Latest news with #Howlin'Wolf
RTÉ News
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Behind the music - Nick J. Harvey
Melbourne blues singer and composer Nick J. Harvey has released his new single, Be Careful with the Bacon, Steven. We asked him the questions . . . "This song is a slice-of-life exploration," he says. "A journey through the ups and downs of the early day. It reflects the push and pull of habit, the contrast of dark and light, the struggle always wrapped in the ever moving and the ever present urban ambient noise of life." Tell us three things about yourself . . . Music was always in the air - I just had to find my way into it. My father and grandfather were both guitarists, so I grew up surrounded by the sound of six strings. My grandfather was inspired by Django Reinhardt and the jazz of the '30s and '40s. My dad leaned into early Elvis, raw rock 'n' roll, reverb-drenched surf licks, and those memorable guitar instrumentals from bands like The Shadows. I was walked away from a six-figure career to chase a sound only I could hear. For a while, I lived a double life - corporate by day, musician by night. I had the title, the salary, the supposed security. But there was this low, constant hum of dissatisfaction - a quiet truth that wouldn't go away. Something out there…. beyond the maze of grey partitions. Music never stopped calling, even when I tried to silence it. I believe music still has the power to cut through the digital noise. I'm still a passionate believer in music's ability to connect us, to shift our mood, to lift us up. I remember as a teenager sitting in a friend's parents' lounge room, gathered around a massive stereo with a few mates, listening to records. It was a communal, almost revelatory experience, everyone locked in, transported, no phones, no distractions. Just the music. How would you describe your music? Maybe it's some sort of cinematic blend of blues-rock. I'm chasing the raw, emotional textures of blues and early rock 'n' roll, but with the punch and impact of classic '70s rock production layered guitars, big dynamics, and a sense of space that lets the emotion breathe. You'll hear echoes of the '60s and '70s - Floyd, Zeppelin, The Doors, Howlin' Wolf but filtered through a modern lens. It's guitar-driven, but it's not just about riffs or speed. It's about feel, space, and storytelling through sound. Who are your musical inspirations? It all started with the blues. Howlin' Wolf, Josh White, Robert Johnson - those voices carried weight. They didn't just sing; they confessed. Those old records taught me early on that music isn't about speed or flash; it's about feel, truth, and soul. I followed those roots into the English blues movement of the '60s - John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, and the folk revival that sat alongside it. Around the same time, I fell in love with early rock 'n' roll - the raw energy of those first Elvis and Little Richard records, the punch, the swagger, the aggression. There was no overthinking - just guts and groove. What was the first gig you ever went to? I'm not sure if it was the first, but one of the most impactful early gigs I saw was Phil Para, playing Hendrix covers in this seedy corner pub with carpet that had long since seen its use-by date. The place smelled like beer and history - and the music hit like a freight train. What was the first record you ever bought? It was Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd on vinyl. I didn't even have a proper record player at the time - I just knew I needed to have it. The artwork, the mystery, the mood - it felt like something sacred. I didn't fully understand it on first listen, but I knew it meant something. That album became a kind of teacher. It showed me how music could be spacious and emotional at the same time. It wasn't trying to impress you. It was trying to reach you. What's your favourite song right now? Probably Ramble On by Led Zeppelin. I keep coming back to it. I adore the bass playing. There's something timeless in the way it blends folk, mysticism, and groove - all in one track. It's got this restless energy, like it's always moving forward but never really landing anywhere for long. Favourite lyric of all time? "I asked for water, and she gave me gasoline" - Howlin' Wolf. That line hits like a hammer. Blues poetry at its rawest. Wolf's voice is a gravel of truth. If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd. It's got this perfect mix of swagger, sarcasm, groove, and a seriously cool guitar solo. Oh man, Gilmour really digs deep into that Strat. He's squeezing pure sonic juice out of it. Website, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify. Alan Corr
Boston Globe
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Sister Midnight' finds a very gory solution to the tedium of young married life
In the opening scenes we see the vibrancy and chaos of the city, but Uma (played by Bollywood star Radhika Apte) is isolated from all of it, stuck in a one-room shack waiting to serve her new, buffoonish husband. Advertisement Nearly undone by tedium, Uma begins to rebel in small ways, including getting a job as a cleaning woman at a travel agency in the wealthy part of the city, a world away. Along the way, she begins to change, and while she is initially horrified by her new desires, she eventually accepts herself. The only people she connects with at all are other outsiders — trans sex workers or female Buddhist monks who do not believe in God. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Director Karan Kandhari. Magnet Releasing Several other factors heighten the film's disorienting shift from real to surreal. Kandhari, who is British Indian and was born in Kuwait, began visiting Mumbai when he was young and became 'intoxicated' by the city. 'I visited it many times, like it was a weird addiction,' he says. 'It's a really strange place and I mean that as a compliment. I was always just trying to get my head around the place.' Advertisement But the Mumbai of the movie is neither the one he first visited — 'it's not a period piece' — nor is it exactly contemporary. 'I got stuck in the geography in my head,' he explains, saying he chose to replicate parts of the city that lived in his memory, which have long since vanished in actuality. 'I draw floor plans for things that don't exist and we have to adjust places to fit. So it's a weird mishmash of fragments of things I remember from the '80s or the '90s, or things I've seen from the '70s.' While 'Sister Midnight' has prompted comparisons to Wes Anderson films, Kandhari dismisses the connection, saying the rich colors and the unusual supporting characters are organic to Mumbai. 'We are probably influenced by the same people, but he's creating an artificial world of weirdness, whereas I see the world as inherently weird and strange and I'm trying to find that in the mundane.' Additionally, Uma's experiences are not just set to local music — the soundtrack features songs by Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Holly, The Band, The Stooges, and Motorhead. (Kandhari lives and breathes music and has directed videos for artists including Franz Ferdinand.) Yet the film is also, in an odd way, autobiographical, even though Kandhari's life is nothing like Uma's. He suffers from depression and says the film ponders what it's like to feel different and out of place without knowing how to handle it. Advertisement 'I have the sort of brain that questions things like societal norms if they don't make sense,' he says, so while the film is about this arranged marriage it's really about being trapped by societal expectations. 'We should always question the rules — just because something is old doesn't mean it's right.' Those themes, along with the wildly imaginative script, are what appealed to Apte, who holds together every scene no matter how strange it gets — and it gets quite strange, once some of the creatures she has devoured (birds and goats) come back to life in animated form and are fruitful and multiply. 'I've never read a script like this before. What happens is quite crazy and unexpected,' she says. 'I didn't always know what to think, but it was quite relatable, and I really liked how compassionate Karan was to all his characters.' Apte was fascinated by the fate that befalls Uma when 'All she does is ask 'Why' about the daily way of life that we blindly follow.' That trait resonated with Apte, who went to a progressive school in India when they were new and became 'a proper pain in the ass' because she was taught to question everything. 'If somebody says something that doesn't make sense, I'll ask, 'Can you explain why?' That's not me being arrogant. That's just me genuinely trying to understand.' Still, Apte found the role challenging at first. She studied math in school, so she 'needs logic for everything,' and she loves developing a character's biography to understand why they react to certain things. 'But I knew very little about Uma, whose past was summed up in five lines.' Advertisement Kandhari knew he was asking her to go against her instincts. 'She's a cerebral, intellectual person and analyzes a lot,' Kandhari says. 'My task when we started rehearsals was to get her to de-intellectualize everything, get her rooted in the present moment and impulsively performing with her body. She was a little scared in the first couple of days before it clicked.' So while Apte would normally figure out what her character was doing before taking action and why she'd take that action, she says the director would tell her, 'I want Uma to get up before you can think of why she gets up.' 'I really struggled at first, but then I stopped asking questions and it felt really right,' she says, adding that the role helped her grow as a person too. (Having a baby also furthered that change, she says. 'I've definitely stopped asking why she cries — she's crying, so I must do something.') 'I've become more likely to make a decision and then move on with it,' she says. 'I've started learning to relinquish control in life.' Apte is curious to see what American audiences make of the film, but says that it has resonated with audiences elsewhere. 'People have found it very relatable, which was quite cool, because when I read it for the first time, no matter how crazy the story felt, it also was very relatable.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
10 Blues Documentaries to Watch After ‘Sinners'
Ryan Coogler's box-office hit 'Sinners' is steeped in the blues, its folklore and legends. People can't get enough of the movie or its songs, but if you want a deeper dive into the bluesmen who shaped the genre, queue up these documentaries and learn more about Buddy Guy (who plays older Sammie Moore), Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Charley Patton and more. You can also buy the incredible score by Ludwig Göransson, who was also an executive producer on the movie and on location for the shoot in New Orleans. Special edition LPs will be out on August 29 from Made by Mutant. This 2021 documentary follows the nearly 70-year career of the blues master, who plays the older version of Sammie Moore in 'Sinners. It's not streaming for free, but you can watch select clips at PBS. This 2016 documentary from Sam Pollard and narrated by Common, tells how two different sets of white music fans tracked down nearly forgotten 1930s blues legends Skip James and Son House in 1964 at the same time that white civil rights activists headed to Mississippi to help support the burgeoning movement. The rediscovery of these underappreciated artists led to landmark concerts at the Newport Folk Festival and a massive revival for the genre. Watch on Tubi The Red Top Lounge (AKA Smitty's), was the last juke joint in Mississippi. Sadly, it was demolished in 2004, but it lives on in this documentary made the year before. Clarksdale, Mississippi was ground central for Delta Blues and the site where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads. Morgan Freeman appears in the film to describe his father, a 'hustler of the first order' who ran a gambling parlor in the same town back in the day. And yes, they served catfish. Watch on YouTube or Tubi This Mississippi musician changed the course of the blues with his Chicago-based band. Here, he is remembered by among, others, guitarist Keith Richards: The Rolling Stones took their name from one of Waters' best-known songs. Bonnie Raitt and Public Enemy frontman Chuck D also appear in this episode of PBS' 'American Masters.' Watch on YouTube This 1992 British TV documentary finds host John Hammond traveling through Mississippi trying to find people who knew the late bluesman. Johnson died in 1938 when he was only 27. It ends at the posthumous marker erected for him in Morgan City, one of at least three grave sites in the state. Watch on the Internet Movie Archive In 'Sinners,' the guitar Sammie plays is said to have been owned by the great Charley Patton. Learn more about this lesser-known musician, often called 'Father of the Delta Blues,' in this episode of the BBC's 'American Epic' series. Watch on YouTube Howlin' Wolf, one of the most iconic voices in blues history, is known for classics including 'Smokestack Lightning,' 'I Ain't Superstitious,' and 'Wang Dang Doodle.' In this 2003 documentary, we learn his mother kicked him out of the house when he was about 13 years old. Years later when he was dying, he wanted to reconcile with her, but she refused because he 'sang the devil's music.' Watch on Prime Video Part of Martin Scorsese's 2003 PBS series 'The Blues,' this segment directed by Wim Wenders explores the careers of Delta blues artist Skip James, gospel blues musician Blind Willie Johnson and Chicago blues guitarist J. B. Lenoir. Watch on YouTube This 1979 doc delves into the musicians of the area, their often DIY instruments and how farming and homesteading the land informed their songs. Watch on PBS or Facebook The renewed interested for blues musicians of the 1920s and '30s in the 1960s led to historic tours, including the line-up featured here: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. Watch on Dailymotion The post 10 Blues Documentaries to Watch After 'Sinners' appeared first on TheWrap.
Boston Globe
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
'Sinners,' with the devil's music and vampires, takes on the blues, religion, and old fears
Advertisement 'Mike's very ambitious,' Coogler said of the actor taking on both roles on a recent video call with the Globe. 'The bigger and bolder and more difficult the job is than something he's done before, the more likely he is to say yes.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The twins take a young blues musician under their wing called Preacher Boy Sammie (played by newcomer Miles Caton). He carries a steel guitar that he claims once belonged to the legendary Charley Patton, one of the real-life fathers of the Delta blues. On opening night at the juke joint, a trio of white musicians show up singing traditional folk songs from the British Isles, accompanying themselves on banjo and fiddle. They turn out to be vampires. The vampires infect one twin's girlfriend (played by Hailee Steinfeld), who then turns him into one of the undead. A prototypical battle of good versus evil ensues. Advertisement The film, says Coogler, is about dichotomies, beginning with the relationship between the church and the blues. Sammie is the son of a Baptist minister (Saul Williams), who fears for his soul. Like a lot of Black men from the hip-hop generations, Coogler, who is 38, grew up feeling as though blues music was 'not for me.' But he had a great uncle whom he admired and visited often, a man who loved the classic blues of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Making this movie, Coogler said, was his way of honoring his uncle. 'I wanted to explore that, and simultaneously make the movie that I always wanted to make in terms of the genre conventions that I love in cinema,' he said. While writing the screenplay, he immersed himself in blues lore – the story, for instance, of Robert Johnson (who learned from Patton) supposedly selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for his prodigious talent. Coogler became fascinated with the recurring theme of blues musicians who had roots in the church, 'like Son House,' he said, 'who got sober and opened a church for a few years, then fell off the wagon and started playing blues again.' While preparing to make the movie, Coogler learned about the murder of one of his favorite rappers, Young Dolph, who was from Memphis. Young Dolph often rapped about his brushes with death and his fear that he would die young, Coogler said. 'And it did happen, and I was really upset.' But the death confirmed for him the connection between the storytelling of hip-hop and his uncle's music. Advertisement 'What gangsta rap was for me, the blues was for my uncle,' he said. 'I didn't know until I went on the The blues tropes that Coogler plays with in 'Sinners' should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism, suggested the music historian Elijah Wald. A longtime folk guitarist around the Cambridge scene (and former Globe contributor), Wald has written more than a dozen books, including 'Dylan Goes Electric!' (2015), the basis for the recent Bob Dylan biopic 'A Complete Unknown,' and 'Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues' (2005). The idea that the church considered the blues to be 'the devil's music,' Wald said in a phone call from his home in Philadelphia, is true only to the extent that any music that inspired dancing would have been seen as such. 'That's just as true for fiddlers,' he said. What's more, he said, the musicians we consider to be pioneers of the blues were in fact well-rounded musicians who could play many styles of music. They're known as 'bluesmen,' Wald said, primarily because the recording industry at the time was heavily segregated, only allowing these musicians to record what the executives believed to be 'Black' music. 'Someone like Skip James or Charley Patton was playing the current pop tunes, and country music, and blues,' Wald said. 'These were very versatile musicians.' None of which is to say that as a music scholar who strives for historical accuracy, Wald takes exception with Coogler's fantastical approach to the legends about 'the devil's music.' Advertisement 'This is a popular fantasy, and there's nothing wrong with working with it,' he said. 'But a lot of it is fantasy.' Coogler explained that he has had a lifelong interest in the idea of twins. His mother has twin sisters, one of whom is his godmother. 'They actually live next door to each other to this day,' he said. In terms of horror movies, he's always been drawn to the idea of the evil twin. 'I have a terrifying phobia of doppelgangers. It's paralyzing,' he said with a laugh. The premise of his new film 'is kind of an inside joke for people who really know me.' Even as he's confronting the heavy topic of racism, Coogler is cl;early having fun with his twin story lines of demons and the blues. 'There's a tendency to put all this mysticism on the deep, dark Delta, and have the blues be the voice of it,' said Wald. But there's one thing in particular about the story that he doesn't dispute. 'Were white people vampires for Black people in the Delta?' he asked. 'Hell yes!' James Sullivan can be reached at James Sullivan can be reached at
