the u-turns
welcome to the u-turns
website...make yourself at home.
we
are a musical duo in st. louis.
we
play the blues and we think we play it right. our repertoire goes back to the 1920s. if you like songs by folks like son
house, leroy carr, sylvester weaver, henry townsend, fred mcdowell and blind
willie mctell...then we are right up your alley.
we
also play a lot of songs by two guys named chuck and scott...which happen to be
our names. we love the blues and
want to add our own little something to its legacy. we don't pretend that we ever picked cotton or share cropped
in coahoma county, mississippi.
we've been to coahoma county...several times in fact and we love it
there...but we're city boys. we
write songs about stuff we actually know something about.
scott
is from baltimore. the blues hit
him over the head in england of all places. he learned to play harmonica in madison, wisconsin...where
the harp sometimes froze to his lips.
he learned slide guitar in st. louis. his original goal was to play like elmore james. that was a fine goal...and he still
loves elmore james...but scott got over the notion of playing like somebody
else and now he plays like scott.
chuck
is from st. louis and offers no apologies for that. he was hit by the blues in 1969, when he heard boogie
with canned heat. he was 11 at the time and had no
clue what it was...but he was hooked.
his bass playing idols are larry "the mole" taylor and jack
bruce. he learned to sing in the
junior high school choir. his
singing philosophy is along the lines of t-bone walker...it's better to sing
the blues than shout it.
scott
plays a parlor acoustic guitar that dates to the 1930s. it belonged to chuck's granddad and was
rescued from his uncle's basement in 2001. it has tone all day long. and he has a funky old fake resonator that buzzes in a good
way and an electric silvertone and a sea-foam green harmony electric that kicks
it visually almost as much as it does sonically.
chuck
plays a rickenbacker 4000 that he wishes to be buried with. and he has a cheap-ass danelectro from
south korea and an alvarez acoustic, which was custom built by the nice folks
at st. louis music, inc.
mike
king of delta strings has had
something or more to do with every instrument we play. he restores, repairs and customizes
anything with strings. he even
made chuck's old right-handed mandolin into an old left-handed mandolin. and he tells good stories, to
boot.
important
business matters
the
u-turns will play pretty much anywhere...provided there are at least a few
people to play for and we get paid.
our prices are reasonable.
we show up on time and bring good attitude. we play good music and have been known to engage in snappy
repartee.
call
scott at 314.570.7458 or chuck at 636.578.2231. if you get the
message prompt, just tell us who you are and the date you have in mind. or shoot us an email: scott at theuturns@gmail.com or chuck at olbsys@sbcglobal.net.
links
and downloads and whatnot
stlblues.net
big muddy blues festival
bb's jazz blues and soups
king biscuit blues festival
sunflower blues and gospel festival
river city acoustic
the focal point
kdhx (88.1 fm)
and in case you missed it above: delta strings
click
on the song samples!
coming soon!
news
july 28th update – the blues royale
hey, we made
the finals! we hope to see you at
bb’s on the 9th of august…it’s a cool event and a good show!
we nearly
missed the bus on this thing.
scott just happened to read about it on stlblues.net the day before the
entry deadline…so we were lucky just to get in. thank you to dave beardsley for putting the whole shebang
together…and to john may and everyone at bb’s…and to the sponsors and
judges.
august 10th update – more
about the blues royale and other stuff, too
right up
front…congratulations to lucious spiller and frank’s creation for hauling in
the big fish last night. here’s a
plug for lucious…he plays wednesday nights at spoony’s in soulard and he’s just
plain good. he does rainy night
in georgia to do brook benton proud.
go see him at spoony’s…we will.
and frank’s creation is going to knock a whole lot of folks over at da
biscuit come october.
as for us…we
had some troubles of the electronic variety last night but still got the groove
going. bb’s was packed…one of the
biggest audiences we’ve ever played for.
if you were there…thank you.
if you were not there…we hope you have a really good excuse.
oh…if you
are reading this and happen to be the nice people who requested she won’t
look in mexico last night…sorry I never made it to your table after our
set. but get in touch and I’ll be
glad to send you a cd.
special
thanks go out to friends john and rosie for being on hand…you two are the life
of any party you happen to drop in on.
lots of people can whoop, but nobody can whoop it like rosemary.
september 24th update – river city acoustic
more good things to pass along... we've been asked to participate in a cool idea: saint louis original acoustic music played live in front of an audience at the focal point which is recorded and then broadcast on kdhx (88.1 fm). we'll be throwing out our fg blues on january 28th. more details to follow, but put it on your december calendar now to put it on your january calendar when you get one.
thanks goes out to bruce, one of our fans, for getting us this opportunity!
...makes the rest of you fans look lazy, don't it?
january 12th update – river city acoustic
river city acoustic gig postponed! check back for more updates.
pictures of the u-turns and other
pictures we've posted here just for the heck of it!
killer rib
recipe
we
thought the best barbecue in the world was in memphis...until we got an hour or
so south of memphis. if you ever
run across jones & jones bbq in helena, arkansas...get in line. cedric jones let us in on the secret of
barbecue. cedric is built like an
nfl linebacker and has a very deep voice...when cedric speaks, we listen...
"it
ain't about the rub...or the sauce...it's the smoke, man."
so
here is a recipe for ribs which will earn you a chef's hat, and make you taller
and better looking...
start
with good quality baby back ribs...rub them down with about a quarter cup of
bourbon whiskey...then with olive oil...then with ground pepper to your
liking. i use chipotle and cayenne.
fire up your
grill with about half the charcoal you would ordinarily use. let it get white/red hot.
spread out
the charcoal evenly...then put on two pieces of split firewood. hickory is best...oak is fine, too.
once the
firewood ignites into flame, close the grill and turn the top and bottom vents
to about 20% open and allow the fire to burn down.
if you have
a temperature gauge on your grill, 225 is perfect...from 200 to 250 works. if you don't have a gauge...if you hear
a loud sizzle as soon as the ribs hit the grill, the fire is still too
hot...give it a few more minutes to cool down.
smoke the
ribs bone-side down for a half hour, then meat-side down for a half hour, then
turn them every 5 to 10 minutes until done. grilling time at 225 degrees is roughly an hour and 20
minutes.
meanwhile in
the kitchen...brew up enough of your favorite barbecue sauce to go an inch or
two deep in a large pot. warm it
on low heat to simmer, not boil.
cut up the cooked
ribs right off the grill, toss them in the pot, cover and let simmer for an
hour or two.
if
everything goes right...you'll have wet ribs at the bottom of the pot, dry ribs
at the top and the meat will fall off the bone either way.
thanks
for visiting the u-turns. drop in
any time. and don't forget to
boogie!