John Paul's Flying Circus: I Wish You Would

This is my old buddy John Paul Drum from Kansas City Missouri playing at BB's Lawnside BarBQ in KCMO.  I played with John when he had the Hellhounds back in the late 80s.  Also playing with John is another old friend of mine Bill Dye on guitar.  John carries on the great tradition of blues harmonica players that have called Kansas City home.  From the late great Provine Hatch, to Lee McBee, to Mo Paul, and Trashmouth Tom Baker.  No doubt I am missing someone, because their were a lot of great ones down their in the 80s.  Enjoy some classic John Paul Drum.

Provine "Little" Hatch: Strange Things Happen

The late great Provine "little" Hatch from Kansas City playing at Nightmoves.  Not sure what year, but it had to be awhile back since Nightmoves has been gone for years.  I was lucky enough to jam with Little Hatch a couple of times over the years in KC.   He was one of the all time great Bluesmen of KC.  Enjoy.

Big Joe Turner: Low Down Dog

Kansas City Bluesman Big Joe Turner doing some Kansas City Jump blues!

TJ Hooker: Get Your Money Right

This is a great video from T J Hooker. This was shot on the corner of the legendary 18th and Vine in Kansas City Missouri. It is great to see Kansas City blues back on the map! I worked a block away from there at the old Attucks Elementary school back in 1989-90. I used to take the kids out to the playground and we would draw what was left of the old business district. I must say that the place looks a lot better today than it did when I was down there.

I also have to say that CDS records is really doing a great job releasing a ton of great artists young and old. These guys are working overtime to save the blues! Do yourself a favor and buy three or four of their great cds! Click HERE to check out the online store.

Kansas City Internet Blues Station Wins An Award!

Cool news! Now that I know they are on the net I will listen to them!!!

Press Release – Blues Hall of Fame Recognition of Kansas City Online Radio

Aug 5, 2008

For Immediate Release

Kansas City Online Radio www.kconlineradio.com been recognized and inducted by the Blues Hall of Fame® as a “Great Blues Radio Station”.

The Blues Hall of Fame ® is a non-profit International Organization of Performing Blues Artists and Friends, under The National Heritage Foundation.

As a Pioneer in the new media of Internet radio, Kansas City Online Radio is demonstrating that professional and entertaining radio is possible outside traditional terrestrial radio.

Broadcasting Independent Blues & Blues-Rock Music, KCOnlineRadio.com focus on artist who cannot be heard in the mainstream media. KCOnlineRadio.com show lineup includes Mark Kerr’s Blues Nation, The Texas Blues Café, The Road Rash Blues Show, The Big Break, and K.C.O.R.’s Afternoon Show.

In addition Kansas City Online Radio offers a variety of Kansas City Based “Live” and Interactive Talk/Interview Shows, including Journeys with Rebecca, Up All Night with Mac and Travis, and The Mick Shane Rock Show.

All Work Hour programming is Office Safe, with an adult edge during the late evening and night.

Kansas City Online Radio’s website is www.kconlineradio.com

CONTACT: Troy Schell

manager@kconlineradio.com

Rebecca Jernigan

rebecca@journeyswithrebecca.com

Big Joe Williams, And Count Basie: Going To Chicago

Big Joe is one of those under-rated blues singers. I am not sure how the jazz folks feel about him, but Joe and a lot of the Kansas City style bluesmen, and women, seemed to be less noticed among the blues fans than the more recognized Chicago,Delta, and Memphis blues artists. Big Joe Williams had a smooth voice, and easily moved from jazz to blues. This video is of him and Count Basie performing a song made popular by Count's first vocalist Jimmy "5x5" Rushing, called Going To Chicago.

Going to Chicago
Uploaded by icedrum

Artist Of The Week: Big Joe Turner

Big Joe Turner may have left Kansas City at his peak, but there is no doubt that his heart was always in KC. Big Joe became a legend performing down on Vine Street. His performances at the Sunset Club were legendary. It is said that before the show Big Joe, who was also the bartender would step outside the club and start to sing. Hs voice was so loud that everyone on the strip could hear him sing, and knew to start heading down to the club to hear him and piano man, "Roll'em" Pete Johnson. Big Joe had a lot of success in R&B, and jump blues, but later on he also had hits during the Rock & Roll era. To watch Big Joe in action just check out the videos on the left side of the blog powered by Youtube.

Rich Berry Interview

Kansas City Bluesman Rich Berry is interviewed in the St Joe News. It is a short article, but anything about a local Kansas City bluesman is worth reading:-) Click HERE to read all about it.

Artist Of The Week: Junior Wells

The artist of the week is the great Junior Wells. Wells was a tremendous harp player that got his start sitting in with Muddy Waters. Wells, and Buddy Guy played together a lot over the years, and were known as the original blues brothers. When I lived in Kansas City and played with John Paul and the Hellhounds, we opened for Wells at the Grand Emporium. Between our show and his I went backstage with John and we met Junior Wells. What amazed me is how nice Junior was to us, and although he had only met John Paul a few times over the years he treated him like his best friend. It was also cool to watch him drink his vodka like water! Yikes! The man had a tremendous tolerance for alcohol, because he polished off the bottle got a new one and went on stage and blew away the crowd.

Trampled Underfoot

Here is a video Kansas City's Trampled Underfoot performing at the IBC. I feel really old watching these guys play, because I swear they were just little kids the last time I saw them:-) Congratulations, and thanks for putting Kansas City Blues back on the map!!!!!

Cotton Candy: My Man Dont Love Me

I try not to repost the same video, but in this case I am since I want people to see Cotton Candy without trying to dig through the site. This is a great video of Cotton Candy Washington performing at Lindsy's Lawnside BBQ in Kansas City Missouri. This is the only video I have found of her performing so if you missed it the first time around please give it another try. God bless ya Cotton we will miss you.

Cotton Candy RIP

Kansas City blues icon Cotton Candy Washington died of complications of a stroke early Christmas morning. Cotton was a fun blues singer who always loved singing songs with double meanings. I was lucky to jam with her quite often at the Roxy in Overland Park Kansas. She was a riot to play for and after I left town she and her band won the KC blues challenge twice, and place third in the nation in Memphis after one of those victories. To read more about Cotton Click HERE. Her website is still up HERE, it does have a nice bio that she wrote about herself there so check it out.

Artist Of The Week: Albert Collins

This weeks artist of the week is the Iceman himself, Albert Collins. Collins also was known as the master of the Telecaster. Collins was a great guitar player who was starting to break on to the national scene when he tragically died of Cancer. I was looking at his bio, and I was surprised to learn that he lived in Kansas City for a couple of years in the mid 60s. Unfortunately for Collins, and Kansas City, the recording studios that had existed in Kc's heyday were gone, and he moved on. To check out some of the Iceman's blues videos check out the video box on the left side of the blog.

Jimmy Rushing: Kc Style Blues Medley

A nice medley of KC Style blues sung by Jimmy Rushing.

Elvin Bishop Interview

A nice short interview with Elvin Bishop from the Kansas City Star. Bishop will be part of the blues Paw a Looza show in Kansas City. Also appearing are Little Ed and the Blues Imperials, and Blues Caravan. Read the interview HERE.

The schedule for Saturday from the Kansas City Star.

The first Blues-a-Paw-Looza, a benefit for Wayside Waifs and the Kansas City Blues Society, begins at 3 p.m. Saturday at 3901 Martha Truman Road. Satellite parking and a shuttle service will be available. The schedule: Mike Elrod’s Blues All-Stars, 3-3:45 p.m.; the Blues Caravan, 4-6 p.m.; Lil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials, 6:30-8 p.m.; and Elvin Bishop, 8:30-10 p.m. Tickets are $30. For more information, visit waysidewaifs.org or call 816-761-8151.

Cotton Candy: You Don't Love Me

The original Cotton Candy from Kansas City Missouri. I was lucky enough to sit in and jam with her when she would show up at the Roxy Bar And Grill on Sunday Nights. The Roxy had this amazing jam session that was run by Oliver Reilly and the Blues Notions, and every Sunday night it was usually packed with blues fans and jammers. She was quite the character back then. She had this song about a dentist,, well, ah hmmmmmmmm, ah,, well use your own imagination:-)

This was filmed also at BB's Lawnside BBQ, which is owned by the legendary Kansas City blues DJ, Lindsey Shannon.

Blues Fundraiser In Western Wyndott County

People who live in the Kansas City area know about Tonganoxie, a small town located west of Kansas City Kansas. I believe it is where the Blue river splits, they call it the Tonganoxie split, and local weather lore says that tornadoes follow the split and head south of Kansas City. Anyway, some local Kansas City bands will perform at the Tonganoxie VFW park on Saturday to raise money for Big Brother, and Big Sister. Not only will there be blues, but also BBQ provided by Bum Steer of Lawrence Kansas. It looks like the headliner is Fast Johnny Ricker, who became very popular in KC after I left. Lonnie Ray Blues Band will be there as well as two other bands. I played with Lonnie Ray a couple of times, once at the Point. Lonnie is a great guitar player, so you need to check him out. For more info Click HERE.

Bangkok Blues

Hmmmmmmmm, the blues in Bangkok. (I'll let you make your own joke) Yes, it is true blues in Bangkok Thailand. In fact, it is the second annual Bangkok Blues festival. You can read about it here in the Bangkok Post. However, what is amazing about the fest is an old friend of mine from KC is one of the featured artists. Glen Patrick is bringing his burning guitar to Thailand to play the blues. According to the article Glen visited there three years ago, and really enjoyed the place, and now he is playing the fest for the second year in a row. I think the best memory I have of Glen was the weekend that Stevie Ray Vaughn died. Glen showed up at the Roxy for the legendary Sunday night blues jam. He got up and played a ton of Stevie Ray songs in tribute to him, and it was amazing. Not a dry eye in the house. Glen tore it up, and we all felt both grief, and joy that Stevie had graced us with such great music. Glen was the man that night, and to be honest most nights:-) To see and hear more of Glen Patrick click here for his myspace page.

Eddie Cleanhead Vinson

A nice Delmark re-release of Eddie Cleanhead Vinson's Kidney Stew is Fine is reviewed here. This sounds like a great disk. It features Eddie Cleanhead Vinson on vocals and sax, plus T-Bone Walker on guitar, and Jay McShann on piano. This is one disk I will be on the look out for.

Artist of the Week Jimmy Rushing

Artist of the Week is Jimmy Rushing. Jimmy's fame came from singing with the legendary Count Basie. Of the videos below it looks like the second one is from the Newport jazz festival. I have been trying to post it for three weeks. You need to watch the first few minutes before Jimmy comes up to sing Going to Chicago, which is a song the our own Jimmy Pryor used to love to sing. Of course the first few minutes of the Newport footage is that of the mellow blues singer Big Joe Williams. (not to be confused with the guitar player Big Joe Williams) I have also noticed that Google is slowly taking over the video duties from Youtube, so the small videos from the sidebar may come from either Google, or youtube.