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Charlie Patton, better known as
Charley Patton (May 1, 1891 April 28, 1934) is best known as an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of Delta Blues" and therefore one of the oldest known figures of American popular music. He is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man (Palmer, 1995). Musicologist Robert Palmer considers him among the most important musicians that America produced in the twentieth century. Many sources, including musical releases and his gravestone, spell his name Charley even though the musician himself spelled his name "Charlie.
Charlie Patton was one of the first mainstream stars of the Delta blues genre. Patton, who was born in Hinds County, Mississippi near Edwards, lived most of his life in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi Delta. Most sources say he was born in 1891, but there is some debate about this, and the years 1887 and 1894 have also been suggested. In 1900, his family moved 100 miles north to the legendary 10,000-acre Dockery Plantation sawmill and cotton farm near Ruleville, Mississippi. It was here that both John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf fell under the Patton spell. It was also here that Robert Johnson played and was given his first guitar.
Charley Patton Charley Patton Discography |
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Pinetop Perkins (born Joseph William Perkins, July 7, 1913) is a American Blues musician. Perkins, whose specialty is the piano, currently shares the distinction with one of his lifelong friends, David Honeyboy Edwards, as being the eldest living Delta blues performers who continue to tour and perform from the past century. He has played with some of the most influential blues and rock and roll performers in American history, and received honors that include the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame. Perkins was born in Belzoni, Mississippi. He began his career as a guitarist, but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a fight with a choirgirl in Helena, Arkansas. Unable to play guitar, Perkins switched to the piano, and also switched from Robert Nighthawk's KFFA radio program to Sonny Boy Williamson's King Biscuit Time. He continued working with Nighthawk, however, accompanying him on 1950's "Jackson Town Gal".
In the 1950s, Perkins joined Earl Hooker and began touring, stopping to record "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" (written by Pinetop Smith) at Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis, Tennessee. ("They used to call me Pinetop," he recalled, "because I played that song.") However, Perkins was only 15 years old in 1928, when Smith originally recorded "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie".
Pinetop Perkins Pinetop Perkins Discography |
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Don't be surprised if "Raising The Roof!" also raises the number of Wammie Awards that guitarist
Tom Principato has collected over the years-more than 20 at last count.
Recorded in College Park, Md. save for one track, Principato's new album is a rocking, grooving session featuring Hammond B-3 organist Tommy Lepson. It opens with three tunes written or (co-written) by Principato: "Lock and Key," a serving of Gumbo funk peppered with chunky, extended chord guitar riffs and Chris Watling's resonating baritone sax: "Too Damn Funky," a slithery instrumental that lives up to it's billing as soon as Lepson applies some elbow grease; and "In The Middle Of The Night," a haunting Reggae ballad that features Principato and co-composer Lepson sharing soulful vocals.
Eventually a few cover tunes that further reflect Principato's varied tastes come into focus; J.J. Cale's "Lies," Jimmy Smith's "8 Counts For Rita" and the Louis Jordan hit "Fish Fry." Each is given a fresh spin, though the twangy tribute to Smith is particularly colorful and engaging, an expansive showcase not only for Telecaster master Principato but for Lepson, bassist John Perry and drummer Joe Wells.
Capping the album is a live recording of Principato's loose and lighthearted "They Called For 'Stormy Monday' (But 'Mustang Sally' Is Just As Bad!), complete with lots of T-Bone Walker evoking fretwork. Mike Joyce The Washington Post Feb. 22, 2008
Tom Principato Tom Principato Discography |
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