Snooky Pryor & Mel Brown

Snooky Pryor & Mel Brown

Genres: blues, harmonica blues, harp, harmonica, Chicago Blues

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About Snooky Pryor & Mel Brown

Snooky Pryor James Edward "Snooky" Pryor (September 15, 1919 or 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica, although on his earliest records, in the late 1940s, he did not use this method. Career Pryor was born in Lambert, Mississippi, United States. He developed a country blues style influenced by Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson) and Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck Ford "Rice" Miller). In the mid-1930s, in and around Vance, Mississippi, Pryor played in impromptu gatherings of three or four harmonica players, including Jimmy Rogers, who then lived nearby and had yet to take up playing the guitar. Pryor moved to Chicago around 1940. While serving in the U.S. Army he would blow bugle calls through a PA system, which led him to experiment with playing the harmonica that way. However, most[who?] historians credit the idea to Little Walter[citation needed]. Upon discharge from the Army in 1945, he obtained his own amplifier and began playing harmonica at the outdoor Maxwell Street Market, becoming a regular on the Chicago blues scene. Pryor recorded some of the first post-war Chicago blues in 1948, including "Telephone Blues" and "Snooky & Moody's Boogie", with the guitarist Moody Jones, and "Stockyard Blues" and "Keep What You Got", with the singer and guitarist Floyd Jones. "Snooky & Moody's Boogie" is of considerable historical significance: Pryor claimed that the harmonica virtuoso Little Walter directly copied the signature riff of Pryor's song in the opening eight bars of his blues harmonica instrumental "Juke," an R&B hit in 1952. This claim is historically questionable at best. During the 1950s, Pryor regularly toured in the South. In 1967, Pryor moved to Ullin, Illinois. He quit music and worked as a carpenter in the late 1960s but was persuaded to make a comeback. Blues fans later revived interest in his music, and he resumed recording occasionally until his death in nearby Cape Girardeau, Missouri, at the age of 85. In January 1973 he performed alongside Homesick James with the American Blues Legends '73 tour, which played throughout Europe. On this tour they recorded an album in London, Homesick James & Snooky Pryor, for Jim Simpson's label, Big Bear Records, with Pryor also recording a solo album, Shake Your Boogie. Pryor appeared on Bob Margolin's 1995 Alligator Records release My Blues and My Guitar. Some of his better-known songs are "Judgement Day" (1956), "Crazy 'Bout My Baby" (from Snooky, 1989), "Where Did You Learn to Shake It Like That" (from Tenth Anniversary Anthology, 1989), and "Shake My Hand" (1999). Pryor's son Richard "Rip Lee" Pryor is also a blues musician and performs in and around his hometown of Carbondale, Illinois. Wikipedia: Snooky Pryor Mel Brown Mel Brown (October 7, 1939 – March 20, 2009) was an American-born blues guitarist and singer. He is best remembered for his decade long backing of Bobby Bland, although in his own right, Brown recorded over a dozen albums between 1967 and 2006. Career Brown was born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, and was presented with his first guitar as a teenager while recovering from a bout of meningitis. By 1955, after performing backing duties for both Sonny Boy Williamson II and Jimmy Beasley, Brown had a two year long stint backing Johnny Otis. This led to work with Etta James, where he swapped his Gibson Les Paul for an ES-175 to give him a richer and fuller tone to his guitar work, that set him apart from his contemporaries. The stress of constant touring led him to Los Angeles, California, to resume work with Otis, spending an extended residency at the Club Sands. Further session duties saw Brown back Bobby Darin and Bill Cosby among others, as well as performing on T-Bone Walker's Funky Town. ABC Records producer Bob Thiele offered Brown the chance to record his own material, and Brown released Chicken Fat in 1967. Though principally a blues musician, Brown would also transition into jazz and soul jazz through his association with Bob Thiele, including a prominent role with the Oliver Nelson Big Band and appearing on Live from Los Angeles released by Impulse. One of Brown's most celebrated tracks is the 11+ minute guitar solo, "Eighteen Pounds of Unclean Chitlings", which features on I'd Rather Suck My Thumb (1970), and was reissued as the lead track (and title) on a BluesWay Records collection released in 1973. For many years in the 1980s and 1990s, Brown was a prominent member of the house band at Antone's Night Club in Austin, Texas. Brown was nominated for a Juno Award in both 2001 and 2002. Brown died aged 69, on March 20, 2009, in Kitchener, Ontario, of complications from emphysema. A documentary film, Love Lost & Found: The Story of Mel Brown directed by Sean Jasmins for Blue Fusion Productions was granted a theatrical release in 2014. Wikipedia: Mel Brown Double Shot! Studio album by Snooky Pryor and Mel Brown Released: 2000 Recorded: October 18 & 19, 1999 Liquid Recording Studio Toronto, Ontario, Canada Genre: Blues Length: 57:28 Label: Electro-Fi Records Producer: Andrew Galloway, Sandra B. Tooze Snooky Pryor chronology Snooky Pryor: Shake My Hand (1999) Double Shot! (2000) Super Harps II (2001) Mel Brown chronology Neck Bones & Caviar (1999) Double Shot! (2000) Homewreckin’ Done Live (2001) Double Shot! is the first blues album recorded by harmonica player Snooky Pryor and guitarist Mel Brown. It was produced by Andrew Galloway and Sandra B. Tooze and was recorded on October 18 & 19 1999 at Liquid Recording Studio in Toronto, Ontario. It was released by Electro-Fi Records in 2000 with a running time of 57:28, and received a Juno Award nomination for Blues Album of The Year. Track Listing: 1."Dirty Rat" (W.M. Thornton and M. Laylar) – 4:50 2."Ruby Mae" (Mel Brown) – 4:55 3."Early In The Morning" (Hickman, Bartley, Jordan) – 4:28 4."Big Leg Woman" (Johnny Temple) – 7:31 5."Snooky And Mel Boogie" (James Pryor) – 1:38 6."Rock This House" (James A. Lane) – 4:03 7."Let Your Hair Down, Woman" (James Pryor) – 5:20 8."So Fine" (J. Otis) – 3:14 9."That's All Right" (James A. Lane) – 6:48 10."Do The Boogaloo" – (James Pryor) 5:05 11."Ease My Mind" (Mel Brown) – 5:25 12."Work 'Til My Days Are Gone" (James Pryor) – 3:34 Personnel Snooky Pryor sings lead vocal on tracks: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10 & 12. Mel Brown sings lead vocal on tracks: 2, 6, 9, & 11 and second vocals on track 3. The Homewreckers (John Lee piano, Al Richardson bass, and Jim Bodreau drums) are featured on tracks: 1, 2, 3, 5 & 9. Michael Fonfara (piano) plays on tracks 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, & 11.

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