What a extremely long week, no weekend could be long enough, really. Hotel Rwanda and Million Dollar Baby start playing here today, hopefully I’ll be able to catch both of them this weekend. Also I think Netflix is starting to throttle my account. The hub is located in Greensboro, but it is taking my movies an extra day to get there and sometimes up to two days to get back. The worst part about it is that I’m not really a high-volume user ! I watch like 3 a-week, which is nowhere near what some people are going through. Meh.

The Moaners are a great female-blues-rock duo from North Carolina whose first album Dark Snack came out on Yep Roc this week. The ladies are from Trailer Bride and Grand National, but this album sounds more like The Kills, but dirtier. They cover “Going Down The Road Feeling Bad” the great Elizabeth Cotten track, which is pretty awesome, but this track “Flannery Said” is my favorite, just make sure to turn it up loud.

Project Runway was pretty great again last night. I agree that Kevin Johnn should have been kicked off because he failed on a much larger level than Wendy. Robert is pulling a Alexandria now though, just being overly average so that he isn’t noticed as a failure or a success. He’ll be gone, soon though. Great win for Kara Saun, she’s pretty much a lock to win this show, her design was awesome. The Moaners new album is coming out next week or something, anyway it’s really damn good - I’ll have some tracks up tomorrow, but I mean run, don’t walk.

I played this track last night, accidentally (I was trying to play William Harris’ Kansas City Blues) and it really stuck me as a fantastic blues song. I’m not sure why it took so long to dawn on me, I’ve always loved Joe Calicott’s guitar work (like on the Akers tracks from last week) but his voice had never really done much for me. This track has really changed my mind on that, instead of the silly dirty blues track I had written it of as, Calicott is much more impassioned when singing about his lady going around with lots of other men.Its a very subtle song punctuated by Calicott’s amazing guitar work.

As normal my radio show, The Gate City Blues, is tonight from 7-9pm (EST) and streams live/with track titles at wuag.net. Also tonight is a new Project Runway, and I’m hoping that Robert is going to be out this time. Besides everyone knows that Kara is going to win, though Austin and Jay could make it close. I still don’t understand why everyone is picking Morgan and then being surprised that she makes a mess out of everything.

It has been pointed out to me recently that I haven’t posted a Blind Lemon Jefferson track, in fact the only mention of lemons was in a post about “Keep It Clean.” Blind Lemon Jefferson in my opinion was the best blues songwriter, by far. Jefferson has a way with words that is beyond most songwriters past and current, lyrics like:

Well, my heart stopped beating and my hands turned cold
Now I believe what the bible told

and:

And I wonder why they electrocute a man at the oneoclock hour of night
Because the current is much stronger, when the folks has turned out all the lights

Jefferson is a legend for not only his lyrics but also his solid guitar playing, while not owning completely to his Texas roots, was still highly aware of the style, but mostly jumped from genre to genre most effortlessly. This track “One Dime Blues” is one of my favorites by him, it shows of his guitar work and voice as well has containing some wonderful lyrics.

I hope everyone enjoyed Geoff’s first of hopefully many posts about prewar jazz music, that track is just so so good. I will still be posting pre-war blues of course, so don’t fear. The oft mentioned redesign is still being finalized I’ll have the mockup on a separate website pretty soon, It’s looking really good.

Today’s track is from a blues legend Henry Townsend a fantastic guitar player and one of the premier St. Louis blues musicians. Townsend had a long and storied career for many different labels and time periods, but this track is from his first recording session in 1931 for Paramount Records. Doctor, Oh Doctor, I think is one of his finest even more so than his famous “Baby, Please Don’t Go.” Townsend published a really great and interesting autobiography a few years back called “A Blues Life” that is definitely worth the read, it talks about not only about Townsend recording and playing with other blues greats but also the business side of recording as a pre and post war blues artist.

Lil Hardin was only 18 years old when she began to play with Sugar Johnnie’s New Orleans Creole Orchestra in 1917. Within a few years she had established such acclaim that she was invited to join what was to become the most influential and important jazz band of early jazz, Kid Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. It was in this band that Lil Hardin-Armstrong met her future husband, a very young and relatively inexperienced Louis Armstrong. They married shortly prior to their exit from Kid Oliver’s band. It was in fact Lil Hardin that convinced Louis Armstrong to leave Oliver’s band to pursue more ambitious things. Louis was quite reluctant at first, since Oliver had acted as a mentor to him early in his career, however he decided to quit Oliver’s band in late 1924. This allowed Armstrong to start his solo career with his band “The Hot Fiveâ€?. This band included Lil Hardin-Armstrong on piano and the recordings of this band are widely considered to be among the finest in jazz music.

Lil was not only a great supporting pianist for her then husband, she also led her own bands including the Hot Shots ( a pseudonym for Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five), and The New Orleans Wanderers. This post’s song, is from Lil’s New Orleans Wanderers. It was comprised from the members of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, but due to contractual reasons Satchmo was replaced with a relatively unknown cornet player named George Mitchell. The title of the song is the Perdido Street Blues. It was recorded on the 7-13-1926 for Columbia records. It begins with a solo by Johnny Dodds on clarinet, while the rhythm section makes short bursts of action in the background. Dodds’s solo is followed by a solo by George Mitchell on cornet. This time the rhythm plays continuously in the background. The solo by Mitchell has a very strong blues tinge, and while it is not up to the same standard as Armstrong, it is more than sufficient. After Mitchell’s solo, Dodds comes back in, screeching with a long sustained note. Dodds was definitely on fire for this recording, and plays an excellent second solo. The rhythm section maintains a constant repeating phrase in the background, with only slight variation in tone, this I believe allows the listener to more effectively listen to the soloing that occurs on top of their rhythm. After Dodds’ second solo, the rhythm section takes over and after a short solo by trombonist Kid Ory, the band plays all together and the song comes to an end.

• Lil Hardin-Armstrong - Perdido Street Blues
  

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. Peter recently invited me to contribute to this audio blog and I just couldn’t refuse taking up the opportunity. My name is Geoff and I live in Sydney, Australia. I’m an avid pre-war blues and jazz (pre-war and post-war) enthusiast. For this blog, I’ll mostly be concentrating on the world of jazz music, since Peter is doing such a fine job covering the blues. Look out for my posts in the future; I hope that you will like them.

I felt pretty lazy today, sorry about the late posting. it’s just perfect napping weather, so cold and wet and nasty outside. This track is from the great William Bell who sang more great songs than I could count. This song is so perfect for today. I gotta get back in bed and finish watching Summertime.

Another fun radio program last night. There is a new feature on the streaming side of the program, now the performer and song title should appear in the status bar of whatever your are streaming the program with. I’m hoping that the play list are being saved somewhere so I could keep a separate listing of my radio playlists.

Pete Harris is a Texas slide guitar player discovered and recorded by John and Alan Lomax in 1934. He is a quite good slide player, though on this track the song barrels so fast and almost out of control that it almost feels sloppy but the slide guitar and wonderful singing/slurring of the lyrics really bring it all together and it’s quite fun.

First chance I get, I’m moving to California. I only really need one season, cold weather is really the worst thing ever. Just because I love the blues and the residents of this snow-covered city, I will be doing a radio show tonight from 7-9, the show is the same format as this blog and streams at www.wuag.net.

Frank Edwards is a great blues player with a long recording history. Based mostly in Georgia his blues style is heavily informed by Blind Willie McTell as much as artists as Blind Boy Fuller. This track is from 1941 and features Edwards on guitar and a really powerful harmonica as well as Washboard Sam. Edwards recorded again in the 70s for Trix and then for Music Maker Foundation up until his death almost three years ago. The Music Make Foundation has a wonderful album by him that compiles not only his work for them but his older tracks.

One of my main internet obsession is constantly checking my webstats but my stupid webcounter has been down since last Friday which is made worse by the fact that for whatever reason I’m receiving more and more hits each day. I think I’m going to use Stat Counter but does anyone have any recommendations for a free, invisible counter with good stats?

These two songs are the most famous works of Garfield Akers. Yesterday’s song by Akers was a solo number, this has the wonderful Joe Calicott whose guitar playing on this track is easily the best work he did, and of course Akers’ voice that just makes fall in love with the blues all over again. Part one has a more intricate guitar playing, whereas part two features a hard driving repetitive guitar work that mimics Akers’ tone and style of singing. Akers and Calicott played together for most of their lives, Akers died in 59 and I think these were his only recorded sessions. Calicott was recording by George Mitchell whose recorded works were recently released on Fat Possum last year, though I think those Mitchell recordings, while interesting to hear people like Calicott and Furry Lewis record again, are highly over-rated and not really that great.