April 30, 2022

Jelly Roll Kings - Off Yonder Wall (1971/1997)

Princes of the electric Delta blues

Arkansas wins 2 to 1 against Mississippi with this amazing album by an amazing trio ! Frost and Carr were born in Arkansas, Johnson being the sole Mississippian by birth. But all three have the soul of the Delta in their music even if the album was recorded in Louisiana. A nice little geographical trip around the Golden Triangle of the blues ! (see map below)

Carr was born Samuel Lee McCollum in 1926 and actually was the natural son of Robert Lee McCollum better known as bluesman Robert Nighthawk. He was adopted as a baby by the Carr family from Arkansas, in this other Delta-like fertile plain just across the Mississippi river on the west bank.

Frank Frost

Frank Otis Frost was born in 1936 or 1938 probably in Patterson, in north-east Arkansas, but left at age 15 for St Louis where a few years later he met and joined Carr and Nighthawk, touring with them as guitarist, them joining Sonny Boy Williamson II band for several years, learning to play harmonica with the boss. Later he rejoined Carr and they played together until the early 1960s.

Jack N. Johnson known as "Big Jack" Johnson was born in 1939 or 1940 in Lambert, Mississippi, some 20 km east of Clarksdale. He started to play music with his father Ellis Johnson who was a cotton sharecropper, and later with different local musicians, adopting the electric guitar in his late teens. He was also nicknamed "The Oil Man", because of his day job as a truck driver for Shell Oil, and later played with a band baptized The Oilers.

Big Jack Johnson
Johnson met Frost and Carr, who had been playing together for several years, in Clarksdale in 1962. The three musicians formed a trio band. Here things get a bit obscure : some information state that this band was baptized the Jelly Roll Kings from the beginning; others say the band's name was the Night Hawks (nothing to do with Jimmy Thackery's ex-band), and that it was Michael Frank, founder of Earwig Music Records, who invited them to record as the Jelly Roll Kings in 1979. The problem is that "Off Yonder Wall" was recorded at Christmas 1970 and originally released the following year under the name Jelly Roll Kings by the small independent label Ahura Mazda Records !

Nevertheless, Night Hawks or Jelly Roll Kings, this is a great album featuring some jewels that shouldn't be missed : the very personal cover of Crudup's "That's Alright Mama" (where did Johnson get such a guitar sound ?!); the hilarious "Have Mercy Baby" where the outstanding instrument is Johnson's ( ?) mad crying bursts; and the two deadly rolling boogies "Baby Please Don't Go" totally transformed by the incredible hypnotic shuffle rhythm of Frost on his organ and Johnson slide style, and "I'm A Big Boy Now", a killing piece of pure Hill Country style where Johnson lets his guitar get mad, seconded by the obscure Terry Jackson on additional guitar.

The other tracks are not bad either ! Johnson's incredible guitar sound, Frost amazing organ playing and Carr's clockwork drum beat show that these three knew all the tricks of their trade and were able to do anything they wanted with their instruments.

Sam Carr
Steve Leggett described perfectly their musical style on AllMusic , observing that their "music remained the same stripped-down, no-frills version of juke joint blues that reimported the Chicago blues format back to the Delta and gave it a swampy spin".

Maybe were they Jelly Roll Kings, but most of all they were princes of electric Delta country blues, setting a path for many bluesmen to come. I use the past tense because all three have disappeared, but fortunately not before each put out interesting post-JRK albums : Frost died in 1999, Carr in 2009, and Johnson in 2011. ■

Some Jelly Roll (Kings or not) albums (audio)

● Frank Frost  - Jelly Roll Blues (1991) : https://youtu.be/MYqqWOljxZ0
→ 01. My back scratcher. 02. Never live me at home. 03. Harpin' on it. 04. Things you do. 05. Feel good babe. 06. Pocket full of money. 07. Ride with your daddy tonight. 08. Got my mojo working. 09. Harp and soul. 10. Didn't mean no harm. 11. Pretty baby. 12. Five long years. 13. Janie on my mind.
● Jelly Roll Kings - Rockin' the Juke Joint Down (1993) : https://youtu.be/E6BFlqd75Ew
→ Frank Frost : harmonica, organ, piano, vocals on #1, 4, 6, 7, 10 & 14.Big Jack Johnson : guitar vocals on #2, 8, 10 & 12). Sam Carr : drums.
Time code: 0:00 I Didn't Know, 3:56 Road Of Love, 8:26 Soul Love, 11:30 Mighty Long Time, 15:28 Honeydrippin' Boogie, 20:13 Something On Your Mind, 24:44 Jelly Roll King, 27:01 Catfish Blues, 30:52 Cleo's Back, 35:26 Slop Jar Blues, 37:39 Jelly Roll Stroll, 40:03 Have Mercy Baby, 44:10 Sunshine Twist (You Are My Sunshine), 46:30 Just A Dream (Just A Feeling), 51:37 Burnt Biscuits.

● Frank Frost & Sam Carr - The Jelly Roll Kings (1999) : https://youtu.be/b0Q5xZZih9I
→ Frank Frost  : lead vocal, harp, piano. Sam Carr : drums, lead vocal. Fred James : guitar, bass.
01. Lets Go Out Tonight 3:02 - 02. It's Cold Outdoors 4:07 - 03. Jelly Roll Kings 2:35 - 04. Love I Have Is True 3:01 - 05. Helena Hop 3:22 - 06. Sittin' On Daddy's Knee 4:41 - 07. You Took All My Dough 2:51 - 08. Baby Please 4:39 - 09. Mess Around 4:07 - 10. Will It Be You 4:28 - 11. Owl Head Woman 3:45 - 12. Done With Me 2:16

● Frank Frost & Sam Carr - The Last Of The Jelly Roll Kings (2007) : https://youtu.be/lxo1bdTWSNM
01. Better Take It Slow 3:12, 02. Hey Baby 5:13, 03. Keep Things Right 3:16, 04. Done With You 3:20, 05. Owl Head Woman Part 2 3:53, 06. Don't Do That 5:32, 07. Jelly Roll King 2:37, 08. Rock Me Baby 2:57, 09. Come Here Baby 2:34, 10. St. Louis Serenade 3:13, 11. How Many Times 5:14, 12. Black Cat Bone 3:08, 13. Midnight Prowler 3:55, 14. King Biscuit Blues 5:39, 15. Arkansas Shuffle 3:21.
This album is a false new one: it comprises the remaining alternate and out-takes (#1 to 10) from the 1997 sessions, originally released as The Jelly Roll Kings in 1999, and a few live tracks (#11 to 15) from the 1993 King Biscuit Blues Festival.

Live videos

► Terry "Big T" Williams talks about Sam Carr, 2020 : https://youtu.be/Js-voZgvTlw

► Jelly Roll Kings
● Live at Margaret's Blue Diamonds Lounge, Clarksdale (on a Spanish speaking TV), 1991 : https://youtu.be/U0_BmHd7QQA (from 39:30 to 1 :40 :00)
● At the King Biscuit Blues Festival, Helena (Arkansas) :
→ 1 : https://youtu.be/BSu7madedco
→ 2 : https://youtu.be/XBEMJmMOvAU


► Big Jack Johnson
● "Catfish Blues" : https://youtu.be/Hp0el4AjQro or https://youtu.be/FqmduLKdrYw
● "Daddy, When is Mama Comin' Home" : https://youtu.be/23JfvNrAGK0 or https://youtu.be/OjCdaGQJwoU
● At Buddy Guy Legend's, 1997 : https://youtu.be/7wuwEMhMtAI
● In Baltimore, 1997 : https://youtu.be/XkR-7wGV4V4
● At the Torrita Blues Fest., Torrita di Siena (Italy), 1998 : https://youtu.be/0CzMcac3tD4
● Big Jack Johnson and the Oilers at the Suoni dal Mondo Fest. (Italy), 1999 : https://youtu.be/p0EsIdO6c1o
● At the Curry Ranch, Venice (Florida), 1999 : https://youtu.be/m2D0vsqKI3E
● Big Jack Johnson and The Oilers (Christopher Dean : guitar /vocals - Maury "Hooter" Saslaff : bass - Chet Woodward : drums - Dick Lourie : sax) at The Big Easy, Portland (Maine), 1997 : https://youtu.be/TcLPrHenWG8
● Big Jack Johnson and The Oilers (Christopher Dean : guitar/vocals, Hooter Saslaff : bass, Dale Wise : drums), Youngstown (Ohio), 1998 : https://youtu.be/eABoo3hIak0
● Accepting a new Gibson 335 from Morgan Freeman at the Red's Lounge Juke Joint, Clarksdale : https://youtu.be/IsfzbPi3GLE & https://youtu.be/1nqXO4263HQ
● In Lancaster (Pennsylvania), 2008 :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/oN3LuVjUuA0
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/zIVqsXH4iJk

► Frank Frost and/or Sam Carr


Sam Carr
● Frank Frost & Sam Carr at the King Biscuit Blues Fest., 1995 :
→ 1995 : https://youtu.be/mIIXJtYSvoc
→ Date unknown : https://youtu.be/n9z7f-KDd-g or https://youtu.be/CXqxPYwByS4

● Frank Frost, Sam Carr & T-Model Ford, Arkansas State University, 1995 : https://youtu.be/gB4T-6Upbd0

Frank Frost
● Frank Frost at the Chicago Blues Festival, 1997 :
→ 1 : https://youtu.be/BlxSqH2Z-Vg
→ 2 : https://youtu.be/XsuQAg9MtSw



The Golden Triangle of the blues

Frank Frost's grave

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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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