Sunday, July 20, 2008

"Railroad Tracks" / Juke Boy Bonner / Life Gave Me a Dirty Deal



W. T. F. ?

That was my first thought upon seeing this pop up on itunes. I'm not even gonna try to be cool and say I had any idea who this cat is or why he has a song on my itunes playlist.

Then I remembered...back when Quinn was about two and a half, he went through a HUGE train phase, which I'm beginning to think almost every American boy goes through (maybe like girls and ponies? I don't know) as Isaiah is in the throes of railroad dementia at this moment. Thomas the Tank Engine plays no small role in this , by the way

Click....if you dare!



Anyway, Beegee and I made Quinn a "train" mixtape CD (is that an oxymoron?) by searching the itunes music store for anything with "train" in the title. And thus, we get Juke Boy Bonner. Dude has an interesting backstory, which while typical of most blues artists (tough life, unappreciated as a musician, relatively early death) has a couple of cool tibets as well. It seems he was a poet as well ("ghetto poet", even) and was pretty much a one man band, accompanying himself on drums, harmonica, and guitar.

The song is just a straightforward boogie-woogie, nothing fancy at all. It's really good, solid music, and I think an interesting addition to your collection. I know some of you guys reading are big blues fans and like this kind of stuff; I have to admit that it's an area in which I'm a little deficient. I mean, I give you people Superchunk last week and get two responses, and one is about The Two Coreys?! What do you want from me? *puts head in arms, weeps softly*

Here's Juke Boy!
http://www.mediafire.com/?wwmyfx4ymdy

4 comments:

THE MERKIN MAN said...

1. This file is protected by a password.

2. What do you know? It was the same password as the one you told me about four years ago so I could enter your attendance.

3. Juke Boy lived a pretty interesting life. I think his blues credentials are pretty legit.

4. He has a nice Texas swing style that you don't hear in Chicago, New Orleans, and Saint Louis styles. It fits the subject matter nicely, doesn't it?

5. Long ago I made a blues podcast that was actually one of the better ones.

Ralph Dilliard said...

Train songs? Does that mean there's some Quad City DJ's lurking in there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9vZ_akgmXU

Mike said...

I never liked some stupid trains.
Although, not to bring up Jane or anything, but train sex in the overnight car in Europe was THE best sex ever. As in ever.
Oh and I don't have your password so I didn't hear the song and oh yeah the Hawks lost Josh Childress to a European team in case you missed that bit of news. No matching that offer I guess. If the Clippers weren't out there, Atlanta's management would have to be the worst. I'd be so depressed if I were you.
Childress is gonna be banging so many European groupies on those trains its not even funny.

B. Mo said...

I'll check into the password thing. That hasn't been a problem before, has it?

Leave it to Mike to bring up sex and the NBA in the span of one paragraph.