Uncle John Turner Benefit Recap

If there is one concert that I wish I wouldn't have missed, it's got to be the benefit concert that Johnny Winter and friends did at Antone's in Austin this past summer in honor of Uncle John Turner. Turner was Johnny Winter's drummer in the late 60s and died of complications from Hepatitis C in July of this year. He was 62. I met him a number of years back in a bar in Austin and reminisced about a concert I saw him play with Tommy Shannon when they had a band called, "Krackerjack."

Turner later performed with such artists as Hendrix, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Muddy Waters and B.B. King.

“Man, I can set my watch to your time,” King is said to have once exclaimed after a jam with Uncle John, who played Woodstock with Winter.

Carey Bell dead at 70 of heart failure

Blues harmonica master Carey Bell died on May 6, 2007 of heart failure in his hometown of Chicago, IL. He was 70. Bell - the 1998 winner of the Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Artist Of The Year - was a veteran of both Muddy Waters' and Willie Dixon's bands as well as an award-winning solo artist, and a guest artist on countless blues recordings. Bell's classic, funky and deeply soulful blues place him firmly on the short list of blues harmonica superstars.