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

Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear a popular TV theme song recorded at the Craighead Forest Bandshell.

I met Doug Hendrix at the bandshell and soon he was performing there. I got to record him several times. He was from Arkansas and living in Jonesboro but he had spent some time in Nashville working as a songwriter. Beside’s being an amazing songwriter he also plays acoustic guitar, fingerpicking like Chet Atkins or Jerry Reed.

On June 3, 2007, we had a fantastic lineup for Sunday In the Park, Doug Hendrix, George Hinds, Angie Owens, and Ronnie Presley, all fine Arkansas musicians and songwriters.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Hairy Larry Playing Bunnies
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-08-04

Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear a jazz song played to a rock beat.

During the pandemic I couldn’t play out but I still had to perform so I started livestreaming on twitch. To avoid copyright issues livestreaming I played only originals. After a few months of livestreaming 2 or 3 times a week I had settled in on 16 of my own compositions that I called my streaming repertoire.

I called my stream Hairy Larry Practicing Piano. It turns out that if you practice the same 16 songs week after week for two years you get pretty good at them. I had a routine. I’d record the stream. Then I’d listen back writing the song titles in order and I put a star next to the good takes. Then I’d make a video of the starred songs.

At first I would get two or three songs with stars but later on sometimes they would all be starred. And then I realized I had an album.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Daniel Turner Playing Customized Bliss
From The Archives Of Something Blue July 21, 2024

Thanks Marty, Today we’re going to hear a solo guitarist play at the Brookland Methodist Church.

On September 30, 2015, I arranged for Daniel Turner to play at our Wednesday night Praise service. He does a solo act he calls The Infinite Calling and it’s improvisatory ambient music. We usually sang praise music on Wednesday nights, dancing along and doing the hand movements. So when we had special music I tried to bring in acts that were different to expose our kids to a variety of music. When Infinite Calling played that night I think I pretty much suceeded in doing that.

We had a lot of kids showing up for our Wednesday night services. So many that they outnumbered the adults in multiples of 4 or 5. Fifty kids and ten adults was a thing that happened sometimes. And when we were outnumbered like that we just had to blend in, singing, dancing, and doing the hand movements, just like the rest of the kids.

We’re Methodists so we were happy to host musicians who were Lutheran, Presbyterian, Jewish, and even Baptist. Sometimes we had bands singing at our church that couldn’t sing at their own church. But this was the first time we had a Buddhist.

When we had Wednesday night special music we didn’t have a service. The preacher would open with a prayer and then I’d introduce the band. After I introduced Daniel he gave a short Buddhist prayer. It fit right in.

I was worried his music would be a little much for the kids but they loved it. About ten minutes into his set some of the kids were lying on the floor in the aisle. Now we did tumbling in church but even for us that was kind of weird. And then the whispering started, the music sounds much better when you’re lying down. Next thing you know Gretchen and I were on the floor too, enjoying Daniel’s “Customized Bliss”.

That’s what he called his song, “Customized Bliss”, 36 minutes of guitar improvisation, a little bit too long for radio. So I have prepared an excerpt for us to enjoy on Arkansa Roots, about a sixth of his whole piece. I’ll post a link to the whole concert on the Something Blue website at sbblues.com.

So, here he is now, Daniel Turner, live at the Brookland United Methodist Church, recorded on September 30, 2015.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Rhode Island Red and Hairy Larry Singing Walk Right In
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-07-07

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear some jug band music recorded at the King Biscuit Blues Festival.

It was October 5, 2006 and The Emporium Orkestra was playing at Bunky’s Breakfast on Cherry Street in Helena, Arkansas. That morning Rhode Isalnd Red and I were the early risers so our first set was as a duo. One of the songs we sang was “Walk Right In”.

“Walk Right In” was written by Gus Cannon and recorded in 1929 by Cannons Jug Stompers. In 1963 The Rooftop Singers had a big hit on the song. Rhode Island Red plays it more like the original while I had only heard the sixties hit.

Although we were a duo we sounded like a seven piece orchestra singing harmony vocals, while I played bass and rhythm when Red took the lead. I played my Mississippi saxophone on a rack while Red played the trumpet parts on his kazoo. And it’s Jug Band Music so we both played the drums with our feet and with hand slaps on our guitars.

One morning Rhode Island Red walked in and he had written a song. It’s really short so I’m going to sing it for you now.

We’re Hairy Larry and Rhodes Island Red
And we’re gonna play until we’re dead.
Well we ain’t dead yet. No no. We ain’t dead yet.

Ok now, they may kick me off the air for having too much fun so here’s Rhode Island Red and Hairy Larry singing the Gus Cannon song “Walk Right In”.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Billy Jones Bluez Singing I’m A Bluesman
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-06-23

Thanks Marty. Today we’re going to hear an Arkansas bluesman sing a song he wrote about his life in music.

It was October 8, 2013, when I met Mike Doyle in the parking lot at ASU to make our monthly sojourn down to Newport, Arkansas, for KASU Bluesday Tuesday. Mike was the KASU station manager at the time and he would MC the show. I was going to record Billy Jones Bluez for Something Blue.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Joe Lee And Friends playing Kinda Tawny
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-06-02

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear Joe Lee play his own arrangement of the Bill Holman song, “Kinda Tawny”.

“Boppin’ At The Forest” is the third album that I helped Joe record and release. It’s the first one where I recorded the band. On “Sounds Of The Sixties” and “Joe Lee Swings On” I digitized the music from Joe’s master tapes.

Joe had this idea. He wanted to record the charts that he arranged for his band and used when touring in Arkansas, Memphis, and all over the mid south.

Back in the day it took quite a setup to make audio recordings so live audio wasn’t recorded like it is today. But Joe still had the sheet music and he had some friends who knew how to play. So we had a project to work on.

The project was preserving Joe’s arrangements as music and recording the sound of Joe’s current band.

Joe’s new studio was his living room. I ran mic cables into his study where he kept his tapes and a bunch of recording stuff he used at Alley. I hooked the mics into a mixer board and recorded stereo to my computer. So in 2001 I was ahead of the curve doing digital recording.

Playing on “Kinda Tawny” were
Joe Lee – Tenor Sax
Craig Baker – Trumpet
Dru Davison – Bari Sax
Joy Sanford – Piano
Tom Mason – Bass
and
Mike Overall – Drums

All fine outstanding musicians with deep ties to the Northeast Arkansas jazz scene.

The results were spectacular. Joe really knew how to put it together. On “Kinda Tawny” he just kept building and building on the head, adding instruments and changing the parts. Then we’ll hear some great solo work by Craig Baker and Joy Sanford.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Giant Steps Playing Perdido
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-05-25

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear a Duke Ellington tune played at KASU Jazz Thursday.

By Duke Ellington tune I mean composed by Juan Tizol, a longtime member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. “Perdido” was first recorded on December 3, 1941. Miles Davis made it his own. He recorded it with the Tadd Dameron Quintet in 1949, released as “Wahoo”. Then again with Jimmy Forrest in 1952.

Joe Lee loved the song and often played it. The musicians Joe played it with also played in the bands, Nightlife and Giant Steps.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Striding The Blast Playing Twist Of Fate
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-05-12

Thanks Marty, today we’re going to hear an original song recorded In The Loft At The Edge.

I’ve played at The Edge Coffeehouse for years either in one of the rooms downstairs or on the front porch. When I learned about their loft it was an eye opener. The room upstairs was usually used for meetings, game nights, or book clubs but it was an ideal performance venue with an obvious stage area in front of two windows overlooking the ASU campus.

DJ Hairy Larry Presents Hairy Larry Singing Promises
From The Archives Of Something Blue 2024-04-28

Thanks Marty, today we’ll hear a song I wrote recorded by some fine Northeast Arkansas musicians.

My song “Promises” was released on the album “Collaborators” by Richard Murray and Hairy Larry. The album is full of songs cowritten by Richard and myself. I’ll save that story for another podcast. “Promises” was written, music and lyrics, by me.

We ended up with nine songs and I knew just who I wanted to record them. On December 2, 2009, I got the band together. Paul Moore on electric mandolin, Corey Emerson, bass, Addison Boling, drums, and I’m playing acoustic guitar. We all lived in the Jonesboro area at the time and we all had strong ties to ASU.

Since all of the songs were originals I was the only one at the session who had ever played them before. I gave Corey some pages with the chords scratched out in pencil, my notes while writing the songs so I wouldn’t forget them. Paul is blind so he plays by ear. And our drummer, Addison, like most drummers was used to playing without written music.

The rhythm section recorded all nine songs in a two hour session. We did two takes on each song and Addison’s time was so precise that sometimes I used pieces of both takes, spliced together on the album. I added vocals, trumpet, and harmonica later as overdubs.

Like most songwriters I write a lot of love songs. When I sing a love song people come up to me after the show and ask if I wrote that song about Vivian. And I usually have to say, nope, sorry, that songs not about Vivian.

But I’m here to tell you now I wrote the song “Promises” about Vivian and I sing it from my point of view. I not only wrote the song about Vivian I’m singing it to Vivian.