'Sweet' Sam Myers will be remembered for his distinctive voice, generous soul

Throat cancer got that great bluesman Sam Myers on Monday, all the sadder since he was nothing if not this throaty, memorable singer and harpist.

They didn't call him "Sweet Sam" because of his off-stage demeanor. He was tough, hard-to-crack, and inscrutable at first. Underneath the brim of that ever-present porkpie hat, though, was a generous, if sturdy and independent, soul. He might call you a familiar curse word, but only out of respect.

Sam was not just old school. He was the principal of the old school.

He'd spent the 1960s and '70s working saloons and nightclubs along the legendary Southern chitlin circuit, trying to cash in on some early success he'd had as a drummer and sometime-harmonica player with Elmore James from 1952-63. He'd also wrote a terrific debut tune during that period called "Sleeping in the Ground" that was later recorded by Blind Faith (featuring Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood) as well as Robert Cray.

Sam finally hit it big with the Texas-swinging neo-bluesman Funderburgh, winning nine Handy Awards — including best harmonica player in 1988 and vocalist in 1989 — over a thrilling 20-year, nine-album collaboration. The partnership produced some of the most important blues records of the period, including "My Love Is Here to Stay" (actually a remake of the B-side of his initial hit single) and "Tell Me What I Want To Hear," both on Black Top.

One of Myers' final performances came in August when, during a benefit concert featuring blues stars like Delbert McClinton and Jimmie Vaughan, Sam jumped up for a brief solo. By the end, though, he couldn't even sing — Myers had his larynx removed in an effort to save his life last April at the Mayo Clinic. 

A native of Laurel, Miss., and resident of Dallas, Myers is to be honored with services in both Texas and Mississippi.

50 albums that changed music

Fifty years old this month, the album chart has tracked the history of pop. But only a select few records have actually altered the course of music, among those top ranked albums blues and its cousins are well represented and includes:

# 5 Robert Johnson
King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961)
Described by Eric Clapton as 'the most important blues singer that ever lived', Johnson was an intensely private man, whose short life and mysterious death created an enduring mythology. He was said to have sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi in exchange for his finger-picking prowess. Johnson recorded a mere 29 songs, chief among them 'Hellhound on My Trail', but when it was finally issued, King of the Delta Blues Singers became one of the touchstones of the British blues scene.

# 6 Marvin Gaye
What's Going On (1971)
Gaye's career as tuxedo-clad heart-throb gave no hint he would cut a concept album dealing with civil rights, the Vietnam war and ghetto life. Equally startling was the music, softening and double-tracking Gaye's falsetto against a wash of bubbling percussion, swaying strings and chattering guitars. Motown boss Berry Gordy hated it but its disillusioned nobility caught the public mood. Led by the oft-covered 'Inner City Blues', it ushered in an era of socially aware soul.

# 8 Bob Dylan
Bringing it All Back Home (1965)
The first folk-rock album? Maybe. Certainly the first augury of what was to come with the momentous 'Like a Rolling Stone'. Released in one of pop's pivotal years, Bringing it All Back Home fused hallucinatory lyricism and, on half of its tracks, a raw, ragged rock'n'roll thrust. On the opening song, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues', Dylan manages to pay homage to the Beats and Chuck Berry, while anticipating the surreal wordplay of rap.
 

# 9 Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley (1956)
The King's first album was also the first example of how to cash in on a teenage craze. With Presleymania at full tilt, RCA simultaneously released a single, a four-track EP and an album, all with the same cover of Elvis in full, demented cry. They got their first million dollar album, the fans got a mix of rock-outs like 'Blue Suede Shoes', lascivious R&B and syrupy ballads.
 

# 14 Joni Mitchell
Blue (1971)
Though Carole King's Tapestry was the biggest-selling album of the era, it is Joni Mitchell's Blue that remains the most influential of all the early Seventies outings by confessional singer-songwriters. Joni laid bare her heart in a series of intimate songs about love, betrayal and emotional insecurity. It could have been hell (think James Taylor) but for the penetrating brilliance of the songwriting. Raw, spare and sophisticated, it remains the template for a certain kind of baroque female angst.
 

#16 Aretha Franklin
I Never Loved a Man the Way I love You (1967)
'R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me!' Is there a more potent female lyric in pop? Franklin's Atlantic Records debut unleashed her soulful ferociousness upon an unsuspecting public, and both the singer and her album quickly became iconic symbols of black American pride.

# 25 James Brown
Live at the Apollo (1963)
This remains the live album by which all others are measured, and is still the best delineation of the raw power of primal soul music. It propelled James Brown into the mainstream, and paved the way for a string of propulsive hits like 'Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' (1965) and 'Cold Sweat' (1967). The catalyst for many great soul stylists, from Sly Stone to Otis Redding, it also provided an early lesson in dynamics for the young Michael Jackson.

# 26 Stevie Wonder
Songs in the Key of Life (1976)
This influenced virtually every modern soul and R&B singer, brimming with timeless classics like 'Isn't She Lovely', 'As' and 'Sir Duke'. The 21-tracker encompassed a vast range of life's issues - emotional, social, spiritual and environmental - all performed with bravado and a lightness of touch. No other R&B artist has sung about the quandaries of human existence with quite the same grace.

# 27 Jimi Hendrix
Are You Experienced (1967)
Looking and playing like a brother from another planet, Hendrix delivered the most dramatic debut in pop history. Marrying blues and psychedelia, dexterity and feedback trickery, it redefined the guitar's sonic possibilities, while beyond the fretboard pyrotechnics burnt a fierce artistic vision - 'Third Stone From the Sun' made Jimi rock's first (and still best travelled) cosmonaut.

# 32 Otis Redding
Otis Blue (1965)
Until Stax Records and Otis Redding arrived, the Southern states were a place you had to leave to make it (unless you were a country singer). Recorded weeks after the death of Redding's idol, Sam Cooke, the album cast Otis as Cooke's successor, an embodiment of young black America with white appeal - alongside Cooke's 'A Change is Gonna Come' was the Stones's 'Satisfaction'. With terrific backings from the MGs and the Markeys horns behind Otis's rasping vocals, it defined 'soul'.

For the entire Top 50 list Click Here

BLUES FESTIVALS MAKE HISTORY and BREAK RECORDS !

London, Ontario, Canada- "This weekend, we've witnessed the rebirth of the blues in this city," said Brian Mortimer, general manager of Bluesfest, which recently ended its three-day, outdoor run at the corner of King and Clarence.

"It's been a phenomenal success, both artistically and financially," added Mortimer, who estimated attendance for the event's seventh annual edition would hit 12,000.

That easily would top last year's total of 8,000 and double the 6,000-person turnout recorded in 2004. Bluesfest is presented by London branch of Canada South Blues Society and its proceeds go to benefit Blues in Schools, Old South Community Organization and other local projects.

Roanoke, Virginia - The inaugural Blue Ridge Blues & BBQ Festival will be held on Saturday July 22, 2006.  Hosted by the Blue Ridge Blues Society, the festival, like the area’s revitalization, is an effort to bring music back to a neighborhood that once shook with the timbres of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown.

Society President Kerry Hurley and Vice President Jeff Bland began planning the festival in January, a month before they chartered the BRBS, Roanoke’s first blues society.  Hurley, who hosts WROV’s blues show and sings for Roanoke’s Fat Daddy Band, was inspired by a magazine article, but he admits he was already fest-minded — the article was in his copy of Blues Festival Guide Magazine. 

Rockland, Maine- "Beats the weather last year," said a jubilant Paul Benjamin, as temperatures crept toward 90 degrees baking thousands of people crowding Harbor Park for the North Atlantic Blues Festival. The soaring mercury brought blues fans out in droves. Attendance at the annual music festival was only expected to exceed 10,000 again this year, Benjamin, the festival's co-organizer, said the actual figure was a stratospheric 16,500.  Patrons were lining Rockland's streets in the wee hours to earn a prime seat.

Congratulations and well done my friends....

Legendary Chicago Blues Musician and Cabbie -- Paralyzed By Robber's Gunshots -- Makes Comeback With Help From His Former Cab Company Boss

Piano C. Red, a beloved Chicago blues musician and former cab driver paralyzed from the waist down last March by a robber's bullet plays July 21st with his band for the first time since the tragic incident during which his car was also stolen.

Piano C. Red who once performed with Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor and Elmore James, has faithfully played keyboard at the Maxwell Street Market since the 1970's and was a longtime Chicago cabbie who drove for Chicago Carriage Cab (CCC) before his injury.

When Piano C. Red returns to the stage he'll be doing it in a new cab, not as a driver but as an owner. Simon Garber -- CCC president, a Russian immigrant who once drove a cab and now heads an international taxi empire has gifted Piano C. Red a renovated Chicago Carriage Cab (CCC) company taxi sporting the "Flat Foot Boogie Band's" name. The gift car replaces Red's car stolen in the robbery and means the band can transport heavy musical equipment to jobs again.
 

Danny Glover Joins 'Honeydripper' Cast

Danny Glover has joined the cast of the period musical drama Honeydripper, says the Hollywood Reporter.

The feature, written and to be helmed by John Sayles, is set in 1950s Alabama, and follows Tyrone (Glover), owner of the Honeydripper juke joint. When business at Tyrone's blues club begins to drop off, against his better judgment, Tyrone hires Sonny (Clark) a young electric guitarist, in a last-ditch effort to draw crowds during harvest time.

Blues guitarist Keb' Mo', R&B singer Ruth Brown and Gary Clark Jr., a Texas blues guitarist will join Glover in the movie.

Honeydripper will start filming this September in and around Greenville, Alabama a small town about 30 miles south of Montgomery.

"On the Road in America," a 13-episode reality/documentary promises global exposure for Clarksdale's Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival Aug. 11-13

Expressing keen interest in Clarksdale's mix of Italian, Lebanese, Greek, Chinese, African-American, and Anglo-Saxon cultures, they plan to film the pre-festival "Grits, Greens, and Barbecue" party Thursday night, Aug. 10.

When the festival kicks off Friday, Aug. 11, the 15-member crew will be filming live performances with special footage of Super Chikan performing on the main stage Saturday, Aug. 12.

"On the Road" will follow four young Arab men (Egyptian, Saudi, Jordanian, and Lebanese) across America in an RV with an American film crew. The series will view America through the eyes of young Muslims. Its aim is to bridge the gap between American and Arab cultures and to foster cross-cultural exchanges.

The documentary will chronicle evolving attitudes of the young Arab men, their changing relationships, the crew, and people they meet along the way. "It's a merging of minds and hearts." "On the Road" begins in Washington D.C., and travels primarily to large cities including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and San Francisco. However, Clarksdale's reputation as the "Birthplace of the Blues" and the Sunflower Festival draw it here.