Otis Spann was an amiable, soft-spoken man who enjoyed a good drink, a good joke, and a good story. At the keyboard he was one of the giants of the blues. He will always be remembered as a driving force in the Muddy Waters band, the go-to session piano player for Chess Records, and a …
He went by many names- Rice, Willie, Footsie, The Goat. His real name may have been Aleck Miller. He claimed to be the well-known bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson. When it was pointed out to him that this was another man, he insisted he had adopted the name first. Of course he was an imposter, but …
Here’s a gem of an understated “Mojo” from 1963. Any videos of Sonny Boy Williamson II are scarce indeed, since he died in the summer of 1965. That’s the American Folk Blues Tour again, with Otis Spann, Matt Murphy, Willie Dixon, and Bill Stepney (very rare to see him) on the drums. Locale? Britain or …
Here’s is John Siscoe‘s take on Koko Taylor and “Wang Dang Doodle“: “Despite the antiseptic setting and lackluster backing, this is a valuable clip. Any blues performance from the ’60s is a relative rarity, and this gives us a look at Koko Taylor when she was young and in her prime, plus a fleeting glimpse …
This little Youtube clip is a national treasure. Click on the photo above or view here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1__zadGXR3A