Blues Matters 79

Welcome, welcome, to your latest issue of Blues Matters!

To say that we were honoured to receive recognition from the Blues Hall of Fame (see issue 78, editorial) was in fact an understatement! When our certificate arrived in the post we only looked at the top one (a duplicate had been requested, so the extra sheet was ignored). However, when the certificates were finally laid side by side and ready to frame it was discovered that there were in fact two individual inductions! One was for Alan as founder of this dynamic little Blues publication and the second was for BM! itself as THE Blues title.

Alan has always said that our editorial team makes BM! what it is and hopes that everyone feels very proud of their achievement. So a big thank you to all our contributors, who have helped to make this magazine so respected Blues world.

well doNe aNd coNgratulatioNs! Your feedback to: editor@bluesmatters.com

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NEWS/FEATURES/INTERVIEWS/

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steve yourglivch: 01603-451161: stevey@bluesmatters.com

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PROOF READING: peter simmonds

priNters: pensord

coNtriButiNg writers: liz aiken, roy bainton, andrew baldwin, adam bates, duncan beattie, adrian blacklee, bob bonsey, eddy bonte, Colin Campbell, bob Chaffey, martin Cook, norman darwen, dave drury, sybil gage, diane gillard, stuart a. hamilton, brian harman, natalie harrap, gareth hayes, trevor hodgett, billy hutchinson, peter innes, duncan Jameson, brian kramer, frank leigh, geoff marston, ian mchugh, ben mcnair, michael messer, Christine moore, martin ‘noggin’ norris, merv osborne, mike owens, frankie pfeiffer, thomas rankin, Clive rawlings, Chris rowland, darrell sage, paromita saha, pete sargeant, dave ‘the bishop’ scott, graeme scott, andy snipper, dave stone, suzanne swanson, richard thomas, tom walker, dave ward, daryl weale, kevin wharton, steve yourglivch.

coNtriButiNg photographers:

Christine moore, liz aiken, annie goodman, sarah reeves, others credited on page

© 2014 Blues Matters! Original material in this magazine is © the

REGULARS

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16

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100

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HAPPENIN’

All the news that’s fit to print. Plus cigar box guitars, Scandinavian, DJ Christian Cudnik and Krossborder live!

BLUES TOP 10

Jace Everett of True Blood fame shrugs off his Country label to talk blues.

BLUE BLOOD

New blues. The Riotous Brothers, Blues Boy Kings, The Spellkasters and more.

RED LICK TOP 20

Our friends at Red Lick with their list of the best-selling blues albums.

RMR BLUES TOP 50

The Roots Music Report independent airplay chart. The chart to be seen in. INTERVIEWS

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34

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SELWYN BIRCHWOOD

The young Alligator signing with a huge future ahead of him.

PAUL LAMB

The UK harp maestro talks about his King Snakes and their new album.

COCO MONTOYA

One of the World’s most explosive life guitarists gives us the lowdown.

EILIDH MCKELLAR

The bright young Scottish singer and guitarist catches up with BM!

JOHN PRIMER

One of the elder statesmen of Chicago blues spills the beans on his career.

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64

70

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KATIE BRADLEY

Talks about the remarkable progress to date and her plans for the future.

LAURENCE JONES

One of the brightest new stars on the UK Blues scene talks to BM!

LIL’ JIMMY REED

Tells us how he got his stage name and his early days ahead of touring.

NICK MOSS

One of the look up to guys on today’s Chicago music scene.

NIGEL MOONEY

Irish blues jazz performer much admired by Georgie Fame.

RED DIRT SKINNERS

Multi-award winning partners with a whole new Blues hybrid.

FEATURES

90

UNDER THE RADAR

You read it here first! Neal Black, Texas bluesman and rising star.

REVIEWS

94

ALBUMS

The definitive review, with 25 pages of the best new releases and reissues. Now complete with book reviews!

123 SHOWTIME

Festival highlights: including the Belfast City Blues, Yeovil, White Cliff and Memphis In May. Live gigs: the Benefit for Walter Trout, No Sinner, Gwyn Ashton, Bruce, Johns & Page, Ian Siegal and more.

V E rb A ls: steve yourglivch

all the blues that’s fit to print, from around the world

walter troUt has transplant

After a long wait Walter Trout underwent a successful liver transplant in Nebraska. Doctors described the outcome as A+. So now starts the slow, sometimes painful route to full recovery. He is still being fed through an IV drip and will inevitably battle through some more difficult times but things are much brighter then before.

It is expected to be some considerable time before Walter can even think about performing. Therefore the family and his band are thrilled that UK guitarist Danny Bryant has volunteered to front Walters band for a number of US and Canadian dates with Walters son Jon making guest appearances. Read our interview with Danny in this issue.

TEN YEARS AFTER uNvEil NEw liNEup

Exciting news from the Ten Years After camp. Original members Ric Lee and Chick Churchill have now been joined by Marcus Bonfanti and Colin Hodgkinson. Marcus is well known to British blues fans having released a number of acclaimed solo albums and performed at many high profile

festivals and the blues circuit. Colin is a virtuoso bass player who first found fame with jazz rock band Back Door.

He spent many years playing alongside Alexis Korner and had a stint with Whitesnake. The new lineup are currently preparing for a European tour.

THe new Ten YeArS AFTer

VISUALS: JeFF KATZ

Apology: In issue 78 we wrongly credited the artist as writer in a Blue Blood piece on Emanuel Fizzotti that was actually written by Bob Bonsey. We also managed to wrongly note an image of Paul Lamb as Sherman Robertson.

I.s.c. wInners annoUnceD

The International Songwriters Competition winners have just been announced. They are in 1st place, Terry Hanck for I Keep Holding On , 2nd was Al Reed for Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye , with Oslo, Norway based duo Haaken Hoeye and William Troiani third with Move A Little Closer . Included in those given honourable mentions were Albany Down’s Paul Turley and Paul Muir for You Ain’t Coming Home and Matthew Curry for Put One Over

kaZ hawkIns MaInlanD Dates

Belfast based Kaz Hawkins is bringing her new band to the

STEviE RAY vAuGhAN dEluXE BOX SET

Analogue Productions have released Texas Hurricane, a deluxe six album, 200 gram vinyl, box set celebrating the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

It’s surprising that this is the first collection of SRV’s studio work. Chad Kassem, Analogues founder and big fan of Stevie’s music says there has been no expense

spared to produce the best quality sound, artwork and packaging possible.

Each album has been re-mastered from the original analogue tapes at Sterling Sound in New York. Previous blues re-issues from Analogue include Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

mainland in September for a series of shows showcasing songs from her recent acclaimed EP and forthcoming album. Catch Kaz at The Stables, Wavedon 17th, Rope Tackle Art Centre, Shoreham 18th, Vonnies, Charlton Kings 19th, John Peel Centre, Stowmarket 20th, Lichfield Arts Centre 21st, Boisdale of Canary Wharf on 26th and The Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead on 27th. Kaz is also appearing at The Shetland Blues Festival between 10th and 14th September.

canneD heat UpDates

Legendary Blues Rock band Canned Heat are appearing at the prestigious Silverstone Classic Rocking and Racing event on July 25th. Its one of only two UK appearances by the band this year, the other is at The Musician, Leicester the night prior to Silverstone.

Long serving guitar player Harvey Mandel will not be part of

coNtiNues oN page 11...

nIche proDUctIons 7818

the band on these dates as he is undergoing reconstructive surgery following a successful battle against cancer. We wish Harvey well on his road to recovery. His place his taken by John Paulus who joins Fito De La Parra, Larry Taylor and Dale Spalding.

FenDer sUes retaIler over copy stock

Fender have won a major case against Danish retailer Musik Bixen over the sale of copy guitars. Music Bixen were ordered by the Danish courts to pay Fender damages and legal fees plus an undisclosed fine to the government. Although Fender have not revealed any figures sources in Denmark suggest they could be around £55, 000 ( 500k Krona). The guitars involved all carried Fender trademarks.

henDrIX toUrs the Uk

Leon Hendrix (the younger brother of Jimi) will be touring the UK for the first time between July 26th and August 9th playing an assortment of venues starting at The Howard Theatre, Cambridge and culminating at the famous 100 Club on Oxford Street on 6th August, The Robin, Wolverhampton on 7th and an appearance at The Cambridge Rock Festival on August 9th.

The band includes UK-born drummer Ian Griffith, who caught the eye of Leon’s manager Brian Compton playing spontaneously on a street corner in San Francisco. Ian was a main mover in putting together the UK tour. The show will include tributes to Jimi plus some of Leon’s own material. For more information about the tour, go to https://

twitter.com/LeonHendrixUK, or e-mail leonhendrixuktour2014@ gmail.com

coNtiNues oN page 13...

"She is the real deal! This is a woman whose voice could take her to the top " Gary " The Wagman" Wagner, KJAZZ 88 1 FM

top BlUes rock BanDs at norFolk FestIval

Vauxhall Holiday Park, Great Yarmouth is the venue for the massive Legends Of Rock Festival. Stretching over four days and nights from the 16th to the 19th of October. Former Thin Lizzy members Black Star Riders are one of the headliners but there is plenty to get blues rock fans excited including the awesome live performers Royal Southern Brotherhood, Pat McManus, Larry Miller, Ben Poole, Marcus Malone, Virgil and The Accelerators, Stray, Pearl Handled Revolver, Chicken Shack and many more. In total 45 bands have been confirmed so far. To find out more plus booking and price information go to www. classicrocktours.co.uk/legends_ originals/index.html

keIth thoMpson BanD new alBUM

British blues rockers Keith Thompson Band have a new album due to be released on the Density Music label in September. The album is entitled Catch the Fire . The band comprises of the legendary Climax Blues Band rhythm section, Roy Adams on drums and Neil Simpson on bass. Special guests guitarists Buddy Whittington (USA), Laurence Jones (UK) and saxophonist Patsy Gamble (UK) make an appearance for what is essentially a feast of guitar led blues/rock. Strong songs are key to this release by Keith who has been recognised as a finalist in the International Song-writing Competition on two occasions now. To co-inside with the release of the album, Keith and the band will be doing a series of dates in the UK. Pre-order the album and find tour dates on www.densitymusic.com

Master oF the MeMphIs soUnD

obituaries

Memphis guitarist Mabon ‘Teeney’ Hodges passed away on June 22nd aged 68. Complications due to emphysema were given as the cause following his hospitalisation in Dallas. He was a much vaunted architect of the ‘Memphis Sound’, writing and playing on many of Al Green’s hits including Take Me To The River and Love And Happiness. He also wrote for or performed with O.V. Wright, Syl Johnson, Anne Peebles and Isaac Hayes. His songs were covered by many including Talking Heads, Tom Jones, Canned Heat, Mitch Ryder, Delbert McClinton and Living Colour. Teeney began playing live in his fathers blues band at the age of 12, before joining the band of famous producer Willie Mitchell. He performed live in Austin at The South by Southwest festival in March this year before entering hospital with pneumonia.

the preacher says gooDBye

The great Bobby Womack passed away on June 27th aged 70. He was nicknamed The Preacher and as well as a string of successful solo recordings his songs were recorded by the likes of Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke, Janis Joplin and The Rolling Stones. Last year he recorded with Damon Albarn. Bobby began his career singing in a gospel choir with his brothers before forming The Valentinos. His most acclaimed works are the albums Communication (1971), Understanding (‘72) and The Poet, released in 1981. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.

bobbY womACK: SoUL roYALTY

KROSSBORdER KOMES TO TOwN!

on may the 29th the maltings, farnham hosted the very first krossborder rekords roadshow, an event that plans to rumble aCross the uk to a venue near you

featuring some of the key bands from the superb Krossborder CD Best of as ebullient MC Earl Jackson was keen to point out, featured three headline bands, Red Butler, Little Devils and Roadhouse.

Red Butler kicked things off in a very lively fashion. Peppering their originals with sympathetic covers they kept up a bouncy ‘glad to be here’ feeling throughout, partially because they had just taken delivery of their new CD. Originals that stood out were Young And Free, Jay Walker, and their penultimate belter, Danger Zone, all featuring fine guitar playing from Alex Butler and

youthfully exuberant vocals from Jane Chloe Pearce.

Second headliners were Little Devils, featuring Yoka on powerhouse vocals, flute and sax and the fiery taut guitar of Big Ray, playing songs that capture the human condition, happy, sad, lost and found. Songs included the heart rending Deep Inside from the Krossborder compilation, featuring swirling sax and guitar interplay and introducing several new songs such as Wounded, dedicated to Maya Angelou who inspired the song and the emotionally torn My Perfect You, a song I already consider to be a defining statement.

Third headliners Roadhouse

completed the evening. They are a big band with twin female vocals and they like to take you on journeys with their Americana influenced songs that evoke big landscapes. Songs like Blues Highway, Hell on Wheels, the brooding magnificent Dark Angel, featuring a big solo from band leader Gary Boner, and the epic closing number Preacher Man, featuring an equally epic solo from Danny Gwilym, all drew the crowd into the magic of the moment.

Over two and a half hours of music, damned good value, but it wasn’t over!

Roadhouse were joined by Alex and Jane from Red Butler, and Yoka, Big Ray and Sara from Little Devils, hence forth known as The Red Road Devils! Jamming on Help Me and Blues is my Business, leaving the audience cheering for more. Sadly time was called but I am pleased to report that the Krossborder Roadshow is heading to Blakeney Harbour Rooms ( Oct 24th) and Chequers Mead Arts Centre (Nov 28th) with more planned for 2015. Keep checking the websites, this is a gig and a half in every gig! Not to be missed.

for more information go to: www. roadhousegb.Co.uk, www.littledevilmusiC. Com, www.redbutlermusiC.Com

VErbAls: terry parKer

roAdHoUSe

LITTLe deVILS

red bUTLer

Jace everett

i n the uk JAcE EVErEtt is most likely to be labelled as a Country performer albeit in the ‘n ew Country’ sub genre. that’s a shame beCause JaCe is so muCh more, his musiC Crosses labels and boundaries. bm ! was luCky enough to CatCh JaCe playing at norwiCh arts Centre as part of his reCent uk and e uropean tour. we Chatted before and after the show and mentioned the ‘Country’ label

I‘‘t’s really strange, in the US we are considered rock. Over here people use the term Americana but doesn’t really get used in the USA. I actually abhor a lot of what gets classed as country music being recorded and released today. It’s over commercialised rubbish. Old style country and blues is where my love of music starts. I owe a lot of my vocal style to my love of Howlin’ Wolf. I live in Nashville and write for some of those people sometimes but we aren’t country.’

Jace is probably most famous for performing the hit single, ‘Bad Things’ which achieved widespread airplay

by being used as the theme song for the True Blood gothic vampire TV series. The music used throughout the series has a cult following of its own bringing artists like C.C. Adcock to mainstream attention.

The show itself was a corker, the band was cooking throughout and they rocked as hard as any rock band on the scene. Jace has just released a new album Terra Rosa based on biblical stories and I recommend you get to hear it soon.

Post show we talked blues, what else? And Jace said he would love to share his top ten favourite blues albums with us. So here goes.

VE rb A ls: steve yourglivch / J ace everett

pHoTo: deCor reCordS

01

CHRIS WHITLEY

LIVE AT MARTYRS

I actually worked on the ’Street Team’ for this record back in Fort Worth and Dallas. This solo gig at Martyrs was a revelation to me. Getting to play Martyrs a few years after losing Whitley was a really special night for me.

02

ROBERT JOHNSON

THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS

Some challenging stuff when I first heard it at 18. I knew I was ’supposed’ to like it but I wasn’t sure if I did. Twenty years later it makes a lot more sense and his free form approach to meter now feels comfortable. I had to grow up a lot to get this!

03

HOWLIN’ WOLF

THE CHESS BOX SET

Howlin’ Wolf is maybe my favourite blues musician ever. He had the the voice, he had the presence and he had the confidence. Truly he is an original and he is originally true.

04

SON HOUSE

KING OF THE DELTA BLUES

Even those recordings aren’t really more involved than Robert Johnsons, there seems to be a bit more self-awareness to Son House. The cleanliness of the vocal is always jarring. And as for that vibrato, gawddayum!

05

BONNIE RAITT

GIVE IT UP

One of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. She may have blown up with Nick Of Time, which is a damn fine album, but Give It Up (almost twenty years earlier) was a harbinger of things to come. I love Bonnie, it’s not pure blues, country or pop. It’s just Bonnie Raitt. A vastly underrated album from an amazing talent.

06

LITTLE WALTER

CONFESSIN’ THE BLUES

Little Walter is always popular with us White boys! I think he may be the template for so much of the crap blues that white kids like me tried to emulate. But when you go back to the original, oh boy. Maybe my favourite harp tone ever.

07 STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN

TEXAS FLOOD

And here’s the white boy that got it right. Buddy Guy meets Jimi Hendrix, with a stunning voice. I grew up with Stevie on the radio. He grew up right down the road from me. He’s so copied now it can be annoying, but when you go back to this record, well, you kinda lose your mind.

08 ZZ TOP TRES HOMBRES

And the other white boys that got ot right, for a while at least! Gibbons IS Texas, loud, cocky and cartoonish. But also, pretty goddamn amazing. This was their seminal work. And it still stands up.

09 CHRIS WHITLEY LIVING WITH THE LAW

A little slick with Malcolm Burn at the helm, but even so, the playing, the singing and the poetry were something I’d never heard before. This album I’ve bought at least four times on CD, cause I just wore it the fuck out! Whitley isn’t for everyone, but if you don’t own this record we aren’t going to be friends.

10 RY COODER CHICKEN SKIN MUSIC

I could have happily picked ‘Jazz’, ‘Get Rhythm’ or ‘Show Time’. The guy is just insane. He plays like NOBODY else and then writes freaking Randy Newman songs to boot. I had to go with this one because at twelve years of age the skeleton and senorita on the cover kinda blew my mind!

CHrIS wHITLeY: “IF YoU don’T own THIS reCord we Aren’T GoInG To be FrIendS”

havana gooD tIMe tonIght?

what did you do on saturday? i’ve Just spent five hours of mine at a guitar workshop building my very own Cigar box guitar!

Whilst attending a gig at the local venue, Chambers in Folkestone, I saw an advert, build your own cigar box guitar with Chickenbone John, all materials provided, £35.00. Well it was too good an offer to miss, so I duly turned up on Saturday to find myself in the company of 26 like minded nutters (sorry, Blues enthusiasts), five of whom were ladies. Chickenbone John (Godfather of the cigar box guitar) was leading the whole workshop and I was very impressed with his pre-event preparation, as he had an array of workmates, and woodworking tools, as well as a supply of cigar boxes, neck blanks and bags of the necessary metal bits (including a piezo pick up!). It

THe FIne worK oF CHICKenbone JoHn

VErbAls AND VIsuAls: dave stoNe

was like a throwback to the school woodworking classes with John acting as the benevolent teacher and putting up with the cheek and responses that you can imagine. First off, we were each issued with a neck blank that was precut and drilled at the machine head end. We had to cut out a piece so that the body would fit, and then fit the three open-geared tuners, then we could elect to either use the nice paper fret boards as a template and mark up the neck, or be lazy sods and just glue the paper in place on the neck. The cigar boxes are made for John, and are more substantial than the real thing, which are apparently becoming harder to find and more expensive. John showed us how to measure and mark either end, and fret saws in hand we duly cut out our neck pockets and fitted the necks to the bodies. The string ferrules were an ingenious and very low budget answer that worked perfectly, being a set of six rivets

The cIgar boxes are made for John, and are more subsTanTIal Than The real ThIng

that were fitted into three holes that we drilled ourselves. This was now beginning to look like a guitar!

Everything stopped for lunch, included within the price, an even bigger bargain! After a very nice burger and chips and the essential glass of lager, we then fitted the under lid pick up and jack plug (after having first being given the option to decorate the guitars). The lid was then refitted with four screws, and it was time to string ‘em up! A set of 43,32,22 was used, and the guitars brought to tune and tested. It was great to see the almost universal smiles on everyone’s faces as their own little wooden box guitar roared into life, and I’m not kidding, these things are bloody loud! It was

then time for a quick clean up, and 26 happy people sat down for a quick road test, playing a simple 12 bar blues along with John who demonstrated just how versatile and musical these things really are.

‘Twas then time to go, each clutching our precious new little wooden box on a stick. Great days entertainment as well as superb value for money and a playing pleasure that is out of all proportion to the cost of these very basic instruments with a heritage going back to early African style banjos.

Chi C kenbone John C an be C onta Cted for more information or a workshop at a venue of your C hoosing on mail@C hi C kenbone J ohn.C om

What ’s happenin’next...

Interviews: John Mayall, Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart.

‘Boogaloo’ Bolden (BB King bandleader) and Delbert McClinton, whilst the legendary Dave Kelly looks at British blues history.

Features: Blues DJ’s, Blues Brothers, and more. Red Lick: Top 20 Chart. Blue Blood: The best new talent around. Blues News: The latest in the world of blues. Plus: The magazine Regulars, the biggest CD Review around, Gig Reviews including Blues For Walter, Festival Reviews and much more!

Want to subscribe? Then visit bluesmatters.com, or call us on +44 (0) 1656 745628 for details.

Lucky Peterson, Lisa Lim. James

norDIc BlUes

pop music at its best, perhaps, but not even a trace of blues in the mix, for sure. Strange in some ways, because the Blues is firmly established, rooted even, in the northern psyche.

It is generally greatly appreciated throughout Scandinavia, with numerous players, many of US origin, now settled and playing regularly throughout the Nordic states.

You need only look at the oldest established Blues Magazine in the world, Jefferson , to realize this. Now in its forty-sixth year of publication, it has chronicled the blues, its movers and shakers, music and musicians, for almost half a century from its base in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The magazine has a substantial global following and generally carries articles and reviews etc., in both

Swedish and English in each quarterly edition. Like many others’, it is the work of an army of bluesfans and published by an blues-fan organization, The Scandinavian Blues Association.

So why is the blues so popular in the cold northern edge of Europe? Is there something in the water, or the vodka, that makes people turn to the ‘Devil’s music’ for solace and inspiration?

US-born bluesman, Bert Deivert, (www.deivert.com/ blues) has lived for forty years in Sweden. A renowned resonator/ steel mandolin player, he has eleven recordings under his belt, including a number with the seemingly ever-popular, Eric Bibb, and has guested on as many again. He explains his thoughts on Nordic blues in this way:

‘Well, like other European countries, there has always been an interest in the roots of American music, and especially that of black music, and ethnic music, like Irish, Swedish, Polish, etc. Since a number of blues artists made it over here and could

tour, this attracted musicians and an audience. It is difficult to make a living on ONLY playing blues here, and musicians have to work in a few different genres and bands to manage.’

His thoughts are largely echoed by fellow - American, Brooklyn-born Brian Kramer, (www.briankramerblues.com) who confirms: “There has been a long-standing history of jazz and blues appreciation that goes back to the 60s and late 50s. Europe in general has been a haven of appreciation for African American artists, especially since segregation didn’t play into the picture. When I first came to Sweden in 1990, there was a healthy dose of blues going around. Mostly electric and very dated and a lot more mimicking of old records than finding something new, or making it current and fresh. There was no ‘jam session’ culture here and it was, with few exceptions, all very rehearsed and flat.”

That scene changed, largely due to Kramer’s personal intervention, with the development

VErbAls: iaiN patieNce VIsuAls: toM haNseN / JaN westerliNg

think of sCandinavia and musiC and most people probably think, abba, the swedish supergroup who earned enormous pots of money and a legion of fans worldwide with their wild Clothes and saCCharine lyriCism and musiC

of the important weekly jam sessions he started at Stockhlom’s ‘Stampen’ bar. As a result the scene is now vibrant and alive, with youngsters and new-comers being welcomed onto the stage for a taste of blues exposure on a regular basis.

One of the many homegrown northern stars to grace the Stampen footlights is northern steel/slide guitar wizard, Johan Eliasson, aka, Bottleneck John (www.bottleneckjohn.com). Eliasson is a guy with a huge presence, a big voice and a classy delivery. With a number of albums behind him, his current offering, ‘All Around Man’ has deservedly received numerous accolades around the blues world. It is a marvellous country-blues album full of great covers of traditional material and released by the widely respected, leading Swedish blues label, Opus 3.

And the love of blues is of course a two-way street; born in Sweden but now living for many years in the USA, Sofie Reed (www.sofiereed.com) has taken her form of blues back home to the US, where she tours and records, with her strong Harp playing and the most unexpectedly successful instrument imaginable – the Dulcimer. Asked why choose this instrument, her response is frank:

‘I grew up listening to R&B as well as Jazz... I am moved by and drawn to music with genuine feeling, rhythm and soul... where the essence is preserved and alive (versus capitalism’s overproduced pop)... I have always sang the blues, before I arrived in the States.

I started more on the blues avenue when I started playing harmonica in the early 90’s.

‘I picked the Dulcimer as it has fewer strings to keep track of while I coordinate stomping, singing and playing harmonica. I do not do overdubs on my recording, they are live studio performances. I did not play guitar or any stringed instruments before the dulcimer. One does not have as many chord options on a dulcimer as on a guitar, but that works fine for me since I am not a ‘complicated

player,’ like the earthy sound of the Dulcimer, I play a Baritone Dulcimer.‘

In Norway, a country with many great annual Blues Festivals, Kristina Skjolberg (www.kristinaskjolberg.com) is creating waves with her driving, tasteful electric guitar touch. Currently touring to promote her album, ‘Come And Get It’, she is clearly one to watch. Under the Ruf records label, she is virtually guaranteed wider European exposure.

KrISTInA SKJoLberG VISUALS: Tom HAnSen

the

Selwyn Birchwood

Don’t Call No

Ambulance

“A genius revelation and a pleasure...roaring guitar and down-home lap steel”

–BLUES MATTERS

Jarekus Singleton

Refuse To Lose

“A great, new blues talent…young, original, soulful and intense… superb, blistering guitar”

Rick Estrin And The Nightcats You

“Estrin’s muddy, lugubrious harmonica washes and distinctive vocals blow your mind. Impressive” –BLUES MATTERS

“Walker sings as if his life depends on it...unparalleled assertive slide playing...vibrant on-fire blues”

–BLUES MATTERS New

Autumn/Winter 2014

Brothers Groove

–BLUES & RHYTHM

Saturday 6 September 8pm @ The Met | Tickets £10 / £8 BCM

Grainne Duffy

Friday 26 September 8pm @ Beaufort Ballroom | Tickets £12.50 / £10

Spellkasters

Saturday 15 November 8pm @ The Met | Tickets £10 / £8 BCM

Box Office 01495 355800

Joe Louis Walker

On the air : chrIstIan cUDnIk

how about a National Blues Museum that doesn’t yet exist, but is backed by Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Shemekia Copeland, John Goodman, Denise LaSalle, and Derek Trucks, and is tied with a Blues radio show that is already on air? We featured the museum in our last issue. Now we turn to DJ Christian Cudnik.

Christian is a double Emmy Award winning producer with over twenty years in broadcasting. ‘National Blues Museum Radio with Christian Cudnik’ launched in St. Louis in February 2014. The show can be heard in the United States, Canada, Romania, New Zealand and Russia. The museum itself is on its way, as Christian explains, “It’s an exciting time. The National Blues Museum opens in St. Louis next summer. There’s a great deal of work happening behind the scenes. We’ve got a diverse and dedicated team collecting oral histories and securing artifacts. There’s construction work, multimedia design and quest for donations and partnerships. I’d like to take the radio show on the road and do shows from affiliate stations, blues

societies and theaters. Naturally, I’d also like to expand and reach audiences in the UK.”

What can listeners expect? “For me, the blues is the backbone of all modern music. With NBM Radio, I enjoy exploring the influence of the music. We can play whatever we want, but there is a blueprint and a purpose in the way we present the music. We dig deep for the blues purist. But, we’re also working to introduce a new generation to this great American art form. I’ve always loved Stevie Ray Vaughan. I found the blues through classic rock and I worked my way back. However, I am really into the music of Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt. Its simplicity and straightforward deliveries speak to me.’

Christian has broadcasting in his blood, “My father was an amateur radio enthusiast. He had a sizable base station in our home in Baltimore City. He put a huge antenna on the roof, and when he would open his microphone the lights in the house would dim. So, when I was eight years old the seed was planted. When I was a kid, I loved recording. I walked around with a small field recorder and I’d talk into it. I’d describe what was going on around me. I conducted ‘exclusive’ interviews with my younger brother. I would record music from the radio. So, becoming a DJ really grew out of my passion for recording audio. In my early 20’s, the hook set deeper when I got a chance to actually be on the

radio in college. Then, I worked professionally in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

‘In 2003, I moved to St. Louis with my wife Jennifer. In 2013, I received a call from Rob Endicott, the Chairman of the Board with the National Blues Museum. He told me the Radio Arts Foundation (RAF) was interested in carrying a blues based show on their nonprofit classical radio station in St. Louis. After a couple of very candid conversations with Rob, I was all in. He said, ‘It’s your show. Go build it.’ I’ll never forget those words and his confidence in me. It’s a very unique situation and I am so pleased to be working with the museum.’

for more information go to: www.nationalbluesmuseum.org

V E rb A ls: daryl weale

a uniQue Combination in st louis, usa

CHrISTIAn CUdnIK,

“for me, The blues Is The backbone of all modern musIc”

dENNiS

VE rb A ls: christi N e M oore V I su A ls : de NN is deNNis have been together sinCe 2012. most of the members (approximate age: 30) have grown up together around the loCal Colliery town of hetton-le-hole, near County durham, where most of them play in the loCal brass band, whiCh plays a heavy influenCe in the musiCianship within the dennis band

The band consists of Dan Gibson (lead singer, acoustic guitar, harmonica, mandolin) Jez

Dickey (bass guitar, singer) David Smith (lead guitar) Stuart Gibson (Drums, singer) Hannah

Rudge (Keys, tenor horn, vocals) James Wright (Euphonium) Stephen White (Cornet) Craig Hissett (Trombone). An 8 piece Pit Pop, Folk Rock and Brass Band from the pit town of Hetton (Co. Durham) whose ethos, songs and lyrics are native to the towns working class and authentic heritage.

The band captivates audiences across the country with performances throughout London the North of England (including sell-out Live Theatre Newcastle and The Sage Gateshead 2 shows) festivals and various Academy and University stage supports.

Four of the members (Dan, Jez, Stuart, David) played in a rock/indie band formed in 2007 and then

enlisted the help of fellow brass player friends, under the name of DENNIS, since 2012, with the debut EP Colliery Welfare released in the September of that year. The latest EP (ep#2) called Heppedune was released nationally earlier this year (May 15th 2014).

The band, with their pit roots, are named after the ‘Dennis’ mine shaft in Gresford Colliery, where following the mining disaster of 1934 one of the most famous brass band miners hymns Gresford was composed (and is regularly played.)

EP number 2 Heppedune was released in-store and online May 19th 2014. Single Third Time Around features Tim Healey (Auf Weidersehen Pet , Benidorm) and various other actors.

for more information: www.dennisband.C om www.fa C ebook.C om/dennis.C o.uk, www.twitter.C om/dennisband

BluES BOY KiNGS

the Blues Boy KiNgs are one of the hardest working blues bands in the u.k. a group of seasoned musiCians who like nothing better than getting an audienCe up on its feet

based in Lincoln the BBK have built up a dedicated fan base nationwide and have become regular performers at many prestigious festivals and renowned blues clubs around the country.

The band is made up of Jason North on vocals, guitar and harmonica with his wife Sam on bass, vocals and full time smiling and dancing. Steve Gooding on keys, Dave Taylor plays wailin’ sax with the shuffle king Mark Barrett on drums. Jason was singing and playing in local rock band Little Purple Fishes from 2005, and Sam was in Local Heroes, another Lincoln rock outfit. They met in 2007, formed Blues Boy Kings in 2010 and promptly got married in Las Vegas by none other than Elvis himself.

As well as BBK, Dave Taylor plays in jazz and big band line ups, while Steve and Mark have been long time members of the aforementioned Local Heroes.

Mark is most well known for being in The Hoax.

Jason tells me that the big influences as far as him and Sam are concerned are Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Little Walter, Peter Green, John Mayall, Chicken Shack and of course the original Blues Boy, B.B. King himself. He also says the band are ready and willing to play further afield, Blues Boy Kings would love to play Maryport, Upton, Carlisle, Scarborough, Colne, Skegness and everywhere else where fine blues music lovers congregate.’

There are currently around seven new songs penned and awaiting recording for their next album, following on from 2010’s eponymous Blues Boy Kings and 2013’s Second Time Around , which is available on CD and iTunes.

ThE RiOTOuS BROThERS

The band has just released its third album – its second of all-original songs by guitarist Mash Sonnet and keyboard player Paul Long. The band is completed by Mat Lake on bass and Dirk Maggs on drums. The new album is called The Tree and has been about eighteen months in the making. The Tree is picking up a lot of airplay now, from the Independent and Internet blues show and has been featured on Paul Jones BBC Radio 2 blues show. Whilst Mash is an incredibly gifted blues guitar player, the record is also about songs. There are ten songs on the CD and the styles vary, but all have at the core the band’s love of the blues!

The Tree follows on from the band’s acclaimed 2011 release Shout It Out and continues in that confident direction, clearly evolving the band’s breadth and style without compromising their deep-felt love for the blues, evidenced by the presence of special guest Paul Jones, playing virtuoso harmonica on Me And You. From exhilarating rockers like the opening track Now More Than Ever, The Tree features hard-felt blues (Fever), expressive R&B ballads (Memory Of Our Love) and stark emotional pleas (I Wanna Know). For epic scale, the mountainous Proving Too Hard leaves the listener in no doubt about the band’s passion for musical adventure.

A lot of the variety of the band’s music comes from having two lead singers, with guitarist Mash taking the lion’s share and keyboardist Paul Long’s different vocal style and musical influences ringing the changes. The band operates as an independent outfit: writing, recording, producing and then releasing our own records, although they are also available for download from iTunes, Amazon etc. These are difficult times and we try to keep our costs down and not be beholden to anybody. The Riotous Brothers first album, in 2005, was a self-titled CD of covers obscure and not so obscure: many of which still feature in the live show – which can be unpredictable as we don’t like to follow a set list, but would rather go where the flow of the audience takes us. The band’s reputation has been built on gigging over the last eleven years and so we look forward to a busy year of playing to as many people as we can.

for more information: www.riotousbrothers.C om www.fa C ebook.C om/iotousbrothers

VE rb A ls: t he r iotous Brothers the riotous Brothers formed in portsmouth in 2003 and has been settled with its Current line-up for the last five years

ThE SpEllKASTERS

the spellKasters are a bluezin’ roCk and roll maChine. they are the direCt blood line from the pirates and the reCent suCCess of the wilko Johnson and roger daltrey album proves beyond doubt that this heady brew of harddriving blues based roCk will always remain relevant

The Pirates last rhythm section BJ Anders and drummer Romek Parol had toured and recorded with the legendary Mick Green for five years before his sad passing in 2010. BJ was based in Sweden running his studio and production company whilst Romek was living in South Wales. It was here that fate threw him together with recent resident Pete Edmunds in mid-2012. After some intense jam sessions together an excited Romek called BJ to tell they had found their perfect guitarist. BJ was quickly on a plane to check it out and everything started to gel together.

In June 2013 Pete and Romek flew to BJ’s Helsingborg studio to begin the week long intense recording sessions that resulted in The Spellkasters debut album Kastin’ The Spell. Yes, there is an obvious tip of the hat to The Pirates and Wilko but this is vibrant up to the minute punchy rockin’ R&B music just as it should be played. A perfect mix of covers and originals, that stand up well next to the classics. Titles like Bad Blood n Voodoo, Vodka Headed Woman and Ain’t Getting’Mad Getting’ Bad tell you all you need to know. Edmunds vocals are

a revelation and he’s no mere Mick Green clone on guitar either. You want a little SRV or Omar Dykes, no problem. A little tasty slide guitar, coming straight up. The band’s live launch was at The 100 Club, London in March this year, going down a storm and leading to a host of festival and club dates. This rapid explosion of interest has had a down side. Sadly BJ found to increasingly difficult to balance his music commitments in Sweden with the Spellkasters workload, so it was agreed he would hand over the live bass duties but remains part of the team as producer of future recordings. His last live show was in May.

Stuart Uren was a natural choice as replacement. He had built up something of a reputation in London with Romek as a much in demand rhythm section for hire, known as The Ealing Feeling. Stuart is also well respected as a session player and long term member of Stray. So the Spellkasters train continues to roll full steam ahead.

f or more information C he C k out www.thespellkasters.C om

new bASSISTSTUArT Uren

STARK

we’re starK, a trio formed in brighton, where we all met at university. we’ve spent the last three years gigging, writing, praCtising and reCording as hard as we possibly Can. our new ep, ‘stories from the ground’ is Just released. we’re really exCited about it and we’re reCeiving some great feedbaCk

We’re aiming to do something different with blues, while still drawing inspiration from the blues legends who first made us want to start a band. We place a lot of importance on our lyrics. The blues has a long tradition of great lyricists, but some modern blues seems to get stuck in a mire of macho clichés. We always try to avoid this, and we also focus on writing catchy melodies – nothing wrong with a good chorus! People often comment that we have a very unique sound, and this probably comes from our wide range of influences. Jamie Francis, our lead guitarist and singer, fell in love with the blues at a young age, particularly the early greats such as Son House and Robert Johnson. As he grew older, he was lucky enough to support many of his idols, including Sherman Robertson, Matt Schofield, Marcus Bonfanti and Ian Siegal. This experience has been a huge influence on the band. Evan Carson, on drums, grew up listening to prog rock. He has toured Europe several times, and,despite being only 22, he is a seasoned professional performer. He also has experience in the jazz world, having played

with Sir Johnny Dankworth, and was involved with samba from an early age. This incredible melting pot of styles all comes out in his playing.

Rounding off the trio, Joshua Franklin on bass guitar was born into an extremely musical family, immersed in classic Motown and 60s pop, playing countless gigs around the country. This experience can be heard in his melodic bass lines, and the way he stamps his personality on the bottom end. Joshua is also responsible for engineering and mixing the band’s recordings, so if you enjoy the sound of our latest CD it’s down to him. All our influences come together to make a sound that is probably a little different to anything you’ve ever heard!

This has been an amazing year so far. Paul Jones has played our track Faith on his Radio 2 Blues Show, we’ve been lucky enough to support Grainne Duffy and Laurence Jones at the 100 Club in London, and our CD has been selling fast. We have dates booked all over the country. See you at a show soon!

for more information: www.starkband.C om

jAcK huTchiNSON

JacK J hutchiNsoN has released two solo reCords in the last year, whilst relentlessly gigging his brand of blues roCk

born in 1982, Hutchinson spent his formative years in Burnley in the North-West before moving to London in 2005. He has been gigging and recording for the best part of 18 years, sharing the stage with some of the best known blues musicians around today including Ian Siegal and Ron Sayer.

Over the last 12 months he has played well over 100 gigs at renowned venues, including London’s

100 Club, Blues Kitchen and Borderline. He can regularly be spotted playing with the house band at the famous Ain’t Nothin’ But on Kingly Street, whilst also dropping in on weekly jams at the Alleycat and Round Midnight.

His single, If You Let Me Love You, a cover of the BB King classic, was named in Dave Watkins’ top five singles of 2013, whilst his last solo album Feathers and Fools was released to critical acclaim.

Hutchinson’s latest record is a six-track EP recorded with his band entitledGet It Back. Recorded at various venues across London including Universal Studios and his own home built studio in Bow, the record is a mix of hard-hitting blues-rock and Americana melancholy.

Featuring Rick Baxendale on bass and production, plus Jim Brazendale on drums, the self-penned EP proudly displays Hutchinson’s array of influences. Songs such as Wake Up and Look

In The Mirror mix Led Zep riffs with Stones-esque choruses, whilst the radio-friendly Hey Hey Hey mixes Neil Young vibes with a guitar solo straight out of Peter Green’s note book.

Next up? Hutchinson plans to tour across the UK in support of the EP before heading back to the studio with his band in early 2015. For this bearded northerner things have only just begun.

C he C k us out: www.J a C k J hutC hinson.wordpress.C om buy the ep: www.J a C k J hutC hinson.band C amp.C om

nexT up? huTchInson plans To Tour across The uk In supporT of The ep

he IBC award helped push the boundaries for him and last July he played one of the U.S.A’s most popular and significant blues festivals, The Portland Waterfront Blues Fest in Oregon, where we first met up with him. It seemed clear then that this was a guy and a band destined for greater things. Fast-forward and we find the band now signed to Bruce Iglauer’s Alligator label in Chicago with a great new CD, Don‘t Call No Ambulance, under their belt and international accolades flowing in.

BM: Hi Selwyn. Great to catch up with you, I know you’re pretty busy right now with the U.S. festival season underway and a new album just about to be released. When I last met you, out in Oregon last July, the band had just won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and you were the 2013 recipient of the Blues Foundation’s Albert King Guitarist of the Year award. I guess you were riding a high. How important to you were the awards and did they open the gig-gates for you in general?

SB: Winning the IBC was huge for us. I wouldn’t say that it ‘opened’ as many doors as it ‘unlocked.’ That accolade is a great starting point. Being a relatively obscure band from Florida, it was hard to grab people’s attention outside of our home state. We had been touring

throughout Florida for the past five or six years and people down home knew of us and received us openly, but I found out really quickly that getting work away from home was a huge challenge. After we won the IBC, people were a lot more willing to take a second look at us and that’s all that I felt we needed. It seemed that once people actually saw us perform live, we didn’t have too much of a problem getting invited back, but it was just a matter of getting our foot in the door. Once we were able to do that, then I was wanting to kick it open!

Your first album, FLBoy, was self-produced and came out back in 2011. Since then, and since we last met, you’ve signed to Alligator in Chicago and have a new CD about to hit the streets. How come you ended up with Alligator, and how was the recording process different this time round?

My band competed in the IBC the year prior to us winning as well (2012). We did extremely well, we made the finals (Top 9 bands in the competition). Bruce Iglauer caught our performance in the finals and pulled me aside to talk about the band while I was running around promoting with flyers etc. He had apparently purchased my FLBoy album. I advised him that I did not feel that CD was a good representation of my current sound. In fact, it was a completely

Twelve shorT monThs ago, Florida-based s elwyn b irchwood and his band had jusT won The i nTernaTional b lues c hallenge in m emphis. h e had a sel F-produced album ouT on The sTree Ts and was playing mosTly local gigs, Trying all The Time To break inTo a wider u.s. audience

different band that I had in Orlando that can be heard on that CD. I also let him know that I had just finished recording a new record and wanted to send him the tracks, if he’d be so willing. He was receptive to the idea. He was brutally honest with me, as he is with most everyone, and said he felt I had half an album. I thought it was interesting that he said that because I had actually run out of budget on that record and had to rush through all but five songs rather hastily. Not surprisingly, he said that those five tracks were ‘keepers’ and he would like to hear more if I had it. When I explained that was out of budget and I had to sell a lot of my guitar equipment to get those recordings done, we got into conversation about writing new tunes and perhaps having them recorded on his dime.

After year of shopping tunes on and off, Bruce selected another seven that he was content with. The initial five and the seven new ones became the record Don‘t Call No Ambulance that we just recorded. This is another league to FL Boy. Every aspect of the record is better because of the help of the Alligator Records team and Bruce It has gotten great reviews and we are excited to get it out!

Tell us a bit about the band. How long have you been together and who were and are your influences?

The Selwyn Birchwood Band is: Regi Oliver on baritone sax, Curtis Nutall, drums, Huff Wright, bass and myself on guitar and vocals. I have a pretty eclectic range of influences, from Blues, Jazz, Country, Rock, Reggae and everything in between. Some of my Blues favourites are Muddy Waters, Gatemouth Brown, R.L. Burnside, Buddy Guy, Charlie Patton, and Lightnin’ Hopkins.

Do you come from a musical family? Did your parents encourage you or influence your musical tastes in any way?

I didn’t come from a musical family. My family very much encouraged my creativity in whatever outlet that I chose. My mother used to paint a lot, so I grew up doing a lot of art work, drawing, colouring, painting. When I began playing music, I tried create my pictures and stories through what I played and wrote.

Joe Louis Walker features and guests on the latest album. He’s a powerful player. Did he fit in well with your own approach to playing the blues and to studio recording?

Joe was a perfect accent to the record. I had been listening to Joe for years before I met and befriended him. I enjoy his approach because he pulls from different sources and styles.

You switch from electric lead to a laid-back, lap-slide sort of groove at times. Is there a style – electric versus acoustic, for example – that you prefer?

I don’t really have a preference. I am just a lover of music. I feel like there is too much good stuff out there to get locked down to one specific thread of it. My favourite bands and players to listen to are the ones that I can hear slipping in and out of several genres. I feel that gives the music a lot more texture and style and makes it more interesting to hear.

Last year, you’d yet to visit Europe. A few months ago, you crossed the pond to play Norway. Are there any other European gigs in the tour calendar and are we likely to catch you in the UK soon?

We had a great time at the festival in Norway! I’d love to get back over to Europe to play. We will head over to play for you there ANYTIME, just line up the date!

c heck ouT more aT www.selwynbirchwood.com

w hen you ask The quesTion: ‘w haT is a b luesman?’ you may well poinT To paul l amb as an example and as a F ine exponenT o F The harmonica. paul had The blessed experience o F mee Ting and collaboraTing wiTh his musical hero s onny Terry and oThers including b uddy g uy, j unior w ells and b rownie m c g hee

aul started playing during his childhood and now has blasted his way through over 40 years. He even had a hit record, Harmonica Man in 1994 (under the name of ‘Bravado’). He has worked with Jimmy Nail, Mark Knopfler, who said of Paul ‘This is blues harp as good as it gets’, Rod Stewart and The Who. Paul is one of the finest of harpmen and entertainers, and now his Kingsnakes come to us with the much travelled Rod Demick on bass/backing vocals, Chad Strentz on vocal/ guitar, Dino Cocchia returns on drums and son Ryan takes the guitar and they bring to us the latest chapter, titled Hole In The Wall.

BM: Welcome Paul, congratulations on the new

album. I have to say it is a treat and you must be pretty chuffed with this piece of work. Tell us about two versions of the title track Hole In The Wall and how this was conceived.

PL: Thanks Alan, always a pleasure to talk with you. Yes there are two versions of Hole In The Wall. The first I heard many moons ago by my favourite Blues guys Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee. It reminds me about the good time I had growing up in Blyth, Northumberland. It was a poor background, as a miners’ son living in a colliery house with gas lighting and outside toilets. Very basic but a whole lot of love and fond memories of the ‘hole in the wall’, where I used to live’.

The second version is the bonus track. We changed the lyrics to fit in with today’s money world, as you see everyone around the world queuing up at some time or another, to pay homage to the ATMs, that ‘hole in the wall.’

What have you aimed for with the new album musically that is different?

I never actually aim at anything, just play what I feel and FEEL what I play. The difference with this album is that I passed over the reins of producing the album to my good friend Paula Riordan. We met up in 1994 and co–wrote our hit record Harmonica Man with Pete Waterman. The band also had a lot of input into the new songs writing and composing, plus I wanted to add a little gospel to the mix and I think the addition of the choir to A Better Place To Be is a real neat touch.

All of the songs on this album seem to demand being played live, do you plan to actually play the whole album in a show on tour?

pAuL LAmB & tHE kINg SNAkES LIvE

AUGUST

09Th @b lues im bauernho F, sT j ose F, a-8503 ausTria.

12Th @Tucher b lues & jazz FesTival, bamberg, g ermany.

29Th @sT harmonica’s b lues c lub, london, uk d uo acT

30Th @ T.b.a. FesTival, c orsica

SEPTEMBER

20Th @b lues FesTival lubeck, w erkho F lubeck, g ermany

OCTOBER

10Th @The b ulls h ead, barnes, london sw13 9py d uo acT

28Th @Fine c iTy b lues e xplosion, n orwich arTs c enTre

27Th @b luesFesT @The r oyal alberT hall, london

NOVEMBER

06Th @The e el p ie c lub, The paTch, Twickenham uk

12Th @ kulTurzenTrum, luxembourg

13Th @ kulTurzenTrum lindenbrauerei, g ermany

14Th @ raThaus garbsen -halle, garbsen 30823, g ermany

15Th @ jazz c lub, 32423 m inden , g ermany

21sT @ aula des d omgymnasiums, v erden 27283, g ermany

22nd @ kniesTedTer kirche, salzgiTTer – bad 38259, g ermany

29Th @ backsTage@The g reen h oTel, kinross, s coTland

DECEMBER

20Th @ kulTurschmiede gaildor F, 74405 gaildor F, g ermany

paul lamb and the king snakes –coming to a town near you soon

Very much so and already the audiences are enjoying the new tracks. Jumpin’ Little Judy is already a firm favourite, plus a whole lot more.

The band are in fine form, how does it feel to have Dino back with?

Dino has been in and out of the band over several years. His style is coming from the jazz side and he has worked with many famous people, all making him the great player he is today.

Whilst on the subject of the band members also tell us how did you hold on to the much travelled Rod Demick (Strawbs, Yardbirds, David Essex, Van Morrison, etc) too and how good does it feel to have your son playing guitar with you?

I have been trying to get rid of Rod for many years but he keeps turning up to the gigs. No honestly, he is a top bass player and I think him and Dino are made for each other the solid backbone to the band. Chad is an all-round great vocalist with tons of stage charisma. Ryan is a killer guitarist with great feeling and as my son, we have that kindred love of the blues, so together the band really have a mutual spirit and morph into one unit on stage.

Chad and you have played duos for some time now, is it like having a spare pair of gloves that fit well when you move between the two formats?

Chad and I have been together for many years. The way we work together is I play for him and he plays for me, it’s a pretty good formula that works with the band and also as the duo... long may it continue.

Talk harmonicas to us now, your favourite model of all time, what do you play now and what do you use on the road that is different to studio use?

I have always endorsed and used the Hohner Marine Band (wooden body) diatonic harmonica plus the Hohner Chromatics. Thanks to Steve Proctor from Hohner UK for all his help. Plus my great friend and harmonica builder Antony Danneker made a great harmonica called The Centurian which I now use in the studio and also on the road.

Song selections next. How did you find writing for the new album, do you have a method for writing new material and how difficult to make the final selection between the band members? Then what will you do with those that did not make it to pressing?

As Band Leader I make the decision about what makes the grade or doesn’t, so no problem.

Tell us about the selection of the covers you have chosen here, you have given such a different take on Gary Moore’s Still Got The Blues For You in particular.

Hole In The Wall, as I mentioned before, is about my hometown and my roots. Preaching The Blues? To me it’s about having a hard time working in this music business, Send For Me. I just heard Nat King Cole’s version and it blew me away. Stranger Blues, I relate to this as many years ago I came down from Blyth to the ‘Big Smoke’ (London Town) as a stranger and was accepted. Still Got The Blues For You? Well, actually Ryan jammed with Gary Moore a few times, but the record company asked if we could do one of Gary’s songs and I chose this one, with a different take on the original and hopefully people will think it works.

Finally what words of advice would you give to anyone taking up the harmonica with a view to making it a career?

Like my Father used to tell me: “Get yourself a proper job!”

Have a clear vision and be dedicated to what you want to do, there will be a lot of pressure, put-downs and hard knocks along the way. Remember that competition is good and can only make you stronger, finally, believe in yourself and you will make it!.

Our thanks to Paul for the chat and do check out the review in this issue of the fine new album, Hole In The Wall. If you want to see some real blues, boogie, swing & a good time jump, be sure to catch Paul Lamb & the King Snakes blowing up a storm, somewhere near you.

For more inFormaTion: www.paullamb.com

BM: This sounds as though you really mean business when you kick into this live record (Songs From The Road) set because you’ve got this cool Albert Collins vibe to the first tracks. Lovely Hammond, too.

CM: (Shouts out) “Do ya hear that Brad? Lovely Hammond!” That’s Brad, the keyboard player. All of these guys are on the album.

Yeah. It’s a great starter for the record. What made you choose that song to kick the record off?

It was just what we were doing with our set. At that time, we were starting off our set with the Albert Collins song, I Got A Mind To Travel. It was just the way the set went. Our method is to pick out the first three songs and see where we go, we don’t really have a set list. We know the first three, four songs at the most and then it’s whatever comes up after that.

I was talking to John Mayall last week in Los Angeles. He says about his guitarist Rocky Athas, ‘Rocky loves to know the first song and once he knows that he’s perfectly OK from that moment on.’ That’s John for you!

(Laughs) John used to write, in my time with the band, he had setlists every night. He had written them out what he was gonna play.

And different every time?

Yeah. You had to have your setlist and it was pretty amazing. I tried to do that but as a band we feel we get to a point and go ‘This is the right song for right now.’ So every night we kind of have an idea.

I recognised you straight away. It’s hard to pick a track from a two CD set isn’t?

It’s kind of hard because it’s a live album so the songs tend to run kind of long. It was a concern of the record company, it really was. But, I figured for me, if we’re gonna do our show this is what we do. They tend to be a little long so it’s gonna be hard for airplay.

Too Much Water is a favourite of mine because it’s got that great moody sort of sound to it. That’s the sound I go for, that moody Robin Trower type of music. Some very fluid playing on there, what kind of guitar are you using?

I just use my Strats. Ones I’ve been using for years.

Do you customise them at all?

They have to be custom-made because I play left-handed upside down

My mate Arthur’s got a Jimi guitar that Jimi gave him. You can see the hole in the horn where he’s had to put it back over for right-handed. That’s a white Strat… now the tone on The One...

The One That Really Loves You?

I thought it rang a bell with me and the Staple singers, Pop Staples it’s got that warmth about it. I congratulate you on that because a lot of guys in the field at the moment don’t go into that sort of warmer area. I don’t know why, maybe they don’t feel it like you might

It’s hard to say. I love him, Pops. He said so much with very little.

Is it autobiographical?

Actually no, it’s a song I loved as a kid. It’s done by Mary Wells and written by Smokey Robinson. I was a big Mary Wells fan when I was a kid and I still love her. This was an opportunity for me to get to some material that some people would be criticised for doing. It’s OK with me because these were songs from my times.

Us specialist writers don’t criticise in the main, we might comment. I love it when someone does that and there’s a song you should maybe do called ‘You Beat Me to the Punch’.

Oh yeah! That’s another great one!

You could tear the back off that

I love that song. That was one of the reasons why we put a lot of these out on the last album so that we can do a lot of them on the setlist.

‘Love Jail’ that has the guitar bursts as well. Again, it has that pent-up Albert Collins kind of vibe That’s exactly what the song was about because I wrote that song with Albert in mind and he was gonna record it. He loved the tune and he had plans of recording it, but he fell ill and it never happened. That to me is his tune. That belongs to him.

I saw him play on a bill with George Thorogood in Camden, London. He got a long lead and he walked outside during the set, still playing and he was chatting with the taxi cab drivers. He said ‘I’ve gotta go back in now’ and he walked back in with the lead. The band carried on playing and thought ‘Albert’s gone for a walk’.

Oh yeah. He was incredible!

c oco m onToya is one o F The world’s mosT exciTing and disTincTive blues guiTarisTs. h e has a scorching and soul F ul new live album ouT, he is on Tour and Thank F ully c oco F inds Time To Talk back sTage To bm abouT his music

V E rb A ls: PETE SARGEANT V isu A l s: FRANK VIGIL

I’ve played Open D minor for slide but never Open F Minor. ‘Don’t Go Makin Plans’ has a nice Uni-vibe tone in there. It’s probably my favourite and I’ll tell you why, I like that pit-a-pata rhythm to it and that seems absolutely natural to you

That was a song I wrote with Paul Barrere of Little Feat.

Oh yeah?

Yeah we wrote that together when we were working on the Dirty Deal album. Yeah it was just a natural thing, I had the guitar riff and we went from there. Sat down and started doing lyrics and it was just one of those ones that just fell together within a day or so.

I Wish I Could Be That Strong.

Yeah a Gary Nicholson song.

Deep stuff.

(Laughs, imitates my voice) It’s deep stuff! You’re right, some of the stuff that Gary writes which is wonderful stuff from Nashville. Gary’s a great writer. You really have to dig deep in there and really figure out where he is coming from as a writer. Then interpret and you can’t

get to far away from where it was going. It had to have a bit of a soul groove to it.

I Need Your Love In My Life. I wrote maybe the best song in the set as the voice is just so fine on this. What do you connect with on this song? What’s in your head when you do it?

It’s just a song that me and Dave Stein wrote. We just had a great feeling about the guitar riff which actually if you listen to the album with Dave playing the riff, it’s more like a Rolling Stones riff. That’s where we were coming from on that and Dave came up with the theme. That’s what’s great about writing with him, back and forth you feed each other and just start making it work. It’s amazing. I don’t really know how the process works, it’s just at the end of the day you’ve got something.

If you spoke to Gerry Goffin and Carole King they’d tell you the same thing. It’s where a conversation shapes into a poem which is a song. Yeah. (Laughs) I really find its better for me to bounce stuff off because I can be a bit lazy when it comes to writing. it’s not my strong forte. I’m proud of what I have written but with good guys I have written with Dave Stein, Doug McCloud and Jack Paris is another guy I’ve written with.

Good Day is interesting. The reason it’s interesting is because the way you sing sounds the most personal song on the album. As well as the eerie strings. They make that and these are the things that you don’t get on every blues rock record that comes in. I’m looking for different moods so something like that is gonna stick out to me.

Well once again, that’s a Gary Nicholson song. That’s one of his tunes.

That’s a fruitful feel for you.

Well I think Clapton said it best; ‘Take everything you want to play with. Every genre I wants to play with and puts the blues into it’. Which is kind of where I’m coming from in a lot of ways. I took the Nicholson song, and if you hear the original it’s completely straight and we came up with that arrangement and it’s nice. It’s been a staple for a few years now.

If you talk to Tony Joe White he’ll tell you the same thing. You’ll hear the blues moods and bends in a tune. That’s probably why to me, is stuff is exceptionally good. Oh I’m a big Tony Joe White fan.

I think that kind of shows sometimes. ‘I Want It All Back’ aren’t you tempted to open with this?

My Side of the Fence there’s a great spring to this. It’s probably the best guitar playing on that set. I’m assuming that you are warmed up by then. Yeah we usually do that one towards the end if we are doing it. That’s a song written by me and Dave Stein and I had the thought of ‘grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’ kind of thing. That’s where the theme came up and me a Dave knocked that one out in about a day.

Did you sit down and work it out or was it just absolutely natural out of the air?

Oh no there was absolutely nothing worked out in that situation. Me and Walter our time in the Bluesbreakers would have been better for us emotionally and done our friendship a lot of good if we had some structure.

We really didn’t have any and at that time we were just. You see, the attraction at the time for John Mayall was for him to have two fat guitar players battle it out with each other on the stage. It was exciting for the audience sometimes but not very healthy for me and Walter. Egos being what they are sometimes.

Imagine what it would be like if you two got back in a room together now. It’s musical. Me and Walter have done some shows together and it’s brought us to tears sometimes because we were mourning the fact that we never did that.

We just played till our fingers bled as loud as we could get it! It was not what we were looking for. Why didn’t we ever sit down and come up with some arrangements? Well it was not that it wasn’t fun, but it had its purpose for a time.

I’m talking more live than doing a studio album. Me and Walter never worked out things and Walter is a very emotional feeling player. It’s what moves us to play and we would know how to move each other.

You’re known as a firebrand guitar player and people come to see you because of that. But you’re a song man really.

Yeah. I’m getting older and I don’t see myself as all that flashy a guitar player. There are some people who can really wail like Walter and this young kid whose opening for us. Laurence Jones is an exceptional kid.

But what’s soaked into you is Little Feat and things like that. Your average blues hotshot could never come up with a song like All That You Dream Yeah it’s definitely other influences in my life that brought that to me. Everybody knows about the John Mayall time and my time with Albert Collins was a whole other thing as a drummer and guitar player with him.

At sixty-two years old you start saying; “Why would I wanna got to my grave saying they wouldn’t let me do this.” Like Walter said in an interview a while back; “I am not ashamed of anything that I love to listen to.”

All I can tell you is, this record communicates and it’s not how good can we play. Yes the band are great on this but these are stories

This whole live album thing is something I’ve avoided for many years because I don’t like the sound of me live. But the guys I’ve got playing with me now are really the most important ingredient in me doing a live album because they put me in a secure place.

That’s why we’re talking because this deserves this feature to actually talk about it so people know that’s it’s not just a snapshot of people who play well It’s a band playing together which is really the important thing. It is not one individual carrying the whole thing. They bring it every night for me.

I wanted to talk about this current release and not delve into the past too much. No, that’s great. Thanks man.

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c oco will playing The F ollowing show:

s aTurday 26Th j uly – m aryporT b lues

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V E rb A ls: CLIVE RAWLINGS V isu A l s: KEVIN NIX o N w iTh a new cd, TemperaTure rising due ouT on j azzhaus r ecords on 1sT s ep Tember, a Tour o F The sTaTes F illing in F or w alTer TrouT and a visiT To c hina coming up, d anny kindly Took Time ouT To speak wiTh bm

BM: So there’s been a bit of a reshuffle, with your parents retiring?

DB: Yes, Kirby’s taken over my management side and with Dad now being seventy, he stopped coming on the road, it’s been a smooth transition, it’s working out well, we have Alex Phillips on bass now.

Right, the main reason for the interview is the release of the new album TemperatureRising, which is coming out in September. I’ve been privileged enough to have a listen, I like it and am very impressed with your progress career-wise. I specially like your use of keyboards on there. I realise you used Richard Hammerton on Hurricane, but it seems to be more in the forefront here, was that a conscious decision?

I think the songs I wrote called for it a bit more, like Nothing At All, the rock and roll one. If you do one like that, it cries out for that Jerry Lee Lewis – type piano. I think the songs that I wrote, in general, for this album really called out for the piano or keyboards, which is something I’m probably going to add live at some point soon, you know, try it for

a tour, see how it fits in. Because the further I go with my writing etc, there’s only so far you can go as a trio, what you can add or take away from the music.

Also on the track Mystery, where you’ve got the live in the studio feel, led by the piano. Yes, although it’s a produced album, I wanted it to have a live feel to it. I wanted this one to be more aggressive than Hurricane, a little bit more lively, that’s all.

Nothing At All’s got to be a nailed-on single, hasn’t it? I’m kind of happy for it to be that, in Germany they want it to be Temperature Rising, for radio, but it varies from country to country.

I suppose that’s right, but for me, given the time of year, it’s real roof down in the car it’s a really good, driving, track. Exactly, it is a driving track, that’s totally what I was aiming for, just something that was fun, not over complicated, straight out at you!

What is it about you and outros? That's a compliment, by the way. A lot of guys do long intros, but you seem to do the opposite. Yeah, you’re right, I feel a solo’s got to be part of the make up of the song, otherwise it’s worthless, I put the solo at the end in the hope the listener has got the message of the song and not just see it as a guitar break as such. I use it as a vehicle for my guitar playing wanting to make people listen to it as a whole song, not for me to show off a bit on the guitar. To sum up, I prefer to solo at the end, rather than break up the story half way through. That’s just my way of doing it.

On my press release that came with the news CD, there’s reference to a bit of sax on Razor Sharp, I have a fairly tuned in ear, but can't detect it, is it well hidden?

Yes, it’s just a little hook about three seconds long, a sample from a keyboard that's all. Not worth the expense of getting a session guy in for that little bit, to be fair!

Quite, now your song writing. It’s come on in leaps and bounds, you don't tend to resort to covers too

often, certainly on here they're all original, is that a conscious decision?

I’m not against covers, people do great jobs of them, but for me I’d rather write about personal experiences or something new. The thing I find exciting about the studio is that when I'm in there I feel a song come to life, as much as you've got it in your head, until you play it, it’s the unknown, whereas if you’re doing a cover, you already know how it should sound. It’s always interested me as a songwriter, I don’t write all the time, normally when I have an album coming out, I need a certain amount of time between writing, I do enjoy it.

Think you’ve hit the nail on the head, it’s quality more than quantity. The track you presumably wrote for Kirby, Together Through Life is right up there. Yeah, I’ve always loved ballads, I've never been like a Beatles fan or anything, but I do love John Lennon’s solo stuff, I wanted the piano on that track to have a Lennon sound to it, to the forefront, if you like, with a long solo at the end. I enjoy a good ballad, must say, they're my favourite thing to write really, but

with the current blues rock market, people want a heavy album, so this is probably the heaviest album we’ve done.

That’s fair comment to a degree, but going back to that particular track, I’m old enough to remember AOR, my wife said that straight away. The variation on the album, makes me think I'd love to be in the place you’re in.

It’s like for the last album, Hurricane, I wrote loads of stuff and threw loads of stuff out, for this one, I wrote nine songs and we used them all, that’s why you’ve got the variation, like the rock one, I didn’t commit to that until I knew that was the one. I had a clear idea about what album I wanted and credit goes to Richard for that, because before we go into the studio we have pre production meetings i.e. what sort of album do I want to make? How do I see it going? I said whilst I liked what we did on Hurricane, I'd like to make this one a bit heavier, how I want it to flow. This one was quite hard to decide on a running order really, wasn’t sure what we should open with and how it should end, but in the end jumbled it around and found where we wanted to go.

In another interview you did your description of the studio in Cornwall likened it to the hotel in TheShining.

Oh yeah, it’s the bloody middle of nowhere, the grounds are like four miles to get in, it’s like I imagine being in the Big Brother house, being locked up with Richard with nothing to do but work, otherwise I’d have been down the pub, you see. It’s as if they've planned it, put me plenty of miles from a pub.

I’m sure you won’t mind me mentioning Walter and the good news coming out of Nebraska?

Yeah, fantastic, I’ve been in constant contact with the family and he’s doing really well. He came through the transplant with an A+ and they think he’ll go on and live out his natural life. He’s like another dad to me and it’s been an emotional time and we've kept in touch on Skype from the off, very upsetting, but he still maintained his sense of humour. They're even talking about discharging him soon.

I guess at the moment you’re rehearsing his new album as well as yours?

I am (laughs), I’m going to front his band for five weeks in the States, he obviously can’t tour for probably a year. So we’ll play his songs and some of mine and his eldest son, Jon, is going to join us, we’re doing Canada as well, so I’ve got a busy time coming up, come back from that, do an eleven day UK tour, then straight off to China.

Have you done The States before?

No, I’ve never done it, so I’m excited about it. And you’ll have a keyboard player to try out! To be fronting his band, though, that’s got to be heaven?

I’ve grown up with it, as I say Walter's like a second father to me and a very, very dear friend, my idol and mentor, so to go out and play his music and for him to trust me with it, as you say, is heaven.

Broadening things out a bit, I think the future of British blues/ rock is in safe hands, what do you think?

I think it looks very healthy, it's fantastic, you’ve got some great acts like King King, so many, Joanne Shaw Taylor and a big difference from a few years ago is we're all friendly with each other, try and help each other. I feel that if I see someone’s got a really good gig, I’m pleased for them, there’s not a lot of jealousy involved in blues, everyone wants everyone else to do well, blues is no longer in the background. Joe Bonamassa becoming a huge act has helped all of us and all. Credit to him for doing that, it’s allowing smaller acts to come through behind him.

Speaking purely from my point of view as a reviewer and interviewer, I find you all very accommodating, no egos. Enough praise for one day, I think that's about it, unless you want to add?

Just that I read it regularly, I’m always pleased to feature in it, I hope people listen to the album and decide whether they like it, go to my web site, get a free download of Nothing At All.

l earn more abouT all Things d anny b ryanT aT www.dannybryanT.com

s haring a sTage wiTh m arTin h arley, m arcus b on FanTi and g eorgia h arrup, F rom The voice aT d ave h anson’s six sTring social evenT aT l ondon’s b lues k iTchen

earlier This year was indicaTive o F e ilidh m c k ellar’s conTinuing recogniTion across The blues communiT y

s one of the many new blues youngsters she had had a really good start however. Playing as under-age guitarist at Edinburgh’s jam sessions showed her commitment and ambition but even she couldn’t have predicted the heady time of being only seventeen when Joe Bonamassa invited her to play on stage with him at one of his infamous London shows. Now twenty, she is keen to take the more typical blues road, and has an album to release and a tour to take. Gareth Hayes joins her on the journey.

BM: How do we pronounce your first name?

EM: I always tell people it is pronounced like Hayley but without the ‘H’. It’s actually not at all like that but that explanation saves a lot of bother.

Whereabouts in Scotland are you from?

I was born in Edinburgh and lived just outside near Queensferry, although at the moment I’m based in Leeds.

Edinburgh has quite a music scene?

There are a lot of venues, some of them are struggling and some are doing well, places like Voodoo Rooms, Binkies, Bannermans and the Festival venues of course.

Is that where you started?

I was playing when I was nine, doing small gigs through school but it was the jam night at the Voodoo Rooms that really got me started. I started jamming there when I was about fifteen. I went along and they asked me

E rb A ls: GARETH HAYES Visu A ls: o LLIE bo ST o CK AN d KIRSTEN mC KELLAR

up to jam. From there I found out about other nights, and it became a regular thing. Then, of course, I was getting kicked out at nine o’clock because I was under eighteen.

Was it the guitar, or the singing and song writing that was getting you up there?

It was always the guitar that got me excited about music but when I turned seventeen I found that I wanted to have more control over the music I played. In the jams I had tended to be following or improvising what the band on stage were doing. It was a turning point though, the turning point where I got into song writing. It was also the point where I realised I should learn to sing too. So, I worked on developing my voice, a voice, and started writing. I reckon I have about twenty five songs written now. Obviously some of those are on my album, coming out later this year.

Are you a guitar geek?

I am very comfortable with the guitar but I am still coming to terms with fronting my band, the whole singing, performing and playing guitar thing. I don’t think that makes me a

serious guitar geek just because that’s where I am comfortable just now. I want my guitar to sound the best that is possible. I have a Fender Telecaster, endorsed by Paul Reed Smith, that’s truly cool. And I’m into my pedals.

Do you have guitar ambitions?

I’m happy with what I have, but I can think of guitars I’d like too. I’d really like a Stratocaster; it would be so nice to play that unique sound. I’d like one of those, but for the time being I’m happy, and happy that today is more about the music that I’m creating than the guitar.

Back to those teenage years, did you have blues, or rock and roll heroes?

I liked old school like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and the very old guys like Muddy Waters, BB. King. I remember seeing a video of Joe Bonamassa when I was young and heard in him that he’d taken from the old guys and modernised it. He was a real inspiration for me so I listened to a lot of his stuff. I tried to pick up things that he was doing. When I was sixteen

I put a cover of one of his songs on YouTube, and incredibly his dad somehow got to see it. He told Joe who then emailed me. Of course, I didn’t believe it was really him emailing me, why would he? It was him though and at the end of all that he asked me to play with him on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo in London when I was seventeen. We’ve stayed in contact ever since.

He seems to engage both the blues and rock audiences, is that part of your plan?

I’m taking both the blues and rock as influences. By writing blues into a rock song I hope to open up the blues to others.

Tell us about the band?

Every time I gig at the moment I play with that band. It fits with the energetic gigs that I try to do. I know there is a lot more scope still to do different things but for the moment the six-piece band is the full-on thing. It is just me by name though, not the Eilidh McKellar Band, because the band is still changing, it depends who is available. It’s a difficult thing but I know that I want a more permanent band behind me in a few months’ time.

Where are you with the album?

It’s all recorded and all the masters are in. It’s

called Delta Devil Dreams. I recorded it out in Los Angeles with producer Guy Eckstine and session musicians. That was a really amazing experience. It is expected to be out in October although a couple of singles from it are already out. I expect to tour and gig the album before we actually release it. I really want to release it as soon as possible and I want people to hear it but I know there is a process to this, and it is nice to gig the songs first. I’m getting used to the time frames involved in the business.

I am already writing new material and recording new stuff. I graduate university this summer, from the Leeds College of Music, so I’ll soon have more opportunities to get out on the road and gig as much as possible.

Has Leeds been a good scene for you, musically?

Yeah, there are the Brudenell Social Club and Smokestack venues but maybe Leeds is more of a soul hip-hop town than blues and rock. I’m looking forward to taking the album out to the rest of the UK. I can’t wait to get it on the road. I’d like to think of my trip taking me to Germany and Holland too, and taking my music to them.

c heck ouT more aT www.eilidhmckellar.com

“I have played with just about everyone”

V E rb A ls AND V isu A l s: JENNIFER N ob LE

j ohn is rarely in Town as he is one o F The very besT slide guiTarisTs on The blues scene and is always booked F or gigs around The world. however bm managed To caTch up wiTh mr p rimer aT his home in c hicago

lide guitar playing is what he enjoys most. As the title of his critically acclaimed Atlantic Record CD suggests, Grammy Award and Handy Award Nominee, John Primer is truly ‘the real deal.’ At eight years old, John borrowed his first guitar and stated to strum.

With the sounds of Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Little Milton, Elmore James, B.B. & Albert King reverberating through his Grandmother Laura Nell’s tube radio, John

was instantly hooked. He was fascinated with Blues music and set forth on a life long path of becoming a musical force. Early inspiration came from his family steeped in spiritual, gospel, and church, and went on to play at house parties and fish fry’s in and around his hometown of Camden, Mississippi. Wolf Records has just released a new John Primer & The Teardrops live CD called, You Can Make If You Try.

BM: When did you first come to Chicago and did you come up here to play blues and where were you born?

JP: I was born in Camden, Mississippi in 1945. I moved to Chicago when I was 18 years old (1963). My mom moved to Chicago when I was nine or 10 years old. She promised me when she left that she would come and get me when I turned 18 and she did. My mom left Mississippi to try to make a better life for our family.

How old were you when you realized you could sing and play guitar?

My mom told me that I was born singing. I sang all the time! I also sang in church and learned gospel songs.

Was a guitar your first instrument of choice? And what was your first guitar?

My guitar playing came later. I always wanted a guitar to play, but we didn’t have the money. I would stare at pictures of guitars in the Sears Catalogue dreaming about playing on stage as a young boy. I guess I realized I could play guitar at the age of 10 when I made a guitar out of a couple nails and a wire from my grandmothers broom. I would use a coke bottle as a slide. I stretched the wire between those two nails on my grandmother’s front porch and strum it or use the slide to make the sounds. This was my first stage! My first real guitar was when I came to Chicago I bought one out of a pawnshop. It was an old beat up acoustic Harmony Guitar.

How did you learn how to play slide guitar and who influenced you?

As soon as I started playing guitar I wanted to play slide, so I practised that all the time. Elmore James and J.B. Hutto influenced me a lot. But the biggest influence on my slide playing was Muddy Waters. He really taught me the most techniques and all the tricks with the slide.

Tell me, who were some of your early bands that you played with?

I formed my own bands when I first came to Chicago. In 1964 I formed The Maintainers band and then in 1968 I formed a new band called The Brotherhood Band. In 1974 I played with Sammy Lawhorn’s Band and Junior Wells Band at Theresa’s Lounge on the south side of Chicago. I was in her house band with these

guys for seven years, playing every night. I joined Willie Dixon’s All Star Band in 1979 and travelled the US, Mexico and Europe. Then my dream came true in 1980 I was invited by Mojo Buford to meet Muddy Waters.

What years did you play with Muddy Waters?

I joined his band from 80 to 83 when he died. We opened up the show for the Rolling Stones! This was an amazing time for me. I was Muddy’s Band Leader and I was in charge of a lot.

How many years did you play with Magic Slim and how many Magic Slim recordings are you on?

Soon after Muddy passed away I was invited by Magic Slim to join up with his band and I had to take that job! So I joined Magic Slim & The Teardrops and stayed with them for a little over 13 years. There are so many recordings I am not sure how many? I believe Wolf Records recorded them all, so they would know more than me. Hannes at Wolf recorded us in the studio and live on tour in Europe. He is the still releasing great recordings of us even now. Hannes was the first label to record Magic Slim and I. For that we are grateful to Hannes for taking a chance on us.

What year did you start your own band and why?

I started my own band in 1993. This is when Atlantic Records signed me. It was time for me to make my move. I had a great record label behind people and me that wanted to help me run a business so I had to take that leap. I was nervous to leave Slim, he was family to me and took good care of me for many years, but I had to try to make it on my own.

I noticed you write most of the songs on your CD's. Do you find writing songs a challenge or do you enjoy it? And where do you do most of your songwriting?

I love writing songs! I have always been a songwriter. Songs just come to me in my head all the time. Willie Dixon explained to me how important it was for me to write my own music, so I always have. I write about my feelings mostly when I am out on the road.

Tell us about your new release on Wolf Records?

I have a new CD out on Wolf Records called You Can Make It If You Try. This is a live recording of Nick Holt, Earl Howell and I (the Teardrops) playing in Vienna Austria in the early 90’s on tour. Hannes recorded this

whole tour. This CD is dedicated to Nick Holt. It brings back a lot of memories for me. Earl and I are the only ones left from this band. I miss Nick and Slim very much. I am going to keep our music alive for as long as I can. We made Blues history together and this CD is very important for people to hear what we were doing way back in the day.

How many record releases do you have out as The John Primer Band?

I have made 14 CD’s independently. I formed my own record label called Blues House Productions and I have two CD’s on my own label. I have been a special guest on so many CD’s including the Chicago Blues: A Living History series on Raisin’ Music, John Primer & Bob Corritore’s CD on Delta Groove, I was a special guest on Pinetop and Willie Big Eye’s CD, Joined At The Hip, that won a Grammy Award! I have a couple projects that I am working on now for next year those are so exciting! I can’t wait until the world hears these CD’s that will be coming out very soon!! So stay tuned for more, many more!

Where can we find your records? What is your website?

It might be hard to find all these CDs. I know that some of them are not being made any more. You can go to worfrec.com or earwig. com or search online for John Primer Music. I have seen some of my older CD’s being sold on EBay and also Amazon too. For more information about my music you can email my manager Lisa Becker. Go to my website (see the end of this interview for more information).

What is your tour schedule for the rest of this year and into 2015?

My tour schedule is always posted online at www.johnprimerblues.com. I know that I will be touring Spain in the beginning of July, doing another tour with the Chicago Blues A Living History Band in Europe mid-July, going back home August 16th for the Jackson Rhythm and Blues Festival in Jackson Mississippi, then in September I will be going on a Blues Cruise in Marseille France, I am working on going back to Copenhagen at the end of September, October I will be in South America on tour in Argentina and Brazil and I hope to take it easy over the holidays this year

and be with my family. 2015 I believe is going to be even crazier with the new releases out I will be on tour supporting them. I hope 2015 will be the busiest ever!

What is your favourite CD release as The John Primer Band?

It is very hard to pick a favourite CD. One of the most important CD’s I have ever done is all original, on my own record label Blues House Productions. This was my first CD on my own record label. I am very proud of this CD. It was a huge turning point in my career. It also won a few awards and was nominated for many.

Who are some of the great bluesmen you have played and jammed with?

I have been playing for over 40 years now. I have played with just about everyone. Some of the bigger names that stand out to me are: Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Magic Slim, Nick Holt, Bob Stroger, Sammy Lawhorn, Koko Taylor, Willie Big Eyes Smith, Hubert Sumlin, Mojo Buford, Pinetop Perkins, Sunnyland Slim, Detroit James, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Smokey Smothers, The Myers

Brothers, James Cotton, Carey Bell, Billy Boy Arnold, Billy Branch, Eddie Shaw, The Rolling Stones, Ike Turner, Lonnie Brooks, Johnny Winter, while with Muddy, even Stevie Ray Vaughan briefly.

What has kept you playing the blues all these years? Did you ever think about doing something else for a living?

I am the Blues! I have lived it, was born and raised with it, sing about it, feel it everyday. I am telling my story when I am singing and playing my guitar, a very important story. I am doing what I love to do. I keep going because I want to keep it alive for the next generation. I have had many different jobs in my life from: farming, picking cotton, washing cars, working in the kitchen at a hospital, moving furniture, sand blasting and factory work, but my calling is in the Blues, it makes me feel good to make people happy with my music.

Thank you for sharing with us!

F or more in F ormaTion c heck ouT www.johnprimerblues.com

John primer at hopson plantation, clarksdale, mississippi

V E rb A ls: STEVE Y ou RGLIVCH Visu A ls: LE o LY o NS

k aTie b radley has become a musT see arTisT on The b riTish b lues scene since The release o F her debuT album in 2012. bm caTches up wiTh kaTie as she prepares F or a hecTic year ahead

This year Katie will be appearing at numerous festivals, touring with visiting US guitar ace Kirk Fletcher as well as putting the finishing touches to the follow up album. Kentish girl Katie comes from a strong music family background and had built quite a local reputation before the rest of us caught up, now there’s no stopping her.

BM: Hi Katie, it’s good to catch up again with you. These last couple of years seem to have been so busy and positive for you. Your album She’s Ready received massive critical acclaim and you’ve been playing pretty constantly. Have you been able to take a step back and take it all in yet?

KB: Wow! It’s been a great ride, thank you. I got together with guitarist Dudley Ross in 2012 and we both wanted to explore the British Blues festival scene and so we recorded She’s Ready and within a very short time we were nominated for a British Blues award for our song I hear the river. It was a career-defining

moment when Paul Jones phoned me to send him our song to play, and following airplay it entered the iTunes blues chart at number seven, it was just the kick start we needed to bring our music to a wider audience. Blues is an international language which has taken me to America and Europe. Music is liberating and very addictive. I have been busy, and I haven’t had much time to absorb the events, but occasionally I find myself on a train travelling through landscapes, walking on a beach in Wales or photographing stunning surroundings in Scotland and I get the time to be humbled and thankful for this opportunity to visit all these wonderful places.

I know you’ve got a great support slot on the upcoming Kirk Fletcher UK tour as well as some prestigious festival appearances this year. Have you had the chance yet to start preparing any new material?

Interview kAtIE BRADLEY

I am looking forward to touring with Kirk Fletcher this autumn we are touring for 20plus dates around the UK. Dudley and I are writing all the time, our set on the tour will be original and full of great flavours. Our next album is planned for this year, featuring tracks that we are very pleased with, I can’t wait to play them on this tour, it will be very special

I think perhaps because your debut blues album was so consistently good throughout and made such an impact, there is a misconception that you were a late arrival on the scene. In fact you came from a family with music in their blood and I believe as a youngster jammed with the great Luther Allison. Tell us about those early days. Yes my parents were always playing music in different circles back in the 1960’s. My mother and her brother played at coffee shops and Blues and Folk Clubs in London, The Crawdaddy and The Troubadour. I was brought up on her amazing stories of Eel Pie Island meeting Paul Macartney’s cousin, Eric Burdon, Long John Baldry and watching the Rolling Stones at The Station Hotel. When I looked old enough my mother would take me to local gigs and accompany me on her guitar teaching me songs by Christine McVie, Christine Collister, Jo Anne Kelly, Lena Horne and Eartha Kitt. My father has a great voice and plays Blues harp and he taught a lot of my sisters friends, so I watched and I learned. I bought my first Blues album when I was 11 which was The Best of Muddy Waters and the spell was cast. I wanted to know everything about this amazing musician, how can a voice, a guitar and a blues harp swallow you whole? I was spellbound. I still am.

It was at a Blues Festival in the late 90’s that I saw the amazing queen of Alligator records Koko Taylor, a voice that shook my bones and an performance I’ll never forget with gold slippers and everything. I also got to see Luther Allison who came down into the crowd to play for the audience, I asked my friend Peter what key he was in and found that I had the right blues harp in my handbag. Luther heard me and invited me to play two solos, a big crowd formed around us and I

got a great kiss from the great man, I haven’t washed since. I was really happy to meet and play with his son Bernard Allison last year when I was playing at Tenby Blues festival, he is an amazing player and a real gentlemen, it was a great honour for me.

I love your voice. It has a special warmth and makes the songs feel true and emotive. I Hear The River is an especially emotional song. Where does the vocal come from? God-given or lots of practice and training? And who are your vocal heroes? Thank you!, I always soak everything I have into a song, the feel and the rhythm have to speak to me, I never throw a line away. I have great musical genes and I haven’t had any training at all. My mother taught me how to sing and my sister Caroline taught me harmony.

I love listening to vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin who are flawless, they are the best teachers, I never stop learning from them. I also absorbed a lot of the traditional folk in my mothers record collection, also Irish ballads where the vocalist has to express the words and the melody. I love the operatic ranges of Gospel singers such as Mavis Staples and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. My voice is a palette full of all these great influences. My heroes are Big Mama Thornton, Etta James and Otis Redding they made every note and moment on stage count.

I read that you self taught yourself harmonica when you were a teenager. Why harmonica and are there any players that were a particular influence? Yes, I am self taught, I started by listening to Little Walter and James Cotton, but I also love Brownie McGhee and Jimmy Reed. The harmonica has always been part of my performance and I always have one with me. I was very struck by Larry Adler and his ability to play Jazz harmonica. I always play harp, whichever genre I am performing because the instrument is so versatile, it’s great fun to experiment with.

As well as having the voice and being an accomplished musician to really succeed you need

the songs. And you do that too. It must be particularly satisfying getting recognition for your song writing. How does the process of writing work for you?

It has been very inspiring to receive this recognition, and at the moment the song writing is like a tap that I can’t stop. I play a little guitar to write songs with and it works three different ways. My favourite is that flash of inspiration, a sudden bolt out of the ether, or I’ll find some chords I really like and weave the song around them. Dudley sends me his ideas too and I collaborate with him. I Hear The River was a riff I started singing to myself when I was staying in the U.S. By the time the music was added, the lyrics had already been written. I brought the song to Dudley at a later date and he added a different dimension to the feel, we love working like this.

I think it’s a mark of the esteem you are held in when you attract the level of musicians that you do. I know that you regularly perform and collaborate with Dudley Ross and Sam Kelly is often drumming for you. That must be very fulfilling. Whose currently in the band or contributing behind the scenes?

Well I am a musician first and foremost and I think this makes a difference. All the musicians I play with always let the music do the talking and there is a lot of respect in what we do. I like so many styles of Blues so it is great fun to work in several era’s of this great genre.

I am touring the European festivals with Tom Attah, we have a very explosive combination of love for the Blues and too much fun on and off stage. Tom is a remarkable player. I have a duo with Dave Ferra where we play Mississippi Delta Blues, Spirituals and ragtime, I have a Chicago style Band with Chris Corcoran, where we tour the London Blues Clubs playing songs from Howlin’ Wolf, Bobby Bland, BB King and Big Mama Thornton which is amazing fun. My set with Dudley Ross is mostly original and we will be touring with an amazing band for the Kirk Fletcher Tour with Roger Inniss (Chaka Khan), Vic Martin (Gary Moore’s keyboard player) and Wez Johnson.

I have a concert planned for next year with Sam Kelly, Ron Sayer and Spy Austin – this will be a blast too!

What do you hope the future holds for Katie Bradley, Blues Artist, both short and longer term?

In the short term I am looking forward to making the next album, it’s been simmering

for a while now, I cannot wait to record and release it. It will be amazing to tour with Fabulous Thunderbirds Guitarist Kirk Fletcher in October we are playing 20 dates all over the UK, it will be an amazing experience.

I can’t say too much yet but I’m also planning to put together a Jo Ann Kelly tribute next year. I’ve got a headliner prepared but it’s very early stages. She was a big inspiration to me. In the long term I hope I will travel, collaborate and record with as many great musicians around the world as I can. It would be amazing to be signed to a Blues label. I love festival crowds and I am receiving invitations to tour in different countries and festivals, but if I can give back the satisfaction and fun the Blues has given me I will be the happiest lady in Bluesville!

k eep up To daTe wiTh k aTie aT www.kaTiebradleyblues.com

Rising guita R ace and singe R songw R ite R Lau R ence Jones has a new a L bum, temptation , out on R u F Reco R ds

few days earlier Laurence had been one of the outstanding performers at a star packed The Walter Trout benefit show at Shepherds Bush Empire, and tonight talks music with BM just before taking the stage at the famous Boom Boom Club, Sutton on a fabulous bill with Coco Montoya.

BM: Hi Laurence. Good to catch up. The first obvious question has to be, how did you enjoy playing at The Walter Trout Benefit? I was there and you seemed to be having a good time.

LJ: It was absolutely incredible for me to do that for Walter.

They are an amazing bunch of artists. Yeah it was a great night. All of the artists came together and put in a good effort. Did what they can for Walter.

It was amazing really because I’d supported Walter there in November at Shepherds Bush on the last UK date he did. He got me up to jam with him so it was really special for me to get up there and do that for Walter this time.

It seemed to me that everybody was there with the right idea, to get on, do their bit and make way for the next act. These things with multi-bills you’ve got leave your ego at the door and just get on with it.

V E rb A ls: PETE SARGEANT Visu A ls: FABOBA

Interview laurence jones

That’s the thing, Pete, it’s not about yourself, it was about Walter that night.

Who was playing with you that night?

I had Luke Dolan and Toby Wilson.

Are they on this new record?

No, on that record it’s Yonrico Scott and Charlie Wooton from the Royal Southern Brotherhood. It was produced by Mike Zito.

Walter plays on this one doesn’t he?

Yeah Walter plays on the title track of the album Temptation. When he came over in 2012 he promised me. He said ‘Hey kid, I wanna play on your record.’ He stuck to his word and it was December 2013 when he did it, even when he was really ill!

That’s why every artist said yes to the SBE show. Tell me about the title track ‘Temptation’ because it’s actually quite a grower. Well I actually wrote that for Walter after we went on tour with him. He told me, ‘You’ve got a clear head on yourself. Don’t get hooked up on drugs and alcohol like I did. Don’t let temptation get the better of you.’

He said that I was part of the future of the blues and he didn’t want that to happen to me. He sat me down and drilled that into me. So I was so inspired that I wrote that song for Walter.

I had that lesson at eighteen. My hero was Peter Green and the first band I ever saw was Fleetwood Mac with half of Chicken Shack sitting in. I was blown away but I met Peter a couple of years later playing snooker in a Surbiton pub and I found out he’d been in Germany with the Grateful Dead and they’d given them acid. He and Danny of Fleetwood Mac had never really returned from it. Really?

Yeah It’s a good lesson to learn mate. Now when you record, it sounds to me as though you’re closing your eyes and you are always as if you are on stage. I could be wrong but tell me. Well on this album, that’s what we did. We wanted to go for that live feel and it was

almost as if you are capturing what you are at that moment in time rather than going in there and doing a pristine clean-cut album.

That’s what I’m sensing but I didn’t know whether that was true or not.

We wanted to get the raw, gritty sound. I wanted to keep it real and live. We recorded it in America and we were going for that feel.

Yeah. I think the trouble with a lot of blues rock records now is they are a bit too clean. It drives me towards artists like Chris Duarte. The blues isn’t meant to be absolutely perfect. That’s what’s amazing about it.

It’s always to me, seemed at best it mirrors life rather than creates a fantasy. Exactly. Nothing’s perfect in life and neither is the music but that’s what makes it so good.

You’ve got The Groundhogs over there and Yes over there. Exactly! I used to listen to all of those records when I was growing up as a kid. I listened to Split Part Two by The Groundhogs and that was my favourite.

The drummer could play harmonica really well. I didn’t know until I saw them live. When you are playing live, you tend to use Strats I think. What draws you to that instrument?

The Stratocaster. Well, all my heroes use them, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Walter Trout.

They do stay in tune which is a good thing. What strings do you use though?

Well Coco’s just given me a Hybrid String set of tens and they go to eleven on the bass. So it’s easier to bend on the high notes but when you get to the low notes you’ve still got that chunkiness.

Please tell me you don’t do this silly E flat thing? (Laughs) I do the silly E flat thing! I’ve only recently started doing that just to try it out.

Like Joanne...

Joanne Shaw Taylor?

Yeah, like Joanne Shaw Taylor. (Laughs) She actually got me into that when we were on the Blues Caravan Tour!

So when you’re recording, do you do everything live and put the vocals on later or do you mix it up? We do everything live and then I put the vocals over the top. On Bad Bad Dream we did that. Mike Zito said ‘You’ve got one take on this. We wanna keep it as real as possible so if you mess it up that’s what it is.’

You get a kick out of being on the road with other people. I know you learn a lot when you are with them. Is there an artist beyond Walter that you think is doing exactly what you plan to do in the future? Well, it’s Coco Montoya himself. You learn a lot of life experiences from just listening to Coco. We just want to keep bringing in the young audiences for the blues.

You’re the next wave behind the Aynsley Lister’s. I’d like to aspire to Joe Bonamassa’s level.

I know Joe, we can talk for hours about guitars.

What Joe does is surprises people by bringing out funk albums and acoustic albums.Could you see yourself doing a jazzy record or a country-ish one? I could, but I see myself still being true to the blues as it’s what I love. I don’t think I could really go off and do the country thing. But I can always learn from different genres and add it in to what I’m doing.

Yeah. Some of your phrasing occasionally is reminiscent of a guy called Delbert McClinton. Delbert is a blues, rock, country ‘mix it up’ guy. I like him!

Therefore, you’re obviously listening to more than just pure blues records because you are exposed to what’s on the radio or whatever. It’s not like you’re going back to the Sixties and just playing a straight-up blues record. I’m trying to add a little bit of modern to it for people who will appreciate it in 2014.

The Strypes are a great powerful band and they

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...their

seemed to have ignored three or four decades and gone right back to the spirit of what they really loved. Of course, you grew up surrounded by remixes and sophisticated music electronically based. It must almost feel like going to a foreign land, if you sort of find your way into blues with its stops and starts, its bends and everything else. At your age, how do you see that?

I see it as the other music is foreign to me because I’ve always been brought up on the blues. As soon as I heard it I knew.

I assume your parents had blues records in the house.

Well I started out on the classical guitar and that was very structured and I learnt a lot from that. I wanted to do something that wasn’t just structured. I heard the E seventh chord as there was a keyboard player playing with me on a classical concert and at rehearsal he added that. I said “What’s that?” and he said: “That’s the blues note.” I then said “Right. I wanna do that.”

You’re doing a set tonight. You write virtually all of

your own material don’t you? Do you ever do anyone else’s songs your way?

There was a song on my album ‘My Eyes Keep Me in Trouble’ and that’s our own version of that song which is originally a Muddy Waters song, no one else had really covered that song. Mike literally said in the studio ‘Lay down a drum beat and we’ll follow you from there.

I gave Kenny Wayne Shepherd a John Lee Hooker

Live at the Café a-Go-Go album. It’s Muddy Water’s band backing John Lee Hooker. He didn’t have it. That’s great!

You should make a live record or EP at some point. Speaking of that, we’ve just done The Blues Caravan Tour in Europe and we did a live DVD so that should be out in the summer.

Enjoy yourself tonight and have a good gig, Cheers. Thank you very much, Pete.

Lau R ence Jones’s new a L bum temptation is out now on Ru F Reco R ds. Fo R mo R e in F o R mation visit www.L au R ence J onesmusic.com

Li L’ Jimmy Reed was bo R n in h a R dwood, Louisiana in the 1930’s, the e L dest o F F ive sib L ings. m usic was in his b L ood FR om an ea RLy age and he showed an amazing ta L ent to L ea R n by ea R. bm ta L ks to J imi at his home in a L abama

t six years old Jimmy was gifted his first guitar, made from a cigar box, and has never looked back. Now based in Alabama and soon to play dates in Europe alongside Savoy Brown piano ace Bob Hall and his band, Blues Matters called Jimmy in the Southern U.S. of A for the lowdown on him and his life in Blues music.

BM: Thanks for taking my call, Mr Reed. I was talking to Bob Hall about you and your music and he suggested that you were the man to talk to about all this in person. I wondered if you had a bit of time to talk to me about your music, your instruments. You’re currently over in America and I understand that you’re based in Alabama?

LJR: Yeah, Alabama is my home State.

What part?

I’m in Enterprise, and I can’t wait to be over there, playin’ for y’all!

That’s fine. I went to see Blackberry Smoke the other day and a lot of artists from your area have a fun time touring in Europe.

Yeah I enjoy it, bringin’ it all to your audiences. It’s a warm feeling cos you seem to know about the blues, love the blues even. That’s how it seems to me.

I’ll tell you why, it’s because the way you guys

V E rb A ls: PETE SARGEANT Visu A ls: STEWART MAKEKI

communicate to people does translate in London, Paris whatever. We go for a similar feel of the music. Were you born in your town?

No I was born over in Louisiana.

It’s a bit of a clichéd question, but when did you first start wanting to make your own music?

Well I started playing when I was about sixteen years old. I just loved it and I’ve been playing ever since. I couldn’t stop now, I’m just too steeped in it all, I guess.

So what inspired you? What made you want to go into singing and playing?

I was born and raised in front of a nightclub.

Tell me about your parents

Well my dad was a shoot fisher. One day he asked what everybody in the house wanted and my brother and sisters were getting baseball gloves and baby dolls. I don’t know what made me say it but I said ‘a guitar’.

What’s your original name Jimmy?

My name is Leon Atkins, my real name.

When I was growing up I listened to Rice Miller, also

known as Sonny Boy Williamson II. My big hero and I still do shows for him now is Chester Burnett, the Wolf, a huge influence on me.

Yeah the names come from somewhere and they just stick, y’know? Jimmy Reed was my biggest influence. I knew every song he had.

But of course! I was at The Ronnie Wood Jimmy Reed tribute show in London. He had all kinds of people including Bobby Womack singing the original Jimmy Reed songs all night long. Oh man! I wish I could have been there.

I’ll send you a copy of my review of the show. So you’re listening to this music and you wanted to play it. When did you first realise that maybe you should get a band or whatever together and go out to do your thing.

Well I was sixteen years old. I learnt how to play the guitar, then I learnt the harmonica. I started to put the two together.

Jimmy Reed came to a nightclub in my area, the place was packed, anticipatin’ and he got very, very drunk and couldn’t play! So the show was goin’ down, fast! His band was there and they came and got me. And that’s how I got that name ‘Lil Jimmy Reed’

Wow! I heard that story and I wondered if it was true. But you’re telling me that’s the truth?

That’s the truth. I played with his band but I never got the chance to meet him, see I knew all his songs real good and people at the place , they knew that I had the numbers down, they pushed me forward, the band said we should get the show goin’.

Oh really? When I was a kid I went to see Wolf, Otis Spann, John Lee Hooker and Brownie McGhee. I once saw a cat called Juke Boy Bonner. He was pretty good with a harp and guitar and even now I play rack-harp and guitar at solo shows and it’s always a nice combination. You can dig in and make it earthy.

Over here I don’t have a band. I’m a one-man band! That’s what I do, the guitar and the harp and me singin’ takes care of those shows.

That’s cool. I saw Bob first in the mid-Sixties as part of Savoy Brown with a band in London. We used to see them on a Wednesday night and they used to rock the place. They knew all about Freddie King and Albert Collins. Bob was a crazy boogie pianist. He always reminded me of Johnny Johnson on those Chuck Berry records. Now that’s about right! Me, Bob and his wife get together, that’s the core of the touring group, works real well, they know all this music, the songs, the feel, all that, so it comes together just like that, it’s no effort or problem. It’s there!

Hilary on bass?

Yes, sir, when I get over there Bob and his wife will back me up again this time.

Now your voice, I’m wondering if you know a guy called Louisiana Red?

Yeah I know him. He’s dead now.

I saw him once, but what I heard of your voice, you’ve got a similar rich voice to him. Yeah me and him have played together, matter of fact, I am glad that you know about him, great singer and player.

You write your own songs as well. What songs do you think show you off as best as an artist?

I don’t know. I actually don’t know. I like the song School is Out, that’s my favourite.

That’s your own?

Yeah. In Alabama I’ve got thirteen festivals I go to and I play one hour each festival. School Is Out was a big hit for me so I just have to include it on these shows. You know how people ask you to do the stuff they play at home a lot, on their stereo’s, especially if it’s rare to hear it on the radio?

One time, I used to play up in Tottenham in North London. All the younger white kids up there wanted to hear hip-hop. Our biggest fans were their dads! All the guys from the bus garage. We would play Slim Harpo songs. Me and him are from the same hometown!

Really? James Moore was his real name? Slim Harpo. He was fantastic. He had Scratch My Back, now that’s a popular song, round here.

Oh yeah. That’s great!

I can’t read music, I just play from inside, the way I do.

I can’t read music either but you give me a key and a tempo. When you go out and play what guitars do you use? Six string or twelve? I use six string.

Any particular make of six string? Mosrite guitar. I’ve had it all my life.

Mosrite? Those are like surfer guitars. Were they the brand used by The Ventures? Yeah, that correct, and some of us guys!

Have you ever made any recordings?

I’ve got two CDs out. That’s all I ever did.

What are they called?

One of them is called School is Out.

In July, I will see you and buy you a drink. I appreciate it. Now you know my story, hope you’re happy with that.

check out www.Facebook.com/pages/Li L-Jimmy-Reed F o R the L atest news on Jimmy

“I’m a one man band! That’s what I do”

Nick Moss is a gia Nt a M o N g co Nte M porary c hicago blues players. h e is co N sidered by M a Ny of his peers as a N outsta N di N g drivi N g force o N the sce N e

ince his debut release in 1999 he has received 16 BMA nominations, won huge respect as a producer for other artists including Magic Slim and his album Play It Til Tomorrow was listed by Blues Revue magazine in 2010 as one of the 25 great albums of that decade.

All of this achieved through adversity. At high school Nick was a star athlete but his fledgling career was curtailed by a serious kidney complaint. Urged on by his musician brother Joe to take up bass and seeing Little Charlie and the Nightcats live, a new lifetime direction was born. He began performing with first Buddy Scott’s Rib Tips and then backed the legendary Jimmy Dawkins before moving onto lead guitar in Willie ‘Big Eyes’ Smith’s band, and then three years with Jimmy Rogers before Nick’s own Flip Tops band was born.

BM: The brand new album, TimeAin’tLong is out now. It’s a real amalgam of sounds and influences, Chicago blues, soul and funk with a big dollop of rock ’n’ roll. It’s your 10th album, could it just be the best yet?

NM: Yes it is true, there are a lot of varied sounds on this album. I have had many different influences since I was a child. The music I grew up listening to in our house was funk, jazz, soul, blues, rock’n’roll, doo-wop, big band and country music, all of that made me what I am today. I believe that I am writing some of the best material I’ve ever written, and I also believe that the band I have now is probably one of the best bands I’ve ever played with, so yes, I’m very excited with how the music turned out on the CD!

This time you feature a second guitarist and vocalist in Michael Leadbetter, who I understand is distantly related to the great Leadbelly. What does he bring to the mix in terms of playing and song writing? How did you discover him?

Well, Michael’s featured as the rhythm guitarist and vocalist on half the songs on the CD. Yes, it’s true he is a distant relative of Huddie Ledbetter, the great Leadbelly. I believe he’s related on his grandfather side. Michael brings

E rb A ls: STEVE YOURGLIVCH VI su A l s: MARIUSZ SKIBA / MARK GOODMAN

ELEANOR

McEVOY

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ELEANOR McEVOY STUFF

GREAT BRITISH BLUES IN ONE AMAZING KOMPILATION

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THE SINGLE

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FISHGUARD JAZZ & BLUES

FESTIVAL

FEATURING:

DAVE THOMAS BAND

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THE WHITE KNUCKLE BLUES BAND

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INNES SIBUN, ROADHOUSE

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LITTLE DEVILS

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to the table an awesome range in vocals, that’s for sure. His harmonies are unbelievable, and he also is wonderful at getting the other fella’s vocal parts straightened out. As a featured vocalist he amazes me every night with his ability to cover different spectrums and different styles. Michael started with me almost three years ago, when he started with the band the guitar was fairly new to him, he hadn’t been playing very long. Over the years now he’s really developed into quite an asset on guitar. Michael has great time, great feeling and most importantly he has incredible soul, deep soul and it really adds to the flavour annd colour palette of what we do as a band.

Do you feel the band you have now and the style of music you play is a long way from the work you produced with your very popular Flip Tops band? What inspired you to move on from that?

I honestly don’t feel like the music that I’m playing now is that far off from the music of the Flip Tops. I feel that whatever I play is Blues, because I have blues at my core, that’s what I’ve always played. It was the first music

that drew me into wanting to know what music was, it’s the first music I learned how to play. The music that I’m releasing nowadays might not be three chord changes but at its core it really is Blues. Everything I play comes from my knowledge of Blues.

There definitely was a sense after seven CD’s that I needed to say something a little bit more. I think I felt that playing traditional blues over and over wasn’t really letting me reach my full potential as a musician.

There are some musicians that can be content with playing the same thing over and over their whole life, and there’s nothing wrong with that, in fact I hold them in high regard that they can do that and have that much passion to do that for the rest of their lives. I have a short attention span, since I was a small child I’ve always had to seek out ways to entertain myself, new ways, exciting ways, different ways. I guess it’s like watching a magician, once I’ve seen the trick I’m no longer intrigued. In fact, what intrigues me is finding out how he did it and then once I find

out how he did it I want to find out who he learned from, and when I find that out I want to find out how they did the trick different and who they learned from. I want to find out how many different ways there are to do that trick! I still have respect for the magician that showed me the trick, just as I have incredible respect for traditional blues music and the originators who showed me how to play that music. I just feel that growing and moving forward is a positive thing in my life, it may not be for other musicians but it’s what I need to do.

Having taken up music, pretty soon you were playing alongside people like Jimmy Dawkins, Big Eyes Smith & Jimmy Rogers. Some apprenticeship! Once you decided to form your own band recognition seemed to come quickly. Am I right in thinking almost all your albums from debut onwards have been nominated for awards of some kind?

My debut CD was First Offence, which was released in 1999, and I have 16 Blues Music Award nominations to date, starting with ‘Best New Artist’ for my second release, Got A New Plan. Each subsequent release has garnered some type of nomination or another from the BMAs.

2003’s Count Your Blessings was nominated for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year, 2005’s Sadie Mae got the nod for both ‘Traditional Album of the Year’ and ‘Album of the Year’. 2007’s Play It Til Tomorrow was nominated for three, Album of the Year, Band of the Year and Guitarist of the Year and was cited by Blues Revue as one of the top Albums of the Decade! I’m extremely proud of all my BMA nominations, although I have yet to actually win one!

Privileged, your 2010 release was the first where you moved away a little from traditional Chicago blues, it remains probably your most ‘rock’ album to date. Were the British Invasion blues/rock bands an early influence on you?

Yes, Privileged was the start of my change of direction. There certainly was a heavy rock influence on that particular CD. A lot of the British blues rock bands that I grew

up listening to influenced some of the music on Privileged, like Led Zeppelin, Free, early Hendrix, Blind Faith, Cream, Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac etc.

Apart from Michael who else is in the current band? Can you tell us a bit about these guys and how the band came together?

The current line up actually includes Patrick Seals on drums, Nick Fane on bass, and Taylor Streiff on keyboards. Patrick is an incredibly inventive drummer, he’s come a long way since he’s been in the band, almost four years. He started out as primarily a jazz drummer, but has put in his time and hard work to learn all the nuances of blues and rock drumming. With his background in jazz studies from Columbia University in Chicago he’s really been a great addition to the band.

Taylor Streiff is also a product of Columbia University, a great young musician with big ears and big chops. Taylor also has a thirst for knowledge and loves the same type of music that I grew up listening to from the 70’s.

Nick Fane is the newest member of the band on bass and is also a Columbia University grad. Another musician with an incredible talent, who also has great ears, great instincts and an even greater feel for the music.

We have a lot of budding young guitar players here in the UK at the moment. What’s the best advice you could offer these guys who are just starting to get noticed?

I am aware of a lot of the great musicians from the past and present that you have in the UK, and I look forward to hearing the great musicians I’m sure will be coming out of the UK in the future.

If there’s one piece of advice I can give, it’s just keep moving like a shark, otherwise you’ll just sink to the bottom. What I mean by that is to keep growing, keep creating, keep moving forward and never be satisfied. There’s nothing wrong with striving to be better then you were yesterday!

c heck out www.N ick M oss.co M for the latest N ews

he song, How Blue Can You Get? (no relation to the blues standard of the same name), appears on Mooney’s excellent current CD, The Bohemian Mooney, and Fame even sings on the track, and on another, Down For Double. The two men first met over twenty years ago, as Mooney explains, ‘Georgie was in Dublin playing a gig and I was playing a late night gig in another club. He came down to my gig after his and came up and played with us and we just hit it off. He’s very much into blues and jazz and there’s very few of us who really straddle both sides of the fence.

The genres tend to be quite defined and separate but Georgie and I are in both camps and we’ve often gigged together since.In fact, once, in 2004, he was playing for three weeks in Ronnie Scott’s club and had me do a guest spot which was a great honour. It was with a wonderful big band, with all the best horn players in England, so it was very nice. He’s a great bandleader.’

Fame presented Mooney with How Blue Can You Get? at the Cork Jazz Festival in the

early 2000s. ‘He gave me a cassette and a sheet of lyrics,’ recalls Mooney. ‘I listened to it and was very honoured and decided if I ever got the opportunity I’d record it with him. So, for Bohemian Mooney, we arranged that he’d come over and we did the duet. He’d be very comfortable in the studio. He just gets in and does it. He’s very professional.’

The two men also dueted on Down For Double, using the arrangement that Freddie Green had written for the Count Basie Orchestra. ‘I thought it would be appropriate to duet with Georgie on it because he sang with Count Basie,’ says Mooney. ‘And I came across Mel Torme dueting with Jon Hendricks on the song and I knew that Georgie had done work with Hendricks.’

Another legend who plays on the album is Irish jazz guitar great Louis Stewart. ‘I’ve always admired Louis and he has told me that he loves doing that Freddie Green style big band rhythm guitar playing,’ says Mooney. ‘There are very few people who can play that

V E rb A ls: TREVOR HODGETT V I su A ls: BILLY ESPELJEL AND DES M C MAHON

it i N dicates the estee M i N which i rish blues-jazz guitarist Nigel Moo N ey is held that g eorgie fa M e, N o less, has writte N a so N g especially for hi M

style. It’s quite an art to strum the guitar in an acoustic way in a big band and keep the rhythm and his contribution on the album is just great and gives it that authentic big band sound.’

Now in his fifties, Mooney began playing in the mid-70s. ‘Older guys took an interest and lent me records and I came across Eric Clapton and Peter Green and Jeff Beck and I picked up that blues was the basis of it all,’ he recalls.

Unlike most Irish guitarists, Mooney doesn’t regard either Rory Gallagher or Gary Moore as having influenced him. ‘Not really,’ he says. ‘When I was twelve or thirteen Rory would probably have been the first guitarist I heard properly but I think stylistically I picked up more on Clapton and Green. And I always thought Gary Moore was more heavy rock.’

Mooney does, however, regard Robert Johnson as a major influence. ‘As a young teenager I’d been listening to Cream and stuff like that and they all did Robert Johnson numbers,’ he says. ‘So I ended up buying that old CBS record of Robert Johnson, King Of The Delta Blues, and it just blew me away. His stuff is just so deep and so dark and it’s almost terrifying. He’s a genius. I don’t think people realise that. He’s far, far superior to the likes of John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. His musicianship was fantastic and there’s a darkness to his songs, there’s something heavy going on a lot of the time. But to do Robert Johnson justice is very difficult because everybody does his songs but they usually dumb them down. A lot of versions of Robert Johnson songs end up just like ordinary twelve bar blues. I remember seeing Eric Clapton, when I was a teenager, doing Ramblin’ On My Mind with the entire audience swaying and clapping as if it was jolly. Which it isn’t! It’s full of angst and stress.’

Mooney also regards the locally-legendary Belfast blues pianist Jim Daly as crucially important to his career. ‘I saw his band at the Cork Jazz Festival, with Ronnie Greer on guitar, and I thought they were great. There’d always been a blues thing in Belfast but there wasn’t anything really happening in Dublin so I thought maybe there’s a gap here. Maybe I

could do that blues band thing.’

Mooney formed the Gripewater Blues Band, and subsequently had a bizarre encounter with Daly. ‘I had been given the present of a flight to New York by my parents for a 21st birthday present,’ he says. ‘I bought a Gibson335 in Manny’s music store and I arrived in JFK airport on my way home, with my 335. There were two guys sitting beside me and this guy was telling the other guy he’d been down in Chicago playing with Sunnyland Slim. And I turned round and said, “Did you say you were playing with Sunnyland Slim? I’m a big fan of all that stuff. I’ve got a blues band in Dublin.” And we were chatting away and he said he was from Belfast and I said, “Did you ever hear Jim Daly?” And he said, “I AM JIM DALY!”

I had seen him in the Cork Jazz Festival but I hadn’t remembered what he looked like! And subsequently, whenever Jim was playing in Dublin, he’d always call me up to play. It was my first recognition, when I was a youngster starting out, from somebody who’d be superior to my peers. He was always so kind to me. He was one of my favourite musicians and people.’

The Gripewater Blues Band quickly developed a following in Dublin. ‘When we started in 1984 we were the only band in Dublin playing the blues and it coincided with the beginning of a blues boom in Ireland. All the die-hard blues fans turned up at my gigs and we moved to bigger venues.’

Mooney’s playing began to develop. ‘When I was nineteen or twenty I would have played something more akin to a BB King or a Buddy Guy style, with more wailing and distorted guitar. From my early teens up until I was twenty one, maybe, I’d gone through as many blues guitarists as I could listen to and I thought there had to be something more to it, somewhere. And one day I discovered Jimmy Smith, the organist. And that woke me up to that vibe of playing the blues but having a wider range of harmonies involved. So then I listened to Charlie Parker, I got big into him, and subsequently Errol Garner, Art Tatum and Ahmad Jamal. And my sound evolved gradually to a more bebop and more straightahead, swinging jazz approach to the blues.

Nowadays when people come to a gig they’ll often say, “Nigel, are you going to be playing blues or jazz tonight?” But to me it’s all the same music. It just depends on what musicians are in your band. If you’ve got a grand piano and a double bass and a drummer playing brushes it’s different to if you’ve got a heavy rock drummer, an electric bassist and a Les Paul. But it’s all the same stuff.’

TWO CENTURIES OF MUSIC

Mooney worked with veteran Irish bandleader Earl Gill. ‘He would be like the grandfather of the music scene in Ireland,’ he explains. ‘Earl was leading his own band since the late forties, early fifties, before the showband movement began, and he was a true legend, a great gent and probably the most highly respected of the old guys. We played literally everything you could imagine. The repertoire would have spanned a couple of centuries: from old time Irish waltzes, through Victoriana, First World War songs, Glen Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, blues, rock, rock’n’roll, jazz, Dixieland, Abba, Beatles, Elvis – everything.’

Mooney formed his own band, under his own name, in the late 90s, initially with top Irish jazz musicians like bassist Dave Fleming. A line-up change proved crucial. ‘I got the two O’Donovan brothers in, Ruaidhri (bass) and Shane (drums),’ he says. ‘Up until then we would have been doing all the gigs just as jazz gigs. There was no rehearsal involved so I was just doing covers, just playing everything that was common language. But when the O’Donovan brothers came in they insisted on some rehearsal. That was a word we didn’t use, ever! But when they said, ‘Rehearsal,’ it coincided with a time in my life when I decided to get my stuff together. So I got my own tunes out of my head onto paper and said, ‘Let’s try these.’ It did make a difference, all right.’

A debut album, All My Love’s In Vain, followed, in 2005, containing six fine originals and expert contributions from the likes of pianist Myles Drennan and guest saxophonist Richie Buckley, both of whom have worked with Van Morrison. ‘They’re old friends of mine,’ says Mooney. We’ve worked together an awful

lot so we would have a common understanding of the language of jazz and blues. It makes it a lot easier to relate to guys like that when you know them and play with them a lot. So I would show them the initial chords and structure of the tune and suggest the mood I required and then leave the rest up to them.’

CObbLEd TOGEThER

The album was much admired but it has taken Mooney until now to follow it up. ‘The reason I recorded the first album was because the band I had at the time was just sounding so good,’ he says. ‘What I did was cobble together everything I’d written over the previous twenty years. But then I didn’t have any more because I’ve never sat down like someone like Jerome Kern or Paul Brady and churned out songs. So it became a long gap. But musicians have come and gone over the years and I now had a band again that I felt needed to be recorded, with pianist Johnny Taylor, bassist Dan Bodwell and drummer Dominic Mullan. I had loose ideas for songs that had been hanging around my head that I just cobbled together and I decided to put

out a record that sounded representative of the gigs we do so there are a few standards and covers and blues and Ray Charles songs on it.’

One unexpected track on the album is C’est Si Bon, which Mooney sings in French. ‘My French is pretty poor,’ he says, ‘but ten or fifteen years ago I was playing a festival in France. We had been listening to Ahmad Jamal doing a version of it with voices, in English, and I thought it would be funny to try it in French. We happened to come up with a book which had the words in French so I wrote them on a piece of paper and did it on the gig and people thought it was humorous.’

On the album Mooney also interprets Robert Johnson’s Hellhound On My Trail. ‘On the first album I had a go at Love In Vain but I didn’t feel I did it justice and I also had a go at If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day. I wanted to try and get that darkness of Johnson but I don’t know if I really did that justice either. But I felt with Hellhound, which is one of his darkest songs, that maybe I got a little bit closer to the spirit of Johnson.’

c heck out www.N igel M oo N ey.co M for M ore i N for M atio N

r ob a N d s arah s ki NN er first ca M e to the

N of this M agazi N e back i N 2009, as M e M bers a four-piece ba N d called Mo N eyM aker. Much has happe N ed si N ce the N, i N cludi N g a wards, burglaries a N d a whole N ew ki N d of blues

oneymaker disbanded in 2011. Since then the couple have married and released three critically acclaimed Country Blues albums as a whole new band, The Red Dirt Skinners.

BM: Hi Rob & Sarah, well a lot seems to have happened to you since we last interviewed you, perhaps you could bring us up to date?

RDS: We found that we weren’t enjoying the Blues Rock scene so we called it a day. Focussing more on the music that we love and being able to do the harmoniew that we were so complimented on seemed to be the obvious progression.

Why the Red Dirt Skinners? OK I get the last bit, (Rob and Sarah Skinner) but where is the Red Dirt from?

Red Dirt is a sub-genre of Country, Blues,

Bluegrass and Americana. It is essentially a product of Oklahoma and Texas but we’re very grateful that they’ve welcomed us with open arms. It’s also described as being a genre which is ‘hard to classify’ which quite frankly, is what we are!

You seem to have picked up a load of awards since we last spoke, can you tell us something about them, and where you went to get them etc?

Yes, Life is good. Sarah has, for three years in a row now, been nominated as Instrumentalist of the Year at the British Blues Awards. Last year she came second. We were also nominated Best original song at the BBAs the last two years. Best original song at the UK Country radio awards, and we were also nominated Best New Act and People’s choice at the British Country Music awards. The BCMAs

haven’t been announced yet this year, but we have been nominated Act of the Year at the UK Country Radio Awards.

In fact the Red Dirt Skinners are the first band in history to succeed at both the British Blues Awards and the British Country Music Awards.

I have seen you performing and swapping instruments around, how many instruments do you actually play?

As well as singing, we, between us, play guitar, bass, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, drums, percussion, piano, sax, clarinet and harmonica, and possibly a couple more that I may have forgotten! During the live show Rob sings, plays guitar and drums. Sarah sings, plays soprano sax, harmonica and hi-hat.

Looking at your gigs list, you seem to be all over the show?

We love to travel and we rarely play close to home. We’ve had a few really nasty incidents in the past on the South Coast blues scene and we’re well aware that we’ve been bad-mouthed locally by what we can only imagine to be a jealous competitor or stalwart blues fan, or perhaps both. On the plus side, it does mean it’s forced us to look further afield, so thank you to those folks for that.

We’ve a Scottish tour booked for July. Germany in August and Belgium in October. Next year we’re booked to be in Canada for about a month, which will hopefully coincide with our fourth album release. We’ve picked up a fair few fans in Canada, and a label from Toronto. It’s all going in the right direction.

Tell us about your albums

Our first album as the Red Dirt Skinners was Grass Roots. Mostly covers, with a couple of originals. Home Sweet Home was our second. This was the album that really catapulted us forward. All the songs on this album were written about the events of a weekend at the end of March 2012. There are songs about the burglary at our home on the Saturday, the gig we were at whilst the burglary happened, how we felt about the whole situation, and how we worked towards overcoming it. Funnily

enough, sales from that album meant that we found ourselves in a position to buy our first home together, so in a way, I guess we should thank the burglar for the inspiration.

Give us a quick run through of the songs on the current album, released in October 2013, and why you called it Sinking The Mary Rose?

It’s a ten track album with eight original songs and two covers. It’s called Sinking The Mary Rose because it’s closing the door on being a tenant and becoming a home owner. We had three homes in a row, The Cottage, Mary Cottage and Rose Cottage, all of which sound lovely and quaint, but were actually awful places to live due to the rather unscrupulous landlords. All the songs on the album feature lots of harmonies with sax, harmonica, guitar solos. Lyrically, there are songs about our former landlord, our love of Oklahoma and some rather more hard hitting songs about loneliness and domestic violence. There’s a Delmore Brothers cover on there too, but we do it very much our own way.

Well, I have heard the album, thanks for the copy, and I can say that is absolutely terrific, voices and instruments on top form and some really great lyrics. There should be a fuller review in this magazine very soon.

Thank you. We’re writing our fourth album at the moment. It is looking likely to be another themed album, and if all goes to plan, will be released next year on our new label.

And finally, are you still playing The Thrill is Gone in your shows? I still think that your version is probably the best version that I have heard, apart from the man himself of course.

We rarely play Thrill any more, although it does sometimes sneak its way in if we’re playing a Blues venue. We’ve moved on and we’re mostly doing our own original material, although thank you ever so much for the compliment.

Rob and Sarah, thanks for your time. I look forward to catching up with you on the road.

c heck out M ore N ews at www.reddirtski NN ers.co M

d o you like your blues dark a N d deep, dre N ched i N the i M agery a N d the Mystic of the d eep s outh with so M e texas twist? b lues that is defia Nt a N d rede M ptive, observa Nt a N d reflective? w ell, you’ve co M e to the right place...

eal Black has been producing the best examples of this over the last 20 years or so. Why this bluesman isn’t revered in the same way as some lesser performers is beyond my comprehension. Before Daylight is Neal’s brand new release on Dixie Frog records, it’s among his best and hopefully it will build on the wider recognition his last album Sometimes The Truth kick started.

Philippe Langlois at Dixie Frog is a man who knows his blues, from the artists like Guitar Gabriel and Ironing Board Sam, supporting the Music Maker Relief Foundation, through to legends like Coco Montoya, Eric Bibb, Popa Chubby and Van Wilks via the world music of Ras Smaila and Ramon Goose and young European hotshots like Triggerfinger

and Bjorn Berge. The one constant however is Neal Black, longest serving artist on the roster celebrating twenty years of not only recording his own great music but acting as producer on many others. The relationship with the France based label is such that Neal now lives much of the time near Lyon but he has got there by following a path the blues laid out before him and paying his dues along the journey.

Neal was actually born in Washington in 1959 but grew up mainly in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His father was a military man and the family kept a house in Texas moving back and forth depending on where he was stationed at any given time. It was in the mid-seventies young Neal began to

get serious about music, based in Boston, Mass. Learning about recording studio engineering, jamming and hanging out with similar minded musicians. By 1979, in and around the musical hotbed of San Antonio, Neal’s career began to blossom and the first version of his band The Healers evolved.

Neal recalls fondly, ‘The early to mideighties in Texas was a great time to be a musician. Unlike today it was easy to get shows and earn decent money. It was the time of the Texas Blues explosion with great artists like The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Copeland and Omar and the Howlers bursting on the scene. We supported and toured with all of those guys. There were many other great bands that never made it as far as recording albums but were terrific just playing in the clubs and such. You could see Billy Gibbons checking out young bands in bars or go see Albert Collins jamming with Jimmie Vaughan. Magical times.’

MOVING TO NEW YORK

Others on the scene that the band opened for included Albert King, Leon Russell, George Thorogood, and Paul Butterfield. It’s clear that Neal listened and learned from them all but he’s always been more than a mere blues rock copyist. Even as a young muso he wanted to expand his knowledge and enrolled into The Southwest Guitar Conservatory, studying under great jazz players Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis and Jacky King. As Neal told me, ‘I’ve never made a full out blues record, the blues is a major part of everything for sure but there’s always all these other influences going on.’

Following interest from the Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray management team Neal moved to New York and quickly established himself as part of what was at that time a burgeoning and vibrant underground blues community. As well as performing with his own band The Healers, Neal could often be found at late night jam sessions with the likes of Popa Chubby, Joan Osborne, Blues Traveller, Spin Doctors and The Holmes Brothers. In this period the self titled Neal Black and The Healers was released, quickly followed by a second album, Black Power. Both received four star reviews in Rolling Stone magazine, quite an achievement for a relatively new young bluesman. Neal had

gathered around him some of the scenes most respected players to support him on those two albums. As Rolling Stones writer John Swenson says on the sleeve notes, ‘this record is a stark and uncompromising document of Black’s strengths as a song writer, guitarist and singer, if Black scares you, you’re plugged into the right message.’ One of the most spine chilling tracks, I Don’t Get The Blues was released as a single, times were different then. During this period Neal played with many other top performers including being band leader for Johnny Johnson, a position he occupied for his two only ever UK dates. Band leader was a role he filled for the great Jimmy Dawkins also, leading to his first ever European visits.

The year 2000 saw Neal return briefly to Texas and the release of Gone Back To Texas but the next leg of Neal’s journey took him to Mexico.

Why Mexico? ‘Well I went to play a couple of shows and one of the booking agents suggested we did The Hard Rock Café touring circuit. It was a lot of fun, we played in Acapulco, Guadalajara and loads of other great places. It was interesting to me because the appreciation we got out there was really high and I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t more American blues artists going down there. That still seems to be the case today.’

In fact Neal stayed in Mexico for three years. It was a productive time, he became Professor of music at the University Pan Americano in Guadalajara teaching appreciation of American music. Neal clearly got much satisfaction from it, saying, ‘The students would bring in different music and we would dissect it, the chords, the lyrics, everything and analysis it. All types of music, blues, roots, rock. One day a student would bring in Guns ‘N’ Roses, the next it was BB King. It was lots of fun, each year the class would perform a show for the rest of the school, the enthusiasm was amazing.’

He also got to play and collaborate with Mexican rock star Jose Fors and his bands Forseps and CUCA. Cuban born Jose is a huge star in Mexico, a world renowned painter as well as musician perhaps best known outside Central America for contributing to the Hellboy soundtrack. Neal says playing with those heavy rock guys opened his playing up even more. He recalls, ‘We used to sometimes

perform at these huge arenas where they held bullfights in the afternoon for the whole families and we would play this heavy rock music at night. It was quite a culture shock from what I was used to.’

With Jose performing guest vocals on one track and using a number of local musicians 2003 saw the release of another critically acclaimed album, Dreams Are For Losers.

It was touring Europe promoting that release that lead to Neal making the decision to move to France and put down roots. He feels musicians are better respected here than back in the U.S. Neal has never looked back, saying, ‘Man, I can’t say enough about how great Philippe is. He gives you a lot of freedom to produce your own albums, and he supports you with his heart and soul.’ Neal also enjoys the challenge of writing for and producing other artists on the label.

He was finally starting to get the recognition his talent deserved, being nominated for Best Modern Electric Blues Guitarist for the France/European Trophee du Blues awards. The tour de force that is Handful Of Rain was released in 2007 and became number one across European Blues radio charts and gaining critical acclaim worldwide. It’s a wonderful record with great contributions on guitar from Neal’s long time friend Gib Wharton from the Holmes Brothers/ Van Morrison and French bluesman Fred Chapellier. Mostly recorded back in San Antonio, Metisse Music described it thus, coloured with dark rage, sweet melancholy and drenched in smoking guitar work that burns like a Tequila Sunrise. Touring the album relentlessly and working on numerous other projects Neal was entering a period as fruitful as any in his long career.

2011 saw the release of Sometimes The Truth. Recorded in part in the New York studio of old friend Popa Chubby with the big man himself contributing vocals on three tracks and guitar on five. French bluesmen Fred Chapellier and Nico Wayne Toussaint also contribute as do NYC stalwarts Steve Holley and Mason Casey. Again the album reached number one on the France Blues

Radio charts. Working as hard as ever Neal toured to promote the album playing over 200 shows on the road across 2012/13.

This road hardened band recorded Before Daylight. All Americans steeped in the genre they love but musicians with a breadth of experience and chops. Kris Jefferson (bass), Mike Lattrell (keys, piano) and Dave Bowler (drums) based in Austria, Montpellier and Hamburg respectively. They are now preparing an extensive European tour taking them through to the end of 2014. I asked Neal about the chances of seeing them in the U.K. ‘We had a few offers to play the UK this time but sadly the dates clashed with bookings we already had. But yes, we definitely hope to come in 2015.’

As well as his own albums and production credits Neal has also toured and recorded as The Blues Conspiracy alongside Nico Wayne Toussaint and Leadfoot Rivet, releasing a live in the studio album in 2004. More recently 2012 saw the formation of Black, Toussaint, Chappellier and the album, Live And More.

I wanted to get an idea from Neal of the music and artists that had influenced him in his formative years. He told me that growing up he could never understand why people loved The Beatles so much. His school friends Howlin’ Wolf records had a huge impact, sounding like something from another planet, says Neal. When aged 12 Neal got to see Johnny Winter in concert, life was never the same again. We talked a lot about how much he loved the Stones records and the loose guitar playing on tracks like Dead Flowers and Sympathy For The Devil. Other big early heroes were Hellbound Train era Savoy Brown, Neal supported Kim Simmonds and the band in the early days, and Leslie West and Mountain.

My advice is check out Neal Black, buy the new album, enjoy that and then work your way back from there. Some of the early releases are a little difficult to find but not impossible. Neal Black is the real deal.

c heck out www.N ealblack.N et. f or d ixie f rog r ecords www.b luesweb.co M

paul laMb & tHe king snakes

Paul Lamb with his Kingsnakes return with their 17th album (according to the bands’ website where there are seventeen covers on display while the press release tells us “four decades and 14 albums later...”) and they still blow up a storm. What we have here is sixteen tracks, of which nine are self-penned numbers of which the title and opening track Hole In The Wall has two versions with the second as the bonus track that has alternative lyrics that have a go at the banks’ hole in the wall machines. Some finely chosen covers include takes on songs by the likes of Smokey Robinson and Brownie McGhee. Titles include Jumpin Little Judy, Making A Change, Way Down Low and an excellently done swing version of Gary Moore’s Still Got The Blues For You which is one of several highlights presented here. I loved the Stranger Blues played so low and easy, there is the vibrant R&B tone of Sometime Tomorrow, the striding Preaching The Blues, the totally swinging Jumpin Little Judy which defies you to keep still. A Better Place To Be carries optimism in it’s smoothness and allows you a rest after Little Judy. The band sees the return of Dino Coccia on drums, Paul’s son, Ryan, plays guitar/backing vocal and shows his feel for the songs, add to them Chad Strentz on vocal/rhthym guitar and the much travelled and respected Rod Demick on bass/backing vocal, you have a fine band in fine form giving us a fine, fine album. Recommended? Hell YES!

sean tayloR

ChaSE ThE NIghT Independent

Sean’s sixth album is reminiscent of Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks not in respect of any similarity in sound but purely in terms of its sheer brilliance and ground-breaking status. The first song Chase The Night introduces the theme of Taylor’s special relationship with the metropolis. London and River are both pure poetry, the latter a spoken word piece: “The Thames twists around London, and I curl around

your beauty, As the dawn becomes tangled with darkness, Jagged as a new day.” The lyrics of So Fine are reminiscent of Paul Simon at the height of his creativity and this is one of Sean’s best compositions to date. Intricate layers and patterns of vocal and instrumental sounds develop into emotional and musical crescendos within so many of these superbly crafted songs. Taylor’s vocals can be silky, soft and almost a whisper one minute and edgy and anguished the next, such is his range and versatility. Biddy Mulligans is a tribute to his home in ‘County’ Kilburn, with its beautiful violin accompaniment, whilst both Losing You and Love Bleeds are

somehow simultaneously upbeat as well as heart rendering. The mood of the latter, and also on The Road, is enhanced by some brilliant harmonica from Taylor which captures the mood perfectly. It is not surprising that Danny Thompson wanted to play bass on this album or that Eric Bibb chose Sean to tour with him across Europe this year. Taylor’s star is in the ascendancy, and not just above London.

DAVE SCOTT

Jed tHoMas

IT’S aBOuT BLOODy TImE!

Independent

A mix of dirty blues/ rock and swamp rock direct from the Yorkshire Delta is what you get on this album. Dedicated, as it is, to Rory Gallagher, you soon realise Jed is an amazing guitarist in his own right, who gives nothing less than 100% and his vocals match that. A big touring name in the UK as well as Europe, this is Jed’s first recording in fifteen years, hence the title. The band have been together since 1995 and it shows as Jed gets sterling support from his tight rhythm section, Nibbs Toase on bass and Paul Milek on drums along with a host of guests too many to mention on here. Opener 4 Directions sets the blues/rock in motion, but Rick Duffield’s fiddle and Bridie May Miller’s vocal on Getting The Buzz takes us to acoustic heaven. A brilliant bass line introduces the topical Rainy Day containing Ian Rose’s organ, a masterful riff throughout, the tempo changing to more of a boogie five minutes in,

PrObably tH e WOrlD’s m Ost COm Pre H e NsIVe blues gu IDe

FRANK LEIGH

Albums reviews

wonderful! From what I can make out from the sparse information on the insert, all the fifteen tracks on here are self–penned and cover a whole spectrum of blues in the generous 74 minutes. Certainly one of the best albums I’ve heard thus far in 2014.

CLIVE RAWLINGS

poRk cHop Willie LOVE IS ThE DEVIL

Independent PCWm 002

Pork Chop Willie is the pseudonym and brainchild of New York City blues guitarist Bill Hammer, a man who had previously been playing Chicago blues with his band The Maxwell Street Roosters until, he heard Jimbo Mathus and Eric Deaton playing the emotionally charged Mississippi North Hill Country Blues in a New York club, after this musical encounter he spent the next two years devouring intensely all he could about this branch of the blues. In two thousand and eight he approached the classically trained violinist Mellissa Tong regarding the creation of a band that would travel across the U.S. playing Hill Country Blues to all that would listen and in the spirit of adventure she agreed. On the album they are joined by Eric Deaton and Tony Coniff on bass with David Kimbrough and Steve Tarshis on guitar with Kinney Kimbrough and Robin Gould on drums. The thirteen numbers here consist of nine Bill Hammer originals and four covers. The tramping bass on Ain’t Nobody (Gonna Save My Soul) leads a pleasantly wailing fiddle solo as a plaintive and worried Gospel chorus sadly agrees with Pork Chop Willie, the seductively wailing and morose mixture of Mellissa’s violin complements Pork Chop Willie’s monotone and downtrodden vocals. On R.L. Burnside’s Snake Drive a powerfully menacing roughly sawing, ripping guitar is underpinned by a brash and energetic cleaving drumming, anchored by a solid bass line while the violin wails urgently in the background. The primitively exotic

flashes and dashes of the violin combined with harsh and raucous seductive guitar passages can but only draw you further and further into the music, as RL Burnside’s Poor Boy fully illustrates with a low resonating twanging guitar shuffle that is underpinned by the ever melancholy and mournfully swinging violin work of Mellissa. This evocative and sometimes heartrending sound has the ability to turn maudlin feelings and conditions into brief moments of joy, especially so on Black Heart a tale of woe, concerning infidelity and murder. A fine debut. Recommended!

BRIAN HARMAN

JiM suHleR

paNThER BuRN underworld

Both as sideman to George Thorogood and an independent guitar slinger in his own right, Suhler is your typical (or atypical) Texas blues player – intense, incendiary and always interesting. The title of his latest album is autonomous in revelatory blues as is the sleeve pictures of skulls and whiskey, as is the howls and hollering that accompany his guitar, as is the iconic song title of this his fifth such solo venture (witness Sky’s Full Of Crows, Worldwide Hoodoo). A no-brainer purchase then? Well, yes actually. It delivers exactly what is promised on the tin. There is everything to like here, from Kim Wilson’s harmonica turn on I Declare, to Tim Alexander’s swampy keys on Across The Brazos, to Suhler’s urgent cigar box on I See You, to his down in the ditch boogie of Dinosaur Wine. There are some away day interludes too with Remember Mama, a polished ambient rumination, and the lighter Texassippi, both being anything but predictable. Ray Benson (Asleep At The Wheel) and Carolyn Wonderland (Imperial Monkeys) both guest on the gospel mantra of All God’s Children Get The Blues Sometimes. The core of his band Monkey Beat, Shawn Phares, Carlton Powell and Jimmy Morgan also crop up across the

album even though Monkey Beat aren’t named as such. With the exception of a couple of tracks all the songs are Suhler originals and he selfproduced the album at Audio Dallas Recording Studio in Garland, Texas (common home to the likes of iconic blues labels of Rounder, Alligator and Blind Pig.)

GARETH HAYES

eleanoR Mcevoy STuFF

moscodisc

From Dublin, singer/ guitarist/ songwriter Eleanor is a difficult artist to categorise, having had a successful international career, but despite her chameleon like changes, from rock to folk, involving connections from The Rolling Stones to Bert Jansch. She has an excellent bluesy style as shown on this CD, a collection of songs requested by her fans or originally from collaborations with others. Hence she gives us the show-tune Milord, sung in French, Chuck Berry’s Memphis Tennessee as a slow and highly effective jazz number, and Don’t Blame The Tune which makes me think every time of Belton Richard’s Louisiana swamp-pop classic Another Saturday Night (with country-soul overtones). And how can you not like someone who writes a tune called The Night May Still Be Young, But I Am Not? And the music and vocal certainly suits that title.

The closing Lover’s Chapel, with its keening pedal steel guitar, should appeal to lovers of Americana, whilst Eleanor’s version of Whistle For The Choir is a fine cover of the hit for Scottish indie rock band The Fratellis (I did say she was not necessarily a blues artist!). Other tracks fall into a broad modern folk-rock bag. For a good example take a listen to Deliver Me, which has religious inspired lyrics over a arrangement that sounds like a hybrid created by mixing Irish folk and rockabilly. How many rocking tracks list ‘Gerry O’Connor, banjo’, next to ‘Pat Burke, Gregorian Chant’? To sum up then, certainly an album of interest

to those who like to step outside the blues field from time to time.

NORMAN DARWEN

gaetano letiZia & tHe undeRgRound blues band

VOODOO DOLL & OThER BLuES LESSONS

There are probably a million artists around today that purport to play the Blues but probably on numbering in the hundreds of those who have any real depth, or talent and only a small percentage of those who actually make music that is worth listening to twice. Thankfully Gaetano Letizia is in that small percentage and has an original and arresting sound to boot. Numbers like Sold My Soul take a journey that seems to start in Jazz, crosses into Soul territory but at heart has Blues in its depths. It ain’t Robert Johnson but he tells a story like the great men do and when he hits the chorus “Sold my soul for a pile of gold, sold my soul got nuthin’ to show, sold my soul, why, I don’t know” it kicks the number off for some great band improvisation.

The title track has a brilliant and dark Hammond riff underpinning and a gravelly vocal that has a sense of humour that you don’t quite expect. All through the playing is superb –Letizia himself plays a mean guitar and Larry Keller’s bass is a wonder of funk while Steve Renko lays down a storm of drumming that lifts the whole thing.

I have a sneaking love for Blues funk and Letizia knocks it out of many parks but I particularly like the way he crosses over into straight Jazz and Western Swing on tracks like The Devil Is A Nice Guy while always keeping the groove alive. This isn’t one for the hardcore Blues fiend or the SRV wannabees – he is digging his own furrow and satisfying himself rather than adhering to any one format and musically this is a late night feast of an album.

ANDY SNIPPER

coco Montoya

SONgS FROm ThE ROaD Provogue/mascot

A good value double-CD set in this now renowned canon of live recordings from artists on this label. Montoya is a character, full of stories and insights and as a performer just as strong a vocalist as he is a dextrous six-stringer. Watching him play Flipped is something of a mind-bender for those of us who play guitar with picking hand on the right, something akin to seeing the late Albert Collins on stage, given the latter’s open F minor tuning quirk. Collins of course was an employer of Coco’s, even before his stint with John Mayall when his guitar foil was Walter Trout and that stinging Albert sound has been inherited by Montoya and taken further. Coco’s vocal style is as blues as it is soul/Motown and his choruses are catchy as hell. On these selections the band cook up a Hammond-rich punchy stew of a sound, going with the many light & shade moments that pepper the set list, I say set list, he only plans three or four numbers then goes with the moment.

Try I Got A Mind To Travel for bravura axe work, or Love Jail for electric grit; I Need Your Love In My Life has dignified emphasis and exquisite singing. You’d Think I’d Know Better By Now rocks a rueful mood. A spirited show, well-recorded here.

DON’T CaLL NO amBuLaNCE alligator records

Orlando, Florida born Selwyn who takes lead vocals, guitar and lap steel is joined by Reg Oliver; baritone, tenor and alto saxophones, bass clarinet and flute with Donald “Huff” Wright; bass and Curtis Nuttall on drums. They together are blasting out on their debut album for that singularly focused label Alligator; where, for over fifty minutes we are taken on a spiky, abrasive and compelling carpet ride through the blues. At the age of nineteen Selwyn went to see Texas blues legend Sonny Rhodes (who also lived in the same area) on the advice and recommendation of a friend, during the course of the evening Sonny invited Selwyn on stage to jam with him and was so impressed with his budding talent that he took him under his wing and later invited him to tour with him. We are now benefitting from the ten years he spent with the caring, sharing mentorship of Sonny; who advised Selwyn on the merits of education, lap

steel and musicianship. The talents of a very fine artist are on display here from the bold, confident and strident fiery guitar play with influences ranging from; Albert king, Freddy King, B.B. King through to Buddy Guy, delivering deep, funky, dancing and thoughtful slow burning blues. The swinging, funky saxophones and crunching guitar runs of Addicted To Love merely set you up for the raw blasting shuffle that is Don’t Call No Ambulance. A sad alcoholic’s tale is told in the slow burning and highly evocative guitar led Brown Paper Bag. Walking In The Lion’s Den is where Selwyn’s raw and burning vocals segue with the underpinning and growling saxophones. On Tell Me Why Selwyn’s screaming lap steel almost goes off the Richter scale with his heart rending industrial siren sound, pleading for knowledge on the violence and injustice in the world today. The flowing, bright and breezy jazz influenced shuffle of She Loves Me Not is a tale of a woman who is not quite sure if she is in love or not. Recommended!

BRIAN HARMAN

letizia records

selWyn biRcHWood

PETE SARGEANT

JoHn pRiMeR & tHe teaRdRops yOu CaN maKE IT IF yOu TRy!

Wolf records

From one legend another is born. John Primer was part of the legendary Magic Slim & The Teardrops for fourteen years where he helped always opening the show with great performances displaying his vocal skill and attacking slide guitar work. This set was recorded in the early 1990’s in Austria by label boss Hannes Folterbauer when the act were on tour in Europe and, according to the press release was the first time the Blues came to Vienna. John played with Magic Slim from 1982 when Muddy Waters was ill and after Muddy’s passing John stayed on with Magic Slim. There is wonderful playing on this disc released after Hannes spoke to John when he found some live recordings he had made from tours in Austria between 1990-1996 and it was the title track, You Can Make It If You Try that hooked Hannes and made him call John to discuss the release and thank goodness he agreed as this is something else believe me! The playing, well finding words to amply describe it is not easy but you have one of the very best and most natural sounding players here who does not need all the effects gadgets to produce such wonderful guitar work. Band members Nick Holt, bass and Earl Howell, drums are no make weights here, this is a band! Just get this album and enjoy to the full. (See also our interview with John in this issue for more about the album)

FRANK LEIGH

saiicHi sugiyaMa band

ThE SmOKEhOuSE SESSIONS

Cedar mountain

It seems an absolute age since we were hearing about Saiichi Sugiyama all the time as he used to be a regular performer on the London circuit in particular. In those days he had a definite Cream sound and this was of no real surprise as he collaborated with Pete Brown for much of that work. This return is apparently the fall out of a video demo project which Sugiyama and pals recognized as album-worthy; and they were right. It is a bright production and puts his blues guitar virtuosity right in the shop window. His previous albums have perhaps been influenced in their rank on the pile, not by his guitar playing but by his, obvious, Japanese accent in his singing; sometimes a positive, sometimes not. On this record Rietta Austin steps in for vocal duties and shows that right mix of restraint and holler to make all the vocal cues sit

perfectly in line with Sugiyama’s guitar attack. Four tracks are penned, or co-penned, by Sugiyama and mighty good tunes they are too. What’s Going On has a Stay With Me Baby vibe, and Is That You Babe? is as low down and as dirty-funky as any hip groover would want. The psychedelic Cream-like influence hits the listener square in the face with A Cellar Full Of Noise while retaining its own sense of innovation and rock-out explosion. This is the first release as a band rather than under a solo guise and that is reflected in the fuller sound that even make the oh-so-prevalent covers of Born Under A Bad Sign and Hideaway well worth a listen. All in all it is a terrific session.

GARETH HAYES

backpack Jones

BETSy’S KITChEN Independent

Nine original tracks from a five-piece band made up of musicians with many years’ experience. As a result you have

a well-produced album with great musicianship, no superfluous solo efforts and nobody trying to hog the limelight. Even God Sings The Blues has a nice Gary Moore feel to it and Hey Diddle Riddle is a clever rewriting, mixing up several nursery rhymes to great effect. Hiding in plain sight has a lively sax and a nice overall funky feel to it and the final track (my personal favourite) I Got A Girlfriend is a nice big bad Blues.

DAVE STONE

MoRiaty

ThE DEVIL’S ChILD easy action

Do you like your blues raw, dirty, distorted, low-down, up tempo, pulsating with unrepressed energy, attituderidden and more than slightly anarchic? Well, you’ve come to the right place then, as this Devon based duo (what did Devon ever do to them?) of Jordan West on vocals and guitar and Matthew Partridge on drums and vocals offer just that. They riff along on numbers that sound like some of the older blues–based bands of the 60s and 70s (think The Yardbirds or a couple of psychobilly bands maybe, perhaps even vintage Status Quo) strained through a punk outlook and pressed through a grunge filter before emerging blinking into the sunlight of 2014, and quickly deciding against it and retreating hastily back into the nicotine stained walls of some rather dubious drinking establishment. Take a listen to the mutant rock and roll riffs of Jealous MF, to the manic No.7, the heavy riffed pastiche of Rudyard Kipling (no, I’m not kidding) that is IF, or the amphetamine-fuelled House Of Hell. Things do ease off a little for the gospel-ish Part One of the title track (though when they sing “I am the devil’s child”, you do believe them), and Goodbye Love, with its excellent slide guitar work, is rather space-y, a real surprise, whilst Move On is acoustic and jazz-tinged. To sum up then, a group to watch out for.

NORMAN DARWEN

tHe Jules caRteR tRio

DONE mISBEhaVINg

Independent

This CD incorporates several styles of Blues influenced music with some really strong lyrical content and interesting song influences, the band is formed of Jules on Guitar and vocals, supported by Paul White and Steve ‘Fingerz’ Carty on drums and bass respectively. There are definite Steely Dan influences here, particularly on the track Blondie which has a funky groove, the links have been enhanced with the inclusion of Elliott Randall, who performed the sublime guitar solo on Reelin’ In The Years, on one track The Purdie Shuffle, here he really lets fly with some guitar duelling with Jules, not that Jules really needs any guest musicians, as he is an excellent guitarist in his own right, on the remainder of the tracks he delivers some very slick smooth free flowing guitar solos. Each and every track on the album is very strong, worthy of particular note are 27 Club, which tells the story of the musicians who have passed away at the age of 27 and Since You Went Away, which is a slow blues style song that has the best guitar solo on the album. The trio are completely together with their playing and produce a full sound that has been expertly produced by Bass Player Steve Carly, while the Steely Dan influence has been highlighted the band offer a fine array of Jazz influenced blues playing that added with the strong material makes this an essential purchase.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

blue toucH

OLD NEW BORROWED aND BLuE Independent

Real Blues, no quirks and no pretensions – just Blues played well and sounding phat. An album that kicks off with WC Handy’s own St. Louis

Blues is making a pretty bald statement and between Neil Sadler’s vocals and guitar, Alan Cleaves guitar, Merv Griffin on bass and Hugh Laurenson on drums they make a pretty good fist of it, a classic treated with respect but with enough ‘sass’ to make it fun. Andrea Maria adds her vocal talents on ‘Trouble’ (written by the band) and definitely has a ballsy drawl that is pretty hard-edged and ‘tuff’. Cracking guitar work and no messing with it either. Track three is the softer side of the band with a great version of Melody Gardot’s Black As Night that really hits the emotions with some great guitar but then they really hit their stride with Lowell Fulsom’s Reconsider Baby which has it all; great vocals and some brilliant guitar in the seven minutes plus.

The musicians happy to switch styles between tracks with aplomb; no two are really alike so that you never have a chance to really pigeonhole them. Driftin’ takes you into the realms of Western Swing but The Tallyman is straight out Blues/ Rock with swagger and balls. Album closer Baby Please Don’t Go really works as a Doors-esque Blues and shows their individuality. There really isn’t anything about the band or the album that sets it out as unique or rare but their playing is excellent and I have to admit that I played it in the car happily for a week just for pleasure. I’m sure that they are a fine live band as well judging from this set and one I’ll keep my eyes open for but in the meantime this album will do just fine.

ANDY SNIPPER

caddy coopeR

SNapShOT Independent

Debut album from Australian folky, singer/songwriter and multiinstrumentalist who will be playing various festivals and gigs in UK this summer. She is a self-confessed troubadour who has gigged hard, including an appearance at

Cambridge Folk Festival a few years back. Her music is a mix of folk, blues and country and her songs are tales of life, love, loss and the universe, her voice is expressive, wide ranging and her versatility means she can carry everything from a sweet lullaby to a rocking blues and often in the same song. Deep And Slow is a gentle, uplifting, love song featuring acoustic guitar, brushed drums and fiddle. Safe features countryish pedal steel guitar and tells how Caddy locked away her heart at the end of a long-term relationship to keep her memories safe. Impossibly True is a beautiful acoustic slow love song which is followed by the upbeat Somethin’ Kinda Nice.

Her voice can also be a vicious weapon as in Whole Lotta $ where she dismisses a lover who has plenty of money but no common sense. The rocking Scooter Blues features wailing harmonica and even starts with the immortal line: “Woke up this morning”. Millionaire Shuffle is a jaunty country infused number featuring pedal steel guitar and there is even a didgeridoo used on the atmospheric intro to Pale Blue Promise as Caddy hails the start of another day in paradise. There is plenty of colour here with the varied instrumentation which also includes organ, ukulele, cello and washboard.

My favourite song on the album is the Latin flavoured Rum And Cuban Fire which conjures up exotic images of hot days and steamy nights. Thank You Blues is a tale of hard times with Caddy moaning her thanks for the difficult times which have inspired her writing. This Old Guitar is a song of thanks for her little Martin guitar and the album closes with the powerful country rocker Red Blooded Man where Caddy demands a strong loving man to satisfy her needs. An eclectic and colourful album with excellent self-penned songs, good musicianship and Caddy Cooper’s warm, stunning vocals shining throughout.

DAVE DRURY

Albums reviews

catHy leMons

BLaCK CROW

Vizztone

A moody looking cover and with the title of Black Crow Cathy appears there complete with jet black feathers and hair. So the mood is set for this ten track album with six originals by Cathy. She kicks off with Kim Wilson’s I’m A Good Woman and we get straight into the swing here, clucking guitar from Stevie Gurr and chunky rhythm from Paul Olguin (bass) with D’Mar and Robbie Bean (sharing the drum stool) topped by Cathy telling you why she is such a good woman. She is backed by the five piece band which includes Kevin Zuff (piano/organ) who are very accomplished and produce a terrific backdrop to her vocals. There are guest appearances on Sax, lead guitar and organ by Doug James (sax), Volker Stiller (guitar) and Kid Anderson (Organ and sound effects!).

Ain’t Gonna Do It cuts a great groove

and Cathy talks through for the most part and drifts into singing parts and makes this so effective a song. The title track has a slow a deliberate twanging acoustic start with shimmering vocal and so deep tom tom note thump that leaps from the speakers, you know when a single note from a drum hits ya so well! Love this! The album is complimented by a great mix, nice feel and one of the favourite tracks is I’m Going To Try which is a slow building number with great organ and sax. Highly recommended!

FRANK LEIGH

44 pistol

LIVE aT ThE VauLTS

Footstomping records

Hands up on my part, live recordings are not really my flavour of the month, for the most part due to audience input at the end of each recording segment on the albums. On the other hand the engineering and mastering

This CD release is by the Surrey based band that play high energy electric Blues with a sprinkling of Rock‘N’Roll, no subtleties here, just straightforward rocking blues. The album title is a bit of a giveaway as the twelve track CD is split into two distinct sections with the first five tracks being new songs written by the band while the following seven tracks are “live” covers that have been mixed and mastered in the studio, of the original material I Wouldn’t Treat A Dog

That Way is a standout track which has a Hooker background boogie beat with some thumping bass and harmonica accompaniment. The covers include songs that I am not familiar with although there are some standards here that similar styled bands like Dr Feelgood and Canned Heat have covered in their careers, including Boom Boom and Hog For You Baby, these are performed with real gusto and are representative of the material the band clearly enjoy performing. The band is a standard four piece led by ‘Slowblow’ Dave on Vocals and Harmonica who certainly leads from the front and he receives an extra star from me for naming Lonesome Dave Peverett as his idol and mentor, the other band members are; Andy Pullin, Bass, Adrian Thomas, Guitar and John Coombes on Drums. This is the sort of CD you play that really lifts you with its infectious energy and while not breaking any creative ground it is the type of album that everyone should own.

on this raw, gutsy album managed to minimise interference from the punters in Stafford. Forty Four Pistol have given the audience in the Vaults a performance live, which plenty of better known artists would sell their souls for in a studio! The trepidation I felt when playing it for the first time, was swept aside in a tsunami of real rock and blues sounds produced by only three guys, Pete Wearn, Ash Jones and Mick Askey, phenomenal in a sort of visceral rawness the music is matched by Jones’ vocals and lyrics which bear listening to with an adult mind.

Their version of one of my youthful favourites Baby Please Don’t Go, which I’d thought of as a Van Morrison epic, until they put their stamp all over it and now I see it differently! Let Me Play With Your Poodle is clearly intended for Cruft participants (Yeah right!). It is pretty clear in meaning and if you can’t grasp it then you were schooled in a convent! Oh wait a minute I was, I must have missed that class. Musically, these guys are cork popping this magnum! Both Champagne and pistol varieties.

TOM WALKER

lucky peteRson

ThE SON OF a BLuESmaN Jazz Village

It is not surprising that Lucky Peterson is such a prolific recording artist as he is perhaps the consummate all-round bluesman – an excellent guitarist, a wonderful blues organist and above all a gifted singer. As the title says, he is a second generation bluesman with direct links to Willie Dixon, and this set is an excellent introduction to his many talents if you are a newcomer to his music, a very fine confirmation of his abilities if you are already a fan. Lucky can play the modern blues, as on Blues In My Blood; he can supply Albert King styled licks to the title track, impress with his guitar skills on the instrumental Nana Jarnell and play the blues pure and simple on the

tHe voodoo sHeiks

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

appropriately titled Boogie-Woogie Blues Joint Party.

He can take a detour in a bluesreggae hybrid with his cover of I Can See Clearly Now, he can convincingly deliver a soul-tinged southern slow burn blues with Bobby Bland’s I Pity The Fool, update some classic soul with Funky Broadway and provide a fine swinging jazz inflected workout on You Lucky Dog, contrasting cool Jimmy McGriff styled organ playing with some incendiary guitar work. Additionally, on Joy, he calls up his daughter Tamara for some true soul singing, and closes out this admirable set with a piece of testifying gospel. As I said at the beginning, Lucky is an all-round bluesman, this set proves it beyond any lingering doubt, and he certainly deserves the high profile he is currently enjoying.

NORMAN DARWEN

WalteR tRout

ThE BLuES CamE CaLLINg

Provogue records

It is with a heavy heart that I write this review knowing the condition Walter Trout is in at this precise moment (as I review he was waiting for an operation) but this is a fantastic piece of work made under the knowledge of his present predicament. I don’t like to review a CD track by track but in this case I think it is the right way to present this album because every track is poignant. The opening track Wastin’ Away is a defiant statement of not giving up. The World Is Going Crazy (And So Am I) is a political statement that Walter does so well. The Bottom Of The River is a brilliant metaphoric tale of a man drowning but telling himself that he is not going to die. Take A Little Time has a real Chess Records influence which means so much to Walter. The Whale is the JB Lenoir classic and then Willie again has Walter ranting about being ripped off by those in control of your finances (powerful statement).

Mayall’s Piano Boogie is a superb jam session with the man in question who was influential in the early days of Mr

Trout’s career. Born In The City and Tight Shoes are vintage Walter Trout guitar masterpieces. The Blues Came Calling, the title track, is a heartfelt song that Walter must be feeling at this particular time. The line: ‘You’ll never be the man you used to be’ is soul destroying. The final cut Nobody Moves Me Like You Do is dedicated to his wife who must be his lifeline at the moment along with his son and the legion of fans around the world. If you never buy another record, you should buy this one, this is Blues from the heart as I have never heard before.

BOB BONSEY

JaRekus singleton REFuSE TO LOSE

alligator records

Just stepping onto the world stage is a young, new talent who hails from that cradle of the Blues, Mississippi. Jarekus Singleton (pronounced Juh-REE-kus) grew up playing bass in his grandfather’s church, and the deeply religious family wanted him to maintain his church roots, but he became a serious Rap fan. At the age of 15 he went with a musician uncle to a club where he heard Albert King for the first time, and the Blues grabbed his attention. He also possessed ability at Basketball, and was headed into that sport until an injury curtailed those dreams. However, because of his love of differing genres of music, he maintains a right to approach his own writing and playing from a different perspective. Of the 12 songs here, eight are his own compositions and four he has co-composed and it has to be said, there isn’t a dead song amongst them. His writing is very autobiographical, incorporating those Funk, Hip Hop and urban vibes but always presented within a Blues environment. He’s not a bad guitar player to boot. This is his second album, but his first for Alligator Records and there is a noise preceding his arrival. Even Classic Rock magazine has picked up on him

so his future seems bright. The album opens with I Refuse To Lose, a song that basically narrates his life story and attitude whilst in Hero, a funky outing, he seems to be telling the story of someone he used to look up to before he realised they were conceited and self-centred. Crime Scene is a great slow Blues that plays on words, detailing how he has been badly treated in a relationship. Keep Pushing again reflects his attitude to having to succeed, in no matter what format. His loss of career in the NBA is mentioned and how he was bitten by the Blues bug in a club gets a nod. This is a seriously good album, and for lovers of Michael Burks, who mentored him, Sherman Robertson or Eugene Hideaway Bridges, you won’t go far wrong by checking out this guy.

MERV OSBORNE

alvin lee & co

LIVE FROm ThE aCaDEmy OF muSIC, NEW yORK 1975

Digital White label - digitalwhitelabel.com

New ground breaking digital age platform for a British blues/rock legend which links the artist and fans like never before. This review is unique because Alvin is the first musician to feature on the innovative, subscription-based Digital White Label platform launched in May. Over a 12-month period, a previously unreleased collection of tracks is downloaded, alongside a variety of other exclusive material accessible on-line, all for the price of a single CD. The first two songs already released from this live gig are Let’s Get Back and Got To Keep Moving and whilst they are both from Alvin’s live In Flight double album of 1974 they are very different in this new format. This is because these are extended, live performances from what was clearly a memorable night in New York, and the fact that the bass and keyboard players for this 1974-75 world tour were the sensational Steve Thompson and Ronnie Leahy

Albums reviews

respectively. Neither artist featured on In Flight but who can forget Steve’s thumping, mesmeric riff on John Mayall’s classic blues/jazz number, California? Leahy, of course, found fame with Stone The Crows and Jack Bruce.

The band also includes iconic former King Crimson members Mel Collins on flute and saxophone and the late Ian Wallace behind the drums. Thompson and Wallace are in perfect rhythmic synergy on both tracks whilst Let’s Get Back highlights Leahy’s exquisite keyboard skills. Not surprisingly, in the 15 minutes of music so far, Alvin’s powerful vocals and trademark blistering, inventive and incisive guitar solos steal the show. And this is just the aperitif, as other tracks to be released include Time And Space and There’s A Feeling.

The prospect of hearing new versions of these with Alvin and the band on fire is mouth-watering. Thanks to expert mastering, mixing and executive production, the original tapes are transformed into a crystal clear, high quality recording which is far superior to any live album I have heard from that period or indeed recently. With more of Lee’s personal drawings, newly released photographs and memoirs to come, together with the ongoing interactive blog, it is unlikely that owning a CD will ever be the same again. As one Alvin Lee fan commented about being part of this digital fan club: “It is like celebrating Christmas every month.” Given the outpourings of grief and universal respect for the legendary musician who passed away far too early at the peak of his creativity, this commemorative package is an important legacy.

THE BISHOP

eRic JoHnson

EuROpE LIVE mascot / Provogue

Johnson toured over here, he was taken aback at how well some of his numbers were received and how eager the crowds were to hear his latest creations. For the uninitiated, Johnson is a players’ player: dextrous, fluid, obsessed with rich tones and delays and somewhat (and healthily, I think) touched by Hendrix and Zappa. When I first spoke to him a while back he was in the middle of re-assessing his approach to making music, in essence starting to de-clutter, last week he told me that this path had freshened up his music-making and brought him closer to his public.

Collaborating with the likes of Jonny Lang and Steve Miller cannot have hindered his progress. Here, Eric is in trio mode with Wayne Salzmann on drums and Chris Maresh on bass.

He mixes up hits like Cliffs of Dover and Mr PC with newer items including the beautifully cadenced and rocking Austin, a paean to his place of residence and a lengthy Last House On The Block. It’s the live album fans want AND a handy introduction to some of his styles. A formerly slightly cold maestro warming up and delivering joyous, spring heeled music

PETE SARGEANT

bob coRRitoRe

TaBOO

Delta groove music

consummate musician, and with help from a veritable “who’s who” of Bluesmen they’ve jointly produced a multi carat diamond in Taboo. It is well-nigh to pick out a favourite track, if only on the basis that they’re all absolute belters! However, Many A Devil’s Night is marginally over four minutes of pure magic in which all those playing get their chance to shine! The title track Taboo likewise gives free rein to those involved.

Bob’s genius on the harmonica is featured in a dominant (rightly so!) on 5th Position Plea. Truth to tell, this whole album is divine blues instrumental magic and a must have for any collection.

TOM WALKER

bRent JoHnson

SET ThE WORLD ON FIRE

Justin time records

Some of these US / Canadian guys don’t realise just how popular and influential they are, in Europe. So when

The harmonica is a quintessential “Blues” instrument insofar that they (harmonicas) were relatively inexpensive to get hold of, and produced a sound which had a soulful, and an almost angst feeling when played! It’s role in the blues has been key to the sound but rarely as dominant as this album manages. Bob Corritore has turned this perception on its head with this simply superb instrumental gem. For those of us who won’t see puberty again, this man has donned the mantle once worn with distinction by Larry Adler. You can see that maestros of the harmonica are as rare as hen’s teeth. Corritore is a

From the opening notes on this album, you just know that you are listening to a first class production. A Canadian record label offering a New Orleans based blues rock player, with guest appearances by Alvin Youngblood Hart and Sonny Landreth, then you just know that there must be something special coming, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Eleven carefully chosen, and crafted tracks, four of which are covers. This album has been ten years in gestation as Brent has been honing his craft, and what a craft! This is a superb album, with variety, taste and everything you could want from a Blues album, terrific guitar playing not only by Brent but by Alvin and Sonny, along with the impeccable musical backing from the other musicians. It is hard to pick a favourite track, but a particular stand out has to be the 13 minute version of Otis Rush’s As The Years Go Passing By. There is also a rip roaring instrumental of The Hucklebuck along with any one of the other tracks that stand up and beg to be listened to. I want to hear more from this guy, and I don’t want to wait another ten years.

DAVE STONE

dudley taft

SCREamINg IN ThE WIND

taft enterprises

It doesn’t seem that long since I was raving about his Left For Dead album, but time flies and beards grow, and here he comes again, replete with a Tom Hambridge produced set, which sees the legendary Reese Wynans sitting in on his always welcome organ. And if blues rock is your thing, then you’re going to like this rough and ready set, that sees a largely originals set rounded off with a couple of choice covers in the shape of Hard Time Killing Floor Blues by Skip James and the Gonzales via Freddie King funk fried Pack It Up. Strangely, the album kicks off with those two tunes, where it might have made more sense to have his own songs front and centre. Especially as the latter Muscle Shoals Horns enhanced number is hard to beat. But he gives it a fair crack with the title track and Sleeping In The Sunlight, the best of the bunch. It’s still in the seventies power trio format, replete with fiery guitars and the excellent rhythm section of drummer Jason Patterson and bass player John Kessler kicking it hard, but the added keyboard depth gives even the average songs a push in the right direction.

STUART A HAMILTON

dave MoRetti blues-Revue

ThaT’S SWINg!

bottleneck records

Infectious and toe tapping from start to finish this certainly hits the right note for lovers of the swing genre taking the listener to the American West Coast jazz and blues scene of the nineteen twenties and thirties. But, this band actually originate from Turin in Italy where they are popular mainstays of the blues scene and are garnishing notoriety there. A tight four piece band fronted by energetic singer and harmonica player Dave Moretti, Damir

Nefat on guitar Emanuelle Pavone bass and drummer Alessio Sanflippo, this is their second album, there are ten songs with three covers an interesting mix. All songs have a take on the jump jive feel no more so than the title track That’s Swing with great accompaniment by backing singers The Sublimes and rhythmic drumming. It is the sheer energy of the young band that hits you straight away with the excellent, Good Morning Judge. There is also a harmonica lead on the strangly-titled Gsus with an upbeat mambo infused feel. Added to this such songs are interesting interpretations of classics such as the jazzier infused Straighten Up And Fly Right and the soulful melodic, self-penned Just Like A Dog. Another stand out track is, I Walked Away, this a special track is

delta geneRatoRs

accompanied by guest guitarist, Maurizio Pugno. Although not a full on blues release, this is a very upbeat and classy release, a gem.

COLIN CAMPBELL

coRey HaRRis

FuLTON BLuES

blues boulevard records

When you receive a handful of records for review, before you set out to start listening, you wonder which one in the batch is the cherry on the cake. Well, this is it. Corey Harris is the answer to four important questions; where the blues came from, where it’s been, where it’s at now and where it’s

CONTINUES OVER...

Delta Generators are a four piece who hail from the U.S. city of Boston, home to Aerosmith, and were formed in 2008. They have developed a good number of loyal fans and this, their third release, was financed by those fans via pledgemusic.com. All thirteen tracks were written by the band and it was recorded live in the studio with just a few overdubs to give it a vibrant feel. The resultant sound was mixed by Grammy winner David Z (Prince, Clapton, Buddy Guy) and sounds very crisp and clear. The band roams between Blues and Rock, Roots and Americana with a side helping of funky soul, but above all they sound happy no matter what the style. Opening with the hard hitting rock of Whole Lotta Whiskey, it’s the prominent and driving slide guitar that sets the tone for the rest of the album. The title track is a no nonsense rocking Blues number about a one sided love affair. “I’m just a slave to the love you never gave, get on the horse you rode in on and go back home.”

A great song that draws the listener, feet tapping, throughout. Changing style and tempo, and with almost a country feel, It’s Been Hard is a sad love song that recalls Springsteen in his mellow periods. Hot Tickets is the opposite, a dirty, funky dance song, with the title referring to the name given to women or the way they presented themselves years ago. “…see the girl from New Orleans, out there in her jeans, movin’ like a hurricane.” Certainly a thought provoking song and a good one for dancing. My favorites here are the raunchy Blues rocker Diablo Rock that tells the story of God and the Devil hanging out in a bar together. The Prince sounding funky Blood Sugar Baby, complete with vocals that sound squeezed from way down low. Finally, the seven minute slow Blues of Night Of The Johnstown Flood is the outright winner here. It tells the story of the flood in 1889, and the song, both melancholy and thoughtful is the highlight of this album.

MERV OSBORNE

Albums reviews

going. From the packaging right through to the 16 stirring tracks, 13 of which were either written or co-written by the man himself, this is a sheer delight, a luxurious chocolate box of blues flavours covering every style you can shake a stick at. My favourite is Corey soaring away on Black Rag with his banjo in full flight, complete with a perky little sax riding on the verses. Consider this chirpiness in contrast to the heartfelt slow poetry of House Negro Blues and then the superb guitar playing on the invigorating Fat Duck’s Groove and you know by the last track, the Latin-esque Esta Loco, that you’re going to play this album all over again ...and again. It’s all here; down home country blues, big urban blues, African, jazz –Corey Harris confirms just how durable and versatile this genre really can be. He’s toured and recorded with B.B. King, Ali Farka Touré, Buddy Guy and many others. He also performed in and narrated Martin Scorse’s fabulous 2003 film Feel Like Going Home. If the blues in the 21st century has a front-running torch-bearer. Look no further, Corey Harris is the man.

ROY BAINTON

boston blackie & otis ‘big sMokey’ sMotHeRs

aBC BLuES

Wolf records (u K via Discovery records) First released in nineteen eighty-four as Chicago Blues Session Vol.1, it was deleted, but now it is available with Boston Blackie’s interpretation of Howlin’ Wolf’s ABC Blues, which has a pleasant slow burn feel as his Magic Sam sounding vocals dance over a dreamy ringing guitar that surfs over a charged percussive bedrock; this number is used as the new album title that Paul Jones recently featured on his radio programme (Monday the fifth of May). The album consists of separate sessions by Boston Blackie (Bennie Joe Houston) six numbers and Otis ‘Big Smokey’ Smothers seven numbers. The quality of which,

is quite stunning, these two bluesmen may never have been known in the blues premier league but, their skill and undoubted musicianship was second to none; I say was because Boston aged forty nine, was shot and killed by fellow bluesman ‘Tail Dragger (James Yancey Jones) on July the eleventh nineteen ninety-three, in an argument about money also, Otis died in the same year of heart failure on July the twenty third, aged sixty four.

Each of the numbers on this album is steeped in the heady mixture of raw down home Delta Blues and the lumbering majesty of the emotions and atmosphere of an industrialised Chicago. The tramping,

Jimmy reed sounding Hello Little Schoolgirl by Otis has a brooding vocal entwined with Eddie ‘Big Town Playboy’ Taylor’s richly ringing subtle guitar work over the top of a solid and pounding framework from Willie Kent; bass, Tim Taylor; drums and an urging harmonica from Birmingham Jones. This mellow and slow burning feel is continued on Muddy Walters’ Sad, Sad Day, Influences of his mentor Howlin’ Wolf are noticeable in his delicate phrasing and vocal inflections. Boston’s self-penned Louise is an endearingly classic Chicago pleader with almost manic drum work from Cleo Williams, underpinning a sweetly wailing and urging, ringing guitar with

It’s about time the current touring JM line-up – which includes my Texas pal Rocky Athas on guitar – cut a studio album – and here, in Mayall’s 80th year it is. The title is hard to argue with. John has been running a musical garden centre for decades, encouraging expressive and original players and ensuring that lovers of the live performance get a chance to see the best. The bass and drums combo of Greg Rzab and Jay Davenport are as nimble and jazz-inflected as you could find; they gave me their own album last time we met up and it’s a cracker. Rocky plays up a storm and often evokes a Lone Star State Otis Rush if you can imagine that? Mayall himself is in fine form vocally and instrumentally. C J Chenier guests on some cuts.

Highlights here include the easy-rolling and accordion-decorated Why Did You Go Last Night? which is pretty much a nod to Jimmy Reed; Speak of the Devil rocks out and great snarling guitar from Athas, sounds like of his Les Pauls, at 1:15 into the number he unleashes a solo equally biting and fluid whilst the drums patter along like an edgy Canned Heat on the hellhound trail. Out comes the harp for the fleet-footed trot through James Lane’s That’s All Right, Mayall trilling the higher notes on the A diatonic. The rhythm guys put a martial pulse into the winning cut World Gone Crazy which is a protest song, not an unusual thing for Mayall at all, as fans will know. This one’s straight off Sky News in its imagery, I kid you not! The beautiful guitar and organ tones in Flooding In California give the minor key blues and heady atmosphere, a great tribute to writer Albert King. Nice little guitar break by Mayall as well over a steady bass line, then Athas cuts in with a lyrical pleading solo.

The title track is the best softer cut here IMHO, personal and lovely ensemble playing. But Athas fuzzes his way through the despairing Like A Fool written by Rzab.so surefooted, this crew and they know just when to jump out and sting.

Masterful music shot through with warmth, then. And just what did we expect?

PETE SARGEANT

support from Michael Riley and Willie Kent; bass, Luther Adams; guitar. Recommended!

BRIAN HARMAN

HaRMonica Hinds

I’D gIVE yOu aNyThINg IF I COuLD Wolf records

This album incorporates twelve tracks originally recorded in two sessions in 2008 and 2010, all tracks include talented guitarist Eddie Taylor Junior but the star of the show is Mervyn ‘Harmonica’ Hinds, who besides playing the harp adds vocals and guitar, a veteran of the Chicago Blues scene who still plays in the city on a regular basis, while he has only been recording for less than ten years he has supported an array of Blues super stars including Willie Dixon and Koko Taylor. The sound reproduced during these recordings is really earthy and full of punch whether being bludgeoned from the harmonica or guitars, the highlight is Take Your Time which is a guitar driven song with a very sparse arrangement with fine interplay between harmonica and guitar. The sound is very authentic 1950’s Chicago blues and absolutely timeless, you could just as easily be listening to the James Cotton band here, all the material is self-written and suits the artists raw deep vocals, hearing this CD is really refreshing, as it reminds you what the blues is all about and Harmonica Hinds does not need to change a thing when he records his next album, excellent authentic blues.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

dukesy and tHe HaZZaRds

DIDN’T mEaN a ThINg

Independent

The band from Bendigo, Australia who are delivering a groove that will not be boxed in as they fuse blues with all the freedom and improvisation of the

jazz and funk they love. The album has a distinctive sound and style that they have made their own. Overall the eight tracks on the album have a tendency to meld into each other as the tempo and approach are similar there is a lack of tonal layers and changes that keep the listening ear tuned into the sound on the deck. That said, this is an album that has been well produced and Nick Brown (vocals/guitar), Dave Evans (bass), Adrian Violi (drums) and Jarrah Whyte on keys deliver a sound that has a vibrancy and a modernity about the blending of styles that makes it relevant for today’s listener. Just Gotta Think opens the album with stylish drumming and guitar licks that have a twirl and a flourish and the vocals are clear and tuneful. On the intros of many of the tracks it is the keyboards that drive the melody, which can be a little repetitious. The Way It Is, is different with a female vocalist, Liz Violi guesting on this track with a sultry approach to the lyrics. Whilst, The Devil has Geoff Achison guesting providing an extra layer of guitar which does change the tempo adding character and soul to this bluesy track. This is an album that is fun to listen to and is well produced, would just have loved to have heard some more of the free-form jazz/blues that they promised.

LIZ AIKEN

pReston sHannon

DuST my BROOm

Continental blue Heaven

Named as one of the most important exponents of Memphis blues alive today Preston has been known as the unofficial King of Beale Street for decades now. Previous recordings for Rounder Records’ Bullseye subsidiary were hailed as cutting edge in the 90s. Here we have seven tracks in tribute to Elmore James played with a bunch of top Memphis session men including Kirk Smitheart and Michael Aarons and the songs include Done Somebody Wrong, It Hurts Me Too, Look On Yonder Wall,

The Sky Is Crying and You Gotta

Move as well as the title track plus five tracks recorded live in Europe with Dutch outfit Fat Harry & The Fuzzy Licks. The Elmore songs are super, well played and so good and I loved Look Over Yonder Wall. If anything maybe some could have done with being expanded a little. The live set is so smoothly done. Preston has a clean cut sound as he cuts out the notes and pulses them at you. The Feeling Is Gone has oozing horns and easy guitar notes dripping all over it, The Streets Will Love You To Death funks it up some and gets your shoulders bopping, while the closing rendition of Princes’ Purple Rain is startling (but really makes you want to hear Prince playing some blues himself as he is an amazing guitar player). This is a fine album all round and worthy of a good listen.

FRANK LEIGH

tHe bluesMasteRs

VOLumE 3

Directmusic

Do not be fooled by packaging looking at the cover of this disc I expected a bunch of old Blues masters collected and hopefully including some rare tracks. Nope, The Bluesmasters are a band and from the first driving bass notes from Kassidy Tucker I was hooked on some truly fine soul tinged Blues; they kick butt... hard! Tim Tucker is the lead man these days and his guitar playing is raw and strong but the band around him is equal to his talents and the players are all talents in their own right. Mickey Thomas originally formed the band and supplies some great vocal while harp player Doug Lynn is up there with the best of the bar-harp players. Larry Thompson’s drumming is tight and powerful and underpins the band on every track. The album opens with Loving Man and features Hazel Miller and her vocal is heartfelt and emotive, raunchy but somehow innocent and alongside Tucker’s

Albums reviews

guitar line the track grabs you and doesn’t let go. She reappears elsewhere to the same effect but the quality doesn’t drop when Mickey Thomas takes the lead. The two share the vocals on all the tracks here and there aren’t many better belters around.

One of the best tracks is Suspicious featuring Mitch Towne on Hammond and the slow Blues has real atmosphere and no shortage of menace. The closing track is a cover, the only one here, of Eddie Money’s Baby Hold On and features Elton John’s bassman Bob Birch, a lifelong friend of the band, on his last ever recording before his untimely death. A quick glance at the guest artists on the album shows the esteem they are held in – Jake E Lee, Aynsley Dunbar, Hubert Sumlin and Eric Gales as well as Birch but the plaudits really are due to the band themselves. A live album is promised shortly and I can’t wait to get a listen but meantime, this is a monster!

ANDY SNIPPER

nico backton & WiZaRds of blues DOWN ThE LINE

Independent

Nico Backton is a Belgian bluesman who plays acoustic based music in France and Belgium with his band Wizards Of Blues. Going To The Country is a laid-back country blues featuring Backton’s husky vocals and slithering dobro which builds nicely. Sonny Boy Williamson’s old chestnut Good Morning Little Schoolgirl is approached with a mainly acoustic feel and chugs along splendidly. The slow bluesy Right Here is the longest track on the album at 5.28 mins and features some atmospheric slide guitar and Backton’s gruff vocals. The gentle and melodic Walking With My Angels opens with pretty finger picked acoustic guitar which is later joined by acoustic slide guitar. Most of the material is self-penned

Alvin’s last show, the Ribs and Blues Festival in Holland on 28th May 2012, turned out to be a breathtaking display of pure genius by a musician at the peak of his career. Arguably, it was probably Alvin’s best ever live performance. The set lasts nearly 80 minutes and represents Alvin’s entire musical journey from Elvis and rockabilly to Ten Years After and beyond, but rooted firmly in the blues. Alvin never got the recognition he deserved as a bluesman but his self-penned Slow Blues In C and Al Kooper’s I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes confirm that he was an exceptional exponent of that genre. Highlights include the guitar pyrotechnics on Love Like A Man, the masterpiece, I Woke Up This Morning, the irony of I Don’t Give A Damn and the national anthem, Going Home. However, every song is a highlight because Alvin is in scintillating form, technically brilliant, innovative and in perfect synergy with superb bassist Pete Pritchard and Richard Newman on drums, the ultimate power trio. The swagger and confidence of a maestro at the top of his game infuse the whole performance. Pete Pritchard sums it up succinctly: ‘Not for Alvin to gradually diminish and fade like a dying ember. He finished still playing brilliantly, still shooting from the hip, still the classic guitar slinger.’ Playing this CD will carry the listener in time to the front of the stage watching Alvin and rejoicing in the music he devoted his life to as it unfolded during that memorable evening. On the first anniversary of his death, Alvin RIP.

and title track Down The Line is pushed along by pitter-pattering brushed drums and a chugging rhythm section as Backton makes the journey along the highway of life. Leiber/Stoller’s uproarious tale of bawdy nights in honky-tonks Down In Mexico is given a rocking workout with Backton shouting out the lyrics augmented by doo-wop backing vocals. The traditional folk song The Boll Weevil is normally associated with Leadbelly but here it is given a modern rock makeover with a funky beat and atmospheric slide guitar. In Your Arms is a sweet acoustic lullaby which, unexpectedly, features a fine trombone solo from Jean Denux. Backton’s naturally emotive vocals work well on a cover of Mighty Joe Young’s fine slow blues Hard Times. The playing is excellent throughout and catches the right mood for each song effortlessly. The beautifully atmospheric instrumental closing track After The Rain features rolling finger picked acoustic guitar and shimmering slide guitar. Don’t know much about this band but I enjoyed this album enormously and recommend it.

DAVE DRURY

gabRiel delta BROThERS

banksville records

This first English language album from Buenos Airies’ Gabriel Delta, recorded in Vercelli, Italy, is full-on powerful blues with Latin, rock and psychedelic strata. Opener Time For Goodbyes with its sinuous woman tone guitar and brass section, inevitably I guess, conjures up Manuel Santana, but that’s no bad thing and it’s a lovely track. Big and smoky, the emotive Damn Love For The Blues belongs in an edgy club you maybe shouldn’t have stumbled into at one in the morning, and Blues Everywhere boogies pretty relentlessly around on-the-money harp and piano fills.

The melody on jazzy blues instrumental Climax, interplaying

alvin

THE BISHOP

guitar and brass, persists and stays with you. The National Steel guitar playing on No More Time On You, is, as throughout the album, wonderful, Gabriel is a natural and my fellow SRV / Clapton / Santana acolytes –you will love this.

PETE INNES

steve MoRRison and alan glen BLuES FROm SOuTh OF ThE RIVER

Independent

The river referred to here is the Thames and here we have a live recording of two stalwarts of the British blues scene. The Ship in Kennington in 2012 was the place to be for this master class.

For the uninitiated out there, harp man Alan Glen is a former Yardbird, more recently with The Barcodes, but on here, he takes a back seat to the amazing guitar wizardry of Steve Morrison. If you close your eyes whilst listening to this, you could be forgiven for thinking that the duo had snuck on a slap bass player, but you’d be wrong, it’s just the virtuosity of Steve’s guitar playing.

Steve plays hard, sometimes with a slide, producing a dense, constantly moving sound, with all three components, rhythm, melody and bass coming together in an incomprehensible fashion. The music ranges from Easy Rider, Tommy Tucker’s High Heeled Sneakers, Gershwin’s Summertime, Pick A Bale Of Cotton, Let’s Work Together and Blue Suede Shoes. In all thirteen tracks, the only original being Morrison’s own Something’s Over. All this with the added bonus of Alan Glen, what’s not to like?

The arrangements show what can be added by re-thinking a song, i.e., whilst the majority of these are covers, don’t expect them to sound like the originals. I can’t do this justice, so the next best thing to being there is to get hold of a copy of the CD, you really won’t be disappointed.

CLIVE RAWLINGS

JiM byRnes

ST. LOuIS TImES - SONgS FROm aND aBOuT ST.LOuIS

black Hen music

This Canadian blues musician has brought out a phenomenal release. With a vast back catalogue, he has now decided to bring out a release dedicated to his homeland, which coincidently ties in with the 250th anniversary of the founding of his most cherished St Louis and the 100th anniversary of the song St. Louis Blues the eighth track of this release. It is a nostalgic look back to his childhood and growing up in this town, but never is it melancholic or self-absorbed. He pays homage to such other St Louis luminaries as Chuck Berry, Little Walter and Stump Johnson and his musical roots just music to be enjoyed. The opener, Lie To Me has a soulful approach and good harmonica by guest John Hammond. Easy listening numbers such as Somebody Lied also shows off the skills of organist Darryl Havers. There are other influences and a nostalgic look back at New Orleans on Old Dog New Tricks, with Jim Byrnes powerful vocal with backing clarinet playing by Tom Colclough, Need A Change dips into a more rhythm and blues influence, with Steve Dawson adding to the mood with classy slide guitar, a stand out track. He also takes the listener on a trip through St Louis in a more narrative way on The Journey Home. A wonderful uplifting release, an eclectic lucky bag of fine tunes.

COLIN CAMPBELL

tHe Jives u.k. WhEN ONE DOOR CLOSES

moroccanroll records

They say never judge a book by a cover well this is an album when you really shouldn’t pre-judge the type of sound you will be hearing as this is not a CD full of Jump Jive and R&B music; it is a much calmer roots blues

affair. When One Door Closes is twelve reworking’s of familiar and not so familiar tracks bought to the recording studio by The Jives U.K. and their own distinctive playing of the blues.

Opening with haunting guitar with a real cowboy feel is their rendition of As The Crow Flies by Tony Joe White, showcasing the talents of the duo Big Baz (Vocals, Slide Guitar, Guitar and Foot Stomp) and Al E Bye (Harmonicas and Percussion); this gets the feet tapping and expectations for the rest of the album raised. I was not disappointed as I listened, the reworked tunes are not all of the usual suspects, the version of Come Together (Lennon/ McCartney) is bluesy and the lyrics shine through; then a little bit of Seasick Steve as we go, Down On The Farm and the version of Kim Wilson’s (Fabulous Thunderbirds), Walking To My Baby is rather good. Added into the mix is Chester Burnett, Mr Highway Man and Robert Johnson’s Walkin’ Blues and If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day performed with respect and bring their own style to the party. Free’s Walk in My Shadow (Kossoff, Rodgers et al); works really well and love the intro and judicious use of the stomp box, yes the vocals at times are a bit shouty but it works and for me the track stands out above the crowd. Every track selected really suits this laid backed stripped down rootsy delivery of strong songs with driving melody this is blues with a twist of zest and works on every track.

LIZ AIKEN

JoHn neMetH

mEmphIS gREaSE blue Corn music

This, the long awaited follow up to 2010’s Name The Day! embodies everything that sets this artist apart from the revivalist pack. Recorded in his newly adopted home base, Memphis Grease is slathered with boiling

Blues Top 50 june 2014

cRaZy WoRld of aRtHuR bRoWn ZImZamZIm Dirty Discs

The first album in almost a decade by the man of Fire! And amazingly only the sixth Crazy World album in a career that started in 1968. Arthur has had a long standing connection with Pete Brown (Cream, Piblokto etc) and The Pretty Things (having narrated and sung on SF Sorrow and appeared in the DVD of same). Now I must confess to a long musical affection for Arthur Brown having seen him perform Fire before it even hit the charts so long ago. At seventy-two years young he has the energy to leave younger musicians standing, he is his own man and lives life his way. If we were in the Wild West he would be one of the Mountain Men of old. This album then is a refreshing appearance and indeed does refresh and intrigue the mind and ears as it hypnotises and dances around your speakers with the voice so recognisable, soulful, plaintive, so playful and menacing together with well constructed songs that are searching and restful and eerie but you find yourself wanting to hug them. Arthur narrates his way into the closing track The Formless Depths which is great played loud with its laden percussion and ending in chants and horns. The opening title track starts with reminiscent sounding spoken words that bring Fire back to you then off into a rhythmic, tribal sound wave. Listen to it as the complete album, it is an entire work. Just loved it!

FRANK LEIGH

Memphis guitar, punched up with Stax style horns, but the spirit and sound of 50’s R&B and soul is the backbone. This is hardly surprising given that Nemeth has recruited the legendary Bo-Keys to back him on here. Opening with Otis Rush’s Three Times A Fool sounds like an Al Green session with Nemeth hitting those soulful funky highs that were Green’s signature. As good a singer he is, Nemeth’s harmonica skills are equally impressive. He punctuates his funky soul vocals on Her Good Lovin’ with some wailing Chicago style harp backed by Bo-Keys guitarist Joe Restivo ripping out Steve Cropper style licks. Nemeth bastes his soul chops Percy Sledge style on If It Ain’t Broke, but the showpiece on this release is Roy Orbison’s Crying. Nemeth is sensible enough to realise not to challenge the big O’s voice, but what he does do is handle this classic with respect, not for him the falsetto outro, but a throbbing, powerful finish in the lower register. There are three tracks , Bad Luck Is My Name, Keep The Love A Comin’ and Elbows On The Wheel (a throwback to his truck

driving days) where Nemeth lets loose with the harp, with true bluesy backing, in my opinion, it needed a little more of that sooner.

MaRcus Malone

STaND OR FaLL redline music

Quite simply the best release this year in this reviewer’s opinion, it has everything, what with a gutsy melodic toned voice and a great guitarist his best release to date. Also turning into a very accomplished lyricist this being a twelve track self-penned masterclass. This his sixth release he is now predominantly playing with a blues rocky styled influence to his music but this release has also a gospel feeling on a different level challenging his often times gutsy vocals on previous releases. For this release he has enlisted a stellar list of musicians including, Sean Nolan, Stuart Dixon on guitars and Julian Burdock on slide guitar, Winston

Blissett on bass and Roger Cotton on keyboards with Will Wilde on blistering harmonica and Dani Wilde on backing vocals. He opens with Living The Blues changing the tempo and mixing great backing harmonies. The infectious groove on, It’s Gonna Take Time is given a twofold twist arrangement as he mixes the essence of a moving ballad with overtones of gospel, with a catchy chorus, his usual biting guitar riffs, another such approach taken on Can’t Stop Lovin’ You which also features guitar solo by Sean Nolan. He now resides in London but his heart is still in Detroit, noticeable in the almost semiautobiographical Detroit City Blues a very personal account of when he first started playing blues music. Growling, gritty and great, a gem!

COLIN CAMPBELL

MaRk HaRRison

ThE WORLD OuTSIDE Independent

The World Outside, captures you from the first note with it’s fun rootsy beat, you know this is an album you are going to enjoy and listen to long after the review is written. This self-released album is full of confidence, with a dozen songs written by Mark. The band is loving what they are playing Charles Benfield (double bass, vocals), Will Greener (harmonica, vocals), Josienne Clarke (vocals, sax, flute,) Ben Walker (mandolin, vocals), Ed Hopwood (drums, percussion), Guy Bennett (keys, vocals), Sonny (bass, vocal) and Mark Harrison (Lead vocals). This album is full of bluesy roots textures and tones, lovely finger picking guitars, drawling vocals, percussion that drives the beat along and the overlaying superlative playing of a variety of instruments especially the mandolin delivered by Ben. Throughout there are overtones nodding to Dylan, Honeyboy Edwards and more as they fleet on by and you are then back with an original sound put together with class and cohesion.

Albums reviews

Amongst these twelve strong tracks I love the country feel of Long Long Way To Go; the beautiful guitar intro that makes this track stand out, followed by the lyrics that flow as you watch the world go by. Josienne’s vocals are wonderful whether as a backing that adds depth or taking the lead. Not Alright, a folksy-bluesy number where the slide guitar is used to great effect with harmonies to enhance this emotional track. The tempo never stays in one place every track takes a different approach to singing and playing roots music so the album is full of contrasts, as the mix of instrumentations are changed so that nothing overwhelms the song-writing skills of Mark Harrison. This is an authentic roots based album where it is the words that drive the instrumentation so the story shines through, as demonstrated on the final track Hard Times; a tribute to the superb early blues artist Honeyboy Edwards with a great mix of blues-harp and Hammond organ. Mark and the band have put together an album that is full of rhythm, emotions and above all fantastic skills on every instrument played with the vocals always centre stage, I love the mix of styles and approaches there is no doubt that angelic voice of Josienne combined with her skills on flute and saxophone gives the album something special that makes it stand out from the crowd. A special roots album that provides a great listening experience. www.markharrison rootmusic.com

LIZ AIKEN

tHe Riotous bRotHeRs

ThE TREE

Independent

Now this is cool. Big city blues vibes throughout. Throw in a twist of soul, a hint of prog and a big dollop of the cream of London’s pub rock heritage with a production that perfectly fit’s the overall feel of the writing and the loose rough’n’tumble playing that invites us into these brothers world. I keep

otis RusH I’m SaTISFIED soul Jam records

Subtitled The 1956 – 1962 Cobra, Chess & Duke Sides this compilation album is an absolute must for anyone who doesn’t already own these 26 tracks of wailing Westside Chicago blues. Rush was a true legend with his vocals steeped in gospel and his stinging guitar vibrato which so inspired Eric Claption and Mike Bloomfield and proved to be a template for what followed in the 60’s blues boom. Back in those days I had an EP which included the eerily atmospheric So Many Roads, So Many Trains To Ride featuring an impassioned vocal and the best blues guitar solo I’d ever heard. This song still raises the hairs on the back of my neck and there are many others here. The intense and magnificent slow blues I Can’t Quit You Baby was covered by Led Zeppelin and many others but nobody ever topped Rush’s tormented vocals and brilliant guitar fills. The Latin influenced All Your Love (I Miss Loving) is a minor-chord classic, which shifts into a rock beat midway through with a soaring guitar solo. Also present are the jumping Sit Down Baby and the smoothly crooned and humorous Violent Love which was covered in 1980 by our own Dr. Feelgood. The agonised Checking On My Baby and the classic slow twelve bar blues Groaning The Blues are further highlights. The atmospheric Double Trouble is another minor-key masterpiece and the horn driven Homework was covered by every blues/rock band worth their salt. Backing musicians include the likes of Ike Turner, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy, Little Brother Montgomery and Walter Horton. The album closes with the insistent riffing of the hard rocking It Takes Time. These fabulous songs and performances have ensured Otis Rush his status as the most intense, soulful bluesman of his era.

DAVE DRURY

hearing echoes of Ducks Deluxe, Graham Parker and Brinsley Schwarz who were the forerunners of Americana UK branch. Honey Not Vinegar follows opener Now More Than Ever and has a definite Stones aura floating around. Perfectly imperfect. Me And You features Paul Jones adding harp to the already simmering blues, full of restraint and tension. Second Time Around wraps itself around you and takes you prisoner in its textures. Fever might just be my favourite track. Lovely understated guitar playing that suit the lyrics perfectly, always on the verge of veering off into run of the mill blues soloing but thankfully always kept in check and taken into twists and turns that never lose its edginess. Cigarettes, great vocals with a super gospel styled finale could have graced any of the great rock records of the last forty years, it’s timeless and

addictive. Memory Of Our Love, a ballad that reminded me a little of Jo Harman’s best work. Confessional and honest, never overblown or over sweetened. Proving Too Hard follows that perfectly, musically adventurous, full of interweaving patterns and swirling keys and guitars adding another dimension to the albums appeal. Final track, I Wanna Know is a short bluesy folk tinged tale of regret that bring the album to an all too soon close. Mash Sonnet, guitar and vocals and Paul Long on keys, guitar and vocals are the songwriters throughout the ten original tracks and on this showing they are a force to be reckoned with. Brilliantly supported by Mat Lake on bass, and lead guitar on Second Time Around, and drummer Dirk Maggs I think The Riotous Brothers are a band on the rise. This is album reveals more on each play.

STEVE YOURGLIVCH

aleXis koRneR

EaSy RIDER

Not Now records

From the comparatively new label dealing with re-issues we have this excellent double CD set of re-mastered Alexis Korner. The first Cd is a selection of his early recordings with Cyril Davis and others featured include Ken Colyer, Beryl Bryden, Mike Collins, Chris Capon (where are these guys now?). There is even a track of Alexis accompanying Alan Lomax on the 1958 recorded song Frankie. The first CD has twenty assorted tracks while the second is the complete R&B at the Marquee album of twelve songs. The sleeve notes by Michael Heatley are a good but an all too brief reminder of a small part of history and more notes would have been welcome particularly to someone who may be discovering Alexis via this CD. The music though speaks for itself

FRANK LEIGH

Raoul and tHe big tiMe

hOLLyWOOD BOuLEVaRD

big time records

Toronto-based Blues band, Raoul and the Big Time are well known for their energetic mix of Chicago, Chess-influenced Blues. Raoul Bhaneja has enlisted some of the biggest names on the circuit including Franck Goldwasser of the Maple Staple Band; Richard Innes and Fred Kaplan of The Hollywood Blue Flames plus many Canadian luminaries. This 12-song collection features eight originals plus standards such as Bobby Bland’s Sunday and Pop Staples Why Am I Treated So Bad. Raol’s harmonica is certainly the order of the day on most tracks. The standout cuts for me are the traditional In the Shadow Of The Pine featuring Johnny Samsone on accordion and also Alan Toussaint’s

Get Out Of My Life Woman which gets an instant replay from me. A superb album to add to your collection.

BOB BONSEY

steve kolbus and tHe claRksdale blues Revue

BOOm BOOm / SKIppIN’ N’ hOppIN’ Independent

I actually purchased these CDs myself, from Steve, who I met in Clarksdale. Steve heads up the Blues Revue, which as far as I can tell consists of a varying number of players, depending upon who turns up on the day! Steve is the singer, songwriter and harp player and is backed by a girl drummer who also was playing lead guitar when I saw them perform (Jax Nasser) a bass player who doubles up on keys and occasional lead (Cade Moore) with others dropping in as required. Boom Boom is their first album and is self-produced, and full of good time get up and join in Blues and Rock. Skippin’ n’ Hoppin’ is the latest CD and was the reason that we were sitting at a concert to celebrate the CD launch. It is a feel good record and full of clever lyrics and great musicianship. I don’t know if you’ll be able to get them on Amazon, but if you are in Clarksdale, look them up!

DAVE STONE

toM ovans

LaST Day ON EaRTh Floating World

This double album is a 40 year retrospective on Texas-based street rocker and poet Tom Ovan’s contribution to North American music. Sadly, it is a very depressing experience, with the title track, Last Day On Earth, one of the more optimistic: “Wake up you’ll be dead soon enough, I want to look into the eyes of the angel of death. Other

classic lines include: “You can hear the souls of the poets screaming, crying out for mercy.” (Except Me) and “He went to Afghanistan, Where they blew him to hell.” (A Good Kid) “And I sat in a room, alone through the night, and I watched as my momma died.” (War) Tom makes Leonard Cohen sound like a standup comedian. Ovans’ distinctive drawl is initially reminiscent of Bob Dylan but the comparison soon ends because whereas the latter is a highly talented, unique musician and exceptional lyricist, this album is pretentious, self-indulgent and morose.

On Cold, Cold Morning, Ovans writes: “Well I wouldn’t of (sic) loved her, anymore then (sic) I did, but too many nights, I kept my feelings hid.” Some bard! Too many of the songs are dirges, bereft of emotion and ruined by the piercing, monotone harmonica playing. According to the publicity blurb, Ovans “lives on the edge, away from the spotlight, fame or glare and he only rarely gigs or tours.” Thank goodness for that. I defy anyone to listen to all 34 tracks in one sitting without ringing Samaritans. THE BISHOP

tHe buteRfield blues band

EaST-WEST

audio-Fidelity hybrid saCD Super SACD re-issue of one of the classics which features the American great white hope of Mike Bloomfield (for whom a terrific box set recently was released) with Paul Butterfield and company. A more experimental album with variety to it, my favourite would be the near eight minute instrumental Work Song while the longer closing title track was more of the experiment style and showing the wonderful creativity of the time and of these stand out musicians. One has to wonder what they may have achieved had Bloomfield stayed in the band. A classic not only of its day but still a classic and one of those

tHe teRRy Hanck band and fRiends gOTTa BRINg IT hOmE TO yOu

Delta groove music

Former Elvin Bishop sax player Hanck has a party on this, his latest release. He opens with Bishop’s Right Now Is The Hour features Hanck on lead vocal and sax. This is a great track with a lot of punch from Bob Welsh on piano and Johnny Cat Soubrand on guitar. On Whole Lotta Lovin’, the Maxwell Davis classic, Hanck reinforces that he isn’t just a sax player with a great voice. Soubrand again steps up with fine guitar riffs, but this song was written for the sax. The Tex-Mex sounding Pins And Needles is one of three tracks to feature Chris Kid Andersen on guitar, Jimmy Pugh on organ and the pairing of Hanck’s tenor with the baritone sax of Doug James. Peace Of Mind is a smokey blues with Welsh and Soubrand setting the pace, the latter turning the heat up with a crisp solo. Hanck doesn’t let you down either, stepping up with excellent phrasing of his own on sax. T’s Boogie is a rolling instrumental allowing Pugh and Andersen along with Hanck shine in the spotlight for an excellent romp. My Last Teardrop has a strong New Orleans R&B feel. Hanck handles the vocal really well, along with his phrasing of the sax. The track breaks into a galloping boogie, allowing Soubrand a quick rip, before Hanck wraps the track up with some super sax. There’s No Getting Over Me definitely has a pop feel about it. Hanck takes centre stage with a clean solo, backed by some decent orchestrated organ work by Andersen, clavinet from Lorenzo Farrell and backing vocals from Lisa Leu Andersen. The instrumental rocker Jam Up, leads into the title track, where Debbie Davies joins in on vocals and guitar. Don Robey’s One Horse Town closes the album, a fast R&B with nice riffing from Soubrand and full on horns from Hanck and James. This is a fun album which should attract attention.

‘must have’ albums for any collection (along with Super Session of course!).

FRANK LEIGH

Hat fitZ & caRa

Robinson

DO TELL

manhaton records

The sound is full, the melody line strong, the vocals whether Australian Hat Fitz or Irish Singer Cara Robinson bring the songs to life on Do Tell an album made for long summer evenings. This is an album that is embedded in roots music; the sound created is distinctive as in Gotta Love full of swampy blues and dirty guitar. Then there are tracks where Hat Fitz takes the lead role as singer these are moody and full of tension as in the title

track and Long Dark Clouds. The tension is broken and like the end of a summers storm we have blues that gets you dancing and jumping with Excuse Me and 99.9 country blues that flows with harmonising that set this duo apart from the crowd, it sounds so easy as if the voices are made to contrast each other, the washboard percussion is the icing on the cake of this track. Do Tell, is an album that is modern and keeps you on your musical toes thanks to the subtle impact of Jeff Lang’s co-production ensure the emphasis and silences are in the right place so that you are pulled along by the music. The jaunty track to walk down country tracks is Sister Sister this makes you smile with the tempo moving along with ease and the addition of lyrical flute in the musical interlude is the birds singing on a summer’s day very clever tonal

contrast. This is an album full of contrasts, the more you listen more of the musical secrets are revealed and as you sit back and listen to the lyrics they tell a story every time. The closing track Coming Home is full of Appalachian Country Hill Billy style and leaves you on a musical high, this is an album to enjoy forget about genre just celebrate the talent of this duo over 10 tracks on Do Tell.

LIZ AIKEN

MicHael packeR

I am ThE BLuES

Independent

I have to say that this CD does look like a very independent release with sketchy images heavy on the red colouring even on the text so I was a bit wary of this but with it came a neat one page info sheet with the words “Presenting The Soundtrack of A Life, A Life Worth Listening To” and that got me hooked and so to the player the disc went and I sat back ears open to the “honest and revealing anthology of a blues life, far beyond one which most would admit to”. We have gentle music to start and then narrative and oh what story telling we have, I am now hooked on the story line as well as the music. This man has been playing for over 50 years and sure has stories to tell. This is like your best live intimate gig when the artist talks to the audience and everyone is enthralled, the disc creates that atmosphere for you over an hour playing time and the music is fine and varied throughout the 18 tracks listed which include nine narrations varying from 1.43 to 8.16 in length but do not let this put you off this fascinating CD. The music varies so much from gentle acoustic blues to great slide work and electric numbers, the story moves through early years and influences, crime, drugs, Bob Dylan, recording for Atlantic, RCA, loves found and lost, prison, warts and all. Copies from: iTunes, Amazon, store@ irismusicgroup.com

FRANK LEIGH

WisHbone asH BLuE hORIZON rock solid House

The opening number of any CD is often critical if you are to gain the listener’s attention, the opening track here is superb and one that lasts long in the memory, it is a real slow burner than builds to a crescendo following some sweet rhythm guitar riffing, probably more progressive rock than blues but I am certainly not complaining. The next track Deep Blues evens things out as it is a straight forward rocking blues track with a strident guitar, the following eight tracks follow a bluesy rock style with varying degrees of success but are never to far from the original bands progressive rock roots from the early 1970’s, albeit with a fairly low-fi sound. The only band member left from the original incarnation of Wishbone Ash is guitarist/vocalist Andy Powell, who is supported by Danish guitarist Muddy Manninen, bassist Bob Skeat and drummer Joe Crabtree, together they perform as a very tight unit, exemplified on the title track Blue Horizon, a melodic extended rock track that has several solos but during which they never lose control of the melody. The final track All There Is To Say incorporates some Folk elements and includes Pat McManus who adds some nice Celtic touches on Fiddle and bouzouki, a good ending to a very enjoyable album, that while only having small doses of Blues does deliver with quality musicianship.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

ligHtnin’ Hopkins

LIghTNIN’ STRIKES & LIghTNIN’ hOpKINa

Discovery

There can’t be many of you out there who haven’t heard of Lightnin’ Hopkins, and indeed got at least a couple of his recordings. That shouldn’t be too difficult as he recorded almost 1000

tracks during his long career. This is a reissue, re-mastered with 5 bonus tracks covering 2 albums recorded originally in 1959 and 1962, all of these songs were written by Lightnin’ and for the most part are solo recordings with electric and acoustic showing off Lightnin’s mastery of the instrument. A total of 77 minutes of one of the early Blues Rock pioneers and if you have nothing by Lightnin’ in your collection, this would be a very good place to start.

DAVE STONE

vincent bucHeR

hOmETOW

Continental blue Heaven

Vincent is a Grammy nominated harmonica player, has been involved with the Blues for over forty years and has played with the likes of Louisiana Red and Sonny Rhodes. This album is a wonderful collection of self-penned songs reflecting his Blues influences. Spare Time has a great laidback feel to it with sensitive harmonica playing. The 14th Jump is a joyous jivey number that has your feet tapping. His African experiences come to the fore in Once In A While’ and I’m Buying Time has a lovely Latin feel to it. He’s stylishly supported on this record with amongst others Slim Batteux and Danny Montgomery. If you like your Blues with a Charlie Musselwhite feel then this album is for you. Every track is a winner – not a filler in sight.

BOB BONSEY

sHane dWigHt

ThIS hOuSE

rock House

12 tracks from a very experienced Blues rock guitarist, this being his ninth album release. Shane has written all of the tracks and co-written two of them with Bekka Bramlett who sings with him on the album. This is another album that is just right from the word go, I can’t fault it on anything, and I am

hard pressed to pick a favourite track as there are so many jewels here. We Can Do This wouldn’t be out of place on a Tony Joe White album as it is so dirty and swampy, with filthy guitar and rasping wah, great stuff! Fool has a nice slow Blues feel to it, and is certainly one of my favourites here. Sing For Me has a John lee Hooker feel and It’s Gonna Be Beautiful has lead vocals taken by Bekka Bramlett (daughter of Delaney & Bonny). This is just a great album by a very accomplished singer/songwriter, when are we going to see him over here?

DAVE STONE

tHe WelsH t band

WhERE ThE ROaD LEaDS Complexication

It makes no sense, but The Welsh T Band are from Yorkshire. They’ve been on the go since the nineties and currently comprise Terry John on vocals and guitar, Kevin Ackroyd on lead guitar, David Hoyle on bass & backing vocals, Dan Burnett on drums, aided and abetted by Steve Dymond on keyboards and Mick Shaw on harmonica. Seems that Terry John is the titular Welsh T, and it’s he, Kev Ackroyd and David Hoyle who’ve written all the tunes, which fit snugly in the Dr Feelgood / Nine Below Zero style of seventies into eighties British blues. Lucky Man is an excellent opener, all grit, swagger, vim and vigour before Sweet Shop arrives and turns into a Mink DeVille song. Odd, but then it gets odder still as the band lay down a Don Gibson sixties style country ballad with I Don’t Know. It’s nice that they’re willing to play fast and loose, but it’s going to throw some people. Elsewhere they throw in a slow blues, some rock and roll, and even a bit of blues rock on my personal highlight, Place In My Heart. It’s certainly an entertaining release, albeit one that throws in a few curve balls.

STUART A HAMILTON

Albums reviews

stone tHe cRoWs STONE ThE CROWS FEaTuRINg maggIE BELL

talking elephant

Forgive me, Holy Father, for I am about to commit a heresy. I never rated Janis Joplin. All those strained vocal histrionics, that smack-induced effort to re-live Bessie Smith’s life never washed with this listener. However, back when this album was recorded in Britain, we had some pretty fine women blues singers, all the way from Ottilie Patterson and Jo Ann Kelly through to Elkie Brooks. Prominent in that roster stands the mighty Maggie Bell, who you can still catch on occasional UK gigs touring with The Blues Band’s Dave Kelly. Stone The Crows was a Glasgow blues rock band formed in 1969. One of the UK’s great, late artists, Alex Harvey, had a guitarist brother, Les, to whom Alex introduced Maggie Bell. Stone The Crows had arrived! There are just nine tracks on this selection from three albums recorded between 1970-72.

All the non-PC epithets music journos used to trot out in those days to describe a woman singing like this have fallen by the wayside, so let’s search our consciences for alternatives to ‘ballsy’ and ‘raunchy’, because Maggie’s forceful delivery here, driven along by the band’s solid, confident musicianship, was always capable of scaring a hippie out of his loon pants. It did me.

Power drives this album, from the strident piano chords of the opening track, I May Be Right, I May Be Wrong, to the sensitively-delivered gospel-tinged Things Are Getting Better and the dramatic Love 74. Maggie Bell was, and remains, a fine singer who knows how to deliver a lyric, and Stone the Crows were an impressive band of inventive musicians. This is the kind of re-issue well worth having. Now, Joplin fans, the Priest says I must say five Hail Mariah Careys and prostrate myself at the feet of Beyonce.

ROY BAINTON

al basile WOKE up IN mEmphIS sweetspot

Some albums demand to be reviewed. Walter Trout’s spectacularly heartfelt The Blues Came Callin’ is one. This is another, produced by Duke Robillard. The lyrics, sung in a very clear vocal, are beautiful, meaningful and original. From the opener, Yesterday You Left, right through the album, they are superb.

This band with its horn section, including Al on cornet, doesn’t swing into things with the speed of Johnny Rawls and Curtis Salgado’s recent celebrated efforts. Instead, the pace is on the laid back side of brisk, the result a mellow orchestration, but one of real quality. As a result, the album is distinctive, and if it were a book, it would be very hard to put down. If one track sums up the album, it is the joyous title track, with lyrics including a prayer to God, in which Al promises “’I’ll be a better man tomorrow/Oh Lord, if you show me a sign/And I woke up in Memphis/They were playing that old Rock and Roll/I wake up in Memphis/And that was good for my soul.” This album is good for the soul.

DARREN WEALE

Matt Woosey

hOOK, LINE & SINKER

Independent

The title track, also the opener, is a powerful, seven minutes long indictment of materialism with a blues beat, delivered by the English acoustic (based) blues, folk and rock guitarist/ singer/songwriter Matt with his driving rhythm section of drummer Mike Hoddinott and bass player Richie Blake. It is such a good number that Matt reprises it at the other end of this five track, retro styled CD EP, at least in a radio edit which clocks in at just under four minutes. Matt has a varied

discography, but to my ears he comes across as somewhat in the vein of the great John Martyn. Let It Flow has a hint of funk in Matt’s guitar work, Could You Be The One? Is an attractive, jazzy number, and Give Me All Your Love, Babe is a fine piece of inventive folk and blues inflected rock. Matt has come a long way since his earliest musical experiences as a drummer in a Thin Lizzy Tribute band, and a major tour this year and this release should certainly help him break through to a wider audience.

Getting your fans to pay for your recording costs seems to be the way to go, and this is another in that vein. Some fans get payback with her posing on the cover with three lusty images showing her other assets. Ten tracks, all written or co-written by Erin except Tom Waits’ I Wish I Was In New Orleans. Suck It Up has a nice slide guitar opening and has a great Country/Blues feel to it.

Afraid Of The Dark is calling out to be a single release as I can hear this on radio all over the place, it is a nice 50’s style with slap back bass and a real lively Rock feel, definite Radio 2 playlist potential here! High School Sweetheart is noted on the CD sleeve as having been recorded live in the studio, but it is almost impossible to tell any difference in the sound or the feel.

I am not sure whether that is a tribute to the mixing or to the band, but it must say something? The playing throughout is on the spot. The final track is the Tom Waits song I Wish I Was In New Orleans and opens with an annoying finger scraping strings on an acoustic intro, but it then bursts into a full throttle New Orleans style and is a super closer to a well-produced album.

DAVE STONE

ian siegal

maN aND guITaR Nugene records

This album is a sort of Saul and the Road to Damascus scenario for me! I am truly struck by this man and his guitar. Between them they’ve created a blues record which is unbelievably produced not by a gnarled worker in the plantations of the Deep South, but by an Englishman in the Royal Albert Hall the home of the promenade concerts! Silver Spurs opens the performance at a speed that indicates the spurs were sharp as a tack when they were dug into the rump of the music. Siegal has a voice which has been lived in, and if not to excess, then damned close to the edge. Mortal Coil Shuffle has lyrics which have been written with feeling, if not livelihood experience. Throughout this album Siegal bares his soul in both word and guitar playing! Both of which he lets rip with unadulterated raw, visceral feeling. This production has also restored my faith in The Beeb as a national institution too since they’re party to this absolute gem! Tain’t Nobody’s Business is a lyrical masterclass, sung at breakneck speed with vocal contortions to defy sound engineers knowledge and was probably the cream in this truly vintage crop of Blues!

TOM WALKER

lucy MalHeuR

I CaN WaIT / LITTLE BLuE DEVILS

New Way

Deluged with offerings from Lucy, I had a three track EP, as well as the above two CDs to review. Lucy lives in Germany and is a prolific songwriter if this output is anything to go by, as all tracks are written by her and there are 36 tracks here, all recorded in the space of, well I am not sure as I can’t find any dates on the sleeves! The EP first off, entitled I Can Do Without You is pure pop and aimed directly at

pHillip sayce INFLuENCE

Provogue

Philip Sayce has been building a reputation as an exciting, innovative guitarist over a number of increasingly impressive albums. On Influence he not so much hit’s a creative peak as smashes it to pieces. The years being mentored by Jeff Healey, working with Melissa Etheridge and the experiences of recording and performing all come together in one place and with the help of trusted collaborator Dave Cobb as producer, co-writer and bass player Sayce has delivered the masterpiece his potential has been threatening. Opening with Tom Devil, Sayce and band playing over the original Lomax recorded vocals of Ed and The Prisoners, with Hendrix style playing invited to the party. The bluesy psychedelic Hendrix vibe continues into Out Of My Mind, the playing sublime and Healey jazz inflected blues-like. Then into more familiar territory, a stunning cover of Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes. At the midway point is the outstanding Fade Into You, an epic piece taking us on a reflective journey before a defiant statement of intent. I love the lyric in Blues Ain’t Nothing, the Don Covey original, ‘you put salt in my coffee, black pepper in my bread.’ Then it’s a Little Richard song, Green Power, tough to cover but done here with aplomb. Wonderful piano on Graham Nash composition Better Days follows, then Easy On The Eyes, a more straight ahead rocker. We return to Philips psychedelic tinged style for Evil Woman and Triumph which in parts reminded me of Rainy Day from Electric Ladyland. Light Em Up seamlessly follows before the album ends with Peace In The Valley, written by Tommy Dorsey retaining the Joe Savage vocal and perfectly book ending with Tom Devil. Quick mention for the vocals, the best I’ve heard from Philip to date. Superb song writing and choice of covers, the level of musicianship outstrips expectation so all in all a contender for album of the year . STEVE YOURGLIVCH

the charts and needn’t trouble us again. The second offering I Can Wait gives mixed clues as the cover shows a blonde standing at an ironing board, with the Stars & Stripes being ironed. Inside there are wanted posters of the band and the CD itself is pretty much country from start to finish. Very good too, but not our usual mix, however, the third offering Little Blue Devils is much more up our street! 15 tracks, three of which are reworked versions of songs on the Country album. To my mind, Lucy is best suited to the slow Piano blues that she offers on several tracks, as her voice is just so goddamned sultry. All in all a great package to put before a crowd, as she could do her very own Blues Brothers routine, giving them Blues and Country.

DAVE STONE

Matty JaMes LaST ONE TO DIE

Pirate Heart records

Since stepping out as a solo artist in 2012, Matty James has released two critically acclaimed EPs and toured relentlessly in support of his craft. His whiskey soaked voice set against an acoustic strum has created a signature sound that draws listeners in from the off. With just himself and a guitar, the young troubadour has earned a loyal fan base eagerly awaiting his next move. Last One To Die is the electrifying debut album from the Northern Irish musician. This release from Pirate Hear Records; an independent label founded by Matty,

Albums reviews

includes lead single Up In Smoke and boasts everything from bluesy Rock n’ Roll to country fused ballads. All the songs were penned by the man himself and he performs the instrumentation of a full band. The record also features guest appearances from members of his horror punk project, Cadaver Club and even Tyla J Pallas of The Dogs D’Amour fame. The rest of 2014 will see Matty James ensuring his music gets heard, taking ‘Last One To Die’ to stages across the country and beyond. Further tours, recording projects and creative endeavours with Cadaver Club and his punk n’ roll band Filthy Angels are sure to be in the works also. With as exciting and prolific an artist as this, you are best not to blink, you might miss something.

TOM WALKER

Multi-talented multi-instrumentalist

Drummer has been performing his thing for some fifty-five years, mostly in and around Chicago, and yet this latest release, his fourth for Earwig, has the vitality and energy of a newcomer. The whole thing falls under the Chicago groove and tracks two and three clearly signpost the mood; Another Rooster Is Pecking My Hen and Bit Her In The Butt perfectly pigeonhole the genre. Innuendo shouldn’t be the focus though, the word to latch onto is perfect, or near perfection. The whole album is a delight, timeless in the chosen mode, immaculate in production and wholly competent in musicianship. Drummer as vocalist delivers with that low down intonation required for such songs. As a harmonica player and keyboardist he affirms his longevity in the business; talent sticks around. Born Thessex Johns in 1930s Mississippi, he changed his name supposedly after seeing the film Johnny Guitar. He has worked with the blues alumni such as Carey Bell

and Junior Wells, yet not as many others as one might expect from his natural ability and location. Starting out as a drummer, he changed to playing keyboards as he saw more longevity in the discipline (“You don’t see many 75 year-old drummers”, from his website), and the understated keys on this release (Sure Sign Of The Blues, Isn’t No Secret In A Small Town) fit the bill with the aforementioned perfection. Johnny Drummer is also a bandleader and the accomplished choreography of the album, co-produced by label owner Michael Frank, with brass and funk aplenty, kind of makes us wish he had been more prolific over the years.

GARETH HAYES

lol goodMan band

TauTOLOgy Independent

It isn’t that long ago since Blues Matters reviewed Lol Goodman’s debut album, Old Dogs ‘n’ Licks, and so it’s a

t-bone WalkeR

welcome treat to receive album number two. Meaningfully co-titled under the definition (and subheading) of “the use of words which merely repeat something already stated.” it is more of the same tightly-honed homeland blues. With the exception of one track, the album is penned by Goodman and he shows an appropriate insight into the use of words and music that suit the blues genre. This album is a step up, or across, from the debut, and illustrates the band’s rapidly rising tenure particularly on the live circuit; they have come out of the back room in the pub and are now on the festival route. The lyrical storytelling of the blues author offers little new yet it is something to which we all return so tracks like Last Deed Of A Dying Man and Dust Myself Down can still enlighten and offer enjoyment aplenty. The former mixes distressed vocals with accentuated guitar and soothing keys, the latter a funky rhythm that has archetypal blues resilience. Goodman tries his hand at the poignant and the proud too, and

This Ace package incorporates the original LP recorded in 1969 on the Bluestime label and two bonus live tracks from the same period that were originally released on the Compilation Super Black Blues Vol 2. At the time of its original release T-Bone was coming towards the tail end of his career and the original release was not a particularly popular album at the time but listening now, forty five years later, this album has plenty to enjoy particularly the way the guitar mixes with Artie Butler on Hammond organ and Tom Scott’s tenor sax, perfectly illustrated on the lengthy track T-Bone Blues Special, which has some psychedelic undertones.

The song Sail On is covered twice being one of the bonus live tracks, this track is renowned for its lead guitar tone but sadly the live version is definitely lacking in this respect, the other live track is Stormy Monday Blues which is a short version of the classic blues track clocking in at just over four minutes but still packs a punch. The track that stands out for me is Vietnam written by producer Bob Thiele, this tracks fits perfectly with the era and while not by any means a strong anti-war song it has a great slow blues rumble to it and highlights T-Bone as a very confident vocalist. This re-issue is a timely and worthwhile release as it highlights T-Bone was moving with the ‘tide’ during this period of his career and he was clearly maximising the new studio techniques and stereo sound.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

JoHnny dRuMMeR BaD aTTITuDE earwig

Highway will have lighters and candles in the air at their live shows, maybe. Then there is the Stonesy Here Comes The Cougars and the recognition that amongst the pain and suffering, much of our release from such burdens comes in the form of humour. All in all, a nice step forward and we can confidently look forward to album number three.

GARETH HAYES

vaRious aRtists

BLuESVILLE

Not Now music

This three CD set of twenty tracks per disc from Bluesville which was a subsidiary to the Prestige label was yet another of those fabulously innovative labels of the time that set the trend for so many artists and enthusiasts giving that spark of life to musical and Blues heritage that we could only wish for in our dreams today. Michael Heatley again presents neat credits and notes for us but once again all too short as presented on the card sleeve of the digi pack fold out. Once again Not Now present an enthralling collection from legendary names including Lighnin’ Hopkins, Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson, Shakey Jake, Furry Lewis, Pink Anderson, Sidney Maiden, Alberta Hunter, Lucille Hegamin, Scrapper Blackwell and more but that should be enough to whet your appetite to check out a great set.

FRANK LEIGH

vaRious aRtists

aN EaSy INTRODuCTION TO ThE BLuES –TOp 15 aLBumS

masterworks series

Yep, you read it correctly this is a fifteen album box set, neat solid card box containing the CDs in card slip cases, this is actually eight physical CDs which contain the fifteen albums. There is too much music to review here so best to tell you who is

vaRious DELmaRK 60 yEaRS OF BLuES

Delmark

Back around the mid-70s, I wandered into a run-down record shop in Liverpool and emerged gleefully about ten minutes later clutching three LPs, all in super-thick sleeves: Speckled Red, Big Joe Williams and Sleepy John Estes. For me at that time, they typified the blues: poor, down-and-out and real. All three were on Delmark, an obscure Chicago label, which only added to the mystique. There was also a Junior Wells album, which I went back for a couple of days later. This was something a little different, with, gasp! shock! horror!, soul influences, but I actually enjoyed it. I did not envisage that around forty years later, I would be reviewing a 60th anniversary release for the label. Delmark is today one of the world’s leading blues labels, still maintaining the roots, there is a previously unissued Big Joe Williams track here, and a previously only available in Japan Sleepy John Estes number. Nice to see that Junior Wells is also here, paying tribute to Muddy Waters , who can actually be heard on a 1950 Little Walter recording on this set, and Junior’s peer Magic Sam also represents the classic Chicago sound.

The West Side’s Eddie C. Campbell and pianist Detroit Junior (solo here, unusually) are also fine Chicago blues performers, Tail Dragger recalls, very accurately, the mighty Howlin’ Wolf, and the international espousal of the music is referenced by Belgian born Pierre La Cocque’s otherwise American group Mississippi Heat. The new generation of African-American blues performers is portrayed by the likes of Lurrie Bell, Linsey Alexander, Quintus McCormick and the huge sounding psychedelic blues sound of Toronzo Cannon’s John The Conquer Root whilst Studebaker John and Giles Corey prove that Delmark has no colour bar; no gender bar either as Mississippi Heat’s vocalist is powerhouse Inetta Visor and later the gravelly-voiced Sharon Lewis romps through Blues Train, which has a tinge of Martha Reeves’ Dancing In The Street. When that hit originally back in 1965, Delmark was already over a decade old – that it is still producing cutting edge blues is nothing short of amazing. Do investigate if you’re not already familiar with America’s longest running independent record label.

NORMAN DARWEN

included to whet your appetites with each act having two complete albums on one disc except Professor Longhair who’s No Buts, No Maybes stands alone and Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson’s Space Guitar Master are both selections from heir Hoodoo works. Others include; BB King, Etta James, Muddy Waters, JLH, then Bobby Bland doubles up with Howlin’ Wolf while Jimmy Reed doubles up with Ray Charles and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins with Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson. There is also a twenty page booklet with smashing pictures and notes on each artist/act included as well as a summary ‘About The Blues’ but odd I could not find

writing credits for these informative pieces. What a great voyage of discovery for newcomers this set is.

FRANK LEIGH

vaRious aRtists

ThE

ChIEF BLuES STORy

One Day music

For a label who’s lifespan was only five years from 1957-1961 the legacy is amazing. This double set featuring so many immensely influential names from Earl Hooker

Albums reviews

through Elmore James, Magic Sam, Junior Wells plus Lillian Offitt, Bobby & Lucy, Frank Butler that the set is certainly an entertaining one with notes by smashing liner man Michael Heatley, shame there is no booklet to go deeper into the label story here but nonetheless a neat double disc set in sturdy digi pack card fold out sleeve. One Day comes under the Not Now label so there is plenty of good stuff under their wings to seek out and this is a fine set indeed.

FRANK LEIGH

vaRious

ChICagO aNThOLOgy

Floating World records CD

This collection of eight very interesting tracks takes us back a full half century to a time in 1964 when the American popular music scene was still reeling from what became known as the British Invasion, led by the Beatles and the Stones. Fortunately, we Brits didn’t have either official or unofficial racial segregation on the airwaves (we didn’t have it because our dinner-jacket radio was so crap anyway). But in the USA, until we began taking musical coals to Newcastle, there were two heavily fenced off musical universes; everything for whitey and ‘Race’ music for African Americans.

On this collection, however, are those young white American music pioneers who helped to pull that foul fence down and draw back the heavy curtains of America’s own culture to reveal to white kids just what they were missing, the Blues. Aided and abetted by strong vocals from Bobby Jones, Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselwhite and Harvey Mandel provide ample evidence here with Big Boss Man, I Loved and Lost, Hoochie Coochie Man and other songs that, like the Rolling Stones, they’d been listening to and absorbing the blues with passion.

In another way, they were lucky, too, because they were already living in R&B’s heartlands, and it

didn’t get much better than playing in Chicago. Today these artists are among America’s elder statesmen of music. Goldberg went on to play in Bob Dylan’s band once he’d ‘gone electric’, Musselwhite still treads the boards today as one of the genre’s top harp players, Harvey Mandel played with Canned Heat and was on the Stones’ album Black and Blue. These are very enjoyable recordings, songs played with verve and energy which, 50 years old or not, can still prod you in the heart and soul.

ROY BAINTON

vaRious gREaT BLaCK muSIC ROOTS

1927-1962

mondomix 3 CD set

69 tracks over three packed CDs. Count’ em! This is an epic collection curated by the French outfit, Cité de la musique, and hats off to the diggers and researchers who have put this fascinating bag of delights together. With a 40 page liner booklet by Bruno Blum (in French and English, if you’re not a Ukip voter) the three discs are jam-packed with not only great blues, but Afro-Cuban rhythms, ska, gospel, rock’n’roll, jazz and soul. Disc one has some real gems, such as Fats Waller’s Why Do I Lie To Myself About You? and Billie Holiday’s This Year’s Kisses. As for hard-core, down-home blues, no problem; you’ve got Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Blind Blake, and jazz from Count Basie and Jelly Roll Morton, as well as less familiar names like Una Mae Carlisle, Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds.

Discs two and three are no less exciting, because as well as Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Quincy Jones and Screaming Jay Hawkins, there are unfamiliar yet scintillating cuts from South Africa, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Disc 3 blends Latin, African, jazz, blues in a thrilling gumbo stirred by Howlin’ Wolf, John Coltrane, Muddy Waters,

Miriam Makeba and Lightnin’ Hopkins. But it’s the unusual gems between the big names which stay with you, such as Trumpet Highlife by the Nigerian star Dr. Victor Olaya. There’s a whole evening’s fun to be had listening to this compilation, and once I’ve written this, I’ll play it again. This is true musical buried treasure; get yours whilst it’s hot.

ROY BAINTON

Book Review

batHed in ligHtning JoHn MclaugHlin, tHe 60s and tHe eMeRald beyond COLIN haRpER

Jawbone Press, 504pp

The Mahavishnu Orchestra became 70s superstars with music which Colin Harper, in this biography of band leader John McLaughlin, describes as incorporating ‘modal jazz, free improvisation, Indian music, black funk, European art music and much else as well.’ There’s little, therefore, in the band’s music for blues fans, one might think, and yet Harper quotes McLaughlin as saying that when he first heard blues at the age of twelve, it was “...a revelation” and that the music of Muddy Waters “...was saying something to me which was very important. About feelings and about being.”

Indeed, Harper reveals that early in his career, surely unimaginably to most of those who were dazzled by the white-clad, pyrotechnical virtuoso of the Mahavishnu days, McLaughlin was a jobbing muso active on the British R&B scene, playing with bands like Ronnie Jones (and then Herbie Goins) & The Night-Timers, Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames and The Graham Bond Quartet. Harper evokes that scene vividly and is equally assured in evoking the contemporary jazz and session scenes, in which McLaughlin was also active. Again, few Mahavishnu fans, surely, had any inkling that

McLaughlin’s pro career had begun in 1958 with Big Pete Deuchar’s Professors of Ragtime and that he also played in other jazz bands like The Ray Ellington Quartet or that he played on hits by Herman’s Hermits, Donovan and Tom Jones. McLaughlin was a pro for ten years before he recorded his first solo album, Extrapolation, and Harper fascinatingly charts the giant steps forward he took thereafter, moving to America, joining Miles Davis’s band and then forming The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Harper has little interest in McLaughlin’s private life although he notes the comings and goings of various wives, and reports, without sensationalism, that McLaughlin, at one time or other, injected amphetamines, smoked dope and used LSD. He does however analyse McLaughlin’s spiritual journey and illustrates how his spiritual beliefs helped him create the Orchestra’s transcendent music. The book, which is also available in a longer ebook edition, ends with the demise of The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s final line-up in 1975 but so rewarding a read is it and so satisfyingly is McLaughlin’s career tracked and contextualised that one can only hope that there will be a second volume.

TREVOR HODGETT

Book Review

tHe bRitisH beat

eXplosion – Rock ‘n’ Roll island

EDITED By jC WhEaTLEy

aurora metro books

A punchy, anecdote-laden celebration of musical coolness. That is The British Beat Explosion in a nutshell. It is a book of history, reminiscing about Eel Pie Island in Twickenham in particular. The Island was that improbable location on the Thames with awkward access (a small bridge and before that, boat) which became a hub for some of the great music of

beeR dRinkeRs & Hell RaiseRs –a ZZ top guide NEIL DaNIELS

Published by soundcheck books. IsbN 978-0-9571442-7-9

The Press Release says this is: ‘The Ultimate Guide To Those Sharp Dressed Men’ and in fact it would appear to be that it indeed is! I have seen few books about ZZ Top who have over 45 years behind them of boogie and Blues of which many of us on this planet will have some recollection of at least one song. Neil Daniels comes up with a real celebration of the bearded wonders in their 45th anniversary year, hell have they been going that long already!? No matter what you listen to of theirs there is no mistaking that sound and that feel. Neil gives us a pre-ZZ history, talks about their albums and DVDs talked about and analysed, digs into their influences from the great Blues players to Country musicians and rock acts and moves on to who they have influenced themselves. There is a trivia section that will amuse the reader/fan alike. This is fact packed, interesting, has rare photos (in a centre section only), checks in at 245 pages, don’t forget to put on a ZZ CD as you sit down.

the 1950’s and 1960’s, and up until the modern day. The Rolling Stones, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds, Cream, The Downliners Sect, Rod Stewart, Buddy Guy, Memphis Slim, Howlin’ Wolf, all appeared. The names left out would impress any music fan as well. John Lee Hooker? Acker Bilk? Just two examples. This small, but compelling and well-illustrated work is a welcome reminder of the days when Rhythm and Blues was as its coolest, and little wonder, with that line up. The coolness expressed itself in the Eel Pie Hotel, the venue on Eel Pie Island, and the book tells the story of how the run-down and quiet location became a run-down and anything but quiet location, a must-go spot for young people. Naturally, its progress was eventful, with an outbreak of venue gazumping. Key figures included ‘social researcher’ Arthur Chisnall and owner Michael Snapper, who started their ball rolling in 1956 and quickly set up a membership scheme for the Eelpiland Jazz Club, as it was then called. The Eel Pie Club is still going, and the sexy but safe venue of the 50’s and beyond, is in a new home, The Cabbage Patch (see www.eelpieclub.com.) Even now,

history catches up with it, as at a recent night a whole band, Sooner Or Later, from Sweden, came to watch the Downliners Sect play. Why? It was Eel Pie stalwart Don Craine of the Sect who provoked them from coming out of retirement, but that is another story. Second, this quote from Eric Clapton, “It was a fantastic place, but I do remember the trouble we had trying to haul John Mayall’s Hammond organ across that bridge!”

DAVE STONE

Book Review

JaZZ

blues: tHe autobiogRapHy of cHRis baRbeR

ChRIS BaRBER

equinox Publishing

A few years ago I was MC at a Blues Band gig one fine summer evening in Kew Gardens. As I waited back stage I had a delightful conversation with an elderly gentleman. We talked for 30 minutes

FRANK LEIGH

Books reviews

about music and I thought ‘Hell, this bloke knows his stuff!’ I went on stage, announced The Blues Band and as I came off the same old man, clutching a trombone, strode past me into the spotlight, as Paul Jones announced the band’s special guest, Chris Barber. I hadn’t realised I’d been talking to a legend. I’d seen him before, so there was no excuse.

This beautifully written book (the work of Barber with journalist Alyn Shipton) is as good a musical pageturner as one could wish for. If you’re British and a blues fan, you owe so much to this sterling musician and open hearted catalyst. Born in 1930, Chris takes us through those grim wartime and immediate post war days when few Britons, if any, had ever heard of ‘The Blues’. His perambulations on his bike, to save his bus fare money to buy 78 rpm imports paint a picture of a sterile, monochrome Britain only us old folk now recall. Chris had such an interesting family, too. His father, the economist Donald Barber planned wartime food rationing, and Chris’s mother, Hettie, was the first (and only) socialist Mayor of Canterbury.

But here, it’s the music every time. Chris Barber’s dogged, authentic approach to Traditional Jazz put his bands streets ahead of his contemporaries. The people in his band line-ups reads like a who’s who, and went on to form the bedrock of what we now enjoy. Alexis Korner, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Duncan, for example. And forget the 1960s ‘British Invasion’ –Barber’s band were taking coals to Newcastle in the USA long before anyone else.

Who was it who dug between the Dixieland notes and spotted the blues? Chris Barber. Who introduced British audiences to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Bill Broonzy? Chris Barber. Which band had the finest female blues singer in Europe, Ottilie Patterson? It was Chris Barber. His stories of playing at Muddy’s Chicago venues and their time on the road are spellbinding. This is a solid, entertaining record of a great musician’s life and times. The

sturdy oak of British blues, rock and pop branches out across the world, but if you’re looking for its root, call it Chris Barber, and you’ll not be wrong.

ROY BAINTON

Book Review legends of tHe blues

By WILLIam STOuT abrams Comicarts

This is indeed a compact little book and yet rather dynamic as when you open it up it is a joy. Containing one hundred portraits and bios of major Blues artists that celebrates the unique sound of the Blues. The drawings are all ink and watercolour paintings and they capture the personalities of each.

There is a nice intro inside the cover by John Landis. The book is dedicated to ‘two of the worlds’ greatest artists; Willie Dixon and Robert Crumb.’ The bonus 14 track CD inside the back (hard) cover is a compilation from Shout Factory and runs for forty-one minutes including Big Joe Williams, Robert Nighthawk, Bukka White, Robert Wilkins, Mississippi Fred and Annie Mae McDowell and more on this lovely added bonus. It would seem that there will be another two books in this series and I certainly look forward to William Stout’s next volume.

FRANK LEIGH

Book Review

HigHWay 61

CROSSROaDS ON ThE BLuES hIghWay DEREK BRIghT the History Press

Having just returned from a Delta trip, I eagerly looked forward to reviewing this. As soon as it

arrived, I eagerly pored through it, and it was very much a case of “Been there, done that, got the T shirt!”. Momentarily I was almost certain the author had somehow gotten my camera and downloaded my photos, then realised that almost every Blues pilgrim will be stood in the self-same spot, taking the self-same pictures. Having read cover to cover and thoroughly enjoying it, I wished it was with me when I went, as it works on so many different levels; first of all, it’s a very, very well written and informative book and is a terrific coffee table book. Secondly, it acts as a valuable tour guide, taking you to places that you may otherwise have missed out (we missed out on several of the places that Derek visited).

As indicated above, it is profusely illustrated both in black and white and colour and has all of the usual shots plus other less expected ones. It is also so well researched and full of historical data that you may not have previously known. For example I didn’t know who Emmett Till was until I read this book, having seen several roads named after him (read the book!). Did you know that “The Killing Floor” in so much Blues music refers to the slaughter houses in the Chicago stock yards? I didn’t until now. It also points out that the Delta is changing, and that you can see the change happening, the countryside is full of decrepit shacks t hat I am sure are probably still mortgaged to some of the US banks.

A lot of the cotton plantations are now empty, growing soya or else given over to Catfish farming, did you know that almost 90% of the catfish consumed in the States are farm grown in Mississippi? The writer also has a nice way of describing things that made me keep saying “Yes that’s right”, silly things like the way that he describes being overtaken by trucks on the Interstate, and the Delta dogs that you see wandering around the landscape. If you are planning a trip to the Delta, put this book on your list, hell, buy it anyway, it really is that good!

DAVE STONE

tH e bm ! rou N d-up of live blues

BELFAST CITY BLUES FESTIVAL

VARIOUS VENUES

JuNe 27tH–29tH 2014

FRIDAY

Fast-rising Belfast singer Kaz Hawkins, who was fronting a keyboards, bass, drums line-up, is an astonishingly ebullient, highly animated performer. The harrowing and ultimately triumphant-sounding Lipstick and Cocaine, about her one-time drug addiction, was powerfully moving while other emotionally raw songs drawn from her often tragic life included Drink With The Devil, about an abusive ex-lover.

Of the covers, I Just Want To Make Love To You was sung with such hair-raising, man-eating, unrestrained aggression that one would have been terrified to have accepted the invitation! In another life, as members of The Adventures, guitarists Terry Sharpe and Pat Gribben recorded (and had minor British hits) for Chrysalis and Elektra and were managed by Simon Fuller. Now working as an acoustic duo, their set included covers such as I Don’t Want To Talk About It and I Hear You Knocking, and blues, all played expertly, with Gribben contributing outstanding solos but, soul-crushingly, they were performing to an uninterested audience of diners in a wine barrestaurant. On a jolly boat trip, with a free bar no less, local acoustic guitarist Rab McCullough and

Scottish harmonica player Rev. Doc played a lovely, loping version of Jimmy Reed’s Bright Lights Big City, a version of Kansas City, cheerily renamed Belfast City, Robert Johnson’s Walkin’ Blues, which was interpreted with dark truthfulness, and Muddy Waters’ I Can’t Be Satisfied, sung dolefully by Doc. Doc also sang John Lee Hooker’s Crawling King Snake with suitable creepiness and his harmonica on Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Released was beautifully poignant. Blackwood, a trio fronted by Sam Davidson, who played the Rory Gallagher role in latter-day versions of Taste, performed Hoochie Coochie Man and Sweet Home Chicago with brutal power, but elsewhere Davidson showed a more lyrical side of his playing. Maeve

Dunphy, who was accompanied by guitar, double bass and drums, is a striking songwriter, as on I’m Gonna Get Myself A Slave, a vocalist with great range and a very accomplished acoustic guitarist. The jazzy Beyond The Cover, about a romantic misfire, was witty. ‘He semi-joked that he was wicked on the trumpet... seemed like a sweet bit of crumpet’ sang Dunphy of the initial encounter, which ended dismally back at his place: ‘He was boring, I was snoring’ Hence the song’s concluding advice: ‘If you need a real lover, you got to look beyond the cover.’ The song included one of many elegant solos by Strat player Jerome McGlynn, the son of Irish roots music legend Artie McGlynn. Other outstanding

SHOW 2014

THE LONDON ACOUSTIC GUITAR SHOW 2014

SHOW

festivaLs

originals included the gorgeously romantic Long Way Home and the soul-influenced The Wrong Girl, which quoted Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough. The covers included a suitably raunchy version of Memphis Minnie’s Me And My Chauffeur Blues and an affecting interpretation of Stevie Wonder’s Blame It On The Sun.

sAtuRDAY

The Mighty Mojos, fronted by extroverted singer-harmonica player Lee Hedley, impressed with their musicianship and repertoire of hard-driving originals, including White Lightning, and occasional covers like Hi Heel Sneakers. Kick The Bucket, one of the festival’s youngest bands, entertainingly played blues, rock’n’roll and rockabilly songs including, refreshingly, less-often heard numbers like Memphis Minnie’s Kissing In The Dark and Wanda Jackson’s Fujiyama Mama. Another promising young performer, Katharine Timony, showed excellent vocal technique on the likes of My Babe, Moondance and Rock Me Baby, which included a fiery guitar solo from Billy McCoy.

The Ronnie Greer Blues Band featured the festival’s best, most swinging rhythm section, in bassist Alan Hunter and drummer Colm Fitzpatrick, and stunning soloing from Greer himself, whose guitar playing incorporates elements of bebop, slide guitarist Anthony Toner and keyboard player John McCullough. On J.J. Cale’s Sensitive Kind the subtlety of the interplay between the musicians was very satisfying while Toner’s slide on both A.C. Reed’s She’s Fine and Blind Alfred Reed’s How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live was hugely expressive. Two thirds of Cork up-and-comers Crow Black Chicken, guitaristsinger Christy O’Hanlon and drummer Gev Barrett, sported beards of Z.Z. Top proportions with only bassist Stephen McGrath letting the side down with facial hair that was somewhat bum-fluffish in comparison. The Southern rock-influenced band played with pulverising power but plenty of subtlety as well and their version of John The Revelator, a rare cover, with slashing slide from O’Hanlon, was genuinely exciting. Christy is indeed an excellent front man,

being a commanding singer and an amiable, sometimes hilarious, raconteur between songs. Billy Boy Miskimmin & Mercy Lounge played classy, hook-laden originals like Love Song, the anthemic Déjà Vu All Over Again, the bitter Cold Hard Ground, which was inspired by a toxic relationship, and One More Time, a Yardbirds-style rave-up. Miskimmin, who made his name with Nine Below Zero and The Yardbirds, played spectacular harmonica throughout. Fronting a trio, guitarist Pat McManus, once something of an international rock star with Mama’s Boys, put on an awesome performance of fiendishly complex originals like the instrumental Juggernaut and Runaway Dreams. His flashy playing and rock star posing may have displeased blues purists but the vast majority of the audience were blown away.

sunDAY

DD & The Delta Boys entertained with a repertoire which ranged widely from good-time blues to a likeable version of You Can’t Always Get What You Want, with nice ragged harmonies, to Diggin’ My Potatoes to Jean Genie to the more predictable Hoochie Coochie Man. Singer-acoustic guitarist Willie Byrne, a highintensity performer, sang strongly and played beautifully on Van Morrison’s Irish Heartbeat, Rory Gallagher’s Too Much Alcohol and on lovely versions of Cat Stevens’ Wild World and The Rolling Stones’ Angie. The Speedy Mullan Blues Band, who comprise distinguished veterans of the local blues and soul scene, played Help Me, on which Mullan sang imploringly and played tough harmonica, and crowdpleasers like Mustang Sally. Guest Warren Boyd sang I’d Rather Go Blind with raw soulfulness.

TrEVOr HODGETT

PAT MCMANUS VISUALS: TRISH KEOGH-HODGETT

festivaLs

MEMPHIS IN MAY

VARIOUS lOcAtIONS

may 1-31st 2014

The mild Tennessee climate and hot music proved to be just the right recipe after this long and frigid winter, as once again this year the annual Memphis in May Celebration did not disappoint. This now traditional celebration has been going strong for over 35 years, and while originally centred around the Memphis Symphony and World Championship Barbecue Competition, it has grown to include The Beale Street Music Festival, and more recently the Blues Music Awards. It now encompasses a nearly week long schedule of events and over 100 performances around town.

thuRsDAY

Thursday night’s Blues Foundation Music Awards brought together some of the most illustrious names in the Blues world to both celebrate the genre and pay homage to notable recordings and performances from the previous year. The big winners of the night were Susan Tedeschi, Derek

Trucks and their band – receiving three awards between them; Buddy Guy taking home the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award; and James Cotton, Irma Thomas, Ronnie Earl and Doug MacLeod winning ‘Best of’ awards. Always an evening of inspired music, the ceremony also featured performances by many of the nominees including Kim Wilson, Rory Block, Mike Zito, Anson Funderberg and a rousing set from the Remembering Little Walter team of Charlie Musselwhite, Billy Boy Arnold and Mark Hummel (For a full listing of the awards winners, go to www.blues.org). This amalgam of stars was certainly not exclusive to the Blues Awards show, as the Beale Street Music Festival once again featured a wonderful variety of artists in attendance. With five main stages and three days of music, the festival offered an array of performances by an equally amazing talent roster.

FRIDAY

True to the diversity of the music of Memphis, Friday’s line-up included performances from artists as different Snoop Dog, Foster The

People and Third Eye Blind. It was the Horseshoe Casino Stage, however, was the highlight of this writer’s evening with sets by Lucky Peterson and Ana Popavic and the evening’s closing set by Dicky Betts and Great Southern Fronted by the guitar trio of Betts, son Duane Betts and Andy Aledort, Great Southern put on an absolutely amazing performance, with Dicky again showing the fire and passion he’s breathed into his music for nearly 50 years.

sAtuRDAY

Saturday’s Festival also provided a variety of music styling’s with inspiring performances from musicians as varied as Joan Jett and Jerry Lee Lewis, and from Patti Labelle to Blues Traveler and Buddy Guy.

sunDAY

Sunday’s roster included Bootsy Collins, The North Mississippi All Stars, Roy Rogers & The Rhythm Kings, and a crowd-pleasing performance by Canned Heat. One of the week’s highlights had to be the blues jam at Memphis’ legendary Earnestine & Hazel’s’

LEO BUD WELCH PLAYS BEALE STREET, MEMPHIS, IN MAY VISUALS: ARNIE GOODMAN

LEO LYONS SITS IT OUT MEMPHIS, IN MAY VISUALS: ARNIE GOODMAN

club. This Memphis tradition and self-claimed “best dive bar in the country” actually began as a 1930’s pharmacy and hair salon, before evolving into a café (and bordello?) and eventually closing its doors in the 1970’s, along with much of downtown Memphis. Resurrected in the 1990’s, the bar now features the music that is the heart of this city, soul, jazz, and blues, and it hosted a Blues jam of epic proportions. Sponsored by Eagle Rock Entertainment, a standing room only crowd was treated to a band consisting of Leo Lyons (ex-Ten Years After), Roger Earl and Brian Bassett (Foghat), and Scott Holt (formerly of the Buddy Guy Band.) Blues classics and signature songs from each were heard including the classics Good Morning Little Schoolgirl and I Just Want To Make Love To You Also in attendance at the jam were Eddie Turner, Evelyn Rubio and Collin

John

Memphis In May has quickly become a ‘must attend’ festival, and judging by this year’s artist and audience turnout, it will continue to be so long into the future.

BriAN CADEy

YEOVIL BLUES FESTIVAL

WEStlANd’S lEISURE cENtRE may 10tH 2014

Full praise must go to Solid Entertainments, and Stephen Stanley for organizing a series events and festivals in what may be deemed quieter parts of the country, where live music on this scale may not be a regular occurrence. Thus it was that this, the first Yeovil Blues Festival was organized with Wilko Johnson headlining. Commencing early afternoon in a superb hall with a stage the size of the Hammersmith Apollo, the Mark

WHITE CLIFFS BLUES FESTIVAL

BlUEBIRdS dOVER

JuNe 7tH 2014

This was the very first White Cliffs Blues Festival and naturally, I had bought tickets, it was a one day event from noon to close with 6 bands on the bill and I was keen to see what it was all about. The first thing to do was to track down the woman who had organised it all, and who was beside herself with nerves and excitement, one Debra Gaskin

She is best described as a cross between a Duracell Bunny and Tigga, as she was so full of energy, and was literally bouncing about the dance floor. She had managed to obtain sponsorship enough to cover all of the main costs of the event, and the 250 plus ticket sales were going towards a local river project.

We arrived part way through the first act which was a local band Howling Wolves, and they are a trio (Mike, Dave and Ian) I only caught their last couple of numbers but all that I can say is that the bass player was giving it his all! They were certainly popular with the largely local audience. Next up was the Robin Bibi band, with Tony Martin on bass and Craig Bacon on drums, Robin began almost straight away by standing on one of the tables and playing his Strat behind his head! They were as always immaculate and got the response that they deserved, terrific start to the day. Next up was a band from the Essex Delta, Back Porch, who are a four piece acoustic band, and unusually, all of them sat down to play, and despite the apparent ease of it all, they offered up a very varied list of Blues old and not so old, I

particularly liked their last number, More Beer Than Gear.

Next band was another power trio, the Dave Jackson Band, I had not seen them before and Dave came on looking like Ozzy Osborne’s younger brother! Dressed all in black, as was his partner and Bass Player Janet. They ripped through a set that included Little by Little, Buddy Guy’s Mary Had A Little Lamb, Spoonful, then a selection from their new album (which is available as a free download from their website.) A really different version of House of the Rising Sun which I really liked, closing with a storming version of Tore Down.

All of this left quite a challenge for the next band, the Kingbees, who started straight off with Rock Me, and after that I am afraid that I was too busy on the dance floor to take notes of any of their subsequent numbers, suffice it to say that they kept the dance floor full for most of their set. Last up was the Blues Duo, comprising Tommy Allen and Johnny Hewitt. Now the last time that I saw Tommy, he was taking on all comers in a Strat battle (and generally winning, too) this time, I was surprised to see him setting up a small drum kit at the front of the stage and taking up residence behind it, albeit with his trusty Strat round his neck. I had also forgotten what a great voice Tommy has for the Blues and combined with the ferocious harmonica of his partner Johnny Hewitt they performed a storming set that had the crowd calling for more. Was it a success?

Definitely yes, and when Deb has finished bouncing, I am hoping that she will be in touch so that I can be involved in next year’s event.

DAVE STONE

festivaLs

Pontin Group opened the day’s proceedings.

Mark has played guitar for almost 25 years and this is his first formal step into the group arena, whilst his two sidemen hail from a more structured jazz background. He allows them the freedom to go their own ways within his songs and together they impressed the small but growing audience. Closing with a jam on Fire by Jimi Hendrix, it was obvious both band and audience enjoyed the set. After a short turn around, Federal Charm hit the stage, this young band are being hailed as the next big thing in the Blues Rock world, and on this showing, I can believe it.

Although beset at times by sound problems, they overcome to impress with tunes such as the long slow blues of Reconsider, the forceful There’s A Light and the slide guitar of The Stray. Vocalist Nick Bowden impressed with a voice that often recalled Steve Marriott whilst Paul Bowe demonstrated guitar ability well beyond his years. With a great rendition of Going Down, the band left the stage to thunderous applause. Albany Down next took the stage and this is the first time I’ve seen them with new drummer Donna Peters, who proved to be a capable and imposing stickswoman. I like the dynamic of this band; Paul Muir being a standout vocalist, whist Paul Turley is an economical guitarist in both movement and expression but delivers an impressive and powerful display.

The song You Ain’t Coming Home, a slow Blues, is an emotive vehicle during which the band comes to life, playing to their highest ability. The set flows smoothly, each song complimenting each other and South Of The City has Turley playing some subtle slide guitar whilst the song evokes the road songs of the States. Next up were The SpellKasters, who opened with the Bo Diddley song I Can Tell. They proved to be a solid band who played no nonsense, head down R&B. Pete Edmunds, guitarist, has paired up with Romek Parol on drums and BJ Anders on bass. Playing a mix of both original and cover songs, The Spellkasters are a good fun time band, with no airs and graces, or hype. Edmunds songs are somewhat autobiographical with Vodka Headed Woman, a song about a bad relationship of his. The only Blues they do is the antithesis of that sad song, Valley Girl being dedicated to his beautiful new lady waiting at home. The first of a small group of dancers appeared during their set and they finished with many new fans. The Steve Nimmo Trio were next on stage, and from my perspective, this was the act I was looking forward to most. Steve, like his brother Alan is both a superb guitarist and vocalist who never fails to deliver. Having recently listened to his solo album Wynds Of Life , I was delighted that much of the set was constructed around the songs therein. Opening with a stomping Rattlesnake Shake, they set out their stall early on whilst the slow Blues of Running Back To You hit everyone listening. This song was written on the back of a bike in the South of France with Brother Alan driving and is a self explanatory story. Sadly there was no time for encores even though the crowd would have loved one. To this point, the festival had been more of a Blues Rock festival than a Blues

Festival, but things were about to take a serious change. Next on stage, and appearing solo, was a strange act to have in this forum and one that never really lifted the crowd after the heights to which we had risen, due to the artist’s style of music. Simon Townshend is the son of the Who’s Pete Townshend. He has all the attitude and style of his father and his song construction is very much in the same vein as Pete. Indeed, watching him attack both his songs and guitar I was reminded many times of a younger Pete Townshend, I hope he takes it as a compliment when I say that on many songs I could hear the Who. Timebomb was an extremely intriguing song dedicated to a 40 year old friend who had recently had a heart attack, whilst Denial was dedicated to addicts and their problems. Townshend has an extremely strong voice and appeared quite accomplished on both mandolin and 12 string guitar. Keep The faith was a particularly impressive interaction between vocal and guitar.

This brought us then to the headliner. Wilko Johnson had gone into hospital some days prior to this festival and so an interim act had been found in the shape of Zoot Money. Sadly he appeared solo and once again the dynamic of the day had changed. I do, however, respect Zoot for standing in at short notice in front of an audience who had been originally expecting the no-nonsense rocking of Wilko. Alternating between originals and covers he played some Ray Charles, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and a host of songs from his 50 years career, including Never Rains But It Pours and the Alexis Korner classic Wild Wild Women And Desperate Men. It wasn’t the expected finish to a good day, but nevertheless a great day that belonged to the younger bands. I look forward to next years event

MErV OSBOrNE

The SpellkaSTerS are a good fun Time band, wiTh no airS and graceS, or hype

nO sInnER

tHE GARAGE, ISlINGtON

may 29tH 2014

Before the show tonight, NS lead singer Colleen Rennison makes a point of thanking Blues Matters! per your scribe for the attention and reviews. The Vancouver band have returned to the UK on the back of their invigorating Autumn English debut and successful press sessions to play a string of shows across the country and culminating in this London performance.

Rennison is as fiery and it must be said alluring as at her previous gigs on the metropolis but a couple of new numbers find their way into the set along with a full-bloodied airing of smoky new single Love Is A Madness, Former bassist Parker has disappeared to be replaced by a young and dextrous player who seems to have fallen from the back of the Gong tour bus circa 1972 going by his hair and attire. The drumming remains emphatic and soaked in the relentless soft-shoe Hi Label

style stickswork we know so well from the timeless recordings of Al Green and Ann Peebles. The heart of the act however is Rennison steering her raspy voice around the guitar fireworks Eric Campbell. Campbell is a moody b*st*rd in his playing technique, whilst entails a thin line Telecaster stoking up an amphetamined fuzzy beehive brewing up in volume then shot through with single string slashes veering in and out of feedback. His solos are sardonic and spiky, which means that far from being

a smooth-sounding soul revue, No Sinner have a rockier vibe altogether.

Opinion time – the band need to retain and fire up this bonfire sound still further, to sound as distinctive as they need to. They also need two or three fast numbers (ref. the tempo of I Can’t Turn You Loose?) to give the show a more linear feel or balance. Arthur Lee’s Love had airy material like Orange Skies and She Comes In Colours BUT at any moment he could burst into the breakneck Seven & Seven Is... there isn’t anything Colleen cannot sing the back off, they can afford to be fearless.

The show raps up with the rockin’ and tempo-switchin’ Boo Hoo Hoo, the tears are yours if you missed this one. Oh and the preceding act Jakabo are worth a mention or quick salute. Their young soul-fired female vocalist was an ace foil to their guitar man’s adaption of Eric Johnson’s delay-soaked axe style into edgy rock blues. A four-piece with real cohesion and punch and I shall be seeing them play again. Justice had a whirling Bad Company vibe, the drum-driven Justice had a heavy atmosphere and purposeful vocal; You Never Listen worthy of early James Gang

PETE SArGEANT

thE JOhn O’LEARY / ALAn GLEn ALLstARs

AnD GuEsts – BACK tO

thE FLAMInGO CLuB

BARNES, lONdON

31st marcH 2014

The Stormy Monday Club runs every Monday at the Bulls Head, Barnes, promoted by Pete Feenstra. Itineraries can be found on his website (www.petefeenstra.co.uk). On the last Monday of every month Back to the Flamingo Clubtakes place with the resident house band The Flamingo Allstars. The newly

NO SINNER VISUALS: JIM TEMPLETONCROSS

COLLEEN SINGS THE BLUES VISUALS: ANTHONY MAY

BRuCE, JOhns & PAGE, wIth suPPORt FROM stEVE RODGERs tHE BORdERlINE, lONdON may

30tH 2014

The extremely gifted young Steve Rodgers opened proceedings tonight with a sublime solo set mixing his original writings with a smattering of covers. Seated centre stage with mostly acoustic but occasionally electric guitar we were mesmerised by the warm perfection of songs like The River and Sunshine. Steve is much more than a singer songwriter, his tunes have a greater depth that enable them to work in solo or band mode. He chats between songs in a disarmingly friendly way but invites banter as if wanting to hone his stagecraft, not that it needs much honing. Then he puts down his guitar, stands up and totally unaccompanied sings the gospel tinged Cup of Light, the audience picking up and clapping a beat. Brave but wonderful stuff.

Malcolm Bruce and Will Johns were originally planning to have Kofi Baker on drums with them but visa problems meant Chris Page stepping into the breach for this variation on Sons Of Cream that had toured previously. Chris is an acclaimed session player whose credits include Albert Lee, Andy Fraser and Robbie McIntosh among others, so no surprise that his contribution throughout is instinctive, solid yet elegant where needed. Will Johns is well known to blues followers, a fluid, fiery guitarist with inbred blues dripping from his fingers. An excellent vocalist when called upon, and a songwriter of standing too, the couple of his own numbers fitting alongside the Cream tracks pretty

seamlessly. I especially enjoyed On My Back. Malcolm Bruce, son of Jack, takes most of the vocals and plays stunning virtuoso bass throughout. Somebody yells out, who taught you to play? Oh I don’t know replies Malcolm.

The blend of Cream songs with some hard edged blues work perfectly. From the opening I’m So Glad, the wonderfully restrained We’re Going Wrong, and a brilliant version of Rollin’and Tumblin’ featuring Trevor Price on blues harp the Borderline is rocking. Of course we all have our personal favourite Cream songs, and wait with baited breath (sorry for the fishing pun Will) as the night goes on. By the time we get to Politician, with lyrics as relevant today as ever, the band can do no wrong. Will excels on Crossroads, spitting out vocals and guitar solos with equal venom. White Room is the showstopper we hope it’ll be before a twelve minute plus Spoonful takes us over the finishing line.

STEVE yOUrGLiVCH

refurbished venue has long been renowned for Jazz and Blues, and now boasts a nice restaurant and a cool, intimate music room with it’s own bar. The Allstars band includes two of the UK’s finest harmonica players: John O’Leary and Alan Glen; and top musicians Papa George: Guitar (extraordinaire), Nick Newall: (Sax), Tim Penn (Piano), a tight rhythm section of Glynn Evans (Bass) and Peter Miles (Drums). The band now includes vocalist Ali Maas, who has performance spots in both sets. Every month there are two, sometimes three, guest performers, all of which are of very high calibre. Previous guests have included Paul Cox, Micky Moody, Marcus Malone, Val Cowell, Erja Lyytinen, Elmer Gantry, Steve Morrison, Robin Bibi, The Delta Ladies there is always a waiting list of people wanting to be a part of this evening. Tonight’s guests were Eddy Angel, Laurie Garman and Andy Roberts. The Allstars started proceedings, with John O’Leary singing Little By Little and Early In The Morning in true Junior Wells style, followed by Papa George with a great version of T-Bone Shuffle whose guitar playing never fails to astound me. Ali Maas gave a great rendition of Bonnie Raitt’s Love Me Like A Man and the Memphis Minnie classic, In My Girlish Days. Ali Maas seems to progress in confidence every time I see her and I’m looking forward to her own gig here at the Bulls Head in June. The first set closed with three numbers from Eddy Angel, aided and abetted by Laurie Garman on harp, and finished with an excellent version of Little Walter’s Just Your Fool.

The second half burst into action with John O’Leary putting his stamp on Paul Butterfield’s Born In Chicago and Robert Johnson’s Walking Blues in pure Savoy Brown style. Papa George followed with a fine version of Love Her With A Feeling. Ali Maas then powered through 3 Times A Fool and I Just

WILL JOHNS VISUALS: JOHN FREEBREY

Wanna Make Love To You before headline guest Andy Roberts (Blues Patrol) brought the house down and had the audience roaring approval with fab versions of Start it Up and Phone Booth. As usual a great performance from band and guests. There is no better place for a blues fan to be on a Monday night at the Bulls Head, Barnes.

BOB BONSEy

BEnEFIt GIG FOR wALtER tROut

02 SHEPHERdS BUSH EmPIRE

may 4tH 2014

On Sunday 4th May over 60 musicians got together for an evening of music to raise money for Walter Trout’s liver transplant. Peter Feenstra organised the whole night and he should be congratulated on a fantastic achievement. The house band, commonly known as the AllStars, consisted of Alan Glen (guitar), John O’Leary (harp), Tim Penn (piano), Nick Newell (sax), Pete Lamont (trombone), Pete Miles (drums) and Glynn Evans (bass). This band of musicians were on the money and held the night together all evening! I don’t think Pete Miles left the stage at all.

The AllStars set the ball rolling with Paul Cox (Soul Singer extraordinaire) I’ve Got The Proof, Born In Chicago with John O’Leary blowing harmonica and Some Kind Of Wonderful. We were off and running. Walter Trout was timeless in his devotion to tutoring and mentoring young guitarists and four of his mentees were here tonight to pay their respects: Ian Parker, Laurence Jones, Mitch Laddie and Danny Bryant. Stephen Dale Petit showed class with his rendition of Have You Ever Loved A Woman; Marcus Malone shone with his version of Slow Down; Ian Parker prowled his way through Hendrix’s Little Wing and Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower. Laurence Jones was majestic with his self-

GwYn AshtOn tHE GARAGE, SWANSEA may 1st 2014

The support tonight came from Aberystwyth based Big Joe Bone, who brings charming authenticity to his style of country-influenced blues whether playing his self-penned numbers or covers. With his rendition of Blind Willie Johnson’s number Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground using his deft skills on the slide guitar, Big Joe Bone ensured the audience remained engaged with friendly chatter and in addition to his guitar percussive stomp box and harmonica.

Gwyn Ashton opened his tour of UK, with a new venture as a solo artist with impact spanning the gap between solo and a band. This he achieved with a skilful mix of lyrics, attitude and layers of musical textures and tones by using an array of guitars including his James Trussart Steelphonic, which delivers a delicious combo of sound of electric and resonator giving a depth of character to the tracks played. Into the mix of guitars was a 12 string, a Strat and a

penned Temptation, Falling From The Sky and a blistering Swamp River. Walter’s Marie’s Mood was lovingly delivered by Mitch Laddie and aided by Andrew Elt who then delivered Mercy. Danny Bryant closed the first half with John O’Leary in an earth shattering set which included Days Like These and Can’t Help Falling Apart. Danny was one of the first guitarists Walter took under his wing and is fronting Walter’s own band in Europe and America this Spring. Mr Bryant has grown in stature since the early days and is a credit to WT’s influence.

The second half was rollercoasted with Del Bromham’s

1931 National Duolian and a bass drum the instrumentation may be stripped down but the sound is definitely not restrained or contained.

As the volume turned up and the tempo was raised he treated everyone to some rough-edged in-your-face blues. Gwyn treated the audience at The Garage Swansea with a mix of revamped classics and his self-penned music from a variety of his albums, including his latest Radiogram. The re-workings of classics made into sit up and listen to songs you know so well and sometimes take for granted including Rory Gallagher’s, Out on A Western Plain and Willie Dixon’s, I Just Want To Make Love To You. From Gwyn’s own albums the highlights of the night were The Road is My Religion from his Prohibition album and Angel from Radiogram leaving people wanting to add this music to their collection, as they knew they had been entertained by a musician full of energy with blues in his heart and soul that is just that little bit different.

LiZ AiKEN

band augmented by Stevie Smith and Cherry Lee Mewis on vocals delivering amongst others WT’s Words. The temperature and pace increased as the evening progressed. Bernie Marsden was Sitting On Top Of The World then was Born Under A Bad Sign (pure class). Otis Grand increased the pressure with C Minor Blues (guitar solos to die for!) and then with Marcus Malone and Laurence Jones on Bye Bye Blues. The Slow Down produced community singing. Otis was in his element with Looking Good. Who on earth could follow this ‘in your face’ music?

concerts

Roger Chapman is the answer, he was magnificent, asking Help Me, saying it was a Shame Shame Shame and then Put His Brand On You. What must have been a difficult time for Walter’s son Jon, who made his British debut here tonight to a tumultuous reception playing When My Dad Plays

The Blues and finally the stage filled with over twenty musicians including Larry Miller to finish the evening with Going Down. Full credit must go to all musicians who played this evening with no egos, no other agendas than to wish Walter Trout a speedy recovery.

BOB BONSEy

thE JOhn O’LEARY / ALAn GLEn ALLstARs AnD GuEsts – MuDDY wAtERs REMEMBERED

StREAtHAm, lONdON

april 10tH 2014

The Hideaway is an elegant club which hosts mostly big names in the Jazz world, but this annual Muddy Waters tribute has proved popular and is now in it’s seventh year, promoted by Graham Miall at www.onetreemusic.co.uk

It proved to be another great night of authentic blues from the excellent Allstars house band, which boasts two of the UK’s finest harmonica players: John O’Leary (ex-Savoy Brown) and Alan Glen (Yardbirds/Nine Below Zero). Both Alan (who also plays guitar in this set-up) and Al Vincent (guitar) had done their homework and provided the classic Muddy Waters Band rhythm parts, as well as some slashing slide guitar when required.

A super-tight rhythm section of Peter Miles (Drums), and Glynn Evans (Bass) held things together and allowed some superb Otis Spann style piano flourishes from Tim Penn, and some tasteful Sax parts from Nick Newall. Make no mistake, this band really knows it’s blues. They kicked off with John

IAn sIEGAL tAlKING HEAdS, SOUtHAmPtON

A small crowd turned out for what was to be a fantastic night of blues at this fantastic venue. Steamer, a local trio got the evening under way, with a soft, acoustic set, Stan (gtr/vocals) being the standout by a distance, with Helen on bass and Tom on djembe/cajon. It was apparent that nerves got the better of Helen, very little rapport with the audience and it has to be said Tom would do well with more stage presence. Backwater Roll Blues Band were next up and from the opening chord of I Don’t Need No Doctor, confidence exuded from this talented local six-piece. The dual guitars of Deano Matthias and Tim Payne, are well supported by the rhythm section of Reggie Winslade and Chris Pope, not forgetting the much-travelled Ray Drury on keyboards. Every team needs a leader, though and Miff Smith on harp/vocals carries that role off a treat. She’s So Mean To Me, was followed by Highway Man, but it was the two closing tracks, Who Do You Love and their own arrangement

O’Leary singing Young Fashioned Ways and 19 Years Old, after which first guest Ali Maas sang three numbers including Soon Forgotten, which she told us she first heard on the Live at Newport album. Steve Morrison followed with a high energy spot playing his unique guitar and singing King Bee and Baby Please Don’t Go to wild applause. The second half started with the great Jeremiah Marques joined by Laurie Garman on harp on a high-spirited Tiger in Your Tank and Long Distance Call, which was followed by Tim Hain’s classy

of Big Boss Man that were real jaw-dropping moments. With little delay the headliner was on stage.

Ian Siegal has been touring with a young Dutch band, The Rhythm Chiefs, he has certainly struck gold with them. Led by Dusty Ciggaar on guitar (very reminiscent of David Grissom), Danny van’t Hoff on bass and Rafael Schwidessen on drums, it’s a joy to see youngsters joining and enjoying being in the presence of a master. Opening with Dylan’s Sugar Baby, segued into Back Door Man, Siegal, himself no slouch on guitar, handed over to Ciggaar at will. The Tom Waits classic Bad Liver And Broken Heart got the full-on treatment. Another Man Like Me preceded Tom Russell’s classic Gallo Del Cielo, the story of a cockerel, you can imagine how that one was introduced!

Ian was on his best behaviour, maybe mum and dad being in the audience had something to do with it? Fallin’ On Down from his Meat & Potatoes album closed the set. Summoned back for an encore by the enthusiastic audience, saving the best for last, the beautiful Dylan number, Forever Young.

THE BiSHOP

versions of Whisky & Reefer and Blues had a Baby. Ali Maas jumped up again for I’ve Got My Brand On You & I Just Wanna Make Love to You, an obvious audience favourite, which left headline guest Paul Cox to whip up a storm on Hoochie Coochie Man, I’m Ready and the inevitable encore Got My Mojo Working. This was a fabulous night of real blues, played by musicians who really care about this music, and it was a fitting tribute to the man who was such a major influence on the blues in Britain.

BLAKE POWELL