Stag-O-Lee Festival

December Sale at Stagoleeshop.com!

posted December 9th, 2013

Well, it is the time of the year! Christmas is coming up and it is time to buy some presents for YOURSELF. To make things easier for you we have lowered the prices for the 2013 Stag-O-Lee releases considerably. The lovely Spoonful comps are also cheaper in December. And do not forget the other stuff on offer...

Feel free to check out the Stag-O-Lee stuff here (in English) and here (in German). Spoonful can be found here (English) and here (German),

And while we're at it: there is a 18-track Best-Of-Stag-O-Lee CD Free with EVERY order. This one also features some tracks from releases scheduled for early 2014! A glimpse into the future!

Out on November 8: Marcel Bontempi's Bull Frog EP!

posted October 29th, 2013

Stag-O-Lee proudly presents: a Marcel Bontempi 7"-EP. Ever since we heard that Old Mad Witch EP on Witchcraft Intenational we kept our fingers crossed and hoped to once be able to release a Bontempi record on Stag-O-Lee. The knuckles broke when Migraine Records released that Spider 45 (since sold out), but the man from Northern Hessen has been nice and gentle and gave us 3 (yes: three) new tunes from his bottomless vaults. While there is a new 45 on Spanish label Sleazy out just now (available via www.stagoleeshop.com) we follow that up with a great 7" with three frog related tunes.

There is a Rufus Thomas/Bear Cat-style answer to Big Mama Thornton's classic on side A and two tracks (on 33 rpm) on side B: Do The Frog by Billy Pitchock & The People and another self-penned frogish instrumental with a Diddleybeat.

A great little record that comes in a nice heavy duty cardboard picture cover. Out on November 8 and available via the Stag-O-Lee mailorder - www.stagoleeshop.com - or all the other places with good taste. You know `em.

Richard Johnston - Hill Country Blues! Coming right up!

posted September 16th, 2013

Richard Johnston was born in Houston Texas. He studied Sociology and Philosophy at San Diego State University. Left for Japan, studied at Gifu University for a year and stayed an additional four years as a burgeoning musician. When he was invited to perform at the first Blues Stock in Memphis in 1997 he returned home. He was scheduled to perform with someone he had not heard of at the time: Junior Kimbrough. Junior no-showed due to health reasons. Out of curiousity, Richard found his way to a little out-of-the-way joint in Chulahoma where heard Junior's band The Soul Blues Boys, minus Junior, playing the music that would forever change his life: North Mississippi Hill Country Blues – a rockin' and very hypnotic style of the blues.

The world took notice about the music of Northern Mississippi when music archeologist Robert Palmer released his Deep Blues documentary in the early 90s to great critical acclaim. This led to recording contracts for R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Frank Frost who soon released records on the newly found Fat Possum Records.

A few years later Junior Kimbrough opened a Juke Joint called Junior's Place in Chulahoma MS. Junior, for the most part, was not physically able to tour. To hear Junior play you had to go to Mississippi. Rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, Sonic Youth, and U2 all made pilgrimages. When Junior Kimbrough died in 1998 Richard Johnston (who by then was an adopted son of the Hemphill/Kimbrough clan) approached Junior's band The Soul Blues Boys (basically consisting of Kimbrough's kids and nephews) about continuing the Sunday dances. And so it happened that a white guitarist and a black rhythm section rocked the joint until it burned to the ground in 2000.

Johnston went back to Beale Street with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a heart full of Hill Country Blues. A year later, Richard Johnston won the 2001 International Blues Talent competition award, the last solo act to beat all bands (now the competition is seperated into solo/band). He also won the 2001 Albert King award as most promising blues guitarist. Ever since then you can hear him play in front of the New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street in Memphis working as a street musician and one man band – as Richard is playing guitar, bass and drums simultaneously.

His debut album, Foot Hill Stomp, was recorded in 2002 with the help of Jesse Mae Hemphill, Cedric Burnside, Mark Simpson and Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms. In the meantime it vanished from the face of earth (unless you were on Beale Street recently) and Stag-O-Lee dug this timeless piece of music up and is going to rerelease it in early November.

Loaded with standards from the North Mississippi Hill Country, the locomotive power of Foot Hill Stomp has the raw rhythmic drive of a primal entity that will infuse itself into the dark primitive recesses of your primordial senses. Or: That guy sure can play!

In Fuzz We Trust - out now!

posted August 26th, 2013

In Fuzz We Trust - the greatest tribute album ever recorded - has just been released (or will be any minute, depending on the country you live in). In the meantime you can buy the album at www.stagoleeshop.com – both formats are in stock and we ship the same day.

Great reviews are coming in - here is what Record Collector had to say: “When the Fuzztones appeared in the early 80s their mission was to continue the garage revival started the previous decade with Lenny Kays's Nuggets compilation., taking their cover versions to deeper levels of subterranean obscurity. By 1993 and Songs We Taught The Fuzztones, presenting original versions of songs they'd covered, the group had long been writing their own material, drawing from wider influences including The Stooges and Bo Diddley. … Now here's the full-circle collection, where the original-inspiration artists cover the Fuzztones: the ultimate seal of approval. The impressive roll-call includes Shadows Of Knight, Vagrants, Monks, Vanilla Fudge, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Gonn, ? & The Mysterians and The Pretty Things, joined by by Plasticland and John Zacherley to resurrect the SF Sorrow spirit on Ward 81. … The Fuzztones can retire happy now their mission seems accomplished but, somehow, that seems doubtful.” (Record Collector 4/5)

The 18 track CD comes packaged in a digipak and features a 16 page booklet telling the story behind In Fuzz We Trust. If you love vinyl that story can be found inside the gatefold sleeve that holds two heavy 180 gram records and features the same 18 tracks, albeit in a different running order! Please go to stagoleeshop.com for more info.