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 Blues
Blast Music AwardsWe're proud to announce that David "Honeyboy" Edwards was recognized on November 2, 2008 with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Blues Blast Music Awards put on by Illinois Blues. Honeyboy was also nominated in the category of Best Traditional Blues Album for his recent release "Roamin' and Ramblin'." Check out the links below for more information on Roamin' and Ramblin, and on Illinois Blues. Honeyboy Edwards at BB King's NYC Review in NY Times Honeyboy is just finishing a 10 day tour of the New England states, which included a stop at BB King's in New York for a show where Honeyboy was accompanied by Michael Frank on harmonica and Rocky Lawrence on guitar. Reporters from the NY Times were present to cover the event. You can read their review by following the link below. Liz Mandeville Nominated by the Roots Music Association for Songwriter of the Year in the Blues Category  We're very proud to announce that Liz Mandeville has been nominated by the Roots Music association for Songwriter of the Year in the Blues genre. In honor of her nomination, we will be offering a 10% discount on all of her titles at the Earwig Music storefront, starting November 14 and ending December 7. Check out the link below to take advantage of this special, limited time offer.  Johnny
Drummer named Best R&B Act in Chicago in the Chicago Reader's
Best of Chicago pollJohnny Drummer has been a part of Chicago blues scene for over 50 years; from his work as a drummer for Lovie Lee to his current solo acclaim with three albums on Earwig, his latest being "Rockin' In the Juke Joint." Johnny has been a fixture in the clubs of the south side of Chicago for as long as he has been in the city. His most recent residency has been at Lee's Unleaded Blues at 7401 S. South Chicago, where Johnny has played every weekend for 14 years. In honor of this significant recognition we will be offering a 10% discount on all of Johnny's titles at the Earwig Music storefront, starting November 14 and ending December 7. Check out the link below to take advantage of this special, limited time offer. Trivia Quiz Results We'd like to congratulate the winners of our first Earwig trivia quiz. We should have another set of questions ready in the next newsletters. Two people were able to get a perfect score, and we've decided to award them both. The winners are listed below, and will be contacted separately. The questions and acceptable answers can be found at the link below. Eugenio Moiron Garcia Klaus "Mojo" Killian Earwig News (Vol. 1, Num. 3)
Trivia
Quiz
In our last email we included
a link to an Earwig Music trivia quiz, in the form of a survey. We
thank all of you who took the time to check out the trivia questions,
and especially those who responded. The link was supposed to track the
email address of the person filling out the survey, but didn't, so we
unfortunately have no record of which entries belong to which people.
As a result, we're unable to conclude who the winner was, and will have
to hold the contest again. We're doing so with a different set of
questions, and the prize will now include this month's featured album,
Big Leon Brooks "Let's Go To Town," in addition to the previous prize
of a choice of either the double CD 20th Anniversary Compilation or an
Earwig Music color t-shirt in available sizes. To ensure there are no
problems receiving your responses, please just reply to this email with
your answers to the questions below. For some questions there may be
more than one possible answer, but you only need to come up with one.
1) Which Earwig artist is considered one of the greatest harmonica players in blues history? 2) Which Earwig recording artist met his partners in the band by sitting in with them in 1962 in Clarksdale, Mississippi? 3) Which Earwig artist appeared in the movie Crossroads? 4) Which Earwig artist is known as the fishin' musician? 5) Which Earwig musician was considered one of the best traditional blues and jazz piano players? 6) Name at least 2 Earwig recording artists or sidemen, who played with Little Walter Jacobs. 7) Name at least two W.C. Handy/Blues Music Award winners on the Earwig label. 8) Which keyboard player on which Earwig album died from jumping off a bridge and drowning in the Chicago River? 9) Which two Earwig artists were influenced by J.B. Hutto? 10) Which Earwig artist played on a Honeyboy Edwards cd and also on albums by Albert Collins and James Cotton?
Earwig is proud to offer Big Leon Brooks' only solo recording, Let's Go To Town, a classic Chicago Blues recording with an all-star cast of musicians, including Pinetop Perkins, Eddie Taylor, Louis Myers, Luther "Guitar" Johnson and Bob Stroger, among others. Check out the links below for audio clips from the album or to purchase the album for the featured album price of $11.00 before shipping. Audio Clips
- http://earwigmusic.com/descriptions.shtml#CD4931
Purchase Album (United States Shipping) - http://shop.earwigmusic.com/product.sc?categoryId=5&productId=25 Purchase Album (International Shipping) - http://earwigmusic.com/international.shtml#CD4931
Check out the
recently
expanded Artist Bios section of our website, where you'll find bios for
most of our primary artists and sidemen, including a listing of albums
they appeared on. Did you know we've featured such notable blues
artists as Pinetop Perkins, Carey Bell, Robert Lockwood Jr., Magic Slim
and Hubert Sumlin as sidemen on our albums? Did you know that session
musicians Bob Stroger and Kenny Smith have played on 5 of our albums a
piece, and Allen Batts of Albert Collins original Ice Breakers has
played on a total of 10 Earwig albums? Click the link below to check
out our new artist bios section.
Artist Bios - http://earwigmusic.com/ArtistBios.shtml
Our four
latest releases have been receiving quite a bit of radio play recently,
evident by their positions on the following radio charts:
Roots Music Report (Peaked at #3, currently 12 weeks on) Living Blues Radio Chart (#15 on 9/1 chart, #7 on 10/1 chart) Album Info/Purchase -> http://shop.earwigmusic.com/product.sc?categoryId=5&productId=74
Roots Music Report (Peaked at #5, currently 12 weeks on) Living Blues Radio Chart (#16 on 9/1 and 10/1 charts) Album Info/Purchase -> http://shop.earwigmusic.com/product.sc?categoryId=5&productId=77
Album Info/Purchase -> http://shop.earwigmusic.com/product.sc?categoryId=5&productId=75 Roots Music Report (Peaked at #6, currently 12 weeks on) Living Blues Radio Chart (#8 on 9/1 chart, #6 on 10/1 chart) Album Info/Purchase -> http://shop.earwigmusic.com/product.sc?categoryId=5&productId=76
Michael Robert Frank President & CEO Earwig Music Company, Inc. www.earwigmusic.com mfrank@earwigmusic.com
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Copyright 2008 Earwig Music & The Futurity Group All Rights Reserved |
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First
of all, we here at Earwig Music Company appreciate your business! We
hope you have enjoyed the items you purchased, and we thank you for
your patronage.
You are getting this e-mail because you have bought a cd or other item from Earwig Music Company by mail order or at one of our artist’s shows, sent a cd insert card back, requested a catalog, bought a cd from Cdbaby.com, or signed up for our mailing list.  Quite
a few of you have met Delta blues guitar legend Honeyboy Edwards
at one of our shows around the world. He and I always enjoy
meeting
fellow members of the worldwide blues community. My work with him is
the engine that drives the rest of Earwig Music Company’s
activities.
In addition to my being president and CEO of Earwig, I also function as
Honeyboy Edwards’ manager, booking agent, road manager, and
harmonica
player, as I have since 1973. He still tours worldwide at age 93. In
2007 and 2008, Honeyboy appeared in five music documentaries, which
will be released on PBS and other television networks in 2009 and 2010.
We now carry seven of Honeyboy Edwards’ cds on other labels,
from every
period of his recording career – July 1942 through October
2007, in
addition to his four Earwig cds, his oral history in paperback The World Don’t
Owe Me Nothing,
and his dvd Honeyboy - an award winning
documentary about his life. Despite the demise of many traditional record stores and the consequent difficulties record labels have in making our cds available to you fans, and the rise of digital downloads and mp3 players replacing cds, we here at Earwig have been busy. Staying true to Earwig’s mission of recording blues elders as well as facilitating the recording and performing careers of the next generations, Earwig has released seven cds since January 2007 – by Johnny Drummer, Dennis Binder, Honeyboy Edwards, Liz Mandeville, Travis “Moonchild” Haddix, Scott Ellison, and Chris James/Patrick Rynn. Each of these fine musicians has a long history, despite the over fifty year gap between the eldest (Honeyboy) and the youngest (Chris and Patrick). They each have their own unique style, musical attitude and repertoire. We are very proud to put their new recordings out. Let me tell you about each of them so you can get as excited as I am about their new releases. |
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Johnny Drummer - ROCKIN'
IN THE JUKE JOINT
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 Johnny’s third Earwig release offers his humorous takes on male/female relationships, in a variety of musical styles – funky blues, contemporary soul, passionate ballads and jukin’ dance tunes. Johnny handles lead vocals, harmonica, and electronic keyboards, with a tight Chicago band and background vocals. I call him “Songwriter Under A Groove.” |
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Dennis
Binder - HOLE IN THAT JUG
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 This album is Dennis’
first release on the Earwig Music label, and his first nationally
distributed cd as a leader. Originally from Rosedale, Mississippi, he
was there at the cusp of early urban blues and the development of rock
’n roll, and country & western music. In the 1950s he
recorded for
Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, and in Clarksdale, Mississippi
for Modern Records, on recordings that Ike Turner set up.
Dennis’s
other 1950s recording credits include United Records in Chicago,
recordings in the Norman Petty Studios in Texas (featuring Buddy Holly
and Tommy Allup), and Benson Studio in Oklahoma City. This new recording, on which Dennis plays piano, and sings lead vocals, ably backed by a stellar Chicago blues quintet of two guitars, bass, drums, and sax, shows Dennis’s fresh blend of all his stylistic preferences, in a batch of mostly his own funky, heartfelt compositions. Two bonus tracks from a lost 1962 Phoenix, Arizona studio session showcase Dennis and his touring band, which featured A.C. Reed on tenor sax. |
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Honeyboy
Edwards – ROAMIN’ AND RAMBLIN’
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 Honeyboy
Edwards’ fourth release from Earwig Music harkens back to the
golden
era of pre-WWII blues, when Honeyboy and the greatest Delta harmonica
players gigged together, before any of them had recorded or gained
notoriety. Featuring Honeyboy’s old-school guitar and vocals,
Roamin’
and Ramblin’ offers fresh takes on old gems and the
first-time release
of some historic recordings: new 2007 sessions with harmonica greats
Bobby Rush, Billy Branch and Johnny “Yard Dog”
Jones; previously
unreleased 1975 studio recordings of Honeyboy and Big Walter Horton;
and circa 1976 concert tracks of Honeyboy and Sugar Blue. As a bonus,
the cd includes three short blues tales – two by Honeyboy and
Bobby
Rush and one by Honeyboy talking to Alan Lomax in 1942. |
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Liz
Mandeville - RED TOP
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 On her 4th Earwig cd, Liz Mandeville, (formerly Mandeville Greeson), bares her soul with her inimitable range of self-penned blues, soul ballads and sassy swing tunes, accompanied by stellar Chicago session musicians and by her touring band. Special guest Eddie Shaw, tenor sax legend, blows on two tracks, blasting a rocker and a ballad as only he can. Liz steps out on lead and rhythm guitar on Scratch the Kitty, another fine example of her nuanced double entendre witty lyricism. |
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Travis
"Moonchild" Haddix - DAYLIGHT AT MIDNIGHT
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 Since
cutting three well-received cds from 1988-1994 on the Ichiban label,
guitarist Travis Haddix has released ten cds on his
label—WannSonn
Records, (available by mail order from Earwig Music) and they have all
received fine reviews. Travis is also a prolific songwriter very adept
at a hook and a groove. In a 2005 feature story, Living Blues Magazine
writer David Whiteis had this to say about Travis: “Haddix
delivers his
fables of mischief, mayhem and mercy in a smooth but sinewy baritone,
backed by arrangements that meld aggression with horn-leavened soul.
His leads, influenced by the string-bending Kings yet back alley raw,
are both incendiary and insinuating—a blend of uptown
élan and down
home raucousness, shot through with sensual fervor, calculated to
please listeners and dancers from the ‘burbs as well as the
‘hood…” |
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Scott
Ellison - ICE STORM
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 Influenced
and electrified by the British Invasion bands, moved by the sounds of
Motown, and touched by the soulfulness of the rhythm and blues music
coming out of Memphis, Scott organized his first band, in Oklahoma, as
a youngster. In 1977, he began touring as a guitar player with Jessica
James (Conway Twitty’s daughter), and in 1981 joined
“Gatemouth”
Brown’s band to play rhythm guitar. By the 1990s, Scott had
formed a
blues band and was opening shows for such legends as Joe Cocker, Roy
Orbison, The Fabulous T-Birds, Leon Russell, Bobby Bland and Buddy Guy.
A prolific song writer, Scott has composed and released numerous cds,
including Cold Hard Cash, Live At Joey’s, Chains Of Love and
Bad Case
Of The Blues. All have been well received. Ice Storm, Scott’s
first
Earwig release, continues to showcase Scott’s strong
songwriting, and
his hybrid blues/rock/soul guitar style.Scott’s compositions have been played on the soundtracks of several popular TV shows, including “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” an MTV movie, and the 2007 movie, “Feast Of Love,” starring Morgan Freeman. |
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Chris
James & Patrick Rynn – STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT
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 Blues
fans may know vocalist and lead guitarist Chris James and bassist
Patrick
Rynn as the leaders of their own band, the Blue Four, as well as for
their stellar work with a dazzling array of blues legends as members of
the Rhythm Room All Stars in Phoenix. Now they’re
stepping out on their own in Stop And Think About It, their new release
on the Earwig Music label. Over the last 18 year the duo has honed
their onstage interplay to ESP-like levels. They’re proud traditionalists who delight in digging deep into a postwar Chicago vein. Their rollicking energy level instantly grabs young audiences who may not be familiar with Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Loving revivals of vintage numbers on this disc, such as Elmore James’s crashing “Hawaiian Boogie” and Bo Diddley’s “Confessin’ The Blues” mesh seamlessly with their invigorating fresh material such as “You’re Gone” and “Mister Coffee”. |
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OTHER
NEWS
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We
have also greatly
expanded our catalog by adding cds from other labels. We now carry ten
cds produced by former Ichiban guitarist/vocalist Travis
Haddix on his
Wann-Sonn Record label, as well as many by Honeyboy Edwards,
including
his 2008 Grammy Award Winner Last of the
Great Mississippi Delta
Bluesmen, which features Honeyboy playing solo; legendary
12-string
electric guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. with his band, including horns;
piano great Pinetop Perkins and his band; and the eldest of the bunch,
Henry “Mule” Townsend on guitar, piano and vocals,
accompanied by bass
and second guitar.
Nearly all of the cds on Earwig, by all Earwig recording artists, are also available from various internet retailers as well as on many digital download sites around the world, including itunes.com, emusic.com and others. The four June 2008 releases, as well as many of Travis Haddix tracks from Wann-Sonn Records are being added to digital download services currently, and will be available within a month if not available already. Later in 2008 and 2009, we will also be making available on these same downloads sites, previously unreleased tracks by ex-Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Willie “Guitar” Johnson, acoustic delta blues guitar great Maxwell Street Jimmy, and other tracks not previously available. We are also in the process of making available on our website and on digital download sites, the Earwig jazz, gospel, and storytelling/spoken word recordings, previously only available on LP and cassette. We've got many of the storytelling cassettes already available on our website store. Earwig now has a Myspace presence. If you've got a Myspace account, stop by and add us as a friend by clicking here, or selecting the Myspace link from our website. Also watch for special sales, contests and giveaways starting later this month, which will change monthly. In 2009 to commemorate Earwig’s thirty years as a record label, we will release a cd/dvd collection of previously unreleased concert and club performances by many Earwig recording artists, as well as a double cd of the definitive Bea & Baby Records story, and other definitive compilations. For those of you unfamiliar with the depth of the Earwig recording catalog, our little label has in 29 ½ years released new recordings and previously unreleased tracks by some of the most important figures in the history of blues, including the greatest Mississippi juke joint band the Jelly Roll Kings – Frank Frost, Sam Carr and Big Jack Johnson-- guitar greats Homesick James, Honeyboy Edwards, Floyd Jones, Jim Brewer, Louis Myers, Jimmy Dawkins, Louisiana Red, John Primer, and Lil Ed, as well as cds by some of the foremost harmonica players – Walter Horton, Lester Davenport, Johnny “Yard Dog” Jones, Little Willie Anderson, and Big Leon Brooks, and five historic blues piano players – Little Brother Montgomery, Sunnyland Slim, Pinetop Perkins, Lovie Lee and H-Bomb Ferguson. Award winning bassists/vocalists Willie Kent and Aron Burton also have cds on Earwig. In addition, these historic figures, and others including guitarists Robert Lockwood, Jr., Eddie Taylor, Magic Slim, Hubert Sumlin, Byther Smith, Lurrie Bell, Vance Kelly, bassists Robert Stroger, Willie Kent, Jimmy Lee Robinson, Willie Black, Aron Burton, and drummers Willie Smith, Sam Lay, S. P. Leary, Dave Jefferson, Odie Payne, and Willie Hayes, as well as other notable musicians, play a sideman role on Earwig albums. Check out Earwig’s various websites, as well as those of our artists, for our releases and artist activities. And please send us feedback, suggestions, queries, photos, etcetera, so we can better serve you, our fans, without whom the Earwig label and artists would not be able to do what we love so much. Bluesingly yours,  Michael Frank President & CEO Earwig Music Company, Inc. www.earwigmusic.com |
Copyright 2008 Earwig Music & The Futurity Group All Rights Reserved