Introducing Juanita Williams Big Mo

This one is a totally unexpected release that is likely to be one of my favorite records of 1994. A  singer who this reviewer had never heard of prior to this recording, Juanita Williams has been the lead vocalist for the Airmen of Note (U.S. Air Force) for the past 20 years and traveled around the world, as well as regularly singing with her church choir.  She grew up listening to Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ruth Brown and sees herself as partly carrying their torch.  

The wide-ranging repertoire on her initial release gives an idea of her breadth and power as a singer.  She handles tough Stax soul, like Mabel John’s Another Man’s Place with as much authority as T-Bone Walker’s blues-ballad I‘m Still in Love With You.  Producers Pete Ragusa,  Ed Eastridge, and Mitch Collins took their time recording this over a year and a half, mixing in some of the best Washington, D.C. talents, including Nighthawks’ Mark Wenner and Danny Morris, Jimmy Thackery, and Chuck Underwood in addition to the three producers.  Jazz guitar legend Joe Pass is present on the superb reading given to I’m Still in Love With You, which along with the Bobby Bland classic, Two Steps From the Blues, receive warm readings. 

There are solid renditions of Little Walter’s Crazy ‘Bout You Baby, which is patterned after the Ike and Tina Turner reworking of this classic, and One More Heartache, which touches up on the Paul Butterfield arrangement (from The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw album).  The arrangements on Ms. Williams' renditions of Little Milton’s That Will Never Do, and Chuck Willis’ It’s Too Late (S)he’s Gone, have touches of the King Curtis arrangements for Freddie King.  

There’s great playing, and generally great singing. She is a powerful singer, and while there are a few moments when she sounds a bit strident, that is a minor point.  And on Two Steps From the Blues and I’m Still in Love With You, she is compelling. Having been introduced to Juanita Williams, this reviewer is awaiting her next recording.

This was a terrific recording, and unfortunately, Juanita Williams has not enjoyed a more prominent musical career although still a riveting performer. I have been a bit slack in posting to the blog, and hope to remedy this. The review I posted today originally appeared in the June 1994 Jazz & Blues Report. I likely ran this review in the DC Blues Society newsletter. I have made minor stylistic and grammatical changes and corrections. I likely received a review copy from Big Mo. Here is a relatively recent performance from Juanita Williams.

Scott Ramminger's Crawstickers A Rich Musical Stew

I have known Washington DC area saxophonist-vocalist Scott Ramminger from performances at clubs in the area. I have seen him both as a sideman in a band and leading his band the Crawstickers. He has just issued a CD titled Crawstickers with some of the DC area’s finest roots and rhythm players, including guitarist Dave Chappell, bassist Claude Arthur and drummer Pete Ragusa (best known for his long tenure in the Nighthawks). Also on this on backing vocals are Mary Ann Redmond and Patty Reese, two of the wonderful female singers that grace the DC area.

Watching Scott, I am always struck how good a vocalist and saxophonist. He is quite an accomplished musician whose saxophone solos are much more than simply honks and squeals. He is a storyteller and his solos provide a nice voice to contrast with the guitarists he plays with. The other thing is that his bands are tight and can swing and jump. They never came off as forced nor do they ever sound heavy handed or lead footed. These same strengths characterize this recording.

In addition to the strong playing, Ramminger has provided us with eleven originals that display his way with words. His songs are full of astute, often quirky, observations about everyday relationships and life. The songs include a strong blues duet with Mary Ann Redmond, There Must Be Something Wrong With You, and the Crescent City groover Real Fine Gumbo, about a woman not too sightly and a bit mean, and whose parents hate Scott, but she makes a real fine gumbo so all is right. The are funky grooves of Give a Pencil To a Fish, where he sings that give a pencil to a fish and the fish ain’t gonna write like Joyce, and give a hammer to a cow and he will never build a barn, and to his lady he says that’s why I won’t “give my love to you.” In addition to the fine studio band, Real Fine Gumbo sports a larger horn ensemble while Give a Pencil has some hot trumpet from Vince McCool who effectively uses a mute on it. That song also has features fine tenor from Ramminger’s, while Dave Chappell adds strong slide guitar. This is typical of their strong playing throughout.

Brian Simms plays keyboards throughout including accordion on Three Dollar Beer. This number has a Tex-Mex groove and a strong lyric about a man losing his job on a rig off the Gulf Coast and his wife going off with an insurance salesman and no matter hard he tried, he ended back at the roadhouse for a three dollar beer. Another topical song, I Dreamed I Met Jesus, has Jesus in a bar late last night , having a salad and an Amstel Lite while saying he was troubled by the way the world looks and people setting fire to each other’s holy books. The album concludes with a rocking duet with Patty Reese, “The Country’s Gone From Me.”

This is seriously entertaining music here with plenty of substance in the performances. Mix together strong original material with a first-rate band and a terrific singer-saxophonist, the result is the real fine gumbo of Scott Ramminger’s excellent Crawstickers. Scott’s website is www.scottramminger.com and this is available on cdbaby and iTunes.

Scott provided me with a review copy.

Memphis Gold's Sanctified Memphis Blues

The following review came out a couple years ago in the May 2009 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 316). My friend Chester Chandler is about to issue a new CD on Stackhouse called Pickin’ In High Cotton and since my photo is being used for the CD cover, I will not be writing a review although I do think anyone who likes Gator Gon’ Bitechu will like this. It will have a slight bit more downhome flavor. I do hope to post on this blog, the interview Joe Kessler and I did with Chester Chandler that was published after this review was published in Block, a blues publication in the Netherlands. Information on this new release is also on his website which is included amongst the links given.

As a preliminary matter, I note that I have known Chester Chandler for about 18 years, am friends with him, and was at the studio when he worked on finishing some of the tracks on Gator Gon’ Bitechu! (Stackhouse). I disclose this because of possible bias that might exist despite my efforts. While I have been seeing him play shows at small and larger bars in the Washington, DC area for a lengthy period of time, when he gave me an advance of his second CD, Prodigal Son, several years ago, I was floored at how mature his music sounded. I was not the only one. Long-time Living Blues editor, Jim O’Neal, was obviously impressed as he signed Memphis Gold to Stackhouse and re-released Prodigal Son, on the label. And others noticed as Memphis Gold was featured in cover stories in the Swedish publication, Jefferson, the world’s oldest blues magazine; the esteemed British publication, Blues & Rhythm, and most recently in Living Blues.


Chester Chandler grew up in Memphis where he attended the same sanctified church as Robert Wilkins, the one-time blues guitarist and vocalist of the twenties, who stopped playing secular music. Later he started playing blues in Memphis with such legendary combos as The Fieldstones while also serving his country. Around 1991, he relocated to the Washington DC area where he first was known as K.D. King and later after meeting Barbara, who would become his wife, adopted the name Memphis Gold, while honing his music. Many may be aware in early 2008 he suffered severe injuries falling out of a tree (his day job was in the tree-cleaning business) and he has been making great strides since then.


On his new album, there are a variety of DC area musicians backing him, the best known being guitarist Robert Lighthouse who adds slide to several tracks and drummer Pete Ragusa of the Nighthawks. The recording spans a couple years, and while the accident slowed up its production, but it is finally is here. The disc opens with a sample of a symphony orchestra before some slide is played against a North Mississippi groove as he sings I Shoulda Known, a lament about a woman who bled him dried. It’s followed up by Catfish Creeper, with dual slide guitars (I assume Lighthouse and Memphis) with a Dust My Groove, as he shouts about laying on the river bottom like a log and if one wants to get their hooks in him they better lay the right bait on with Jay Summerour adding a nice harmonica break.


Set to the groove of Woke Up This Morning, Do You Still Want Me, has a nice lyric as he asks his woman whether she wants him after breaking his heart and using him. The title track, inspired by a Washington DC blues programmer, has an infectious funky groove as he sings about watch out cause that gator gonna bite you, with some brassy horns added here and there is a nice guitar break on this. I assume Warren Witherspoon, drummer with the disco-funk band, Heatwave, is on this track. My 2 Kcandys, is a jaunty shuffle that is a shout out to a Candy and a Kandy, while Can’t Get Enough, uses the melody of B.B. King’s rendition of The Thrill Is Gone, as Memphis sings about can’t get getting enough of his woman using him hoping that one day she’ll finally see his love.

The mood shifts on a lovely blues ballad about falling in and out of love How I Got Over, and then the groove picks up on the quasi-biographical shuffle I Was Born in Memphis, where he sings being born in 1955 and his folks still burned wood and coal just to stay alive, went to church house staying them some time, and always ended up on Monday morning finding his brother’s wine. Squeaky Wheel, features a nice Jay Summerour harp solo. Lil Lucy, opens with a dreamy backing as Memphis recalls a beautiful lady that used to pass his house everyday and then the band shifts gear it picks up the groove with a funky groove and a funky bass riff as he recalls his boyish fantasy as he asks “Lucy, why do you tread on me.” It ends a very successful follow-up to Prodigal Son.

His strengths are his sanctified-rooted singing, his solid, rhythmically charged guitar playing and the good-time feeling he invests his performances. This should be available from better retailers along with cdbaby.com. Memphis Gold’s website is http://www.memphisgoldblues.com.


I received my review copy from Memphis Gold. Here is the cover of the upcoming album.

Nighthawks Spin Blues Unplugged But True.

It has been a long ride for drummer Pete Ragusa with the Nighthawks. “Live at Bluesville” (Rip Bang Records) recorded for Bill Wax’s XM-Sirius program, is Ragusa’s swan song for the Hawks as Ragusa ends a 35 year stint as drummer for this deservedly popular blues and roots band. He will be replaced by Mark Stutso, leaving harmonica player and singer Mark Wenner the sole remaining member of the band from its early days. Bassist Johnny Castle and guitarist Paul Bell are now well established in the band.

On this visit to Bill Wax at XM’s Washington DC studios, they Nighthawks unplugged which provided a more intimate, but no less fervent, context for a number of songs that are well established in the band’s repertoire. Opening tunes with Wenner handling the vocals include a swinging rendition of “The Chicken & the Hawk,” followed by Muddy Waters’s “Nineteen Years Old,” with some very solid slide from Bell. Ragusa sings the James Brown raver “I’ll Go Crazy,” with Wenner wailing on harmonica. Johnny Castle takes the gravelly vocal on Bo Diddley’s “You Don’t Love Me,” with Wenner taking the lead on Slim Harpo’s “Rainin’ in My Heart,” (I know Peppermint Harris wrote it), a performance in which the unplugged format really enhances the performance. It is followed by a lovely rendition of Muddy Waters’ “I Can’t be Satisfied,” with more nice slide from Bell who with Wenner takes the harmony vocal behind Castle on Chuck Berry’s “Thirty Days.” The vocal mike returns to Wenner for solid renditions of Rice Miller’s “Mighty Long Time,” with some very evocative harp; Little Walter’s Temperature,” retitled here “High Temperature”; and “Rollin’ & Tumblin’ modeled after the Baby Leroy Foster Trio recording with Muddy and Little Walter, although not nearly as raucous as Foster’s original two-sided 78.

This is a fun disc with a change of pace as the band handles songs that will be very familiar to the Nighthawk’s many fans world-wide. Ragusa has always been an exceptional drummer of considerable range and taste, and on this recording plays a snare drum, ably propelling these very ingratiating performances on a delightful album. He will be fortunately engaging in a variety of projects in the Washington DC area, so those fortunate enough to live around will still have opportunities to enjoy his playing.

For purposes of FTC regulations, my review CD was provided by a publicity firm promoting this release.