BackAlleyBlues

The Radiators were born during a transitional decade in the history of New Orleans music. The Meters, the premier funk band, had disbanded, the Neville Brothers formed, and in 1980 Professor Longhair, the father of New Orleans R&B and spiritual embodiment of Crescent City Soul had passed on. This decade would prove to be the fertile period of development when a unique blend of rhythms and sounds came together and "Fish Head" music was born. The Radiators, an extremely eclectic group of musicians, rely on a myriad of musical influences to create their own sound - "Fish Head Music". At a Radiators show it is not uncommon to hear blues, R&B, jazz, country, Zydeco, soul, swing, and even gospel filtering through their original New Orleans Rock N' Roll.

This group could only come from New Orleans. Since its earliest settlement, the city developed a rich musical heritage that gave birth to 20th century American music. Musicians from this region were the first to incorporate African rhythms with Western melody. Beginning with culture-blending jam sessions at Congo Square, this musical tableau unfurled in the hands of artists such as JellyRoll Morton, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Earl King, The Meters, Dr. John and others too numerous to mention. These acts provided great inspiration for the Radiators.

The Radiators are in their 26th year of providing some of the most intense live performances (over 3600 thus far!) of any band on the road today. Their intuitive grasp of each other's moves, coupled with a repertoire of nearly 1300 songs provides a basis for a fresh and spontaneous approach to their music.

The band formed in January 1978 in Keyboardist Ed Volker's garage. Ed, Frank Bua, and Camille Baudoin were performing in one band together, with Dave Malone and Reggie Scanlan in another. "Ed invited us to come over to his house and jam; Dave and I figured we'd have a few beers together and play a couple of blues tunes," remembers Scanlan, "instead, we jammed for five hours straight, then all quit our old bands the next day."

http://www.livedownloads.com/stash.asp?artist=4

As tough as the life of a professional musician must have been in the '30s, the plight of a typical Carolina millworker was a whole lot worse. This was the background that Dorsey and Howard Dixon were born into, as they and their family all worked in the mills of Darlington, Lancaster, and Greenville, SC, as well as East Rockingham, NC. Dorsey was born October 5, 1897, and his brother on June 9, 1903. Music was an outlet from the long hours, lousy pay, and miserable factory conditions, with the workers often picked on by their bosses for being so-called hillbillies, and persecuted by local police for being so-called communists. Perhaps a career in country music was inevitable for hillbilly communists and it surely must have seemed like it would be more rewarding. At any rate, Dorsey picked up guitar at 14 and switched to fiddle later. When his little brother also figured out chords on the guitar, the two put together a fiddle-guitar duo, although the older brother continued practicing guitar. The most important musical influence on the Dixons was a local guitarist named Jimmy Tarleton, who had been a member of a successful duo, Darby and Carleton. The Depression had sandbagged this duo's career, so Tarleton had returned to the Little Hanna Pickett Mill in East Rockingham and his old job as a textile worker. He made friends with the brothers and the talk frequently turned to music, with lots of song trading going on. The brothers flipped over Tarleton's slide-guitar sound, which was much more heavily influenced by black blues styles. A strength of the Dixon Brothers' sound inevitably was the blues influence they filtered down through their friend, the result being a bit less of an overt blues influence, but plenty of stylistic shading. Howard also switched instruments because of his new friend, so enamored was he with the sound of the National steel

Hailing from Arkansas, Fred Tackett worked as a side man on many Little Feat albums before becoming a full member of the band for Let It Roll. Along with his fine guitar work, Fred's mandolin and trumpet have become a featured part of the Little Feat sound.

Robert Palmer writes about Fred Tackett's early years in Rock and Roll: An Unruly History

In addition to his work with the Feat, Fred has a very large discography of work with other artists.

Here are just some of the artists Fred has recorded with:

Allman Brothers, Greg Allman, Rory Block, Jackson Browne, Glen Campbell, Eric Carmen, Valerie Carter, Judy Collins, Rita Coolidge, Bob Dylan, Lowell George, Vince Gill, Rickie Lee Jones, Nicolette Larson, Juice Newton, Aaron Neville, Van Dyke Parks, Bonnie Raitt, Lionel Richie, Leo Sayer, Carly Simon, Boz Scaggs, Rod Stewart, Harry Nilsson, Bob Seger, Ringo Starr, Tom Waits, the Wallflowers, and Jimmy Webb

For a more complete list of Fred Tackett's recordings, see the Little Feat Discography

Greg Allman

little feet

Scott was raised in northern Jersey in the early seventies when Jersey was still farmland and a quiet place. Since this area has been built up to include industry and shopping malls, Scott moved farther away to northeast PA "My dad gave me sort of a guitar for Christmas one year... it was a little plastic guitar with plastic strings - plucking along with my parents playing country music on the stereo. I was around 8 years old and my dad said, "Play something like Johnny Cash and I will buy you a real one." I learned, I walk the line sort of and I finally got a guitar made of wood... buy my teacher was Mr. Joseph - a man about 82 years old. He wanted me to play Mary Had A Little Lamb' single notes... I soon got bored. Later, I got a real silver-tone Sears Electric and an amp from a friend. The guitar obsession was born playing Hendrix and early Elvis by ear." Later, Scott was taught some scales, on guitar by hippie guitar master, Dave Williams. At sixteen, he was playing with local bands. The showman was born, playing endlessly, then hooking up with the House Of Music Recording Studio in West Orange, NJ. Scott started to bump into all kinds of legends and making waves - taking work anywhere he could. Through many incarnations of all sorts, Scott has worked with, opened for, or played with living legends over the course of 25 years, including, Stevie Washington, George Clinton, Jr. Wells, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Buddy Guy, Jerry Garcia, U2, Dave Matthews, Bon Jovi, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Richie Havens to name a few. Scott was seriously busy trying any way he could, to learn from these legends. After nearly eight years of steady work and brushes with his own tragedies, Scott needed a break. In his own words, "I was afraid I would look like Keith Richards by the time I was 40." Scott drastically slowed down and went on a journey of the spirit from doing sweat lodges to studying meditation in Tibetan monasteries and taking long hikes by himself. After spending a few months alone in his VW bus in Colorado and Montana, Scott had an awakening and moved back from isolation, realizing that music was his true calling. This was about eight years ago. Scott has been writing songs like a waterfall ever since.

http://scottweisband.com

Hi, I´m L W Hawkins, a Swedish free time musician, living just outside Stockholm. I have had blues and rock´n roll as hobby since the 70´s and my influences come from a wide range of artists within rock and blues.

Why this name?

Got a nice ring to it. Originally LW Hawkins was a sheriff in Twin Falls County who managed to spot UFO:s back in the 40´s.

Do you play live?

Have played bass in several cover bands. For the time being mostly recording playing most instruments by myself.

How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?

Hot question right now...think the music industry will find a way to satisfy all parties in some kind of compromise for music distribution

Would you still sign a record contract with a major label?

Yes

Band History:

Earlier bands: Onyx, Ella Blues Band and Orientexpressen

Your influences?

Eagles, ZZ Top, BB King, Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, Led Zeppelin, John Lee Hooker, Swedish artists Louise Hoffsten and Mats Ronander to mention a couple of names.

Favorite spot?

The Swedish Archipelago

Equipment used:

Fender Telecaster, Epiphone guitar, Yamaha BB1600, Peavy amps. Still keep my original Colorsound Wah Wah from the 70´s

Little Freddie's real name is Fread E. Martin and he was born in McComb, Mississippi, July 19, 1940 down the road from Bo Diddley place. His father, Jessie James Martin, was a blues guitarist that worked the weekend southern circuit in the Delta. His father would bring him out on the town when he was out there playin. "I would go out there and sit around on the outside around the juke joints and listenin." He'd be playin and drinkin and everyone was havin' fun. Freddie eventually taught himself how to play guitar and develop his country-style blues or as he calls it "Gut Bucket Blues".

At the age of 17, Freddie moved from the farm to New Orleans to stay with his sister. There he met such upcoming stars as Buddy Guy and Slim Harpo. However, adapting to life in the big city wasn't easy as Freddie explains. "I got lost all the time," he said. "All the houses looked the same. I had to get the police to take me home or else they'd arrest me. Finally one of the policemen told me to look at the street sign and the number on the houses. It got easy to get around after that."

Freddie King

My name is Brad and Brad Sucks is the name of my one man band. I write, record and produce songs and put them on this website for people to download and hopefully share and enjoy. There are also some albums for sale.

In 2001, I started using the Internet (blogs, MP3s, P2P) to spread my music and not worrying so much about copyright violation. I've even been giving the source of my songs away for remixers to play with. I figured that spreading my music should be the number one goal and so far it's worked out pretty well.

Despite giving my music away for free online, my songs have been licensed for television, played on commercial and campus radio, and I made enough money from licensing and sales to do a real pressing of my first CD

http://www.myspace.com/bradsucks

Backdoormen Bluesband were named after the Willie Dixon song of the same name. They have been playing their potent blues based mix of original songs and covers for the last 18 years in the south west of the UK. The twin guitar based band with lashings of harp from Jeff Horsey and backing vocals from the lovely Tucker sisters are a main draw on the blues scene in this neck of the woods. Check 'em out!

The band have always served as a magnet for up and coming talent and have often incorporated other musicians and even a four piece rocking brass section on occasions. For the last ten years Backdoormen have usually featured Gyan Bansall on rhythm and second lead guitar. (He plays beautiful Peter Green style licks) and Kate and Vanessa Tucker on lead and backing vocals. Their input into the band has been immense. Kate sings like Aretha Franklin while Vanessa is more Bonnie Raitt. What a combination! They look great too. . What sort of music should you expect at a Backdoormen gig? Well, the basic line up always features lashings of harmonica and guitar, but the band manage to produce a whole range of musical textures from straight ahead, Chicago style blues, to funky workouts like “Buddy Buddy Friends” and the original “Nightshift” soon to be released on the new CD.

http://www.backdoormen.co.uk/

The BAND

Kevin

Artemio

Jan

Grant

Ingo

Information for Press in PDF

Big Wolf Pappa is critically acclaimed singer songwriter Kevin Wilcox and band. Kevin was born in St. Louis MO and grew up in a small town ; north of St. Louis. Kevin comes from a musical family. His mother play piano and guitar in Blues, Jazz and country bands. Kevin has led a well traveled and interesting life and it is reflected in his songwriting. Kevin is also an accomplished guitar player, who played all guitars on the bands debut CD “Your Blood and Mine”.

Big Wolf Pappa was founded in June 2004 when Kevin met in Mannheim bass player Grant Jones and drummer Ingo Post. Guitarist. Artemio Cruccolini joined the Band in December 2004. Artemio is from Italy and has a background in blues and jazz. He is a talented and innovative guitarist whose work on the bands second CD “Shine” often borders on brilliant. The newest member of The band is guitarist Jan Lindqvist. Jan is originally from Sweden and now lives in Heidelberg Germany. Jan is a complete professional ; who brings many styles of guitar to the band, including dobro and lap steel. Grant Jones, the bass player is an American from Chicago. Grant is a tremendous talent with a background in jazz. Ingo Post, the Drummer, is from northern Germany. Ingo is a talented professional percussionist who along with Grant gives Big Wolf Pappa a superb rhythm section..

Big Wolf Pappas first cd “Your Blood and Mine” was released in May 2005.Far the past eleven months it has been the number one CD in Blues rock genre at www.numberonemusic.com. A song from this CD “The Vampire Chic” was singled out by a BBC reviewer as a highlight of an acoustic compilation CD released by Solarise Records of London, England. A Track from the new cd “shine “On the side of Angels” was track of the week at www.garageband.com.

The bands music is being played on radio stations all over the world.

My name is Cora Mae Bryant and my father is Curley James Weaver. He played with Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Moss, Barbecue Bob, Eddie Mapp and all of em. I remember I used to sit on Buddy Moss' and Eddie Mapp's lap and reach in their front pocket and pull out some chewing gum. They used to play around with my father.

We plays the original Georgia blues music. We plays and sings songs that my father, Blind Willie and Barbecue Bob and Buddy Moss made and Joshua plays them all so close. He really took the time to learn how to play em. And I makes up my own songs and Joshua plays them like my father and them, you know in that same style.

Cora Mae Bryant is the daughter of Georgia guitar legend Curley Weaver. She remembers, "When the weekend came, Daddy would come and get me. We did not know the difference between night and day."

Cora is a blues scholar; her house is a blues museum. She can tell you everything one needs to know of the old blues. If you need a good lesson I strongly urge you to make a trip to her door in Oxford, Georgia.