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Great blues number by Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck with SNL band.

According to Steve Cropper facebook, "Today I lost my best friend, the World has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live. Duck Dunn died in his sleep Sunday morning May 13 in Tokyo Japan after finishing 2 shows at the Blue Note Night Club." Booker T and MGs, Blues Bros

Officers learned the two men work together at Legends in Concert and that Credille is an Elvis impersonator, according to the report. Party attendees told officers that Credille left with men who work as Blues Brothers impersonators in the show before officers arrived at the home. The report did not list the occupation of the victim.

'Cleveland by two men whose passion for music bridged the racial divide in a segregated US. Jimmy Sutphin was playing poker and drinking beer in a hotel room with some hockey team pals when they heard the commotion outside. Peering out of the fifth-floor window, they saw thousands of people besieging the indoor arena across the road. The 20-year-old student and his friends abandoned their card game and piled downstairs to investigate. It was Friday evening, 21 March 1952, in Cleveland, Ohio, and they were about to witness history being made. The crowd was angrily demanding entry to a performance...

Tuesday night, when Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Jeff Beck and other musical giants came by the house to belt out the blues. "I guess things even out a little bit," Obama joked at the start of a rollicking East Room concert electrified by Jagger and featuring a musical A-list. Legends and up-and-comers turned the East Room into an intimate blues club for a concert celebrating the rich history of the music and its lasting impact King, 86, arrived in a wheelchair but rose tall to kick off the night with a rollicking rendition of "Let the Good Times Roll," quickly...

(CNN) -- Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as "The Wallflower," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and the wedding favorite "At Last," has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73. She died from complications from leukemia with her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons by her side, De Leon said.

LOS ANGELES — Etta James’ manager says the singer has died in Southern California. Lupe De Leon tells The Associated Press the singer died early Friday at Riverside Community Hospital. De Leon says the cause of death is complications of leukemia. James enduring hits include "At Last" and "Tell Mama."

East Texans and blues lovers everywhere are mourning the loss of a Boogie-Woogie icon. Omar Sharriff died Sunday morning in his home in Marshall, Texas. He was called the last living link to that style of blues music. Today, many are celebrating his life and contributions to keep Boogie-Woogie alive. "He was one of the world's greatest Boogie-Woogie blues piano player, without a doubt," said friend and caretaker, Jack Canson. "He played with all of the greats. You can't name a great blues man he didn't play with... or woman." Canson also co-manages the Marshall, Texas Boogie Woogie Program. Sharriff...

The Animals were a highly influential English rock/R-n-B group, formed in the early 60s in the north-east of England (Newcastle-upon-Tyne). They later in the decade relocated to the bustling London scene. Renowned for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, the band is best known for timeless classics such as "The House of the Rising Sun", "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", and "It's My Life".   The Animals presented a unique blend of rock-oriented pop hits along with R-n-B material to fill out the albums.  Later -under the name Eric Burdon and the Animals- they moved to California and yet...

On July 4, George “Mojo” Buford returned home to Minneapolis following a gig at Yoshi’s nightclub in San Francisco, where he performed with his fellow vets from Muddy Waters’ band, Hubert Sumlin and James Cotton. A day later, the legendary blues harpist went in for heart surgery and never fully recovered, according to family. Buford, 81, died Tuesday morning of heart failure at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood. “He was doing what he loved to do right up until the end,” his son Abe said proudly. A native of Hernando, Miss., Buford said in a 2002 interview that he moved...

'Ain't no room for a Kosher cowboy  in a town like New Orleans...' When I was a kid growing up in the late 70s, I used to comb through discount record bins to find stuff not heard on Aerosmith/Supertramp-dominated FM radio of the day. And I often took a chance on something unknown, even just based on the cover art if the price was right- like $.99 back then in olden times. But I often came-across various LPs by British boogie-rockers Status Quo in those bargain-bins and thinking "who the hell is this... and why are their records always being dumped by...

David Honeyboy Edwards, the “Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen” has died. This morning Monday August 29, 2011, about 3 am while resting peacefully at home, Honeyboy moved on to blues heaven. This picture was taken in West Point at the dedication of the Howlin Wolf Statue downtown….Rest in peace, sir… you were a fine blues gentleman…

"I'm talkin' about The Hero, now..."From Eric Clapton's 'Crossroads 2010' last year- it don't get any better than this... After opening for such major bands as Humble Pie and Janis Joplin when they played Texas, ZZ Top were making themselves known. 1973's Tres Hombres completed the task when it went all the way to #8 on the Billboard Album chart. The record featured the single "La Grange", which of course went on to be a concert staple that has played on FM radio forever (although the first time I heard it was on AM radio when I was eleven!). In January 1973 ZZ Top was asked by Mick...

A piece of Mississippi history was virtually blown away by Friday's destructive storms. Internationally acclaimed Malaco Records on Northside Drive in Jackson was almost reduced to rubble and now the owners are wondering whether they will rebuild after 44 years. It was 3 years ago this month that Malaco Records was honored with an official marker recognizing it as a Jackson landmark along the Mississippi Blues Trail. The company was founded in 1962 and located on Northside Drive in 1967. Now, that marker is almost the only thing left standing. A powerful tornado shredded two of the three buildings in...

Pinetop Perkins, 1913- 2011 Legendary piano player Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins , who gave Austin a walking, talking monument to the blues when he moved here in 2003, died from cardiac arrest Monday at his home in North Austin. The oldest-ever Grammy winner, Perkins was 97 when he accepted the award for best traditional blues album last month . When the Rolling Stones played Austin for the first time in October 2006 at Zilker Park, the sight they most wanted to see was Perkins, Muddy Waters' longtime piano player, backstage at their show. Even in failing health, Perkins went to...

MIDDLEBURY (IN) -- Days after its disappearance, the decorative pig outside Old Hoosier Meats has not yet returned. Owner Randy Grewe had placed the pig, made of pink wire and covered in red and white lights, outside the smokehouse and butcher shop before Thanksgiving. When he returned to work Monday after the New Year's weekend, it was gone. As Grewe walked to his front door, he found a laminated note on his doorstep, letters from magazines and newspapers pieced together to form the message: "Here is your ransom demand. The pig is safe and you will receive a list...

The Box Tops were a Memphis rock group active in the mid-to-late 1960s. Known for such hits as "The Letter" (below), "Neon Rainbow", "Soul Deep", "I Met Her in Church", and "Cry Like A Baby", the band is historically significant as a major "blue-eyed soul" group of the period.They performed a mixture of current soul music songs by artists such as James and Bobby Purify and Clifford Curry, pop tunes such as A Whiter Shade of Pale by Keith Reid, Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum, and songs written by their producers, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and Chips...

NAIROBI, Kenya — Two explosions ripped through a park in Kenya's capital during a packed political rally late Sunday, killing five people and wounding 75, officials said. The rally was held to protest a draft constitution the country will vote on in August. The country's president and prime minister support it, but several prominent political leaders do not. Prime Minister Raila Odinga said that officials don't know the cause of the blasts but that they wounded 75 people. Dr. Charles Kabetu of Kenya's national hospital said five people had died. "I want to say clearly that the government will do...

A proposal to divide the United States into two countries I post this article with a sense of ambivalence, since, notwithstanding the author's boldness and originality of thought, his proposal presents grave practical difficulties which in my view he deals with only superficially. However, as I myself have said, with the passage of the health care bill America has now become in effect two mutually irreconcilable peoples (they want to impose unlimited state power on us, which we don't want to be imposed), and the only two logical resolutions to the conflict are that one side crush and dominate the...

Janis Joplin has an indelible image as a swaggering, boozing rock 'n' roll mama whose blues-based music was a raw outpouring of her angst. The 1979 Bette Midler film The Rose, which depicts a Joplin-like singer, strengthened that view. Very likely it's why a lengthy list of actresses — including Renee Zellweger, Brittany Murphy, Pink, Lili Taylor, Zooey Deschanel and Vanessa Hudgens (!) — have expressed interest in playing her onscreen. But it's an image that Lauren Onkey and Mary Davis hope to dispel, or at least replace with a new respect for her key role in the crossbreeding of...

B.B. King and Buddy Guy classic blues duet.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - For more than five decades, legendary blues artist B.B King has graced the music scene with unforgettable hits such as "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Three O'clock Blues." This fall, the Inland Empire will have an opportunity hear and see him in concert when he performs at Cal State San Bernardino's Coussoulis Arena on Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets, which are available through Ticketmaster, are now on sale. Tickets also are available at the Coussoulis Arena box office. Ticket prices are $85 for VIP Gold Circle seating, $65 reserved seating and $55 for general admission.....

classic live John Lee Hooker...

FOR MY FREEPER FRIENDS - A LITTLE CHICAGO MUSIC & BLUES MRS. OBAMA: I was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, not far from where the Games would open and close. Ours was a neighborhood of working families — families with modest homes and strong values. Sports were what brought our community together. They strengthen our ties to one another. Growing up, when I played games with the kids in my neighborhood, we picked sides based not on who you were, but what you could bring to the game. Sports taught me self-confidence, teamwork, and how to compete as...

Being on the road this summer with ZZ Top puts Aerosmith in a unique position for the Boston rockers. As guitarist Joe Perry rightly told us of the little ol' band from Texas, "They've been together longer than us." Not many acts can claim to have outlived Aerosmith, and even fewer can last so long with the original lineup. Therefore, it's that much more amazing that 2009 marks the 40th anniversary for bandmates Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard, and Dusty Hill. Let that digest for a second -- 40 freaking years! Obama is the eighth president ZZ Top has recorded under,...

Koko Taylor, the Grammy Award-winning "Queen of the Blues," died this afternoon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital of complications from surgery, according to Marc Lipkin of Alligator Records. She was 80.

Koko Taylor, the Grammy Award-winning "Queen of the Blues," died Wednesday afternoon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital of complications from surgery, according to Marc Lipkin of Alligator Records. She was 80.

“You’ll be back again,” sang Barry & the Remains, starting their headlining set on Tuesday night at the eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp. It’s a song about a straying girlfriend, but the Remains could have been singing about themselves and many of the four dozen acts — rockabillies, bluesmen, R&B shouters, swamp-rockers, honky-tonkers, psychedelic bands — playing the House of Blues here in the Stomp’s two nights of nine-hour shows. In the mid-1960s Barry & the Remains toured the United States with the Beatles and made an album of crafty, surly garage-rock. Then they broke up, becoming one more rock-history footnote....

Rocky Hill was described as “a monster on guitar,” though over four decades he could be a difficult creature to find. His career dated back to the 1960s when he was a hotshot player with blue hair joined on bass by his brother Dusty in a psychedelic rock band. That a Google search on “Rocky Hill” turns out dozens of entries on a town in Connecticut and nearly nothing on the guitarist is testament to how good a musician can be without ever finding his rewards. Hill died Friday at his Houston-area home; he was 62. A statement claimed he...

Click to watch performance. Blues Song When he first saw her Picked her out the crowd. If you were my girlfriend I would walk so proud. My mama warned me never trust 'em No, those boys are just after one thing. When he sent flowers To her dorm hall She barely answered His last phone call. My mama warned me never trust 'em No, those boys are just after one thing. They went to dinner And a movie, too Parted with a handshake When he made his move. My mama warned me never trust 'em No, those boys are just...

FAIRBANKS — While nominating Taj Mahal for a Grammy Award in the Contemporary Blues category (he didn’t win this year, but has two others) wasn’t as far off base as nominating Jethro Tull in the Heavy Metal category (they won!), proclaiming Mahal to be only a blues artist doesn’t fully do justice to his musical legacy. “That’s a hornets nest I don’t want to get into,” he said with a laugh during a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home. “The central part of what I do has always been blues, but blues can have a world view just like...

Professor Ferenc Szasz argued that so-called rap battles, where two or more performers trade elaborate insults, derive from the ancient Caledonian art of "flyting". According to the theory, Scottish slave owners took the tradition with them to the United States, where it was adopted and developed by slaves, emerging many years later as rap. Professor Szasz is convinced there is a clear link between this tradition for settling scores in Scotland and rap battles, which were famously portrayed in Eminem's 2002 movie 8 Mile. He said: "The Scots have a lengthy tradition of flyting - intense verbal jousting, often laced...

Dealing with the BluesBy Rick Nauert, Ph.D. Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 6, 2008 Thursday, Nov 6 (Psych Central) -- The events that have occurred over the past few weeks have been emotionally charged. Now the election is over and reality sets in. Days are shorter and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is already here for many. “This is the time of the year when people are vulnerable to depression anyway,” said Dr. Thomas Nutter, assistant professor, psychiatry & behavioral neurosciences, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. “The fact that the election happened, the...

It's the End of the World As We Know It (I feel fine) Click above to play video

LKHORN, Wis. — When Tallan "T-Man" Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. "I turned around to my dad and said, 'That's exactly what I want to do.'" Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He has played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide. What, you might ask, would a boy not even in the third grade have the blues...

ELKHORN, Wis. - When Tallan "T-Man" Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. "I turned around to my dad and said, 'That's exactly what I want to do.'" Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He's played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide.

Bo Diddley has died...details upcoming

I was lucky enough to discover Ron's music. I hope you enjoy it too. http://www.myspace.com/ronarmstrongmusic For some great Classic Rock with Ron singing vocals check out http://www.myspace.com/jamulfan  

For the freepers who enjoyed previous Sonic Moodswing shows (ie featuring The Soldier and The Drummer to name 2) ... tonight's featured personality is about being down and out, "the Blue" There are so many reasons to have the blues these days --- no need to list them, but isn't it ironic how a good way to chase away the blues is to listen to the blues. John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Blind Willie McTell and other major influences on today's rock and roll tell their tales of the down-and-out ... streaming live now until 9 eastern tonight: Winamp or...

Click here for streaming video of 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival!

ONOLULU -- The new commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific and Asia says he found Chinese military leaders intensely interested in acquiring aircraft carriers during a recent visit to that country. Adm. Timothy J. Keating added in an interview that he had warned the Chinese about the huge challenges involved in building and manning an aircraft carrier. "I suggested let's not be naive about the complexity of those ships, and they are not cheap," he said.

Paul deLay, the larger-than-life Portland bluesman who redefined the harmonica and its musical potential, died Wednesday morning at Providence Portland Medical Center from end-stage leukemia diagnosed just days before. He was 55. "He set the standard for harmonica players when he was 20 years old," said guitarist Jim Mesi, "and he got better from there." Mesi first played with deLay almost 40 years ago in Portland's seminal electric blues band, Brown Sugar. "I've lived in Boston, New York and Austin, and I've played all around the states and in Europe, and everywhere I've been, I've met Paul deLay fans," said...

Scientists have discovered a new gene that makes mice happy, a finding that suggests another avenue of drugs for improving depression in humans. The research represents the first time that depression has been eliminated genetically in any organism, said Guy Debonnel, a psychiatrist and professor at McGill University. Debonnel and his colleagues achieved this effect by creating and breeding mice lacking a gene also found in humans that affects the transmission of the mood-modulating chemical serotinin. Mice without the gene, called TREK-1, acted as if they had been treated with anti-depressants for at least three weeks, he said. By removing...

ACKSON, Miss. (Dec. 5) - For Mississippian Rick Looser, the last straw came on an airline flight a couple of years ago when a 12-year-old Connecticut boy sitting next to him asked: "Do you still see the KKK on the streets every day?" That prompted the advertising executive to spend his own money on a campaign to dispel Mississippi's image as a forlorn state of poor, illiterate, racist good ole boys. "Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state in the country," Looser said. "The old stereotype of the short, fat, white, bald men in suits smoking cigars...

Well worth the 6 hour drive to Jax. Cray played for about a half hour and Clapton played for about 2 hrs and 15 min. $300 for two tickets was well worth it, we were in the center about 20 rows back. Here's the FTU article on the show.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Her voice tired but her passion as strong as ever, Jennifer Gratz took the lectern in a recent debate here and talked about what she's been talking about for nearly a decade. "When we put an emphasis on race or sex through university admissions, through public employment, through policy, we teach people that it is OK to treat people differently," Gratz, 29, said as she debated this fall's Michigan referendum that would ban affirmative action in public education, hiring and contracting. Civil rights leaders said the vote will influence the affirmative action debate nationally. Gratz, a...

"PIECES OF BLUES" is Bob E. Lee's first recorded documentation of his interpretation of "the blues" as seen through his eyes. Bob E. Lee is a twenty-year veteran of the Chicago Southside blues scene. His guitar and blues-harp, give voice to the emotion of a life-lived in the shadow of the steel mills. Bob's powerful voice, along with his talent for story-telling, combined to create his own personal experience of the blues. Bob leads the "Bob E. Lee Blues Band," a group of talented and diverse group of veteran blues musicians who perform regularly at blues clubs and festivals, etc......

having been a blues DJ since 1988 (and a DJ overall since '81), I figured I'd make a list of some of the blues tunes I can remember that fall into the novelty category. --Can Blue Men Sing the Whites, Bonzo Dog Band. Perhaps inspired by the times when Cream and they appeared on the same concert bill? --Generic Blues, Weird Al Yankovic. From the UHF soundtrack album. "Oh, son, make it talk, make it talk!...Allright, now make it shut up..." --Louis Jordan--the jump blues pioneer who inspired the likes of B.B. King and Chuck Berry did "There Ain't Nobody...

NEW YORK - Forget religion and politics. When it comes to controversial subjects, the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll is the topic du jour. For many people, that milestone will occur this year on July 5, the day five decades ago when a young Southerner named Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right (Mama)" in a Memphis studio. That city is planning a year-long celebration in honor of the event, calling Elvis's single "the first rock and roll song ever recorded, making Memphis the birthplace of a musical revolution." But even after 50 years of gyrating hips, not everyone agrees...

HOLLYWOOD, Fla., May 5, 2006 – It was all about blues at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino here last night. Zee (left) and Elwood Blues - Jim Belushi and Dan Akroyd - take the crowd at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino's Hard Rock Live venue down memory lane with their trademark songs, "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Soul Man." The concert was part of the casino's "Red, White and Blues Bash" on May 4 in conjunction with Fleet Week USA and the 2006 McDonald's Air and Sea Show. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The...