Tribute to Wes Mackey - RIP 20190215 - on Blues Moon Radio 2/26/19 on WUSC.FM

Tribute to Wes Mackey - RIP 20190215 -
on Blues Moon Radio 2/26/19 WUSC.FM

 

Thank you to all the new followers to Blues Moon Radio! We're excited to have all of you here as we wrap up our final semester after nearly 30 years on the air!

We're working hard on our next radio program on Blues Moon Radio this Tuesday 6-8 p.m. ET/USA (same as New York and Atlanta time), during which we will pay tribute in the first hour to our dearly beloved friend, SC-born Blues and Jazzman Wes Mackey, who left this earth after a final gig on Valentine's night.

Wes Mackey with author and radio show host, Clair DeLune
during his last visit back to Mackey's home state of SC in 2018.

 

 

In our second hour, we're spotlighting artists who centered some or all of their working life in New York City, which means get ready for some jump, swing and shout music - The Savoy, the Apollo, and more.

We played all but cut #12 - ran out of time!

We found a gem of an artist with a tie-in to SC and NYC: a Darlington-born Woodrow Wilson "Buddy" Johnson, who hopped and dropped with the best of them. Named after the president who lived in Columbia as a boy, Buddy was legendary on the Jump/Swing/Boogie circuit, but knew the pulse of his music came from his Southern roots:

"Personally, I like classics," Buddy Johnson told Down Beat, "but our bread and butter is in the south. The music I play has a southern tinge to it. They understand it down there."

Yes. Yes we do.

 Johnson is a great SC tie-in to NY Blues (do you know that "The Big Apple" got its nickname from a dance that was named after a Club in SC, right?

The Big Apple nightclub in Columbia SC before its restoration, started out as a synagogue, but later became a hotspot club for dancing, which resulted in the invention of one of the biggest dance crazes of the 1940s: The Big Apple. Big Apple dancers were dispatched (after being approved and amended by city leadership - ahem) to NYC to demonstrate and teach the dance, and that - my friends - is how New York City got its famous nickname.

More about this and three other dances that originated thanks to SC roots/blues/R&B music in the book: @South Carolina Blues by Clair DeLune on Arcadia Press.

Please help us celebrate nearly 30 years of great Blues on the radio - tune in each week this spring for the final semester of Blues Moon Radio on WUSC FM Columbia (WUSC.FM on the net or locally at 90.5 FM and HD1Columbia. Get your blues licks at six and don't be late because we're gone at eight!
Stay Bluesy, y'all!

Don't forget to order your copy of South Carolina Blues, available at https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9781…/South-Carolina-Blues
...or from the author, who will happily inscribe!). #ShamelessPlugforSCBlues LOL...
Clair DeLune - at 90.5 since 1990.5!

Tune in - tell your pals,
Clair DeLune and Sonny Boy Red Jackson

Meet your Hosts: 

Clair DeLune (at left): author of South Carolina Blues, longtime professor of Roots and Blues Music History and your host since 1990 of Blues Moon Radio; along with her valiant co-host since 2017, Sonny Boy Red Jackson (below, doing his best RCA Dog impression).

 

 

In the meantime, if you feel as if you need some great Blues music OR MY BOOK (which makes a great present, hint-hint-hint!)...

...don't forget our supporters:

As always we thank our long-time underwriters, who help bring great music to the Midlands all year around, because we could not imagine our show without their input and support:  Papa Jazz Record Shoppe, Word of Mouth Productions AND South Carolina Blues. You can link to these orgs by clicking on the visuals...

This blog is brought to you  in part by:

    

and

 

 

and

 

South Carolina Blues
500 years of roots and blues music history in S.C.
by Clair DeLune
on Arcadia Publishing