Sunday, August 6, 2000

Little Charlie and the Nightcats ~ 2000


Charlie Baty was attending University of California Berkeley and studying mathematics when he formed Little Charlie & the Nightcats with Rick Estrin in 1976. The band's music relies chiefy on electric urban blues of the Chicago variety, but mixed in with other compatible styles, including early rock and roll, soul, surf music, swing, jump blues, and western swing.[3] The Nightcats issued their debut album, All the Way Crazy, in 1987, including the songs "Poor Tarzan", "Suicide Blues" and "When Girls Do It". The following album Disturbing the Peace (1988), included "That's My Girl", "My Money's Green", "She's Talking" and "Nervous". The records help established them on the blues festival and club circuits, and they began touring the country extensively, playing a number of international venues. They have played at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1980 and 1982, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the San Diego, California Street Scene and Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival plus the Juneau Jazz & Classics Festival in 2002.

In early 2008 Baty announced he was entering "soft" retirement, no longer tours with the band. Estrin continued with the band re-billed as Rick Estrin and the Nightcats. Baty was replaced on guitar by Chris 'Kid' Andersen (born 1980), originally from Telemark, Norway. Andersen had played backing Charlie Musselwhite as well as fronting his own band.

Baty's most recent blues recording was as a guest on JW-Jones, Bluelisted (2008), an album which marked the first time in his career that he documented his harmonica playing on a recording, and the first time he and another west-coast blues musician, Junior Watson, had recorded together on the same tracks.



Kim simmonds and Savoy Brown ~ 2000


Kim Maiden Simmonds born December 5, 1947, in Newbridge, Monmouthshire, Wales and now residing in New York, New York is a Welsh guitarist.

In the 1960s, he became one of the founding members of the British blues band Savoy Brown (then called the Savoy Brown Blues Band) in Soho, London with John O'Leary and is the only founding member still in the band.

In 1997 Simmonds released his first solo acoustic blues album, entitled "Solitaire".
He has continued to record solo and full band albums and tours worldwide with Savoy Brown and also as a solo act. He is also a painter and the cover of his 2008 solo release "Out Of The Blue" features his original art.

In Dallas with Jim Schuler...


Leon Russell ~ 2000

Claude Russell Bridges was born April 2, 1942, in Lawton, Oklahoma. Known professionally as Leon Russell, he is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and guitarist.

Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began his musical career as a session musician, quickly gaining experience and becoming a high-end keyboardist in demand to notable artists from the 1960s to the present. Russell has played with artists as varied as Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Delaney Bramlett, Ringo Starr, Elton John, BB King, Freddie King, Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, Badfinger, Tijuana Brass, J.J. Cale, David Gates, Frank Sinatra, The Band, Marc Benno, Edgar and Johnny Winter, Glen Campbell, Gary Busey, Jesse Ed Davis, and The Rolling Stones. With a solo career spanning the genres of rock, blues, and gospel.

His first songwriting hit was Joe Cocker's 1969 version of "Delta Lady", and Russell went on to organise Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour as well as play in Cocker's backing band at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. The Russell-written "Superstar", sung by Rita Coolidge on that tour, would go on to be a big hit by The Carpenters, Luther Vandross, and others. Shortly thereafter, Russell released a solo album, Leon Russell, which included the original version of the popular "A Song for You".

For several years, Russell stayed largely out of the music spotlight, releasing Anything Can Happen with Bruce Hornsby in 1992, then two more albums in 1998 and 1999. He continues to tour at the age of 66. His bassist, Jack Wessel, has been with Russell close to 25 years, his son , Teddy Jack(named after Gary Busey's character on Sartain's show), and Sugaree Noel -born Oct 29, 1982.



Sunday, July 9, 2000

Brint Anderson ~ 2000


Mississippi-born guitarist Brint Anderson traveled several continents for three decades as he pursued a career as a professional musician, only to end up putting down roots in New Orleans, a neighbor of his Natchez hometown along the Mississippi River.

A stint as a guitar player for Dr. John led to Anderson's settling down in the Big Easy, a move that led him to membership in Porter's Runnin' Pardners in the summer of 1992. The following year he took top prize in the Abita Beer Blues Competition. In 1997, Offbeat magazine bestowed on Anderson and Porter's Runnin' Pardners a Best of the Beat Award. To raise funds for a local hospital, Anderson competed in the New Orleans Musicians' Barbecue Cook-Off, where he triumphed with the top prize.

He has contributed guitar work to performances by such artists as John Lee Hooker, Dr. John, Levon Helm, Art Neville, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Snooks Eaglin, Cassandra Wilson, Earl King, and Johnny Adams, among others. He has also performed with Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Meters, Johnny Winter, Gregg Allman, Billy Preston, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the Neville Brothers, and Leon Russell.