BLUES MATTERS 75

AYNSLEY LISTER BABAJACK FROM

WATERMELON

BUTLINS SKEGNESS FRI 24 – MON 27 JANUARY 2014

THE BLUES

MATTERS! STAGE AT JAKS

FRIDAY:

8.30pm – 10.00pm ROSCOE LEVEE

Southern tinged Blues/rock/Americana, a band that’s on the rise!

10.30pm – 12.00pm ALEX McKOWN BAND

A young and upcoming act that’s making a name for himself on the blues circuit.

12.30pm – 2.00am

Zoe Schwarz Blue Commotion

Stunning musicianship and vocal skills.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON: 12:45pm – 4.00pm

ROADHOUSE

Jam sessions

The ever popular ‘ROADHOUSE Jam sessions’ have become synonymous with this super weekend and always in great demand and very well supported, including short sets by Roadhouse themselves to start and close.

SATURDAY NIGHT: 8.30pm – 10.00pm

DOVE& BOWEEVIL BAND

From wildest Norfolk with their own brand of Blues’n’roots to thrill and entertain!

10.30pm – 12.00pm INNES SIBUN

He’s toured the USA in Robert Plant’s band, topped major festivals across Europe with his own band, and is one of the finest electric blues guitarists in the UK.

SATURDAY NIGHT: 12.30pm – 2.00pm

STEVE ROUX’S WHITE KNUCKLES BLUES BAND

A welcome return! Fans of Jaks have been asking for Steve after he whipped up a storm at last years’festival.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON ACOUSTIC:

12.00 – 1.00

DOVE& BOWEEVIL DUO

1.15pm – 2.15pm MATT WOOSEY

With a solid album behind him Matt demonstrates his solo skills for you.

2.30pm – 3.30pm

ZOE SCHWARTZ& ROB KORAL

SUNDAY NIGHT: 8.30pm – 10.00pm ROADHOUSE

Festival staples return with tracks from their new album Gods and Highways and Old Guitars

10.30pm – 12.00pm

The LITTLE DEVILS

Hold on to your hats for a bit of a skirmish!

12.30pm – 2.00am

JO HARMAN BAND

2013 saw Jo perform at Jaks in the acoustic slot and you wanted her back... so here she is with the full band after an amazing year, as a thank you to close the Blues Matters! stage.

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS

Girls Go Wild REPUK 1194

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS

What’s The Word REPUK 1195

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS

Butt Rockin’ REPUK 1196

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS

T-Bird Rhythm REPUK 1197

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS

The Bad & Best Of...

The Fabulous Thunderbirds REPUK 1198 OUT NOW

Strange Pleasure

Digipak REPUK 1174

JIMMIE VAUGHAN

COMING SOON

Out There

Digipak REPUK 1175

Do You Get The Blues?

Digipak REPUK 1176 and coming soon...

The LP vinyl version V 148

Bonfire Night has come and gone. With many guys burned we bring you a guy that does the burning instead! Yep, in this issue we talk to the legendary Buddy Guy. We also climbed mountains to bring you Woodstock veteran Leslie West who talks about his latest release.

Then we go roaming around this musical world of ours to bring you the rising Ori Naftaly from Israel, Eric Ter from France, Irish legend Ronnie Greer, ISC award winner Steve Strongman from Canada, Watermelon Slim from the USA, plus the home-grown Babajack.

We also bring you the 2013 BM Writers’ Poll Results. From the winners of the Best Newcomers section we were able to nominate David Migden & The Dirty Words (now known as David Migden & The Twisted Roots) to represent the UK at the European Blues Union Blues Challenge in Riga, Latvia on 11-12th April 2014. A brief message from David and the band: “Massive thanks to all the writers of Blues Matters! who put the band and I forward for this prestigious event. This is a great launching pad for our music.You’ve backed the right horse!”

We wish all of you the very best of Christmases and look forward to a New Year and the new music it will hold for us all. Oh, and remember... Having no clue where we are going means that we will never be lost, at least not for long!

WE arE SparTaCUS!

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CONTrIBUTINg phOTOgraphErS: christine moore, liz aiken, annie Goodman, jennifer noble others credited on page

CONTrIBUTINg WrITErS: liz aiken, roy bainton, adam bates, adrian blacklee, bob bonsey, eddy bonte, Dave butler, colin campbell, bob chaffey, martin cook, norman Darwen, lauren Dove, Dave Drury, hugh Fielder, barry Fisch, linda Fisher, sybil Gage, nick Garner, Diane Gillard, stuart a. hamilton, brian harman, natalie harrap, Gareth hayes, trevor hodgett, billy hutchinson, Peter innes, brian kramer, Frank leigh, mike lightfoot, Geoff marston, ian mchugh, christine moore, jennifer noble, martin ‘noggin’ norris, merv osborne, mike owens, iain Patience, Frankie Pfeiffer, clive rawlings, sarah reeve, Darrell sage, Paromita saha, Pete sargeant, Dave ‘the bishop’ scott, Graeme scott, Peter simmons, andy snipper, ashwyn smyth, Dave stone, suzanne swanson, richard thomas, kevin ‘legs’ Walker, tom Walker, Dave Ward, Daryl Weale, kevin Wharton, iain young, steve yourglovich.

REGULARS

06 HAPPENIN’

Keeping you up to date with all the news from the Blues. Horace Panter paints it blue, we take the road to Siberia and meet DJ Dave Watkins.

18 BluEs ToP 10

Will Wilde Talks about the Blues songs that have influenced his career.

20 KITCHAT

Dave Ward dives in to the world of music equipment and this time he examines a steel and brass legend.

102

112

RED lICK ToP 20

Red Lick Records presents their best selling blues albums.

RMR BluEs ToP 50

The Roots Music Report independent airplay chart. Where music matters!

44

WATERMEloN slIM

If my plane went down tomorrow, I’d go out on top!

50 BABAJACK

Mesmerising grooves, seriously atmospheric.

62 oRI NAFTAlY

All the way from Israel and flying the blues flag high.

68 AYNslEY lIsTER

When explosive natural ability collides with fiery, emotionally charged compositions.

78 lEslIE WEsT

Leslie West has been a creative force for over three decades.

FEATURES

84 uNDER THE RADAR

Brother Dege Legg. A darker shade of the blues from the Bayou.

28

RoNNIE GREER

One of the justifiable legends of the Northern Ireland music scene.

32 ERIC TER

36

His artistic approach is becoming more guided by his imagination.

VAsTI JACKsoN

A force to be reckoned with in the world of the blues.

40 sTEVE sTRoNGMAN

His music speaks for truth and passion, and offers hope for the soul in the face of hard times.

90

REsoNATING THE BluEs

Steel yourselves! Our second look at the world of the Resonator.

REVIEWS

97 AlBuMs

Including, Joe Bonamassa, GT’s Boos Band, Cyril Neville, Lewis Hamilton, Kirsten Thien and more...

114 sHoWTIME

Festival and Gig highlights from around the world. Blues on the Farm, Bentworth, Boogaloo and more...

wIlKo StoRMS thE StagE at ColNE

all the blues that’s Fit to Print, From arounD the WorlD

GYPIE MAYO

As we were going to press for this edition the sad news reached us of the passing of John ‘Gypie’ Mayo on October 23rd.

Born in 1951, John had been brought into Dr. Feelgood in 1977 as the permanent replacement for Wilko Johnson and was quickly given the nickname ‘Gypie’ by Lee Brilleaux, due to his frequent bouts of ill-heath. The nickname stuck with him ever since. Gypie stayed in Feelgood for four years and co-wrote their only top ten hit, Milk And Alcohol. He also played for The Yardbirds and worked with Jeff Beck, Brian May, Steve Vai, Slash and many others. In later years Gypie was renowned as a guitar tutor in the Bath and Bristol area. He will be greatly missed by the U.K. blues community.

GReGG allMan tRiBute ConCeRt

The Allman Brothers, Sam Moore, Taj Mahal, Warren Haynes, Eric Church and several others have signed on to pay tribute in concert to Gregg Allman early next year. All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs & Voice of Gregg Allman will be held Jan.10th at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. The concert will be filmed and released later. Others on the eclectic list of performers include Natalie Cole, Jackson Browne, John Hiatt, Pat Monahan of Train, Martina McBride, Trace Adkins and John Hiatt. Special guests and more performers will be announced soon. Tickets go on sale Nov.1st

at the Fox Theatre box office. Don Was will lead an all-star band lined up to help celebrate Allman, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

jIMMY dILLon uPdAte

Jimmy Dillon, is preparing a new album for release early in 2014, entitled Six String Man . In the meantime he is releasing an EP with a showcase release party in his hometown of Springwater in Mill Valley. A free premiere of the EP is currently available from www.jimmydillon.com

gREgg pREpaRES to MEEt hIS FRIENdS

On December 28th Jimmy’s JD Big Band are performing a special show in Kona, Hawaii, the band features Lisa Fischer, fresh from performing with The Rolling Stones on tour, on vocals alongside Santana’s Tony Lindsay, plus David Matthews (keys) and Karl Perazzo (percussion) both Santana, Dewayne Pate (bass) of Robben Ford Band and Kevin Hayes (drums) of Robert Cray Band. Chuck Leavell will be joining for some later dates too.

FReYA RoY eP

Freya Roy is a talented young performer making a lot of people sit up. Just 17, she has appeared on ITV and is about to release her second EP, entitled Tomorrow. The EP launch party is at The Cut, in Halesworth, Suffolk, but a small tour includes gigs in Norwich, Cambridge, Bangor and The Bar Vinyl in Camden. For more info, www.freyaroy. blogspot. com

RetuRn to FendeR

Fender has reintroduced the Starcaster and Coronado guitars/ bass in the form of the Modern Player series.

The updated Modern Player version has a C-shaped, maple neck with 22 medium jumbo frets, dual Fender Wide Range humbuckers with three-way toggle switching, volume and tone controls for each pickup, and an Adjusto-Matic bridge with anchored tailpiece. It’s available in three finishes. The short-scale Starcaster bass, which had previously only existed in prototype models from the 70s, has a thin, semi-hollow offset body with a bound maple top and back and f-holes. It has the same configuration as its six-string sibling, but sports a four-saddle Fender Hi-Mass bridge. The Coronado guitar, which, back in the 60s, was Fenders first hollow bodied electric guitar, is also back. It has a semi-hollow maple body with an alder centre-block and a bound top and back. There’s a C-shaped maple neck with 21 medium jumbo frets and dual FideliTron humbuckers; each of which has separate volume and tone controls. It’s complemented by an Adjusto-Matic bridge with floating F trapeze tailpiece. The Coronado bass features the same set-up, and is also available in the finishes as the Coronado guitar. For more info, visit www. fender.com for more info.

BLooMFIeLd BoX set

Guitarist Michael Bloomfield tragically passed away in 1981 at the young age of 37 years, but he left behind a rich musical legacy. Originally discovered doing session work by Columbia Records A&R legend John Hammond, Sr., demos the guitarist recorded for the label were shunted aside when Bloomfield became part of the ground breaking Paul Butterfield Blues Band. On February 4, 2014 Legacy Recordings will release From His Head To His Heart To His Hands, a career-spanning four-disc box set documenting the short but amazing career of Michael Bloomfield.

The anthology was produced and pieced-together by Bloomfield’s long-time friend and musical confidant Al Kooper. The three CDs in the From His Head To His Heart To His Hands box offer up 46 songs, ranging from the guitarist’s first demo recordings for Columbia Records, to his last public performance.

CONTINUES ON pagE 11...

MR SIX StRINg, JIMMY dIlloN

Kooper arranged all the songs by theme, individual discs featuring Roots, Jams, and Last Licks, and the box includes a dozen rare, unreleased tracks including a transcendent live take of The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar, performed in 1980 with Bob Dylan. The box features Bloomfield solo tracks alongside material from his best-known bands (The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Electric Flag) as well as work that he did with Muddy Waters, Janis Joplin, and others.

The fourth disc in the box is a DVD which features filmmaker Bob Sarles’ documentary Sweet Blues: A Film About Michael Bloomfield. This box is a real treat for long-suffering Bloomfield fans, the guitarist’s back catalog largely in disarray and solo tracks hard to come by.

PRIMeR tIes the Knot

After 22 years of being together, Lisa Becker became Lisa Primer. In Lisa’s words, “John and I met in

1993 at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Earwig Records was having a CD release party for him for the CD: Stuff You Gotta Watch We fell in love instantly when we saw each other. His music swept me off my feet and I am still floating to this day! We truly were meant to be together. John says that God sent him an angel, and that angel is me!”

The world travelling blues slide guitarist ,who formerly played with Muddy Waters and Magic Slim married the love of his life on September 21st. I was honored to be one of the bridesmaids along with Jennifer Littleton and Karen Bown. and maid of honor Mary Olmstead. The wedding ceremony took place

at Veteran’s Memorial Park in the small town of McHenry, in Northwest Illinois. There was a slight breeze and lots of sunshine. The ceremony was carried out by none other than Robert Hecko, who has owned the famous Chicago club Blues on Halsted for more than 30 years.

tWo MoRe BluesMen saY GooDBYe

Just as this issue was going to press news came through that the blues world had lost two more of its best loved heroes, Bobby Parker and Pete Haycock. Bobby Parker (1937 – 1st November 2013) was probably best known for his hit Watch Your Step, which was covered by many artists including Santana, Spencer Davis and The Beatles. Led Zeppelins Jimmy Page was a lifelong fan and tried unsuccessfully to sign Bobby to Swan Song Records.

Pete Haycock (1951 – 31st October 2013) Stafford born Haycock was a founder member of the Climax Blues Band, originally known as Climax Chicago Blues Band. He played lead guitar and provided vocals. He was famous for playing his gold plated Veleno guitar, immortalised on the cover and

title of the album, Gold Plated. Pete also joined Bev Bevan in the reformed ELO and successfully composed tracks for film scores, including Thunderbird for Thelma and Louise. He had planned a return to recording and touring with his new project, Pete Haycock’s Climax Blues Band, featuring Robin George, and had written and rehearsed new material.

JohN pRIMER MaRRIES lISa BECKER

On the air : dAVe wAtKIns

V

E rb A ls: Daryl W E al E

Dave Watkins blues train raDio shoW is stationeD in Frome, somerset. Dave took time out to tell us about his broaDcasts

Blues Train first aired in January 2011 as a monthly show, playing all areas of blues, from the big names to the smaller ones. It soon changed format as I decided that the big names were getting enough airplay already, so I decided to concentrate on the new and up and coming artists. It soon became apparent that the blues community was very supportive, not just the artists but the fellow radio jocks, PR people and the listeners, and the show started being noticed. I’m not a blues encyclopedia, I have always just played what I enjoy and made it a show that can be appreciated by anyone. I have discovered so much new music since starting the show, it’s been great fun!

The show is now being noticed for playing a good selection of mainly new release blues and roots, and has regular listeners in all parts of the world, which is amazing. I’ve only recently been able to host the show weekly and its made a difference already to what I can

“As to the future, I just wAnt to keep fIndIng new lIsteners”

cover. I’m passionate about the show and how good the playlist is, so sometimes might go a little overboard, but it’s only because I want as many people to hear the music as possible. I’m pleased that I am part of the schedules of some very cool stations worldwide, including KCOR in the US and Blues & Roots Radio in Canada.

As to the future, I just want to keep finding new listeners, the same as every jock out there. I want to keep up the high standards of the playlists and I spend a lot of time every week sourcing new music. I’d like to be able to accommodate more live studio guests too, but want to always make the focus of the show more about the new releases, as other shows already do live sessions very well. A long term aim is to perhaps develop a podcast

version and try to emulate the King of Podcasts, Dave Raven!

The show airs live every Wednesday 8-9pm UK time via www.frome.fm – it’s always great when people discover the show for the first time. Live chat happens during every show via www.facebook.com/groups/ BTRSocialClub

The Blues Train is on Twitter, @ BluesTrainRadio and has a blog, http://bluestrainradio.blog.com.

Finally, here is a small sample showing some of the albums Dave currently likes to play songs from:

1. JW Jones Seventh Hour

2. Pete Cornelius Groundswell

3. Sean Chambers The Rock House Sessions

4. Blue Eyes Cry Sleepin’ Alone

5. Aynsley Lister Home

A lineup of Chicago’s finest musicians was in attendanceveteran bassman Bob Stroger, guitarists Billy Flynn and Tom Holland, bassist Melvin Smith, singer Willie Buck, harpist Matt Skoller and keyboardist Johnny Iguana. Representing the ladies of the blues, Big Time Sarah, who nightly can be found at Blues on Halsted, sang at the wedding ceremony and the reception. She is a wonderful ad-libber and really tailored the songs to make it special for John and Lisa.

The reception was held at the Shriner’s Hall in Richmond, a few miles down the road from McHenry. The Hall is a big old barn and was decorated from top to bottom with blues-related memorabilia. The name card on every table paid tribute to a deceased Chicago blues legend like Koko Taylor, Phil Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Willie Big Eyes Smith,

Pinetop Perkins and Magic Slim, with a short biography and a picture. Of course with such a range of musical talent at the party, all wanted to play at the reception including the groom himself, John Primer. What a great jam it was, and what a perfect day for a great love story to come together.

noRFoLK BLues LInK

The Norfolk Blues Society are very proud to have built strong International links with The Nashville Blues Society, one of the US biggest and most active blues societies. As well as having shared memberships, discussions are ongoing about artist’s exchanges involving playing at each other’s events. Exciting times for NBS who recently ran the first ever Dereham Blues Festival and are planning an even more adventurous follow up for 2014.

BuDDY GuY CoMPetition WinneRs

Congratulations to these six winners of our Buddy Guy Competition. There were so many entries, but these six were the lucky ones drawn from those with correct answers:

Christian Walton, Brian Barks Boris Cross. Jeff Ferguson David Mitchell. June Thomas

Enjoy your CDs which are on the way!

V E rb A ls: Dav ID S COTT Visu A ls: aNI a Na U gh TON hOraCE paNTEr talks anD Paints blues. Panter, aka sir horace Gentleman is the bass Player With the leGenDary SpECIalS, one oF the most innovative anD hiGhly Danceable Punk/ska/reGGae Fusion banDs in the WorlD

originally formed in Coventry in 1977, within the next four years the band achieved number one UK hits with Too Much Too Young and Ghost Town. The haunting, pulsating, mesmeric bass riff on the latter remains one of the most memorable musical sounds of that era. The Specials even had their own label, 2-Tone, its distinctive black and white check artwork reflecting the multi-racial agenda, promotion of harmony and prevailing fashion of two-tone tonic mod suits. As Horace explains, ‘We made people dance and think at the same time. Just like the blues where it all came from in the first place; sing about your worries and your feelings and turn them into a celebration.’ In his brilliant autobiographical account of life with The Specials, Ska’d For Life, Horace gives important insights into the blues. ‘Music is the healer as John Lee Hooker would have put it. If there hadn’t been American blues and country music there would not have been ska, reggae and rock and roll with all the sub divisions and cul de sacs.’

The Specials re-formed in 2009 and still tour the world, even guesting at last year’s Olympic Games closing ceremony. Horace has also returned to his roots with a blues band called Blues2Go and is playing ‘alcohol inspired’ blues and R&B. On tour in the 80s, Horace who is a Fine Arts College

graduate would visit the world’s best art galleries and collect new books. This background stimulated his current work, much of which has a blues theme. His first public exhibition was in 2011 and his paintings can be seen in galleries as far apart as Leamington Spa and Singapore. His iconic ‘blues collection’ includes paintings of the great American bluesmen. In an exclusive interview, former teacher Horace reflects on his career, his

blues influences, the blues-themed artwork, The Specials and his current blues band.

‘When I first started listening to music it was called Pop Music. I bought singles by The Byrds, The Small Faces and The Supremes. I liked it. It made my heart beat faster. As my interest in pop music grew I began to read about the people who played it and the music’s history. The songs I gravitated to were blues-based: Fleetwood

houNd dog taYloR –BY hoRaCE paNtER

Mac, Spencer Davis, and Free. The relationship of the I, IV, V chord sequence! I preferred listening to Cream, rather than Pickettywitch. I used to wonder who R. Johnson was when I heard Cream’s version of Crossroads . Discovering the original blues practitioners was a complete joy.This is going to sound pretentious but I’ve always had a desire to be creative. Art and music are comfortable bedfellows as far as creativity is concerned and both have always been at the forefront of my mind. As a bass player I am dependent on others, but art is all about my own creativity.”

“When I started doing my art seriously, it was logical that my subject matter would be something close to my heart. I wanted somehow to describe the music I love, not just paint a portrait of Muddy Waters, but to portray the music and its impact on me. I was very influenced by American folk art and the socio-political side of the blues and the appalling circumstances of the people who played it.”

“What I call my ‘blues paintings’ aren’t paintings at all, but collages that have been worked on – drawn, painted, written, etc. The original blues pieces are on 12” plywood panels. These are then enlarged to twice the size, giving it a billboard feel. These enlargements are what I then embellish and they become the second stage, or original works. I produce limited edition prints from these. I also include real objects on the initial board: guitar strings, the top of a harmonica, barbed wire and so on to make the finished piece more interesting. I use maps too. A lot of these musicians came from Mississippi and moved to Chicago so that sense of place and history is represented in the pictures too. I love Chicago blues in particular and in images such as Hound Dog Taylor I wanted to be able to capture some of the rough, gritty texture of the music

as well conveying something of the essence of the city.”

“I quit my art teaching job at Christmas 2008 when The Specials reconvened because continuing to be a full-time teacher became untenable once I had a touring schedule. I tell everyone that being a teacher was the second-best job I’ve ever had. I put a notice above my art room door at school which said ‘Drop in Centre’ – pupils were often sent to join the art classes if they were in need of some down time; I wanted them to feel that art was safe and fun.”

“There are five out of the original seven members currently in The Specials. Jerry Dammers wasn’t included in the 2008 reformation and Neville Staple left last year for health reasons. He lives not far from me so I still see him and chat regularly. We plan to do European Festivals in 2014. In the UK our audience tends to be card-carrying members, but in Europe and the US we have noticed a much younger audience coming to our gigs. Playing in The Specials is always very exciting.”

BLues2Go

“Blues2Go is a hobby. We are a local blues band for local blues people. I play bass, Al Maynard sings and plays a bit of guitar, Pete Gardner plays the real guitar and Russell Munns is the drummer. We’ve been playing around our home town of Coventry for nearly 10 years now; we don’t like to travel too far to play. We have families and day jobs and there’s no big plan, no CD, no website. We play drinking establishments, rather like where the original music was performed. It’s a democratic set-up although I suppose I’m the MD as I’ve got the most experience, but everyone else brings songs along and if it works, it’s in the set. We do a few standards but we like to play stuff that other people don’t. Personally, I

take The Fabulous Thunderbirds as our template.”

“As far as the current US blues scene is concerned, I’m very impressed by Ben Harper and the Fat Possum records (R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimborough, T. Model Ford), the stuff that I’ve heard from Gary Clark Jnr. sounds pretty good and Vintage Trouble put a smile on my face. As far as the UK is concerned, there’s no one I’m mad about. The current predilection for ‘blues-rock’ leaves me rather cold, not to mention deaf. Gary Moore has a lot to answer for! I have had a wonderful career but the music business has changed a lot since I started out, mainly due to new technologies and social media. This is the future isn’t it? I know that if the Angry Hornets are playing at The Slug & Toadstool there’s more than a fair chance there’s a clip of them on YouTube so you can see if it’s worth going or not. That helps for sure. I see that bands can help themselves in terms of PR by being proactive on social networking sites, if they are savvy they can create their own buzz (as long as they actually have talent in the first place). What hasn’t changed much is the management of bands and recording contracts which seem pretty much the same really There are still labels that take on an artist and nurture them, just as there are still labels that sign acts for the quick buck, same with management; good management is paramount.

“My advice for anyone embarking on a musical career today would be to carry condoms as parenthood can seriously mess up your career, and buy a duffel coat. It doubles as a pillow or sleeping bag and comes in handy when your van breaks down at 3.30 in the morning 15 miles south of Carlisle! Seriously though, make all your mistakes when you’re young, and learn.”

See more about Horace at www.H oracepanterart.com

VErbAls ANd VisuAls: BrIaN KraMEr the increDiblejourney oF brian kramer continues, as he heaDs DeePer into siberia in search oF Decent voDka anD quality blues music

APRIL 4th

We are now off to Nizhny Novgorod to share the bill with acoustic Blues man Robert Lighthouse at the club; Jam Prestige. It’s a good five hour drive but that was to be expected. Robert is no stranger to these parts. He is also a native of Sweden, but built most of his early career throughout the States and Washington. Lighthouse is a gifted picker, slider and exponent of the “Dr. Ross” one man band style. He’s played all over Russia and Siberia so many times he speaks some of the language and according to Eugene is just about the only

artist he books here who can successfully get around the region on his own. Eugene is taking good care of us, making sure our needs are all met and the food in Russia is real good.

I grew up in an area of Brooklyn called Little Odessa in Brighton Beach, so I am no stranger to borscht (red beet soup) pirogues and latkes. The club; Jam Prestige is packed as Robert takes the first set with his smooth, seductive blues drawl and hypnotic picking, he gives the crowd every bit a blues experience steeped deeply in the delta..

After a short break Bert and I

take the stage and bond instantly. We both know Robert Lighthouse from back in Sweden and invite him up to join us for a few songs to close out our set, which really gets the room rocking!

Directly after the show, we need to hurry to catch an overnight train back to Moscow for an early flight to Yekaterinburg for the big URAL Blues Festival. Now Bert and I are not big drinkers these days (though I’ve certainly had my share) and like to keep in focused and professional on the road. However Eugene and Robert are old buddies and used to this path, so they’ve already got a bit of a head start. After a short

MaIN Shot: RoBERt lIghthouSE aNd BERt dEIvERt oN StagE. INSEt Shot: BRIaN aNd BERt gEt REadY to plaY thE BluES

delay of locating the missing train tickets, we board and find our sleeping cars.

Bert is zonked out and wants call it a night so he can be alert for the festival tomorrow. I decide to join the guys for a quick night cap in the train bar to finally engage in some social time without having to deal with hours of driving, setting up, breaking down and crashing in a hotel. Here I learn it’s not just the Vodka that starts to emerge in abundance, but also equally important is the ritual of ordering a plate of small pieces of potatoes and slightly warmed herring. I soon learned that after you kick back a shot, the potato and bit of herring must follow. It’s just the way it’s done.

Before you know it; more vodka and all hope of trying to stumble back and find your sleeping car is lost. I slipped away while Eugene and Robert senselessly argued with the bartender about negotiating the bill, refusing to pay what was handed them. I left a stack of rubles on the table from CD sales of the previous show which somehow it disappeared in the confusion.

We were awoken to a very hung-over Eugene in the morning; “Robert is missing”

I urged; “Missing? How do you know?” Eugene replies; “His shoes are here but he was not in his bunk when I awoke...” After some frantic pacing up and down the train, finally Robert emerges, barefoot, long hair frazzled, cigarette dangling from his lip, looking very beaten and hung over. Apparently at some point in the night he wandered for a smoke between train cars but wound up on the wrong side of the restaurant car and was unintentionally

locked outside the train where he remained, stuck throughout the night. Bert and I were beginning to look more than a little concerned.

APRIL 5th And 6th

“Where is whisky bar?” Eugene hoarsely inquired. Robert slurred in “whisky bar!” Everybody then simultaneously, horribly off-pitch, sang a verse of the familiar Doors tune; “Oh show me the way to the next whisky bar. Oh, don’t ask why, oh, don’t ask why”. Eugene had loosely told us it would be a fifteen minute trip through the Moscow Metro, because Moscow traffic was impossible and through the metro was the only way to go. However, thirty five minutes later dragging two guitars in hard cases and a large suitcase up and down, over and under, dodging people and dragging our stuff through countless metal detectors that served absolutely no purpose what-so-ever. They beeped as you walked through and some half asleep, uniformed semi-official, rent-a-kozmonov-cop with a big hat would lazily wave you through, barely looking in your direction.

Exiting the train, we only had a short time to check our baggage in but Eugene and Robert had somehow misplaced their shuttle train tickets, which he had urged us not to lose track of because you cannot exit the platform without them. He pleaded and argued with the gate agent to no avail and resigned himself to purchase two more tickets to get out. We slumped into our seats of the express train from Moscow toward the airport to Yekaterinburg, just making it with minutes to spare. Eugene’s hand then reaches into his pocket and

magically produces the missing tickets. That done, we quickly picked up the pace again with Eugene way in the lead. We all followed him through a revolving door that apparently in Russian urges us not to enter with a sign pointing to another useless security check. A security guard quickly snapped into action as four or five people started whizzing past him, unsecurity-checked. His radar honed in on Eugene, following closely behind, urgently muttering into his walkie-talkie rotating and looking all about as he trailed behind a staunch Eugene who never once looked back and just didn’t seem to give a f*ck.

As we reached the flight desk and all produced our passports to get checked in, Eugene was suddenly in the shadow of six Russian military security guards equipped with AK-47s and very much the Dolph Lundgren stereotype’s that you’ve seen in all those cheesy action films of the 1980’s.

They barely said a word when Eugene started jutting his bony finger at them, angrily reprimanding them in thick, intense Russian. He then handed all our passports to a very hung over and bewildered Robert saying; “You check in, I back in five minutes” and off he went, strutting ahead of the military men without any regard. Robert stood there holding the passports still in his stretched out arm looking very confused and I gave Burt a glance that basically said “that’s it we’re fucked” But before we could take another step, there was Eugene waltzing back over, grabbing our passports back simply saying “OK, we go now... Where is Whisky bar?”

Robert snickers; “whisky bar...”

Everybody sings “Oh show me the way to the next whisky bar. Oh don’t ask why.”

tH e r oad to Siberia continue S in tH e next i SS ue i SS ue S o pack your bag and be ready...

wILL wILde

will wildE, multi aWar D nominate D blues har P Player recently release D his secon D album, raW blues. WilDe starte D

PlayinG the blues at 16 an D creates a soun D Which is both stee Pe D in blues heritaG e an D ForWar D thinkinG

01

soNNY BoY WIllIAMsoN

Help Me

This was the song that ultimately made me want to be a harmonica player, which is why I have listed it as my number one. This record speaks to me. It’s got a cool groove and a mean bite. Sonny Boy’s voice and harp playing are distinctive. His harp has a voice all of its own. This song has been covered a lot; Canned Heat, Van Morrison and Bacon Fat’s versions are among my favourites, but nothing compares to the original Sonny Boy version.

02

luRRIE BEll

SMokin’ DynaMite

This song was originally a Buddy Guy tune titled A Man and the Blues but Lurrie Bell recorded it as Smokin’ Dynamite. This is without a doubt my favourite blues guitar track of all time. His guitar style is raw here but every note feels heartfelt and powerful. His voice is soulful and cuts you to the bone. When he says, “What can a poor man do, when the blues keep following him around” we know that Bell has lived what he sings. He battled personal demons for years, ending up homeless. At one point in his career Lurrie Bell didn’t even own a guitar. But he still found his way into blues clubs at night to play alongside his peers and became one of Chicago’s top blues guitarists. He cuts loose in this song and it sends shivers down my spine. If you haven’t heard this track before I urge you to do so, you won’t be disappointed.

03 JoHN lEE HooKER

Boogie at RuSSian Hill

Boogie at Russian Hill is more or less an instrumental track featuring Albert Collins on lead guitar, with John Lee ad-libbing over the top. The song stays on one chord without changing for the full four and a half minutes, and yet at the end you still

leave wanting more! I would imagine this was just a jam, thrown together at the last minute (Russian Hill is the name of the studio in San Fransisco where it was recorded) but in my opinion it is one of the most exciting pieces of music ever committed to tape. The band all flow together as one, you can’t help but move to it, the groove is relentless.

04

JIMMY RoGERs

Walkin’

By MySelf

This has always been a favourite of mine. It’s got that South Side Chicago blues sound but its catchy chorus is what sets it apart. Rogers is probably best known as Muddy Water’s sideman guitarist, but I think he’s often overlooked as a singer and songwriter in his own right. He had his first success as a solo artist with Chess Records in 1950, with That’s All Right, but he stayed with Muddy until 1954. Walkin’ By Myself was his biggest hit. Apparently Good Rockin’ Charles was originally booked to play harmonica on the recording but was replaced last minute by Big Walter Horton. Walter’s solo in this is one of my favourite harp solos of all time. It’s unrelenting from start to finish with huge tone and a big distorted sound. It’s a good job Good Rockin’ Charles didn’t show up because Walter nailed it!

05 FlEETWooD MAC

SoMetHing inSiDe of Me

Most of the blues I listen to tends to be from across the pond, but if you do find me listening to British blues, it will most likely be Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. This particular track was written and fronted by Danny Kirwan on vocals and lead guitar. I am a big Peter Green fan but I also love Kirwan’s playing. It amazes me that he isn’t talked about more amongst guitar players. He had a unique style and the most incredible vibrato I’ve ever heard. Peter Green once said in an interview that “Danny was so into it that

he cried as he played”. This doesn’t surprise me; his playing on Something Inside of Me is truly transcendent. Kirwan didn’t have a typical soulful blues voice, but he still made it work in his own way. During the late 70’s Kirwan’s mental health deteriorated. He finally snapped over an argument about guitar tuning, smashing his beloved Les Paul against a wall and getting fired from the band. He ended up destitute, living on the streets, in hostels and mental wards. He was the flame that burned too bright and flickered out, but Something... shows Kirwan at his best.

06 BuDDY GuY

SMell a Rat

This is a Buddy Guy track from 1979. The track lasts for nine and a half minutes and features two blistering guitar solos with sudden drops from loud to soft. His playing here is Ferocious; it sounds like he’s having a fight with his guitar. You hear him grunting and snarling between phrases as he prepares to unleash his next attack on the fret board. Guy sings with gentle menace throughout, he is a master of tension and release. This song inspired the track Paranoia on my new album, Raw Blues

07 EARl THoMAs

SoulSHine

It was hard for me to decide which Earl Thomas track to choose for this list, as I love them all. I recently recorded Earl’s song Get Me Some for my new album. The Soulshine album and See It My Way , with Paddy Milner and the Big Sounds are two of my favourite contemporary blues/soul records. Earl’s voice is the perfect blend of blues, soul and gospel and I think he’s one of the best singers of his generation. Soulshine was originally composed by Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers Band, but Earl took it and made it his own. It’s a simple song with a beautiful sentiment that everyone can relate to. I was lucky enough to sing it with Earl and Sista Monica on the 2012 Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise.

08 GARY ClARK

BRigHt ligHtS

Gary Clark’s Bright Lights a great contemporary blues song. The sound is noise-soaked, psychedelic and shape-shifting, with the guitar owing as much to Kurt Cobain as Buddy Guy, and all held together by a big fat hip hop beat. Clark sings, “Ended up with the bottle, taking shots, waiting on tomorrow, trying to fill up what’s hollow,” over a snarling distorted groove, confessing his intoxication with “bright

lights, big city” like Jimmy Reed did before him. He’s the first of the younger generation of 21st century blues men that’s really got me excited.

09 sAM CooKE

tRouBle in MinD

Trouble in Mind is a slow eight-bar_blues song written by jazz pianist_Richard M. Jones. The song became an early blues standard, with versions by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Big Bill Broonzy, Dinah Washington and Nina Simone. Sam recorded a great version in 1961 as a swinging blues with an orchestral accompaniment for his album My Kind of Blues . Sam Cooke is my favourite singer. He could be singing the phone book and he’d still sound great. His voice soars like a homesick angel and takes all your troubles with it. I love his melisma; his trademark “Woa-oa-oa-oa-oah”, he always had complete control, his voice was perfect.

10

lITTlE WAlTER

JuSt youR fool

As a harmonica player, I couldn’t write a top ten list without including a Little Walter tune. As Charlie Parker is to saxophone and Hendrix is to guitar, Little Walter is to the harmonica.

He was a pioneer, pushing the instrument to its very limits; wringing it out for everything it could give. His daring instrumental innovations were fresh, in your face, and ahead of their time. Blues harmonica wouldn’t be what it is today without little Walter because he changed people’s expectations of what is possible from the instrument. Just Your Fool was first recorded by bandleader/pianist Buddy Johnson in 1953. Little Walter recorded a Chicago blues adaptation of the song in 1960. This song swings like the clappers, with Walter on top form.

wIll wIldE at woRK

ResonatoR GuitaRs oR, GIMMe the do... BRo!

no, not a muGG er’s comman D to han D over your har Dearne D sPon Doolix, just a kitchat Devote D to the steel, brass an D WooD boDie D monsters an D their maestros

first evidence of a resonator style guitar containing it’s own amplifying metal cones dates back to the USA in the 1920s, when a man named John Dopyera, an immigrant of Slovakian extraction, responded to a request from a renowned player of the lap steel guitar (George Beauchamp) to build such an instrument. A metal bodied Tricone was built to order by Dopyera and together the two men formed a business known as The National String Instrument Corporation, the guitars to bear the name ‘National’.

By the end of that decade Dopyera had left National to set up his own company with one of his four brothers, called The Dobro Manufacturing Co., in order to produce the original wooden bodied, metal coned Dobro instrument that he and brother Rudy had been working on outside

of their commitments with National. This was because there existed disagreements within the National business, which retained sole rights and patents relating to the original metal bodied guitars.

Those among you of an enquiring nature will, no doubt, have sussed that the name Dobro was the derivative,truncated version of the full family title, but it also translates as good in Slovakian. The individual brothers were, residentially, spread far and wide across the USA, and this helped immensely in generating a rapid growth of interest in, and sales of, the novelty value of the new instruments, notwithstanding that three of the Dopyera brothers remained connected with National, who were, however, still the market leaders in cone amplified guitars as they remain today. Below is an advertisement that appeared on page 785 of the Sears Roebuck

catalogue in the early 1930s showing a selection of the instruments.

Interestingly, two variations of each instrument were offered as either Spanish or Hawaiian, being respectively round or square-necked models, as they are called today. More on this later. Refreshingly, the Duolian model was offered at a [for then] walletbending $35 – twenty quid‘ish to you my son in British currency. Checking on today’s list pricing for a new NRP 12 (the current equivalent of a 1930s Duolian) we are distraught to have to cough up $2,700 – still well over two grand in Sterling! I spotted the pic below of the late, great Rory Gallagher’s 1932 Duolian to give you an idea of the model type. Heaven only knows what that baby would fetch on the open market today!

Historically, there is a very strong connection with the birth of the Dobro (as almost all resonators irrespective of actual brand and/ or model are generically known in the USA) and the Hawaiian lap steel guitars. As mentioned above

the guitars sold by National were offered in two neck types – round or square. The former being for conventional style guitar playing, i.e. strapped on around the body. The latter being played laying flat on the lap, usually in a seated position. This lap/square necked style later became favoured by the country musicians of the day, who adapted a method of playing the guitar in horizontal mode while still standing. The players of this genre also favoured the Dobro wooden bodied models over the heavier metal bodied versions, not just on the basis of less weight to tote, but also for the very sweet slightly nasal tone of the Dobro. This is caused by the difference in the seating of the cone (in the wooden Dobro, the convex of the cone faces downwards, the opposite of the single cone metal bodied National Instrument range). Also a different bridge system is used, Dobros using ‘Spider’ style bridges, against the ‘biscuit’ style of the single-cone Nationals.

The round neck had some degree of flexibility over the square neck as it can be played in conventional flat picking, strumming style, finger style or slide style combined. The square neck/lap style is strictly a slide instrument, being actually played with a metal bar and usually metal finger picks – that is to say that the strings are not fretted in lap style as they have a very high action (too high above the fingerboard). I find that trying to play true country Dobro style is a challenging task as different techniques are required to be able to play quickly and with fluidity.

tunInG uP

Tuning a Dobro varies a little, although the Bluegrass players tend to invariably play in open G tuning (GBDGBD) as this coincides with five string banjo

tuning – both instruments being difficult enough to play without being tuned differently from each other! Blues players also tend to favour either open G or open D (DADF#AD) – Robert Johnson notably being a G man, sometimes capo’d up a tone to open A. One of our generation’s true masters of this style of playing is Jerry Douglas. Check out the recommended discographies at the end of the article.

Back to the story though and while still in the 30s – 1932 was the year that National introduced the ‘biscuit’-bridged single cone (wooden bodied) resonator, which apparently came about as a result of the great depression in America –with the whole nation suffering financially National were forced into reacting to market conditions

to make a more affordable model available, as their prime product was still the metal-bodied and very expensive Tricone. Such was the severity of the depression however, the company continued to suffer from falling sales.

The Dobro Company, however, seemed to buck this trend, and sales continued apace by virtue of a number of trading agreements being realised where Dobro joined forces with such names as Regal , Radiotone and several others supplying their less expensive wooden-bodied models for rebranding by the various partnership ventures. In the latter part of 1932 Regal from Chicago were formally licensed by Dobro in order to produce guitars under

both names of Dobro and Regal, which they did in great numbers and also carrying brand names such as Kraftsman and Melobro, plus the aforementioned Radiotone National String Instrument Company’s fortunes worsened severely during this period – to such an extent that the Dopyera family – (still at that time financial investors in National) acquired a majority holding – merging the two companies under the title of National Dobro Corporation. Matters continued to worsen further for the National side of the business as aluminium (and most other metals) used in manufacturing was diverted for the nation’s war efforts.

Growth of the business was based on manufacture and sales of wood bodied instruments for the wartime years under the name of Valco. In 1959 Dopyera recommenced metal bodied resonator manufacturing and was bought out by Mosrite who then went broke in 1969, whereupon Dopyeras regained the brand names – resuming business under the mantle of OMI (Original

Music Company) until acquisition of the Dobro brand by Gibson in 1988, where it remains today. Phew! – Some serious Phoenix type activities going on here folks. Those of you wanting more history about these wonderful instruments could well be interested in a book by Bob Brozman, called The History and Artistry of National Resonator Instruments, from Center Steam Publishing.

Bob is a well known master of the steel bodied babies and is much plugged on You Tube, playing and proffering instruction in the dark arts of handling same – check him out. There are nowadays many other manufacturers including resonators in their portfolio, with Gretsch recently representing the Fender brand. Michael Messer (well known friend of BM and no mean reso player himself) offers a couple of very good single-cone models.

A site well worth a visit is Dave King Guitars You Tube website which actively demonstrates the variation in sounds available from different models as well as being a prime UK dealer for the National range of instruments.

For the beginner who may want to have a go without the need for a second mortgage there are plenty of decent, quality, entry-level resonators on the market these days – the wooden-bodied Dobro style being especially accessible.

From a Country Blues perspective, have a look and listen to Catfish Keith who is a great current day exponent – especially with the spectacular National baritone version of the resonator.

I have had the pleasure of seeing Keith a number of times and taking part in his workshops for guitarists – highly recommended if he is gigging in your area any time (I believe Keith also retails the National range himself).

Just a few names of blues guitarists past and present worth checking out include: Blind Willie Johnson, Tampa Red, Blind Boy Fuller, Bukka White, Son House, Charlie Patton, Leadbelly, Buddy Woods, Robert Johnson (the best?) Roy Rogers, etc.

For Bluegrass check out Jerry Douglas (The Man!), Josh Graves (father of Bluegrass Dobro), Bashful Brother Oswald (Yes! True), Tut Taylor, Cindy Cashdollar and many more.

For some modern-day players of both lap and conventional slide style checkout Kelly Joe Phelps, Ben Harper and the late RoryGallagher

Lots of stuff on You Tube featuring Mike Dowling: official demonstrator for National who is featured alongside Catfish Keith, Doug McLeod and Bob Brozman in a 90 minute 2012 documentary called Resonate 2008. Have fun trawling some of this stuff, there’s a lot out there. I’m off to debride the skin off my fingertips with my lovely, lovely National Delphi.

n ow turn to page 90 for eveb more r e S onator magic.

EaRlY ’30S SEaRS RoEBuCK CataloguE

aDaM sWeet

VE rb A ls: KI r STEN r E y NO l DS

emerGinG From a backGrounD oF the classic rock anD blues oF the 60s anD 70s, aDam beGan PerForminG as a Guitarist at the tenDer aGe oF 15, aPPearinG reGularly at venues arounD his hometoWn in the south West oF enGlanD

I‘’ve had the pleasure of Adam opening for me, sharing the stage with me and drinkin’ whisky and playin’ the blues till four am in a lock-in with me. Each time he’s been a great musician to work with’ – fellow blues man Marcus Bonfanti told us after a show with Adam Sweet, describing him as a performer with ‘great guitar skills & vocals and a real good entertainer too...’

Emerging from a background of the Classic Rock and Blues of the 60s and 70s, Adam began performing as a guitarist at the tender age of 15, appearing regularly at venues around his hometown in the South

West of England. Adam has since honed his craft through continually performing with various bands over the last 10 years, and, with this experience, is now successfully carving out a solo career.

Since signing to independent Devon-based label NEO Music in 2012, Adam’s profile has been raised to a new level. Starting with the release of his debut live EP, I Work Alone , Adam has made his mark at some high-profile festivals, completed a successful tour of Scotland and received a nomination for ‘Best Blues Act’ at the South West Music Awards.

After a year of co-writing new material with awardwinning stalwart singer/songwriter Steve Black, and recording with producer Alan West at NEO Music in Devon and Thomm Jutz at his Nashville studio, Adam’s debut, Small Town Thinking , is due for release this winter.

Adam’s unique and engaging Blues/Rock/Roots fusion is wonderfully encapsulated in this collection of brand new, exceptionally well-crafted songs. With textured arrangements, skillful, expressive guitar playing, strong hooks and powerful instrumentation, this album demonstrates perfectly Adam’s maturity and integrity as a performer and recording artist. With grooves nailed down by Lynn Williams (Delbert McClinton’s drummer of 17 years) and some tasteful embellishments that include an emotive piece of cello playing from David Henry (Gretchen Peters, Tony Joe White), expect an album of deep rooted story telling, giving a nod to a classic era, but with an explosive rootsy edge that always has Adam’s driving guitar style at it’s core.

‘I’m very proud at what we have achieved with this first record. We’ve worked real hard at the studio here in Devon, and with the help of Thomm in Nashville we’ve created an album that I didn’t think was possible when we started laying the first tracks down. I feel very privileged to have worked with some great people on this album, and I can’t wait to get it out there and start taking these songs on the road to new audiences next year.’

v i S it www.adam SweetmuS ic.com for newS, live date S and to order tH e new cd, i work alone

Paul GaRneR

the Paul Garner banD have been toGether For seven years. We recorDeD our First album, What colour Will you see, in 2009 anD it receiveD some rave revieWs, With blues matters at the time PraisinG our ‘increDible maturity, With a unique anD aPProach

then we have the awesome talents of Jason Ribeiro on drums and Claudio Corona on organ, with Claudio’s left hand dexterously covering the bass duties. Basically we’re a ues-rock trio, albeit a ‘unique and refreshing’ kind of one, and definitely more on the blues side of the fence. Traditional blues is what I grew up listening to, the whole spectrum from Mississippi, Memphis, Chicago through to my favourite contemporary blues guitarists like Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray and Ronnie Earl. But really it was Hendrix that made me want to play guitar, since I was six or seven. Then alongside of that I love great songwriters like Waits, Dylan and John Hiatt.

Whether we’re doing our own songs or covers, really what we do is to try and put those things together in a new way, mixing elements of the early

blues roots with contemporary influences and all with our original spin on it. I call our style ‘progressive blues’. We released our second album, 3 Get Ready in 2012. Since then we’ve done our first couple of tours in Europe, including main stage at Horsens Bluesfestival in Denmark (they’ve asked us back again this year), and venues in Holland, Germany, Belgium and Poland. We’ve had such a good response everywhere, it’s been very encouraging. This year we’re playing the Shetlands Blues Festival, also dates in Portsmouth, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Rochester, as well as Belgium and Sweden. It feels like things are really taking off for the band and we hope to do more festivals in the UK next year. See you at a gig real soon!

f or tH e late St new S on tH e paul g arner b and vi S it: www.paulgarner.com, or go to: www.facebook.com/paulgarnerband

Visu A ls: C O ll EEN Ma U r ICE

eiliDh McKellaR

‘she’s nineteen years olD’ Was once Famously sunG by m uDDy Waters. he miGht Well have been sinGinG about the talenteD Guitarist, scottish born eiliDh mckellar. eiliDh (PronounceD ay lay) has been makinG PeoPle sit uP anD take note in Guest aPPearances With joe bonamassa. her Debut album is Due in 2014

Idon’t know why I wanted to play the guitar or what got me interested. Maybe it was my primary three school teacher who would bring his guitar into school everyday? Or was it from watching bands perform on Top Of The Pops every weekend? No one in my family plays an instrument, so it was unknown territory for my parents.

I had my first guitar lesson when I was 9 years old. Immediately I fell in love with the instrument. Everyday I would spend my time searching for new music to jam to.

I first heard the blues listening to my dad’s Rolling Stones collection. From there I discovered the likes of Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton, through my own studious research. This led me to rock music. I remember my dad buying me Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix tab books when I was ten. I would sit and work my way through each song, scrutinizing every one of their licks. During my high school years my musical ears were broadened. I played in a number of school bands, we would play rock, baroque, classical, prog rock and jazz music. I never even considered it an option to become a musician, I never thought I was good enough. It wasn’t until I uploaded my first video to YouTube that I realised that it was possibility. In 2011 I received an email from a guitar hero of mine, Joe Bonamassa. He invited me to join him on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. His dad had shown him a video I had uploaded, covering his song ‘Blues Deluxe’. Since then it has been a whirlwind! I have had the honour of guesting with Joe Bonamassa twice more at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2012 and this year at the Manchester Arena.

In 2012 I also met my manager, Guy Eckstine, who has produced many Grammy winning records. Guy asked if I could sing, I told him that ‘I hadn’t ever tried’ and so in the past year I have started singing and written a lot of songs. In April I flew out to Los Angeles, California to record my debut album Delta Devil Dreams, which to date has been one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

I am 19 years old and currently in my final year at

Leeds College of Music. I am now a singer/songwriter and guitarist. I just released my first ever single and music video for the lead track, ‘Summer Daze’ from my album. This was exclusively premiered on Guitar World.com. At the moment I’m rehearsing with my band getting ready to hit the road. I want to make an impact on the music industry with my Indie Rock/ Pop, Blues style. You can visit my web page: www. eilidhmckellar.com, or my Facebook fan page for upcoming events.

Summer daze i S available now from itune S

frAnk BegAn to explore the lInk

Between Blues And gospel

FRanK suMMeRs

it Was the GiFt oF a battereD olD Portable recorD Player that First brouGht the younG Frank summers to the blues. it came With some 45s. one oF them Was lonnie DoneGan’s cover oF leaDbelly’s rock islanD line

the B-side, John Henry , was both powerful and disturbing. The ballad of a man winning a race against a steam drill, only to die with his hammer in his hand left a deep impression on young Frank. After that, the next big influence was Howling Wolf. Then in 1972, Frank bought The Great Blues Men a double album on the Vanguard label. The cover alone was worth the price. This was the first time he heard the likes of Rev. Gary Davis, Son House, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell and Mance Lipscomb. It’s still his favourite compilation.

Soon after, Frank started playing the acoustic guitar and began to explore the link between blues and gospel. Some musicians such as Lipscomb and Rev. Davis were able to reconcile playing ‘the devil’s music’ with their beliefs. Others struggled to do so. It’s

this tension that informs much of Frank’s song writing. This mixes the sacred and profane, from blues into folk, ragtime and country and back again. He follows the songster tradition that pre-dated the blues and then ran parallel with it. Much of his material is about coming to terms with mortality; and he covers biblical themes in many of his songs. Johnny Cash is one of his influences; especially his last recordings. Another is Elizabeth Cotton.

Frank made his London début at the 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street and has appeared at Birmingham’s Tower of Song. While playing clubs and festivals he has warmed the stage for several blues and folk luminaries over the years; including Steve Gibbons, Martin Carthy and Martin Simpson.

for tH e late St new S on f rank, go to www.frank S ummer S mu S ic.com

the RoaD-KinGs

a ban D that is belove D oF bikers an D contains a b lues b rother is about to be on the roaD aGain. m eet the roaD-kinGs

december will see a return to the live performing blues scene by the Road-Kings, a band that hasn’t performed for some time after they released their debut album, Dust And Gasoline. That album, firmly planted in the Blues-Rock and Southern Rock traditions, was almost literally fuelled by gasoline, gasoline poured into Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It was a love for these vehicles and the free spirit that riding them echoes that underpinned songs such as Fat Boy Blues and Turn It Up. So too the appearance of the motorbikes in their videos (see You Tube).

In turn, the band went on to play many high profile gigs in the specialist Harley bikers concert circuit. These boys from Birmingham are led by vocalist Brad Henshaw, who has spent several years, and his RoadKings down time, as ‘Joliet Jake’ Blues in the Dan Aykroyd and Judith Belushi licensed Blues Brothers Approved theatre show. This is one of only two shows with that distinction in the world.

As this article is being written, Brad is also

promoting a Rock-orchestral debut with his Rock Symphoneque project, which gives him, also an actor, a particularly complex life, even for a musician. Still, Brad’s blues blood runs strong. He talks passionately about his experiences as a Blues Brother, which have included stage appearances with Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear in Starsky and Hutch). More significantly for Blues audiences, Brad has appeared at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago on stage with the man himself, who commented, “Brad, there’s a story in your voice that everyone should hear, man.” So, if there is one reason to look out the Road-Kings debut album, and look forward to the near-complete follow-up album, that is it. The new album continues in the musical spirit of the first, but some of the new songs are a departure.

2014 should see a Road-Kings tour in support of their new release.

f or tH e late St new S on tH e road-king S, c H eck out www.tH eroadking S.co.uk

TT

Norther N Ir I sh blues faN s are curre Ntly g I ddy w Ith exc Iteme Nt because the cou Ntry’s greatest aN d most adm I red blues mus I c IaN, gu Itar I st r o NNI e g reer, whose playIN g d I stIN ctI vely ble N ds c h I cago blues w Ith bebop jazz, has fINally, at the age of 62, released h I s debut stud I o album, a lIfetIme wIth the blues

V E rb A ls: Trevor Hodge

Visu A ls: Ken Haddoc K

nd the album is, in Belfast parlance, a cracker. Greer, who made his name with the locally legendary Jim Daly Blues Band, who for decades accompanied the likes of Lowell Fulson, Fenton Robinson and Dr. John on their Irish gigs, is, understandably, delighted with the album. ‘What satisfies me most is the diversity of styles within the general blues context,’ he muses. ‘I’ve tried to reflect the influences I’ve had over the years – I’m a very big fan of the modern jazz recorded on labels like Blue Note, Contemporary and Prestige in the fifties and sixties, for example – and there’s great playing on it from the likes of [Grainne Duffy keyboard player] John McCullough and on the jazzier side of things [sometime Van Morrison trumpeter] Linley Hamilton, and some lovely slide playing from Anthony Toner. Plus, of course, the Chicago thing which I’m probably best known for.’

Greer’s soloing on the album is thrilling. ‘The solos are totally improvised,’ he says. ‘I work virtually nothing out in advance. If something happens that’s slightly unexpected or a bit off-the-wall on a tune I turn that to my advantage because I respond to it and that happens frequently.’

‘We more-or-less winged the whole album,’ he elaborates.‘That’s the essence of all the great blues men. Certainly with all the great Chicago and Texas musicians I’ve played with, nobody seemed to know what was going to happen until they got on the bandstand. It was the same with the Jim Daly band. If we had some big gig coming up, with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee or Memphis Slim or whatever, we would go to Jim’s house and rehearse a set. Then, on the night, depending on what way Jim was feeling, the music would just speak for itself and take its own course. So, with the album, we just let it flow and tried to make it sound like what you would hear when you hear the band live, in all its different forms, from the quartet up to the eight piece band.’

In fact, one track, Baby Won’t You Please Come Home, is actually played as a duo, with Linley Hamilton on trumpet. ‘It’s an old standard, written in, I think, 1919 by Clarence Williams,’ says Greer. ‘I think Linley’s the best musician in the country on any instrument. I have the utmost respect for him, for his enthusiasm and for his quest to improve his

own playing and I thought it would be nice to feature him on a tune like that, playing that straight-ahead, Louis Armstrong kind of trumpet. And also it would show off that side of my musicality which I don’t really get a chance to do much in the Ronnie Greer Blues Band situation.’

Greer is increasingly gigging in jazz contexts and regards Hamilton as an inspiration. ‘He’s been a big influence on me and I’ve got a lot to thank him for,’ he says. ‘He’s constantly pushing me in directions that I don’t personally believe I can go in, but he believes I can. And playing in the jazz field is improving my playing tremendously and I want to keep on improving.’

Greer’s guests on the album include Ken Haddock, who sings Keb’ Mo’s Dangerous Mood, and Kyron Bourke, who sings his own, stunning Jennifer.‘Ken’s a great photographer and took the photographs for the album,’ says Greer.‘And after the photographic session he sat and played You Send Me and Somewhere Over The Rainbow and just blew me away. So I said, “Ken, you’re going to have to get on the album.” I think his voice is just stupendous and he deserves much more recognition.

‘And Kyron has a wonderful, cool, almost New York jazz feel. He’s a massive talent, a kind of singer-songwriter-musician in the Tom Waits meets Leonard Cohen mode. He has a very expressive voice, very clever lyrics and some very nice chord sequences in his tunes. The jazzy nuance he has to his songwriting suits my guitar playing to a T, of course.’

But the best known guest is probably Grainne Duffy who sings Will Jennings’ Never Make Your Move Too Soon

‘Grainne is one of the finest talents that we have,’says Greer. ‘She has a great smoky, emotional voice and is a lovely interpreter. I see a lot of potential in Grainne and I’ve been trying to encourage her to push herself more in directions she probably never thought of, such as listening to all the jazz greats like Carmen McCrae, Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan, and she’s now beginning to take that on board. In fact the last gig we did together she did [Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer’s jazz standard] Come Rain Or Come Shine. And of course she’s trying to get me interested in the Rolling Stones and Bob

Dylan, so it works both ways!’

Indeed the album includes a version of Dylan’s Blind Willie McTell, sung by band slide guitarist Anthony Toner, who, in a parallel career, is regarded as Northern Ireland’s most interesting and literate singer-songwriter. ‘I wasn’t really a Dylan fan,’ admits Greer. ‘I’m not someone who is so interested in the lyrics of songs. I’m more interested in the musicality. But Grainne has educated me. She gave me a couple of great Dylan albums and I got the message.’

Despite the eminence of the guests, however, some of the greatest playing on the album comes from Greer’s core band, including keyboard player and producer John McCullough. ‘John’s contribution to the album is absolutely immeasurable,’ enthuses Greer. ‘I think his playing is tremendous. The late, great Jim Daly is irreplaceable here, but John’s the closest we’re ever going to get and that’s as high a compliment as I can pay him.’

“[Bassist] Alan Hunter and [drummer] Colm Fitzpatrick are the best rhythm section in the country. They lock in to a groove and they never overplay – they just play exactly what’s required. Alan’s absolutely brilliant, steady as a rock, and Colm can not only

rock very nicely but also swing and very few players can do both.”

The album includes Greer’s songwriting debut, Goin’ Down To Clarksdale. “I’ve tried many times before to write a song but every time it’s finished up as one that’s already been written,’ he admits. ‘But I played about with this theme. It’s a basic twelve bar blues but it’s almost like two songs because the first part is talking about where the blues began and namechecking some of my favourite players [including Johnny Shines and Otis Spann] and then after the solos I start preaching about what the blues is all about. It’s a heartfelt thing about how I feel about the music.”

In his liner notes for the album Greer acknowledges some of his favourite musicians, including guitarists Ronnie Earl, Robben Ford and Larry Carlton. “With Ronnie Earl it’s quite simply the overwhelming, pure, raw emotion that he puts into his playing,’ he says. ‘There’s nobody does it any better. He plays the guitar like his heart and soul depend on it and he has a wonderful feel and a wonderful tone. And Robben Ford and Larry Carlton not only for the emotion they put into their playing

Ronnie GReeR: blues foR life

but for the amazing technical ability they both have which is head and shoulders above anybody else and which we all crave and try to emulate as best we can.”

The album is dedicated, amongst others, to Ottilie Patterson, who, as singer with Chris Barber’s Jazz Band in the fifties and sixties, was a pioneer of European blues singing, and Greer’s old boss Jim Daly. ‘I worked with Ottilie over the years, mainly with the Jim Daly Blues Band and she used to ring me up late at night and be on the phone for two hours talking about the blues and she’d actually play the piano down the phone to me. I had a fondness for her. She just had the blues in her soul.

“Jim Daly was the father of the blues here. We’ve all got a lot to thank him for. There has never been anybody like him before and never will be again.”

Like Van Morrison, like Rory Gallagher and like so many Irish musicians, early in his career Greer actually played in a showband, showbands being groups who played the Irish ballroom circuit, copying the hits and putting on a show, with no interest in musical creativity. “I was very fortunate because the very first band that I played in was the Secrets showband in Newcastle, Co. Down and most of them were quite a bit older than me,’ he says.‘This would have been in the mid-60s and I was still listening to people like the Beatles and the Hollies. But these guys were turning me on to people like Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins and so on, and on the jazz side to people like Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson and Lester Young. I was very fortunate. I had the normal influences that most people that age do, but I also had these older guys who had another form of music that otherwise I may never have been exposed to.”

Greer went on to work with the Jim Daly Blues Band through the seventies and eighties. After that band split he formed Blues Experience with bassist Jackie Flavelle (currently with the Big Chris Barber Band) and harmonica player Bill Miskimmin (currently with Mercy Lounge, after stints

with Nine Below Zero and the Yardbirds) and then the Kenny McDowell/Ronnie Greer Band. McDowell,an extraordinary singer,had, back in the sixties,replaced Van Morrison in Them. The band released a wonderful live album, Live At The Island, in 2004. “We were very aware of the engineer sitting at the side of the stage so we were a bit tentative but when you do a live album you just have to take it, warts and all, and there are some good moments,’ recalls Greer modestly of the album ‘I think Kenny’s work on Sweet Little Angel is a good representation of how great a singer he is. He sings every note as if his life depends on it. He’s consistently brilliant, the best vocalist we’ve had in these parts in that blues rock style.”

The McDowell/Greer band sundered in 2007. “Kenny expressed discomfort with the way my musical ideas were moving and I then suggested it might be a good idea to call it quits,’ remembers Greer. ‘He put up no opposition which made me think I had made the right decision. It was the old musical differences cliché.”

Greer subsequently put together his current band leading, after six years, to A Lifetime With The Blues. He believes that the album title speaks for itself. ‘It’s self-explanatory because I’ve been listening to and playing the blues since I was fourteen,’ he says.

But more intriguingly, why on earth did it take such a phenomenal player until his sixties before he released a studio album? ‘Well, I was sales director in a steel stockholding company,’ he says. ‘I quite simply didn’t have time. When I took early retirement from my day job last year the first thing on the agenda was to make the album which people like Grainne Duffy had always been very keen for me to do and were pushing me towards.

“It’s a labour of love. All I wanted to do was to document what the music means to me and have it there for posterity and I hope people will find it was worth me taking the time to do it.”

fIN d out more about r o NNI e g reer at www.r o NNI egreer.com

V E rb A ls: n a TH alie Harrap Visu A ls: Fran K ie pF ei FF er

ric lives for his music but has little interest in promoting himself, this is why he hasn’t yet received the success he deserves. He has met and worked with some great people such as Mick Taylor and with this new album, Soundscape Road, produced by Philippe Langlois’s Dixiefrog label, he returns to his psychedelic, groove-laden world spiced by his own brand of humorous blues. We hope he will finally be heard and recognized on both sides of the Channel. He really shows us that vintage talent gets better with age.

BM: Eric, tell us about your decision to leave France for the US in the Seventies. Was it due to some kind of resentment or frustration, or just out of curiosity?

ET: I guess I would say the need to react to adversity in some way was what caused my move. The overall atmosphere in Paris at that time was very much contrived, sort of black and white, and I needed to shake off a difficult contractual situation that was making me feel unable to progress. My current record company at the time was threatened with legal action by my previous label if they released my new album. So when things settled a little, it just seemed like a good idea to look for a change of scenery. A drummer who is also a good friend of mine had recently moved to New York and I decided to pay him a visit and see what could happen. I then squatted his couch for about three months and we were off across the land in a big Coupe De Ville. Go West Young Men. Off to the Promised Land!

What were you trying to achieve during that period? The main thing at the time was to assume

and deal with the day-to-day improvised situation. We only had one or two rather vague contacts and very little money but the most important thing for me was to break away from my home town overall mentality and the trip gave me a different perspective on things which was very useful to me as it opened a whole new world.

What kind of memories do you have from the months and years that followed? Well it ended up being fifteen years of my life, you know! I am not the most outspoken character and I was not very good at imposing my music and making things happen fast, so instead of knocking on doors or forcing them open, I took on small jobs to keep going, putting music on standby even though I knew I had to keep my input in music going. I did feel there was a huge gap between what I had to do to live and the music in my head, and I was frustrated not to be able to release it. You can add to that a few friendships, a few turbulent adventures among which a first bad marriage (and

divorce), another one that lasted … anyway, at some point I got some kind of recording facilities together and I managed to get back to giving shape to the vision, and satisfy my creative appetite.

I had a difficult time to stay afloat, but managed by producing demos for musicians and rappers at a competitive rate with fairly good results. I got to meet quite a few characters on the way! I spent a lot of time in my studio, and when not busy with customers I would spend all these hours putting on tape whatever was coming out. That was vital. I also remember great jams with musician friends, especially Theodore Welch, a good friend and super percussion player, who later on toured all over Europe with the legendary Barry White, and with whom I stayed in touch. In fact he plays on three tracks on the album, including the title track Soundscape Road.

As an artist, I heard you had quite a few disillusions on the way. Can you tell us about that?

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I used to have a manager I had met while trying to play some tapes to some record companies, and this guy was so enthusiastic that he had me and my band stay at the Château d’Hérouville, a very nice place, where, among others, the Grateful Dead, Elton John and some other “U-Name-Thems” had recorded, but I became spoilt staying in that environment, and when he introduced me to people like Richard Branson, Joe Boyd or Andrew Oldham I failed to come up with the goods and appear convincing enough, I guess. I was flying high in my head, but could not express it that easily!

Despite the very introverted aspect of your personality, there was a first album. Yes, and the music part of it was satisfactory, but the label was after quick money and while deals were being made with distribution rights in different countries, we were in London with the band, in a nice big house (again), rehearsing and waiting for a tour that was not to take place, due to the

lack of promised efforts and budget from the record company. Then I signed a contract elsewhere for another album but got trapped in a difficult contractual situation and none of these two records came out within a healthy context. Then I really got sick of it and left for the States.

How did you take that, after all that big time like living in Hérouville?

Beside these easy-living phases, I also dragged my boots and squatted a few couches with little money, but the hardest part was always to try and get heard. People wouldn’t even listen to my tapes and it was very frustrating. I was not very good at hassling them over the telephone and calling people back again and again, so I would usually go back to work on my recordings.

Your two albums in the seventies were under the name of Eric Sirkel. What is your real name?

Ter is the beginning of my real name, TerSarkissian. For some reason I thought the idea of going by the name of Sirkel was a good one, so I was Eric Sirkel from 1976 to 1986. My two first albums were Sirkel & Co (1976), and Eric Sirkel Vertige (1978).

The following albums were by Eric Ter?

Yes, not counting the unreleased material I recorded in between, Barocco came out in 2003, then Chance in 2008 and Nu-Turn in 2011.

Your last few albums were not very successful, how do you explain that?

Simply because not enough people heard them! Mostly due to the lack of promotion and budget, and so not enough concerts in real concert places. I just couldn’t get to stay in front of a computer screen trying to promote myself, that was beyond my abilities. And nobody was doing it for me.

As you were saying, you are not very expansive, rather shy. This is more of a choice. I find I am freer

when I am on my own. But I get along fine with people I work with, and I know that we are all better at some things than others. I’m definitely not good at prospecting and telling somebody ‘listen to me, I’m good’, over a telephone. I just get the music done, and I’m so glad to get everything ready with my band right now. Let me introduce the players: Daniel Cambier plays bass, JeanBernard plays drums, Hubert Le Tersec is on keyboard, and Laurent de Gasperi on guitar.

On your first album Sirkel&Co, you had some rather prestigious people including Mick Taylor, is that right? Robin Millar produced it, it was recorded at Rockfield Studios, South Wales with Colin Allen on drums, who had played with John Mayall and later with Donovan and Dylan, and Marc Frentzel whom I joined later back in New York on drums, also Ronnie Leahy on keyboards, great musician, and Gordon Raitt on bass, then at Olympic in London where Mick Taylor came to play on four songs, as well as a vocal choir and a full horn section.

If you had to describe this new album in two words, what would they be? Too cool!

The style is different from the previous one. What motivated you toward that change of direction? The previous album resulted from a need of space and quietness, very airy, simple and acoustic. My appetite for groove and electricity came back to me for this new one. It’s part of the same vision though, but I’d say this one is probably happier, richer in sounds. I didn’t decide on this precisely, it’s just that one colour leads to another and at a certain point, it just kind of becomes real and all you do is to follow your instinct. That’s when it gets really motivating and exciting. All you do is let it happen and I love it when an album takes you over, you don’t want to break away from it, one song after another. And even though I tend to be over enthusiastic after some recording is completed, I do think that this one really works this way.

How would you define the style of this album?

I am not good at defining a style, but let’s say it’s funky, rather psychedelic, and definitely bluesy, groovy and fun!

Interview VastI JacksON

asti Jackson is a melting pot of ethnic genes and genres; on stage he fizzes like liver salts. His story re-enforces the, ‘Immersed to be well- versed’ approach to a musical education. Pronounced Vast-eye, this guy is a misnomer, being from Mississippi, his speed is much more Northern and plugged in. Blues Matters! loves to listen, and Blues Matters! loves to share, so enjoy.

Bruce Iglauer, Alligator Records CEO, says of him, ‘Vasti is an extremely talented guitarist, songwriter, singer and arranger. I worked with him closely on two Katie Webster albums and two C.J. Chenier albums and he has a huge musical vocabulary, from down home blues to contemporary funk and rock. He’s a true professional, able to adapt to any kind of musical situation as well as a very confident band leader. Plus he’s smart, driven and has a great sense of humour!’

BM: You have learned to play several instruments, and I guess there are few skills in making music that you haven’t done. Are you a control freak?

VJ: No I’m not a control freak at all. I just love music, and I love music more than I love the guitar. So therefore, this drives me and propels me to learn more about music. Whether it is arranging music, composing, being an engineer, or playing bass, writing for horns or strings; it is not to control it, but to contribute. I come from a blues and gospel background, but I was exposed to jazz at 16 years old, so with me loving and having a passion for the art of music, and coming from five generations of musicians, it gives me the ability to interface with artists that are in different genres of music. This is such a gift for me. I am 53 years old, and I am so thankful to everybody the world over who have took a liking to me, and what I can contribute to their lives in a positive way through music.

A lot of times the public are unaware it is me playing guitar or arranging the music (laughs). This year I have been in Germany, Holland, headlined at the New Orleans festival in Austria – the third time I have headlined that festival. I leave next week for Argentina, Brazil, Chile then the last week in October I’m in Poland. I am my own booking agent, I’m my own manager, my own songwriter, publisher and record label. It is not that I’m a control freak, but I don’t

do drugs, I very rarely take a drink, I don’t gamble … so I got to have something to do with my time (laughs). My sons are adults, 33 and 26.

For a very young man you played an awful lot of old school music. Did you get any stick for this as a teenager?

In my community, there were musicians all over the place, and they were older musicians. There was a guy when I was young two blocks away called Big Moody. He knew my mother and my mother would let me play with him in the clubs. I had already heard my grandfather playing, and all my cousins were great musicians, and they were doing more contemporary music like Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Funkedelic, that kind of stuff. However, when I went to Jackson State University, the older musicians like Tommy Tate, Lewis Lee, and J. C. States were playing at restaurants and lounges. William W. Davis, a great trumpet player who worked with names like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and all those guys.

I got there, and I could play some jazz and I had a feel for the blues and these guys hired me. So I was working three nights a week with musicians who were more than twice my age. The simple reason was that there were no funk bands working three, four nights a week, they were just doing special events. I will say what people have said to me, that I have an old soul. I have done records like on Alligator Records with Michael Burks where they were very contemporary, intense rockin’ soulful blues, and the rhythm arrangements that I worked on in those records they have a lot of accents, units and lines and stuff like that. In many cases many people don’t see me as being old school (laughs).

Does your live wire stage performance hark back to those old school performers?

Let me say this, I believe that you should respect the audience. I never let my ego get in front of the audience, I believe in listening to the audience, I believe in looking at the audience. With me, if I have an audience they are part of the show, I never leave the audience out of my musical

th I s INterv I ew proves the po INt that the greats do N ot get to where they are by tale Nt alo N e. s uccess just does N’t come to slackers. v astI j ackso N I s a mus I c I a N for all seaso N s, w Ith so much pass I o N, a N d for all the r I ght reaso N s

V E rb A ls A nd Visu A ls Billy Hu T c H inson

Interview VastI JacksON

equation. When I see their eyes or the way people move then that is information for me, they are communicating to me, and I take that information and I use part of it to communicate back to them. Am I energised on stage? Yes, am I excited on stage? Yes I am, because this is such a gift and such a joy to be able to do this, and for people to appreciate it. This is how I make my living, but this is my passion. Now does it harken back to old school? No, not that it is conscious in my mind. Because I live this, and the music is completely in me, through me, over me, under me, so rhythm, melody hit me in a certain way, so it is physical thing.

I am not doing a workshop or a seminar, or in front of an audience with tuxedos, I don’t restrict my joy personally.

You have portrayed Robert Johnson on several occasions on stage and film. What is your take on the man, his talent and the circus that surrounds him?

About what you call the circus, I tell you man, anything that is worth having is worth stealing, you know what I mean (laughs). He was a fantastic musician/artist, I never knew the man personally, but I can listen to his music, and I have had to dissect his music. Robert Johnson used the guitar as a mini orchestra, and a lot of people talk a lot about his guitar, but not about how great a singer he was. He was a great singer, a great interpreter of a song and a great communicator through music. He was far beyond the blues in the sense of the basic blues form, with it being three chords. He would deviate rhythm; he would superimpose straight sixteenths then go into blocked triplets, then go on to eighth note triplets.

He would use closed intervals, minus 2nds, and all kinds of things that at the time no one was being as adventurous and on the cutting edge as Robert Johnson was. So many people look at Robert Johnson as being traditional blues, well let me tell you something right now, Robert Johnson is as modern as you’re gonna get in the blues.

Harmonically, rhythmically, and you can take that music and apply it to Hip Hop, you can apply it to anything and it is still interesting today. So what I do when I am looking at that music in the stage play, Robert Johnson, The Man, The Myth and the Music it was not to extract his guitar part. It was to embrace, embody the whole of what I could gather about his possible personality, his life as if he were here today.

Take the stories, what do the stories mean to me? That is what is important, what do the lyrics mean? When he says, ‘Sweet home Chicago, going back to the land of California’, he means Utopia or a better place. In the song, Stop Breaking Down when he sings of the term 99%, which was slang for cocaine. When you read about the work camps in Mississippi where they brought in cocaine and other drugs to fuel those labourers, and there were prostitutes, there were murders and all kinds of things going on back around the turn of the century.

When he sings, ‘She’s got Elgin movements’ Elgin was a very popular watch where the hand moved very smoothly, and he’s talking about the body language of this woman. A lot of times people concentrate so hard on the guitar that they lose something, they are trying to play it as a guitarist as opposed to living in the story, and letting the emotion you get from the story go into the music, whether it’s singing or playing. So now it becomes real to the audience, not that you are trying to imitate Robert Johnson, it is not about imitation, it is about taking on the character or the persona in a way you can get enough information, and humble yourself firstly to the spirit of the culture.

Then you have to research the time period, because being in 1927, 1930, 1935 it’s different. So you have to think about how this guy felt walking down the street, you got to think what this guy felt when the sun was going down, and he was worried about the Paddy Rollers catching him. You know in Crossroads, ‘Sun going down, can’t let darkness catch me here’, he don’t want

darkness to catch him man, because he is scared of the Ku Klux Klan, there was a curfew for blacks at night. Now put that into your psyche as a musician at that time, and you’ve got to consider all of these things. Steve Johnson, Michael Johnson and all of the family came to the theatre, and we were so honoured that they approved of our presentation.

When we started to write and construct the play they were excited about it. We were able to get funding from the Mississippi Opera Association and the Hattiesburg Concert Association’s Dr Jay Dean. When I first started working on the Robert Johnson stuff, I got a call from a young director in Los angles by the name of Glen Marsano. He was doing a short film called, Stop Breaking Down, and he called about me being the musical director for that particular project. That was during the time of the court case when they had just finalised that Claude Johnson was the legal heir of Robert Johnson.

Can you tell me about your current and future projects to wind up?

The new CD is out now, it is called, New Orleans, Rhythm Soul Blues. I am very happy about this CD because it combines a lot of my New Orleans influences and activities musically, and, of course, I can never get away from Mississippi, and there is lots of blending of that. There has always been strong musical exchange between New Orleans and Mississippi. Reverend Charlie Jackson was a cousin of mine; my mother took me to see him when I was nine years old. Little Freddie King is kin on my maternal side of the family.

I have also re-issued my first CD, Vasti Jackson, Mississippi Burner. Last August I was in South Africa with the Joy of Jazz festival with the legendary Battiste family from New Orleans, which is a New Orleans jazz/ funk/ R&B army. I received a call from the Jazz Foundation of America about doing presentations that demonstrate the link between blues and jazz. So, I am very excited about that. I will be working with, and mentoring youth, more visitations with the elderly, and producing more music.

for more IN formatI o N, aN d merchaN d I se v I s It www.vastIjackso N.com the full INterv I ew caN be accessed v Ia www.bluesmatters.com

teve Strongman is a multi-award winning artist based in Canada. He has been recognised as one of the country’s top performers for a few years now and is starting to gain much deserved wider acclaim

BM: Hi Steve, thanks for agreeing to talk to Blues Matters! and giving our readers the opportunity to become familiar with your work. Your most recent album, ANaturalFact, has pretty much swept the board at this year’s Maple Awards. You must be very proud, did you have any idea how well it would do?

SS: Thanks, no I had no idea how well it would be received. As an artist you don’t set out to create music so you can win awards, it’s about making the absolute best album you can make. Having said that, when you get that kind of recognition it’s an amazing feeling.

One of the stand out tracks is Leaving, a wonderful duet with Suzie Vinnick that you co-wrote with producer Rob Szabo, that also won many accolades in songwriter of the year categories. Did you always have Suzie in mind to record that with?

Suzie was my first choice when we wrote that song. We were playing a festival in Quebec at the same time, and when I asked her she was excited about it from the start. Rob Szabo (producer) had a great idea to have us track in the studio together, at the same time while

facing each other, and I think the vocals have some real excitement to them because of that.

The whole album has a warm, mostly upbeat feel to it. There’s definitely a great connection with the other musicians, are they your touring band?

Thanks. I am so fortunate to have such great friends that happen to be incredible musicians around me. Everyone on A Natural Fact did an amazing job. I’ve been touring as a trio. My touring band has Dave King on drums, and we have a different bass players that come on the road with us. Alec Fraser (bass) plays with many different artists, but we work together as often as we can.

Going back to those Maple Awards, you were actually nominated in six categories that included Electric and Acoustic Act of the Year, plus Entertainer of the Year. It must be unique to be nominated for both acoustic and electric awards. Do you have a preference?

Yes, that is unique, and it was a huge honour. The electric and acoustic aspects of playing guitar are so different to me, but I can’t say that I have a preference. I play using a hybrid picking style, which is highlighted with the acoustic guitar. There is such rawness to the acoustic guitar for me, and we wanted to capture that on A Natural Fact. Yet sometimes,

you just can’t beat the intensity of the electric guitar. I love them both!

Your previous albums are less acoustic?

Yes, they are more electric, blues rock, but I’ve always introduced acoustic elements. Lots of people have been asking for more of that and my great friend Rob Szabo is renowned for his production of acoustic based stuff so we decided to push the boundaries this time. A Natural Fact is my most successful album.

Tell us a bit about your background and what got you interested in becoming a musician and especially one influenced by the blues?

I believe that people don’t choose musicmusic chooses them. That was the case for me. I was fortunate that at a young age I knew that I was going to be a musician. I was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and stumbled onto blues, via bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. I soon realized what I loved most about their music was the blues influence. Then I started taking in as much blues as I could around the age of 15. At this time I met the incredible blues guitarist Mel Brown, (who played with too many artists to mention. Mel lived in Kitchener and really took me under his wing.

I’m aware that you’ve toured extensively in the past; USA, Mexico, Brazil and lots of Europe. Any plans to revisit Europe, especially the UK soon?

I would love to return to Europe, right now it looks as though I will be doing a summer 2014 tour. I’ve never performed in the UK, so I’m looking forward to getting there soon! It would be fantastic to play a couple of festivals.

It’s very easy sometimes with gifted guitar players to overlook the vocal ability, but not in your case, you sound very natural in your vocals. Has this come with practice, or is it as natural as it sounds?

Thanks. I started singing in my first bands when I was about 15 years old, because we couldn’t find a singer! After a while, singing just seemed to fall into place for me. I’ve never studied formally, but after some throat issues I took a lesson for some technique suggestions, and the vocal coach did point out that I have

a very natural approach. I always consider myself a guitarist first, but it’s really great to hear so many positive comments about my vocals.I think a lot of guitarists tend to look at singing as something they have to do. I’ve found that focusing more on my singing makes me a stronger guitarist.

The list of people you’ve played with is pretty impressive. Buddy Guy, Sonny Landreth, Jimmie Vaughan and Jeff Healey to name a few. Could you share some of the best moments with us?

Yes, I have been fortunate to play with some incredible artists. There are so many great moments to choose from! I used to go to Jeff Healey’s club in Toronto and sit in with Jeff as a special guest. Those nights were always incredibly special. Jeff seemed to have another gear that he could kick into. I opened for Joe Cocker as a solo acoustic performer, and mid-song looked over side stage and saw him standing there, listening.

I remember thinking “wow, Joe Cocker is listening to this tune I wrote!” The first time I opened for Buddy Guy was incredible. I remember feeling as though that was a turning point in my career. After I met Buddy I just sat down for a few minutes to take it all in.

Jeff Healey is Canada’s greatest ever blues player. Without doubt, my bass player Alec Fraser played in Jeff’s band for many years. I was lucky enough to be invited to guest with Jeff at his Healey’s club five or six times. He had this uncanny ability to find another gear.

We have a lot of talented young blues guitarists starting to emerge in the UK at the moment. Do you have any advice for aspiring blues artists?

I think many young artists overlook the importance of writing. Write as much as you can. With Blues being a traditional art form, it can be a challenge to sound unique, but I think that writing is what can set an artist apart, and of course, hard work. The most successful people that I’ve met have one thing in common. Hard work.

you ca N d I scover more about steve at www.stevestro N gma N.com

arlier this year he reformed his legendary, multi award winning band, ‘The Workers’ to record a new album Bull Goose Rooster, their first since 2008. I had a very interesting conversation about all things Watermelon Slim recently.

BM: Thank you very much for taking time to talk to the Blues Matters! readers. You have a big following here and we’re all very excited that you have recorded a new album with your band The Workers. Was it always your intention to record together again at some point?

WS: It was always possible. I retired the band after 2010, paid everybody severance pay, but it was always possible we would do a reunion tour. I would not have recorded another Workers record unless there was such a tour.

I’ve been listening to the album a lot and it’s up there alongside the very best Watermelon Slim & The Workers albums. The energy is palpable and the song writing and cover choices are right on the button. Are these songs you’ve been storing up for the right moment or were they written just prior to recording? Both, and more. Bull Goose Rooster, the title song, was written for the record. I Ain’t Whistling Dixie was one of the last songs The Workers learned before we retired. Over The Horizon is one of two songs that I have ever written in sheet music. The other one may emerge one day, if I make any more records. On the other hand, I’ve been singing Take My Mother Home since I heard it on a Harry

Belafonte album from 1959 or so. I can, and occasionally do, still sing most of the songs on that record, 55 years later.

Given the state of the music business, I may or may not do that. I am not optimistic about being able to sell Cds. If a person is not wholly committed to making electronic downloads one’s primary way of selling recorded music, there’s just not a huge future in recording. I’m obsolete. I need to put an object, with words, pictures, other stuff, in people’s hands if I’m going to sell music. Otherwise, I might as well remain a gigging musician. People still like to hear me at gigs.

The track OverTheHorizonincludes guest vocals by Trampled Underfoot’s Danielle Schnebelen, a lovely slow blues with some tasteful piano by Dennis Borycki, is a wonderful piece. How did that collaboration come about? It must be a buzz working alongside other talented artists on your own songs. Dennis and I have collaborated on several occasions. He’s undoubtedly the best allaround piano player in Oklahoma. Over The Horizon is NOT a slow blues, it is a jazz ballad that has the feel of the blues in it, emotionally speaking. Chris Hardwick, who produced this record, as he has done on part or all of four others, including all the Workers albums, suggested the collaboration between Danielle and I.

I have always considered myself a minorleague professional musician. I will never

even make what a minor-league baseball player makes, and I have no benefits. But I do get to play with the best people in the craft, and that virtue does provide its own reward.

The cover choices are great, a couple of Slim Harpo tunes and a rocking version of Vigilante Man by Woody Guthrie. What do you look for in choosing covers? On your albums the covers always seem to fit the overall flow so well.

Well, thank you for that, sir! I recorded Vigilante Man in 1972 on my first and only solo LP, Merry Airbrakes. It was time to do it again , after 41 years, with state-of-the-art recording tech and a superb band. Slim Harpo has always been a favourite of the band, and of mine. The fans want the straight-up-nochaser blues, and so we give ‘em a bunch of it. But I will never put a drop of filler on any record I ever do, so we had to make the songs our own, and those songs have been in The Workers gigging repertoire from the time we started in 2004, the week I retired from truck driving.

I was pleased to see a couple of straight out ‘political based’ songs in ForeignPolicyBluesand AWrenchIn TheMachine. It seems that nowadays lots of artists shy away from what used to be known as protest songs. Do you agree that these kind of songs are important to help keep the blues a relevant art form today?

I don’t know, but I will tell you that I wrote Foreign Policy Blues in 1979, during the Iran Hostage Crisis. We all first learned the word ‘ayatollah’ then. It was timely then, and remains so today, because America hasn’t learned diddly from that, or from ‘my’ war in Vietnam. George W. Bush, and sad to say, Barack Obama, for whom I had hopes, give me the blues worse than any bottle or any woman I ever had, and I have had a bunch of both.

A Wrench In The Machine was specifically written in 2011 for the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan. I sang the song for Occupy DC just before we marched to the White House.

It will not, perhaps, surprise you when I tell you that I am a socialist revolutionary. I don’t have any affiliation with any socialist or communist sectarian organisations, in fact during my time with the original Vietnam Veterans Against the War, I was one who fought a running battle not only with the

American Nazis and other rightwingers, but with the RCP, SWP, YAWF and all the other alphabet soup sects that became know as the New Left.

You have never hidden the fact that you are a very aware and active person politically, often joining in on marches and demonstrations. Your father was well known as an attorney who stood for human rights issues and I know you are especially involved with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, was it your experiences in that conflict that mostly roused the political animal in you or your fathers influence?

I was influenced by my father, William P. Homans Jr., a civil rights lawyer, one of the most prominent American attorneys of the 20th century. You can read about him in his biography, William P. Homans Jr. A Life In Court. He was in the British Navy doing convoy escort on corvettes and minesweepers from 1941, before the US joined WWII, till late 1943. He then returned to the US, joined the American Navy and was a gunnery officer at the Anzio Beachhead.

If you go to the Royal Naval Academy in Greenwich, and go to the Painted Hall, you will see a monument in the floor of that magnificent building toi my dad and 22 other young Americans who dropped what they were doing, risked imprisonment for joining the military of a foreign power, and fought the Nazis. A member of that bunch was the first American combat casualty of WWII.

My own war experience was so miniscule as to be not even considered, but I still have ‘ghosts’. I shot at the enemy once the whole time I was in Vietnam, but watched desperate children starving. That’s the movie that runs through my head to this day. I never go to war movies, I have my own movies. That quiet but horrible time was even more than my Dad influential in my lifelong commitment to antiwar activism.

You recorded your first record, MerryAirbrakes, way back in 1973, upon your return from Vietnam which is considered a record of some merit but you seemed to go off the radar musically until the late 90’s. Were you still playing and writing through those years? I do recall hearing you talk about performing with Henry Vestine of Canned Heat but I’m not sure when?

In 1973, the watershed event in the entire history of the recording industry occurred, the OPEC Oil Embargo. Suddenly, within two months or less, the price of oil jumped 400%

or more, and so did the price of polyvinyl chloride, the petroleum product from which Lps were made. I was negotiating with Adrian Barber of Atlantic Records but suddenly the industry had no use for unproven commercial possibilities. I never made another record until 1999, although I did make several demos during those 26 years, including one in 1980 and two different ones in the early 90’s, one with Eddie Kirkland’s young rhythm section in Boston.

I continued to play and write, including during the time I was trying to reinvent myself as a reporter, at University of Oregon. I met and played with the late Henry Vestine, ‘The Sunflower’ lead guitarist of Canned Heat. We were even roommates.

There are many stories about your background, perhaps you could clear up some of the fact from the myth for us. It’s well documented that you spent lots of time truck driving and that you got your stage name because you did spend time as a watermelon farmer, but is it also true you have been at various times a sawmill operator where you lost part of a finger, a debt collector, a funeral official and dabbled with the criminal underworld?

All those things are true. I officiated my most recent funeral last year in Miami. There was a five car chain reaction accident in the funeral procession on the way to the cemetery, and the Catholic priest had to leave, so I ended up doing the graveside service. I could never be a priest, though I was dutifully raised in the Anglican Communion, because as someone who has always practised at least a couple of the seven deadly sins, lust in particular, I could never be such a hypocrite as to dedicate myself to Christian doctrine. I have no problem burying folks, I say a good prayer, and do truly believe in a supreme intelligence that responds, somehow, to prayer. But I would never want to be responsible for marrying them.

I was the offbearer at the back county sawmill, making railway crossties, and I touched the 52-inch main saw at the sawmill once. It was a good thing that saw was daily sharpened by the old man, Roy Bruer. One dull bit and it might have pulled my whole arm in.

You gained two undergrad and a Masters degree, in journalism. Mensa member and talented artist, and bowls player to international standard are other ‘facts’ often mentioned. What’s your take on those? I have a BA in History and Journalism, double major with Honours, and an MA in History from Oklahoma State University. I was a Mensa member for about two months in the middle 70’s. It bored me. Politics and crime were more exciting. I was a very good, but hardly international standard bowler. I’m practising golf now, right handed, and may one day be able to play consistent bogey golf. I am an artist, in oil on canvas, and available for commissions. I have some for sale.

It was a pretty serious heart attack in 2002 that you have said pushed you to concentrate your efforts on your music career. Your output since then has been phenomenal both in volume and sheer quality. In the interview with Chip Eagle on your DVD in 2007 you alluded to health problems that were making touring more difficult but your creative output seem to remain undiminished. What is the situation now, will we be seeing less of you on the road and do you foresee more recordings in the future?

Last night, at the Bluesberry Café in Clarksdale, I was spry enough to dance for a

fairly full house while I was playing. However, in 2006-08, I was touring so much that it was indeed hurting me. I was hit by an automobile in October 2006, and that serious injury marked my transition from being a hale, hearty, ripped really, late middle-aged man to being a senior citizen.

I have my up and down days. I played soccer at a high level some in the 1980’s and I have no cartilage in either knee, or in my left shoulder. A former member of the All Blacks rugby team, John Loveday, was my chiropractor on my recent New Zealand tour. He told me he might have seen a worse shoulder than mine, but he wasn’t sure he ever had. Irreparable, he said. Both athletics and the sawmill have ruined that. I can still throw an uppercut or a left cross, but can no longer throw a ball or skip a rock.

Since the last album you recorded with The Workers you put together two outstanding Country influenced albums, EscapeFromTheChickenCoop and Ringers, working alongside some great musicians like Gary Nicholson, and, of course put out your joint album, Okiesippi Blues, with Super Chikan. Were these projects that you had to exorcise to get to Bull Goose Rooster? No. These records were going to happen anyway, and Bull Goose Rooster,though it would not have been made if I hadn’t been talked into this reunion tour, ditto. I could make four or five more different projects today, four or five full CD’s but I don’t have any confidence that anything I ever make will sell enough to make a backer interested. All the records I have ever made- CD, DVD, my only LP may have sold 100,000 copies total. Like I said, I’m a minor leaguer, and an old, craggy, toothless man with an uncertain physical future. Not a good investment for a capitalist record company, even if I was not the politico I am.

The country albums were clearly a labour of love, but I’ve heard you speak before about hearing the blues for the first time as a child being sung by a lady working as a maid for your mother, and you often talk at live shows about the time you travelled to Clarksdale to apply for a job with the blues museum,

with some painful consequences. Do you consider yourself at heart ‘a bluesman’?

The country albums, especially Escape From The Chicken Coop, should NOT have been just a labour of love. Chicken Coop was potentially my best opportunity to break out, cross genres, and sell a relatively major number of albums. But my management combine utterly disregarded my advice, or plan, for marketing this record, which, no bragging intended, is the very best truck driving record of this century. Had it been marketed through truck stop corporate headquarters, and just one percent of American professional truckers had bought one, I would have sold 200,000 copies, and become more like a country household name to go with my modest international reputation in the blues. I’m a bluesman, though I’ll play and sing most anything: except rap, disco and opera. I have been practising in the basso profundo range for many years. I have sung as low as A below low C, the 13th note on the piano, at gigs. Try it.

You have a fairly distinctive style of guitar playing. Self taught upside down left handed and using any number of improvised slides. Has this style of playing been a blessing, or even a curse?

I started playing guitar in Vietnam, while recovering from a disease I caught there. I used a Zippo lighter for a slide. I am strongly left handed, and there are virtually no left handed guitars, or left handed guitar teachers, so I had to make do on right handed ones. It is only this century that I have begun to be at least a master of my own style. In fact, I have added finger picking to flat picking and I have a steeper learning curve in guitar than practically anything else in the world I do. Definitely a blessing, not a curse, though I didn’t always think so. I believed at times that I was a damn fool for chasing this dream as long as I had without truly possessing the talent to ‘make it’.

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BM: You’ve come a long way in a very short time; how did it all start?

Babajack: It came about from Trevor and I meeting, predictably, through music … Trev was playing in a country blues duo called The Lost Dogs with a mutual friend and that friend asked me to do some percussion with them. And right there was my first proper introduction to Blues!

That unique sound of yours; did you aim for that or did it just evolve?

Trev is the Bluesman, to his very soul. But I

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have to admit that it took me some time to get to grips with the Blues. It’s such simple music and I was into rhythm: world, reggae, roots, latino. Gradually those blues seeped into my bones, and I am now a true fan. But I think the unique sound we have is to do with the fusion of Trev’s and my very different backgrounds and influences. And yes, it was a process of evolution, we kinda worked out the ‘BabaJack’ as we were going along. But it is our mutual love of the early blues and our instruments that created the sound.

Your instruments are a big part of that sound? Making our own instruments has in many ways defined the BabaJack sound. I should say Trev making the instruments! I wouldn’t want you to think I was capable of hammering a nail in straight, let alone building guitars and cajons, harmonica mic holders, drum stands and stomp boxes! Trev is the genius right there.

He’s a master craftsman in wood as well as music, and it was a natural progression for him to make his own instrument. And so the winebox guitars came into being.

In the tradition of early blues, they truly are made out of whatever we had lying around. The original four string, nicknamed ‘The Beast’ was made out of a wine box, bits of my old wardrobe, the dog’s bone and offcuts of various woods that Trev had in his workshop. The second, ‘Joanna’, a six string, was made out of a winebox and bits of old ‘peeanna’ keys.

The latest addition, ‘Grahame’ (made from a Grahame port wine box) really was the inspiration for the new album Running Man.

Right from the beginning you were getting gigs at major venues and festivals but things really started taking off after your third album, Rooster

I think we have been very lucky. We work very hard and we have had some very good people to help us out. Blues Matters! amongst them. The Blues community is incredibly rich in good people.

But really it was meeting our producer, Adam Fuest that gave us the opportunity and the confidence to create the Rooster Album. It was one of those moments that you can pinpoint in your career as a turning point.

Rooster was recorded at Twin Peaks

Studio in the round, so ‘live’ in effect, with very few overdubs. Adam really understands what we are about and has the studio and the great talent to translate that into recorded sound and an album.

The response to Rooster has been humbling: nominated ‘Best Album of 2012’ in the British Blues Awards and so many very positive reviews.

Any really memorable or unusual gigs?

The great thing about being a touring band and playing music, is that you go to places you’d never imagine, and you meet all sorts of people. We’ve played gigs at a swimming pool high up in the Alps, on a tall ship on the Seine in France, travelled 12 hours in a force nine gale to get to the Shetlands, and played in a tiny theatre on the Isle of Hoy, Orkney population 400.

We’ve even been joined on stage by Elvis in Switzerland, well, the official Swiss Elvis impersonator; he was good! But the gigs that really stay in our hearts have been in the UK. I know a lot of bands find the UK scene hard, and it is. The money’s too tight, and you don’t always even get offered a drink, let alone a sandwich.

But the grass roots people and support are great, and the gigs that really made us who we are, happened right here: Upton and running the acoustic stage of course, Jaks stage (Butlins,Skegness), Colne, Shetland & Orkney, more recently Ealing Blues Festivals, all spring to mind, and of course the little venues that we grew up in, the pubs and clubs. We still do one or two of them on the quiet. Just because the folk are so good and they’ve become friends.

Nominations and awards are now coming in thick and fast!

We’ve had an amazing year 2012/2013. We were so surprised to be nominated twice at the British Blues Awards in 2012, and we came home as runners up for ‘Acoustic Act of the Year’ and I won the ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ for my percussion. We were

chosen to represent the UK at the European Blues Challenge and we came 5th! We were Blues Matters! magazine Band of 2012 in the BM Writers’ Poll and Rooster figured in the top albums. I was in the top three nominations for Fatea Folk Roots Awards for ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’. And to top the lot we have been nominated five times in the British Blues Awards 2013: Best Album for Rooster, Best Original Song for the title track, Best Acoustic Act, Best Harmonica Player for Trevor and Instrumentalist of the Year again for me. And the results are in. We placed in four out of five categories! Runners Up for Best Album, Best Acoustic Act, Best Harmonica Player and I am blown away to be the winner of ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ for the second year running!

Now your fourth album, RunningMan

The first thing to say about Running Man is that it was almost completely financed by our fans through a PledgeMusic campaign. PledgeMusic is a crowd funding site that enables music fans to connect with their favourite artists to support live music. We launched the campaign in January and by February we had enough to start recording. Of course, we went back to Twin Peaks and our producer, Adam Fuest. And the support of our fans meant that we could do something a little more with this album. We were able to add Tosh Murase on drums, Adam Bertenshaw on electric bass, and the beautiful cello of Julia Palmer-Price. We felt very strongly that we should not lose the energy and roots sound of us as a duo, and it turns out that half the album is with the rhythm section and half just the two of us, with some gorgeous additions from the cello across both tracks.

The second thing to say about Running Man is that we made the decision to release independently again, and to release in a different way. Despite a lot of interest and offers, we decided that we would go with the fans! They are what really matters.

The music industry is in turmoil with the internet revolution.Bands can get their work out there, promote it, but with streaming on sites like Spotify, there is little or no money getting back to the artist. And that means that it’s harder than ever to keep the music coming. But music fans still want great music, and it seems more and more that they are prepared to support it. So we decided not to take the record deals, and instead we have a number of people who have offered to invest in us and the promotion of this album. So our pledgers helped us record the album, and our investors are helping us get it out there. People power!

The pre-launch party in Malvern was amazing. How did the launch proper go?

On the 21st September, we celebrated the launch of Running Man, first at The Grove in Malvern – home of our wonderful friend and cellist on the album, Julia Palmer Price. It was a magical evening, a true celebration of the people who had supported us in the making of this record. And then we did it again on the 24th Sept at The 100 Club in London. What an iconic place to play. I had to pinch myself that I was standing on the same stage as some of the greatest artists and playing our music!

So the album is out, and we have agreed a distribution deal with Proper, the biggest independent music distribution company in the UK. We have made an agreement with a UK agent and all is looking like the sun might keep shining.

What’s next for Babajack?

BabaJack are always on tour … because we love to play! And we have plans to develop the show, and take it further afield. We are working with Golly Gallagher, and GFI Promotions, and Proper Music and now have a UK agent. So everything is happening and evolving, and with their help, and the fantastic support of our fan base, it looks like it could all really happen for BabaJack and we’ve started working on the next album. Playing so much in Europe this year has been a great experience, and they have really taken us under their wing. But we will always make time for the UK. We’re a British band after all.

aving reviewed his Rhythm & Blues set, our scribe is eager to speak with the guitar legend and discovers that Buddy Guy is on a Blues crusade.

BM: Good morning Mr Guy – we want to talk about your new recording if that’s OK with you, sir?

BG: Yes, that’s fine!

Where are you now? Are you in Chicago?

Yeah I’m at home for a couple of days and then we go back out for about three weeks.

OK. Now I’ve been listening closely to the Rhythm &Bluesalbum and I’ve reviewed it in the magazine. I ask how many artists of your age are still so lively and so electric? What’s the secret, Buddy? What’s the secret to doing this?

(Laughs ) We just went into the studio and y’know, throughout my whole career; I’ve been trying to hopefully make something that can get a little more airplay cause’ for some reason America (and around the world, I think), they just don’t play blues records regularly on the radio any more. It’s four’oclock in the morning, one day a week something like that.

Yeah... you have to search it out!

Man, I want to fly the blues flag! That’s why with Rhythm and Blues I had some slow blues on it, then I tried to pick up the tempo to get a kind of dance beat and hopefully I can get some airplay.

Cos’ my main concern right now is keeping the blues alive, and there’s only a couple of us left who are still travelling and that’s me and B.B. King. He’s eighty-eight years old and I’m seventy seven. Blues is kind of scary now!

When American guests come over here, such as a friend of mine from New York Hit Man, we do your hits like WhenMyLeftEyeJumps, in tribute to you at shows.

Well thank you so much. Me and B.B. King always talk ‘every little bit helps’. I had bad reviews in newspapers and B.B said ‘Even if you get bad news Buddy, you made the paper!’

Mr Guy, you’ve got some notable guests on this set. Did you approach them or did they approach you? How does it work?

Well you know, just about every musician I know, we’re friends man. It’s all music. I mean

Beth (Hart) she was there when I received the Kennedy Award about three or four months ago and I love her voice.

She can sing. Kid Rock, I’ve been knowing him for a while and the tune we did with him was for my late friend Junior Wells. That was his biggest record. I said ‘With your name being Kid and the song being called Messin’ With the Kid I thought he was beating me to it. He laughed and said ‘Yeah I’ll come in’ and he did a good job with it.

I think so. I saw you two at the Hammersmith Odeon do that song. You and Junior Oh yeah. He’s missed so very much.

I thought that you were the template for guitar and harp duets. There’s no act using that configuration that doesn’t owe a debt to you Well thank you so much!

Now Tom Hambridge I know from his own recordings. This man knows how to get the best out of Buddy Guy, does he not?

I’m sure you know about the late Willie Dixon.

Yes sir!

In the Muddy Waters days and Howlin Wolf and people like that who create that Chicago sound, Willie Dixon was affiliated with it and Tom has that approach, y’know? whenever I’d talk to Tom like I’m talking to you now, he’d have a thing, he’d say ‘You don’t realise Buddy when you just talk to anybody you’re writing songs.’ I’d say ‘I didn’t get a high school education, so I used to listen to my parents, uncles and aunties a lot.

The older people would say things that were associated with everyday life.’ He’d say ‘Man this is kind of strong.’ Especially when we wrote the one my dad always used to tell me ‘Son, whatever you do don’t be the best in town. Just be the best’.

OK. You see, Tom Hambridge to me is like a picture framer. He’s getting those songs sounding with the right collection of musicians, the right weight and the right light touch. He’s framing what you’re doing. Well he’s great at that, I agree. He played drums on all that and I didn’t know he was

that good on drums when I met him! I used to dig the late Ritchie Hayward who passed away.

Yes indeed, saw him with Little Feat. He said ‘I can play this.’ So I said, ‘Show me.’ When he’s stopped playing, I said “I don’t need to go no further.” This guy’s got all kinds of talents.

If I was pressed to play one cut from R&B to illustrate what’s going on I’d probably go for Devil’s Daughter. How do you get such a deep performance, because it’s very haunting that track?

Well you know, during the Willie Dixon days at Chess Records I didn’t learn to play by the books. I taught myself how to play and I always was a pretty good listener. I would just go in there and play.

Some of these British acts were saying they were picking stuff up from me. Like Eric, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck. He said that he listened to me and I said “What did you hear?” I didn’t know I was coming up with a Buddy Guy sound and I still don’t feel like that. I’d go into the studio and Tom he’d close the door and say “I want you to do what you do best.”

I really love the track with Beth Hart, WhatYouGonnaDoAboutMe?

That girl is unbelievable. There’s this little kid I’m trying to get exposed called Quinn.

I heard him on Mick Martin’s radio show on Saturday and he said he was fourteen ?

He’s amazing. Do you know when I first met him he was seven years old? He can play like Eric Clapton, me, B.B King. Beck and all these people, On Beth, chills come over when you hear her sing. She was at the award show and I heard her sing. I said ‘If I could get her to sing on the record then maybe I can sell a few more albums.’

It’s a beautiful pairing, man. It sounds like you’re living that song out. Yeah, she did a tremendous job.

Now I’ve got two (three I suppose) real favourite Buddy Guy albums. I really like Feels Like Rain and on that album you do Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man. Did you ever meet Marvin Gaye?

Not in person but he was such a great guy. Actually, I was doing that album and that song, it wasn’t scheduled to be on the album, and the producer heard me fooling around with it in the studio and said ‘Man you can do that and we can put it on the album’.

I loved Marvin, he was doing his thing in those Motowndays. He said “If you don’t have any money, hang around with somebody who’s got money!”

(Laughs) The other song of yours I really love is called ManofManyWords and that’s on Buddyand JuniorPlaytheBlues on Atlantic That is such a blazing song. How did you sound so intense on that? When I come play in person, I forget about myself. My parents told me: ‘When you give a hundred per cent and someone don’t like you they can still say ‘I didn’t like him, but I can tell he gave me everything he had.’ I don’t like to cheat nobody out of nothing.

If I give you the best that I’ve got that’s all I can offer. I hope everybody would do that. That cut, I kinda took off there!

Right. That delivery thing goes if you’re an actor or a painter, Buddy?

Oh yeah.Whatever you’re creatin’.

Will you play any dates in Europe to support R&B?

I haven’t been there in a few years. But if I’m invited back I’d never refuse to come to Europe because I came to London in February 1965 and Rod Stewart and The Yardbirds toured England with me.

Neither of those guys was a superstar like they are today. Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck they’d be at that concert and they didn’t know blues could be played on a Stratocaster. I said: “What do you mean?”

At the time, we had seen Buddy Holly with a Stratocaster, and we didn’t know you could make it sing like a horn.

Well that’s EXACTLY what they told me. I was just trying to make people happy, which I still do. When I go to the stage I just go to make someone happy because if you go and play my main concern is just let me make you happy. We’ve got so many people in the world unhappy. Everybody’s got a problem. Music

speaks in all languages. I just try to make people smile and if people pay to see me, I just wanna give you the best that I’ve got, lift you.

John Lee Hooker said ‘Blues is the healer.’ Yeah! Pete – the first time I met John Lee Hooker I was not in America. I met him in Europe because they would bring us together over there.

Over here we were just blues players and we’d play blues clubs. Now we come to Europe and people would say ‘Bring on the music!’

I tell you what, it was because I was a young guy growing up hearing your stuff. I saw Jimi and Stevie Ray, but the Chess Records you made, are so intense that they will live forever. It is captured on a record. Captured for us to enjoy many years later. Thank you so much. I love the people over there. They’ve been supportive of me ever since I’ve been coming over there. I just hope I can be a little explosive because there’s only a few of us left.

JERICHO ROAD

With this new effort, Eric Bibb gives a personal vision

Born and raised in New York, Bibb has travelled the planet extensively. He describes the people of this earth at length here, conjuring their conflicts and hardships, as well as their compassion, tolerance and empathy. Jericho Road was produced by Glen Scott, a young Englishman originally from Jamaica endowed with outstanding talent and creativity Scott ’s lavish musical arrangements and attention to sound make this new recording an exceptionally fine production Eric gives a whole new meaning to the blues of the 21st Century, proving that the genre remains as lively and relevant as ever.

Jericho Road is an event in itself, and a superlative album.

We lost all the greats we learnt everything from. John Lee, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy, Wolf, Walter I could go on till tomorrow naming those great blues players who have helped create the blues that we’re still trying to keep alive.

When I do a show, I simply come out and try to let people know where I got it from. I’m not an original. I learnt to play by listening to Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins and all those people like that.

Yes sir. Hey, you play bass on the SuperSuperBlues Band album with Bo,MuddyandWolf!

Oh yeah. Like I said, my education came from those people. I didn’t learn it from a book, I don’t read music.

If it wasn’t for them I don’t know if you’d be talking to me this morning, so I owe them all the credit in the world for what I learned. I learned by listening to those ‘78s, ‘45s and I still listen to them. But the youngsters, well...

I’ll tell you what happens. I play a lot of live shows and young kids will come up to me after we’ve done, say Let Me Love You. Did you write that last one?’

I go “Hell no! That’s from Willie Dixon, or Buddy Guy, or McKinley Morganfield.”They write it down and off they go. Kim Simmonds told me about Albert Collins when I was a kid!

That’s the history of the music.

Even Hip-Hop, my youngest daughter is into Hip-Hop and she said ‘Daddy it’s your music, we’re just doing it a different way.’ Muddy Waters came into Chicago and they amplified the harmonica with Little Walter and the people were like ‘What IS this?’

Anyhow thank you very much Pete and I need all the support I can get.

Whatever you can do, you can always contact me through Annie and I’d be more than happy cos’ whatever can help the blues, my ears and eyes are open for anything you wanna ask!

I’m in your corner. You be well. Special Thanks to Annie, Jordan, Betsie, Al and Glenn.

buddy guy’s rhythm & blues Album is out now on rcA. for the lAtest news on buddy, check out his website: www.buddyguy.com

w hen most people think About hotbeds for the blues, i srAel probAbly is somewhAt down towArds the bottom of the list. thAt might just be About to chAnge due in no smAll meAsure to A gifted 25-yeAr-old guitArist cAlled o ri nAftAly And his bAnd

V E rb A ls: Steve Yourglivch VI su A ls : Kri K ov

he band includes a wonderful singer, Eleanor Tsaig and are already getting rave reviews in the US following a semi final spot in 2012’s International Blues Competition and tour. The new album Happy For Good has firmly cemented their place as ‘new band to watch’. Ori made time to talk to us just prior to embarking on another eagerly anticipated US tour.

BM: Ori, thanks for fitting us into your hectic schedule. The last year or so has been a bit of a whirlwind, has it taken you and the band a bit by surprise or is it all part of your master plan?

ON: Hi, Master plan? Not really. It is more about working hard, as much as I can, and at the same time not giving up knowing that every musician who works hard enough gets their turn. The last year or so has been simply amazing. We toured Holland twice and USA

twice and now we just started our third ‘Fall Tour’. We feel blessed to be able to do what we love and live from it.

To even take part in IBC in Memphis meant winning the Israeli Blues Competition, and to then reach the semi final from 200 bands is an awesome achievement. How much do you think that has helped raise the band’s profile in world blues circles? Oh, it helped a lot. But many bands who play at the IBC do not get the same amount of exposure, I think it’s all about timing and luck, not just talent. We gave it all at the International Showcase, a day before the challenge started, and since that we had a huge following throughout the challenge. The New Daisy was packed with so many blues VIPs but we just didn’t care. For us it was the finals – just by landing in Memphis

with my band was the real victory for me. We were blessed, and received amazing support from our fans through crowd funding, and the journey became a historic one for us. We are now in Denver starting our Fall Tour. How cool is that?

Eleanor Tsaig is a gifted vocalist. How long have you two been performing together, how did you meet? Eleanor is truly a gifted singer, a beautiful person and a true musician that also plays the Piano, Guitar and Cello. We have been performing together since 2001! We grew up together, and I believe our first ‘show’ was in middle school at the end of the year during the big event they had. We know each other for a long time. When I founded ONB about three years ago she was there as my first option. I believe she is one of the best singers out there, with an attitude that will take her far in her career. Our job on stage is to make sure she is feeling free enough to bring it all, night after night.

Tell us a little about the other guys in the band too. You have a great blend of sounds including harp and Hammond Organ. When I founded the band, Yam and Eran were my first option for rhythm section. Me and Yam are good friends for more than eight

years now. It feels great touring and making music with your best friend. In the past three years we had several extremely talented Hammond players and harmonica players.

Above all, Ofir and Willem stayed, and if it was up to me they would tour with us all the time. Happy For Good our second album had Niv Hovav playing Hammond and he nailed it. I simply love the Hammond. We are now a trio with special guests on Hammond and harmonica. My dream: have a James Brown style big band behind me, maybe, who knows!

You’ve toured in Holland, Germany and India extensively too. Indeed, the debut album was voted best blues album in a prestigious Dutch music magazine. More European and hopefully UK shows coming up?

We are now focused on USA. We received many offers from venues and festivals in Memphis so we came back a few months later with a new album. Summer Tour was a huge success so after two months we are now back here again. We have festivals booked for June and August in the USA, so I believe Europe will happen sometime in 2014–2015, but it’s all about timing.

I love the HappyForGood album, but its quite difficult to categorize I feel. How would you best describe the blues you play?

I can’t and I can understand why you can’t either. Each song has a different style and that was what we intended to do in the first place. We wanted to show our skills, show what we are based from. This is our first album as a band and we wanted it to be a classic not an experimental project. Eventually it ended up as something we are very proud of.

What’s the music scene like in Israel ? In many ways it must be a difficult place for youngsters growing up with the political tension on the borders always there?

Yes it is! We are very focused on our career and jobs, and to do everything without screwing up. We try to stay away from politics as we simply do not understand enough and not keep track of things. Praying for world peace is something I grew up on.

As a performer growing up, who were, or are, the artists you most admired who had an influence on your music?

A lot. Let me point out Skip James, Buddy Guy, John McLaughlin and Warren Haynes. Yes, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, too.

I believe that the hectic workload is due to continue with plans already in place for the next album? Anything you are able to share with us yet? Yeah we are now planning the production of our next release. We wrote some new songs but we are waiting for the right timing. We want to write and record as much as we can.who knows what tomorrow brings.

We want to invest in our US fans and make sure that we can keep on doing what we do.

In 2013 there are way more logistics and administrative work than it used to be I guess. We are thankful for all the experiences we had so far and the people we met along the way.

Thanks Ori, good luck with the tour and all the future plans.

Thank you for supporting us.

f or the l Atest news on o ri, check out: www.orin A ftA

ynsley gigs a lot, but we find an evening where we’re both home and able to talk about Home. Home is the latest in a series of releases from the perma-touring bluesman.

BM: Where are you at the moment?

AL: I’m at home in my kitchen, eating a Cornetto that has somehow just gone down the wrong way!

Home is a very strident, confident almost stealthy beat for the opener there in what I tend to call the post-Cray punchy blues style. Some great Hammond piano on this track. How do you work out your keyboard arrangements? Or do you rely on your man to know what to do?

When I write a song I‘ve always got a good idea of the instrumentation that I’m sort of hearing in my head. Basically, when I write, I write in isolation. I demo it at home, I have a home studio set up where I sort of write the songs, programme the drums and put some bass down. So I’ve always got an idea of what I wanted to hear. But I’m not a keyboard player, I’m not a drummer and I’m not a bass player. The super musician version is the one

on the album with all the guys. I basically sketch it out and present the band with a demo CD of the song and then they do their great musician version of it.

It’s how a lot of people work. When I write songs, I write it on an acoustic twelve-string and if it doesn’t sound good with the vocal and twelvestring, I dump it.

That’s a workable rule. Some songs work great as a solo acoustic. Other songs need a full band behind it for them to work. But if you’re trying to work out a melody, a verse or a chorus it’s a good guide for that.

OK. It’s kind of a novelistic lyric here isn’t? Well obviously it’s a very personal song. But I think the title of the album Home has a few angles that all go back to the same thing really. In my own life I’m at a point where I’m very settled and grounded. With the label being in-house and the management and everything it’s all kind of come home. That song is kind of a key song to the album, really.

OK. Broke has sort of a stabbing tempo with that guitar. Your voice sounds very comfortable on this Aynsley. You’ve actually got a slightly light-ish voice for blues rock music

Well, what I say to that is, I don’t have a generic blues rock voice. I don’t have what you would call a hoarse, gravelly blues voice. I never have had. My style particularly as an artist, is rooted in the blues.

My guitar playing is very bluesy. It has a blues undertone to it. But my voice, I’ve never had that gruff blues voice. When I first started out I really wanted that. I was kind of disappointed that when I sang it didn’t sound like that. But now, I kind of embrace it and I’m really happy with the voice I have because it’s different.

I think these days as well, with Robert Cray, Jon Amor, people singing in the same ‘above range’. John Mayall had a higher voice and still has. It’s a feature in your music that you sing in that range. I think in terms of the range, I don’t have the classic blues voice but I think I have enough of a range that I can get across the songs and melodies in my head. I think one of the things when you’re writing is, you hear a melody or something and you think ‘can you sing it?’

In this album, there’s quite a range of melodies and tunes and stuff. There’s things on there vocally that I’ve never, ever done before.

Well that’s a good point. You should always have things on the record that weren’t on the last one. Insatiable has this deliberate moody, walking sound with the sparse tremolo guitar. There’s some quite subtle chord movements aren’t there? I wonder what inspired that song?

I think for that, I wanted something that was quite rootsy and old-school. In terms of the chorus, you’ve got the texturable drum groove.

But then for the verses, I really like to create moods in my songs, I always like to put a little twist in there. On the turnaround in the verse it’s not a very obvious chord change. But I like that. I like to keep people guessing!

It’s a great thing. It’s what makes songs memorable, not going to the obvious place. Inside Out I like. It’s an excellent song. Cheers.

You should actually give that to Bonnie Raitt I think! It’s a song that I think she would take to. I like that a lot. Was that written early on when you were recording the album or was it a late addition? No, that was one of the first songs I wrote for the album. I think the first song I wrote for the album was Home. Then Inside Out probably came about three or four songs later. For that, it’s definitely influenced by John Mayer. I got into John Mayer a couple of years ago and I just like the depth and mood that he puts into his songs. So for that, it’s got sort of a laid back groove to it. Again, vocally that was something where I tried a melody and vocal thing that I’d never done before in a song. But it really worked.

I was talking to Chuck Leavell from the Stones and he’s friends with Mayer. In fact, Mayer came down and did a spot on his piano album. He thinks the world of him. Look, there’s a star on your record, Wayne Proctor, who I do run into. He has a great touch and feel for making an album varied. You have to give him credit.

Yeah. Wayne is a great musician and he has a good sense of song structure, so working with him on this album was really good. I like his drum sound. I tell you, one thing he is very good at is getting drum sounds onto tape. He’s very good at getting that big, lively sound recorded. He just complements the songs.

Yeah and on Free he’s sort of edging onto a Neil Young-Crazy Horse kind of tempo. Which I think puts a bit of a sharp jolt through the performance. OK. Well that’s interesting. All of the tempos have my initial ideas on them and then we fine-tuned them. We rehearsed all of the songs before we recorded them. We just tried it out, found the natural tempo that would sit comfortably with each of us for each song.

Yeah Joanne Shaw Taylor has a band that’s got a very similar dynamic, where she feels able to

jump off that, because she is very comfortable with the musicians around her. I mean Sugar is a sweetheart chug like Jimmy Reed. But again, it’s got a completely unusual turnaround. I’ve never been one to just do things simply. I always like to put a twist on it.

You Make it Real. My son’s a big James Morrison fan and he said to me ‘Ask Aynsley if he’s ever seen James Morrison live?’

I’ve never seen him live but I’ve watched him on YouTube. I think that song, the reason why I picked it is that I do like James’ songs from his earlier albums, and that song’s lyrical theme was very fitting with the rest of the album. Again, in my style I thought ‘I’m not gonna do a carbon copy’. So again, I put in a little bit of a twist. I put a few bits in like the guitar bit in the middle to suit myself. It was something to break it up.

The FeelingGood version that you do, to me goes back to the Antony Newley. This was before Nina Simone got to it. They didn’t actually have her i n mind when they recorded it. There’s a deep feel to that and I like your light touch.

Right. Well again, it’s a great song with a great riff. With that, I wanted to do the bluesy fill in the verses where the dynamic drops down. Just have some light and shade.

On Possession, you’ve got this heavy chording and this fuzzy gallop tempo. Your voice sounds most comfortable at that tempo. The bass on this track is absolutely terrific.

Steve’s a fantastic player. You mentioned earlier about the song Free and if you listen to what Steve’s playing on the bass and

aynsley: on and off the stage

Photo: John Russell

how he bounces off the main vocal line it’s fantastic.

Hyde2612, there’s a very sinister tread to that. It seems to be a story of disorientation. It’s got a sort of cartoonish element

Well there’s a story on that that might actually shed a bit of light for you. It’s actually written after watching the television series ‘Life on Mars’ a few years ago.

It was John Simm wasn’t it?

Basically, I watched that series and the whole storyline of a guy having an accident in 2006 and waking up in 1973 I thought was absolutely brilliant. It was like this time warp thing and I got really sucked into that. So Hyde 2612 was written from the perspective of the characters. He wants to wake up but he has to deal with this guy every day.

Who is technically his boss really. What I did when I was writing that, I tried to use as many references and quotes from the actual series as I could. So there’s obviously some interesting and quite far-out there lyrics in there. Which you might think ‘What is he on about?’, but basically if you watch the series, or one episode, then you would totally get where the song’s at.

There’s a bridge in there with very light chording which I think works a treat. But Impossible where does that come from?

That just started off because I bought a new guitar. I just sat strumming the guitar, and I came up with that chord sequence. Really laid back so I just recorded it on my recorder. Lyrically, I really enjoy writing lyrics and spending time on creating. It’s like when you read a good book you can almost build up a picture in your mind of the scenario.

That’s what books are for. Books are to trigger your own brain to sort of start creating. Yeah, that’s what I try to do. It’s that whole thing of building up imagery and making the listener go to a place when they are listening to a song. It’s not the same old train coming down the line thing!

Do you realise, half of this album is a love letter? I’m well aware of that yeah. I’m at the happiest place I’ve ever been in my life. Certainly my personal life and in my professional life as well. Life’s good. The whole business machine of the album with everything being in-house. It’s on our own label and it couldn’t be better really. I think the other thing with this album is it’s a very settled and honest album. At the moment, I suppose I’ve got a lot to shout about. I’m quite happy to use that as inspiration really.

Yeah but if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be true to yourself. Painters go through different eras don’t they? The Byrds made albums that according to my friend Roger McGuinn are ‘like magazines’. He regarded the albums as editions of what the band could do at that particular point, with that particular line up. I think you suppress yourself if you don’t follow your heart and let that come through when you write.

I think the other thing is as well though, as a person I’m a very private person.

I’m not the type of person who would talk about my private life openly to someone I didn’t know really well or felt comfortable with. But I’m in control of the songs, saying what I want to say and not saying what I don’t want to say, I don’t. I’m actually very open in my lyrics put it’s the other way around in my own life.

That was just an observation. There’s a huge romantic streak and obviously it deserves to be there. I enjoyed it immensely, I thought it was a great record and I thought the players really rise to the occasion on these songs

Yeah it was great working with the guys. I worked with Wayne before a good few years ago. Steve is in my live band at the moment and hopefully he’s not going anywhere soon. Also Andre is in the live band as well, so it’s great to go out on the road.

home is AvAilAble on strAight tAlkin’ records. Aynsley’s uk tours kicks off on december 1st in edinburgh. for the lAtest news on Aynsley, check out www.Aynsleylister.co.uk

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Interview leslie West

BM: Good morning to you Leslie, it’s afternoon here in England. I’ve got some questions about your new StillClimbing set and an off-the wall question for later. Now, on this record you’re making the guitar sing like a bird aren’t you? I’m wondering which amps you use to get that sound?

LW: Oh I recently switched to BlackStaramps. Currently I don’t use any floor distortion pedals, so it’s the amp creating that sound. In fact, my co-producer Mike Goldberg just adds a little delay or reverb or something like that, occasionally. I think on one song I used my Octaver, but that’s it. Y’see, I wanted it to sound like what’s really coming out of the cabinet

It sounds very personal and very lyrical because you’ve always put melody into your playing but you seem to have really been going for the aching melodies a lot on these tracks… Yeah, the thing was I started the album up a year ago in June and I never did that before where it took so long. I was writing the songs instead of having a record company say ‘you’ve gotta get an album done in two months.’ This way I think I found a new way to do it for myself because I don’t want the ‘one day I’m gonna do this song and then I’m gonna do this track the next day’ thing. Hence I found that I wasn’t repeating myself.

I understand. Now the previous UnusualSuspects album had quite a Californian sound to it because you were working with Slash and Joe Bonamassa Yeah! Now I had the songs done already with Joe Bonamassa I was out in L.A recording. My producer’s studio was out there. I went out to California and Joe had told me that one of his favourite songs was ‘Third Degree’ which was the song we did with West Bruce & Laing.

Ah yes! I love it and Jack Bruce loves it. We talked about Eddie Boyd at Jack’s house. Well, so Joe says to me when I ask him to play on the album ‘One of my favourite songs was your ‘Third Degree’ do you wanna recut that?’ I said, “Consider it done.”

Good man

So I had the track with the bass and drums, went out to L.A., Joe and I sat in the control room away from each other and played. That’s an interesting blues song. It’s not just twelve bar blues when it starts with that dynamic. I love that song and then redoing it with Bonamassa was the icing on the cake for me.

Now, I listened to this new record, where was this one recorded?

We recorded the tracks and overdubs in Paramus, New Jersey. It was five minutes from my house and one of the guys I went to school with, Joe, he wrote One More Dream for the Road and there’s another song he wrote on the first album. He owns the studio and we went to high school together. So I started recording there and I did a few overdubs on the last album there. This time, I didn’t go out to California, I recorded it right here in New Jersey. Then we sent the album to Mike Fraser to mix it. Are you familiar with Mike Fraser?

I have heard his work, Metallica? Metallica, Joe Satriani, AC/ DC. I thought this was a great approach because me and Mike Goldberg were recording it. We sent it to Mike and he had a clear perspective on the whole album. He mixed it and when it came back, we only had to make one or two changes. He did such a good job mixing it, and I think there’s something to be said for giving a guy an album to mix and he wasn’t in the daily grind of what it took to put the songs together. Therefore, it was all fresh to him.

On the first track DyingSincetheDayIwasBorn, it’s a very strong vocal and presumably that’s you? Yeah, that’s me!

Mark Tremonti and you are hanging bends throughout that. Well Mark did the middle solo and the ride out. I can’t play as fast as that! He has a great sense of melody also.

The second cut Busted Disgusted or Dead that’s so earthy … Winter’s distinctive because what he does if he’s playing in C he’ll hit the E flat, zing it up to G and come back again. Those four semi-tones, it’s a very distinctive thing that Johnny does when he’s playing isn’t it?

Yeah. Some of the things are amazing, original, pure Johnny. I’m playing slide, and the thing is I didn’t know how it was gonna come out. On that style, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Hatfield or McCoy? they had two families against each other and supposedly it’s about someone stealing a pig from another family! The original story in the United States is Hatfield and McCoy; the title on my album is Hatfield or McCoy in other words, you’re either this man, or you’re that man.

OK. It’s an entertaining track. I was listening to Tales of Woe and it’s got that great Segovia introduction, but it sound like you were writing that for Bad Company/Paul Rodgers. (Whistles) Really?

Yeah I know Paul and he would LOVE that song I love Paul Rodgers and the beginning acoustic intro was played by David Bigone, he’s the only guy I use in addition to the sax player. He played organ, he played piano, he played acoustic when I couldn’t. I figured he’d do a better job than me, there.

On that track, are you playing slide off straight tuning like Jeff Beck would do? Yeah on Tales of Woe I’m playing slide, that way.

OK, I did wonder about that. The other track I really go for on this one, is Not Over You at All. There’s something about that that’s got a real intensity. You know what? I’m glad you said that because that’s my favourite track on that album. It was so ****ing heavy!

You and I are together on that then. Oh my God! It came right off the top of my head. The intro which sort of reminded me of Metallica but just the chord intro. Then when it goes to the heavy lick, it just came out of

me all of a sudden. I can sing it. Then I’m singing along with the guitar and the verses and I love the overall sound of the guitar. Even my manager said ‘It’s one of the best heavy riffs you’ve ever come up with.’

That’s what I’ve written down here and leads me to my off the wall question if I may. Your phrasing is not really American, it’s much closer to Roger Daltrey. I would say, even on Flowers of Evil your vocals on the title track are so Roger Daltrey. I always wanted to ask you because I heard you recorded with The Who.

Well actually, I played on the original Who’s Next?, we recorded at the Record Plant. Chris Lambert rang to say they had asked whether I could play some guitar on the Who’s album that they’re working on? I replied ‘Guitar? They already have a guitar player!’ He explained ‘Pete would like to try recording with less overdubbing.’ So in other words, Pete play rhythm and I play lead. But then they went back to England had transfer problems on the masters and rerecorded it with Glyn Johns. Then it came out, but a few years back I think it’s like seven years ago they came out with the Who’s Next: Remixes, a box set. You can hear the stuff I did with them in there and it finally came out. I was so thrilled but I gave Pete Townsend my Les Paul Junior after those sessions.

Cool. Are you aware that you sing with that English slant in your phrasing often?

You know what? I never really was a singer. Somebody once said my guitar playing was something to do until I got to the singing! (Laughs) I don’t really consider myself a singer. I love the sound of my voice now, and I stopped smoking around seven years ago. I had bladder cancer and I had to stop. I was very lucky that it hadn’t reached the wall and they got it by accident and it was benign. But after that I stopped smoking, stopped smoking weed and it definitely helped my voice. English phrasing, Pete ?You know what? That may very well be. That’s what I

try to emulate, I mean don’t forget that the British were copying all those guys from the United States! I don’t think of myself as a singer, but I love the phrasing by British singers and Paul Rodgers is absolutely my favourite.

(Wediscusspracticeandrehearsing)

Somebody asked me yesterday ‘Do you practice?’ I wrote back my answer ‘No.’ Then he wanted me to elaborate and I wrote back ‘I don’t practice but when I walk by a guitar in the house, it looks at me and makes me feel very guilty, so I pick the guitar and play. I don’t like to call it practice, I like to call it playing.

I have to go from show to show so I don’t have time to practice. So when I play, I figure what’s coming out is fresh to me and the audience. That’s exactly the way I think. I’m a big baseball fan and usually before the game, pitchers are warming up in the ball pen, and so I don’t wanna warm up! I don’t want my best playing in the dressing room. It’s new to me and it will be new to them

Jonny Lang’s with you singing with you on the Percy Sledge number. That guy speaks quietly but he sings like a demon.

It’s amazing. I hear him sing and I think he sounds like a sixty year old black man! (Laughs) he doesn’t play with a pick and I was fascinated by that. I know that Jeff Beck doesn’t use a pick and the sounds are totally different when you use a pick. The thing with Jonny Lang is,his singing I don’t know where it comes from, but there’s a lot of air in his singing. It amazes me.

Most people sing and emote, he seems to actually float in a gritty haze. Do you understand what I’m saying?

Right! the air comes from the throat.

OK – Fade Into You – I’ve got written down here ‘acoustic intro, guitar stately elegiac’. It sounds very noble to me like a film theme.

The way the guitars and the band comes in yes it’s cinematic, thanks

Can I quickly ask you if you’ll be doing any promotional dates for Still Climbing?

Yeah. We’re picking a venue in New York right now for a show soon after the release.

I have other shows, but it’s not easy to get around anymore because no tour buses are equipped to handle a wheelchair. I’m not really good with the prosthetic yet.

When I went to the rehab hospital, a famous one and Christopher Reeve went there, so the therapist says “When you wanna play one of your guitars, we’ll strap it on, I will put you in between these parallel bars and see how long you can stand playing the guitar before you need to grab something.” The most I could do was forty seconds.

I said ‘That’s not gonna work on stage man.

The last thing I wanna do is worry about me falling on stage as I wouldn’t be thinking about the songs.’ I sit down when I play but I have this chair which goes up high and goes back. I don’t like playing in a chair because I can’t get up and walk around. But I can move around a little bit, but it’s a whole different ball game.

OK. Well look, I enjoyed the record and it was great talking to you. There’s always things I wondered about you and now I know. Thanks for your time and I appreciate it I appreciate it and I’m so thrilled that you like the album, man. It means a lot to me.

leslie west’s Album still climbing , feAturing guest AppeArAnces from johnny winter, mArk tremonti, jonny lAng, And dee snider is AvAilAble on provogue

m ention l ouisi A n A to most followers of Americ A n roots A nd blues music A nd their first thought would be n ew o rle A ns. nol A is A melting pot of blues, j A zz, c A jun, zydeco A nd A ll m A nner of cooking, music A l cross pollin Ation

ut, there is a darker, deeper blue part of Louisiana across the bayou, towards Shreveport and Lafayette, a land of swamps and broken down buildings, of hoodoo and myths and legends. An area that produces a darker type of blues performer, John Campbell, Papa Mali, C.C. Adcock and the Swamp Fox himself, Tony Joe White. Add to that list Brother Dege, a performer who has been paying his dues the hard way, a raw talent whose music is now getting some of the recognition it deserves through the unexpected medium of Discovery & National Geographic TV and Hollywood.

Dege (pronounced Deej) was born in the tiny community of Mowata, the nearest city being Eunice – population approximately 10,000 citizens.

This is the heart of Cajun country, much of the language spoken is French, and Dege grandparents and mother were French speaking. His father had been an Airforce pilot and veteran of Vietnam, whose intense military attitude Dege found himself rebelling against even as a young child.

There was some moving around the country before his parents eventually divorced and Dege moved back with his Mum and Sister to be raised in the jungle areas of Southern Louisiana. I asked Dege for some of his early memories and he rattled off a list - snakes, swimming holes, swamps, dirt, skipping to school, bicycles, rednecks, shotguns, hurricanes, loneliness, fun, violence, blinding heat, junkyards, boredom and civil war ghosts, just an average childhood then.

At 15 Dege acquired his first guitar, a cheap acoustic bought from a guy who’d found it in the boot of a car in a junkyard. Looking back Dege says, “I never took lessons, I started writing songs soon as I picked it up. Didn’t ever bother to learn covers because I didn’t have the patience. I wrote so many songs I had to create my own tablature to remember them.”

“My notebook looked like an insane person trying to draw alien hieroglyphics while high on mushrooms. Even I couldn’t read it a day later.”

V E rb A ls: S teve Y ourglivch V I su A ls: brian c miller richard

The brand new album from Wooden Horse ‘This Kind of Trouble.’ A wonderful blend of slide guitar, boogie piano and country blues.

“This Kind Of Trouble It’s a wonderful album in every way!” Hans Theessink

“With their blend of blues, bluegrass and Americana – Wooden Horse go down a storm.”

Joan Armatrading BBC Radio 2

woodenhorse roots

VinylSeries

By now Dege was into punk rock and heavy metal, not surprisingly rebelling against the Cajun, Zydeco blues mix all around him, but he found it seeping into his playing regardless, ‘ It just came out sounding like me, kind of riffed up, spooky, atmospheric and sort of dark. I didn’t intentionally try to make it sound like that. It just comes out that way’

Teen years were tough, especially being one of only two punk kids in the area. Grown men would want to beat him up and pick fights. There was lots of time spent running crazy, tripping on acid and writing more songs until eventually Dege moved away to Baton Rogue to stay with more like minded youngsters. For awhile life was good, studying philosophy at school, falling in love, seeing bands like Sonic Youth live, writing more songs.

It couldn’t last though and aged twenty, Dege attempted to take his own life. He swallowed a bottleful of sleeping pills, saying now, ‘I just didn’t like the way this world made me feel.’ He still remembers vividly the dreams he went through that night and the strange experiences of the next few days. Things continued to get worse in Baton Rogue, dumped by his girlfriend, beaten up badly, car stolen, eviction, fired from his crappy job and finally thrown into jail. Common sense prevailed and Dege realised he had to move away and he ended up in Lafayette and cleaned up his life.

It was here that Dege started jamming with some musicians who had been playing in various cult Louisiana bands, so in the garage of drummer Krishna, the band Santeria was born. They played a southern rock style but Krishna brought an eastern influenced off-beat rhythmic feel creating a unique sound. Santeria went on to become a much loved underground band not only at home but across the world. The cult classic album, House Of The Dying Sun, released in 2002, captured the imagination of many with its mix of southern rock vibes with psychedeic blues undertones, Psyouthern Rock if you will. The band could have been a huge success but suffered a string of accidents, bad luck and hardships which have been attributed to a voodoo curse. Remember, this is Louisiana. The Santeria

HoW to Kill a Horse

Following on from the haunting delta sounds of Folk Songs for the American Longhair, the new opus, entitled How To Kill A Horse takes things up to the next level. BM! were lucky enough to hear an early copy of the album and here Dege Legg himself talks us exclusively through track by track.

THE BLACK SEA. Big riffing shot across the bow. Next evolution of the slide and roots music and badass riffage, which is kind of missing from modern music.

DARKER SIDE OF ME. Accepting and sort of celebrating the darker side of the male psyche. Hemingway type shit. Delta slide riffage.

HOW TO KILL A HORSE. Redneck noir, spaghetti western, movie-scape, sonic slide. On the high plains, rodeo of the modern world. Addiction. Dreams. Love. Darkness. Violence.

JUDGMENT DAY. Old world, apocalyptic brimstone, preachy freakout. Signature Brother Dege, ghost-haunted midde 8/slide solo section with middle eastern melodies, unheard in blues.

O’DARK 30 (INSTRUMENTAL).Tomorrow Never Knows slide guitar, dragging modern roots music into the 21st century. Total thrown down. Apocalypse Now. Syrian carnival fireworks. Americano Bad Karma machinegun train.

POOR MOMMA CHILD. Delta style thumper. Man. Woman. Children. Temptation. Infidelity. Promiscuity. Etc.

WEHYAH. A post-modern, trance/chant. Big reverse slide guitar solo. Hendrix/Are You Experienced. DIY spiritual. Lotto Gospel.

CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. John Lee Hooker Boogie Chillun meets crash and burn love. Meant to lighten the darker tone of the album.

THE RIVER. You can’t control anything. The meaning is in the journey. Not the destination. Hard won lessons. Acceptance of circumstance.

LAST MAN OUT OF BABYLON. Dudes in the wind / Middle-eastern / Old Testament Mecca trekking. Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness).

story though is for another time and place.

Whilst playing with Santeria, Dege started to introduce some acoustic slide guitar into the music, initially just to add some texture and variation. In early 2002 Dege bought his first Dobro and started to teach himself slide Delta blues. Incredibly the first song Dege remembers writing on Dobro was the title track, House of the Dying Sun.

‘I was like WOW! Where did this come from? Although my life has been hard, I’ve always been lucky in song and I am thankful for that. The gods have always been good to me because without the gift of song I don’t know if I’d be here on this earth. The songs, which are like little messages have kept me here. I don’t know why every time I want to leave or give up the universe, or God or whatever sends me a song.’

Dege continued to practise and write until around 2006 he felt he was getting good enough to finger pick, sing and slide at the same time without embarrassing himself or the Delta tradition. This is an important point, as Dege says, ‘ White people have a long history of ruining things that black people have invented. The Delta blues is no different. I didn’t want to be another honky, throwing shame on the game. That’s why I didn’t start playing solo as Brother Dege until around 2006, because I didn’t want to take from the tradition. It was only at that point I realised I had something to add to it.’

By 2009 Dege started recording the debut Brother Dege album, Folk Songs for the American Longhair. Consisting of ten great delta blues songs recorded in a shed behind his house in Louisiana in the tradition of the original giants of the genre, Bukka White, Son House etc. Released in 2010 to critical acclaim, sales were slow to begin with but word was spreading. Eventually the track, Hard Row To Hoe was picked up by producers on the Discovery Channel programme ‘Deadliest Catch’. The culmination of this was getting a call from Quinten Tarratino requesting permission to use another track, Too Old To Die Young

on the Django Unchained soundtrack. Dege admits at first he thought it was a hoax, but suddenly sales have picked up as his music is heard by a whole new audience.

Since 2011 Dege has been writing and recording his new album How To Kill A Horse, due out in November. The whole album has been recorded in an empty warehouse in Lafayette and is as atmospheric and chill inducing as that suggests.

Dege is much more than just a musician recording blues music. He is a multi artist who has recorded nine albums with Santeria and various other projects, all worth checking out. Between 2004-05 he was part of C.C. Adcock’s acclaimed touring band The Lafayette Marquis.

In addition he has written two novels, and often has an ability to turn difficult times into something positive. In 2003 Dege started working as a nightshift cab driver in Lafayette but turned his experiences into first a blog and then a book, Cablog, Diary of a Cabdriver. In 2007 he lived in a homeless camp and wrote a feature story about the experience, Slipping Through The Cracks, that appeared in the Independent Weekly and won a Louisiana Press Award. This has always been a cause close to his heart and since 2011 Dege has held down a full time job as a case worker in a homeless shelter as well as recording and performing.

If you’re searching for a modern take on traditional Delta slide guitar blues check out Brother Dege. Final words to Dege, ‘ I don’t consider myself a bluesman in the traditional sense, a la BB King, SRV, I am a self taught artist that is drawn toward all music and media that has a soulful quality to it. It all functions on a subconscious level. It’s the weird thing that gives you the chills or makes the hair stand up on your arms when you feel it. I don’t really understand it, I just go with what feels right.’

f or the l Atest news on b rother d ege check out his website: http://brotherdege.blogspot.co.uk

wAy b A ck when i used to pl Ay this g A me c A lled ‘w h At i f?’ A nd A s A 99 ye A rs to lifer, dyed in the wool, blues fA n A nd long-time musici A n, the wh At ifs would usu A lly include sever A l fA ntA sy blues b A nds RoBeRt Johnson

to an

BUt What If he’d had a natIonal?

For example, what if Robert Johnson had access to a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. What if a tape recorder had been at one of Charlie Patton’s great Saturday night Delta Blues in 1920’s Clarksdale with a young Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Williams in attendance. But by far my biggest ‘what if’ may surprise you. It was simply what if Robert Johnson had been able to record using a National Resophonic acoustic guitar? (After all, first year of production was 1927 so this what if is entirely possible) My reason is simple, it’s because to me Terraplane Blues, Walking Blues, Come Into My Kitchen, etc., played on that magical, clangey, virile, rinkydink, old-fashioned mystery music box of an instrument, surely does conjure up enchanted, dark secret sounds from places deep in the very heart of the Mississippi Delta. In fact I say that playing a slide blues on a National Resophonic acoustic guitar is the nearest thing you can get today to walking down that old dust road where it all came from way back down in the Mississippi night. OK, now I’ve got you all fired up about the use of Resonator Guitars in the Blues, I guess I had better start by telling you what a Resonator Guitar actually is.

It all started with a man named John Dopyera who came to America with his family from Austro-Hungary in 1908. The family

V E rb A ls: n igel m entzel

business they started was a cabinet making and general repair shop, but during the 1920s they began to manufacture Banjos and it was in this period that two incidents took place which were to change everything. The second incident was the introduction and popularity of the new Victrola Gramophone. The connection between the two ideas was volume. The Victrola produced a sound so quiet that it could not be heard unless amplified many times. Basically, how it worked was that when the needle attached to the gramophone head was placed into the etched and pressed rotating spiral of the shellac record, the resulting vibrations moved up the needle to where it made contact with a plate of metal or other material in the gramophone head called a Resonator Plate. They were converted back into the speech and music of the record which was then amplified many times using a brass horn. So here we have it, the magic combination of ideas and technology which gave birth to the wonderful Resonator acoustic guitar. The problem to be solved had already been highlighted by Mr Beauchamp, and it was growing bigger by the day. The Blues had been used as entertainment for a small groups of people – in the home, at a country supper, busking etc. Volume was not a problem, but leisure activities were changing, and people were starting to take their leisure time entertainment in much larger more formalised groups now, in barrel houses, juke joints, bars etc. Also, the coming drift of rural populations to large national cities like Chicago put the entertainers and musicians into situations where audiences were even larger, noisier and wanting to party. With wooden acoustic guitars too quiet to be heard well enough, and the electric guitar yet to come on the scene, so it was that the National Resophonic guitar became a kind of half way. OK, so far we have talked about volume, and the problems that the early Bluesmen had to fret. But, something even more vital was achieved, almost by accident – and that is the sound! In the process of amplifying the acoustic guitar. John Dopyera also used a

Resonator Plate, an idea he had taken from the Victorla Gramophone, he placed the thin circular alloy metal plate inside the body of the guitar, just under the bridge and this alone completely changed the whole sound, tone and character of the instrument.

Not only that but the National Resophonic guitar company founded by John Dopyera was producing its first Resophonic guitar in the late 1920s, not with a wood body like almost all other acoustic guitars, but with a body made from brass, often coated in highly reflective nickel steel. Also, the sound hole was not the standard circular hole common to most acoustics, but instead F holes were used, which are more common to a Violin. When you play the strings the sound is transferred to the interior of the sound box through the resonator plate (also known as a cone) which resonates giving a totally unique character to the sounds produced – there is a richness, a grittiness, a shaft to the heart, a down-home, back porch, Saturday-night dirt road feel to the sound of a well-played National Resonator guitar which is unique, and can’t be produced by any other instrument. There is one more magic ingredient to throw in the mix, and that’s the Slide. The whole of this guitar is based on resonance, it is suitable for slide.

The Slide is a glass tube placed on the little finger of the musicians’ left hand which is used to pick at the melody, then sliding it up and down the strings. Slide guitar does not work well when the guitar is in standard tuning, therefore the Bluesman has to put the guitar into a special tuning to play with a slide. This means that once the guitar is in special slide tuning, no normal chords will work. The musician has to work a different set of chords for each individual special tuning. (E is a good tuning to start experimenting with for Slide guitar). As already noted, the musician must play with the bottleneck or slide on his little finger, so he has one less finger to make chords with. If all that won’t give you the Blues, well I don’t know what will!

resonAting the blues continues in the next issue of bm. don’t miss it!

I just want to inform you about our company BLUE NOTE TOURS, LLC

We offer 20 trips,starting in 2014 from April 4th, through to October 21st. An Escorted Luxury Bus Tour from Chicago to, St Louis, to Memphis, to the Crossroads of the Mississippi Delta, and on to Vicksburg, Mississippito New Orleans.

This is a trip like no other for Blues Fans. From the clubs and juke joints, to the cotton fields of the Delta, to the Electric Blues of Chicago.

All hotels, breakfast, museums, attractions and a host of other surprises are included.

The Blues has had a distinct influence on so many musical styles – Jazz, Country, Motown and is directly responsible for Rock & Roll. We encourage Musicians to take the ride, we will be stopping at a lot of clubs and doing a lot of Open Mic Nights.

It doesn’t matter if your a Blues musician or a Blues fan, the trip is designed to have FUN while listening to some great Blues, with old and new friends. Our goal is to inform, entertain and some times testify to our love for the Blues.

What’s happenin’ next...

Interviews: Curtis Salgado, Buddy Guy (Part 2), Rhythm Zoo, Savoy Brown, Samantha Fish and many more. Features: Climax Blues Band, Blues DJ’s, The Blues Brothers series, Eel Pie Anniversary, and more. KitChat: Music Equipment reviews. Top 10: Dave Berry, Red Lick Top 20 Blue Blood: The best up and coming Blues acts, Blues News: The latest Blues news. Feedback: We publish your thoughts on the Blues scene. Plus The Magazine Regulars – the best CD Reviews in the field, Gig Reviews, Festival Reviews and more!

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the 2013 results for the best in blues across the globe

UK ResUlts

STUDIO ALBUM:

1. HugH Laurie – DiDn’t it rain

2. Zoe SchwarZ Blue commotion – the BlueS Don’t Scare me,

3. Jo Harman – Dirt on my tongue

In with a shout: Otis GrandBlues ’65, Richard Studholme – Life, Tom Jones – Spirit In The Room

LIVE ALBUM:

1. Joanne SHaw tayLor –SongS From tHe roaD

2. Savoy Brown – SongS From the roaD

In with a shout: Larry Miller

– Live & Outlawed, Virgil & The Accelerators – Live at The Marshall, Groove-a-Matics –Live at Bronte Blues Club

SOLO ARTIST:

1. marcuS BonFanti

2. = ian Parker anD otiS granD

3. HugH Laurie

In with a shout: Danny Kyle, Jo Harman, Ian Siegal, Sam Hare, Tom Jones

BAND:

1. DaviD migDen & Dirty worDS

2. king king

3. = tHe iDLe HanDs, BiLL Wyman’s rHytHm Kings, JooLs HoLLanD r & B orcHestra, norman BeaKer BanD

In with a shout: Babajack, Virgil & The Accelerators, The Pretty Things

RECORD LABEL:

1. maScot Provogue

2. ruF recorDS

3. ace/Kent

In with a shout: JSP, Proper, Nugene

VOCALIST:

1. earL green

2. = tom JoneS, ian Siegal, nicky moore

3. = Zoe scHWarZ, aynsLey Lister

In with a shout: Chris Farlowe, Chantel McGregor, David Migden, Jo Harman

DRUMMER:

1. wayne Proctor

2. Paul heyDon (the iDle hanDS)

3. = miKe HeLLier, Kevin morris (Dr.FeeLgooD), steve gaDD

GUITARIST:

1. eric cLaPton

2. = Danny kyle, Stan weBB

3. = PauL rose, tom DougHty

In with a shout: Aynsley Lister, Otis Grand, Marcus Bonfanti

BASSIST:

1. ian JenningS

2. norman watt-roy

3. = JacK Bruce, Jamie Burns, LinDsay couLson

KEYBOARDS:

1. PaDDy miLner

2. = BoB hall, hugh laurie

3. ray Drury

HARMONICA:

1. PauL JoneS

2. John o’leary

3. steve ‘West’ Weston

In with a shout: Eddie Armer, Giles King, Eddie Martin

BEST NEWCOMER:

1. DaviD migDen & tHe Dirty worDS

2. little DevilS

3. reD ButLer

In with a shout: Navacross, Katie Bradley, Dove & Boweevil, Grainne Duffy, Jo Harmon

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT (SCROLL OF HONOUR):

1. wiLko JoHnSon

2. Jackie lynton

3. BiLL Wyman

Non musician – Dave Raven (radio presenter)

THOSE WE’VE LOST THIS YEAR TO BE REMEMBERED:

Gypie Mayo, Alvin Lee, George Watt, Andy Johns, Steve Hay, Reg Presley. Just a few who have given us so much

BEST BLUES RADIO SHOW/STATION:

1. PauL JoneS BLueS SHow –BBc raDio 2

2. rave’n’BlueS (Dave raven)

3. DigitaL BLues (asHWyn smytH)

In with a shout: Monday Mornin’ Blues (thisisthecat.com)

INteRNAtIONAl ResUlts

STUDIO ALBUM:

1. rory BLock – avaLon: a triBute to miSSiSSiPPi JoHn Hurt

2. the riDeS – can’t get enough

3. BuDDy guy – rHytHm & BLues

In with a shout: Mannish Boys – Double Dynamite, Mark Robinson – Have Axe Will Travel, Curtis Salgado –Soul Shot, Charles Bradley –Victim of Love, James Cotton

– Cotton Mouth, Thorbjorn Risager – Dust & Scratches, Paul Thorn – What The Hell Is Going On, David Egan –David Egan, Sugaray Rayford

– Dangerous, Etta James –Queen Of Soul

LIVE ALBUM:

1. BuDDy guy – Live atLegenDS

2. erJa lyytinen – SongS From the roaD

3. = 24tH street WaiLers –Live in HaLiFax, roomFuL oF BLues – 45 Live

In with a shout: Henrik Freischlader – Live Concerts,

SOLO ARTIST:

1. eric BiBB

2. curtiS SalgaDo

3. isiaH B Brunt

In with a shout: Charles Bradley, Paul Thorn, Layla Zoe, Mark Robinson, Angel Forrest

BAND:

1. monkeyJunk

2. teDeSchi truckS BanD

3. LiL’ eD & tHe BLues imPeriaLs

In with a shout: Mojo Makers, The Rides

RECORD LABEL:

1. aLLigator

2. ruF recorDS

3. = Provogue, DeLta groove, Dixie Frog

In with a shout: Daptone, Document

VOCALIST:

1. curtiS SaLgaDo

2. matt anDerSen

3. roBert cray

In with a shout: Sugaray Rayford, Kim Wilson, JJ Grey, Studebaker John, CD Woodbury

DRUMMER:

1. cHriS Layton

2. tal Bergman

3. coDy DicKinson

In with a shout: Lil Cal Jackson, Kenny Smith

GUITARIST:

1. warren HayneS

2. Derek truckS

3. = Jimmy vaugHan, Kim simmonDs

In with a shout: Joe Bonamassa, Sonny Landreth, Joe McMahan

BASSIST:

1. BoB Stroger

2. kevin mccormick

3. ron eoFF

KEYBOARDS:

1. cHuck LeaveLL

2. = DaviD egan, greg allman

3. DaviD maxWeLL

In with a shout: Jon Cleary, Reese Wyans, Barry Goldberg, Chris Kliemann

HARMONICA:

1. cHarLie muSSeLwHite

2. kim wilSon

3. ricK estrin

In with a shout: Stephane Bertolino (AWEK), Randy Chortkoff, Rachelle Plas

BEST NEWCOMER:

1. DeLta SaintS

2. moJo makerS

3. DaviD egan

In with a shout: CD Woodbury, Rachelle Plas

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT (SCROLL OF HONOUR): Kim Wilson, Johnny Winter, Lurrie Bell, Ronnie Earl, Sonny Rhodes

THOSE WE’VE LOST THIS YEAR, TO BE REMEMBERED:

Bobby Bland, Richie Havens, Jimmy Dawkins, Etta James, JJ Cale, T-Model Ford, Magic Slim, Dan Toler. Just a few of those we’ve lost.

BEST BLUES RADIO SHOW/STATION: (NO OUTRIGHT WINNER)

Kansas City Online Radio, Bandit Blues Radio, BB King Bluesville

BEST BLUES DVD:

1. Savoy Brown – SongS From tHe roaD (cD/DvD)

rory block photo: Sergio kurhajec

WOODEN HORSE

This Kind Of TrOuble

Wooden Horse music

Worcester duo of Jamie Knight and Ben Church, the two main protagonists of Wooden Horse have produced, in This Kind Of Trouble, an authentic sounding album of Americana. Encompassing Country Blues, Bluegrass and much more, this

album oozes quality in terms of playing, vocals and songwriting and was a great surprise to me. Opening with the self-penned A Big Deal, they set out their store from the off in an enjoyable Bluegrass sounding song.

An up-tempo Country Blues follows in You Ain’t Letting Me Down complete with some great boogie styled piano in the background by Stuart McIlroy who has joined them for this album. This is another selfpenned number and some great slide

THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS

POwerful sTuff/walK ThaT walK,TalK ThaT TalK retro World

Budget priced 2CD set that spans a period of change within this great American rocking blues band. The first album proved to be Jimmie Vaughan’s last with the band and new producer Terry Manning gave the band a more mainstream rock sound. Opening track Rock This Joint sets the scene for the first album with a thunderous drum beat, heavy fuzzed guitars and Kim Wilson’s distinctive vocals. The sound is more reminiscent of ZZ Top than classic T-Birds. Emergency is a much more familiar T-Birds sound with Wilson’s wonderful harp and vocals taking a more prominent role. Stomping title track Powerful Stuff zips along nicely with fierce vocals and twangy guitatrs and closing old blues chestnut Rainin’ In my Heart is well done in Slim Harpo’s down home style. Vaughan’s departure created such a huge hole that Wilson recruited two excellent guitar players to replace him in the shape of Duke Robillard and Kid Bangham. This change immediately freshened things up and opener Twist Of The Knife finds the revitalised T-Birds tearing into this crashing blues-rocker. Sam & Dave’s soul classic Ain’t That A Lot Of Love gets a lively cover and Work Together features backing vocals from The Gospel Hummingbirds. Robillard penned the fine and funky Stax like Born To Love You and then we get the laid back groove of Need Somebody To Love with soulful vocals from Wilson and tasty guitar interplay between Robillard and Bangham.

Junior Parker’s Feelin’ Good gets a rockabilly workout and features a great harp solo from Wilson. There is a mighty chunk of Texan soul with When I Get Home and the album closes with the rocking Paralyzed. The latter CD is certainly my clear favourite on this excellent twofer. Dave Drury

playing drives this stomper along. Johnson’s Kind Hearted Woman draws the whole into a classic Blues with great rolling piano and lovely slide guitar. Another original shows their harmonies to the best in the title track, an enjoyable Country Blues. Next up is Crazy Mamma, a J.J.Cale toe tapper with yet more wonderful boogie-woogie ivory tinkling.

Walking Rain is a somewhat gloomy slow song which I feel is saved by the heart-wrenching slide guitar in the middle section. Vinson and Chatmon’s Sittin’ On Top Of The World is giving an extremely different makeover to the rock version that most people know by Cream. It feels livelier and with a vibrant piano solo, underpinned by chopping guitar chords, the joy after loss is almost tangible. It was during this song that I realized the quality of Jamie Knight’s vocals, strong and well-pitched. Quite surprisingly, the next song Kinda Man, is pure rock n roll, again with strong boogie woogie piano and this is in complete contrast to the final cut Time I’s Leaving, a soulful, mournful ballad that tugs at the heartstrings. This an enjoyable album, produced by extremely competent musicians and songwriters and one which deserves to be heard by a wider audience.

Merv OsbOrne

JEFF SAXON

blujanOva relevant records

Well, here’s an interesting release, something with a real twist which is very absorbing and experimental. At

Albums reviews

first listening you’d think it’s not really a blues record, but listening on, this is a very clever, technically sound and very listenable release with varied music styles, to say the least. Jeff has a very eclectic approach to music genres and as the title implies he has tried to fuse together elements of blues, jazz and bossa nova.

This unique musical gumbo really shines, with Jeff’s bluesy, laid back vocals and different arrangements of tune styles, such as a soft and gentle adaptation of Hound Dog, making for a refreshing change to the standard format, although this does not really adapt to James Brown’s I Feel Good. Also he has been brave enough to give his smooth treatment to Riders On The Storm, All songs have his unique approach to fusing styles, the opener Bye Bye Blues, is so enchanting that it puts a smile on your face and takes you to another listening level, with a relaxing vibe , a sure fire stand out track. He also has a great band, on keyboards Michael McGregor and fretless bass player

LOWELL FULSON

TrOuble, TrOuble fantastic voyage

Keith Jones. Waiting For Lily the instrumental last tune sees the band gelling together for a most enjoyable recording.

COlin CaMpbell

TOO SLIM AND THE TAILDRAGGERS

blue hearT

underworld records

The wonderful Too Slim & The Taildraggers were formed well over a quarter century ago in Washington State, and they have produced over a dozen consistently strong albums. Tim Langford has a gruff and pleading semi-spoken voice, which stands up well against the similar sounding Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. This album was recorded in Nashville, and benefits not only from that city’s excellent studios and Tom Hambridge’s crisp production, but also the peerless Reese Wynans on keyboards. The sound has been fleshed out when compared to their

This is a three CD budget priced box set which is billed as the definitive survey of the formative years of the influential big-voiced singer, superb guitarist and songwriter who was rivalled only by T-Bone Walker on the West Coast blues scene. Fulson recorded through the 40’s and into the 70’s proving to be more adaptable than many of his contemporaries but his powerful vocals and stinging jazzy guitar were always at the forefront of his material. CD1 finds Fulson in a small group setting backed up by drums, double bass and piano. Standout tracks here are the wry, swinging You’re Gonna Miss Me, the piano boogie I Want To See My Baby and the rollicking 9.30 Shuffle. Also here are the fine slow blues Midnight Showers Of Rain and Three O’Clock Blues, which was later a huge hit for B. B. King. CD2 opens with a laid back Ain’t Nobody’s Business and the immortal Everyday I Have The Blues, featuring the excellent pianist Lloyd Glen and alto sax player Earl Brown. Other notable tracks on CD2 are the swinging two part Lonesome Christmas, the gospel tinged Sinner’s Prayer, which was later covered by Ray Charles and the jumping Let Me Love You Baby featuring honking saxes. The final CD in this collection includes the classic mid-tempo soul-tinged ReconsiderBaby with stinging guitar and swinging horns and the fierce Trouble, Trouble. This is an excellent collection well worth a listen. Dave Drury

earlier work. Jimmy Hall joins on a couple of tracks, vocals on Good To See You Smile Again, and his harmonica contributes much to the superb title track. Tim Langford is a brilliant guitarist, and it is nigh on impossible to pick a favourite example from this album. Triple threat Langford is also a masterful songwriter, and this again is in evidence here. In the end the best aspect of his work is the incessant riffing and cool grooves of every cut. This is his best work since 1995’s Swamp Opera, and once it gets under your skin it will be a permanent implant.

nOggin

LITTLE G WEEVIL

MOving vizztone

This is Hungarianborn Weevil’s second album, his first since winning the solo/duo best guitarist at last year’s International Blues Challenge in the States, where he now bases himself. Composed of eleven original tracks and one cover, all but three of the tracks feature solo performances by Little G, for the other three his full band consisting of Maurice Nazzaro on harmonica, Danny V Vinson rhythm /lead guitar, Dustin Sergant, upright bass and finally Adam Goodhue on drums, joins him.

Acoustic slide and foot tapping dominate the opening Shook It And Broke It. The finger picking of On My Way To Memphis follows, before the band join in on Mean And Dirty, a little shuffle with lovely harmonica backing. Little G continues his fine guitar playing throughout the rest of the disc switching easily between slide and picking.

Little G Weevil also has a very distinguished, gruff voice, belying his mere 36 years, bringing to mind his forefathers. This is as fine an example of modern acoustic blues you’ll hear and if it’s your bag, I advise you to check it out.

Clive rawlings

GRAND MARQUIS

blues and TrOuble Grand marquis music

My impression of Grand Marquis after the first listen was of a Dixieland swing band playing in the era of the Charleston in an up market Chicago speakeasy with fine silk drapes, oak clad walls, gangsters in tuxedoes with their molls dripping from their arms and waiters serving cocktails endlessly. They come over as far from the current scene as the North Pole is from the South, yet they have relevance in terms of the music they deliver. Contrary to the majority today, Grand Marquis’ sound is rooted in their instrumentation, namely the brass section of saxophone, trumpet and occasional sousaphone. Upright bass, drums and washboard, and whilst guitar completes the list, it is very much a rhythm instrument and features little, although this doesn’t detract from its part, and Charlie Christian styled runs happen from time to time. Grand Marquis hail from Kansas City in the USA and have found their own unique niche in which to write and perform the music they love. Its overall feel is of nostalgia of a long lost era, where the vocals are prominent, and deliver the song in a full bodied manner. Easy To Be The Devil is a track in point, opening with an earthy slide guitar before the clear vocal of Bryan Redmond delivers the crisp story of how the Devil has an easy ride. He then blows a mean solo on sax before Chad Boyston on trumpet takes up the theme and continues the smoking threat, sashaying from side to side. This is slow Blues with a capital S. Their version of Dave Williams’ Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On rocks, but in a way I’ve never heard before. Nine of the thirteen tracks are written by the band with three co-written and with only the one cover, the quality of song writing is very good. As for whether I enjoyed the experience, the jury is still out.

Merv OsbOrne

TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT badlands

telarc

When I got this CD, I thought that it was by a band called Badlands, but a little research on Google and lo and behold, it is a band from Kansas City. They are a trio, although augmented by other players as required, and most interestingly, they are a family band, consisting of brothers Nick (guitar and vocals) and Kris (drums and vocals) and Sister Danielle Schnebelen on bass duties and vocals. They are apparently well known in the Kansas City area and the album consists of thirteen tracks, all but one of which were written by the band. None of the songs are significantly memorable although they are all well played and performed, I didn’t come away singing or whistling any of them. This a competent no frill working band, sounding on the title track a lot like Robert Cray. All of them take turns on vocals but Danielle takes the majority. There is some nice acoustic slide on Down To The River, and the Hammond playing is just about right, leaving you wanting more. The final track is their cover of It’s A Man’s Man’s World, and I was disappointed that they kept pretty close to the original, I felt that this could have been more of a show closer than it was.

Dave stOne

LOL GOODMAN BAND

Old dOgs ‘n’ licKs independent

On the go for a decade and half, and more in other guises, Lol Goodman’s band are a heavy touring, hard playing blues outfit from the north-west of England; so the album’s title fits the bill perfectly. Flavoured around the styles of Free

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DEL BROMHAM

nine Yards angel air records

Del Bromham’s original band

Stray were one of my favourite rock groups of the 1970’s era, they never quite got the recognition that their music deserved but they were certainly ‘troopers’ and were a great live band, it was with much trepidation that I undertook the review of this solo blues album by Del.

I need not have worried as the album is full of good solid acoustic and rocking blues songs, all self-written and played ‘solo’ with only minor assistance from drummer Karl Randall and backup vocals from Cherry Lee Mewis, Del switches between acoustic and electric guitar effortlessly and while his vocal may have lost some raw power from the past, he has a perfect blues voice for his material. A couple of tracks worthy of mention are; What Goes Around Comes

Around, which has a lovely slide introduction while Bills has topical modern lyrics that covers a subject that we all suffer with!

A good album that will certainly help him gain the attention of blues followers without him loing too many Stray fans in the process.

aDrian blaCklee

THE

ALBUM

IS FULL

OF GOOD SOLID AcOUSTIc AND ROckING BLUES SONGS

FREDDIE kING

Texas in MY blues retroworld 2 cD

In the blues Game of Thrones there have been many Kings.

B.B., Albert, and this one, the youngest of the Three Kings of the Blues, Freddie.

Known as The Texas Cannonball, he was one of the Blues’ earliest cross-over artists with his best known recording being the 1961 Top 40 hit Hideaway, and his second best known piece Have You Ever Loved a Woman, in 1960. Both are featured here among these 22 stirring tracks over two CDs. A pioneer in race relations, he had one of the first multi-racial Blues bands, Freddie never lived long enough to gather the long-term kudos enjoyed by B.B., or Albert. Like the more blues monarch, B.B., Freddie also worked a brutal schedule of over 300 shows per year, living almost on a diet of Bloody Marys, instead of solid food. By 1976 he was suffering with stomach ulcers and acute pancreatitis, both of which killed him in December of that year, his 20 year career terminated at the age of 42. Combining the rugged power of Chicago blues with the open string Texas approach gave Freddie King’s guitar style a vocal quality. This made him a pioneer of a new, modern-sounding blues which left his older contemporaries, whose style was still stuck in the 1950s, behind. This fine, 2 CD set, therefore, is an audible primer for anyone out there looking for the secret of great electric blues guitar playing. We miss you, Freddie, but with bracing collections like this, thankfully you’re still with us. rOy baintOn

and Led Zeppelin, this is gruff and exciting blues rock. Seachin’ Man Blues and Badman Blues stand out as well-toned blues with the first being austere and the latter assertive. The iconic roots of the Sixties blues and Seventies rock are best exhibited in 6 String Hero and evidence of what their live show must be like. There a couple of tracks that seem to be there to point at variety, Once In A Lifetime and Isn’t She Sweet, plus the semipsychedelic Sailed The Skies, but on the whole it is a rocking blues set that serves as a teaser to go and see them live.

gareth hayes

GROOVE-A-MATIcS KeeP iT clean independent

Winners of the New Brunswick Battle Of The Blues, the band comprises a very experienced line-up of musicians from Gateshead who have gigged for many years across the UK and overseas.

They are the highly-rated Johnny Whitehill (guitar), Mick Cantwell (vocals, sax and harp), John Morgan (bass) and Barry Race (drums). Johnny, who played for many years with Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes, was voted blues guitarist of the year four times running.

In 2007, he was also judged the seventh-best British blues guitarist by Guitar and Bass magazine; he’s on top form on this new album.

Mick, known for his deep, rich voice, has performed with several other bands including Saints And Sinners, and blows a mean sax. Barry is also a veteran of the North East music scene and John Morgan, has played bass with more bands than he can remember and has worked with Johnny on various projects over the past four years. Together they make a solid crew of professionals who do the job on this CD.

peter siMMOns

JO BYWATER

chasing Tales sfD

Whilst it may not be routine to feature EPs on these pages, Jo Bywater’s four track disc serves as a noble entry to highlight her potential as an upcoming folk-blues mistress. The set opens with Chopping Wood, a slow burner, if you’ll excuse the pun, which is moody and effective. Rhythmic dystopia is at the heart of Sun Shines Under Water, before This Gardens changes the tone to sparkly folk, and the closer Woollen Hearts, a perfect understatement of heady immersion that bears parallels to the late Chris Whitley if not as visceral. Hailing from Yorkshire but now based in Liverpool, Bywater clearly has a talent and with deviations into art (acrylics on canvas) as part of her polymath approach, her expression is there to enjoy now and is certainly one to watch for the future. gareth hayes

LITTLE DEVILS

abOuT TiMe independent

Little Devils have been building their rep for the last few years and manage the marriage of blues, punk and rock n roll with great life and verve. A damn good listen. Lead vocals come courtesy of Yoka, aka ‘The Dutch Diva’ and she also weighs in with sax and flute while Big Ray handles the guitars and newcomer Sarah Leigh Shaw handles drums. The Blues Band/Jools Holland horn player Mick Paice has been guesting with the band for a while and definitely adds to their sound. One of the immediate pluses of the EP is that there is no one thing that allows you to pigeonhole the band or predict what the music is going to be. They open with The Waiter, thumping drums, fuzzed guitar and Yoka’s slightly ‘Un-English’ pronunciation and saxes

definitely putting this into a kind of punk/blues place – think X-Ray Spex crossed with George Thoroughood – and it swings with real punch and a great sense of fun. They follow that up with a moody R&B piece that opens with a flute and a walking cymbal before developing a strong and funky groove. As the set continues you begin to hear the quality in Yoka’s vocals – she really does have a fine voice and when you get over her accent it is extremely pleasant to listen to – especially the little warble or vibrato as she hits the higher notes. The rest of the EP encompasses a very sixties style pop ballad on Hang My Head, jazzy and sassy raunch on No Love Lost and a beautiful slow blues with organ on Another Pack Of Lies. The band are very good on the ear and I imagine that they would be a blast live too. Not your bog-standard Blues and definitely not one for the SRV camp but if you like music that crosses boundaries and is performed with heart and talent then it is well worth a go.

anDy snipper

LURRIE BELL

blues in MY sOul Delmark

As Lurrie moved into his mid-fifties and the recording of a new album for the Delmark label, he seems to have taken time to pause and reflect upon his life and all the various trials, tribulations and tragedies that have been visited upon him over the years. With these various factors and facts in mind he has returned to his literal and spiritual home of Chicago for the music of his new album. Upon the first hearing of this album you are struck by the assured maturity and control of instrument and voice, playing with long time collaborators Willie Hayes; drums and Melvin Smith; bass, the rhythmical underpinning is assured and this leaves Roosevelt Purifoy; piano and

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JOE BONAMASSA

live in lOndOn

4 DvDs – Provogue records

Early in 2013 Joe Bonamassa and team decided to play and record four different shows at different venues in London within one week. Happily I was in attendance for the first two of this triumphant project.

The DVDs are double sets, one per show and make a neat collection given the metropolissoaked and quirky (colourcoded) artwork, for which many compliments. The discs include time lapse set building, interviews with key personnel, rehearsal footage, technical chats with the crew, all showing the enormous work involved.

First stop, The Borderline, supported by bassist Michael Rhodes and sticksman Anton Fig. He understands Bonamassa’s pacing and emphases AND when to go very light indeed. So this is a great power trio and punchy as hell. The camera crew remained unobtrusive but captured the heady atmosphere in biting detail with crisp soundtrack to match. To me it sounded ’ like Beck Bogert Appice with a better singer’, as I told Joe. And none more so than their bash through Jeff Beck Group gem Spanish Boots.

Switching between Strat and Les Pauls, Joe had to work hard but dressed casually for this outing he delivered a great show. Watching masterful players wring every dynamic out of a varied bag of tunes was a satisfying experience indeed. Great performances included; I Know Where I Belong, the vintage Story of a Quarryman, a smoking Burning Hell and my favourite Miss You Hate You.

Next night is Shepherds Bush Empire for ‘Blues Night’, fruity horn section et al. Anyhow, there was blues a-plenty – strident and

tender, fast and slow and again Bonamassa was singing really well. The best moment for me was when the keyboard player hit a dirty stabbing tone and went off on an excursion. Realising what was happening and to his absolute unselfish credit, Joe cooked the riff along with the other players as the outrageous skybound keys solo edged along, evoking eagles circling around misty valleys. A staggeringly atmospheric moment. Highlights: Watch Yourself, Ballad Of John Henry, Last Kiss, drumbeatheavy opener Slow Train and for the trad-blues dudes So Many Roads the Otis Rush composition plus Asking Around For You. Hammersmith Apollo was the rock/blues evening and was many peoples favourite night of the four. Embracing Dust Bowl, a crowd favourite, the lively Jockey Full of Bourbon and recent title cut Driving Towards The Daylight, an obvious own favourite of Joe’s in Dislocated Boy, a vinegary Sloe Gin, many a followers song of choice, and When The Fire Hit’s the Sea, plus ZZ Top selection Just Got Paid. Royal Albert Hall time for the finale with an opening acousticbased set included, it was intended as a Best Of The Week, but Joe slipped in Happier Times and Wolf’s Who’s Been Talking Donal Gallagher attended with the famed Rory Strat, so again a special night. Slow Train revs up the attendees, as does the spinetingling Midnight Blues. Spitting out savage solo’s, Bonamassa’s guitar runs make for exciting listening.

The players are fantastic throughout the shows, especially the drummers and percussionists, but for this writer, it’s Joe’s voice that ices the bluesrock cake on these well-presented souvenir discs.

pete sargeant

VARIOUS ThaT’s all righT wiTh Me – juKe jOinT blues vOluMe 4 (JsP 4cD)

DEBBIE DAVIES afTer The fall (mc records cD)

VARIOUS blues iMages 2014 (blues images calendar & cD)

STEVE PHILLIPS & THE ROUGH DIAMONDS nOrTh cOunTrY blues (clarion cD)

FOXY R&B richard sTaMz chicagO blues (ace cD)

BUDDY GUY: rhYThM & blues (rca 2cD)

VARIOUS classic banjO (smithsonian folkways cD)

SON HOUSE clarKsdale MOan (Devil’s tunes 2cD) 09 VARIOUS The OKeh blues sTOrY (one Day 2cD)

DEkE LEONARD

The Twang dYnasTY (northdown book)

TEDEScHI TRUckS BAND Made uP Mind (sony cD)

TORONzO cANNON jOhn The cOnquer rOOT (Delmark cD) 13 ROOMFUL OF BLUES 45live (alligator cD) 14 ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND licKeTY sPliT (blue note cD) 15 FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS POwerful sTuff & walK ThaT walK, TalK ThaT TalK (floating World 2cD)

16 ALEXIS kORNER’S BLUES INcORPORATED r&b frOM The rOundhOuse, TO The ealing club, TO The Marquee (Jasmine 2cD)

17 VARIOUS MasTers Of MeMPhis blues (JsP 4cD)

18 STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN The Kings head (left field media cD)

19 DR ROSS & HIS JUMP AND JIVE BOYS juKe bOx bOOgie (bear family cD)

20 TONY JOE WHITE hOOdOO (yep roc cD)

organ, room to deliver a cracking combination of sublime sweeping and washing keyboards under an array of distinctive and crisp classic Chicago harmonica phrasing that is delivered by Matthew Skoller. Lurrie himself delivers assured, deft measured and compelling guitar work combined with lingering smoky cracked vocals that seem to possess the wisdom of the ages. A very effective and lively horn section is featured on the swinging, shuffling Hey, Hey Baby and Southside To Riverside, the latter a funky and grooving instrumental. Twenty Four Hours Blues, is Lurries tribute to the late Magic Slim (who sadly died on the day of recording) it is a classic shuffling, loping, strolling blues that has a really warming guitar and piano feel. Otis Spann’s reflective Blues Never Die, allows Lurrie to deliver a thoughtful and emotive performance with Matthew supplying superb accompaniment. The bands renditions of Jimmy Rodgers Going Away Baby and My Little Machine along with Little Walters I Just Keep Loving. He and Big Bill Broonzys I Feel So Good, allow the band to get stuck into the numbers and deliver some very, very satisfying classic Chicago blues; Matthew’s gripping and distinctive harmonica playing simply excels on these numbers. Lurrie and his band have delivered a very fine album to be added to the blues cannon.

brian harMan WILL WILDE raw blues independent

From the gruff, hard hitting opening chords, Will Wilde’s latest release lives up to its title of Raw Blues, and then some. The harmonica playing far outstrips anything he has done to date, giving this the feel of true Chicago Blues delivered in a British way. His vocals possess a maturity and honesty that matches his playing and ably backed by Stuart Dixon on guitar, everything about this album

screams class, it’s been a while since I’ve heard such a good harp led album. Looking at the track listing, you may be forgiven for thinking this is a ‘dark’ album with titles such as Paranoia, Your Days Are Numbered and Citalopram Blues (Citalopram is prescribed for depression apparently) but in fact it is extremely easy to listen to and enjoyable. Opening with the smoking Paranoia, Wilde’s gutsy vocals and rasping Blues harp dictate the feel of lowdown Blues that is to follow. The joyful upbeat of Thirty Eight catches the mood of a young 23 year old with his woman of 38 who dismisses those around him who disapprove of his relationship. This track is ably driven forward almost staccato like by Victoria Smith on Bass and Richie Newman on drums. Numb reverts to the dark side where there is an inability to feel emotions with another reversal to Your Days Are Numbered, a solid up-tempo shuffle. On Midnight Girl he shares the writing credit with his sister and sounds very much like Steve Miller in his seventies guise. Leroy Carr’s Mean Mistreating Mama is classic Chicago and delivered in a very reverent manner. Citalopram Blues is the cry of the addict, ‘with depression in my heart and drugs all in my brain’, but combined with the pleading vocals and emotion dripping harmonica, Dixon’s guitar solo makes this the strongest cut on the album. Combining seven self-penned tracks, this is an authentic Bluesman’s cry of anguish, hurt and joy that places this album way ahead of so much more on offer.

Merv OsbOrne

MAGIc SAM & SHAkEY JAkE

live aT sYlviO’s floating World records

This is a rerelease of a 1968 live recording although the exact date is lost in the blues ether, could have

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ANTUN OPIc

nO

Offense

Dreiundreizig

Antun Opic is a completely uncharacterisable musician. He hails from parts east and plays music that has a Balkan edge – sometimes. A lot of the time he has a folk or even a west coast timbre to him but the one thing he isn’t is a traditional Bluesman. I guess you could put him in the singer/ songwriter camp but that would eschew his classical edges and you could say that he is a writer of love songs but there is a deeper philosophy than that. He is an anomaly and after listening to this album maybe a dozen time I am still desperately struggling to work out how to explain him – I only know that this is one of the best albums I have heard this year. The album is loaded with pathos – you only need to hear him singing “keep your clothes on, I’ll pay the night, don’t worry, I just need a hug” in the title track but there is humour too as in the cabaretlike campness of Informer. He is a superb guitarist but an even better vocalist and he has surrounded himself with a powerful set of musicians, mainly playing acoustic but always underplaying the songs which are the stars of this album. There are many tracks to pick up on: the emotive Moses, effortlessly reminiscent of John Martyn, or the delicious Troubled Waltz with the closemiked metal guitar strings a feature or Rootless Trees, his vocals cracking and breaking. No, not Blues but it seems to have all the best features of the emotive side of the Blues while staying in genres that never saw the Delta.

anDy snipper

MARcUS LAzARUS beggars and Thieves

universal music Publishing

With a name like Lazarus it would be tempting to indulge in all sorts of anecdotal puns of rising from the dead, but Marcus is by no means suffering from rigor mortis! This is a livewire who produces Rock Blues sounds at a pace that must be break-neck to maintain through a set. I loved the intensity it opened with, the E.P. title Beggars And Thieves sets a standard and the team of Lazarus, Knowles, Field, Butterworth and Jenna Hooson keep it rocking from first beat.

The only criticism I had was the introduction of a harmony in track four A Night Like This that was redolent of some sloppy boy band. These musicians are not wet behind the ears pubescent teenagers, the introduction of these harmonics albeit briefly, takes away from the raw rocking blues that scorches your ears over the six tracks. You can detect the influence of some better known guitarists in Marcus’ playing, but that is to his credit since it shows he’s got as much ability as the publicly acclaimed artists. I’m not so sure about some of the actual lyrics being bluesy enough for me, but the instrumental side of things had me stomping and tapping. Jenna Hooson gave the E.P. a change of mood with her vocal offering on Love Me No More, only for it to return with Knowles and Lazarus superb lead guitar work half way through the track. This extended play costs about the price of a pint of beer in London or if you’re a temperance fiend then a double espresso in the overpriced capital of the universe. tOM walker

been earlier. If you like your music stripped down, raw, bare and honest and true then this is one for the collection, his edgy soulful voice mixed with a tight guitar playing style is noted on each track. For those people who do not know of Magic Sam this certainly is a good taster. Duetting with his uncle Jake on harmonica and backing vocals, Mark Thompson on bass and Odie Payne on drums this is a highly entertaining live release where the appreciation by the crowd goes along with the undoubted enjoyment of the band playing for them. Christened Sam Maghett, he soon became one of the best west side Chicago guitarists and Sylvio’s club was a particular favourite, unfortunately he died young thirty two years old. Unsure of why he did not focus on his own back catalogue of songs, has played it safe by singing covers by his contemporaries such as Lowell Fulson’s Reconsider Baby and Albert Coliins Backstroke. It was recorded by using a portable tape recorder, so sound quality is not of a perfect quality, but very listenable for all that. There are also three extra tracks not put onto original release, this includes a short interview with Magic Sam from a 1969 European tour.

COlin CaMpbell

VIEUX FARkA TOURE

MOn PaYs six Degrees

The son of Ali Farka Toure, carrying on the family business. I had heard many good things about the father, and had heard a few tracks, so I was half prepared for this CD. Much has been made of how close to western blues, the music was, and I found that all I could think of was Paul Simon! I persevered though and found that it was true, I could hear John Lee Hooker rhythms in the music. The guitar is much more trebly than we are used to, and played with some very complex rhythm patterns. I have to admit that I

found it hard going, and certainly wouldn’t see this one in my car CD player, although I had to admire the obvious skill of the players, this one wasn’t for me.

Dave stOne

MARk BIRD STAFFORD

live aT The delTa independent Canadian harmonica player

Mark has been an aficionado of the instrument since the age of ten and throughout the years it has been in tandem with his ever growing love of the blues. Over the years Mark has been in various bands and line-ups that have toured places as close to home as America and as distant as Australia and many places in between; He first came to prominence in nineteen eighty-five when he was performing as front man for Hock Walsh’s Downchild Blues Band, thereafter he went on to front a number of other bands.

On this album Mark has assembled a fine group of musicians to play with him and they are; Aaron Griggs and Fabio Parovel; guitars, Tyler Burgess; drums and Dennis Pinhorn; upright bass. The album was recorded at the Monarch Pub, Delta Chelsea in Toronto Canada, on Thursday the nineteenth of July, two thousand and twelve. All eleven numbers have a fat and meaty swinging Chicago tone that seems to solidify as it passes through the speakers. His well-rounded vocals are a compliment to his even rolling, rasping blowing. the choice of material is well suited to his fifties style of playing, Junior parkers’ low key but insistent Pretty Baby, opens the proceedings, Sonny Boy Williamsons Born Blind, grooves along while the Walter Jacobs Jukeish, ramps up the shuffling mood while the ragging, breathless rasping ensnaring harmonica takes center stage. The mood becomes seriously relaxed with a splendid rendition of Walter Jacobs’ Mellow Down Easy, Two outstanding numbers are Slim

Harpos very understated and relaxed Got Love If You Want It, and Jimmy Reeds I Found Joy,’ featuring loping lyrical harmonica and mellow guitar. A wonderfully sombre, plaintive version of Willie Dixons Can’t Hold Out Much Longer, is a delight to the ear.

brian harMan

cAJUN

SPEcIALS

shaMeless cajuns indepedent

As the band name implies the Cajun Specials are a Manchester based traditional Cajun music band, where they perform regularly in the north west of England, this album follows a previous album that was recorded and released way back in 2006, so not an overly prolific band but I get the impression that the band are just enthused with their music and feel it is the right time to share it. The material is a mixture of self-written songs and some carefully selected covers, these include Big Joe Williams’ Baby Please Don’t Go and Woody Guthries’ This Land, which are both covered in a thick Cajun spice. In terms of band performance and production skills these recordings are at the lower end of the quality scale which is not un-reasonably considering this is a self-released album, overall it is an honest enthusiastically delivered Cajun music album, by a band who want to be heard.

aDrian blaCklee

GERRY JABLONSkI AND THE ELEcTRIc BAND

TwisT Of faTe fat Hippy

Another major Scottish band, this, their latest album, shows just how rock’n’roll came out of the blues. No soft start for these guys, the CD opens with Slave to the Rhythm which starts the feet tapping, and

they continue with some very tasty, high-energy blues rock, mixed with more slow, emotional numbers that delve down into the depths of the blues, and the CD is dedicated to friends who have recently passed away during the past year; drummer Dave Innes was battling illness during the making of this CD, thus the title. A nicely varied album, rocking guitar hero numbers alternating with soft emotional songs give it depth and variety all too often missing. Every track is permeated with the blues, but there’s no sense of sameness, each one an entirely different creative slant on an age-old musical form. Blues for the 21st Century!

peter siMMOns

MARk PONTIN GROUP

daYs Of desTinY moochee

This is the debut set for this trio led by singer/guitarist and songwriter Mark Pontin. Mark states he has been carrying some of this all-original set around for 15 years or so; nice to find a musician who feels that he has to pay his dues first. There is a strong retro feel too much of the material, with Mark openly expressing his admiration in the handsome little booklet for the music of Cream and Jimi Hendrix, listing his top five as Hendrix, Clapton, Jeff Healey, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robben Ford. I am pretty sure most readers will agree that is a formidable and admirable list of influences! Mark, his bass player Alun Walters and drummer Christopher Baglole have the talent to back up such fine words though (and there is a little input from organist/engineer/ co-producer Tim Hammill and Mark’s wife Ayesha on backing vocals), as this fine set of blues-rock shows. The guys occasionally veer towards psychedelic rock, sometimes with a touch of jazz, or as on Own It, they stay fairly close to Buddy Guy territory (60s style track, contemporary instrumental break).

All the tracks are more than worth a listen, and hopefully we will be hearing more from Mark and his crew soon. They deserve it!

nOrMan Darwen

cD WOODBURY BAND

MOndaY nighT!

Following a chance meeting at the Snohomish Blues Invasion, veteran bluesman CD Woodbury formed his band in 2009, mainly from former members of the Bluescats, who had previously supported Tim Casey. Later the group expanded to include saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and occasional lead vocalist Mike Marinig. Although they are apparently little known, let alone appreciated, outside the North Western states, they are the recipients of many local awards and honours. They are a tight and accomplished band who cross the boundaries between several musical genres, and this album fully reflects their eclectic mix: so look forward to West Coast Blues, boogie, and even in the title track some unabashed funk. There are echoes of Steely Dan in Pleasure’s All Mine. Blues fans are not short-changed, and there is much to satisfy their appetite here, such as the classic Blues theme of poverty, poignantly explored in Pawn Shop, where the singer is forced to part with a cherished Gibson guitar, and judging by the incendiary solo in the track, that would be a loss indeed. The rockabilly swing of Ring-A-Ding is transported right out of the 1950s, and the dancing grooves of Burn The Bridge and self-explanatory Two Wheels are irresistible. SauBall Blues rounds off a great album in fitting style.

nOggin

cHERRY LEE MEWIS/ MAX MILLIGAN

cherrY PicKin’ cherryJam CONTINUES OVER...

Albums reviews

This is a 14 minutes long, six track CD EP release, with Cherry doing her excellent and always delightful good-time pre-war Memphis approach on Sounds Like Heaven

To Me (nice blues harp by Jeff Dakin on this too) However, Good Lovin is rather more sultry, and It’s Over leans towards southern soul, with an excellent vocal and fine backing courtesy of Max Milligan on several instruments and the pedal steel guitar of Rob Bond.

In fact, this time around Max gets to justify the EP title with a short solo outing: the wonderful Reverend Robert Wilkins styled Vestapol has some lovely picking indeed. Meet Me At The Station has Cherry a little breathless in anticipation, and again Max excels, before the brief, ragtime inflected, Wake Up Sun brings this fine little release to an all-too early end.

nOrMan Darwen

VARIOUS

fOxY r&b richard sTaMz chicagO blues ace records

This is an album of 25 true delights, and I really, really mean that. I came across Chicago’s ace DJ Richard Stamz when I read his fascinating book, Give ‘Em Soul, Richard (University of Illinois Press, 2010) Stamz was a hard-working, round-the-clock pioneer in R&B. As a promoter, showman and salesman, he dominated the airwaves with his radio show ‘Open the Door, Richard’ on WGES in Chicago, forming close friendships with legends, including Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Memphis Slim, and Leonard Chess.

The pioneering Chicago broadcaster and activist known as ‘The Crown Prince of Soul’ died in 2007 at the age of 101, and he was a memorable figure in the Civil

BARRENcE WHITFIELD AND THE SAVAGES

dig ThY savage sOul bloodshot records

Whitfield puts every ounce of his being into his performances, and then some more! To describe his sound as frenetic but with depth and ability is pretty accurate. The Boston based singer makes PJ Proby (remember him?) sound like a choir boy! The tones can be raucous on occasion but that only adds to the overall Rockabilly effect with Funk, and an R&B spiced CD, which is a genuine firecracker. Barrence Whitfield is surrounded with musical support in the form of real golden nuggets in this pulse pumping album. If your feet and the rest of your body aren’t moved physically by this veritable tornado of rock and roll with soul, then frankly you’re dead, and I don’t mean metaphorically! You’d have to have expired not to get pleasure from this heavier version of Little Richard. If your fans include Robert Plant, Elvis Costello and Jools Holland then you’d better Adam and Eve it, you’ve got it cracked as a musician. There isn’t a bad track on this diamond album, but for sheer pleasure Oscar Levant wins by a short nose. The album moves on, with Hangman’s Token, the change of beat towards the mid-point brings relief for his vocal chords albeit briefly, before turning up the heat again. Yet again the age of this performer and his supporting Savages is indicative of pure quality and ability based on years of experience that today’s ‘manufactured for television and DVD’ groups will never capture. This is a truly memorable album and worth chasing to get a copy. tOM walker

Rights struggle. These 25 tracks may not feature artists as familiar to us as the afore-mentioned legends, but they conjure up all the steamy excitement of Chicago when blues, soul and R&B were bubbling like lava to the surface of popular music. The sheer excitement and big band sound behind Mary Johnson singing Goin’ Home and the jaunty, pre-Coasters humour in What’s A Matter With You Sam? by the Ideals are worth the price of this album alone, to say nothing of the sheer ebullience of Detroit Junior’s Christmas Day or the primeval romp of I’m Gonna Put You To Work, by Tony Gideon. Play this album and close your eyes and you’re there by your radio, a pack of Lucky Strikes and a bottle or Bourbon close by, on the South Side, circa mid-1950s, all steaming night-time streets, Cadillac tailfins cruising past. All power to the formidable Ace Records for collections like this, complete with 20 pages of informative, fascinating sleeve notes. What more can I say but buy it. You certainly did give us soul, Richard!

rOy baintOn

DAVID EGAN

david egan rhonda sue records

David Egan looks like he could be my Dad. Which isn’t a compliment, especially as he’s only 11 years older than me. Mind you, he lives in Louisiana. A well respected songwriter, he’s had sides recorded by Irma Thomas, Marcia Ball, Solomon Burke, Etta James, Joe Cocker and plenty more beside. So, at the very least, you know there are going to be some good songs on this latest solo album. Aside from his song writing, Mr Egan has played with Jo-El Sonnier and Cajun legends Filé, as well as being a member of Southern supergroup, Lil’ Band O’ Gold, all of which has influenced his style and pointed him the way of a fusion twixt Alan Touissant and Tony Joe White. And if

that sounds like a good place to be, then it is. I won’t be the first person to point out the similarity in his delivery to Mose Allison but it’s meant as a compliment, and allied to some fantastic songs like Blues How They Linger, That’s A Big Ol’ Hurt and Sad Sad Satisfaction, it’s a more than alluring sound. The rhythm section of Mike Sipos and Ron Eoff keep things bubblin alongside his piano licks, and with some fantastic guest guitarists on board, this is a swampy pleasure from start to finish. stuart a haMiltOn

MARSHALL LAWRENcE

hOuse call marshall lawrence

The self-proclaimed Doctor Of The Blues is back with his fourth album of acoustic blues with the follow up to the 2010 release Blues Intervention. It sees him present eleven original songs alongside two cover version. As well as his band – Dave ‘Hurricane’ Hoerl (harmonica), Russell Jackson (upright bass), David Aide (Hammond B-3 organ) and Dwayne Hrinkiw (drums), he’s also brought in some very special guests in the shape of The Holmes Brothers. However, don’t be fooled by their front cover billing. Musically, the guitars are all acoustic and it’s firmly rooted in the Delta blues, although he can raise a racket when he puts his mind to it. Something that’s obvious from the off, as they career off into Mean Momma Blues. The Holmes Brothers augmented track, Factory Closing Blues is a bit of a highlight as Mr Lawrence launches into a socialist rant. Something that continues elsewhere on the likes of Rich Man Can’t Get the Blues. He gets a bit mucky on I Wanna Love You, and the two cover versions –Canned Heat Blues and a stunning album closer in the shape of Death’s Black Train – are straight out of the top drawer. My personal favourite was the boogified Hey Girl (Tired of Your Lying), but whatever groove

you stick your needle in to, you’re guaranteed some good music. stuart a haMiltOn

cYRIL NEVILLE

Magic hOneY ruf records

Here’s a rule of thumb which never lets your down. If it has the name Neville on it, and it comes from New Orleans, buy it. One of the four Neville Brothers, Cyril Neville is the youngest, born 1948 in New Orleans. He’s probably one of the last great voices of New Orleans music. In 1967 Cyril began singing professionally at the age of 19, and soon united with Brothers Art and Aaron to create a true Louisiana legend, the Neville Brothers. Here’s 12 solid gold nuggets of brand new Nevilledom, studded with crown jewels such as Dr. John playing organ on the steamy Swamp Funk, Alan Toussaint on piano, Walter Trout’s blazing guitar on Running Water, and more stunning fretboard sounds from Mike Zito and David Z on Money and Oil, Working Man and the uplifting Something’s Got A Hold on Me. All the songs are penned by the man himself, and if you’re looking for big, bold modern blues, then if this doesn’t float your boat, coming from a man with his heritage (he was even a member of the legendary Meters, ‘fer chrissakes!), then you need more than a lifebelt. Hot, steamy, this is a musical gumbo with all the flavours of the Bayou and much more. Play it loud and throw yourself around the room. Worth a whole year in a gym. rOy baintOn

ERIc BIBB

jerichO rOad

Dixie frog records

Eric Bibb never fails to deliver with his music and this album is no exception, it starts with a really

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zOE ScHWARz BLUE cOMMOTION

The blues dOn’T scare Me 33 records

The opening track I Believe In You, immediately engages the listener with its powerful vocals, intricate guitar backing and wonderfully crafted Hammond organ solos, all beautifully arranged. Liberated Woman is up tempo blues which showcases the talents of the Schwarz-Koral songwriting team that permeate this album. “He doesn’t care, he puts you down. He makes you look a fool, he plays around. Girl pack your bags, get out of town.”

The title track confirms that Scwarz can sing low down dirty blues with pain, passion and integrity whilst the mellifluous I’ll Be Yours Tonight highlights the other extreme of her amazing vocal range. On We’ll Find A Way, Rob Koral affirms his status as a gifted instrumentalist with a jazz-influenced guitar interlude of technical brilliance.

The dark and powerful Lucifer Is Blue, with torrential drumming from Paul Robinson and a climactic harp solo from Si Genaro demonstrates the band’s versatility. My favourites include Come Home Sweet Baby, with Si’s backing rap, and the memorable riffs of Your Sun Shines Rain

Although excellent, Holiday’s Billie’s Blues does not stand out from the original compositions and this represents a significant milestone for Blue Commotion. Zoe and her band have reached the point where they cannot be ignored and are poised to make the international breakthrough they deserve. The Blues Don’t Scare Me will undoubtedly accelerate this process. the bishOp

cHRIS FARLOWE

farlOwe ThaT!

Delicious records

I didn’t take a lot of notice of Chris Farlowe at the time he was starting out, despite his voice having so much more power than just another ‘Long John Baldry sound-alike.’

Farlowe seemed a bit of a be-suited ‘mod’, and not the sort of music I was into at the time, despite having started my musical journey with the blues. I thought, ‘young white boy singin’ the blues’, when I was used to the old black guys being the real deal.

Farlowe cut this collection in 2003, at the (then) age of 63, and his voice had lost none of its original richness, in fact, it’s even stronger and more assured on this reissue than during his 60’s commercial peak.

Covering soul, rock and blues with equal skill, he sings with maturity and confidence. In fact, this is a collection that has enough variety for anyone; slipping from snaky blues to gospel and rock and gracing everything with that amazing patented Farlowe voice.

Norman Beaker’s supporting band lay down a sumptuous backdrop to a singular vocalist; the sax, (played by Lenni) on the duet with Van Morrison Sitting On Top Of The World is sublime, and played soulfully by Damian Hand on other tracks.

The Chanter Sisters on backing vocals are just what was needed to set off Farlowe’s power, and the experience is powerful and surprisingly varied. Ten years and he’s still doing it, with no loss of power or professionalism. A CD well worth owning, with two bonus tracks, one of them a video. peter siMMOns

atmospheric dose of blues on Drinkin Gourd, acoustic guitar, harmonica and African wind instruments provide the background to the stark vocal from Eric, which sets the scene for the rest of the album which incorporates authentic blues, folk and a mix of World music thrown in for good measure.

The album benefits from some slick arrangements and production skills from Britain’s Glen Scott, who besides bringing out the really soulful tones in Eric’s vocals, creates some authentic ‘African background sounds’ to several tracks that make the listener feel as if they are in the heart of the Savannah. Eric has been quoted as saying the song themes on the album are all about ‘compassion and doing the right thing’, one standout track Death Row Blues conveys this message well, on the final track Eric hands over duties to African artist Solo Cissokho who perform his song Nanibali

An excellent album that fuses world music into an exciting blues format

aDrian blaCklee

FAMILY BUSINESS

rOcK and rOll Machine independent

This Wisconsin four piece have been around the blues based rock scene since 2005, which leads me to wonder where they’ve been hiding. Hot on the heels of their 2012 release Nightmares and Wildest Dreams, with its Southern rock type flavour, this latest release takes a different turn. Within the first few bars of the opening, and title track, the horns and female harmonies let you know what’s coming. In one sense, it seems a change of direction from the heavy aforementioned Nightmares..., instead a sense of melody and harmony prevails. The 11 songs, all originals, draw their influences from a whole melange of styles, be it the swing of Sing the country of Chances, or the gospel of Falling. One thing Family Business won’t

suffer from is ‘next album syndrome’, if they keep pushing out such varied styles every year, they’ll be worth every penny. Think they might just have a bright future, you read it here first, folks!

Clive rawlings

kIMMIE RHODES

cOvers

sunbird records

Texan songbird

Kimmie Rhodes has released a 100% Covers album here, having previously released twelve albums of her own material and seeing some of her songs made famous by the likes of Willie Nelson this seems like a fair compromise, as she can give herself a rest from song writing for a while. For a Countrified artist the song selections are not at all obvious, she covers two Lennon and McCartney songs and most of the American greats, including Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Neil Young, for me though the stand out track is the Jagger and Richards track; Moonlight Mile, a rare Rolling Stones ballad that Kimmie brings new life to, supported by Colin Linden on slide guitar. The supporting musicians on the album are top notch and deliver faultless performances, setting the scene nicely for Kimmie to showcase her superb soulful vocals, once described by Rodney Crowell as “The soul of a Poet and the voice of an Angel”.

aDrian blaCklee

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS

wOrld bOOgie is cOMing songs of the south

There is a particular sound to be heard in the hills of Oxford North Mississippi. Officially it is a form of Blues but the title of this album nails it perfectly –World Boogie indeed. The Dickinson Brothers, Cody and Luther, are the sons of Big Jim Dickinson (one of the

greatest Blues producers), apparently his catchphrase was World Boogie Is Coming; a concept that his sons have taken to heart and this album is the result. If you like you’re blues dirty and gritty, if you like a sound that reeks of heart and if you like the sound of musicians playing for and with each other for the sheer joy of the thing then this is the album for you. The brothers have been around for a while and their first album Shake Hands With Shorty introduced this sort of dirty blues that Seasick Steve has made his own.

Of late they have hooked up with England’s own Ian Siegal in the Youngest Sons and Mississippi Mudbloods incarnations, much to the benefit of both parties and you can definitely hear the strains of those bands in this album except that it is even more so. They have dedicated the album to the likes of Jim Dickinson, Otha Turner, RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, T Model Ford, Sid Selvidge and Lee Baker, all stalwarts of the North Mississippi sound and the guests here are like a roll call of the area: Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garry Burnside, Duwayne Burnside, Otha Turner, Kenny Brown and Chris Chew plus Robert Plant on Goat Meat.

Musically the music moves from raw and bareboned boogie through pipe and drum with plenty of slide and that hypnotic driving sound you get when a bunch of musicians are in sync and just playing for the hell of it. Tracks like Goat Meat, probably the most structured track on the album, or Turn Up Satan are pure boogie, loaded with menace and fuzz but the best track on the album is World Boogie; just a great piece of rockin’ blues. Their best yet.

anDy snipper

FORTY4

44 Minutes caught the attention of Paul Jones who has featured it on his prime-time evening BBC Radio 2 show.

Drawing from a rich heritage of Americana, funk, swing and R&B this CD captures the band’s old-school vibe. The band are Neil Partington (guitar/vocals), Paul Starkey (guitar), Glen Lewis (keyboards), Bill Price (bass), Nick Lauro (drums). Forty4 are an organic band who are constantly evolving and changing, trying not to get pigeonholed into one genre.

Whatever you want to label it, at the end of the day you’re left with all that matters – music. Clapton-esque blues guitar and honky tonk piano and soaring Hammond, together with a tight rhythm section, make for a hugely enjoyable set of tracks that show the band’s professional, polished talents off to perfection; the band mix styles and genres in a way that promises much for the future. One to watch, look out for rhythm ‘n’ groove.

peter siMMOns

ONE JUMP AHEAD

One fOOT in The grOOve Pelican records

BABAJAck running Man running rooster records

44 MinuTes rhythm and Groove Forty4 formed in 2007, create a sound they describe as ‘Rhythm & Groove’. Their debut album,

One of my first live experiences of the joyous unfettered mixture of Jump’n’Jive and Swinging Blues was courtesy of Kit Packham and The Sudden Jump Band, when they played (if my memory serves me correctly) ‘The Gun’ public house in Croydon, London in the late eighties; now, some twenty odd years later Kit and his current band are continuing to treat all and sundry to more of this witty, wondrously loose leg shakin’ rumbustious music. The thirteen numbers contain a mixture of subjects ranging from memories of the good old days of local live gigging as in One Foot In The Groove, a very lively saxophone and piano led jumping number that features a very similar saxophone riff

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The one thing for certain with the Running Man is that it is running towards the Babajack sound. Once again a beautiful, musical CD, full of autumanl mellow fruitfulness, whilst inside the lyrics and the phrasing of the vocals and insruments is a harder edge. The album introduces a new venture for the duo that is the heart and soul of Babajack they are joined by Tosh Murase (drums) and Adam Bertenshaw (bass) for half of the tracks, this format works as well in the studio as it does live; they give Becky a freedom to explore the vocals without the ties of providing the percussive sounds. Excitingly on the studio album Julia Palmer-Price (Cello) adds some glorious chords that send a chill up the spine and reach deep into your musical lexicon of sounds, the cello works especially well on Coming Home. The main component of the other tracks is that glorious sound of Becky’s vocals and percussive skills, with Trevor weaving into the mix his effortless guitar and sharp harmonica playing as demonstrated so well on Death Letter; a favourite live and a studio classic. This is a modern sound that retains the integrity of traditional blues, telling a story with strong earthy rhythms, as seen on Every Day the Same, with the line the “money man comes.” This is a track in which Trevor’s harmonica combined with the cello reinforces the despair and frantic feeling of the lyrics. A strong album made possible by the support the fans.

liz aiken

Albums reviews

to that found in the theme tune of The Odd Couple; to the current paucity of shops in many a high street with High Street Lament, a piano led blues backed by a sombre saxophone and melancholy, fateful trumpet, underpinned by slow brushwork and bass .The current government’s health guidelines Five Portions A Day. Is a more optimistic calypso flavoured swaying trumpet and saxophone outing. A very nice little mover and groover is found on Messin’ Around With The Blues, the upbeat drum work is matched with a lively piano and trilling trumpet which is joined by swaying saxophones. The current line-up includes Kit Packham: lead vocals, alto and tenor saxophones, Perry White: keyboards, Olly Blanchflower: double bass, Kenrick Rowe: drums, Steve Knight: guitar, Simon Da Silva: trumpet and last but least Tracy Mendham: tenor and baritone saxophones. Ordinary subjects and classic rhythms are happily combined to achieve an enjoyably relevant and contemporary sound as in the witty and saucy Not That Kind Of Swinger, Kit amusingly recounts the confusion a musician encounters when he answers the wrong kind of advert. The rolling rumba of This Old Dog, re-affirms that you are never too old to learn, the album finishes with a fine rendition of Ain’t Nobody Here Except Us Chickens

brian harMan

JOOST DE LANGE

crazY TiMes independent

This is the third album that Joost de Lange and his band Rock/Blues Experience have released. Joost is well known in the Benelux area though, as before putting this combo together he was part of well-known Dutch band Yes You Did and was involved in recording five albums with them. The other members here also played in that band at various times. Calling the band Rock/Blues Experience clearly tells you what to

expect here, a mix of blues and classic rock over ten tracks played with pride.

This is none more evident than on album opener Leave This Town, decent vocals and good guitar breaks setting down a marker for the album as a whole. It’s clear that despite being quite a young band there is some experience at work here. A lot of the excesses and clichés of the genre are avoided and there is variation and some good song writing on display. Reach Your Goal opens with some nice crunchy bass lines and is a slower paced tempo that I personally found the band sounded better in. This is followed by the ballad, Memories and then Crazy Thing that includes a lovely bit of blues guitar mid-song. An instrumental, Sitting By The Lake slows things down nicely again. The penultimate track, Turn Me On is a bit generic but really hit’s a groove and is fun before we get an out and out rock’n’roller in Divine bringing the album to a close. This isn’t going to catapult the band into international recognition but it’s a carefully constructed collection of songs that I can imagine are super live. The two guitars never obstruct each other but it would be nice to know what leads were Joost and which were Dennis Van de Bor. The band is completed by Robbin Van de Bor (Bass) and Roland Baak (drums). I haven’t heard the previous albums but look forward to the next one as I get the feeling this is a band that is still trying to develop its own sound.

steve yOurglivCh

PETE cORNELIUS grOundswell only blues music

Tasmanian Cornelius recorded this album almost entirely live in a neighbour’s house in Elephant Pass. And it shows in that the emotional force between artist’s heart and listener’s ear ie you get what he’s trying to say, a smart decision in my opinion. Cornelius made his name

fronting a hard rockin’ Texas blues unit, The DeVilles a la guitar slinger. But on this and the predecessor Tumbleweed, he has settled into a more mellow style away from guitar solos and Texas raunch. Not to say there are no moments of real guitar fire. The Hendrix style solo on Repo Man, shows where he’s coming from. The New Orleans inspired opener Drinking The Blues, or the cute Goodnight My Love (a lullaby to his new young daughter), show what a warm song-writer he is. Like his contempories, Cornelius’s voice is a perfect foil for his guitar playing, like on closer, the acoustic Strong Suit, wouldn’t surprise me to see that covered. His slight country lilt comes across on the Meters-like Talkin’ ‘Bout New Orleans or the sinewy lope of Cold Water. His playing, and that of the band, is nicely balanced against the song writing and vocals across the album. Showing great imagination and great fretwork, I have no hesitation in recommending you visit www.petercornelius. com and purchase a copy. Clive rawlings

kAT & cO i KaT The blues tonetrade

KAT & Co’s debut album is an album of contrasts, of light and shade. At times, there is intensity, a brood menace. At others, sheer joy. New Spleen Blues starts the album in a dark vein, with a slow, sinister, funky groove, but, first contrast, one punctuated by light, cool guitar. Not My Fault is a romantic lament for the widowed elderly, but manages to be surprisingly upbeat. Payin’ My Dues is an inspired verbal duel between Kat and her no-good wastrel musician partner in the distinguished shape of Mud Morganfield. Kat in looks and (at times) vocals has similarities to Eartha Kitt and this comes through on songs like Iron Rose, which is a cheerful, good old-fashioned R ‘n’ B romp. Make It Rain has keys very reminiscent of a

slower take on Tom Jones’ Mama Told Me Not To Come, and in its own way is as memorable a song. Tired Of Tryin’ sparkles, and The Scene, with Lil’ Jimmy Reed and Chad Strentz is another excellent collaboration, with really impactful vocals and sweet guitar. In conclusion? KAT & Co and their contrasts are worth catching.

Darren weale

LES LUckY

freTs & haMMers

This is New York City-based Les Lucky’s debut CD and it is in parts cheerful and easy, and in others poignant and personal. A one-man show suggests an album of sparse numbers but it’s actually quite full and buoyant. Lucky wrote all the songs, does all the singing and plays all the instruments. Delighting in misery one minute, Everything’s Gone Wrong, and being enthusiastically optimistic the next, Goin’ To See My Baby, suggests a rollercoaster of euphoria and depression but it never gets to those excesses and simply rolls from happy to sad, and back. The are many derivative colours on offer with J.J. Cale evident in When The Deal Goes Down, a bit of B.B. King on Stop Talkin’ Around It, and a bit of Eric Clapton in Wonderful Tonight mode with You Win Again, Jen. Undeniably hard-working it is a shame that the strangely titled album, and his own moniker may end up being his major drawback. gareth hayes

PHILLIP

MYnd

Dragonfly records

If I tell you this couple were discovered busking in Devon by Show of Hands’ Steve Knightley and that they are the current incumbents of the Best Folk Title in the South West

Music Awards, you’ll guess where they’re coming from. Henry and Martin are one of the most sought after roots acts around at the moment. Multi- instrumentalists, Henry is widely known in those circles for his prowess on slide guitar. So, onto the album, which contains songs that will stay long in the memory, which is convenient, as Mynd is old English for memory. What we have is a subtle collection of songs from a bygone age, given an atmospheric, beautiful interpretation by this talented couple. In praising Henry, I should add that Hannah is no slouch when it comes to contributing. Besides singing, she plays fiddle, guitar and banjo. Along with anti-war songs Whitsun Dance and Banks Of The Nile (the references, as Phillip points out, could be changed from Egypt to Afghanistan or Iraq), there is a heartfelt tribute to journalist Marie Colvin, Last Broadcast. Along with the traditional material and original compositions, the CD closes with their take on James Taylor’s Close Your Eyes. Have to admit to being sceptical when this arrived, but for sheer originality, musicianship and class, thoroughly recommended to folk/roots purists. Clive rawlings

TONY McLOUGHLIN

The cOnTender Wild eye records

Tony has produced a CD of style and substance, with thirteen self-penned tracks making this an album that shines out in the overcrowded market place of singer/songwriter Americana genre; but this is a CD with a bit of grit making this a pearl among the pack in the oyster-bed. This is Tony’s fifth album and really delivers great rock infused music with a twist of Tom Petty and more than tipping his hat to Springsteen due to the telecaster impregnated tones that are firmly based in the contemporary roots sound. Despite the obvious

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SAMANTHA FISH

blacK wind hOwlin’ ruf records

From the first guitar chord

Samantha and her guitar takes you on a bluesy rockin’ journey that is going to be fun. Samantha Fish achieves this with a compelling blend of strong guitar licks, melodic vocals and lyrics that blend and strengthen the package.

The stormy title track Black Wind Howlin’ certainly sets the tone and you are in for a stormy ride throughout the 12 tracks that are all classic guitar-slinger driven blues. The CD works so well due to Samantha’s clear vocals with every word articulated with a clarity that matches the skill of the guitar. Miles To Go the opener, is one that I am sure we can all relate to when there is still miles to go and the clock is against you.

This is not a one style fits all; she has produced an album with the collaboration of Mike Zito that covers all the bases with the balladry of Over To You and the clear country strum in Last September. The powerful duet on Go To Hell, with Mike Zito joining the party with guitars and voice doing battle adds another layer of textures and tones this is my favourite track, or is it. In fact it could be any one of the twelve depending on my mood. This is Southern Rock Blues, a little bit mean, a little bit country and definitely a huge dollop of rock blues creating a weather vane of sound as the wind changes direction and the tonal range shifts. This is an up-beat, up-tempo CD that brightens the mood and makes you want to party.

liz aiken

red Kat

HENRY AND HANNAH MARTIN

Blues Top 50 october 2013

influences this is an album and song-writing that stands alone as demonstrated from the title and opening track The Contender where Rocky meets Springsteen as Northern Irish Americana hits the deck with a sting in its tail setting the scene and tone of the whole album. Turn On The Music with its country up beat rhythm takes you to a bar in Nashville and does get those feet tapping, whilst the closing track Tennessee Rose with its percussive drum beat brings the party to a close with panache, with the authenticity in the lyrics of a mournful story behind the dance beat bringing the CD to an end in The Condender; Tony McLoughlin’s latest offering. This is not an album of twists and turns or surprises what it does deliver is quality American influenced music, a fusion of rock, country and a sliver of blues blended into a range of easy listening tracks that will never disappoint and will set the mood to relax sit back and enjoy.

liz aiken

LEWIS HAMILTON

ghOsT Train

lewis Hamilton music

This is a young man who has exceptional guitar playing skills that he plays with confidence, style and panache. This is not clean blues there is a sense something a little sleazy and dirty about his take on the blues. For many outside of Scotland Lewis is a new name on the block, though many will have heard a tempting taster on the recent Jock’s Juke Joint trio of CDs.

The eleven original self-penned tracks means this train is due to be played again and again; and on each listening more elements become apparent as the accompanying musicians add layers of texture and tonal colour. Cheap Cigars is a stop any blues fan would want to tune into with its swampy tone and beat driven guitar licks. Ghost Train is more than the title track it steams along introducing some smooth

slide guitar. This an album with some funk, soul and a bucket load of blues with Lewis tipping his guitar at Stevie Ray Vaughan, with the fast action Whiskey Boogie, featuring the exceptional skills of Lyndon Anderson on blues harp adding so much musical texture. There can be no doubt this is an album being delivered by a young burgeoning guitar talent; the song-writing is skilful and shows a real understanding of the genre, unfortunately it is Lewis’ vocals that let him down; but I am positive as this is an area which will improve with age. Get on board the Lewis Hamilton train and buy this CD and sit back and enjoy.

liz aiken

LEYLA MccALLA

vari-cOlOred sOngs

Dixiefrog records

This is a debut album by multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla, who also performs as a member of a band

kIRSTEN THIEN

called The Carolina Chocolate Drops, on this album she draws from her Haitian roots and varied musical background that includes studying Cello and Chamber music at New York University to working as a street musician in New Orleans. The album is a tribute to American poet Langston Hughes, some of the material is the poetic words put to music, the finished product has a Creole inspired Country Blues sound and the songs are sung in both English and French language, the arrangements are very simple with Leyla accompanying herself on guitar and banjo.

The French language material probably represents the best tracks on the album, while I have no idea what the lyrics are saying they are very raw and emotional, especially on Kamen Sa W Fe. This album is very unique and highlights a very talented musician who has gone back to her family roots to provide fourteen tracks of traditional American and African influenced music.

aDrian blaCklee

sOlO live frOM The Meisenfrei blues club screen Door records

This solo live recording was made in Bremen, Germany, and lasts 70 minutes. When put alongside Kirsten Thien’s superb studio albums You’ve Got Me and the most recent Delicious it might be described as something of a luxury at best or tame at worst. Thien’s ace card is her powerful and impassioned vocal style, and when these qualities are set astride a strong backing it is as good as it gets.

Economics are clearly against taking a touring band across the ocean, and some solo performances do add a new and welcome dimension. Unfortunately on this occasion it does not work well: the tinny and sparse acoustic guitar accompaniment to the strong and emotive voice often seems incongruous, and none of the tunes are improved by this stark alternative.

An attempt at audience participation during Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues is not a success. The artist herself expresses regret that her band are not with her.

There are some interesting curiosities, such as versions of Leaving Las Vegas, Fooled Around And Fell In Love, Women Be Wise and the closing medley of Ain’t No Sunshine / The Thrill Is Gone. To those who attended this and other solo gigs this will be an essential memento, but for those new to her work, they should save their money for Delicious. nOggin

the bm ! round–up of live blues

Blues On The Farm

PumP Bottom Farm, ChiChester

June 20th – 23rd 2013

Last year if I need to remind anyone the countryside was awash with rain, rain and more rain, causing Blues on the Farm as well as many other festivals to cancel. This year it was sun, sun and more sun a fabulous weekend of sunshine beamed down on Chichester. Saying farm

you may be thinking of sheep, cows, chickens etc., but no, this is the best kind of farm, a cider farm. There are plenty of cider and real ales on tap for festival goers to enjoy, as well as ample food outlets. The atmosphere over the weekend has to be experienced, as there is a wide age group and it has a family picnic feel.

thursday

Let’s get down to the music, starting off on Thursday evening

we were entertained by King Rollo, Grainne Duffy and Larry Miller. For me Grainne and her band were the stand out act of the evening, she has a wonderful stage presence that grips you from the first note, with a voice to die for. She is certainly heading for the top if her live performances are anything to go by.

Friday

Today we were treated to a

Woodie Mann photo: christine Moore

Jo harMan photo: christine Moore

pick of the crop: chris farloWe

photo: christine Moore

cornucopia of music with David Rafael, Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson, Giles Robson, Freddie V All Stars, The Revolutionaires, Never the Bride and Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. It’s difficult to pick out a stand out band from this array of musical talent, so I will go for the band who lights up any festival with their energy and stage presence, I have to admit some bias as they are from the North East, it’s the Revolutionaires. I defy anyone to stay still during their performances. Though most of the audience on that day had flocked in to see Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings I have to say that thy were very lacklustre for my taste.

saturday

The sun is beating down. Zoe Schwarz, Babajack, Rodney Branigan, Fowokan, Matthew Lee and Mud Morganfield were all on the bill today, another day of artists that took your breath away. Babajack performed songs from their new CD with their new line up and really gave an outstanding performance. But I have to say my favourite was Mud Morganfield. Mud and his band just get better and better, he is now making a path for himself in his own right, make sure you catch him next time he is in the UK.

sunday

Well, its he last day of the festival and the heat of the sun is not so intense today, but that’s not to say the day or the line up had waned in any way. Goldie Reed, Woody Mann, Bushman Brothers, Sarah Savoy And The Francadians. Rufus Stone, Jo Harman, Chris Farlowe and the Norman Beaker band. There were some surprising new talents for me in the shape of Goldie Reed who has a stunning voice and a great band, drawing her influences from some of my favourite musicians, Tom Waits, Alison Krauss, Patty Griffin, Eva

Split WhiSkerS

Were not a band i’d not heard of before, but one i’d See again

Cassidy and Robert Plant. Make sure you find out more about her if you love these artists. Who was my stand out band of the whole festival? Well it has to be Chris Farlowe who closed the festival and has for me never been Out Of Time . Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I think it is more than that, his voice was and still is the best of the 60’s singers even though he is now 73, his voice has lost nothing to time. I can thoroughly recommend this festival to anyone who loves music, a party atmosphere and good company, every year it just gets better and better. Hats off to Julian and Kathy Moore, along with Ian his main man and the rest of the team.

Christine Moore

BenTWOrTh Blues

FesTIVal

Bentworth, alton. hamPshire

auGust 16th – 18th 2013

As I was trying to erect my tent in the rain, the thought crossed my mind that this camping lark at Bentworth Blues Festival might not have been one of my best ideas this year, however, after a cursory glance at the running order in the programme, I realised that it was probably one of my best! Sadly due to prior commitments, I couldn’t stay for the whole weekend, so I’m just picking out the highlights from my first visit. Firstly and this is a big plus for Matt Williams, festival organiser and landlord at The Star Inn, the

organisation around the festival site was practically flawless, plenty of signposts and lots of friendly marshalls on hand to help direct us Bentworth virgins from car park to campsite and to and from the three stages, happy bar staff, who were kept busy from the word go, and plenty of loos.

Friday

The opening act of this three day festival was King Rollo, on the beer stage, who delivered an all-acoustic set to get us in the mood! A mixture of his own material and some old blues standards delivered in Rollo’s inimitable style. Rollo was followed on the garden stage by Split Whiskers, a band I’d not heard of before, but definitely one I’d go and see again. Vocals were shared by harp player Gilby Fletcher and Johnny Wright playing a custom-made steel resonator guitar. One point of interest about this band, and the two that followed was that they all had female bass players – Claudia McKenzie, Fran McGillivray, and Victoria Smith in Will Wilde’s band. It was touch and go for Will as to whether he and his band would play, as two of them had been stuck for over two hours on Britain’s favourite car park, the M25. When their allotted time arrived and the full band hadn’t, Will managed to find some musicians willing to step into the breach, just as they’d set up, Will’s band finally appeared, poor Will, I thought he was going to blow a fuse, but showing himself to be the polished musician we know and love, he managed to channel his stress and frustration into his performance and delivered a set which was for me the best that I saw over the two days of the festival.

Next up on the beer stage, now referred to as the ‘Butcombe’ stage was Laurence Jones, I’ve seen Laurence once before about six

festivaLs

months ago and I have to say his playing has matured incredibly over that time, whether performing his own material or well-chosen covers, Laurence is definitely a young man to keep an eye, or rather, ear, on. He was joined on stage for a few numbers by Barry Pethers on bass – Barry, who usually plays in the Ben Poole band, is a staunch supporter of this festival, and over the years has become one of Matt’s right hand men. He couldn’t resist a guest spot, and could also be seen behind the bar, ferrying supplies, and performing in his own set Pethers and Friends.

The evening was brought to a close on the Butcombe stage by The Stuart James Band. Fronted by Stuart himself, his brother Simon on bass and Rob on drums, the band treated us to a set of energetic and raw blues, that had the crowd dancing into the night. During his set, Stuart took advantage of the ‘merry’ state of the audience by proceeding to change a number of the songs lyrics to those of a slightly more salacious nature – at one point

remarking ‘I hope Sarah doesn’t put that in Blues Matters!’ – well, Mister James, I might have been merry, but I was still listening!

saturday

After a night under canvas and a hearty breakfast, provided by the Star Inn at a very reasonable price, we were off to a flying start with The Dave Raphael Band. Behatted Nick Hyde, (who had a fractured foot) told the audience ‘we will soon have a new album out – the artwork and photography are done, we just need to write some songs to record’. The band played a mix of self-penned songs and a sprinkling of covers, my favourite of which was High on Music by Larry Garnner – a reggae song all about The Blues. The reason I mention that Nick was wearing a hat, is that Saturday at Bentworth Blues Fest has traditionally become ‘Hat Day’ and I’m pleased to say that many of the crowd sported an amazing selection of titfers including a chicken, and a pink-sequined cowboy hat – both worn by fellas!

The highlight of Saturday for me was The Ben Poole Band, now a favourite on the festival scene, Ben delivered a scorching set of mainly self-penned songs, including one guitar break played using only one hand, but the highlight for me and, I can safely say, the rest of the crowd, was his rendition of Hey

Joe , by Jimi Hendrix, which brought the entire applauding crowd to their feet. When I first saw Ben Poole, his band was a three piece, now, along with Barry Pethers on bass and Craig Bacon on drums, the addition of Sam Mason on keys, and Amy Eftekhari on backing vocals, has made the band a phenomenal success, and Ben is now in demand all over Europe.

My last act of the Festival was Clare Free on the Garden Stage, whose set comprised of a few well-chosen covers, but mainly her own songs written about people she’d met and situations she’d lived through, songs and blues from her heart. Clare led her band through this emotional set on her trademark blue Fender – it was then I realised I’d not seen another guitar-playing female lead at this Festival! Come on ladies I know you’re out there. And so ended my first visit to Bentworth Blues Festival, congratulations again to Matt and his team, I enjoyed the festival so much that the dates are already in my diary for next year.

sArAh reeVe

clare free photo: sarah reeve

ben poole photo: sarah reeve

BOOGalOO Blues Weekend

norton GranGe, isle oF wiGht

oCtober 4th – 7th 2013

It’s that time of year again, and once more I am back on the Island, ten years after first coming to a Boogaloo Blues weekend. Delighted to find that the rain has ceased and the sun is out, so let’s see what the weekend brings?

saturday

First band of the weekend was Tim Aves Wolfpack. Tim is almost always here running the after-midnight jam sessions, but it is the first time that I have seen him on stage with his band. A tight four piece with a hell of a repertoire, and as you would expect, a large number of Howlin’ Wolf songs. Always a hard job as first band of the weekend, but eventually, some brave souls got up to dance, and for the rest of the set, the floor was fairly well packed.

The usual break between bands, with Bob Hokum, on DJ and MC duties, hampered by the fact that the CD decks were missing! Second band on the bill was another band that I hadn’t seen before, The Producers and they built on the start that Tim and the boys had made and quickly got the crowd back on the floor. I stopped making notes about the actual songs that they played, but suffice it to say that the dance floor was rarely empty. As usual, after a four hour drive, I was too pooped to go to the jam session that night. Family commitments on the Island also meant that we missed getting back in time to see any of the afternoon acoustic sets, but I had good reports of them

so was looking forward to the evening which kicked off with a band new to the UK, Brilleaux, straight in from New Zealand, and determined to make their mark. Sounding like a mix of ZZ Top, Status Quo and Chuck Berry, they hit the stage running and never let up, going straight from one number to the next with brief but witty intros from the singer Graham Clark. What a stupendous introduction to this dynamite band, Please come back to the UK again!

Next up was Ireland’s new Blues act Grainne Duffy with her band, and I was looking forward to seeing her, having heard great things. So let’s get the good point out of the way first, great musicianship from all concerned, good voice, great guitar playing, but, and it’s a fairly big but, very little rapport with the audience. Saying ‘Thank you very much’ at the end of each song, and inviting the crowd to clap along on what seemed to be every other number does not in my book constitute making contact with the punters! People did eventually get up to dance, but Grainne could learn an awful lot about stage craft and presentation from the brilliant Brilleaux.

sunday

Sunday, and this time, I got back in time to see Tim Aves acoustic set, where he proved to any doubters that he is a superb blues guitar player, with a real feel for the resonator that he was playing for the numbers that I saw, and much underrated. He was followed by Stomping Dave, who was at the venue for possibly his fourth or fifth time, this time he was going to be on the main stage in the evening with his new trio comprising

Earl Jackson on bass and Sam Kelly on drums, but in the afternoon, he was performing his full stomping routine and going down a storm. Sometimes I don’t think he realises how funny he is, and that can sometimes cause people to overlook what a brilliant musician he actually is. This was, however, quickly put right on the main stage that evening, when he played both guitar and piano (with the occasional stomp) and put on a virtuoso performance, having the floor packed with dancers.

The final act of the weekend was the long established Blues n’ Trouble, who were obviously going to have to work really hard to eclipse Stomping Dave. If numbers on the dance floor are anything to go by, I would say that the scores put Brilleaux at number one, with Stomping Dave second and a tie between the Producers and Blues n’ Trouble. I tried to stay awake for the final jam session, but found myself nodding off, even though the quality of some of the acts was top notch, I gave in and went to bed. Will I be back next year? You bet your sweet life I will! Dave Stone

ealInG Blues FesTIVal

ealinG london

JulY 20-21st. 2013

saturday

The 26th Ealing Blues Festival was properly kicked off by Paul Cox and his crew of gifted musicians. Paul strutted on the Main Stage with his band The Proof as though he owned it. Very soon he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Opening numbers That’s The Way I Feel, Don’t Lie To Me and Walking On Sunset, all from his previous albums set the pace for the next 90 minutes. Credit must also go to his band, Roger Cotton (keyboards), Mike Summerland (guitar-a star in his own right!), Pete Stroud (drums) and the dapper Nigel Hardy (bass). The set climaxed with cuts from his new album The Proof with Until The Well Runs Dry, I’ve Got The Proof, Cold Cold Feeling and I Feel So Bad. The festival was off to a blinding start. Meanwhile, on the South Stage the Jules Carter Trio were getting things going with brilliant covers of Cream, Hendrix,and Steely Dan done in a Clapton mode but with an original style.

Next on the Main Stage were Dale Storr’s New Orleans Big Band. Dale is a barrel -house/ boogie piano player with a fantastic Louisiana feel. Tunes ranging from Allen Toussaint to Dr John via Professor Longhair certainly brought the temperature up in the big top arena, especially the female brass section featuring Dale’s wife Kim on sax.

Over in the South Stage, I caught the final three songs from Glorious Fools, a duo consisting of Doug Melbourne and Nigel Appleton doing their

interpretations of the John Martyn songbook. Brilliant is all I can say (it made you think about getting the Martyn albums out when you got home).

They were followed by the duo Babajack who were the surprise of the day in my opinion, sensational in originality and passion. Becky Tate, with her unique vocal style and auburn hair flowing in all directions, playing hypnotic percussion on her cajon (box drum) with her partner Trevor Stegar on homemade guitars and stunning harmonica. This was their first trip down south and it won’t be their last, They certainly deserve their nominations for five blues awards this year.

Next on the Main Stage were Northsyde fronted by Jules and Lorna Fotheringill. Jules is a guitarist of the highest quality, full of amazing fluidity and Lorna is the perfect blues vocalist. Their take on Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight was a revelation. Get The Funk Out was different, Mercy from their first album and Hard Shoes showed what a perfect festival band they are.

On the South Stage, The Blue Bishops, a great blues band veering on the R&B side. From the start they had the audience whooping and cheering and going berserk. With 3 stages I couldn’t catch everyone, and I missed Ealing band Jump 66 who I was informed wowed them on the Bar Stage with their stylish barroom jump/swing blues.

Finally on this hot humid Saturday night, Robert Hokum’s (the man behind this weekend) new band The Devil Drives took the stage. They must be the funkiest blues band on the circuit. Most songs were self-penned, The Gospel According To John Lee Hooker, All Play No Work and Don’t Miss The Bus – what a way to finish the first day.

sunday

First on the Main Stage were The John O’Leary/Alan Glen All Star Blues Review. Kicking it all off was John O’Leary (Savoy Brown, Sugar Kane) with Born in Chicago, followed by Papa George (guitarist extraordinaire) giving us T-Bone Shuffle. Don Craine (Downliners Sect) complete with hilarious anecdotes did All Night Worker Ali Maas followed with her version of I Just Want To Make Love To You. This girl is also a star in the making. Papa George then did Built For Comfort, he must be one of the most underrated guitarists on the circuit. Steve Morrison set the stage alight with his unique slidework on Baby Don’t Go and a blistering version of Up Country. Ali Mackenzie (Birds) and Laurie Garmain (Yardbirds) with their versions of Walking By Myself and Hoochie Coochie Man became a vehicle for community singing. Ali Maas returned with Ali Mac and closed the set with Don’t Lie To Me and Got My Mojo Working. Alan Glen (guitar and harmonica),

papa GeorGe at ealinG

photo: bob bonsey

Pete Miles on drums and Glyn Evans on bass must also be mentioned – a solid backline!

On the South Stage, Rabbit Foot were the big surprise on today’s line up. A duo from Brighton - their take on the blues is original, fun and back to basics – tribal blues. Swamp Boogie and Suite 136 were just two of the highlights. Another band to watch out for.

On the Main Stage were Never The Bride, with iconic Nikki Lamborn and Catherine Been Feeney. They say they are the rock and roll end of the blues but if you sound like Janis Joplin you must be getting close. They ran through their catalogue which included The Living Tree, t’s A Man’s World and Mercedes Blues. They won themselves a new audience this afternoon.

In the bar, Mark Harrison educated a lot of people with his authentic acoustic self-penned blues. The Spikedrivers on the Main Stage with their take on down home in your face blues. Constance Redgrave had me enthralled with her vitality and the slide guitar of Ben Tyzack made the whole thing a real experience. Sam Kelly on the South Stage did his usual kick-ass set judging from the crowd but unfortunately I didn’t get to see him and his friends. At this point, due to prior commitment I had to leave, and I didn’t get to see Dr. Feelgood, which was a shame.

Credit must go to Artistic Director Bob Salmons (a.k.a. Robert Hokum) and Ealing Council for putting together this brilliant weekend of music, which with 20+ acts, three stages and a two day ticket for only £8 confirmed its place as not only a Premier Blues Festival, but probably the best value one too!

BoB BonSeY

24Th annual GreaT BrITIsh

r&B FesTIVal

Colne, lanCashire. uk

auGust 23rd – 26th 2013

The long Bank Holiday weekend started with two stalwarts of the British blues scene, Nine Below Zero and Dr. Feelgood. Both these acts display a vital and muscular approach to performance that goes a long way to explaining their enduring popularity – and, of course, a bag of musical goodies that they can dip into at will for sure-fire crowd pleasers like Down To The Doctors and She Does It Right .

Friday

Headliner, California-born Joe Louis Walker, was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame earlier this year; fittingly for an artist whose career is studded with multiple BMAs and contributions to Grammy-award winning albums with BB King and James Cotton. JLW is one of those musicians who is capable of expressing himself through many styles of blues and this performance had plenty of variety. A selection of numbers from the recent Alligator release Hellfire demonstrated some of his versatility; slow, searing blues on I Won’t Do That , Soldier For Jesus – a powerful, soulful gospel track which was a high spot, Too Drunk To Drive – a bouncy lightweight good-time boogie. Up next on Earl Hooker’s Blue Guitar came an invitation to harp man Billy Branch, much more of whom would be seen later in the weekend. The interaction between Billy’s echoing harp lines and JLW’s slide created an apt tribute to Hooker’s induction to the Blues Hall of Fame. Closing out on a funkier note with Sugar Lips (written by JLW collaborator Murali Coryell), the standard for this festival had been set pretty high from day one.

saturday

On then to day two, and a lively start from contemporary UK blues outfit Kat and Co. The eponymous Kat (Kathleen Pearson) may have stepped on stage costumed like a Louisiana saloon chanteuse, but there was more than just straight blues on offer. Anthemic numbers like Make It Rain jostled with more domestic tales of marital disharmony (Tired of Trying) and more urban-feeling blues exemplified by Payin’ My Dues , guitarist Francesco Accurso taking the part recorded by Mud Morganfield on the album track.

A change of tone to a more jazz/blues fusion direction now, in the shape of Elliott Randall and the New York All Stars. The former Steely Dan guitarist produced a very relaxed and good-humoured set, clearly enjoying playing with fellow guitarist Steve Williams, who did some killer slide work on Robert Johnson’s Hellhound On My Trail Obviously the crowd were not going to be satisfied without the signature Reelin’ In The Years , which was perfectly delivered.

Sticking to the other side of the Atlantic, but way south of NYC, Lil’ Jimmy Reed, a blues veteran from Alabama who, the story goes, acquired his stage name as a stand-in for the Jimmy Reed when the Chicago legend was a little too lubricated to perform! Lil’ Jimmy was as authentic as they come, running through a set of blues standards with panache, tons of straight-ahead harp and pokey guitar licks. The crowd really got behind him, and demanded a well-deserved encore.

After a mid-session break, the evening began in earnest with a young UK band, based just up the road in Lancaster, TC and the Moneymakers. Front man Tommy Cocks leads a tight, accomplished unit and blows a mean harp in his own right. He does a pretty good

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festivaLs

job of singing too. Having played the pub stages at Colne in previous years, Tommy had always wanted to play the big one, and having made it up there did not disappoint an eager audience. In a set filled with classic blues tunes from the likes of Smiley Lewis and Tommy Johnson, Robert Nighthawk’s Annie Lee was a particularly well-chosen number allowing TC to exercise his full, rounded vocals and work in some gutsy harp lines too. What an excellent curtain raiser for the main event of the evening.

Bounding on stage, clearly excited to be introducing the centrepiece of the night, not to say the entire Festival, top UK harpist Giles Robson lit the fuse of the Colne Blues Harp Explosion. With the backing of the Sugar Blue Band, Giles gave the crowd a little bit of a harmonica history lesson and his impression of a train – something every harmonica player has to do! Having set the scene, Giles introduced the three artists who each have made a huge impression on the blues harp world. First up, Billy Branch in trademark Panama hat, and smiling broadly, tore into Going Down , and Hoodoo Man Blues , then in a typically Chicago move, went walkabout through the crowd –blowing kisses to the girls through the harmonica before handing over the stage to Sugar Blue. Having been called the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the harp’, expectations were high, but were completely surpassed by the sheer technical wizardry on display, Dressed in black, and armed with harmonica bandolier, numbers like Red Hot Mama , and Hoochie Coochie Man , framed ridiculously fast and fluid solos, non-stop cascades of riff upon riff, upper register ringing around the auditorium. Cotton Tree, a tribute for mentor James Cotton, allowed Sugar to show another more lyrical facet of his art, before winding up once more for a solo

train ride to finish with a flourish. Charlie Musselwhite, the most laid back, genial gentleman bluesman around, made a characteristically self-deprecating entry – ‘I only know one song’. Luckily, it was a song that has many aspects, manifested in gems such as Blues, Why Do You Worry Me?, Wild, Wild Woman, The Blues Overtook Me , and It Ain’t Right . After the individual performances from each of the harp legends, each of whom could easily have headlined on their own, how else could the show close except with a grand finale? With all of the harmonica players that had done so much to entertain that night – TC, Giles, Billy, Sugar and Charlie – all blowing together, how fitting that they finished up on Sonny Boy Williamson’s Help Me , with the refrain ‘I can’t do it all by myself’, to send the Colne crowd off with memories of a very special evening indeed.

sunday

As the Sunday rolled around, there was just time to catch the British Blues Awards ceremony down the hill from the Muni, and note that one of the artists on the bill later that day had bagged vocalist, album and songwriter of the year awards. So, after having a taste of the jazzy end of the blues scale, courtesy of Ginger Baker’s Jazz Confusion, and a well-tailored jump session with The Jive Aces, it was with some anticipation that multiple award-winner Ian Siegal came to the stage. Opening with Kingdom Come and Groundhog Blues , a dirty, lowdown mood was quickly and powerfully established, with tight, powerful riffs and mean, gritty vocals. Ian played with emotional intensity, lightening up with classic playful R’n’B sounds like Sugar Rush , then hitting a quick change into much more intense imagery with Revelator . So well received was this set, that there were two encores: Baby, Let Me Follow You

Down and Forever Young , which really set the crowd alight, singing along like it was the Last Waltz . Following Ian Seigal, it was time for another of the many legends on the Colne line-up, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. The Stones bass player, newly in receipt of a British Blues Great award, puts a big outfit together under this banner, which leaves plenty of room for variation in arrangements and soloists. Keyboard duties and occasional vocal leads were provided courtesy of the great Georgie Fame, alternating the vocals with talented female lead singer Beverley Skeete. There were plenty of selections from the R&B and soul songbooks to keep the crowd happy and take a singalong mood home with them.

Monday

Bank Holiday Monday arrived with Wilko at

colne

photo: Jennifer noble

treats in store for those with stamina enough to make it through the long weekend. Opening the accounts Chris Farlowe & the Norman Beaker Band, fresh from gaining a British Blues Great award, put together a great show where the patter between 60s legend Chris and bandleader Norman provided almost as much entertainment as the musical content, with signature tune Handbags and Gladrags and Small Faces classic All or Nothing standing out.

A group who made their name in the 1970s, Climax Blues Band, stepped up to take the festival in a more funky direction, with guitarist Les Hunt working in some nice picking. Quite a number of tunes from the 1976 Gold Plated album featured, including their huge hit Couldn’t Get It Right . A nice touch was to dedicate the suitably elegiac

Last Chance Saloon to original band member Colin Cooper, whose last gig with CCB was coincidentally at Colne in 2008.

Demonstrating again the breadth of blues interpretations on the bill, The Pretty Things took a little psychedelic detour through a trio of tracks from the historic S.F. Sorrow album, before returning to more traditional blues ground. The influence of Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley is there in the name of the band after all, so it was fun to hear their energetic take on the likes of I Can’t Be Satisfied , Little Red Rooster , and Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover Dick Taylor’s slide guitar and Frankie Holland’s harp contributed greatly to putting real guts into the Pretty sound, which sent the audience off for the afternoon break with a smile on their faces (and a

ringing in their ears!).

The time came for the evening shift to clock in, and a hugely anticipated welcome to Wilko Johnson poignantly and potentially playing his last gigs. The former Feelgoods guitarist however, showed no signs of doing anything other than putting on a bravura performance, opening up with Down By The Jetty , Going Back Home and Roxette from the Feelgood’s catalogue followed along in short order. Accompanied by the inestimable Norman WattRoy on bass, and backed by Dylan Howe behind the drums, there could hardly have been an inch of the stage that wasn’t covered by one or other of Wilko or Norman, as they ricocheted, stomped, marched and bounced all over like men

roMani and billy branch photo: Jennifer noble

chris farloWe

photo: Jennifer noble

GinGer baker at colne photo: Jennifer noble

possessed. Using the guitar as a surrogate girlfriend or mowing down the audience with an imaginary machine gun, Wilko threw an incredible amount of energy around the stage. Bringing the set to a close with some more Feelgoods classics (Back In The Night , She Does It Right), and encoring with Bye Bye Johnny¸ at the end there was a solid 15 minutes of standing ovation and chanting as a mark of the affection this unique musician holds in the British R&B world.

Following this was no mean feat, but Scottish blues-rockers, King King, perhaps buoyed by their multiple awards, including Band of the Year, came on filled with confidence. Sadly there was no time left to enjoy the final part of the show, so had to leave behind King King, Chas Hodges and Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes for another time – congratulations to Paul on his Harp Player of the Year award.

As first time visitors to Colne and the Great British RnB Festival, I can only say how impressive a line-up the team assembled, which is testament to the reputation they

have built up over the years. There seemed to be a huge amount of support for the Festival in the community and equally as much engagement by the artists in the local scene, which can only help make the Festival more successful in future. Congratulations on making a blues harp fan’s dreams come true!

Glenn noble

One of the advantages offered by a large event such as the Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival in Colne is the opportunity it provides for us all to listen to established ‘stars’ whilst also seeking out the other artists who play in the smaller venues and pubs around the town. I made this my priority at this Year’s Festival, hence most of this review is designed to highlight a few who, for too long, have flown under the blues radar.

Perhaps the most well received of all these must be the incredibly talented young harmonica-led blues band TC & The Moneymakers. They had been selected, from several dozen of other bands who ‘auditioned’, to appear on the

International Stage at the beginning of a night devoted entirely to the International harmonica legends Billy Branch, Sugar Ray, and Charlie Musselwhite. No pressure then.

Think what their leader Tom Cocks (TC) must have felt when he found out that he was opening for some of his all time heroes, and in a venue full of harp aficionados, yet you would have thought he and the rest of his smartly presented band did this sort of thing every day of the week. Their sound balance was perfect throughout their set, Tom’s vocals were clear and powerful, his harmonica playing filled the venue with such a rich sound that you would have thought he was an entire brass section, and Karl Moon on guitar was an absolute revelation.

I suspect that many of the audience who wandered in mid-way through their set would have been convinced that this young band were part of the US contingent of megastars flown in especially for the occasion.

Whilst Tom’s considerable talent was plain for all to see, his skill and feel for the music was more than matched by his lead guitarist. Karl Moon’s feel for the blues belies his young age and more than matched many of the other guitarists who graced the International stage over the entire weekend.

Others lesser known artists who managed to catch my ear included Dave Onions, Jocelyn Knight, and Johnny Guitar Williamson

Dave Onions from Warwickshire is no spring chicken but his performance on the acoustic stage left most younger souls for dead. His lightning fast finger-picking guitar style is, as he admitted on stage, ‘more rhythm than blues’, but I’d be happy to travel a very long distance to see him perform. His solo acoustic set was full of driving rhythm, contrasting gentler flourishes as melody, plus a solid bass line; all without the aid of even a stomp box. He can also

fans at colne photo: Jennifer noble

sing, tell the odd joke, and make a standard acoustic guitar sound like a flamenco one moment, a sitar another, and even a harp on occasions. If you get a chance to see him, take it.

Jocelyn Knight, formerly the backing singer for Doctor Truth, now the lead vocalist in the same band is absolutely fabulous. Doctor Truth have always been a great band but Jocelyn’s inclusion has now added another dimension; glamour, a lovely soulful groove and dynamic stage presence to rival the very best in the business. Listening to Jocelyn singing one of their slower numbers You’re All I Need , I really thought I was at a Blues Festival! This is a singer who really understands the value of variations in speed and volume.

If there is a more laid back, talented, blues guitarist in the country than Johnny Guitar Williamson, I’d like to meet him. Johnny used to be lead guitar with The Animals, but a few years ago teamed up with Mick Bowden as Bowden & Williamson. More recently they have been performing in a great four piece band under the name of Blue Swamp, which is how they appeared on the British Stage

at Colne. Apart from anything else, they are one of the few blues bands who all sing, including the drummer! Given their pedigree I’m amazed that more people don’t flock to their gigs, if only to hear Johnny play guitar. He’s another member of the grey haired brigade, a cool guy in every respect. Wonderful intricate melodies, a lovely tone, understated throughout, but capable of great emotional intensity, his guitar playing is what all blues guitarists should strive for, music that expresses the inner life, thoughts, and emotions of the songwriter. My vote for blues guitarist of the year.

bernie stone

neWark Blues

FesTIVal

newark, linCs, uk

september 6th – 8th 2013

With some tweaks to the festival in 2013 – British Blues Awards have moved and the festival has a new home, a very different environment now in the plush 1920s Palace Theatre across town from the normal location, the Castle, due to building works; there was no doubt the Castle setting was missed. The

theatre may be the main venue but for the first weekend in September the whole town takes on a festival feel, as, scattered throughout the town in various pubs, is a wealth of quality blues acts.

Friday

Friday night was dominated by anticipation for The Hoax headlining, with the chance to catch this band and hear tracks from their new album. Waiting for the headliners there was a scintillating line-up to get our dancing shoes moving. Gary Grainger, MC for the festival, started off by introducing Laurence Jones to open the festival; the amount of live performances this young talent has under his belt shone through with an accomplished and polished act. Laurence is at home on the stage, and this confidence showed from the opening number. His rhythm section is solid, but I felt there was little spark, at times they seemed quite ponderous; not doing enough to reflect, build on and add depth of tone to the sound being produced by the young man fronting. Can’t Keep Living Like This a self-penned number that is full of intricate guitar work. I loved the mix with Too Good another self-penned song that was lighter and funkier. If this was the quality of the first set then the following bands had better be on tip-top form! Albany Down, made a dramatic entry and were definitely more rock than blues. That said, they have been making a name for themselves on the blues circuit, and there was divided opinion as to whether they are the band for a blues festival, but there can be no doubt that there is great chemistry between the members, delivering a very professional performance with a varied set including Born Under a Bad Sign given the Albany stamp so it was not another mundane

dancinG to the Jive aces photo: Jennifer noble

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cover. They delivered some great self-penned numbers with strong lyrics, but there was no real emotion in their delivery and again, I thought the bass needed to be stronger to balance the guitar sound.

Then The Hoax stepped onto the stage. They are a collection of formidable talent and one of the best British blues bands around, exciting and delighting the crowd with a combination of super solid rhythm section providing the bedrock for the two stylish guitarists and Hugh Coltman, with scrumptious vocals creating the Hoax sound. Delivering a mixed set of Hoax classics and numbers from their much awaited CD, with the band’s thanks to their fans whose pledges ensured the album was produced and Big City Blues became a reality. The song Don’t Shake My Hand was a spellbinder, sending shivers down the spine, the music hitting core emotions, new track Hipslicker was another I liked. They took the roof off the Palace Theatre, the audience would have loved them to play all day.

saturday

A Newark Tradition is Saturday afternoon is free, this works well in the Castle as shoppers hear the music and wander in and stay, but was not possible in a formal theatre environment. Opening the afternoon; Brothers Groove, producing a really good groovy sound using the two different guitar tones of the lead and rhythm guitar to good effect, the set definitely won them new fans with a very tight set proving that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts; Brothers Groove definitely hit the right groove; blues with a melodic funky edge.

Now for a change of tone and approach to the blues, with a soulful set delivered by Rhythm Zoo, fronted by vocalist Andi Hall provided an entertaining set of covers that suited her vocal range

and style; pleasing the crowd fitting the slot like a glove, the band supporting Andi are a team of excellent musicians with Dermot (Drums), Pete (Bass) and Phil (guitar).

The Mustangs closed the afternoon with a set that always pleases, strutting their blues across the stage, as they delivered their signature mixture of solid covers and numbers of their well-received current CD Speed of Love . This is a high energy band who really enjoy playing together creating an infectious rapport between band and audience no wonder they are so popular on the circuit.

The evening started; with local band Blues Boys Kings, who delivered a set of self-penned and standards which got the crowd warmed up and ready for some fun and more blues music. The short set ended far too soon, but they definitely got everyone present into the mood for the good times ahead.

Bare Bones Boogie Band, with the strong vocals from Helen giving this band a distinctive sound as they deliver a boogie sound that reflects their name. They treated the crowd to a pleasing mix of numbers from their CDs, including the latest Tattered and Torn creating a varied sound including blues, blues/rock definitely a feel good sound.

Highlights of the evening, two very different acts, Ron Sayer Jr. Band, followed by Jo Harman & Company. Ron with his guitar and song writing skills brought some class to the proceedings showcasing his musical talent, and who, with his band generated a likable high quality, three dimensional sound. Ron engaged with the crowd and had great rapport, building a festival atmosphere with his varied set; slow, funky, rocky, but always the blues. Ron and Charlotte are a real team, harmonising, singing duets and taking the lead vocals on various tracks, the rest of the band

build their sound around this solid heart, creating a sound that filled the auditorium and warmed up the crowd, they certainly wanted more.

The festival was now ready for the last act, headlining tonight Jo Harman and Company. She bounced on to stage in her gold boots, full of energy, she delivered a polished performance, winning her even more fans that night, especially with her stellar performance of My Amnesty . She wooed the audience and the musicianship provided by The Company were excellent, allowing her voice to shine through. Jo is a class act who entertains you every time, no wonder she is appearing at festivals and clubs across the UK and Europe.

With the mix of Pubs and the main festival venue there was no excuse not to catch some fantastic live music over the weekend..

liZ AiKen

lInTOn Blues FesTIVal

alma inn, linton, ross on wye June 21st – 23rd 2013

Friday

Ben Poole Band. On a fine sunny evening (after weeks of rain) Linton was set to stage yet another festival, and to open was Ben and his band. It all started so well with Ben blasting out loud and clear some real good rocking, soulful blues and then-disaster! One of the generators smouldered and died. Undeterred at the behind the scenes drama unfolding to his defunct power source, Ben grabbed his acoustic guitar and leapt from the stage to wander through the straw bale amphitheatre full of folks! His journey through the audience was very much appreciated, whether you heard much or not – it was the gesture that counted – the punters should not be let down. Technical let down it may have been, but not

lovely to See the nimmo brotherS back together again

a musical one. Ben is a young gun rising on the blues/rock scene, but from this show of professionalism he played on and carried the audience with him. On stage fellow band members patiently waited. Once power was back, Ben and band played a slightly reduced, but nevertheless resoundingly-good programme from his repertoire. Much cheering ensued from a grateful audience when they left the stage. Ben and the band showed just what troupers they are.

Larry Miller Band. Having taken last year’s Sunday afternoon audience and organisers by stormforce rocking blues, Larry was invited back to perform again but programmed late evening. Larry and the LMB devotees were in for a thunderous good rocking time, though they can also take it down a level or two and surprise you with a slow burner of a blues song. Larry’s ascent to top festivals here and abroad was not a meteoric rise, but a steady, hard, sure-footed climb. I can recall seeing him in the Reckless Engineer (Bristol) some fifteen years ago. The pub was packed and many a Bristol musician showed up that night as, like me, they had heard talk of this guitar slinger making a name for himself on the biker scene and a few pubs and clubs around the M4 corridor. Well he’s served his apprenticeship and has emerged a flying-withhonours veteran, fully decorated (and dressed to kill, no prisoners taken) rocking blues hero. The likes of Hendrix, Gallagher, Moore feature in loud long salvos from Larry’s brilliant guitar work, but his own material can level you equally

as well. This he did to the delight of all present on that now-cooling, cloudy descent into night. His band: Derek White, wonderful bass that was cannoning off Larry’s lead riffs and stage interaction, along with wonderful drums creating a Gattling gun rattling beat, and handy worked keyboards, with a touch of a lighter metal, all joined forces with LM and made a fantastic festival show even better. I was amongst many wondering why he wasn’t headlining.

The Union. They may have been voted best new band 2009 having formed from the Thunder fallout, and had three very well received albums, but for me I was still shell shocked from LMB and decided five numbers into their set to retire to my tent and lick my wounds (soak my dance wearied feet in hot soapy water). From there I could hear The Union and the cheers from their many loyal followers. After the exuberance of LMB they sounded rocky, but not exciting enough to get me back into battle fatigues, rifle re-loaded and bayonet fixed – no, if I was to fight another day at this festival it would be tomorrow!

saturday

Nat Martin Band. It’s difficult being the first band on at any festival, but even as an unknown, to me and some others they proved themselves with a great sound selection of soulful blues. They had sent their CD to the Linton Committee and impressed them. The crowd that afternoon were impressed as well with fine guitar work and vocals loud and clear. Their keyboard player laid down some fine funky jazz-laden music, and the rhythm section kept everything afloat and on time. A cracking little band and a nice intro to a full day’s festival line-up. Mitch Laddie Band. What a great outfit this turned out to be! Mitch has been influenced, nurtured

and championed by Walter Trout no less! It is so good to see and hear his protégées as an assurance that his thundering good rocking blues are taken up and built upon by the next generation of bands. Mitch and the band impressed the audience and had us dancing. They in turn appeared to be enjoying every moment too.

Connie Lush and Blues Shouter. It’s been a while since I last saw Connie and the lads and so it was a pleasant job to get out on the dance floor and boogie on down to this classy Liverpool lassie with endearing hot-fired vocals, and an astounding lead guitarist backed up by a tight, stupendous rhythm section. What more is there left to say? This is their second visit to Linton and justifiably so. Always a crowd puller and pleaser and festival stalwart is our Connie and the boys. Nimmo Brothers. Lovely to see them back together again and exciting the audience into feverish dance reaction. To say they could do no wrong is an understatement. They ran through a tremendous programme of mostly their own material that thrilled to excess.

Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges

EHB is yet another festival stalwart and second time appearance here at Linton. Eugene is a larger than life figure in all senses of the word; large with mighty powerful vocals to match, and guitar playing that is sublime! One minute you are all bopping and rocking around, then he strikes a blue bent note and slows down a pace and you’re rooted to the spot in awe of a heart wrenching slow, moody, thoughtprovoking song that IS the BLUES! When he asked Steve Nimmo to join him it erupted into a storming friendly guitar duel. Awesome! When it was all done he left the stage to rapturous applause and cheering, deservingly so! Eugene finished off the set and there was no doubt

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you’d just been delivered some of the best Blues to be had!

The Idle Hands. They are the best unsigned rock band in the UK, so the publicity says. That could well be true as they impressed many old fans there in the audience and by the time they had finished their set quite a few new ones. They are a popular gigging band and have a stream of good mentions in the rock press. I saw them at Colne last year for the first time and they seem to have been everywhere else since. Good luck to them. Long may they rock – and if you buy enough of their CDs their lead singer may be able to buy some shoes! They are a good fun Rock’n’Blues outfit enjoying themselves and pulling good crowds. Can’t be bad.

Sandie Thom. What came next was somewhat of a disappointment to me – I and it seems others with me were expecting an electric set from Sandi Thom and her band, but it was an acoustic set from an all seated band and so those who were not in the front rows, stage wise, could not see a thing, and yes, the opening harmonica and first few songs sounded promising, but I’m afraid to say not what you need at this stage of proceedings! After the jubilation and tour de force of Eugene this slowed the programme down. People around me spoke of how nice a voice Sandi has but said they needed the momentum to be kept going and perhaps catch a glimpse of the band a little more animated, as, alas, an acoustic moment such as this failed to meet up with expectations. I will go catch her with her band and see how their electric set shapes up.

Ruby Turner Band. This band finished the evening off in fine soulful bluesy style for everyone. She has matured into a great singer of international standing in her own right as well as with the Jools Holland Band. I can remember her as a fine lady of soul fronting her own band at The Kings Hotel

in my home town, Newport, some years back, when she still had her day job in an office! She was a powerful vocal force then, and even greater now, and her repertoire has expanded since coming under the influence of Holland, and other notable musicians she has performed with. This evening she was just as sensational and took the audience by storm, despite a few hiccups with the sound! Having got that sorted and put to rest, she went on to give a belter of a set and had everyone dancing and singing along to the last dying hours of Saturday night. It was a grand finale to the day’s proceedings.

sunday

Laurence Jones Band. The day started with an extraordinary band that had everyone talking before and post performance. And, what is more, the first standing ovation I have witnessed for a debut act at Linton! This young outfit drew much admiration from the punters by giving us an awesome, non-stop, high-octane hour or so, of souldrenched rocking good blues. Much of their programme was drawn from their new CD Thunder in the Sky, and I have no doubt sales of this album did well afterwards. Watch out for this young gun and his bunch of bluesters. Their version of Dylan’s [via Hendrix] All Along the Watch Tower was impeccable, and their own songs stood up well to the classic numbers within the set list. Just as Ben Poole won hearts and minds over on the Friday by shear guts determination and pure professionalism, so too did Laurence and his crew. Both bands should go on to much greater things in the future. I’ll be following them in earnest over the coming years.

Grainne Duffy Band. Now here’s a young gutsy lady with a voice to match and also talented guitar work to boot! She and her band are joined at the hip, and gel so well they make a formidable

group of musicians with that ‘must see them again’ factor for the audience. Grainne’s voice has often been likened to that of Bonnie Raitt, and again with that of Rory Block. It’s been some time since I heard Block live, but had only seen Bonnie a week or two before and yes, she’s like her, but her skilful and subtle craft is her own and gives a beautiful uplift at times to well-chosen blues anthems in the set list.

Her band are all excellent and given show time, where they each flourish and perform to perfection. They are riding a British and international blues festival high these days and long may it continue. People around me talk of her version of I’d Rather Go Blind as second only to Etta James. Here I must reserve judgement as I have, over the years, heard many fine renditions of this all time classic and I don’t like to put anyone’s version above others, as I find circumstances have great bearing on emotions as well as time and place, but having said that, Grainne’s version was divine and compelling listening.

Band of Friends. If I just said ‘I danced myself into oblivion’, or just ‘Wow what a band!’ you may know what I meant, but that doesn’t do true justice to the three members of this fantastic band, who sang, played and wove a magical rousing Rory Gallagher ‘happening’ in a field at the back of a country pub in the idyllic bucolic County of Herefordshire one summer evening. The county road signs say HEREFORD and underneath the first four letters (HERE) they put YOU CAN! Well, Band of Friends did! And what’s more, so did the whole of Linton. It was getting dark, the stage lighting was on and a cool breeze picked up – just as well, as the whole field was awash with people dancing, singing and having a mighty fine time. Gerry McAvoy and Ted McKenna (rhythm section)

played like demons possessed, whilst young Marcel Scherpenzeel delivered a potent mix of RG songs, runs ,riffs and guitar solos with an edge as Gerry and Ted never let him play religious note for note RG, but create an aura that is the essence of RG but never an absolute. This makes it all the more exciting, interesting and enjoyable. This performance was my Linton Festival 2013 favourite.

Hayseed Dixie. Well I seemed to have missed seeing these guys for ever until now! Thank God I did catch them, as I thoroughly enjoyed their off the wall humour, tongue in cheek asides and non politically correct political comments! Their parody of Queens’ Bohemian Rhapsody and Motorhead’s Ace of Spades , along with the likes of Alien Abduction etcetera, they proved to be a good laugh as well as demonstrating extremely talented and accomplished musicianship. Four men of varying hirsute appearance beguiled us with their chosen ditties (often dirty, whoopee!)

All the while they impressed with outstanding instrumental virtuosity. I swear I heard feint strains of Hobart Smith and old timey rap as well some Scruggs and Flatt in foggy mountain breakdown mode in there, and perhaps a Bill Munro hoe-down refrain here and there. Lastly there was a definite airing reminiscent of Ralph Rinzler there somewhere. Great Stuff! Vocals too were magnificent and their wonderful harmonious output put me in mind of an old vinyl album of mine by The Greenbriar Boys. A wonderful ending to another Linton festival.

Once again Linton did us proud. From humble beginnings they have built up a spectacular programme of artists appearing each year, improved on site facilities, raised monies for local charities, remained calm and professional through difficult times and as a result have given us ‘A great Little Festival’, one not to be missed!

KaZ haWKins

strand arts Centre, BelFast auGust 31st. 2013

Kaz Hawkins emerged on the Belfast blues scene a few years back fronting a trio who rejoiced in the name Mama Kaz (a somewhat lame pun playing on her supposed physical resemblance to The Mamas and The Papas singer Mama Cass), and playing heavy blues rock.Her decision to dissolve that band seemed bizarre as the band’s popularity was growing apace.

But, now trading as a solo artist, backed by a quartet and two backing vocalists, it transpires that Hawkins knew what she was doing for, launching her new incarnation, she blew the audience away with her soulful, intense and expressive singing of a repertoire almost entirely comprising outstanding original compositions. Hawkins’ songs are typically inspired by her dramatic life experiences which have included cocaine addiction and having her children taken into care, followed by rehabilitation and having her children returned to her.

Lipstick And Cocaine , for example, was a harrowing ballad on which Hawkins reflected on her addiction and her victory over it; Drink With The Devil was about a diabolical, hard-drinking boyfriend; and she introduced Colliding Into One as a song ‘about the past,’ adding, ‘I’ll never be ashamed about my past’. The one cover was of the standard Feeling Good, which was sung with tremendous authority and sensitivity.

Hawkins has largely moved away from blues into singersongwriter territory but her charisma and exuberance are irresistible and the gig ended with a standing ovation and Hawkins, overwhelmed, in tears. In support acoustic guitarist Joby Fox, a serious-minded singer-songwriter, performed songs, including Republican & Loyalist , which were often dismayed

reflections on the Troubles. Belfast, once an Irish hit for his band Energy Orchard, suggested his ambivalence towards the city. Two short films were also shown: the atmospheric Lost Commandos , directed by Joby Fox and Sophie Rasmussen, was enigmatic but seemed to be about terrorists giving up their campaigns; the avowedly inspirational Believe – the theme of the evening – was directed by James Rea Jr. and featured talking heads, including Hawkins, reflecting on success, failure and regrets.

treVor hoDGett

ZoE sChWarZ BLuE CoMMotion

reGent theatre, ChristChurCh september 13th 2013

On a wet Friday 13th evening and on the day Christchurch was announced as the latest annexe to God’s waiting room, the Dorset town clearly needed cheering up. Step up Zoe and Blue Commotion for the launch of their new CD The Blues Don’t Scare Me . Dressed in a spangly top, Zoe was in great form from the opening Something’s Got A Hold On Me

You soon realise how Zoe’s voice blends in with her tight band, as if she’s another instrument in the band. She feels each emotion that’s felt in the songs, placing it firmly in the audience’s lap. Having mentioned the band, have to give them a heads up too.

Husband/guitarist Rob Koral is what I call a steady ‘old school’ player. By that I mean no histrionics or posing during solos, he also acts as a splendid musical director. Keyboard player Pete Whittaker quietly gets on with his job, again outstandingly. Bassist Bas Terraz debuted with the band tonight and laid down some great lines, having a brilliant understanding with drummer Paul Robinson (Nina Simone’s touring band member

CONTINUES OVER...

concerts

for many years) not forgetting the comedian of the band, Si Granero on harmonica and backing vocals. Just Another Day and The Blues Don’t Scare Me both from the new album, released amazing live energy and passion, further exposing the songs for what they are, pure quality of self-composed material.The Koral/Schwarz composition Too Darn Rich To Be Happy deserves special mention for its boogie style and the solos from Koral, Grenaro and Whittaker. The format remained the same, through to the mid-way closer, Anthony Newley’s Feeling Good, time for a well-earned break!

There was a soulful start to the second half with Take Me Back and Lucifer Is Blue , before a heartfelt rendition of Lowell Fulson’s Reconsider Baby , the

royaL southErn BrothErhood the Cluny, newCastle

september 21st 2013

The Cluny is sardine-tight tonight and it’s hot! Before the headliners come on, road-crew strategically place fluffy towels about the stage. And that is the only thing fluffy about tonight in a charged atmosphere of anticipation.

First local power trio The Mitch Laddie Band are back a week after recording a live album here. This is blues-rock, all effect pedals and crescendo and incredibly loud! Explosive solo followed solo as the band played numbers from their Burning Bridges CD. They went down a storm, all be it, with a largely partisan crowd who revelled in the pyrotechnic guitar excess.

Royal Southern Brotherhood move onto the stage; heavy-set Yonrico Scott settles behind his kit, tall lankhaired Charlie Wooten straps on his bass. Guitarists Mike Zito and Devon Allman saddle-up. A broad

soloing having a real late night feel to it. Next up was Buck , written by Andy Stroud (Nina Simone’s one time husband), giving centre stage to Si’s rapping skills (yes, you read that right!) , a real show stopper. Two more originals, Say It Isn’t So and the slow blues of We’ll Find A Way preceded the Willie Dixon classic Don’t Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover , what a way to bow out. The encore Come Home Sweet Baby , triggered a mini-rap, Grenaro continuing his rapport with the audience. Speaking of which, they loved it! There is a lot that some young pretenders can learn from this band. My final observation would be; is Skegness ready for Si Grenaro?

CliVe rAwlinGs

‘Geordie’ voice shouts ‘Is it warm enough for you’s’, which is lost in translation, and centre stage behind his percussion set-up is Cyril Neville. In red-checked shirt, preacher-black hat covering a blood red bandana he looks like a voodoo shaman. Hopping from foot to foot it could be bones he’s using to beat the tom-toms!

UK tour first date – the Shaman speaks; ‘Spread the word, use Facebook Spacebook, tell your friends ‘bout Royal Southern Brotherhood’. Then, as an afterthought, adds ‘But don’t say nuthin’ to nobody if you don’t like it!’

Someone must have liked it because the room gets even fuller as they launch into Hurts My Heart, a full-on slice of Southern rock. Allman takes up lead while Zito handles vocals and the Shaman closes his eyes hitting a groove with backing vocals and percussion. On other numbers Neville takes lead vocals moving between soulful sweet and timeworn gravel throat, both equally

GErry JaBLonsKi & thE ELECtriC Band the Voodoo rooms, edinBurGh

september 27th 2013.

With drummer Dave Innes’ diagnosis with stomach cancer in the sprin,g the last six months has been a troubling time for the band. However any concerns that their live performances might be dampened were put to bed very early with an excellent evening of entertainment. A good crowd was in attendance as openers Main Street Blues performed a varied set combining both classic and more contemporary blues. With a new line-up featuring the twin guitars of Simon Brett and founder Derek Smith, the Mike Zito penned Change Your Ways was a notable highlight. Anticipation was

fine and emotive.

Their self-titled CD. has been reviewed extensively, and the songs are even better live. As an ensemble group the three front men share vocals while Scott and Yonrico are a powerhouse, steady and solid behind, providing a wall for the guitarists to paint shapes. This is shown to best effect in the twin guitar interplay on numbers such as Fire On The Mountain. Cyril takes vocals and tom-toms with Mike using slide and Devon vamping a reggae rhythm. The solo here strays into a Jessica melody, nearly tipping into a Freebird romp, before giving way to stinging high notes from a Devon solo. Then the guys plunge back in – hitting a groove with more counterpoint guitar work.

Just Keep It Real was an opportunity to introduce the band before the stage was left to Yonrico and Charlie and a bass solo of epic proportions. They encored with Gimme Shelter leaving the crowd wanting more.

Mel wAllACe

growing, particularly when Jablonski appeared on the stage to begin the unaccompanied introduction to Sherry Dee; and erupted when he was joined by Innes, Peter Narojczyk and Grigor Leslie. The hard hitting introduction continued with Hard To Make A Living which saw Narojczyk step onto a table for an extended harp solo. With recordings for their new album Twist of Fate being worked around bouts of chemotherapy for Innes, no one would have complained with an unchanged set from that of their last appearance in April. However there were several outings from the new release, including The Preacher with a superb soaring guitar tone. By contrast the title track was a poignant moment of introspection. Likewise there was the welcome return of a personal favourite, Black Rain while another oldie Blues Power recalled Fleetwood Mac at their bluesy best. While the drum solo had wisely been dropped, Innes’ drumming was precise and to use the cliché, he didn’t miss a beat. The show climaxed with dancing throughout Slave To The Rhythm , with Jablonski at his demonstrative best. Alas, the overzealous soundman switched off the PA at the stroke of 11 o’clock, but, undeterred, the band performed an unplugged closing encore of Hard Times to round off a superb show. With Innes progressing well, hopefully times will come easier for the band in the future.

DunCAn beAttie

JoE BonaMassa

motorPoint arena, CardiFF september 18th 2013

Cardiff welcomed an old friend back to the Motorpoint, and a rapport was cemented from the off as Joe welcomed his loyal fans with a simple ‘Noswaith dda’ (Good Evening in Welsh).

Tonight we saw the contrasting

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tEMPEranCE MoVEMEnt

aLBuM LaunCh the GiBson rooms, london september 12th 2013

I felt very privileged to be representing Blues Matters! at this invitation only, ‘secret gig’ by The Temperance Movement at the UK offices of Gibson Guitars in London’s West End. It was the official album launch and the 100 or so guests gathered in the first floor playing area were treated to a short but full blooded performance by the band. There was no holding back as Phil Campbell and the boys worked up a sweat on the core of the album that, less than a week later, would enter the UK album charts at number 12. A remarkable achievement for a debut album from a blues-based rock band in these days of safe pop and X Factor.

But then these are a remarkable band. Phil Campbell possesses a voice tailor-made for this type of music, able to hit high notes and rasp with

equal emotion, every lyric made believable. The twin guitars of founder members Luke Potashnick and Paul Sayer weave and interplay together beautifully, never overplayed, always lean and cutting edge. Nick Fyffe on bass, one time Jamiroquai member, holds everything down rock solid, allowing Aussie madman, Damon Wilson to pound the drums like a modern day Keith Moon.

What really sets these apart though, as well as looking great, and being superb musicians is that they have excellent songs. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen them live a few times now and there’s never any filler, no covers just masterful versions of the tracks on the album. Rockers, anthems, ballads, they are all there, all wonderfully blues tinged. I can’t recommend this band highly enough, catch them if you can live, and check out the album, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

steVe YourGliVCh

teMperance launch in london photo: rob barker

styles of Acoustic and Electric Joe. There was no thunderous opener of furious guitar licks; tonight it was Joe alone with his acoustic for the first number. He was then joined for the rest of the twenty minute acoustic segment by Tal Bergman on African Drums and Derek Sherinian; but I do wonder if acoustic really is Joe’s forte? His guitar playing stripped down, but still at a fast and furious rate, and lacking fluidity and passion normally so evident, combined with Joe’s voice which is not really strong enough for this blues format. That said he did create an amazing atmosphere and had the fans on the edge of their seats waiting for the full Bonamassa electric blast, and he delivered their every wish following a quick change of guitars.

Joe throughout the rest of the evening was full of confidence, demonstrating his skills on every guitar he chose including his twin necked, creating a full and different tone from each of the options. As ever, his backing band was awesome, filling in the spaces, adding colour and texture so that the stadium rang out with Bonamassa Blues.

Everyone had a favourite track they wanted to hear, Joe tried to please with a range of tracks from the bluesy, Who’s Been Talking , he

then tipped his hat to the late Gary Moore with a great version of Midnight Blues, full of emotion and stylish guitar playing on his Les Paul. Django was played superbly and another crowd pleaser as every track he played raised the temperature in the building!

All too soon he left the stage, but the fans wanted more and the encore delivered a superb rendition of a Bonamassa signature cover, Sloe Gin , that had the crowds purring with delight. Tonight, the near capacity audience sat at the shrine of their hero.

liZ AiKen

taMiKrEst and BLuEs Boy dan oWEn the saGe Gateshead november 16th 2013

The Sage is one of the most spectacular buildings you will ever go to too listen to live music. Having magnificent views from the glass fronted vista, looking out onto the Tyne and Newcastle. When you enter it has the feel of a cathedral with its twin stairs leading to the two main halls where performances take place. This performance is in Hall 2 which is a stage in the round. Tonight unusually the whole venue is seated right up to the front of the stage, where normally the venue has a standing area.

Opening the evening is Dan Owen who in my opinion is a real emerging talent and we will see and hear much more of him in the next year. His performance is filled with heartfelt emotion and grips you from the beginning. Starting with Ships, which got to number onein the ITunes Blues chart. His

set list of Forget Me When I’m Gone , Hammer , which was written about an old work colleague who died last year. Beauty in Disaster , which is one of my favourites, after which he threw in a new song Polkadot Dresses . All of which are self penned and extremely well delivered and well received by the audience who warmed to his music and self effacing charm between songs. His finale was a Bob Dylan number Hollis Brown , which brought tumultuous applause from an audience most of who had never even heard of Dan before he took to the stage. He genuinely won over the crowd.

Tamikrest blew in via a sandstorm from the desert to enthral us with their Desert Blues. They are a new wave of Tuareg musicians with lyrics dealing with a youth without future, loss of culture and love of life. Their performance weaved a picture of desert life using hypnotic drum beats, alongside guitars producing an intoxicating rhythm drawing the audience to join them clapping in time. New World music is clearly popular and this venue was near capacity.

An excellent evening of high class entertainment from both acts. Make sure you get out to catch both of these acts live, there is nothing better than live music, keep live music live.

Christine Moore

bonaMassa in cardiff photo: liZ aiken

taMikrest at the saGe photo: christine Moore