Rubber City Review

After I pushed the button on my Dan Hicks/Mike Flowers post, I realized I’d made a big mistake… Should’ve featured those videos in a more appropriate format. Why not put together a virtual variety show for the interweb generation? What a great idea, right? And even if it doesn’t make sense, who’s going to argue with a guy wearing an ankle bracelet?

(start here)

Hi, welcome to the Rubber City Variety Show… I’m your host, Bobby Whitewall. We’ve got a real humdinger of a show this week, and it’s brought to you by our good friends at Johnson Motors – it’s all about you, your friends and your Johnson.

So how ‘bout this weather in northeast Ohio? Don’t like it? Wait five minutes – it’ll change… (click)

Wow… this audience is a lot better than the one from last week. I tell ya, that crowd was so tough, they started leaving five minutes before they showed up… (click)

Yeah, I mean tough… And who’s idea was it to book that pastry chef? Poor guy had to use a crème brulee torch to defend himself… Now that’s a tough crowd! (click)

Hey, how ‘bout those Indians? They’re really on a tear. Just last week, Slider finally showed up at the ballpark without a bag over his head… (click) See, he’s a mascot – no need for the bag! (click)

You guys are great! I wish I could take all of you home with me – and throw my wife out the back door! (click)

Just kidding, sweetie… Alrighty, let’s light this rocket! We’re gonna kick things off with a swingin’ little band from Southern California, Big Sandy and his Fly Rite Boys. Sandy?

Dad gum it, how ‘bout those boys? I’m old enough to remember the original by George “Thumper” Jones. Hell, I even remember when George had most of his liver! Man, he used to fight like mad with Tammy Wynette… She got tired with all that honky tonkin’ – told George she didn’t like him drinkin’ and drivin’ too. George said “I don’t drive when I’m drunk. I just sit in my car and wait for my house to pull up”… (click) What’s that, Vic? Yeah, good idea. Go ahead and edit that one out.

We’re gonna take a short break for a word from our sponsor, Johnson Motors. But stick around – because we’ll be right back with a very special guest from a far-away land…

You know, when the sun’s going down and I’m heading back to the harbor, I can always count on my Johnson to get me home. (click)

I caught this next fella’s act last week at Sonny’s House of Meats over by the racetrack. Now I’m a “moon in June” kinda guy, so it took me a little while to warm up to his crazy songbird schtick. But my wife was on him like a cheap suit, so I figured you ladies out there might dig him too. Turns out he’s here on a visa from one of those “stan” countries – Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Nolyricstan, whatever. (click) And Sonny, there’s a man with a heart… Not only did he get this guy a job packing meat, he also designed the set for this very special performance. So the least I can do is throw in a little plug for Sonny’s House of Meats. Remember, you can beat Sonny’s prices, but you can’t… Christ, Vic. Quit waving your arms around. I’m moving as fast as I can. Let’s give it up for the great Trololo…

Nice job, Trolly… Come back when you learn a few songs. Y’know what chicks also dig? Harmonica players. Not sure what that’s all about, but it reminds me of a joke I stole from my Uncle Gus, who blew more than a few Hohners over the years. What’s the difference between a pizza and a harmonica player? Pizza feeds a family of four. (click) Anywho, we found this guy down by the Greyhound Station – home of the Dirty Dog, as we like to call it. And we’ve got a very special guest today who just happened to be visiting relatives in Cleveland on her way to Reno. Peggy, let’s see if you can resist an unemployed harp player…

Hey, that harp player was pretty good. Stepped all over Peggy, though… don’t think she’ll invite him on the bus.

Man, the air’s getting kinda stale in here. Let’s wheel a couple of those cameras out the back door and take a little walk outside. Besides, we’ve got some groovy cats set up near the shipping dock, ready to slap you upside the head with some serious blues. You heard of B.B. King, Albert King, Earl King?? Well, none of those guys were available to play today. (click) So I called my booking agent and asked him to find another black guy named King who plays blues guitar. Here’s Freddie:

Hey, Freddie… watch those lapels. You’ll poke somebody’s eye out. (click) Time for another pause for the cause. Don’t go away – we’ve got a little taste of Vegas for you Rubber City Chickens.

A few years ago, I had a job booking fresh talent over at the Tangier. You know, the kinda class acts you used to see on the Ed Sullivan Show. So when they let me go, I was smart enough to grab my old Rolodex. Luckily, I still had the number of Ed’s former assistant, Cosmo, who convinced us that plate-spinning is the way to go. Kids love it, and it gives mom and dad enough time to mix another highball. Then again, Cosmo also sent us that sicko with the fist puppet. Kids couldn’t sleep for a week. Can’t say I’ve seen this guy’s act before, but he comes highly recommended. Alphonse, bring this guy out while I freshen up my drink…

Well, guess he was over-served in the green room. Remind me to pull Cosmo’s number out of the Rolodex. Anywho, that’s about all I can take for one night. It’s been a real pressure… and you won’t want to miss our next show. Booked a guy you won’t believe – juggles baby goats. Got his name from Ed’s former accountant. See you next week! (click)

Much has been said and written about the great blues singers – Muddy, B.B., Bessie, Wolf, Big Mama, Sonny Boy… But I think it’s time to praise one of the more overlooked subgenres of the form, the blues instrumental.

I’m a huge fan of surf guitar… can’t get enough of that melodic twang swimming in a sea of reverb and tom-toms. But my singing siblings, who comprise sort of a Yankee-hillbilly version of the von Trapp family, remain unimpressed. As sister Keena likes to point out, a guitar solo is merely the amount of time it takes before someone starts singing again. I’ll place this site’s graphic integrity at risk (Keena’s our Web Wrangler) by politely disagreeing.

There’s really not much difference between a great surf instrumental and a great blues instrumental. In fact, the line between the two was completely blurred in the early ‘60s by the fabulous Freddie King. Songs like Hide Away and San-Ho-Zay are good examples of what a classic instrumental is all about – cool rhythms, hot solos and a memorable hook that Paulie Walnuts couldn’t pry out of your head with an ice pick. And Freddie’s unique genius involved taking the sparse yet playful arrangements of West Coast surf and marrying it with the hard-driving sound of Chicago blues. You can find the next tune and 23 other surf-blues workouts on an outstanding collection of Freddie King instrumentals recorded at King Studios in Cincinnati, “Just Pickin’”: Side Tracked/Freddie King

Years ago, I read an interview with Bruce Iglauer, founder and head of the Chicago blues label Alligator Records. As I recall, he talked about starting every day by listening to blues instrumentals by either Freddie King or Albert Collins. Now, I’m not real crazy about a few Alligator releases. But I think if you take Iglauer’s basic approach to daily living, then consider his patronage of the great Charles Brown and the Ice Man himself, Albert Collins – then add the fact that he created his label simply to record blues legend Hound Dog Taylor… well, I think you have all the makings of a man who deserves his own wing in that glass pyramid up in Cleveland.

Which brings us to Collins – the Master of the Telecaster. A bluesman with a strong, soulful voice, Collins also was a keen and witty observer of life in the ‘hood, as evidenced in songs like Master Charge and When The Welfare Turns Its Back On You. But Collins built his career on the blues instrumental, starting with Frosty back in 1962. One of my favorite albums is “Truckin’ with Albert Collins,” a collection of some of his best instrumentals (and one vocal performance) first released as “The Cool Sounds of Albert Collins” in ’65. The Ice Man was a complete original on guitar, using his bare fingers to brutalize his guitar strings – as well as unconventional tunings, custom pickups and Fender’s mightiest amp, the Quad Reverb, to augment his stinging, trebly tone. It didn’t surprise me when his song Kool Aide showed up on a beer commercial… Like many of the best blues recordings, “Truckin’” has that classic yet contemporary sound that only gets better with age. Shiver ‘N Shake/Albert Collins

Of course, Freddie King and Albert Collins owe a huge debt to Little Walter, who made the blues instrumental a minor sensation back in 1952 when he first rocked the R&B charts with his number one hit, Juke. And he followed up the success of that single with other first-rate instrumentals, like Off the Wall, Roller Coaster and Sad Hours. Like Collins, Walter was an effective vocalist with a singular style, but it’s hard to overstate the impact that his well-crafted instrumentals had on urban black listeners. I’ll go back to a quote from another Chicago blues harpist, Billy Boy Arnold, from the book “Blues with a Feeling” by Tony Glover, Scott Dirks and Ward Gaines (featured in this post): “…a girl told me once that ‘Little Walter sound like a hipped-up Muddy Waters,’ meaning the same music, just hipped up some – and she described it right.  He was just wailing, he was a swinger; a lot of beautiful solos.” Here’s one of them: The Toddle/Little Walter

Even a terrific singer like B.B. King jumped on the blues instrumental bandwagon with a handful of singles recorded for the Kent label in ’60 and ’61. I’m sure hard-core collectors had been aware of these songs for years. But the rest of us can thank the reissue experts at the British Ace label for bringing all these instrumentals together in one place with “Spotlight on Lucille” (released on CD in ’92). It’s a wide-ranging collection, with B.B.’s guitar locking in tight with a powerful horn section as they shuffle, swing, rock, rhumba… and even romance a couple of slow blues. If you’re looking for some of the best expressions of B.B.’s undying love for his woman Lucille, you can stop right here. Just Like A Woman/B.B. King

Guitarist Earl Hooker, second cousin of John Lee, is possibly the most underrated of all Chicago bluesmen – and he cut some blazing instrumentals over the years. If Hooker had a weakness, it actually might have been his amazing virtuosity. He was one of the few blues guitarists who could play country and western music (“I used to watch Gene Autry and Roy Rogers when I was a kid,” he told Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz), even recording this standard for Sam Phillips’ Sun label in ’53: Guitar Rag He also dabbled in jazz and rock, experimenting with wah-wah pedals and a double-necked guitar before Jimmy Page even thought about adding them to his arsenal. And his wild stage antics, including the tribute to good dental hygiene at the top of this post (and below), didn’t miss the attention of a young Jimi Hendrix.

But Hooker was especially fearsome on slide, which he learned while performing gigs in Arkansas with the great bluesman Robert Nighthawk. He toured constantly with his band The Roadmasters during the Fifties and Sixties and recorded for a number of different labels including Chess, where he added some fine slide to Muddy Waters’ You Shook Me (later covered by Led Zeppelin). But my favorite Hooker cuts are his classic instrumentals – The Hucklebuck, Blue Guitar, Frog Hop, Blues in D Natural, Off the Hook, Tanya… You can’t find all of them on one CD, but if you don’t mind spending a little scratch, I highly recommend “Blue Guitar: The Chief/Age/U.S.A. Sessions 1960-1963” on the Japanese P-Vine label. Or pick up the more affordable “Simply the Best: The Earl Hooker Collection,” which features this slinky instrumental: Drivin’ Wheel/Earl Hooker

The blues instrumental is in good hands with younger players like guitarist Rick Holmstrom, a native Alaskan who cut his teeth backing up West Coast harp players like William Clarke and Rod Piazza (the Mighty Flyers) as well as Delta bluesman Johnny Dyer. I caught Holmstrom live with the Mighty Flyers up in Cleveland, and it was clear he’d mastered their tasty, swinging repertoire. But I was really knocked out by his ’96 solo release, “Lookout!” – a fresh, fun take on the blues instrumental, with lots of unexpected twists and turns throughout: Tacos De Pescado As you can tell, Holmstrom is advancing the form while remaining firmly based in the blues tradition of great guitar slingers like T-Bone Walker, Freddie King and Albert Collins. He followed up “Lookout!” with an even more adventurous disc, 2002’s “Hydraulic Groove,” featuring special guests John Medeski on keyboards and DJ Logic. I’m looking forward to finding out what other goodies Holmstrom has in his trick bag. Knock Yourself Out/Rick Holmstrom

Earl Hooker on video… Here’s another one of those fascinating American Folk Blues Festival clips (a few others are featured here). Kind of a sloppy performance, but still riveting. Keep in mind, Hooker suffered from tuberculosis during most of his adult life – and TB eventually killed him the following year – so the fact that he was pulling off half of these stunts is pretty remarkable.

As I was trolling around for other videos of Hooker, I came across this whacked-out artifact, probably put together by someone from my neck of the woods. It starts with an audio clip of Ghoulardi, a late-night movie host who practiced a unique form of anarchy live on Cleveland TV from 1963 to 1966. Ghoulardi was a big influence on countless musicians and artists from northeast Ohio, including Devo, Lux Interior of the Cramps and film director Jim Jarmusch – and we touched on his undeniable greatness in our very first post one year ago. The man behind the schtick was Ernie Anderson, who went on to a successful career doing voiceover work in L.A. (he was the voice of the ABC-TV network for two decades). His son, indie film director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood), carries on the tradition through his production company, The Ghoulardi Film Company. The rest of the following clip is naughty in a Bettie Page sort of way, but pretty tame compared to Lady Ga Ga’s latest video. Oh, and it features Earl Hooker’s nasty instrumental, Frog Hop.

In the early 1980s, I lived in Cincinnati and edited one of those free entertainment newspapers you see blowing through the streets of big cities throughout the country.  The following piece borrows heavily from an article I wrote back then about one of America’s greatest independent labels, King Records.  Its huge catalog includes seminal recordings by some of the most important artists of the Forties through the Sixties – ranging from the hard, lonesome sound of the Stanley Brothers to the heavy funk of James Brown.

A few notable events have occurred since I wrote the original article:  1) The city of Cincinnati got its act together and put up a historic marker in 2008 where King Records once operated (a good start); 2) Shad O’Shea, a former radio personality, studio owner and raconteur, passed away in June; and 3) the King catalog (minus James Brown’s recordings, which are owned by Polydor) is now being reissued, although in a somewhat haphazard manner, by Collectables Records.

A future post will focus on Cincinnati’s Fraternity Records – home of flame-throwing guitarist Lonnie Mack. 

King Records

In 1943, Cincinnati had become an industrial hub that attracted poor Appalachian whites, along with an already burgeoning population of blacks from the South.  Not only did both groups share the same jobs, they also shared an intense love of the regional music traditions they grew up with.  Syd Nathan must have realized this fact.  That same year, the asthmatic, near-sighted hustler closed the book on a series of dead-end jobs (wrestling promoter, park concessionaire, refrigerator salesman, record retailer) by founding his own record company, which eventually moved into a former icehouse at 1540 Brewster Ave. in the city’s Evanston neighborhood.

The origins of King Records coincided with the initial broadcasts of what later became Cincinnati’s answer to Nashville’s Grand Old Opry – WLW’s “Midwestern Hayride.”  And many of the artists that were featured on the Hayride eventually wound up on Nathan’s fledgling label.  Within a couple of years, King had become one of the most influential country labels nationwide, with a roster that included the likes of Grandpa Jones, Cowboy Copas, Moon Mullican, Hank Penny, Hawkshaw Hawkins, the Delmore Brothers and many others.  And most of it was pure, unfiltered country – a formula Nathan stuck with for most of the label’s existence.  Here’s a gospel-flavored number from 1960 by the legendary bluegrass duo the Stanley Brothers… Rank Stranger/The Stanley Brothers

Nathan didn’t just stop there, though.  During the early years he also released a number of records under the “race” category – a term used to describe records aimed specifically at blacks.  These records featured the citified sounds of jump blues and boogie-woogie, and are considered to be the forerunners of rock and roll.  Tiny Bradshaw, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson and Ike Turner all scored R&B hits with King, as did blues crooners such as Bull Moose Jackson and Ivory Joe Hunter.  Here’s one by Cleanhead, whose unique brand of risque rhythm always seemed to find its way onto a barroom jukebox… Sittin On It All The Time/Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson

You get the idea… Nathan’s true forte, however, was his practice of covering country hits with R&B artists, and vice versa.  The York Brothers, a country duo that recorded for King in the late ‘40s and early ’50s, covered several of the era’s R&B hits and predated Sam Phillips’ work on Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis by several years.  Likewise, R&B acts such as Bull Moose Jackson and Wynonie Harris successfully re-recorded country hits by Wayne Raney and Moon Mullican, among others.  Wynonie scored a hit in 1951 by covering a tune recorded the previous year by Hank Penny (the tune also has been covered by western swingers Asleep at the Wheel, which makes sense, and rocker Pat Benatar, which makes no sense at all).

Bloodshot Eyes/Wynonie Harris

And here’s the flip side of the equation as the “King of the Hillbilly Piano Players,” Moon Mullican, cuts loose with a number by R&B bandleader Tiny Bradshaw… Well Oh Well/Moon Mullican

Although Nathan’s intentions were not totally artistic (he only covered hits by his own artists, which he owned all publishing rights to), his musical juggling act earned him a reputation as an innovator.  “Syd had a number of theories when it came to recording” said Col Jim Wilson, a salesman and, later, executive V.P. who worked with Nathan from King’s inception until 1965.  “He once said, ‘Give me the material, and I’ll find the artist,’ so he placed great emphasis on that.  At the same time, he always seemed to find artists with very distinct and readily identifiable styles.  Every King artist was unique in one way or another.”

Wilson, who eventually joined Starday Records in Nashville and helped orchestrate the purchase of King, also gave a lot of credit to the facilities themselves.  “King’s studio was the first of its kind in the country.  Recording, mastering, plating, printing, pressing and shipping were all done in the same building.  You could cut a record at night, and the next day it would be in the hands of a local DJ.”

At first, Nathan separated the R&B from King’s mainstay, country, by using different labels such as “Queen,” “Federal” and “De Luxe” for his race records.  In the ‘50s, however, he combined all of his acts under the King label, with greater emphasis on black R&B.

The first acts to score big for King in the ‘50s were the vocal groups – the Dominoes (featuring Clyde McPhatter), the Charms (later Otis Williams and the Charms) and the Midnighters (later Hank Ballard and the Midnighters).  Sixty Minute Man, the Dominoes’ Number 1 hit in 1951 that featured the refrain “I rock ‘em, roll ‘em all night long,” is considered by some to be the first true rock and roll record. Sixty Minute Man/The Dominoes

Midnighters’ hits such as Sexy Ways, Work With Me Annie and Annie Had a Baby made many listeners blanch with their sexually suggestive lyrics, but still worked their way up the charts.  As a bandleader, Hank Ballard later broke through with the classic party singles Finger Poppin’ Time and Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go – both from 1960.

The jump blues of the late ‘40s led to the early rock and roll instrumentals of the ‘50s, such as organist Bill Doggett’s Honky Tonk – one of those perfect songs that should be pre-loaded on every iPod.

Nathan also unearthed the raw talents of Little Willie John (of Fever fame) and Little Esther, who went on to even greater success as Esther Phillips.  Listen to Little Willie tear it up on this cut from 1960… You Hurt Me/Little Willie John

“Commercial black music was born in Cincinnati,” said Shad O’Shea, a local radio personality who also ran Counterpart Creative Studios.  “Nathan was a true originator.  He was responsible for making black music available to whites.  Berry Gordy (of Motown), who gets a lot of the credit, simply prostituted a lot of the black R&B by ‘sweetening’ it up for white tastes.”

King also released singles and albums by some of the era’s top blues artists – including John Lee Hooker (who recorded as “Texas Slim” on King’s Federal subsidiary and “Johnny Lee” on De Luxe), Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Champion Jack Dupree, Albert King and Freddie King.  Freddie’s sides are among the most unique and satisfying in the King catalog – especially his “surf-blues” instrumentals that clearly informed a young Eric Clapton (who recorded a spot-on version of Hide Away with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers).  I highly recommend all of Freddie’s recordings on King, but decided to feature this wild instrumental workout from 1950 by Hooker, who sounds like he’s bashing out the first power chords ever caught on wax! Slim’s Stomp/Texas Slim (John Lee Hooker)

King’s ace in the hole, though, was a young black dynamo from Augusta, GA, who recorded his first single at the Brewster Ave. studio in 1956.  Please, Please, Please laid the groundwork for the remarkable career of “Soul Brother Number 1” – James Brown. Please, Please, Please/James Brown

Although Brown’s early records for King eventually became R&B and funk classics with their gritty, unabashed drive, they couldn’t compete on the pop charts with more polished efforts by artists such as the Platters and the Coasters.  One of the reasons for Brown’s relative holding pattern in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s may have been that King Records, already beyond its heyday by the turn of the decade, was unable to promote an artist of Brown’s stature.  Whatever the reason, Brown ended up in a tense legal tug-of-war with Nathan and his label, resulting in him being given complete artistic control of his recordings by 1965 – virtually unheard of at that time.  And that same year, Brown took off with the song that made him an international phenomenon – Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag. Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag/James Brown

Brown continued with King through the ‘60s, even after Nathan’s death of a heart attack in 1968.  The label was eventually sold to Starday in Nashville, and Brown went on to form his own record production company with distribution handled by Polydor.

Today, the city of Cincinnati is finally recognizing one of its greatest contributions to the rest of the world.  Hopefully, the city’s true faithful will keep that legacy alive by succeeding in their efforts to build a new studio and King Records museum near the former icehouse on Brewster Avenue.

Another Christmas gift from Rubber City Review… Want to dance like J.B.?  As Brother Jack would say, there is help.

OK, I couldn’t resist adding some Freddie to the end of this… Enjoy! Walk Down the Aisle (Honey Chile)/Freddie King

Welcome to Rubber City Review.  It’s not intended to be Akron-centric, but I should probably kick things off by asking the question:  When it comes to roots-rock and other mutant forms of modern music – Devo, The Black Keys, The Cramps, Chrissie Hynde, The Numbers Band, Tin Huey founder and Tom Waits sideman Ralph Carney, punk guitar trailblazer and former Lou Reed sideman Robert Quine, Vaughn Monroe (Vaughn Monroe?  More on that later)… what makes Akron so damn special?

Growing up in Akron, I always felt that “bastard stepchild” vibe when I talked to hard-core Clevelanders.  There was never a sense that they were missing out on something by not taking the 30-minute drive south to check out Akron (although I can’t say that our meager live music scene was much of a draw).  Maybe we just had a little more to prove.

You could argue that the lack of a vibrant music scene forced many aspiring rockers into the garage – or, in the case of the Keys, literally underground – where they could tinker like mad scientists without fear of failure.  How else could you explain this hidden track on The Big Come Up? 240 Years Before Your Time

I’ve also heard that legendary late-night TV host Ghoulardi (aka Ernie Anderson, father of indie director Paul Thomas Anderson) had a huge impact on a young Erick Lee Purkhiser of Stow, OH before he morphed into psychobilly king Lux Interior of The Cramps, and that members of Devo were devotees as well.