Newton-Blues.com

I was in a hotel room recently, having a glass of wine, where I had the good fortune to see on BBC 4 a whole series of clips going back 20 years or more, featuring Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. What a terrific performer and genuinely rare talent. A man who has soul right through to his fingertips and sings from his boots upwards - his whole being a series of paroxysms as he exorcises, precipitates and distils his emotive songs. It is so great and mesmerising to see a real artist at work, alone in the universe as he performs.
For my own part, the gigs have been going so well and dare I say it we do have a little bit of a following at those venues where we regularly appear. What is also really gratifying for me is that it is my own numbers that are now getting the greatest response in my set. More and more of my spot is taken over by my own penned material as the classic blues numbers are receding into the background. I am working on a new CD which will comprise all my own numbers: Walking’ down the Street, Blues in the Bottle, Killing the Blues, Raced down to the River and so on. Incidentally, Raced down to the River is one of my first gospel songs: ‘raced down to the river…just to purge my soul…Lord let that icy water…cleanse me and make me whole…….and so on. It is a bottleneck number that has gone down really well.
Of course, anyone can write a song - but not many can write a good song (and I’m not saying I can - but I hope so). For me, a good song is one that others can remember and find themselves singing. This has happened recently. Good songs just seem to be plucked from thin air as they arrive - you can’t contrive it. They are either there of not. For me the melody is the most important - the words become surface signifiers, tokens or pointers towards the emotional state of a song - just like symbols in a dream. This is what makes Nick Cave an original: a dreamer and visionary who can implant his soul into the fabric of the song.
Incidentally, if anyone is interested in how soul can be embedded in the creative process, please read my latest book: Ritual and the Creative Process: The Psychoanalysis of Trance-Formation, now available in electronic format.
Just one more thing, one or two people have asked about the gig guide - well of course you should just click on the gig guide icon on my website. It has just been updated. Cheers for now - and hope to see you on the road again….

James Harrington from the local evening paper rang me and asked to do a piece on me and my forthcoming gig at the Tap and Spile on Tuesday Feb 19th. He also very kindly arranged for it to go in the Scunthorpe press on Thursday 31 Jan in time for our gigs at The Woolpack in Brigg on that night and at The Lincoln Imp in Scunthorpe on Friday Feb 1st. Nice to get some unsolicited and free publicity for myself and for the Andy and John of Blues on Tap. Should be a great night at the Tap. if you are local and enjoy the blues please try and get along to support us!
Talking of great gigs - once again the Nags Head at Keelby (Fri 25th Jan) was a fabulous booking. Place was packed as always and many thanks to Joyce the landlady for being not only dead sexy and gorgeous but also for being a devotee of the blues. She has also booked me in Keelby village hall on Saturday 16th February for a charity night at which she is expecting 150+ people. Looking forward to that night very much.

We played the Royal Oak and the County Hotel in September and want to thank Darel and her partner Ian for coming along to both gigs. She is real sweet - a lovely girl and Ian is one powerhouse blues singer with a gutsy performance. Your support is really appreciated Darel. Its great to have a fan club - even if there is only one person in it!
Thanks to Vintage for filling in for Blues on Tap at the County Hotel. Kenny invents limitless fantastic riffs and Tony eases out a mean slide. Thanks lads - it was a great nite. We also played the Nags Head at Keelby again - thanks to the dear landlady Joyce - and travelled to Bridgnorth in Shropshire to play the Blue Boy. Shropshire is a beautiful county with exquisite scenery and of course all you literate individuals will know it foremost as the home of A.E.Houseman’s A Shropshire Lad - notorious for being the late Enoch Powell’s favourite tome.

Recently listening to the early Stone’s recording Got Live if you Want it which was recorded live at the Albert Hall in 1966, reissued by ABKCO records in 2002. It’s a raw and primitive performance when the Stones’ blues roots were absolutely uncompromised, and before they became a parody of their authentic earlier selves. I have got the original EP released by Decca and was always fascinated by that great track ‘It’s Alright’. Here’s a driving, simple and monotonously repetetive Richards guitar riff which is so bluesy and unforgettable. It locks into your mind and stays there. Again, it is reminiscent of that Buzzcocks number ‘E S P’ to be found on their Lovebites CD of 1989. Likewise a riff repeated over and over again monotonously but which really whips up the emotions.

Another example of this is by the great Johnny Marr playing with the Smiths on that fabulous track What Difference Does it Make? You can see a live performance of this from an early Smiths Top of the Pops appearance, on the DVD: ‘The Smiths - the Complete Picture’.

Those early raw blues guitarists who cannot be emulated knew how to grind out a riff in such a way that slight changes become massively important. All the great classical composers could do this too. Beethoven for example would introduce a haunting melody line early in a work, repeat it at intervals, but then withhold it for long tracts of the piece, denying the audience access to it whilst building up expectations of it. Early elements of the refrain would be hinted at without full realisation ot the melodic line which the audience would sort of crave for. Then in a kind of consummation, the composer reintroduces the full effect of the melody - or riff.

Just to finish back with the Stones - their early live heavily blues influenced gigs are great to behold. Charlie Watt’s always half a beat behind and Keef’s lazy, late dragged out guitar lines. Their LP ‘Beggar’s Banquet’ has that fantastic blues track ‘That’s no way to get along’. Try and listen to the original of this by the Rev Robert Wilkins on ”The Original Rolling Stone’, Yazoo 1077.

Hi folks,

Swung on to the old guitar and ambled into town (Hull) for two nites last week: Friday nite at the Reindeer pub and Sunday nite at the Timberlock Tavern. Great nites at both venues but the Timberlock was pretty full and I took a pic of the performers’ eye view with Andy and ‘fingers’ Shelton in full flow. As you can see it was a packed audience and the landlord gave us a repeat booking for Sunday 18th November. If you live near Hull docks make sure you get to the show.

Interesting note for locals that I came across. Some years ago I took a doctorate at Sheffield University and so I automatically receive the University magazine for ‘alumni and friends of the University of Sheffield’. Actually on this edition the cover features Eddie Izzard finally collecting his degree after dropping out in the 80s. However, it was gratifying to see in the section on ‘notes and news’ that in the 1950s that great local jazz pianist Leo Soloman took a BSc in Mathematics (1952) - when a degree was a degree unlike the worthless scrolls handed out like confetti today. It states that he was a ‘former musical director of the University rag show’ and ‘is now Chairman of the Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Youth Orchestra and musical director of GCDYO Swing Bands’. Keep it rollin Leo.

Just one sad note, I, like many others, was really sorry to hear from Les Worrall that he has closed Faldingworth Live. I will really miss it - but always remember it with great affection and I will be keeping in touch with Les. See you around.

Really enjoyable and fun gig at the Lincoln Imp in Scunthorpe on Friday 22nd June. The small crowd was obviously made up of blues enthusiasts. They didn’t miss a note and I was very gratified to sell 4 of my cds at the end of the night. In my set I included Robert Petway’s great laid back blues ‘My Little Girl’ and also my own arrangement on slide of that great standard blues ‘I Can Tell’. Of late I have been including Memphis Minnie’s ‘Me and my Chauffeur’ blues. She has got a fantastic voice and the original can be heard on the ‘Century of the Blues’ compilation, a 4 cd set put out by Chrome Dreams cdcd5003. This a great set with the likes of Tommy Johnson, Tommy McLennan, Skip James, Lowell Fulson, Frank Stokes and many, many more.

It is strange that at gigs people keep asking me if I do much Dylan - I suppose I should take this as a big compliment. One record that I really would recommend to any blues aficionado is ‘The Early Blues Roots Of Bob Dylan’ on Catfish Records 2000, KATCD168. This has got the hauntingly beautiful and heartrending Leadbelly track ‘Grasshoppers in My Pillow’ as well as other great numbers by the Mississippi Sheiks, Blind Willie McTell, Rev J.C.Burnett amongst others. One of the two tracks by the Mississippi Sheiks is their version of ‘Sittin on top of the World’ and I absolutely love Bob Dylan’s ‘throwaway’ rendition of this number which can be found on Columbia’s ‘Good as I Been to You’. If anyone aspires to play this track you can get the tablature of Doc Watson’s open D version in Happy Traum’s ‘Finger-Picking Styles for Guitar’.

Since I have been touring around playing the blues - you know the ageing blueman all dressed in black who drifts into town around the tumbleweed and drifts out again on the wind (or is it with wind - I forget), I have come to appreciate one of Dylan’s aphorisms. In reference to his endless tours he said: ‘Night or Day, it doesn’t matter where I go anymore, I just go…A lot of people don’t like the road, but it’s as natural to me as breathing. I do it because I’m driven to do it. I’m mortified to be on stage, but then again, its the only place you can be who you want to be’. Again, in his usual enigmatic style, Dylan says: ”There’s only one day at a time here, then its tonight and then tomorrow will be today again’. Wonderful eh? Hey Bob, keep on truckin’ for all our sakes.

Had four good gigs last 2 weeks. Played the Tap and Spile in Grimsby on Tues 5th June to a really attentive and appreciative audience. Its not often in pubs and clubs that blues guitarists feel that they are in concert and I was stunned at the respect I feel the great crowd gave us. Many thanks as always to the landlord Dave and all the regulars who supported us so well. On thursday 8th we played the Lynton in Cleethorpes for the first time and really enjoyed the experience in a really big concert room.

Truly exciting nite at the Lloyds Bar on Victoria St Grimsby on Thursday 14th. It was pouring down with rain so we were really surprised to find a venue already pretty packed out when we arrived. Fabulous crowd who know how to let go and enjoy themselves. A special thanks to Dan the landlord for being so hospitable. Being a university music student he knows his stuff and is a nice guy. Another grateful mention to Kenny (of Vintage fame) for supporting us at all of these gigs and for the positive comments he has posted on the Scunthorpe entertainer website. Hey Kenny - you are a great guy! Last night (15th) I was MC at Market Rasen folk club and did an acoustic blues spot. It was a bit of a culture shock after Lloyds - and I said it was a bit like going from a madhouse to a rest home. That didnt go down too well in some areas of the audience. But thats life - and we did have a fun night. Thanks to Les - and I hope you knees get better soon!

A truly fantastic gig on Friday nite at the Nags Head in Keelby. The joint was packed and we played til gone midnight for a truly appreciative crowd. The landlady Joyce is one lovely lady in all senses of the word - and she gave us another booking immediately for Fri Aug 17th. The crowd at the Nags Head enjoyed the show that much that they are getting up a charabanc to come and see us at the Tap and Spile in Grimsby on Tues June 5th. If only every venue could be like this one! Needless to say, Andy ‘Gibbo’ Gibson played out of his skin - whilst ‘Fingers’ was on fire. Even though I say it my self - I made a contribution and got a great response - and sold a number of CDs. A really discerning bunch - and one guy even booked us to play his marquee for his 50th birthday party!

It was great to be back at the Black Bull in East Halton on Friday nite. Nice of the landlord to ask us back after our first gig there back in February. That night he lay sick in bed upstairs above the pub - and we thought perhaps this was why we got invited back - because he had missed the act! But no, he is a bit of a blues enthusiast and appreciated those 12 bar blues refrains drifting up the back stairs. Anyway thanks to him we are again back there in July.

For a change I started my set in obscure deep blues mode, playing Robert Petway’s My Little Girl in a raw loose open G tuning. This is a great track and has all the hallmarks of Petways unique laidback and seemingly ultra-casual style that belies his mastery of emotion and technique. All great blues - and good art in general for that matter, gives the spectator or audience the intimate feeling that they could go off and do it themselves. But of course, this easy, apparently effortless expression is a deceptive illusion. I then went on to do John Lee Hooker’s Hobo Blues, a track so loved by Bonnie Rait. Both were played on the small body martin which is perfect for getting that distortion and bent notes. I always remember Big Bill Broonzy saying that he liked to leave his guitar out of tune so he could bend it back into tune actually during his performances.

Thanks to Scott and Oli and co for giving their valued support at the gig - and a special thanks to Ol for his great pics (David Bailey eat your heart out). There are also a couple of John and Andy of ‘Blues on Tap’. John has been a bit down lately - typical symptom of a misunderstood genius of electric blues. I remeber once on a Bert Jansch LP cover many years ago, the writer described his fingers as being like a ’spider on an electric grid’. Well this would never be more apt than applied to the wizardry of John ‘fingers’ Shelton. But at the Black Bull, John was stood on a stool with a lead round his neck and we all thought he was gonna swing at any moment. Fortunately he was just rigging up the spotlights! Shortly there will be a clip of ‘Blues on Tap’ shot at the Barham in East Hull. A chance for you to witness John’s electric blues and the truly great singing of Andy ‘Gibbo’ Gibson, who is renowned the length and breadth of the country for singing absolutely from his boots. Or perhaps more accurately, should I say from his spats.

Just to let all my myriad fans know that this year Les Worral who runs Market Rasen folk club has elevated me to resident performer. This is an honour and I must say that I am really grateful to Les for all his support and help over the last couple of years. It was Market Rasen folk club where I started performing in public again after a gap of many years. My early tentative forays on the folk club scene were to say the least hesitant. But Les backed me and kept the faith and I hope that I have returned the favour in my own way by backing Les and the club also. If you want more information on Market Rasen folk club visit the website and links to other performers and full gig guides.

By great demand a week on Sunday on the 15th April we are back at the Sleepers Cafe Bar on Newlands Avenue in Hull. This is a great bar with a real blues club atmosphere. So if you fancy my acoustic blues set which generally includes numbers by Big Bill Broonzy, Elmore James, Snooks Eaglin, Robert Wilkins, Hank Williams as well as my own stuff and early Rolling Stones blues covers etc etc. and the electric blues of my compatriots ‘Blues on Tap’ then make your way to the Sleepers and dont forget to let me know that you read my website. More soon……

Two good gigs last week - on Wed 14th Feb we played the Barham hotel in Marham lane East Hull - which is affectionately known as ‘little Beirut’. Fortunately the landlord Brian - apart from being a great bloke and a charming host - is a South African and a bit of a tough nut I think. He has spent his first weeks at the hotel getting rid of the unruly element and has done a great job. He bought us a drink and was very genial. Must have been the uitlander transvaal memory that made me sing him that old Big Bill Broonzy classic ‘Black, Brown and White’ to which Gibbo added echo effect and Brian got his smoke machine working to give that blues club feel. It always brings back memories of the night I sang ‘Black, Brown and White’ in that cultural centre of the north Immingham, South Humberside, when afterwards a bloke pinned me to the wall and accused me of being a racist! Suffice to say I was unable to explain the subtle workings of irony to this particular individual - even though I was at pains to explain that the song was originally by a black blues singer.

On Friday 16th Feb we did the ‘Black Bull’ in East Halton and went down very well to a crowd that knew how to enjoy life - even if a gang of geordie contractors were making so much racket that I offered to turn down our amplifier so that they could get on with their conversation a bit better. The landlord was ill in bed - but gratifyingly after the gig he came downstairs said he really enjoyed our blues and re-booked us for Friday 4th May. Try and make it if you are reading this.

On Tuesday 6th March I am hosting the night at the ‘Tap and Spile’ in Grimsby where the headliner is Dave Speight and the Snake Kings. We saw Dave and his group on Sunday 11 Feb at the Sleepers Bar on Newlands Avenue in Hull. This bar has got a very cosmopolitan feel and a discerning audience - probably in part due to its proximity to the university. It was fantastic to see Dave again after all those years ( I haven’t seen him since we were at Leeds University together in 1969-70. He hasn’t lost any of his blues grit and magic and is still a cool (if a bit rounder) dude.
If you cant get to the Tap and Spile, I am playing with Gibbo and ”fingers’ John Shelton (’Blues on Tap’) at the ‘Nags Head’ pub in Wootton, (Near Ulceby and Immingham) on Friday 9th March. It looks a nice pub - well worth a visit.

Thanks to all for a ‘full house’ and a fantastic night at the Tap and Spile in Grimsby on Tuesday. I’ve got some great video from the night below, and a trio of wonderful pics taken by budding David Bailey, Oli Newton.

Don’t You Know It Hurts Me Too:

Download a high quality version (18MB .wmv) from:
www.newton-blues.com/media/it_hurts_me_too.wmv

Spider And The Fly:

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www.newton-blues.com/media/spider_and_the_fly.wmv

Don’t Forget My Name:

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www.newton-blues.com/media/dont_forget_my_name.wmv

Hard Pill To Swallow:

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www.newton-blues.com/media/hard_pill_to_swallow.wmv

I Saw The Light:

Download a high quality version (12MB .wmv) from:
www.newton-blues.com/media/i_saw_the_light.wmv

We’ll Meet Again:

Download a high quality version (13MB .wmv) from:
www.newton-blues.com/media/well_meet_again.wmv

Download a high quality version (22MB .wmv) from:
www.newton-blues.com/media/ride_em_on_down.wmv

Robert Petway was an African-American blues singer and guitarist.

Very little is known about Robert Petway. His birthplace is speculated to have been at or near J.F. Sligh Farm near Yazoo City, Mississippi, birthplace of his close friend and fellow bluesman Tommy McClennan. His birthdate is guessed at 1908, and the date and even the occurrance of his death is unknown. There is only one known picture of Petway, a publicicty photo from 1941. He only recorded a dozen songs, but his influences, by some accounts, include John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Jimi Hendrix

Like many bluesmen from the Mississippi Delta, Petway traveled around as a musician, playing at parties, roadhouses, and other venues available. Petway and McClennan often traveled and performed together. After McClennan had been in Chicago for a few years, Petway travelled north to join him and cut records.
One of Petways most influential songs is “Catfish Blues”, which he recorded in 1941. Muddy Waters used the lyrics and style of “Catfish Blues” for his first single “Rollin’ Stone”, the song from which the rock group The Rolling Stones chose their band name. There is debate on whether Petway deserves any credit for the Muddy Waters song, mostly stemming from the fact that blues musicians often borrow lines and verses from each other and often use common symbols and phrases that can’t be traced back to one source. There is even some speculation that Tommy McClennan wrote the version that Petway recorded. Max Haymes has written a well-researched article, Catfish Blues (Origins of a Blues) on the topic. When Honeyboy Edwards, a follower of Petway, was asked if Petway wrote the song, he replied, “He just made that song up and used to play it at them old country dances. He just made it up and kept it in his head.”

Download a high quality version (15MB .wmv) from:
www.newton-blues.com/media/fly_right_back.wmv

Fird Eaglin, Jr., also known as Snooks Eaglin or “Blind Snooks” Eaglin, is a blues and R&B guitarist and singer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1936.

Eaglin lost his sight not long after his first birthday after being stricken with glaucoma, and spent several years in the hospital with other ailments. Around the age of five Eaglin was given a guitar, with which he taught himself to play by listening to and playing with the radio. Being a mischievous young man, he was given the nickname “Snooks” after a character on the radio named Baby Snooks.

After a few years Eaglin dropped out of high school to play with the Flamingoes, a local band started by Allen Toussaint. He stayed with this band for several years, until its dissolution in the mid 50s.

Eaglin often took to playing in the street when he didn’t have enough studio or touring work; there he was found by Harry Oster, a folklorist from Louisiana State University. Oster made recording of Eaglin which later became records on Folkways, Folklyric, and Prestige labels.

His vocal style is reminiscent of Ray Charles; indeed, in the 50s, when he was in his late teens, he would sometimes bill himself as “Little” Ray Charles. He is generally regarded as a consistent and superb bluesman, perhaps best shown on the record That’s All Right (Heritage, 1961). He is equally capable on rollicking songs like the title track, and downtempo, lowdown blues melodies like The Walkin’ Blues.

Over the years, his ability to perfectly understand and make any song his own has earned him the nickname the “human jukebox.”

Eaglin later went on to record fine funk and soul flavored records in the 70s and 80s, cutting tracks with (usual New Orleans-based) musicians such as Ellis Marsalis, Smokey Johnson, and George Porter, Jr.

Eaglin’s most recent record came out in 2003, a live performance entitled Soul Train from Nawlins (P-vine Japan).

Download a high quality version (23MB .wmv) from:
www.newton-blues.com/media/rolling_with_the_blues.wmv

John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933, in Macclesfield, Cheshire) is a pioneering English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and has been influential in the careers of many instrumentalists, including Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor, Don Harris, Harvey Mandel, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser, Johnny Almond, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya and Jon Mark.

Mayall is the son of Murray Mayall, a guitarist and jazz music enthusiast. From an early age, he was drawn to the sounds of American blues players such as Leadbelly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith, and Eddie Lang, and taught himself to play the piano, guitars, and harmonica.

Mayall attended art college and then had three years of national service with the British Army in Korea. In 1956, he started playing blues with semi-professional bands named “The Powerhouse Four” and, later, “The Blues Syndicate”. Under the influence of Alexis Korner, he moved to London and formed “John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers”.

The band was always something of a training ground for blues musicians, and went through several changes of personnel, before the arrival of Eric Clapton, with whom they achieved their first commercial success. After Clapton left to form Cream, the Bluesbreakers took on a succession of other notable musicians, including Peter Green, John McVie, Kal David, and Mick Taylor. Eric Clapton is quoted as saying, “John Mayall has actually run an incredibly great school for musicians.”

In the early 1970s, Mayall achieved commercial success in the United States and moved to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. There, he was influential in the developing careers of musicians such as Blue Mitchell, Red Holloway, Larry Taylor, and Harvey Mandel.

Mayall has continued to play and tour, ever since, including reforming the Bluesbreakers in 1982.

In 2005, he was awarded an OBE in the Honours List.

A little blues number I recorded in May 2005. You can view the video direct from YouTube:

Download a high quality version (21MB .wmv) from:
www.newton-blues.com/media/louise.wmv

A small blues collection played, sung and recorded by Steven J. Newton. (From hereon referred to as me, myself and I)

Anjie:
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Black, Brown & White:
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Candy Man:
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Cocaine Lil:
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Don’t Forget My Name:
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Hard Pill To Swallow:
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Hold Me:
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Hurt The One You Love:
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Kill The Blues:
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Love In Vain:
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No Way To Get Along:
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Sit Right Down (And Write A Letter):
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Smokestack Lightnin’:
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Spider & The Fly:
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Sportin’ Life Blues:
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Sweet Chariot:
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We’ll Meet Again:
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