Claude Bourbon
16 September 2010
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THURSDAY 16th September 2010
St. Kyneburgha Church, Castor, Peterborough
‘Classically trained French guitar virtuoso with an eclectic love of jazz, blues, Spanish and medieval music.'
Born in France in the early 60’s, Claude Bourbon grew up in Switzerland, where he was classically trained for many years. This finger picking guitarist has performed all over the world where he has crafted an unbelievable fusion of classical,jazz, Spanish, Latin and strains of Western folk together with ethereal Eastern influences.
The unique Monsieur Bourbon is a formidable performer and his inimitable style incorporates all five digits on each hand dancing independently but in unison, plucking, picking and strumming at such speed and precision that his fingers often seem to melt into a blur. Thousands of people in the UK, Europe and USA have enjoyed listening to this virtuoso and for the majority of his audience it is an experience that compels them to return again to hear and watch him play.
Some of Claude’s cited influences allow us a fascinating insight into this remarkable musician; Paco De Lucia: Richie Blackmore; Joaquin Rodrigo; JJ Cale, and JS Bach.
The above is taken from Claude’s website.
When I received an email from Claude’s management asking us if we would like to book him for Shakedown Blues show my initial reaction to the blues/classical/jazz/Spanish/Latin and Eastern influences was ‘no thank you’. Intrigued I went to his website, listened to ‘Rodrigo’,was facinated and immediately booked him for a St Kyneburgha Church concert. I then dumped ‘Blues’ from our logo for this show. After all Shakedown did book Mimi Farina at The Halcyon in the mid 60’s. This will be a classy show in a very classy venue.
Gerard
Little Willie Littlefield
9 October 2010
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Saturday 9th October
Live at The Village Hall, Castor, Peterborough
Willie Littlefield was born in 1931 in El Campo, Texas. Seventeen years later he recorded his first record ‘Little Willie’s Boogie’ with his school friend Don Wilkerson on saxophone for the small Houston based Eddies Label. Three more 78’s followed which led to a recording contract with the much larger Modern Corporation and relocation to Los Angeles.
In the late 40’s/early 50’s the California scene was awash with black migrants from Texas all working and keen to party. Their music of choice was a combination of hard Texas blues with uptown cool. Charles Brown and Joe Liggins ruled the roost and Willie, with Don by his side, eased right alongside them. He was ‘hot to trot’ and began a mammoth recording spree with Modern and later with Federal that lasted four years.
A prolific songwriter and excellent boogie based pianist – his idols were Albert Ammonds and Pete Johnson – his recordings during this period are timeless examples of West Coast R&B. Stella accompanists Wilkerson, John Handy and Johnny Moore all ooze class. Ace Records in London have issued two superb CD’s 503 and 736 of this material which included his big hit ‘Its Midnight (No Place To Go)’ and the classics ‘Drinking Hadacol’ and ‘KC Loving’ which Leiber and Stoller re-wrote as ‘Kansas City’ for Wilbert Harrison.
In 1957 Willie switched to Rhythm Records but Rock and Roll was coming and, despite some excellent tracks with the great Johnny Heartsman on guitar, Willie and the west coast sound were for yesterday’s people. Don Wilkerson had by now left to join Ray Charles’ band and Willie chose to move to San Jose where he made a living playing local bars and clubs for a slowly ageing audience. No one called and the golden age was gone.
1n 1975 the Blues Connoisseur Label, ran by a blues enthusiast, recorded Willie and issued a couple of limited edition singles. These were reviewed in Blues Unlimited and the world woke up to ‘Willies Boogie’ once more. He was booked into the fledgling San Francisco Blues Festival and Willie hit the road again.
In 1980 Willie was asked to play for a French Jazz Festival and recorded for the Paris Record Label. More European dates quickly followed and two years later, whilst he was in Holland, he met a Dutch lady, fell in love and settled in the Netherlands.
Years of concerts, festivals and seemingly endless recordings dates followed with Willie and his wife constantly travelling throughout Europe. He even managed the odd stop over in England including a 1985 trip for Ace Records which yielded the album ‘Happy Payday’ and a packed Hammersmith Hall concert. Then around 1998 Willie announced his retirement and that, we thought, was that.
In 2005 we began to pester Willie to come over to Castor for a Shakedown concert, without, initially, any sort of success. Then suddenly we received a call telling us that he was ready to roll and a few false dawns later we managed to actually set a date. In May 2006 Willie flew in for an amazingly physical bout with the battered Castor Village Hall piano, which had been repaired, renovated and tuned especially for the event. In 2007 both he and the piano were fresh enough for a second round and it was a great pleasure to have presented one of the last remaining practitioners of the old school boogie woogie and jump blues in this format on both occasions.
However,after the second concert, when the audience had left the Village Hall, Willie climbed back onto the stage and began playing the beautiful rolling California Blues of his youth. The Shakedown clean-up team were transfixed. Songs by Floyd Dixon, Charles Brown, Amos Milburn and so on flowed from the stage. An hour later, on the way home, I asked Willie if he would be willing to present an evening which concentrated on him playing and reminising about his friends and rivals from these long gone days. He agreed, but, for a variety of reasons, it has taken us three years to make it happen - but then the best things are always worth waiting for!
Doug MacLeod
13 November 2010
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Live at The Village Hall, Castor, Peterborough
Brilliant singer, songwriter, guitarist and raconteur from L.A.
Doug MacLeod was born in Virginia circa 1950 and raised in St Louis. He has overcome abuse and a crippling stutter to become a very highly regarded guitarist and singer songwriter on the L.A music scene. His love for blues was nurtured by a mis-spent youth prowling the bludgeoning St. Louis scene on the ‘funky’ side of the city. Here he heard and befriended Albert King, Little Milton and Ike and Tina Turner amongst others.
Enlisting in the Navy he was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia and spent his free time playing and singing to fellow sailors in the rough, downtown blues bars. After discharge he signed on to the Berklee School of Music in Boston for a four-year jazz course. Post graduation he went on the road eventually winding up in Los Angeles where he began running with George Smith and Smokey Wilson around the booming California blues scene. It was here that he befriended Pee Wee Crayton who would sit in on Doug's regular Sunday gigs and Doug made his recording debut as the bass player on Pee Wee Crayton's Murray Recordings. It was also here that Doug recorded the wonderful ‘No Road Back Home’ album for Hightone, which was crammed full of original songs. Since then he has worked solidly in the blues field writing and recording a further eight excellent albums and becoming a consummate live performer, weaving tales of the road together with performances of songs inspired by these experiences. Many of these songs have been covered by the likes of Albert Collins and Joe Louis Walker, which speak volumes for his stature amongst his peers. James Jensen of Acoustic Guitar Magazine noted his guitar playing in saying that ‘ Real excitement is created by Macleod’s highly rhythmic acoustic guitar’. (Personally I believe it is in the economy of notes played where his true genius lies)
In the last couple of years Doug has seriously moved up in profile and has cracked both the Asian and Australian markets and is often appearing at festival circuits around the world. I speculated last year that we probably would soon no longer be able to afford him but thankfully we have been able to book him recently at short notice ‘one more time’.
Cheryl Renee Christmas Party
11 December 2010
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The Stamford Arts Centre
Saturday 11th December 2010
The Village Hall, Castor, Peterborough
Cheryl Renee was born in Cincinnati circa 1953 and grew up listening to the local rock and R&B stations. She took some piano lessons in elementary school but after that, for the most part, she taught herself. At seventeen she took her first professional job and four years later took to the road. Touring with ‘top 40 show bands’ she travelled the world with the U.S.O for the next eleven years. She then married and divorced Keith Little, worked with the Randall Blues Band, moved to Boston and was one of the opening acts for the inauguration of the original ‘House of the Blues’ in Massachusetts. Returning to Cincinnati she released her first CD ‘I Believe You Know The Blues’ which is very good. She has a great gospel based singing style and is a lovely pianist. Her latest album ‘Live’ gives us an insight into her raucous stage show and is very enjoyable. Both CD’s are on the Chickenbutt Label.
The playlist on both of these albums shows a broad knowledge of the 50’s/60’s blues scene and includes ‘Roll With Me Henry’, ‘Tramp’, ‘I’m Getting Along Alright’, ‘Come On In This House’, ‘Blow Top Blues’, ‘I’ll Play The Blues For You’ and ‘Driving Wheel’. These and much, much more should make this a not to be missed party night.