April 28, 2022

Boo Boo Davis - East St Louis (1999)

► The album

Boo Boo... Boo Boo... boogie

Heavy pounding beat halfway between Delta, Memphis and Chicago blues, sometimes as hypnotic as Hill Country style, wild raw hoarse blues-shouter voice inherited from the cotton fields hollers which reminds Howlin' Wolf, here is Boo Boo Davis !

Born in 1943 in the Delta town of Drew, a few miles south of the sinister Parchman Farm penitentiary, in a cotton farming family, Davis started to bang on lard cans, too poor to afford a drum set. He rambled around the Delta playing in the family band led by his multi-instrumentist father, before moving north to St Louis when he was about twenty and making a name for himself there, playing drums in Doc Terry's band, then with Little Aaron, before setting up his own band with two of his brothers in 1972.

Davis had to wait to be 56 to record this album, his first. And as none is a prophet in his own land, it was recorded in Holland for a Dutch label but sounds as raw and powerful as a Saturday night show in an East St. Louis blues club which is exactly what Davis did every week-end for almost twenty years at Tabby’s Red Room, precisely in East St. Louis, with his brother as the Davis Brothers Band.
Davis' blues shake, rattle and roll like only a drummer can do : the rocking groove goes crescendo throughout the album, it's hot and irresistible, and what a voice the guy has ! A real old school blues shouter  who could easily overcome a mike failure and be heard clearly from the remote corner of a club over the ambient noise of stomping feet on the dance floor, customers' shouting and clinking bottles.

Davis sings his own material, except one song from Sam Cooke and one co-signed with Little Aaron, extremely well backed by a gang of not very famous but top musicians, except the great Arthur Williams on harmonica : the obscure but appealing Larry Griffin on guitar (hear him on "I Had A Dream" !), the excellent Bob Lohr on piano and the equally excellent Dutch organist Roel Spanjers, particularly good on "Ice Storm", and the solid Greg Edick who keeps a classic but heavy clockwork swing on bass.
Not a single one of these twelve tracks is of lower quality though a few are standing out. Leaning on the rhythmical foundations set by the bass and Davis' drums, illuminated by the piano-harmonica-guitar threesome and Davis incredible vocals, the show (though it's not a live album) starts with the solid boogie "Sad Thing" followed by the pounding "We're In Hell".
Then comes the excellent cover of Sam Cooke's "Somebody Have Mercy"; "Hard Times" sung with a Howlin' Wolfesque voice; the title song "East St Louis" shouted over the piano with harmonica and excellent guitar lines; the outstanding "Ice Storm", certainly the highlight of the album, with Davis incredible from-beyond-the-grave roaring voice and the superb organ work of Roel Spanjers; the seriously jumping boogie "Talkin' 'Bout My Dogs", another highlight, with Williams' great harmonica interventions; "Ain't Got No Problems", a heavy piano driven piece; the long "What Makes A Fool Fall In Love" again featuring nice piano and Willams' great harmonica style; "Walk That Walk" where Larry Griffin shows his skill on slide steel guitar; "I Had A Dream" dominated by Larry Griffin's guitar, definitely a very interesting musician, and Roel Spanjers' organ; and finally the rocking Hill Country-like boogie "Walk On Tall", the third highlight of this really exciting album.

The whole thing sounds as unsophisticated as it would in a smoky and booze smelling country juke-joint, as hot and grooving as a blues club band eager to see the people dance until exhaustion, as down-home and roots as the Mississippi Delta cotton pickers hollering songs. Absolutely great vintage blues on a great album ! ■


Unfortunately there isn't many interesting good quality videos of Boo Boo Davis live and none in US festivals or clubs neither showing him play drums. Most of the following ones are from his numerous shows across Europe and feature his band composed of Dutch musicians Jan Mittendorp (head of Black & Tan Records) on guitar and John Gerritse on drums.


Gerritse, Davis & Mittendorp
Report & interview
● Report about Davis and his band on Serbian TV : https://youtu.be/-8xicbOyzGc
● Soundcheck before show at the Parkbühne Biesdorf in Berlin, 2014 : https://youtu.be/jqoWmH0VN-A

 From the album
● "Ice storm"
→ BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups club, St Louis, 2020 : https://youtu.be/exL4X9DEpJA
→ Madrid, 2015 : https://youtu.be/5Kg9udZsIso
→ Sweden, 2009 : https://youtu.be/hD8SVRa7Hdc
● Curiosiy : "Walk on Tall" miXendorp (Jan Mittendorp) remix : https://youtu.be/7V7PNfFVBGE

Live in Europe
● At the "Boite à Musiques", Wattrelos (northern France), 2019 :
● At the Salason Club, Cangas (Spain), 2017 :
→ "Watch Yourself" : https://youtu.be/hqOKcm_jZlg
→ "Lonely All By Myself" : https://youtu.be/6S89pQO7SEA
● In Valles-Asturias (Spain), 2016 : https://youtu.be/ObCKueUGdhA
● At the Enclave de Agua Fest., Spain, 2016 : https://youtu.be/YzJ1rNy2Pls
● In the Cafe Miles, Amersfoort (Holland), 2016 :
● In Ulft (Holland), 2015 : https://youtu.be/CG8abbD-LnY
● Unknow location, 2013 (very unsteady image & poor sound quality) :
● At the Life I Live Fest, Den Haag (Holland), 2012 : https://youtu.be/hqjoeSzRA10
● At the Nautilus Club. Kaunas (Lithuania), 2010 : https://youtu.be/MnrMNOqdnzE
● In Saarbrücken (Germany), 2009 : https://youtu.be/CjTPydh9lok
● In Belgium, 2008 : https://youtu.be/XUBzUnIKH9g
 
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April 27, 2022

Harry Manx - Road Ragas (Live) (2003/2004)

► The album

Radjasthanissippi blues

Rajasthanissippi blues, ragassippi blues, hindustanissippi blues, mysticssippi blues, whatever you call it, Manx has offered us a superb live testimony of his unique blend of western folk and country blues with eastern hindustani traditional raga music. All this wouldn't have been possible if Manx hadn't been a tireless globe-trotter and discovered in India a strange instrument : the Mohan Veena, a 20-string guitar-sitar hybrid invented by Rajasthani master musician Vishwamohan Bhatt (read below).

Born in 1955 on the Isle of Man, in the northern Irish Sea halfway between England and Northern Ireland, his family migrated to Ontario (Canada) when he was still a child. From 16 or 17, he started to make his way in the sound business until finally becoming the sound man at the famous Toronto blues club El Mocambo, where he worked with many musicians.

At 20, himself a guitarist and singer, he embarked for Paris (France) where he was busking as a one-man band to make a living, also traveling to different European countries, before making the jump to Japan in the mid-1980s where he spent several years. It is in Japan that he heard the music of one Vishwamohan Bhatt for the first time on a record. Fascinated by this music, he left for India, looking for the pandit (master) until as he tells in the album, in the middle of one 1992 night, he finally knocked at Bhatt's door.

Vishwamohan Bhatt
He stayed with him five years ! He could at last set his eyes on the unique instrument that was going to change his life, the Mohan Veena, and learned how to use it with the pandit's son, Salil Bhatt.
"One of Bhatt's former western students had left his guitar by his house, Manx tells. Bhatt learned how to play it and decided to add 14 extra "sympathetic" strings to produce a richer and fuller sound", adding that his own decision to make blues meet classical Indian music came first as a fun thing while exercising to mix different musical genre with his master.

In 2000, after a detour stay in Brazil, his wife's birth country, he returned to Canada, settled down on an island off Vancouver, and prepared a demo for a potential album which finally came out in 2001.

"Road Ragas", recorded live at The Basement in Sydney (Australia) in 2003 and released in 2004, is his third solo album. It features live versions of songs from his first and second albums, a new original ("Call It The Blues") and three covers of Willy Dixon ("Spoonful") or traditionals ("Take This Hammer" and "Sitting On Top Of The World"). Manx plays the Mohan Veena ("the heavy artillery" as he calls it), the slide and steel guitar, playing the three of them on his lap, the 6-string banjo (an instrument with "bad reputation", jokingly comments Manx), harmonica and stomp box.

The live sound quality is great (though the bass sounds volume could have been lowered a bit), Manx's skills on his instruments are faultless as is his singing, and the guy is cool as can be on stage (a Zen attitude that he certainly caught in Japan). From the opening "Bring That Thing" that introduces exotic raga sounds he manages to give to his steel guitar slide technique, the whole album is gently swinging, taking the listener from the fertile Mississippi Delta plains to the desert stretches of Rajasthan.

Manx music is primarily blues but extends to folk ("Don't Forget To Miss Me", "Coat Of Mail") and gospel ("Only Then Will Your House Be Blessed", "Take This Hammer").
Of course some tracks stand out : Manx raga instrumental "Nat Bhariav" on the Mohan Veena, his raga/blues medley "The Gist Of Madhuvanti/The Thrill Is Gone" on the 6-string banjo which he makes sounding very Indian, his very Hindustani version of "Spoonful" on the Mohan Veena, his Indian-tinged bluegrass banjo version of "Sitting On Top Of The World" and his groovy cover of Muddy Waters' "Can't Be Satisfied".
Undoubtedly a must-have album ! ■

The Mohan Veena
● It is a highly modified archtop guitar with 19 strings: three melody strings and four drone strings coming out of the peg heads, and 12 sympathetic strings mounted to a piece of wood added to the side of the neck. The melody strings are on the treble side of the neck, and the drone strings are on the bass side. The drone strings are lower in height than the melody strings to allow for unrestricted playing of the melody strings. The sympathetic strings run underneath the melody and drone strings to yet another level in the bridge. They sound without being directly plucked by simple resonance of their fundamental or harmonic frequencies when the "active" strings are played.
Salil Bhatt
A gourd (tumba) is often screwed to the back of the neck top to produce improved sound sustain and resonance. Manx one being amplified doesn't need it. Like a slide guitar, the instrument is held on the lap and played with a metal bar.
The Mohan Veena is under tremendous tension : the total strings pull is over 250 kg. It is due to this high tension that the sympathetic strings ring out and strengthen each note played. This is a loud instrument needing low amplification.

● In February 2014, Manx precious instrument was stolen in the Chicago O'Hare airport. Fortunately the thief was stupid enough to return to the same place the next day to steal more luggage and had the bad surprise to see the police suddenly surround him ! He was immediately handcuffed and escorted to the station where he told them where the instrument was. Fortunately.


Harry Manx Web site : https://harrymanx.com

Interviews
● In Quebec, February 2022 : https://youtu.be/09TTJrzAypw
● At the Montreal International Jazz Festival, 2015 : https://youtu.be/PvOXrNykmsA
● At the Kitchener Blues Festival, Canada, 2012 : https://youtu.be/GbOXFaxdrfg

Live songs from the album
● "Baby Please Don't Go" (with Steve Marriner on harmonica) : https://youtu.be/frG71GruXng or https://youtu.be/GENCLINzeFA or https://youtu.be/P0JImUgNDoc
● "Don't Forget To Miss Me" : https://youtu.be/usR5zbNe0A4 or https://youtu.be/bNFFiAJFlyA
● "The Gist of Madhuvanti / Voodoo Child / The Thrill Is Gone" (with Clayton Doley : Hammond Organ - Yeshe Reiners : Kamele Ngoni, Mbira - Steve Marriner : harmonica - Kiran Ahlawalia : vocals) : https://youtu.be/8CHPaI0vJIY
● "Spoonful" (with Clayton Doley on organ and Brent Shindel on electric guitar) :  https://youtu.be/mn17wun1FEc

Live concerts
● At the Birdland, Hamburg (Germany), 2018 : https://youtu.be/5Jam9zXJ5ig & https://youtu.be/gc6IUvzZkUY
● With German musician Richard Bargel, Koln (Germany), 2018 : https://youtu.be/OliQ0XZqgQ4
● At the Emmanuel United Church in Cowansville (Quebec), 2017 : https://youtu.be/hVESfUOFXXY
● At the "Auberge de La Fascine", Isle-aux-Coudres (Quebec) :
● In Bendigo (Australia), 2016 :
● On the late "Drew Marshall Show" (Canada), 2015 : https://youtu.be/zfSQIIXRtCs
● With guitarist G.R. Gritt, 2014 : https://youtu.be/M3VmMp3GVnE
"Voodoo Child " (with Kevin Breit on guitar & Clayton Dloey on keyboards), Nelson (British Columbia, Canada), 2014 : https://youtu.be/0wQU0rRnNGQ
● Show & chat in Adelaide (Australia),  2013  :
→ with German world music multi-instrumentist  Yeshe Reiners : https://youtu.be/feLhbEwMHug
● At the Avignon Blues Festival in France), 2012 : https://youtu.be/HNS4f4oVJyI
● At the Q-bus Cub, Leiden (Holland), 2011 : https://youtu.be/NqrRngyH2xk
● With David Lindley, Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), 2011 : https://youtu.be/kgnKKNoMxlA
● In Sturgeon Bay (Wisconsin), 2010 :
● Live version of the J.J. Cale's "Tijuana", Capilano University (Vancouver), 2010 : https://youtu.be/l4fWmV64-QA
● "Crazy Love", Sydney, 2010 : https://youtu.be/iScMAUb6gZc
● "Voodoo Child" Sydney, 2010 : https://youtu.be/AH54_aWMgak
● With keyboardist Michael Kaeshammer in Belgium, 2007 : https://youtu.be/6sU1I3A7PVM
● At the Festival On The Green, Middlebury (Vermont) 2007 : https://youtu.be/03ptP5q3imY
● At the Woodford Folk Festival (Australia), 2001 : https://youtu.be/5H8tXjxDOQE

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April 25, 2022

Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band - It's Party Time! (1999)

Chubby's swamp funk

If your feet stay still while "Bernadette" is playing, you're irremediably beyond musical redemption ! This album is a highly enjoyable and dancing one, even if Chubby and his boys have evidently cast off the moorings with roots rural Zydeco to expand to a new swamp funk more urban sound, incorporating deadly bass lines and drum beat, and a very active trumpet-sax section which gives the music its clear rhythm'n'blues color, sometimes even a bit jazzy. Chubby has made his, the "adapt or disappear" biological evolution principle.

Yet he was born in July 1967, in a Creole family from Pointe-à-l'Église (Church Point, about 30 km north-west of Lafayette) deeply linked to Zydeco : his grandfather Warren Carrier, his father Roy Carrier, and his cousins Bebe and Calvin Carrier, were all renowned Zydeco musicians. So Joseph R. Carrier Jr., soon nicknamed Chubby by his grandma for his fat round cheeks, fell into Zydeco from the cradle and even before in his mother's womb. He often confessed that in his early teens he wanted to be a drummer.
So at 12 he started to play drums in his father's band, then after he learned to play it with his dad, accordion at 14, replacing him when his oil rig work prevented him to lead the band. In 1986, at just 19, he joined the Terrance Simien band, the Mallet Playboys, again as drummer and toured all over the world with them for two years and a half. In 1989, he decided to start his own band with his brothers Troy "Dikki Du" Carrier and Kevin Carrier, definitely adopting the accordion : Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band entered the Zydeco scene and soon put out their first album, "Go Zydeco Go". Twenty odd years later, their 2010 album "Zydeco Junkie" was awarded a Grammy.

Chubby Carrier is also devoted to social causes : children and education, and the fight for a smoke-free environment, which specially touches him because in May 2010, his father Roy Carrier died from lung cancer. On the educational side, he and his wife set up the "Zydeco A-Z" project, in cooperation with the Acadiana Symphony & Conservatory of Music, aimed at allowing children to learn about Zydeco origins and culture, and if possible encourage them to play an instrument (1). A similar project was launched by his former band leader Terrance Simien (2).

Zydeco is a dance music, no doubt about it, we've said it many times here. The title of the album is clear : it's party time ! A very funky party in fact. The hot feet stomping two-step "Bernadette" sets the funky rhythm'n'blues tone of the album, confirmed by the following  tracks. The horns riffs are systematic, almost taking over Chubby's accordion, the bass is throbbing hard, the drums and washboard are hammering down a tempered steel beat. If it wouldn't be for the accordion… the album could almost be filed next to James Brown in record shops !

Amede Ardoin (center)
Songs like "Funky BSB", "Zydeco All Night" or "Where Is My Woman" would well fit in this category. "I Don't Want To Leave You", sung by drummer Charles "Red" LeMark, is a pure piece of soul, and the last track, also sung by LeMark, "Keeping Me Out Of The Storm", by some musical and vocal aspects reminded me of another band, Jamaican this one : Third World, which always put a lot of R'n'B in its reggae.

Yes of course we're far from old traditional Zydeco, far from Amede Ardoin or Clifton Chenier, but wasn't Buckwheat Zydeco almost as far ? ■


(1) Zydeco A-Z : recognizing that kids today don’t have the same musical opportunities that he had, Chubby set out to find a way to educate children on Zydeco music. After a few brainstorming sessions with his wife, he started the Zydeco A-Z educational project. “I want to teach them everything about Zydeco music from A to Z. The instruments involved in Zydeco music, where Zydeco music came from, how Zydeco music got started, and give them a chance to interact with me. And then I’ll invite them to play the accordion, the washboard, the drums..." : https://youtu.be/0bLI-pJwqSg
→ A "Zydeco A-Z" workshop in 2018 : https://youtu.be/g7nfO4PnN7Q

(2) https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/04/terrance-simien-tribute-sessions-2001.html

Interviews & Documents
● A series of 12 very short videos of Chubby on different subjects (youth, nickname, family, music, band, food…) : https://www.lafayettetravel.com/explore/music/chubby-carrier/
● About his love of Zydeco music and how he was inspired to make it his musical career, 2019 : https://youtu.be/7iXOxuLegBU
● Backstage at the Baton Rouge Blues Fest. in 2015 : https://youtu.be/cNU0zOVFWkQ
● With host Linda Boudreaux on the "Extra Mile Show" :
→ around 2014 : https://youtu.be/QDicfJEWgLs
→ around 2012 : https://youtu.be/o29TkIfIjWg
● On McTVLive in 2022 : https://youtu.be/OTMDhDjhqTI
● During the Blast Furnace Blues Fest., Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), in 2011 : https://youtu.be/vbebIIY1Kec

Zydeco versus Cajun
● Chubby about the difference between Cajun and Zydeco music (audio) : https://soundcloud.com/wxpnfm/chubby-carrier
● "Zydeco Is Not Cajun Music !" : https://youtu.be/QnyZMirkZ2c
● See also our recent post about Nathan Williams : https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/04/nathan-zydeco-cha-chas-feat-michael.html

Movies
● Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band also participated in two documentary movies :
→ “Zydeco Breakfast", the story of zydeco music and the culture of French Louisiana : https://www.zydecobreakfastfilm.com
→ “Hurricane on the Bayou", a 2006 42-mn detailed account of the damage hurricane Katrina caused to coastal Louisiana wetlands and New Orleans in 2005 : https://youtu.be/61ugfR-5W9M
- Infos about the film : http://hurricaneonthebayou.com/html/index.htm
- Interview with Chubby : http://hurricaneonthebayou.com/html/music.htm#chubby

The Grammy album
● "Zydeco Junkie" (2010) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mV1eF0BLMI6s7UU_0Dog7cnwtsCM6knnw

Live videos
● At the Zydeco and Crawfish Fest. at Waterway Village, Gulf Shores (Alabama), 2022 : https://youtu.be/fUH4uexJRgg
● At the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Center, July 2021 : https://youtu.be/ha86vC1MLP4
● At The New Orleans Jazz Museum, 2021 : https://youtu.be/pCXdyheFdyI
● Live at the Focal Point in Maplewood (Missouri), for the KDHX TV program "River City Acoustic", 2020 : https://youtu.be/DIdLcPGhigc
Lenny "Fuzzy" Rankins (left)
● At the Riverhawk Music Fest. in Brooksville (Florida), 2020 : https://youtu.be/RYtXAu5gwu0 & https://youtu.be/pUKE5iuf24o
● With special guest Lenny "Fuzzy" Rankins at the San Diego Annual "Gator By The Bay" Fest., 2019 : https://youtu.be/8ccSBPzgUmg - https://youtu.be/aToivV1aBtk - https://youtu.be/wQQcCfGvGUQ
● On Lafayette (Louisiana) KADN TV, 2019 :  https://youtu.be/1vgIUZvuyVE & https://youtu.be/1JxF4jK-mHM
● At the Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City (Missouri) :
→ March 2019 : https://youtu.be/fs63PhpnIt8  | → July 2018 : https://youtu.be/8gABLHEU1As
→ July 2017 : - Set 1 : https://youtu.be/8HALDQvivaM  | - Set 2 : https://youtu.be/9KVrbM2fIBA
→ June 2017 : https://youtu.be/jb55BriaF_E
Tab Benoit (left) & Chubby
● With Tab Benoit at the Rhythms on the River Fest., Lafayette, 2018 : https://youtu.be/uCmMXsBvEy0
● With Leroy Thomas at the Feed and Seed Fest., Davenport (Iowa), 2017 : https://youtu.be/8WX7D6jaX0U
● At the Waterfront Blues Fest., Portland (Oregon), 2017 : https://youtu.be/aWj5DHzA_KY
● On "Le Rendez-vous des Cajuns" TV program, Eunice (Louisiana), 2016 : https://youtu.be/pmg2Zm6vYh8
● At the Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Festival, Simi Valley (California), 2016 : https://youtu.be/oW6VslwL2-M
● At the "Acadiens Et Creole" Fest., Lafayette, 2015 : https://youtu.be/0ks_1bbSSXA
● With "Shane the Washboard Man", Washboard Neil and the Washboard Brigade, 2015 : https://youtu.be/6u4NBsnJwRw
At the Paola Roots Fest., Paola (Kansas), 2015 :
→ Pt 1 : https://youtu.be/-OYwxF9sRwc
→ Pt 2 : https://youtu.be/zrPzAUyeIX0
● At the Louisiana Music Factory Fest., 2013 : https://youtu.be/iXbQW4jf93Y
● At the Gumbo CookOff Fest., New Iberia (Louisiana), 2012 : https://youtu.be/Iuzf3Qeywno
● At the Breaux Bridge (Louisiana) Crawfish Fest., 2016 : https://youtu.be/1eJMElazaIc & https://youtu.be/9OWbxd2plss
● On the Opelousas (Louisiana) based Acadian KDCG TV "Swamp'n'Roll" program, 2013 : https://youtu.be/pOXg6Sa6qtE
● At the Grammy Afterparty in downtown Lafayette, 2011 : https://youtu.be/cfYvqwCfqKM
● At the Creole Heritage Zydeco & Crawfish Festival, Baytown (Texas), 2012 : https://youtu.be/ucTbmjTT-go & https://youtu.be/T38jyUY626o
● At the "Festival International de Louisiane", 2011 : https://youtu.be/M5hR3bEXRR0
Tab Benoit (left) & Chubby
● With Cajun bluesman and wetlands environmental preservation activist Tab Benoit (both appear in the "Hurricane on the Bayou" film), in Houma (Louisiana), 2009 : https://youtu.be/jxiZyClk3fI
● In March 2009 : https://youtu.be/PCHvak-lqGA
● On the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, 2005 :
→ Part 1/4 : https://youtu.be/jR9MWf3utGc
→ Part 2/4 : https://youtu.be/z6rWnBj7vsk
→ Part 3/4 : https://youtu.be/bBMQKmY91tg
→ Part 4/4 : https://youtu.be/DTWOOwiZXec
● At the Girard (Illinois) Sesquicentennial celebration, 2005 : https://youtu.be/sMHF8BmKIWA

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