Hound Dog Taylor - a wonderful bluesman
I loved the music of Hound Dog Taylor in the 70's up until his death. He was delightful!
Wes Race was Hound Dog's "best buddy" during this time period. He's given me permission to post his writings here:
Like some of you I first read heard about Hound Dog when I read Pete Welding's informative liners to Canned Heat's first album so I was primed to hear him when I moved to Chicago in the Fall Of 1970.
I first saw Hound Dog over at a J. B. Hutto gig at Rose & Kelly's on Chicago's South Side. Hound Dog was on a barstool and J. B. Hutto gave a shout out to him during the early part of the evening. The next time I saw Hound Dog was at his Sunday Matinee Jam at Florences Lounge and he sounded pretty good with Lefty Dizz backing him up; for some reason Brewer Phillips and Ted Harvey weren't with him. Now Hound Dog sounded pretty good so I made a note to catch him at one of his Friday & Saturday night gigs at The Expressway Lounge on 55th Street when I could. Since Chicago was really jumping Blues wise it took me until about early March of 1971 to go over to the Expressway Lounge but it was worth the wait because this time Hound Dog had Brewer Phillips and Ted Harvey backing him up and hearing them seemed to be what I'd always been looking for Blues wise. …. So I kept coming back to the Expressway, a small little club located right next to the laundromat, and eventually started talking to Hound Dog …. By early May I decided Hound Dog really needed to be recorded and went over to The Jazz Record Mart where Bob Koester (owner of Delmark Records) was working and made a proposal that I'd come up with $1,000 to help finance a Hound Dog Taylor record but for some reason Bob wasn't that interested. But one of his employees Bruce Iglauer sure was and that's how Alligator Records got incubated.
Wes Race was Hound Dog's "best buddy" during this time period. He's given me permission to post his writings here:
Wesola
Remembers: Hound Dog Taylor! Part l
Like some of you I first read heard about Hound Dog when I read Pete Welding's informative liners to Canned Heat's first album so I was primed to hear him when I moved to Chicago in the Fall Of 1970.
I first saw Hound Dog over at a J. B. Hutto gig at Rose & Kelly's on Chicago's South Side. Hound Dog was on a barstool and J. B. Hutto gave a shout out to him during the early part of the evening. The next time I saw Hound Dog was at his Sunday Matinee Jam at Florences Lounge and he sounded pretty good with Lefty Dizz backing him up; for some reason Brewer Phillips and Ted Harvey weren't with him. Now Hound Dog sounded pretty good so I made a note to catch him at one of his Friday & Saturday night gigs at The Expressway Lounge on 55th Street when I could. Since Chicago was really jumping Blues wise it took me until about early March of 1971 to go over to the Expressway Lounge but it was worth the wait because this time Hound Dog had Brewer Phillips and Ted Harvey backing him up and hearing them seemed to be what I'd always been looking for Blues wise. …. So I kept coming back to the Expressway, a small little club located right next to the laundromat, and eventually started talking to Hound Dog …. By early May I decided Hound Dog really needed to be recorded and went over to The Jazz Record Mart where Bob Koester (owner of Delmark Records) was working and made a proposal that I'd come up with $1,000 to help finance a Hound Dog Taylor record but for some reason Bob wasn't that interested. But one of his employees Bruce Iglauer sure was and that's how Alligator Records got incubated.
To Be continued.
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