The current T-Boy Society of Film & Music poll is devoted to our writers’ five favorite albums of all-time. An album is a collection of songs & music available in any forum: Vinyl, CD, Tape, etc. Initially, the theme of the poll was top five albums you’d take on a deserted island; but it made the poll a little confusing, plus we all understand the concept. It may be our most passionate poll, with some sending numerous revisions. And, yes; I was countlessly reminded by writers that their lists can change at the flip of a coin. What’s interesting is for readers to learn more about our writers in a very different capacity. And that includes me, as well.

You’ll find individual lists below, followed by results of top ten albums and selection of artists and bands. What did the lists tell me? Well, the years are passing too quickly.

• EB, Editor

MEMBERS: Selections in Order

T.E. Mattox

T-Boy Writer & Musician:

• Hard Again (1977) 
  Muddy Waters
• Father of the Folk Blues (1965)
  Son House
• Stronger For It (2012)
  Janiva Magness
• Together for the First Time Live (1974)
  B.B.King & Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland
• Masterpiece (2019)
  Albert Castiglia

Brom Wikstrom

Mouth Painter & T-Boy Writer:

• Rejuvenation (1974) – The Meters
• Kind of Blue (1959) – Miles Davis
• My Favorite Things (1961) – John Coltrane
• Swiss Movement (1969) – Les McCan and Eddie Harris
• Blonde on Blonde (1966) – Bob Dylan

Honorable Mention

East-West/Paul Butterfield Blues Band* Delaney, Bonnie & Friends on Tour with Eric Clapton/Delaney, Bonnie & Friends * Al Kooper/I Stand Alone * Revolver/The Beatles * The Harder They Come (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack/Jimmy Cliff * Lady Soul/Aretha Franklin

Mike Rand

T-Boy Writer & Musician:

• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
  The Beatles
• Let It Bleed (1969)
  The Rolling Stones
• The Joshua Tree (1987)
  U2
• The Bends (1995)
  Radiohead
• Appetite for Destruction (1987)
  Guns N’ Roses

Susan Breslow

T-Boy Writer:

• Moondance (1970)
  Van Morrison
• Blue (1971)
  Joni Mitchell
• You Want it Darker (2016)
  Leonard Cohen

Weave Cleveland

T-Boy Writer & Musician:

• The Nightfly (1982)
  Donald Fagen [I am going to regret not choosing a Beatles album]
• Halcyon Days (2004)
  Bruce Hornsby [I am going to regret not choosing some Vince Gill]
• Emancipation (1996)
  Prince [I am going to regret not choosing 5 Prince Albums]
• Seeds Of Love (1989)
  Tears for Fears [I am going to regret not choosing some Thelonious Monk]
• Djesse Vol. 3 (2020)
  Jacob Collier [I am going to regret not choosing VooDoo by D’Angelo]

Honorable Mention

Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique)/Tchaikovsky [And God will strike me down for not choosing any Stevie Wonder! May this island have no electricity!]

Terry Cassel

T-Boy Writer & Musician:

• A Love Supreme (1965)
  John Coltrane
• Kind of Blue (1959)
  Miles Davis
• The Best of the Bothy Band (1993)
  The Bothy Band
• Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
  Bob Dylan
• J.S. Bach: The Goldberg Variations (1955)
  Glenn Gould, piano

James Boitano

T-Boy Writer:

Tusk (1979) – Fleetwood Mac

The island for listening: Elephant island, Antarctica

Allan Smith

T-Boy Writer & Photographer:

• Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (1977)
  Joni Mitchell
• Blonde on Blonde (1966)
  Bob Dylan
• Rubber Soul (UK) (1965)
  The Beatles
• The Nine Symphonies (1963)
  Ludwig von Beethoven, Herbert von Karajan, conductor
• Legend (The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers) (1984)
  Bob Marley & The Wailers

Emperor of Oldies

Musicologist:

• Sticky Fingers (1971)
  The Rolling Stones
• Bridge Over Troubled Water (1967)
  Simon & Garfunkel
• Help! (Capitol Records ) (1965)
  The Beatles
• Rubber Soul (Capitol Records ) (1965)
  The Beatles
• Sweet Baby James (1969)
  James Taylor

Honorable Mention (could be in my top five on any given day)

Every Picture Tells A Story/Rod Stewart * Who’s Next/The Who * Tommy/The Who * Four Way Street/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young * Aqualung/Jethro Troll * Abbey Road/The Beatles * Get Yer Ya Yas Out/The Rolling Stones/ Harvest/Neil Young * Déjà Vu/Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young * Desperado/The Eagles * 461 Ocean Blvd/Eric Clapton * Blind Faith/Blind Faith * Greatest Hits/Linda Ronstadt * All Things Must Pass/George Harrison * Band on the Run/Paul McCartney And Wings

Jay Boggs

Historian & Musicologist:

• Electric Ladyland (1968)
  The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Beggars Banquet (1968)
  The Rolling Stones
• Blues from Laurel Canyon (1968)
  John Mayall
• American Beauty (1970)
  The Grateful Dead
• Natty Dread (1974)
  Bob Marley & The Wailers

Honorable Mention

Monkey Man/Toots and the Maytals * Studio One Presents Burning Spear/Burning Spear

Roy Endersby

Philosopher:

• Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
  Bob Dylan
• Bitches Brew (1970)
  Miles Davis
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
  The Beatles
• Ladies of the Canyon (1970)
  Joni Mitchell
• A Love Supreme (1965)
  John Coltrane

Phil Marley

Montreal Poet:

• Beggars Banquet (1968)
  The Rolling Stones
• Are you Experienced? (1967)
  The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Me Against the World (1995)
  2Pac
• Nevermind (1991)
  Nirvana
• Disraeli Gears (1967)
  Cream

Honorable Mention

Let it Bleed/The Rolling Stones/ * Who’s Next/The Who.* Ladies of the Canyon/Joni Mitchell * After the Goldrush/Neil Young * Strange Days/The Doors

Brent Campbell

T-Boy Writer & Musician:

• Modern Sounds of Country and Western Music (1962)
  Ray Charles
• Mingus Ah Um (1962)
  Charles Mingus
• Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. (1986)
  Dwight Yoakam
• Blood on the Tracks (1975 )
  Bob Dylan
• Made in USA (1986)
  The Beach Boys

Honorable Mention

Old 97s/Fight Songs * Pleased to Meet Me/The Replacements * Twisted/Del Amitri * #1 Record/Big Star * Time Traveller/The Moody Blues

Deb Roskamp

T-Boy Photographer:

• Bridge Over Troubled Water (1967)
  Simon & Garfunkel
• Peter, Paul and Mary (1962)
  Peter, Paul and Mary
• Moondance (1970)
  Van Morrison
• Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
  Linda Ronstadt
• A Night at the Opera (1975)
  Queen

Raoul Pascual

T-Boy Writer & Illustrator:

• Sweet Baby James (1969)
  James Taylor
• All ‘N All (1977)
  Earth, Wind & Fire
• A Christmas Album (1983)
  Amy Grant
• A Chorus Line (1975)
  Original Broadway Cast Recording
• Thriller (1982)
  Michael Jackson

Ed Boitano

T-Boy Editor:

• Revolver (UK) (1966)
  The Beatles
  Sticky Fingers (1971)
  The Rolling Stones
• Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
  Bob Dylan
• Hejira (1976)
  Joni Mitchell
• London Calling (1979)
  The Clash

Honorable Mention

Darkness on the Edge of Town/Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band * The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust/David Bowie * Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols/Sex Pistols * Ladies of the Canyon/Joni Mitchell * Beggars Banquet/The Rolling Stones * Blonde on Blonde/Bob Dylan * Songs of Leonard Cohen/Leonard Cohen * Patti Smith/Land * Disraeli Gears/Cream

Top 10 albums selected

1. Beggars Banquet (1968)
   The Rolling Stones
2. Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
   Bob Dylan
3. Bridge Over Troubled Water (1967)
   Simon & Garfunkel
4. Sticky Fingers (1971)
   The Rolling Stones
5. Kind of Blue (1959)
   Miles Davis
6. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
   The Beatles
7. Moondance (1970)
   Van Morrison
8. Sweet Baby James (1969)
   James Taylor
9. A Love Supreme (1965)
   John Coltrane
10. Rubber Soul (UK) (1965)
    The Beatles

In order, Bands & Artists most frequently listed in the Top Five

• The Beatles
• Bob Dylan
• The Rolling Stones
• Miles Davis
• Joni Mitchell
• John Coltrane
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• James Taylor
• Van Morrison
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Prince
• Ray Charles

The post Five Favorite Albums of All-Time appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The members huddled around their laptops in the 17 rounds of voting. Points were given to songs on a sliding scale of ten, with extra points for songs appearing on multiple lists. Was it scientific? Not one bit. –  T-Boy Society of Film & Music

1. The Long and Winding Road – The Beatles

From the Album: Let It Be
B Side: For You Blue
Released: May 1970
Recorded: January 1969 and April 1970
Studio: Apple and EMI, London
Label: Apple
Songwriters: John Lennon – Paul McCartney
Producer: Phil Spector

The Long and Winding Road was initially recorded (and filmed) for the Beatles’ 1969 Let It Be sessions. The album was finished, but record producer Phil Spector, known for his Wall Of Sound, was called in by Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks. And tidy he did:  overdubbing the song with eight violins, four violas, four cellos, three trumpets, three trombones, two guitars, and a choir of 14 women. McCartney was appalled by the version  and protested in vain. Never-the-less, The Long and Winding Road became the Beatles 20th and last US #1 song on June 13, 1970.

After much legal jousting, a new version of the song with simpler instrumentation was subsequently released by McCartney and the remaining Beatles in 2003 on the LP, Let It Be… Naked.

Listen to The Long and Winding Road (Naked Version/Remastered 2013)

2. Take it Easy – The Eagles

From the Album: Eagles
B Side: Get You in the Mood
Released: May 1, 1972
Studio: Olympic Sound Studios, London
Label: Asylum
Songwriters: Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey
Producer: Glyn Johns

The Eagles’ co-founder Glenn Frey, and fellow country-folk rocker Jackson Browne, had once lived in the same apartment building in Santa Monica, CA. Frey recalled having heard an incomplete version of a song which Browne was having difficulties finishing. Frey asked if he could work with him on the song, resulting in the 1971 song, Take It Easy. The song became the first track on the Eagles’ self-titled debut album and was released as their first single, which propelled them to stardom. Browne also recorded his version of Take It Easy on his second LP, 1973’s For Everyman.

Listen to the Eagles’ Take It Easy

Listen to Jackson Browne’s Take It Easy

3. Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen

From the Album: Born to Run
Released: August 25, 1975
Recorded: July 16, 1975 (completed) at the Record Plant, New York City
Label: Columbia
Songwriter: Bruce Springsteen
Producers: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Mike Appel

Bruce Springsteen said he envisioned the LP Born to Run as a series of vignettes, following its character throughout the day, with Thunder Road serving as an “invitation” to the album and opening with a harmonica that suggests the beginning of a “new day.” In 1975, music critic Jon Landau joined the album’s production team, marking the start of a life-long professional relationship with  Springsteen. Current manager Mike Appel fiercely resented Landau’s influence. Springsteen had grown tired of Appel’s dictatorial control, and sought to replace him with Landau. Appel filed a lawsuit that kept Springsteen from recording for three years. The lawsuit was eventually settled, but it was a frustrating period for Springsteen and his fans with the lack of new recordings.

Listen to Springsteen’s Thunder Road live

4. America – Simon & Garfunkel

From the Album: Bookends
Released: April 3, 1968
Recorded: February 1, 1968 at Columbia Studio A, New York City
Studio: Columbia Studio A, New York City
Label: Columbia
Songwriter: Paul Simon
Producer: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee

America is a track from Simon & Garfunkel’s fourth studio album, 1968’s Bookends, which is influenced by the Beatles’ stunning innovations in the studio. The song was composed by Paul Simon, and concerns young lovers hitchhiking their way across the United States, in search of “America,” in both a literal and figurative sense. It was inspired by a 1964 road trip that Simon took with his then girlfriend Kathy Chitty. The song is regarded as one of Simon’s strongest songwriting efforts and one of the duo’s best songs.

Listen to Simon & Garfunkel’s America

5. King of the Road – Roger Miller

From the Album: The Return of Roger Miller
B Side: Atta Boy Girl
Released: January 1965
Recorded: November 1964
Label: Smash
Songwriter: Roger Miller
Producer: Jerry Kennedy

Roger Miller was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping country and pop hits from the mid-1960s Nashville sound era. King of the Road is a song written and originally recorded in November 1964. The lyrics tell of the day-to-day life of a vagabond who, despite being poor, revels in his freedom, describing himself humorously or cynically as the king of the road.

Listen to Roger Miller’s King of the Road

6. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen

From the Album: Born to Run
B Side: Meeting Across the River
Released: August 25, 1975
Recorded: January 8, 1974 (first take); May 21, 1974 (first demo); August 6, 1974
Studio: 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York
Label: Columbia
Songwriter: Bruce Springsteen
Producer: Bruce Springsteen, Mike Appel, Jon Landau

Born to Run was Bruce Springsteen’s first worldwide album release, and the title song of his album, Born to Run. In late 1973, on the road in Tennessee, Springsteen awoke with the title Born to Run in his head. Written in the first person, the song is a love letter to a girl named Wendy, for whom the hot rod-riding protagonist seems to love. However, Springsteen has noted that the song has a much simpler core: getting out of Freehold, New Jersey. U.S. Route 9 is a highway passing through Freehold.

Listen to Springsteen’s Born to Run

7. Hit the Road, Jack – Ray Charles

B Side: The Danger Zone
Released: June 1961
Label: ABC-Paramount
Songwriter: Percy Mayfield

Ray Charles Robinson pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into his songs. His innovations continued during the 1960s with  the integration of country music, rhythm and blues and pop music, leading to crossover success. Hit the Road, Jack is a song written by Percy Mayfield and first recorded in 1960 as an a cappella demo sent to Art Rupe. It became famous after it was recorded by Ray Charles with The Raelettes’ vocalist Margie Hendrix, and eventually became one of his signature songs. Hit the road is an idiom: A person could say, Everyone into the car; let’s hit the road!

Listen to Ray Charles’ version of Hit the Road, Jack

8. Take Me Home, Country Roads – John Denver

Released: April 12, 1971
Recorded: January 1971, New York City
Label: RCA
Songwriters: Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, John Denver
Producer: Milton Okun, Susan Ruskin

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., known professionally as John Denver, was a singer-songwriter, actor, activist and humanitarian. In 1970, Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert co-wrote a song called I Guess He’d Rather Be in Colorado, which they recommended to Colorado transplant, John Denver. Denver chimed in as the third writer, and the result was Take Me Home, Country Roads. Danoff had never been to West Virginia before co-writing the song, with its inspiration stemming from a drive to Montgomery County, Maryland. He considered using Massachusetts rather than West Virginia as both four-syllable names would have fit the song’s meter. Take Me Home, Country Roads is now the official state song of West Virginia.

Listen to John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads

9. Refuge of the Roads – Joni Mitchell

From the Album: Hejira
Released: November 1976
Recorded: 1976
Studio: A&M Studios, Hollywood
Label: Asylum
Songwriter: Joni Mitchell
Producer: Joni Mitchell

Refuge of the Roads was written about a three-day visit that Joni Mitchell had made to the controversial Buddhist meditation master Chögyam Trungpa in Colorado on her way to Los Angeles. According to Mitchell, it was during this visit in early 1976 that Trungpa cured her of her own cocaine addiction. She would later say that this track was one of her own favorite songs, partially due to her collaboration with jazz virtuoso bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius. Refuge of the Roads closes the album Hejira, whose experimental sound is still considered ahead of its time today.

Listen to Joni Mitchell’s Refuge of the Roads

10. Sweet Baby James – James Taylor

Released: February 1970
Recorded: December 1969
Studio: Sunset Sound, Los Angeles
Label: Warner Bros.
Songwriter: James Taylor
Producer: Peter Asher

Sweet Baby James is a song written and recorded by James Taylor that serves as the opening and title track from his 1970 breakthrough album, Sweet Baby James. It is one of his best-known and most popular tunes, considered a classic and his own favorite of his songs. It was written by Taylor for the son of his older musician brother, Alex, who was named James after him  The song is composed as a waltz, in 3/4 time, a cross between a cowboy song and a lullaby, conceived by Taylor as he was driving through North Carolina to meet his  infant nephew for the first time.

Listen to James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James

#11-20 Top Road Songs    Selected lists of T-Boy Society of Film & Music Members

The post The T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Top 20 Songs of the Road appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Courtney is currently preparing for his 89^th birthday musical celebration at a local San Diego haunt, Proud Mary’s. As in years past, he’ll once again be surrounded by friends, fans and some of the best musicians in Southern California. His face may reflect a little more wear and tear, but he has the work ethic of a performer half his age. His mind is still sharp, his wit is still quick, and his blues can cut you clean to the bone. Tomcat Courtney is a living, breathing American treasure and is one of San Diego’s most revered and respected blues elders.

Born in Marlin, Texas in 1929, Tomcat Courtney is one of a very few surviving bluesmen that grew up in the depression era Texas cotton fields. Some of Tomcat’s earliest memories are the stuff of legends. Another well known name from Marlin was Blind Willie Johnson? “Yeah, I knowed him,” he nods. “But I was small, you know? I saw him play. I saw Robert Johnson when he was playing in this little old place out in the country. Most of them people played in the fall of the year, when cotton work was plentiful. They had a little change rattling around in their pockets. Back then there wasn’t no money, man. Robert Johnson was playing in San Antonio, Texas and Dallas, that was about 1937 or ’38. Right after that he died, I remember that, heard people talking about it, but I was just a kid about 8 or 9 years old.”

Who were some of the other musicians you remember from that time? “Sonny Boy Williamson.” Tomcat says. “My father had a little old joint; it was a barn he made a juke joint out of. Way out in the country you know, it had an old tin roof and when it rained…yaaaahh!!! He laughs! “It was loud, but tin was cheap.”

You were just a kid, were you allowed to attend shows at your father’s juke joint? “Well they had windows and they opened them up and bolted them up and I’d sit in the window. Especially when Lightnin’ (Hopkins) played. I was more enthused about Lightnin’ than Robert Johnson. I didn’t think about it until years later. Robert was kind of a drunk, he wasn’t jolly…you know what I mean? He played (breaks into song) ‘Went down to the Crossroads, fell down on my knees…’ like tears all the time, but Lightnin’ was jolly. You know the spirit they put into it. I remember that and the boogie he put into it. He had that ‘don-ta-don’ (cadence) to it. He used that quite a bit more than he do on his records, ‘cause peoples dancin’.” Tomcat begins to smile as the memories flood back. “So then when I saw him, I wanted a guitar. You see I had a harmonica, I used to try to blow a harmonica ‘cause I saw Sonny Boy Williamson blowing it, you know? (laughing) “He was the first that I saw that sat down and entertained people. He was the best I saw, he talked about so many things, the train… He mostly blowed about lovin’ his woman and kissin’ at night and this and that and makin’ the harp play the thing, make the harp cry.” He sings. “‘Mama!’ and all that, you know?” (He laughs and breaks into song) ‘Now call your mama…Mama, call your mama…Mama!’ (laughing)

How did you come by your first guitar? “Actually,” he smiles. “I got that guitar from a guy who had a garden. Everybody had big gardens and things back then. He had a Stella guitar the kind Leadbelly and them played, but he had a big, nice one but it had a little hole in it and I said, ‘I sure would like to have that guitar.’ He said, ‘I tell you what, you help me get these weeds outta’ the garden and I’ll give you this guitar.’ Man, I pulled up every weed out there. I had a pile of weeds that high.” He raises his hand above his head. “He gave me the guitar and I put some old strings on it, and that’s how I started.”

Texas Swing music was extremely popular back in those days; did you ever play that style of music? “When I started in a band, I played up tempo music and some swing stuff. I just didn’t get into it that much. I was mostly into the boogie style. You know Lightnin’ and John Lee was so prominent and when you go around in those joints in Texas the juke box had Lightnin’ Hopkins and later on John Lee Hooker they were just so prominent on the country jukebox. In ’48 or ’49 when John Lee Hooker put out ‘Boogie Chillen’ he’d just about taken over the country blues jukebox. And then Little John Jackson followed about 1950 and put out ‘Rock Me, Baby.’ They all recorded right there together about ’48 or ’49.

You also knew Ray Charles very early in his career? “When I first saw Ray Charles all I heard him play was Charles Brown and Nat King Cole. I talked with him, I said ‘Ray, play something different.’ He’d tell ya’ ‘Man, I can’t see and I got to live and people seem to like it.’ He said, ‘I got to live,’ you know?’ He always said that. I was a little older than Ray Charles, about a year. But that sucker, man when I was about 15, me and him started about that age, I used to run across him. He was with Lowell Fulson, he had it, man. He had somethin’!”

***************************

Let’s talk a little about how you ended up in Los Angeles. “I was living and working in Flagstaff, AZ in the late ‘50s and playing for lumberjacks,” Tomcat says. “It was nice but in two or three weeks it started snowing. And I was so surprised!” (laughing) “I didn’t know but Flagstaff was worse than Chicago, man. I didn’t know that. Ain’t this a bitch? And it snowed so bad till everything shut down. Bobby Bland was coming through there on their way to L.A. and Wayne (Bennett) got sick. He was the guitar player, the one on all them records, you know? I had met Bobby Bland in Lubbock, Texas years before. But he said, ‘I gotta’ get a guitar player because Wayne is so sick.’ So anyway we went to L.A. and I knew a lot of his songs. He had ‘Further On Up the Road,’ ‘I Don’t Want no Woman Tellin’ me What to Do.’ I couldn’t play it like Wayne, but shit, nobody could play it like that. Anyway, we went to L.A.”

Did you experience any memorable gigs in Los Angeles? “The Five-Four Club (Ballroom) was closing up. It had been there for years and they were tearing all that out. And before they tore it down they had every band in the world come in to play there for a week. So what happened, B.B., Muddy Waters, Lowell Fulson, Joe Turner, everybody was playing there during that week, every night. The place was just packed. A big sendoff, before it went. They had so many good names, though. They had all the blues players, T-Bone, but T-Bone was living around there then and all the Chicago players. Everybody who had a good name was there.”

So when did you start coming down to San Diego? “We played down here about three or four times. The first place was called, the Black and Tan, and that closed and we played a place right next to it called, the Twilight Zone. When I come down here I liked it, but I knew I could get more work in L.A. L.A. and Chicago had more little places you could play in. More little after-hour stuff you could get in. But everybody in Hollywood went there to be movie stars and them that didn’t make it were crooks. So many people went there looking to try to make a living… and so many people went there to be something else. So when I came down here I messed around, I done two or three house parties and had little gigs. I said, ‘Man, these gigs are scarce here’ and I went out on Ocean Beach and a place called, ‘Peoples’ in ’69 or ’70. I walked in there and it was a hippie joint. I said, ‘Looky here man, I’m a blues player.’ He said, ‘I close here on Sunday, I just clean up on Sunday. I’ve got somebody playin’ ‘bout every night.’ Like a folk singer or one or two people and put up a tip jar and a percentage of the bar. And I said, ‘Well, I’ll do that. I’m here.’ He said, ‘Well if you want to set up and play, we don’t have anyone here on Sunday. And I’d like to hear what you sound like.’ He had a little old PA and I hooked up, had an acoustic guitar and I miked it up. I just carried that acoustic with me to audition to give ‘em an idea what I’m doin’ ‘cause when I tell ‘em Texas country blues, you know? They want to know what it sounded like.” (laughing)

“So I got up there and started playin’ and I saw the guy using the phone. He called like four people and the guys in the back cleanin’ up and he orders some beer. So they got a couple pitchers of beer. Another guy uses the phone and about six more people came. I wind up with like 30 people, man. The guy says this night was better than a week night and they wanna’ know if I’d be coming back next Sunday? I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be back next Sunday. The next Sunday it was almost packed and the next Sunday there was people in line and they stayed that way for 15 years. And that’s how I stayed here. It started out as ‘Peoples’ and a guy bought it and called it the ‘Texas Teahouse.’ I played there about 24 years, all together. At one place.”

You’ve got to tell us a wild bar or club story before we stop. “Ah man, I played in so many places and there were a lot of them. Well, right there in Flagstaff, they started fightin’ them lumberjacks and stuff. The police come in there and almost closed the place up. Man, them dudes’d be big. I played in places where people were pulling guns and emptied the place. At Peoples’ one time a guy come in and cut two or three of us, man. Dude come in there and I liked to got killed. I think he got four of us, stuck one dude in the side and cut my arm, here.” (He points to the scar on his arm) “A nut come in there man, about six or seven years after I started playin’ there.”

Tomcat’s fan base now circles the globe and he starts to laugh as he recalls touring Europe. “Man, that was somethin’ else. I went there a few times, Amsterdam and Switzerland. What happened is I made a CD, ‘Downsville Blues’ and everybody just dug it over there. Oh they really appreciate blues, they really appreciate it. Let me tell you, when I got to France I got up and went down to breakfast and all they had was fruit bullshit.” (laughing) “Looky here man, but when you go to lunch, O-O-O-O lunch and dinner, unbeatable them people’s cookin’. And they got a big thing of wine sittin’ up there. I say, ‘Goddamn, this shit don’t taste like Night Train!’ (laughing) “They have good wine there, man.”

Amazingly, you still write so much music, nine of the songs on Downsville Blues were originals? “I just write it…and sing it…shit.” (laughing) “I saw so many things and lived the way I lived. I went through some hell and stuff, the joints I played.

How do want history to remember Tomcat Courtney? “I don’t know, man. I think about all these people like Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone and I hope they’ll think of me that way… He was a bluesman.”

The post Runnin’ with the Tomcat: Tomcat Courtney appeared first on Traveling Archive.