Artist: Eugene Smith And The Warm Up Band, Album: Warmin' Up, Song: Hoot'nany

"Well a little girl from Montreal said come on Eugene let's have a ball.  Hoot Hoot Hoot'nany tonight."  Eugene Smith is a rhythm and blues artist who's roots can be traced back to Toronto's R&B scene during the mid to late sixties.  Eugene's father played bass with Duke Ellington and James Brown.  Eugene has shared the stage with artists as diverse as Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Gordon Lightfoot and K.D. Lang.  He played with Ronnie Hawkins as well as in a  band called the Majestics with Shawne Jackson (see blog 10/28/10).  In the seventies, he would front an R&B band called Lucifer.  They had at least one album with the Invictus record label.  Following that stint, he developed into a solo performer.  In 1981, he released the album, Warmin' Up, on Warm Up Records with Ted Grimes, John Judge and Carl Rabinowitz.  It included this crazy track called Hoot'nany.  Some of Eugene's material has been restored by Pacemaker Entertainment (http://www.pacemaker.cd/) and can be purchased on Itunes.  Unfortunately though, there isn't enough written about him to get a chronological sense of his recording output.  Like many of his albums, this release remains a lost treasure.  At the time of this blog, there were copies at Musicstack.com trading for over $60.  One thing is for certain though.  Eugene is probably one of the few Canadians that can boast recording in five consecutive decades.  Apparently Eugene resides today in Duncan, B.C. and you can keep tabs on him at http://www.reverbnation.com/eugenesmith.  You can hear the song, Hoot'nany, on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLG06iJil0E).  Thanks for reading and enjoy.