FOUR MINUTES OF RESPITE BY THIS MYSTO-CAT

A totally random click this one. Revisited a Clifton Chenier post I had bookmarked at Groove Addict and there was a "you might also like" below it, Lynn August, some dude I never heard of. Now I've listened to the the same Lynn August song four times in a row. Not sure what his other stuff sounds like, but this one sounds like Little Richard's restrained cousin singing with Clifton Chenier backing him. His voice almost cracks a half dozen times, as if he'd be belting out one of those Little Richard "Wooooo!"s if he went one notch louder. This is a good one, I mean, I listened to it four times in a row. That gave me sixteen minutes of respite. Felt good. Now, back to the project at hand. Resist.

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Listen:
Lynn August - Did You Have Fun Making Me Cry? mp3 at Groove Addict
Clifton Chenier - Monifique mp3 at Groove Addict

FAT TUESDAY IS NIGH

Yeah, baby. Fat Tuesday is early this year. You do know what that means, right? A New Orleans music binge. Man, if there was ever a city that revolves around it's own sound, it's New Orleans. I've never been to a city so proud of their own musical heritage. And they have every right to be. They got it all; rhythm and blues, zydeco, cajun, blues, jazz, dixieland, funk, brass bands. I don't know if it's still the same, but when I was there years ago you could walk around a neighborhood and hear all sorts of regional music coming out of living rooms and kitchen windows, not to mention bars and record stores. It was bitchen. It wouldn't make a bit of difference it the music wasn't good. But it is. New Orleans practically invented most of the genres they're known for.

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Listen:
Al Tousan (Allen Toussaint) - Cow Cow Blues mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Eddie Bo - Check Mr. Popeye mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Bobby Marchan - Get Down With It mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can, Pt 2 mp3 at Videogotz
Clifton Chenier - Zydeco Sont Pas Sale mp3 at Let's Polka
Huey "Piano" Smith - Would You Believe It mp3 at Modern Kicks
Jessie Hill - Oogsey Moo mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
A mix:
Funky 16 Corners presents Mardi Gras Boogaloo 22 song mix at Funky 16 Corners. Go there to get it, download link is posted after the song listing.

TELL ME AGAIN ABOUT YOUR CRATEDIGGING

Many of you may not know life without accessible computers. Accessible at all, let alone home computers. You may have never looked at a card catalog, a periodical index, or old newspapers on reels of microfilm. You may not know what the Dewey Decimal System is. These were all required to do the most basic of research. And all would take place in a building outside of the home, requiring travel and time. But you've got Google. On your thing. How badly do you want to research something? How much effort do you want to put forth? Crack your knuckles punks, Alan Lomax wanted it bad.

Lomax was a fiend supreme. In a perfect world his archives would be online. False. Because it is an imperfect world, and his archives are online. Folk music of all sorts, blues, jazz, country, zydeco, cajun, and more, and that's just from the U.S. He went all over the country, not just the better known pockets. He also traveled, extensively, overseas. All over the Caribbean, Europe, Russia and North Africa. Lomax is not only one of the greatest music historians and archivists of any era, he is one of the greatest fiends, of any era and of any field. We are all Blues Hammer before him.

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Visit:
Alan Lomax Music page at Cultural Equity
Alan Lomax Photo page at Cultural Equity
Portraits From the Lomax Collection at Photistoric
Alan Lomax Video page at Cultural Equity
Alan Lomax - Biography at Cultural Equity
Cultural Equity Home Page

SHE SAID "WHADDYA KNOW..."

Here's Clifton Chenier doing a bang up job with Slim Harpo's "Baby, Scratch My Back" on his "Keep On Scratching". With that title, he's not really hiding anything, and it's not as if he didn't put his own stamp on it. Chenier was something akin to the Chuck Berry of zydeco, in as much as he music was a template that others built on. Harpo was much the same for laid back electric blues. What I found most remarkable is the fact that Harpo's original was actually #91 on Billboards Top 100 of 1966. (To give you an idea of what makes the charts these days, take a look at the 2012 list. Blecch.) Anywho, dig these.

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Listen:
Clifton Chenier - Keep On Scratching mp3 at The Melting Pot
Slim Harpo - Baby, Scratch My Back  mp3 at LZ Center
Clifton Chenier – Bon Ton Roulet mp3 at The Melting Pot
Clifton Chenier – Jole Blonde mp3 at The Melting Pot

Slim Harpo - I'm A King Bee mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban

Slim Harpo - I Got Love If You Want It mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban

Slim Harpo - Shake Your Hips mp3 at Snuhthing Anything

ZYDECO STAR

It's not everyday that you run into a 1955 single by Clifton Chenier on Specialty Records. Okay, fiends, I know you're rolling your eyes. It's probably not all that rare. But, boy oh boy, it's nice to hear it with all of the pops and crackles of a well played, bordering on thrashed, 45. The second one down there is a must-listen too. It's bare, just drums, accordion and barely audible violin. And Chenier's voice, holy fuck, that voice. It's genre defining, Of course his playing is good, but damn his singing. It's iconic. I hate that word. You know what I mean. Chenier's voice, accent, and phrasing are dead on. Like Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin' Wolf or Ltlltle Richards, He's a template. Is it any damn wonder why he was on both Specialty and Chess, among other labels?

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Listen
Clifton Chenier - Ay-Tete-Fee mp3 (via DivShare) at Dad's 45s
Clifton Chenier - Baby Please Don't Go mp3 at You're Soaking In It
Clifton Chenier - Zydeco Sont Pas Sale mp3 at Let's Polka
Visit:
Clifton Chenier at Wikipedia

ZYDECO 101

Several years ago, on the day Clifton Chenier died, a musician/DJ I knew (who worked in a record store) told me he didn't know who Clifton Chenier was. I think everybody should know who Clifton Chenier is. Here's a short introduction:

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Clifton Chenier - Zydeco Sont Pas Sale .mp3 at Lets Polka
Clifton Chenier - Caledonia mp3 at Rocky-52.net
Clifton Chenier - Baby Please Don't Go (the porch video) at YouTube
Clifton Chenier - Les Biscuits video at Daily Motion
Clifton Chenier at Wikipedia