Blues Warm-Up!

Sun is out. Everything is melting well.

Check out this great YouTube video footage of my all-time favorite bluesman JB Hutto, doing the classic song "Summertime".

I hope this tune helps you with the warm-up today!

This version is quite a bit different than Janis Joplin's version but I think it's pretty cool! JB stuck pretty close to straight Chicago Blues so hearing him do a Torch song is kinda fun. JB was also one of the best Chicago blues songwriters. Bar none! Muddy and Willie Dixon included! In my opinion, for what it's worth, JBs lyrics on several songs leaned closer to poetry than any of the other rough and tumble Chicago bluesmen.

If anyone is still wondering how someone from Maine turned out to be a blues fanatic like me, JB Hutto is mostly to blame!!! He played in Orono, Maine a bunch of times when I was going to high school there. I even got to meet him once. I have no idea what brought him from Chicago to Maine but I count it as one of the luckiest things that ever happened to me.

JB Hutto was a slide guitar blues master from the South Side of Chicago. He didn't usually play guitar on "Summertime". As far as I know, his Rock n Roll rhythm guitarist always did the guitar solos when he did this tune. If you like Jb's singing and style on this song, check out his slide work which you can't miss on just about any other song that he ever recorded. His nephew Lil' Ed Williams is one of the last living players of this kind of Blues. If Lil Ed ever comes anywhere near you go see him and yell "Play the Blues JB" and I'll bet you'll be rewarded with the real deal from the South Side of Chicago!