Music for Friday night-and a long weekend. Junior Wells Band, live,

[old mark]

"Messin' with the Kid"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nuOWuhWNmI

Junior was one of the finest harp players and vocalists in the Chicago blues genre, and Buddy Guy was his guitarist. This was from 1978.

Have a great night.

"Don't ya mess with the kid, or he be messin wit' you
The Kid mean what he say, the Kid say what he do..."


mark

ADDED: Eric Clapton says Buddy Guy's the best...Buddy says Magic Sam's the best,,,here's some Magic Sam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGqAd3hCccs

From 1968, "I Wanna Boogie"

[bluesbassman]

1. Love that edge Junior had in his voice.

Right on the verge of breaking up, but always in control. Awesome.

BTW, did you catch a glimpse of Buddy's Guild Starfire? Nice close up around 3:12. Beautiful axe.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. "Hoodoo Man" is probably my all-time favorite...

...the first time I heard Junior...AND Buddy Guy...was on their live album, "Drinkin' TNT 'N' Smokin' Dynamite."



Here's a live clip of them performing it. Clapton did it on his "24 Nights" live album, but no one ever topped Buddy & Junior:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrbqaKmUCY8

:toast:

[Kat45]

3. I saw Buddy Guy & Junior Wells playing in a small club four times

back in the eighties. Great shows! I've seen Buddy solo so many times since that I've lost track of the number of times.

[old mark]

4. You are very fortunate. Buddy Guy IS the best there is. nt

[Kat45]

5. Yes he is.

And I do feel fortunate to have seen him so many times. I'm ever grateful to someone I worked with in the eighties who turned me on to him. Haven't seen the guy since but I'll always remember him.

You'll like this story: One of the times I saw him in the club, after the show he was hanging out at the bar not far from the door. On the way out of the club, several people were stopping to shake his hand and tell him how much they liked the show. When I went up to him, he refused to shake my hand and just gave me a big ol' bear hug!

[abq e streeter]

6. I saw Junior at least about a dozen times, and he was incredible

almost all of those times (a couple of times he was pretty loaded and wasn't all that great). Had the pleasure and honor of opening for him in Albuquerque, in about 1994 when the late great Sam Franklin asked me to put together a band to back him (Sam) up for the occasion. I actually only saw Jr. with Buddy Guy once or twice; he somehow was almost always using Buddy's brother Phil(who was no slouch either) instead. Not being a guitar player, I'm not as qualified as those who do play , to judge who's the "best" , but I think possibly the most underrated of the guys (pun intended) I used to see in the bars of Chicago (and out here too; Albuquerque has a surprising amount of blues fans and we get a lot of blues shows here) may have been Son Seals...
I have performed Messin'... more times than I could even count over the years, both singing and on harp (and occasionally sax) and it always takes me back to all those drunken nights in the 70's seeing Junior in Chicago. Junior Wells passed away on January 15th, 1998, which ,I'm assuming, is why Old Mark chose to honor him with this thread tonight.

[old mark]

7. I used to sing that song, too, in bars in the Philly area in the 1970's...

I have never seen either of these guys play, and I am in awe of you who have seen them. I know there are many who have never heard of them, although it is good to read that Buddy's new CD is getting high praise and selling well.

I was not aware this is the anniversary of Junior's death-the song just came to my mind, and I found a good live version and it went on from there...kind of improvisation...;)

Thanks- I hope people enjoyed them.

mark