I blame it all on Jimmy Reed. If it wasn’t for his music,
my introduction to the blues may have been delayed for quite some time.
As a teenager, when I heard “The Best of Jimmy Reed” on VeeJay Records,
everything changed for me. I decided that I needed to know everything
there was to know about this kind of music. Some forty years later,
I’m still pursuing everything blues and I probably will be until my last
days.
In the course of my pursuit of the blues, I have been very fortunate to
have seen Jimmy Reed perform live along with many other of the “Masters”
like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Hound Dog Taylor, Otis Rush, Junior Wells
and many others. I was able to see all these bluesmen in around
Chicago in the late 60s where I worked in the steel mills during the summer
to pay my way through college.
I listen to all styles of blues, but if I had to choose one to be more
partial to, it would probably be the Post-War electric blues of the late 40s
and 50s. To me, these guys were true innovators. They were using
electric guitars and amplifiers for the first with no one before them to use
as examples. They were it. And blues is still played pretty much
the same way the pioneers of the 50s played it.
As far as personal favorites go, my list is way too long and I’m sure I
would leave someone out. You will most definitely hear my favorites
whenever I fill in for the other regular DJ's. That’s right, I am the
“6th Man” of Texas Blues Radio. I fill in whenever one of the other
guys or girls is too lazy or unmotivated to do their own show. But if
you’ve noticed, the regular DJ's almost always show up for their shows.
No, it’s not because they are all so totally dedicated to the blues, it’s
simply because they know that I will always end up doing a better show than
them and eyebrows will be raised. People will begin to ask why this
guy doesn’t have his own show, and they have. Fear not, my time will
come.
Duke Robillard
In the meantime, I have designed several of the t-shirts for Texas Blues
Radio and the six KNON Blues Festivals as well as the posters and fliers.
Although lately, they’ve started feeling sorry for JMAC, the Monday DJ, and
used a couple of his designs. You will also find me working the door
at the various Texas Blues Radio benefit shows, of which there are several
every year.
Don O. allowed me to program my first hour of blues in 1998. I
became a regular substitute DJ in 1999 and have done over fifty shows since
then.
Some of my favorite blues cds of 2004 were:
Kirk Fletcher - Shades of Blue - Delta Groove
Tad Robinson - Did You Ever Wonder - Severn
Hound Dog Taylor - Release the Hound - Alligator
Paul Oscher - Alone With the Blues - Electro-Fi
Ronnie Earl - Now My Soul - Stony Plain
Send me e-mail at
.
KNON's Texas Blues Radio
Last Siet Update:
Tuesday August 12, 2008
