BluEsoterica *** Jim O'Neal

 

Inquiries on licensing master recordings and music rights are welcome on music published by Drop Top Music or produced or released by Rooster Blues Records, Stackhouse Recording Company, various St. Louis labels associated with the late Mitchell “Gabriel” Hearns, and assorted other sources listed below. We either own the masters or the publishing, or both, in many cases, and we can help coordinate rights with the owners or publishers in other cases. I have licensed music for use on HBO, Amazon Prime TV, the NCIS TV show, Jazz at Lincoln Center and other organizations, and have also provided research assistance in annotating, recommending music or tracking down rights owners for many other programs, commercials, record companies, and events. I have also worked on many documentaries for network and cable TV, the BBC, CBC, NHK and Fuji in Japan, and other outlets, and I have written liner notes and provided photographs for albums on Atlantic, OKeh, RCA, Chess, Alligator, Delmark, Ace, Jewel, Rhino and other labels. Send inquiries to Jim O’Neal, BluEsoterica Licensing, 3516 Holmes St., Kansas City MO 64109, e-mail jim@bluesoterica.com, phone 816-931-0383 or 816-304-7826 (cell).

STACKHOUSE RECORDING COMPANY Masters by:

D.C. Bellamy (Gregory Washington) (Kansas City)

Memphis Gold (Chester Chandler) (Washington, D.C.)

Foree “Guitar” Wells (Louisville, KY)

CeDell Davis and other Arkansas artists: see complete list of artists and songs on the Arkansas Blues CDs page of this website.

Gabriel , aka The Flock-Rocker (Mitchell Hearns) (St. Louis)

 

ROOSTER BLUES RECORDS (recorded in Chicago, Clarksdale MS, Memphis, St. Louis, et al., including unissued sessions):

Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes

Carey Bell

Lurrie Bell

D.C. Bellamy (Gregory Washington)

Big Guitar Red (Walter Smith)

Johnnie Billington

Sonny “Harmonica” Blake (Blakes)

George “Mojo” Buford

Willie “Rip” Butler

Eddie C. Campbell

Sam Carr

Eddy Clearwater (Edward Harrington)

Willie Cobbs

Larry Davis

Jim Ellis

James “T-Model” Ford

Willie J. Foster

Frank Frost

Good Rockin’ Charles Edwards (Henry Lee Bester)

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes

Otha Holmes

Wesley Jefferson

Big Jack Johnson

James “Super Chikan” Johnson

Arthneice “Gas Man” Jones

Casey Jones

Little Johnnie Jones

Monroe Jones

Willie King

Lester “Big Daddy” Kinsey

Lady Bianca (Thornton)

Ernest Lane

Sammy Lawhorn

Johnny Littlejohn (John Funchess)

Abb Locke

James “Pee Wee” Madison

Magic Slim (Morris Holt)

John Mohead (Okra-Tone Records)

New Africa String Band (Big Jack Johnson, Lonnie Pitchford, Michael Ward, Kash Killion and Eugene Powell)

Lorenzo Nicholson

Lonnie Pitchford

Eugene Powell (Sonny Boy Nelson)

Eddie Rasberry

Johnny Rawls & L.C. Luckett

A.C. Reed

Philadelphia Jerry Ricks

Robert Robinson

Sonny Rogers (Rodgers)

Otis Rush (unfinished sessions for Rooster Blues, 1986 & 1989, some needing overdubbed vocal or guitar tracks)

Emmett “Maestro” Sanders

Eddie Shaw

Lonnie Shields

Tommy Smiley

Abe “Little Smokey” Smothers

Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers

Stone Gas Band

James “Son” Thomas

Mac Thompson

Leroy “Little Jeno” Tucker

C.V. Veal

Robert “Bilbo” Walker

Wade Walton

Valerie Wellington

Lane Wilkins

PLANET, TUNE TOWN, YVETTE’S, NORMAN, JOYCE. ROYAL AMERICAN, ULTRASONIC, TEMPORA, DOWN HOME (St. Louis)

See Gabriel discography on The Gabriel Page of this website for more details.

Ernestine Anderson

Chuck Bernard

Little Willie Brown (Andrew “Harpkiller” Brown)

Kenneth Churchill & the Lyrics with Ike Turner Orch.

Mary Coleman

Willie Eiland & the Spacerockers

El Cincos

Gabriel, aka The Flock-Rocker (Mitchell Hearns)

Roosevelt Marks

Aaron McDonald

Guitar Tommy Moore & the 5 J’s

Rhythmettes (Robbie Montgomery et al.)

Rev. W.B. Rouse

Seaphus Scott, The Five Masqueraders & Billy Gale (Gayles) Orch.

Benny (Bennie) Sharp

Bennie Smith (Johnnie B. Goode)

James L. Stevenson

Robert Thomas

Ike Turner (vocals by Fred Sample, Tommy Hodge)

Ike Turner, Carlson Oliver & Little Ann (Tina Turner) (Tina’s first recording, “Boxtop”)

 

RED HOT RECORDS OF KANSAS CITY

Various masters, some unissued, by Kansas City area artists from the 1990s. Rights were returned to some artists by Suzie Colbert of Red Hot Records but I have since purchased all the surviving master tapes and CD/cassette stock.

 

VARIOUS MASTER TAPES from different sources, many unissued:

Ike & Tina Turner (several studio & live tapes from 1961-1975. including complete “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” session with Mickey & Sylvia, multiple takes, May 2, 1961)

Ikettes (March 4, 1963)

Ike Turner & His Kings of Rhythm (Vocal by Clayton Love) (April 9, 1957, outtakes)

Jackie Brenston with Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm (Sept. 13, 1956, outtakes)

The Rockets (Oct. 1956 outtakes)

Little Willie John (June 8, 1956, outtakes)

Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson (Sept. 20, 1957, outtakes)

Kenny & Moe – The Blues Boys [Kenny Ballard & Moses Pelham] (Oct. 26, 1956, Feb. 19 & May 29, 1957, outtakes)

Willie Mabon (Aug. 15, 1957, outtakes)

Rudy Ray Moore (Dec. 20, 1955, outtakes of his first record as a blues singer, before he recorded comedy)

Jimmy Nolen (May 14, 1956, outtakes)

Wynonie Harris (April 15, 1957, outtakes)

Joe Tex (1957 outtakes)

Homesick James (Jick And His Trio, Atomic Records, Chicago, 1953)

Jerry McCain (Chicago demos, 1959)

Willie “61” Blackwell (Memphis, C, 1972)

Bobo Jenkins (Detroit, 1970)

Eddie Taylor (Chicago, 1960s demos)

Blind Arvella Gray (Feb. 5, 1964, Gray Records)

Jimmy Reed (tape made for radio broadcast, Chicago, 1973)

Otis Spann (Chicago demo, 1960s)

Willie “W.W.” Williams (Chicago demos)

John Lee Granderson (Chicago, 1970s)

Eddie El (Chicago demos)

Uncle Homer Walker (West Virginia banjo)

Clarence Tross (West Virginia banjo)

CeDell Davis (Arkansas, 1970s)

Billy Branch, Johnny B. Moore, James Kinds, Dead Eye Norris (Sonny Mack), Harmonica Hinds, Bom-Bay Carter, Lurrie Bell (New Generation of Chicago Blues at Quasimodo club in Berlin, Germany, Nov. 4-5, 1977)

 

LIVE RECORDINGS and interviews: many blues artists in Chicago, Mississippi and elsewhere

PUBLISHING on many compositions by above artists and others, including various artists who recorded for the Atomic-H label in Chicago. See BMI repertoire for Drop Top Music at bmi.com.

ARTISTS/SONGWRITERS/HEIRS & ESTATES: If you recorded any of the tapes listed here or wrote the songs, please keep me informed of your current contact information so that royalties may be paid when any of this music is licensed.

CD RELEASES  -- HELP/PARTNER: I am working on releasing some of the above masters on CD, but I have far too much to do already, and I would consider offers to work with a partner, assistant, or another company, especially with anyone familiar with digital rights and releases. Ditto for my  mail order business and ongoing archival filing and digitizing.