Lee McBee
A short time ago David sent me a transcription he'd done back in 2005, of a chromaic tune recorded by Lee McBee (1951-2014), entitled "Twelve Hours From You."
Geat number, but I knew nothing about McBee. So I checked him out. He's catagorized as "regional," having spent most of his career based his home state of Missouri, but he also spent time in Los Angeles (where he recorded with Bonnie Raitt), and more importantly in Dallas TX, where he sang and played with Mike Morgan and the Crawl.
It's hard to find McBee's recordings, but Charlie Lange at Bluebeat sent me the 1992 Mike Morgan and the Crawl CD "Full Moon Over Dallas," featuring McBee on harmonica and vocals, including on some songs McBee wrote. The band had a nice R&B sound, with some great harp playing by McBee.
So ... anyone else here familiar with McBee? And if so, any recordings you may recommend that might be in print?
Thanks!
bandini: I'm envious that you got to see and hear McBee. It was via David that I learned about McBee, but then discovered that friend Brian "Hash Brown" Calway had known him and backed him up on guitar a few times. And really liked him.
Lee was a killer! I was blessed to be living in Kansas City for a couple years right at the end of his life and used to see him at BB's Lawnside BBQ pretty regularly. Fantastic vocalist and harp player... so much feeling and power. I saw him many times with Mike and the Crawl throughout the 90s and he was always steller, but those last years at BB's were just magical. He didn't appear to be in the best of health but he was just dripping soul. (and usually, plenty of sweat:))
The Crawl CDs are great but I haven't really found a recording that captures what I saw at BB's.