Smokestack Lightnin’s Top 60 Blues CDs for 2005!

#60 Sugar Ray & The Bluetones/I Won’t Leave Home No More/Hands Across The Table/Severn
#59 Bertram Brown/You’re Gonna Lose That Girl/Fried Glass Onions/Inside Sounds
#58 Johnny Adams/This Time I’m Gone For Good/The Great Johnny Adams Blues Album/Rounder
#57 Charlie Musselwhite/River Hip Mama/Deluxe Edition/Alligator
#56 Ana Popovic/Night By Night/Ana! Live In Amsterdam/Ruf
#55 Joe Bonamassa/Reconsider Baby/Had To Cry Today/Premier Artists
#54 Roomful Of Blues/She Put A Spell On Me/Standing Room Only/Alligator
#53 The Mannish Boys/Mannish Boy/Live & In Demand/Delta Groove
#52 Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers/Got To Find My Baby/For The Chosen Who/Delta Groove
#51 The Robert Cray Band/I’m Walkin’/Twenty/Sanctuary
#50 Tommy Castro/No One Left To Lie To/Soul Shaker/Blind Pig
#49 Tab Benoit/I Smell A Rat/Fever For The Bayou/Telarc
#48 Sonny Landreth/Broken Hearted Road/Grant Street/Sugar Hill
#47 Lil Ronnie & The Grand Dukes/Wine Headed Woman/Do Whatcha Do/Trust Me Baby
#46 Renee Austin/Mouth Of The Delta/Right About Love/Blind Pig
#45 Keith B. Brown/Bad Luck Child/Delta Soul/Raisin
#44 Mojo Stu/Got A Love/Real House Blues/Mudbone
#43 Downchild/Come On In/Come On In/Blue Wave
#42 Zac Harmon & Mickey Champion/It Hurts Me Too/The Blues According To Zachariah/Bluestone
#41 The Wentus Blues Band&Omar Dykes/Bessie Mae/Family Album/Bluelight
#40 Little Charlie & The Nightcats/Wall To Wall/Nine Lives/Alligator
#39 Ladell McLin/Rich Man’s Lounge/Stand Out/Stand Out/Gigantic
#38 James Blood Ulmer/Geechee Joe/Birthright/Hyena
#37 Duwayne Burnside & The Mississippi Mafia/Treatin’ Me So Bad/Under Pressure/BC
#36 Omar Coleman/Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone/The Chicago Blues Harmonica Project/Severn
#35 Paul Oscher/Sugar Mama/Down In The Delta/Blues Fidelity
#34 Maria Muldaur/Lookin’ The World Over/Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul/Stony Plain
#33 Rory Block/I Be Bound/From The Dust/Telarc
#32 Billy Gibson Band/Keep Doin’ Whatcha Doin’/The Billy Gibson Band/Inside Sounds
#31 Louisiana Red/Freight Train To Ride/No Turn On Red/HMG #30 Finis Tasby/Blues Down Under/What My Blues Are All About/Electro Fi
#29 Sista Monica Parker/Cookin’ With Grease/Can’t Keep A Good Woman Down/Mo Muscle
#28 Bobby Rush/Night Fishin’/Night Fishin’/Deep Rush
#27 Johnny Rawls/Never Found A Smokin’ Gun/No Boundaries/Catfood
#26 Heaven Davis/Steamy/Steamy/Wildchild Davis
#25 Shemekia Copeland/Givin’ Up You/The Soul Truth/Alligator
#24 Eddie Turner/Rise/Rise/Northern Blues
#23 Lou Pride/Midnight Call/Keep On Believing/Severn
#22 Leslie West/Baby,Please Don’t Go/Got Blooze/BBI
#21 Nick Moss & The Flip Tops/Check My Pulse/Sadie Mae/Blue Bella
#20 Delbert McClinton/Your Memory,Me & The Blues/Cost Of Living./New West
#19 Eric Clapton/If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day/Sessions For Robert J/Reprise
#18 Billy Boy Arnold/I Wish You Would/Consolidated Mojo/Electro Fi
#17 Johnny Dyer& Mark Hummel/Oh,Yeah!/Rolling Fork Revisited/Mountain Top
#16 Ellis Hooks/Rock My Stone/Godson Of Soul/Evidence
#15 Sean Costello/I’m A Ram/Sean Costello/Tone Cool
#14 Wayne Baker Brooks/Nu Kinda Blues/Mystery/Blues Island
#13 Little Milton/Second Hand Love/Think Of Me/Telarc
#12 Chris Thomas King/Wicked/Why My Guitar Screams & Moans/21st Century Blues
#11 Edwin Holt/Second Time Around/Second Time Around/Topcat
#10 Eugene Hideaway Bridges/I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me/Coming Home /Armadillo
#9 Solomon Burke/I Need Your Love In My Life/Make Do With What You Got/Shout
#8 Buddy Guy/99 1/2 Just Won’t Do/Bring Em In/Silverstone
#7 B.B. King & Van Morrison/Early In The Mornin’/B.B. King & Friends-80/Geffen
#6 Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King/Can’t See For Lookin’/Served Up Texas Style/Bullseye
#5 Magic Slim & The Teardrops/Still A Fool/Anything Can Happen/Blind Pig
#4 Ruby Wilson/Let The Good Times Roll/Show You A Good Time/Unkut
#3 The Mannish Boys & Mickey Champion/The Eagle Is Back/That Represent Man/Delta Groove
#2 Alvin Youngblood Hart/Big Mama’s Door (Might Return)/Motivational Speaker/Tone Cool
#1 Hubert Sumlin & Eric Clapton/Long Distance Call/About Them Shoes/Tone Cool

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A Gift From Whom I'd Like To Know!

In 1967, I made a deal as a producer for Capitol Records in Hollywood. I was actually the first producer hired "outside" the Tower (as Capitol was called then).

The first band I produced for Capitol was a band called The Pack. Capitol's first release of a John Rhys Production. The "A" side of the Pack single was a Jimi Hendrix tune ("Next To Your Fire") Jimi had given me personally in London in 1966 on a three inch reel of quarter inch tape. Wish I still had it as on it was a nice note from Jimi. Plus it was Jimi in his room playing an accoustic guitar and singing. Simple but magic. Would I love to hear that version again! I wonder if Mark Farner kept the tape?

In 1967, I was contacted by a band from Ann Arbor, Michigan who would eventually become SRC. A band on which I would eventually produce two albums for Capitol. The first was the band's namesake; SRC. The second was titled, Milestones.

Today, I received a DVD from someone in Jacksonville, Florida. On the DVD are several different sections. The first, a reunion of SRC with Steve Lyman, Gary Quackenbush and his brother Glenn Quackenbush. There is a bass player and drummer; neither of which I know.

The second cut is a video of poor quality in black and white of the original SRC with Scott Richardson singing lead vocals. Nevermind the quality, it was good to hear the band do "I'm So Glad" again. It brought back beautiful memories of a rather scary time.

The third cut is the MC5; the forth, a strange cut featuring Soupy Sales kids in their band and the last cut is Alice Cooper. All people I had the priviledge with which to work during the rockin' 60's.

I would dearly like to know who sent the DVD. I can be reached directly at this address....blupwr@sbcglobal.net.

Please let me know who you are!

Thank you so much for the wonderful thought.

John Rhys-Eddins/BluePower.com

Listen to SRC's famous version of...."In The Hall Of The Mountain King/Bolero"!

The Million Dollar Pen....Otis Blackwell!

From: AMG
By: Bill Dahl

Few 1950s rock & roll tunesmiths were as prolifically talented as Otis Blackwell. His immortal compositions include Little Willie John's "Fever," Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up," Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" and "Breathless," and Jimmy Jones' "Handy Man" (just for starters).

Though he often collaborated with various partners on the thriving '50s New York R&B scene (Winfield Scott, Eddie Cooley, and Jack Hammer, to name three), Blackwell's songwriting style is as identifiable as that of Willie Dixon or Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. He helped formulate the musical vocabulary of rock & roll when the genre was barely breathing on its own.

Befitting a true innovator, Blackwell's early influences were a tad out of the ordinary. As a lad growing up in Brooklyn, he dug the Westerns that his favorite nearby cinema screened. At that point, Tex Ritter was Otis Blackwell's main man. Smooth blues singers Chuck Willis and Larry Darnell also made an impression. By 1952, Blackwell parlayed a victory at an Apollo Theater talent show into a recording deal with veteran producer Joe Davis for RCA, switching to Davis' own Jay-Dee logo the next year. He was fairly prolific at Jay-Dee, enjoying success with the throbbing "Daddy Rollin' Stone" (later covered by the Who). From 1955 on, though, Blackwell concentrated primarily on songwriting (Atlantic, Date, Cub, and MGM later issued scattered Blackwell singles).

"Fever," co-written by Cooley, was Blackwell's first winner (he used the pen name of John Davenport, since he was still contractually obligated to Jay-Dee). Blackwell never met Elvis in person, but his material traveled a direct pipeline to the rock icon; "Return to Sender," "One Broken Heart for Sale," and "Easy Question" also came from his pen. Dee Clark ("Just Keep It Up" and "Hey Little Girl"), Thurston Harris, Wade Flemons, Clyde McPhatter, Brook Benton, Ben E. King, the Drifters, Bobby Darin, Ral Donner, Gene Vincent, and plenty more of rock's primordial royalty benefited from Blackwell's compositional largesse before the British Invasion forever altered the Brill Building scene.

In 1976, Blackwell returned to recording with a Herb Abramson-produced set for Inner City comprised of his own renditions of the songs that made him famous. A 1991 stroke paralyzed the legendary song scribe, but his influence remained so enduring that it inspired Brace Yourself!, an all-star 1994 tribute album that included contributions by Dave Edmunds, Joe Ely, Deborah Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Kris Kristofferson, Graham Parker, and Bluesman Joe Louis Walker. He died on May 6, 2002 in his Nashville home.

Blues From The Purple Grotto!

The Purple Grotto is the name of our new studio. It was originally my daughter Robin's bedroom. It's a bit tight but working quite well.

My son Brian has come on board to help with the engineering responsibilities which were becoming overwhelming for me. Plus....Brian has a great voice.

Tonight, we have selected a lot of brand new releases from some folks who are quite unique.

Enjoy the show!

Here is tonight's playlist:

1)....Intro Theme...."Backstroke"....David Gogo
2)...."Stay Away From My Home"....David Gogo
3)...."Sugar Daddy"....Jack Tempchin
4)...."Check Writin' Woman"....Watermelon Slim And The Workers
5)...."Still A Fool"....Magic Slim And The Teardrops
6)...."Come And Get These Memories"....Martha And The Vandellas
7)...."Stand Out"....Ladell McLin
8)...."Mississippi Fred's Dream"....African Wind
9)...."Rollin' And Tumblin'"....R.L. Burnside
10)..."Highway 61"....The Blues Disciples
11)..."I'm A Bluesman"....Magic Slim And The Teardrops
12)..."Lookin' For Trouble"....Kim Wilson
13)..."24 Hours A Day"....Louis Brooks And The Hightoppers
14)..."The Freedom Wall"....Freebo

John Rhys-Eddins/BluePower.com

Click here to listen....Blues From The Purple Grotto!