One Song I've Never Heard Again... (In response to an article in the last issue.)
It was in the early 70's and my friend, John Elmer, and I (we're still friends playing together as JnK Blues) went to the T-Bone Walker concert at the old Stanley. It was hosted by WZUM DJ, Paul Perry, and there was a pretty good crowd. T-Bone was close to his final days, and I believe passed away within a year.
It was a shaky performance but you could still feel the aura of a great blues master. Unfortunately, the loudest round of applause was for when his back up guitarist broke a string and had to stop playing. He was playing twice as load as T-Bone and sounded exactly like Stevie Ray Vaughn but when Stevie Ray was about 4 or 5 years old.
About the song I've never heard again The opening act was a teenage girl trio. I am presuming they were local, as I didn't recognize their name and I am not a native Pittsburgher. They brought down the house with a song called "Shoot the Man Down." John and I both looked at each other when it was over and simultaneously said, "Wow!" On the way home we talked about "Shoot the Man Down" and how we had to get a copy of t he record if there was one.
That is the last time we heard it. We contacted a number of Pittsburgh music historians over the years but they couldn't help. I got in touch with ZUM DJ, Paul Perry, who thought he still had a poster from the concert but he could not find it. John and I tried to write our own version of the song from what we remembered but those efforts were disastrous. So, we don't know the group's name or if there ever was a recording. And I am still looking for "Shoot the Man Down."
