Mama Love's Juke Joint - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Longtime lover of the blues, I caught it young and hope never to lose it. I'm known for getting the dancing going on many a sawdust covered floor and keeping it going 'til the sun comes up (ahh, how I miss those "open 'til 4:00 am" days back in Chicago). Here are a few blues video clips that really move me. Here's a little tribute to Carey Bell (1936 - 2007). This clip is amazing footage of Carey and his son Lurrie (on guitar) live at Rosa's Lounge, Chicago, and very personal footage of Carey in an interview and playing with Lurrie in his home. This video was made by Dellmark (and appears as though it's available as a full film). The scene at Rosas is very special in that it shows real folks dancing - just the way I remember it to be back in Chicago. Carey, the big ol' blues jam up there in heaven just gained one more great player. Makes it seem like not such a bad place to go when it comes our time. Keep the angels dancing!! Another harp genius, this clip below is a wonderful live recording of James Cotton putting down the "real deal" on Slow Blues. This next video below is of John Lee Hooker recording the song and story of the floods of Tupelo, Mississippi. It's a hauntingly beautiful recording, with images eerily evocative of Katrina. Below is a late live recording of RL Burnside with "Poor Black Mattie." Seeing this clip makes me miss seeing him dearly and my heart warm and ache all at once - just the way real blues does. Big Joe Williams playing his signature tune "Baby, Please Don't Go" on his 9-string guitar. Victoria Spivey with a playful twinkle in her eyes singing "TB Blues". Willie Dixon on bass. (I wish I could post this with more volume, but sorry, you'll need to adjust to hear the lyrics properly.) Skip James singing "Crow Jane" in 1967 (two years before he died of cancer). This is what real blues is about, a way to sing about realities that are too taboo, too dark, and sometimes too dangerous to speak. Now I gotta get it back on a good foot, sexy blues. Here's Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker getting down and dirty with "I'm in the Mood". I love this clip of Bonnie saying playing this song with JL is so hot she gets "disturbed" while singing with him. Blues always makes age and illness irrelevent. Before I was old enough to go to clubs, or could even buy much of my own music, I'd take out Aretha Franklin albums from the library and listen to them for hours. I must have listened to near everything she recorded and got real curious about how to find more stuff like it. That's when I started checking out blues collections. Aretha is a big part of my "coming up" in music and dear to me for being my introduction to gospel and the blues and a world that came to mean so much to me. Here's am early 70's recording of "Dr. Feelgood". It's not the best recording, but I just gotta post her and this is one of the bluesiest clips of her that I could find. And here is great, one of a kind, Mississippi Fred McDowell preaching the blues with "Goin' Down to the River." He's my Sunday morning bluesman and my Saturday night preacher.

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My Interests

Gritty, gut-bucket, gut-wrenching, down-and-dirty Delta, down-home Chicago, and soulful mojo New Orleans swamp blues. Harp, sax, keys, washboard and raspy, gravelly vocals before all else. "Catching the spirit" on the dance floor and going 'til my feet blister.

I'd like to meet:

This page is for anyone who feels, loves and/or makes the blues: artists; players; labels; venues; festivals; tail draggers; regular folks who've known suffering, possibly overcome and celebrate it with the blues; maybe a few or even all of the above - everyone who's caught the blues and wants to share it with others and spread the love of blues to keep it pumping in all our hearts. "Tell Kudu-Crawlin' Red, tell Abyssinian Ned, Tell ol' Pistol Pete, everybody gonna meet..." tell your blues lovin' friends to come stop by Mama Love's juke joint and help me build a wonderful place for folks to get their blues on, minus the cigarette smoke, sawdust on the floor and beer getting spilled on you as you try to dance - and I know you know what I mean.

Music:

Here's the abridged "Love List of the Blues", just a few of my most favorite: Otis Spann, Howlin Wolf, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Charlie Patton, James Cotton, Edie Boyd, Elmore James, Nina Simone, Willie Dixon, Otis Rush, Son Seals, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, Kenny Barker, Eddie Clearwater, Koko Taylor, Hound Dog Taylor, Willie Mabon, Louisian Red, Slim Harpo, Snooky Pryor, Sonny Boy Williamson, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Dr. John, Henry Gray, Lazy Lester, Junior Kimbrough, North Mississippi Allstars, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, Jon Cleary, Lowell Folsun, Charlie Musselwhite, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band, Oscar and the Junk Band, and my dear Juliette Valentine.

Movies:

There are many great blues movies, but I get to give a shout out to Genghis Blues, a remarkable documentary produced by two folks from my hometown of good ol' Evanston, Illinois, Adrian and Roko Belic: www.genghisblues.com (if my say so isn't enough, their film was nominated for an academy award and won 13 film festival awards)

Television:

I traded in my tv to make room for plants. So, I'm using this space for a little press for my favorite guy on keys, David Sobel. He's playing on the song you're listening to, "Mess Around". It's a cut from the recently released CD with Little Wolf and the Hellcats, recorded with Malik "Little Wolf" Shabazz (recently awarded West Coast Blues Hall of Fame "Best Blues Vocalist 2006") and Chuck Trujillo (West Coast Blues Hall of Fame "Best Bass Player 2006"). To see who else he is playing with, his upcoming gigs or listen to more of his music, you can visit his page at www.myspace.com/davesobel or click on his pic in my top friends below.

Books:

"Proof" and "Not Fade Away: The Rock & Roll Photography of Jim Marshall" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0821223623/ref=sib_dp_pt/10 3-8303057-0058244#reader-link) and/or (www.jimmarshallvault.com/Static.aspx?Type=TargetedVaults/Ca tegory/About.htm) Jim, thank you for the incredible T-Bone Walker photo as well as the dinner and adventure at Jardiniere with your budy Jock. Your art and your company were both divine gifts I'll always treasure. Bob Dylan "Chronicles" (blues memoire), "Blues and the Poetic Spirit" by Paul Garon, "Mississippi" by Anthony Walton. "Blues and Jazz for Dummies", "Bay Area Blues", "The Blues" (Tony Russell), "Wait Until Dark" (Morris)...

Heroes:

Elmore James (my first love in the blues), Howling Wolf (teaching me that blues can be your calling, heroically handling illness, inspiring family man as well as performer and bringing me and so many people "to church" when they need it most), Nina Simone (speaking what needs to be said and singing it so they want to listen), Juliette Valentine (a voice to make angels weap) and all the bluesman who sang songs of protest for what they couldn't say.