FTX-037 - LONDON BLUES & BOTTLENECK
SKYPORT ADE & HIS ONE-MAN BAND
10 Blues, 2 Rags and 1 Bottleneck, with a steel guitar, mouth-harp, kazoo,
cymbal & drums. Ever since hearing Muddy Waters, Adrian TUCKER has been a
Blues addict. Born under the flight path of London Airport, Heathrow, "Skyport" has taken a cynical view of urban life. He sings the Blues, because that's the
way he feels and, however the Blues booms come or go, he's just going to stay
that way. From 1966 he ran the Angler's Folk Blues Club in Teddington, Surrey.
Here are some "Crane River Delta Blues", about people encountered in the
Thames Valley, backed up by mouth-harp (harmonica), steel guitar and drums, with
each blues introduced by Adrian - recorded by Peter Kennedy at Dartington Ciderhouse,
Devon in 1975
1. DONE IT ALL WRONG ("Hope my luck will change") - 4'00"
2. CAN'T GET HER OFF MY MIND - 3'41"
3. LONDON BLUES - 4'38"
4. OFF TO THE COUNTRY - 3'29"
5. TAKE ME TO AN ISLAND - 4'56"
6. UNCLE BODGER - 3'24"
7. MOTORING RAG - 5'10"
8. YOU PAYS YOUR MONEY - 4'07"
9. JUNK-STALL JOANNA - 4'36"
10. COMPUTER DATE BLUES - 4'59"
11. SKYPORT'S SUPERSTAR DREAM - 4'55"
12. SKYPORT RAG - 3'57"
13. SKYPORT BLUES - 6'52"
Recorded by Peter Kennedy at Soundpost Studios, Dartington, August 1974.
Edited by Peter Kennedy & first published by Folktrax 1975.
ADRIAN TUCKER - spiritually he was born outside of Skyport on the Crane River
Delta, but materially in a pretty little village called Cranford, Middlesex,
wiped from the map to make way for London's Heath Row Airport. Adrian lay awake
at nights listening, but trying not to hear the DC10's, or whatever they were,
passing only a few yards from his acheing head. His first musical instrument
was a stringless mandolin and a sad day it was for everyone around him when
he fitted some strings to it. First guitar for him came in 1959 and his first
professional work was in a Skiffle Group.
