John McMillen

Ramble On

Arhoolie Records hour-long feature on The New Lost City Ramblers.

It’s Friday and a new crop of vinyl is headed to the stores. I perused the list and have a few that I have my eye on. Covid is still affecting a lot of releases as this list has dwindled over the last week due to delays. I am also adding some pre-orders that would…

Stavin’ Chain Blues

Mississippi Blues By J.D. Short and Big Joe WilliamsDelmark RecordsDL-6091965 J.D. Short was born in Port Gibson, MS, a small delta town about “90 miles below Vicksburg going south*” in December of 1902. Almost a year later, across the state two hundred miles to the northeast in Crawford, MS, J.D. Short’s cousin, Big Joe Williams,…

Look What I Found

While surfing… Marion Brown’s Musical Portrait of Georgia A great read on Atlanta native Marion Brown and his life, career and zest for knowledge. Brown was a lot of things including writer, visual artist and ethnomusicologist… yeah, I had to look it up too… the study of the people who make the music and their…

New Vinyl Friday 2021.01.15

Horace Silver – Song For My Father – Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series – 1965 – REISSUE This is a Blue Note Classic Vinyl re-release of Shorter’s 1965 Hard Bop release Song For My Father. The release was recorded over a two year period at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and includes…

Must Read – The Thinning of Big Mama

I am a Big Mama Thornton fan and have been for a while. She is definitely a regular on my funk and soul show The Jive House on WKMS. When I saw that one of my favorite magazines had dove deep on her career, I was giddy. Check this out. The Thinning of Big Mama…

Vinyl Friday 12.18.2020

The closer we get to Christmas, the fewer releases are dropping so I may be stretching a bit on this weeks new releases but I think I have found 5 solid ones. Having said that, let’s give this a whirl. Ashley CampbellSomething LovelyWhistle Stop RecordsLet’s get this out of the way. Yes, this is Glen…

Me and Charley

I was on my very first trek to Tunica, MS to get eyes on this “Las Vegas of the South” and to throw my budgeted $100 out the window. Oh yes, I had that little bird screaming that I COULD turn it into thousands but I knew that the reality was I’d donate it to…