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Dr Phil
Dr Phil is an aficionado of the sounds of the Deep South, particularly Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, The Piedmont, New Orleans and Chicago. He will take you on a musical journey around these States during his programme ‘Sounds of the South’ which is broadcast every alternate Tuesday. To find out more about Dr Phil visit his website www.Dr-Phil.co.uk
Dr Phil has just written a book about Mississippi John Hurt detailing his life, his times and his blues. The book will be available in August you can pre-order a copy on Amazon. You can go direct to amazon by clicking on the carousel to the right of this page. Below is a review of the book
The first biography of the blues revival’s most influential and authentic musician
When Mississippi John Hurt (1892/1893–1966) was “rediscovered” by blues revivalists in 1963, his musicianship and recordings transformed popular notions of prewar country blues. At seventy-one he moved to Washington, D.C., from Avalon, Mississippi, and became a live-wire connection to a powerful, authentic past. His intricate and lively style made him the most sought after musician among the many talents the revival brought to light.
Mississippi John Hurtprovides this legendary creator’s life story for the first time. Biographer Philip Ratcliffe traces Hurt’s roots to the moment his mother Mary Jane McCain and his father Isom Hurt were freed from slavery. Anecdotes from Hurt’s childhood and teenage years include the destiny-making moment when his mother purchased his first guitar for $1.50 when he was only nine years old. Stories from his neighbors and friends, from both of his wives, and from his extended family round out the community picture of Avalon. U.S. census records, Hurt’s draft certificate, and personal letters written in his own hand provide treasures for fans. Ratcliffe details Hurt’s musical influences and the origins of his style and repertoire. The author also relates numerous stories from the time of his success, drawing on published sources and many hours of interviews with people who knew Hurt well, including Jerry Ricks, Pat Sky, Stefan Grossman and Max Ochs, Dick Spottswood, and the late Mike Stewart. In addition, some of the last photographs taken of the legendary musician are featured for the first time in Mississippi John Hurt.
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Hey, this is Dr-Phil here introducing my next chapter of Sounds of the South, my radio show about all manner of music and stories emanating from America’s Deep South; Tuesday 8:00 – 9:00pm (UK time). In Tuesday night’s show I’ll be featuring a couple of tunes from the greats Robert Johnson and Eric Clapton that demonstrate the evolutionary folk process working in blues and rock. As always, I’ll be chatting about the artists and their music and I’ll provide some interesting, perhaps surprising, little-known origins to a couple of very well-known popular tunes, one from Fiddlin’ John Carson. In addition, how about an actual recording of the great Scott Joplin from before the age of recording? Confused? Listen in and find out how this is possible and listen to Scott Joplin playing Maple Leaf Rag back in 1899! I’ll also be playing a little known track from Tom Hoskins, the man who rediscovered Mississippi John Hurt in 1963, a classic from Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red, a rare recording of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins at Sam Phillips’s Sun Studio back in 1956. For good measure there’ll be blues from Lewis Black, some classic country from Hank Williams and from the ‘Yodelling Cowboy,’ Jimmie Rodgers and jazz from the streets of New Orleans with my favourite band of the present, Tuba Skinny. I hope you can join me for Tuesday’s Sounds of the South; Dunoon Community Radio 97.4 FM and world-wide following the link from http://www.dunooncommunityradio.org
or via http://dunoon-relay.celticmusicradio.net:8000/dunoon.mp3
Hello everyone. In Tuesday’s show I’ll be playing some great string band music from the Mississippi hill country and also some little known great music from the cotton mill towns of the North Carolina Piedmont. The North Carolina Piedmont was every bit as important in the development of hillbilly music as Appalachia and the Virginia Piedmont.In fact, these musicians wrote some of the first protest songs around 1930 in response to appalling working conditions and exploitation. In the Spring of 1929 the town of Gastonia made headline news across America due to a bitter strike by the National Textile Workers Union and the related murders of Police Chief Orville Alderholt and Union supporter Ella May Wiggins. My program will be as varied as usual and I’ll be including some classic R&B from Muddy Waters and Jazz from the Louis Armstrong Hot Five back in 1928. In addition, I’ll be a playing a finely picked tune from Kilby Snow, probably the greatest exponent of the autoharp, an instrument usually confined to chordal accompaniments. I’m also including the great Blind Willie McTell, Keb Mo, and a special early disaster song from 1927 by Richard ‘Rabbit’ Brown about the sinking of the Titanic as my commemoration of this hundredth anniversary of the diaster. I’m making no apologies for playing more of my great discoveries from the streets of New Orleans; Tuba Skinny and the Hokum High Rollers. All this plus some unashamed rock ‘n’ roll from Eddie Cochran. It promises to be a great show. I hope you can join me.
Thank you for all your comments both here and on my Facebook page. I really enjoyed doing last night’s show. It is a privilege to share this great music with you all. Thank you for your most welcome support.
Dr-Phil
Nice post! DR PHIL | Dunoon Community Radio really tends to make my evening somewhat nicer
Keep going with the outstanding posts! Heed, Terrific
I love this website! The info is priceless. Thanks a ton for every one of the articles and making my night. Special regards, I’m
Well here I am back from another great visit to New Orleans. I am really excited about this weeks show which will feature some great new sounds that I heard in the Big Easy. Notable were Tuba Skinny, a band that I encountered busking on Royal Street in the French Quarter. Tuba Skinny provide the best music I have heard in many years. They are fantastic. I’ll also be featuring the Hokum High Rollers, a hokum band with a street sound much as I imagine Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red would have sounded like back in the 1940s busking around the tobacco warehouses of Durham NC. I discovered the Hokum High Rollers busking in a doorway on Frenchman Street. I’ll also be playing Mississippi John Hurt at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963 and telling you about my Mississippi John Hurt performance at the Old US Mint in New Orleans. Also I’ll play a mix of music from New Orleans including Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers, some brass band marches and the phenomenal Marcia Ball who I saw live at City Park. All this will be interspersed with other great southern music including a tune recorded at Parchman Prison Farm in Mississippi. I hope you can join me.
Hi Every one,
Here I am working hard here in New Orleans promoting the book and Dunoon Community Radio, how come I am the one who has to travel half way around the world to spread the word-I suppose someone has to do it must not grumble though.
I presented an hours individual performance at the Old US Mint in New Orleans today. I had an good responsive from the audience of over a hundred plus standing. It went very well and the Radio guys here at the National Park have provided a recording of the show for us to put out on DCR (just to prove how hard I am Working out here )
I told stories of MJH and played several of his tunes.
We all had a great time and got lots of folk interested in listening in to DCR.
I’m presenting another lecture with music on Sunday night and will send you a full report.
I have a specially recorded programme for you to listen to this Tuesday hope you enjoy it as much as I did recording it
All the best,
Phil
I hope to be enjoying life in the Big Easy when you hear my next show (March 27th), which will be a repeat of an earlier DCR Birthday Show that I really enjoyed doing. By way of a change, all contributions are from recent musicians, many of whom I’ve met during my recent travels around the Deep South. Eric Claption will deliver his acoustic versions of Jessie Fuller’s ‘San Francisco Bay Blues’ and Robert Johnson’s ‘If I Had Posession Over Judgement Day’ and Ottilie Patterson will give us the wonderful ‘Weeping Willow Blues.’ I’ll feature my friends, Harry Bollick,an amazing Mississippi fiddler with ‘Mississippi Breakdown,’ David Evans with ‘Aunt Caroline Dye Blues,’ Neil Harpe with Bo Carter’s ‘Whose Been Here’and a great slide guitar version of ‘Amazing Grace’ from Bruce Nemerov. I’ll be playing my favorite Erin Harpe side, Memphis Minnie’s ‘Me and My Chauffer Blues,’ and Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band with Charlie Pattons ‘Elder Greene Blues.’ I hope you can join me.
Hello again from Dr-Phil. Tuesday’s ‘Sounds of the South’ will include some great music from the Mississippi Hill Country with an opener from Jessie Mae Hemphill that some folks might call rock n’ roll! Jessie Mae is the granddaugher of Sid Hemphill from Como, Mississippi, one of the great musicians who kept the Hill Country Fife and Drum music alive and I’ll be playing a great contribution from that genre by one-man-band musician Compton Jones playing only a whistle and a washtub. Mississippi Hill Country music could not be complete without a contribution from Mississippi John Hurt and he’ll be playing one of his personal favorites, ‘Louis Collins.’ In contrast I’ll be featuring some raw Delta blues from Son House recorded back in 1941, and after his rediscovery in the 1960s. Pursuing the link between Celtic music from Scotland and the US that I introduced last time as part of our build up to Dunoon’s hosting the National Mod in October, I’ll be playing a work song from Scotland! I’ll also be featuring Blind Blake, jazz from the great King Oliver Band in 1923 and some New Orleans zydeco from Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band, as well as early country from Patsy Montana, and blues from Guitar Welch and Muddy Waters. I hope you can join me in my last show before I head for the Big Easy later in the week.
The Mod and Sounds of the South: A message from Dr-Phil
Well I hope everyone’s aware that Dunoon is hosting the National Mod this year on 12 -19th October. This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to celebrate the Gaelic culture and music of Scotland and DCR will be playing a leading role in communicating coverage of all the events to our listeners. I know it’s a long way off, but no time like the present to begin the warm up and I am looking forward to being a part of it all.
And, you may be asking, “What is a Scouser who presents a programme on American music got to do with the Mod.” Well, there are many interesting and close connections between Gaelic and American culture and music including Gaelic influences on Appalachian, Gospel, Cajun, Jazz and Blues music. I will be exploring some of these from time to time in the coming weeks and during the summer, and focusing especially on these links in the few weeks leading up to and during the Mod.
The influx of Gaelic culture into North America began before the Unites States was formed, with Scottish and Irish people fleeing the various hardships foisted upon them in their homeland by crop failures and brutal treatments by landlords over more than a century. Immigrants of course took with them their language and culture, which included their music and instruments and they soon found themselves in a melting pot with other European cultures and music.
The main points of settlement by Scots was in North Carolina and British North America; later to become Canada. The Scots strongly influenced music in Cape Breton Acadia, the Carolinas and Appalachia. French and Scottish music mingled and undoubtedly travelled with the evicted Acadians down the east coast to Louisiana to provide an influence to Cajun music. Large numbers of African slaves were being brought into the continent and they also brought with them their culture and music, which joined the mix. Many families continued to move west as the continent was opened up and culture and music pervaded everywhere. In Mississippi in the 1840s there were people who spoke only Gaelic and in North Carolina in 1790 many black slaves spoke only Gaelic, the language of their owners.
So in the lead up to the Mod, I will be exploring some interesting connections between seemingly unrelated musical forms, such as the Gaelic Hebridean Salms and Southern Gospel. One of the similarities between these musical forms is the ‘call and response,’ common in many sub-Saharan African cultures, whereby a solo leader, called a ‘Precentor’ in Hebridean churches, sings a lead phrase and the congregation then respond. The call and response pattern has been adapted to Jazz, Blues, R & B and Rock ‘n’ Roll. To begin with, I will explore some of the connections between the call and response singing of the black churches of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas with that of Ethiopian church music and a similar form used traditionally in Scotland. I will be comparing a Hebridean Salm sung by the congregation of a Presbyterian church on the Isle of Lewis with a tune by Blind Willie Johnson, a Texan street singer of religious music that apart from its lyrics was very similar to blues.
Whether your main interest is in Gaelic, Jazz, Blues, Country or Rock, there is something to interest you in these fascinating connections. I hope you can join me in ‘Sounds of the South’ leading up to the National Mod in Dunoon.
Hello again from Dr-Phil! I have another great ‘Sounds of the South’ show lined up for Tuesday night, 28th February. There will be some great piano blues and rock ‘n’ roll from Louisiana, country blues from Rick Franklin & Neil Harpe, Doc Watson, Washboard Sam and ‘Guitar Welch,’ an inmate of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Added to all this will be an introduction to the fascinating connections between gaelic and American culture in advance of the forthcoming Mod in Dunoon, and gospel music from Sin-Killer Griffin and Blind Willie Johnson, plus some lively Western Swing. I hope you can join me.
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Nearly time for my regular Tuesday night show again. I’ll be featuring the great Blind Boy Fuller, some fantastic vocal jazz from Ottilie Patterson with, in my view, one of her greatest recordings with the Chris Barber Band. I’ll have hot zydeco from Clifton Chenier. A beautiful, but little known spititual from Lonnie Donegan, gospel from the Carter Family and some of the original slide guitar sounds from Sol Hoppii from Hawaii – yes folks, that where the slide guitar came from; not the Mississippi Delta! In addition I’ll be playing Hank Williams, Washboard Sam, the Memphis SHeiks, Leadbelly, Peter Green’s take on RObert Johnson and some of the earliest Western Swing from Milton Brown. I hope you can join me.
Hello to all my regular listeners and newcomers to Sounds of the South. In tonight’s show I will be playing some great ragtime music from the Sedalia Ragtime Orchestra and making some connections with the early ragtime influence on Mississippi John Hurt. I’ll have some great female blues from Mary Johnson and the great Ottilie Patterson, about whom I made a sad discovery earlier this month. There will be gospel music in the Piedmont fingerstyle from little known Frank Hovington and gospel in the exuberant diva style from Mahalia Jackson. With some raw blues from Robert Johnson, some 1930s Jug Band music and boogie ‘n’ Zydeco from Clifton Chenier I hope there’ll be something for all tastes in tonight’s Sounds of the South. All this will be interspersed with my usual chat about the artists and their culture. I hope you can join me.
Hi Everyone, In tonights show I have a huge variety of Sounds of the South from Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five with an early example of the breakaway from ensenmble playing to the use of extended solos, which heralded the shift from ragtime to New Orleans jazz. I have a great anecdote about Mississippi John Hurt, which led to him writng his wonderful song, ‘Boy’s Your Welcome.’ In addition , I have some great Western Swing from the Nite Owls and Shelley Lee Alley and the Alley Cats, Zydeco from Clifton Chenier, Country from the Delmore Brothers and Blues from Mary Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy. I hope you can join me for some truly great music.
A very Happy New Year to you all. I’ll be kicking of my first ‘Sounds of the South’ of the New Year with the legendary Bessie Smith and I’ll be featuring her and the Delmore Brothers during the show. The Delmore’s were among the first big names in country music and of course Bessie Smith was the Empress of the Blues. I’ll also be comparing a couple of great Carter Family tunes with their relatively modern day covers by Elvis Presley and Lonnie Donegan (if I have time! – If not I’ll carry some of these to my next show). I’ll be talking about Bessie Smith’s demise and the first concert aimed at providing relief to famine in the third world – and no, it wasn’t Live Aid – and yes it will include music that some folks would call rock ‘n’ roll. I also hope to include some great jazz from King Oliver and some great blues from Big Bill Broonzy. I hope you can join me.
Well my Tuesday night slot has come around again. Sorry for the delay with this, but I’ve been away for nearly two weeks. Tonight is the first anniversary of Sounds of the South. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for a year. I’ve got a great show lined up to celebrate my first year in the broadcasting business. I’m starting with a great tune that some folks would call rock ‘n’ roll by a young lad from Texas by the name of Buddy Holly. Then moving swiftly on to Peter Green’s Splinter Group with Traveling Riverside Blues that I had intended to play last week, but ran out of time. The main feature of my anniversary show is women! I’ll be playing some mindblowing music from some truly great women including Memphis Minnie, Big Mama Thornton and Marcia Ball as well as some lesser known, but truly outstanding women such as Charlie Pattons bride, Bertha Lee and my favorites Lulu Jackson, Erin Harpe and many more. I hope you can join me.
Hey Listeners,I hope you can join me tomorrow night for another Sounds of the South. I’l be playing some early Ike Turner and the legendary B B King when they were together in Memphis back in the early 1950s. There’ll be the usual wide variety of Southern music with more from Mance Lipscomb, Blind Boy Fuller and Mississippi John Hurt and some great Gospel from New Orleans with the Zion Harmonisers. I’ll be playing some fine Appalachian music from Hedy West; in fact an early protest song about the heavy handed mining companies of Tennessee, the Davidson-Wilder Blues. As a special treat I have extracted from my vinyl collection some Blues & Boogie from Alabamaa with a great side from lesser known Alabama musicians Albert Macon and Robert Thomas. There’ll be the powerful social commentary on lynching from Billie Holiday with Strange Fruit and the usual sprinkling of great New Orleans jazz from Louis Armstrong. To add to all this I’l be playing a great version of Robert Johnson’s Traveling Riverside Blues from Peter Green’s Splinter Group. I hope youcan join me. Dr-Phil
Hello, Dr-Phil here. I hope you can listen in to my Sounds of the South on Tuesday October 25th from 8:00 – 9:00. I have a great show lined up starting with a rockin’ version of Blind Willie McTells’s Statesboro Blues from The Allman Brothers Band. I’ll be introducing some great music from Texas songster Mance Lipscomb and telling the story of his discovery in Texas by Chris Strachwitz back in 1960. I’ll be playing Muleskinner Blues by Woody Guthrie supported by Cisco Houston and Pete Seeger and some fantastic music from 1936 by Roosevelt Graves, a grossly under-acknowledged Mississippi musician. I’ll be telling the story of his discovery by H C Spiers, the man responsible for so many of the great Mississippi musicians of that era. In addition I’ve got contributions from the King Oliver Jazz Band, Peter Green who formed Fleetwood Mac, The Zion Harmonizers with the Olympia Brass Band from New Orleans, Bobbie Blue Bland with Ike Turner and a sprinking of Mississipi John Hurt and the Zydeco Hurricanes. I hope you can join me.
I’d like to welcome regular listeners and newcomers to my next Sounds of the South at 8:00 pm on Tuesday 11th October. Thanks to all of you who have bought my book and CD and those of you who have appreciated my music and chat at Chatters Restaurant. I’ll be at Chatters for the next three weeks (Friday and Saturaday evenings) so do drop in for some informal listening and conversation.
Nest week’s programme will include Western Swing from Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and Jugband music from the Memphis Sheiks with yet another version of, ‘He’s In The Jailhouse Now.’
I will also feature a great prison record that I discovered recently that had been wrongly attributed to Alan Lomax. Instead a much under-recognised music historian, Dr Harry Oster had recorded these songs in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, and fantastic recordings they are.
I’ll be talking about the tragic story of The Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith and playing one of her great lesser known double entendre titles from 1931. And, I’ll tell you the tale of when I met Muddy Waters in Liverpool!
In addition, I’ll have jazz from Ottilie Patterson and the Chris Barber Band and gospel from the great Dixie Hummingbirds along with liberal sprinklings of Woody Guthrie with Muleskinner Blues, Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band with Green River Blues and something from Mississipp John Hurt.
I hope you can join me.
Well, it was great to talk to Victor yesterday on his LLLVLBS. Writing the book, producing the CD and visiting all these amazing places and people has been an experience of a lifetime and a great adventure.
In my next show on Tuesday 27th September, I have more stories and great music for you. I’ll be talking about connections between the early musicians and some of the later stuff that it influenced. For example I’ll be playing the Canned Heat (1960s)and Tommy Johnson (1928) versions of Big Road Blues and Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band (2011) cover of Charley Pattons Elder Greene Blues from 1929.
As I mentioned last week; I discovered Zydeco in New Orleans and I’ll be playing more of the King of Zydeco, Fernest Arcenaux. And, on the subject of ‘what is the blues,’ I have some amazing commentary interspersed with songs from Memphis Slim, Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson that provides the best definition I have ever heard from the folks who knew. All this plus the usual peppering of country and what some folks might call rock ‘n’ roll. I hope you can join me.
Dr Phil has just completed a biography of Mississippi John Hurt, which has been published by the University Press of Mississippi, and he and Annie have just returned from a tour of Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, Mississippi and New Orleans where they have been signing books and visiting many of the folks who helped him research the book.
Dr Phil Ratcliffe DCR97.4FM Producer and Presenter of the acclaimed ‘Sounds of the South’ who once ran the Cowal Bird Garden with his wife Annie is a self-described musician and ardent blues fan. Phil grew up near Liverpool and discovered the music of Mississippi John Hurt when he heard “Stack O’ Lee Blues” on an LP he bought second-hand in 1970.
Dr Phil Joined Victor on the LLLVLBS recently and told DCR97.4FM listeners of his first involvement in the biography of Mississippi John Hurt project,
“Following a “life-changing journey” to Mississippi, I arrived at the site of the first Mississippi John Hurt Festival among the hills that overlook the Mississippi Delta at Avalon on July 2, 2003. The next two days were a whirl of excitement, friendship, love and emotion. I met John Hurt’s granddaughter and spent hours talking to local people who had known John. I scribbled a few notes, played some of John’s tunes and drank a beer or two under the shade of the trees in the humid heat of midsummer Mississippi. Without being aware of it, I had begun to catalogue the story of Mississippi John Hurt.”
The now revered bluesman left Avalon for Washington, D.C., at the age of 71. Before his death in 1966, he performed at the Newport Folk Festival, recorded for the Library of Congress and made several albums at Vanguard Records.
Phil begins the story of Hurt’s life with the freeing of his enslaved parents Mary Jane and Isom. Freed slaves would often adopt the family name of their previous owners and Mary Jane adopted the name McCain – she was a slave of William Alexander McCain, great-great-grandfather of Senator John McCain!
The story traces Hurt’s life, providing a social history of rural Mississippi through the first half of the last century that presents connections with important events like the great Mississippi River flood of 1927 and the impact of racism in the Jim Crow south, including the local murder of young Emmett Till, which significantly strengthened the Civil Rights movement in forthcoming years.
The author interviewed both of Hurt’s wives, as well as neighbors and friends in the Avalon community, and uses excerpts from Hurt’s personal letters. Among Hurt’s friends from later years, Phil talked to blues guitarist Jerry Ricks, Georgia-born singer and songwriter Pat Sky and music producer and Hurt guitar student Stefan Grossman.
During his research on his book, Phil unearthed the original tapes that Hurt’s re-discoverer, Tom Hoskins had recorded on the day he rediscovered him, March 3, 1963. The CD includes the first recordings made of Mississippi John Hurt since his first recordings in 1928, but more importantly provides historic recordings in an ambience of rural Mississippi with neighbors coming and going, roosters crowing and laughter and conversation.
Phil will be signing and talking about his book and the CD at various venues during September and October including Book Pont on Saturday, 24th at 4:00 pm and at Chatter’s Restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays through September and October.
Read more and see what is happening in the world of Dr Phill’s Sounds of the south
http://www.dunooncommunityradio.org/programme-info/presenters/dr-phil/
And if you want to know more about the acclaimed CD Discovery and buy it
http://www.artscenterofcc.com/Spring-fed/Discovery.html
Hey folks, Yes I’m back from the Deep South and what a time was had. We had a great time on our epic journey through Tennessee to Memphis, visits to several Mississippi towns and New Orleans. The many book and CD signings were well received. We had a wonderful time in New Orleans – we love the city, its music, food and culture. We were eventually chased out of the US by Hurricane Irene and are now back home in Scotland to the cold rain. Temperatures in Memphis and New Orleans was 90 – 105 F!
I’ll be featuring people, experiences and music that I encountered on my first live show since getting back here. I hope you can join me.
Excellent programme Dr Phil what an adventure you are on taking the Blues from Dunoon Back To the Deep South looking forward to more updates from Victor, this must be wonderful for you to live your dream and I cannot wait till September to read your book. In the meantime I am looking forward to listening to you tell us of your adventures, here’s to a happy homecoming, Sandy and Avril
Things are pretty exciting on the Dr Phil book and CD signing tour, after taking Chicago by storm with his knowledge of the blues and his smooth banter the DCR presenter did a whistle stop tour of the world famous Delte with signings at a number of Delta towns including Grenada, Greenwood and Clarksdale (at the Clarksdale Sunflower Blues
Festival)
At a special book and cd signing Dr Phil presented his book to the film actor Morgan Freeman were autographs and much banter where exchanged.
Still yet to come is a book and cd signing at the B B King Museum in Indianola.
On Wednesday Dr Phil has been invited to talk on the WNOZ Community Radio show in New Orleans, ‘Sitting at the Crossroads with Big D’ at 2:00pm, this is 8:00pm Dunoon Time.
There will also be signing on the 18th August at Octavia Books in New Orleans.
But before that he still has another two days in Jackson, Mississippi
with a book signing
Dr Phil has promised to feature the CD ‘Discovery’ in a live show when he gets back to Dunoon which features the recordings of MJH at the time of his rediscovery in 1963, Dr Phil c/o produced and wrote the liner notes for the CD.
Dr Phil’s Book signing Tour is blazing across American, as you may of heard from Victor on TLLLVLBS Dr Phil has kept us informed and told us how well his book and CD signing have been going.
Of course it’s not all work and Dr Phil has taken time out with his new best’est friends to eating the best pork ribs on the planet from the Slick Pig BBQ and drinking a few beers in Downtown Nashville while listening to and joining in with a variety of bands playing bluegrass, country, and what some folks might call rock ‘n’ roll.
He has taken the Greyhound bus from Nashville to Memphis –the only way to see the real America were the temperature was 105 degrees F.
In Memphis as well as Grenada good crowds turned out to greet the DCR Southern Blues presenter and popular author and there were many book and CD signings.
After Memphis the tour headed for Chicago taking this time the famous City of New Orleans train.
WISHING YOU A MOST SAFE AND SUCCESSFUL TRIP TO THE USA….haste ye back…and Give My Regards To Broadway….All the Best….Gary D J Marshalls
Hi listeners,
Tuesday will be my last show before I depart to the US of A on my book signing tour. I start off with a concert and presentation near Nashville and then on to Memphis and Chicago before travelling to Jackson, Mississippi on the City of New Orleans (Amtrak train). From Jackson I’ll be travelling around the Delta doing signings at the Clarksdale Blues fest, the BB King museum and book stores in Greenwood, Grenada and Jackson. Then on to New Orleans and finally home via Atlanta, Georgia. While I’m away, DCR will put on a cuple of shows that I have pre-recorded in my ususal Tuesday night slot and I’ll be giving Victor news of my travels.
Tonights show has some great New orlands jazz from King Oliver and some fantastic recordings made in the rural Deep South of musicians from a byegone age. I’ll aslo feature Woody Guthrie and early country singer Patsy Montana with ‘I Wann Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” I’ll be playing a tune about the significance of dope from Victoria Swivey, one of the greatest women blues singers of all time. Artie Shaw once wrote that “Jazz was born in a whiskey barrel but grew up on marijuana!”
There wil also be skiffle from Lonnie Donegan and what some folks might call rock n roll from Big Mama Thornton and Little Richard, as well as my regular infusion of Mississippi John Hurt.
I hope you can listen in. Take care and Stay Well, Dr-Phil
Greetings. In tonights Sounds of the South, Ill be featuring some lesser known rock n’ roll from Sassy Mama and Fats Domino and an eclectic mix of music from contributors to the Archie Edwards Blues Foundation which will include blues, country and gospel.
I’ll be playing a great guitar and reed pipe tune that preceded the blues, by Henry ‘Ragtime Texas’ Thomas on a rare recording from 1927. The tune was covered by the great blues band of the sixties, Canned Heat. Canned Heat took their name from the Tommy Johnson tune, Canned Heat Blues about the cooking stove fuel called Sterno, which contains alcohol. The manufacturers mixed methanol into the ethanol in order to render it undrinkable, but this did not stop it being consumed by many folk in the prohibition era Deep South and the consumption of Sterno contributed to the death of Tommy Johnson. Anyway, Canned Heat called their version of this Henry Thomas tune Going Up The Country, which became the rock anthem of the Woodstock Festival in 1969. On the Canned Heat version, Jim Horn plays flute, copying the melody played forty years earlier on pan pipes by Henry ‘Ragtime Texas’ Thomas. Henry Thomas called his tune Bull-Doze Blues.
Also geatured will be a haunting blues by Skip James along with contributions from the Carter Family and the Louisville Jugband. I hope you can join me.
Hey there Sounds of the South listeners.
My book ‘Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues’ was issued in the U.S. last week and I’ve been getting some good reviews. It’s due out here later so please watch this space for further details.
In tonights show I’ll be featuring the great Woody Guthrie and making some comparisons with The Animals with some music that some folks might call rock ‘n’ roll! Also some great New Orleans jazz from Bunk Johnson and Louis Armstrong, Delta blues from Big Joe Williams and some great boogie from Sonny Burgess vintage Sun Studios, Memphis 1956.And I’ll be introducing you to another great home made instrument, the Diddley Bow. I hope you can make it.
Best, Dr-Phil
Well Howdy listeners, On my ‘Sounds of the South’ this week (Tueday June 7th) I will be featuring some great country music from the Stanley Brothers, singing cowboy Gene Autry and the Carter Family and some Rockabilly from Carl Perkins when he was at Sun Studios in Memphis. There’ll be some hot New Orleans jazz from Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers with Steamboat Stomp and some of my favourite early country blues from Blind Boy Fuller and Henry ‘Ragtime Texas’ Thomas. The Georgia Sea Island Singers will provide a great gospel tune and one man band man Jesse Fuller will give us, ‘Rockin’ Boogie.’ Blind Willie Johnson will give us his incredible, ‘What Is The Soul of a Man’ and as usual I’ll be talking about the background to the music and interspersing the show with numerous stories of the Deep South. I do hope you can join me.
Best, Dr-Phil
Hello regular listeners and welcome to those who want to sample some Sounds of the South.
Next Tuesday, May 24th, I am featuring a few lesser known tunes by lesser known artists from the 1950s that some folks call rockabilly and some folks call rock n’ roll. There’ll also be virtuoso ragtime finger pickin’ guitar from the Reverend Gary Davis, bluegrass from the Coon Creek Girls back in 1938, Blind Blake’s ‘Southern Rag’ (1927) and a work song recorded by prisoners in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm in 1947. As a modern (1970!) contribution I’ll be playing what I think is the greatest recorded version of the great blues classic ‘Key To The Highway’ by Derek and the Dominoes. I hope you can join me.
Stay well, Dr-Phil
Hello Listeners of ‘Sounds of the South.’
I hope you enjoyed this weeks show in which I featured the Louisville Jug bands, Howdy Forrester, a fiddle player from Tennessee that sounded very celtic to me and a variety of other southern sounds including the Old Regular Baptists from Kentucky, Louis Armstrongs Hot Five, Leadbelly, Hank Williams, Big Bill Broonzy and Bob Dylan’s ‘Ballad of Hollis Brown.’
In two weeks time on May 24th, I am featuring a few lesser known tunes by lesser known artists from the 1950s that some folks call rockabilly and some folks call rock n’ roll. There’ll also be virtuoso ragtime finger pickin’ guitar from the Reverend Gary Davis, bluegrass from the Coon Creek Girls back in 1938, Blind Blake’s ‘Southern Rag’ (1927) and a work song recorded by prisoners in the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm in 1947. As a modern (1970!) contribution I’ll be playing what I think is the greatest recorded version of the great blues classic ‘Key To The Highway’ by Derek and the Dominoes. I hope you can join me.
Stay well, Dr-Phil
Hello to you appreciative listners of the Sounds of the South. I’m looking forward to tonight’s show, which will include one of B B King’s earliest recordings from 1951, an early recording of the first super star of Country, Jimmie Rodgers, some earthy gospel and some of the earliest links to Rock n’ Roll. All this along with an interesting mix of contemporary blues. I hope you can join me.
Take Care,
Dr-Phil.
Thank you Luke, Dr Phil, Simon and Victor for mentioning The Save it with flowers walk on Saturday It was very kind of you all and you all had such nice positive things to say Thank you very much
WHOOPS!
My last message relates to my programme scheduled for two weeks from now on 29th March, which I’ve just finished putting together. So, I hope you will tune in then.
Meanwhile, this week, I’ll be including Bunk Johnson’s New Orleans Band with Alexanders Ragtime Band, some great Western Swing from Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and Rose Maddox, the great Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker. I’ll liven things up with Little Richard and I’ll play one of the greatest disaster ballads of all time from 1927 about the sinking of the Titanic.
Sorry about the confusion. I hope you can join me for one or even both of my next two broadcasts.
Take care and Stay well,
Dr Phil
Hello folks,
I’m looking forward to my next presentation of Sounds of the South on Tuesday 15th March. I’ll be weaving my way through a variety of southern music from gospel to rock n roll and string bands to jazz. This weeks show includes some fantastic sounds from the Newport Folk Festival in 1963; does anyone out there remember the Rooftop Singers? There’ll be some lesser known music from Elvis, bluegrass, Canal Street Blues from King Olive’s Creole Jazz Band and some fantasic earthy blues from my idol Mary Butler in 1928. Not forgetting Mississippi John Hurt’s first major appearance, Big Mama Thornton and Lightnin’ Hopkins. I hope you can join me.
Take care
Dr Phil
Tuesday promises to be a good night with Banjo Fank and Dr Phill
Hey listeners,
I hope you can join me at 8:00 pm, Tuesday March 1st for another Sounds of the South. I’l be featuring some early Memphis blues and some New Orleans jazz plus a couple of great sprituals from Brother Claude Ely and Elvis Presley.
From the 1950s I’m featuring an awesome and electrifying performnce of Mule Skinner Blues by Lonnie Donegan and his skiffle group. There will be the rare record that led to the resicovery of Mississippi John Hurt in 1963 and some early country and bluegrass from Doc Watson and Bill Monroe. In terms of some modern resurections of the early sounds I’ll play some great music from Stefan Grossman and his partner in the 60s, Rory Block, and a recent superb track from David Evans from Memphis. Added to the mix there’l be some Mississipi string music and some earthy southern rhythm that some folks might call rock ‘n’ roll.
I hope you can make it.
Dr Phil
Hello there,
As regular listners will know I have been playing and talking about music from the Deep South in my programmes on alternate Tuesdays. My music has encompassed early gospel and spirituals, New Orleans jazz and marching bands, Hillbilly, Country, Western Swing, Work Songs, Blues and early rock n’ roll.
Next week I’l focus on some of Eric Clapton’s influences, early country from Jimmie Rodgers and I’ll be playing possibly the very earliest ragtime recording by Scott Joplin. Adding to this wil be a very rare eary recording of Elvis Presley and music by Leadbelly, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell and Country music legend Hank Williams. I’ll also feature some little known great blues musicians.
I hope you can join me for my next ‘Sounds of the South’ on Tuesday, 15th February, 8:00 – 9:00.
Take Care and Stay Well
Dr-Phil
Hi Tall Jack
Very kind words. Thank you
Once I get a firm publication date for my book, “Mississipi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues” I will post it here and on my web site http://www.Dr-Phil.co.uk along with book signing dates. Provisional publication date is August 1st 2011.
I am thinking about another book based on my conversations on ‘Sounds of the South’ here on Dunoon Community Radio. Does anyone think it’s a good idea?
Thanks to all for listenin in.
Dr-Phil
Hi Doctor Phill you have got to publish a list of dates and towns of your forthcoming book signing tour. Victor say’s you should make a career out of writing about the blues-Listen to him it’s the first sensible thing he has said (only kidding)
Tall Jack
To Jocelyn Jackson
Hi Jocelyn
Thanks for your mail. Your words are encouraging and much appreciated. The reason I am doing a fortnightly show is entirely my own doing. Victor has offered to give me a weekly date, but I am struggling with other committments and the preparation for the show takes a while. Maybe in the New Year things may quieten down and I will ask if I can do a weekly show. Thanks so much for your interest and suport.
Best wishes and Stay Well
Dr-Phil
Love your programme and the tales of the Deep South and after looking at your Web Site can’t wait to read your forthcoming book. Is it not time the Programme Controller (is he not your Friend-heard you both reminiscing in a amusing way in a earlier programme) gave you a weekly programme. Good luck for the New Year and best whishes for the future to all at the radio station. Jocelyn Jackson