Wolfgang's Vault, the website devoted to concert recordings and paraphernalia, has signed a deal to offer tapes of shows from the legendary L.A. folk and blues club the Ash Grove. The first show from the Ash Grove vaults, a Freddie King concert from 1970, has been posted.
The Vault, which has collections from Bill Graham's shows in San Francisco and New York, the Record Plant, King Biscuit Flower Hour and other properties, is digitizing more than 100 concerts from the Ash Grove, which was open from 1958 to 1970. Among the artists whose recordings will be offered are are Taj Mahal, Little Richard, Big Mama Thornton, Merle Travis and Mance Lipscomb.
Video is Freddie - from long ago.

One of the most common questions I am asked regards rights, as in "who gave the Democrats the rights to use that awful song after Barack Obama's excellent speech last night?" It evolves into a discussion about the difference between synch/mechanical rights and a writer's copyright, which is not even clear when the all-sample work of Girls Talk is explained by someone who might understand the issue and still draws no distinction between a recording and a copyright.
Using a performer's recording, like John Williams' Olympics themes, can be a big payday for the writer, but a writer needs to make sure that when their songs are covered, they are still credited. Like the people who may or may not have written the Elmore James hit "Done Somebody Wrong," perhaps best known  by the Allman Brothers Band's cover.
I had been looking at a few of their set lists since the Allmans resumed touring on the heels of Gregg Allman's recovery from hepatitis C. One of my favorite bands ever and an addiction I have never been able to shake, I was jonesing for a little Duane Allman and Dickey Betts interplay so I threw on disc 2 of the 2006 edition of "Eat a Peach."
Scanning the liner notes, I noticed "Done Somebody Wrong" was credited to James, Clarence L. Lewis and everybody's favorite white bluesman in a business suit with mob ties, Morris Levy. For some reason, I had never noticed Levy's name in the credits for the song and wondered if it had always been an oversight on my part.
On the original vinyl of "Live at the Fillmore East," which is the first place most of us ever heard the tune, lists the songwriting credit as Lewis, James, David C. Thomas and Morgan Robinson. Lewis and Robinson were something of a team, writing songs such as Lee Dorsey's "Ya-Ya" with their "co-writer" Levy. Who Thomas is remains a mystery.
In 1992, Polygram issued a complete, two-CD edition of the Fillmore East recordings from 1971 and credited "Done Somebody Wrong"to the team of Lewis, James and Levy. But when it came time for Universal to issue a version of the album - in 2003 through its Mercury Chronicles unit - the writing credit was changed to just Elmore James.
Perhaps not too oddly, James gets the lone credit on the song Rhino Records' "Very Best Of" issued in 2000.
A significant reason I lament the digital migration of music to Internet services such as iTunes is the absence of this arcana - the list of musicians on tracks, songwriting and producing credits, recording dates, etc. So many of my peers grew up not just on the albums, but the information held within and these days listeners who limit their purchases to Apple do not even get the benefit of having the label listed. "Live at Fillmore East" brought a fair number of new names to my world as a 13-year-old - specifically James, Willie McTell and T-Bone Walker - that exposed me to a world I did not know existed, and I have long credited the combination of credits on records and curiosity for my insatiable desire to consume as much music as possible. (Last weekend my soundtrack while I was cooking was Mosaic Records' T-Bone Walker set; that stuff has an enduring appeal even if many of the songs are structured exactly the same way).
There's no way to know how many other tunes fit the example of "Done Somebody Wrong" and one wonders how vigilant an heir needs to be to ensure that money from their ancestors' work is going to the right places and is in the right amount. Technology may short change a good number of artists down the road as all it will take is the wrong information being printed once and then repeated; it's bad enough that "American idol" does not require that songwriters be properly credited when the contestants give the wrong name before a song. It's small, but it's one more step toward crushing our musical heritage and the writers upon whose work the American songbook is built. And in the case of Levy, the business executives who stole from the creatives.

As I continue my quest to get to 100 shows and see 300 acts this year, I have slipped a bit lately, making it to two only three shows in the last two weeks and seen six acts. I have 41/136 to go.

The Blues Hall of Fame, which appears to have a far greater grasp on the reality of deserving performers and achievements than their Rock and Roll counterparts, will induct this year Jimmy McCracklin and Hubert Sumlin, as well as late artists Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Peetie Wheatstraw, Jimmy Witherspoon, and the Mississippi Sheiks.
John Hammond and Paul Oliver will go in as non-performers.
Recordings selected for induction are “Back-Water Blues” by Bessie Smith; “Double Trouble” by Otis Rush; and “My Babe” by Little Walter. Albums to be honored: "Piney Woods Blues" by Big Joe Williams; "Members Only" by Bobby Bland; "Rocks the House" by Etta James; "Freddy King Sings" by Freddy King; and "I'm Jimmy Reed" by Jimmy Reed.
In addition, the play "Seven Guitars" by August Wilson, and the book, "Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf" by James Segrest & Mark Hoffman, were selected for HoF honors.
Induction ceremony will be held at May 7 in Tunica, Miss., the night before the 2008 Blues Music Awards.

It may be a long shot but would it not be wonderful it the soundtrack to "The Great Debaters" did for pre-WWII blues and gospel what "O Brother Where Art Thou?" did for old-time country.
Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart covers Blind Willie Johnson and the Mississippi Sheiks with an assist from the Carolina Chocolate Drops; Sharon Jones, who plays a juke joint singer in the pic,  belts out Tampa Red, Bessie Smith and traditional gospel; and the legendary Memphis session guitarist Teenie Hodges leads the rhythm section on the soundtrack to "The Great Debaters," which Atlantic Records will release on Dec. 11, two weeks before the pic hits screens.
David Berger and the Sultans of Swing cover Duke Ellington's "Delta Serenade" and vintage tracks from Marian Anderson, Art Tatum, and the Delmore Brothers round out the collection.
G. Marq Roswell & Denzel Washington produced the soundtrack.
The track listing:

1. "My Soul Is A Witness" - Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart & Sharon Jones
2. "That's What My Baby Likes" - Sharon Jones, Alvin Youngblood Hart & Teenie Hodges
3. "I've Got Blood In My Eyes For You" - The Carolina Chocolate Drops & Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart
4. "Step It Up and Go" - Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart & Teenie Hodges
5. "It's Tight Like That" - Sharon Jones, Alvin Youngblood Hart & Teenie Hodges
6. "Busy Bootin'" - Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart & The Carolina Chocolate Drops
7. "City Of Refuge" - Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart & The Carolina Chocolate Drops
8. "Two Wings" - Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart, Sharon Jones w/Billy Rivers and the Angelic Voices of Faith
9. "Delta Serenade" - David Berger & The Sultans of Swing
10. "Rock n' Rye" - David Berger & The Sultans of Swing
11. "Wild About That Thing" - Sharon Jones, Alvin Youngblood Hart, & Teenie Hodges
12. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" - Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart & The Carolina Chocolate Drops
13. "How Long Before I Change My Clothes" - Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart
14. "We Shall Not Be Moved" - Sharon Jones w/Billy Rivers and the Angelic Voices of Faith
15. "Up Above My Head" - Sharon Jones w/Billy Rivers and the Angelic Voices of Faith
16. "The Shout" - Art Tatum
17. "Scoodle Um Skoo" - Papa Charlie Jackson
18. "I Ain't Got Nowhere To Travel" - The Delmore Brothers
19. "Begrussung" - Marian Anderson

Most tribute albums play into the obvious strengths of the interpreter. Barry Manilow’s vision of the 1960s, for example, may be far different from Rush’s collection of tunes from the same decade, but neither album was a stretch.
But a stretch for an audience isn’t necessarily a stretch for a performer.
Dion DiMucci, the do-wop progenitor turned folkie turned master interpreter of Bruce Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind,” has found a starting point in the Mississippi Delta of the 1930s to create “Son of Skip James.” Verve Forecast will release the disc on Nov. 6. Dion describes the appeal of Skip James in a note on his website.
besides James' "Devil Got My Woman," Dion covers Chuck Berry's "Nadine," Bob Dylan's "Baby I'm In The Mood For You," Junior Wells' "Hoodoo Man Blues" and the Robert Johnson tunes "Preachin' Blues" and "If I Had Possession (Over Judgment Day)." Dion also contributes a pair of originals.
"A lot of people think I grew up with rock 'n' roll, but I didn't. When I was growing up, there was no rock 'n' roll," shares Dion. "I grew up on Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Hank Williams. I couldn't wait to get out of school so I could sit on the stoop with Willie Green, who was the superintendent of one of the tenement buildings in my neighborhood, and listen to his John Lee Hooker records."

In celebration of B.B. King's 82nd birthday on Sunday, let's look back 40 years ago, when King's management made a concerted effort to expose the guitarist-singer to a rock audience. It was in 1967 that King, already a staple in the blues world, first performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival and San Francisco’s Fillmore West.
In 1968, King had a top 10 R&B hit with “Paying the Cost to Be the Boss” and shared bills with the Yardbirds, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the Mothers of Invention and Terry Reid. A year later, he opened 18 shows for the Rolling Stones.

For the early show on June 8, 1968 at San Francisco's Winterland, King played:
I Don't Want You / It's Gonna Work Out Fine / Every Day I Have the Blues / How Blue Can You Get? / Please Love Me / Confessin' the Blues / Woke Up This Morning (My Baby's Gone) / Instrumental jam with Albert King / Sweet Sixteen

How good was he in 1968? Check out this TV performance.

Tompkins Square has already issued two gorgeous collections of instrumental guitar music - volumes 1 and 2 of "Imaginational Anthem - which only adds to the anticipation for the company's 3-CD Box Set “PEOPLE TAKE WARNING! Murder Ballads & Songs of Disaster 1913-1938.”
Disc will be released on Sept. 25, perfect timing for it to become this year's "Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry 1891-1922." That album won the Grammy for historical album; Sept. 25 is the last Tuesday before the Grammy eligibility deadline.
"People Take Warning" features 70 recordings from the likes of Charley Patton, Ernest Stoneman, Furry Lewis, Charlie Poole and Uncle Dave Macon, plus a forward by Tom Waits.
Set is produced by Christopher King, who won a Grammy for the beyond brilliant "Screamin' And Hollerin' the Blues - The Worlds Of Charley Patton," and Henry “Hank” Sapoznik.
Some of the music has already been posted on the official Website.