Archives | Paul Merry Blues

Billy Jean as you’ve never heard it before … played on beer bottles

by Paul Merry | Sep 25, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Copenhagen’s Bottle Boys first performed on empty beer bottles to liven up a boring party about 12 years ago. What do Michael Jackson and the old-time jug-band genre have in common? Well, take the song that launched the Michael Jackson era in 1983, and perform...

Remembering Johnny Otis: Greek god of R&B

by Paul Merry | Sep 20, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

A young Johnny Otis. He’d give Errol Flynn a run for his money Writing the previous Leiber-Stoller post reacquainted me with that great rhythm & blues pioneer, Johnny Otis, and Shuggie, his multi-instrumentalist son. Shuggie, I believe, stood for ‘sugar’,...

Leiber-Stoller: perhaps the greatest rock & roll song writers of all

by Paul Merry | Sep 5, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Mike Stoller (left) with Jerry Leiber in the 1970s Just as most non-classical music came from the blues, so one of the truly landmark song-writing partnerships began specializing solely in blues songs. I’m talking, of course, about the American rock &...

Blues broadcasts garnished with blues and rock history. Every Mon, Wed & Sat.

by Paul Merry | Sep 2, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

The birth of blues rock and its path to hard rock then heavy metal New “How Blues & Rock Evolved” broadcast explores the origins of heavy metal Prepare your ears for a special 30-minute-plus version of “How Blues & Rock Evolved”. We...