Born James David Ray, Dave was the eldest child of James and Nellie Ray. Dave's exposure to music started early. In this teens, inspired by a Segovia concert, Dave's parents gave him a gut string guitar. He and his brother, Tom, took classical guitar lessons for about a year. Music was an "all in the family" theme: Dave's youngest brother Max started on the clarinet and then moved on to the saxophone; his sister Karen dabbled with the piano; his mother Nellie played the organ well into her eighties. Tom and Max Ray are respected musicians in their own right. On occasion Tom would play piano and Max sax in various iterations of Dave's local bands. Max went on to have a successful musical career with The Wallets and Gondwana.

In 1967, Ray got into a motorcycle accident and broke his wrist. While in a cast, Dave re-learned how to play the guitar with a flat pick. The years from 1963 to 1971 were prolific for Koerner, Ray, and Glover. Either solo or in some combination of the trio, they released at least one album a year. The group never rehearsed together or did much at all together. As Dave liked to call the group, "Koerner and/or Ray and/or Glover".

While Ray was most interested in playing music, he was also a known record producer. With funding from his first wife's aunt, Jane Westley, Ray built a recording studio appropriately called "Sweet Jane, Ltd." in Cushing, Minnesota in the early 1970s. Sweet Jane became a meeting spot for well and lesser known blues musicians. Junior Wells and Bonnie Raitt both recorded work here. Minneapolis legends, Willie and the Bees recorded an album with Ray. At this point, Ray had already released a number of albums both solo and with Korener and Glover. Ray released his own solo album, Kidman, at SJL in 1977.

In the late 1970s, playing and recording music became a less viable option for Ray. As a stop-gap measure, he bought into his father's insurance business, James Ray Associates. Determined to continue playing music, Dave lined up steady gigs at local bars and restaurants for after hours. Tony Glover joined Dave on many of these jobs. For almost a decade, Dave led this double life of insurance agent and blues musician. He released a few live recordings and studio albums during this time.

In the late '80s, with no regret, Dave sold the insurance business to a large underwriter. He could now get back to the business of music. Dave played regular gigs and festivals around the country. Many would argue that Dave's skill as a guitarist took off during this period. Willie Murphy said after Dave's death, "It's too bad he had to die when he did, he was kind of getting the hang of it." Dave devoted many hours to diligent practice, running through the paces of guitar greats like Charlie Christian and Freddie Green.

In 1998, Ray and Glover joined with Camile Baudoin and Reggie Scanlan of The Radiators to form a short-lived band, The Back Porch Rockers, which released the album By The Water in 2000.

Ray was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2002. He died on Thanksgiving day, November 28, at his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dave chose not to take any aggressive treatment for his cancer. He continued playing until shortly before his death, most notably a blues folk conference at Princeton, New Jersey.

This is an album from 1965

Posted by Joski at 3:54 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Dave "Snaker" Ray

Although born in Scotland Donovan's family had moved to Hatfield, just north of London while he was a child. He was still in his teens when he decided to make the break from art college for a career in music and began to spend his time travelling the UK singing and writing songs and taking odd jobs where necessary to make ends meet. Donovan's fortunes began to change when he made the acquaintance of Geoff Stephens with whose assistance he cut his first demo at a Denmark Street studio. Through this he gained a chance to appear on TV's 'Ready, Steady, Go!' and a recording contract with Pye soon followed. With a style influenced by Woody Guthrie, a denim blue cap and an acoustic guitar carrying the message that 'This machine kills' he was instantly seen as a rival to Bob Dylan who was gaining popularity in the UK at about the same time.

The young Donovan's early professional career was guided by tin pan alley's Geoff Stephens and Peter Eden, but Donovan soon became unhappy with their management and by the end of 1965 had taken steps to rid himself of their involvement.

By early 1966 his recordings were being produced in conjunction with Mickie Most whose reputation in that sphere was at a peak. One of their first efforts was 'Sunshine Superman' which went to #1 in the USA and was Donovan's best UK placing at #2. Like Bob Dylan, Donovan's recordings made increasing use of electric guitar work, but unlike his American rival he remained firmly associated with the acoustic format for most of his chart career. The comparisons with Dylan were overstated and thoroughly unfair, but totally inevitable. In any event, Donovan was an accomplished songwriter with his own style and a musical output that struck a far more optimistic note than his American counterpart.

In 1965 Donovan issued a special EP full of what was then called “protest songs”

Here it is

http://lix.in/-2f8ea5

Make love, not war

Posted by Joski at 3:36 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Donovan

Bob Hite, founding member and singer of the unforgettable group Canned Heat owns one of the most impressive collections of US 78rpms. He started gathering these records at a very young age. He always dreamed of being in a boogie band and paying tribute to the pioneers, drawing inspiration from all the greats who have set the foundations for blues music.

Before he joined the band, he was already working in various record stores in Venice Beach, a Los Angeles suburb. Through the years, he came to acquire extraordinary items, mostly thanks to the success of the 33rpm, which quickly replaced the 78rpm format. Bob Hite never stopped expanding his collection; he bought records all around the world. He was known to throw huge parties at his house, where he spent hours, sometimes whole nights, unveiling gems from his collection.

After Bob Hite's death, the fabulous collection was decimated, partly sold, dismembered, and even plundered.

Here are a few gems taken from their collections, just as if you were in their home, somewhere in the Topanga Valley, partying all night, at the onset of the '70s.

FROM THE LINER NOTES :

some are legends…

PETE JOHNSON
Rightfully acknowledged as a boogie-woogie expert and one of the first piano legends, Pete Johnson truly ranks among the greatest.

CLARENCE BROWN
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was 100% Texan. His recordings for the Peacock label remain legendary, and this blues entitled Takin' My Chance is pure gold, with its hard-hitting brass section and Brown's majestic guitar playing. Brown died in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home. The shock was simply too much for this great artist.

ELMORE JAMES
Everything has been written and said about Elmore James, but hearing him from one of these 78rpms is still a moving experience. The tracks selected here are not among his best known, and that's for the better.

some are unknown…

MAD MEL SEBASTIAN
One of this compilation's mysteries. It might have been Chuck Higgins recording under an alias, but we have no information about this record released by the MS label at the onset of the '50s.

EDDIE HOPE
This Eddie Hope is quite the magnificent unknown. Still, his Fool No More is known and appreciated by every fan of the genre and remains a key selection when it comes to heavy shuffles.

THE HOT SHOTS
Probably based in New York City, The Hot Shots here deliver a languid number that takes us back to the clubs where music like this played way into the wee hours of the night. Blues Nights was cut for the Savoy label.

EARL KING
This King is definitely less known than BB, Freddie or Albert. This pure product of Louisiana was a respected guitar player. He is known for having written Come On, covered by Jimi Hendrix on the album Electric Ladyland.

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Posted by Joski at 7:29 PM | 3 comments  
Labels: Peter Paul and Mary

The Skillet Lickers, one of the most exciting early bands to record, were from North Georgia, an extremely fertile area for old time music in the 1920's. The core of the group consisted of chicken farmer James Gideon Tanner(born June 6,1885), George Riley Puckett(born around 1890), Clayton McMichen(born January 26, 1900), Lowe Stokes, and Fate Norris and occasionally McMichen's brother-in-law Bert Layne.

"Gid" Tanner made his first commercial recording with the blind guitarist Riley Puckett on March 7, 1924. Puckett had been blinded when a sugar of lead solution was accidentally used to treat a minor eye ailment when he was a child. His soulful and resonant singing sold many records for the band and he additionally was one of the earliest guitarist to employ walking bass runs, usually made by up-picking with his index and middle fingers.

McMichen had learned to play the fiddle from his uncles and from his father, a trained musician and he won third place in his first contest while still in his teens. His first band was formed around 1918 called variously the Lick the Skillet Band and the Old Hometown Band, and consisted of McMichen and Lowe Stokes on fiddles, Puckett and Whitten on guitars, and Ted Hawkins on mandolin. McMichen had already been recording for a year and Puckett and Tanner had already been recording for over two years before they made their first records together.

The Skillet Lickers came about as a variation on the name of his earlier Lick the Skillet Band. After the Skillet Lickers disbanded in 1931, McMichen went on to form several other bands such as the Georgia Wildcats which were never as popular as the Skillet Lickers.

Marcus Lowell Stokes was the senior fiddler in the group and played in the older style which complemented the overall sound wonderfully.

Fate Norris, who played the banjo in the group, was from Resaca, Georgia, north of Atlanta, and unfortunatly, is usually inaudible on most of the recordings.

The Skillet Lickers were to record 88 sides, of which 82 were issued. Puckett played backup guitar and usually sang lead, with Tanner, Stokes, and McMichen on fiddles and Fate Norris on banjo.

Here they are

http://lix.in/-391f3a

Listen and Learn

Posted by Joski at 11:44 AM | 1 comments  
Labels: Gid Tanner, Skillet Lickers

Other highlights of their early career included singing their fourth single, "The Green Leaves of Summer," from the John Wayne movie The Alamo, at the 1961 Academy Awards, and having their second album, BMOC/Best Music On/Off Campus, go top 10. They also recorded the theme song for the ABC television series Hootenanny, "Hootenanny Saturday Night," in 1963.

The British Invasion and the ascendance of edgier folk rock musicians such as Bob Dylan put an end to the Brothers Four's early period of success, but they kept performing and making records, doing particularly well in Japan and on the American hotel circuit.

The group co-built with Jerry Dennon a radio station in Seaside, Oregon (KSWB) in 1968. The station was subsequently sold in 1972 to a group from Montana and later to a self-proclaimed minister and finally merged into a larger conglomerate of radio stations.

The group attempted a comeback by recording a highly commercial version of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" but were unable to release it due to licensing issues, and The Byrds eventually stole their thunder by releasing their heralded version.

Mike Kirkland left the group in 1969, and was replaced by Mark Pearson, another University of Washington alumnus. In 1971, Pearson left and was replaced by Bob Haworth, who stayed until 1989 and was replaced by a returning Pearson. Dick Foley left the group in 1990 and was replaced by Terry Lauber. Despite all the changes and having spent 47 years in the business, the group is still active.

I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself not to speak about these fine musicians and singers.

Posted by Joski at 11:33 AM | 0 comments  
Labels: Brothers Four

"Whiskey in the Jar" is a famous Irish traditional song about a highwayman (usually in the Cork and Kerry mountains), who is betrayed by his wife or lover. One of the most widely performed traditional Irish songs, it is also particularly known through its 1970s chart version by the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy.

The song's exact origins are unknown. A number of its lines and the general plot resemble those of a contemporary broadside ballad Patrick Fleming (also called Patrick Flemmen he was a Valiant Souldier) about an Irish highwayman executed in 1650.

In the book The Folk Songs of North America, folk music historian Alan Lomax suggests that the song originated in the 17th century, and (based on plot similarities) that John Gay's 1728 The Beggar's Opera was inspired by Gay hearing an Irish ballad-monger singing Whiskey in the Jar. In regard to the history of the song, Lomax states, "The folk of seventeenth century Britain liked and admired their local highwaymen; and in Ireland (or Scotland) where the gentlemen of the roads robbed English landlords, they were regarded as national patriots. Such feelings inspired this rollicking ballad."

At some point, the song came to the United States and was a favorite in Colonial America because of its irreverent attitude towards British officials. The American versions are sometimes set in America and deal with American characters. One such version, from Massachusetts, is about Alan McCollister, an Irish-American soldier who is sentenced to death by hanging for robbing British officials.

The song appeared in a form close to its modern version in a precursor called The Sporting Hero, or, Whiskey in the Bar in a mid-1850s broadsheet.

What’s the story ?

"Whiskey in the Jar" is the tale of a highwayman who, after robbing a military or government official ("for I am a bold deceiver"), is betrayed by a woman named Jenny or Ginny; whether she is his wife or sweetheart is not made clear. Various versions of the song take place in Kerry, Kilmagenny, Cork, Gilgarra Mountain, Sligo Town, and other locales throughout Ireland. The narrator of the song is not named. The only consistently named figures are the sweetheart who betrays the narrator, "Jenny/Ginny", and the Anglo-Irish official, "Captain Farrell", neither of which aids in the dating of the song. The song ends with the narrator dreaming of escape and fleeing the town of his imprisonment to pursue his love of 'the good life.'

The Thin Lizzy version differs from the traditional one by dropping two verses and changing the lyrics of the second and third verse into a different interpretation of the story while sticking to the main idea slightly. They also change the name of the female lover from Jenny to Molly, as in the Garcia/Grisman version.

Posted by Joski at 11:57 AM | 1 comments  

Love

Posted by Joski at 3:08 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Julie Henigan

Before Hamilton Camp issued his debut solo album, Paths of Victory, he was already well known as both a folk singer and an actor. The record, however, marked the unveiling of a new persona for the performer, in more ways than one. Previously Camp had been half of a folk duo with top folk artist Bob Gibson, in which his contributions were limited to vocals.
Paths of Victory showcased him as a soloist, playing and singing his own harmonica and guitar. And the singer, previously known as Bob Camp when teamed with Gibson, was now Hamilton Camp, the name under which he's been known ever since.



Issued around the tail end of 1964 or the very beginning of 1965, Paths of Victory is an overlooked highlight of the tail end of the folk boom itself. Traditional acoustic folk would soon largely give way to electric folk-rock and singer-songwriters. Within the limitations of the solo guitar-and-harmonica format, though, the record is quite progressive for its era. The punch is fattened with bass (by Red Mitchell) and double-tracked voices on some cuts, and the repertoire is largely selected from contemporary writers rather than traditional tunes. Although just one of the compositions was wholly written by Camp, it's his engaging, sometimes soaring vocals and forceful playing that puts the material over, avoiding the mannered, reverential delivery that dates so many '60s folk boom LPs to the historical dustbin.



The source for much of the material, however, was both a cause of dissatisfaction to Camp itself, and a reason the album continues to generate interest today. For Paths of Victory may well have been subtitled Hamilton Camp Sings the Songs of Bob Dylan , as no less than seven of the record's thirteen songs were written by Dylan. Though Dylan was already the hottest singer-songwriter in folk, and generating numerous cover versions, it was still a novel idea to stuff an album full of Dylan interpretations. And not just any interpretations: six of the seven Dylan compositions on Paths of Victory had yet to be released on Dylan's own Columbia albums when Camp put them out, and a couple of them have stillnot been released on Dylan's official albums.



According to Camp, the idea to fill the LP with unfamiliar Dylan songs was Elektra president Jac Holzman's. At the time Dylan was writing far more songs than he could put onto his own releases, and recording numerous demos that were circulated to other artists and labels hungry for a shot at his material. "Dylan was hot, so Jac thought it was very smart to put more Dylan tunes on there, much to my regret. I originally had done a kind of very eclectic collection. I don't think any tunes [that didn't make the final LP] were original, but there were different interpretations of a lot of kinds [of] folk songs, [like] 'Railroad Bill.' I liked the album that way.
(from the liner notes of this album)






Here it is



http://lix.in/-2f84ce



Listen and learn

Posted by Joski at 2:50 PM | 1 comments  
Labels: Hamilton Camp