Chris,
There was a note in the mail bin last week from Ed Ward, "Noted Rock Historian" of NPR.  It gave me the jitters, remembering his good piece on Little Willie John.

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/20/140596530/before-rock-n-roll-the-chitlin-circuit-performed

When that came through my car radio, I got the jaspers thinking that a whole bunch of singers would jump the Little Willie catalog before you could get yours out, making you a Little Willie Johnny come lately. 

Maybe divert them to his new bit on James Burton, while you hurry up and get that stuff of yours out. ~ MT

By the time I get this out Ed will be onto five other things.  He's always worth reading, though, or listening to on NPR.  Ed's an old friend from The Wheel's earliest days in Berkeley.  He and writers John Morthland and Mike Goodwin would almost always be in the back room at the Longbranch Saloon in Berkeley for our regular Tuesday night gig.  We offered one free beer per patron, even though I think it was illegal to give booze away, and we played a couple of sets of music with special guest artists like songwriter Blackie Farrell or stride piano player Mike Lipskin.  We even had a juggler on the act a few times.  Once we gave away a t.v. to attract patrons.  The best offer we made to pack the house was a free date with the piano player.  Sometimes we'd share the bill with the Oso Band or Sober and Sorry.  It was a long time ago, but some images seem to have stuck in my mind.  

I was talking with Ed recently about that Little Willie John book, and about how James Brown did some of his tunes.  I've always loved James Brown as a singer, as a performer.  I especially dug those "Live At The Apollo" recordings.  As a kid I'd seen "The TAMI Show" in the theater and I thought it was cool how the knees of his pants were worn from all that "collapsing" he was doing.  I bought a record maybe thirty-five years ago called "James Brown ‎– Thinking About Little Willie John And A Few Nice Things" - I bought it for "Talk To Me", which I thought had a pretty, simple melody, kind of like a Sam Cooke song.  And I started putting it together, how James Brown had been influenced by what Little Willie John had done with his own tunes and that powerful, controlled, soulful voice.  That's when my attention was redirected.

Ed's review of Susan Whitall's book is a timely reintroduction of Little Willie John for those who missed him the first time around.  His art should be in everyone's musical library.  She credits him with the birth of soul.  That's huge!  Some people sing, some sing well.  Some were born to sing.  Little Willie John was born to sing, he was driven by that greatest of all blessings:  he knew what he wanted and he had the goods.  So if Susan Whitall and Ed Ward are hipping people to him, that's a good thing.

I have one cut on my new album that I learned from Little Willie John; it's called "Suffering With The Blues".  At first it seemed like a straight shot, an emotional read for sure; but in finding my own voice for this song I really focused in on the power of Little Willie John's delivery and also on what seems like the depth of his commitment to his own experiences.  There was no artifice in his singing, no trickery, no clever licks.  He was a face value singer.  It's so refreshing to listen to him, especially within the context of what's being currently released in any genre.  When I listen to contemporary jazz singers it sounds like many of them are so wrapped up in the blazing articulation or the unwavering octave jumps or the 

l-o-n-g tones that it all sounds like vocal acrobatics at the expense of telling the story.  I lose interest right away.  If the song doesn't speak to me except in terms of "here's something I bet you never thought of doing" or "here's a lick you'll never pull off" I just flip it over to Hank Williams.  I like the face value singers.  No, I love the face value singers.  That jazzes me more than hot vocal licks or pursuit of perfection.  To share an intimate message with somebody through singing is a responsibility.  To muck it up with ego or cheap tricks means failure to communicate.      

Yeah, well, with Memorial Day flying by it seems like a good time to remember some late heroes like Little Willie John. But I notice you were also back at the Freight and Salvage, mixing with some live heroes. It was good to see Cindy Cashdollar out here on the coast. The real heroes are still workin. Johnny Nicholas, Suzy Thompson, Del Rey! Damn good show. ~ MT

I've known Johnny Nicholas a long, long time.  His band, "The Boogie Brothers" arrived on the West Coast shortly after the Wheel did, but they came out from Ann Arbor, I think.  We got to Oakland in '71, and then they came out, gigging the same circuit we were, plus a few other joints we didn't play, I'm sure.  Fran Christina was playing drums with them, and after several years Johnny and Franny came on board with The Wheel.  They were some wild times, man; it was about 1979, 1980-ish, and you know what the scene was then, Merle.  Did you know that the Bombay Gin bottle used to say on the label, "Gin is a state of mind"?  Or maybe it was, "Bombay is a state of mind."  Whatever it was, there was a lot of truth in that.  There was all sorts of partying going on, as you can see in the attached picture.  There we are with Tatum O'Neil on the left, and then me and Johnny standing - oh, and that's Eric Clapton being a good sport and crouching down on the floor.  I think this was taken at a club in Atlanta - "Moonshadows"? - but if someone told me it was somewhere in Nevada I couldn't argue.  I'm quietly astonished to see myself balancing a beer, a pack of smokes and a shot all in one hand.  Sign of the times.  Desperate measures and all that.

        

Tatum O'Neil, Chris O'Connell, Johnny Nicholas, Eric Clapton (kneeling)

"Moonshadows", Atlanta, Georgia ~ circa 1979

We did a lot of really great work together - like Johnny just told me when I saw him at the Freight and Salvage last month, "You know what?  We were good!"  And we were.  He and I cut a Brook Benton-Dinah Washington tune called "Baby, You've Got What It Takes" and it was killer!  But the best jams happened on the bus or in the motel bathrooms where there were plenty of hard surfaces to create natural reverb.  He and I recorded a cassette of a half-dozen tunes, just a cappella, in the bathroom - maybe it was when we were playing at the Shy Clown in Sparks, Nevada - and we called ourselves The Toilet Tones.  He sang Lonnie Johnson's "Tomorrow Night", a gorgeous ballad which I had heard by Laverne Baker, and I wailed the steel guitar/Anita Kerr soprano part in the background, and then we cut duo versions of Hank Williams' "Weary Blues" and the Holland-Dozier-Holland hit "Can I Get A Witness".  I sang a LeRoy Preston song called "Jimmy Lee", which was a take-off on his "Rosalie" (always gender switching on these tunes!) - it's a real hillbilly thing involving lies, infidelity and gunfire.  I just love it, always have.  There are probably a couple more songs on that cassette that I don't remember now (it was 33 years ago! - if I'da wanted to alphabetize every memory I'da told Ray Benson - he has a phenomenal memory).  Johnny and Franny were always drinking and smoking cigarettes and singing.  To be surrounded by such natural and authentic talent was a real education and a real honor.  The bus was where I heard lots of material that was new to me.  University on Wheels.  Wouldn't trade it.

I did see Cindy Cashdollar with Johnny at the Freight and she sure does have a fan club!  She's such a great student of accompaniment, of coloration, and she's a hell of a show(wo)man.  She fits right in with Johnny's material and the attitude that he brings to his shows; it's a smart pairing, these two onstage together.  She's easy to work with, has a huge vocabulary of steel and dobro licks and attitudes, she's a real pro.  She's on my new album,

"Be Right Back!" where she plays some swingin stuff and some really haunting stuff.  She dressed me up pretty good in the studio.  I know people are gonna love it, especially her Fan Club.  They're a rabid bunch.

Suzy Thompson and Del Rey opened the show for Johnny that night.  Just the two of them.  Guitar and uke.  Or guitar and guitar.  Or uke and fiddle.  Between the two of them there are at least a half-dozen acts.  They do older music, Sippie Wallace blues, Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, ragtime, stuff like that.  Neither flinches when thrown a solo, and what they play is commanding  and cool.    These two white women sing the blues with authority, and they play the hell out of their instruments.  They're funny to watch - they are natural foils for each other, like Suzy plays straight guy and Del plays goofball.  But it's never kitschy or gratuitous, which shows how professional they are.  They really love playing together - you can feel it.  And the songs are fascinating because of the instrumentation and because of their ease in playing them, almost like they go out on the bandstand in their robes and slippers and pick a few.  These two women are entertaining and savvy, but I found the thing that intrigued me most was their playing - they've put in the time.  A jam with all players at the end of the night illustrated their mastery of the music they love and their ability to catch the blues ball and fearlessly run with it.  

Check 'em out:

Here's Del on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxk3N7GOgX4&feature=related

You can find Del Ray's recordings here:  http://hobemianrecords.com/delreydiscs.html

Some are with Suzy Thompson.

Here's Suzy on YouTube - solo!!:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQLGbZHBOzU

You can find Suzy Thompson here:  http://www.ericandsuzy.com/suzymore.htm

(A girl who worked for 30 years as a professional musician and finally released her first CD ~ I can dig it!)

Here's Johnny Nicholas' website with info on his latest CD:  http://johnnynicholasblues.com/

Let's not forget Cindy Cashdollar!  Her website:  http://www.cindycashdollar.com/home/

These are real people playing real music.  Break away from that Velcro chair cushion and go see them when you get a chance!  

I'm tard, Merle.  Time fer a nap.