Tale #17.Sublime Christine McVie

The pianist in Chicken Shack - Christine Perfect - had a crush on the guitarist in Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green but in August 1968 she married bass player John McVie instead. Her band had just recorded and released the album "OK Ken". She left the group to set up and run the new family home.

One of the tracks was the cover of a song written by Etta James and her friend Ellington Jordan during her visits to him while in prison. The vocal on Chicken Shack's version caught a different mood to Etta's rendition: a sublime sweetness that only made the pain in the lyrics more intense. The single "I'd Rather Go Blind" got to number 14 in the charts early in 1969 and Christine McVie had to be coaxed back from "retirement". She didn't stay long with them and shortly joined her husband in Fleetwood Mac. That's another story.

STAR BLUES on 24th April 2011 did a special on British artists in blues and again used the 1997 anthology "Blue Horizon Story, vol.1" as source for the track.

Tale #16.Hubert Sumlin in at the start

The lack of take-up for Mike Vernon's R&B combo "The Mojo Men" lead to his new project, the magazine "R&B Monthly". The editorial of the January 1965 issue canvassed for support if the magazine were to issue a 7-inch single with new recordings by Howlin' Wolf's guitarist Hubert Sumlin.

In truth, Sumlin had already been to Mike's home and cut two songs in the living room; the response to the magazine was such that Mike set up the Blue Horizon label in February 1965 to release "Across The Board" b/w "Sumlin Boogie" by Hubert Sumlin (Blue Horizon 1000, rec. 1964) The single was sold by mail order from R&B Monthly magazine for 8/6 plus 1/- post and packing. Just 99 copies were pressed because the threshold for Purchase Tax was 100 - payable at the time of manufacture not after sale. By April they had all been sold.

STAR BLUES on 17th April took the track from the three disc anthology complied by Mike Vernon: "The Blue Horizon Story 1965-1970, Vol. 1" on Columbia.

Tale #15. Chuck checks in with Chess

Former hairdresser, Charles Edward Anderson Berry (born St. Louis October 1926) asked Muddy Waters after a gig how to get started and was told to take his music to Phil and Leonard Chess. In early 1955 he had a country sounding song called "Ida Red" that was good enough provided the title didn't sound like the name of a chicken, though where the name "Maybellene" came from wasn't clear. The single Maybellene / Wee Wee Hours - Chuck Berry (Chess. recorded May 1955) was a huge hit that had one more suprise for Chuck when he got his cheque for royalties: he found he was sharing the proceeds with Alan Freed, a New York dj he'd never met. The Chess label (like other labels at the time) knew the costs of having radio plays and hit records.

STAR BLUES on 10th april 2011 went to the Chess anthology "Chuck Berry: His Best, Vol.1" issued by MCA as part of their Chess Masters series.

Tale #14. A Songster and a Holler

Chris Strachwitz started to love blues from listening to 78s and did some early recordings of Jesse Fuller in 1954. After a spell in the Services, he heard Lightnin' Hopkins and wanted to record him live in a juke joint. His search took him to Navasota with his friend Mack McCormick where they were directed to enquire of Peg-Leg at the railway station. They came across a 65-year old who played in the songster tradition: Mance Lipscomb [born 9th April 1895] - his simple, graceful playing were stylistically far from Hopkins but both McCormick and Strachwitz knew they'd found the debut recordings for a brand new imprint. So it was in November 1970 that Chris and family gatherred round the kitchen table stcking labels and putting albums into sleeves - the album was "Texas Songster", the first of several Lipscomb did in the next few years for the new Arhoolie label.

The name Arhoolie was a mishearing of the answer a singer gave to a question on his music: the nervous stutter of "arw" slurred into "hoolie" meaning holler. STAR BLUES on 3rd April 2011 took the risque track "'Bout A Spoonful" from a label cd sampler "15 Country Blues Classics".

Tale #13. An Alligator and a Hound Dog

The Chicago live blues scene was blessed in 1971 with the energetic Hound Dog Taylor [rn: Theodore Roosevelt Taylor, born 12th April 1915]. The young Bruce Iglauer was impressed enough with a gig he saw to ask his then boss Bob Koester to sign Taylor to the Delmark label. Bob wasn't interested so Bruce himself raised enough to realise the project himself. With $900 and a two track recorder, the album "Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers" was cut and mixed as they went along. The band brought their low-tech euipment from their club gigs, nothing more was needed to capture their unique gifts. So was the birth of the Alligator label, still based in Chicago today. Within a couple of years Taylor was dead but his oft-quoted epitaph was "he couldn't play shit but he sure made it sound good".

On STAR BLUES on 3rd April 2011 we chose "Ain't Got Nobody" from the cd anthology "Hound Dog Taylor - Deluxe Edition" [Alligator].