is that type of passion that has kept this music going through the decades. He was a self-described “Record Man.” He was also a straight shooter who was honest. In the record business that is crazy as hell. For instance, he had reached out to the widow of Otis Rush for her permission and made sure that all the licensing agreements were in place so the proper royalties could be paid to her for that album. That impressed me.    

My business dealing with Richard reflected this as well. He kept his word and paid me for my work on the liner notes on The Hollywood Fats Band with Special Guests Otis Rush and George “Harmonica” Smith Blues by the Pound Volume Two. I just hope someday, somebody (besides myself) can hear this great music. At this moment everything is up in the air on this project.  You can be assured that if this material ever surfaces, I’ll let you know.

As for Al's recordings, the availability of this cd is complicated by Richard's death.  Only time will tell.

Be well and be in touch.

-  David Mac



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