To celebrate the screenings of Electrified and Cheat You Fair on March 11^th during the opening night festivities of Red Gorilla Music Fest in Austin, Notes of the Urban Blues is giving away Electrified T-shirts, as modeled above by the films’ director Phil Ranstrom and film editor Justin Kulovsek(l-r).We will give away one T-shirt for every 10 entries in the giveaway, capped at 100 shirts/1000 entries. One entry per person.How to enter: Help us spread the word about Electrified and the Notes of the Urban Blues blog.

• Include the following information in a blog post:
  • I’m entering the Electrified T-shirt Giveaway on Notes of the Urban Blues (electrifiedblues.com).
  • My favorite Blues artist is: Name your favorite
  • Because: Tell us why.
  • Link back to this post and/or the main Notes of the Urban Blues address.
• Then leave a comment on this Notes of the Urban Blues post with the URL of your entry. This lets us share some of our traffic back with you.
• If you don’t have a blog, you can just leave a comment here with the information about your favorite Blues artist and you will be entered in the giveaway. But, if you do have a blog, we really hope you’ll help us out by writing a short post and linking back to this post. We’ll be using all your answers in one or more future posts.
• If (heaven forbid) you don’t have a favorite Blues artist, just write a post linking back to this post on Notes of the Urban Blues or leave a comment. And let us know if you’d like some suggestions!

Entries will close on Tuesday March 25, 2008 at 6:00pm Eastern Time. Winners will be selected using a random number generator, and announced on Notes of the Urban Blues on Wednesday March 26, 2008. The number of shirts awarded is dependent on the total number of entries, with a maximum of 100 shirts.We will notify the winners by email to obtain their preferred T-shirt size and mailing address on Wednesday March 26, 2008. If we are unable to reach a winner or winners to obtain a mailing address, we will hold the T-shirt prize for an additional month, until April 26, 2008 to give the winner(s) time to contact us. At that time, unawarded prizes will be returned to inventory.Giveaway open to adult residents, 18 years or older, of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Void where prohibited.Questions? Email sgetgood@getgood.com

Technorati Tags: Electrified, Notes of the Urban Blues, T-shirt giveaway, Red Gorilla Music Fest

If you’ll be in Austin Texas on March 11, 2008, mark your calendars now for screenings of Electrified and Cheat You Fair. Both films will be shown during the opening festivities of Red Gorilla Music Fest at The Chuggin’ Monkey on 6th Street. We don’t have the specific times yet for each film, but they will most likely be between 2 - 6 pm. More info as we get it.

Technorati Tags: Red Gorilla Music Fest, Electrified, Cheat You Fair, blues documentary

Nice piece on blip.tv about jazz in Chicago. Includes an interview with Bob Koester of Delmark Records.

Technorati Tags: Bob Koester, Chicago, Jazz

Last November, I was lucky enough to meet the living legend, Fats Domino. I leave in 6 hours to go to New Orleans for his 80th birthday celebration! You can find out more at: http://www.tipitinasfoundation.org/ and as soon as I am able to figure out this blogging application, I will make sure to share more with you!

Technorati Tags: Fats Domino

I have been on the web since it was about 8 months old. I know exactly how it works. I understand blogging. What I don’t understand, is how to get into the habit of posting often. Sundance was killer, in all sense of the word. We accomplished so much, met wonderful people and all got sick as dogs. I got so sick, it lasted for 2 weeks after I got back.

Below is my newest video that I did on my last night there. I look horrible and feel worse. I promise to get better and start blogging regularly. Oh, and if anyone can tell me why this video looks so bad, I would appreciate it!

Ok…now this really sucks..I can’t seem to embed my video. Here is a link: Sick and Tired Les

UPDATE: Here’s the video.

Delmark Records will celebrate its 55th year with a concert at Buddy Guy’s Legends on March 7th.

Among the performers scheduled to perform: Dave Specter, Byther Smith, Jimmy Dawkins, Tail Dragger, Jimmy and Syl Johnson, Little Arthur Duncan, Shirley Johnson, The Big DooWopper, Zora Young, Aaron Moore, Lurrie Bell, Michael Coleman, Eddie Shaw, and perhaps even “Friendly Chap.” (Source All About Jazz)

Delmark founder Bob Koester is featured in Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues, and we congratulate him on this business milestone.

Technorati Tags: Delmark Records, Bob Koester, Maxwell Street, Chicago

(YouTube Link)

A principal storyline in both Electrified and Cheat You Fair is how Maxwell Street fostered a unique blending of Black and Jewish culture. No one personified this blend more than the late Nate Duncan (1930-2006), the African-American owner of Nate’s Deli.

Some of the stories Nate shared with director Phil Ranstrom for Cheat You Fair about his more than 20 years on Maxwell Street:

• how he learned to cook kosher from the deli’s original Jewish owners;
• introducing his African-American clientele to Jewish food;
• his reflections on the Maxwell Street market.

Nate Duncan was also one of the featured stories in Near West Side Stories: Struggles for Community in Chicago’s Maxwell Street Neighborhood (source: Gapers Block) and the deli was the location for the scene from the movie The Blues Brothers in which Aretha Franklin performs Think.

Unfortunately, if you’ve never been to Nate’s, the only way to go there now is on film. As recounted in Cheat You Fair, the University of Illinois in Chicago demolished it as part of the redevelopment of the Maxwell Street market area.

More Cheat You Fair and Electrified clips on YouTube.

Technorati Tags: Maxwell Street, Aretha Franklin, Blues Brothers, Nate’s Deli, Nate Duncan, Cheat You Fair

The Grammy Awards are this Sunday night, and we will be watching with anticipation.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who played at the Electrified party at Sundance, was nominated in two categories: Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Long Form Music Video for 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads.

Also nominated in the Traditional Blues Album category is 94-year old Pinetop Perkins, for two different albums. I found a lovely post on BlogAsheville about seeing Perkins perform recently.

Here are all the blues-relevant nominees.

Best Traditional Blues Album

• Pinetop Perkins On The 88’s: Live In Chicago, Pinetop Perkins
• Live… And in Concert From San Francisco - Otis Rush
• 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads - Kenny Wayne Shepherd Featuring Various Artists
• Old School - Koko Taylor
• Last Of The Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas - Henry James Townsend, Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins, Robert Lockwood, Jr. & David Honeyboy Edwards

–

Best Contemporary Blues Album

• Into the Blues - Joan Armatrading
• Is It News - Doyle Bramhall
• The Road to Escondido - JJ Cale & Eric Clapton
• Truth - Robben Ford
• The Scene of the Crime - Bettye LaVette

–

Best Long Form Music Video

• “Live and Loud at the Fillmore” - Dierks Bentley — Russell Thomas, video director; James Whetherly, video producer
• “Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 13-22″ - R. Kelly — R. Kelly, Victor Mignatti and Jim Swaffield, video directors; Ann Carli, video producer
• “The Confessions Tour” - Madonna — Jonas Akerlund, video director; Sara Martin and David May, video producers
• “10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads” - Kenny Wayne Shepherd and various artists — Noble Jones, video director; Kenny Wayne Shepherd, video producer
• “Liberacion: Songs of the Cuban Underground” - Various artists — Reuben Fields, video director; Dean Bates, video producer

(Source of nominee list: Wikipedia)

Technorati Tags: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Pinetop Perkins, Grammy Awards

One of the best things about working on Electrified is that it has given me a terrific justification for expanding my library of blues music. While we were at Sundance last month, I was lucky enough to talk about the blues with drummer Chris Layton, who now plays with Kenny Wayne Shepherd but is perhaps best known as half of Double Trouble.

Chris highly recommended that I check out the Reverend Charlie Jackson, a gospel singer and preacher who recorded during the 70s. Now, when a musician recommends music, it’s wise to pay attention, so when I got home, I picked up a copy of God’s Got It: The Legendary Booker and Jackson Singles.

I’m very glad I did. While the music is definitely gospel, Jackson’s big voice and hard-rocking guitar puts his work in a class by itself.

Digging around online, I found a couple of clips of him on YouTube: Morning Train Wrapped Up and Tangled Up in Jesus

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Reverend Charlie Jackson, Chris Layton, blues, gospel

Kenny Wayne Shepherd has been nominated for two Grammys for his recent CD and documentary, 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads.

The film chronicles a 10-day road trip in the South during which Shepherd met and played with blues legends including BB King, Bryan Lee, Jerry “Boogie” McCain, Etta Baker, Henry Townsend and Honeyboy Edwards, and wraps up with a concert with the surviving members of Muddy Waters’ and Howlin’ Wolf’s bands.

Check out the trailer:
Ten Days Out

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Technorati Tags: Kenny Wayne Shepherd