Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Phoenix New Times Free
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 by April 26. Your support ensures New Times can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
Let’s face it: Elmore James Jr. rings a hell of a lot swanker than “Earnest Jr. — Mr. Soul,” the name the son of the late slide-blues great Elmore James was using in ’65, when another blues legend, Willie Dixon, convinced him to take his dad’s name professionally. That’s not the only thing he got from the itinerant James Sr., who saw his son (born Earnest Johnson) infrequently, when he was touring. When they did connect, James Sr. taught young Earnest the wicked slide work that characterized his sound, especially the 1952 smash “Dust My Broom.”
Sun., Sept. 6, 7 p.m., 2009