A1Blues.Com » 083 – Big Shanty

Hear Big Shanty talk about starting out in a rock band. Then switching to working behind the scenes for people like Derek and the Dominos (Eric Clapton) and the Allman Brothers. He never stop writing songs or playing the guitar though. Now he has his own record label King Mojo Records and his third CD Sold Out…
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Big Shanty was born in 1942. His father was in the army, so they traveled around the country a lot. As he was growing up he would hear different radio stations playing blues. This got him interested in starting a rock band, around 1963, called the Fabulous Serpent. They toured all over the south and cut a 45 that got quit a bit of radio play. Later after the band broke up he decided to work behind the scenes, which he had been doing already with The Fabulous Serpent. Mac Davis was his roommate at the time, so he got Big Shanty a job working at Liberty Records. Later he worked for Atlanta Records and rubbed shoulders with a lot of great artists. One time while in Florida doing some promotion work with a Miami DJ, a friend of the Big Shanty’s, Tom Dowd (engineer and producer of people like Rod Stewart, The Allman Brothers, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and many others), invited Big Shanty to Criteria Studios to watch a band he was working on called Derek and the Dominos. Later Big Shanty would find him self on the road with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock of the Dominos. They were going from town to town in the mid-west promoting the band on radio stations and recorded stores. Big Shanty had a funny story to tell about traveling with Bobby Whitlock. One day in a cab Bobby asked the cab driver if he could smoke in the cab. The driver said sure, Bobby lit up a big joint, the cab driver turned around to look at Bobby then said that smells pretty good. You should try this one, he handed them the joint he had in the cab. By the time they got to the hotel they were both quite buzzed. Big Shanty went into the hotel to get their rooms, and found his wallet had fallen out in the cab. He had over a thousand dollars in the wallet not knowing what to do he wondered out side. Just then the cab pulled up “Hey man, you dropped this”.

Later he worked with Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers. When Phil Walden and Frank Fenter started putting together Capricorn Records, they had Big Shanty come down and become the promotions man for Capricorn Records. They got the Allman Brothers, Wet Willie (who is now on Big Shanty ‘s record label) as well as other southern rock bands on Capricorn. Big Shanty worked with promoting these bands and even got to jam with them from time to time. While all this was going on he had never stopped writing songs and playing the guitar. The promotions went on for many more years, with many artists. Fast forward to 2004, Big Shanty launched an Internet based King Mojo Records to showcase emerging artists in Contemporary Blues and Rock. In 2004 he released World of Trouble, then in 2006 his second CD Ride With The Wind came out. Ride With The Wind was CD of the year in Real Blues Magazine. One of the songs on Ride With The Wind called “The Killing Fields” was number one for five weeks on Contemporary Blues Radio. There is a good video if Big Shanty doing “The Killing Fields” at MySpace page.

Big Shanty’s new CD Sold Out… came out January 6th 2009. The CD took about a year to make. A few songs came pretty quickly, while the others he worked on in the studio with Scott T. Robertson. The CD kicks off with a rocking story about Big Shanty’s life. “Big Shanty, From Lower Alabama to Hollywood” tells the listener you should never give up on your dreams because things can change. “Love Train” come about as a result of a guitar riff he couldn’t get out of his head, we should all be that lucky. “They Say Its Rain” is about someone who has lost a lover and just can’t get them out of their head. “Rolling Thunder” has a good driving bass line that keeps the song moving. All the songs have a rocking feel with solid distortion, even a bit of a retro synthesizer in there. The only exception is the song “Tybee Town” which is a soft acoustic finger picking guitar song. Tybee Town is by a white beach that Big Shanty lived at “where the beer is free and they say the women are too”. It’s a shame this is the only song like this, but it does make the song stand out a lot more. Its a great song. The highlights are the five songs you will hear in the show, but if you like them you will love this whole CD. Below is a link to where you can buy Big Shanty’s CD Sold Out… Count on rocking out all night, lots of good stuff here.

Songs in the podcast:
Big Shanty, From Lower Alabama to Hollywood
Kiss the Eight Ball
Walking Shoes
Tybee Town
Uncle Sam Go to Rehab