TuneIn

Friday, August 24, 2012

Willie West Fairchild



Millard Leon West, better known as Willie West, was born in a speck of a town called Raceland that sits an hour drive southwest of New Orleans. West later moved to New Orleans where he cut his teeth recording 45s for fledgling labels such as Frisco and a chance encounter with Allen Toussaint landed him a contract with his Deesu imprint.

As the Meters saw their popularity soaring as the sixties turned to the seventies,Toussaint and his partner Marshall Sehorn called West back into the studio. The result is the subdued funky "Fairchild" featuring Toussaint experimenting with an acoustic guitar, something regularly heard in this same period with his Lee Dorsey and Eldridge Holmes arrangements.

The song almost certainly features most, if not all of the Meters as they were the Toussaint/Sehorn house band at the time.

In recent years, Willie West has found his way back into the recording studio with Finland's Timmion Records with quite notable results such as "The Devil Gives Me Everything Except What I Need." He's also returned to the stage with last years performance at Dig Deeper and a spot at New Orlean's Ponderosa Stomp.

Willie West Fairchild MP3

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Comin' Up Fast



Years before Johnny and Edgar Winter were Rock and Roll, Hoochie Kooing with Rick Derringer or taking the keytar to bold new heights, they were laying down fuzz-faced garage rock with Amos Boynton in Houston.

A fantastic party record, "Comin' Up Fast" features loads of hooting and hollering as Johnny laments trying to fit in with the ladies as times change and dresses become shorter and shorter.

Amos Boynton & the ABCs recorded a revamped version of the song with slightly different lyrics called "The Ballad Of Bertha Glutz" that went unreleased until it found its way to the excellent Acid Visions compilation in the eighties.


The Great Believers Comin' Up Fast Part One

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