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 Holiday Blues We've got a very busy week. Thursday night, at 7:30 The Voice is back (Rex Peoples and the X Factr). Should be a fun, hip-shaking evening, with a lot of holiday cheer and dancing. Friday night, Jason Ricci and New Blood are back for a CD Release Party for Rocket Number 9! Very thrilling news we've been reporting for weeks now. What we haven't been reporting is that there will be an opening act at 6:30. Who, you might ask? Well, after the Shamans' final performance last Friday night, I spoke to Jasco, who henceforth will be Mojambus' guitarist (and a damn fine one at that), and told him I was really looking forward to seeing a Mojambus show in full on January 19 th (I've only seen them at the IBC finals, a short, ˝ hour set). From there the conversation went something like this: JASCO: We're playing next Friday (12/21). HONEY: We have Jason Ricci and New Blood next Friday. JASCO: Yes, I know. We're opening for them at 6:30. HONEY (WHILE LOOKING AROUND FOR DAN): Really? Dan didn't tell me that. Not that I would need to know, since I ONLY WRITE THE NEWSLETTER! JASCO: LAUGHTER AT MY IGNORANCE.
Thanks, Dan, for making me look like an incompetent ignoramus. I can usually achieve that on my own just fine. And yes, it's true; Mojambus is opening for JR & NB this Friday at 6:30 (thanks for the heads up, Jasco). Between the two Jasons (Ricci and Downing), the energy level should be exploding all over the place. Right now, I'm somewhere between fear and exhilaration. But I'm still going early to get a seat in front [Note to self: pick up helmet and shin guards]. Saturday night the Delta Sonics continue the holiday cheer with their jammin' energy. Always a great night with these guys. Let's get back to the Shamans' final and farewell for a minute here. Gretchen Troop has a voice not to be believed. If you wish to hear for yourself (worth the wish), she has now formed the Gretchen Troop Band. It was a great farewell and we all appreciated the not only the music, but the momentousness of the evening. I've heard Jasco play with Mojambus, so now I have the excited anticipation of hearing Gretchen with her new playmates. I'm sure it will be soon. In the meantime, there's a CD I'll discuss in a minute. In the last two weeks I've added a couple of fantastic CDs to my quickly-growing collection. I'll start with Sammy Dee's latest offering. Business is Business, is the quintessential blues CD and one which has helped me solve a dilemma. I've been thinking a lot lately about how to introduce people to the blues. I got it at 18, at a live show, but I believe a record would have lured me in. Most of my friends have children, and I occupy myself wondering which shows or CDs would be best to get them hooked. This is not so easy, because if you fail to turn them on the first time, they may come at it with a predisposition after that. Same for a lot of adults, which is why I love this CD. Sammy Dee is, for lack of a more original term, a man's man. Or, in this case, a bluesman's bluesman, and this CD holds all the elements necessary to hook any first-time listener. Personally, the opening song, "Behave Yourself" is my favorite. Right now. A couple of days ago it was "Too Late." "Moonshine" is an exquisite instrumental which demonstrates Sammy's proficiency as a guitarist, clean and tight. His vocals are strong and solid, leading me to imagine this is what Johnny Cash would have sounded like had he been straight up bluesman. I even heard some hints of Elvis in that voice. So, if any of you are willing to admit to having non-blues loving friends, this is one CD no one with ears can resist, so hit Sammy's site and pick up a couple. http://www.sammydeemorton.com/Home.asp Then, if you're of the mind that two different styles should be presented to the aforementioned musically shameful friend(s), then Raven's Flight,A Compilation of the Shamans' Work, is the perfect complement. The strength of Gretchen Troop's voice overwhelms the first-timer, and the choices the Shamans made for this CD should be given an award. Troop must have an intrinsic instinct as how to best showcase her remarkable voice, and Jasco just knows whathe's doing. Admitting to a Howlin' Wolf weakness, that they cover two ("Who's Been Talkin'" and "Killin' Floor") elevates the status of this CD to an exalted standing in Honeyland. To my knowledge and research, the Shamans' website is still up and functioning. A hauntingly beautiful CD. http://www.theshamans.net/ I highly recommend these two for the holidays. I keep playing them over and over. Thank you, guys. See all of you this weekend. Rex, Jason, and Al, oh my! Happy Holidays. Honey Sepeda email  Visit our site and sign the | 
Ike Turner, one of Rock ‘n’ Roll's critical architects, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76. There was no immediate word on the cause of death. Though his personal life became fodder for a best-selling book and hit film, Turner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in his later years, touring around the globe with his band the Kings of Rhythm and drawing critical acclaim for his work. He won a Grammy in 2007 in the traditional Blues album category for Risin' With The Blues. Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many Rock historians with making the first Rock 'n' Roll record, “Rocket 88,” in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar. But as would be the case for most of his career, Turner, a prolific session guitarist and piano player, was not the star on the record — it was recorded with Turner's band, but credited to singer Jackie Brenston Turner often credited seeing Pinetop Perkins rehearsing as his first inspiration to play music. He became immersed in music and played with virtually every major Blues artist in the late 1940s and ‘50s. For example, it was Turner playing the piano on B.B. King’s first hit, “Three O’Clock Blues.” Even Jimi Hendrix had a short stint in Turner’s band and young Elvis Presley hid behind a piano to hear Turner play in a black Memphis club. Turner was also an important talent scout for the Bihari brothers, who ran some of the leading independent Blues and R&B labels of the 1940s and ‘50s. It is difficult to exaggerate Turner’s influence on music. As writer Bill Vitka wrote in Blues Revue, “Look carefully and you’ll find strands of Turner’s DNA stitched into the fabric of the past 50 years of music.” But it would be another singer — a young woman named Anna Mae Bullock — who would bring Turner his greatest fame, and infamy. Turner met the 18-year-old Bullock, whom he would later marry, in 1959 and quickly made the husky-voiced singer the lead singer of his group, refashioning her into the sexy Tina Turner. At the center of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue’s journey was an epic 11-year arc that began with “A Fool in Love” in 1960 and climaxed with 1971’s “Proud Mary.” The pair broke cultural barriers, opened for the Rolling Stones, and exposed a generation of Americans to classic Soul music. The Revue set a standard for performance that was unrivaled, with the possible exception of James Brown’s Fabulous Flames. Though Tina’s voice (and legs) took stage center, the music was Ike Turner’s. There were exceptions – notably the Phil Spector-produced River Deep, Mountain High - but for the most part, Ike wrote and arranged the Revue’s songs and hired and conducted the band. When Turner’s recording studio burned down in 1982, he stopped releasing music for 15 years. As Tina was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Turner sat in lockup. Tina’s ascent arrived as Ike’s descent into drugs peaked. He was released from jail in September 1991 and he claimed the prison saved his life. New music didn’t arrive until Here and Now was released in 2001. This was followed by the Grammy-winning Risin’ With The Blues. A cover story in Blues Revue earlier this year quoted Turner saying, “My life is great now. Most times they send flowers after you die, but I’m going to get a chance to smell them…They’re just finding out a lot of what I did in music. But they’re finding out.”
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