Hamilton, Ontario's Richard "King Biscuit Boy" Newell is dead

Canada loses one it's greatest blues musicians. Very sad.

Jan. 6, 2003. 05:12 PM
Blues musician King Biscuit Boy dead at 59
Performed with Muddy Waters, Etta James, Joe Cocker, Dr. John and The Band.

From The Toronto Star
Blues great Richard (King Biscuit Boy) Newell, one of the country's greatest harmonica players and singers, has died. He was 59.

He died Sunday in his sleep while watching TV in his Hamilton home, said his friend, singer Ronnie Hawkins.

"He was one of the great ones, boy," Hawkins said Monday. "He was one of the most talented kids I'd ever seen."

Newell performed with some of the industry's best-known musicians including Muddy Waters, Otis Span, Etta James, Joe Cocker, Dr. John and The Band.

Fans included Huey Lewis, Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers, and Rolling
Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who once said King Biscuit Boy was his favourite harmonica player.

"He was the best-known harmonica player outside of Canada over the last 30 years," said Holger Petersen, who runs Stoney Plain Records in Edmonton, which released three of Newell's albums, and hosts Saturday Night Blues on CBC Radio One. "He totally devoted his life to his love of blues."

Newell recorded eight albums and one EP during his 40-year career. His singles included Biscuit's Boogie, Boom Boom, Tore Your Playhouse Down, Ashamed of Myself and One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer.

Born in Hamilton, Newell began playing harmonica in 1961. With no local players to learn from, the teenager would head to Buffalo, N.Y., to hang out in blues bars. It was there he met and played harmonica with Muddy Waters.

Newell was one of the few white musicians playing blues music in the '60s.

"He played blues music as a white performer when there was just a handful of them doing it, including Paul Butterfield," said longtime friend Dave Booth, a music archivist who once hosted The Daddy Cool Show on Toronto's CFNY radio station. "He was the best blues singer in Canada. There was nobody his equal. Nobody could touch him."

Singing for Hamilton band The Barons, he became part of the famed Yorkville music scene of the late '60s which gave birth to Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot.

It was through the Yorkville crowd that Newell was introduced to Hawkins, whose band, The Hawks, he joined as a harmonica player in 1968.

Hawkins gave Newell the nickname King Biscuit Boy after a Helena, Ark., radio program called King Biscuit Boy Flour Hour that featured harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson.

"He didn't like (the name) so well for a year or two, but then it became him," Hawkins recalled. "He knew all those songs and licks of the radio cats when we used to practise down in that basement (in Helena)."

Newell joined Hawkins in Alabama in 1969 while the singer was recording an album. There, Newell met guitarists Allman and Jimmie Johnson who invited the young star to join their band, which later became The Allman Brothers. He declined.

In 1970, The Hawks turned into The Ronnie Hawkins Band while Hawkins was on a European publicity tour. Upon his return, he broke up the group saying, "You guys are so crazy you could (mess) up a crowbar in three seconds."

The musicians then became known as Crowbar, and released an album that same year. Crowbar had a minor radio hit with Corrina, Corrina in 1970.

But Newell didn't last long in the band and went on his own by the end of the year. He recorded several solo albums in the '70s and '80s. He also rejoined Hawkins in the '80s for several tours.

Newell leaves behind one son, Richard.

© Copyright 2002 Canadian Press

King Biscuit Boy from an undated photo. I'm guessing early 1970s.

 

"Oh! What A Feeling" was a a fairly big hit across the country Gary. Good song. Lead singer Kelly Jay lives around Calgary somewhere.