stevecutway's blog

When you hear the dying strains of Van Halen's Happy Trails signalling the end of The Mosen Explosion for another week, don't touch your PC, your device or your internet radio and join me in The Early Years on Mushroom FM.
Hello, I'm Steve Cutway and my musical focus is the 50s and 60s.
Elvis Presley was born Jan. 8, 1935, 82 years ago today. Few artists before or since have had the impact that he had on the first two decades of rock.
In the first of two programmes, I'll play many of his top songs from the 50s and I'll throw in some of my favourites as well.

This week’s “Juke In The Back” takes a look at the breakthrough year of one of rock n’ roll’s true architects and innovators, Bo Diddley. His first recording session was held at Chess Records in Chicago on March 2nd and 3rd, 1955, where he laid down 4 original tunes. One of those songs, “I’m A Man,” would inspire blues great Muddy Waters’ “Manish Boy,” while the other, “Bo Diddley,” would be the igniting spark for rock n’ roll. Diddley was a complicated and compelling artist, who’s talents go way beyond his signature “hambone” rhythm, his vibrato guitar and his crazy lyrics.

When you hear the dying strains of Van Halen's Happy Trails signalling the end of The Mosen Explosion for another week, don't touch that PC, that device or that internet radio and join me in The Early Years on Mushroom FM.
Hello, I'm Steve Cutway and my musical focus is the 50s and 60s.

Matt The Cat has dug up some more R&B Christmas treasures and added a few tunes about New Years for this week’s continuation of the “Juke In The Back” R&B Christmas Special. The holiday juke is jumpin’ with cool tunes by Big John Greer, Champion Jack Dupree, Lowell Fulson, The Moonglows, Marvin & Johnny and many more. The range of topics is wide, from dancing Santas to lonely Christmases to making up with your baby on New Year’s Eve.

Tucked in between the Mosen Explosion Family Christmas and Come by the Hills Sunday evening Mushroom FM time is a little show called The Early Years.
Hello, I'm Steve Cutway and my normal musical focus is the 50s and 60s. But not Christmas night.

The entire “Juke In The Back” is loaded with the greatest R&B Christmas records from the late 1940s and 1950s. It’s the yuletide soul that came before rock n’ roll. From the all-time classics by Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters and The Orioles to some rarer Christmas plattahs from Amos Milburn, JB Summers and The Five Keys. So grab some ‘nog and get groovin’. Saturday afternoon at 03:00 PM Eastern, with an encore presentation Thursday morning at 04:00 AM Eastern, on Mushroom FM, the home of the fun guys, making four decades of magic mushroom memories!

Clyde McPhatter had one of the sweetest and most powerful tenor voices in all of Rhythm & Blues and early Rock n’ Roll. His issue throughout his 22 year recording career, was getting the recognition he thought he deserved. After singing memorable leads on many hit records for Billy Ward & The Dominoes, Clyde left because Billy Ward wouldn’t put his name on the records or pay him a fair share of the profits. Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records was ready to sign McPhatter and give him his own group, The Drifters.

The Drifters would become the most successful vocal group in history, charting hit after hit for over 20 years, with no less than a dozen different lead singers. This week, the “Juke In The Back” spotlights The Drifters’ first chapter with the great high tenor of Clyde McPhatter out front. The group was created by Atlantic Records in order to showcase McPhatter’s beautiful and powerful voice after his 2 year stint with Billy Ward & The Dominos ended.

The “Juke In The Back” features another highly underrated R&B vocal group from the 1950s: The Checkers.  They never scored a national hit, but they’re one of the finest examples of polished 1950s R&B and their story deserves to be shared.  The Checkers were formed after tenor Charlie White and bass Bill Brown split from Bill Ward & His Dominoes.  They had some regional success with “House With No Windows,” an uptempo version of “White Cliffs Of Dover” and “Don’t Stop Dan,” the sequel to “Sixty Minute Man.”  Matt The Cat digs through a mess of King Records 78s to bring you the be

This week, the “Juke In The Back” spotlights Lowell Fulson, one of the blues’ most versatile and vastly underrated talents. In the late 1940s, Fulson stormed the charts with his first hit “Three O’Clock Blues,” a song that B.B. King would take to the top of the charts in 1951. Fulson started the 1950s with a bang, scoring six charted hits for Swingtime Records in 1950 alone. By ’54, he was on Checker Records out of Chicago with a song that would be covered by Elvis in 1960, “Reconsider Baby.” Fulson wrote many of his own songs and was a major inspiration to both B.B.