Holiday Break

Guitars & All That Jazz is taking a holiday break. Posting will resume on Jan. 1, 2013. Best wishes for a great holiday season and a happy new year.

Joy to the World - Bianco

Harpist Gene Bianco (1927-2007) abandoned the fields of classical and jazz for easy listening in 1962 when he signed a contract with RCA Victor. Under the deal his records were sold exclusively by a record club formed by RCA and Reader's Digest.

He was billed as "The Rainbow Sound of Bianco" and was backed by a full orchestra for half a dozen high quality albums. The first of these was a holiday LP released for Christmas of '62. Below is a link to a sample track from Joy to the World.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas/Silent Night

Joy to the World appears to be the only Bianco album to appear in a digital format. Amazon is selling it as a download under the title The Rainbow Sound of Gene Bianco. Listen before buying as this may have been dubbed from vinyl.

If you own only one Gene Bianco album it probably should be Harp, Skip and Jump (1958), one of two early jazz efforts for RCA's budget Camden label. His musical partner in this swinging affair is guitarist Mundell Lowe.

Ace Cannon - 12 Saxophone Christmas Classics

Alto saxophonist Ace Cannon is best known for his work with Bill Black's Combo from 1959 to 1961 and for his '62 solo hit Tuff. Cannon had made his first recordings backing rockabbily artists on Sun Records.

Later in his career he had best-selling TV-marketed allbums with Golden Classics and The Entertainer, both recorded for the Nashville-based Gusto label.

Gusto released 12 Saxophone Christmas Classics in 2007, but the tracks were probably recorded at least a decade earlier. The other band members aren't credited. A sample track is available below.

The First Noel

12 Saxophone Christmas Classics is available on CD at a very reasonable price from most of the major outlets. You can also get it as a download.

Here's an interesting interview with Ace Cannon from a local Memphis TV show called George Klein's Memphis Sounds. Probably about three years old, as video was uploaded to YouTube in 2009. Be warned: Video and sound are out of synch.

Duane Eddy - Early Christmas

Each year between 2004 and 2010 guitarist Duane Eddy, rock 'n' roll's all-time best selling instrumentalist, released an original Christmas song, which was posted on the web for fans to download for free. These songs were never released on CD.

The original posting site has long since disappeared so I thought it was time to give people another chance to hear his first offering from '04. The link to Early Christmas follows.

Early Christmas

As you can hear it's just Duane and electronically-generated accompaniment. It sounds OK and his guitar tone is as deep and warm as it has always been. But I think Early Christmas is a tune that cries for a full band treatment, as do some of his other Christmas songs, released only as MP3s. It's a shame that Duane has never done a Christmas album, but I guess there's still hope as he's still very active at age 74. There -- that's my Christmas wish.

To keep up to date with his appearances and recordings, check the Duane Eddy Circle website and perhaps consider joining this long-running fan group.

Duane toured the U.K. this past spring to promote his album Road Trip (recorded in Sheffield, England). Here's a clip from his show at the Cheese and Grain in Frome, Somerset, on May 24.

Perly Buttons & the Red Coats - Fiddler on the Roof Goes Pop

The Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, which began its run of more than 3,000 performances in 1964, was at the height of its popularity when RCA Victor issued this album two years later. The movie version of Fiddler didn't hit theatres until 1971.

Fiddler on the Roof Goes Pop is a bit of a misleading title. These are actually Dixieland jazz arrangements of songs from the show.

I have no idea who Perly Buttons & the Red Coats actually were. The only person named on the album is the A&R man. Production is credited to a company, not an individual. This was also the only recording credited to Perly Buttons & the Red Coats.

In any case, there are some decent Dixieland versions of selections from Fiddler, including the one available from the link below.

Anatevka



Fiddler on the Roof Goes Pop has never been released in a digital format. The album doesn't seem to be in any great demand from collectors, so the best bet in scoring a used vinyl copy is probably record shops or thrift stores in your area.

George Mann Orchestra - Casino Royale

In a previous post, I ruminated a bit about the albums put out under the name of the George Mann Orchestra. These ultra-cheap LPs were likely the work of Los Angeles session musicians and Mann was almost certainly a ficticious name.

That said, Casino Royale, the album pictured above is a cut above the rest of the product put out under the George Mann name. Lots of groovy spy tunes, all originals too, with the exception of the title cut. The LP probably dates from 1967 or thereabouts.

Here's a link to a sample track.

Bottled in Bond



What I wrote in the previous post about downloads of George Mann material still applies. Unfortunately, Casino Royale, undoubtedly the best of the bunch, is not among those available for purchase. Best bet is probably to check those thrift store bins for the original LP.

Sue Instrumentals (1959-1967): The Beat Is On

In 1987 EMI, which owned the catalogue of the R&B and jazz label Sue, issued

Sue Instrumentals (1959-1967): The Beat Is On as part of its Treasury series of releases.

Amazingly this compilation was issued only on vinyl and cassette and not on CD. Strange indeed, considering that the CD was a well-established format by 1987.

In any case this album was a treasure trove for lovers of instrumentals, with tracks by both well-known names (Bill Doggett, Jimmy McGriff, Ike Turner) and some lesser-known artists (Hank Jacobs, The Duals, The Commandos).

Sue Records was founded in New York by Juggy Murray. The company, which billed itself as "The Sound of Soul," was at its peak between 1959 and 1962 with hits by Jimmy McGriff, Baby Washington and Ike and Tina Turner.

Ike Turner had a pair of of tracks on the Sue Instrumentals album, including Going Home. The MP3 is taken from a cassette copy of the album.

Going Home

Going Home was included on a 2000 CD released by the British Ace Records label.

Ike's Instrumentals contained a generous 22 tracks and is still available online at a reasonable price.

Neither Ike's Instrumentals or the earlier Sue Instrumentals appear to be available as downloads. Getting hold of a vinyl copy of Sue Instrumentals would probably prove to be difficult and expensive.

Here's another great Ike Turner instrumental from YouTube. The Groove is also on the Ike's Instrumentals CD.

The Buckaroos - Chicken Pickin'

A big part of what made Buck Owens such an exciting country act was his band, The Buckaroos. Although Owens took some guitar solos himself (and he was a fine picker), most of the guitar picking came from the fingers of Don Rich.

A fine example of his fret work is the 1967 recording of Chicken Pickin', issued as a single and included on the album The Buckaroos Strike Again.

Below is a lick to Chicken Pickin', with the music taken off the 45 single.

Chicken Pickin'



The flip side of the single was Apple Jack, which was posted previously. That post also had more information on the album from which it was taken and on The Buckaroos.

Chicken Pickin' is available on several CD compilations, including two mentioned in the previous post. The track can also be downloaded.

From YouTube, here's a short live clip from TV of Don Rich and the Buckaroos playing Chaparral.

George Van Eps - Mellow Guitar

When George Van Eps (1913-1998) came up with the idea in the late 1930s of adding a seventh string to his guitar, it allowed him to play a bass line along with his chords and lead solos.

Van Eps became a master of the seven-string instrument, which was adopted by only a few other jazz guitarists, among them Howard Alden (a former student of Van Eps). Late in Van Eps's career he and Alden recorded three duo albums for Concord.

Mellow Guitar was issued by Columbia in 1956, in mono only apparently. The recording featured three distinct settings for Van Eps's guitar: a basic rhythm section, a nine-piece band arranged by Paul Weston with whom the guitarist frequently worked, and a string orchestra. A link to a sample track (taken from the vinyl LP) is below.

What Is This Thing Called Love



Mellow Guitar was available for a short time on CD on the Sundazed label, which issued it in 1999. Copies now demand premium prices, $30 and up. The album is also available as a download, but it's from the British company Hallmark, which often uses vinyl as its source. The usual caution -- listen before buying -- applies.

Via YouTube, here's another selection from Mellow Guitar.

Verrill Keene - An Afternoon Affair

This is Verrill Keene's one and only release, which came out on the obscure Showtown label in 1966. That Keene didn't put out anything else isn't all that surprising -- he isn't a real person.

Verrill Keene is a pseudonym for Bob Keane, the owner of Del-Fi Records, the company that put out all those great surfing records in the 1960s. Keane invented Keene and his playboy persona to push this release. Unfortunately, bachelor pad music was pretty well dead by the time An Afternoon Affair came out and the album promptly disappeared.

Thirty years later, in 1996, during the bachelor pad and lounge music revival, Keane decided to release the album on CD. Below you can listen to the title track.

An Afternoon Affair



The CD has long since been discontinued but cheap copies are plentiful in the Amazon Marketplace. An Afternoon Affair is also available as as a download from CD Universe, Amazon and elsewhere, but it's way cheaper to buy the CD.

The Brasileros - Bossa Nova: The New Sound in Jazz from South America

This is not the quick ripoff of the bossa nova craze of the early 1960s that you might expect from the cover.

Released on the ultra-cheap Diplomat label in 1962, Bossa Nova: The New Sound of Jazz from South America features some well-known jazzmen who apparently made the recording when funds were tight. According to a couple of online blogs (including the excellent Unearthed in the Atomic Attic), the personnel includes a young Kenny Barron on piano and Bill Barron on sax, with a rhythm section of Ron Carter on bass and Charlie Persip on drums.

Although the music is great the recording quality is substandard, to put it mildly. The sample track, Bossa Nova Blues, is in stereo, sort of. Sounds like fake stereo to me, which leads me to suspect that the session (date unknown) was done in mono.

Bossa Nova Blues



Much of the information on this session surfaced during an interview that Kenny Barron did with jazzreview.com in 2001.

The album has never been released on CD and is not available as a download.

Uncredited - Swinging Sax

Here we go with another of those no-name cassettes I'm so fond of -- and again it's from Switzerland. Swinging Sax was distributed in North America by the Quebec company Madacy and sold in K-Mart, Wal-Mart and other similar stores.

As always, there's no recording information. No release date on the cassette either. The insert claims all titles are traditional (which I doubt, but I'm no expert) so the recording company didn't have to pay any songwriter royalties.

Below is a link to a sample track, Gelatino, with sax that has echoes of Billy Vaughn or Max Greger and a rhythm section that strongly suggests Bert Kaempfert. I like the tune a lot -- that is until a female chorus starts oohing and aahing half way through. Oh, well ...

Gelatino

All 14 tracks from the Swinging Sax cassette have turned up on CD at least twice.

Happy Sax was a Swiss release (date unknown) and doesn't appear to be in print. The selections are also included in 50 Golden Sax Favorites, a three-CD set put out by our friends at Madacy. Unfortunately the set also contains about a dozen songs you probably never want to hear again (Feelings anyone?). Still when used copies can be had for less than a buck there should be enough decent tunes to keep most listeners happy.

Enoch Light & the Light Brigade - Cecilia

Enoch Light's contributions to the world of stereo recording were detailed in an earlier post. For a more complete view of Light and his recordings, there are several excellent web resources, including The Space Age Pop Music Page.

After Light sold his ground-breaking Command Records in 1965 he quickly formed the Project 3 label. There was now less emphasis on exploring the possibilities of stereo -- and there was a distinct change in the type of songs that were being recorded as well. While Command emphasized albums of standards by the likes of Berlin, Gershwin and Porter, Project 3 concentrated on easy listening versions of current pop hits.

Case in point is the version of Paul Simon's Cecilia recorded by Enoch Light & the Light Brigade in 1971. It was issued as a single (b/w Eglantine) and included on the album 4 Channel Dynamite, which was designed to cash in on the shortlived phenomenon of Quadraphonic sound. More on Quadraphonic in a moment, but first here's a link where you can get Cecilia. The MP3 is taken from a stereo 45.

Cecilia

Quadraphonic was an early form of the surround sound that is commonly used today in TV sound systems. But in the 1970s few people were ready to purchase the special equipment and extra pair of speakers that were needed to reproduce four-channel sound.

If you have a few Quadraphonic albums kicking around and are able to hook a turntable up to your surround sound system, you'll be able to hear these LPs in four-channel sound. I tried it a few years ago and it worked fine, but I really wanted to keep my TV and music systems separate.

To finish up -- another selection from 4 Channel Dynamite, taken from YouTube. Light's version of the big band standard Cherokee was also included in another of his albums, Big Band Hits of the 30s and 40s.

Rubin Mitchell - Presenting Rubin Mitchell

Two 1967 LPs for Capitol, Presenting Rubin Mitchell and Remarkable Rubin, and an earlier self-released album on the Starmaker label, The Golden Hands of Rubin Mitchell, appear to be the pianist's entire recorded output. There were some singles on Capitol as well but as far as I can tell most, if not all, were tracks taken from the two albums.

According to the Schenectady Gazette newspaper of March 7, 1967, Mitchell was playing in the Albany-Troy, New York, area before being signed to Capitol. That's where his debut LP Golden Hands was recorded. After making his Capitol recordings he played in several New York City clubs and bars, then seemingly disappeared from the music scene. There is little information about him on the web.

Below is a link to a track from his first Capitol album, Presenting.

What Now My Love



Rubin Mitchell's version of Mas Que Nada appeared on Bossa Novaville, Vol. 14 of Capitol's Ultra-Lounge series of CDs. It's still in print and easily obtained.

There is a Mitchell collection called HiFi Hits available as a download. However, its cheap looking cover makes its origin a bit suspect.

Although these are tracks from his Capitol recordings, this release certainly didn't orginate with that company. Listening before buying would be a good idea.

Here's another Rubin Mitchell track, taken from YouTube.

Helen O'Connell with Joe Reisman and His Orchestra - Amapola

Big band vocalist Helen O'Connell (1920-1993) achieved her greatest fame with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in the early 1940s. Partnered with vocalist Bob Eberly, she had a series of Latin influenced hits, including Brazil, Green Eyes, Tangerine, Yours and Amapola.

In the late 1960s, O'Connell made two recordings for Reader's Digest, reprises of her Dorsey Band hits, Amapola and Green Eyes. These sides were included in a number of various artist compilations that stretched into the digital era.

O'Connell's re-recording of Amapola, accompanied by Joe Reisman and his orchestra, turned up in a 1970 vinyl box set called Let's Take a Sentimental Journey. The link to the track is below.

Amapola



Helen O'Connell's Reader's Digest recordings of Amapola and Green Eyes are available on a 17-track album called The Reader's Digest "Songbird" Sessions, which also includes selections by Margaret Whiting and Helen Forrest. The album is available only as a download from all the major sources (iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, etc.).

Here's the original recording O'Connell and Bob Eberly made with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in 1941.

Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith - Boomerang

Country guitarist Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith began his recording career in 1938 for RCA Victor's Bluebird label, but didn't gain wide fame until a decade later when MGM released Guitar Boogie. This 78 single (later on 45) was a massive hit, expanding the fan base of Smith and his band, the Cracker Jacks, way beyond their normal country audience.

Although Smith claimed authorship of Guitar Boogie, black blues guitarists had been playing similar riffs for years. Guitar Boogie, its flip side Boomerang and other early recordings by Smith were purchased by MGM from the small Super Disc label. Since almost everyone has heard Guitar Boogie at one time or another, here's a link where you can catch Boomerang.

Boomerang



Guitar Boogie, Boomerang and the vast majority of Smith's MGM sides are widely available on CD and via downloads. One of the best CD compilations is One Good Boogie Deserves Another, from the French Jasmine label.

You should be able to get a copy of this for $10 or less.

Guitar Boogie has become one of the most frequently recorded guitar instrumentals in the 60-plus years since Arthur Smith's version. A rock 'n' roll version, Guitar Boogie Shuffle, was a hit for The Virtues in 1959. But here, from YouTube, is Smith's original.

James Bond Movie Themes, Vol. 2

Here's another one of those uncredited European releases where you're just dying to know who the artist is. This is a cassette release from Switzerland, probably from the 1980s, on the Intertape label and was distributed in Canada (and possibly the U.S.) by the Quebec company Madacy, which is still in business.

These are full orchestral versions of Bond themes and they're obviously dubbed from vinyl. If you listen closely (it's more obvious on headphones) you can hear surface noise from the record. These cassettes, and many others like them, were sold in K-Mart and similar outlets. There's a sample track available from the link below.

From Russia with Love



Both volumes of James Bond Movie Themes were also issued by Intertape on a double-LP set (did this company really use one of their own vinyl albums to make the cassette version?) under the title James Bond Filmmusik. I've no idea whether they used the same crazy cowgirl cover for the LP, but here's how the record label looked.

Sam Lazar - Camp Meetin' (45)

There's precious little information about organist Sam Lazar, who had several albums and a bunch of singles on the Argo label from 1960-62.

According to Wikipedia, Lazar was born in St. Louis in 1933, played with Ernie Wilkins and toured with saxophonist Tab Smith before serving in the military from 1951-53.

There was a period away from music to study medical technology before Lazar, inspired by a Jimmy Smith date at a St. Louis club, took up the Hammond organ.

His first album, Space Flight (1960), featured a young Grant Green on guitar, but Green was gone from Lazar's group by the time the single Camp Meetin' (b/w I Ain't Mad at You) came out in 1962. It was issued on both the Argo and Checker labels, both imprints of Chess Records. Camp Meetin' didn't make it on to one of Lazar's albums, but you can download it from the link below.

Camp Meetin'



Lazar does not appear to have recorded after his stint with Argo and the only one of his albums released in a digital format was Space Flight. It was issued on a Japanese CD that now goes for about $50. But Space Flight is also part of a 2007 Grant Green CD compilation, Organ Trio And Quartet, which can be had for less than $10.

Vinyl copies of Sam Lazar's Argo releases also approach the $50 mark.

There are several very good quality Lazar tracks available on YouTube, including this one:

Sonny Stitt - Stardust

On the 1966 date that resulted in the album Stardust, saxophonist Sonny Stitt (see previous posts HERE and HERE) became the first musician to play the Varitone, an electronically amplified sax that allowed him to play octaves and change the sound of the instrument if he so desired. Stitt continued spotlighting the Varitone for the next five years or so. Not one of the music world's great ideas according to the critics and judging by the contents of this LP.

Despite the presence of stalwarts like Illinois Jacquet (tenor sax), J.J. Johnson (trombone) and Ellis Larkins (piano), the results were decidedly mixed. Below is a link to What's New from the album.

What's New



This album has not been released on CD and there's no sign of it being available as a legal download. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Stardust to appear in either format.

Here's another -- and far superior -- version of What's New by Stitt, this time in the company of organist Don Patterson.

Al Nevins & His Orchestra - Dancing with the Blues

Musician Al Nevins (1915-1965) had two main claims to fame. In 1939 Nevins, whose main instrument was guitar, founded The Three Suns with his brother Morty, an accordionist, and a cousin, Artie Dunn, who played organ. The trio turned into one of the most popular instrumental combos of the 1940s and '50s. Their big hit was Twilight Time, co-written by the Nevins brothers and Buck Ram.

After Al Nevins's performing career was over he founded the publishing company Aldon Music with Don Kirshner. Some of the most important pop songwriters of the early 1960s were under contract to Aldon at one time or another, including Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill.

Amongst all this activity, Al Nevins found time to record several albums under his own name for RCA Victor, including a 1958 release called Dancing with the Blues. This easy listening dance band album swung along quite nicely, as you can hear if you download the sample track from the link below.

Alone with the Blues



None of Al Nevins's solo recordings appear to have been released on CD or are available as downloads. There have been umpteen reissues of Three Suns' recordings of widely varying quality.

Here's a sample, via YouTube, of another of Nevins's trio of RCA albums, this one also released in 1958.

Sleepy LaBeef - Downhome Rockabilly

Sleepy LaBeef is a genuine rockabilly survivor, having been there when the music was born in the 1950s and still performing today at the age of 77.

After a few rockabilly singles in the late '50s, Labeef moved to Nashville where his music took a decidedly country turn. He had a couple of minor hits (Every Day and Blackland Farmer) before signing with the rejuvenated Sun Records and returning to his rockabilly roots.

The album Downhome Rockabilly was issued (on gold vinyl yet) by Sun in 1979. From it comes Boogie Woogie Country Girl. The MP3 available at the link below comes from a cassette copy.

Boogie Woogie Country Girl



Downhome Rockabilly is available as a download, but does not appear to have been released as a standalone CD. However, all of Labeef's Sun tracks were issued on the six-CD box Larger Than Life by the German company Bear Family in 1996.

From YouTube here's a dynamite Sleepy Labeef performance at the Minnesota State Fair in 2006.

Jean Claude Borelly - Les 16 Oscars de la Musique de Films (2)

I first posted about this album by French trumpeter Jean Claude Borelly back in February 2012 and since the opportunities of buying his music on CD or via legal download seem scant, I thought a revisit might be in order.

For those who fancy trumpet instrumentals of the easy listening variety here's a second track from this 1985 album.

Exodus



Most of the comments made in the earlier post still are valid. It's a mystery to me why an artist who sold so many albums in the 1970s and 80s has so little available for purchase in the digital age.

Here's a 1976 video of Jean Claude Borelly playing Le concerto de la mer.

Con-Funk-Shun - Bumpsumboody (single)

Con-Funk-Shun, as the name suggests, was a funk band, formed in Memphis in the late 1960s by California high school classmates Michael Cooper and Louis (Tony) McCall.

The group gained major hit-making status after joining Mercury Records in 1976. You can read more about them here.

Before signing with Mercury, the group recorded a bunch of tracks for producer Ted Sturges in Memphis. Among them was the instrumental Bumpsumboody, the "B" side of a forgettable cover of Mr. Tambourine Man released in 1974 on the Fretone label (owned by Estelle Axton, who had earlier co-founded Stax Records). Neither of the tracks appears to have made it on to an LP or CD, so below is link to obtain Bumpsumboody.

Bumpsumboody



Con-Funk-Shun split up after their last Mercury album in 1988, but a reformed group, which now includes original members Cooper and Felton Pilate, has been touring off and on since the mid-1990s. They have a website that indicates they have dates booked through Dec. 1.

David Roach - I Love Sax

Yeah, I know what you're thinking -- another cheap album of makeout music. God knows these albums are all over the internet and usually have a soloist backed up by the scream-inducing sound of somebody fiddling with a bunch of computer-generated backing instruments.

I Love Sax is a big step above the pack, with saxophonist David Roach fronting a group of real live musicians, including one of my favorite British session guitarists, Paul Keogh. This 1983 release was marketed on British TV. My copy is vinyl and there doesn't appear to have been a CD version.

Granted the selections are mostly the warhorses of this type of production -- Killing Me Softly, Just the Way You Are, My Way, etc. The only real surprise is a cover of Don Gibson's 1961 country hit Sea of Heartbreak.

Roach's background is mostly in classical music and he has been a member of the Michael Nyman Band since 1985. The saxophonist released a single, Emotional Jungle, in 1984, the same year I Love Sax graced the British albums chart. Below is a link to a sample track from the LP.

When I Need You



From YouTube, here's Roach's Emotional Jungle single, which sounds like it could have fit into both dance and smooth jazz formats when it was released.

Studio Sound Orchestra - Souvenirs from Hawaii

We've already visited this album in a previous post, albeit under a different title, 20 Melodies from Paradise, and a different (and definitely more pleasing) cover. The tracks on both albums are the same, although in a different order.

In any case you can find more detailed information in the previous entry. If you're a fan of traditional Hawaiian music you could do worse than pick up this CD. It was most likely recorded in Europe rather than Hawaii (date unknown) but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. Cheap copies under either title -- Souvenirs from Hawaii (1992) or 20 Melodies from Paradise (1989) -- are available almost everywhere. Thrift store bins are another likely source. In the meantime, another sample is available below.

Aloha Oe

American Folk Blues Festival - 1962-1965

Some of the most influential American blues musicians, including harp player Big Walter Horton, were introduced to European audiences through the American Folk Blues Festival, a 10-year series of events that began in 1962. The festival's early years were documented in a five-CD set issued by Evidence in 1995. Many of the selections had been previously issued on vinyl but there were also plenty of unreleased gems in the CD release.

The All Music Guide describes Horton (1918-1981) as "one of the most influential blues harmonica players of all time, and a particular pioneer in the field of amplified harmonica." But Horton, a shy man, was never as popular as other harp greats like Little Walter or Sonny Boy Williamson II, preferring the more anonymous life of a sideman. He played on classic Chess recordings by the likes of Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines and Otis Rush, as well as recording some sides of his own for producer Willie Dixon.

I remember seeing Horton perform with Dixon at a college in Nelson, British Columbia, in the early 1970s, a show that also included pianist Lafayette Leake and other musicians from the Chess studios. Seating was on a concrete floor, no chairs, and the opening act was a horrible white blues-rock band. The main attraction was worth the discomfort, however.

Four of the discs in the American Folk Blues Festival set are live recordings, but the fifth is a studio session. From it comes Blues Harp Shuffle by Horton.

Blues Harp Shuffle



The box set of the festival's first years is still available from various sources. Expect to pay about $60; not bad for a five-disc set. As well some tracks from festival performances are available as downloads from the usual places. And there are DVDs of many of the concerts. A Google search will give you all the information you need.

Here's a great YouTube video of Big Walter Horton playing at an American Folk Blues Festival concert in Copenhagen in 1970.

Ray Flacke - Untitled Island

I must admit never having heard of guitarist Ray Flacke before stumbling across a cassette copy of Untitled Island in a discount bin some years ago.

But this British-born country guitarist (resident in Nashville since the late 1970s) has quite the resumé: He has been in Marty Stuart's touring band and played on albums by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Travis Tritt and Ricky Skaggs.

If you love guitar instrumentals, you'll want to search for a copy of Untitled Island, released in 1991 by RJM Records. A link to a sample track, lifted from the cassette, is below.

Devotion to the Dog



You have to be rich (or lucky) to be able to buy a copy of Untitled Island on CD. Even rarer is Songs Without Words, a 2004 acoustic album Flacke did for his own label. Neither album appears to be available as a download.

Flacke is featured on several guitar instructional websites, including guitarinstructor.com. There are also a couple of Flacke videos on You Tube. Here's one:

Flacke does not have a website and unfortunately does not appear to be active in music at the moment.

Jimmy McGriff - One of Mine

Organist Jimmy McGriff (1936-2008) regularly placed his singles on the R&B charts in the 1960s, beginning with his instrumental version of Ray Charles's I Got a Woman in 1962. That was also the title of his debut album for Sue Records.

One of Mine (1963) was his second album, again containing lots of jukebox and radio ready grooves sure to garner plenty of exposure. The title cut and The Last Minute were the prime singles from this LP. On the flip of the One of Mine 45 was Broadway, in a version considerably shortened from the album cut, which ran about 5:40. The single version is available from the link below.

Broadway



One of Mine was released on CD by the ever reliable Collectables label in 1996 with this cover:

It is widely available and prices start at less than $5 in the Amazon Marketplace.

Some of McGriff's Sue recordings (Broadway is not among them) are available via downloads from various sources.

From YouTube here's the 45 version of One of Mine. Again, the LP cut is considerably longer.