Big Leather Couch

Check out the other participants by clicking on the link to the left...and join in!

You can register for free at playlist.com and type in a band name and BAM the song will be there to assist in building your playlist.

Travis lays out some guidelines for this meme and they go like this:

1. Grab the banner, make your post title Five on Friday, and be sure to link back here.

2. Go to Playlist.com to make your play list of five songs. Choose a particular theme to share with us. You can simply post the play list, or you can add a little summary about what you are sharing.

3. No tags, but feel free to invite your friends to play along if they need a post topic on a Friday.

The King Biscuit Blues Festival - the granddaddy of them all is going on right now in Helena, AR.

The name comes from “King Biscuit Time,” which was the longest running radio show. Sonny Boy Williamson and other musicians played live on KFFA every weekday, pausing for King Biscuit Flour commercials and announcements of their next nighttime performances.

Jim O’Neal, the editor of Living Blues Magazine at the time and an authority on blues history, said, “The King Biscuit hour was the thing that really crystallized blues music in this area. Muddy Water and B.B. King would come home from working in the fields every day just to listen to the King Biscuit hour. The festival was temporarily renamed Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival from 2005 to 2010 due to the problems arising out of rights of the name.

The festival was started in 1986 under the guidance of the "Main Street Helena" organization which is part of the "Main Street, USA" program. Its purpose was to revitalize the downtown area of the Mississippi River port city. In the intervening years the festival has grown into a four-day event with 5 stages and attendance of 100,000 or more.

This year the headliners are Buddy Guy on Thursday, Bobby Rush on Friday and Keb Mo' closing the festival on Saturday.

I will be posting photo essays on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons over at American Blues News. Hope you check them out...

Enjoy!

Have a grand weekend! I will be (well close to grand...ends up Nancy can not join me =[

Ever have one of those weekends...Not that it is a bad weekend...or an especially good weekend...not a weekend where you worked the entire time...not one of those weekends where you did absolutely nothing?

Yeah...I had one of those this weekend. Woke up TOO early on Saturday and took care of some business for MUSIC ON THE COUCH

BLATANT COMMERCIAL PLUG

Tonight's show comes to us with the assistance of good friend Julie who saw The Brighter Side Band at a Blues Fest in Canton.

She called me during their set to give me a cell-cert (which never really work, but we all love them anyway!) and after listening to some of their music on line I realized they were "Musicians You Should Know".

Then I sit with Rich deCicco who is the front man for the group The Ladies Of Sport out of Brooklyn NY. Their blend of pop-rock is cool and I hope you enjoy them also.

Now, I know this is week one of the Fall TV Season...and of course there is Monday Night Football...so aren't you so dang lucky that you can download the podcast after it ends and listen any time you want! You can even listen in parts if you choose!

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With Nancy having been gone the entire week and having long days, we opted not to drive the 2 hours to Greeenville, MS for the Blues Fest there. It is a great time and we knew a few people playing, but Helena and The Biscuit is just a couple of weeks away, October 6, 7, and 8.

The lineup is stellar once again with Buddy Guy, Delbert McClinton and Keb Mo headlining the three days. The cool part of this festival is the two second stages, which are free to attend. One is now called The Rising Biscuit stage where up and coming bands get the chance to show off their stuff. One of our past Couch-sitters, Cee Cee James is getting her shot on that stage. On the Lockwood-Stackhouse Stage, we will get to see friends Papa Don McMinn and Nightrain, The Wampus Cats, Andy Coates,
On the main stage, Lionel Young Band gets to perform as part of their winning the 2011 International Blues Challenge, along with Reba Russell and Room Full of Blues with James Cotton.

So many great bands are going to be there, the difficult part is deciding who to see and who to miss...

Digging my Fantasy football teams so far. This week's games are not all decided, but so far I like the distribution of points I am getting from the players on the teams. The money league is looking sweet.

Thanks y'all for coming!

Josh Roberts - Guitarist for Reba Russell and also The Wampus Cats

He has that bottom string bent all the way to the top

Andy Coats and his steel body guitar

Mr. Johnny Billington and his Gretsch Guitar
He works with at risk kids teaching them to play.
His backing band were three 15 - 16 year olds who could all play

Michael Burks making his guitar sing.

Ms. Eden Brent

Was named Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of The Year
by the Blues Foundation (May 2010)

Eden will be a guest on MOTC on 10/25/10

He was the guitarist for Howlin' Wolf from 1955 until Howlin's death in 1976.

So, I downloaded a new voice recorder app for my Droid so I could record notes over the time at The Biscuit, and then forgot to use it once! SOme things my addled brain did remember...

Each week TRAVIS from "Trav's Thoughts" hosts Five On Friday where we get to select five songs of any mix we care....


Check out the other participants by clicking on his link above...and join in!

You can register for free at playlist.com and type in a band name and BAM the song will be there to assist in building your playlist.

Travis lays out some guidelines for this meme and they go like this:

1. Grab the banner, make your post title Five on Friday, and be sure to link back here.

2. Go to Playlist.com to make your play list of five songs. Choose a particular theme to share with us. You can simply post the play list, or you can add a little summary about what you are sharing.

3. I don't know how to make a specific linky, so be sure to leave me a comment to let me know that you participated.

4. No tags, but feel free to invite your friends to play along if they need a post topic on a Friday.

This week, I honor five six artists I am enjoying at the King Biscuit festival this weekend...You can see information about this incredible three days of music HERE

Yes, Travis...I went with 6 songs - just because...

HAVE A GRAND WEEKEND - WE WILL BE!

This morning as y'all read this, Nancy and I should be on our way to Helena, AR for "The Biscuit". The Biscuit is the King Biscuit Blues Festival...

Well, actually  it is the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival now, because the King Biscuit name was bought by a corporation and they did not want the name used for the festival any longer.

Those who are long time fans, still refer to it as simply "The Biscuit".

It is three days with some 70+ bands on 3 stages in West Helena. The headliners each night are B.B. King on Thursday; Dr; John on Friday and Taj Mahal on Saturday. Great names, but what about Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Charlie Musselwhite, Eden Brent, Reba Russell Band, and so many more...well go LOOK HERE

Greatest thing it is $25.00/person for the Festival. That is not $25/day...but $25 for ALL THREE DAYS!

I will try and send some updates here from my cell phone if possible. I will also do some updates on Facebook and Twitter ...for twitter, follow @musiconthecouch

I will have 100's of pictures when I return next week and I am also hoping to do a few interviews while there that I can play on MUSIC ON THE COUCH.