Vintage piano blues - Barrelhouse Bonni - News

Video: the Great Huntington Harp Jam

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Aug. 2011: In a post- Diamond Teeth Mary Festival jam at Gino's pizza, Barrelhouse Bonni backed two national harmonica pros, Phil Wiggins from Maryland and Adam Gussow from New York. It turned into a harp duel, which the Huntington, WV Harmonica Club enjoyed! Thanks to the club for making Bonni welcome!

YOU TUBE LINK: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7ENd9ZQqY0&feature=youtu.be

Stepson of Blues Library Tour 2011

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHwpstaoa4w

Video from Oak Park Library samples songs and story by Bonni with Larry Hill Taylor from Black History Month library tour for Taylor's autobiography Stepson of the Blues: A Chicago Song of Survival.

Stepson books available at 57th Street

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

For those (like me) who love independent bookstores, Stepson of the Blues is now being sold in Hyde Park (home of the Obamas) at 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th St. Stop in and pick up your copy:

http://semcoop.indiebound.com/57th-street-books

(Those who like to order stuff on the web can also find the book on the "Shop" page of this website.)

Profiled by New York artist group Fractured Atlas!

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The New York based artist support group Fractured Atlas has profiled Bonni's co-authored book Stepson of the Blues, the autobiography of Chicago bluesman Larry Taylor. In an interview with Fractured Atlas, Bonni talks about her fund raising efforts as an independent publisher on Peaceful Patriot Press. Find out how you can support her project, tax deductible! Fractured Atlas also helps artists with insurance and other business matters.

Birth of Bonni's Stepson: Larry Taylor autobiography

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Stepson of the Blues, Larry Hill Taylor's autobiography which Bonni co-authored, has been published in June 2010 by Peaceful Patriot Press. The book and its authors contributed to dialogs about African American musicians and the blues at the Blues and Spirit Symposium and the Chicago Blues Festival. www.stepsonoftheblues.com

The Hotmail Scam!

Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Some of you all on my email list may have received a scam email from HOTMAIL sent out on Saturday May 8,2010, claiming I was stranded in London and to please send money. The thieves hijacked my hotmail password; I couldn't get into it to reach my friends. Microsoft sent me in circles until I finally got to a live person in their billing department on May 13. Please disregard any of those scam messages.
Use the email from the CONTACT in this website to get in touch with me. I am sorry for the confusion and for anyone who fell for this clever scam .
Apparently other hotmail addresses have been hijacked as well. So BEWARE the WEREWOLVES OF LONDON.

Chicago School of Blues WV Tour March 2010

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Bonni brought the Chicago School of Blues to Sweet Home WVa the first weekend of March 2010.
For this trip, West Virginia horn standouts Bob Redd, trumpet, and Dugan Carter, sax, joined CSB's Killer Ray Allison, CC Copeland, West Side Wes and Bonni. Larry Taylor came as a guest singer for their concert at West Virginia State College. Dugan's jazz band Full Flavor opened the concert, arranged by Lady D (Doris Fields) and the Charleston Blues Society to honor local African American musicians. Lady D herself sat in, singing "Stormy Monday" and "Rock Me."
The band also gave a workshop for an afterschool program sponsored by WV State at Emmanuel Baptist Church on the West Side of Charleston.
On Friday March 5, CSB joined Anthony Kinzer and Rabbit Jones for a local music history program March 5 at Simpson United Methodist Church, sponsored by the WV Center for African American Art & Culture, with support from Charleston Blues Society and WV Commission on the Arts.
On Saturday March 6 the Chicago School of Blues band wrapped up the weekend with a rousing show at Sam's Uptown Cafe, where manager Chris Bukant joined the crowd boogeying on the floor til 2 a.m. Larry, Ray, Wes and CC were delighted with the active, diverse crowd which included State Del. Meesha Poore, who sang a few songs with Ray. Mechanical Renegade spun some records for some solid dancing during break.
Special thanks to photographers Susan McAndrews and Julius Jackson, and to Rose, Mel, and the UUs for their steady welcoming and support through the years of his visits to Charleston.

Etiquette and Blues at Donoghue School

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

I love the blues. And I’m not the only one. This 20th century form of African American music has spread around the world, because it is a universal cry for understanding of the joys and sorrows people go through every day. Relationships, mean bosses, poverty, injustice, but also love and fun: that’s what makes blues songs. The late Willie Dixon, Chicago bass player and songwriter, said it best: “Blues is the facts of life.” Telling the facts of your life, you find people other people in the same boat, and that togetherness makes everyone feel better. Like the rhymes and rhythms of hiphop and the praises of gospel, blues music is best done with a group to reinforce the lead poet or singer.

Not only the words, but the sound of blues is healing. Black people in America pieced this music together, a simple quilt with brilliant colors, from African rhythms, Native American chants, and European instruments. Like a quilt, the blues tells a story. As the tale is told, the music builds up tension and, at the end, releases it. Wrap up your problem in three lines and make fun of it; somehow life does not seem as bad. A grownup blues audience will groove to the music, toes tapping, fingers popping, eyes half closed, maybe a few people dancing near the bandstand. Some of the kids in our afterschool blues classes picked up the same groove when we first played for them. Right away they noticed that the blues is “relaxing” music. Relaxed, but still aware of life.

What does blues have to do with etiquette? At Donoghue Elementary, a South Side school, afterschool students were offered our Chicago School of Blues class, sponsored by Rock for Kids www.rockforkids.org . At the same time, etiquette an etiquette class was going on, sponsored by the Etiquette Foundation of Illinois. http://efoi.org/home.html Teachers at Donoghue train their students in “Mutual Respect.” This concept was practiced equally well in the quiet, sitdown tea party that concluded the etiquette class, and also in the final exuberant day of our blues class on Dec. 18. When the youth got rowdy and talked out of turn or someone tried to bully someone, the teachers quickly reminded them to practice “Mutual Respect.” Music is a way to express your feelings in a disciplined, masterful, joyful way. There is a time for the call and a time for the response. You play and sing in the pattern of the rhythm.

At our Donoghue classes, our Chicago School of Blues band, composed of 30-year professional West and South Side musicians, aimed to practice “Mutual Respect.” Kids took turns putting their hands on the piano or on CC Copeland’s bass, West Side Wes’s drums, and Killer Ray Allison’s guitar. Abb Locke, who once played for Howlin’ Wolf, flashed his golden horn. We played a Temptations riff as the kids tried rapping their own rhymes. Clean rhymes, including one about Donoghue School! The youngsters danced as the band got funky with the songs of James Brown. Then we showed the kids how to sing a blues tune in the form of earlier generations. Before long they picked up the pattern and began to sing. Let the good times roll!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_nhXaziSFE
We tell kids in our classes that blues is part of their heritage and one of America’s greatest gifts to the world. When you learn your history, you can respect yourself and where you come from. When you share the feeling with others, it’s Mutual Respect. When it comes right down to it, mutual respect is the foundation of courtesy and etiquette. Going by the same rules. Treating others as you would like to be treated.

Noon Concert in Winchester VA

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Hampshire County WV friends and musicians rejoined Frederick County VA (the Revolutionary War era mother of both counties) on Nov. 20 2009 for a Barrelhouse Bonni concert at the Handley Library. Francis and KC Chilcoat, Steve and Terry Bailes, and Michael Hasty (who sat in on harmonica for the Jimmy Reed tune "Bright Lights Big City") trooped across the state line for Bonni's appearance in the Little Noon Music series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D5bLzeR_qY
Gene Babb and Glenene of the library staff organize the wintertime concerts featuring acoustic music in the intimate Handley Library auditorium. Some Sacred Heart elementary students came as well as faithful senior fans. Bonni led sing-alongs on such old chestnuts as "Home on the Range" and the Louis Jordan jump blues "Let the Good Times Roll." History was the theme, as Becky Ebert, head of the Handley Library Archives, joined Bonni's audience on the eve of the of the archives' 30 year anniversary celebration. The audience waltzed out to the closing song, Ledbelly's "Good Night Irene."

Chalmers Kids love School of Blues

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Rock for Kids, the charity that offers music instruction for underprivileged children, opened up a door on the West Side of Chicago and the School of Blues walked--or danced--right in! Students and staff at Chalmers Elementary School at Roosevelt & California heard the Great Migration tales of Abb Locke's arrival, broke and hungry, in Chicago, before he hooked up with Howlin' Wolf to play sax. They sang along with Ray Allison on "Mustang Sally" and "Just my imagination' and got down with CC Copeland's bass-ic Kanye West and James Brown songs. The folks run a great little school in a tough hood. We hope to see you all again soon and maybe you can learn some music with us!