Don O.'s Gift to You on Freddie King's 77th

​Hope you read this week's piece on the indestructible KNON. Strange, though. Must be something in the air. I just got through re-re-re-re-reading David Seeley's May '85 piece about Nancy Moore -- Shaggy, that is, my old friend who threw one hell of a midnight Pajama Party every Saturday. And I ran into EZ Eddie D at Dude, Sweet Chocolate a few weeks back; it had been way too long. A legend and a gentleman. Then, this morning, I got this note from Don O., the station's longtime bluesman:

Just FYI, my annual Freddie King birthday show is happening tonight on KNON 89.3 FM at 6 pm on Texas Blues Radio. Two hours of nothing but Freddie King. A special show I've done almost every year of my 28 years on KNON. Freddie's daughter Wanda is supposed to stop by, as is one of his old keyboard players, Lewis Stephens.

Freddie, who died on December 28, 1976, at Presbyterian Hospital, would have turned 77 tomorrow. And as I wrote years ago, Wanda's done all a daughter can do to protect and preserve her father's legacy from thieves and rapscallions. I asked Don if he'd heard this Freddie recording, which ranks among my favorites, cut at the University Of Chicago Folk Festival in 1969 and later broadcast over FM radio, who knows how many times. Well, of course had; he said Wanda think it's a local pick-up band backing him -- still, a thrilling piece of work, perhaps even better than this KZEW classic. Listen to it after you tune in to Don on the drive home. Sen-say-shun-al.