Artist Biography by Richie Unterberger
The Merced Blue Notes'
career lasted about a decade and a half, but it resulted in few
recordings, though apparently it did supply a whole lot of fun for live
crowds in central California who wanted to groove to basic, energetic
blues, R&B, soul, and rock & roll. That's what the band played
on its handful of rare singles, on an assortment of labels, between 1961
and 1966. The group's music was in the stock R&B/blues-influenced
rock & roll style, on both vocal and instrumental material, often
putting organ and bluesy guitar to the fore, sometimes punctuated with
sax and harmonica. In their later days they got into funkier grooves, in
the manner that big acts such as Booker T. & the MG's were updating their sound, though they didn't possess the originality to gain a national audience.
The Merced Blue Notes formed in high school in Merced, CA, in January 1957, and would undergo numerous lineup changes over the course of their career, the constant element being singer/songwriter/guitarist Kenny Craig. They actually made their first contacts with the record industry back around 1958, when they auditioned for Specialty Records, with a young Sonny Bono in the control booth. Specialty only wanted to record their singer Roddy Jackson, however, Jackson making three flop 45s for the label in the late '50s. A couple of obscure singles came out on the Merced label in 1960, and they'd intermittently record over the next half dozen years for other companies, including Accent, Tri-Phi, Mammoth, and the Fantasy R&B subsidiary Galaxy. None of the singles caught on in a big way, though their 1961 Accent 45 "Rufus" got enough airplay in Detroit to get them some concert and recording work (the latter for Harvey Fuqua's Tri-Phi label) there in 1962.
With little success on record and a sound that was getting outdated by changing trends in rock and soul music, the lineup that recorded for Galaxy in the mid-'60s broke up in early 1966. Kenny Craig kept the group going with other musicians and continued playing live under the band name for several more years. The member of the Merced Blue Notes with the highest profile in subsequent years was Bobby Hunt, who recorded with the Seven Souls and also formed the trio Head West with fellow Seven Souls musicians Henry Moore and Bob Welch, playing keyboards with the group on several tours while Welch was in Fleetwood Mac in the early '70s.
The Merced Blue Notes formed in high school in Merced, CA, in January 1957, and would undergo numerous lineup changes over the course of their career, the constant element being singer/songwriter/guitarist Kenny Craig. They actually made their first contacts with the record industry back around 1958, when they auditioned for Specialty Records, with a young Sonny Bono in the control booth. Specialty only wanted to record their singer Roddy Jackson, however, Jackson making three flop 45s for the label in the late '50s. A couple of obscure singles came out on the Merced label in 1960, and they'd intermittently record over the next half dozen years for other companies, including Accent, Tri-Phi, Mammoth, and the Fantasy R&B subsidiary Galaxy. None of the singles caught on in a big way, though their 1961 Accent 45 "Rufus" got enough airplay in Detroit to get them some concert and recording work (the latter for Harvey Fuqua's Tri-Phi label) there in 1962.
With little success on record and a sound that was getting outdated by changing trends in rock and soul music, the lineup that recorded for Galaxy in the mid-'60s broke up in early 1966. Kenny Craig kept the group going with other musicians and continued playing live under the band name for several more years. The member of the Merced Blue Notes with the highest profile in subsequent years was Bobby Hunt, who recorded with the Seven Souls and also formed the trio Head West with fellow Seven Souls musicians Henry Moore and Bob Welch, playing keyboards with the group on several tours while Welch was in Fleetwood Mac in the early '70s.
1 Whole Lotta Nothing
2 Greyhound
3 Bad,Bad Whiskey
4 Do the Pig
5 I've Got a Right to Love My Baby
6 Mama Rufus See All 2
7 You're Driving Me Crazy
8 Rufus
9 Midnight Session Parts1&2
10 Skippy
11 Thompin'
12 Too Much
13 Soul Sister
14 Sun Down
15 Your Tender Lips
16 Fragile
17 Willie Mae
18 Rufus Jr. See All 2
19 Finger Licking
20 Head Bad
21 When The Guitar Rings
22 Love Love Love
23 Watermelon Man
24 Jump
25 Bad,Bad Whiskey
26 Whole Lotta Somthing
CDCHD 1026 LABEL ACE records
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