Junior Watson Pt 1| Mighty Flyers, Canned Heat, Kim Wilson
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- With nearly forty years of experience, Junior Watson has reached cult status. Junior has done what all great artists have done: melting diverse styles to create a style all his own. With influences as diverse as Tiny Grimes, Oscar Moore, Bill Jennings, Rene Hall, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Guitar Slim, Earl Hooker and others he has truly created one of the most unique and original guitar voices to come along in years. Besides his mastery of blues and swing he often adds his own cartoon-like twist to everything he plays. You'll never know what he will do and when asked he doesn't know himself. His energy and playing gives you a feeling of reckless abandonment. As he was once quoted "like a train off the tracks".
A founding member of The Mighty Flyers he stayed with the band for ten years. He then left to join Canned Heat for ten years. He then toured for a while with LA-based harmonica player/vocalist Lynwood Slim. All along the way he has backed up and recorded with the who's-who of the blues. His list of musical endeavors include backing up and recording with Big Mama Thorton, George Smith, Jimmy Rogers, Shakey Jake, Luther Tucker, Charlie Musselwhite, Kim Wilson, William Clark and many more. Junior's new CD Nothin To It But To Do It is available now.
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Hey Watts Charlie here. What a great interview. Now I have the rest of the story
Fantastic interview
Started checking these out about a week ago with Charlie Musselwhite. These are a great complement to your Big Road Blues book.
Glad you like them!
I wish Junior Watson had more CDs on Amazon
Junior is an amazing player and always entertaining!
Love you mike and miss you
My all time favourite. Legend. :-)
I grew up in a Massachustts city called Fall River that is still majority Portuguese mainly from the Azores islands.
Watson isn’t a typical Portuguese name, but maybe his family on the paternal side originally came from the mainland and changed the name.
The name Gomes, however, is very common in southeastern Mass.
Junior comes form the Central Valley of California. There is a large Portuguese population in that region and includes a city name Madeira name after the Portuguese island of the same name.
@@MarkHummelsHarmonicaParty That explains it.
And Oakland is known for a sizable Portuguese population.
But I’m guessing that’s changed somewhat over the years.
@@charleswinokoor6023 Hayward which is adjacent to Oakland was at one time predominately Portuguese
Cool man!
Awesome, Junior is the best!!
Thank you for the fantastic interview!
Top banana !
outstanding..have him back Mark!
I miss hanging out with Junior Watson an Henry Vestine. In Eugene Oregon. They use to jam at a neighborhood bar on Wednesday nights . open Mic. Not many people knew who they were. Henry would invite me out to his car to smoke some killer weed. Then we'd go back in the bar drink some beer an watch the the people that sang or played guitar. May Henry Rest in Peace..
Jr is amazing. Mark's pretty great too. Great vid!
Awesome stuff!! I would love to ask Junior if Shakey Jake ever told him any stories of playing with Magic Sam
It's so nice to listen, thanks
CLASSIC interview Mark - appreciated here in Portland, where I saw Junior playing on stage down at the waterfront, some blues festival or other. I was staring intently at Junior as he was playing, and he saw/felt my intense stare so he made a funny face to make me laugh and break into a smile. I was smiling the rest of the time he played - it might have been with Canned Heat? ANYways, liked and subscribed..............cheers!
I saw Watson in 2008 or ‘09 play at Chan’s Chinese restaurant in Woonsocket. R. I.
He had guitarist Matthew Stubbs, originally from Boston, on bass.
The drummer, piano (organ?) player and tenor sax player were also from the Boston area.
The backup band was superb, and Watson, besides playing his ass off, was also very entertaining.
During a break he was hanging out smoking a cigar outside near the front door shooting the breeze with a couple guys.
I remember him saying something about an MMA fighter he had watched on TV.
I’ve always been a big fan of Hollywood Fats, who died young, and asked Watson if he had known him.
He said sure and made a little joke. I was disappointed that he didn’t say anything else, but I guess he wasn’t in the mood.
Watson that night was playing an extremely unique solid body.
At one point he also told the audience that he liked a lot of guitar rock music from Indonesia (or maybe it was Thailand).
He played one of those songs, and it was a hoot.
The only Asian instrumental guitar band I knew were the Blue Comets.
I’ve seen my fair share of great music shows in my life, but that night with that group of musicians ranks near the top.
It’s a shame it wasn’t recorded and released on CD.
I don’t know if he still does it, but back then the owner John Chan recorded everything.
Watson mentions how some blues acts many years ago made a point of incorporating showmanship and visual gimmicks.
I’m surprised no one mentions Screaming Jay Hawkins and his casket.
For the record, the volume level for this UA-cam clip is very unbalanced.
When the interviewer laughs, which is quite often, it drowns out what Junior Watson is saying.
Oh yeah, the only guy in the band that night who I really talked to was Matthew Stubbs.
He was friendly and gave me a copy of his all-instrumental, first solo CD called “Soul Bender.”
Great! Thanks!
What is the 1 cd Junior reccomends that he was on to buy ?
His new CD is wonderful. Try going directly to Juniors website for CD's.