Tag Archives: Alpha Stewart

End of the Night Jam at The Heartland Cafe

4 Aug

logoA couple Decembers back we were doing a show at The Heartland Cafe on Chicago’s North Side. Our friend Rudy Negrete stopped by with his Strat and sat in. Another friend, Josh Davis, happened to be down from Bloomington, with his his harps, and joined us, too. We played everything we all knew together, but didn’t want to stop. So we played “Kansas City”, which we were pretty sure we could fake. Turned out to be a nice end for the night.

Josh pretty much stole the show on it, but Alpha was having a lot of fun on the drums, too. Dorothy and Rudy were both zeroed in on the groove like snipers on a target. I’m mostly off camera, but maybe you can tell I was having fun, too: that’s me throwing in the fills on the verses.

stormy xxiv !

Another night at The Heartland

Tags: , , , , , ,

Stagger Lee

22 Jan

The video below is Alpha Stewart, my wife Dorothy, and me playing “Stagger Lee” (and enjoying it big time) at The Heartland Cafe, a couple blocks from the lake on Chicago’s north side. I’ve loved the tune since I first heard Lloyd Price’s version way back when. What we’re playing owes something to his version and something to Taj Majal’s, and a lot of it’s our own take on the tune. (The video’s downloadable, too; click the “share” arrow that appears in the top left corner as the video plays.) the sun x !

Tags: , , ,

Blues for the Idealists (You know who you are)

4 Nov

When I was younger, I’ll admit, I imagined peace might prevail in my lifetime. Now I watch the news and wonder what I was thinking. Which is where “May You Still Believe” came from. One evening a while back, I happened on this funky lick in E and kept playing it over and over. After a while, I started singing along with it, and the song flowed right out–bam.

On the recording of the tune (click the icon below to hear it), my wife Dorothy plays flute and bass, and our friends Alpha Stewart and John Temmerman play drums and sax respectively. That’s me on guitar and vocals. The lyrics are right below the playback icon.

                                                     

                                            MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE 

     WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG YOU SAID THAT LOVE WOULD FIND A WAY

     TO BRING PEACE ON EARTH SURE AS DAWN COMES EVERY DAY

      BUT NOW YOU’RE GROWN LOOKING AT THAT NIGHTLY NEWS

      AND SEEING HOW THINGS ARE SURE GIVES YOU THE BLUES

                                               (CHORUS)

                       MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE, MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE

                       DESPITE ALL THE NEWS YOU RECEIVE, 

                        MY FRIEND, MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE

         IN SCHOOL YOU PLEDGED YOURSELF TO THE LAND OF THE FREE,

         ONE LAND UNDER GOD WITH JUSTICE AND LIBERTY

         NOW ‘STEAD OF BLACK AND WHITE YOU SEE SHADES OF GRAY

          WHAT’S JUST AND WHO IS FREE SOME DAYS YOU CAN’T SAY

                                                    (CHORUS)

           YOU SAY THAT GOD IS WHERE WE GO AND ALL COME FROM

           YOU SAY GOD IS LOVE & GOD’S RULE ONE DAY WILL COME

            YET MADMEN BATHE IN BLOOD TO APPEASE THEIR GOD

            AND ASK GOD TO BLESS THEIR CRUSADE OR JIHAD

                                                      (CHORUS) 

"COVER" FOR THE MUSIC DOWNLOAD SITES

 

“May You Still Believe” is available on iTunes.com, Amazon.com, Google Play, and about anywhere  else you can download music.

The song is for the idealists out there–past, present, and future. May you still believe.

 

 

Tags: , , , ,

Autumn Leaves

7 Oct

The video below’s a live version of the classic.

Alpha Stewart on drums, John Temmerman on sax, Dorothy McDaniel on bass, and me (Kent McDaniel) on guitar/vocal. Recorded Saturday, September 20, 2014 at Silvies in Chicago, with a Zoom recorder.

 

Us.

Us.

Tags: , , ,

Yeah, he flies.

29 Sep

Here’s video of “He Flies,” recorded last weekend in Chicago.  Previous performances of the song are out there, but I think this is the best one we ever got on video. The lyrics are underneath the video:

HE FLIES

LITTLE BIRD SITTIN ON A TELEPHONE WIRE

LITTLE BIRD SITTIN THERE ALL ALONE

HE’S A SINGER & HE’S A HIGH FLYER

HE’S A ROVER FROM PARTS UNKNOWN

TOMORROW AIN’T GOT HIM UPSET

& HE DON’T CARE ABOUT YESTERDAY

HE GOT HERE LAST SPRING I BET

LEAVES TURN BROWN & HE’LL FLY AWAY

 HE FLIES. YEAH, HE FLIES.

LITTLE BIRD SINGIN BOUT THE NEW DAY

LITTLE BIRD SINGIN BOUT THE DAWN

HE FEELS FINE & DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAY

HE’S GONNA GO WHERE HE FEELS DRAWN

THAT BLUE SKY & HIM GO WAY BACK

& HIM & THAT SUNSHINE SURE DO TOO

HE’S GOT WINGS & GOT THE  KNACK

WHEN IT’S TIME, HE KNOWS WHAT TO DO

HE FLIES. YEAH HE FLIES.

LITTLE BIRD DONT KNOW WHERE HIS OWN HOME’S AT

LITTLE BIRD DON’T EVEN CARE

HE AIN’T WORRIED BOUT A BIT OF THAT

IT’S ON BEYOND & HE’S BOUND THERE

HE DON’T KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT OR WHAT’S WRONG

HE DON’T KNOW THE TIME OF DAY

BUT HE KNOWS THE DAY IS LONG

& THE BREEZE FLOWS &, OH, BY THE WAY

HE FLIES. YEAH, HE FLIES.

HE FLIES.

It’s one of our originals.

That’s Dorothy McDaniel on bass & vocals, Alpha Stewart on percussion & vocals, John Temmerman on sax, and me (Kent McDaniel) on guitar & vocals. Recorded on a Zoom Recorder.

That's us.

Us.

Needed this "cover" for the music download sites.

Needed this “cover” for the music download sites.

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Waitin’ For The Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago

6 Jul

kentmcdanielwrites

By the 1980’s Z Z Top’s new songs were almost novelty numbers. They still put down some pretty nice grooves and some hot licks, but most of their tunes were cutesy little ditties designed to work well with the goofy vidoes they were grinding out for MTV. If anybody looked down their nose at that, the band cried all the way to the bank, I guess. Back in the seventies, though, Z Z Top was playing playing some strange, serious electric blues. They wore cowboy hats and rhinestone getups and marketed their stuff as southern rock, but it was electric blues. And it was good. For my money, their best album from that time was Tres Hombres, and the best thing on the album was an original medley called “Waitin’ For the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago”, both songs funky and bluesy.

My brother, Doug, and I played that medley many a night ourselves…

View original post 386 more words

Tags: , , , , ,