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.