Audio Fidelity To Release B.B. King & Eric Clapton “Riding With The King” On Limited Edition Numbered Hybrid SACD

Audio Fidelity To Release B.B. King & Eric Clapton “Riding With The King” On Limited Edition Numbered Hybrid SACD

Two Masters Produce a Contemporary Blues Gem!

Camarillo, CA - In honor of the recent passing of blues guitar legend B.B. King, Marshall Blonstein's Audio Fidelity will be releasing B.B. King & Eric Clapton “Riding With The King” on Limited Hybrid SACD. This SACD should satisfy fans of King, Clapton and blues purists alike. “Riding With The King” was Eric Clapton's and B.B. King's first collaborative recording and it went on to win the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The album reached #1 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums. 

They first performed together in 1967 when Clapton was 22 and a member of Cream. Clapton looked up to King and had always wanted to make an album with him. At the time of recording Clapton was 55 and King 74. Clapton arranged the session using many of his regular musicians, picked the songs, and co-produced with his partner Simon Climie. While this would appear to be a Clapton album recorded with King, Clapton gave King center-stage.

The set list includes lots of vintage King specialties, “Ten Long Years,” “Three O'Clock Blues,” “Days of Old,” “When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer,” as well as standards like “Hold On I'm Coming” and “Come Rain or Come Shine,” with some specially written and appropriate new material. King takes Clapton deeper into blues territory than he has ever gone alone and these two artists play the blues with conviction. There may never be another album that links the Delta Blues to modern rock with such style, grace, enthusiasm, and honesty.

Tracks

1 Riding With the King

2 Ten Long Years

3 Key to the Highway

4 Marry You

5 Three O'Clock Blues

6 Help the Poor

7 I Wanna Be

8 Worried Life Blues

9 Days of Old

10 When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer

11 Hold On, I'm Coming

12 Come Rain or Come Shine

Produced by Eric Clapton, Simon Climie

Mastered by Steve Hoffman at Stephen Marsh Mastering

BB King has passed. - My thoughts and prayers are with his family

LAS VEGAS (AP) — B.B. King, whose scorching guitar licks and heartfelt vocals made him the idol of generations of musicians and fans while earning him the nickname King of the Blues, died late Thursday at home in Las Vegas. He as 89.
His attorney, Brent Bryson, told The Associated Press that King died peacefully in his sleep at 9:40 p.m. PDT.
Bryson said funeral arrangements were being made.
Although he had continued to perform well into his 80s, the 15-time Grammy winner suffered from diabetes and had been in declining health during the past year. He collapsed during a concert in Chicago last October, later blaming dehydration and exhaustion. He had been in hospice care at his Las Vegas home.
For most of a career spanning nearly 70 years, Riley B. King was not only the undisputed king of the blues but a mentor to scores of guitarists, who included Eric Clapton, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall and Keith Richards. He recorded more than 50 albums and toured the world well into his 80s, often performing 250 or more concerts a year.
King played a Gibson guitar he affectionately called Lucille with a style that included beautifully crafted single-string runs punctuated by loud chords, subtle vibratos and bent notes.
The result could bring chills to an audience, no more so than when King used it to full effect on his signature song, "The Thrill is Gone." He would make his guitar shout and cry in anguish as he told the tale of forsaken love, then end with a guttural shouting of the final lines: "Now that it's all over, all I can do is wish you well."

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His style was unusual. King didn't like to sing and play at the same time, so he developed a call-and-response between him and Lucille.
"Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said, to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more," King told The Associated Press in 2006. "When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling."
A preacher uncle taught him to play, and he honed his technique in abject poverty in the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the blues.
"I've always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn't have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did," he said in the 1988 book "Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music."
"People all over the world have problems," he said. "And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die."
Fellow travelers who took King up on that theory included Clapton, the British-born blues-rocker who collaborated with him on "Riding With the King," a best-seller that won a Grammy in 2000 for best traditional blues album.
Still, the Delta's influence was undeniable. King began picking cotton on tenant farms around Indianola, Mississippi, before he was a teenager, being paid as little as 35 cents for every 100 pounds, and was still working off sharecropping debts after he got out of the Army during World War Two.
"He goes back far enough to remember the sound of field hollers and the cornerstone blues figures, like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson," ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons once told Rolling Stone magazine.
King got his start in radio with a gospel quartet in Mississippi, but soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where a job as a disc jockey at WDIA gave him access to a wide range of recordings. He studied the great blues and jazz guitarists, including Django Reinhardt and T-Bone Walker, and played live music a few minutes each day as the "Beale Street Blues Boy," later shortened to B.B.
Through his broadcasts and live performances, he quickly built up a following in the black community, and recorded his first R&B hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," in 1951.
He began to break through to white audiences, particularly young rock fans, in the 1960s with albums like "Live at the Regal," which would later be declared a historic sound recording worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
He further expanded his audience with a 1968 appearance at the Newport Folk Festival and when he opened shows for the Rolling Stones in 1969.
  King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received the Songwriters Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, gave a guitar to Pope John Paul II and had President Barack Obama sing along to his "Sweet Home Chicago."
Other Grammys included best male rhythm 'n' blues performance in 1971 for "The Thrill Is Gone," best ethnic or traditional recording in 1982 for "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere" and best traditional blues recording or album several times. His final Grammy came in 2009 for best blues album for "One Kind Favor."
Through it all, King modestly insisted he was simply maintaining a tradition.
"I'm just one who carried the baton because it was started long before me," he told the AP in 2008.
Born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925, on a tenant farm near Itta Bena, Mississippi, King was raised by his grandmother after his parents separated and his mother died. He worked as a sharecropper for five years in Kilmichael, an even smaller town, until his father found him and took him back to Indianola.
"I was a regular hand when I was 7. I picked cotton. I drove tractors. Children grew up not thinking that this is what they must do. We thought this was the thing to do to help your family," he said.
When the weather was bad and he couldn't work in the cotton fields, he walked 10 miles to a one-room school before dropping out in the 10th grade.
After he broke through as a musician, it appeared King might never stop performing. When he wasn't recording, he toured the world relentlessly, playing 342 one-nighters in 1956. In 1989, he spent 300 days on the road. After he turned 80, he vowed he would cut back, and he did, somewhat, to about 100 shows a year.
He had 15 biological and adopted children. Family members say 11 survive.
———
Associated Press writer John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.  

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Document Records - Blues, Blues Christmas Volume 3 - New release Review

I just received the newest release, Blues, Blues Christmas Volume 3 and it's a lot of fun! Led Belly opens with Christmas Is Coming, a rudimentary Led Belly chant blues followed by Rev JM Gates in a rousing Gettin' Ready For Christmas. Victoria Spivey does a great job on I Ain't Gonna Let You See My Santa Claus, a great blues number. John Lee Hooker sings and plays Blues For Christmas in great style and it goes without saying that his older work stand strongly on it's own merit. Johnny Hooks plays a nice sax part on this track as well. Dee Dee Ford does a cool shuffle number, Good Morning Blues. On The Penguins, Jingle Jangle, Christmas and the blues sees a rhumba beat. One of my favorite tracks on the first cd of this two cd release is The Magnolia Five singing a solid early gospel/ field call version of The Holy Baby (acapella). The Famous Jubilee Singers do a straight up gospel rendition of Go Tell It On The Mountain which of course is a strong stand alone tune. Cordell Jackson does Rock And Roll Christmas, an early rock a billy style track with time appropriate steel guitar. Coy McDaniel & Shorty Warren do a country (real country) track Christmas Choo Choo Train. This is a fun little track with nice vocal harmonies and simple accompaniment and soloing. The Davies Sisters sing the Christmas Boogie, catching a real super groove and impeccable vocal harmonies. Thelma Cooper belts out I Need A Man, a swing blues track. Another of the best tracks on disc one, has a super sax solo by an unidentified sax player. Jimmy McCracklin steps up with a more modern blues cut, Christmas Time Part 1. Wiley Kizart plays a real sweet sax solo on this track backing McCracklin's vocals. Bumble Bee Slim does a classical blues interpretation of Santa Claus Bring Me A new Woman. This is one of thise blues tracks that you would just say was good blues if you never heard the words. Nice construction and execution. Ella Fitzgerald joins Louis Jordan for the big band ballad track Baby It's Cold Outside. Of course the vocals are flawless. Amos Milburn does his standard piano shuffle blues on Christmas (Comes Once A Year). This is a cool track on it's own as well with Milburn not only right on with his vocals but also on keys. Freddy King steps up with classic Christmas Tears and does what Freddy does best, call and response with his own vocal and guitar. Terrific. Another country song, this time with a Texas Swing, Jo Poovey and the Big "D" Boys deliver on Santa's Helper. Cajun style Fiddlin' John Carson gets your feet tappin on Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over. Wrapping the first disc is Wardell Gray with the Dexter Gordon Quintet and Jingle Jangle Jump, another big band swing track. Disc 2 opens with classic Lightnin' Hopkins and Santa Claus, my favorite track on the release. Hopkins has a special style and this is it. Jimmy McCracklin is back with Christmas Time 2 and a cool easy swing blues and another thundering sax solo from Kizart. Hop Wilson accompanied by Elmore Nixon with great piano sings a smokin blues track, Merry Christmas Darling, also adding some cool slide. Duke Ellington Orchestra does a classic instrumental of the Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy. Really smooth. Ozie Ware joining Ellington's Hot Five sings a super blues vamp, Santa Claus, Bring My Man Back,  followed by Barney Bigard on clarinet and Freddie Jenkins on trumpet. Rev. Rice's Sanctified Singers does a revival style Who Do You Call That Wonderful Counselor. Spartanburg Famous Four do a really solid acapella, Go Where I Send Thee. Super! The Ravens perform a very classic and straight up version of Silent Night for the traditionalists. The Youngsters sing a playful Christmas In Jail, a light hearted sing track. The Jackson Trio really rock out with Jingle Bell Hop, a blend between rock and new Orleans jazz. Very cool instrumental track. Cordell Jackson rocks the joint with Be-Boppers Christmas. Vernon Dalhart sings a very period piece in Santa Claus That's Me. This is a clever UK based track with simple accompaniment and fiddle. Lil McClintock has a driving country blues style on Don't Think I'm Santa Claus with only simple acoustic guitar and vocal. Walter Davis does a nice piano blues, New "Santa Claus" and his vocals are gripping. Very nice. BB King rolls out is the kings typical with full orchestra on Christmas Celebration but of course adds some tasty guitar riffs to his already super vocals. The Larks do big band swing Christmas To New Years. The Five Keys do 50'S style ballad on It's Christmas Time, a strong vocal harmony track. Oscar McLolli and His Honey Jumpers roll out a really swinging blues track, Dig That Crazy Santa Claus and the title tells a lot. Done in a light hearted manner, this track is a super choice to begin the wrap up of this set. Billy Ward And His Dominoes perform a multivoice Ringing In A Brand New Year. Last up is Ella Fitzgerald singing the ballad, The Secret Of Christmas. Fitzgerald has always been one of the benchmarks for vocalists and she does a super job here.

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It's My Own Fault - BB King and Bobby Blue Bland

Born January 27, 1930, Rosemark, Tennessee. Moved to Memphis 1948. Played with Billy 'Red' Love and other influential Delta musicians. First recording was Dry Up Baby (Modern 848). Entered Armed Services 1952, joined Johnny Ace Revue after discharge, having signed with Duke Records. First smash hit, It's My Life Baby, 1955 followed by years of consistent success in R&B market. In the 50s and early 60s, Bobby "Blue" Bland was one of the main creators of the modern soul-blues sound. Along with such artists as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Junior Parker, Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with blues and R&B. Bobby's style of soul-blues was punctuated with a big-band sound and slick, B.B. King-flavored guitar riffs. Bland was born and raised in Rosemark, a small town just outside Memphis. In 1947 he moved to the city with his mother and began his career, first as a singer in the gospel group the Miniatures, then in the loosely knit blues group the Beale Streeters, which included such future blues stars as Johnny Ace, B.B. King, Junior Parker, and Rosco Gordon . Bland's first recordings were from 1950 to 1952, when he cut sides for the Modern and Chess labels. Being drafted into the army in 1952 put his career on hold, but shortly after his discharge in 1954, he began a long-term relationship with Duke Records. This would result in dozens of records, many of them big sellers in the R&B market. Bobby's first Duke single, "It's My Life, Baby," was released in 1955. Two years later, he scored with the seminal Texas shuffle "Farther Up The Road" (115 k, 10 sec.), which went to number 1 on the R&B charts. Follow-up records included two 1961 hits, "I Pity the Fool," which also made it to number 1 on the R&B charts, and "Turn on Your Love Light," which went to number 2. "That's the Way Love Is," a 1963 release, gave Bland his third number 1 hit. From 1957 to 1961 Bland played the chitlin' circuit with Junior Parker and his band, the Blue Flames. But in 1961 Bland broke with Parker, went out on his own, and rose to his greatest popularity. Because Bland neither composed nor played an instrument, he relied on others for songs and inspired instrumentation. Joe Scott, his bandleader and arranger, and for years one of Duke label owner Don Robey's chief talent scouts, helped create Bland's big-band sound. Just as important to Bland's sound was guitarist Wayne Bennett, who complemented the horns and Bland's vocals with jazz-influenced solos,a la T-Bone Walker and B.B. King. Bland worked with Scott and Bennett until 1968 when the band broke up, partially the result of Bland's alleged alcohol problems. But Bland resuscitated his career in 1972, this time with producer Steve Garrie and bandleader Ernie Fields, Jr. Rather than dwell on R&B ballads, Garrie gave Bland a blues-based sound that resulted in two of his more commercially successful albums: California Album (1973) and Dreamer (1974). Both works were released on the ABC-Dunhill label, the company that purchased Duke in 1972. Despite Bland's extensive recording catalogue, his long-term success on the R&B charts, and his near-constant touring (often with longtime friend B.B. King), he rarely crossed over into the pop realm. Dozens of blues and R&B influenced rock vocalists, however, have credited Bland as a main influence. Throughout the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, he continued to record, mostly for the Jackson, Mississippi, blues label, Malaco. Bland was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. He continues to perform regularly. "Farther Up The Road" is from The Best Of Bobby Bland Copyright © MCA Records Inc., 1974. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Hines Farm Blues Club

Frank "Sonny" Hines and his wife Sarah bought a house and a farm on 30 acres of land from the Hallet Realty Company in Swanton, Ohio and the Hine's Farm Blues Club was born.

As was common in the area for the late 1940s the Hineses began holding house parties and suppers in their basement. These parties eventually grew to the outside and the Hineses built the still standing Juke Joint in a heavily wood section of their property. This helped to draw even larger crowds and more musicians like Big Jack Reynolds, B. B. King, Freddie King, Jimmy McCracklin, Bobby Blue Bland and John Lee Hooker. When the crowds grew even bigger a large pavilion was built as a joint venture with Mr. Luke onto the back of the main club. With it's large area and raised stage at the back it was more than capable of holding all of the fans who came for the shows. It also doubled as a skating rink during the warm months and became known as "Mr. Luke's Outdoor Pavilion." The pavilion's grand opening was August 12-13, 1961. Count Basie honored the opening with a performance from him and his Orchestra.
 Another wonderful aspect of Hines Farm were the shake dancers. These female dancers would perform erotic dancing as a band or deejay played accompanying music. Along with the female dancers were female impersonators who performed with the shake dancers. Dancers and impersonators from all around would come to Hines Farm to perform and many were just as popular as the musicians.

With 30 acres of property, the events held at Hines Farm were not restricted to music and dancing. Exhibition baseball games, carnival rides, hayrides, horse racing, miniature golf and motorcycle racing were common events held throughout the year. One of the most popular was the motorcycle racing, sponsored by local black motorcycle clubs. Henry Griffin, the current owner reminisces:

Oh man, I just loved those motorcycles out there. There would be hundreds of guys in a bunch of different motorcycles clubs from all over, not only the Toledo area but as far as Mississippi and Alabama. They'd have all their motorcycles out here in this field and it was just a sea of bikes. Hines would send out a flyer that he was having a motorcycle race and he would have people come from all over, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. They'd get on their motorcycles and ride right up here and there would be thousands of them.

What happened next can only be described as man's never satisfied need to grow. In the early 1960s the Toledo Express Airport extended it's runway cutting Route 295 in half. This forced everyone to seek an alternate route to Hines Farm and moved it from just off the beaten path to more of a backwoods country locale. People found it difficult to get to Hines Farm and many got lost either coming or going. Hines Farm was a victim to the Urban Renewal of the late 1960s as was the main music district in the heart of the black community. That area was Dorr Street and was demolished in the name of urban expansion. This spelled the end of Toledo's thriving blues music scene.
 Fast forward to 1978, Frank and Sarah Hines were both in a rest home and their son had boarded up the entire farm. The buildings were in shambles; the club was all boarded up with major damage to the roof and interior. In walks Henry Griffin, who's history with Hines Farm goes back to his childhood when his parents would come up from their home in the south during the summer. Henry had so many fond memories of the place he decided to purchase and renovate the club. With lots of time and money Henry has reopened the old blues club, pavilion and juke joint.
Today, Griffin's Hines Farm Blues Club holds a blues show once a month showcasing blues talent from Toledo and beyond. In the tradition of Frank and Sarah Hines the club opens it's doors to everyone so all can have a good time. With great food, great music, and great atmosphere you are bound to have a great time at Griffin's Hines Farm Blues Club.

* Special thanks to Matthew A. Donahue, PhD.
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Whole Lotta Lovin' - BB King

Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King ("B.B." short for Blues Boy), is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter acclaimed for his expressive singing and fluid, complex guitar playing.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time". According to Edward M. Komara, King "introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed." King has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

All Over Again - B.B. King

Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter acclaimed for his expressive singing and fluid, complex guitar playing.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at #3 on its list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time".[1] According to Edward M. Komara, King "introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed."[2] King has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Sweet Sixteen - T- Bone Walker and B B King

My first introduction to T - Bone Walker was through the Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore Album. Have been a great fan ever since. This is a great little video of Tbone Walker playing with B B King on BB's birthday. At this point BB was quite agile at playing and T-Bone was in top form.
Check it out!

Aaron Thibadeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 — March 16, 1975) was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound.[1] He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the electric guitar. In September 2003, Rolling Stone ranked him at #47 in their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".