16 Hours of Virtual Blues Benefit

3 min ago

16 Hours of Free Virtual Blues Today

Talented live performers and DJ's in Second Life, have volunteered to stream 16 hours of non-stop blues today for a free concert to benefit the The Autism Society of America. This program can be heard at http://stream.bluesforautism.org:11308 through 12 Midnight Pacific Coast Time. The Blues For Autism 2009 Main Event is 8:00am DJ IronGut McCallister; 9:00am Artist Danny & Randy; 10:00am DJ Joelle Lustre; 11:00am Live Artist Jimmy49 Dukes; 12:00pm Live Artist Allister Westland; 1:00pm Live Artist Jimmy49 Dukes; 2:00pm DJ Lucinda Bergbahn; 3:00pm Live Artist Detritus Rau; 4:00pm Live Artist Srv4u Conacher; 5:00pm DJ Fiery Otaared; 6:00pm Live Artist Tone Uriza; 7:00pm Live Artist Von Johin & Daughter Kelly; 8:00pm DJ Angellica Lemieux; 9:00pm DJ Jaeger Runo; and at 10:00pm DJ IronGut McCallister will provide the final two hours of entertainment. Those blues fans and performers who are in the metaverse, are welcome to attend the event on The Depo Sim in Second Life. Donations are accepted at the event and on the website www.ironcladradio.com/bfa/ for those who have not taken their Blues experience virtually, yet.

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Lurrie Bell is Everywhere!

Lurrie Bell caught my eye again today as Blue Bella Records sent a release announcing that he is appearing in my town on April 21 and bringing his buddies Nick Moss & The Fliptops. It is the best reason to hang out at Best Buy, that I can think of.

Bell's name is popping up everywhere lately. As I checked through several news feeds this weekend, I also saw he is featured on The new release of Chicago Blues: A Living History (Raisin 2009) which lays down 21 tracks of authentic style Chicago Blues.



Lurrie Bell, is a second generation Chicago Blues Artist, his Father Carey Bell, was a well respected Harmonica player. This child of the blues, without a doubt, is one of our greatest guitar players of his generation. If you are in the MidWest, you can see him on Beale Street in May, and at the Chicago Blues Fest in June. He has many credits to his name. Lurrie has made the cover of Living Blues, been nominated for several awards, and they just keep coming, but my favorite memory of him, is playing with Koko Taylor.

Those are all good reasons to be a fan of Lurrie, and even check out his MySpace and peek at www.lurie.com, but beyond the mundane, is a blues artist, who knows what life is in all it's extremes. It has never been better demonstrated than in this current version of Lurrie, that makes me absolutely love him. In his new CD, Let's Talk About Love, you can hear the depth and breath of emotion as played only by a man who has felt it personally. Unfortunately, that emotion came at great cost, losing his beloved partner Susan and his Father within a three and a half month period.

Lurrie's life has not been easy. He has had great loss and sorrow and knows what it is to struggle with Mental Illness. And yet, he serves as a source of great inspiration and even courage to many, who take the time to learn his story.

His official biography, contains the following: "Music has the power to heal, to restore and empower, not only the artist but the listener as well." All I can say to that, is Amen.

Change of Address

www.fatestemptation.blogspot.com has been changed to www.virtualbluesreality.blogspot.com

www.topix.com/blues remains unchanged

Eleanora’s Birthday Blues

A woman once said, “Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.” Her name was Eleanora Fagan Gough and today was her birthday.

Her tale is not a new story, teenagers, having babies, and a father leaving. Trials and tribulations of single parents in poverty are well known. And no one is really surprised to find out, a child born into that scenario could have been sentenced to a Catholic Reform School at age 10. It is a plot as old as time, and continues with a move to “The Big City” to become a prostitute, and later arrested for drug possession. Perhaps a plot twist you never see coming is a benefit concert for the Associated Communist Clubs of Harlem in May of ’44, earning her an FBI file and presumed censorship regarding an anti war song. Below is her mug shot from 1947.

Of course you can guess the ending, Eleanora Fagan Gough died broke and much too soon at age 44, a heroin addict, and finally succumbing to cirrhosis of the liver. The name most recognize is Billie Holiday. What makes her story different from the thousands of similar stories is what she did between those dates of life and death; however, finding reliable sources to document that mystery is some what of a challenge. Her autobiography, “Lady Sings the Blues” contains distorted facts and tales.

What is known of Eleanora is that she sang in local Harlem nightclubs, where in 1933 she met John Hammond, a record producer, and that is where her life takes on a very different sub-plot. She performed with Benny Goodman and made the local rounds, before settling on a stage name, borrowed from her favorite actress, Billie Dove. Her Father was “widely believed to be Clarence Holiday.” Her nickname, “Lady Day,” was given to her by friend and fellow musician, Lester Young.

Unlike many Jazz artists of the day, Billie Holiday sang with emotional intensity, showing the influence of Blues singers, Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. Her unique sound was also influenced by her friend, “Pres” (Lester Young)as well as Louis Armstrong, whom she reportedly called “Pops.”

I owe Eleanora for changing my perceptions on music. As a teenager, I first encountered Porgy and Bess at the local community theater. I was fairly certain that anyone named George and Ira Gershwin would not have music I would like. I was wrong, “Summertime” and “Porgy” resonated with me no matter what style it was called. “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” and “Strange Fruit” both won Grammy recognition. The singer defied labels.

Billie’s talents also included a gift for songwriting.

• "Billie's Blues" (1936)
• "Don't Explain" (1944)
• "Everything Happens For The Best" (1939)
• "Fine and Mellow" (1939)
• "God Bless the Child" (1941)
• "Lady Sings the Blues" (1956)
• "Long Gone Blues" (1939)
• "Now or Never" (1949)
• "Our Love Is Different" (1939)
• "Stormy Blues" (1954)

Billie took it as a compliment that she was hard to classify. “Certainly, her music was rooted in the blues tradition,” observes Angela Y. Davis, author of Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. Davis further delves into the influence of her love songs and the impact of social consciousness in two separate chapters.

Her accomplishments and tributes include: A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987; A Billie Holiday postage stamp in 1994; Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000; Immortalized in 1959 by The Poet, Frank O’Hara, in ‘The Day Lady Died;” and lastly, U2’s 1988 release of Angel in Harlem, was inspired by Lady Day, as seen in the lyrics, “Lady Day’s got diamond eyes, she sees the truth behind the lies…Angel in the devils shoes, salvation in the blues.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0s-S5bLMz0

Like many creative, artistic temperaments, Billie suffered from addiction and depression. She also had her share of abusive relationships, which started at a young age. Like most great Blues Artists, her songs resonated with experience, not the “Tin Pan Ally”sound she so detested. Lady Day, took the inner strength of those experiences, and used it to transform and improvise lyrics and sounds to match the emotion of a song, common by Blues singers, uncommon for Jazz.

“Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.”

Sources: Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (Paperback) by Angela Y. Davis, You Tube, Wikipedia, elyrics.net, ladyday.net, brainyquote.com, www.cmgww.com, Malaspina Great Books, www.findingdulcinea.com/features/profiles/h/billie-holiday.html