BLUTO

Johnny Winters Summer 1967

My freshman year in High School was in Dallas Tx. I played for the talent show and met a few more musical kids in school from that day. Two brothers ,their friend & I formed a little band and only played “out” 5 nights. The friend knew the Mgr. at the Family Circle Club in town. It was a Big converted warehouse near downtown with a bar at each end. He laughed & said sure we could come play a late afternoon set the next Thursday / Friday from 6-7:30 . The real music started more like 9. We were there for the beer crowd to hear .
The first night was crazy fun playing on a REAL raised up stage with lights and a GOOD sound system.
Played mostly top 40 soul R&B and the few BLUES tunes I knew from my big brother . We played every song we had 2 1/2 times for sure. A local band was there setting up on the other end while we finished up, so we left to do homework etc. ( a Thursday school night).
Friday night we were pumped knowing the stage , rehearsed live the night before , FRIDAY night etc. We tied a couple of extra songs that we almost knew early . After 45 min. a band came in to the other end with drums and cases etc. Long white hair , skinny as heck and talking fast to the other two dudes. We launched into Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed and I was doing my best to impress while they were just getting inside. ( you only get 1 first impression ) . They stopped and came down to our end to hear the rest of the song. They looked like a REAL BAND .
Johnny , Uncle John Turner & Tommy Shannon . We got their attention and didn’t know any more licks than I played in the first 40 seconds. After I’m A Soul Man , Heard it through the Grapevine etc 10 long minutes we quit to run out the door.
But , Johnny came over and was amused and surprised at another little white kid playing the Blues . He said hang out and do a fast tune with him when they started. Wow , I was excited , surprised , scared , etc etc. I squeaked out YES and ran to a pay phone to call home & explain my late timing happening and why .
They set up and Johnny plugged me into an amp . He was like a lightning fast BLUE guitar god from the Crossroads of the South. I was shocked with his 160 bpm BLUES with or without a slide. I played the rhythm that wouldn’t get me noticed up there till he nodded to me. CRAP now what ? I launched into every blues lick , turn around , effect etc I could think of much to the bands amusement . After the song an approving nod from the group and I headed for the floor level with cord in tow. Watched their first set and was so overwhelmingly blown away I was like in shock .He had forgotten more licks than I would ever know WOW , WOW didn’t know whether to quit or buckle down & start the long journey with an link an afternoon job at a downtown music store and met lots of the local musicians needing strings , picks , records etc. A big dude bass played noticed me at work and took me the next day out to Oak Cliff to jam with a guy from the band STORM . Jimmy Vaughn

Rolling Stone ranked him the #15 greatest guitarist of all time. His sharp treble tone, hooky melodic licks and innovative fingerpicking style—using metal banjo picks on electric guitar—were a profound influence on such British guitar gods as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. And his live performances were so incendiary, so unstoppable—and his build so imposing—that he was nicknamed “The Texas Cannonball.”

Have You Ever Loved A Woman
Hideaway
Key To The Highway
I'm Tore Down
The Stumble
Further On Up The Road
Big Leg Woman
The Sky Is Crying
Stormy Monday
Going Down .....

These are the songs I’m used to FREDDIE KING playing.
By strange coincidence I ran a light show with a friend at
The End Of Cole Ave. club for 2 nights in a row back in north Dallas.
The 2nd night THE Freddie King showed up for his gig. The club had no dance floor,
just standing room only with a pile of pillows for the front people to sit on . At midnight
everyone was kicked out and I came running down from the tiny projection loft booth and planted myself in front of the stage. After a few minutes they stopped & Freddie asked what I wanted to hear. I said “ I’ve got my guitar in the car.” HE stopped and waved his arm at the band & said “ White Boy’s got his guitar!” Go get it !
I ran out to my trunk and brought in an electric guitar. I’m primarily a BLUES player and
getting ready to jam with THE MAN that wrote lots of the tunes Clapton , Beck , Page etc made into British Blues. CAN’T WAIT. *** But , this is the week that Johnny Rivers new album Realization came out & his song Summer Rain is all over the radio.
Freddie shows me the rhythm part of the song while he noodles out the lead/melody
on his guitar. NO BLUES just Summer Rain for 15+ minutes before the band started to give him a hard time to go.
You don’t tell a guitar GOD no. You roll with it and enjoy....
This was one incredible moment in my musical history .... Next month JOHNNY WINTERS

11/24/68 Dallas TX
JANICE JOPLIN with Big Brother & The Holding Co.

A big day in my mental history of music in Texas. Head Usher at the Memorial
Auditorium in downtown job from high school ROTC.

The show was so good in my mind now, I completely forget the opening act. It may well have been members of Big Brother doing a small Jam Band thing to open it up while Janice got
“tuned UP” . When she got started she confirmed all I had heard on record or the radio so far. She COULD SING . DANG !!! The set of pipes on her was unreal. Go back and listen to her version of SUMMERTIME , BALL & CHAIN etc. She was peeling the paint off the back wall of the building with pure emotion. The crowd that I was to help control was dead floored as I was and hardly got out of their seats. When the band came out at first I was surprised at the LONG LONG straight hair on most of the band. The Beatles and English bands had hair but nothing like 20“+ length.
This was a year of no bra as a protest also and JANICE was behind it fully. From the front half of the downstairs section , she was in full display with a fuzzy macrame poncho type thing on. Every time she raised her mic arm the audience swayed along to keep watch on the situation.
Maybe that’s why they didn’t get up too ? It was a fun show for me and was blown away. Next month JAMMING WITH FREDDIE KING ....

6/11/20 BLUTO NEWS LETTER

Ushering JIMI HENDRIX Sunday 5/20/69 Dallas Memorial Auditorium. In my high school the Junior ROTC class was picked to be the ushers for the Memorial Auditorium in downtown. I was an “officer” laugh , laugh and was the ranking one of the group. As the head usher I placed the people where I needed people. As the 3rd time I went to Stage Center with 6+ Dallas Police that were BIG. Race relations lacked that year also. The Police were not in a good mood at all with Jimi doing The Tounge routine or using the guitar as a pelvic thrust party for the girls in the crowd. As the show went on they got more & more agitated and were calling Jimi the “N” word and lots more to his face. I was the only friendly face he could see as I was 2‘in front of him with a 4‘ high stage. He was tripping on acid to beat the band and laughing his butt off with 1“ wide pupils.
THEN .... he started THE Star Spangled Banner ! That was too much for the cops. They started naming the charges they were going to use to stop the show. Inciting A Riot , defamation , careless disregard , blah , blah. It was now THEM against ME and JIMI. My father was a Federal Judge that the head Police Officer knew. I turned to him and said “ I hope they quit this stuff cause I don’t think we would get out of here alive if they stop the show now. “ He looked me in the eye and sadly nodded yes. He yelled as his men to cut it out and quiet link looked at each other and visibly slumped their shoulders a bit.
JIMI is watching all this KRAP happen 2 ft away while killing it with the guitar & theatrics. He grabbed his mic stand and used it as a slide and mowed down the row of cops like a machine gun, while looking me in THE EYE and nodding as if to say “ saw what you did, thanks”. My knees were wobbly and I was feeling light headed a bit by now.
A French photographer shot a video of the show and sent me a CD of the sound track of the day and my friend STEVE L. was on the 3rd row and took black & white film. He printed me a good picture of JIMI that I have had framed since then.
That is why all the Hendrix pics on my band page !!!
Next month JANICE JOPLIN , BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY
John

Hello again ; After requests for some live streaming on FB , I started a FACEBOOK PAGE for the BLUTO band..This will give us a realtime place to talk music & share songs , do some collaboration with other pickers. If it works out I can start a twice a month set time for a FACEBOOK LIVE stream from OKLAHOMA with some guitar friends. Please go to Facebook to the
@blutoband4 page and like & follow us if you want. Can't wait hear from you more.
If you didn't sign up for BLUTO's page please let me know also. JOHN