New York, NY (Top40 Charts) When we listen to radio shows that present the blues we usually come away with a stark impression of the personality that�s spinning the music. Their comments, their clich�s, their choice of music all color our impression of the station�s presentation. A number of years ago, about 57 now, a man affectionately known to his young apprentice as Hotsy Totsy put a young
James Vaughn on the air at KYOK Radio. A big step for the rather quiet and gentle
James Vaughn who would be addressing the air waves with such a great personality as radio show host Hotsy Totsy. Today,
James Vaughn aka:
Mr. V is known worldwide as the perennial host of the famous �Blues on the Move� radio show at KPFT radio.
However, what you may not know about
James is that he came to love country music first as a young man well before he fell into love with the blues. Although
James still to this day loves all types of music his Daddy was a big time country fan so he heard it all the time growing up. Their family lived in South Bend Indiana, the home of Notre Dame, and at that time his Dad, who worked for Sherwin Williams Paint, was transferred to
Houston and of course
James was a lad so automatically he came along. His Father would eventually be transferred back to South Bend and so away they went back up north. Now as fate tends to do it takes most of us away from our running days and plants us into our harvest days. James� life was no different. He moved back to
Houston after running all points north and west of South Bend which took in
Chicago by the way. However, in his
Houston backyard so to speak
Mr. V would meet
Etta James back before the world knew Etta. She had come to
Houston and was delivering the blues at carnivals in the area. She was a good looking gal who would take time out to speak everybody that stopped by. She was a delight to meet and oh she was so talented, it was a treat to take in an
Etta James performance. At times within blues music circles you almost become kin with the artist because it�s that personal of an experience. Etta was not only a great artist but also easy to get to know. Additionally, there were two more artists among others that were speaking to
James through their music. One was Chicago�s Muddy Waters and the other was Mississippi�s
Little Milton. Now here�s something that's a bit surprising �
James found the blues while he lived in
Houston and not South Bend. It was his experiences in
Houston that started him along the road of discovery within the world of the blues but then it widened after he returned to
Indiana with his family. At that point in time he was experiencing two distinct regional blues styles firsthand. Normally, one would think that the man probably found the blues near
Chicago and country music in
Houston but once again history reveals that perceptions can be completely backward.
James as it turns out had been digging the music that Duke/Peacock was pumping out in
Houston and right close to Don Robey's studio was this little club. Back then if you were in the know you knew that the greats would hang there if they were recording over at Peacock. It�s interesting to note that to this very day
Mr. V is still going to Houston�s Foster Place part of town to a juke named Mr. Gino�s. So today if you are in the know in
Houston about where the greats hang on Sunday afternoons and evenings then you would know about Mr. Gino�s. Some things never change � once you get into the blues it absorbs you and
Mr. V is living proof. Over time
Mr. V would meet great after great after great blues artist and the benefit of those introductions back then is that today those opportunities translate into his on air presentation of their music. If you have ever tuned in to KPFT at 8am (cst) on Sundays and the man is interviewing a blues artist you can usually hear a bit of giggling going on between them after one of them makes a remark.
Trust me.
Bobby Rush in fact still recalls their younger days and brings up James� off air personality through his personal experiences with him.
Bobby recently told me at the BMAs about Mr. V�s �I�ll pull that tooth for you Bobby� remark that happened years and years ago.
Another interesting point: sometimes in life the worm turns. You can be used to giving to others and out of nowhere someone gives to you. One such event for
Mr. V was with the late great Gene Kelton. They had driven up to Sun Records in
Memphis as Gene was going to record that day. Later that same day Gene walked up to his friend
James and let him know that he had paid for an afternoon of session time but he had in fact wrapped up what he came to do that day. So he told
Mr. V to record something. The end result became a single that
James recorded titled �Teeny Weeny Bit� by Super V & The V-Tones. Sadly, as time would move forward the blues world would lose Gene Kelton in a tragic auto accident. However, his memory will never fade to
Mr. V and not because of just that single act of generosity but rather because they were good friends, blues buddies for sure.
Mr. V had another good friend in his early days, Nappy Brown. Nappy and
James had met when
James moved to
Houston the first time around but it was when the two of them met up again the second time around that they made the rounds together and let�s just say the night life was the good life. Oh but if the walls at the clubs in
Houston could talk � my, my, my.
James had his heyday in those early days but later on down the road he wouldn�t be without personal loss. His wife passed and they had six young children at the time.
James needed to sit his kids down and tell them of the change and that somehow they would make it. He would guarantee it and ladies and gentlemen he did it, they all made it, including
James himself. Life certainly brightened up when
James would meet his current love of thirty plus years, his wife Jo Vaughn. Jo, to this day is the other voice on "Blues on the Move". As a matte of fact just as
James had been coaxed to be himself on the air he passed that same advice along to his wife Jo. She was hesitant to speak on the air at first but if you listen to that show today trust me she�s got the hang of it and provides wonderful balance to the show. Their Blues on the Move radio show consists of two people, a husband and wife team, and they go back and forth with each other on the air just as if they knew you well enough to have you sitting in their kitchen. It�s rather easy for them to have informative chats and many, many times humorous anecdotal comments come out as well. Their banter by the way comes to their audiences totally in an ad lib fashion, sort of like a patch work quilt that comes together. They can have these exchanges because life has allowed them to witness the same events as a couple over the years and those experiences culminate into a treasure trove of facts. Now if
James is feeling a bit risky on a given Sunday morning and "happens" to put out a, shall we say, husband and wife comment? You can bet your sweet bippy that Mrs. V is going to straighten that out in short order. So what you hear on their show is real, it's not rehearsed, even though at times it can surely remind you of a
Burns and Allen act, but it�s not - if I am lying I dying...
Mr. V is seventy seven this year and from this writer�s recent interview session with him I didn't note any signs of the man slowing down. Oh we were both a bit slow at getting up from our chairs after a one and a half hour Q&A session but other than that our conversation prior to the slow rise was one full of vitality, passion for the blues, colored with excellent memories, some education along the way, over all it was a great chat. We cut up about our slow departure as we moved to the parking lot but nothing is slowing
James down, no way Jose, Mr. V�s got it workin�. As a man once told me, �You either is or you ain�t� and this man, radio show host
James Vaughn, certainly is�.
