THE NEWSLETTER OF THE KENTUCKIANA BLUES SOCIETY “...PRESERVING, PROMOTING AND PERPETUATING THE BLUES.” Louisville, Kentucky Incorporated 1989 March 2015 Photos by David True Gene Wickliffe (photo le) and Jason Lockwood (photo right) have been elected to the 2015 Stevie Ray's Blues Bar Hall of Fame. Over the years, Gene has played drums for a variety of bands including da Mudcats, Bodeco, Cosmo and the Counts, Heat, Johnny Berry & the Outliers and most recently with Louisville Fats & the Rhythm Cats. This year, da Mudcats are cele- brang their 30th anniversary and Gene has been with the band since the beginning. Jason Lockwood has been playing lead guitar and singing vocals for The Stella Vees since the band got it's start in 1998. The Stella Vees are two-me winners of the KBS band contest, winning in 2004 and 2006. Jason has stated that his main musical influences are Magic Sam, T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan. The Stevie Ray's Hall of Fame Inducon and Show will take place on Sunday, March 15 and will benefit the Animal Care Society of Louisville I T I Letter From The Prez ************************************************************** 3 The Art of Tipping *************************************************************************** 7 Johnny “Rolling Stone” Wright ************************************* 4-6 Word of Mouth ********************************************************************************** 8-9 New Music Review ******************************************************************** 6 Kentuckiana Blues Calendar ************************************************* 10 BLUES NEWS March 2015 1 March 2015 KBS B D Volume 28 Number 3 E Rocky Adcock Roger Wolford Emeritus Emeritus Natalie Carter Bob Brown Nelson Grube C Natalie Carter Danny Henderson Bob Brown Ray Current Mindy Current Elaine Hertweck Matt Floyd Dave Kyle Ray Current Les Reynolds Steve Rusin Gary Sampson Keith Clements Gary Sampson Address Change? Joe DeBow David Scoggin If you move, let us know your change of ad- Matt Floyd Mark Sneed dress. The Post Office does not forward bulk mail. Lamont Gillispie Steve Walls The views expressed by the authors and adver- tisers are their own. Contributions by anyone Chris Grube Debbie Wilson offering pertinent and thoughtful discussion on blues issues are welcomed. CALL FOR INFORMATION ABOUT: [email protected] www.blues.org GENERAL INFO Gary Sampson (502) 724-9971 Blues News Official Printers KBS EVENTS/ADVERTISING The monthly newsletter of the of the Keith Clements (502) 451-6872 Kentuckiana Blues Society Kentuckiana Blues Society MEMBERSHIP/NEWSLETTER Natalie Carter (502) 893-8031 ©2011 Kentuckiana Blues Society www.voluforms.com Louisville, Kentucky CLUB/BAND CALENDAR Gary Sampson (502) 724-9971 We appreciate your support and welcome your input. If you have KBS LEADERSHIP FOR THE YEAR 2015: any comments, suggestions, ideas, etc., contact us at this ad- dress: Gary Sampson – president Kentuckiana Blues Society Debbie Wilson – vice-president P. O. Box 755 Les Reynolds – secretary Louisville, KY 40201-0755 Chris Grube – treasurer As usual, please check your mailing label to see if your member- KBS MONTHLY MEETING ship will expire soon. Our single membership is a bargain at only If you are interested in reviewing new blues music, come on out $20.00 US per year. Double membership (two members at the to the KBS monthly board meeting (held the first Wednesday of same address, two membership cards, one newsletter) is only each month at 7:00 PM at The Pizza Place in Hikes Point) $25.00 US per year, and we now offer a special band rate of $30 and take your pick! We receive promo releases from the major per year, which includes one newsletter plus a membership card blues labels as well as regional and local bands. If you review a for each band member. If you see a notice on your mailing label, CD, it’s yours to keep! that means that it’s time to renew! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! LOOK AT YOUR MAILING LABEL! If it says “LAST ISSUE - PLEASE RENEW” you will be purged from the membership rolls after this mailing and will not receive any future issues of Blues News. We don’t want to lose you! Please take a moment now and check your label and renew online at www. kbsblues. org or send a check to MEMBERSHIP KENTUCKIANA BLUES SOCIETY PO BOX 755 LOUISVILLE, KY 40201-0755 Thank you for your support! BLUES NEWS March 2015 2 Letter From The Prez For the first time since the Kentuckiana Blues Society has been sending acts to the International Blues Challenge (IBC), both Randy Colvin and The Beat Daddys made it to the semi-finals of the competition in Memphis. The contest took place January 21-24 and The Beat Daddys became the first KBS band representative to make it to the second round. Randy Colvin joins Jimi V & Screamin' John (2010) and Jimmy Davis (2011) as the third KBS solo/duo representative to make it to the semi's. Noah Wotherspoon of Cincinnati placed second in the band division and was awarded the Gibson Guitar Award as the best guitarist at this year's contest. We'll have photos and an article on the IBC in a future edition of Blues News. Congratulations guys and great job! Crescent Hill Radio is now a reporting station for Living Blues magazine. WCHQ has been a reporting station for the Roots Music Report since late 2011, but Living Photo by Cheryl Cissell Blues will only accept terrestrial radio broadcasters to provide information and playlists. After Crescent Hill Radio began broadcasting on the FM dial at 100.9 last October, the magazine accepted our application as a reporting entity. The Living Blues magazine Radio Chart appears in the back of every issue and contains the top 25 blues artists from around the world. The Louisville station will now have their information added to these charts. Crescent Hill Radio is also looking to local and regional artists to help create jingles for the station. WCHQ requests that any interested musicians send a 10 to 20 second jingle promoting the station by Monday, March 23. All submissions will be considered for airplay and two entries will be chosen at random to receive one of two 10 hour recording sessions at either Downtown Recording or DSL Studios. For more information, visit the radio station's website at http://www.crescenthillradio.com/. Notable events this month include Grammy nominees Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin at Headliners Music Hall on Wednesday, March 4. The Alvin's were nominated for best blues album of the year but they lost out to Johnny Winter. KBS members can get a $5.00 discount by selecting the ticket link on the Headliners website at http:// headlinerslouisville.com/ and using the password BLASTERS. Stevie Ray's has a lot planned for the month of March starting with The Beat Daddys on Friday, March 6. The band is making its first appearance in Louisville since competing at this year's IBC. The next night the bar will have both da Mudcats, who are celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2015, and Mike Milligan and Steam Shovel from Kokomo, IN. Stevie Ray's will host their eighth Hall of Fame Benefit on Sunday, March 15. The two newest members of the hall of fame will be inducted that night with their portraits being added to the wall of the blues bar. All proceeds for the evening go to the Animal Care Society of Louisville. The 2013 IBC solo/duo contest winner Little G Weevil will be at Ste- vie Ray's on Thursday, March 19. Little G is scheduled to start recording his next album in April of this year. The Rabbit Hash General Store in Rabbit Hash, KY started a new music series in January. They'll have the jug band called the Cincinnati Dancing Pigs on Sunday, March 15 and the duo of Eric “Catfish” Evans and Sa- rah “Cadillac” Johnson on Sunday, March 22. You can find their full schedule online at http:// www.rabbithash.com/. Johnny Rawls was voted the most outstanding blues singer of 2013 by Living Blues magazine. He's bringing his Soul Blues Revue to Natasha's Bistro in Lexington on Wednesday, March 25. The blues society would like to welcome an old friend back as our newest board member. Steve Walls served on the KBS board from 2000 to 2007. He has played music around Louisville since he was a teenager and Steve was one of the original members of The Saints along with Ricky Mason, Dickie Durlauf, Bruce Lively and Bill Dean. He also played in the Rocket 88's and Blue Collar. Good to have you back, Steve. Gary BLUES NEWS March 2015 3 Johnny “Rolling Stone” Wright By Dave Kyle, photos courtesy of Steve Rusin In the '70s, a couple friends I had played in bands with decided to open a record- ing studio in Terre Haute, Indiana. Steve Rusin and Steve Brown built Harvest Sound Studio in the attached garage of Brown's home. It was a simple setup with an 8-track, Tascam A-H, 1/2" reel-to-reel recorder, two TEAC, 16 channel boards, piano and drum booth. These guys were kind enough to use me on some record- ing sessions, one of which turned out to be a landmark for me. Rusin and I had played in the area's only blues band earlier in the '70s. Through his vast knowledge of the format I began my own dedication to this type music, which lasts to this day. Through a mutual friend, Rusin was introduced to a blues guitar player and sing- er who worked at Terre Haute Malleable, a steel mill on the city's north side. His name was Johnny Wright, a gentleman of about fifty-years-old, ancient to us, in our mid-twenties.