Slim Pickens & Doctor Baz : Blues & Roots Links

LINKS & INSPIRATIONS

Slim Pickens and Doctor Baz would like to share some of their inspiration with you.

The King Of Ragtime Guitar:

"Blind Blake & His Piano-Sounding Guitar" for some tantalizing insight into the master.

Blind Blake is the great mystery man of blues.

He developed a unique, defining guitar style, and wrote intriguing, sophisticated, and often wryly humorous lyrics. (Check out the intriguing Panther Squall Blues lyrics below).

There is almost no information about his life.

Above is the single surviving photo of a great original.

PANTHER SQUALL BLUES
by Blind Blake

I got a sweet mama, she ain't long at all
I got a sweet mama, she ain't long at all
She's got the kind of lovin' make a panther squall.

She got Elgin movements, that's twenty years guaranteed
She got Elgin movements, that's twenty years guaranteed
I bet my last dollar, she done put them jinx on me.

TITLE: Panther Squall Blues
MATRIX NO.: 20582-2
SINGER: Blind [Arthur] Blake
COMPOSER(S):
DATE OF REC.: c. May 1928
ORIGINAL ISSUE(S):
REISSUE(S): Biograph 12031, Yazoo 1016

Slim Pickens plays a Beeton resonator guitar, (hand-made by Greg Beeton in the steel city of Newcastle, Australia) a reproduction of a 1930's National.

Slim Pickens plays an Australian-made Beeton resonator guitar

For more info on resonator guitars click here.

Beeton Brass Guitars

23 Neridah Road Belmont North NSW Australia, 2280. Ph: (612) 4946-9696 voice/fax.

http://www.yazoobluesmailorder.com/index.html

BLUES LYRICS and HOODOO

www.luckymojo.com/blues.html

R. Crumb's comic book bio of Charlie Patton

See our tribute to Charlie Patton here.

There is an underground comic book by eccentric cartooning genius & blueslover R. Crumb, retelling the life of the first great Delta bluesman Charlie Patton (composer of the poignant "One of These Days" featured on Slim & Baz's album Cactus ). Crumb's classic visualisation is based on the biography by Stephen Calt and Gayle Dean Wardlow.

http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/patton1.htm

By the same artist:

R. Crumb Draws the Blues Robert Crumb's " Little Book of Blues"

"Little Blues Book"

"R. Crumb Draws the Blues"

available at amazon.com

Charlie Patton links:

http://www.southernmusic.net/charliepatton.htm

www.john-meekings.co.uk/cpatton.html

Charley Patton

www.yazoorecords.com/2010.htm

Authentic new generation bluesman Keb Mo is an inspiration. His official web-site is:

http://www.kebmo.com/

Keb Mo

Huddy Leadbetter, one of the all-time great songwriters. What a creative force!

Leadbelly links:

http://leadbelly.lanl.gov/leadbelly.html

Leadbelly's grave.

http://www.hlmusic.com/LeadbellyPage.htm

http://www.island.net/~blues/huddy.html

Hear Slim & Baz's version of "Scottsboro Boys"

Willie Dixon

http://www.island.net/~blues/willie.html

http://afgen.com/dixon.html

http://www.thebluehighway.com/tbh3.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Dixon

......"The blues are the true facts of life expressed in words and song, inspiration, feeling and understanding." (Willie).

Willie Dixon

Can't you just see he was a great guy? Willie Dixon's iconic "Bring It On Home" is featured on "Cactus" .

Like the best early bluesmen, Guy Davis is, at heart, a storyteller. A master at setting intimate, richly nuanced tales to stomping acoustic blues backing, often with folky accompaniment from mandolin, banjo, and accordion.

Guy Davis Links:

http://www.guydavis.com/

http://members.aol.com/MNBlues/guy_davis.html

http://www.bluesrevue.com/davis.html

Slim Pickens also plays a vintage Gibson "Kalamazoo" acoustic guitar.

Vintage Guitars | http://www.gibson.com/

Doctor Baz plays Hohner Student IV and Settimo Soprani accordions because they're small, sweet and not too serious.

http://www.hohnerusa.com/accordians.htm

Slim Pickens also plays a vintage Gibson Kalimazoo

What is zydeco?

THE ALMANAC SINGERS, 1942:

Bess Hawes, Pete Seeger, Millard Lampell, Woody Guthrie, ARrthur Stern, 'Sis' (Agnes) Cunningham (left to right).

Slim & Baz include songs by Agnes and Woody in their repertoire. Agnes passed on in 2004, aged 95.

http://www.woodyguthrie.de/belt.html

Roy Bookbinder is another great new generation blues storyteller who is one of our influences.

Roy Bookbinder links:

http://www.roybookbinder.com/

http://www.wirz.de/music/bookbfrm.htm

http://bluesland.net/thang/minnie.html

memphis_minnie.htm

Born Lizzie Douglas, child prodigy Memphis Minnie McCoy was one of the most prolific and influential women of the blues. On Beale Street in Memphis and later as part of the Chicago music scene, Minnie excelled in a male dominated genre and could play and sing the blues with the best of them! During the 1910s and early 1920s, Douglas adopted the handle of Memphis Minnie and toured the South, playing tent shows with the Ringling Brothers Circus.

During the late 1920s Minnie began playing guitar with a variety of ad hoc jug bands during Memphis’s jug band craze. Minnie also began a common law marriage with Kansas Joe McCoy, a musician with whom she had begun playing and would soon record. Their very first session yielded the hit song "Bumble Bee".

By the time the effects of the Great Depression had shackled the recording industry, Minnie had recorded fifty sides that showcased her powerful voice and energetic guitar picking. She affected wealth as her idol Ma Rainey had done, traveling to shows in luxury cars and wearing bracelets made of silver dollars on her wrists.

(Left, how she might have looked circa 1929. Original drawing Stephan Michelson www.toad.net)

Ry Cooder Links:

http://www.telecaster.demon.co.uk/docs/cooder_r.htm

http://www.ryland-cooder.com/

http://www.rylanders.free-online.co.uk/

http://www.rockument.com/session_Cooder1.html

Many years ago Dr. Baz opened for guitar maestro Ry and David Lindley at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne

Movie Poster for "O Brother, Whereart Thou?"

Oh Brother Where Art Thou? The Movie

A fun movie with a really great soundtrack - we love it!

Plot Outline: Three stumblebum convicts escape the chain-gang and go on a quest for treasure. They meet various bizarre characters while learning where their real fortune lies - as country blues singers!

Even George Clooney is ok in this one.

http://www.obrothermusic.com/

http://x-stream.fortunecity.com/fleetst/71/tothe.htm

The cowboy tinge to the Slim Pickens/Dr. Baz 'sound' derives from the unique Australian country rock influence , and we especially doff our akubras to '70's icons

The Dingoes , led by Broderick Smith,

(we enjoy covering two of our favourite Dingoes' songs in our current show.

Australian singer/songwriter Broderick Smith.

www.blueslinks.nl

2653 Blues links
from around the world. Should be enough for now !

www.blueslinks.nl

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