From The Archives Of Something Blue March 5, 2023

Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear some jazzy blues recorded live at the Craighead Forest Bandshell.

Mike Dollins is a blues musician and promoter from Little Rock. We had the idea to have an Arkansas Blues Caravan bringing musicians from all over the state to perform at the Bandshell. The acts performing included Suzanne and Fred, Sandy and Roy McCann, Ben “Swamp Donkey” Brenner, Jawbone and Jolene, and Mike “Whiskerfish” Dollins and The Big Blue Cats.

It was great weather with everyone enjoying everybody else’s blues. A good time was had by all, the musicians and the audience.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Bebop Beatniks Playing Sheltered
From The Archives Of Something Blue – February 26, 2023

Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear an original jazz song accompanying a spoken word poem by Walt Whitman.

The nice thing about the Delta Jazz Workshop is getting to play with musicians you haven’t seen for a year, as well as musicians you’ve just met.

On July 10, 2019, Bebop Beatniks were playing the Wednesday night concert featuring the working piano trio with Jeremy Jackson on bass, Alex Washam – drums, and Hairy Larry on piano.

Kevin Tinker was on trumpet and Emily Lindley on vibes. Both Kevin and Emily had played with us for years.

We also featured our frequent guest, Jay Shepherd on guitar. Rounding out the horns we had Michael McGowan on tenor sax. This was the first and only gig, so far, that Bebop Beatniks had McGowan as a guest beatnik.

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a jazz standard recorded at KASU Jazz Thursday.

I played with Matt Jackson in NJHB. He’s a fine bass player who’s in demand, playing with many musicians. He told me about a band he played in, the Steve Davis Trio, and after we adjusted our schedule a little we found a date when they could play.

Steve Davis plays guitar. Matt’s on bass and rounding out the trio is Michael Cates on drums. They work well together delivering a tight sound on jazz standards, pretty much playing all my favorite songs. At the top of that list is “Stella By Starlight”, a fantastic ballad.

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear an original song that has blues, jazz, and gospel influences.

I met Will Riley at my juke house in Old Town Nettleton. He said he wanted to come and play so we scheduled him in. He became a regular performer playing mostly original songs. One night, on his last set, Bix Smith set in and I knew that I wanted to record what I was hearing.

So we scheduled some sessions during our off hours and recorded the songs featured on the Will Riley album, “My Baby’s Got Me By The Blues”. Eleven originals, each one better than the others. Fantastic work writing, playing, and recording.

I picked “Been Down To The Water” to play today because it’s a gospel song played to a blues change featuring jazz guitar. A little bit of all the ingredients that make up Arkansas Roots.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Pansy Hall
From The Archives Of Something Blue February 5, 2023

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear some southern soul recorded at Soundworks, right here in Jonesboro.

I played with Aaron Love at Blues Fest 91 but we never performed together on a regular basis until I had my juke house at Old Town Nettleton. In 1997 I put together a band featuring Aaron and a female vocalist, Pansy Hall. We had a tight Memphis sound with harmony vocals. We sang Blues and R&B cover songs as well as a few originals.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Hairy Larry playing "Chunga"
From The Archives Of Something Blue January 29, 2023

Thanks Marty, today we're going to hear an original post bop jazz piece recorded at Harriet O'Neal's piano studio.

Regular listeners know that I'm a composition major at ASU. There's more to being a composition major than putting notes on a page. You are also expected to arrange readings of your pieces, make recordings, and perform recitals.

I wrote a piece called "Chunga", a prequel to Frank Zappa's "Chunga's Revenge". Harriet O'Neal was my piano teacher and she agreed to help play a reading and make a recording of the piece. Harriet was raised in Wynne, Arkansas, and she taught at ASU.

I pulled some top area musicians to fill out the rhythm section. On bass I had David Eckert, librarian at the Jonesboro Public Library who gave lessons at ASU and on drums, John Long, band director at Walnut Ridge.

For the saxophone parts I had two excellent musicians who I had played with in the jazz program at ASU, Aaron Decker - alto, and Cody Ballard - tenor. The bari player I had scheduled was out of town so I played the bari parts on my synthesizer.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Jay Shepherd Playing Freddie The Freeloader
From The Archives Of Something Blue January 22, 2023

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a Miles Davis blues performed at A-State Delta Jazz Workshop.

Jay Shepherd and Shugga Shane were regulars at Blues Fest so I already knew Jay when we were taking Jazz Improv together at ASU. He also played with Bebop Beatniks quite a bit and he is a featured soloist on our new live album, “Church”.

On July 12, 2016, I recorded Jay’s band at the Delta Jazz Workshop evening concert held in the Fine Arts Recital Hall. They played a great set of jazz standards ranging from swing to fusion and they closed with “Freddie Freeloader”, a song from the Mile’s Davis album, “Kind Of Blue”.

Playing on the song we will hear Jay Shepherd on guitar; Shane Chastain, piano; Terrell Montgomery, bass, and Keyven Dunn, drums, all fine outstanding Northeast Arkansas musicians.

Joe Lee and I recorded “Boppin’ At The Forest” in the studio, that is, in the front room of his home while I recorded in his office surrounded by Alley memorabilia. Except for one track.

“If I Had You” was recorded by Joe Lee and Friends at the Jonesboro Public Library. It was in the spring of 2001 and in between the sessions Joe booked a gig. At the gig Joe featured Dru Davison playing a bari feature. So the personnel on this song was just Dru and the rhythm section, Joy Sanford – Piano, Tom Mason – Bass, and Mike Overall – Drums. I don’t know if you’ve ever done live recording but a lot my job as audio engineer was holding my mouth right when I heard something exceptional hoping for a good recording all the way to the end of the song.

After Joe and I listened to the recordings Joe decided to add this Dru Davison feature to his “Boppin’ At The Forest” CD. Which is why, when you are recording a band, you always want to keep the tape rolling.

From The Archives Of Something Blue October 9, 2022

1. DJ Hairy Larry presents Houston Steele and Bad Habit
2. Something Blue – Anyday – 29 second spot

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a Keith Sykes song played at the Craighead Forest Bandshell.

When Houston Steele started playing with Braden Byrd and Billy Spence we started getting them to perform at the bandshell. He’s a fantastic guitarist and vocalist with a wry sense of humor that he uses to connect to his audience. He’s been playing around Jonesboro and all over the country for decades doing mostly country and rock hits. He can also deliver on the blues as we’re about to hear today.

From The Archives Of Something Blue October 23, 2022

1. DJ Hairy Larry presents John Shepherd and Happy Hour
2. Something Blue – Friends – 29 second spot

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a band from Wynne singing a Muddy Waters song.

It was Blues Fest 2010 and John Shepherd and Happy Hour were closing the show. It was a special performance because Kyle Harrison had played earlier in the day and he joined John for the last half of the set. This gave us two amazing blues guitarists from Wynne, Arkansas, on the stage playing together.