Big Train and the Loco Motives

HEY LOCO FANS - Happy BDay to the great Son House. He was a major innovator of the Delta style, along with his playing partners Charley Patton and Willie Brown. Few listening experiences in the blues are as intense as hearing one of Son House’s original 1930s recordings for the Paramount label. Entombed in a hailstorm of surface noise and scratches, one can still be awestruck by the emotional fervor House puts into his singing and slide playing. Little wonder then that the m...an became more than just an influence on some white English kid with a big amp; he was the main source of inspiration to both Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson , and it doesn’t get much more pivotal than that. Even after his rediscovery in the mid-’60s, House was such a potent musical force that what would have been a normally genteel performance by any other bluesmen in a folk setting turned into a night in the nastiest juke joint you could imagine, scaring the daylights out of young white enthusiasts expecting something far more prosaic and comfortable. Not out of Son House, no sir. When the man hit the downbeat on his National steel-bodied guitar and you saw his eyes disappear into the back of his head, you knew you were going to hear some blues. And when he wasn’t shouting the blues, he was singing spirituals, a cappella. Right up to the end, no bluesman was torn between the sacred and the profane more than Son House. He was born Eddie James House, Jr., on March 21, 1902, in Riverton, MS. By the age of 15, he was preaching the gospel in various Baptist churches as the family seemingly wandered from one plantation to the next. He didn’t even bother picking up a guitar until he turned 25; to quote House, I didn’t like no guitar when I first heard it; oh gee, I couldn’t stand a guy playin’ a guitar. I didn’t like none of it.

HEY LOCO FANS - Happy BDay to Jimmie Vaughan! As a founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds , Jimmie Vaughan was one of the leading Austin, Texas guitarists of the late ’70s and ’80s, responsible for opening the national market up for gritty roadhouse blues and R&B. #Blues

HEY LOCO FANS - Here is a list of our upcoming shows. Be sure to follow us on BandsInTown on your PC or phone to stay up to date with the latest info.

HEY LOCO FANS - We lost a good one today. Bass player Paul Jackson (Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters, Carlos Santana, Sonny Rollins, and many others) passed away today. He was a tremendous influence on bassists around the world and a wonderful person. Rest in peace.

HEY LOCO FANS - be sure to follow us on all our social media channels! Now that COVID has released it's grip - time to make some music!

HEY LOCO FANS - These are cool even before the knobs are put on! https://t.co/uvBunc9fEy