Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins - In Paris

Album: In Paris
Size: 91,3 MB
Time: 39:24
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2022
Styles: Blues
Art: Front

1. Baghdad Blues (2:46)
2. Do The Breakdown (3:25)
3. Melody Midnight Cruise (2:58)
4. What'd I Say (4:14)
5. Lonesome Widow Blues (4:22)
6. Blues Ain't What It Used To Be (4:03)
7. Sugar Baby Swing (2:22)
8. You Send Me (5:20)
9. Red Mama Blues (6:15)
10. Get Out On The Floor (3:34)

If you ran across Beverly “Guitar” Watkins playing at Underground Atlanta, you might never know that she was a guitar veteran who had been in the trenches with Piano Red, James Brown, B.B. King, and Ray Charles. By the time these recordings were made in 2012, Watkins had regained some of her notoriety with a string of groove-heavy albums for Music Maker that focused on her stellar songwriting. The bulk of these songs is original material, with one reprise of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say.”

On this fiery set recorded in Paris, Watkins is backed by vets, including rhythm guitarist Albert White (Elvin Bishop, Clarence Carter, Ben E. King, Ray Charles, Joe Tex), keyboard player Eddie Tigner (formerly of The Ink Spots), and Lil Joe Burton (Bobby Womack, Otis Clay, B.B. King). Everywhere she played, from Atlanta taverns to Lincoln Center, Beverly “Guitar” Watkins was beloved, but in few places was she more treasured than in France. Listening back a decade later, one can imagine Watkins slinging her guitar behind her head and giving an all-out, wild, sweaty performance to an admiring crowd.

(Beverly Watkins died of a heart attack on October 1, 2019.)

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Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins - The Spiritual Expressions Of Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins

Year: 2009
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:08
Size: 122,9 MB
Styles: Blues/Gospel
Scans: Full

1. Blessin' (3:36)
2. The Lord Will Make A Way (4:46)
3. Born On Christmas Day (2:27)
4. Blessed By Thy Name (4:37)
5. Clap Your Hands (3:46)
6. Jesus Is There For You (4:21)
7. Jesus Walked The Water (4:45)
8. Testimonial (6:44)
9. Glory Glory Hallelujah (3:39)
10. Jesus Is On The Main Line (3:37)
11. This Little Light Of Mine (4:56)
12. Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus (5:47)

Georgia-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter Beverly "Guitar" Watkins is one part soul singer, one part rockin' roadhouse mama, and one part gifted songwriter. She's also been chronically under-recorded for a woman with her résumé: she spent the early '60s playing rhythm guitar with Piano Red & the Interns. She recorded with Piano Red from 1959 until the mid-'60s, and can be heard on his popular singles "Doctor Feelgood" and "Right String But the Wrong Yo Yo." Watkins learned guitar and got her earliest musical sensibilities from several of her aunts, who had a quartet named the Hayes Family. She also had a banjo playing grandfather, Luke Hayes. On holidays and at family get-togethers, these musicians would assemble and the blues and gospel were passed on in a true folk process to the young Watkins.

Her earliest influences included Rosetta Tharpe, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Memphis Minnie, and she was exposed to the music because of her grandmother, who would play their recordings on the family Gramophone. She began playing guitar as an eight-year-old, learning by listening to the records her mother would play for her. Later, she was exposed to the records of touring bands, including Louis Jordan's and Count Basie's. She began to model her playing after Charlie Byrd and Basie's rhythm guitarist, Freddie Green. Throughout high school, she participated in a variety of talent shows and played trumpet in the school band. Her high school band master helped broaden her knowledge of jazz and blues guitar, and piano. After a succession of bands in high school, she settled in with playing with Piano Red, who later changed their name and found their widest appeal, as Piano Red & the Houserockers, which led to bookings outside Atlanta and northern Florida in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C.

In 1965, the band broke up, but not before going through several more name changes. Watkins then hooked up with Eddie Tigner and the Ink Spots and toured extensively with that group, playing for nearly a year with him before he was felled by a stroke. Watkins came off the road and took a break from the brutal touring she had done for much of the '60s. She worked a procession of day jobs as a domestic and in car washes before joining Leroy Redding & the Houserockers. Watkins worked on and off with Redding until the late '80s before striking out on her own and creating a residency for herself at Underground Atlanta, an Atlanta nightclub, often accompanied by a drummer and her son on bass. Here she developed her singing and harmonica-playing skills.

Back in Business, her solo debut album, was released in 2001 as part of the Music Maker Series distributed by Sire Records Group/ Warner Bros. The album showcases Watkins' flexibility and prowess in a wide range of styles: roadhouse blues, jazz-inflected blues, and rockabilly-blues. Now in her sixties, Watkins continues to perform in Atlanta-area blues clubs and at major festivals around the U.S.. She put in a particularly compelling, energetic performance at the 2000 Chicago Blues Festival. /Biography by Richard Skelly, AllMusic

(Note: Beverly "Guitar" Watkins passed away October 1, 2019 due to complications from a stroke.)

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Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins - The Feelings Of...

Year: 2004
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:25
Size: 79,5 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Scans: Full

1. As I Was Walking (3:16)
2. Baghdad Blues (3:19)
3. Right Don't Wrong Nobody (2:17)
4. Just Make Believe (4:45)
5. Get Out On The Floor (3:22)
6. Sugar Baby Swing (3:20)
7. Late Bus Blues (3:48)
8. D Harp Blues (3:26)
9. Melody Midnight Cruise (3:00)
10. Jesus Walked The Water (3:47)

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins is a guitar playing blues vocalist and composer - pretty unique in a men-dominated blues world. She has a strong voice, but no clear guitar style. Sometimes it sounds powerful like Albert Collins, then sometimes soft as Wes Montgomery. And her songs also span a wide stylistic spectrum from shuffles to soul ballads.

Since her re-discovery in the late '90s, she has played many major venues in the US and she has made many festival appearances in Europe. Her repertoire covers straight blues, shuffles, soul, jazz, gospel - the whole book of African-American music. "People are impressed to see a black woman play like a man", she says.

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Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins - Back In Business

Year: 1999
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:49
Size: 110,5 MB
Styles: Electric blues, R&B
Scans: Full

1. Miz Dr. Feelgood (4:21)
2. I'm Gonna Rock Some More (2:55)
3. Tell Me Daddy (3:47)
4. My Baby Left Town (3:22)
5. The Right String, But The Wrong Yo-Yo (2:30)
6. Impeach Me Baby (4:09)
7. Red Mama Blues (6:32)
8. You Make Me Feel So Good (3:51)
9. Too Many Times (3:37)
10. Blue In The Night (4:13)
11. What About Me (3:37)
12. Back In Business (4:49)

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, best known for performing with Piano Red in his outfit Doctor Feelgood and the Interns during the early '60s, returns to active recording with Back in Business, a collection of tracks that finds her comfortably covering electric blues, R&B, and old-fashioned rock & roll.

Subtle gospel and jazz shadings appear from time to time, but Watkins generally concentrates on rocking the house, revisiting Piano Red-era classics (including "Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo"), and introducing some eminently likable new compositions. All in all, a successful return. /Steve Huey, AllMusic

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Various - We Are The Music Makers! (2-Disc Set)

Founded in 1984, the North Carolina-based Music Maker Relief Foundation – led by Tim and Denise Duffy – is utterly pragmatic in its goals: preserving traditional southern music by presenting it on disc and on stage and also by helping needy players through finding them gigs, providing them with decent instruments and even repairing their homes. Among its 150-plus CDs thus far, the primary focus is on performers age 55 or older with incomes below $18,000 per year.

The 44-track We Are the Music Makers!: Preserving the Soul of America’s Music commemorates the non-profit’s 20th anniversary with acts ranging from the obscure to a few big names like Carolina Chocolate Drops (whose recording career began on the label) and Taj Mahal (who plays backup banjo, guitar and ham bone on a few cuts). Musical styles run the gamut from Etta Baker’s graceful Piedmont blues picking to Pura Fe’s Native American chants from her Tuscarora tribe. Classically trained Leyla McCalla, former cellist in the Chocolate Drops, draws on her Haitian heritage in “Manman Mwen.” Among the religious tracks, country singer Carl Rutherford hauls out “Old Rugged Cross.” As for childhood memories, Big Boy Henry’s “Old Bill” tells of his pet rooster, which his mother killed to feed a lecherous minister his father thoroughly distrusted. Jerry “Boogie” McCain’s “My New Next Door Neighbor” ends with screams and gun shot sounds. On “Peter Rumpkin,” Willa Mae Buckner (a snake charmer, say the notes) falls back on a gimmick many of us can recall from childhood: raising expectations that a verse’s rhyme will end with a dirty word but then closing it with something innocent.

The news is fodder for the blues. (Remember Blind Willie Johnson’s “God Moved on the Water” in the wake of the Titanic’s sinking and, from World War II, the harmonizing Golden Gate Quartet’s “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin’.”) Whooping, Bible-referencing guitarist Drink Small’s “President Clinton’s Blues” points out, “The man did the same thing that Adam did to Eve. … The Bible says, ‘He who has not sinned cast the first stone.’ … She didn’t rape him. And he sure ‘nough didn’t rape her.” Anti-gay sentiment appears in the song. Political correctness is oft an unknown concern in the blues, Ironing Board Sam’s disco-like offering has one basic, repeated line: “I can’t think of nothing but your butt.” High-pitched Algia Mae Hnton advises “Cook Corn Bread for Your Husband, Biscuits for Your Outside Man.” Prison being a well-known topic in the blues, a title such as Adolphus Bell’s “Child Support Blues” speaks for itself. Is Bell ad libbing? And a bluesman’s listening habits aren’t limited to the blues, either. Eddie Tigner, who toured with the Ink Spots for 35 years, scats and improvises his way through “Route 66.”

A genre that traveled from Africa to America, the praise song can have various motives – showing appreciation or currying favor, for example. Just think back to Leadbelly’s “Governor Pat Neff” for the Library of Congress and Folkways not to mention, from Memphis’s Sun Studios, the Prisonaires’ “What about Frank Clement (a Mighty Man)” for governors of Texas and Tennessee, respectively. Side 1 of this Music Maker package ends with a quiet but quite specific praise song, Captain Luke & Cool John Ferguson’s leisurely “Tim Duffy Is a Good Ol’ Guy”: “As good a guy as he could be / He got me a gig across the sea. / When he tell you something, he really mean it. / He got me a gig in Argentina.” In the world of downhome music, the Duffys are bringing home the bacon. ~ Bruce Sylvester

Album: We Are The Music Makers! (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 68:12
Size: 156.2 MB
Styles: Blues/Soul/R&B/Jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[0:57] 1. Captain Luke - Freight Train Boogie
[1:18] 2. Guitar Gabriel - A Living Past
[2:37] 3. Etta Baker - Railroad Bill
[4:23] 4. John Lee Zeigler - Going Away
[4:08] 5. Cootie Stark - High Yellow
[2:15] 6. John Dee Holeman - Chapel Hill Boogie
[5:28] 7. Neal Pattman - Shortnin' Bread
[2:52] 8. Carl Rutherford - Old Rugged Cross
[3:24] 9. Cool John Ferguson - No Hidin' Place
[3:28] 10. Essie Mae Brooks - Feel Like My Time Ain't Long
[4:06] 11. Elder James Goins - Old Time Religion
[3:09] 12. Elder Anderson Johnson - My Lord And I
[1:55] 13. Mr. Q - Cocktail Boogie
[1:47] 14. Albert Smith - Big Bell Mamma
[2:10] 15. Precious Bryant - If You Don't Love Me, Would You Fool Me Good
[4:35] 16. Big Boy Henry - Old Bill
[4:45] 17. Drink Small - President Clinton Blues
[2:40] 18. J.W. Warren - Looking For My Woman
[5:44] 19. Dr. Burt - What Can An Old Man Do (But Sing The Blues)
[3:02] 20. George Higgs - Greasy Greens
[0:28] 21. Whistlin' Britches - Clickin'
[2:52] 22. Captain Luke - Tim Duffy Is A Good Ol' Guy

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Album: We Are The Music Makers! (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:36
Size: 163.9 MB
Styles: Blues/Soul/R&B/Jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[2:34] 1. Samuel Turner Stevens - Railroadin' & Gamblin
[1:16] 2. Pura Fe - Pigeon Dance
[2:25] 3. Clyde Langford - High Steppin' Mamma
[3:37] 4. James Davis - Fred, You Ought To Be Dead
[4:47] 5. Beverly Guitar Watkins - Back In Business
[3:22] 6. The Carolina Chocolate Drops - Sourwood Mountain
[2:44] 7. Nyles Jones - Ain't Gonna Let No Women
[3:32] 8. Macavine Hayes - Snatch That Thing
[1:21] 9. Algia Mae Hinton - Cook Cornbread For Your Husband
[1:15] 10. Willa Mae Buckner - Peter Rumpkin
[3:38] 11. Adolphus Bell - Child Support Blues
[3:55] 12. Ironing Board Sam - Nothing But Your Butt
[4:36] 13. Benton Flippen - Benton's Dream
[4:43] 14. Eddie Tigner - Route 66
[3:19] 15. Jerry 'Boogie' McCain - My New Next Door Neighbor
[1:57] 16. Carl Hodges - Flossie
[5:37] 17. Boo Hanks - Home On The Range
[4:05] 18. Boo Hanks - Keep On Truckin'
[3:26] 19. Captain Luke - Old Black Buck
[3:14] 20. Leyla McCalla - Manman Mwen
[3:05] 21. Cora Fluker - Amazing Grace
[2:58] 22. Cary Morin - Sing It Louder

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Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins - Don't Mess With Miss Watkins

Size: 108,3 MB
Time: 45:44
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2007
Styles: Modern Electric Blues
Art: Full

01. Too Many Times (3:38)
02. Miz Dr. Feelgood (4:20)
03. Impeach Me Baby (4:08)
04. Red Mamam Blues (6:30)
05. The Right String But The Wrong Yoyo (2:28)
06. Right Don't Wrong Nobody (2:17)
07. Get Out On The Floor (3:20)
08. Late Bus Blues (3:47)
09. Back In Business (4:48)
10. Sugar Baby Swing (3:19)
11. Baghdad Blues (3:18)
12. Jesus Walked The Water (3:47)

Georgia-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter Beverly "Guitar" Watkins is one part soul singer, one part rockin' roadhouse mama, and one part gifted songwriter. She's also been chronically under-recorded for a woman with her résumé: she spent the early '60s playing rhythm guitar with Piano Red & the Interns. She recorded with Piano Red from 1959 until the mid-'60s, and can be heard on his popular singles "Doctor Feelgood" and "Right String But the Wrong Yo Yo." Watkins learned guitar and got her earliest musical sensibilities from several of her aunts, who had a quartet named the Hayes Family. She also had a banjo playing grandfather, Luke Hayes. On holidays and at family get-togethers, these musicians would assemble and the blues and gospel were passed on in a true folk process to the young Watkins.

Her earliest influences included Rosetta Tharpe, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Memphis Minnie, and she was exposed to the music because of her grandmother, who would play their recordings on the family Gramophone. She began playing guitar as an eight-year-old, learning by listening to the records her mother would play for her. Later, she was exposed to the records of touring bands, including Louis Jordan's and Count Basie's. She began to model her playing after Charlie Byrd and Basie's rhythm guitarist, Freddie Green. Throughout high school, she participated in a variety of talent shows and played trumpet in the school band. Her high school band master helped broaden her knowledge of jazz and blues guitar, and piano. After a succession of bands in high school, she settled in with playing with Piano Red, who later changed their name and found their widest appeal, as Piano Red & the Houserockers, which led to bookings outside Atlanta and northern Florida in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C.

In 1965, the band broke up, but not before going through several more name changes. Watkins then hooked up with Eddie Tigner and the Ink Spots and toured extensively with that group, playing for nearly a year with him before he was felled by a stroke. Watkins came off the road and took a break from the brutal touring she had done for much of the '60s. She worked a procession of day jobs as a domestic and in car washes before joining Leroy Redding & the Houserockers. Watkins worked on and off with Redding until the late '80s before striking out on her own and creating a residency for herself at Underground Atlanta, an Atlanta nightclub, often accompanied by a drummer and her son on bass. Here she developed her singing and harmonica-playing skills. Back in Business, her solo debut album, was released in 2001 as part of the Music Maker Series distributed by Sire Records Group/ Warner Bros. The album showcases Watkins' flexibility and prowess in a wide range of styles: roadhouse blues, jazz-inflected blues, and rockabilly-blues. Now in her sixties, Watkins continues to perform in Atlanta-area blues clubs and at major festivals around the U.S.. She put in a particularly compelling, energetic performance at the 2000 Chicago Blues Festival. ~Biography by Richard Skelly

Don't Mess With Miss Watkins

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