Blues

Charlie Musselwhite: “Christo Redemptor”

Andrew Jones Jr. is the guitarist on the great song above.

From Wikipedia’s entry on harmonic player Charlie Musselwhite:

His family considered it normal to play music, with his father playing guitar and harmonica, his mother playing piano, and a relative who was a one-man band. At the age of three, Musselwhite moved to Memphis, Tennessee. When he was a teenager, Memphis experienced the period when rockabillywestern swing, and electric blues and other forms of African American music were combining to give birth to rock and roll. The period featured Elvis PresleyJerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, as well as lesser known musicians such as Gus CannonFurry LewisWill Shade, and Johnny Burnette. Musselwhite supported himself by digging ditches, laying concrete and running moonshine in a 1950 Lincoln automobile. This environment was Musselwhite’s school for music as well as life, and he acquired the nickname “Memphis Charlie.”[citation needed]

The entry says that Musselwhite is of Native American dissent and that Dan Ackroyd’s  Elwood Blues was modeled on him.

If Ackroyd really copied Musselwhite — after all, both are harmonica players who carried (I think we’ve seen the last of Elwood) their harps in a briefcase — it’s interesting to consider if such portrayals are rip offs or affectionate and respectful caricatures that do as much for the subject as the star. I believe in this case it’s the latter.

Here are four songs of Musselwhite’s: Blues, Do You Worry Me?, River Hip Mama, Newport News Blues and The Blues Overtook Me.

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The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.

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Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.

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What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.

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The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").

David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.

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