Skip Easterling

Listen/Download – Skip Easterling= I’m Your Hoochie Koochie Man MP3

Listen/Download – Skip Easterling – Ooh Poo Pah Do MP3

Listen/Download – Skip Easterling – Too Weak To Break the Chains MP3

Listen/Download – Skip Easterling – I’m Your Man MP3

Greetings all.

Late last week, while I was checking an old e-mail account and found a notification of a comment on the oldest version of the blog.

The comment itself was semi-cryptic, but when I followed it to the original post I realized that the commenter was telling me that James ‘Skip’ Easterling, one of the great blue-eyed soul singers out of New Orleans had passed away.

Oddly enough, initial searches turned up a death notice, but no mention in any of the local New Orleans papers (since remedied).

Easterling, long a favorite of mine had a recording career that lasted from 1961 into the mid 70s, making a string of 45s for New Orleans labels like Ron, Alon and Instant (he also had at least one self-released 45 that I’ve never heard).

Easterling got his start wavering between R&B and pop sounds, but by the time he went into the studio with Eddie Bo in 1967, he was firmly in the soul camp.

The record he made with Bo, ‘Keep the Fire Burning’ b/w ‘The Grass Is Greener’ is one of the finest mid-decade 45s to come out of the Crescent City, with a smoking dancer on one side and a heartfelt ballad on the flip.

Easterling’s sojourn with Bo was brief, and by 1970, he was in the studio with Huey Piano Smith, recording for Instant.

Smith’s late-period work for Instant is consistently good, and largely unheralded since so many of the post-3300 (catalog numbers, when Smith was doing most of his work for the label) 45s are very scarce (there are a bunch I’m still looking for).

Easterling’s first two 45s for Instant are his best, and oddly enough still fairly easy to track down.

His version of the old Willie Dixon standard ‘I’m Your Hoochie Koochie Man’ is a wild, smoothly funky reworking of the song that owes a debt to King Floyd’s ‘Groove Me’. The arrangement, with electric piano and tastefully applied horns (and flute!) is a subtle masterpiece.

The record was a hit in New Orleans and some other southern markets, but was sadly the high water mark of Easterling’s chart success.

The flip is a very nice version of Jesse Hill’s ‘Ooh Poo Pah Do’, which features a great vocal by Easterling and great playing by the band (listen to the electric piano ooze up through the mix).

His next 45 is one of those records that is painfully obscure, but ought to be regarded as one of the finest records to come out of New Orleans in the early 70s.

‘To Weak to Break the Chains’ (written by Huey Smith) combines, R&B, soul, funk and even a touch of timely psychedelia (dig that backwards guitar!), all wrapped in a stellar vocal performance by Easterling. The tune has an off-kilter, purely New Orleans rhythm to it, with some remarkable interplay between the drums, horns and rhythm guitar.

That record’s flipside, ‘I’m Your Man’ rolls in a slower groove, with some nice flute and vibes accents.

All told, Easterling laid down 15 (maybe 16) 45s in his career, and like so many great singers in New Orleans never really broke through outside the city limits despite the quality of his catalog.

He did continue to perform, appearing at at least one of the Ponderosa Stomp shows.

There was a UK compilation of his recordings that came out in the late 80s on the Charly label, but as far as I can tell, aside from some shady looking comps in iTunes, his work is almost completely out of print.

So dig these tunes, watch for a tribute on the Funky16Corners Radio Show in the new year, and raise a glass to a really groovy singer.

See you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

2 Responses to “Skip Easterling 1945 – 2015”

1. John Wirt says:

   November 29, 2015 at 12:58 pm

   Hi Larry: Thanks for your mention of Skip. In 2004, I interviewed him before his first Ponderosa Stomp appearance, and then later for the book ‘Huey Piano Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues.’ Also, below is the full text of my 2004 interview with Skip, from The Advocate daily newspaper.I didn’t get into his Bourbon Street work or his work with Freddie Fender
   4/23/2004 The Advocate: Easterling an unsung regional music standout from ’60’s
   Beyond the big names of pop and rock ‘n’ roll lies an undercurrent of lesser-known, even obscure artists who paved the way for the Elvis Presleys, Pat Boones, Rolling Stones and Beatles that followed.
   The annual Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans gathers surviving pioneers of blues, soul, swamp pop, funk, rhythm-and-blues, country and rockabilly into the spotlight once more. Strategically placed between the two weekends of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Stomp is taking over Mid-City Rock ‘N’ Bowl April 27 and 28. Among its dozens of performers this year are Bobby “See You Later, Alligator” Charles, Guitar Gable, Lil Bob, Oliver “Who Shot The La La” Morgan and Skip Easterling.
   Easterling grew up just outside of New Orleans in Slidell. He cut deep South hits in the ’60s and early ’70s but never reached national consciousness. Now 58 and living in Mississippi, Easterling is humble about his vocal abilities and accomplishments.
   “I’m not famous and I don’t lose no sleep over that,” he said. “I don’t lose no sleep over not having a national hit record either. I have lost a lot of sleep over Alabama beating LSU.”
   The self-effacing Easterling says he’s most significant for having worked with many classic New Orleans rhythm-and-blues artists.
   “I’ve given interviews to lots of people from Louisiana to England,” he said. “Not mainly about myself, but more so about people that I learned from and played music with and recorded with, like Eddie Bo, Aaron Neville, Joe Barry, Eddie Lang. Eddie Lang never had a big national hit, but he came close, like I did.”
   Easterling signed with New Orleans record label owner Joe Banashak when he was still a teenager.
   “Mr. Joe Banashak,” Easterling recalled with awe. “I couldn’t believe it. I was 14 and full of myself and dreams and all that stuff. He listened to this little tape that we brought over and he said, ‘Yep, you got a lot of talent. Nice looking young man. You’ll make them skirts fall right on off. And we’re gonna make a lot of money.’ So I signed with him. That’s when I met Aaron Neville, Irma Thomas, Chris Kenner, Ernie K-Doe.”
   Banashak and his Minit and Instant labels produced big hits. By the time Easterling arrived, however, Banashak had lost A&R man, pianist and songwriter Allen Toussaint to the U.S. Army. Nonetheless, Banashak put his new protege’s voice on instrumental tracks Toussaint had previously recorded. When Toussaint returned to New Orleans, Easterling recalled, he wasn’t happy with Banashak’s new artists, including Easterling.
   “Allen Toussaint told Joe, ‘The kid sings flat. He’s just another Jimmy Clanton.’ Well, I always thought Jimmy Clanton was great myself.”
   Banashak recruited another local pianist and songwriter, Eddie Bo. Bo wrote “The Grass Looks Greener” and “Keep the Fire Burning” for Easterling’s next record. Easterling found the subsequent recording session at Cosimo Matassa’s studio intimidating.
   “We had a big band, horns all over the place. Eddie Bo on the piano, Joe Banashak in the control room with Matassa. I was a nervous wreck. Eddie Bo talked to me on the side. ‘Look, Skip, you sing the way you feel it in your heart. That’s called soul. What you white people call feelings, we black people call soul.’ I said, ‘He’s right, because I was raised Pentecostal, so it’s been right there all along.’ ”
   “The Grass Is Greener” became a major hit on black music charts in the deep South. Its success was exceeded some years later by a song Easterling had absolutely no interest in recording, Willie Dixon’s “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man.”
   “I never was much on that old Mississippi Delta stuff. I said, ‘Mr. Joe, please, man, don’t make me do that.’ He said, ‘Look, don’t worry about it. Huey Smith is reworking the thing. It’s gonna be a completely different arrangement.’
   “We went in Cosmo’s studio in the early afternoon for that ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ session,” Easterling remembered. “And I was sober. Usually, I’d done a little drinking. But it was something strange that day. Everything went right. My voice was real, real loose and it did everything I wanted it to do. Basically, it wasn’t me that made that song No. 1 on the black charts in the South. Mainly it was the syncopated beat. King Floyd had had ‘Groove Me’ before that, so what Huey Smith did – and he was very calculating in this and very smart – he used that same kind of groove on ‘Hoochie Coochie Man,’ put a little salt in the stew, a little Creole, a little redneck and, presto.”
   Thanks to its infectious groove and Easterling’s soaring vocals, “Hoochie Coochie Man” took off in New Orleans after disk jockey Shelley Pope played it on WBOK.
   “It shot up to No.1 so quick that it took Banashak and everybody by surprise. It was No. 1 on all the black stations, and not just in New Orleans. So, before you know it, I was being booked to do shows with black entertainers at nightclubs, pavilions, gyms, even for black politicians running for public office, from Louisiana to Florida to San Antonio.”
   Black audiences were surprised to see that the singer of “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” was white. “It really threw them for a flip. But I never had one problem playing in any black club anywhere. They treated me like a star, made me feel like I was the second coming of Moses, because the record was so hot.”
   “Hoochie Coochie Man” got Easterling the highest paying gigs he’d ever seen, but the record remained a regional hit after Banashak rejected Atlantic Records’ offer to distribute it. “Joe said, ‘I wouldn’t let you go. I wanted to keep it for myself. It got too big and I wasn’t big enough to handle it. The distribution killed it.’ ”
   “That’s not Joe Banashak’s fault,” Easterling said. “That’s not God’s fault, that’s not anybody’s fault. That’s in God’s plan. If it would have went into Atlantic, in Jerry Wexler’s hands, I might not be living on the frog pond today. I might be either dead or living in a fine mansion. But whatever be the case, I’m happy that I’m with my wife and my family. I’m honored that Mr. Ira (one of the Ponderosa Stomp organizers) invited me to sing some of my old records. I’m looking forward to going over there and seeing some old friends, Tommy McLain and Eddie Bo, to mention a few. It should really be something.”

2. Larry says:

   November 29, 2015 at 4:08 pm

   Thanks for posting that, John!