Something Blue – Echoes – November 8, 2025

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Mike Stern, Howl Quartet, and Hairy Larry. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Regis V Gronoff, Hypotenuza, Bob Reynolds, Steve Lawson, Roman Stolyar, and Boom Boom Beckett. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.

Thanks Marty, today we’ll hear the premier recording of a new song I wrote recorded at KASU New Jazz In Jonesboro.

NJHB recorded their first album at HairyLarryLand on December 29, 2012. In 2013 we released 8 1/2 albums counting “Bop Soup” as half an album. We were back in 2018 and 2019, recording an album at every show. After the pandemic we recorded an album outside of the Round Room on November 5, 2023, and then, last week, we recorded “The Hop Skip Jump”.

We are a different kind of jazz band featuring group improvisation. On November 30, 2019, when we recorded our “Checking For Traps” album, I said, “Then we’re gonna do like NJHB does, we’re gonna not just improvise the solos, we’re gonna improvise the arrangement, we’ll go outside, do whatever we want, have a good time.”

So to explain some of this I’m going to do an analysis of the excerpt of “The Hop Skip Jump” we’re about to hear. I will post a link to the whole album at sbblues.com.

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Lizz Wright, Bebop Beatniks, and Ambrose Akinmusire. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.

Lizz Wright – Salt
www.lizzwright.net/

Ambrose Akinmusire – Honey From A Winter Stone
www.ambroseakinmusire.com/

Bebop Beatniks – Live at KASU New Jazz In Jonesboro on May 24, 2025

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Witch Dance, John Good, Matt Lucas, and The Jelly Roll Kings. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Gary Gazaway, Lisa Ahia, Rebekah Todd, and Karina Rykman. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a musician I played with 30 years ago who sent me some songs recently recorded.

Back in the nineties a guitarist called Duke was jamming with Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians. He even played at Blues Fest. A great guy and a great musician.

Now, 30 years later, I get an email from John Good. Duke is his stagename. John Good is his name. I probably knew that back at the time but I only remembered Duke.

And he sent me two CDs recorded by John Good and Friends. Excellent work played by excellent musicians from Little Rock, Arkansas.

It all started one year at Blues Fest. John Shepherd played the first part of his set without a band and Vivian loved it. Well, I did too, so I got in touch with John about recording a solo album and although it was a little bit outside of his comfort zone he was game.

Now I’m going to have to try to find that Blues Fest performance. It was probably in 2008 because …

I recorded John Shepherd at HairyLarryLand on February 21, 2009 and March 21, 2009. All tracks are John Shepherd, guitar and vocals, with no overdubs.

So it’s essentially a live album.

And he wrote all the songs.

We called the album “So Low” and it’s just killing all the way through. I picked the song “I Want To Be The One” to play today because of it’s deep lyric and exceptional blues guitar.

He showed up to play with just a guitar case. He said, “Don’t worry, there’s an amp in there too”. And sure enough when he opened his case there was a Pignose amp. I had John set up to sing in one room and I put the amp in another room with a close mic for sound isolation. So I was able to get John’s vocals right on top something that can be difficult to do when he’s singing with a loud band.

This is Hairy Larry inviting you to enjoy Something Blue every Saturday night at ten. This week we’re featuring Manuzik, Javiar Martin Boix, DRDJEKILL, DIGDug, and Gavin Gamboa. For more about the show visit the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

Don’t miss Something Blue, Saturday night at 10:00 PM Central, at kasu.org.

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a great Arkansas jazz pianist play everybody’s favorite song.

I can remember, back in the day, when I used to watch the Art Porter Trio play jazz on AETN. Older listeners will remember a time when all the world’s music wasn’t at your fingertips and it wasn’t that often that you got to hear a piano trio on television.

Art Porter led a full life with church, family, music education, and performance, often intertwined. That is he started playing at church and later he played at church with his own family, who he taught to play. He also taught in Little Rock, Arkansas, at Horace Mann High School, Parkview High School, and Philander Smith College while performing nights with a jazz trio that sometimes included his son, Art Porter Jr., and sometimes a guest, Pharoah Sanders.

My friend, Suzanne Michell, loved his music and she sang with him as a guest. He even played with his long time friend, Bill Clinton, and Art Porter and his son performed “Amazing Grace” at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993.

When I’m about to play this song I say, “Ok now, here’s everybody’s favorite song, “Summertime”.

So now, here’s Art Porter, a great man and a genius on jazz piano playing everybody’s favorite song, “Summertime”.