SRC-1916 MEET ME IN THE BOTTOM: ARKANSAS BLUES, Volume 2 -- The Bands is now available, featuring Calvin Leavy, Queen Bee (Essie Smith, now known as Essie "The Blues Lady" Neal) & the Soul Seekers, Harmonica Slim (Travis Blaylock, who recorded several singles in California in the 1950s and '60s), Texarkana Five (featuring Nelson Carson on guitar), Duke Bradley, the Sounds of Soul (featuring James Seals and Julius Gibson from Osceola, Arkansas), and the Cummins Prison Band, all recorded by Louis Guida in 1976 at nightclubs, artists' homes and a prison unit in Arkansas. Raw and real! Compilation & liner notes by Louis Guida & Jim O'Neal.

Get Volume 1 of the Arkansas series:

SRC-1910 KEEP IT TO YOURSELF:  ARKANSAS BLUES, Volume 1 – Solo Performances. Various Arkansas performers recorded by Louis Guida in 1976 includes W.C Clay, Nelson Carson, Reola Jackson, Mack White, Willie Wright, Herbert Wilson, Trenton Cooper, and the first recordings released in the U.S. by future Fat Possum artist CeDell Davis. Most tracks feature vocals & guitar; CeDell plays harp on one track; Trenton Cooper does some piano tunes, and Reola Jackson sings an a cappella number recorded at the state prison – you can hear the sound of a cell door closing. This was originally released by Rooster Blues in 1983 and was reissued on CD as Stackhouse Recording Company’s first release.

Also available: these blues CDs from Stackhouse Recording Company:

SRC-1911 MEMPHIS GOLD: PRODIGAL SON. Self-produced CD, copyright Chet Chandler, rereleased by Stackhouse Recording Company. One of the best blues CDs of recent years – not soul-blues, not blues-rock, and not the same old blues either. Memphis Gold is singer-guitarist-harmonica player Chester “K.D.”Chandler, protégé of Rev. Robert Wilkins of “Prodigal Son” fame and former member of the Fieldstones in Memphis. Now based in the Virginia/Washington D.C. area, Memphis Gold is joined on this CD by D.C. area harp players Phil Wiggins and Charlie Sayles,  with Willie Hicks, Apaulo Trinidada and others on bass, L. Warren Weatherspoon, Pete Ragusa and others on drums, Kurt Gibbons on keyboards and organ, and Lorenzo Johnson on congas. Tracks include Don’t Let Her Ride, Crabcakes, Big Leg Woman, Prodigal Son, Chicken It, Preacher Blues, Test Drive That Woman, Melt Down Baby, Bedroom Mumba, et al.

SRC-1912 FOREE “GUITAR” WELLS "It's a New Day Brother!" Long-awaited CD by the Godfather of the Louisville blues scene and former session man for the Sun and Excello labels, the late Foree “Guitar” Wells. You may have seen the release of this CD announced or advertised on Rooster Blues Records in years past, but it never even reached the manufacturing stage at Rooster Blues. By arrangement with the current Rooster ownership, Stackhouse Recording Company has finally released Foree Wells’ first and only album.

SRC-1913 D.C. BELLAMY: GIVE SOME BODY TO SOMEBODY. The second CD by Kansas City’s premier bluesman, D.C. Bellamy. D.C.’s influences range from the soulful music of his half-brother, Curtis Mayfield, to the basic blues beat of Jimmy Reed, from the humor of Bobby Rush to the tight blues ensemble work of the Muddy Waters band. Yet he sounds like none of those greats (except, on occasion, for Muddy, when he digs down deep for a roaring blues delivery) -– D.C.’s concept of the blues is refreshingly original, buoyed by a flair for catchy musical hooks, clever turns of phrase, sparkling guitar licks, and songs that make you pay attention to his keen insights into human nature. Among the K.C. veterans joining D.C. on this session are John Paul Drum on harmonica and Big Woody Davis on drums.

SRC-1914 MEMPHIS GOLD: GATOR GON' BITECHU!. March 2009 release by Chester“Memphis Gold” Chandler with a fresh new set of his own compositions, backed by a host of D.C. area musicians including Jay Summerour (harmonica), Clarence “Bluesman” Turner (bass), Pete Ragusa (drums), El Warren Weatherspoon (drums), and Robert Lighthouse (slide guitar). Tracks: I Shoulda Known, Catfish Creeper, Do You Still Want Me?.or Gon’ Bitechu!, My Two Kcandys, Can’t Get Enough. In My Next Life, Louise Fanniemae Brown, How I Got Over You, I Was Born in Memphis, Squeaky Wheel, Lil’ Lucy.

SRC-1915 MEMPHIS GOLD: PICKIN' IN HIGH COTTON. Pickin' in High Cotton is Memphis Gold's vision of traditional blues -- not a laid-back acoustic outing, but a passionate, politically charged portfolio of the African American blues experience with a stripped-down contingent of his usual backing. Yet the sound is still multi-layered, with guitars, harmonica and drums, recalling Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and the sanctified boogie that Memphis Gold played in church. He pulls no punches on songs like "How You Gonna Play the Blues," reaches back into history with "John Brown," deals with a stark episode of his own life in Washington, D.C., on "Homeless Blues," and hits a more upbeat mood on "Plow My Mule" and "Biscuit Boogie." As usual, Memphis Gold (Chester Chandler) produced this CD himself, this time with Eric "High Cotton" Selby as co-producer. Sidemen include Jay Summerour, Robert Lighthouse and Linwood Taylor.

See the cover story on Memphis Gold by Scott Barretta in issue #199 (January-February 2009) of Living Blues Magazine, available from my eBay store along with many other issues of Living Blues.

 . . . and Rooster Blues CDs by Willie King, D.C. Bellamy, Super Chikan, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Lady Bianca, Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes, Eddy Clearwater, Eddie Shaw, Larry Davis, Big Daddy Kinsey, Arthur Williams, Eddie C. Campbell, Magic Slim, Philadelphia Jerry Ricks, and Valerie Wellington, plus the 3-CD set “And This is Maxwell Street.”

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See my eBay store (Bluesoterica.com Mail Order) for more blues, R&B, soul, funk, jazz, rock, world/ethnic, soundtrack, pop, folk, C&W, comedy, dance, spoken word & gospel records, CDs, books & magazines, concert posters, photos & musical memorabilia.

I have signed copies of "The Voice of the Blues: Classic Interviews from Living Blues Magazine" (Routledge, 2002, edited by Jim O'Neal and Amy van Singel). "The Voice of the Blues" is a collection of interviews conducted from 1967/68 to 1981, originally published in Living Blues, America's first blues magazine, with chapters expanded for this book to include introductions, postscripts, editors' notes, and previously unpublished questions and answers from several interviews. Includes interviews with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Little Walter & Louis Myers, T-Bone Walker, Freddie King, Little Milton, Georgia Tom Dorsey, Houston Stackhouse, Eddie Boyd, Little Esther Phillips, and Sleepy John Estes & Hammie Nixon. 427 pages, paperback, with Foreword by Peter Guralnick, 43 photos and detailed index. 

Back issues of Living Blues Magazine also available from my eBay store: Go to my eBay store, BluEsoterica.com Mail Order. for contents of each issue.

WANTED: 45s and LPs (blues, R&B, soul, funk, rockabilly, rock 'n' roll, jazz & gospel) from Kansas City, St. Louis, Arkansas, Alabama & Mississippi; also independent or obscure local releases of blues, R&B, and funk on 45 or LP from Wichita, Louisville, Omaha, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Toledo, Cleveland, Baton Rouge, Miami, San Antonio, Houston, Phoenix, Oakland, etc.; also world music, especially African and Caribbean records, Maori show bands, Tex-Mex funk and soul, and Indo Rock.

Combined shipping available on multiple purchases.