This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Moore’s Code, Joe Henderson, and Mike Stern. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Moore’s Code Playing Every Day
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-11-24
Moore’s Code
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a jazz song written by a former ASU
student.
Tim Moore would sit in with Jazz Alliance when he was in High School, driving in from Southern Missouri. Then he spent two years in the ASU Jazz Program while Ron Horton was the director of the Jazz Department. It was during that time that Tim and his brother Brandon wrote the songs for the Caprice album, “from dawn til dusk”. We released that album on HairyLarryLand in 2013 and we still love it at KASU.
Of course, Tim didn’t quit writing jazz songs after he left ASU. He went on to the outstanding jazz program at North Texas State where he honed his skills as a composer, a pianist, and a bandleader.
We featured Caprice several times at KASU jazz shows and then later his new band Moore’s Code. I was not surprised that their self titled album, “Moore’s Code”, sounded as good as it does. It’s on bandcamp. I’ll post a link on the Something Blue website, sbblues.com. Highly recommended.
We’ll hear some more songs from this album, Saturday night on Something Blue. For today I picked a song featuring blues piano, organ, and guitar with a tremendous melody played on the saxophone.
Something Blue – Conversations – November 23, 2024
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Bruce H. Mccosar, Jesse Spillane, NJHB, Tom La Meche, and Jazoo. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Larry Presents NJHB Playing Circular Logic
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-11-17
Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear jazz from NJHB recorded at the very beginning.
I was planning on starting the New Jazz In Jonesboro concerts at TheArts@311 in 2013. It was Christmas break so I scheduled a session on December 29, 2012, with the founding members on NJHB.
I was rolling tape but I wasn’t really expecting to record an album. Turns out we played pretty good and we did. We recorded live in the studio, with just two mics recording the room, and we did it the NJHB way. We improvised the arrangements. We recorded four songs. I think I was the only musician there who had ever played them before. As I usually do with NJHB songs I made a radio mix for Arkansas Roots.
In our favor we had a room full of outstanding musicians.
Mike Lovell – guitar
Garrett Tyler – drums
Matt Jackson – bass
Hairy Larry – Fender Rhodes
Cody Ballard – tenor sax
and
Joseph Curtis – trumpet and flugelhorn
Every one of these musicians attended ASU, all but one played in the jazz band. And we were all from Northeast Arkansas except Matt Jackson, who lives in the Missouri Bootheel.
Since then NJHB has played at The Arts@311, the Craighead Forest Bandshell, the Fine Arts Recital Hall, the ASU Bandroom, the new HairyLarryLand studio, and at the Jonesboro Public Library Round Room.
And I have plans for 2025. More New Jazz In Jonesboro. So be informed. Visit deltaboogie.com and sign up for my newsletter. Get a magic missive every month courtesy of electrons. Find out what I’ve been up to, what I have planned, and let me know about your plans. I want to promote you on Delta Boogie and KASU wants to play your music. My email is in the footer on every page at deltaboogie.com.
Ok now, Here’s NJHB playing my song, “Circular Logic” recorded on December 29, 2012
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Eilen Jewell, Melissa Carper, Anna and the Tanks, Angie Owens, Lady Day and The Prez, and Amy Helm. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Anna and the Tanks Playing White Rabbit
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-11-10
Anna Lowery
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to feature a song from the sixties recorded live at Blues Fest in 2024!
Jefferson Airplane had a hit on “White Rabbit” in the sixties. I remember it, which means I probably wasn’t really there. The lyrics are based on Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories. The twist is they reference sixties psychedelic culture and the importance of remembering what the doormouse said.
Now, the twist on the twist is that “Alice in Wonderland”, a children’s novel written by Lewis Carroll in 1865, actually had all those drug references in it. Alice was taking pills, eating mushrooms, and drinking tea. And if you read “The Annotated Alice” you will find that there’s a lot more in there too, topical parodies, political references, and, of course, nonsense poetry.
So I love that Anna and the Tanks are bringing it all back. The song that was big twice in the sixties, the 1860s and the 1960s. The literature runs deep enough that the song is still topical today.
Anna and the Tanks are the host band at Blues Fest. That means they do a lot of work. Doug Butler, their guitarist, provides the sound and does all the setup with the help of Anna and Joseph. When Doug played solo, on September 29, I introduced him as the man who brought Blues Fest back. They also helped with the KASU Arkansas Roots Stage at the Beatles At The Ridge Festival in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.
Anna and the Tanks are.
Anna Lowery – vocals and percussion
Joseph Lowery – bass and vocals
Doug Butler – guitar and vocals
John Ollis – drums
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Josh Parks, John Shepherd, and Phil Lesh and Friends. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
Josh Parks – KASU Bluesday Tuesday – April 17, 2018
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Josh Parks Playing Part Time Love
From The Archives Of Something Blue – 2024-11-03 Josh Parks Playing At The King Biscuit Blues Festival
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear an Arkansas Blues Man play a song about relationship problems.
I went to the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena Arkansas, in October, 2024, camping for the first time since before the pandemic. My friend Brent and I went down to the main stage on Wednesday night and we saw Josh Parks jamming the blues.
Josh had been jamming with The Emporium Orkestra at the Downtown Bar And Grill five years back and we had visited at the campground then too, so I really wanted to see him again.
Well, at the biscuit Josh is a busy man. I kept looking for him at the campground, I even got directions from some other campers, but I couldn’t find him. Then on Friday night I was playing some music with my friend Pat and he asked if I wanted to go play with Josh. Well … of course!
Hairy Larry, John, and Mayor Mike Singing At The Campground – photo by Tom Foley
Pat and I had a great time jamming with Josh and with my new friend John who I met at Mayor Mike’s campfire. I also got to meet Josh’s friends and family. Some of them even older than I am.
So when I got back I was checking for recordings at KASU and on my hard drive. I found this show from a KASU Bluesday Tuesday, recorded on April 17, 2018.
I contacted Josh about the show and he filled in the personnell for the concert.
Josh Parks – guitar
Lance Womack, drums
Stewart Bear, keys
Jerry Bone, bass
All fine outstanding Arkansas musicians.
Now Josh plays in the style of Albert King and Michael Burks, also both from Arkansas. I have had the pleasure of hearing them both play many times and I just love the sound, all the way around.
The song I’m featuring is “Part Time Love”, written by Clay Hammond. Little Johnny Taylor sang the number one hit in 1963. Taylor was born in Gregory, Arkansas.
So now, here’s The Josh Parks Band playing “Part Time Love” recorded at KASU Bluesday Tuesday.
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Geri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel, Nigel Harpur, and ADHD. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM CST, at kasu.org.
DJ Hairy Presents Bebop Beatniks Playing The Blue Crane
From The Archives Of Something Blue – 2024-10-27
Bebop Beatniks Photo By Rachel Ann Wilson Washam
Thanks Marty. Today I’m going to play the title track of the soon to be released Bebop Beatniks album, “The Blue Crane”.
Every fall I enter my festival season starting with Beatles At The Ridge, then Blues Fest, and then The King Biscuit Blues Festival. Sometimes things work out better than you could expect. Jeremy Jackson and Alex Washam both have busy lives, Conley Hunt started working on weekends, and I also had issues so we hadn’t played together as a full band all year. And we also hadn’t played with a horn player since last year’s Blues Fest.
We were scheduled to play at Beatles At The Ridge, the next weekend at Blues Fest, and then the next weekend Alex was getting married. So congratulations to Alex and Rachel, but you can see how this would complicate our schedule.
Fortunately, Jeremy was able to play both dates and Alex was able to play at Beatles At The Ridge so, fingers crossed, I soldiered on.
And now …
Introducing Dr. Paul Lessard.
Paul is the new theory and composition professor at ASU this year. I’m not in school but I took my degree in composition and I wanted to meet him.
We got together in his office and hit it off immediately, talking about music composition. It’s surprising how few people I know who actually want to talk about composition and it’s definitely one of my obsessions.
Well … Paul plays jazz saxophone and he said to let him know if we were getting together to play because he’d like to sit in.
So I got to thinking and the next time I was getting the band together to play I invited Paul. As it turned out Alex and Jeremy were busy so, as the song goes, it was just the two of us.
We had a repertoire session playing some of my originals which, surprisingly enough, Paul had never played before.
He played great and I invited him to join us at Beatles Park to fill out our quartet. He said he could do it and the rest is history.
We played the Beatles Park gig on September 21 and then Alex’s Blues Fest Sunday opened up and we played Blues Fest on September 29.
Sometimes the stars align and everything goes right. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the Craighead Forest Bandshell, we had the lake behind us, a small but appreciative audience, and we had played every song on the set at least once before.
I got good audio and video recordings. I will post links at sbblues.com to the Youtube videos. In early November I will release the new Bebop Beatniks album, “The Blue Crane”, featuring three songs I wrote.
And now, here’s Bebop Beatniks playing “The Blue Crane”.
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