Guitar Shorty and Art Rupe RIP

With thoughts of going to my first Porretta Soul Festival in three years later this year very much in mind I was sad to hear of the death of yet another artist who has appeared at the festival. This time it's Guitar Shorty, who was one of the stars of the 2014 line up (pictured above with me). Guitar Shorty (real name David Kearney) was 87 years old and got his nickname when, aged 16, he appeared on a billboard reading 'The Walter Johnson Band featuring Guitar Shorty'. He joined the Ray Charles band and recorded his first record in 1957 for Cobra called 'You Don't Treat Me Right' produced by Willie Dixon. He appeared at the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans and then moved to Los Angeles to play with Sam Cooke. After some years away from the business he recorded for JSP, Black Top and Alligator and appeared on a Bo Diddley tribute album in 2002. I first saw Guitar Shorty at the Black Top night at Jimmy's club in New Orleans in 1993 (see bottom photo). He was noted for his gymnastic approach and I remember him performing forward somersaults while still playing his guitar. I don't recall any such athleticism at Porretta but I do recall that, good though it was, Shorty's heavy blues didn't really fit in there. I wrote: 'First on was Guitar Shorty who provided some heavy blues with 'The Blues Has Got Me' and 'It's Too Late', during which he toured the audience and carried on playing as he went behind the stage. He followed with 'Born Under A Bad Sign' but in the end his set was just too heavy as he strayed into Jimi Hendrix territory with 'Hey Joe'. Shorty's a great showman but not really right for the festival.' Later that year I saw Shorty at the King Biscuit festival where he also impressed and certainly fitted in there.

A final word too for Art Rupe, founder of Specialty Records, who has died at the grand old age of 104. Art was responsible for overseeing the transition of R and B and gospel music into full blooded rock and roll with an incredible line up of artists, including Roy Milton, the Soul Stirrers, Lloyd Price, Guitar Slim, Sam Cooke, Larry Williams and Little Richard. He originally founded Juke Box Records which had success with Roy Milton's'R M Blues' and eventually formed Specialty in 1946 with early success with Jimmy and Joe Liggins and Percy Mayfield as well as gospel with the Pilgrim Travellers and the Soul Stirrers. Art's move into rock and roll began with 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy' by Lloyd Price, with Fats Domino on piano, before breaking out on the world stage with Little Richard, plus Larry Williams and Roddy Jackson. When Sam Cooke began his solo career Art missed out as he thought that 'You Send Me' didn't fit with his other artists and Sam ended up recording for the Keen label. But there was no doubting Art's enormous influence on the development of rock and roll. He had a reputation for not paying royalties (as did most label owners of the time) but objected to payola and eventually left the recording business to concentrate on oil and gas interests. But he remained in the business as a music publisher and enjoyed success in the reissue business during the rock and roll revival of the early seventies. The UK Specialty label produced a number of excellent compilations and LPs by the likes of Frankie Lee Sims, Don and Dewey and Clifton Chenier. He eventually sold Specialty to Fantasy Records in 1991.