Esquerita Awareness Month: Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

     Today's tune, released in Spring 1970 by Little Richard and co-written by "Esqrita," was the first single off of The Rill Thing, his first new album in three years and was the flip side of "Freedom Blues", also co-written by Mr. Reeder, . It was Richard's biggest hit in the post-Specialty era, charting in Billboard at #47, and in Cashbox at #62, which I suppose makes it the best-selling disk that Esquerita was ever involved in.

     While the song is a tribute to the famous New Orleans night spot (located at 2836 LaSalle Street), it also serves as something of a eulogy, since it was at about this same point that the club breathed it's last gasp.  Jeff Hannusch has a good article about it's history at the Iko Iko website that I recommend.

     Esquerita's own version of this tune was recorded in the '60s. but not released until 1991 by the good folks at Norton Records. It can be had either as a 7'' or as a bonus on the CD version of Vintage Voola. Maybe you should just get both, to be safe!

Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

Gary Garcia 1948-2011

The media coverage of Gary Garcia's death on November 17th was understandably  focused on his status as half of Buckner & Garcia (I'm not going to embed "Pac-Man Fever" here, but if you simply must hear it, you can see them perform it on American Bandstand here). Here in Ichiban-land, though, we mourn him as the leader of Akron, Ohio's Outlaws. You can hear them perform "The Scavenger" here, courtesy of Bob the Sponge. Side note: the still-living Jerry Buckner was apparently a member of the Rogues, who made a couple of records backing up Harvey Russell, the "Singing Cop".  Here's the first one-- a fine Isley Brothers cover.

Photo swiped from Buckeye Beat

  While they met in Akron as students at Perkins Jr High School, Mr. B and Mr. G plied their trade in Atlanta from the mid-'70s on, and that's where they created their most important contribution to American culture. Any Southerner-- or anyone who's ever gotten hungry on the interstate in the South, for that matter-- is familiar with the row of site-specific singles on every Waffle House jukebox. Most of those singles are produced or performed by Buckner and/or Garcia. Here's a label shot of one, courtesy of our own Greg G. 

  So, next time you're eating hash browns by the off-ramp at 2:45 AM, punch up a couple of WH anthems and raise your glass of sweet tea in a toast to Mr. Garcia. Make sure your food's already on the table, though... I've encountered Waffle House employees who aren't all that thrilled to hear "Waffle House Woman" or "844, 739 Ways to Eat a Hamburger" yet again, and they're not willing to say that they won't spit in your food. Fair warning.

Honeymoon With The Blues (MP3)

Eddie Noack - Honeymoon With The Blues

Lux & Ivy's Faves Volume 16!

Head over to Kogar's Jungle Juice blog for the latest!!!

Note From The Editor

We are currently working on getting a new player for our 24 hour webstream. In the meantime, you can listen via any mp3 player by opening this address: http://wfmu.org/wfmu_rock.pls

You can also find us in Itunes under Radio/Golden Oldies/WFMU's Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban.  This also shows the song title/artist playing.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Limehouse Blues

I never get tired of guitarist Billy Mure's spectacular version of this old jazz standard.

Esquerita Awareness Month: "Sweet Skinny Jenny"

      This is the A-side to Mr. Peek's first solo single; the B-side may be heard here, where its context, and the origins of this particular copy are discussed at length. Besides Peek and Esquerita, this session also included future NRC recording artists Joe South and Ray Stevens.

     I held off on posting this last week because I was hoping to relate an amusing anecdote about Mr. Peek, but the person I heard it from some years back no longer remembers the details, so I'm gonna skip it. It wasn't that great anyway, I guess.

    Paul Peek (with Esquerita) - "Sweet Skinny Jenny"

Mambo!

House Of Guitars

Big thanks to Sid Kleiner over at the House Of Guitars for sending in lots of 45s and reel-to-reels.  Here's my current fave.

Chuck McCloud and The Ramblers - Green, Green Grass Of Home (45)

Alf Newman?

It's_a_Gas

Let's_Do_the_Fink (link fixed)

MORGUS THE MAGNIFICENT DOCUMENTARY JUST AIRED! WATCH HERE!

I'm so excited to see this documentary! i just learned of it's existence on ebay (!!??!!) and then found that it can be watched in 5 parts here!
http://www.fox8live.com/content/ads/morgus/default.aspx
there was no embed link so just click on the link above & get Morgusized!!!

Greg Cartwright Spins

Finally!  Greg is back with another action packed DJ set. 

1-Ervin Rucker - Hideout
2-The Elites - What's The Password
3-Jim Backus - Short On Love
4-Riley Wyldflower - Smog Song
5-Paula Goodridge - Peanut Butter
6-East Side Kids - Subway Train
7-New York Dolls - Subway Train
8-Teardrops - Sweet Sweet Sadie
9-Grady & Brady - Love Or Money
10-Cris Stevenson - Little Girl
11-Lee Hazlewood - Della
12-Music Explosion - Dazzling
13-Chris Kenner - Right Kind Of Girl
14-Pearl Woods - Right Now
15-Lamont Anthony - Popeye
16-Timmy Shaw - Thunder In My Heart
17-Koko Joe (Abner Jay) - Insomniac
18-Merced Blue Notes - Rufus Jr.
19-Eddie Ray - Do It Right Now
20-Conway Twitty - Go On and Cry
21-Mel Anton & The Checkers - Little Girl
22-Henry & His Kasuals - Little Girl
23-Squires V - I'm Thru
24-Larry Knight & the Upsetters - Hurt Me
25-Ronnie Self - Houdini
26-Honey Duo Twins - Come On Baby
27-Cottilions - Sahara

Vol. 5!

Vol. 1

Vol. 2

Vol. 3

Vol. 4

Vol. 6

Vol. 7