Dirty Coast Revue

03/01/2024

https://share.stationhead.com/yPfYmRudDxB

06/12/2023

Happy Heavenly Birthday to the true King of Rock’n’Roll.

16/11/2023

‘Strange Things Are Happening Everyday.’ Hit # 2 on the charts in 1945.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

“She traveled the world and left it scorched with her fearlessness and musical originality, inspired fierce devotion from an audience who thrilled to her enormous gifts and her personal excesses, and shook the celestial rafters with the force of her artistic character. She was also my dad’s favorite singer. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born in 1915 in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, at the edge of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain, one hundred and twenty miles northeast of where my dad was born seventeen years later in Kingsland, Arkansas. Sometimes he would shake his head and muse during odd or inexplicable events, “Strange things are happening every day,” which was a nod to the title of her most famous song. “Strange Things Happening Every Day” was a hit for her in 1945 and reached No. 2 on the “race” chart in Billboard magazine, the precursor of the Rhythm and Blues chart. She was a musical prodigy who sang, played guitar, and performed gospel songs in the Black Pentecostal church from the age of four, then traveled with her mother around the South, performing in churches as Little Rosetta Nubin, billed as the “Singing and Guitar Playing Miracle.”

She became Sister Rosetta Tharpe in 1938, after leaving her first husband, Thomas J. Tharpe, and moving with her mother to New York City, by way of Chicago.” - Rosanne Cash

📸 - Michael Ochs archive

🎶

16/11/2023

https://share.stationhead.com/zxSeybho3JE

26/09/2023

Need to play some Esquerita next week for sure.

ON THIS DATE (65 YEARS AGO)
September 22, 1958 - Esquerita: "Rockin' The Joint" b/w "Esquerita And The Voola" (Capitol F4058) 45 single is released in the US.

With a six-inch pompadour, brocaded shirts, rhinestone shades, and a rhythmic, belligerent style of piano playing, Esquerita was the original Little Richard, years before Mr. Penniman tutti-frutti'd his way to stardom. Working around the Dallas-New Orleans circuit in the early '50s, Esquerita's shot at the big time came when Capitol Records decided they needed their own version of Little Richard, after signing their answer to Elvis, Gene Vincent. The resulting recordings, though smartly produced, stand as some of the most untamed and unabashed sides ever issued by a major label. Long revered by rock & roll fans the world over, they make Little Richard's Specialty sides look highly disciplined by comparison. Though Esquerita continued to record in a tamer style through the '60s, his Capitol sides stand as a monument to the potential of rock & roll's lunatic power and the off-kilter genius of Esquerita.

09/09/2023

What draws me home.

Every place on Earth has a little slice of paradise, and each one is unique. We are so fortunate to have this beautiful river swamp as ours. The French word for beautiful is “beau.”

16/08/2023

Was so much fun watching this young man grow up. Will feature his music in the second hour of next week’s Dirty Coast R***e.

Trombone Shorty and Bo Diddley

The date was May 4, 1990. The location was the annual New Orleans Jazz Fest.

"Who's that playing out there?" Bo Diddley asked the crowd on a sunny day in New Orleans, LA. Suddenly, four-year-old Troy 'Trombone Shorty' Andrews was lifted into the air and over the crowd to perform onstage with the famous musician. This experience changed his life.” - Richland Library

Since then, Trombone Shorty has continually played with some of the best and most popular musicians in the world.

Check out Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews & Orleans Avenue.

📸 Historic New Orleans Collection

10/08/2023

Did a Tribute to Robbie and the Sugar Man tonight on Amp. Catch it on the replay. Will be up for the next two weeks.

The OA mourns the loss of a songwriting giant today with the passing of Robbie Robertson. Known best for his role in the Band, Robertson also collaborated with icons like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Martin Scorsese, and many others. His legacy will not soon be forgotten.

Read about his role in creating Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde with Sean Wilentz’s “Mystic Nights” from Issue 58.

https://ow.ly/CFAC50Pwcmk

Photo by Ed Caraeff via Facebook

11/07/2023

Sounds like a playlist for a radio show.

Coming out on September 8th is a tribute album to Leon Russell that looks pretty darn interesting. Track list below, and a link to a story that my pals at No Depression posted that gives you more 411.

Margo Price – “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Durand Jones & The Indications – “Out in the Woods”
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – “Tight Rope”
Orville Peck – “This Masquerade”
U.S. Girls with Bootsy Collins – “Superstar”
Pixies – “Crystal Closet Queen”
Monica Martin ­­­– “A Song for You”
Bret McKenzie with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band ­– “Back to the Island”
Tina Rose, Amy Nelson, Jason Hill – “Laying Right Here in Heaven”
Hiss Golden Messenger – “Prince of Peace”

https://tinyurl.com/bac3pwhj

06/06/2023

Yes!

The new version of the Allen Toussaint-penned, Aaron Neville-recorded 1973 R&B/soul classic “Hercules" is from the 'Take Me To The River: New Orleans' sessions.

02/06/2023

"Songs don't wear out. Good songs are good now. If they were a comfort during those hard times in the past, they'll be a comfort in today's age." - Levon Helm

Remembering Levon Helm on his birthday.

02/06/2023

Some words to live by from Tina Turner, who died last week at the age of 83:

"I realized that my hardships could give me a mission—a purpose. I saw that by overcoming my obstacles, I could build indestructible happiness and inspire others to do the same. Then I could see everything that came my way, both the highs and the lows, as an opportunity for self-improvement and for sparking hope in others."

📷: Tina Turner photos from the Music and Recorded Sound Division at the Library for the Performing Arts.

02/06/2023

Friday, June 2nd from 7-9 PM CST. Hop in my car as we ride the Blues Trail down US Highway 61 from North Mississippi to New Orleans.

Tune in to playlists and shows from top creators, athletes, and artists. Never hear the same playlist twice. Create radio shows with the songs you love. Find your wavelength!

24/05/2023

Just concluded a Tribute to Tina on my Amp channel. RIP. Thanks for the inspiration and the music.

Tina Turner

“Simply the Best”

“My legacy is that I stayed on course…from the beginning to the end, because I believed in something inside of me.” - Tina Turner

(November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023)

You will be missed.

21/05/2023

Join me this afternoon and evening for a marathon set of music on Amp to celebrate Bob’s 82nd birthday. Begins at 1 PM Central. Link to the show in the comments section of this post and at the top of my homepage.

08/03/2023

Remembering the great Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997)
I asked Lightnin’ Hopkins one time what the blues were. And he said, “Well, son, I think they’re a cross between the greens and the yellows.” - Townes Van Zandt:

“Townes was very dedicated and serious about music,” Marsh Froker said. “He was influenced by Elvis, but mostly he played records by Josh White and Johnny Cash. He paid a lot of attention to the guitar playin’ on Johnny Cash’s records. His taste could be very eclectic. He also liked Dave Brubeck’s album Time Out a lot.” “He loved music and had an amazing knowledge of it,” Luke Sharpe marveled. “He introduced me to Leadbelly, and of course he was a big Elvis fan and a good Elvis mimic too. He let his sideburns grow way too long. Townes played guitar and wrote songs continually. He had a notebook of ’em. I think the music was something that he just had naturally, and it wasn’t ever gonna go away. It was all he cared about.”
Of all the music that Townes listened to, it was the blues of Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin’ Hopkins that resonated with him on the most profound level. Although both men hailed from the Lone Star State, their music was as different as night and day. Lipscomb’s laconic picking supported a rustic, earthy vocal delivery, whereas Lightnin’s fiery style was inspired from some place hotter and more supernatural than the Piney Woods.
While on break from school, Townes would hunt down Hopkins’s obscure albums in record shops in Chicago and Minneapolis and then soon wear out the grooves of the treasured vinyl, attempting to learn Lightnin’s slippery licks. But it wasn’t just Hopkins’s guitar style and weary voice that captivated Townes; the raw poetry of the blues man’s hard life as a sharecropper and ne’er-do-well gambler spoke to his soul like mystical scripture from a forgotten religion.
Although Townes worshiped Lightnin’ and considered him a major influence, his fingerpicking style was firmly rooted in the blues of the Mississippi Delta. Van Zandt’s “Colorado Girl” and “Rex’s Blues” reveal the influence of Mississippi John Hurt’s gentle, spinning melodies like “My Creole Belle” more than the loose, boozy groove of a Lightnin’ Hopkins tune. Echoes of Skip James’s classic “Cypress Grove” can be heard in Van Zandt’s slinky guitar picking on “Brand New Companion,” whereas numbers like “Where I Lead Me” and “I Ain’t Leavin’ Your Love” both evoke the low-down, funky rumble of Bo Diddley, whose “Who Do You Love?” Townes often relied on to kick his shows into overdrive. “Townes’s guitar playing was pristine. He wasn’t flashy, but boy, was he accurate in his fingerpicking and his slapping flat-pick style,” old friend Rex “Wrecks” Bell said. “I have his fingerpicks and use them all the time.”

Kruth, John. To Live's to Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives

16/02/2023

Huey ’Piano’ Smith, pioneer of early Rock&Roll, RIP. I will feature his contributions to our music on next Tuesday’s radio show. Link to show in comments section.

29/01/2023

I’ve been hesitant to share photos of us in the past. People leave such nasty comments sometimes. But here is a photo of David and I recording in 1971. There was real magic between us. That much I know.

Photo by Alan Pappé.

29/01/2023

27/01/2023

My show, Covered With Love (Roots Edition), is set to go live on Amp on 1/27 at 08:00 PM CST. Follow me to listen!

Tune in to playlists and shows from top creators, athletes, and artists. Never hear the same playlist twice. Create radio shows with the songs you love. Find your wavelength!

22/01/2023

Great list of albums. How many do you still own?

In 1971, the world was ready to shake off the 60s and move forward into an uncertain future. The best 1971 albums would change music forever.

19/01/2023

So a direct lift from Dylan’s version or not?

The legendary blues song “The House of the Rising Sun” is one of those tunes with a murky origin story. Who wrote it? Was there a single person to do so? It’s unclear. But let’s dive into the history of the song and see what we can find. The Song The traditional folk song is […] More

19/01/2023

😎

I bought this 1956 Gibson ES-150 in 1975. Immediately, I brought it to record The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album with Muddy, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Pinetop Perkins and Paul Butterfield. In 1976 I played it at The Last Waltz. Last month, I played it on The Last Waltz 2022 Tour. Last week, I recorded a song by The Band on it at home.

I bought the tweed Fender Deluxe amp used in 1967 for $40. I brought it with me to audition for Muddy Waters in 1973. I used it on the 1975 Woodstock album. It has been rebuilt twice, in 1983 by Cesar Diaz and in 1999 by Mark Baier from Victoria Amplifiers.

I have made some of my best music on these. No pot of gold, but we enjoy the rainbow.

11/01/2023

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

“It’s thinking positive and not getting stuck with someone else’s sound. I ain’t out there trying to sound like this guy and that guy – I don’t believe in that stuff. As an artist, you have to have your own identity. If anything, have people try to sound like you.”

“Stop thinking about the guys you idolize. Think for yourself. You have a mind, so use it.” - Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown

(From January 2005 issue of Guitar Player Magazine.)