Hit Me, Fred! (feat. Fred Wesley)

#121 in The Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumentals Series, Hit Me, Fred!, features a J.B., a P-Funk Allstar, and one funky MF, trombonist Fred Wesley!. I'm so excited about this that it's hard for me to just write a little bio/blurb as I usually do. If you haven't read Fred's book, Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Sideman, yet, I highly recommend you do. My musical brother, David DR Robbins, sent me a signed copy of the book as a gift a while back which lead to me reaching out to Fred directly, the results of which are this collaboration here before your ears. Born in Columbus GA, Fred is the son of an educator and big band leader. He started out on piano and trumpet and by 12 had switched permanently to trombone. By the 1960's he was playing in James Brown's band (he had been on tour with Ike & Tina Turner previously) and it's been non-stop funkin' ever since. Fred is on Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud, Sex Machine, Funky Drummer, and is the co-writer of Hot Pants and Doin' It To Death. As a member of Parliament-Funkadelic, you can hear Fred on Flashlight, Chocolate City, and Tear The Roof Off The Sucker to name just a few. He's also on all those great 80's George Clinton records, including Atomic Dog! You really gotta read his book and check out his Wiki. Seriously!!! Okay, I'll spare you the fanboy gushing and let you get to it...Enjoy!

The backing band on this track is the Grammy winning and super groovin', Derrek Phillips, (Gloria Gaynor, Robben Ford, Charlie Hunter) on drums, the great Christian Pepin (2x Grammy winner) on percussion, and myself on rhythm guitar and bass (where's my Grammy???). The track was recorded at NTA, San Bruno, CA, The Phamily Room, Nashville TN, and VicWes Productions in Manning, South Carolina. Mellifluously mixed and mastered by the infamous F-Bomb.

[No Use Crying Over] Spilt Milk (feat. Lucious Spiller)

#120 in The Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumentals Series, (No Use Crying Over) Spilt Milk, features the very real guitar playing of, Lucious Spiller. A resident of Clarksdale Mississippi, nephew of Magic Sam, and mentor to Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Lucious is about as real deal as one can be. His father, also a Bluesman, taught Lucious his first chord at 4 years old, and by the time he was a teenager, Lucious was playing bass for Larry Davis (writer of the 1958 song Texas Flood later immortalized by Stevie Ray Vaughan). Lucious also played bass for Albert King, Fenton Robinson, and Calvin Levy before even finishing college. Finding it easier to sing and play, Lucious switched to guitar when starting to front his own band and has since performed with Bo Diddly, James Brown, Big Jack Johnson, T-Model Ford, Bobby Rush, Luther Allison, and more. He has also been featured on the series Moonshine, and Mojo Hands, the documentary, True Delta: Keeping the Blues Alive, and was the subject of the 2020 documentary entitled Walk with Me: Lucious Spiller, Called to Sing the Blues. His friend Charlie Musselwhite is talking about making a new Lucious Spiller album but until then, turn this one up!

The backing band on this track is Rich Kirch (John Lee Hooker 1984-2001) on rhythm guitar, Alvino Bennett (Dave Mason, Stevie Wonder) on drums, and myself on bass. The track was recorded at Skunkworks in Capitola CA with overdubs recorded by Gary Vincent in Clarksdale MS. Mellifluously mixed and mastered by the infamous F-Bomb. 

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys (feat. Quique Gomez)

#119 in The Need To Know Badass Blues Instrumentals Series, Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys, features the Spanish harmonicist, Quique Gomez. Born in Madrid, Quique's first band, Juan Bourbon, Juan Scotch & Juan Beer, was cleverly named after the Rudy Toombs song popularized by John Lee Hooker in 1966. The band achieved enough notoriety in Spain to inspire Quique to travel to the US and specifically Chicago, where he met and formed lifelong friendships with some of the last of the original greats, including John Primer, Eddie C. Campbell, Bob Stroger, Jimmy Burns, Tail Dragger, Kenny Blues Boss Wayne, and others. Quique has since recorded 13 records and toured from Brazil to The Congo. He also finds time to satisfy his inner crooner by singing with the Bob Sands Big Band, a Thad Jones/Count Basie tribute band. And if that isn't enough, Quique teaches at the “Escuela de Blues de Madrid” (Madrid Blues School) and is the director of the Intensive Blues Course in Béjar, Spain. Quique is a disarmingly positive and funny human being, which I believe translates quite well into this track. Enjoy!

The backing band on this track is Rich Kirch (John Lee Hooker 1984-2001) on rhythm guitar, Alvino Bennett (Dave Mason, Stevie Wonder) on drums, and myself on bass. The track was recorded at Skunkworks in Capitola CA with overdubs at NTA, San Bruno CA. Mellifluously mixed and mastered by the infamous F-Bomb. And an extra special thank you to Kid Andersen for introducing us to his friend and for delivering him to the session.