This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Karl Berger and Dave Holland, Kenny Garrett, and Chris Potter. 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 Joe Lee Playing Tuxedo Junction
From The Archives Of Something Blue March 24, 2024
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a jazz quartet play a jazz standard at Blues Fest.
Joe Lee was the proprietor of Variety Recording Studio on Monroe Street in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the home of Alley Records. Joe released regional and national hits on the Alley label. Many recorded by other musicians and some written and recorded by Joe Lee, himself.
He had a two sided jukebox hit he recorded in 1963. The A side was a song Joe wrote, “Black Eyed Peas”. It’s a blues played with the Memphis Sound popularized by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Back in the day, in Memphis, both Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn had played on Joe’s band so he had a deep understanding of that style. In my informed opinion there is no doubt that Ronnie Coletta is playing guitar on “Black Eyed Peas”.
Joe included “Black Eyed Peas” on the first album I helped him with, The Best Of Alley Records – Vol. 1, “Sounds of the Sixties”.
The other A side was “Tuxedo Junction”, a song written by Erskine Hawkins, Bill Johnson, and Julian Dash that was a #7 hit in 1939. The lyrics were written by Buddy Feyne who asked Erskine Hawkins why he titled it “Tuxedo Junction.” Erskine explained that the Junction was a whistle stop on the “Chitlin’ Circuit”. That information inspired Feyne’s lyrics.*
Then in 1940 Glenn Miller recorded the song and it shot to #1. Of course it’s the cover versions that make a song a standard and “Tuxedo Junction” was recorded by The Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Frankie Avalon and Joe Jackson. Stan Kenton included it on his 1961 Mellophonium Magic album. And it became the theme song for The Manhattan Transfer.
Joe’s single version of “Tuxedo Junction” was an uptempo instrumental with Joe on tenor and a muted trumpet answering back. On his album “Diversified” Joe arranged harmony vocalists singing the lyrics also featuring Ronnie Coletta on guitar. And then, at Blues Fest, Joe played the song with Kenny Caldwell on guitar. I’ll include links at sbblues.com.
Who knows? There may be other versions of “Tuxedo Junction” lurking in the Something Blue Archives. If you played with Joe Lee on these recordings or others, let me know. I’m all about filling in the blanks.
So now, recorded in Jonesboro, Arkansas, at Blues Fest on September 5, 1998, here’s Joe Lee with Kenny Caldwell playing “Tuxedo Junction”.
Something Blue – Thrill – March 23, 2024 and October 18, 2025
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Cottonmouth, New Orleans Suspects, and the Truett Lollis Band. 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 Cottonmouth Playing July You’re A Woman
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-03-17
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear some southern rock from a band that was big in Arkansas in the seventies.
Sometimes I look around for just the right music to play on From The Archives Of Something Blue. And sometimes the music comes to me.
Andy Fulkerson got in touch with KASU with some songs recorded in 1982 and Marty Scarbrough knew immediately that I would be interested. So, thanks to Andy for working with me filling in the details and bringing the Cottonmouth story to life.
I met Andy in the nineties when he would bring his Hammond B3 with Leslie speakers to Craighead Forest Park to perform with The West Finch Blues Band. They always delivered a strong blues set and were one of our most popular acts.
Before there was The West Finch Blues Band there was Cottonmouth, a southern rock group with many of the same musicians that are still playing with West Finch today. They were a gigging band from 1973 to 1976 and they opened for Styx and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Andy remastered three Cottonmouth songs and now we have them in the Arkansas Roots library and in the Something Blue Archives. So you can listen to Cottonmouth anytime, I will include a link to the archive page at the Something Blue website, sbblues.com.
Cottonmouth recorded the songs in 1982 at Terry Lawrence’s studio in Jonesboro. Playing at the session were Larry Rothgery, lead guitar; Mike Tuseth, rhythm and lead guitar and vocals; Wendell Gilbert, bass; Rick Fulkerson, drums; Mike Montgomery, lead vocals; and Andy Fulkerson, organ, piano, and vocals. Sonjia Fulkerson sang on two of the songs, including singing backup vocals on “July You’re a Woman”, the song we’re hearing today.
Also recorded at the session were “I Must Have Did Somebody Wrong” and “Sin City”. I’ll be featuring these songs on Something Blue this weekend.
So now, recorded in 1982 right here in Jonesboro here’s Cottonmouth singing “July You’re a Woman”.
Something Blue – Orange – March 16, 2024 and October 11, 2025
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Michael Ward, Charlie Hunter, and Compartment Of Secret Forks. 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 Michael Ward Playing An Aperitif
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-03-10
Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear an uptempo jazz standard performed by ASU students in the Fine Arts Recital Hall.
I met Michael Ward at the Delta Jazz Workshop when he was in high school. I was immediately impressed with his tenor sax playing and his improvisational approach. When he started at ASU he played with me in the Jazz Recital Band. And then, after the pandemic, he played with Bebop Beatniks on the twitch porch. I’ll post links to these performances on the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Then there I was reading the Monday Morning Music Memo and what do you know. It’s Michael Ward’s Senior Jazz Recital. I just had to go.
And I was glad I did. He played great with an old school tenor sax tone that I just loved. And the ensemble work was excellent too. I knew some of the musicians who played with him and I was glad to hear those I hadn’t heard before. I mean that’s why you got to live music, right? To hear something you haven’t heard before.
He played six songs at his recital and I picked “An Aperitif” by Hank Mobley to play for you today. It’s uptempo and swinging, the ensemble work is tight and the soloists nail it. We’ll hear more songs from the recital this weekend on Something Blue.
Playing with Michael Ward on tenor were Layton Sanders, soprano; and Jasper Webb, alto. Playing in the rhythm section were Jack Alan Ezell, bass; Ethan Conner Williamson, piano; and Jalonnie Emmanuel Johnson, drums.
Ok now, here’s Michael Ward leading a sax ensemble playing “An Aperitif”.
Something Blue – Reflections – March 9, 2024 and October 4, 2025
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Giant Steps, Joe Lovano, and Steve Swallow. 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.
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’ll hear Giant Steps, Joe Lovano, and Steve Swallow. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.
Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at ten, right here on KASU.
Joe Lovano – Quartets: Live At The Village Vanguard
Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear a tenor sax rendition of a jazz standard recorded at KASU Jazz Thursday.
Giant Steps was a jazz combo featuring some of Jonesboro’s finest jazz musicians. The core group had Craig Baker, trumpet; Joy Sanford, piano; Tom Mason, bass; and Mike Overall, drums. Formerly known as Nightlife they played standards and they were a good dance band.
When they played for us at Jazz Thursday they brought Mike McGowan, a former resident of Jonesboro now living in Texas. As you will hear he’s fantastic on tenor sax.
On May 23, 2013, they put on a great show at TheArts@311 in downtown Jonesboro nailing tune after tune. The song I picked for today is “Tangerine”. It was a number one hit in 1942 and remains heavily covered today. We used to sing it in the Swing Band Project.
Mike McGowan is featured on “Tangerine”. I had the good luck to work with him and play music with him at the Delta Jazz Workshop. He played with Bebop Beatniks on our Wednesday night show and he’s featured on “Sheltered” on our album, “Church”.
I also worked with Craig, Joy, Tom, and Mike on Joe Lee’s album, “Bopping At The Forest”, at Blues Fest, Jazz Thursday, and Bebopalooza.
Mike Overall passed in 2014. I can’t tell you how much I learned from him when I was recording the Jazz Alliance “Partly Cloudy” album.
As always I will post links to all this great music at the Something Blue website, sbblues.com.
Ok now, recorded on May 23, 2013, at KASU Jazz Thursday here’s Giant Steps playing “Tangerine”.
This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring The James Quintet, Bob Reynolds, Steve Lawson, and After Work. 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.
MixRemix On Anonradio – From The Creative Commons Jazz Library – 2024-02-16 jazz.mixremix.cc
DJ Hairy Larry Presents Hairy Larry Playing Freddy’s Blues
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-02-25
Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear a livestream version of one of my most popular songs.
During the pandemic I would livestream on Twitch. I called my channel, Hairy Larry Practicing Piano and that’s exactly what I did. I practiced my repertoire of original songs using iRealPro backing tracks as my metronome.
I licensed all of these audio and video recordings Creative Commons Attribution. What exactly does that mean?
It means that if you want to use one of these songs in your project whether it’s a movie, a game, multimedia, or whatever you have permission to do that as long as the song is attributed correctly with the magic words, Freddy’s Blues by Larry Heyl or Freddy’s Blues by Hairy Larry.
There are many Creative Commons licenses including CC0 which dedicates your work to the public domain allowing anyone to use it without any restrictions.
I prefer CC BY or Creative Commons Attribution because it preserves the chain of attribution making it easy to find the musician who made the music so if you like it you can go find more.
And if you want to find out more about Creative Commons licenses I’m going to include a link to their website at sbblues.com.
Now, about the song “Freddy’s Blues”.
I wrote the song in 2013. It’s a blues with funny lyrics so it had everything going for it. NJHB played it at my Senior Recital with Suzanne Michell singing. It’s included on my album “Bop Soup”.
It’s also included on the most recent Bebop Beatniks album, “Live At Blues Fest” recorded in 2023 and featuring the incomparable Tyler Remagen on tenor sax.
But there’s something unique about the version of “Freddy’s Blues” on my “Livestreams” album. We were on lockdown so it’s just me, my piano, and iRealPro. No horns! The song is about a young girl in love with a horn player in a jazz band so it just didn’t work to have only piano solos. I had to sing the horn parts. First Freddy and then the trombone.
After I played it on the livestream one of my friends in chat said “Better get an audition for that trombonist.”
So here I am now singing “Freddy’s Blues” from my “Livestreams” album.
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