Well, the second show was a real blast. Lots of great music, a more comfortable experience in presenting the show and all around a more natural flow. Even got a request…which I will play on the next show, so listen out for Fats Waller!
This weeks Three For Thursday featured Canadian blues icon, Dutch Mason, a performer I saw
and heard on more occasions then I could ever remember. Hard living and hard playing, Dutchie personified the stereotypical bluesman, and he never complained and always put on a great show…sometimes under very trying circumstances.
Born Norman Byron Mason on 19 February 1938 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada, Dutch Mason, was a Canadian musician of notable talent.
Dutch started performing as a musician in the mid-1950s, usually playing rock and roll or rockabilly standards as well as traditional music from the Canadian maritimes.[2] A true artist, he began playing the Blues long before Blues became popular just because he liked the genre and felt it spoke to him and society in general.
In the 1970s his career took off as he became known as a blues artist and toured the country regularly, performing at the legendary Albert Hall in Toronto and the Rising Sun in Montreal.
In 1998, during his 60th birthday celebration, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recorded a live tribute CD staged at the Rebecca Cohen Auditorium in Halifax that includes performances by the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, Sam Moon and Frank MacKay. Joe Murphy, Matt Minglewood and several more.
In 1994, Dutch he was nominated for a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of The Grammy’s) for Best Blues album and in 2005 was nominated for Best Blues album at the East Coast Music Awards.
He was inducted into the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2005.
Sadly The Prime Minister of The Blues (as he was affectionately called by almost everyone) passed away on 23 December 2006.
He is survived by his sons Charlie Mason and Garrett Mason, who won the 2005 Juno Award for Best Blues album.
Source: Wikipedia, Canadian Press
Image: www.dutchmason.com
When the Levee Breaks” is a blues song written and first recorded by husband and wife Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929. The song is in reaction to the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
It was famously re-worked by English rock group Led Zeppelin as the last song on their fourth album, released in 1971. The lyrics in Led Zeppelin’s version were partially based on the original recording. Many other artists have also recorded versions of the song or played it live.
Source: Wikipedia
Early "Shock Rocker"
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins…. Famous for his powerful, operatic vocal delivery and wildly theatrical performances… hesometimes used macabre props onstage, which made him one of the few early shock rockers. Apparently…He was also a serial womanizer….Subsequent to his passing in February 2000 it became known that he left behind an estimated 55 children… upon investigation, that number “soon became perhaps 75 offspring”
When did he have time to perform………………….on stage I mean?!
Source: Wikipedia
