Biography

Click Here for more Delmark Releases!

CONTACT DELMARK RECORDS: Any questions, needs, interview requests, etc contact Elbio Barilari elbio@delmark.com & Kevin Johnson promo@delmark.com, please COPY both us us.

Delmark: 60 Years Of Blues
Delmark DE 917
Compact Disc (2013)

Junior Wells, Magic Sam, Little Walter, Big Joe Williams, Sleepy John Estes, Tail Dragger, Quintus McCormick, Sharon Lewis, Eddie C. Campbell, Linsey Alexander, Toronzo Cannon, Lurrie Bell, Giles Corey, Mississippi Heat, Detroit Junior, Studebaker John.


Founded in 1953 by Bob Koester, Delmark Records will be 70 years old in 2023. Delmark continues to record jazz and blues now under Julia A. Miller's leadership. To celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2013, Delmark released this special CD featuring previously unissued performances by blues legends and new songs from Delmark’s line-up of exciting talent. Tracks include an unissued Junior Wells song from the South Side Blues Jam session featuring Otis Spann; Magic Sam from a 1968 live performance, an alternate take from the Little Walter Trio featuring Muddy Waters which has never been on CD; Toronzo Cannon, Studebaker John, Linsey Alexander, Quintus McCormick, Lurrie Bell, Eddie C. Campbell, Sharon Lewis and much more.

Also,, get ready for the upcoming Delmark blues & jazz anthologies to be released in 2023 to celebrate our 70th anniversary!


1 Studebaker John's Maxwell Street Kings– When They Played The Real Blues 3:55
2 Junior Wells– Rock Me Baby 5:50
3 Linsey Alexander– Raffle Ticket 5:51
4 Magic Sam– I Don't Want No Woman 3:40
5 Quintus McCormick– Fifty / Fifty 3:20
6 Little Walter Trio– Just Keep Lovin' Her (Alternate) 2:14
7 Giles Corey's Stoned Soul– Oh, Mademoiselle 4:30
8 Eddie C. Campbell– Big World 3:29
9 Big Joe Williams– "44" Blues 2:06
10 Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire– Blues Train 4:05
11 Lurrie Bell– She's A Good 'Un 4:37
12 Mississippi Heat– Let's Live It Up! 3:50
13 Detroit Jr.*– Key To The Highway 2:38
14 Tail Dragger*– Tend To Your Business 4:22
15 Sleepy John Estes– Stop That Thing 3:21
16 Toronzo Cannon– John The Conquer Root

Delmark 60 Years of Blues
Delmark DE 917

At first Delmark focused primarily on artists whom most would call “traditional” but in 1965, the label released Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues, an uncompromising blast of electrified urban juke-joint aggression. Magic Sam’s West Side Soul followed in 1967, and within a few years Delmark’s roster of younger-generation artists had grown substantially. Today, the label is the home of some of the world’s leading contemporary blues and jazz artists, even as its reissues of vintage-era recordings remain an important part of its ongoing activities. From the stripped-down acoustic virtuosity of Big Joe Williams and Sleepy John Estes through the heavy-metal thunder of Toronzo Cannon, we see the ongoing evolution of America’s native art form restless in its refusal to stay put. Notes by David Whiteis enclosed

1. Studebaker John’s Maxwell Street Kings When They Played The Real Blues 3:55
*2. Junior Wells Rock Me Baby 5:50
3. Linsey Alexander Raffle Ticket 5:51
*4. Magic Sam I Don’t Want No Woman 3:40
5. Quintus McCormick Fifty/Fifty 3:20
*6. Little Walter Trio Just Keep Lovin’ Her (alternate) 2:14
*7. Giles Corey’s Stoned Soul Oh, Mademoiselle 4:30
8. Eddie C. Campbell Big World 3:29
*9. Big Joe Williams “44” Blues 2:06
10. Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire Blues Train 4:05
11. Lurrie Bell She’s A Good ‘Un 4:37
12. Mississippi Heat Let’s Live It Up! 3:50
*13. Detroit Jr. Key To The Highway 2:38
14. Tail Dragger Tend To Your Business 4:22
*15. Sleepy John Estes Stop That Thing 3:21
16. Toronzo Cannon John The Conquer Root 6:17
* previously unissued

CP 2013 Delmark Records
Send for free catalog of jazz & blues:
Delmark Records, 4121 N. Rockwell,
Chicago, IL 60618
www.delmark.com


1. Studebaker John’s Maxwell Street Kings When They Played The Real Blues 3:55 (John Grimaldi, GT Hawk Publ., BMI) Studebaker John, vocal, guitar, harmonica; Rick Kreher, guitar; Bob Halaj, bass; Steve Cushing, drums January, 2013 from Kingsville Jukin’ (830)

2. Junior Wells Rock Me Baby 5:50 (McKinley Morganfield, Arc Music/Watertoons, BMI) Junior Wells, vocal, harmonica; Louis Myers, guitar; Otis Spann, piano; Ernest Johnson, bass; Fred Below, drums December 30, 1969 from the recording session of South Side Blues Jam (628)

3. Linsey Alexander Raffle Ticket 5:51 (Linsey Alexander, Hoochieman Music, BMI) Linsey Alexander, vocal, guitar; Breezy Rodio, Mike Wheeler, guitar; Roosevelt Purifoy, piano; Greg McDaniel, bass; James Wilson, drums March, 2012 from Been There Done That (822)

4. Magic Sam I Don’t Want No Woman 4:28 (Don Robey, Songs of Universal Inc., BMI) Magic Sam, vocal, guitar; Big Mojo Elem, bass; Bob Richey, drums. June 22, 1968 from Live at the Avant Garde (833) Produced by James Charne

5. Quintus McCormick Fifty/Fifty 3:20 (Quintus McCormick, Quintus Songs, ASCAP) Quintus McCormick, vocal, guitar; Roosevelt Purifoy, piano; Lovely “JR” Jones, bass; Jeremiah Thomas, drums; Kenny Anderson, trumpet; Hank Ford, tenor sax; Willie Henderson, baritone sax; Ted Reynolds, harmonica. November 19, 2008 from Hey Jodie! (801)

6. Little Walter Trio Just Keep Lovin’ Her (alternate) 2:14 (Walter Jacobs, P.D.)
Little Walter, vocal, harmonica; Muddy Waters, guitar; Baby Face Leroy, guitar, bass drum January, 1950 from the recording session of The Blues World of Little Walter (648)

7. Giles Corey’s Stoned Soul Oh, Mademoiselle 4:30 (Giles Corey) Giles Corey, vocal, guitar, Marty Sammon, clavinet; Joewaun Scott, bass; Rick King, drums, tambourine July 2013 from Giles Corey’s Stoned Soul (834) (coming in 2014)

8. Eddie C. Campbell Big World 3:29 (Eddie C. Campbell, Drop Top Music, BMI)
Eddie C. Campbell, vocal, guitar; Karl “Lil’ Daddy” Outten, organ; Dario Golliday, bass; Marty Binder, drums; Chuck Parrish, trumpet; Sam Burkhardt, tenor sax; Juli Wood, baritone sax December, 2008 from Tear This World Up (799)

9. Big Joe Williams “44” Blues 2:06 (P.D.) Big Joe Williams, vocal, 7 string guitar. June 4, 1960 from an unreleased private tape.

10. Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire Blues Train 4:05 (Sharon Lewis, ASCAP) Sharon Lewis, vocal; Bruce James, guitar, backing vocal; Melvin Smith, bass; Tony Dale, drums, backing vocal; Billy Branch, harmonica; Deitra Farr, backing vocal May, 2011 from The Real Deal (816)

11. Lurrie Bell She’s A Good ‘Un 4:37 (John H. Eskridge, Conrad Music, BMI) Lurrie Bell, vocal, guitar; Roosevelt Purifoy, piano; Melvin Smith, bass; Willie Hayes, drums February, 2013 from Blues In My Soul (829)

12. Mississippi Heat Let’s Live It Up! 3:50 (Pierre Lacocque, Ransart Music, BMI)
Inetta Visor, vocal; Pierre Lacocque, harmonica; Giles Corey, guitar; Chris “Hambone” Cameron, organ; Stephen Howard, bass; Andrew “Blaze” Thomas, drums
November 2009 from Let’s Live It Up! (807)

13. Detroit Jr. Key To The Highway 2:38 (Broonzy/Segar, Songs of Universal Inc., BMI) Detroit Jr., vocal, piano August 2004 from the recording session of Blues On The Internet (777)

14. Tail Dragger Tend To Your Business 4:22 (James Y. Jones, Leric Music, BMI)
Tail Dragger, vocal; Lurrie Bell, Kevin Shanahan, guitar; Billy Branch, harmonica; Bob Stroger, bass; Kenny Smith, drums July 16, 2005 from My Head is Bald, Live at Vern’s Friendly Lounge (782, DVD 1782)

15. Sleepy John Estes Stop That Thing 3:21 (Nixon/Estes, P.D.) Sleepy John Estes, vocal, guitar; Hammie Nixon, harmonica November, 1974 from Live In Japan (coming in 2014)

16. Toronzo Cannon John The Conquer Root 6:17 (Toronzo Cannon, Cannonball Express, ASCAP) Toronzo Cannon, vocal, guitar; Lawrence Gladney, guitar; Roosevelt Purifoy, organ; Larry Williams, bass; Brian “BJ” Jones, drums; Omar Coleman, harmonica March, 2013 from John The Conquer Root (831)

Album Production and Supervision: Robert G. Koester and Steve Wagner
Cover Art: John Froehlich
Design: Dave Forte/ForDzign

Also available Delmark – 60 Years of Jazz (916)

Send for free catalog of jazz & blues:
Delmark Records, 1 800 684 3480, 4121 N. Rockwell,
Chicago, IL 60618
www.delmark.com
CP 2013 Delmark Records


In 1952, when Bob Koester opened the Blue Note Record Shop at 3549 Laclede in St. Louis, he wasn’t thinking of himself as a blues mogul. Although he’d long admired vintage-era blues performers such as Blind Boy Fuller, Big Joe Williams, Memphis Minnie, and Big Bill Broonzy, his main interest was jazz, primarily of the “traditional” variety, and his focus was on acquiring vintage jazz 78s and re-selling them. Soon, though, with the help of a music-loving St. Louis policeman named Charlie O’Brien, he began finding blues musicians such as vocalist Edith Johnson and pianists Speckled Red and “Hi” Henry Brown, still living in the St. Louis area. Most were legendary among aficionados but hadn’t recorded – or, in many cases, even performed – for years. By this time, Koester had moved his store to Delmar Avenue, and he’d also launched a record label, which he originally called “Delmar.” These artists and others now had the chance to introduce a new generation to their music – some, in fact, revitalized their careers as live entertainers for a new (and primarily white) audience.
In 1958 Koester moved to Chicago, where he’s been based ever since (his Jazz Record Mart, now at 27 E. Illinois St., is an internationally renowned mecca for blues and jazz record buyers and collectors). At first, his label still focused primarily on artists whom most would call “traditional” – Big Joe Williams, Sleepy John Estes, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, et al. – but in 1965, Delmark released harpist Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues, an uncompromising blast of electrified urban juke-joint aggression. Magic Sam’s Wes Side Soul followed in 1967, and within a few years Delmark’s roster of younger-generation musicians and singers had grown substantially. Today, the label is the home of some of the world’s leading contemporary blues and jazz artists, even as its reissues of vintage-era recordings remain an important part of its ongoing activities.
Obviously, as this set exemplifies, Delmark’s “purist” days are long gone. From the stripped-down acoustic virtuosity of Big Joe Williams and Sleepy John Estes through the heavy-metal thunder of Toronzo Cannon, we see the ongoing evolution of America’s native art form, as restless in its refusal to stay put as the famously peripatetic Big Joe himself was until the end of his life. (Especially notable are several previously unreleased tracks, including a rare private recording of Big Joe, taped in California in 1960). The spirit of the blues nonetheless remains strong and triumphant – or, as Delmark’s Sharon Lewis likes to remind us, “It’s all blues if it comes from the heart.”

Studebaker John & the Maxwell Street Kings: “When They Played the Real Blues”

Guitarist/harpist/vocalist John Grimaldi has been performing and recording as Studebaker John since the late ‘70s. In 2010 he joined Delmark, assembled a roots-rich crew proficient in the postwar style, and dubbed them the Maxwell Street Kings in honor of his initial blues inspiration at the hands of slide guitarist Hound Dog Taylor many years ago in the city’s legendary open-air Maxwell Street Market. Here, he and the Kings give us a hard-grinding, nostalgic testimonial to the blues tradition they revere – it’s from their 2013 Delmark release, Kingsville Jukin’.
Junior Wells: “Rock Me Baby” (Previously unreleased)
Harpist Junior Wells was a giant of the postwar blues era, and he remained a major figure until his death in 1998. This version of a Muddy Waters standard is from the sessions that resulted in South Side Blues Jam, Wells’ 1970 follow-up to Hoodoo Man Blues, his landmark 1965 Delmark debut. Wells, who’d originally signed on with Muddy’s band in 1952, is joined here by fellow Muddy alum Otis Spann on piano, along with bassist Earnest Johnson (who later also hooked up with Muddy) and pioneering blues drummer Fred Below.

Linsey Alexander: “Raffle Ticket”
Guitarist Linsey Alexander was born in 1942 in the deep blues country of Holly Springs, Mississippi. By the early ‘60s, he’d learned guitar and moved to Chicago, where he began to make a name in the competitive local music scene. In 2012, he expanded his reputation further with his Delmark debut, Been There Done That, a disk that highlighted both his downhome background and his eclectic embrace of modern influences ranging from deep soul to funk-propelled R&B. “Raffle Ticket,” though, finds him rooted in the postwar sound; it also showcases his witty wordcraft and improvisational imagination.

Magic Sam: “Don’t Want No Woman”
Sam Maghett was one of the late-‘50s/early-‘60s trailblazers who helped develop the highly amplified, emotionally perfervid style, laced with R&B toughness, that later became known as “West Side” blues. Sam’s Delmark LPs, West Side Soul (1967) and Black Magic (1968), were internationally feted, but he died in December of 1968 before he could really capitalize on their success. This track, recorded that same year at the Avant Garde Coffee House in Wisconsin, is from Delmark’s upcoming Live At the Avant Garde, which will consist entirely of previously unreleased material.

Quintus McCormick: “Fifty/Fifty”
Quintus McCormick was a rock & roller until 1990 or so, when he joined bassist J.W. Williams’ Chi-Town Hustlers and received what he has called his blues “anointing;” a little later, when he heard Albert King’s inspirational “Make A Way,” he knew he’d found his lifelong musical path. Like King, McCormick incorporates elements of soul and funk in his blues; his voice is both seductive and pugnacious, and his guitar playing emphasizes musical and emotional focus rather than pyrotechnic showmanship. “Fifty/Fifty,” from McCormick’s 2009 Delmark disk Hey Jodie, finds him in a fatback, Memphis-tinged blues groove.

Little Walter Trio “Just Keep Lovin’ Her” (alternate)
One of the most fabled recording sessions in Chicago blues history occurred in January of 1950 when harmonica savant Little Walter joined Muddy Waters and percussionist Baby Face Leroy Foster to cut some sides for the Parkway label. The result was some of the most thrilling blues ever recorded – as documented on the 1994 Delmark compilation, The Blues World of Little Walter. This is an outtake from that session – if you want to hear what postwar blues sounded like at the very moment of its transition from living Delta folklore to modernist urban pop music, here it is.

Giles Corey: “Oh, Mademoiselle”
Guitarist Giles Corey’s credits include appearances with the likes of Billy Branch, Otis Rush, Syl Johnson, and Bo Diddley. He was also a founding member of the funk/blues/rock& roll powerhouse Lubriphonic; later, he and Lubriphonic’s drummer, Rick King, formed King Corey, continuing in the same roadhouse-rocking tradition but taking things closer to the bluesy root. In 2014, Corey will release Stoned Soul, his first-ever CD as a leader, on Delmark. This track gives a tantalizing preview of what that disk will have to offer: no-nonsense modern Chicago blues, rich in history yet contemporary and forward-looking.
Eddie C. Campbell: “Big World”
Eddie C. Campbell’s history includes stints with such luminaries as Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, and Jimmy Reed; in the 1970s, he worked with both Koko Taylor and Willie Dixon. His big career break, though, was his 1977 album, King Of the Jungle on the Mr. Blues label (later reissued on Rooster Blues), which garnered him international recognition. Subsequent recordings have shown his antic lyric surrealism and shuffle-and-grease soulfulness to be undiminished – this track, from his 2009 Delmark debut, Tear This World Up, is a classic Campbell meld of irrepressible wit, deep blues feeling, and impeccable musicianship.

Big Joe Williams: “‘44' Blues”
Big Joe Williams, the man who first recorded “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (in 1935) and is considered one of the greatest (and last) of the itinerant acoustic Delta bluesmen, introduced himself to Bob Koester in 1951 and soon became one of Delmark’s most important recording artists. This recording, made privately in California in 1960, finds Williams working out on a venerable Delta theme, originally a pianist’s showcase, that had been updated in 1954 in a ferocious electrified version by Howlin’ Wolf. Big Joe was almost 60 years old when he recorded this, but the music still bristles with his legendary pugnacity and emotional fire.

Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire: “Blues Train”
Vocalist Sharon Lewis made her Delmark debut in 2007 as a guest vocalist on guitarist Dave Specter’s Live in Chicago, but her real coming-out party was 2011's The Real Deal, her first Delmark project as a front-line artist. It showcased her stylistic versatility, as she ranged from 12-bar barnburners through covers of soul and R&B standards to heartfelt spiritual meditations and barbed social commentary. In “Blues Train” she leads us on a jubilant Windy City pub crawl, complete with shout-outs to some of Chicago’s best-known blues clubs and their proprietors. Party on!

Lurrie Bell: “She’s A Good ‘Un”
Lurrie Bell, son of the late harmonica master Carrie Bell, is one of today’s premier blues artists. His guitar work seethes with passion, yet it’s focused and disciplined; his voice is rough-edged and muscular, capable of conveying both emotional intensity and vulnerability, often over the course of a single song. This track, from his autobiographically titled 2013 Delmark CD Blues In My Soul, finds him reprising a well-known Otis Rush standard – a daunting task, but Bell pulls it off with panache.

Mississippi Heat: “Let’s Live It Up!”
Harpist Pierre Lacocque’s Mississippi Heat are a roots-oriented band who have become internationally renowned as dedicated and eloquent carriers of the Chicago blues torch. Mississippi Heat has featured several vocalists, such as Deitra Farr, who’ve gone on to establish prestigious careers; here, on the title track from their 2009 Delmark release, Inetta Visor proves herself a more than worthy successor to Deitra and the others who’ve come before her.

Detroit Jr.: “Key To The Highway”
Arkansas-born pianist Emery “Detroit Jr.” Williams gigged locally around Chicago for almost two decades before Howlin’ Wolf recruited him in 1969 (he remained Wolf’s keyboardist until Wolf died in 1976). He also recorded sporadically through the years, but he was best known as a live entertainer – his hoarse vocals, flamboyant showmanship, hard-driving piano style, and verbal wit (he penned Albert King’s “Call My Job”) were inevitable crowd-pleasers. This previously unreleased version of a Big Bill Broonzy song made famous by Little Walter is from the sessions for 2004's Blues On the Internet, his Delmark debut as a leader.

Tail Dragger “Tend To Your Business” 4:22
James “Tail Dragger” Jones is among the last of the legion of Howlin’ Wolf imitators who populated Chicago’s West Side blues scene in the 1970s and ‘80s (his stage name is taken from one of Wolf’s best-known songs). Dragger’s irony-toughened lyric wit and corrugated Wolfian rasp are showcased on this offering from his 2005 Delmark debut, My Head is Bald: Live at Vern’s Friendly Lounge. Recorded in performance at an urban juke deep in the heart of Chicago’s West Side, it’s a Saturday night blues party come to life.

Sleepy John Estes “Stop That Thing”
Sleepy John Estes’ 1930s/early-‘40s recordings (including “Someday Baby,” the prototype for the now-standard “Worried Life Blues”), with their vivid lyric imagery intensified by Estes’ high-pitched, crying vocals, are among the blues’ most spellbinding. Long thought dead, he was found living in an abandoned sharecropper’s shack near Brownsville, Tennessee, by filmmaker David Blumenthal in 1962. Blumenthal sent word to Bob Koester, who seized the opportunity to introduce this blues legend to a new generation. This track, which also features Estes’ longtime companion Hammie Nixon on harmonica, is taken from an upcoming, previously unreleased live recording that Estes made in Japan in 1974.

Toronzo Cannon John The Conquer Root 6:17
Since his late-‘90s emergence on the Chicago scene, Toronzo Cannon has become a steady presence as both a bandleader and a sideman with his ability to graft eloquent lyric storytelling with emotionally intense, finely honed musical craftsmanship . He’s also been received enthusiastically overseas. Cannon’s 2011 Delmark debut, Leaving Mood, earned international critical acclaim; this is the title track from his 2013 follow-up, and it shows him updating venerable folk-blues lyric imagery in an aggressive, post-psychedelic-metal/blues context.

– David Whiteis