Re: [Harp-L] Richard Newell/King Biscuit Boy

I don't think he was doing so much for those years, he mainly stayed around Hamilton I think he could have done a lot more and I get the feeling from the press after he passed away that he could have done alot more if he wanted to, don't mean to speak ill at all of those who are gone but he did have something of a fondness for alcohol, it was fairly well known & he certainly didn't try to hide it, he did do some albums & you can see them at the link below but as far as gigging he had a bit of a reputation with bar owners of not staying for all 3 sets, so I don't think he got hired so much, I'm pretty sure he was a resource & someone alot of other musicians looked up to & he might have being doing things behind the scenes that I would have no way of knowing. I am pretty sure he was not an alcoholic & did not drink to so much excess that he suffered physical damage from it, he was more like a moderate to heavy drinker depending on circumstances. I'm a social worker so I have some idea of how that works.

He got lots of press when he passed away in local paper & the local library I think has all his albums. If I remember right from the press he played alot with Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks, really hard partying band. I saw him a few times in a new blues bar called 33 Hess, a friend of mine told the bar owner Whitey that he should get King Biscuit Boy & Whitey said yeah he's great but he might not stay the whole night. His singing was great & his harp playing was fantasic. He did My Mojo Working like nobody I've ever heard.

The one time I got to meet him I was standing at bar I recognized him but I make it a habit not to glad handle musicians, he came up to get a beer with some of the free tickets the bar gives the band I guess, the girl behind the bar said he could only get a beer & not a shot as well, so he turns to me & says this guy will buy my shot, so I think what the heck why not maybe its least I can do, so I said sure, he invited me to sit with him & his lady friend before set, he didn't ask me to buy anything else, we talked for about 20 mins, he mentioned that he was one of guys who pioneered use of micropore & since I had read about his starting out by going down to Buffalo as a teen to get blues records I asked him about that. He did a great first set & then part of second set & then left complaining about his hip. I also saw him at a reunion of all the great old guys in Hamilton, like Guitar Mikey etc.

To me he was by far the best harp player in Hamilton, he owned Hamilton & area as far as that was concerned, I think he actually lived a little outside of Hamilton. He was the archtype bluesman & I had the feeling that he was a very deep soul & a right on guy, he played from the heart, maybe that's why he didn't end up doing more, maybe he just put so much into it & you can only give so much of yourself, but that's just my speculation.


----- Original Message ----- From: "bloozeharp" <bloozeharp@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Jerry Kitich" <jkitich@xxxxxxxxx>; <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 8:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Richard Newell/King Biscuit Boy


Many years ago I bought a fellows LP collection and one of the albums was King Bisquit Boy with Crowbar. I believe it was called "Real Music". My infatuation with blues harp was fairly new but when Newell's harp came blasting out of those JVC's I was hooked big time. I listened to that album for years and never tired of it. Finally wore the album out and never heard another word about Newell for 25 yrs. and never ran across anyone who had ever heard of him. It would be interesting to know what he had been up too all those years.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerry Kitich" <jkitich@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2005 9:37 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Richard Newell/King Biscuit Boy


Not sure how many people know this on the list, I wasn' t posting on list back then but Richard Newell, King Biscuit Boy up here in Hamilton, Canada passed away January/2003, got a chance to meet him once & heard him a half dozen times or so on our Hess St strip.

http://kingbiscuitboy.com/
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