IF ONLY......................

In the late 1940s / early 50s, a creative storm centred around Chicago Blues stalwarts including Willie Dixon, Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf emerged. Their music featured electric guitars, dance beats, and no shortage of suggestive 'Jive Talk'. 

'Jump' music was made popular in the 1940s by jazz and rhythm and blues bands doing their darndest to make their audiences stomp and holler. Better known exponents include Louis Jordan, Lionel Hampton and T-Bone Walker. 

Rhumba is a genre of ballroom and dance music that appeared across the East Coast of the US during the 1930s. It combined American big band music with Afro-Cuban rhythms. 

Separating musical styles is an impossible task. All music is a gumbo of different styles. But one thing you can bet your sweet bootie on is that Chicago Blues, Jump beats and Afro Cuban rhythms were being combined into hot dance floor shakers in smoky night clubs all over the US around the middle of the last century. 

Good enough for Howlin' Wolf, good enough for The Shed. 

So we thought we'd have a crack at it. The result is a little ditty we call 'If Only'.   Click on the title to have a listen. 

Hope y'all enjoy it ! 

Pete wrote it, sang it, and played the drums 

Steve Faggotter played the guitar and did the nasty solo

Gus Washbourne played the guitar 

Mick Nadin blew the harp 

Neil Porter played the bass and did the production work