Sam "Bluzman" Tayor ~ 1997

"Sam "Bluzman" Taylor was born in Mobile, Alabama, and cut his teeth early in music, beginning singing gospel at age 3.His first major professional gig was as Maxine Brown's band leader at the Apollo Theater. Sam recorded for various labels including Capitol Records and authored hundreds of songs, many of them hits and some even gold records like "Do It 'Til You're Satisfied" by the BT Express. His songs can be heard rendered by Freddie King, Son Seals, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jay and the Americans, Joey Dee, Maxine Brown and Joe Tex. Taylor also was bandleader/guitarist for the likes of Big Joe Turner, The Isley Brothers, Tracy Nelson, Otis Redding and more notably Sam and Dave.

Taylor was also original member/guitarist of Joey Dee and the Starliters, one of the first integrated rock and roll band that contributed to the twist-dance craze with the "Peppermint Twist". He was also a mentor to, and wrote some of the first songs for The Vagrants which included innovative rock guitarist, Leslie West,of Mountain.
At the start of the 1970s, Sam & Bennie were hired as staff writers for The Beach Boys new record label, Brother Records.

In the early 1970s, Taylor released his opus Tunnels Of My Mind on the GRT record label and in the late 70s, he moved to Santa Monica, California, where he created a scene of his own at Venice Beach that attracted fellow artists like Rickie Lee Jones and good friend Albert Collins. He later moved to Tucson, Arizona where a supportive blues community helped him become a celebrity of the town. He was living in Tucson when we invited him to play Alleyfest, but it was during this time his band moved to New York, so Sam hired a car and driver to bring him to Longview for the weekend.

Sam later rejoined his band in New York, and lived theruntil his death in January 5, 2009 at his home in Islandia, New York. He was 74". ~Wikipedia

Ponty Bone and the Squeezetones ~ 1996 & 2002

Ponty Bone is a Texan accordionist who has led his 1980s band, the Squeezetones to international popularity over a twenty year period.

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Bone began studying accordion when he was only 5 years old. Later, he learned to play trumpet also. Ponty attended Texas Tech in Lubbock. Early in his career Bone became a member of the Joe Ely Band.

By the mid 1980s Ponty Bone had formed his own band, Ponty Bone & the Squeezetones. The group's early style ranged through Russian gypsy dances, reggae-blues, Tex-Mex polkas, and Cajun boogie. In 1987, early in their career, the group made their singular appearance on the PBS music television program Austin City Limits, as part of a "Squeezebox Special" episode with Queen Ida and Santiago Jimenez, Jr.

With his band, Ponty has shared the stage with such artists as The Clash, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, King Flaco Jiménez, Linda Ronstadt and Ronnie Lane.
Bone's album, "Fantasize" has been described as drawing from Tex-Mex, rock, blues, R & B, zydeco, and even Caribbean music to create a whole new style.

Big Mike Griffin ~ 1996 & 2000

Nashville's aptly named Big Mike Griffin (6'10", 350 lbs.) is a no-holds-barred blues guitarist new to the 1990s blues scene. Griffin grew up in Lawton, Oklahoma, and regularly traveled 125 miles as a teen to hear blues in Dallas and Fort Worth clubs. Griffin was influenced by the second generation of blues artists, like Albert King, Mike Bloomfield, Albert Collins and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. After the local economy turned sour, he left for Nashville. Initially, he did session guitar work for country artists and played anywhere he could, eventually building his own Unknown Blues Band. After releasing a self-produced album that sold well in Nashville, the band signed with Malaco/Waldoxy Records in 1992. They had already earned a reputation beyond Nashville's city limits, playing at such prestigious festivals as the W.C. Handy Blues Festival in Memphis and the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas. The band toured incessantly and developed East and West Coast followings before recording Gimme What I Got Comin' in 1993, which was a hit among blues fans and DJs. Griffin played a month-long tour of Europe that year with labelmates Denise LaSalle, Little Milton, and Artie "Blues Boy" White. Griffin's unique, economical guitar style can also be heard on White's Different Shades of Blue album and James Peterson's Don't Let the Devil Ride. His three albums for Malaco include Back on the Streets Again (1992), Gimme What I Got Comin' (1993), and Sittin' Here With Nothing (1995). All are outstanding efforts that incorporate Griffin's gift for humorous storytelling and blend elements of jazz, funk, and swamp rock into his arrangements. ~ Richard Skelly, All Music Guide

Elvin Bishop, Gentleman Hog Farmer ~ 1996

Elvin Bishop was born in Glendale, California and grew up on a farm near Elliott, Iowa. His family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when he was ten. There he attended Will Rogers High School and moved to Chicago in 1960 after he won a National Merit Scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he studied physics. He met harmonica player Paul Butterfield in 1963 in the neighborhood of Hyde Park and joined his blues band, with whom he remained for five years. Their third album, The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, takes its name from Bishop's nickname. In 1968 he went solo and formed the Elvin Bishop Group, also standing in for Mike Bloomfield on The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.

Over the years, Bishop has recorded with many blues artists including Clifton Chenier, Little Smokey Smothers, John Lee Hooker,Bo Diddley and toured with B. B. King.

In 1976 Bishop released his most memorable single, "Fooled Around and Fell In Love", which peaked at #3 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, about his love affair with the late Jenny Villarin, the mother of his late daughter Selina Bishop.

In 2000, Bishop's daughter Selina and ex-wife Jennifer Villarin were murdered in California. In 2005, Bishop released his first new CD in five years, Gettin' My Groove Back on Alligator records.






Ed Early is Elvin's "main man" on slide trombone, here's a Trick's Alleyfest Revue bonus featuring Ed and his own band.

Ronnie Dawson ~ 1996

Ronnie Dawson,"The Blond Bomber," was an ace Rock-a-billy artist. Born in Dallas, 1939,he grew up in Waxahachie, a typical small Texas town. He played the bass fiddle and guitar in the Assembly of God church in Waxahachie and later formed his own group called Ronnie Dee & the D Men.He won the Big D Jamboree Talent Program several times and was offered a regular spot on the show.

He was offered a contract with Dick Clark's Swan Records just as the payola scandal broke. As a studio musician, he can be heard playing drums on the hit records "Hey! Baby" by Bruce Channel and "Hey Paula" by Paul and Paula. Although he never made it big in the 50's, he made a comfortable living writing and playing in commercials for Aunt Jamima, Hungary Jack, Jaxx Beer and CiCi's Pizza.

Although he remained little-known in his native country, Dawson was hailed as a rock pioneer in England. His mid-'80s rediscovery led to Dawson's name and songs winding up in a variety of places. In 1995, Dawson made a triumphant appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

In 2002, Dawson was diagnosed with throat cancer and fans in the U.S. and abroad held benefit concerts to help him pay for medical costs. The Blonde Bomber finally succumbed on September 30, 2003. He was 64.


Here Ronnie Talks about his background and rocks out!

The Kinsey Report with Big Daddy Kinsey ~ 1995

Big Daddy Kinsey (March 18, 1927 — April 3, 2001) was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. Lester "Big Daddy" Kinsey was born in Pleasant Grove, Minnesota. He was a slide guitarist and harp blower with roots in both the Mississippi Delta and post-war Chicago Blues styles.

He worked with local bands only long enough for his sons to mature into top-flight musicians, and in 1984, the family act, The Kinsey Report, became one of the hottest attractions in contemporary blues. Big Daddy Kinsey's material ranged from deep blues in the Muddy Waters vein to hard-rocking blues with touches of funk and reggae, courtesy of sons Donald and Ralph. In the early 1990s Kinsey released one of the most successful albums of his career, I Am the Blues which featured contributions from Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Sugar Blue and Pinetop Perkins. The family group recorded and toured until April 2001, when Big Daddy succumbed to cancer, at the age of 74.



The Kinsey Report consists of Donald Kinsey (b.May 12, 1953, Gary, IN), (vocal, guitar); Ralph "Woody" Kinsey, (drums); Kenneth Kinsey, (bass); Ronald Prince, (guitar). Solidly based in the blues as a result of lifelong training in The Big Daddy Kinsey household, The Kinsey scions are also versed in a broad range of music.

The older brothers Donald and Ralph had an early blues-rock trio (White Lightnin') in the mid-'70s, long before they regrouped as The Kinsey Report in 1984 and began to launch new excursions into rock. Donald also recorded and toured with Albert King and with Bob Marley, and the influence of those giants (as well as that of Big Daddy Kinsey, naturally) show through in the music of The Kinsey Report.

The band expertly covers all the bases from Chicago blues through reggae, rock, funk, and soul, and their recordings are also distinguished by the songwriting talents and self-contained production approach of The Kinseys.






Sadly, I could not find any video of Big Daddy Kinsey.

Anson and the Rockets with Sam Myers ~ 1994

Anson Funderburgh,born November 15, 1954 in Plano, Texas,is a blues guitar player and bandleader of Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets. Formed in 1978 their style incorporates both Chicago blues and Texas blues. During this time the band payed their dues by playing venues including the original Alley Club and Carlito's in downtown Longview, Texas. Over the years the band has evolved with personnel changes.

Sam was born in Laurel, Mississippi on February 19, 1936. He appeared as an accompanist on dozens of recordings for blues artists over five decades. He began his career as a drummer for Elmore James and in 1956, he wrote and recorded his most famous single, "Sleeping In The Ground", a song covered by Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and many other blues artists.

From the early 1960s until 1986, Myers worked the clubs in and around Jackson as well as across the South in the Chitlin' Circuit. He even found himself touring the world with Sylvia Embry and the Mississippi All-Stars Blues Band. In 1986 Sam joined the Rockets as harp player and lead singer.


The first Rockets' recording featuring Myers was My Love Is Here To Stay which came out in 1986. He stayed with the band until his death on July 17, 2006, appearing on eight albums with them. Today the band continues to evolve and is one of the premier blues bands fron Texas.