BB Chung King & The Buddaheads
BB Chung King & The Buddaheads also known as The Buddaheads, B.B. & The Screaming Buddah Heads and earlier known as just Buddaheads or Buddah Heads are a Blues-Rock Band from California. Alan Mirikitani, alias B.B. Chung King (vocals, guitar, sax), is the mastermind of the Buddaheads. Johnny Griparic plays bass and Lee Spath plays drums.
Alan Mirikitani has written songs for Lonnie Brooks, Tinsley Ellis and Ruth Brown, who won a Grammy with his song "Too Little, Too Late." He also delivered several songs to films and TV shows.
Raw, their latest album, is a masterpiece. "Road to Ruin" is a little reminiscent of the boogie of ZZ Top. "Cross the Water" (with Kellie Rucker) and "Just For Fun" are ballads and "Stop Talkin' That Way" is a Texas Blues in the tradition of Steve Ray Vaughan.
"At Ten She's Two" is rock 'n' roll, "Chicken Head" and "It's Hard to Please a Woman" are rock songs and "What's Come Over You" reminds me of the swamp blues like Slim Harpo did and last but not least a gospel tune, "Mary Don't You Weep."
All these different styles on one CD - wow. A masterpeice of Blues-Rock.
Read a great interview here: An Interview with Alan Mirikitani aka BB Chung King.
BB Chung King & The Buddaheads
BB Chung King & The Buddaheads are back on the LA scene after returning from a tour of Asia and the U.S. Taking a year and a half off, Alan Mirikitani (aka BB Chung King) established his own 24 track recording studio “Dawghouse Studios” in Burbank California.
BB’s music is a mix of roots rock with a blues base. BB has always claimed blues to be his first love, but comes from a generation that loves to rock. Their first CD “Blues Had A Baby”, was released in 1994 on RCA/BMB and received generous support from radio fans. If you have to categorize the music, it is somewhere between newer artists Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Blues Travelers. But make no mistake, BB Chung King & The Buddaheads are the original LA version!
BB keeps quite busy with the Buddaheads, but also finds time to write, record and produce music for other artists. BB has written songs for blues legends such as Lonnie Brooks, Tinsley Ellis and recently helped Ruth Brown receive a Grammy for her performance of his song “Too Little, Too Late”. Then he produced, wrote, engineered and played on B.J. Sharp’s Grammy nominated CD “Never Felt No Blues”. Her CD reached number 4 in the charts in Europe, without being issued there!
You can also hear the Buddaheads paying tribute to Lowell George. Together with Eddie Money, they perform the title track to the tribute album titled “Rock and Roll Doctor” (a song which appears as a bonus track on the Buddaheads “Live Japan” CD).
“Play Hard”, the third full length album, was released in Japan by Kiagan Records. Here in the US, the band is negotiating a new contract and distribution deal. To please the demand of the rest of their fans around the world, they have added some recent songs and the now re-titled, selfmanufactured limited edition CD “In The Mirror”, is available and will no doubt become a collectors item.
“Go For Broke” is a breathtaking collection of Rockin’ Blues and power packed ballads. “More great Buddaheads music” you say? Yeap. These songs, and many of their other of their tunes can be heard.
Website: Welcome to Buddaheads dot com
RIP Alan Mirikitani
The blues lost another great blues/rock guitar player when Alan Mirikitani died of a heart attack in the recording studio last weekend.
Alan was known to many as BB Chung King, and his band BB Chung King & The Screaming Buddaheads has been a fixture in the LA Area since the 1980s when I can remember first seeing them.
I’ve seen Alan many times as he has played Arcadia Blues Club which is fairly nearby.
Alan was always a gentleman to me and the other blues players in the area. When I was young and new to the area we used to converse via email periodically and he was always helpful.
Alan will surely be missed in my area, and likely in yours as well. So today I pay a tribute to Alan and if you’ve never heard his music I hope you’ll take some time to listen. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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