Juke Boy Bonner - 4 Albums

The Struggle
Size: 215 MB
Time: 35:36
File: Flac - vinyl
Released: 1969
Styles: Blues
Art: Front, back

1. Struggle Here in Houston (2:49)
2. Railroad Tracks (2:42)
3. Watch Your Buddies (2:58)
4. I Got My Passport (2:48)
5. When the Deal Goes Down (2:43)
6. Being Black and I'm Proud (4:10)
7. I'm in the Big City (3:28)
8. Houston, the Action Town (2:34)
9. Over Ten Years Ago (3:20)
10. Running Shoes (2:29)
11. Just a Blues (2:33)
12. It Don't Take Too Much (2:55)

Juke Boy Bonner got his name as a kid, because he would sing along with the juke-box. This multi-instrumentalist sometimes performed as a one-man-band, and he never had a hit record, but he wrote some excellent, perceptive songs about his hard life, his opinions on ‘race-relations’ and the economics of poverty. Weldon Bonner was born in Bellville Texas in 1932. He learned to sing in a Gospel group, as well as standing by the juke-box, and when he got a guitar as a kid, he was determined to become a Bluesman. In 1948, he won a talent contest in Houston and got a spot on local radio, which led to gigs in Blues clubs and getting hired for parties. With a harp in a neck-rack and various pedals for percussion instruments, he could put on quite a show. The appetite for Texas Blues at the other end of the ‘Sunset Route’ led to Juke Boy moving to the West Coast in 1954, where he signed for Irma Records in Oakland. It did not work out, and by the end of the 50s he was back in Houston. With a growing reputation on the local club scene, Juke Boy cut the ‘One Man Trio’ album for Flyright Records in 1967, which, in turn, attracted the attention of Arhoolie records, for whom Juke Boy recorded three excellent albums. Using a simple boogie beat, somewhat like Jimmy Reed, ‘Going Back to the Country’, ‘Life Gave Me a Dirty Deal’ and ‘The Struggle’ contain Juke Boy’s quirky personal songs like ‘Stay Off Lyons Avenue’ and ‘I Got My Passport’. Juke Boy was something of a poet, and his clever way with words filled these albums with highly individualistic Blues songs.

The Struggle FLAC

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Lonesome Ride Back Home
Size: 220 MB
Time: 34:25
File: Flac
Released: 1988
Styles: Blues
Art: Front, tray, cd

1. I'm A Bluesman (3:11)
2. Problems All Around (3:00)
3. Trying To Get Ahead (2:51)
4. If You Don't Want To Get Mistreated (2:55)
5. Lonesome Ride Back Home (2:49)
6. Funny Money (2:55)
7. I'm Lonely Too (2:21)
8. Real Good Woman (3:21)
9. Come To Me (2:55)
10. Yammin' The Blues (2:09)
11. Better Place To Go (3:24)
12. Tired Of The Greyhound Bus (2:27)

Lonesome Ride Back Home FLAC

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Things Ain't Right (The 1969 London Sessions)
Size: 242 MB
Time: 44:36
File: Flac
Released: 1992
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

1. Let's Boogie On (2:38)
2. Talkin' About Lightnin' (2:08)
3. Well Well (3:43)
4. Mr Downchild (3:16)
5. BU Blues (3:19)
6. Regent Sound (3:02)
7. Things Ain't Right (3:24)
8. Belfast Blues (3:31)
9. Trying To Call Home (3:18)
10. Mojo Hand (3:13)
11. Texas Turnpike (2:19)
12. Sun's Going Down (3:45)
13. Where I Live (3:26)
14. Travellin' Shoes (3:28)

Things Ain't Right (The 1969 London Sessions) FLAC

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Nowhere To Run
Size: 334 MB
Time: 55:49
File: Flac
Released: 2000
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

1. Life's Highway (4:50)
2. Gimme Some Boone's Farm (4:22)
3. Grandmas Will Dog You Around (2:37)
4. Carried To The Cleaners And Hung Out To Dry (2:57)
5. Nowhere To Run (2:55)
6. Dust My Broom (4:10)
7. Live My Troubles On Down (3:04)
8. Who Was That A While Ago (3:05)
9. Disappearing Act (2:43)
10. The Best Way To Lose The Blues (2:51)
11. It's A Shame, Shame, Shame (2:54)
12. Loving Arms (1:44)
13. Loving Arms (2:30)
14. A Distant Feel (1:53)
15. What'll I Tell The Children (2:40)
16. The Winds Came (5:20)
17. Nothing But A Child (2:36)
18. Six Over Ten (2:30)

Nowhere To Run FLAC

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Various - The Most Underrated Blues Players Ever! (2-Disc Set)

Album: The Most Underrated Blues Players Ever! (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 141:48
Size: 324.6 MB
Styles: R&B/Soul, Assorted blues styles
Year: 2012

[2:52] 1. Juke Boy Bonner - Rock With Me, Baby
[2:59] 2. Sleepy John Estes - The Girl I Love
[5:25] 3. Baby Face Leroy Foster - Rollin' And Tumblin'
[2:28] 4. Johnny Alston - Weary Blues
[2:43] 5. Carl Campbell - Goin' Down To Nashville
[3:06] 6. Robert Lockwood, Jr. - Little Boy Blue
[2:04] 7. Peppermint Harris - Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie
[3:04] 8. K.C. Douglas - Lonely Boy Blues
[3:29] 9. Madelyn James - Stinging Snake Blues
[2:40] 10. Long Cleve Reed - Original Stack O'lee Blues
[2:52] 11. Robert Wilkins - That's No Way To Get Along
[2:53] 12. Mississippi Mud Steppers - Alma Waltz
[2:34] 13. The Five Keys - I'm So High
[3:03] 14. Carl Rafferty - Mr. Carl's Blues
[2:50] 15. Walter Vincent - Your Friends Gonna Use It Too
[2:47] 16. Chatman Brothers - Stir It Now
[2:39] 17. I.H. Smalley - Smalley's Jump
[2:55] 18. Sherman Blues Johnson - Blues Jumped A Rabbit
[3:07] 19. Olie Jackson - You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone
[2:12] 20. Conrad Johnson - Fisherman's Blues
[3:19] 21. Texas Alexander - Seen Better Days
[2:47] 22. Calvin Frazier - She's A Double-Crossin' Woman
[1:52] 23. Marvin & Johnny - Smack Smack
[2:43] 24. Clarence Samuels - Hey Joe
[2:57] 25. Ramblin' Thomas - Sawmill Moan
[3:21] 26. Charlie McCoy - You Gonna Need Me
[3:00] 27. Ed Bell - Bad Boy
[2:50] 28. Lavarda Durst - I Cried
[2:57] 29. Eddie Lang - Add A Little Wiggle
[3:26] 30. David Honeyboy Edwards - Sweet Home Chicago
[2:03] 31. Blind Will Dukes - Hoodoo Man
[3:06] 32. Freeman Stowers - Railroad Blues
[3:05] 33. Birmingham Jug Band - Getting Ready For Trial
[2:45] 34. Charley Jordan - Charley Jordan - Keep It Clean
[3:05] 35. Joe Papoose Fritz - Better Wake Up, Baby
[3:24] 36. Texas Alexander - Frost Texas Tornado Blues
[2:01] 37. West Side Trio - West Side Jump
[3:22] 38. J.D. Short - Snake Doctor Blues
[2:44] 39. Little T-Bone - Christmas Blues
[2:46] 40. Funny Papa Smith - Good Coffee Blues
[2:08] 41. Belvin Jesse - Sugar Doll
[2:33] 42. The Sharps - Our Love Is Here To Stay
[2:48] 43. Crying Sam Collins - Jail House Blues
[2:36] 44. James Reed - You Better Hold Me
[2:18] 45. Walter Sandman Howard - Willow Tree Blues
[2:43] 46. Bonnie Evans - Good Luck To You
[2:50] 47. Violet Hall - (All Alone) I Sit And Cry
[2:43] 48. Charlie McCoy - It's Hot Like That
[1:44] 49. Blind Will Dukes - Mistreated So Long
[2:44] 50. Sheri Washington - I Got Plenty

The Most Underrated Blues Players Ever! (Disc 1) mc
The Most Underrated Blues Players Ever! (Disc 1) zippy

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Album: The Most Underrated Blues Players Ever! (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 152:11
Size: 348.4 MB
Styles: R&B/Soul, Assorted blues styles
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[2:59] 1. Banjo Joe - Madison Street Stomp
[2:49] 2. Funny Papa Smith - Howling Wolf Blues
[2:29] 3. Margie Hendricks - Everytime
[3:00] 4. Sleepy John Estes - 222 Milk Cow Blues
[3:11] 5. Emery Franklin - Lonesome Blues
[2:53] 6. Sylvester Scott - Going Home Blues
[2:58] 7. Walter Jacobs - Mississippi Low Down
[2:13] 8. The Lovers - Let's Elope
[3:11] 9. Frank Stokes - 'tain't Nobody's Business If I Do
[2:59] 10. L. C. Williams - Louisiana Boogie
[6:15] 11. The Paramount All Stars - Home Town Skiffle
[2:56] 12. Elmore Nixon - Married Woman Blues
[2:57] 13. Cannon's Jug Stompers - Walk Right In
[2:24] 14. Shirley & Lee - Let The Good Times Roll
[5:20] 15. Johnny Shines - Moanin' And Groanin' The Blues
[2:36] 16. Baby Boy Warren - Stop Breaking Down
[2:50] 17. Funny Papa Smith - County Jail Blues
[3:11] 18. Jackson Blue Boys - Sweet Alberta
[2:49] 19. Chatman Brothers - Wake Me Just Before Day
[4:00] 20. Calvin Frazier - Lilly Mae No. 1
[2:55] 21. Ashley & Foster - Bay Rum Blues
[3:06] 22. Kokomo Arnold - Milk Cow Blues
[2:54] 23. Blip Thompkins - Got A Feelin' You're Foolin'
[3:05] 24. Cal Lucas - Left With The Blues
[2:51] 25. The Carols - My Search Is Over
[3:12] 26. Chatman Brothers - If You Don't Want Me, Please Don't Dog Me Around
[3:05] 27. Peetie Wheatstraw - Police Station Blues
[2:53] 28. Little Willie Littlefield - Little Willie's Boogie
[3:04] 29. Johnny Temple - Lead Pencil Blues
[2:57] 30. Mississippi Blacksnakes - Grind So Fine
[2:52] 31. Frank Palmes - Ain't Gonna Lay My 'ligion Down
[3:02] 32. Little Caesar - Big Eyes
[2:26] 33. Homesick James - Long Lonesome Day
[2:43] 34. The Mello Felows - My Friend Charlie
[2:24] 35. Dirty Red - Mother Fuyer
[2:53] 36. Mercy Dee Walton - The Main Event
[3:00] 37. Chicken Wilson - House Snake Blues
[2:52] 38. Blind Roosevelt Graves - Guitar Boogie
[2:58] 39. Charlie McCoy - Blue Heaven Blues
[3:15] 40. Ben Curry - The Laffing Rag
[3:03] 41. Peg Leg Howell - Coal Man Blues
[3:01] 42. Georgia Cotton Pickers - Diddle-Da-Diddle
[2:54] 43. Lee Brown - My Driving Wheel
[3:12] 44. Rubberlegs Williams - That's The Stuff You Gotta Watch
[2:52] 45. Lonnie Lyons - Down In The Groovy
[2:57] 46. Chuck Darling - Blowin' The Blues
[2:40] 47. Little T-Bone - Love's A Gamble
[2:54] 48. Funny Papa Smith - Hoppin' Toad Frog
[2:57] 49. Mississippi Blacksnakes - It Still Ain't No Good
[2:48] 50. Furry Lewis - Big Chief Blues

The Most Underrated Blues Players Ever! (Disc 2) mc
The Most Underrated Blues Players Ever! (Disc 2) zippy

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Various - Blues At Kerrville

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:03
Size: 132.9 MB
Styles: Assorted styles
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[4:10] 1. Dave Van Ronk - Another Time & Place
[9:04] 2. Gatesmouth Brown - Sometimes I Feel Myself Slippin
[2:50] 3. Roy Bookbinder - Kentucky Blues
[4:41] 4. Marcia Ball - My Man Is A Two Timer
[6:18] 5. Josh White Jr. - I Can Be Had
[4:55] 6. Angela Strehli - Telephone Blues
[5:16] 7. Marcia Ball With Band - Under Love's Spell
[4:10] 8. Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan - Honey Bee
[3:25] 9. Mance Lipscomb - Texas Blues
[3:50] 10. Robert Shaw - Put Me In The Alley
[3:30] 11. Juke Boy Bonner - I've Had The Blues
[2:29] 12. Spider John Koerner - Midnight Special
[3:20] 13. Kenneth Threadgill - Mississippi Delta Blues

Interesting cross section of live performances from this Texas blues festival. With performances aboard from Dave Van Ronk, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Juke Boy Bonner, Mance Lipscomb, Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli, Roy Bookbinder, Kenneth Threadgill, Spider John Koerner, Josh White, Jr., Robert Shaw, and the duo of Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan, this is a wide and varied set of performances well played and decently recorded. ~Cub Koda

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Various Artists - Beware Of The Texas Blues

Year: 1991
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:57
Size: 111,0 MB
Styles: Texas blues
Scans: Full

1. Joe 'Papoose' Fritz - I'm A Stepper (2:33)
2. Henry Moore w. Guitar Slim - Can't Sleep Tonight (3:39)
3. Johnny Copeland - Working Man Blues (2:44)
4. Big Walter - Life's Highway (3:21)
5. Clarence Green - Empty House Of So Many Tears (2:25)
6. Eastwood Revue - Drowning On Dry Land (7:26)
7. Juke Boy Bonner - Rock Of Gibraltar (3:50)
8. T-Bone Walker - Farther On Up The Road (1:49)
9. Johnny Winter w. Calvin 'Loudmouth' Johnson - Lien On Your Body (4:21)
10. Albert Collins - The Freeze (2:17)
11. Piano Slim - That's Fat (2:22)
12. Johnny Copeland - Rock Me Baby (5:08)
13. Gatemouth Brown - It's Alright (2:45)
14. Lightning Hopkins - Good As Old Time Religion (3:11)

Here on one package are fourteen bluesmen, each as different from the others as night from day, yet all are bound inextricably together in their Texas heritage. The selections were all recorded between 1958 and 1988. They range the gamut from the old-fashioned "down home" blues (that has thankfully never gone out of fashion) to the up-to-date urban blues sound yet all of them exemplify that genre known as the Texas Blues.

So, better beware of these Texas Blues. They'll get you hooked if you listen to this album a few times. You will probably wind up liking all of them. /Excerpts from the liner notes by Bo Svensson

Beware Of The Texas Blues mc
Beware Of The Texas Blues zippy

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Various - 1950's Okland Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:19
Size: 110.6 MB
Styles: West Coast blues, Urban blues
Year: 1994/2015
Art: Front

[2:22] 1. Juke Boy Bonner - Well Baby
[2:53] 2. Juke Boy Bonner - Rock With Me Baby
[2:25] 3. Jimmy McCracklin - I Wanna Make Love To You
[2:44] 4. Jimmy McCracklin - You're The One
[2:33] 5. Jimmy McCracklin - Fare-Well
[3:06] 6. Jimmy McCracklin - Savoy Jump
[2:45] 7. Jimmy McCracklin - I'm The One
[2:52] 8. Jimmy McCracklin - Take A Chance
[2:51] 9. Jimmy McCracklin - Beer Tavern
[2:30] 10. Jimmy McCracklin - Love For You
[2:39] 11. Big Mama Thornton - Don't Talk Back
[2:25] 12. Big Mama Thornton - Big Mama's Coming
[3:08] 13. Johnny Fuller - Strange Land
[2:21] 14. Johnny Fuller - First Stage Of The Blues
[2:28] 15. Johnny Fuller - No More
[3:08] 16. Johnny Fuller - Weeping And Morning
[2:16] 17. Jimmy Wilson & The Blues Blasters - Oh Red
[2:43] 18. Johnny Fuller - Blues In The Alley

In its heyday -- from the 1930s through the late 1960s -- there was no shortage of A-list performers gracing the famed entertainment district of Oakland, CA. Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Etta James and Lowell Fulson were among the stars who performed in such clubs as Slim Jenkins Supper Club and Esther's Orbit Room.

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1950's Okland Blues zippy

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Juke Boy Bonner - The Sonet Blues Story

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 33:58
Size: 77.8 MB
Styles: Texas blues
Year: 1972/2006
Art: Front

[3:05] 1. I'm A Blues Man
[2:58] 2. Problems All Around
[2:51] 3. Trying To Get Ahead
[2:53] 4. If You Don't Want To Get Mistreated
[2:47] 5. Lonesome Ride Back Home
[2:51] 6. Funny Money
[2:20] 7. I'm Lonely Too
[3:19] 8. Real Good Woman
[2:52] 9. Come To Me
[2:07] 10. Yammin' The Blues
[3:21] 11. Better Place To Go
[2:25] 12. Tired Of The Greyhound Bus

Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals – Juke Boy Bonner. Recorded in Berkeley California in 1971.

One-man bands weren't too common on the postwar blues scene. Joe Hill Louis and Dr. Ross come to mind as greats who plied their trade all by their lonesome -- and so did Juke Boy Bonner, a Texan whose talent never really earned him much in the way of tangible reward. Born into impoverished circumstances in the Lone Star State during the Depression, Weldon Bonner took up the guitar in his teens. He caught a break in 1947 in Houston, winning a talent contest that led to a spot on a local radio outlet. He journeyed to Oakland in 1956, cutting his debut single for Bob Geddins' Irma imprint ("Rock with Me Baby"/"Well Baby") with Lafayette "Thing" Thomas supplying the lead guitar. Goldband Records boss Eddie Shuler was next to take a chance in 1960; Bonner recorded for him in Lake Charles, LA, with Katie Webster on piano, but once again, nothing happened career-wise. Troubled by stomach problems during the '60s, Bonner utilized his hospital downtime to write poems that he later turned into songs. He cut his best work during the late '60s for Arhoolie Records, accompanying himself on both guitar and racked harmonica as he wove extremely personal tales of his rough life in Houston. A few European tours ensued, but they didn't really lead to much. Toward the end of his life, he toiled in a chicken processing plant to make ends meet. Bonner died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1978. ~ Bill Dahl

The Sonet Blues Story

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Various Artists - Bluesin' By The Bayou: I'm Not Jiving

Year: 2016
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 77:53
Size: 179,6 MB
Styles: Blues, Louisiana blues, zydeco
Scans: Full

1. Henry Gray - I'm A Lucky Man (2:14)
2. Juke Boy Bonner - I'm Not Jiving (2:39)
3. Lightnin' Slim - Miss Fannie Brown (2:53)
4. Slim Harpo - Things Gonna Change (2:25)
5. Boogie Jake - I Don't Know Why (2:20)
6. Lazy Lester - I Told My Little Woman (2:46)
7. Lonesome Sundown - I'm A Mojo Man (2:19)
8. Boozoo Chavis - Oh Yeah She's Gone (2:14)
9. Clifton Chenier - Everbody Calls Me Crazy (2:39)
10. Blue Charlie Morris - Don't Bring No Friend (2:48)
11. Lonesome Sundown - No Use To Worry (2:55)
12. Jimmy Anderson - Baby Let's Burn (2:06)
13. Slim Harpo - Wild About My Baby (1:59)
14. Silas Hogan - (Roaches In My Kitchen) Trouble At Home Blues (2:28)
15. Elton Anderson - I Want To Talk To You (Baby) (2:35)
16. Lazy Lester - Patrol Wagon (2:43)
17. Ramblin' Hi Harris - Early One Morning (2:09)
18. Schoolboy Cleve - She's Gone (2:11)
19. Chris Kenner - Don't Let Her Pin That Charge On Me (2:53)
20. Clarence Garlow - I Feel Like Calling You (3:21)
21. Boozoo Chavis - Bye Bye Catin (2:37)
22. Clifton Chenier - Night And Day My Love (2:40)
23. Henry Clement - Late Hour Blues (3:03)
24. Henry Gray - Cold Chills (4:48)
25. Elton Anderson - Prove Me Guilty (2:51)
26. Johnny Sonnier - Sitting Here All Alone (3:21)
27. Vince Monroe (Mr Calhoun) - Prisoner's Song (4:28)
28. Jimmy Anderson - Frankie And Johnny (3:13)

Raw blues gems trawled from the swamps of South Louisiana, plus a touch of zydeco. Ten tracks are previously unreleased or alternate takes, while the other 18 are extremely rare.

Baton Rouge was arguably the blues centre of Louisiana and just about all of the artists featured in this compilation spent part of their lives there. Long-time favourites Lightnin’ Slim, Lazy Lester, Slim Harpo and Silas Hogan certainly honed their skills in its clubs and bars, although they travelled some 70 miles west to record at J.D. Miller’s studio in Crowley. Everything here emanated from Miller’s studio or from his close rival Eddie Shuler’s facility in Lake Charles, except series newcomer Chris Kenner’s track, which was cut in New Orleans. Other artists new to the series are Henry Gray, Juke Boy Bonner, Elton Anderson, Ramblin’ Hi Harris and Schoolboy Cleve.

All of which means we have another feast of classic blues, led by guitar, piano or harmonica, plus a little zydeco from Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavis, whose tracks sit comfortably alongside the work of Lonesome Sundown, Jimmy Anderson and our other artists. During the 50s and 60s zydeco was the blues of the French-speaking black population of Louisiana, with the accordion replacing the harmonica as instrument of choice. Today the music is enjoying huge popularity, with thousands of aficionados from across the globe flooding to festivals in Lafayette, Breaux Bridge and other small towns across southwest Louisiana.

Bluesin' By The Bayou: I'm Not Jiving mc
Bluesin' By The Bayou: I'm Not Jiving zippy

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VA - Rural Blues Vol. 2: 1951-1962

Size: 173,5 MB
Time: 73:17
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1998
Styles: Country Blues
Art: Front

01. Sam 'Suitcase' Johnson - Sam's Comin' Home (2:46)
02. Sam 'Suitcase' Johnson - Sam's Boogie (2:25)
03. Bobo Thomas - Catfish Blues (I Wish I Was A Catfish) (2:57)
04. Clifford Gibson - Sneaky Groundhog (3:02)
05. Clifford Gibson - Let Me Be Your Handy Man (3:02)
06. Juke Boy Bonner - Rock With Me Baby (2:54)
07. Juke Boy Bonner - Well Baby (2:28)
08. Joel Hopkins - Good Times Here, Better Down The Road (3:13)
09. Joel Hopkins - Thunder In Germany (8:15)
10. Joel Hopkins - I Ain't Gonna Roll For The Big Hat Man No More (5:42)
11. Joel Hopkins - Accused Me Of Forgin', Can't Even Write My Name (5:16)
12. Joel Hopkins - Matchbox Blues (1:54)
13. Jewell Long - Frankie And Albert (3:23)
14. Jewell Long - My Pony Run Blues (2:51)
15. Jewell Long - Sealy Rag (2:17)
16. Jewell Long - Muddy Shoes Blues (3:27)
17. Clifford Gibson - It's Best To Know Who You're Talking To (3:10)
18. Clifford Gibson - I Don't Want No Woman (3:15)
19. Clifford Gibson - The Monkey Likes To Boogie (2:30)
20. Clifford Gibson - No Success Blues (2:56)
21. Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - Angel Child (Take 2) (5:25)

Rural Blues Vol. 2

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Various - Goin' Down To Louisiana

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 74:06
Size: 169.7 MB
Styles: Louisiana blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[2:47] 1. Juke Boy Bonner - Can't Hardly Keep From Crying
[2:31] 2. Juke Boy Bonner - I'm Not Jiving
[2:32] 3. Juke Boy Bonner - My Time To Go
[2:43] 4. Juke Boy Bonner - Life Is A Dirty Deal
[2:26] 5. Juke Boy Bonner - Let's Boogie
[2:38] 6. Juke Boy Bonner - Just Got To Take A Ride
[2:11] 7. Juke Boy Bonner - Going Crazy About You
[2:44] 8. Juke Boy Bonner - Blue River Rising
[2:35] 9. Ashton Savoy - Need Shorter Hours
[2:31] 10. Ashton Savoy - Want To Talk To You Baby
[2:37] 11. Ashton Savoy - Tell Me Baby
[2:06] 12. Al Smith - I Love Her So
[2:53] 13. Al Smith - Nothing Can Keep My Love From You
[2:30] 14. Al Smith - Wanna Do Me Wrong
[2:22] 15. Al Smith - Burning Sensation
[2:28] 16. Al Smith - Down, Down
[2:44] 17. Tal Miller - Life's Journey
[2:54] 18. Tal Miller - Mean Old Kokamoo
[2:07] 19. Hop Wilson - That Wouldn't Satisfy
[2:18] 20. Hop Wilson - Chicken Stuff
[2:00] 21. Big Chenier - The Dog And His Puppies
[1:33] 22. Big Chenier - Going To The City
[1:59] 23. Big Chenier - Let Me Hold Your Hand
[2:35] 24. Big Chenier - Please Try To Realize
[2:34] 25. Big Chenier - I Wanna Know, I Know Now
[2:14] 26. Big Chenier - Come On Little Girl
[2:22] 27. Juke Boy Bonner - Call Me Juke Boy
[2:34] 28. Juke Boy Bonner - True Love Waiting
[3:15] 29. Tal Miller - B-A-B-Y
[2:06] 30. Ashton Savoy - Rooster Strut

I'm goin' down in Louisiana, baby, behind the sun. So Muddy Waters would sing in his well-loved 'Louisiana Blues'. Muddy may have been looking for mojo hands in New Orleans, but he would have been totally unaware of Goldband Records in the neighbouring port of Lake Charles. By the turn of the 1960s, Eddie Shuler's tiny label was recording all kinds of local music, including some of the most authentic downhome blues anywhere. Many pioneering blues record buyers first became aware of the Goldband brand of blues in 1965 when Storyville Records of Copenhagen released the LP The Louisiana Blues in its Bluesscene USA series. The album was compiled by the late Mike Leadbitter, the founding editor of Blues Unlimited and the visionary researcher of Louisiana music (and much else). This CD is dedicated to him.

The first side of the Storyville compilation was devoted entirely to Juke Boy Bonner, a one-man-trio (harmonica, guitar and drum). Until then he had just one Goldband 45 rpm release, Call Me Juke Boy / Can't Hardly Keep From Crying, and that was almost impossible to find. Juke Boy was an intense bluesman who wrote deeply personal lyrics. Four of his sides are enhanced by the delicious piano accompaniment of Katie Webster. Katie also graced the gorgeous Ashton Savoy session along with a moonlighting Lazy Lester on harmonica. Savoy's vocal tracks are so good you could almost believe, in a whimsical moment, that they were recorded by Eddie Shuler's arch-rival Jay Miller. At the time, of course, Miller was producing quality Louisiana blues masters for the Excello label with his star acts Slim Harpo, Lightnin' Slim and Lazy Lester. The LP also featured two tracks by Big Chenier (Clifton's uncle), included here: The Dog And His Puppies and Going To The City. And so Goin' Down To Louisiana spotlights all the key tracks from the Storyville LP, but that's not all. During our tape archive excavations we've turned up a whole session by Port Arthur, Texas, harmonica bluesman Al Smith - who was clearly influenced by Slim Harpo. Then there's a previously unissued cut by Big Chenier, a rare fiddle outing this-.-and an obscure LP version of Chicken Stuff by steel guitar ace Hop Wilson. This generous 30-track collection is rounded off by original 45 releases from pianist Tal Miller, Big Chenier and Hop Wilson. Goldband Records expert (and my co-compiler) Dave Sax has contributed a note based on a new interview with Eddie Shuler, together with a discographical listing.

If you listen to the old Storyville LP today, you will notice the low-fi sound - due in part to too many tracks being squeezed onto the album. Now you can hear these tracks in the best possible sound, although with Goldband it will never be the hi-est of fi (which is part of the label's enduring charm). As a sidebar, Storyville's Karl Emil Knudsen assisted greatly with this project by supplying the LP tapes that were no longer in the Goldband vaults. Muddy Waters would have been impressed at all these goings on behind the sun, deep down in Louisiana. ~John Broven

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Various - Blues Rock & Roll

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 80:18
Size: 183.9 MB
Styles: Assorted styles
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[2:42] 1. Luther Allison - Someday Pretty Baby
[4:09] 2. Howlin' Wolf - I Ain't Superstitious
[3:13] 3. John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - Hide Away
[5:26] 4. B.B. King - Let The Good Times Roll
[2:30] 5. Chuck Berry - Rock & Roll Music
[4:50] 6. Lucky Peterson - Up From The Skies
[2:39] 7. Little Walter - My Babe
[2:50] 8. Susan Tedeschi - You Got The Silver
[4:31] 9. Robben Ford & The Blue Line - He Don't Play Nothin' But The Blues
[4:29] 10. Howlin' Wolf - Wang Dang Doodle
[2:48] 11. Willie Dixon - Crazy For My Baby
[2:48] 12. Bo Diddley - Pretty Thing
[2:27] 13. Billy Young - Have Pity On Me
[3:06] 14. Big Maybelle - Don't Pass Me By
[3:40] 15. Clarence Gatemouth Brown - Blues Power
[5:31] 16. John Lee Hooker - I'm Bad Like Jesse James
[4:13] 17. Jonny Lang - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
[2:20] 18. Etta James - Tell Mama
[2:12] 19. Johnny Nash - Love Ain't Nothin' (But A Monkey On Your Back)
[2:47] 20. Juke Boy Bonner - Lonesome Ride Back Home
[3:37] 21. Joe Louis Walker - My Real Fantasy
[2:50] 22. Buddy Guy - Let Me Love You Baby
[4:32] 23. John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - They Call It Stormy Monday

The blues form was first popularized about 1911-14 by the black composer W.C. Handy (1873-1958). However, the poetic and musical form of the blues first crystallized around 1910 and gained popularity through the publication of Handy's "Memphis Blues" (1912) and "St. Louis Blues" (1914). Instrumental blues had been recorded as early as 1913. During the twenties, the blues became a national craze. Mamie Smith recorded the first vocal blues song, 'Crazy Blues' in 1920. The Blues influence on jazz brought it into the mainstream and made possible the records of blues singers like Bessie Smith and later, in the thirties, Billie Holiday.The Blues are the essence of the African American laborer, whose spirit is wed to these songs, reflecting his inner soul to all who will listen. Rhythm and Blues, is the cornerstone of all forms of African American music.

Many of Memphis' best Blues artists left the city at the time, when Mayor "Boss" Crump shut down Beale Street to stop the prostitution, gambling, and cocaine trades, effectively eliminating the musicians, and entertainers' jobs, as these businesses closed their doors. The Blues migrated to Chicago, where it became electrified, and Detroit. In northern cities like Chicago and Detroit, during the later forties and early fifties, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, and Elmore James among others, played what was basically Mississippi Delta blues, backed by bass, drums, piano and occasionally harmonica, and began scoring national hits with blues songs. At about the same time, T-Bone Walker in Houston and B.B. King in Memphis were pioneering a style of guitar playing that combined jazz technique with the blues tonality and repertoire.

Meanwhile, back in Memphis, B.B. King invented the concept of lead guitar, now standard in today's Rock bands. Bukka White (cousin to B.B. King), Leadbelly, and Son House, left Country Blues to create the sounds most of us think of today as traditional unamplified Blues. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Wyonnie Harris, and Big Mama Thorton wrote and preformed the songs that would make a young Elvis Presley world renown.

In the early nineteen-sixties, the urban bluesmen were "discovered" by young white American and European musicians. Many of these blues-based bands like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Canned Heat, and Fleetwood Mac, brought the blues to young white audiences, something the black blues artists had been unable to do in America except through the purloined white cross-over covers of black rhythm and blues songs. Since the sixties, rock has undergone several blues revivals. Some rock guitarists, such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Eddie Van Halen have used the blues as a foundation for offshoot styles. While the originators like John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins and B.B. King--and their heirs Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, and later Eric Clapton and the late Roy Buchanan, among many others, continued to make fantastic music in the blues tradition. The latest generation of blues players like Robert Cray and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others, as well as gracing the blues tradition with their incredible technicality, have drawn a new generation listeners to the blues.

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Juke Boy Bonner 2 albums: Life Gave Me a Dirty Deal / Ghetto Poet

Album: Life Gave Me a Dirty Deal
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 1992
Styles: Blues
Time: 69:58
Size: 162,4 MB
Covers: Full

(3:32) 1. Life Gave Me a Dirty Deal
(2:59) 2. Going Back to the Country
(3:05) 3. Sad, Sad Sound
(2:47) 4. She Turns Me On
(2:58) 5. Hard Luck
(3:12) 6. Trying to Be Contented
(2:29) 7. Life Is a Nightmare
(3:29) 8. It's Time to Make a Change
(3:21) 9. Stay off Lyons Avenue
(3:11) 10. My Blues
(2:25) 11. I'm Getting Tired
(3:24) 12. Over Ten Years Ago
(2:52) 13. I Got My Passport
(3:32) 14. I'm in the Big City
(2:40) 15. Houston, the Action Town
(2:34) 16. Running Shoes
(2:36) 17. Just a Blues
(2:58) 18. It Don't Take Too Much
(2:51) 19. Struggle Here in Houston
(2:46) 20. Railroad Tracks
(3:04) 21. Watch Your Buddies
(2:49) 22. When the Deal Goes Down
(4:12) 23. Being Black and I'm Proud

Likely the most consistent and affecting collection you'll encounter by this singular Texas bluesman, whose strikingly personal approach was stunningly captured by Arhoolie's Chris Strachwitz during the late '60s in Houston. Twenty-three utter originals include "Stay Off Lyons Avenue," "Struggle Here in Houston," "I Got My Passport," and the title track. Bonner sang movingly of his painfully impoverished existence for Arhoolie, and the results still resound triumphantly today. -- Allmusic.
Weldon “Juke Boy” Bonner's life was a constant struggle. Growing up in rural Texas he turned to poetry and music as a young man in order to vent his frustrations. In Houston, Weldon Bonner became a living one-man juke box, playing the blues hits of the day in neighborhood taverns. This collection of recordings made between 1967 and 1969 brings you some of Juke Boy Bonner's best poems put to music. The first selection is previously unissued, all others were previously available on ARH LPs 1036 and 1045.

Life Gave Me a Dirty Deal

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Album: Ghetto Poet
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 2003
Styles: Blues
Time: 59:17
Size: 137,4 MB
Covers: Full

(2:59) 1. Daylight Won't Catch Me Here
(4:30) 2. The Animal Gap
(3:38) 3. Time to Say Goodbye
(3:18) 4. Blues for Elmo
(3:35) 5. If I Sound Lowdown
(3:20) 6. Sportsman's Luck
(3:49) 7. California Here I Come
(2:23) 8. Zodico Jump
(2:45) 9. Getting Up from the Ground
(2:31) 10. Houston Beat
(3:39) 11. What Will I Tell the Children
(2:22) 12. All the Lonely Days
(5:41) 13. Childhood Dreams
(3:03) 14. Settin' the Record Straight
(3:10) 15. Rainin' in My Room
(2:31) 16. Let Me Run It Down to You
(3:00) 17. I Don't Go for Games
(2:55) 18. It's Enough

Texas bluesman Weldon "Juke Boy" Bonner was a virtual one-man band with his stripped-down electric guitar playing, his constantly stomping foot, and the swampy sound of his racked harmonica, elements that made him sound like a cross between Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo. Bonner's carefully considered lyrics are what set him apart from any other bluesman, however, and the best of his songs have a kind of weary emotional balance that show why the blues is capable of being a great vernacular art form. The opening track on this disc of previously unreleased material, "Daylight Won't Catch Me Here," is a perfect example of Bonner's craft, as it teeters between defeat and resolve, all with a relentless, driving rhythm. Other highlights here include the desperate humor of "Rainin' in My Room" and the brilliant album closer "It's Enough." Woefully underappreciated during his lifetime, Bonner ended up with a last-chance job loading crates of factory-raised chickens into the processing plant that would end their lives. This collection is drawn largely from a session on May 5, 1969. -- Allmusic.

Ghetto Poet

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Various - Blues With A Message

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 72:01
Size: 164.9 MB
Styles: Assorted blues
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[2:46] 1. Sam Chatman - I Have To Paint My Face
[3:50] 2. John Jackson - John Henry
[3:04] 3. Mercy Dee - Walked Down So Many Turn Rows
[3:37] 4. Mance Lipscomb - Tom Moore's Farm
[4:55] 5. Lightnin' Hopkins - Tom Moore's Blues
[5:13] 6. Lowell Fulson - River Blues
[5:31] 7. Mississippi Fred Mcdowell - Levee Camp Blues
[3:58] 8. Essie Jenkins - The 1919 Influenza Blues
[5:55] 9. Willie Eason - Why I Like Roosevelt
[2:59] 10. Doctor Ross - Little Soldier Boy
[5:09] 11. Robert Pete Williams - Prisoner's Talking Blues
[3:11] 12. Johnie Lewis - I Got To Climb A High Mountain
[4:41] 13. Herman E. Johnson - Depression Blues
[3:19] 14. Johnny Young & Big Walter Horton - Stockyard Blues
[3:26] 15. Juke Boy Bonner - What Will I Tell The Children
[2:55] 16. Juke Boy Bonner - It's Enough
[3:06] 17. Bee Houston - Things Gonna Get Better
[4:19] 18. Big Joe Williams - Back Home Blues

Blues With a Message isn't just about lost love and the toils of specific lives, the blues (particularly within the folk-blues traditions) spent some time dealing with sociopolitical issues on the side, primarily before the rise of electric blues. Here, Arhoolie has compiled a set of pieces related to a surprisingly large number of issues. Among them: Minstrel shows, the mechanization of cotton farming, and its related exodus to the North, sharecropping, segregation, the Korean War, the influenza epidemic, the New Deal, civil rights movements, Chicago employment opportunities -- all are given a song or two here. The music quality is roughly equivalent to many of the folk-blues recordings available, though the "big name" artists are largely absent from this one (Lightnin Hopkins does make an appearance singing about sharecropping, however). The songs are deliberately focused on the issues more than the music, but the music can still carry its soul. This one probably won't be on many highest-sales lists in the blues, but it's both historically important and musically enjoyable. ~Adam Greenberg

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