Mix Tape: The Blues Came Down From Memphis (1977...)

Side One: 0:00 The Boogie Disease by Doctor Ross 2:35 Cotton Crop Blues by James Cotton 5:40 Baker Shop Blues by Willie Nix 8:20 Bear Cat by Rufus "Hound Dog" Thomas Jr. 11:05 Take a Little Chance by Jimmy DeBerry 13:25 Juke Box Boogie by Doctor Ross 16:00 I Feel So Worried by Sammy Lewis Side Two: 18:35 If You Love Me by Little Milton 21:10 Time Has Made A Change by Jimmy DeBerry 23:55 Come Back Baby by Doctor Ross 26:45 So Long Baby Goodbye by Sammy Lewis 28:55 Tiger Man by Rufus "Hound Dog" Thomas Jr. 31:45 Seems Like A Million Years by Willie Nix 34:40 Chicago Breakdown by Doctor Ross Doctor Ross: Charles Isaiah Ross was born on October 21, 1925, in the Mississippi Delta town of Tunica, Mississippi,[3] one of eleven children in a farming family of mixed African-American and Native American heritage.[4] His first instrument was the harmonica, which he learned to play at age nine. Ross served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1948 in the Pacific Theater, and again from 1950 to 1951.[4] He married shortly after leaving the army.[4] During his service, Ross had accrued a collection of army medical books which, along with his habit of carrying his harmonicas in a doctor's bag, earned him the nickname "Doctor Ross."[3][4] James Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017)[1] was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career. Cotton began his professional career playing the blues harp in Howlin' Wolf's band in the early 1950s.[3] He made his first recordings in Memphis for Sun Records, under the direction of Sam Phillips. In 1955, he was recruited by Muddy Waters to come to Chicago and join his band. Cotton became Muddy's bandleader and stayed with the group until 1965.[4] In 1965, he formed the Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet, with Otis Spann on piano, to record between gigs with the Muddy Waters band. He eventually left to form his own full-time touring group. His first full album, on Verve Records, was produced by the guitarist Mike Bloomfield and the singer and songwriter Nick Gravenites, who later were members of the band Electric Flag.[5] In the 1970s, Cotton played harmonica on Muddy Waters' Grammy Award–winning 1977 album Hard Again, produced by Johnny Winter. Willie Nix:Nix was born in Memphis.[1] He learned to tap dance as a child and later, as a teenager, was a dancer and comedian with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. This led to work in various variety shows in the 1940s, and Nix later became a part of the blues scene that grew up around Beale Street (see Memphis Blues).[1] His talent for music led to performing on local radio with Robert Lockwood Jr. He joined Willie Love, Joe Willie Wilkins and Sonny Boy Williamson II, billed as the Four Aces, who toured the Deep South. In further Memphis radio performances in the mid-1940s, Nix played with B.B. King and with Joe Hill Louis. Later the same decade he worked with the Beale Streeters. In 1951, Nix made his first recording, for RPM Records, in Memphis. A year later he recorded for Checker Records.[1] Rufus C. Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001)[1][2][3] was an American rhythm-and-blues, funk, soul and blues singer, songwriter, dancer, DJ and comic entertainer from Memphis, Tennessee. He recorded for several labels, including Chess Records and Sun Records in the 1950s, before becoming established in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax Records. His dance records, including "Walking the Dog" (1963), "Do the Funky Chicken" (1969), and "(Do the) Push and Pull" (1970), were some of his most successful songs. According to the Mississippi Blues Commission, "Rufus Thomas embodied the spirit of Memphis music perhaps more than any other artist, and from the early 1940s until his death . . . occupied many important roles in the local scene."[4] He began his career as a tap dancer, vaudeville performer, and master of ceremonies in the 1930s. He later worked as a disc jockey on radio station WDIA in Memphis, both before and after his recordings became successful. He remained active into the 1990s and as a performer and recording artist was often billed as "The World's Oldest Teenager". He was the father of the singers Carla Thomas (with whom he recorded duets) and Vaneese Thomas and the keyboard player Marvell Thomas. --Wiki