I Ain’t Superstitious — Tony Sarno

You… are in for a treat! Tony is awesome… a true star of blues guitar and a Master of the Telecaster. I am proud to say that a childhood friend, Tony is.

He’s real good.

Tony Sarno “I Ain’t Superstitious” (Official Audio)

 Icehouse Record Published on Jun 7, 2014

Copyright: 1995 Icehouse Records. Tony Sarno (and the Screamin Blue Demons). From the album “It’s a Blues Thing” available on iTunes here:http://georiot.co/2eYW – also available at Amazon MP3, Google Play and other digital sites.

www.icehouserecords.com
www.tonysarno.com

“It’s a Blues Thing” is Tony’s debut album, recorded in seven days in May 1995 in Memphis, TN. Featuring the rock-solid rhythm section of Keith Christopher on bass and Gregg Morrow on drums with Paul Provost and Greg Reding on Hammond B3. Produced by Mark Maynard and Tony Sarno and engineered and mixed by Rusty McFarland. Hard-Rocking Blues and molten guitar directly from the home of the Blues.

Tony Sarno is an American singer and guitarist who has recorded numerous critically-acclaimed Rock and Blues albums. Tony has toured the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Argentina, and Mexico with his band or as guitarist with David Clayton Thomas’ Blood Sweat and Tears, Dee Archer and Peter Tork. He has dozens of published songs and pieces written for TV and other broadcasts. Tony produced international releases Thunderhawks, Tony Sarno, Silent night, and co-produced Dee Archer’s Sooner or later and Tony Sarno & the screamin’ blue demons “It’s a blues thing”. He produces background music for CBS Sports and music for Big Fish Audio. He has shared numerous concert bills with B.B. King, as well as bills with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hall & Oates, Johnny Winter, and Little Feat. Tony has recorded for CBS/Holland, Icehouse/Priority, Marconi, and Bandwidth Records. His music appeared in the Craig Brewer film Poor & Hungry, and on the Masters of Blues CD compilation with Albert King, Buddy Guy, and the Allman Brothers Band.

Enjoy.

Peace.

Be careful out there.

Feeling Good — Peter Green

Regulars will be aware of the depths of my admiration for this man. Too awesome for words.

Don’t hear this one too often.

Enjoy!

There’s like a minute of blank at the end for some reason but great audio and a great picture.

Peace!

Midnight Blues – Joe Bonamassa

I am so sorry that I’ve not been around. My mind’s been going through some changes* and I have felt incredibly blue these past few weeks. Really bad and funky. The relentless snowfall has not helped, either and I am sore all over. And we’re supposed to get another foot in a couple of days. God.

But…

Something really nice happened just the other day.

Something that has potential, the chance to get rid of some really awful feelings roiling inside me.

So I thought I would celebrate my hopeful return with you all with this beautiful song I got in Mr. Bonamassa’s newsletter.

It seemed so ridiculously appropriate.

Peace unto you all.

* (Sorry, Buddy.)

Jail Bait – Wishbone Ash

Uploaded on Oct 14, 2006

Wishbone Ash live in 71

Ah, such goodness! Really! Doesn’t get much better than Wishbone Ash…

Besides realizing that I haven’t posted a tune in a while, or much of anything, really, the actual stimulus for this one was my fabulous blues-playing brother-in-law calling me up just now from an ultra-high-tech clean room up north a ways to tell me these fellas are playing rather near here at the Towne Crier in Pawling, NY next Friday.

Sadly I can’t go due to aunt care duties and not being able to afford the $40 fee anyway due to the standard state of pennilessness. Sigh

But our jam tomorrow’s still on so far so that’ll make up for it. That’d be our Meadowbrook Drive Band.

These guys influenced many people and it is rather easy to hear why… just listen! They perform a diverse and fascinating repertoire of soaring lyrical rock tunes and great blues tunes… most interesting. Sad they didn’t really get much air play even back in the day.

If you want to keep up with them, their website is called Wishbone Ash.

Peace.

Baying At The Moon … A Cry For Help.

A strange post follows… from out of the blue… an attempt at inner peace through writing it out…

I can’t sleep. I usually can, but not tonight. It’s 6 in the morning… been up since 2:30. My mind’s racing. It always does. Always. Can’t stop it, or even slow it down. So many thoughts. Like cars on the highway, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them, all going fast, so fast. And I look at them all.

My friend Nelson’s getting help with the same thing and says it’s working. I need that same help. Need it so bad, so damn bad. And I have, for the first time, decided that I will get it.  Applying for SAGA state aid, even though they’ll hold me as a financial hostage. Awaiting the start of the second, much larger in scope therapy program. Reapplying at the hospital’s clinic.

Took some cig breaks outside as it’s warm… and cried at the end of the driveway. Short walks down the hill. Need to stop smoking tobacco, really. Thankfully, that thought at least is sinking in pretty well.

This new determination to make 2013 radically different and good is the direct result of the aftermath of what I have gone through over the past three months… something which went horribly wrong and left my heart and soul ripped right in half. That ripping overwhelmed me as it was the very manifestation of my inexperience and fears in living life.

My wonderful loving friends, who in my long-standing despair had not been called or visited in so very long, showed their true colors and helped me see clearly what had been happening in those months… and long before… and I have thus been able to cope and return to a place of relative calm. I thank God for them and love them dearly. One has suggested that I write up this experience and told of the healing and mental organization that will come of doing that. This post is somewhat of a preamble to that task… I think I should do it.

I am so alone; have been since the year dot. If only there was someone to love, someone to hold, to share life with, someone to help ease the pain. Someone who… in her heart… truly wants to be that person.

I don’t know how to find such a person. Not a clue.

When that last sentence got typed, I finally felt tired, very tired and fell asleep in the chair. Awoke at 8 and laid down. Up at 10:30, checked on my aunt and walked down the hill to Mario’s to get some egg, cheese and bacon sandwiches. Someone had taken a tear-off from my web design poster there. No one has contacted me, even from the last one. Saddens me. I think this one’s slightly better after editing. We’ll see, eh?

I’d been pacing and pacing and pacing, trying with no success to keep the angst down, puttering with no real aim and going outside as mentioned to feel the cool air. Nothing was working, not even music so I typed the blurb above. It did help. I hope you can forgive this deviation from WATT’s norm.

Taking comfort… knowing that this will be the start of inner peace and healing, a mere 50 years late.

I take comfort in you readers, too. You make the world seem that much less lonely. Thank you.

Peace to you.

Aftermath – Heartache

Oh, God… I shouldn’t have played this just now… it made me cry…

Uploaded on Oct 13, 2010

Peter Rowan, Tony Rice, Bryn Davies, and Sharon Gilchrist perform “Midnight Moonlight” on 3/26/2005, Live Oak, FL at Suwannee Springfest. Brought to you by Less Than Face Productions….

So what did I do? Played this one… sigh… letting go…

Uploaded on Feb 15, 2008

Live from Suwanee, FL

But I will be alright. I will. Really.

I have learned so much… and it’s hurt… so bad.

Only time will heal this one, but, it’s getting easier.

Peace.

Had To Cry Today – Joe Bonamassa

Time for some music… time for The Blues.

Uploaded by AjejeAlex on Apr 14, 2009

New album “DUST BOWL”: FREE Downloadhttp://jbonamassa.com/youtube/dustbowl/

I love the blues.

It just does something to me.

Joe Bonamassa certainly has a handle on them, a really good feel for it, as exemplified in the artistry displayed in this wonderful piece. I like the way it builds up to the meat of the matter. Very cool,

Last night was filled with the blues after I put my liege to bed, kicked off by my friend Regan Lee posting some great stuff on Facebook… Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimi, Francine Reed, Koko Taylor and my hero Peter Green…

So good for the soul. The title of this song happens a heck of a lot around here and this musical form brings me peace.

Fully on par with the High Lonesome sound of good bluegrass, which can do likewise.

I’m the deeply retrospective and reflecting type, don’tcha know…

I tried that download link, by the way. I am not sure it’s still active. A proper page opens, but it then shows an error when you put your email in and click it. Then again, I note that this was uploaded 3 years ago… so, yeah.

Peace.

Shady Grove – Doc Watson and David Holt

In Memoriam: Doc Watson 1923-2012

Uploaded by banjofolk on May 14, 2008

David Holt and Doc Watson perform the song Shady Grove on December 5, 1998 at the Valborg Theatre on the campus of Appalacian State University. David asks Doc about the song as a courting song. Doc talks about the days he courted Rosalie, his wife of 62 years.

Long past time for a musical interlude. Hadn’t seen this one before but did today on a Doc hunt at the tube. Doc is a hero since childhood, as I’ve very probably said here before. I’m digging David Holt, now, too. I think finding it today is Forteanically interesting, as a side note, since I had not been aware of David, a real master of claw hammer banjo until yesterday from a Deering Banjo email. Hmm.

I tend to hold this song in my mind for a reason that is strikingly similar to it’s significance to Doc. She likes metal, though. Sigh.

At any rate, the tubular Doc search of a little while ago was initiated by the following…

I heard this awful news today via my friend Mike Hughes, who saw this article in the New York Times, in Arts Beat.

May 25, 2012, 8:57 AM

Doc Watson in Critical Condition After Fall

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

Doc Watson, the virtuoso folk guitarist, remained in critical condition at a North Carolina hospital on Friday after undergoing surgery to remove a blockage in his colon, his longtime manager, Mitch Greenhill, said.

“His condition remains critical but he’s better,” Mr. Greenhill said. “He’s in the intensive care unit and he’s probably going to be there for a while.”

Mr. Watson, who is 89, became ill and fell down at at his home in the hamlet of Deep Gap earlier in the week. He was taken to a hospital in nearby Boone, but doctors there determined he needed surgery and sent him to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where he underwent abdominal surgery on Thursday, Mr. Greenhill said.

Mr. Watson, who is blind, is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists and singers the American folk tradition has ever produced, a master not only of bluegrass flat-picking but also of alternating-bass finger-picking styles. He has won seven Grammy Awards and was presented the National Medal of the Arts for his contributions to American Music. Among his hits are “Deep River Blues” and “Windy and Warm.” He also founded Merlefest, an annual gathering of folk musicians in North Wilkesboro, N.C., named after his son, a musician who died in a tractor accident in 1985.

Doc, Sir, you’re not done yet, so get well soonest, yes?

Peace.

Shotgun – Hollowbelly. Plus, Shane Speal on CBGs!

Uploaded by H0LL0WBELLY on May 29, 2010

Shotgun – taken from the new album ‘Punk Northern and Blue.’ Available internationally from cdbaby and soon at itunes/rhapsody/napster/amazon and all those kinda places…

Ah, the memories.

Decidedly non-fancy ones, I’m afraid, but they are mine. Hat tip to my dear friend Bluesstringer for turning me on to an article about guitars made out of cigar boxes. Yep, three stringed cigar box guitars. CBG for short. I had not been aware of them and am hence mightily impressed! The Guitar World article was accompanied by this video of punkblues band Hollowbelly (who impress me, too!) which features one of these, along with footage of a recording studio session using a wonderful old TEAC A-3340. Ahhh… You really could make a record on one of those babies.

I like this punkblues type of blues… really excellent!

A third impression was the article stating that one of these CBGs could be built for $25 Yankee. In the other accompanying and excellent video cigar box guitar expert Shane Speal, the world’s foremost master of the cigar box guitar says it can be done for ten!

Here’s that other vid…

Published on Apr 10, 2012 by InsurrectionRex

For more info or to hear Speal’s music, go to www.ShaneSpeal.com
In this video: Learn some of Speal’s most common tunings for the 3-string cigar box guitar.

Yowza!

Just might have to make me one these thingies… ha! Got the socket already!

Peace.

Long John – Lightning – An Old Song, Sung By A Chain Gang. The Blues, Indeed.

Uploaded by abanks47 on Jun 20, 2009

Old Song Lightning from a chain gang

 

If this doesn’t define The Blues, I don’t know what would.

I believe that the chain gang is an ongoing part of southern history and perhaps elsewhere, although I would hope it’s not quite as horrific as it was when this was recorded. I could be wrong about the conditions, I guess.

Not much to go on in the description. It gives the title as Lightning, but methinks it should be Long John, no?

Man, this is just sad.

I bet a lot of them were innocent.

Sigh.

Peace.

The Black Keys – She’s Long Gone

Just a little musical interlude. Superb blues talent. Simply delicious.

Peace.