Electrified director Phil Ranstrom interviewed Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Humbert Sumlin just before the concert during Sundance.

Here’s Hubert Sumlin on Maxwell Street:

Technorati Tags: Hubert Sumlin, Maxwell Street, Chicago blues

Live at Rosas’s DVD Trailer

Little Arthur Duncan was hospitalized last week for emergency brain surgery. According to Blueswire, he is still in intensive care. More of his music on his MySpace page.

Technorati Tags: Little Arthur Duncan, Live at Rosa’s, Chicago blues, blues

I was able to make it down to Austin, Texas for the Red Gorilla Music Festival, March 10-12, and it was a wonderful experience. Del Breckenfeld, of Fender Guitars (a sponsor of Red Gorilla) had suggested that we show “Electrified” and “Cheat You Fair” at this relatively new festival, which runs concurrently with South By Southwest, and hooked us up with Roger Martinsen, one of the producer’s of the event. We decided we’d show both films, back to back, at a venue called The Chuggin’ Monkey in downtown Austin.

On the first day I arrived, I met with Roger, a fast-talking, former New Yorker, also sporting a shaved dome, and we immediately sprang into action. Our promotional postcards had already arrived — 5000 of them — and we had lots of “passing out” to do. About 1000 into it, Roger noticed a minor problem — there was no date on the postcard! Ever the undaunted promoter, Roger immediately suggested that we go to Office Max and purchase a date stamp, collect all of our postcards, stamp them and distribute them again. So, we did… and we did. At times like this, there is no time for feeling defeated or down, and we both gleefully sprang into action to make the best of what proved to be a minor obstacle.

Throughout Austin, from bar to bar we hoofed… from the Civic Center, to restaurants, and to public places of all kinds. There were mountains of fliers and postcards for films and events of all kinds, promoted mostly by exhibitors at the gargantuan South By Southwest Film/Music Festival. There were rockers from around the world, filmmakers, auteurs and fans. Billy Bob Thorton and his band were playing that night; there were rumors that REM would be playing at some local dive. In any case, Roger and I had a great time together and walked almost every inch of Austin on that first day. Five Starbucks coffees later, by evening, my dogs were blistered and battered, but I felt a great sense of achievement having passed out a good (properly stamped) 3500 postcards, promoting my film screening the next day.

On the day of the event, not a whole lot happened. Roger had some preliminary things to take care of, but our work had already been done. At around 1pm, we made it down to The Chuggin’ Monkey.

The screening was at 3pm. A photographer name Nikki Paschen was at the bar, already taking pics of people in the club and passerbyers. She had a great story how her boyfriend, a professional charter boatman, had recently captured a 600 lb. Mako shark with a tiny hook.

The screening was about to begin.

A group of guys from Sweden (one of whom had visited Maxwell Street) showed up, along with several other locals. Nanci Walker, Director of Creative Affairs from Universal Music Publishing, was also there.

It was a typical hot afternoon in downtown Austin, except for the fact that Maxwell Street was now being rediscovered at the Chuggin’ Monkey!

Nanci had to leave before the end of the film, but she gave me her card and asked that I call her about producing similar documentaries for Universal in the future. She thought my Maxwell Street film was very powerful and, potentially, marketable.

When it was over, I left for my hotel to take a nap and Roger and I planned to hook up later in the evening and hit some local clubs. From my hotel window, I could see the convention center, which was the focal point of South By Southwest.

That night, Roger and I met up and hit several places in downtown Austin, enjoying the local flavor along the way.

We discovered one little bar where 95 yr. old Chicago blues icon, Pinetop Perkins was playing the piano with his band.

Before we left, Roger and I were lucky enough to get our picture taken with Pinetop, a true, blues legend and generous man.

See you next year, Austin!

Phil Ranstrom Writer/Producer/Director

“Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues” “Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street”

Technorati Tags: Red Gorilla, Pinetop Perkins, Fender, Austin, SxSW

Jimmie Lee Robinson performing Boss Man, from the DVD Extras of Electrified

Jimmie Lee Robinson (1931- 2002) was a lifelong resident of Chicago whose musical career was truly bracketed by Maxwell Street. He started playing guitar on Maxwell Street in the 1940s when he was still in his teens, and in 1998 he joined the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition and dedicated himself to the effort to save what then remained of old marketplace. Among his contributions to the cause: the protest song The Maxwell Street Tear Down Blues and two lengthy protest fasts, one in 1998 that lasted 62 days and another in 2000 for 81 days.

Jimmie Lee played with just about every Chicago bluesman, and woman, one can think of, starting with Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy in the late 40s. In the 50s, he formed his first band The Every Hour Blues Boys, played with Elmore James and eventually joined Little Walter’s band. He left Little Walter in the late 50s and recorded a few singles of his own.

In the ’60s, he worked with Willie Mabon, Sunnyland Slim, Mighty Joe Young, Shakey Jake, and Howlin’ Wolf and went to Europe as part of the 1965 American Folk Blues Festival with John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Big Walter Horton, Big Mama Thornton and Eddie Boyd. By the 70s though, he had opened a candy store on Chicago’s South Side, and only played part-time, pretty much abandoning his music by the 80s.

Encouraged to return to the blues in the late 80s, he appeared at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1991 and 1993, and eventually recorded his first full-length album, Lonely Traveler released on Delmark in 1994. In the last decade of his life, he mostly performed as an acoustic solo artist, and contributed his energies to the efforts to save Maxwell Street.

Resources:

• Cascade Blues Association profile of Jimmie Lee Robinson
• Delmark, Maxwell Street Blues: Remembering Jimmie Lee Robinson
• NY Times obituary

Technorati Tags: Maxwell Street, Jimmie Lee Robinson, Boss Man, Chicago Blues

In our Electrified t-shirt giveaway — details here — we asked you to tell us who your favorite blues artist is and why. There’s just over a week left to enter, and we’d really appreciate your help in spreading the word about the giveaway and Notes of the Urban Blues. Leave your comment here, on the original post or on your own blog. If you do it on your own blog, which we’d love, please leave a comment here. When I use the random number generator to pick a winner, it helps to have everything in one place.

I found my dream blues team on YouTube yesterday: Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Here’s a clip from YouTube.

That Same Thing

Technorati Tags: Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Montreux, Electrified, Chicago blues

Another website I must share with you all: Dead Blues Guys.

At first it seems a bit morbid. A website devoted to collecting and sharing photos of the final resting places (FRPs) of deceased blues musicians. But once you start clicking around, it’s pretty addictive. You can’t help but look for your favorite dead blues guys.

One of my favorites, Junior Wells, died just over 10 years ago. Phil Ranstrom was lucky enough to capture some of his memories for Electrified shortly before Junior passed away.

Here’s a clip that I found on YouTube of a very young Junior performing Hoodoo Man Blues.

Technorati Tags: Junior Wells, Chicago blues, Hoodoo Man Blues

Today’s Chicago Blues posted the clip of Little Walter shown at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Monday night.

The clip includes interviews with a number of Little Walter’s contemporaries, including the late Junior Wells and Jimmie Lee Robinson, both of whom are also in Electrified.

Technorati Tags: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Walter, Chicago blues

Little Walter was among those honored at last night’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York. One of the best, if not the best, blues harmonica players of his generation, Little Walter was inducted into the Hall of Fame due to his influence on rock & roll.

We can only imagine where his career might have gone had it not been cut short by a street brawl in 1968.

According to his Wikipedia entry, these clips of him backing Hound Dog Taylor and Koko Taylor on a Danish television program in 1967 are his only known filmed performances.

Hound Dog Taylor, Wild About You Baby

Koko Taylor, Wang Dang Doodle

Technorati Tags: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Walter, Chicago blues

Over the past few weeks as we’ve been building Notes of the Urban Blues and starting to spread the word about Electrified, I’ve had the privilege to discover many wonderful blogs, websites and forums dedicated to the Blues. They have all been added to our blogroll in the sidebar, but I’d like to tell you about a few that have been tremendously welcoming.

Squeeze My Lemon, Today’s Chicago Blues and Blues Underground Network all wrote posts about the film or our film clips on YouTube.

The moderators of BluesWire and The Blindman’s Blues Forum were very helpful in getting us started as a member of their communities.

I urge you to check out these wonderful sites. Thanks, guys.

Technorati Tags: blues

This is just amazing. Watch eight year old Quinn Sullivan jam with Buddy Guy:

Technorati Tags: Buddy Guy, Quinn Sullivan, blues