1 – Mike’s Intro – We were playing a gig on 2/20/79 at the Earth Tavern in Portland, Oregon and for the last tune in the set, Mike introduced my song “Backroad”. Many thanks to Tom Robinson for doing the original recording of Mike’s intro for Pat Lee, who owns the rights and graciously allowed us to use this piece of it.

2 – Backroad – Our modern version. Mike loved to play this song ‘cause he loved the topic. Great harp by Matt Velzy and lead guitar by Nils. Drummer Greg Marsh shows why he is first call from Chicago to Maui. Written by me for my first wife, I just really wanted to write a James Brown style song.

3 – Blue Movies – Written by “Gashouse” Dave Shorey, one of the bass players in “Friends”, about the porn tracks Mike and I played on for the Mitchell Brothers. Dave is a truly undiscovered master of blues and poetry who will be famous one day. The “mambo, mambo, Little Sheba on the side” line is a direct Mike quote about carnal events. In the instrumental arrangement I really wanted to get a kind of electronica hypnotic mood but with regular instruments. Johnny Z gets the exact ‘Trane feel I was looking for on the ending sax solo.

4 – Minglewood Blues/.45 Blues – A stormer with the floor tom groove we used in the Michael band all the time. I was looking for a different piece of material ‘cause the songs I used to use this 2 and 4 floor tom beat on with Mike’s band were all tired war horses I didn’t want to do ever again. This medley I found on David Lindley album and loved it immediately. Menglewood was a company town run by the Menglewood Box company about 50 miles north of Memphis. Originally written by Noah Lewis in 1928. David Lindey brilliantly combined two verses of “.45 Blues” by Joe Lee Williams with Noah’s song to create this masterpiece of late night danger and intimidation.

5 – Lollipop Mama – You’ve got to have a great shuffle on a Mike tribute album. Jimi Bott, six time winner of the Blues Drummer of The Year award, plays a solo that only he could. Jimi has told me he was also heavily influenced by the Fillmore West album. Written by Roy Brown.

6 – Knocking Myself Out – We would do this every show in the ‘70s with me and whoever else could sing doing the background answering vocals. However, I always heard it as a Five Blind Boys kind of gospel song and told Mike we should do it this way. He liked the idea but it never happened. I managed to capture some of Mike’s dark humor in both the vocal and my guitar solo. Written by Lillian Green.

7 – Mary Ann- The only tune from Super Session we do. We do it the way the “Friends” band did it, much more like Ray Charles’ original. Nils so invokes Mike on this. Jimi Bott gets the West Side Mambo groove just right and, of course, you can’t beat Jimi’s shuffle.

8 – Corrina – Inspired by the Taj Mahal version, Mike enjoyed playing this PD nine bar blues. I love Gilbert’s Rhodes playing on this. And when was the last time you heard brush work like this on the drums?

9 – Raising Cane – Another Shorey tune written at that time about me. I told Dave about my summers in Mississippi during my high school years. Great solo duel on the tail between Nils ( right channel ) and Gilbert ( left channel )

10 – Blues From A Westside – My vocal duet with Nick Gravenites on a song which Nick wrote. Nick is the most sophisticated Blues lyricist ever. Originally recorded on “Live at Bill Graham’s Fillmore West” I play drums on this as I did on the original. Also, I love Tim’s bass playing on this tune even more than usual. He is the perfect bass player for this music, always playing for the song and never just to show off. He also added so much to the sessions with various suggestions for intros, endings and other arrangement adjustments.

11 – Do Me – A single entendre modern “Gashouse” Dave Shorey song. This was a warm up song to shakedown the mike setup and was supposed to be thrown away. I was obsessed with some of Dave’s modern material and this came out.

12 – Women Loving Each Other – Mike loved that the original writer, blues guy from the 1940′s named Willie Borum, would complain about lesbians cutting in on his action back then. Also, some verses were added by Mike.
Mark Naftalin’s keyboard contributions to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the “Friends” band are legendary. Here he shows he has just gotten better. We play it as a slow delta shuffle but, as the song goes on, we shift into straight 4/4 the way delta guys would when playing alone. Mike and I fell into doing this one night. I started it and he knew exactly what I was doing and jumped on board. As far as I know, I never heard any other bands ever do this. The Drive totally got what I was trying to do.

13 – Too Much Smoke – Mike came up with the intro guitar line. Nils takes that theme and extends it beautifully. Written by me as a blues rocker for the Friends Band, we would do it sporadically when Mike was feeling his oats.

14 – Cigarettes And Coffee – Originally done by Otis Redding. This is the song I was playing at a AAA jam session when Mike first met me and compared it to hearing Otis singing and Al Jackson playing. Written by Eddie Thomas, Jerry Butler and F.Walker.

15 – Guitar King – This was Mike’s anthem. We often did it at the beginning of shows. It said “We play high energy punk blues like Wolf and if you don’t like it, leave.” Greg plays the drum part just like I would. Written by Tommy McClennan originally, it has been much modified by Mike and myself.

Bob Jones

Photos On The Physical CD

Front Cover: Head Shot of Bob Jones.

Inside Facing Page Photo Montage:

Clockwise from top right corner;

Tim Hackbarth – Bass,
Greg Marsh – Drums on 2, 3, 9, 11, 12 and 15
Group Shot At The Jimi Bott Sessions; right to left – Nils Rosenblad, Jimi Bott – Drums on 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13 and 14, Bob Jones, Tim Hackbarth, Tom Lelli
Tom Lelli – Recording and Mixing Engineer
Gilbert Emata – Keyboards
Nils Rosenblad – Most Lead guitar
Bob Jones – Lead Vocal, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar on 6 & 11, Drums on 10.
Nils and Bob – the “Brain Trust”, in the studio.

Under the Physical CD: Photo of Bob and Mike on stage, probably ‘78 or ‘79.

CD and Back Cover: Close Up of Mike from the above photo.