DOC RICHARDSON - CD MOONLIGHT BLUES

Popis - MOONLIGHT BLUES:
UPDATE on RELEASE The CD was released to many syndicated radio shows throughout the US on March 1, 2014. The cover title song 'MOONLIGHT BLUES' has already made to the top of the charts by August (Source- PSR Radio Network): - # 5 on the 'TOP 20' - # 3 on R & B Soul Dozen - # 32 on the HOT 100 with a 5* out of 5* 'On Fire' listener rating. The CD is available on CD Baby.com and Amazon. It will be available soon with iTunes, Rhapsody, Pandora, Spotify, and other web outlets, digital portals, digital Stereo AM and FM radio stations. BLUES ALBUM NOTES #1 Hoochie Coochie Man is a song full of euphemisms, metaphors, blues keywords, and swamp blues lyrics. Muddy Waters and other bluesmen traveled on the 'Chitlin Circuit'. A regular circuit stops was New Orleans. To get to New Orleans, you have to cross vast tracts of swamp full of cypress trees. Muddy Waters takes swamp imagery to a few of his songs with his deive use of voodoo devices. He employs the use of the 'Mojo hand', a voodoo device that gives him magical powers. The mojo hand is a rooster's foot with claws. The mojo hand, is sometimes called 'mojo' as with Muddy's song 'I Got My Mojo Working'. He's also got a 'black cat bone' to wish bad luck for his competitors. He boasts about his fighting cock named 'John-de-Cock-a-roo'. The 'de' word is typical Cajun (French derived) for the preposition 'of'. The words 'de Cock-a-roo' loosely translates to cock of the roost. Muddy like the kingpin rooster, rules the roost and 'makes his pretty women jump and shout'. The hoochie coochie man derives its terminology as 'hoochie' man in charge of the lady dancers inside the tent shows of county fairs. Hoochie shows were known for their 'coochie' women. These ladies of the night were the equivalent to the topless dancers in today's times. You get the feeling that Muddy like many young men think that they are the 'cock of the walk', when it comes to women. All these deive lyrics help to make his case for the ultimate hoochie coochie mank, Mudddy Waters. Veteran organist, Chalmers Davis (formerly with Little Richard) puts the swamp-bottom feel to the song with the use of an over-driven Hammond organ. He displays his wizardly skills of the drawbar pulls. His rotating Leslie speaker circulates and permeates its sound throughout the listener's environs. Note how the chorus chorale with its slow rotating speed builds its phasing vibrato sound as the rotating speed becomes faster. The end result is a room full of organ acoustics with punchy dynamics. Former members of the Bobby Rush band, Willie James and Rick Lewis solidify the bass bottom and the song's rhythm section. Doc joins the rhythm unit, taking full advantage of the rhythm guitar using bass notes merged with rhythm chords. This is a style heard with the early, primitive blues guitarists. All four musicians bring their southern blues rock into play. Note the band transitioning during each verse changing character from crunchy blues to meld with classic blues. #2 Highway 49 The song's character describes a situation that occurred from time to time in the delta, where a young woman was taken from her parents' home by the charm of another man promising a wonderful life. The lyrics describe the plight of the man who has 'just lost' his woman to imply that his woman was 'stolen'. The hard-luck delta farmer has to resort to walking as this is his only mode of transportation. He walks all the way down Highway 49 from the Mississippi Delta to 'Jackson, Mississippi town'. You might think that a walking trip to Jackson, Mississippi from the delta as 'too far to walk'. This trip comes from his experience as a teenager when he ran away from his mom's oppressive home near West Point, MS. He fled to his uncle's farm about 90 miles away. His physically and mentally abusive mom and step-dads drove him to escape the cruelties of his home life. He like many of the oldest children in families had to drop out of school to help support his younger brothers and sisters by working in the fields. The worse of abuse came to Howlin', not just with physical beatings, but being made to work and live without shoes. The journey from his home to his uncle's farm was about 90 miles. The trip took place during the winter with no shoes. All that he had was just scraps of clothes to wrap around his feet. Despite his earlier hardships, Howlin' portrays the character of the song as most optimistic in that he going to wake up in the morning and 'hit the Highway 49' walking. He' going to be 'looking for my babe-by, 'cause 'you know my baby, on__ my__ mind'. He lets it be known and shouts 'I'm GONNA FIND MY WOMAN'. Wolf is damn-determined to find his woman. #3 Rail Line (short for 'Get Down That Rail Line') The character in 'Rail Line'takes place around the time of depression, a time of little to no jobs. For many without a job, hopping the railroad trains was the only means of traveling during hard times via empty railroad boxcar. It was a free, 'at your own risk' means of traveling long distance. The song describes a young man who plans to escape the trappings of a possessive, dominant woman by 'riding the rail' out of town. The anticipation is his dreams of fun, as all that he has to do is 'Get Down that Rail Line'. He takes his last paycheck and leaves town without notice. He makes his escape complete as he changes names and takes on different appearances with his 'wig-hat'. Wishful thinking leads the man to think the rail line is his path to freedom. The train ride has its just rewards for letting the good times roll with partying, dancing, and womanizing. Catch the song's pulsating feel from the chords of the rhythm guitar as it simulates the pumping sounds of the 'drivers' as the train's cogwheels 'turn'. It's a rhythm that couples the cogwheels with the puffing of the smokestack and the rumbling of the tracks, #4 Baby, What Do You Want Me to Do? In the 60's, this Jimmy Reed song reached the top of the Billboard Rhythm & Blues Chart and shortly afterwards, crossed over to the top of the Billboard Rock and Roll chart. Doc relates that as he and guitar buddies grew up, they felt it necessary to learn this fundamental blues, 'one-man-band' song as part of their standard repertoire of songs. The character in this song is mesmerized by his 'baby'. She has near-complete control through her seductive skills. These skills are on display for this man as he tells you what he enjoys about his baby as he's 'Going in, going out'. At times, he feels the need to 'run, hide, peep, run', but the lure of thinking about 'going up, going down' is just too much. This song like many, underscores the nature of sexual overtones while telling a humorous, bawdy story. Doc and the band stay true to the feel of Reed's early electric blues using a 3-piece band. Doc plays the familiar bass chords to give the song its shuffling rhythm as he sets the beat for bass and drums. You get to experience the juke-joint blues, as it's meant to be...where the walls SHAKES...the roof RATTLES... the band ROLLS. #5 MOONLIGHT BLUES The cover title song, 'Moonlight Blues' takes its inspiration from a man's faith and hope for a better life. He like many couples as a working husband and/or wife have to travel to find and keep work. A life as such pulls them from their family. Keeping a job in today's times quite often requires being away from home on a regular basis. The song begins with the character reminiscing as he drives across the lonely bridge. He sees a beautiful full moon in its finest glow with its shining path of light on the waters of the sea. The radiance of its beauty and the reflection of the moonlight path renews his hope and his faith. The lead guitar answers the man's recalling thoughts and dreams. Sustained notes of the lead guitar beautifully portray how dreams and memories keep us strong. #6 STORMY MONDAY Electric blues-jazz pioneer, T-Bone Walker wrote, sang, and played this song with his band behind him in the big band style of Duke Ellington and Louis Jordan. Later, there were famous remakes by Bobby Bland in the 60's and by the Allman Brothers in the 70's. Stormy Monday is one of the all-time, most popular blues standards. Its history goes back to when it was written, just prior to World Ward II . This monumental war of 4-5 years' duration delayed its release until after the war, when the US moved from a war economy to a booming post-war economy with its 'big band' style of blues fused with jazz. You can appreciate Doc's elements of fusing the original blues-jazz guitar chords of T-Bone's to the tones of a southern jam band. His vocals have a unique quality of blues-smoothness combined with a raspy style of singing dynamics. A blues jam takes place with the instrumental middle verses of the song. It starts with Chalmers Davis's lead Hammond/Leslie building up musical tension for the transition into the jam blues instrumental. Doc's creates his singing style of sustained lead guitar with the use of string-bending vibrato. Take note of Doc's lead guitar work building tension in the 1st verse as it makes its transition to the climaxing 2nd lead verse. The instrumental jam ends, and the band switches gear to the ending vocal verse, and its celebratory closing statement 'SEND HER ON HOME TO ME'. #7 JOHNNY B. GOODE The disputed shared title of the 'King of Rock 'n' Roll' should go to Chuck Berry as he had over 50 famous rock'n'roll recordings. This song is his most famous, the one that endured, Johnny B. Goode finding its way to the movie, 'Back to the Future'. Digging into the history of Chuck Berry makes for extended interest with his autobiographical character, Johnny B. Goode. He wrote 30 more songs as stories about this character, including 'Go, go, go', 'Johnny B. Blues', 'Bye Bye Johnny'. He recorded 'Concerto in B', close to 20 minutes long as an instrumental related to Johnny B. Goode, the famed guitarist legend (a.k.a. Chuck Berry). #8 HEY JOE The song, 'Hey Joe' has it questionable origins as related by rock' n' roll historians. Billy Roberts, a folk singer/ guitarist gives himself credits by virtue of copyrighting the song. Many historians feel that Hey Joe is of unknown origin as far as its songwriter's origin. It's a similar situation, like that of the song 'House of New Orleans'. There were many versions of Hey Joe to follow, but the permanence of the song changed drastically with interpretation of Jimi Hendrix's version. His rendition takes this folk song to a surrealistic genre, hard to define, as it has been labeled 'psychedelic blues', 'acid blues', 'acid rock', and is usually referred to as 'Hendrix Music'. Doc emphasizes the lyrics to tell the sad story about Joe and his best friend who is pressed to ask Joe all the agonizing questions- why the gun?...where are you going with the gun in your hand?...what are you going to do?...where are you going to go? There is the 'hangman's noose' and the 'green grass of Mexico'...imagery, all of which relates to misery and being 'on the run'. The song combines many elements of blues despair- the ultimate betrayal, rage and revenge, a heinous murder, criminal flight to escape execution, death sentence by hanging, and 'the escape from it all', to the greener grass of Mexico. Bassist Eddie Francis compliments the 'power trio' sound of the band using his skills playing in unison with lead guitar. Doc brings the song to a climatic end with his dynamic lead ride in a style and manner that pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix.