Blues Matters 80

ON TOUR

SEPTEMBER / 24 & 25, 2014 / THE ISLINGTON / London, UK

SEPTEMBER / 26 / CLUNY 2 / Newcastle, UK

SEPTEMBER/ 27 / SHAKESPEARES / Sheffield, UK

SEPTEMBER / 29 / MICK MURPHY’S BAR /

Ballymore Eustace, Ireland

SEPTEMBER / 30 / JJ SMYTHS / Dublin, Ireland

OCTOBER / 1, 2014 / THE ERRIGLE INN / Belfast, UK

OCTOBER / 2 / THE ADMIRAL BAR

@Glasgow Americana 2014 / Glasgow, UK

OCTOBER / 3 / JOHNNY’S BLUES CLUB

@Liverpool Marina / Liverpool, UK

OCTOBER / 5 / THE MUSICIAN / Leicester, UK

“One of the few under 40 Blues dignitaries in North America” who is in a “consistent state of nonchalent mastery” ★★★★ – Downbeat Magazine

photo by Sean Sisk

Welcome to your latest edition of the Blues magazine where the Blues really matters!

Album releases are a very seasonal thing and so at some times of the year we receive so many CDs for review that we cannot hope to get them all in an issue, unless we deprive you of the fascinating interviews and features so we have made the commitment that if we cannot get some reviews into print then we will place them on our web site.

We’ve a great variety of interviews for you in this issue, including the start of a new four part series with legendary Bluesman Dave Kelly. Dave discusses an eventful life in the history of the British Blues scene; where he has played with so many legends, including his sister (the much-missed Jo Ann Kelly), Tony McPhee, Tramp, John Dummer’s Blues Band and more.

We have the amazing James ‘Boogaloo’ Bolden, the legendary John Mayall, Joe Bonamassa is with us again, as is his sometime sidekick Beth Hart and we introduce Lisa Lim. We now have our coverage of the European Blues Challenge and KitChat returns.

So much to choose from, where to start? Enjoy!

We are spartacus!

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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, 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 authors. Reproduction may only be made with prior consent of the Editor and provided that acknowledgement is given of the source and copy is sent

REGULARS

08

Happenin’

News and views from the Blues world, including Kitchat, The European Blues Challenge, John Tefteller , collector extrordinaire. Plus Grainne Duffy’s Blues top ten and Johnny Winter says goodbye – a report from his final gig.

29 blue blooD

New Blues talent: The Lol Goodman Band, Mark Harrison, Philip Morgan Lewis, Troy Redfern, Tom Killner and The City Boys Allstars.

94

110

reD lick Top 20

The best selling albums from the best blues mail order company in the world.

rMr blueS Top 50

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

INTERVIEWS

34

40

46

50

JoHn Mayall

The Godfather of The Blues has turned 80, but so signs of slowing down.

Joe bonaMaSSa

The hottest ticket in Blues tells about his forthcoming new album.

pHilip Sayce

Welsh born Canadian talks to Blues Matters! ahead of his forthcoming album, Influence, and his UK tour.

JaMeS bolDen

B.B.King’s bandleader lifts the lid on life on the road with the band, how he came to get the gig in the first place and what the future holds.

62

68

Dave kelly

Why Dave Kelly has become such an important and influential icon of the British Blues scene.

MarcuS Malone

From US heavy metal teen star to British-based bluesman.

74 liSa liM

A new name to many but an exciting talented singer, guitar player and writer from Virginia.

80 DevenporT

Back after a twenty year gap with tales of alcohol abuse, knife murders, prison, heroin and boxing.

FEATURES

85 blueS broTHerS

90

Part 4 of the Blues Brothers Music Mission, the saga continues.

unDer THe raDar

Back On Track with the gifted Toronto bluesman Jordan Patterson.

REVIEWS

95 albuMS

The most comprehensive Blues album review section anywhere, with new releases from Eric Bibb, Joe Bonamassa, Rival Sons, Bernie Marsden, Danny Bryant, re-issues and compilations.

121

SHowTiMe

Festivals and gigs, including Maryport Blues and The Rory Gallagher Festival, Grainne Duffy, The Heritage Blues Orchestra, and more.

“I

BLUEs LEgEnD sAys gOODByE

Blues maestro Cal Newman has passed away at the age of 69, following a brief battle with cancer. Cal was a major part of the Cardiff blues scene for many years. Abandoned at his birthplace in Birmingham, Cal was brought to Cardiff, discovering the blues at the age of eight. Completely self taught, he played gigs around the Cardiff area for many years, but is probably best remembered for hosting the TV show Sounds Of Britain and fronting his band The Muddy River Blues Band. For many years Cal hosted shows at Inn On The River in Grangetown, Cardiff and played alongside many big name bluesmen.

mike ZiTO says gOOdbye TO The brOTherhOOd

Mike Zito has decided the time is right to move on from Royal Southern Brotherhood to focus on his own band Mike Zito and The Wheel and other projects that include a forthcoming UK tour in November. Mike will continue with RSB alongside his replacement Bart Walker on the 2014 October Blues Cruise. Nashville-based Bart has released two previous albums on Ruf Records with his own band

that includes former Stevie Ray Vaughan member Reese Wynans. The Mike Zito, Samantha Fish dates are throughout November, starting at Chislehurst Beaverwood Club on the 5th, before moving on to Wolverhampton, Edinburgh Jam House, 7th, Carlisle Blues Festival, 11th, Bristol The Tunnels, 12th, Swansea The Scene, 13th, Derby Flower Pot, 14th, Sutton Boom Boom Club, 15th.

Verbals: steve YO urglivc H all tHe blues tHat’s FIt tO PrINt, FrOm arOuND tHe WOrlD

rSB wIth BArt wALker, Second LeFt

BLUeS MAeStro cAL newMAn

photo: cArL de ABreU

cAMBRIDgE ROcKs On

The ever-popular Cambridge Rock Festival successfully completed it’s 11th event this August, despite having to deal with some pretty abysmal weather conditions. As ever there were lots of blues highlights, including Jimi’s younger brother Leon Hendrix being joined onstage by both Ben Poole and Chantel McGregor. Another treat was Laurence Jones jamming with Adam Norsworthy of The Mustangs when some of Adam’s band couldn’t get through the flooded Blackwall Tunnel. Other outstanding blues performers included Roadhouse, Larry Miller, Roy Mette, Pearl Handled Revolver, Split Whiskers, Northsyde, Will Johns, Black Top Deluxe, Dave Jackson Band and Innes Sibun

live extra

bye, bye brilleaux

lee brilleauX MeMorial concerT CANVEY ISLAND

maY 9tH 2014

This was the last Memorial concert for Lee. After twenty years and having raised a hundred grand for the hospice that cared for him they have called time. Reasons for doing so were varied and everyone there felt somewhat saddened by the prospect of no future pilgrimages to Canvey and the Oysterfleet Hotel in particular.

Lee would have been 63 years old this weekend and what with Wilko having major life saving surgery only days earlier and the sad loss Gypie Mayo it was a reminder to us all, sic in transit, Gloria!

Bands and fans alike set about a final concert to remember them and rejoice in the Feelgood Factor they engendered to audiences over the years. Pete Gage, along with Gordon Russell, Big Figure and Sparko were first to hit the ballroom stage and set about the business with I Can Tell followed by Baby

TROUT BAnD UK DATEs

Following a successful US tour fronted by Danny Bryant, the Walter Trout band will be coming to the UK. While Walter continues to make good progress following his successful liver transplant the band will be joined by Walter’s son Jon and guests Laurence Jones, Mitch Laddie and Andrew Elt. Jon Trout was last in the UK as part of the Benefit for Walter concert raising funds for his operation. See www.waltertrout.com for further details.

Jane, No More Doggin’, Wind Up and Night Time, Looking Back and a few others just to ‘wind us up’ and start the gig with panache and vigour. What a brilliant start!

Next on were Eddie and the Hot Rods. Despite the flaunting of decibel safety levels raucous good revelry! To calm it all down a little the next band were The Kursaal Flyers yet another celebrated Essex Delta group who gave everyone a trip down Memory Lane. The Reverend David Tudor had us singing earlier, a few rousing verses of Amazing Grace when he gave his eulogy for Lee once again, a very honest account of him with additional references to Wilko, Lee’s Mum and others and he also introduced us to Lee’s daughter over from America for this concert. Sad, poignant but never maudlin, a celebration and rejoicing for a man and his music. Finally the present line up of Feelgoods hit the stage, finishing the night off with a rousing Feelgood anthem songbook.

DIANE GILLARD (SISTER FEELGOOD)

reMeMBered: dr FeeLgood

roAdhoUSe At cAMBrIdge. photo:treVor cottereLL

1944-2014

JOHnny wInTER

February 23rd, 1944 –July 16th, 2014

The Blues lost one of it’s most iconic and much loved figures with the recent passing of Johnny Winter. Texan born Johnny, with his albino appearance, had always caused heads to turn from his first public performances way back in 1959 through to his first band, Johnny and the Jammers with brother Edgar. From his

debut album The Progressive Blues Experiment in 1968 Johnny was always innovative, exciting and energetic. His crazy off stage life and struggles with drugs and alcohol have been well documented but his love and natural affinity to the blues always shone through. This was never in more evidence than when he was the prime mover behind the resurrection of Muddy Waters faltering career in the late 70’s. Despite bouts of failing health Winter constantly toured right up to the end.

Iain Patience was at Johnny’s last ever show at The Cahors Blues Festival, two days before he died.

‘Johnny Winter was simply one of those guys who was always fixin’ to die. A legendary figure, with a legendary appetite for everything that is dangerous, he lived life to the full. Sadly, his last gig, at the wonderfully intimate Cahors Blues Festival in France saw a less than wild, stirring performance. The ghosts were waiting in the wings. Winter squinted, in his usual way, at the audience, a rapturous full-house turn out that worshipped the man and his music. Running through a back catalogue of challenging, raw emotion and stylistic, staccato guitar, he wooed the crowd, pulling tricks from his amazing, famous hat with aplomb and clearly and, sadly at times, difficulty.

Bye, Bye johnny. wInter on StAge At cAhorS

ERIC BIBB

Blues

Matters!

Eric Bibb’s new album is both a tribute to Dr Martin Luther King, Jr ’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and a homage to the original “blues people,” the Afro-American creators of a style celebrated today as part of the common heritage of mankind

“Blues People” is an album voluntarily bare, haunted by the spirit of the blues

Many good friends managed to join the recording sessions and brought their own contributions. They include The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Taj Mahal, J.J. Milteau, Popa Chubby, Ruthie Foster, Harrison Kennedy, Leyla McCalla, Guy Davis and André De Lange !

To be released in november

Winter was clearly struggling with the high humid temperatures, 34 Celsius, and the demands of an adulating, admiring audience. His co-ordination was at times shakybut it has often been that way, part of his special magic. His voice was also rocky and stretched. But again, what’s new? The guy was seventy. Nevertheless, he managed well over an hour under flashing strobes and baking, airless heat on his trembling feet. People were forgiving, happy to see the guy in action, to taste his old personal mojo magic.

Despite his evident pleasure at being onstage, slamming and sliding his guitar like a kid, he always had the appearance of a guy on the edge - of an abyss, a musical cliff top, of life itself. He looked tired,

clearly in poor health. The problem for everyone watching was: what’s new?

In many ways it’s easy to say, a throwaway line, he was on his last legs. Sadly a truism. Blues music is jam-packed with great lines about death, ‘passing’, as bluesmen are often wont to euphemistically say. On this, Winter’s final gig, he was certainly ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s. Or, more likely, Hell’s door’.

It’s perhaps fitting that his last gig was on an enormously important and symbolic day of celebration: July 14, France’s national day, Bastille Day. A celebration of French independence, strength, liberation and freedom. A night when many took everything to excess, drink,

afTer repeaTed, encores, Johnny Took iT To The limiT one lasT Time

drugs, sex, rock and roll, blues, fan-worship, explosive firework displays. Full-on festivities. Like July 4 on acid.

I think he’d have loved the symbolism and significance. Always assuming that he realised what was going down, of course. After repeated, rapturous encores, Johnny Winter took it to the limit one last time.’

the FInAL ALBUM, Step BAck

gRAInnE DUFFy

Verbals: steve YOurglivcH / grainne duFFY

Grainne duFFY Was bOrN aND GreW uP IN COuNtY mONaGHaN.

ONe OF tHe mOst exCItING musICIaNs tO emerGe FrOm IrelaND, sHe Has Put tOGetHer a baND OF lIKe-mINDeD INDIvIDuals tO FOrm

ONe OF tHe HarDest WOrKING aCts ON tHe blues CIrCuIt

variouS arTiSTS

thE ALL tImE GREAtESt CoUNtRY SoNGS fRom thE 60’S-90’S

I know that it’s a bit of a cheat as it is a collection, but it was THE collection that formed my earliest love of song. This taught me the value of lyrics, phrasing and how the delivery in a vocal performance, accompanied by great musicianship, can make a classic song. Examples that I love are Patsy Cline: Crazy, Linda Ronstadt: Blue Bayou, Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons: Love Hurts, Willie Nelson: Always on my Mind and Tony Joe White: Polk Salad Annie.

02 carole king tApEStRY

grainne took time out of her heavy touring schedule to tell BM her top ten favourite blues albums including those she gained most influence from. There are plans for a live album in the pipeline and it is sure to be a corker. Grainne filled us in a little bit about growing up as part of a large family: “I grew up in a home in the country with six siblings and it was always full of noise and activity. We never had a TV in our home growing up and thanks to my mother, the record player was our form of entertainment. Every Christmas we got a new record each. This thought me the value of music in your life.

My father was an American country music fan in the style of Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash and from there I was educated musically about the art of storytelling in a song and good vocal phrasing. Later on it was my sister’s love of rock and roll, from The Stones, to The Pretenders, that I found and nourished my love of blues, rock and soul music. Therefore my choices below are based on what influenced me to become a musician growing up, helped form me as a musician now and have stayed with me thus far and some new influences.”

Thank God for my sister, Jacinta and her record collection. She had a great taste in music and I was always in her room stealing her new records. This is most likely my favourite of them all. Probably one of the greatest all time songwriters, Carole King has been a huge influence on me. Each song on this album has a depth and emotion that is perfect, the lyrics and the music interweave seamlessly. Carol’s own quote about songwriting is my favourite and I try to always keep it in mind. “A really good song brings a melody and a lyric together in a way that moves the heart and the mind more than either could alone.”

03 JoHn Mayall anD THe blueS breakerS

thE ‘BEANo’ ALBUm

I got in to this album when I was just starting to get to grips with electric guitar! I was a late starter and only got in to playing electric guitar around 16. I love the feel and grooves on this album and remember spending hours jamming along with this album. The fact that it features Eric Clapton on guitar and his first vocal take and backed by Mick Fleetwood

and John McVie make this album all the more special to me. I had so much fun with this album, as it was the first album I could actually play along with and have fun with on the guitar. 04

07 THe rolling SToneS

ExILE oN mAIN StREEt

bonnie raiTT

GIVE It Up

Without a doubt, Bonnie has been a huge influence on countless singers and guitar players alike. From the moment I heard her singing, I knew it was something special. For me it is her delivery of the lyric and the sensitivity in her playing that makes her so unique and special. This album has that lovely feeling of a band all sitting together and hanging out, playing and having fun making music which is how it should be, while also sounding and feeling great. 05

The boys! This is of course one of my favourite bands and this album captures them at their peak. The Stones were a huge influence on me growing up and to this day. Keef is one of my favourite guitarists. His unorthodox playing style and signature riff and rhythm playing, I can not get enough of. This album again captures the mood of the time and has a darkness about it that can be quite haunting. Jagger’s distinct vocal style makes him one of my favourite singers also.

08 aMy wineHouSe

BACk to BLACk

FleeTwooD Mac

RUmoURS

I know it must be a cliché but it is true for me. I grew up in a family with three sisters. When we were young we had a band together and we idolised Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie as the coolest women in rock and roll. This album is a timeless masterpiece. I never get sick listening to it. Even though it was earlier Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green playing on Need Your Love So Bad, that influenced me to pick up the electric guitar, it is this Fleetwood Mac record that has it all for me, classic songs, great singing and playing and it captures a moment time.

06 bob Dylan

LoVE AND thEft

Bob, what can you say, only genius. As far a lyric writing goes he is the man. For me his songs deal with morality issues, personal issues, political issues and so much more. There is always a lesson to be learned from what he is saying as he is the prophet of our time. I have a lyric book and it is my bible. I turn to it for guidance in life. This album is a new direction in Bob’s later career and I love it. It has a fun quality to it and it is a regular on my turntable and on the player on the road to gigs! If you see me singing my head off on the road, it’s most likely Bob that’s on!

This was an album that made me regain some faith in the modern day music industry. Amy was a huge talent. Her vocals were so expressive and her lyrics are also some my favourite. I loved her honesty in her music and delivery. When this album came out it was a real breath of fresh air from all the commercialised X-Factor generation manufactured music. This album has a mix of old with new feel and it is beautifully produced by Mark Ronson and again features fabulous playing by all. A modern day classic.

09 SHeryl crow

tUESDAY NIGht mUSIC CLUB

I remember being a young girl when this first came out and singing my heart out to ‘All I Wanna Do’. It was like a modern version of ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ but it felt great too. The complete album has a lovely modern country slightly rock feel which I like. The songs are moody in places and playful in others. I loved the feel of this album and it brings me right back to being an early teen so it brings back some nice memories to me every time I hear it.

10

rory gallagHer

RoRY GALLAGhER

Of course Rory. He is a special musician for any Irish artist and I believe as he sums up so well in his playing the feeling of being Irish. I love this because it has a natural quality to it. It almost feels like you are sitting beside Rory from beginning to end. I love hearing this more intimate side to Rory, with the acoustic guitar especially on It’s No Surprise . I remember getting my first car and it had a cassette player in it. I used to play this full blast on my way home from music lessons. Rory was a special person in Irish music and his memory is kept alive in his songs.

BoB, whaT can you say, only genius. as far a lyric

wriTing goes BoB is The man

BLUEs BOnAnzA!

saPN u Fabr IKa, r IGa, latvIa, aPr I l 11tH – 12tH 2014

Verbals: as HWY n s MY t H V isuals: MO nika M ansell

tHe eurOPeaN blues CHalleNGe – 18 baNDs FrOm 18

COuNtrIes Over tWO NIGHts OF HuGelY varIeD musIC, atteNDeD bY blues lOvers FrOm arOuND eurOPe aND beYOND, INCluDING blues matters!

for the fourth edition of the EBC, this great venue, a former factory with much of its industrial history preserved, but now a superbly equipped venue.

FriDay

The difficult task of opening on Friday fell to 44 Blues from Croatia

who arrived on stage after a 22 hour drive! They produced a set comprising a mix of covers and originals including, perhaps bravely, the song Idemo Doma (Let’s Go Home) sung in Croatian.

Next up was Denmark’s Big Creek Slim & the Cockroaches who opened with Slim (aka Marc Rune) playing solo which segued

into a great driving blues and then a lovely slow blues with some very tasty slide.

Sweden’s The Hightones were next, a harp led quartet with keyboards which produced a nice overall sound and feel. With an uptempo opener followed by another nice slow blues which featured very nice harp and guitar solos, the

wInnerS A contrA BLUeS (LeFt) And rUnnerS Up prIStIne (rIght)

Hightones offered a good taste of what excellent bands there are in Scandinavia.

Playing on home turf were the Lavrix Band, Latvia’s representatives, a four piece, again including keys, who opened their set with a somewhat frantic rock & roll style instrumental and also gave us a lovely slow blues by contrast featuring a lovely organ solo.

A complete contrast was Italy’s Marco Pandolfi Trio. With Marco on guitar, vox and harp and a rhythm section comprising drums and double bass, this was an act who, from the word go, was extremely popular with the audience. Their set featured a good mix of material including a great take on Walter Jacobs’ Last Night which showed off to very great effect Marco’s undoubted skills with the ‘gobiron’ and was, for me, one of the highlights of Friday’s performances.

Germany were represented by the very German Mike Seeber Trio, a power trio who seemed popular with much of the audience but, for me, really brought nothing new to the table. Opening with Mike playing solo they launched into a song in German, ‘Komm Herein’, and finish with the now obligatory slow number.

Russia was making its first foray into the EBC and the six piece Bomb Lane Band, apparently all architects, were their representatives. For me, their set was uncomfortable due to an excessively loud bass which reverberated painfully in my chest. If Germany’s reps were very German then it would be fair to describe the Bomb Lane Band as very Russian but great to see a new country participating in the EBC.

Finland seems to specialise in producing something a bit different at the EBC and this year they did not disappoint with Ina Forsman with Helge Tallqvist Band. The combination of the both haunting and powerful vocals of the very

ausTria’s edi fenzl Band cerTainly won The prize for The nighTs mosT sTriking sTage wear

striking, 19 years old Ina and the wonderfully dirty harmonica of Helge, a veteran much admired by many of the world’s top players, was a joy to hear. Opening with a great harp shuffle, Ina’s opening notes received a rapturous reception as she broke into a great version of Something’s Got a Hold on Me, then 5-10-15 and an unusual take on Nina Simone’s Feeling Good. At the end of the band’s set, Ina said that it had been the ‘best 20 minutes of my life!’ It was not too shabby for the rest of us Ina! You have guessed, I loved it!

Closing the first night’s proceedings were Hungary’s six piece ‘joy and blues band’ T Rogers who had a difficult job following Ina! But they produced an excellent set which included an entertaining drum break and some nice harmonica from Stuart Hay. For me, they were reminiscent, to some extent, of Runrig (no bad thing in my book) and sent us off into a pleasant night for the walk back to our hotel.

SaTurDay

During the day on Saturday, the annual Convocation of the EBU took place in the morning followed by the Blues Market in the afternoon, a great and enjoyable networking opportunity as well as an opportunity to meets friends, old and new, real and from cyberspace!

Saturday evening’s openers were Spain’s A Contra Blues, definitely something a bit different, a five piece with two very good guitarists who duelled like conquistadores and a larger than life singer, Jonathan Herrero Herreria, a man blessed with a magnificent voice of great variety. Their set

opened with Jonathan singing solo to superb effect and offered great variety with audience involvement. They brought huge energy to the stage and quickly had the audience enraptured. With a set that was very entertaining and of a very high standard, they set the bar very high!

Second on stage were Belgium’s Fred & the Healers, a guitar led blues rock trio playing ‘a dangerous mix of refreshing blues and laid back rock’, their set contained the usual mix finishing off with ‘a really tough boogie’ which had the audience pogoing like mad!

France were next with the aptly named Shake Your Hips from the Paris region. A five piece featuring harmonica, guitar, bass, drums and a vocalist they set the joint rocking from the get go before changing down a gear for a lovely and emotional slow number, ‘Same Old Blues’ which was anything but! At times I felt the harmonica was a little lost in the mix but, nonetheless, Shake Your Hips certainly kept the crowd grooving.

The unusually named Bacon Fats were next, representing Switzerland and playing what they described as ‘hard swing blues’ Opening with a great instrumental the band then offered up a song ‘for the ladies’ – She Loves to Shop! which was met with much audience approval. The band featured some very original arrangements and, at times, had a distinct rocksteady/ surfy feel. Good stuff!

One of the crowd favourites was undoubtedly the UK’s entry, David Migden and the Twisted Roots whose originality and different take combined with excellent

musicianship very quickly had the audience cheering enthusiastically. Opening with ‘Reverend Jack Crow’ they continued with the excellent ‘Desert Inside’ and their finale, the voodoo filled ‘Rougarou’, with trumpet and trombone was a show stopper. I know I am biased but I thought they had done better than their eventual third place!

Romania’s Blues Nation were a complete contrast to last year’s sensational joint runners-up, Soul Serenade. A four piece whose set opened with a number dedicated to Eric Sardinas gave us plenty of variety as they continued with a tasty shuffle and even offered us a different version of the Merle Travis classic, ’16 Tons’.

Following them were the wonderful Pristine from Norway, a band that has long been a favourite of mine and one to which I was very much looking forward. They turned in a superb and varied set which ranged from what they describe as psychedelic blues to their glorious opener, a wonderfully atmospheric ballad which showed so clearly what a great vocalist they have in the lovely Solheim accompanied by some glorious organ from Anders Oksal.

Austria’s Edi Fenzl Band certainly won the prize for the nights most striking stage wear with guitarist and vocalist Edi sporting shorts and a big hat with a big flower in it! This unusual trio certainly entertained and had the audience making the most of their music, all too aware that the evening was drawing to a close.

Last but not least were the John F Klaver Band from Holland who gave what was, for me, a masterclass in blues rock. Band leader John has been described by Matt Schofield as ‘one of the most interesting guitarists out of Holland’ and the band’s set certainly drove home that compliment. With some wild Hammond organ playing, some superb guitar playing, this was by far the best blues rock performance of the night and it was easy to see why John has won so many awards! A most appropriate way of rounding off the competition. Whilst the judges deliberated and the scores were totalled, we were treated to an excellent set from the Latvian Blues Band, who kept the house rocking before organiser Normands Kalnins and EBU President, Thomas Ruf took to the stage to declare A Contra

Blues very popular winners and Pristine equally popular runners up.

There then ensued a performance of ‘Tore Down’ by the winners and runners up, jamming together before it was time to head back to the hotel once again!

Congratulations must go to Normands Kalnins, the chairman of the Latvian Blues Appreciation Society and his team who did a great job organising the whole event and making us all so welcome. Particular mention also to the stage crew who ensured smooth and swift band changeovers with an efficiency and rapidity that would have been the envy of Formula 1 pit crews! Also to the sound and light team who coped with the many and disparate requirements of bands ranging from trios to a septet with a full brass section!

My highlights of the event?

Well, apart from a very tasty rice dish called Plov which was available at a very reasonable cost in the ‘Food Court’ of the venue and was delicious (Think paella given an Eastern European makeover!), it has to be the crowd’s response as David Migden & the Twisted Roots broke out the brass for the glorious Rougarou, Pristine and Ina Forsman!

ThE Ebc 2015 Is TO bE hEld IN bRussEls, wITh IAN sIEGAl hOsTING, MARch 13Th ANd 14Th. sEE yOu ThERE?

InA ForSMAn FroM FInLAnd

The Collectors: JOHn TEFTELLER

aND tHe GraND Cru’s OF tHe blues

Verbals: billY HutcHinsOn 78’s are vINtaGe reCOrDs, aND tHe rarItIes WItHIN tHe OlD FOrmat elevate tHem tO treasures

John Tefteller has become the man, not just with the passion (as so many are within 78 rpm collecting), but the man with the winning bids to procure them. Fortunately, he is not only an enthusiast who has allowed historic labels to be re-produced, but also the music from his ultra-rare records. Trading in 50’s/60’s R&B, Blues, Rock’n’Roll, and 45’s, as his business, allows him to indulge in his private collection of Blues 78’s.

Bm: first tell us about your J.D. Short acquisition.

JT: I was contacted in April by a guy that I didn’t know well, but whom I knew picked records in and around the Tennessee area. He called me to tell me he had found a stack of interesting records and in the stack was a copy of one of the missing Paramounts. He had read various things I had written, and that had been written about me, in Goldmine and some of the other publications, looking for the missing Paramounts. He knew that, if he could find one, it would be significantly valuable. I asked him which one he had, and he said that it was the J.D.Short one. Well, there are also two other missing J.D.Short’s. I wasn’t sure which one he owned and he could not remember. Anyway, he dug it out of the pile and read me the

SkIp jAMeS, pArAMoUnt BLUeS MAn.

InSet: john teFtteLLer

title, and it was one of the three that was missing. I told him I was very interested in acquiring it. He did not want to mail it, due to it being a significantly rare record with which he did not want to take any chances. I informed him that I was travelling to the Southern states in late May/early June, only a few weeks away, so I made arrangements to meet him in person; view the record; and work out a deal with him, which I ultimately did. The record was found between Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee, at an estate sale, and bought from a 96 year old African American woman who was selling off possessions from her relatives.

I guessed that perhaps this record had belonged to that African American woman’s mother or another family member. It was in the back of a wind - up phonograph, along with two Skip James 78’s, a Charlie Patton with a big wide crack in it, a Blind Lemon Jefferson, a Blind Blake, and a couple of gospel records. Amongst this stack of records, mostly Paramounts, I wound up buying one of the gospel ones and two Skip James. One of them was damaged, but the other one may well indeed be the best copy in the world of Illinois Blues. That title is particularly plagued with problems on all of the reissues that are out there. This one will come out better. It’s still not perfect, but I think it will come out better than any previous copy has come out.

The J.D.Short record is in fair condition. It’s not great. It’s not horrible. It does play all right. It had a chip, an actual chunk, of the record missing on the outer edge. When side A is played, it can be played from start to finish. There are no grooves missing due to that chip. The needle has to be put down just after the chip, and you hit the very first guitar note right as it starts. So, it was pretty close to being damaged. On the B side, the chip

was four grooves in so I had it repaired. I actually just finished with this last week. I had it repaired in California by a guy who repairs records better than anyone else in the world. He took a chunk of shellac with no grooves in it from the outside of another record and fitted it in there, and carved out those four grooves in there by hand. When you play it now, it plays from start to finish. He didn’t lose a single note, and all you hear which can be taken out digitally, is as a couple of pops. It is a masterpiece of a record, both sides are incredible.

It really amazes me, John, with the fragility of 78’s, coupled with it being an old obsolescent format that these missing titles still show up, intact.

What has happened is that there has been a whole load of publicity over here, although not as much as I’d like (laughs). It’s been in the press, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal . There has been a lot of press in the last few years about this time period in blues, and about how scarce these records are.There are now a lot of people who would not normally be looking for stuff like this out looking for it, now they are aware there is an extreme value to it. They heard about the $37,000 Tommy Johnson record that I purchased last autumn, and they know that I have standing offers out there for $25,000 and more for some other records. People are starting to take notice. For years and years these

records were being largely ignored. People were actively searching for them in order to cash in on the value (laughs). Because of that, in the last ten years or so, a lot of significant items have been found that the old timers thought would never be found. I remember talking to Pete Whelan and Rich Nevins and some of the old time collectors in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, when I really started to heavily get into buying. I was one of the buyers of Max Vreede’s collection out of Holland. Anyway, those guys said to me, “Well you got what you got, and all is accounted for what is going to turn, and maybe some stray record will show up, but most likely this is it. What we have now is what we have, it’s all in the hands of collectors and that’s the end of it.” It didn’t take long for me to prove them wrong, and one of the ways that I did that is to constantly travel all over the place after people.

I am doing it for my regular business, so I just add in visits to collectors and antique pickers, and just everywhere I can get in, to the press or television, anywhere I can get the word out, to find these records. This method has actually turned up quite a number of really important records in the last ten years, and I think that there are still more out there. I think that most or all of the missing records will be found. If they are not going to be found within the next ten years, I think they will probably not be found, because of all the intense searching that is going on.

have you ever done the in depth door-to-door record searches, like Joe Bussard and Gayle Dean Wardlow have done?

No, that is basically a waste of time now. These kinds of records are few and far between. They have mostly moved from their original locations. To try to figure out what houses might have these records these days, and what houses don’t, is almost impossible. I don’t know anyone who has done that, successfully, in the last twenty years. In the sixties you could do it, because in the sixties there were still people from that generation that were alive.

They were old, and they lived in the same house they lived in back in the twenties and thirties, and they still had those records in the cabinets. There is obviously someone who could come along and prove me wrong, by finding stuff in this way, which is great, but I wouldn’t send people out to do that. There are people who go out to yard sales and such and ask, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a good thing to do, as there might be some records amongst their stuff, but to randomly go out or think out how to do it house to house, I can’t see that happening.

Where I think the remaining missing records are will be with the remaining elderly African Americans whose parents or grandparents had them. They are just sitting in a phonograph, closet, or garage. These people do not realise that they are sitting on something significant. To them it is just Mom’s stuff or Dad’s stuff, or Grandpa’s stuff. They don’t realise there could be, potentially, something of value in there, or something historically important. Sometimes they don’t really care. Finding records this way usually happens when these old people pass away and someone

comes to clean out the house. If they are smart enough not to just to throw everything in the trash can, then it will get saved and brought to my attention, or to someonewho knows what it is that’s there.

paramount threw away the masters that they held, along with a lot of documentation. Was this for business reasons, such as copyright, or were they just deemed worthless?

Not exactly, Paramount went out of business in the summer of 1933, but they continued to sell off their old stock for years afterwards. One of the partners in the Paramount label was Fred Boerner, and he ran the mail order operation. When the company ceased producing new records in the summer of 1933, he continued that mail order operation. In fact he continued that mail order operation well into the 1950’s. John Steiner, who bought the rights to Paramount from the Wisconsin Chair Company in the mid to late forties, went to Fred Boerner’s house at that time and he had the pick of what was left of the stock.

REcycLED BLUEs

There were not a whole lot of Paramounts left, but there were some, and there were multiple copies of some. A lot of it had been farmed out between 1933 and ‘46. There was a big shipment of them that went to a department store in New York City. There was another big shipment of them that went to Charlottesville, Virginia, and was dumped down there. They were doing everything they could, because when that company folded there were literally tens of thousands of pressings. Two or three different warehouses in the Port Washington/Grafton area had all the masters there, as well. The masters were all donated to the WW11 scrap drive for the aluminium content. This happened

The masTers were all donaTed To The ww11 scrap drive for The aluminium conTenT

in the summer of 1942. There a couple of high school students, who were hired by the Wisconsin Chair Company, to come into the factory where they were stored, and literally box them up and load them on to train boxcars to be shipped down to either Chicago or Milwaukee. It’s a little unclear to where they actually shipped. My guess is Milwaukee, and they were recycled. All the masters were gone by WW11, and it was all part of the war effort.

There were 52 masters that were taken out of that original stash, and shipped off to Decca in 1935/36. That is where some of those Decca/Champion Paramount pressings came from, because Decca licenced some Paramount songs from Paramount after Paramount had gone out of business. In order to put them out on Champion they had to have metal parts to press from, so they had Paramount send them 52 masters, which was enough to make 26 records. They didn’t

actually make 26 records. They only made some of them. Those masters were shipped to Decca in 1948/49 after John Steiner had purchased the company. He got an idea that, maybe because Decca had pressed some Paramount titles in the mid-thirties, that they might still have some metal masters. He wrote a letter to Decca in New York, saying he was the new owner of Paramount, and that if they had any masters from the Paramount releases on Decca/Champion, he would like them to be returned to him. He didn’t know what kind of an answer he was going to get to this, but two months later a box appeared on his doorstep with metal 52 masters in it, and a note from Decca saying, “Here are the masters you requested.”

We no longer require them, and you requested them.’ Those masters remained in his house for years, and he told no one that he had them. When he died in 1996/97, all of his collection was donated to the

University of Chicago and George Buck’s office in New Orleans, who bought all the rights of Paramount from John Steiner in 1972. They collected those masters, and they still have them. There will be a re-release of them in the next year or two. There isn’t anything that we haven’t heard amongst them, but there are masters for things we would love to hear coming from a master, one of which is the Skip James, The Devil Has Got My Woman and Cypress Grove Blues. I held that one in my hands.

Did you ever find out the names the illustrators who worked on the race records ads?

No, but I can tell you a couple of things.There were three different artists that worked for Paramount creating those ads. I established that by asking Robert Crumb, the cartoon artist, to have a look at all the ones I have. He deduced this by examining them very closely. I tried to trace those artists. I ran large ads in the Port Washington area, and I had a big story in the Milwaukee Journal about it. The only thing I collected was information that they had been commissioned by Paramount from an advertising agency in Milwaukee. That advertising agency was responsible for getting those ads done. I traced the agency, and found they went out of business in 1992 or 93, and whatever they had were destroyed.

Nobody ever came forward to say any of their family had produced those ads, as I had offered a reward for information on who created any of them. I don’t know if we will ever know, but some of them could have been produced in Chicago, because J. Mayo Williams who was responsible for bringing talent to Paramount during that 1923/28 period was operating out of Chicago. It is possible that he hired somebody to work on them, but I don’t think we will never know.

BLInd BLAke

gIBsOn, MARTIn, FEnDER

now, pretty much everybody with a guitar fetish will know the top two names in the business of guitar production as Gibson and Fender, both hailing from across the pond. Gibson’s roots being in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Fender further South in Fullerton, California. I am trying to avoid too many history lessons this time but some brief references are essential in understanding who owns what in the wonderful world of the axe. Some other great names are Guild and Gretsch, owned by Fender, Epiphone and Dobro, both owned by Gibson, as well as Paul Reed Smith (PRS), Rickenbaker, and Yamaha Ibanez Squire, also Fender owned. Some domestic and European manufacturers include Burns, Gordon Smith, Vintage, Framus and Hofner.

The above mainly allude to electric guitar production and similarly there are very well known

marques in the world of quality acoustic producers, Martin, Ovation, Washburn, Gibson, Guild, National, Taylor and many more. There are simply too many names to cover in this discussion, especially when it comes to covering the independent Luthier/Guitar makers which have proliferated hugely in recent years, significantly in the acoustic sector.

The blues as we know it today stems largely from the Delta days of the late 1920’s and the popularisation of the genre, particularly the migration North to Chicago, spawned the rapid growth in the use of electrified instruments. Two protagonists of the period illustrate the development of two main brands with Muddy Waters favouring solid bodied Esquire/Telecasters from Fender and BB King developing a taste for the semi hollow bodied Gibson ES range. Whilst the growth in popularity of the blues helped to develop guitar sales

in the mid to late 40’s it was the explosion of rock n roll in the mid to late 50’s which underwrote the exponential growth of the big producers of the day and the birth of two instruments which largely shaped the future for electric guitar. Leo Fender’s hugely futuristic Stratocaster and a man named Lester Polfus who worked with Gibson’s design and production team to introduce the world to the Les Paul solid body electric.

Leaving aside the design elements of the two ground breaking instruments they produce quite different tones due to the differences in (a) the nature of the wood used in the build and (b) the type of electrics or pickups, built in to the models. I believe the Fender, being more grounded in a country music heritage had a thinner, more clean, high range sound due to an ash body and the single coil pickups while the Les Paul being solid mahogany, a very dense and heavy wood, and hum cancelling Humbucker pickups gave a richer/ deeper tone and this remains largely so to this day although each model has an infinitely larger number of options available which can impact the voice

the guitars.

fender

Of course the other major factor affecting the tone/sound of instruments is in the amplification process and this could be the subject of a whole other KitChat. Suffice it to say the big names of the day in electric guitars were also in the business of amp manufacture with Fender still today being probably top dog when it comes to amplifier sales. That market has become vastly fragmented and we see many independent ‘boutique’ amplifier manufacturers being very prominent these days.

So on to who, what and why uses what gear in the stratospheric atmosphere of great all time blues players. Starting from early electric days the basic Fender model was the Broadcaster, name changed to Esquire, eventually becoming the Telecaster. Much vaunted by Muddy Waters as previously mentioned, the Tele gained huge popularity amongst the Country and Western fraternity of muso’s, mainly for it’s clean, bitingly sharp tone so suited to the lightning fast solos and licks dished out by luminaries such as Roy Buchannan, James Burton, Steve Cropper and many others. I was hugely influenced in the 60’s by the master of the Telecaster and undoubtedly top UK guitarist of the time Mick Green of Johnny Kidd and The Pirates. I was fortunate enough to play several warm up gigs for The Pirates and they were a top blues rock act of the time. Sadly Mick passed away quite recently but heavily influence bands like Dr Feelgood with Wilko Johnson being a prime acolyte of the Green sound.

At this time also many USA blues and rock’ n’roll acts were touring the UK for the first time ,so exposing us gawping, drooling teenagers to the sight of Les Pauls, Strats and the like. These were largely unavailable to us on account of cost (a Les Paul in 1963 cost about £200,a fortune

at that time) and availability, the U.S. producers were struggling with the joys of introducing mass production and quite unable to service the demand until well into mid late 60’s.

Star names like BB King, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry, Howling Wolf, et al were touring the UK triggering the demand for American-made instruments and I recall buying my first quality instrument ,a one year old Gibson SG Les Paul custom in white with sideways vibrola identical to Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s from Selmer’s music shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London for the princely sum of one hundred and eighty three guineas( around £200) on HP with £1 deposit! I sold it for £900 about

two years later, I was told Alvin Lee eventually bought it. That guitar would fetch between £80,000 to £90,000 today! Such is life.

Collectors of vintage instruments today will scour the world looking for 1940’s or 50’s and 60’s instruments, paying phenomenal prices for rarities. I sometimes wonder with the big manufacturers bringing out so many new models each year how the vintage prices will hold up in years to come.

BETTER THAn JIMI?

Continuing the theme of today’s article, there are some instruments

hendrIx: Beyond the StrAtoSphere

which have developed a sound which is closely associated with a genre of guitar music. For example I mentioned the Telecaster being instantly recognisable in the Country Music context. In some areas of blues this is also notable. Eric Clapton originally put the Brit Blues sound in the ether with his combination of Les Paul and Marshall amps as did Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer of Fleetwood Mac fame.

Soon after the genius we came to recognise as Jimi Hendrix laid the Fender Stratocaster before us in a way that has never been replicated although Stevie Ray Vaughan, in my opinion, came pretty close. In SRV we find an interesting anomaly in as much as the Texas Blues sound has two exponents which largely represent that niche via Stevie and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, yet the two

sounds are in no way alike. SRV’s unique tone coming from Fender’s single coil equipped Strat and Billy relying on the much thicker tone of his Les Paul standard with humbuckers. Also Johnny Winter has another recognisable tone and an entirely different one, so maybe the Texas blues sound is not a sound after all but a birthplace of the exponents?

THE AcOUsTIc wORLD

We haven’t delved too much into the acoustic world but that is a more difficult topic in the sense of there not being an immediate connection with the sound of a particular acoustic being linked to a sound of a genre.

The obvious converse argument would be maybe resonator instruments which are so very much associated with the

‘lonesome’ sound of the blues. Also there are so many high-end luthier built instruments around today it is virtually impossible to tell by simply listening which brand of acoustic is being played.

In the electric context most experienced guitarists will be able to identify by ear only what type of pickup is producing the sound of an electric guitar but not necessarily the brand. This used to be thought possible but it was, I guess, through association, for example Carlos Santana and Gary Moore‘s endless sustain had to be a Les Paul at full tilt, but since the development of sponsorship and the ‘signature’ instrument deals it is very difficult to tell any more, Santana now plays PRS guitars but retains very much his same signature sound.

One thing remains certain however, it’s all the blues.

What ’s happenin’next...

interviews: Joanne Shaw Taylor, Erja Lytinnen, Dana Dixon, Matt Andersen, Malaya Blue, Melinda Coliazzi, Devon Allman, Cathy Lemons and Sofie Reed.

Festivals: Upton, Colne, Linton, St,Ives, The Bog Blues Festival (Holland), Gaasterland Pop Festival (Holland), Portland Waterfront (Canada).

plus: The magazine regulars, including the biggest CD review section around!

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The lOl gOOdman band

has helped to push the band in exactly the direction envisaged by Lol and James.Experienced saxist, Dave Turnbull, lives in Glasgow and gigs with the band when commitments allow.

Their first gigging experiences with this line up was the Northern pub rock circuit, not ideal for a band that wanted to feature mainly original material, but they persevered and gradually built up a following and a core of pub venues where the audience appreciated their material.

Early in 2013 it was decided to commit some of the Lol Goodman original material to CD. Studio Studio Recording Studio in Whitworth, Rochdale was booked and Pete Troughton, sound engineer, was introduced to the Lol Goodman Band sound. The result was a 12 track CD, entitled Old Dog ‘n’ Licks, which got great reviews in the blues magazines. It also introduced the band to the listening public via plays on several local and web based blues radio programmes and a live studio session at Trent Sound Radio.

lol, has been writing and performing his own material for nearly four decades, strongly influenced by the 1960s/70s British blues/ rock boom as well as early American blues greats. The band’s current line-up has enabled Lol’s writing to capture the sound and feel of the great blues/rock guitarists.

James has played guitar since the age of 13 and, although now concentrating on bass, is also a very gifted six string guitar player and has played with Lol either on twin lead or bass for 25 years.

Veteran drummer Jon Firth’s experience of the 1960s British blues and soul scene where with seven piece Manchester soul band The Powerhouse he shared stages with the likes of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Geno Washington, Georgie Fame and Jose Feliciano,

Almost a year later and the band had added so many new songs to their live set that a second album was needed, so back up to Whitworth and Peter Troughton where, with the help of old friends Rod Mayall, John’s younger brother, on keyboards, David Turnbull, tenor sax and local session musician Phil Barrett on keyboards, another 12 track CD was produced and a name chosen, TAUTOLOGY.

On Sunday 8th June the band were interviewed by Nick Dow for his Lancashire Bluenotes show on BBC Radio Lancashire. The show was almost entirely given over to the interview and four tracks from their CDs were played. 2014 also brought appearances at much more blues oriented venues and festivals.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO: www.l O l GOO d MAN b AN d.c OM

tHe lOl GOODmaN baND are lOl GOODmaN ON leaD GuItar aND vOCals, James HOrrOCKs, bass GuItar, JON FIrtH, Drums aND (OCCasIONallY) Dave turNbull, saxes

mark harrisOn

V erbals: M ark H arris O n and steve YO urglivc H Visuals : al stuart

marK HarrIsON Has beeN CreatING sOmetHING OF a stIr WItH HIs album tHe WOrlD OutsIDe. brINGING a mODerN OutlOOK tO a traDItIONal stYle He Is buIlDING a lOYal aND WIDe FaN base. marK Gave us aN uPDate ON WHere He’s at aND HIs baCKGrOuND

i’m trying to do something completely different and individual based on the music of the early blues artists who invented the whole thing. Those people thought they were primarily doing songs rather than ‘blues’ and they were right. For me, the songs are the main point, the focus of what I do. When I got started just four years ago, I had just got a 1934 National and I found that I had my own style and sound when playing it. I figured that there was no reason why I couldn’t write a song in a blues style on just about any subject. I didn’t want to copy the originators, I certainly couldn’t have emulated them and I couldn’t see the point of that anyway. I felt that the music they made was so good and so timeless that there was no reason why that style and sound couldn’t appeal to people right now, it didn’t have to be something belonging in the past. So I started to write songs about all sorts of things that don’t usually get written about, including aspects of our own life and times. One thing that’s clear is that the songs seem to

appeal to all manner of people and of all ages, including a lot of young people who know nothing about blues and come to talk about it after gigs.

I met some truly great musicians who play with me – Charles Benfield (double bass), Will Greener (harmonica), Ed Hopwood (drums), Ben Walker (mandolin) and Josienne Clarke (vocals). The whole thing rapidly gained momentum. I’ve done stacks of gigs in London and all over the country and I’ve played festivals such as Ealing, Maryport and Love Supreme. The songs work equally well with any line-up from solo to six-piece and I play at all sorts of venues and events. I’ve made three albums (Watching The Parade , Crooked Smile and the latest, The World Outside) and had lots of airplay and great reviews (including in Blues Matters!)

I’ve made a lot of progress in a relatively short time and I’m hoping to keep on moving things up. It’s all about doing something that’s of value and also fun.

F OR MORE INFORMATION: www.MAR kh ARRI s ONROOTs M us I c.c OM

PhiliP mOrgan leWis

his sound comBines Blues, alTernaTive rock and folk influences

lapse shots to emphasize the rough energy of his tracks.

With the release of The Karma Comedown EP featuring six tracks in the Summer of 2013, Philip was hailed as a major new talent by DJ Nicky Horne on his classic rock show and one of London’s rising stars by US Blues Rock Review. The title track, Karma Comedown, garnered amazing reviews and a lot of radio support in the UK and US featuring seven weeks on UK national radio Planet Rock’s new rock show with DJ Wyatt Wendels.

Philip returned early 2014 with two consecutive singles The Whistleblower in February 2014 and GYB (Got You Babe) April 2014. Both singles marked Philip’s debut as video director. He taught himself how to shoot and edit as he wanted editorial freedom over both his music and visuals.

These two singles garnered the support of DJ Gary Crowley and debuted on his BBC Introducing London show closely followed by UK national radio Planet Rock and more than 80 radio stations across the UK, US, Germany and Australia.

london’s East End alternative blues rocker Philip Morgan Lewis grew up listening to the records of American bluesman Josh White, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Brought up in a musical environment he made his debut on stage aged 10 at the Newport Jazz Festival jamming on Carl Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes with a New Orleans band.

His sound combines blues, alternative rock and folk influences. Philip writes and produces his songs using a blend of vintage and new recording techniques. He considers his voice as his main instrument and plays guitar, bass, keys and percussion on his records. Philip also directs and edits his music videos using gritty urban footage, fast cuts and time-

Philip’s modern blues rock blend appeals to blues radio stations as well as mainstream, rock and alternative radio stations. His songs feature regularly on playlists with artists he really rates such as The Black Keys and Jack White.

His last record GYB (Got You Babe) is being considered by two of the most influential Hollywood music supervisors to feature on US TV series. The music video was featured on Alice Cooper’s show, Nights With Alice’s Facebook page.

Philip will release a new single prior to an album later this year on his new imprint Moonalizer Records. He plans to tour across the UK with his four-piece backing band in support of the album.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO: www.ph I lI p MORGAN lE w I s.c OM.

Tw ITTER:@ph I lMORGAN lE w I s

TrOy redFern

Troy Redfern grew up in the Welsh Marches in the shadow of Hergest Ridge, which was made famous by the Mike Oldfield album of the same name. He began playing guitar as a teenager and was soon turned on to the slide guitar of Son House and Hound Dog Taylor, as well as the works of Zappa and Beefheart. Troy spent his musical formative years playing, writing and performing along with Joe Gooch who went on to success with Ten Years After, both being from the small border town of Kington in Herefordshire.

In 2008 Troy put together his own studio and began exploring production, writing everything from straight ahead blues, to avant garde and progressive rock. Out of this material came the two albums ‘Werewolf Etiquette’ and ‘Playing with Fire’.

Early in 2013 Troy decided to put together a band under his own name to play these new songs. The logical choice when recruiting a bass player was Killing Floor’s Stuart McDonald. Stuart’s CV includes playing bass for the blues legend Freddie King on his first UK tour, as well as supporting Muddy Waters. He also played in Paul Rodgers’ post-Free band, Peace, and the cult London blues outfit, SALT.

Drum duties were offered to Phil Greenhouse from Tenbury Wells, well known for his fantastic shuffles and powerful deliveries, both of which were needed for the set.

The Troy Redfern Band began playing live in late 2013, and have already gained accolades from the likes of top producers Jim Eliot (Ellie Goulding, Paul Oakenfold) and Charlie Francis (REM, Gravel Tones) after playing at the 2014 Telegraph Hay Festival.

The band will be gigging hard for the rest of the

Troy decided To puT TogeTher a Band under his own name

year, including supporting The Nimmo Brothers and Bad Company’s Mick Ralphs.

Stuart says of Troy, ‘I’ve played with some of the finest guitar players, but Troy is one of the most intense, expressive and passionate guitarists I’ve ever played with. You need to check him out!’

We agree.

M ORE updATE s AT: www.TROyRE d FERN.c

THE BLUES MATTERS! STAGE AT JAKS

FRIDAY NIGHT: SPLIT WHISKERS BAND

RED BUTLER

MICK SIMPSON & MALAYA BLUE

SATURDAY AFTERNOON: THE EVER POPULAR ROADHOUSE JAM SESSIONS

have become synonymous with this super weekend and always in great demand and very well supported, including short sets by Roadhouse themselves to start and close. (always popular – and with many festivals under their belts, always crowd pleasers). The JAMs get packed out every year!

SATURDAY NIGHT: THE DAVE THOMAS BAND

SHARON COLGAN BAND

JED THOMAS BAND

SUNDAY AFTERNOON ACOUSTIC: RICHARD TOWNEND

JO BYWATER

MICK SIMPSON & MALAYA BLUE

SUNDAY NIGHT: ROADHOUSE

LAURA HOLLAND BAND

ROBIN ROBERTSON BLUES BAND

TOm killner

Tom was born in 1996 and took up the guitar aged 10 and is heavily influenced by artists like Rory Gallagher and Eric Clapton. Jake Ashton recently joined the band on drums, replacing long serving Graham Shaw, alongside Nigel Killner (bass) and Luke Wade (keys).

Tom told us a bit more about himself and his hopes and plans.

‘I’m Tom Killner, a young artist from South Yorkshire. I was born in 1996 and have been raised with music and guitars in the house all my life, my Dad is a bass player and has always encouraged me to play music from a very young age although I did not take to playing guitar at first I was always interested in music I used to take my dad’s Telecaster and mime to Status Quo records. I got my first electric guitar at the age of 10 and I took to it very easily having guitar lessons for a short while and originally wanting to play punk I

soon changed and turned onto blues, something just switched me on when I listened to the blues records and I knew what I wanted to do. In late 2011 I left my first band in early 2012 and decided to front my own band within the first few months we were playing the British Stage at the Great British Blues Festival, Wakefield Blues Festival and following year on the main stage at Hebden Bridge Blues festival.

I have also been lucky enough to be endorsed by Vintage and Fret-Kings guitars. My music is definitely rooted and set in blues but there are many more influences in my music I love the Soul and Funk and try to incorporate all sorts into songs I write and play, I also love the Indian classical music and there is influence of that in my slide playing really there is something for everyone to hopefully enjoy and want to listen too.’

It’s hard to name a more I nfluentI al f I gure on the Br ItI sh Blues scene –make that the World Blues scene. a s he prepares to release h I s latest al B um a specIal lIfe I n h I s 80th year, B m catches up WIth the maestro

BM: Hi John, where are you at the moment?

JM: Back home at Los Angeles, Pete, just back off tour?

You’ve been over here playing, including at Ronnie Scotts in London.

That was the last show of a two and a half month tour. That was a nice way to close it.

It had some lovely press. But I suppose at this point, you know what you’re about and it’s just nice to have press interest. But you are sure-footed with these shows and you know where you are going with each show don’t you?

We get the ball rolling and we’ve got so much material that it’s always nice to compose a different set each night.

Absolutely. As you know from our last meet I’m an old mate of Rocky’s (Athas) for some years and I would say with the current touring line-up you have (and it applies to you too) the best description is probably ‘spring-heeled’. It has an airy touch and a punch as well. Is that fair or unfair?

I think it’s really fair.(Pause) Yes. It’s a wonderful line-up and we have so much creative energy that it never gets boring.

That’s precisely why we can do such long tours and work so extensively.

Well I think John, you are in the same league as Frank Zappa. I used to go to Frank Zappa shows and I never knew what songs he’d play. But two hours later, I’d come out smiling. Is that what someone of your experience is aiming at?

I would think so, yeah. Every night’s a different set and it’s all drawn from the major list of stuff that we do play live but I try and make sure they’re a lot of surprises for the band and myself, on a nightly basis.

I saw you on a tour at Cadogan and I came down to Guildford at G Live and the set was substantially different, just days later. I don’t like playing the same things every night, you see. It’s nice to have something fresh to explore, something new to say.

Neither do I. In that way, you are a good example to us all. But in the Cadogan set you had Mick Taylor playing alongside Rocky and it was fabulous. It gave a whole dimension to what you were doing and it

V E rb A ls: PETE SARGEANT VI su A l s: TRACY GOSLING PR

Interview john mayall

seemed to be an excursion into how well the band can incorporate other players. Oh yeah. Anybody who’s worked with me knows the qualities of improvisation are the main quality. People who have worked with me before sit in again, it just drops in, no problem at all!

It’s the same when we did that 70th Birthday concert with Eric and Mick as guests. I’d worked with Mick for so many years so he just dropped right into it. We didn’t have any rehearsals or anything. The blues is the language we evolved with.

Where was the new album that recorded?

In Los Angeles, not too far away from where I live. It’s just a great album and we got together at my house to have a couple of days before we went into the studio. That way we could just run through things and decide which tracks were gonna work. But we kind of knew everything was going to work so having worked so much together it just dropped into place beautifully.

It is the road line-up with Greg and everything?

Yeah. It’s phenomenal really. We had a great time making the album and it’s great so many styles and moods are possible, with these guys.

Is there any theme to it? Or is it a collection of songs that’s John Mayall now?

Well the song choices, there’s three of my songs on there and a re-working of something I did in 1964 and then the rest is material from blues and rock and roll heroes of mine. They’re all blues songs and on a couple of tracks we had C.J. Chenier join us.

Excellent. I can’t wait to hear it. When you’re recording, you seem to get these days a very live sound and you can tell from listening to the tracks that they are going to sound pretty crisp when you do them live. You don’t seem these days to make records that are studio-bound. These are born to be taken out and played to people.

When we record in a studio, we’ve already prepared for the songs. If they’re the right ones they just drop into place and it’s very rarely that we do a second take of anything.

That’s terrific. That really is a jazz thing isn’t it?

Yeah absolutely Pete. You wanna capture that freshness and spark that comes from not overdoing something.

Your call, but if it’s OK, I’ve collected some questions from your followers and I wondered if I could just throw these into the mix quickly?

Yeah sure!

Do you have a most treasured instrument?

Not really. I’d imagine the closest would be the guitar I just made last year. I carved up the body and did the artwork for it and that’s the one on the front cover of the new album. That’s the one I’m playing right now on live shows. That’s the only personal instrument I’ve got because all the keyboards are supplied on the shows by the backline companies so no favourites there. The harmonicas are the standard thing so I guess the guitar would have to be that one.

I find myself playing Lee Oskar Harmonicas more and more. I just stick with the Hohners.

That’s what Paul Jones tells me, he loves his MarineBands. Thinking back to the classic albums when you were establishing yourself and featuring those wonderful players, did you realise that the Beano and Hard Road albums would be such a template to any of us ‘next generation,’ wanting to play electric blues?

We probably hoped it would because every album that I do represents what I’m up to at any given time so it is in permanent use for people to listen to. It is a special album just like every other album I do and we just hope to get up and perform as players.

But you must realise, for people like me they are a template to how to play. I would say, between Hard Road and Johnny Winter’s SecondWinter that taught me to play guitar and bass.

I can see that, yes. As a performer you put an honest piece of work into the album and you don’t know where it’s gonna end up, who it’s gonna influence or who’s gonna like it. Fortunately, throughout my whole career people have always left me to it figuring “I

don’t understand it necessarily, but it works.”

Good for you. BluesFromLaurelCanyon has got a wonderful atmosphere. It absolutely captures Mayall in America doesn’t it?

That’s the thing. When I do an album, there’s a definite theme there and a definite emotion that runs through every album. They are all supposed to document the place and the time of when they are recorded. Like a musical diary really with all these different flavours. When I went into the jazz-blues fusion thing, I listened to those today and it brings back all these memories of those great collaborations with the musicians. Sadly, I think they’re all dead now, I think the bass player was the last one to die. But they are all great documents.

Absolutely right. the double album. I’ve got a real soft spot, John for USAUnion, because I picked up on Harvey Mandel and suddenly you very bravely were working with him and Sugar Cane Harris.On that album, without a drummer and that again is completely its own record isn’t? It’s got Took The Car, The Night Flyer and Nature’s Disappearing. I was amazed at how you got those players to stretch out beyond what they already did. Well, you know when I have a band the whole thing about it is I choose the musicians who I want to listen to and hear at their best. It has

that in common with jazz music that you want to give the musicians that you’ve picked the freedom to express themselves. It was great having Sugar Cane Harris, it was just truly amazing. Another great loss to us but while he was alive he was such a great character and an incredible violin player. I had to have him in the band!

I saw that line-up at The Royal Albert Hall and you had the late Paul Lagos playing drums to go on the road with it. The opening act was Elliot Randall with Randall’s Island. That was a wonderful night because everyone was out there and no one was playing safe. Yet, it all made sense to me. (Laughs) I never play safe!

It made perfect sense to me. You didn’t know what was coming next that’s what I’m saying to you. (Emphatically) That’s the way it is every night I play. The band don’t even know because I make a different set list every night. They have a look at it before they go on but they go ‘That’s an interesting line up’. We just go on stage and play it.

I thought Spinnin’Coin was a fabulous record because it seemed to cover a lot of styles. Any album I do tries to cover as many styles as possible so one track doesn’t sound like the one you just listened to. I like to have key changes all the time just to keep the feeling that you’re listening to a DJ playing a whole bunch of different songs.

There’s a song called What Passes for Love, which I know by Storyville. How did that song happen?

I think that’s a Dave Grissom song. There was a great feel to that one.

What memories might you have John on Dick Heckstall Smith?

Well Dick was quite a character and just

great to be around because he was a person of great humour. Droll humour but he was a great player and very different. I remember him from years ago when I just came out of the Army and he was in a competition in Cambridge. There was an award he had won for New Artist. He and I connected through Alexis Korner and we remained good friends all his life.

It’s strange isn’t it because he played with soul but he did sound European. He definitely had his own style. He was influenced by a lot of different saxophone players.

But he never imitated Eddie Harris or other players. He had almost a global style didn’t he?

Ah, when you mention Eddie Harris, he was one of my all-time favourites and it’s a great loss that he died so early. Eddie Harris was going to play on the track ‘How Can You Live Like That?’ which I recorded on the Spinning Coin album I think. But anyway, he died before he could take part in it and he wanted to take part in it. He was very flattered.

I agree with you, a marvellous player. Very experimental but it worked didn’t it? Well, Dick was also very experimental and in the same sort of way had his own approach.

Now the other thing, what taught me to play harmonica was this fantastic EP that you made with Paul Butterfield and I know every note of that. What a fantastic Decca release that was! It blew my mind when I heard it because you didn’t sound like his band but you got the very best out of that man’s sound.

Mike Vernon was the engineer and the one that produced that one. It was a very good pairing and it was Mike’s idea to put us together while Paul was in London. With McVie, Peter Green and Aynsley Dunbar in the line up, how can you go wrong?

Now what about the guy who wrote Parchment Farm? Mose Allison.

Mose Allison! Ever meet Mose?

If I did meet him it must have been a quick hello. I don’t think I did meet him, no.

But you did popularise his music?

Yeah absolutely, That’s still in the repertoire, Parchment Farm. It’s a great one for improvisation.

When you come to England, do you see family, do you see Gaz?

Everybody that crops up to the gigs. I’ve got family up North of course and then London it just depends who’s able to get there. Family members try to come to the shows.

When the album is released will you being doing any radio promotion?

I hope so. At the moment I’m just doing any interviews that pop up and it seems like there is a lot of interest.

You are coming up to eight decades on the planet. Without overflattering you, there can’t be many people who have left their mark on their field as deeply as you. Does that weigh a bit heavy sometimes, or do you think ‘That’s the life I’ve lead’? Not really. I doesn’t weigh heavy at all. It’s extra publicity and I enjoy the reactions of people when they come to the shows. That’s

my only main contact with the people. It’s always exciting that so many people have been interested in my career. It’s great because I’ve always done exactly what I wanted to do.

You must notice though, that people like me will come along and bring our sons and daughters to see what we have enjoyed for years and because the band’s exciting they come out going, “I get that, Dad.” Exactly. That happens all the time, people bring their teenage children. They bring a new generation into the picture.

I imagine you’ve managed to catch up and play with most people you’ve enjoyed listening too. I was going to ask you about your relationship with Canned Heat. Do you ever get to play gigs with Canned Heat. No. I did a tour in ’85 I think it was and I went on the road with Canned Heat as one of their guests. So we played all over the US for about a month I think. Larry Taylor wasn’t in that particular line up. It was a great fun tour. Walter was one of the guitar players and that’s where I met Walter and learnt how to play with him. That’s where that came from.

Thanks for talking to me. Do you have a favourite track on this new record?

It’s really hard to pick one because they all have a different flavour on them. ‘Special Life’ is the one people are listening to but they are also listening to Why Did You Go Last Night? which is the first track on the album. That is a pretty heavy track. One is a heavy track and one is a more lyrical track.

One song that people adore of yours is Broken Wings. Yeah Broken Wings, I keep getting requests to play that live. I haven’t got around to it yet but recently people have been going on about that one. I’ll have to see if that works for this line up.

John, bless you. Thank you so much for your time and it was great to meet you and I will try to get to the London or the Guildford gig next time you’re over. Alright then I’ll see you late, Pete.Bye.

John mayall’s ne W cd a specIal lIfe I s avaI laB le no W

Interview joe bonamassa

en minutes, into the session we have covered Johnny Winter passing, collecting guitars and amps, our mutual pal Terry Reid, the Telecaster Terry bought when on tour with Cream and that I saw him play at the Doors, Jefferson Airplane Roundhouse gig, Spirit, Zep,Queen and stealing compositions. But no room for all that, so here goes.

BM: Anyway, we’re gonna talk about your record. That’s my brief.

JB: (Laughs) Enough about them, let’s talk about me!

This is supposed to be about you and every time we talk we go mad. It ‘s great and it’s what guitar nuts should be.

You and I should do a pub night and just talk about music and we could go for six hours.

I could bring a couple of my weird and wonderful guitars. I’ve got an orange perspex Les Paul copy. I would love to see you holding that and put it on your

Guitar of the Day or something.

I could bring the Terry Reid Tele to mess around with!

Let’s cut through the tracks. DifferentShadesof Blue is the album title, the weird thing is I got the promo a week after I’d finished writing a song called Different Shades of Blue.

(Laughs) You’re not gonna sue me are ya?

I used to finish shows with the instrumental Pali Gap and introduce the band. But there’s keys on there, is that Derek playing the keys? It’s actually Reese Wynans.

Oh it’s Reese! I saw Reese with Stevie Ray. He’s played on the whole album.

He’s great. If you’re going to add a keyboard player to the classic trio, you’d have Benmont Tench of Tom Petty’s band or Reese Wynans. What do you reckon?

rb A ls: PETE AN d GLENN SARGEANT VI su A l s: CHRISTIE GOO d WIN

Interview joe bonamassa

Yeah. He’s really great and he’s actually doing this thing in Red Rocks that we’re doing later this month. He is such a good band musician and I feel, very lucky he will work with us.

The reason I like him, is that the way he plays the keyboards it doesn’t rob the guitar of any tones. A lot of keyboard players get on stage and they play block chords and you think, I can only hear the top of my guitar.

Keyboard players are frustrated guitarists. They wanna be rockstars, some play the Hammond like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar. I’m like “Dude, why don’t you just play guitar?”

Jack Bruce says that Miles’ problem was he wanted to be Jimi Hendrix and that’s why he started dressing funkily and all that stuff. He was very jealous of Jimi apparently, the great Miles! On the track Oh Beautiful there’s a vocal with heavy delay here and it sounds like a heavy, Univibe (legendary effects pedal) sound on there. It’s breathing on the neck of Black Dog, as regards to edge.

I always wanted to write an acapella song kind of like that, like a field holler. I came up with this melody for the vocal and worked with my friend James House who’s a really great writer.

Now this guy works with Keith Urban doesn’t he? Yeah. He does.

Urban’s a right guitar freak. Have you spoken to him? Keith Urban? I gave him an amp! You did?

I gave him one of my combos. I said ‘I hope this doesn’t affect our friendship.’ I had two Jesse 80-Watt and I couldn’t keep them running and I was gonna go broke in repair bills. He said “Do you have any Lazy Jesse Combos?” and I said “Yeah” and he goes “Would you sell it to me?”

He’s a great guitar player, in a way, the fact that he looks so good to women almost makes people overlook what a great musician he is.

I think the Pop Idol Stardom thing overshadowed the real great player he is. But I don’t think he’s complaining.

I used to play Urban and Brad Paisley instrumentals on the radio way back. The guy’s awesome. Brad is a good writer..

The thing is, Brad is the best contemporary writer in his idiom. He’ll talk about computers and it doesn’t sound wrong. It sounds fresh. He’s very tongue in cheek about it too. He’s a such a good musician and an entertainer.

Love Ain’t a Love Song, got the horns, got the jumpy beat, a brilliant four-note hook and a slightly crazy guitar solo. What was in your head when you did that? Actually nothing. We did three takes of that song, two with a Les Paul, one with a Tele. Kevin goes ‘You know, you really play your go to default settings Eric Johnson stuff on there. Why don’t you grab that Tele you have.’ So I grab the Tele and that’s the whole take, that’s what you hear there. Didn’t seem any point doing it again once we had that down.

It’s catchy as hell.They were asking me what would be a single? I said that track. I hope there isn’t any ‘hits.’ I don’t deal in singles.

I know you don’t, Joe but there’s tracks that people latch onto that make them buy the album. Business is business. Even Zeppelin had their more popular hits that helped sell their albums. It’s not criminal.That is a good airplay song. (Laughs) I listen to mostly talk radio so I wouldn’t know!

I feared you’d done the Police song but no it’s your own. Great choppy sound on that. What led to that sort of feel on ‘Living on the Moon’?

We’re trying to make a blues record and you need a shuffle. My friend Jake House had this cool lyric and it was like a down and dirty shuffle thing. That’s how the whole thing came about. It’s hard to write a shuffle that doesn’t sound like Sweet Home Chicago.

Now ‘Heartache Follows Me Wherever I Go’ is very strident. I’ve written down here ‘Hammond and Horns’. I don’t think that would be Joe recording before you did the work with Beth Hart. Is it fair to say working with Beth and the horns has made you more comfortable doing this sort of track?

I would say my work over the last decade has definitely made the horns, aka the bill for the horns, a lot more acceptable, now I can afford it. Ballad of John Henry and other records. It’s just such a luxury to have. I just love horns!

What I like about this, because it’s a blues record I think there’s a bit of honesty that comes through and more than you realise. Never Give All Your Heart to Love has a great punchy intro and I’ve written down here ‘for Paul Rodgers surely.’ There’s definitely a hug to Paul Kossof in the solo of that one. Yeah that’s pretty much channelling Free. I wrote that song with Jonathan Cain. That’s interesting.It’s a Brit blues sound isn’t? You’d never associate someone like that, if I told you off the record I was writing with Jonathan Cain. I think that would be the last person you’d pick. It’s so not in the vein of Journey. But Jonathan is a great musician and he can write anything.

Yeah. I’ve seen Journey with their new singer and I think to be honest, he’s the star of the band. No

disrespect to anyone else but Neil Schon has this grim face and he always looks like he’s come to rid your home of rodents. We just did a record with Neil and with the daughter of Jimmy Barnes, all of them Betty Davis covers.

I love Betty Davis, those Island records were way ahead of their time. Way ahead of their time ! Such great guitar and rhythms going on. I'm glad you know about those albums.

On the AnAcousticEveningatTheViennaOpera House album I really think, with some of those songs they really needed that acoustic feel. I believe to really appreciate something like Ballad of John Henry, it needs to be heard in that setting. I was worried when we first started to rehearse it, I was like “Man, I’ve never tried anything like that.” Then all of a sudden you’re there playing acoustic versions of songs that you’ve only played electric. It’s a writing

hold up because I never write on acoustic I always write on electric. Thank you, I really appreciate that.

What about this Ray track?

I didn’t realise it was a Ray Charles one. I took it as a Cornell Dupree instrumental and it was a momentary lapse of musicology. I said ‘Why didn’t anyone write any lyrics to this?’ Well somebody did and it was the original writer Ray Charles. But I wrote a different lyric thinking it was an instrumental. Kind of this weird hybrid thing.

The best vocal on the album is Get Back My Tomorrow. Everyone likes that song. I don’t know why. My least favourite, then you go and say that!

That’s my favourite of the whole set. I don’t know why people like that song. I have no barometer, my least favourite song on the record is that one. Shows you what I know!

It’s got a brilliant vocal and I think that’s where you sound most distinctive. I do think that’s pretty good. There’s other stuff I wanted to mention to you but another time perhaps. By the way, you sound pretty good on the new Bernie Marsden record. Thank you.

He was delighted that you were on that. I was delighted to work with him and delighted to be at Abbey Road too. That was a fun hang.

One time, I was doing a charity show in Middlesex and he walked in. I was playing mandolin and he went to his car, got a Les Paul out of the boot and sat in with us.To help the charity night.That’s what a nice guy Bernie Marsden is man.

He’s the salt of the earth. I love the guy, anyhow, time is running man. Let’s catch up on the next tour.

f or more I nformatI on v I s It: WWW.JB onamassa.com and WWW.face B ookcom/JoeBonamassa released I n the uk on m onday 22nd s eptem B er on m ascot l a B el g roup/ p rovogue. Joe’s ne W stud I o al B um dIfferent shades of Blue I s released I n the uk on m onday 22nd s eptem B er on m ascot l a B el g roup/ p rovogue. to cele B rate the release, Joe WI ll B e playI ng a ser I es of sho W s I n l ondon on the follo WI ng dates I n march: tuesday 17th, thursday 19th, f r I day 20th, s aturday 21st at the e ventI m a pollo, h ammersm Ith, l ondon. Box o ff I ce: 0844 249 4300. WWW.eventI mapollo.com

p h I l I p s ayce I s a young man on a m I ss I on. hI s latest release Influence I s an al B um choc full of I nventI on, trad ItI on and, W ell, I nfluence that WIthout dou Bt It WI ll B e talked a B out I n terms of B e I ng one of the B est al B ums of the year

lthough still relatively young Philip has learnt his trade working with Jeff Healey and Melissa Etheridge amongst others, honing his skills in both live and studio situations to reach the point we are at now. The scary thing is that Philip has the time and ability to get even better. So with a UK tour coming up to promote the album the time was right to speak to Philip about getting to this point, so I took the opportunity to chat via phone to him in L.A.

BM: Hi Philip, it’s BM, how are you?

PS: Hi, I’m fine thanks, good to hear from you. Look at the time, you’re spot on the button.

Well we try to be professional you know, we aim to please. Thanks for the time. We need to talk about

the new album. I’m really enjoying it, the first couple of tracks I love. There seems to be a big Hendrix influence coming through. Do you think that’s fair comment?

Oh definitely, that’s a compliment. If there’s anything I can play or compose that is compared to Hendrix in a positive way that’s awesome, so thank you.

Looking at the album as a whole, when I saw the title was Influence I wondered if it going to be covers that had influenced you but it’s not that at all. After listening a few times it seems like some tracks are very reflective while others are a real statement of intent.

I think you got it. I think you have it 100%. It’s a very personal album. The title Influence

is about paying respect to the musicians that I listened to in the early days and continue to do so. I love to watch clips of people like Albert Collins, Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan and then I think, ‘Holy shit, I got to get practising’. So really the album pays respect to the music I love. Also I went through some difficult times and lots of this album was written in some of my darkest moments.

A song like Fade Into You was written in a super bleak kinda hopeless spot and on the other hand with a song like Triumph, it’s about weathering storms, holding out and holding on to people you can rely on. So yeah, there is a lot behind the songs that might not at first be apparent but it sounds like you got it straight away.

The idea of starting with Tom Devil, which is built around these old Alan Lomax tapes of prisoners chopping wood, is to show that prejudice still exists, it’s here, all around us. Separation of people due to colour or sexual orientation, religion or whatever, for me that song sums that up. It’s almost like today we try to turn everything into game shows.

You mean like The Voice?

Yeah, and that’s cool. I watch The Voice and American Idol sometimes. It’s entertaining. The problem is that anything less mainstream be it hip hop, jazz or whatever has less and less space. When we recorded Tom Devil I was a little freaked out by it at first but it felt like an opportunity to show where blues music comes from. More people need to understand that all music comes from the blues and the blues comes from the earth, the air and everything around us. Today there seems to be a lot of emphasis on like: “Oh, this isn’t the blues,” etc.

The Blues police?

Yeah, you know for me the most exciting performers were always dancing on the edge of a knife. Tom Devil and Peace In The Valley are all about respecting where this music comes from.

I love that those two bookend each end of the album. We talked about doing different things, rerecording them or using other singers but the original recordings are just so powerful. I have to say the Alan Lomax Foundation were very supportive and very excited about the whole project. That really meant a lot.

I believe this was actually recorded pretty soon after the Steamrolleralbum?

Yes, we recorded this about two months after Steamroller came out along with David Cobb. Most of this was recorded in 2012.

You two seem the have a very natural working relationship.

Well Dave is a great artist. In a way he is copilot on the recordings. We try lots of things, we recorded a bunch of good songs that didn’t get on the album that might go on the next one. We have a lot of the same influences so he gets what I’m after.

You mentioned Fade Into You earlier. After one listen that’s my favourite track. It reminded me of those 70’s bands that you couldn’t categorise or pigeonhole. I’m so happy you said that! That’s the intention. Of course blues is in everything even the

most modern pop song or heavy metal I hear blues influences. Like you say I’m not a fan of putting artists into boxes labelled blues or jazz or whatever. Why have separation, there’s so much going on.

It seems to me the biggest problem with the programmes you mentioned earlier is they make music into a competition and it’s not. You can enjoy this and still enjoy something else. Well said, that’s spot on. If you want competition get into sports. What you like and what I like may be different but one shouldn’t trump the other, they are both valid.

I notice you often use the term ‘roots’ to describe your music. I pick up a jazz vibe in there quite a bit. The space and the innovation that goes on. Well I enjoy the freedom to be innovative, I don’t want songs that sound like they are written by a committee.

Can I ask you a bit about Jeff Healey? I think he’s one of the most important players of the last few decades. I’ve seen footage of you performing with him as a very young man. That must have been a huge moment for you.

I think Jeff is the last of the truly, truly great guitar heroes. Not that there won’t be any ever again but for me personally no one around has made my hair stand on end like him in that kinda way. You can’t learn what Jeff had, that’s just given to you. Standing next to him when he played, I’ve never experienced anything like it since. There’s lots of great talented players but Jeff had true blues power, he had it in spades, he just went beyond. He was like a wizard. The opportunity I was afforded to go and play with him as a teenager for four years was just insane, indescribable. It was an honour, I still pinch myself.

Clearly when he took you on board he could see something in you and wanted to be a part of that development.

His intentions were really pure. I was in Toronto and there are so many gifted guitarists there. We got introduced by a mutual friend and he came and checked me out one night. I didn’t know he was there but suddenly the audience

started making a hell of a noise. Afterwards we ran into each other and went into a small bar in Kensington Market, the Toronto one not London. Of course wherever Jeff went people wanted him to play so we got up but he picked up the bass and gave me the guitar to play. Just us two and a drummer so we ended up jamming some Cream songs.

After that Jeff invited me to join his band. He said. “We want to take you and teach you how to play on bigger stages and groom you ready for your own career, and then we’ll help you go forward on your own.” What a gentleman. I well up just talking about it. I’m very grateful to him for the lessons.

Is a UK tour coming up?

We hope so. We’re really trying to do something. I love playing in the UK.

You were born in Wales of course, weren’t you?

Yes that’s right. My parents had a wonderful record collection. My brother is also a musician and we were exposed to really great music early on. The Stones, Clapton, Mark Knopfler. Even now when we speak my Dad says to me, check this out about someone he’s seen or heard. They have always been very supportive.

I read that there are plans for a live release. Is that close?

Well, you know because Influence has been sitting for awhile not knowing what was happening with it I made some other recordings. I have stuff from Japan, I have stuff from the UK and Europe as well as here in North America. So I put together twelve songs from those but now that Influence is out we’ll hold on and maybe put it out later, we’ll see.

Well Philip I know we’ve run over our time slot and you have other calls to take. It’s been great talking. I’m just happy that you like the music and want to talk. I just hope that people find what I do inspiring in some way. We’re working really hard to come over to the UK later this year and look forward to seeing you all.

for more I nformatI on, c heck out: WWW.ph I l I psayce.com

ith the King of the Blues not as young as he was, James says, “I would like to stay busy.” He certainly is staying busy, with his prominent part in the powerful new band the Original Legends Of The Blues (OLB). James is part of a line up with other band members who, like him, have serious track records.

James tells his story: “My mother played piano and my dad sang, and I had cousins who played piano and who were in music. My parents believed kids should have a musical foundation, so when I was eleven and my sister was ten, our parents said, one day you need to decide if you want to sing or to play an instrument. You have a year to decide. I decided on an instrument when I saw Louis Armstrong play his trumpet on TV. I liked that, I got a trumpet. My sister went into a choir, and I went into the school music programme and learned to play trumpet. Before that, I wanted to be in the medical field. The doctor

who helped my mother give birth to me did house visits, and I became good friends with the man who helped bring me into this world. I never got to meet Louis Armstrong. I met a lot of others, Miles, David Clarke, Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, oh man, Freddie Hubbard. I was in my High School R&B band for four to five years, studying music at Texas Southern University. When a band came down there I got chances to play with them. Bands like The Supremes came with core musicians and augmented them, they’d have strings, but hire horns for shows. The Musicians Union would call me, I got the chance to play with a lot of artists. My cousin played alto with Isaac Hayes band in the 70’s and they would come and do a ‘Texas Swing,’ that is, a trip that would take them through places like Austin and San Antonio, and I would play in the summer with Isaac. While I was learning I did other things. I worked in a silk screen printing place. I worked in a ‘jack in the box’, a fast food place, like Burger King, drive up and order, as a cook. I was a bus driver for the city, local public transportation. I was very young, about twenty or twenty-one.

I had no awe. I was young, very focused on getting more prepared, I never felt like I shouldn’t be there. I was very confident. Some of the musicians didn’t always make me feel wanted. I asked Isaac Hayes trumpeter, ‘What do I need to do to become a full-time member of this or another band?’ I was twenty-two or three at the time. His response was, 'Miles Davis and guys like that were doing it and making it aged sixteen or seventeen. If you haven’t done it by now, you’re too late’. People tell me that, I take it as a challenge, it made it so I wanted it not to be the case, and to prove them wrong. I kept pursuing and I knew I’d get it.

My first full-time professional band was The Duke Ellington Orchestra. Duke passed away in May 1974. A week later his son Mercer Ellington took over. Johnny Coles, the trumpeter, decided to leave for Ray Charles, and that left an empty chair. Quentin Rocky White, my cousin, and Barry Lee Hall JR. a friend, were in the band, and Anita Moore, a high school friend. Mercer wanted to try young guys with talent, they were all from Houston, he asked for suggestions, and they

said me. He called a week later, I auditioned with the band three weeks later when they came back from the Bahamas. He liked me and kept me. I stayed for four years.

After that, I left. I was married, the marriage was getting a little shaky. I went home to Houston and that was when I did bus driving for two years. I knew BB’s bandleader, Calvin Owens. For a couple of years he called, and he asked me to join in the summer of seventy-nine. It would be a couple of weeks before I’d need to come out, but I said, “I’m not ready to go on the road, Cal.” He said, “OK, call me back in six months and if there’s an opening, if you have your head together, you can go then.” Believe it or not, after almost six months he called back and asked, “Are you ready to go on the road? If not, I’m never calling again.” I’ve been there ever since, since January 1980.

When Calvin left, Edward Sinnegal, on sax, moved up and became leader for two to three years. BB brought in his cousin, Walter King, on sax and he moved up to bandleader, but he got Bell’s Palsy, and couldn’t play. In nineteen ninety-four to five, BB invited me to take over the band temporarily, but it stuck all the way to now. He’s never said its permanent, but it became automatically. I help with what is necessary. I’ve set up the stage, been stage manager, done production, and been road manager for a year at one time. I’ve done paymaster, numerous jobs. I set up BB’s telephone interviews for about a year.

My name, Boogaloo, BB called me that. When I was first in the band, Calvin Owens took all the solos, so I felt I should do something to be a useful part of the band. I would start dancing and my head shaking thing. BB looked back and started calling me Boogaloo.”

Now James is leading his own band, The James Bolden Blues Band, at the age of 64. “I was 64 in February. Starting is exciting. In one way I wish I’d done it earlier, with useful energy, but it is exciting, something I always wanted to do. I got comfortable being with a big star. Now I have to take my own chance. It

was one of my childhood dreams to be a front man. I studied for it, when I was preparing my career. I haven’t done interviews too often, just here and there. Sometimes people wanted a quick interview in the thirty four years I’ve been with BB King, but only maybe ten or twelve in that time.

We’ve been together for over three years. I first did a CD of my own in 2006/07, entitled Playing for the King, a tribute to BB. At the time, I went to the studio and used BB’s rhythm section, bass, guitar, and keys. I included Rocky White on drums, a cousin of mine, who was with me in the Duke Ellington Band. I hired Cal Shelley from Duke’s band on tenor sax and another organist and my son. We did The Thrill is Gone. My son Michael did a rap in the middle, he wrote the rap, and we did two versions, one with the rap in the middle. I have two sons, Michael and Gabriel, they were part-time DJ’s at parties, and neither are in music now. I knew Michael could do it, I’d heard raps both had done before. It was a good father and son project.

At university I was a classical singer. I wanted to switch my major from instrumental to voice and at the time classical was what I wanted to do! It was always a dream to sing, to have the chance to express the emotions I have through my voice. My style is different from Clapton, as you know! I am still learning. I’ve had a really good response and it’s a thrill.”

“I’m proud of the new album, actually getting it done and coming up with songs for it. I always had the idea in my head to do an arrangement of Big Boss Man. I’d heard it for many years, but never a kind of funk version. When the album was put together, we had only five or six songs. The sax player, Eric Demmer, had a couple he’d written. He was with Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown for twelve years. I had two songs, Big Boss Man and Hey There, for my wife, written for a while. That’s all we had. Charlie Dennis is with BB and with me now. He had two songs and Evelyn Rubio, vocalist and alto sax, had

two songs. She’s written one and a friend the other. While we were doing the album, I wrote another, the title track. I didn’t start by singing, I wrote the music first and the words came later. When we finished recording, we still had other songs to record at some time, but I wanted to get finished and save these for later. One of mine and one of Charlie’s is going in OLB’s CD. My wife loved the song I wrote for her. It tells a good story about us.”

James has also joined forces with some of his own band and other top musicians to form the Original Legends of the Blues (OLB).

“As a matter of fact we’re having a rehearsal tonight. It’s going really well. We’re doing a CD, finishing the vocals, recording the horns. Hopefully we’ll be finished in a few weeks. The players are Charlie Dennis, Eric, three of us who are in my band all together, Russell Jackson on bass. He was bass with BB when I was first in his band. Barry Seelen, who is on my CD. Daryl Levigne on keyboards had to go to South America for gigs and we brought in Barry to play organ, he’s now in the OLB

too, an excellent player. Jimmi Mayes who discovered and played with Jimi Hendrix, it was amazing to meet and play with. We’ve become really close friends. He has some amazing stories.”

“The idea for the OLB, that was Koby (Kruse). He met Jimmi and they talked and Jimmi has his book about his experiences with Hendrix. Koby’s idea was a band where everybody in the band had played with legends. We’re not calling ourselves legends, we’re just trying to keep playing Blues music.”

We wish James well for his future as his own bandleader and with the Original Legends of the Blues. It is fitting to close with some of James' thoughts on both of them. “BB at eighty eight is still healthy and working and I’m with him. I’m getting out myself with bands, people have not really seen me up front or know that I can sing.”

for more InformatIon check out: James Bolden Blues Band WWW.reverBnatIon.com/JamesBoogalooBoldenBluesBand and the orIgInal legends of the Blues WWW.orIgInallegendsoftheBlues.com

Beth h art I s a mus I c I an W hose honesty and I ntegr Ity form a v Ital part of her

B l I ster I ngly-po W erful l I ve sho W s. o ff stage, she I s no d I fferent... open a B out her on-go I ng BI-polar cond ItI on and the effect It has had on her l I fe and career

eth’s highly successful albums made with blues legend Joe Bonamassa and her own solo records have seen Beth develop and grow a massive fan base around the world – to which can be added the Canadian blues fans who watched her tear up the Club Soda nightclub in Montreal, where she appeared as part of the 35th Jazz Festival. In the afternoon before the performance, Beth sat down with Andy Hughes to talk about her career, and her life, what has led her to where she is now, musically and personally. Her honesty is on the line, and Hart doesn’t hold back.

BM: Do you like being interviewed?

BH: I like meeting people, and I like having discussions. The only problem with an interview situation is, it can be a bit narcissistic, and that gets me into trouble, gets anyone in trouble man, so that is something I am trying to work on in my life. What I like best is a give-

and-take conversation where you get to swap information and learn things about each other.

Whenever I research musicians like yourself who sing about pain and suffering, I always hope that they haven’t suffered as much as their voices say they have, but I believe that you have suffered in the past. I don’t look on it so much as suffering. I come from a free country, I have had an education, if I get sick there are good doctors, I have a lot of hugs and kisses, lots of I-love-you. The only parts of my life in which I have suffered have been by my own hand. Either in my own head, or what I do with my own hands against myself. That is something that will continue. But what is great about my life now is that in my forties, with an amazing husband for more than fifteen years now, I have come to terms with that a lot more. Because I have to, I have to. I think I really have it made in the shade,

E rb A ls: AN d Y HUGHES V I su A ls: JEFF KATZ / BIANCA OF BETHHART.COM

but I have a brain that unfortunately doesn’t register things in that way, so I suffer.

How did you discover your voice?

I didn’t really discover my voice so much, I discovered the piano, and I discovered Beethoven, I heard Moonlight Sonata. My family were going through a horrible break up at the time, my father and mother were going through a terrible divorce, he was cheating on her with another woman. I saw them both going through a lot of pain, and of course that affected the whole family. So when I heard Moonlight Sonata for the first time, it felt like Beethoven was telling our story. It felt like I once knew what home was, and I lost it, so I am searching in the dark to find it again. When I heard that, I knew that I wanted something in my life that would give me hope, even when I cannot see one light in a giant room full of darkness, and that light that is inside of me, that I can’t see, is telling me to keep searching for home, you will find it.

You may not find it and keep it, but you will find and taste bits of it, and that will be enough to get you through. So that was the turning point for me, finding music in that way. When I was a child, I went to see the musical Annie, and I loved that so much. When my mom was in bed, I would go into her bedroom and perform the songs for her, and I didn’t know at the time that my brother was sneaking in behind me and making fun of me performing, and my mom would laugh and laugh, and I just loved the performing, making her laugh, and getting mad at my brother when I realised what he was doing, and I loved all of that, the intensity of all that.

I never thought much of myself as a singer at all. I studied hard, I got a vocal coach because I so wanted to be an opera singer. I wanted that more than anything! Even today my favourite singers are opera singers. My vocal coach, a lady called Rhonda Dillon, said, you’re way too wild, and you don’t have any discipline to learn what the composer has written, so this is not for you. And I asked her if there was any hope for me that I could do this, and she said no, you need to go and figure out your own thing. So I went to another vocal coach, Bob Korf, and I

studied with him for many years. Bob was all about strength and health, not about sound and tone. He said, if you find your own thing, I will teach you how to take care of it, so you can work.

You love performing, that is really obvious, you get such a kick out of it.

I do! I really do! I like attention! And I also like it when the audience and the band, we all become a family. Again, it’s those moments of home that you get to taste, for a minute.

When you realised that you loved the blues, and that you were going to be a blues singer, did you explore the genre?

I never thought of myself as a blues singer, and I never made a decision to be a blues singer. I thought of myself as a songwriter, and I am obsessed with so many singers and so many songwriters from so many genres, from classical to jazz, to soul, to salsa, reggae, very hard rock and roll, grunge, everything across all the time zones. So I thought of myself as a songwriter who needed to learn a whole lot about song writing, but I never thought of myself as a singer.

What I hoped was that I would be able to learn enough about singing to be able to sing my own material, and bring my songs forward. But as far as thinking of myself as a blues singer, I never ever thought of myself as a singer like that until Joe Bonamassa asked me to do that first record, Don’t Explain I would never ever have attempted to do songs like that, hell no! These people were my heroes right there, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Billie Holiday, Etta James, Big Joe Turner, massive names, there was no way that I thought of myself as singing those songs, no way at all. I don’t know, maybe I was in a pretty blue place in my life at that time, when Joe asked me to work with him, and I just thought I was going to sing backing vocals, and he said no no no, you go and find some songs that you want to do, and I’ll throw a few at ya, and we’ll see at the end if we agree at the end of the day, and we are going to go and make this record. So I thought this was just great! But I did question myself, if I was going to be able

to do it, and even Kevin Shirley the producer questioned if I could do it, when he heard some of my old stuff.

Kevin wasn’t sure if I had that kind of voice in me, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure either. So I was determined that I would work really hard, and I would turn up. So on the first day, I broke out in hives, all over my skin because I was so nervous, I was terrified!

And Kevin Shirley the producer is not a man who is easy to please. But he is just so wonderful. God what a good guy! I’ll tell you about one time when we were recording. One of the players on the session came up to me and told me I had changed the key on one of the songs, so I went up to Kevin and told him I wanted to change the key, and he told me I had better be able to do it, or I would be out of there, and they would get someone else in to do the songs. So I thought, Oh my God, he is a tough guy alright!

Do you think you hit fame too early the first time? It’s a cool question. I don’t even consider myself as someone who has hit fame. You are the first person who has ever brought this up with me in conversation. I remember when I got my deal with Atlantic, and we made the Immortal record, which they said at the time was not going to go anywhere, so they weren’t going to give us a lot of tour support. But they gave us enough, we went through the United States, and Canada, and over to Europe, and to South Africa, and we got some opening slots for some major artists. I was working with a hard rock band, and the band just fell apart, and as someone with abandonment issues, I just couldn’t handle that, I felt horrible. So then I started work on Screamin’ For My Supper, the label said they’d give me another record.

It was a very different style, it was more of a singer-songwriter record with some rock and roll elements in there, and some soul influences. Then I wrote LA Song, and I remember when I turned it in, the head of the label called me and told me on the phone that it was going to be a big song. And instead of having a feeling of enjoyment, I got this sinking feeling inside, I was thinking, oh shit! And I remember going out to stay with my mom for the weekend, and my mom was really angry with me. She said to me: “You don’t want to make it, you don’t

want to be successful, you have all the talent in the world, and you don’t succeed, it’s ‘cos you don’t want it!” And I looked her in the eye, and it was amazing that I had the balls to do this because my mom’s a very strong personality, and I said, “Mom, I have no idea what I am doing as an artist yet, I think it’s going to take until at least I am in my forties before I have the least comprehension of what I want to say.” I knew they were going to push the record, and I worked my ass off on Screamin’ForMySupper, I was very proud of the record. I did some great co-writes with some great co-writers, I did some good writing on my own that I felt good about. I produced the record with Tal Herzberg, my old bass player, and I felt that this was a great record, but I thought that I have to get in front of it and do everything I can to stop it being a success, because if this record is a success, I will have no career, or I may have a career for about five years, maybe six years, and then it will just go down.

Why did you think that would happen to you? Because that is what happens to pop stars. They have these big pop radio hits, and then

they become known by their audiences and their label, for always doing hooky catchy radio-friendly pop songs, and that’s fantastic and they make shit-loads of money and they get a house on the beach, and they buy mom a house as well and everything’s great. But for me, the success of this business, success as it is defined for me, is to be able to continue to do this for the rest of my life. And I just knew that if this record took off, I was going to screw myself, I was going to put myself into a box.

So, you are happy now, you are secure, are you able to reach back into those bad times to give you the emotion you need for your performances, or for your writing, or do you not need to do that?

I still struggle with my bi-polar condition so very much. Here’s the thing, if I didn’t do this for a living, I would probably have to take next to no medication, and I’d be fine at home. But because I take on a high-stress job with lots of moving around physically, mentally, emotionally, it really makes it kind of nuts. I am so lucky to have the people around me, I have a great doctor, a great manager, a wonderful husband, and all the people around me know

about my condition, I am very open about it. But the swings, they are scary. They are between suicidal thoughts, and rage, and very little of a grey area in the middle. I am working at the moment, twice a week with my doctor who is a firm believer in getting deep into the issues that I have, of getting down and facing those ghosts, and that will help to balance my body chemistry so that the chemicals won’t send my brain into such extremes.

That’s the thing about life! You don’t have to be bi-polar for life to kick your ass on a consistent basis. So there is always plenty of room for material (laughs) and if you’re a human being, and you look at what other people go through, it’s mind-blowing! Again, more material to write about.

Do you think about how you are feeling when you wake up?

The first thing I do is get down on my knees and pray. And I would love to ask God for something for me, because I am so narcissistic and wrapped up in myself, I have to force myself to pray for other people. But I do it, because I know that God has got my back. I don’t have to work on my career, I just have to work out, eat right, and listen to my doctor, and the rest will follow along.

Do you take care of your voice?

I do smoke, but I warm up properly and I warm down properly. I drink herbal tea and try and stay quiet on show days, if I talk I try and talk as softly as I can. I make sure I am as relaxed as possible when I sing, even though my mind is racing around, I keep my voice relaxed. I take two aspirin every day, while I am on the road.

You have had some issues with labels and promoters in the past, is that all over now, and are they all back on side with you?

I really can’t tell a sob story about being badly treated, even when I was treating myself and everyone around me very badly. They were always very kind and compassionate, and I honestly believe that the reason why I survived that period is because Atlantic Records dropped me. They were very kind about it, they told me they would pay for my treatment, but that they

thought I was out of my mind, and they were backing out.

You are happy now aren’t you?

I am today. I had a bad time recently, when I thought I was not going to make the tour. But I thought about it, and I knew that the tour was booked, and the band depend on me, and I have to get out there and make some money to live, so I got on the Stairmaster, and got going, and got singing along to get my lungs in condition, and I upped my medication temporarily which I don’t like to do because they make me fat, and I came out of it.

When you sing I’llTakeCareOfYou, who do you think about while you are singing?

I think about my mom, and my dad, and my husband, I think about the way my husband loves me and takes care of me. I think about Brook Benton the songwriter, who died some years ago, and what sort of man he must have been to be able to write a song like that.

Do you think you need life experience to be able to sing the blues properly?

I think you need to have lived some of your life to be able to dig in and look at your experiences, unless you were one of the originators who really suffered so very hard, and they were young when they started writing and performing, but they came from a life that I would never understand, or survive.

Do you think people expect your on-stage persona when they meet you?

It’s funny you mention that, because I was playing a show a few days ago and I went outside to have a cigarette, and the line was there waiting to come in, and I got talking to people, like I always do, and someone said hey, you’re just an ordinary Joe! And I was thinking, what else would I be? I am just an ordinary person; just because I am a singer doesn’t make me not an ordinary person. I certainly don’t think like a rock star, sometimes I think maybe I should!

c heck out more a B out Beth at WWW.B ethhart.com

his is the first of a series of no less than four which will take us from the really early days of discovery right up to the present day. Dave Kelly’s enthusiasm for the Blues continues to be rekindled as his personal journey moves on and as his abilities as a singer, guitar player continue to develop and flourish.

BM’s interviewer, Dave Thomas, was part of the same generation of British Blues Boomers as Dave Kelly. They have shared the same journey and their paths have crossed on many occasions. This interview was a very relaxed and enjoyable exchange. Hope, dear reader, you get the flavour.

Dave Kelly, the crack guitar player and singer, has many feathers in his Blues cap. From the early days playing with the legendary Joanne Kelly (his eldest sister) to today with The Bluesband having been together for more than 20 odd years – he is a true Bluesman. He has travelled a long way from his early formative years in the Wandle Delta where his life in Blues began, around the world and almost back again (to Hampton Wick actually). It’s been a fascinating journey and it’s far from over yet. For Dave Kelly the road goes ever on...so, to begin at the beginning.

BM: This is going to be an in-depth interview: a conversation with the Blues. To begin I’m very keen to explore the fundamental question of why you were drawn to the Blues in the first place. DK: Yes. Okay, well, why we all were really.

Was it your parents that influenced you?

Streatham. There was always music in the house. A lot of people playing instruments. I was always intrigued by the radiogram, it wasn’t a wind-up thing, it was electric! 78s – I liked the feel of them,the colour of them. I’d stand on a chair being a DJ. Mum liked Shirley Bassey, ‘Smoke That Cigarette’ and ‘Woodman, Spare That Tree’. There was definitely some sort of Western Swing thing. I’m sure there was Doris Day stuff, Winifred Atwell, boogie woogie piano (or pub piano) Ha! Mmmm...and then, me being the youngest.

How many of you were there?

Three. I was the youngest. Jo (Joanne Kelly) was the oldest, three years and three months older than me. Then Sue, two years older than me. She lives near you (East Anglia)

Oh? I didn’t know that. Yes. She goes to gigs up there, if she can get someone to look after the dogs.

Yes. It’s dog country up there. So, when were you born Dave?

March, March ’47. So, yes, Joanne and Sue hit teenagership just at the right time for Rock and Roll. We all found that time pretty exciting and, uh, yeah we liked Skiffle.

What? Lonnie Donegan?

Yeah, yeah. Absolutely loved him. He was great. He was wonderful. His Frankie & Johnny was one of the best ever versions.

Every year he’d do a gig at the Nashville Rooms in West Kensington. I remember that because, shortly after I moved up to London, we went to see him there. Did you ever see him there?

No. I’ve seen him though. We used to go on holiday to Corton, near Lowestoft. Twice we saw him in a big theatre in Great Yarmouth. My Dad liked him, and Micky & Griff who were also on his show and, mmm, so, we saw Donegan and we bought his records. Jo and Sue bought records by Elvis and Buddy Holly. And then I remember this EP turning up, by some black bloke, with his arms behind him on the cover, this was Little Richard! If everything had been exciting up till then this was really, what IS that? Ha, ha, ha!

What about Jerry Lee Lewis?

Saw him when I was 13 when he came back with his young wife (his cousin!) Bishop of Southwark!!

It was a long marriage?

It was a long marriage, yes. But she was his cousin. Yes. If you read his autobiography there’s some nice pictures of him, her and their kids...and they’re great kids! He was on at the Mitcham Majestic.

Is that where you saw him?

Yeah, that’s where we saw him, which became a Sainsburys, I believe. That was fantastic. That was absolutely awesome, and, at the end of the concert Jo dashed up on stage, backstage!

Any security?

No. Not then. She got to meet him and got his

V E rb A ls: d AVE THOMAS

When Blues m atters! f I rst planned to I nterv I e W d ave k elly W e kne W that such a s I gn I f I cant f I gure I n Br ItI sh Blues (someone W ho W as I n the th I ck of It even

B efore the g reat Br ItI sh Blues Boom of the 60s) W ould mer It more than a one part feature. We W ere r I ght

tie! Ha, ha. His tie. Yeah. His manager brought out Myra, his wife, and all the crowd cheered. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen.

This was before Jo had started to play the Blues?

I played guitar first – when I was 10 or 11. I took my electric train set up to the local second-hand shop and traded it for a four string guitar. It was a tenor guitar but I didn’t know it at the time. It was a little small thing. Only four strings. Even an F was easy!

Brilliant!

Yeah, and it was your thumb at the top and that’s what I learnt on. My parents bought me a book. It wasn’t Burt Weedon, it was another instruction book, but it didn’t tell me what I wanted to know. It had some flash bloke on the cover playing some flash chord. I looked again and it really didn’t tell me anything I wanted to know. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I didn’t. I was learning piano at the time but, even so, it didn’t translate to the guitar. The guitar sat there, rather disappointed because the book didn’t tell me how to play Cumberland Gap or Peggy Sue.

There was this bloke, a bit older than Jo, if I was 10 he was about 14, down the local recreation ground which had a big gate. Sometimes he’d play there with his Skiffle group. His name was Alan Oldfield and, mmm, well, I asked him and he said “Yeah, I can show you a few chords” and, uh, yeah, he did: C, D and G. It was easy enough and I went from there, you know, got the hang of it pretty quick. After about a day’s practice it felt right and after a couple of days I played Cumberland Gap. “What’s he playing? What’s he playing?”

I think I know that feeling. When I was young and learning to play guitar it took me a while. Well, I did play it left-handed and upside down so chords were never my strong point. Never were. Still aren’t. I was locked in to Jimmy Reed but my long-suffering Mother, who was quite eccentric, one day asked me why I didn’t play a nice tune like Perry Como or that nice young man Bob Dylan. The Blues. It would have been completely unfamiliar to the older generation then wouldn’t it? Yeah. It was my Aunt!

But you took to it like a duck to water. Well yes. And it was years later when Tony

McPhee showed me that slide thing. He told me, “You’ll have to change your tuning.” He gave me a slide and I changed the tuning, and it was the same thing.

How did you meet Tony McPhee?

Well, again, it was the Wandle Delta. It was the jazz record shop,the swing shop owned by Dave Carey who was a drummer, Humphrey Littleton’s drummer. He had a good collection of 78s and he would do jazz, some Blues; transcriptions for you, like an acetate, and he imported stuff from the States.

It used to come in a big crate and you never knew what you were going to get, secondhand, some of the Crown stuff, you know, wonderful lurid covers with no information and, uh, big thick cardboard covers. McPhee lived in Tooting. Steve Rye lived up the hill in Streatham. Bob Hall lived in Tulse Hill. It was a Delta.

Full of some very successful Blues musicians. What do you think it is about Deltas and rivers? I’ve got a theory but... Well, it was the early 60s. We thought we were the only ones who knew anything about the Blues. But there was Mike Cooper who lived in Bristol and Steve Phillips who lived up in Leeds and Mark Knopfler.

Was he around then? No. He was later. He played in a duo with Steve Phillips. I can’t remember what they were called but they were in a group, they were great stuff!

Was Mike Cooper the one that used to play with Ian Anderson?

Yes. Mike was from Reading and he used to play a Duolian: National Duolian and he used to play in this club in Bristol which was run by Ian Anderson. The Blues scene. It was burgeoning in Bristol.

Do you remember the name of the club in Bristol? There was The Dugout where I first met The Deep and Pete Emery. No. It was Bristol Folk & Blues Club at the Old Duke. Ian Anderson is a great archivist.Folk Roots magazine. He’s on Facebook.

We were all learning in our own ways but the linkage was quite strong.

We’ve jumped now through to, I guess, ’62 or ’63. It gets a bit blurry round then...blurry substances...

Ha, ha, ha.

Back to the earlier thing. I loved Little Richard and I loved Buddy Holly but you were aware that this was something you had never heard before and you had to listen to more of the stuff.

The Black stuff?

Yeah, the Black stuff.There were young kids like Elvis who had picked up on it. I picked up this CD in a service station in Wales. It was all early Sun stuff. Well I thought I’ve got all that but I bought it and it’s not early Sun stuff, it’s Elvis in that era, radio broadcasts. It is wonderful. There’s an interview with some DJ. I think it’s in Littlerock, hardly the most liberal place, and the guy says, “Where did you get this idea to do all this rhythm and blues, cos that’s all it is?” He doesn’t quite say it’s nigger music but... and the answer was, “No. I got it from Gospel quartets’ which is bullshit. I don’t want to upset you, you Red Neck...” Ha, ha, ha!

Brilliant!

It was like yeah you knew! You like Elvis.You like Jerry Lee.You like Buddy Holly. Where did this stuff come from? You knew where this stuff came from, the Rock and Roll stuff. Folk? Black Blues. Slowly it fell in to place.

Tell me, why does it work the way it does?

It’s exciting. It makes you move. It’s rebellious. You know. I did an interview recently and I was asked who I liked of the younger generation and I said “Well, I don’t listen to them”. I’m sure there are some pretty good ones but nothing is going to excite me like, like that and you know, nothing is going to move me like Wolf and Muddy. You know, that was the next big album, Muddy Waters Live at Newport.

the blues according to

Popa Popa

“I’m Feelin’ Lucky ” is an ambitious project for Popa Chubby Helped by Dana Fuchs and Mike Zito of the Royal Southern Brotherhood band, he celebrates his 25 years on stage, as well as his return under the Dixiefrog imprint. The cherry on top is the addition, for the first buyers of this opus, of a 45 minutes bonus CD containing rare and early “pre Chubbian” recordings!

LARRY GARNER & MICHAEL VAN MERWYK

This album chronicles the encounter of one of the most talented american blues writers of the day with his German cohort, 2nd place winner at the International Blues Challenge, Memphis 2013 Larry and Michael invited their fans in the studio for this 100% acoustic and live recording Be prepared for the ultimate private concert in your living room!

Maurice Rodgers travels into the South of the past with the memories of an uncle who spent more than twelve years on a chain gang

“

MIGHTY MO ROGERS DUKE ROBILLARD

To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi,” wrote William Faulkner Mo Rodgers says nothing else with this poetic masterpiece.

“Calling All Blues is the new album from two time Grammy nominee and multi Blues Music Award winning guitarist Duke Robillard. As acclaimed producer and Blues Hall of Fame member Dick Shurman said “Duke and his seasoned band bring a sublime master y, a bold authority and some of his best songwriting to Calling All Blues!”

It was enormous wasn’t it? Newport was supposed to be a folk festival but this was pure Blues. Otis Spann. Jimmy Rogers. And also, with the era moving into what Jerry called the Bobby period, you know, Bobby this and Bobby that. It was getting very smooth and the industry was taking over as it always does. And I, again from my Blues interest, I had a friend whose Dad had a great jazz record collection. Used to go round there on a Friday night. His Dad used to supply us with beer and would dig out his records and tell us about these artists and play us Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton and I was grabbed again! And still am by all this. Recently I’ve started going back to it and I loved it then but, it’s like Rock and Roll, funny going back having been a musician for 40-50 years, listening to it now, listening to it again and appreciating it more!

But, going back to my years in school, ’62 and ’63, wandering around like an intellectual snob with Louis Armstrong Hot Seven LPs under my arm. Listening to Pop music and dismissing it. And then Jo said,”You’ve got to come and see this band. You’ll love them!’

I said ‘What is it?’ and she said, “Well, it’s Rhythm and Blues they call it.” So, one day, I went to Studio 51 and paid me three shillings and saw this three x 45 minute set by this band called the Rolling Stones.

Where was that?

In Great Newport Street. They were great... to see them live! Fantastic. Again it was pure energy. It was great material and well played. The slide playing, was Brian Jones.

He was a pretty good slide player wasn’t he?

Particularly for then. I have to say I’ve heard reports that the Rolling Stones were pretty rough and ready in those early days.

If this was ’62 or ’63 they’d been around for a while, the classic line up. Lots of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Wolf, great material and they did it well. And Jagger was charismatic. It was great fun.

Soon after that Jo had her residency at Bunjies, a bit later on. After the Stones left Studio 51 and went on tour with the Everly Brothers and Little Richard we thought, oh well, they’ll be back but no, they weren’t. Their place was taken by The Yardbirds, when The Yardbirds left it was taken by The

Downliners Sect. Then it all sort of fell apart. It finished on a Sunday afternoon and went back to being a jazz club with the all-nighters, which were fun!

That was Ken Collier’s club?

Yes. It had his name on it but it was still Studio 51. It was run by these two ladies –Vy and what was the the other name? No, no can’t remember. So it was ’67 that I joined the Dummer Band (John Dummer Band) and that was Bob Hall, me, Steve Rye on harp, uh, John Dummer on drums and Thump Thompsonidas was on bass. And we didn’t have anywhere to play really, you know.

Bob Glass (who had been Joanne’s partner) said why don’t you go and see Vy and, still can’t remember the name, and they jumped at the idea! They said,’Oh yeah. It would be great to get that going again’ so we started the Sunday afternoon sessions and that was good, an excellent showcase place for us to play. Got a record deal with Mercury. Before our sessions the Wild Angels were there. They rehearsed there in the morning up until about 1.30pm and then we started at about two o’clock.

The Wild?

Mel Gray. The Wild Angels, a rock and roll revival band. They were good.

Teddyboy era. Light blue jeans and all that? Yeah. Funny talking about that. I went to Brighton recently and there were all these old geezers on their Vespas! Just looking for some Rockers weren’t they? Ha, ha. Yes, we were with the Dummer Band while Jo was at Bunjies.She did it for fifteen years or more! Well, she didn’t have a gig elsewhere. Bunjies was a coffee bar/cellar and if you came out of Great Newport Street and turned right,one block, across the Charing Cross Road, and Bunjies was just on your left and you went down the stairs. It had no loo and it had no fire-escape or anything. It was a death-trap, but it had a good atmosphere. Forty people and it would be crowded.

It was part of the excitement. Hot and sweaty. Like a Blues bar really.

Yeah. Yeah.

part t W o of th I s amaz I ng, I n depth, I nterv I e W contI nues I n Blues matters! I ssue num B er 81. d on’t m I ss It!

Hailing from tH e toug H streets of Detroit, m ic H igan H e first taste D success witH H eavy metal. n ow re-locate D to tH e u K an D H aving swappe D tH e H eavy riffs for classic blues m arcus H as built a w H ole new following

Marcus, from Detroit, Michigan, was first signed by Al Teller of United Artists Records. Taking US residence in LA he recorded the classic heavy metal Marcus album which was re-released on Zoom Records throughout Europe and the US in 2001. The band consisted of Gene Black – now guitarist for Joe Cocker; Sandy Genero – drummer for Pat Travers and Tim Bogart of Vanilla Fudge on Bass. Luckily for us Marcus relocated to the UK some years ago and if you haven’t seen him on the UK Blues circuit then you’re going to the wrong gigs!

Always an exciting performance is

guaranteed, whether you’re in a small or large venue from Marcus and the band. Marcus has performed at major venues Royal Albert Hall, Burnley, Colne Blues on the Farm and Carlisle Festivals in the UK, as well as many festivals in Europe. He will be performing in Colne and Carlisle again this year.

BM: Your latest album, Stand Or Fall, was reviewed in issue 79 of this magazine. The review was very complimentary. How is the album being received on the Blues circuit?

MM: All the reviews in the UK, US and Europe

have been very positive and this has reflected in record sales which is very rewarding. It feels good to know that the punters that are into blues rock are supporting my record by purchasing it in the shops and on the internet based on the reviews and airplay. It got up to 14 on the internet radio stations playlist and Paul Jones has given it a couple spins on his Monday night show since it’s release. My distribution company (In-akustik of Germany) has been placing the CD all over the EU and in Britain via Proper Music. ‘Stand Or Fall’ has out sold any of my previous CDs. The CD has also opened up a few new live venues and discussions with agents about doing a more organized tour in the EU and UK in the New Year.

How many albums have you released?

Stand Or Fall is my sixth CD release in the UK. I’m now working on number seven for the fall of 2015. In the US I released one album through United Artists Records which sold to EMI Capitol records who now has the rights. The Marcus album has become a real collector’s item for connoisseurs of 70’s and 80’s metal albums. At some of my gigs in Europe I have been approached by fans with the Marcus carefully wrapped in plastic and asked to autograph it.

Which of your albums is your personal favourite?

My personal favourite at the moment I guess would be the present CD, Stand Or Fall. I finally managed to culminate all my musical influences,rock, blues, soul, and pop into one single project. It is sonically the best sounding (to me) and the songs all stay within a ‘blues rock’ genre making for a very cohesive project as well. I had a lot of assistance in and out of the studio on this one. I’m really proud of this CD and I think it shows my growth as a writer and producer.

Have you a favourite song from any of the albums, or one that the crowds love the most?

I have lots of favourites depending on the weather and my mood I guess. ‘One More Time’ the title track from my first UK produced

CD is a great crowd pleaser. A couple bought the CD at a recent gig said that song and CD helped them through a very rough patch and kept them together.They had worn their first copy out and needed to repurchase it. It’s great to know that your music can have such a positive force in people’s lives.

Others on the first CD, like Heart For Rent and Redline Blues really get people shakin’. From the ‘Hurricane C’ there is ‘Christine’ the ultimate crowd pleaser that the band has performed at the end of all my shows for the last few years. There’s the three boogie songs – Blue Radio, Let The Sunshine In, and from the Stand Or Fall CD, Living The Blues.

Why, what or who influenced you to start playing music to make it your living?

I always knew I wanted to play and write music from very early on. Growing up in Detroit was a definite influence and advantage to my musical growth. Being exposed to Berry Gordy’s Motown, my parent’s blues records, singing and trained in the Church choir were all individually and collectively instrumental in my wanting to write and play music as a living. I used to always come up with my own melodies and lyrics when I was a kid. My youngest daughter Lola (nine) has started doing the same thing. Also I started singing in public (accompanied by my mother) when I was 14 and I realized the money that could be made as well as the ‘roar of the crowd’ were definitely influential in the road I took.

How many instruments do you play?

I only play guitar and a bit of piano. Took up sax and put it back down after a couple of months when I was about 13.

How many guitars do you have, and which is your favourite?

I have three electrics: a Fender Stratocaster, Gibson cherry red 335, Gibson Les Paul 54 reissue Gold Top I guess my favourite is the Fender still. I’ve had it the longest now and always seem to drift back to it. But I like different guitars for different purposes. As you can only take one guitar on the plane, my

favourite travelling companion is always the Gibson 335 because it always sounds good no matter what amp I’m given on the road. I also own two acoustic guitars: an old '63 Gibson J45 and a Lowden O32.

What type of strings, amp and other gear do you use?

I use D’Dario 11’s Jazz and Blues set. My guitar amp is a Dr Z Maz 38 Senior with a 4x10 Dr Z cab. Pedal board is made up of Astroman Fuzz and King of Tone by Analogue Man USA, Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe and EWS Brute Drive from the US.

Your song writing is excellent and very expressive. Do you find writing new songs easy or do you have a routine you follow to get your creative juices flowing?

Well first I open a bottle of Jack Daniels... Naw, just kiddin’. First of all I get these ‘Divine Inspiration ideas’ as I like to call them. Sometimes just observing things that are going on around me; or after, during some emotional upheaval in my life, or when I'm not even thinking of writing a song at all some melody with a hook drops into my head and says, “write me now”. These are the quickest, easiest and often my best idea’s i.e. One More Time, Double D, Blue Radio, Redline Blues. These are nice because all the lyrics come to me as well and just like that ‘a song is born’. A gift from up above.

Then there are the songs I write with other musicians that are on the same wavelength as myself. Usually a guitarist with a good lick that I really dig on and can feel something like Detroit City Blues. Stuart Dixon came up with the lick and it immediately reminded me of Detroit and I came up with most of the lyrics right away.

I work with a couple of other inspirational projects/producers: Shawn Lee, Jettricks and Funk Republic. They send me ideas, usually chords for a verse and chorus idea and I do the melody, lyrics, editing and send the completed song back to them to use on their project various projects.

Then of course there is brainstorming to find an idea when I’m stuck. I use my favourite Complete Bob Dylan lyric book, dictionary, book I’m reading, poetry books... anything really that might spark ‘that hook’. The main

A Rhythm & Blues Chronology

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thing I think is to write something every day. Keep the writing machine oiled. Out of all your zillion ideas only a few will move on to the recording studio.

Do you enjoy playing in large or small venues?

I enjoy playing the bigger venues I must confess. But the smaller more intimate venues have their rewards as well. Lately we have been doing acoustic/unplugged nights at smaller venues and this works great and I really love it. The songs sound just as cool with acoustic guitars. The sign of a good song I think when all the effects are stripped away and the audience still enjoy the songs in their simplest, rawest.

How many bands have you been in before you created your own?

Well it’s always been ‘Marcus’ or ‘Marcus Malone’ or ‘Marcus Malone Band’. When I first left EMI and went with Motown, they wanted an all black rock band and for a short time the band was called ‘Zvoogie’, before they came to their senses and put it back to Marcus Malone.

How different are audiences in the UK and Europe to that of the USA?

I think audiences for my style of music are similar whatever part of the world I’m in. They really appreciate good music, a good song, a good dance and a good performance.

The Blues audiences in the UK are mainly older, what is the age demographic in the EU?

In the EU the audience does seem to be from the very young to the very old. The young people in Europe aren’t so hung up on modern pop. Music over there is a ‘family’ event at most of the festivals. The whole town comes out, young and old, to listen to the music at a festival or event. In the UK most young people will only support music they hear on popular radio and MTV. In the EU blues and all sorts of music is played on popular radio and MTV is also structured to include all types of music so young people are familiar with different music other than ‘British pop’ and will come out to support various musical types.

You have played some high profile gigs recently which one was your favourite?

Well last year we did The Pleins Feux Festival in Bonneville France and it was filmed for national TV. I think that was one of my favourite gigs. The setting was amazing and the crowd was absolutely great. Incognito headlined the following night. One we did just a few weeks ago was in Sardinia, Italy – The Sassari Blues Festival in a theatre that reminded me of a mini Albert Hall. It was beautiful and the audience was as well.

I’m doing the 25th Anniversary Great British Blues Festival in Colne this year. I suspect that will be one of the highlights of this year as well as The Originals rock festival in Great Yarmouth in October; and The Carlisle Blues Rock Festival in November.

I have no doubt these will become my new favourite. Stay tuned. In January for the first time I’ve also been invited to do the Skegness Blues Rock Festival.

What do you hope the future holds for you?

Riches beyond the stars. I would hopefully finish part two of ‘Stand Or Fall’. We recorded 18 songs in the studio and you’ve only heard 10 songs. I hope to play and write more songs that will invite my listener’s imagination and emotions to engage in a musical journey they will want to take time and time again. Yes! Play that album one more time and each time hear or discover something they didn’t before.

Fans and reviewers have hinted that my present CD should be recognized as one of the best CD’s of 2014. It would be nice if that comes to pass. Also all the great musiciansWinston Blissett, bass; Stuart Dixon/Sean Nolan, guitars; Moz Gamble/Roger Cotton, keys; Alan Glen and Will Wilde, harp; Christopher Nugent (The Nuge), drums; Jerry Stevenson, mixing; should be recognized for their great contribution to this project. I thank them all and I’m really lucky to have such great and talented players and co-writers on Stand Or Fall.

cH ec K out more about m arcus at www.marcusmalone.com

“First I open a bottle of Jack Daniels...”

isa has been reviewed and played in Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and more so maybe we had better catch up on this young lady and her music. In the USA she is award nominated and winner in various musical categories. Her style varies and she can give it out loud and rock you hard or take you into soft emotional places with sweeping, gentle guitar. Her lyrics are thoughtful, sentimental and sometimes a little political. Also performing as an acoustic duo with Don Chapman you get to see another side of this tigress so do keep an eye out for her when she crosses the water to the UK and Europe.

BM: You came to music early playing the piano before you discovered the guitar, what attracted you to the switch in the first place and then what happened to you that led you to the Blues?

LL: Alan, I can’t recall a time when I didn’t have a desire to pickup the guitar. It’s

always been there, the desire to be able to play the instrument. I remember many toy guitars acquired when my parents took me shopping. And many memories of strumming anything I could use as a make shift guitar and singing, making up songs. My poor family!

The blues were trickling into my influences via Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan early in my development as a guitarist. Sneaking into DC clubs underage and catching the legendary Danny Gatton and hometown legends Saffire, ‘The Uppity Blues Women’, certainly had a profound impact on me, continuing to gravitate and build interest in this style of music. Listening to recordings of Roy Buchanan, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton also continued fuelling that hunger to play the blues. To me, it’s the foundation to so many styles. It caught my attention very early on and continues to fascinate me!

LIfE AND LOSS bEhIND ThE bLUES

Lisa tells us how events shaped the recording of her new album: “At the time I was writing and compiling material for this latest CD, surreal to say the least. I had many highs and lows. Writing and composing was cleansing and healing. There wasn’t a healthier outlet assisting me in getting through and moving past so much loss and change. My family, kind of took a step back from me. They just wanted to give me time to sort it out and go through the grieving process.

I had put my music on hold, when my mother became seriously ill several years ago. I was still teaching and gigging, but limited. I had resolved I was going to be there for her. I went through years of assisting her through some really intense medical issues. I almost lost her twice. I brought her home a few times, completely bedridden. My grandmother was having some health issues too. There were good days and extremely bad ones, we had hospice coming in. A couple of weeks before my mom passed away, I taught a session at National Guitar Workshop. We spoke each day by phone. She sounded upbeat. I knew she was getting that last surge of energy and her days were numbered. When I returned home, I spent each day with her and she shared more with me in those last days, helping me come to understand so many things that happened when I was growing up.

There were no more words. Just us together, I had promised I’d be with her ‘til her last breath and that’s what I did. I witnessed her reaching out her hand. The celebration of life followed and sorting out the material possessions that were left behind. My paternal grandmother was deteriorating rapidly. Six months after my Moms death, we watched my grandmother rally to her 100th birthday and pass away ten days later. These two women, who, were the most influential in my life, were now gone from this world. After her funeral, everyone scattered to the wind. I was writing day in and day out.

Yes, this CD, happened at a pivotal time of my life. So many personal experiences influenced and are found in this body of work. Looking back, I have no regrets. You make tremendous sacrifice in this life and with that you get to experience receiving love, giving love and having loved. Of course, there will always be that time that I put my music on hold. Did I miss my time? I think everything happens for a reason. And I do believe we grow from our life experiences. Moving forward.”

If we said to you that music generally, but Blues specifically, is one of the great therapies in life how would you qualify that statement?

The blues, hands down for me, has gotten me through the best and the worst of times. The blues can transcend and take you to a place emotionally, spiritually, identifying with that very place you are standing in at that very moment. Whatever it may be that you are going through or dealing with. The blues tells a story, captures a feeling, lifts you up, embraces you in your sorrow and has the ability to move you to dance and lift your spirits. It speaks to every walk of life. And it continues to speak to me.

Would you describe your song writing as coming in phases or is it a continual process and does it come randomly or do you set time for it?

Songwriting for me, is a continual process. I do set time aside to write. But, find that my best ideas come at not always the most ideal times! I write everywhere, at anytime of the day or night. Ideas hit me when driving to gigs, going on long walks, when I’m teaching, when I’m performing. In the middle of the night, awakening me. I’ll say it again, not always at the most convenient times! But, I’m always writing notes down. Notebooks can be found all over my house, in my car, on my phone, iPad, PC. And what may be a snippet for the time being, is eventually revisited and additional lyrics added.

I view songwriting the same way I view playing the guitar.There’s always room for growth and improvement. To me, there is no

such thing as, oh, that’s the best it can ever be. It can always be better! Keeps you digging in and striving at developing and improving upon your craft.

Do you maintain a scrapbook of ideas so that if they don’t work one time either lyrically or musically you can go back to them and revisit in a different mood or time?

Absolutely! I have over a decade plus of ideas, I revisit every so often. It’s fun to do! And it also helps you to recognize the growth that has taken place. And yes, I do incorporate a lot of those snippets in new and upcoming material.

They say most music is written about love and pain and used as a release or a triumph so where do politics fit?

Politics, certainly can impact you emotionally. Evoking joy, sadness. For me, enter the events of 911. The war that followed. Many friends and their loved ones being effected. Sent overseas and abroad in the war on terrorism. Many folks coming home broken from the war, everything they endured and were exposed to. The media constantly inundating us with so

many politicians making empty promises. All they are going to change, fix, improve upon. Meanwhile, the economic bubble bursting, stock market crashing, friends and loved ones losing everything they had worked so hard for. Unemployment at an all time high. College graduates with all their debt to pay after completing their degrees. But, can’t even find a job in the field that they studied, taking mediocre jobs, just to get by and moving back home to survive, most living with their parents. How could I not be influenced on the impact of the fallout of politics in my writing. All of these events, have effected every single one of us in some way. And you will certainly hear it on this current release.

I gather you write for GirlGuitarmagazine and Premier Guitar, how did that come about and what has been your aim with this avenue?

My work with National Guitar Workshop, lead me to the opportunity to do some freelance writing with these publications. My main focus with these outlets has been broadening one’s

knowledge on the guitar. Sharing new cutting edge music gear and products. Also, interviews with artists, that are extremely influential in the music industry.

Which is your guitar preference for studio or road work between Taylor and PRS and why?

For full band electric performances and electric studio settings, I play my PRS guitars. A Custom 22 and 24. In acoustic settings, in and out of the studio, I primarily use my Taylor Koa KC26. I think as guitar players, we embark on a journey to find the guitar or guitars that fit like a glove and are able to give us the tone and sound we hear in our minds. That certainly is the case for me. It can take years to find that right fit, if you will. I can honestly say, I feel so comfortable and at home with my PRS electrics.

They are extremely versatile guitars and I’m incorporating lots of tremolo work in my performances and recording, more so, now, than I have in years. Taylor guitars have always been my go to acoustic. A decade ago, when I was playing a lot of melodic fingerstyle guitar styling, I was playing a Taylor 612CE. Maple wood, offering a bright sound and really smooth playing, user friendly neck. Smaller body, physically worked better for me, without compromising the fullness of my overall sound. Currently, my Taylor Koa, offers a deep bellow resonance from its Koa wood body. Excellent for slide playing and stylistically, the blues rock material I’m engaged in these days.

I noted from some of the YouTube videos that you have a very strong slide talent, where does that influence come from?

I certainly have been pulling from these influential players over the years. Johnny Winter, Duane Allman, Elmore James, Eric Clapton. Bonnie Raitt. And once again tapping into artists in and around the DC region. Terry Garland and Charlie Donelan.

Like many other musicians you spend a lot of time on the road, what do you do to cope being away from home for so long and so often and what gets you relaxed best?

I spend a lot of time listening to new artists. Always seeking out new inspiration. Also, a lot of times, it’s a time of meditation, reflection.

You went through the Kickstarter method to raise funds for your eponymous album, it was obviously successful for you so how was it and how would you recommend it to others?

This was my first experience with crowd funding. Reaching out to my fans, friends, family and complete strangers asking for help in me being able to finish and release this latest CD. It was humbling. It was an intense 30 days of campaigning. I highly recommend it. But, only if you are willing to fully commit to engaging and staying the course. I think you have to be candid and straight up about what it is you are trying to do. Be real. I’m still blown away by the support I received. Forever grateful!

Where do you see women in the Blues today and in ten years time perhaps?

Well, there are certainly more female guitar players working and performing in the blues, than there has ever been. It’s definitely a trend. I see and hear a little more rock influence becoming more accepting in the blues festivals and club circuit. I think traditional blues will always be here to stay. In ten years, watch out! I think we will be seeing and hearing some exceptional new ladies on the scene in the up and coming blues generation!

How is your next project shaping up and where does that fit with reaching into Europe and UK, or another way, when can we expect to see you over here?

I am very eager to cross the Atlantic Ocean and perform in Europe and throughout the UK. It certainly is on the table and in the works. I’m grateful for all of the new European and UK fans I have. Folks that reach out to me via social networks and email. Expressing how much they are enjoying listening to my music. We are very hopeful to be performing in your region in 2015! Grateful for all the European, UK radio airplay and press. Currently writing new material. To be continued!

to fin D out more go to lisalimmusic.com

ony hit an artist’s wall! Alcohol abuse, prison, heroin deaths, lead poisoning, knife murders and champion boxer stories and more, featured in Tony Davenport’s life and songs. After a self-imposed hiatus of 20 years he is back on track. Well, on the road which has developed and strengthened him by true life experiences. Mark my word he will soon be recognised as one of the most authentic Blues singers in the UK. Don’t take my word for it check him out, ask your local Blues Club or Festival to book him. Once you have seen him I am sure you’ll agree.

BM: Hi Tony your life so far seems to have been very eventful, what are the learning’s you think you have taken from your journey so far?

TD: Never give up (even though I had a 20

year break!), follow your heart, follow your spirit when the spirit is there, work hard and keep your head down.

What was the best musical experience you had in your early days?

Quite a few I guess being on the same show as BB King in Verona, playing with (legendary jazz funk outfit) Yellow Jackets, recording with likes of Leon Ware (Marvin Gaye) and Guy Chambers. All pretty heavyweight figures in the industry.

You had a very promising career with a major label when you started out 20 years ago, as most artists dream of this what is your view/experience of being under the wing of a major label?

after an early career signe D to a maJor label Devenport maDe a bit of a name for H imself in tH e music business, worKing witH artists li

Have a game plan and be the master of your destiny rather than be lead by others. Write your own songs, tell your own story. I guess because I could sing anything, producers and executives were always, well-meaningly, taking me in one direction or another looking for that ‘hit’, when really I should have been doing what I’m doing now, following my own heart and style.

What was the turning point in your early career?

Getting a deal after meeting some Scottish guys into R&B, but somehow that musical direction got lost along the way, and then leaving the record company was another turning point as I was so disillusioned that, coupled with some lifestyle issues, I turned my back on music altogether for about 20 years.

Do you think the experiences you have had influenced you in your present writing?

Yeah, it taught me what not to do, and the importance of being sincere.

If there is any advice you can give to musicians from your experience, what would that be?

Stick to your artistic guns.Through thick and thin!

From my point of view blues covers all forms or musical expression, would you consider yourself more on the soul/blues side of blues?

That’s a tough one, I don’t really feel I’m a Soul singer, as such, I think I’m more of a Blues or Rock singer perhaps, that’s where it all started for me. But at the end of the day it all comes from the same roots.

Which artist would you say has influenced you the most if any?

Big fan of Phil Lynott and also Richie Havens and Bill Withers perhaps. BB King too, of course, love his voice and playing.

I know your voice is one exceptional instrument you have, is it only the guitar you use to express yourself along with your voice, or are you learning to use other tools to make music?

I write and play on piano too, like a lot of writers I write on both guitar and keyboards for different textures, different feel.

How many guitars do you have in your arsenal?

Three: Fender Electric Strat (Black), Tangle Wood and Fender Acoustic.

Your EP you have out at the moment (which I love by the way) is acoustic, do you play with a band?

Most of my (unreleased) recordings are full band. Plans are underway to work with a full band. Jo Harman (one of the greatest female singers this country has ever produced, by the way) knows all the top guys and she’s helping or lending me players to work with me live, all being well.

I can’t even say which is my favourite track as I love them all, do you have a favourite?

Hard to say, Madam Butterfly perhaps, quite personal and a simple Folk/Blues song which lends itself to different interpretations and tempos is one that stands out for me.

Do you have any plans for an album and when can we expect to see it for sale?

Yep, got lots of stuff in the can…Just trying to get known a little bit more then we’ll start getting it out there.

Would you be using songs you have written or do you have some favourite covers you will be using on the album?

Originals will dominate, but might put in the odd cover that ‘talks’ to me.

What plans do you have for your future?

To play as many live dates as I can and just ‘Get out there’ doing it on my own terms. I’m part of a strong stable of international artists at BiGiAM - vocalists and songwriters seem to be the main thing at BiGiAM.

We have a common aim to make a difference to how some people perceive the British blues scene, as being something beyond just the guitar driven thing. I like and respect the guitar thing, myself, Thin Lizzy were my favourite band, but Blues has also always been about songs and vocals too (Blues, Soul, Gospel, Rock, all comes from a ‘black music’ heritage)

That’s where I’m coming from in what I do, I guess.

c H ec K out www.tonyD evenport.com for more information. fin D me a train (a brotH ers tale) is out now on itunes

Dave Thomas of Blonde On Blonde (Promotions) has brought together some very special Blues & Blues Roots artists who will all perform over two days at the Norwich Arts Centre...the epicentre of the first Fine City Blues Explosion! This is the real deal for Blues lovers. £19 per night or only £36 for both

October 2014 is Black History Month and there are many interesting and exciting events in the City and all over Norfolk In addition to the artists appearing at Norwich Arts Centre there will be workshops and a Blues Exhibition full of fascination for those interested in the history of the most influential music form in the world

he first Blues Brothers movie, that is now a much-played and loved cult classic, sold poorly at the box office.

Nevertheless, the Blues Brothers as an act remained very popular. Thus, after the first movie, the next thing the band hit was the road. The Road To Ruin tour took the band around the U.S. Typically, they had a very, very good time. Certain spiritous liquors were partaken of, though one exception was Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy, who valued the experience and treated it accordingly, ‘Just going to be in that era, that space at that time, that was what I was getting off on. It seemed like I didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs, all I wanted to do was survive and play music and I enjoyed it.’

Murphy Dunne recalls a time immediately after the tour, ‘After the last show at Universal I encountered Jack Nicholson. We were all in an area backstage, and I went up, and reminded Jack where we had met, and our mutual friends. I mentioned what an inspiration his work had meant to me. Jack shook my hand and said, (insert Jack impression), ‘Well, Murph, I sure appreciate you taking the time to stop by and telling me.’ A high point for sure in my life.’

‘There was a large party afterward at a very large mansion. Michael McKeon was there, my old band mate from the Squigtones, Bette Midler,and Stevie Nicks, who is an old friend. It was one of the few Hollywood parties where I felt comfortable. Lots of laughs, no ego trips, and good company with many friends.’

The Blues Brothers didn’t stop after the

Road To Ruin tour, though soon tragedy was to strike. John Belushi passed away unexpectedly on the 5th of March, 1982, the victim of a drugs overdose. Blue Lou Marini is one of those with special memories of the man who was also Joliet Jake Blues.

A f**kIN’ TERRORIST gROUP!

‘Belushi was a natural athlete and singer too. As a singer, he had a great sense of rhythm and he could tell a story. As an athlete, he was strong and very agile. We were playing in Denver and Steve Jordan and I ran into Sharif Khan, the world champion squash racquets player, in the hotel’s health club. Sharif’s father Hashim was a six-time world champ in England. I’d seen Sharif play in person at the Boodle’s Tournament in New York a few months before. We introduced ourselves and he said he and a group of his family were coming to the concert at Red Rocks the next night. We invited him backstage and as I was a squash and handball player, he asked if I’d like a lesson. Yeah! At the concert he showed up with his brother Mohamed, cousins Aziz and Gul and sister Yasmin. Belushi took one look at them and said, ‘Looks like a f**kin’ terrorist group!’ Everyone cracked up and Sharif asked John if he’d also like to take a lesson. So the next morning we both took a lesson from Sharif, after which Sharif told

tH e b lues b rotH ers began as a smasH H it on american tv’s saturDay nigHt live . tH ey soon became a smasH H it live in concert. tH en, tH ey H it tH e rails

me! ‘That guy’s a natural!’ Then we watched the father and son play a three game match in which they split the first two games and the third went to a tie breaker that Hashim won. Unbelievable playing!”

Curtis Salgado, John’s friend and Blues muse – something he is very proud of to this day – has another story. ‘I was on the road with the Cray band in a step van with a rolling back door. Not in a hotel, we couldn’t afford one. This was in Santa Cruz, California, we were in a fans place sleeping on their floor. That’s part of showbiz. We were staying off the beach in two ladies houses. I’m passed out, face down in the equipment van in my three-piece suit after the after show party. There was a bang bang on the wall. Robert Cray wakes me up, ‘John Belushi is on the phone.’

‘I go in the front door. ‘John, how did you find me?’ John growls, ‘I have my ways.’

‘We were on a tour, in a fans house. Hardly anyone knew. I still don’t know how he did it.’

Murphy Dunne recalls, ‘John used to say, ‘I can’t sing, but I can Soul the Blues’. Both of us worked in the Second City. You heard of that? That was how I met John, I was understudy to Peter Boyle. We got on together, we both liked Joe Cocker. I came out to see John in Los

Angeles quite a bit, we’d hang out. He was a wonderful guy. If you made him laugh he’d want to be around you.’

John’s widow, Judith, reflects, ‘John would be very proud of what has happened with the Blues Brothers. He was proud of it to begin with. To continue to get a great response, the stories people tell me, touches my heart. It can be fun and frustrating and it’s like a boomerang.’ She added, ‘John was a person who made himself at home. He’d set himself up on a couch and before you knew it, you’d be getting things for him. He was a ‘Mind if I see what’s in your fridge?’ kind of guy. He had not a lot of hesitation about being himself.’

John Belushi was under the kind of special pressure at the time that is reserved for the most famous. Steve Cropper was well aware of it, ‘John was a great guy, he kept his promises. He was a sharing and giving guy. Everybody knew who he was after Saturday Night Live, he couldn’t go anywhere without being stopped.’

Blue Lou agreed, ‘The pressure he was under! We went to the Tower Records store in LA at 1a.m. in the morning. When we got there, there were four or five people in there,

No o Ne shOuld face c A ncer aloNe

No mums. No dads. No brothers or sisters. Not your next-door neighbour or the lady from the corner shop. No grandmas. No grandpas. Not the chap from the chip shop or the noisy lads at the back of the bus. Not your best mate. Not a single stranger. No one whatsoever. No one should face cancer alone.

Text TOGETHER to 70550 and donate £5 so we can be there for everyone who needs us.

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including staff. More and more people came in and soon there’s thirty and more coming in and bombing it. We split. It was a window into the pressure of celebrity. Everyone loved John and there wasn’t the usual reticence of people with him, because they loved him so much.’

Steve Jordan had a similar experience, ‘I went to the theatre with John to see Animal House and sat next to him. We sat in the back with the late Hiram Bullock, the guitar player. By the end everyone realised John is in the theatre and we had to run out, like the Beatles or something. It was a very surreal experience.’ Matt Murphy offered his own view, ‘John Belushi messed up. He was a little hot headed that was all, a good guy who would give you the shirt off his back.’

After a pause, the Blues Brothers band continued to perform, adding more high calibre musicians to the touring band. As Blue Lou said, ‘An Italian promoter in 1987 approached Matt [Murphy] and we spent a month in Europe, including the Montreux festival.’ The band reformed more formally in 1988 for a world tour and they have toured at intervals since as The Original Blues Brothers Band.

Blue Lou loves the life with the Original blues Brothers, ‘It is most important to me, the cult band status, we’ve been touring since 1987 – Japan, Europe, Italy, Spain, India, Thailand, Africa. Steely Dan and so on never play where we do. We can play to audiences of thirty thousand and then to two hundred and fifty in a club in a small town. Mayors of towns invite us to dinners at the town hall and they give us local wine and cheese and produce. We make friends the world over, we’ve seen cathedrals and parks and galleries and we’re still going on... the band is smoking. Lots of young musicians come up and say they got into music through our films.’

Steve Cropper agrees, ‘I’ve always made time for the Blues Brothers band, we always have fun, it’s twenty five years of working with the band. Since we did a show for a birthday party, Lou and I looked at each other and said, ‘This is too much fun, we’ve got to keep doing it.’ The party was for Dan’s fortieth birthday, his wife Donna did a great job of sneaking us in while Dan was out with his father, he opened

the door and there’s a big whisper, ‘Surprise!’

Blue Lou commented, ‘I’m certain that the party was before we began touring again, had to be ‘86 or ‘87 so maybe it wasn’t his fortieth. But it was certainly the catalyst for restarting and I know the first tour was five or six concerts in the late winter or spring of ‘87 in Italy.’

Of course, ‘normal’ life continued for members of the band. Murphy Dunne shared a few things from the period, ‘I increased my acting focus and did some scoring for tiny ballet based on The Little Prince. I would see the Brothers socially... Duck, and Blue when they were in town ( I’m seeing Blue with James Taylor this week). We would see Duck with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I did small musical projects with Waddy Wachtel, and Van Dyke Parks. I directed a short subject entitled The Lawyer, a one man show entitled Nevertheless at The Globe in L.A., and a lot of non-related Blues Bros stuff, like being the national spokesman for Hyundai. I became a dad and our daughter Veronica is to be a regular in a new Disney series, K.C. Undercover.’

Even as the band, minus John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, got on the road, the next major milestone in the history of the Blues Brothers was being contemplated.

This was the second movie, filmed in 1998, and named Blues Brothers 2000. It came after a delay that kept Steve Cropper’s hair long for an extended time. Steve remembers, ‘After movie one, I cut my hair and beard and went clean shaven. Dan Aykroyd came round and said, ‘We’re going to do a second movie’. I immediately started to grow my hair and beard. Seven years later I still had it! I don’t know what held up the movie, I had a ponytail to pull it back. I turned up on set with my hair pulled back in the ponytail and the director Landis couldn’t see it. He says, ‘Where’s your hair? You nearly gave me a heart attack!’ I said, ‘Where? Back here’ and showed him. Then he said, ‘You can go bald if you want!’ I kept the pony tail and beard, it was grown back for the second movie.’

you can rea D more on b lues b rotH ers 2000 in tH e next issue of b lues m atters magazine. i n tH e meantime, c H ec K out tH e official website, www.bluesbrotH ersofficialsite.com

Jor D an patterson is a bluesman w H o H as been away. He is a D riven in D ivi D ual w H o

H as ac H ieve D a H ig H level of success in H is c H osen patH s but fate an D a c H ance conversation H ave combine D to re-energise tH e potent blues in H is soul

is newly formed and well prepared Jordan Patterson Band have just released a taster EP of the album to come, have stormed some of Canada’s biggest festivals and are preparing a short visit to the UK and Monaghan Harvest Blues Festival. This is a precursor to a longer tour in early 2015. The EP title tells it like it is, Back On Track. Jordan was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1969, the youngest of nine children. Older brother Daniel was to be a huge influence on Jordan musically, not least his impressive record collection. After starting out on guitar Jordan quickly moved to blues harp under the influence of his heroes, James Cotton, Paul Butterfield and Mark Wenner. Jordan told me it was being taken to see Cotton perform when he was 14 that really did it for him, he says, ‘It

still sticks in my mind as one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen.’

As a young performer Jordan got to know Cotton and says the veteran always made time for him. When I spoke to Jordan recently he told me, “The big thing I learnt from James Cotton was the importance of putting on a show, I knew I wanted that level of musicianship in my band too. When I formed D.C. Hurricane we built up that reputation of being a great band to see live.”

He is no mere copyist though, Jordan brings his own sound to the party. He is also blessed with a great singing voice. After making something of a name for himself at home Jordan moved to Washington and fronted his own band, the D.C. Hurricane. His

first recording opportunity was appearing as a featured performer on U.P Wilson’s album Whirlwind, still considered by many respected critics as his best work. That lead to a double bill tour in support of the release that included appearances at Ronnie Scotts and The 100 Club as well as major festivals like the Montreal Jazz Festival, Burnley’s National Blues fest, The London Blues Festival and Helsinki Jazz Festival as well as a memorable spot at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival.

They were soon signed to the prestigious JSP label and in 1996 released the critically acclaimed album, Give Me A Chance. The esteem Jordan was held in is shown by the appearance on that album of blues legends Bobby Parker and Bobby Rush. Little wonder than that many respected blues publications around the world hailed it as a groundbreaking album upon its release.

So what happened, where did this highly promising musician with great potential go? Jordan became increasingly involved with, and successful as an artist tour manager and concert/ event promoter, working with international size artists,

such as Britney Spears, Coldplay etc. He was also Concert Production Manager and Promoter Representative for House of Blues Concerts, Canada. Having toured and played live intensely for five years, often around 200 shows a year, Jordan felt tired of life on the road and packed his instruments away to focus on a new career in entertainment management.

It was a meeting with a rock musician at Bobby Parker’s funeral that sparked Jordan’s comeback. Jordan doesn’t name names but tells me that after exchanging pleasantries and talking about how Bobby Parker had influenced both their lives this other guy said to him, “You know Jordan, one day you’re gonna have to prove that first record wasn’t a fluke.” The conversation continued and the suggestion was that by walking away from the opportunity that others would die for he was ‘being disrespectful’. Back in Canada Jordan thought long and hard about what had been said, looked back over old cuttings and began remembering his love affair with the blues. The decision was soon made that at the very least he would record a new album.

“The real greats play their own songs”

I have been following the re-launch of Jordan’s blues career with interest. A couple of live in the studio videos of the band on You Tube whetted my appetite even more. Jordan told me he felt it was important the new band also had that energy and reputation of a ‘rip it up live band’. Although based back in Canada Jordan has scoured far and wide to get the right band that he feels can produce the level he demands. After James Cotton, Jordan tells me the other big influence on his career was Bobby Parker. “I moved to Washington in my early 20’s, that’s where I cut my teeth playing with these really top, top musicians.”

PLAYINg YOUR OwN STAgE

“The thing Bobby Parker taught me was that the real greats play their own songs, he instilled in me the importance of song writing and having your own sound. When I took the songs I had written for my debut album into JSP they were all going like no, no, its got to be more straight blues. They had it in their heads that I was a 25 year old black kid who they thought should be playing blues shuffles. What they didn’t get was that I was a 25 year old black kid with a fascination for blues but with an underlying influence of rock. I remember saying these are the songs I have written and these are the songs I want to record. It was Bobby Parker and Bobby Rush who convinced the others to let me record it my way. I was so humbled to get that level of support from two blues legends like that.”

Jordan also thinks that the experience of working five nights a week putting on shows for the likes of Coldplay and Lenny Kravitz has taught him some lessons in presentation too and that the blues scene has changed dramatically in the time he’s been away. He is glad to be able to operate in this new environment armed with the skills in social media, websites etc that he has learned. “People need to know who you are these days.” he says, “I share songs because I want people to hear them and create a buzz.” If the tracks on the EP are matched by the rest of the album, which should be ready for a November release, it’s going to make huge waves in the blues world. Jordan says more than anything this time he is prepared for the whatever comes along and he wants to be recognised as a major artist.

for more information, c H ec K out: www.J or D anpatterson.ca

John mayall a special liFe (Forty below CD)

eriC BiBB in 50 songs (DixieFrog 3CD)

WesT coasT Jazz

(Documents 10CD)

BoB Corritore TaBoo (Delta Groove CD)

lUCky Peterson The son oF a Bluesman (Jazz Village CD)

John Primer & the teardroPs

You can make iT iF You TrY (Wolf CD)

little milton sings Big soul (Kent CD)

The roosevelT sYkes collecTion 1929-1947 (acrobat 3CD)

Corey harris FulTon Blues (blues boulevard CD)

Jeremy sPenCer covenTrY Blue (Propelz CD)

kenny Wayne shePherd goin’ home (Provogue CD)

daVe & Phil alVin

common ground –

The songs oF Big Bill BroonzY (Yep roc CD)

the WorlD’s most Com PrehensIVe blues reVI eWs

riCk estrin and the nightCats

You asked For iT… live! alligator

It is hard to know where to start with any review of Estrin and his cats. It would be dull to say we know what we’re going to get, and would be an untruth to build it up by saying this is so different from the rest. It is more of the same, yet absolutely brilliant nonetheless; and of course it’s a live set so really does have an edge above the horizon of the usual, and unusual, product from studio fayre. Rick Estrin took over the Nightcat leadership from Charlie Baty in 2008 (has it been that long?) and continues to successfully lead his compatriots through high-energy harp fuelled electric blues. Recorded at San Francisco’s Biscuits and Blues club on 5th October 2013 Estrin and the band are high up in the mix, which is good, and, in particular, Estrin’s comedic vocals are immaculately laid down.

This means his original songs, Clothes Line and My Next Ex-wife, are delivered with flawless alliteration. Meanwhile the bass guitar and drumming of Farrell and Hansen on You Gotta Lie put the eccentric live excess right in the room. Farrell also thrills on organ and Moog in Smart Like Einstein. The guitar work of Norwegian Chris ‘Kid’ Andersen also stands out, more than adequately holding Baty’s baton, and excites in the extreme throughout the album and thanks must go to him for mixing the record too.

GARETH HAYES

gUitar ray & the gamBlers

phoTograph Independent

Off to Italy now to meet Ray Scona aka Guitar Ray and his Gamblers. They first got together back in 2002, and have toured with the likes of Sonny Rhodes, Keith Dunn, Bill Thomas, Paul Orta and Jumping Johnny Sansone, with their first two albums New Sensation and Poorman Blues produced by Mr Otis Grand. They’ve been working steadily ever since, and now their new Photograph album is out now. This one has been produced

by Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Reddick, who has also co-written most of the songs with Guitar Ray, and it certainly ranges far and wide, taking in blues, rock and a wee bit of funk. The band - Ray Scona (vocals and guitar), bassist Gabriele Dellepiane, keyboardist Henry Carpaneto and drummer Mark Fuliano - are very good, and they’ve brought in some guests to round out the sound. It hits peak midway through the album when a horn section augments Mary Lou and Do The Dance, and they almost attain the Albert King Stax vibe that Guitar Ray is so keen on. A few more like that, and this would have gone from good to great. As it stands, though, it’s

certainly worth a listen, even if just to catch that glorious mid-album treat.

STUART A HAMILTON

Carmen grillo

a diFFerenT World Independent

Carmen Grillo’s latest release fuses guitar pyrotechnics to a funk filled, brass driven backing, with a pleasing soulful voice mixed to the fore. Over the 12 tracks on this release, a number of instrumentals compete for space with radio friendly songs. The blues is present and correct, with frantic runs in the pop styling’s of the title track, and the slow burning mood of Sad State of Affairs. The instrumental have something of the spirit of Jeff Beck, particularly in Transatlantic Boogie And I Got The Sauce. The support of the surrounding musicians is very strong, with an in the pocket rhythm section, whilst the brass helps to give something new to the songs. The album is glossily produced, and sounds like a real band playing, but at times it is a bit too polished, which may not appeal to all blues fans. The acoustic closer You’re The One is a welcome change, but would have been better placed further forward in the running order. When listened to with the rest of the album, it is not the most natural of album endings. The SRV like Everything’s Gonna Be Alright is a fine blues/jazz track. River of Molten Rock is a fine exploration of new sounds, and is an instumental that blends subtle changes in tempos and nuance with a catchy central theme. Carmen Grillo is a talented

Dixie Frog

I’m sure Eric Bibb needs no introduction. He’s probably among the most important figures in folk blues music of recent times. He has been a prodigious songwriter and recording artist so if you haven’t managed to keep pace this is the release for you to set the record straight. Three discs, fifty songs (natch’) and three hours, eighteen minutes playing time in a multi-gatefold package. Forty-seven of these tracks are taken from previous albums between 2003’s Natural Light to 2013’s Jericho Road, the selections hand picked by Eric himself. As well as Eric’s superb musical performances guest appearances include top names like Ruthie Foster, Guy Davis, Martin Simpson and Taj Mahal. The icing on the cake are the final three tracks of disc three. These are brand new versions of old favourites recorded especially for this release.

guitarist, singer songwriter and composer, who has surrounded himself with a high quality band, and as such this fine album may find a welcome in the record collections of fans of good quality music.

BEN MACNAIR

daVe Fields

all in

Fm I records

On this his fourth release New York born Dave Fields has brought out a resounding rocking electrifying blues soul sound. Eleven songs with two covers, a funky live take on Led Zeppelins Black Dog brings a totally different arrangement of his own and the perennial favourite Cross Road a different more snarly rock but slowed down take on the timeless classic by Robert Johnson Crossroads. Life’s struggles of getting older and how to face this, are set to a rocky beat and sublime guitar solo which he possibly takes too far but effective on the opening track Changes In My Life. Voodoo Eyes is a strange interpretation and a cheerful listening experience with fiery guitar riffs and rhythm provided by bass guitarist Andy Huenerberg, on drums Kenny Soule and Vladimir Barsky on drums, long term members of the band. One

of the highlight songs is Let’s Go Downtown, it has a great catchy boogie stroll to it very melodic with good harmonies. A total change next on Dragon Fly very ethereal and totally different to anything else on this release possibly harkening back to a soft rock type appeal. Wake Up Jasper has a twelve bar introduction but later has a grungy rhythm and blues approach. That’s Alright gives a good funky feel, with Dave’s vocals adding to the clean mix. Ending with a mostly acoustic Lover’s Holiday, this is a solid release ebbs and flows well, superb.

COLIN CAMPBELL

eriC’s BlUesBand dirTY road ebb

Maybe this is not the album with which to begin an acquaintance with this Swedish outfit. The opener reminds me of The Rolling Stones, or even more so, The Velvet Underground, with its relentless groove and slightly detached vocals, though guest Jimmy Zavala provides driving blues harp playing. The whole set is described as “a broad excursion into the roots category”. Eric Hansson has led the band on vocals and guitar throughout its 15 year existence; the band

members went their separate ways and Eric has used freelance musicians since that time, with some veterans of the Swedish blues scene helping out for this recording. Eric seems to have a fondness for indie-rock, at least on this evidence, though he is aware of the likes of Jimi Hendrx (try The End) and he cites Eric Clapton, BB and Freddy King, and John Mayer as influences. I’ll Dig Into My Soul is out-and-out rock, though he then follows this up by sliding into the reasonably straightforward shuffle of Breaking Up, with a Robert Ward styled guitar break. All the songs are originals, with the exception of the excellent cover of the Gwendolyn Collins (Albert’s wife) composition Lights Are On But Nobody’s Home, a very fine slow blues performance. The set closes out with Sinking Like A Stone, a powerful and thoughtful slab of blues-rock – it would be good to hear more of Eric in this vein. As it is, this is an inconsistent release from a blues lover’s point of view.

NORMAN DARWEN

the idle hands

Feeding The machine

Independent

Feeding The Machine the latest recorded album from The Idle Hands is a twelve tracks original that explores across the genre of blues mixing into their rock-blues approach some country and hints of psychedelia. The band have lots of influences that can be heard but never dictate as they deliver every track whether fast, slow acoustic or instrumental in their unique Idle Hands style.

The band knows how to deliver the emotional magic needed to make an album interesting this four piece includes un-restrained vocalist Phil Allen, the rhythm of drummer Paul Heydon and on bass guitar and backing vocals Jaimie Burns; and then on guitar is Dave Robinson. The band and album stands out from the crowd of bands producing rocky blues with tracks like Sad Again

Wayfaring Stranger, Shingle By Shingle and Needed Time.

STEVE YOURGLIVCH

slowing it down letting the guitar sing the emotions in this sublime three minutes of instrumental; there is just pure emotion being expressed through the precise and considered guitar work of Dave Robinson tipping his hat at times to Gary Moore. We have full-on tempo on Might Be Foolin’ as the rhythm is full of dance beat, funk and movement. It is not all about electric blues rock, they slip in a couple of delightful acoustic numbers.

Firstly Your Song Goes On that would please the purest of the blues aficionados despite its country undertones with slide guitar that is class and vocals that goes round in a circle. The other Second Time Around is a whiskey fuelled faster tempo acoustic that is Dylanesque in its delivery but this is no copycat of a track it is pure Idle Hands mixing the musical approach up and we like it! On all the tracks Idle Hands use their influences to inspire but not dictate over the twelve tracks you see the real sound of the band, this album is the next best thing to seeing them play live.

LIZ AIKEN

Johnny max Band

ForTY nine minuTes oF The BesT We have Pour soul records

The Johnny Max Band are a Canadian band who have released regular albums over the years in their home country, this album is a compilation of their best material drawn from their recording history over the past decade, it is an excellent collection of songs that are fairly full on with high energy levels, switching from occasional ZZ Top territory to more laid back soulful numbers. As it is a compilation and there are no recording date details, it is difficult to identify what the current line up of the band is, as there are fifteen musicians named in the cover notes, some tracks have full brass backing with a strong R’n’B feel to them, while others are more

straightforward blues band tracks. The only constant factor is lead singer Johnny Max who delivers great vocals throughout, a couple of tracks he has jointly written have been nominated for song writing awards; A Lesson I’ve Learned is a great track with a Little Feat sound to it, while the opening track Daddy’s Little Girl won the International Song Writing Competition Blues song of the year in 2010. The band are definitely worth checking out, besides the two song nominations highlighted here all the material on this album has been self written by the band and there is enough quality and variety to please all tastes.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

neal BlaCk & the healers

BeFore daYlighT

Dixie Frog

France-based US born bluesman has been a major artist for many years with body of work that is steadily growing his reputation. Before The Daylight is a collection of tales from the dark side of the blues but isn’t morose or depressing, Neal and The Healers are too good as musicians to take that route. Opener Jesus & Johnny Walker has a wonderful harp intro before

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Our man has put a lot into this set, working with The CaveMan Kevin Shirley to get some sharp compositions on tape and vary the Nashville written and recorded material. The key to ‘getting’ Bonamassa, something it took this scribe a while to latch on to, is that he is such a fan of other artists and especially the Brit Blues that whilst he has soaked up the influence of the Kossof’s and Gallagher’s (and many more lesser known players in all genres that he and I have spent hours discussing) he wants to create his own works respectful of all that but with his own twist and power. Incidentally, isn’t that what most of us who perform want to do? If you model your act on one person or group you are immediately hemmed in.

After a burst of RainBow Bridge era Jimi we are straight into a slew of own compositions and it must be said that post-touring with Beth Hart, Joe is managing to integrate grainy horn section riffs and arrangements into his biting guitar soundscapes extremely well. The horns never overpower what else is going on but boy do they sound good and colourful! This is a fan pleaser of a long player and key cuts include the insistent Get Back My Tomorrow with the best vocal on the set, the Noo Awleens feel of TroubleTown where you half expect Dr John to start growling along, the strident Buddy Guy tinged wah of Heartbreak Follows Wherever I Go. The choppy Living On The Moon has impact and vocal phrasing close to Junior Wells (which Joe accepts as a compliment, btw); the jumpy beat of Love Ain’t A Love Song), my airplay tip, riffing horns, a four note hook and crazy guitar break.

Must be said that Oh Beautiful owes a LOT to Black Dog but the pinched harmonics a la Beck are hard to resist. Fans of SRV’s last band might note the stellar contributions of keys genius Reese Wynans but equally the bass work of Carmine Rojas and Michael Rhodes impresses and there’s not much to say about Letterman drummer Anton Fig beyond that he is uncannily on the ball here.as ever. Sounds like a fine collection to go out and perform live…no coincidence, I suggest.

Joe Bonamassa diFFerenT shades oF Blue mascot/Provogue

PETE SARGEANT

Albums reviews

Neal’s raspy voice comes in singing about voodoo and religion while the band provide a swampy undulating rhythm. The dirty but swinging country infused blues continue unabated with Hangman’s Tree. The Peace Of Darkness is slightly slower but beautifully paced with a haunting mandolin in the background. The only cover on the album is Mamas Baby, a good choice, written by Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf but not one that’s overdone.

We have a late night slow blues next, The Same Colour with fine piano by Mike Lattrell. The title track Before Daylight is all about moving on. The musicianship as on every track is brilliantly interwoven, every instrument given space and complementing each other. Neal provides moments of crunching guitar breaks as well as subtlety throughout. The traditional blues Goin’ Down The Road is given a respectful but distinctive Neal Black treatment. This is a consistently top quality album from a man who has lived his blues and reflects that and more in his playing and writing. Highly recommended.

STEVE YOURGLIVCH

kenny ‘BlUes Boss’ Wayne rollin’

WiTh The Blues Boss

Dixie Frog records

Veteran Blues and boogie-woogie piano player, and three-time Juno Award nominee, Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne delivers this new set of recordings blending traditional Blues stride piano of the highest calibre with a fresh and funky modern Blues sound. When he, and the formidably tight band he’s assembled, are hitting the note his original material sits right up there with the best of the genre. Wayne’s influences are somewhat obvious, the likes of Fats Domino and Johnnie Johnson clear in his stride licks, and consequently the album’s 11 tracks rarely stray from the boogie-woogie, New Orleans-fueled R&B, Blues, and

Big Boss man

Four-piece Big Boss Man return with a new set of recordings that (whilst loosely falling within the soul/ jazz genre) defy categorisation. Hailing from all corners of the country, their music is eclectic to say the least, yet manages to avoid sounding the least bit contrived or disjointed at any point.

Lead single Aardvark is a funky soul number that sounds like it could’ve been lifted straight out of a Blues Brothers’ set, complete with whirling Hammond organ, wailing horns and gospel handclaps juxtaposed against frenetic Latin rhythms, it’s a risky gumbo of musical styles but pays off a treat. Likewise, the title track, featuring guest vocalist Princess Freesia, is a jazzy bossa nova that nonchalantly struts a very fine line between Curtis Mayfield soul and out and out James Bondtheme. Hail Caesar has a touch of the Parisian experimentalism of Serge Gainsbourg about it, whilst also calling to mind the cascading piano lines of The Doors’ Riders On The Storm.

Changing Faces is another surprise departure; into a folksy psychedelia akin to the Zombies or Jefferson Airplane. There are of course straighter moments that stick closer to the ‘soul-band’ formula, such as Crimson 6T’s which has more than a touch of The Meters about it, and these are more than competent contributions to the canon. However, it’s the sheer diversity on display here that sets Big Boss Man apart from their contemporaries.

There’s a brief mid-eastern Sitar segue in the form of Bombay Mix, a Bretchian waltz Le Dernier Homme Sur Terre, and the sci-fi psyché rock of Project No.6 (of which even Pierre Henry would be proud). It would be easy, and somewhat cynical, to state that the band have included something for everyone here, especially as such musical diplomacy can so often produce cold results ultimately of no interest to anyone. Last Man On Earth is more an example of a band including everything for no-one but themselves, and creating something unique and unmissable in the process.

RHYS WILLIAMS

good-time rock’n’roll we’ve come to expect from the bandleader. Hootenanny Boogie-Woogie is tremendous fun, if a little onedimensional, Ogopogo Boogie and Keep On Rockin’ do exactly what is said on the tin and not much more. Slow Down is a world-weary country-blues where Wayne allows a little of his customary tongue-incheek bravado to fall away and, as a result, it’s possibly the most heartfelt and affecting piece on the record, though even this falls prey a little to a somewhat over-simplistic arrangement.

I Can’t Believe It is an album highlight, heavier on the Marvin Gaye-style soul and easing off the

lurching rock’n’roll piano that, whilst tremendous fun can feel a little stilted after a while. Duets Baby It Ain’t You and Two Sides, featuring Diunna Greenleaf and Eric Bibb respectively, again add a slight (and welcome) change of pace.

As a collection of original songs Rollin’ With The Blues Boss is only varied in a few brief forays into more niche sub-genres of Blues, and breaks no new ground really. However, when all involved are clearly having such fun playing these tunes it’s almost impossible to get hung up on its’ lack of originality, and you’ll find yourself being swept along for the ride.

RHYS WILLIAMS

sandy saUnders Band

raTTlesnake road

rattlesnake records

Actively performing shows across north-west America for the last five years or so, this is the first album of originals from the band and is made in attempt to capture their unique live vibe. That means no excessive studio work nor any additional fills by extra non-band session musicians. That also means the album is quite raw and rough around the edges. That is no bad thing as it suits the vocal energy of Saunders and the guitar escapism of lead guitarist Billy Lindsay. Shake These Blues and Concrete Cowboy follow routine blues song architecture but with enough subtle elaboration to keep it interesting. The same distinction follows with a rockier inventory across 13th Page and Where I’m Going. The title track conjures up all the imagination it can from the genre, a sweet beat, swirling voodoo guitar, and hollering fear-driven vocal. It’s a good one. Elsewhere on the album they dip into Springsteen-esque country rock with Slip And Slide and even acoustic Americana with No Free Lunch. Citing Patty Loveless and Garth Brooks as early influences, Sandy Saunders flies the flag for women blues artists in and around Portland Oregon with a passion that comes across on the record. Fact fans may like to know that guitarist Lindsay is actually a Scot by origin and listeners can then take comfort in hearing distant Celtic roots on a couple of tracks.

GARETH HAYES

Fo’reel heavY WaTer Independent

The four main members of Fo’Reel are veterans of the local New Orleans music ‘scene’, session men mainly for the likes of Dr John and the Nevilles, but it’s Grammy Award

winning keyboardist Johnny Neel whom most people will have heard of. CP Love is on vocals, along with former Bryan Lee guitarist Mark Domizio, (whose brainchild this project is), bassist David Hyde, Jon Smith on tenor sax and between them Darryl Burgess and Allyn Robinson on drums. Happily, this talented group of players are as tight as any you would see on stage, opting for a West Coast style that emphasizes jazz improvisation over bar room bravado. For me Domizio is the star turn, providing an excellent counter to Love’s Delta soul, as Neel fills in any cracks with swells of Hammond B3. With their fine pedigree, Fo’Reel has more soul than their contemporaries, which is why their version of opener Breaking Up Somebody’s Home splits the difference between Ann Peebles’ or Albert King’s take and why Luther Allison’s What’s Going On In My Home would sit comfortably on any soul-blues playlist, they also do a fine job on the more gospel Just As I Am. When Love steps back from the mike, the band don’t lose any of their feel, the two instrumentals are class,

Whelan

Flood WaTers rising

Presidio records

particularly Gate with its Texas twang and light swing, can only be a tribute to the recently departed Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown. The music on here, with its funky groove feel will have you wanting to move. The vocals are passionate, the guitar playing is deep and full of emotion, complimented by distinctive keyboards and brass. If strong driven energy filled music is your thing you will love this CD, which not only embraces traditional blues, but hits you with interesting styles like Swing, Funk, R&B, even a little Latino Rumba. CLIVE RAWLINGS

BlUes PoWer Band invasion

Dixie Frog records

Before you delve any further into this review, I feel, that I should warn you that the music contained within this album contains only the merest sliver of blues and may only be of interest to broadminded blues music lovers and

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Sid Whelan is a veteran guitarist from New York, who for many years backed singers in world music and blues in many clubs and music festivals, but for various reasons, he stopped playing gigs in 2004. The decision to get back to singing and songwriting was in part due to his niece Lora-Faye needing a guitarist to play in her band, thus culminating in setting up his band.

That is the background to this release. From the first track’s slow moody notes played on exquisite slide guitar on Frisco Lines it sure sounds like he is enjoying being back in the limelight. He has a smooth and well-toned voice with a Mississippi drawl, evident on Fools Gold, this song maintains the high standard of musicianship and it flows into the best song, the title track Flood Waters Rising an emotional response to global natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy. Lighten Up explains this further with more lilting vocals and sweet guitar picking. Not one to hold back on politics The List is a tin pan alley take on gun law controls a very cutting insight, good piano riff from Naido Vargas. Sitting On Top Of The World is well played and sounds an authentic early blues take. Finishing off with the self mocking take on, I Can’t Write Love Songs reflects a laid back style with sharp undertones a definitive return of a great musician.

COLIN CAMPBELL

Albums reviews

not the purist. The French band BPB is one of France’s most popular and exciting musical exports. They have, over the last seven years been consistently delighting audiences all across the world with their exhilarating albums and concerts. BPB are; Herve ‘Bannish’ Joachim; lead vocals, Pascal Guegan and Regis ‘papygratteux’ Lavisse; guitars, Nicolas Paulin; bass, Olivier Picard ‘Bathus’; drums and Damien Cornelis; keyboards, together they ignite their unique sound over thirteen numbers which storm and stomp out of the speakers. The twin lead, crashing and screaming guitars create such a menacing, prowling aural onslaught, that you feel as if you have to pick up your stunned ears off of the floor; at the same time,

doCtor harmoniCa

The poWer oF The Blues Blues, Booze and Boogie Independent

the almost choral massed backing vocals surge over the top like some banished nomadic angelic choir on a mission to be redeemed. The subsequent anthem inducing fervour is led by Herve whose vocal talents remind one of a cross between Robbie Williams and the Gallagher brothers.

On such numbers as; Out Of Sight and Invasion the roaring, roaming, ranting guitars are backed by some seriously attacking punk influenced drumming whilst in the background the surging and insistently urging organ pushes the music on and on aided by the demonic angelic backing vocals. The visceral haunting, guitar influences of Tony Iommi are to be abundantly heard on Miss Grim Reaper, they

are pleasingly matched by Joachim’s deathly Germanic sounding morose vocals. I’m certain that most listeners will also find many other classic guitar references from the music of the seventies on this album.

A slight respite to all the powerhouse guitar work can be found on the acoustic led twelve bar blues that is Rain, which, after a short delicate intro the steaming, streaming guitars move in with a vengeance. It’s A Breeze is a foot stomping organ led rocker that abruptly changes into a melodic and thoughtful slowburner which segues into the last number on the album And Now that slowly builds into a hands held high blues fuelled anthem. Well worth a Listen!

BRIAN

HARMAN

BoB malone

moJo ep

Delta moon records

The blues world is like a long corridor with mysterious closed doors. CDs open those doors and often, what lies behind them is something new. Doctor Harmonica? Yes, sounds like a good name for a blues act. But the CD comes from Krakow in Poland, so who is this guy?

He’s all-round musician, composer and singer Lance Wakely, and he has quite a musical history. He went to school in Chicago where his classmate was blues guitar legend Michael Bloomfield. In the heady folk days in Greenwich Village Lance played guitar for big names such as Judy Collins, Tim Hardin and Peter, Paul and Mary. He became an LA session man and worked for composer Jimmy Webb, adding his skilful licks to tracks like MacArthur Park and Wichita Lineman. He’s certainly had a terrific career, and had a chart hit in the 1970s as a member of The Cascades with their single Listen To The Rhythm Of The Falling Rain.

Seems odd that after all that he ended up busking, but such are the fortunes of the music biz. Moving to Europe, first to Holland and then to Poland, where he now lives, opened up a new career in the blues as Dr. Harmonica and these are just two of the six albums he’s made. These are pretty impressive albums.

Tracks such as Boogie Boulevard really rock, and you have to brace yourself for Can I Taste Your Tattoo and (ahem...) Watch My Willy Wiggle. Dr. H is a multi-instrumentalist who knows his way around a studio console and a bank of pedals, and as a composer he’s steeped in blues lore with songs like A Young Man’s Mind (In an Old Man’s Body) and Big Bottom Woman. He’s a one man blues hurricane, a fine musician, and this is rambunctious European blues at its most exhilarating. One well worth investigating.

ROY BAINTON

Whilst we wait with baited breath for Bob’s seventh album Mojo Deluxe we are served up with this limited edition six track EP which bears five new originals and a new cover of Ray Charles’ Hard Times. Having made his UK debut at no less than Glastonbury 2013 and in John Fogerty’s band in 2012 at Hyde Park. The sound we have is a mix of New Orleans R&B, Blues and rock and has dreamy yet threatening slide work and wonderful piano flitting around.

Bob has played with or opened for such as Bruce Springsteen, Al Green, Dr. John and more. He also plays pretty regularly with Marcia Ball and Henry Butler at WWOZ Piano nights at the New Orleans House of Blues. If I have a complaint about this EP it is simply that it is toooo short and I am really looking forward to the full album when it arrives. The feel is actually quite laid back and easy to listen to the accomplished musicians taking part with Bob including the superb tones of Bob Demarco on guitars, the dependable rhythm section of Mike Baird and Jeff

Dean with the added bonus of Stan Behrens on harmonica plus congas and percussion members. You would be very hard pressed to try to select a stand out track here as they are all damn good and hit the mark. I can only hope that some of you had the luck to catch Bob at Colne or any of his other gigs which will be over by the time you read this.

FRANK LEIGH

one horse Pony

Blue When i go Independent

One Horse Pony are a blues band with a difference. They mostly write their own material, have two guitarists/ singers in John Noonan and Rob Foley, but have an unusual lineup. They have no drummer, with the beat provided by the energetic bodhran playing of Nolwen Milot, who also provides solos on Bodhran and Low Whistle. Add to the mix a six piece choir which is only heard on a few tracks, an acoustic bass and cello, this is not the traditional blues band for a gig down at the King’s Head on a Saturday night.

There is a lot of folk music influence, the band have clearly listened to John Martyn and traditional acoustic blues bands. Set opener and title track Blue When I Go is a lively blues number, with a steady beat and lively harmonica, whilst Walked Into A Bar is a slow blues number with a relaxed, and melodic vibe.

Their one cover, Robert Johnson’s Last Fair Deal Gone Down is a completely different version, featuring a brave Low Whistle solo, which in this context works. However, musically one of the strongest tracks, an acapella No More Water is saved for the album closer, another song like this would have helped to have balanced out the album. So, all in all this is not an album for fans of electric blues, but if you liked The Notting Hillbillies (Mark Knopfler’s project) this is a fine listen.

BEN MACNAIR

riVal sons

greaT WesTern valkYrie earache records

Anyone still lamenting the decline of Rock ‘n’ Roll in 2014 is obviously unfamiliar with Rival Sons. This, their fourth full-length album (and UK top 10 release), is a visceral, primordial, howling war-cry against such pessimistic claims. Although it’s nigh on impossible for any modern Rock band to entirely avoid sounding derivative, Rival Sons blend their influences into an exhilarating sound heavy on homage yet wary of cliché. The result is Rock that once again sounds fresh, exciting and more than a little dangerous. It’s the sound of Rock’s past, present and future. Kicking off with a trademark Sons barnburner, Electric Man, with vocalist Jay Buchanan screaming: “I’m Electric!” and meaning it, this is muddy-water blues for the 21st Century. Undoubtedly Rival Sons most eclectic and sonically varied album so far, at times thunderously devastating, such as on Secret, a sinister, propulsive blues with Buchanan channeling a demented Roy Orbison, yet often taking delicate and intricate detours into introspection, such as the Doors-esque Good Things, which rides on a storm of trance bass and brooding mellotron. Open My Eyes is a playful and deliciously irreverent take on When The Levee Breaks, and Rich And Poor spins a rock-noir tale of young love out of wounded vocals, dark, Latin rhythms and graveyard-surf guitar. The artwork, and title, conjures the cinematic image of band as gunslingers. An impression further cultivated on the mythic and schizophrenic Belle Star, which tells the tale of a notorious American outlaw, harnessing trippy rhythms, ethereal guitar arpeggios and fuzzed out Zeppelin textures – highlighting guitarist Scott Holiday’s impressive ability to move from the vicious to the sublime. Album closer Destination On Course is their most gloriously overblown track to date, at a proggy seven minutes, complete with gothic-rock choir, phrenetic slide guitar and an apocalyptic rhythm section. It’s a whirling dervish straight from Valhalla, containing some of the most impressive vocal acrobatics Buchanan has yet put to record. Rock may have become a little stagnant in recent years, but Rival Sons are here to show us it still draws breath, all whilst taking yours away.

RHYS WILLIAMS

alastair greene Band

TrouBle aT Your door electro Groove records

Alastair Greene is a highly respected guitar player who has been an integral part of Alan Parsons Project for some time as well as recording with several top names. This is his fifth studio album under his own name and as one would expect from someone of his pedigree it’s high quality throughout. The basic line up is classic power trio with guest Eric Norlander adding keyboards on a

couple of the longer tracks. Whether it’s searing rock guitar as on the title track or the more blues based riff laden Back Where I Belong, Greene hit’s the spot. He can also carry off a solo National Steel vibe as on Red Wine Woman inviting the women in question to drink with him. First Born Son is a swaggering anthem of a track with great keyboards, while Love You So Bad returns to trio format delivering a vibrant rockin’ blues boogie. The longest track is Calling For You, an epic feeling with keys and a soft vocal giving it a lovely floating psychedelic feel. I’ve followed Alastair

Bernie marsden shine

Provogue records

Before joining Whitesnake in 1978 Bernie played from 1974 onwards in the short lived bands Wild Turkey, Babe Ruth and Paice, Ashton, Lord. He went on to spend five years playing in Whitesnake before deciding to concentrate upon forming a band of his own, there have been two different line-ups and names; Bernie Marsden’s SOS and Bernie Marsden’s Alaska, which lasted until nineteen eighty-five. Bernie has also been involved with U.F.O. and Cozy Powell’s Hammer. Later he, Mick Moody and Neil Murray (both former members of Whitesnake), joined forces and formed the band Company of Snakes. As time has progressed he has focused more on solo releases and immersing himself in music based charity work. He is nowadays, to be found writing and playing with Joe Bonamassa. I think I should mention that whilst Bernie’s guitar work has over the years been imbued with several strong blues threads running through it; he is primarily a blues tinged rock guitarist. This is exemplified by the Leadbelly number Linin’ Track, a bludgeoning hammer riff thunders out of the speakers, accompanied by a delta vocal and harmonica from Mark Feltham. The barroom brawling Kinda Wish She Would, has an irresistible chomping and vamping piano leading the charge as grinding grunting guitars screech and burn for your attention and enjoyment whilst the piano continues to urge your feet to tap, slide and turn. The talents of Joe Bonamassa; guitar, Don Airey; keyboards and Ian Paice; drums can be heard to great effect on Shine, a towering mixture of Deep Purples’ engine room and power laden stuttering keyboards, combined with west coast vocal harmonies, encased by suitably monolithic guitar work that strides forth. The gossamer like West Coast vocals appear again underpinning Danny Kirwan’s Dragonfly and brings the temperature slowly down. The subtle instrumental slowburner that is N.W.B. seems to be gently and respectfully imbued with all the artistry, eloquence and grace that Peter Green displayed oh so effortlessly once upon a time. Recommended!

Greene for a while and it’s difficult to understand why he hasn’t yet got a higher profile as some of his contemporaries. He is the equal of any and better than most. Hopefully this release will redress the balance.

STEVE YOURGLIVCH

kelley hUnt

The BeauTiFul Bones

88 records

This is a particularly good album. Why? Because Kelley has an especially fine, even exceptional, voice, one that has a more than superficial resemblance to Aretha Franklin. Her soulful tones, the

cheerful tempo of several of the songs, and her rich voice with its pleasing wobble, or perhaps tremolo would be a more technical term, make for a very listenable album indeed. Let It Rain is gorgeous, sending shivers down the spine as it draws the listener in. Wonderful. It is a highlight of a compelling and classy album. An involuntary ‘Oh, yeah!’ came from this listener when Release And Be Free began. Just listen to it and the uplifting Gospel-soaked background vocals. Simplify would have been the highlight of many a lesser album, here is a pretty close, a lifting song indeed. The excellent work of the musicians on this album (Kelley calls them her ‘dream team’), also matches the

quality of the vocals. Great! Now the reviewing is done this is going back on the stereo for some more extensive listening over the next few, well, years, without having to think about reviewing.

DARREN WEALE

nigel mooney

The Bohemian mooneY lyte records

Jazz, blues with a bit of slick funk - if there is such a thingmake up this offering from leading Irish guitarist, Nigel Mooney. From the opening track, I Ain’t Ready, a brisk bluesy number with a cool 50s Memphis vibe, to the closing track Farewell to Bohemia, the album rolls along in a pleasant rather than forceful way. Featuring old standards like April In Paris and C’est Si Bon, the mix is eclectic at times with additions such as Hellhound On My Trail and Hard Times. Georgie Fame guests on a few numbers together with some quality Harp flourishes from Dublin’s legendary Eamonn Murray. Michael Buckley leads his House Of Horns for a full-on brass-jazz section- sound that enriches Mooney’s own considerably talented, sensitive fretwork. Mooney’s vocals hold up well throughout with a mellow, smoky feel like a fine glass of Irish Malt, while Murray’s Harp-work is strikingly good on Johnson’s old standard Hellhound. Voted Jazz Album of the Year in 2013 by the Irish Times, what you see is what you get here. Cool jazz from a band of jazz and blues veterans at the top of their game.

IAIN

PATIENCE

CatFish hodge

diFFerenT sTrokes

ace records

Listening to the raw not to say sometime raucous vocal offering of this genuine rock/blues artist, is like finding a two carat diamond in a set of paste jewellery. Hodge defies Father Time

BRIAN HARMAN

by unbelievably being in his seventh decade, yet producing a sound and performance that guys a third of his age would kill for. He may be follicely challenged and have a wee bit extra in the midriff but his vocal ability; lyric writing and guitar work is unchallenged. This double CD has a range of music which he’s produced since the seventies and some new offerings, and I defy you to identify which is which from his vocal ability. I particularly like the Heartbeat Of The Street on disc one of this double disc offering. It has a blend of Blues tinged with a small helping of Motown and slide guitar to emphasise the roots of the music. Colour T.V. Blues follows quickly to bring slide guitar work to the fore again, with lyrics that brought a smile to my face with its message. The second disc opens with What Those Wimmin Do a veritable kaleidoscope of blues instrumentation to kick off the second half of the double discs. Lyrically it has a resonance for any bluesman, but for me the instrumental side of this opener is a cork opening the champagne of the second disc. Bob Hodge has brought out a quintessential blues offering which spans his career, as such is essential stock for any fan of the genre. There are twenty nine tracks for you to savour, every one of them a joy. It is a must for anyone with a heart and soul in the blues.

TOM WALKER

the Forest mCdonald Band Turnaround Blues

World talent records

Forest’s career began 50 years ago and he has been involved in dozens of recordings. He was a former member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, in which he played with amongst others, Bonnie Bramlett, Bobby Womack and Jimmy Reed. This is his 12th CD release and is something special, containing nine original songs and four classic covers, all done in his own inimitable style.

River Of Tears is a tale of a relationship breakdown. Junior Wells’ Checking On My Baby is done with great style. The I’m A Fool is solid R & B with a strong vocal from Andrew Black who is stand-out on most tracks. James Cotton’s V8 Ford Blues really hits the mark, in fact all the numbers on this album really have the authentic blues feel that comes from Forest’s blues experience and is an album that wouldn’t be out of place in any collection.

BOB BONSEY

WUrster raW blackjanet

More country than Blues but this is still a very fine collection of songs both originals and covers. Wurster consists of Jim Wurster on guitars, vocals and ‘Porchwood Bass’ ably assisted by

danny Bryant

TemperaTure rising Jazzhaus records

Vinnie Fontana on bass, Daphne Rose on vocals, Omine Eagar on 12 string, Mike Vullo on drums and Chris DeAngelis on stand up bass. Vocally I would put Wurster in the Johnny Cash meets Nick Cave kind of dark and stentorian semi-spoken vocalising but, try as I might, I can’t place his accent so maybe put it down as Mid-Western. Musically they are predominantly acoustic with a few electric overtones but there are a few odd elements such as the bizarre swishing sound on his cover of Sonny Bono’s Bang Bang. The more I listened to the album the more I must admit I was getting into it in a sort of smiling and knowing way rather than a whooping and boogieing manner but he has a fine way with his own songs and some surprising form on covers and I didn’t resist the urge to repeat tracks. His Loping Vampire Blues is one of the odd ones: a

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The bold painting of our man on the album front cover makes him look as though he would push you through a plate glass window if you got in his way; in truth Bryant is a friendly and loyal man from a fine family background who saves all his aggression and power for his performances. A gruff but surprisingly tender singer and biting yet melodic guitar wielder, Danny puts his all into his songs and does not care about fashion, whims or fancies, in fact the humanity and accessibility of his material is akin to say, James Taylor or Tracey Chapman in their own fields.

You can safely buy this new collection as much for the songs as the axe-work and Richard Hammerton’s production again captures the edge that Bryant brings to the stage. As for his inspirations, if you drew a line from Walter Trout to Bob Dylan you would be in the zone and I’d like to see Danny move into Bobby Z’s storytelling field a little more as I am convinced there is a Hurricane or Blind Willie McTell to come from him in the future. Highlights of this set are the fine rhythm section punch of opener Best Of Me, a wah-fuzz stomper, the rockin’ piano of. Nothing At All with a touch of Ronnie Hawkins, the rocker whose group became The Band and the laidback Together Through Life which does show Bryant’s softer mood. The title track is maybe boss song here and the guitar sounds sharp and committed. Mystery is for those who like the Hoax heavy riff style that Danny sometimes hits. The sinister closer GunTown is my own pick with its heavy atmosphere and build. It’s on a par with RoadHouse in its’ cinematic vibe, excellent.

PETE SARGEANT

lolloping and vulpine gait to the song but his dark vocals intoning “I’m a vampire baby, just wanna suck you blood and when I’m done I just wanna make you mud” is matched with massively distorted guitar and still that slow and plodding rhythm – odd much somehow rather brilliant. Ojus on the other hand is such a straightforward country murder song that it is 30 seconds in before you realise the murderous intent of the song. His version of Fred Neil’s Dade County Jail is spot on and captures the feel of Johnny Cash while his version of The Doors’ Riders On The Storm actually makes the song work (simply as a song) almost better than the original. The album was recorded live in the studio and it definitely shows in the organic and immediate nature of the music. No overdubs and only one or two takes means that the feeling was caught along with a few glitches (but none that impact badly on the music) and the whole album sounds as though it was being played for pleasure rather than obligation.

ANDY SNIPPER

Chicago bluesman

Specter may still be a relative unknown on UK shores but this is his tenth album and is going to get this reviewer seeking out his earlier work (...having been told to start with Bluebird Blues and Left To The Blues). Known for producing the likes of Lurrie Bell, the album is bright and bold as expected from Delmark too. A quick look at Spector’s biography reveals that he has toured with the good and great of Chicago blues so it’s a sweet reflection of his reputation that he can pull in Otis Clay, Brother John Kattke and Bob Corritone to guest on this empathetic release. The album is largely instrumental and the track titles deliver exactly what they say they are going to deliver. If you can imagine the content of Chicago Style then you may have a clue to the vibe of

Funkified Outer Space and Opus De Swamp. By and large though, with a little self-mockery with the genre aside, it’s a straight down the middle blues album with the slow, Same Old Blues, and up-tempo, Watchdog, to qualify the quality. Clay and Specter combine with moving evocation in their tribute to the late Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, This Time I’m Gone For Good.

GARETH HAYES

B.B. & the BlUes shaCks

Businessmen

Cross Cut records

The B.B.’s are from Hildesheim, Germany and have been blasting out their blues since nineteen eighty-nine and have just released this new album. They started out playing a mixture of forties and fifties swing with a large dash of classic Chicago blues thrown in for good measure. As times change and people evolve so has their music; now, with the added dimension and depth of a soulful horn section known as; The No Blow No Show Horns. They also employ a harder edged sixties English approach to their blues. All fifteen numbers here are band originals. Michael Arlt who provides forceful lead vocals comes across as a mixture of Dave Edmunds and Richie Milton, his harmonica blasting is very reminiscent of Little Walter’s contentious and aggressive blasting and as easy going and relaxed as Slim Harpo, while Andreas Arlt’s crisply swinging and extremely riveting, note bending twanging guitar work evokes vivid images of Jimmy Vaughan.

Dennis Koeckstadt’s magical and unstoppable swirling, surging keyboard work evocatively weaves a highly textured spellbinding tapestry of aural delights. The tight underpinning of these joyous sounds is firmly anchored by Henning Hauerken’s solid cohesive bass and newcomer Jochen Reich’s excellent drum work. A fine example of this can be found on the instrumental

toe-tapper Buckle Up, the fast moving insistent organ seethes with attitude as the rich ringing; Les Paul inspired guitar duels with pacey, punching drumwork. While the slowburning Lovin’ Might fuses a loping wistful guitar with heartfelt burning, surging brass sweetly held together by a splendidly emotive saxophone. Who’s Crying Now, is a beautiful harmonica and guitar led slowburning slice of classic Chicago blues. It Was A Dream continues the Chicago groove with a tramping and rollicking piano duelling with a harsh barking harmonica. The delightful harmonica led tramping Pardon Me, majestically rocks likes the Fabulous Thunderbirds as does the saxophone led Hot Pants. Goodbye Everybody is a marvellous taste of the fifties swinging big band sound led by brash blasting horns and harmonica with rich snazzy, jazz guitar. Highly Recommended!

BRIAN HARMAN

lara and the BlUZ daWgZ

devil moon

lock alley music

This is Blues with a capital “B” and it oozes quality from the first number to the last, both vocally and instrumentally! The members of this troupe hail from across the whole geographic range of North America and Canada, but combine elegantly to produce a sound that is easy to listen to while essentially having a blues message in all the tracks. This could be down to the almost hypnotic singing style of Lara allied to guitar, saxophone, keyboards and drums all at the top of their individual games. The title track Devil Moon comes in with them all contributing to a musical masterpiece, especially the guitar lead of Al Rowe and the saxophone wizardry of Reggie Murray.

It dumbfounded me to find out this is the debut album of the group, they have produced a real gem in their collective opener and

presumably the other groups from which they came, are suffering the loss of these artists. The husband and wife aspect of singer Lara and bassist Gregg Germony makes for an interesting sideline to what is a truly cohesive group with the sounds to match. Step on up as track 4 is motoring in top gear vocally from Lara as well as musically in the form of guitar overdrive from Al Rowe, although they all perform at almost breakneck pace. I could go through the repertoire of this album and in truth there isn’t a track that I didn’t like, in fact the whole album is a cracker that you don’t want to wait for Christmas to pull.

TOM WALKER

daVe hUrriCane hoerl

unTWisTed

Four swing records

This album features Dave Hoerl who is a superb harmonica player. His chromatic dexterity is amazing; he doesn’t just solo but plays in a minimalistic way with fiddles and runs that really work. His take on O V Wright’s I’d Rather Be Blind, Crippled and Crazy is masterful. There is a fun track Snakecharmer which is full of double-entréndre. Dave has a soulful voice and his vocals on all tracks are just what each song requires. Don’t Think it Can’t Happen To You tells how nobody is immune to tragedy and bad fortune. I never thought I’d hear a blues song about baseball but Grand Old Game is just that. You won’t find an album more worthy of the accolades that this will achieve.

BOB BONSEY

Jersey based soul and blues band, so that opening statement will have flown high above their heads. He’s been at this a long time having recorded two albums with Big Jack Johnson and The Oilers, before recording his debut solo release in 2000. This new CD sees them carrying on with their soul and blues fusion, and it turns out to be a very enjoyable release. It’s a wee bit rough and ready, which makes a nice change from those oh so smooth soul releases you could polish a table with, and there are some cracking songs along the way. Of the covers, a version of David Ruffin’s On And Off and the Bobby Bland song Share Your Love With Me are just a pure delight. If you’re looking for an easy comparison, then a down and dirty Robert Cray should set you on the right path. Of the four originals, Believe For A Day is the best of the bunch, and there are also two bonus tracks in the shape of Honeymoon Blues (Robert Johnson) and Leadhearted Blues (Blind Blake) which add some blues to the soul stew.

STUART A HAMILTON

delta Boys rough and easY

Groove stew

with over thirty years Harp experience behind him is paired with guitarist Michael van Merwyk to great effect. Van Merwyk cites Sonny Boy Williamson and Brownie McGhee among his influences and this shines clearly throughout on this CD. Indeed, Merwyk was runner-up (to Selwyn Birchwood) at the 2013 International Blues Challenge in Memphis with another of his outfits Blue Soul, the highest placing achieved by a European band in the IBC’s history. And this background and grounding works to give the album a strong, rasping grasp from start to finish. Rough and Easy does exactly what it says on the tin: real blues with real musicians and real class and style.

IAIN PATIENCE

sCottdale string Band

old Folks BeTTer go To Bed arhoolie records

This anthology of early Country Blues, Waltzes, Rags and Breakdowns from the mid-1920s and early 1930s, all performed by the Scottdale String Band, is an absolute lo-fi delight. Comparable to the historically definitive Alan Lomax recordings in its primitive, yet warm and insightful, recordings of a bygone era, it is a collection full of charm and nostalgia. The band took their name from the cotton mill village in which they lived and worked and, though their personal history and frequent personnel changes are somewhat shrouded in mystery; their extensive and diverse works speak volumes about the world from which they came.

the

ChristoPher dean Band call me laTer lost World music

For a moment there, I thought Mr Torvill had made a record. But turns out the Christopher Dean Band are a New

This album comes as a real surprise. Full of gritty acoustic blues, the Delta Boys are a pair of German bluesmen with impressive credentials and playing qualities to match. The 18 tracks range through Hank Williams I Saw The Light and John Martyn’s Over The Hill, to Broonzy’s ever-popular, Glory Of Love and Tampa Red’s Let Me Play With Your Poodle. Add a dose of Willie Dixon’s You Can’t Judge A Book, Lou Rawl’s Blues Is A Woman and top it off with some Sleepy John Estes and you have a taste of the gumbo here. The whole package recorded without overdubs or added tracking, as seems to be the current craze.

The duo here have a growing popularity in Europe. Gerd Gorke

The record is predominantly made up of instrumental tunes, and the level of musicianship on display throughout (obvious even through these archaic recordings) is impressive, clearly highlighting why the quartet were so highly sought after across the American south. Largely comprised of two guitars and two banjo mandolins

Blues Top 50 august 2014

the band is occasionally augmented by the inclusion of fiddles and verbal decoration, with dance calls such as “Peavine!”, “Shake That Thing!”, and “Step On It, Boy!” lending a raucous nature to certain tracks. The only song to feature a complete vocal, My Own Iona, is a lilting ragtime number that is so evocative and cinematic it feels ripe to be plucked out of relative obscurity and placed over the opening credits of a Coen Brothers film. At the time these recordings were made Scottdale was a racially mixed community and the effect of this can be seen clearly in the band’s Blues inflected playing and in the inclusion here of tracks such as The Mississippi Sheiks’ Sitting On Top Of The World, soon to become one of the most covered Blues songs of all time. This is a collection that rewards more and more with each new listen and is not only a hugely enjoyable musical work, but also a historical artefact of resounding importance. Essential listening for any Blues, Country and Roots aficionado.

RHYS WILLIAMS

Fred ChaPellier

elecTric communion

Dixie Frog records

This is a twelve track blues guitar dominated album recorded live, with the bonus of 5 studio tracks, from one of the two French Blues Rock guitarists. Fred has his own style that has echoes of blues guitarists including SRV; Gary Moore and others. Opening with Night Work we know instantly this is live with claps and a few French words introducing Night Work and straight into a guitar intro and Fred’s bluesy voice that harmonises with the guitar work with lots of nifty licks and driving riffs setting the tone for Electric Communion. The playing and interaction is full of warmth and bonhomie mixed with an energy that engages the listener and keeps your interest throughout. Cold of Ice takes the pass down with some mean and dirty bass and audience participation

and then some sharp guitar playing this instrumental is all about the deft finger work of Fred Chappelier. Then a change of tempo with a soul based melody on Sweet Soul Music with vocals that are a mix of Anglo-French that works as the soulfulness of the track washes over you. There is no doubt from the opening note who Gary is on the track Gary’s Gone, this is a delightful tribute to the great guitarist whose style shines clear with ever diamond pure note struck, no words are needed and the audience is loud with its warm applause. There can be no doubt from this CD Fred knows how to entertain as the audience’s delighted response can be clearly heard and the emotion felt. The studio tracks continue with the blues rock vibe of guitar playing that is spot on, vocals that add and the support from his band of excellent musicians Arder Benachour Bass; Charlie Fabert Rhythm Guitar and Denis Palatin on Drums; collectively they bring you blues as exemplified on Bet On The Blues. Electric Communion is communication between instruments and blues bringing you harmony and a pure sound that rings out whether recorded in an auditorium or studio.

LIZ AIKEN

little mike & the tornadoes all The righT moves

elrob records

All The Right Moves sure moves along nicely. Led by Little Mike’s howling Harp and Tornadoes guitarist, Tony O’s punchy picking, the album oozes blues-class with a decided Chicago bias. This is powerhouse blues at its barrelhouse blues best. This is in reality a band reunion, featuring the Tornadoes original line-up with Brad Vickers on Bass and Rob Piazza on Drums. The addition of relative newcomer, Jim McKaba - a veteran of Little Mike’s European tours of recent years - on Piano, completes the line-up. For many years the original band had a virtual strangle-hold on

the New York blues scene, generally as the backing band of choice for countless touring musicians when they hit town. Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, James Cotton, Jimmy Rogers, Bo Diddley, Otis rush, Lightnin’ Hopkins, all relied on this outfit when they hit the Big Apple. And the maturity and confidence that comes with this sort of experience, shines clearly on this disc. All thirteen tracks were written by Mike (Markowitz) himself and cover all the usual blues themes of raw emotion and heartfelt hope and despair. With a European tour in the pipeline, this is a band worth catching.

IAIN PATIENCE

sons oF the delta

Tasty Nuggets is the third recorded outing for Sons Of The Delta now in the form of a quartet with a rhythm section producing a fuller sound. Thirteen little nuggets are here for your listening delight as they deliver their distinctive earthy electro-blues, this is blues that is three things authentic, original and intriguing. The album is full of sunshine, it is music you want to be out at a festival with, the mix of self-penned numbers and re-created covers so they belong to the Sons Of The Delta. You have to smile as the guitar, vocals and blues-harp blend and shape the sound that pleases in all the right spots. The inclusion of non-standard covers are a duo of delights:- Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready and Bukke White’s When Can I Change

My Cloths both have been re-invented and sound fresh whist remaining true to the original. The other eleven tracks are all composed by Mark Cole, the band have utilised the freedom of the studio with some inspired guest appearances with electric guitar courtesy of Mike Myers with the twang of electric guitar on Downhome Blues giving the track a

Albums reviews

driving pace while we have piano added to the mix curtsey of Jake Carpenter on Too Little Too Late blues redolent of Howlin’ Wolf as the intro guitar moans and sends a shiver down the spine again the vocals are to the fore. We hear the keys from Bill Blair on a number of tracks and they add another texture and tone particularly evident on Thirtynineteen, with the addition of harp from Rick Edwards this is blues that is from deep in the delta. Tasty Nuggets is certainly tasty and delivers a platter of tones, textures and grooves so you want to listen from beginning to end and back again on repeat.

LIZ AIKEN

the alexis

P. sUter Band

love The WaY You roll american showplace music

This is nice! Alexis P. Suter is a female vocalist from America’s north-east with what is described as a “bass-baritone” voice, deep, gritty and powerful. She sings the blues, yes, but that simple statement does not disclose her abilities. This set is her sixth CD, a raw and rocking affair. Alexis herself conjures up the spirits of female blues singers of the past on You Don’t Move Me No More, which sounds like it could have come off a Duke/ Peacock 78s of the 50s: Big Mama Thornton comes to mind.

On the wildly rocking, slide guitar-driven boogie Big Mama she vaguely summons up Howling Wolf, and with Vicki Bell helping the calland-response vocals, the repeated “all night long” chant invokes the late, great Koko Taylor. Musically, the title track leans towards Led Zeppelin and psychedelic blues and do note that the album credit is to the band – though the vocals attract a lot of attention (and on this track Alexis interpolates a verse from Rollin’ And Tumblin’), guitarist Jimmy Bennett reveals himself to be extremely accomplished, playing styles from the straight blues to evoking Eric

Clapton or Henry Vestine, adding just enough rock sensibility to bring in a wide audience. The rhythm section is on-the-nail all the time, and guest John Ginty supplies some excellent support on a variety of keyboards. There is certainly a lot to enjoy here, and it is easy to see why the likes of BB King and Levon Helm have been impressed with Alexis’ talent. The blurb also suggests that she is even better live (and the wonderful closing track Shake Your Hips seems to hint at that) . It would be nice to have the chance to find out, but this CD will keep me happy in the meantime.

NORMAN DARWEN

Bill BlUe

moJolaTion

Warmfuzz records

Confession time, I didn’t know of Bill Blue’s history but got told about this guy who retired to the Florida Keys in 1982 after playing with Big Boy Crudup among others, was approaching 70 and lived an idyllic life on his houseboat. With the encouragement of UK born Ian Shaw as producer he recorded his first record in almost thirty years. I expected a laid back mostly acoustic sunny blues workout. I was so wrong. Mojolation is a barnstorming southern tinged electric blues album of the highest order. Kicking in with It’s Gotta Change, proud, stinging rocked up blues with crisp Telecaster guitar and distinctive vocals that sound lived in, but friendly.

Second track Brand New Man is a great swinging blues complete with wonderful horns. Track three, Guitar Whore, a funky driven ZZ Top-esque in a Manic Mechanic kind of way with ringing tones on the six string. Sing Like Thunder is another defiant slab of blues rockin’ that you sense is written from the heart. Not until Poor Boy Blues do get some respite and National Steel playing. The horns are to the fore again on Who Do You Think You Are, a great boogie rhythm bubbling it along. If I’d

heard Barbecue Sauce on it’s own I would swear it was Michael Katon, fantastic stuff. I Ain’t From Mississippi is a more laid back autobiographical piece and Who Let That Stranger In a reflective slow blues giving the album changes of tempo and balance. On The Road For Big Boy though is a storming finale, those horns are back, never too much but adding extra flavouring to the lovely chiming, snarling guitar riffs. Special mention for Ian Shaw’s excellent production work. I highly recommend you search out this release.

STEVE YOURGLIVCH

doZZler & Van merWyk

darkesT nighT

Groove stew records

Of the CDs that I reviewed this issue, this stands out way above the rest, so what’s so surprising? It’s by a German and an Austrian who met on Beale Street in Memphis, decided that they should work together. This album is the result, it is just the two of them, recorded live, no overdubs, and wrapped up in a day!

The result is 13 tracks (six covers) of exquisite acoustic Blues, with virtuoso performances from both parties. Worth noting that Christian Dozzler won the Best Blues pianist award in 2008 and Michael van Merwyk came second in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, and it is true to say that pedigree will out, as these performances are faultless, you would not know that these weren’t seasoned Black Bluesmen playing on a cleaned up recording from the 20s. Furthermore the song writing slots seamlessly into the mix, such that you can’t tell that these weren’t songs being sung on the plantations. Track 11 is an instrumental that put me very much in mind of Winifred Attwell, but that is no complaint, it really swings along. If this is what they can turn out in a day what could they do with more studio time?

DAVE STONE

CaPtain BeeFheart & the magiC Band someWhere over deTroiT

The good Captain was always a man at the edge of musical convention. Flying by the seat of his pants, he built himself a fine, faithful cult following in the heady days of late 1960s, 70s and into the 80s, when this album was recorded (1980) live at Harpos Theatre in the heart of Motown, Detroit. Always inventive, at times infuriatingoften in equal measure. Beefheart built his reputation on unexpected songs and adventurous rhythmic chops with a band of players capable of pulling rabbits from hats. This offering follows the usual curve with Beefheart’s growling vocals shadowed, and at times over-shadowed, by the jangling guitar work that peppers most of his albums. Zappa eventually took over as producer on much of his later material and is famed for having given the Captain total freedom in the material and output. Whether this was a good thing is a troubling question; I truth, you either like him or you don’t. It has ever been so.

Listening to Somewhere Over Detroit, it’s all too easy to forget that the great Ry Cooder played with the Captain on his first album. His input is sadly missing here. This disc fails to deliver in some ways while at others it holds and captures the raw essence of a typical Beefheart live performance, with bursts of strident energy and melodic flashes that always surprise. This ultimately is one of those albums that simply defy classification. It’s truly in a league of its own. A must for fans of the Good Captain, it will leave others shivering in the freezer. IAIN PATIENCE

harmoniCadaVe Box Full oF Blues

mad ears Productions

Harmonicadave has been back in the studio producing an album of his swampy tunes, southern blues and rock all driven by his recognisable harmonica playing style. Dave Hunt Aka Hamonicadave once again has delivered with Box Full of Blues, which overflows with lyrics and superb support from Mick Simpson on guitar, Andy Littlewood on an array of instruments including keys and Pete Nelson drumming then we have the sound of horns from the MEP collective so this is an album that is crammed with the full gamut of sounds.

The sound produced is mellow and restrained with every instrument knowing its place and falling in line with the lead that Dave takes so the sound washes around the tracks like and eddy caught in the bend of a

river full of energy while at the same time not racing anywhere on the opening track Killer Harp Man. The tempo picks up, there is an urgency as Moonshine Chevrolet delivers a driving country blues ditty getting the feet tapping and the urge to get up and dance. Money Gone Blues opens with blues guitar and harp then Dave’s vocals that makes this a traditional track that is fresh and authentic that makes you just want to sit back and listen. The next track Busted is a really good example of how measured timing, taking a breath, adds drama and creates a track that is driven by beat and timing it is my favourite, with the keys just adding the missing dimension! Then another change of style heavy guitar and mournful harp touches the musical antennae of your souls and the voice is full of emotions; this is sad blues that ironically feels quite uplifting. The closing track Should Be Easy leaves you on a high note with a Western style swing approach with great harmonies and as expected

from this album the blues-harp is king. Box Full Of Blues does what it says on the wooden box from Newyln; we have different styles and approaches to blues that is easy on the ear whatever the shade.

LIZ AIKEN

steVe FreUndgloria hardiman

seT me Free

Delmark records

This album is a bit of a mystery in that it was originally recorded and released in the mid 1980’s and is now released although there is nothing in the sleeve notes indicating that it is a re-released album, the artists are new names to me but are both Chicago based and have wonderful pedigree’s. Steve Freund is a Guitarist and band leader who during his career has performed with Blues greats including Otis Rush, Luther Allison and Sunnyland Slim (who performs on three tracks on this album), Gloria Hardiman is real blues woman with a powerful vocal style who was picked from obscurity by the producers of this album from a local bar just prior to the recording, between the two artist they re-create the classic Chicago Blues sound, supported by a full band backing.

The fourteen tracks are all covers and include some previously unissued tracks and 45rpm single only releases, of these the most impressive is Kiddio which includes Ken Saydak on Piano and Ron Sorin on harmonica, who generate a good ‘stompin’ rhythm, of the other material Dr Feelgood is a highlight that draws a great vocal from Gloria and gives Steve the opportunity to deliver some short sharp bursts on his guitar. If you want to savour the sound of traditional Chicago Blues this album release could be your ‘must purchase’ item of the year, while recorded over thirty years ago it still sounds fresh today.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

Gonzo multimedia

Albums reviews

red BUtler

Freedom Bound

red butler music

Here the Blues meets ZZ Top (they have met before, of course), and other interesting, lively acts such as T-Rex and Doctor and the Medics. Before you consider that your reviewer could himself use a doctor, it simply means that many songs on this album have the strong rhythms and get up and dance qualities that Red Butler achieves. While the music is not such a departure from British Blues conventions as the introduction might suggest, nevertheless the vocals stand out for their good quality. Can vocalist Jane Pearce’s efforts be compared to the current crop of female vocalists including Jo Harman, Katie Bradley, Coleen Rennison and Ruby Tiger? Probably. As to the tracks that stand out, Danger Zone is rocky, and fun, with a hit of funk thrown in for good measure. Hard Drivin’ Man is a gripping faster number with a stately finish, and the best slower number is River Of Smoke. Slowing down the Johnny Kidd classic Shakin’ All Over is a brave step, and the result, though well-crafted, is a Marmite track. You’ll love it, or you’ll hate it. It is, though, impossible to hate this album, and it does enough to suggest the band would be a very good listen live.

DARREN WEALE

Jason titley

sTill rollin’

Dreadnought records

I’m long enough in the tooth not to judge a book by its cover, and Still Rollin’ and Jason are prime examples of that epigram. The first thing to say is that when you’re given your name and it is hardly that of an archetypal musician playing Bluegrass music, then you have to be really good to carry it. In this respect I take my hat off to Jason Titley, because boy oh boy, can he carry it off both musically

BlUes Pills Blues pills

Now there are a fair number of acts on the left field side of The Blues that I don’t get – Jon Spencer, certainly White Stripes, Black Keys for sure. Though I have always loved The Magic Band and rated The BeatUp and Screaming Blue Messiahs. Blues Pills do overall have that spark that I pick up on, though I have not yet seen them live (this new album comes with a bonus live DVD).

What’s going on? Well, vocals are by the beautiful Elin Larsson, who gives it all on opener High Class Woman as Zack Anderson’s bass rattles on the root notes and Cary Berry pounds the skins; French wunderkind Dorian Sorriauux takes his time on guitar but builds up the tension with a Terry Kath touch mixed with our own Kim Simmonds. On this showing he HAS to be a Savoy Brown fan. I shall ask him when I see them.

Don Alsterberg captures the intensity and dynamics of the group really well. The titles are very blues territory: Black Smoke, Devil Man and No Hope Left For Me. The skills of the players make what could be messy very listenable and the fluid keening guitar solo on Ain’t No Change is a gem. Larsson sings with edge throughout the collection and the riffs are catchy as hell. If you’ve picked up on No Sinner please don’t overlook this crew. The grim sci-fi tale of Jupiter is a doom scenario nimbly delivered, with swathes of wahwah and crisp drumming; the eerie River has tremolo chords and a plaintive vocal in contract to the pounding energy of most of the numbers. Listen to the Hendrixy axe intro to Devil Man! A Big Brother for the 21st century? The tumbling turmoil of Gypsy is a travellers’ tale, guitar lurking under the snare rattle, waiting to snarl forward, but the lil’ sod makes you wait. Driven, modern blues - inspired rock that must surely cut it live.

PETE SARGEANT

and lyrically. Nor does Jason even closely resemble a bluegrass musician, rather if the truth be known; he looks a bit like a teacher or a BBC weatherman. Well he can teach a new generation of musicians that substance is infinitely more important than gloss and he knows which way his wind is blowing.

His album (newly released this month) is another watershed for me, insofar that his music has lifted the scales from my eyes to the allure of Bluegrass when it is played this well. A wealth of talent with whom he has played with over the years has been assembled in support of this, his debut solo album! I particularly liked his track Someone Was You with Leanne Thorose’ vocals coming through as clear as crystal. Titley has his heart and soul written in almost all of these lyrics and the Bluegrass influence dominates with; Man I Want

To Be, on track nine. Overall this is a joyful expression of Jason Titley’s ability both musically and lyrically and he is to be lauded for it. The album is a truly eclectic mixture showing his range and dexterity. Whether it will break box office records is doubtful, but that is the loss of the public. I think he’s worth a punt.

TOM WALKER

John FriCk Band urBan crossroads blueshine

Based in The Hague, the Nederlands, Urban Crossroads is the second release from this four piece band. Their music is as heavily influenced both by the old greats such as Elmore, Muddy, Bo and Freddy as it is by the more modern artists such as

Peter Green, Rory and Jimmie Vaughan. All songs here are John Frick originals and the album opens in relaxed mode with Blinded, in which a fine organ solo and tasty Blues harp is heard.

The second track is Get A Load, a somewhat throwaway stomp but this is then followed by a great slow Blues, Same Way Too. This song recalls the style and sound of the early John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. The band tip a cap to Jimmie Vaughan with Say What You Want, but the true gem in this track is the great sax playing of guest player Tom Moerenhout. How Long is another good slow Blues with some delightful piano playing by Leo Birza. Recession Blues is a modern song about the difficulties of modern day life, played in a Bo Diddley style shuffle. On She’s So Fine the album at last ignites and the highlight is the alternation between keyboards and guitar with good anchoring sax licks. The best track here is She Got Ways with its menacing slide guitar and something described as voodoo percussion. Overall the band displays a proficient capability but for me the album lacks that certain punch that demands attention. Frick’s voice I feel is a little light for the style of music and there is nothing here that makes it stand above other releases.

MERV OSBORNE

kat danser.

BapTized BY The mud

Independent

Baptized By The Mud marks the fourth release over a thirteen year period for Edmonton, Canada’s Kat Danser. Dubbed the ‘Queen Of The Swamp Blues’ in some quarters is a fitting accolade for a lady who not only sings the blues, as well as anyone, but also has a far-reaching knowledge of the genre and its history. This CD contains twelve tracks consisting of Kat’s fresh new material, as well as well known and lesser known Gospel Blues songs. Joining Kat (vocals/Resolectric/slide),

Darryl Havers (keys), Geoffrey Hichs (drums), Jeremy Holmes (bass) are joined by producer/multiinstrumentalist Steve Dawson. Opener Sun Goes Down is pure Gospel blues, a certain toe-tapper and a taste of what’s to come.

The title track, like the previous one I mention, is a Kat Danser composition. In addition to Kat’s wonderful vocals, listen out for Steve Dawson’s pedal-steel work. Although this album has a steady sound, Kat is not afraid to add a little country vibe to Crazy For You. But, the real treasure for me on this album is the traditional Mary Don’t You Weep, complete with awesome bass solo. Danser mixes it up again with the New Orleans inspired track Prove It On Me Blues, great piano on here. Kat shows of her vocals on closer, the mid-tempo Mississippi Fred McDowell’s You Gotta Move. So, in conclusion, this CD is a masterful musical journey, which will, perhaps, leave the listener in awe. With sincere vocals, lyrical genius, class musicians, not forgetting the backing vocals of Dawn Pemberton and Marcus Mosely, all mixed together, you can’t help but end up with something pretty special. CLIVE RAWLINGS

lonesome shaCk more primiTive alive records

There was a real sense of anticipation when I found this CD amongst the package for reviewing, since I’d heard them before on their album Slidin’ Boa; this, on the recommendation of a young American co-worker when we were in India. My anticipation was more than rewarded with this gutsy, hard hitting album of Blues mixed with Americana and a touch of Boogie. When Todd sings the blues you just know he isn’t doing it for effect, he has that indefinable character in his voice to let you know he really feels the mood! As he would do, having written all the lyrics himself. For this sound to have been produced by a trio is testament

to their individual skills which collectively result in this belter of a CD.

There is no real feelgood sense to this record which makes it all the more effective as an episode of the blues genre. I really liked every single track on its own merits, but if I had to be picky, then track four, More Primitive had the very essence of Messrs Todd, Bergman and Garrard in just over four minutes of visceral blues. Trying to Forget on track 8 is one you won’t forget either. That is being very picky as it is a gem of a blues disc. The title is as accurate in description as you could wish for this is primitive blues, but by someone from Seattle as opposed to the swamps of Louisiana, and there was me thinking Washington state was the home of information technology, and the only blues they’d know about, would be when their server crashed.

TOM WALKER

steVe strongman leT me prove iT To You

There are occasions when it is good to sit on the back porch quietly, preferably with glass in hand, and listen to some suitably mellow music. But on other occasions, particularly with a few friends in high spirits, some high-energy blues rock is required to get the party going and this rousing album will certainly do that.

Strongman is leading the charge of the recent Canadian blues boom and rocking opener There’s Something Goin’ On blasts out of the speakers with an intense, fiery, slide guitar hook, witty lyrics and a catchy chorus. The pace drops a little for the crunching deep blues What I Believe which also features Strongman’s blues wailing harmonica. The swinging and mostly acoustic Get Used To It features nice laid back dobro and rolling bar-room piano from Jesse O’ Brien. The material which is all original and very strong is written

Albums reviews

by Strongman with occasional help from producer Rob Szabo. Let Me Prove It To You is a modern Texas style blues/rocker with a catchy chorus featuring backing vocals from Emma Lee. Lookin’ For Trouble fades in with Strongman singing over his slide guitar before the band join in and features a guitar/harmonica duel with guest Guy Belanger on harp. The acoustic Older has an uplifting, optimistic feel as Strongman says “I might be getting older but I ain’t getting old”. The album closes with a call to the dance floor Can You Feel It? A speedy toe-tapping anthem. Strongman hasn’t attempted to re-invent the wheel here but he does do it better than most with strong vocals and lashings of exciting slide guitar. Sounds like the real deal to me. Thoroughly recommended.

DAVE DRURY

the nighthaWks

444 ellersoul records

In their fifth decade of recording and performing, this is The Nighthawks debut on EllerSoul, a label from Virginia who specialize in American roots music with a core of blues and rock ‘n’ roll. This is that sound at its very best and so it should be, considering the pedigree of the band. Like many long time bands that cast list has had a few changes, but hats off to singer and harmonica player Mark Wenner who counts more than forty years with the band. His role is central to the album’s vibe of high energy blues and retro rock ’n’ roll. Maybe all rock ‘n’ roll is retro but this is particularly the case with tunes like their originals 444 A.M and Honky Tonk Queen, and semi-cover Walk That Walk. The latter being a reworking of the Du-Droppers Talk That Talk.

There are other flavours on offer and these slink and slide with an enthusiastic swampiness. Crawfish and High Snakes in particular add atmosphere both above and below the linear country/roadhouse song structure. As the norm on most of

their albums they cover a Muddy Waters song and this time it is Louisiana Blues, in a suitably stripped down and dirty take. There is a little cringe with the singing through the closing track Roadside Cross but that homely approach makes the album sweetly genuine in sentiment too.

GARETH HAYES

andy t niCk nixon Band livin’ iT up

Delta Groove music

This is the second album from Andy ‘T’ Talamantez and James ‘Nick’ Nixon, their debut ‘Drink, Drank, Drunk,’ was such a huge success with fans and critics alike that they have recorded a follow-up. For those of you who are not already familiar with these two gentlemen, please let me inform you that, Andy T was born and raised in Southern California, and moved to Nashville in 2008. Prior, to his moving to Nashville he spent two years working with Smokey Wilson from nineteen ninety-six and from nineteen ninety-eight he worked for five years with Guitar Shorty. Here he smoothly and eloquently provides lead guitar. Meanwhile James “Nick” Nixon was already in Nashville, because this was his hometown, he has spent over thirty five years in education teaching the guitar, whilst during his spare time, he became a fixture of the Jefferson Street Club scene in the fifties and sixties, which in turn led to a stint with the Chess record label in the mid-seventies.

Although. He does not play any instruments on the album his rich, deep, emotion filled voice provides lead vocals. Joining them are Sam Persons; bass, Larry Van Loon; keyboards, Jim Klingler; drums, with Ron Jones and Dana Robbins on saxophones. The dense guitar/ organ rich mixture conjures up contrasting images that are similar to a dry, burning hot, Texas sun, clinging, damp and sticky humid New Orleans, as were the clubs of

Chicago, this is evident on Baby Right Now which features some classic loping drumwork matched with a pumping, punchy saxophone with swirling organ undercurrents. The feeling is continued with Best In Town a laconic Jimmy Reed influenced harmonica led slowburner. Even slower and tastier is the saxophone / guitar / piano burning A Good Man. A very fine T Bone Walker influenced guitar picker feel is featured on the dance floor shuffling and loping My Baby Is Now On My Mind. A punching and vibrant Snake In The Grass, has pleasing echoes of Messin’ With The Kid.

Recommended!

BRIAN HARMAN

the mannish Boys

Wrapped up and readY

Delta Groove

As ever with The Mannish Boys albums a cast of thousands are involved. Well 26 actually! But fear not because nothing and nobody gets in the way of some great blues music in a wide range of styles with plenty of fresh new material plus a few well chosen gems.

Opener I Ain’t Sayin’ is written by Monster Mike Welch who also contributes scorching lead guitar to this grooving rocker. Roy Brown’s Everything’s Alright is a fast paced shuffle with a retro feel featuring Sugaray Rayford crooning and Kid Ramos on lead guitar. Franck Goldwasser wrote the funky Struggle In My Hometown and also sings and plays lead guitar. The stomping Wrapped Up And Ready features Kim Wilson on harp and Fred Kaplan on piano. Candy Kane adds her powerful vocals to Ike Turner’s soul drenched I Idolise You which also features Laura Chavez on lead guitar and nice harp from Randy Chortkoff. You Better Watch Yourself is a funky James Brown riff with Rayford’s half spoken vocals, lead guitar by Kirk Fletcher and excellent fat sounding harp from Jaco Huffman.

Steve Freund penned The Blues Has Made Me Whole a mighty swinging number and he also sings and plays stinging lead guitar. Kim Wilson adds his wonderful harp to the jazzy, easy going Troubles with Rayford’s smoky vocals. Magic Sam’s She Belongs To Me features suitably shimmering, atmospheric guitar by Ramos. This fabulous and powerful CD delivers on every front no matter what style they tackle.

Goldwasser wrote Don’t Say You’re Sorry a Bo Diddley inspired number and also contributes tasty slide guitar. The 8 minute plus closing instrumental track Blues For Michael Bloomfield is an absolute tourde-force with Fletcher and Welch trading slow blues licks alongside Rich Wenzel’s stunning Hammond B3 organ. Blues of this quality will surely feature somewhere in this year’s awards.

DAVE DRURY

terry harmoniCa

Bean

caTFish Blues

Wolf

According to a well known on-line shop there are three other CDs available from Terry however I suspect that over the years he must have released others. The sleeve notes seem to indicate that these recordings are from sessions spread between 1995 and 2005, all ahead of the afore mentioned available CDs. Perhaps they’re lifted from other albums but whatever the answer is he is once again new to me.

There is absolutely no doubt about him deserving to be heard as a Blues artist. This is a cracking CD which has been done very simply. For your bucks you get vocals, harmonica, guitar and sometimes foot stomps and that’s it. All the songs are straight out of Mississippi and I think mostly covers or nearly covers like How Many More Years plus Back Door Man must be based on Howlin’ Wolf and Shake Your Money Maker is Elmore James. Whilst those are

the CoUsin John Band Broken hearT TaTToo

This band out of the Washington DC area is completely new to me. It would appear that Broken Heart Tattoo is their second album following on from Jellyfish which is also well worth a listen to on their website. A four piece founded by lead vocalist John Mobley the music here for sure is not pure Blues. However there is no doubt that there are elements of Blues mixed with Country, Americana along with touches of Folk and Jazz thrown in for good measure that makes it consistently interesting. All bar one of the twelve cuts are from within the band with most being written by leader John who at times reminds me of Levon Helm in his delivery.

The material runs the usual gambit of love won and of course lost with rhythms which if viewed live would have you dancing around. 100 Years begins the trip in acoustic mode before the band kicks in supporting a strong vocal plea to a lady to be around for the long haul. She’s Got Angels and Push You Away follow along quickly and you find yourself at first humming then joining in with the lyrics. These songs have good hooks that do their job of focusing your attention on what is proving to be an enjoyable ride. I’ve never fancied getting a tattoo myself and the title track re-enforces that thought. However I did like the analogy of pairing the pain of having the inks driven into skin with the pain of a broken heart. The sole outside track, Down To You, was written by Bonnie Raitt, George Marinelli and Randall Bramblett with George adding some tasty slide guitar. Sarajane has a nice choir arrangement behind the vocal whilst Mary’s In The Bathtub is just the kind of nonsense lyric that makes you smile. I suspect that the Mary in question is possibly just ashes in an urn but maybe not. Who knows and who cares? This’ll get some airplay on my radio programme summing up my feelings here.

GRAEME SCOTT

covers they are delivered and altered by Terry to suit his individual style. On several tracks he introduces the songs to the listeners and there is no doubt these are one take live cuts but there is no audience. Close your eyes and you can imagine sitting on a stoop somewhere in the sunshine listening to these authentic sounds coming at you.

Whether it is listening to Terry’s interpretation of Robert Johnson’s Kind Hearted Woman Blues here named Kind Hearted Baby or I Wanna Know Who Will Be Your Sweet Man When I’m Gone (Muddy Waters) they sound just great. What with all the past masters no longer with us it is good to know that there are still some Mississippi artists who live, eat and breathe the Blues for today’s generations to enjoy.

GRAEME SCOTT

Little Wille Mehto (or Ville Mehto as he was christened) is a Finn. Strange and inscrutable nation the Finns but, based on this album, totally in love with Blues from around the Howlin’ Wolf/ Willie Dixon/Little Walter period and they play with a remarkable amount of skill too. All the songs on the album were written and performed by Willie and his music ranges from tracks like Low Down Woman where his slide guitar and wailing harp are linked to a vocal that has all the mannerisms of a Jim Morrison but a voice that doesn’t see English as its first language.

Albums reviews

Jungle Woman covers a similar acreage although the addition of some rudimentary percussion and harmony chanting gives the track a different feel. The problem comes with the sameness of the tracks: they all follow a similar pattern and his playing is limited to slide and metal stringed acoustic. The music all sits in a very narrow frequency range and the effect is audible exhaustion after a few tracks. My other issue concerns originality: back in the very early days of British Blues the musicians would pick over sides and try to recreate every note and phrase as exactly as possible. Ville seems to have a similar problem in that as good as he sounds he also seems to be repeating phrases and riffs he has heard without necessarily understanding why x goes to y. There is a lot of good music in here but at the moment he is too much like the artists he has tried to learn from – in time he will develop his own voice and I would like to be there when he gets there because it could be very interesting.

ANDY SNIPPER

tom gee Band

sWapping sTories

Ditto music

Hmm. Pop. Funk. Music to dance and jiggle to. It’s not so often that the Blues in the UK gets a softer treatment like this and by a band with a horn section, part of an eight-strong line-up. Perhaps it should be more often. It wasn’t so long ago that both Erja Lyytinen and Dani Wilde hit the lighter, popular note in their music, so why not Tom Gee and company? Yes, there are recognisable Blues and Soul tones to Mr Gee’s album, and the good music, good sound, and Tom’s good voice blend well on tracks like Piece Of Paper. Then there is Don’t Stop which has a chilled out almost disco feel, and would suit a late night party with friends. Influences cited include Jamiroquai and that makes a lot of sense. The backing singers do a fine job throughout, deepening the sound and

punctuating the overtly sexual song Can’t Get Enough. Listen To Yourself is a warm, affectionate love song and perhaps the most deeply appealing on the album. Swapping Stories is a very welcome addition to the canon of British Blues and wider music.

DARREN WEALE

Virgil & the aCCelerators armY oF Three mystic

records

This is the second studio album from Virgil and the boys, following on from 2011’s Radium and last year’s live offering. The band consists of brothers, guitarist/vocalist Virgil and drummer Gabriel McMahon, Jack Alexander Timmis on bass. The progress this band have made in the three years is nothing short of miraculous. They exude confidence in their playing, helped, no doubt, by the talented veteran producer Chris Tsangarides, himself no slouch. The intro to opener Take Me Higher is probably the quietest you’ll hear the band, before a full throttle of gutsy guitar, a pounding bass and a pulsating drumbeat. If you’ve never heard this band before, more especially live, you’ll soon realise not to stand too close to the speakers. Blow To The Head has already appeared as a trailer, the pace calms down somewhat on Through The Night, complete with beautiful guitar outro. It Burns ups the ante; again, it’s easy to see where the influences of the band lie, hints of classic rock blending with a heavy blues rock exterior. To be perfectly honest, I found it difficult to single out any of the ten self-penned tracks as being distinctive, each has the sound and chemistry of the band, and each has a different riff for all the air guitarists out there. Anymore shows the band can do melodious too, again Virgil’s guitar works wonders. Closer Free springs into life after an intricate intro, again with a fantastic outro. All in all, this is a solid performance from a band still in their early twenties, don’t take my

word for it, though. Buy this CD, catch them on the supporting tour, and then judge for yourselves.

Johnny Cox

Thin Blue line Independent

Hoots mon! It’s Scotch expat Johnny Cox letting rip from his adopted Canadian homeland on an all original set of songs for his debut album. Considering he claims to be influenced by the usual white boy blues influences of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan, it’s unfortunate that he chooses to launch his recording career with the incredibly insipid pop of Your Love. It’s awful, and if the skip button hadn’t been invented I might have got no further. Which would have been a shame, as the following High Price To Pay is an absolute peach, and really should have been the opening number. Then it’s on into the funkified Runaway Train and the Santana like New Way, which shows that his influences actually range far and wide. From start to finish his guitar work is off the highest order, and there are some excellent arrangements, especially on the numbers enhanced with female backing vocals. Which is just as well, as his singing isn’t the best you’ll hear. I think we’ll call it heartfelt, and leave it at that. The best track is actually the one where he comes closest to traditional blues rock. Yes, the closing Didn’t Commit The Crime is an excellent mid tempo blues with some fantastic guitar work.

STUART A HAMILTON

odetta sings The Blues

Fresh sound

I am not too sure about that label name as listening to this album, I was struck by how pleasant it is to listen to an album like this, a jazz inflected blues set drawing mostly on

the vaudeville blues of the 20s and beautifully sung by an AfricanAmerican woman in her early 30s. At one time albums like this seemed fairly common – these days they are something of a rarity. Odetta was born in Birmingham, Alabama, raised in California, and died 2008, and these days she is in danger of becoming forgotten. When the two albums that make up this CD –Odetta Sings The Blues and Sometimes I Feel Like Cryin’ – were recorded in New York City in the 1962, Odetta was best known as a folk singer, but here she is accompanied by some of the top jazz musicians of the day, with an almost New Orleans line-up of trumpet, trombone and clarinet plus rhythm section. There are also several titles with a smaller piano/ bass/ drums combo, and three of these also feature Sonny Terry on harmonica, and one, Takin’ My Time is a driving rhythm and blues number, in contrast to what has gone before. Pianist and arranger Dick Wellstood sometimes supplies a gospel feel – or is it the influence of Ray Charles, then at the peak of his popularity and ability?

The songs that are not labelled traditional are credited to or associated with the likes of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Leroy Carr, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and fellow-folkie Pete Seeger, though Leadbelly fans might recognise many of the common stock items (and curiously, Odetta does not change the man’s point of view on some of these). Odetta’s stately singing is way out front throughout the set, and this CD is an excellent blues album that certainly deserves to be better known.

NORMAN DARWEN

Cal Willams Jr.

liTTle Black croW

red brick studios

Cal Williams JR. is one half of the musicians on this album, the other being double bassist and vocalist Kory Horwood, but it is Williams JR.

album. He wrote the lion’s share of the material, and it is his effortless slide guitar and standard guitar and voice that give the music it’s individuality. Although the guitar playing is of a uniformly high-standard, and is dextrous, it does not exist just for its own sake. Williams’s voice is an intriguing mix of blues and folk, with more than a passing resemblance paid to the singer-songwriters Nick Drake and Paul Simon.

If you ever wanted to hear what the late, lamented Drake might have sounded like tackling the work of Bukka White Parchman Farm is the track you need to hear. The rest of the album is of a uniformly high standard, with narrative songs and virtuoso guitar to the front. The music is both functional and beautiful, with such songs as Lay On The Cold Ground and Lead Me Down the Line taking as much from Appalachian music as the blues. If you like music that mixes different genres, but remains respectful at all times, then this could be an album for you.

BEN MACNAIR

the harPoonist and the axe mUrderer a real Fine mess Independent

The Harpoonist And The Axe Murderer? Well, this is a Canadian outfit, a harp and guitar duo, of course, and maybe the aggressive tone of the name and the curious and striking sleeve design suggest some kind of angry-sounding alt.blues act. That’s only partly correct, though the cheerful (that’s sarcasm, by the way) if startling Closer To Death and the noisy Act Your Age might make you believe otherwise. Shawn Hall plays the harmonica and sings, whilst his buddy Matthew Rogers supplies guitar, bass, drums and keyboards, and a cast of thousands – well, OK, eight – helps out on things like backing vocals, organ and horns. The result does not sound like anyone else around.

Try In And Out Of Love which

is kind of a supercharged skiffle outfit playing Bo Diddley playing Eddie Cochran. There is a lot of energy to this set, a 60s and 70s pop sensibility in places, traces of rock – including psychedelia – funk, Americana and lots of blues, with the latter underpinning everything here. Feel Me Now alternates between a sweet 50s styled ballad and heavy blues-rock – unlikely but it works. Do Whatcha has a kind of warped early 50s Chess sound and Cry A Little, with a 12 bar format (though you have to listen carefully to be sure of it), are fine examples of this band’s unique approach to the blues. My Paradise simply has a beautiful groove. This album is indeed a real fine mess of styles, making for, as the last track puts it, A Real Fine Noise. That is certainly a good thing, as this extremely listenable set proves.

NORMAN DARWEN

daVina and the VagaBonds

sunshine

roustabout records

This is an album that may have been recorded in 2014 but Sunshine would have been at home in decades past; the tracks would have fitted so well on the coffee shop juke box they would have been firm favourites among the clientele. Yes the CD is on one side but as you listen it feels like you should take the CD out of the player and turn it over as you sit feet tapping away enjoying the three covers given a revamp and the nine new songs. This is an album that is retro and fun with Davina’s distinctive vocals and the harmonies and music from her band of Vagabonds. We have a full array of instrumentation with piano, trumpet and trombone adding their musical tone to the guitar and drums creating a full sound that underpins the retro vibe. We open with Sunshine original and has a Tin Pan Alley pop appeal that makes you feel sunny and closes with Under Lock

Albums reviews

and Key which includes an intro full of texture before Davina’s voice joins in on this jaunty song originally the title track from 2007 album now out of print that leaves you wanting to hear more.

In between this there are ten tracks that swing the changes and moods so the album flows with lots of little gems including the Eddie Miller classic I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water and has taken her inspiration for this rendition from Aretha Franklin’s version. We have solos from everyone over the six minutes of Fats Waller’s You Must Be Losing Your Mind including the drummer having his share of the limelight as they all dig deep in this show stopping shuffle. Then there is Red Shoes, a ragtime, piano driven three minutes of joy that makes you want to own a pair of red shoes and stay home and listen to quality music from this energetic quintet from Two Cities, Minneapolis.

LIZ AIKEN

VarioUs artists

elecTric guiTar sTorY

counTrY Jazz Blues r&B rock 1935-1962

Frémeaux & associés

Wow! Where does you start to review such a collection?

This French release spread over 3 CDs each with 24 tracks attempts to encapsulate the development and influence of the electric guitar on the wide world of music. The dual language booklet which accompanies this package provides a bit of back history of this highly adaptable instrument before going on to describe in fairly extensive detail many of the attributes brought to each of the genres contained within the title of the collection. Each cut brilliantly lists all the players (where known) involved, writers, place and recording dates etc. which for many avid collectors will be right up their streets. The individual tracks are presented here in chronological order of recording date which works pretty well.

What I specifically liked was that doing it that way mixed up the various musical styles ensuring that your interest was always at the point of wondering what would be coming next. So track one goes all the way back to January 27th 1935 and Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies playing Some Of These Days. Guitar duties were split between the electric lap steel of Bob Dunn whilst Derwood Brown kept up a steady rhythm guitar. Interestingly on this opening cut the lead parts were carried by fiddle and piano before suddenly half way through our beloved instrument comes to the fore. I have no idea what the first record was ever to feature the guitar but I guess that was not the purpose of this collection. Instead we are treated to some wonderful selections with all the major names, Broonzy, Christian, Walker, Paul, Tharpe, Hopkins, Hooker, Berry, Marvin, James, Montgomery, Kessel etc that you would expect to be present. Sound quality throughout is excellent and it is, whilst in no way fully comprehensive, well worth seeking out.

GRAEME SCOTT

VarioUs

rhYThm & Blues chronologY vol. 2 1942-44 4-cd seT rhythm & blues records

You might think that when you’ve been around for a long time and love music as much as we all do at Blues Matters!, that we might become a little blasé receiving CDs to review. Wrong. It’s still like being a kid with a golden ticket to Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and the eight disks here (yes, 8 platters! Count ’em!) represent musically Cadbury’s and Ferrero Rocher all rolled into one. This is a staggering project, undertaken by R&B Records’ man _ Nick Duckett. 213 tracks over two four CD sets. Even at my advanced age my reference points for R&B history still veer towards the mid-40s onwards, but the tracks here all end

when I was just one year old. To think that this music was throbbing over the US airwaves when the Luftwaffe were still trying to bomb me out of my Hull cradle is amazing.

To cover all these tracks would take several BM pages, but volume 1 1940 is a sheer delight. There’s two terrific entries by the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, one featuring Leadbelly - a version of Rock Island Line which makes Lonnie Donegan sound like a joke, all a capella, as is the stirring Valley Of Time. There’s the original John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson’s lively Jivin’ The Blues and a truly danceable Hot Lips Page doing Harlem Rhumbain’ The Blues. Disk 2 is even more satisfying; Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan, Jelly Roll Morton, and the spine-tingling Gospel Train by The Wright Brothers (flying higher than Orville and Wilbur ever did). In fact you can stick a pin in anywhere and come up with a gem of a recording.

What these records will present to even the most avid R&B aficionado is a revelation - these sets lift the lid on a buried treasure chest of arcane recordings, all in a style decades ahead of their time, way before Jerry Wexler coined the term ‘Rhythm and Blues’, back when this stuff was hidden away from whitey as ‘race music’. Every one of these tracks is utterly satisfying. The second volume, 1942-44 is no less so; names such as Savannah Churchill and her All Star 7, Bonnie Davies, Slim and Slam. I desperately want to review these 8 disks track by track, but space denies me.

All I can say is bravo, Nick Duckett and Rhythm and Blues Records for scattering this bag of uncut diamonds at our feet. If you’re a true R&B fan, you will not experience a finer collection this year or any other. Exhilarating, educational, historical, but above all, extremely musical, a complete evening’s unforgettable R&B entertainment on 8 packed disks. Think you know your blues history? Think again. As this has taught me, you’re never too old to learn, and this is PhD entry level.

ROY BAINTON

the bm ! rou N d-up of live blues

BLUES ON THE FARM

Nr. CHICHESTEr, SUSSEX

JuNe 19th–22Nd 2014

It’s not hard to understand why Blues on the Farm is widely regarded as one of the best Blues festivals in the country, especially on a sunny weekend in June with tickets available at £35 per day, a superb line up, camping available right next to the main arena, a wide range of real ale available in the beer tent, Pimms sold by the jug, wine by the bottle and all on a cider farm within a mile of the south coast. With stalls offering curry, hog roast, fish and chips, veggie meals, donuts, ice cream and a wide range of other products it’s also no wonder that my waist is not getting

any narrower. Watermelon Slim I am not! But who cares? I’m here to enjoy myself. I’ve arrived on the Friday morning so missed Antonio Forcione, Sarah Jane Morris, and the Big Chris Barber Band on the Thursday night. However, the rest of the weekend line up looks more than adequate. With Robin Bibi, Lisa Mills & Ian Jennings, LaVendore Rogue, Hamilton Loomis, Mike Sanchez, Royal Southern Brotherhood, Devenport, Toy Hearts, Federal Charm, Midnight. Ramble, The Blues Band, King King, The Electric Revelators, Stomp & Holler, The Jar Family, Moreland & Arbuckle, The Swing Commanders, Big Dez, and Babajack all included over the three days I cannot hope to include

them all in this review so will have to pick out some of the highlights.

Friday

Robin Bibi is first up on the Friday afternoon. He’s not even on the official programme but a welcome and classy addition to an already impressive schedule. He’s one of the most technically proficient guitarists on the circuit with a lightning fast finger technique and always a pleasure to listen to. It’s not long before he’s out and proud in the crowd, ever the showman, guitar behind his neck. Santana meets Hendrix. Hardly blues but who cares? It’s a festival!

Next up is someone who should probably be headlining the Festival if she was better known in this country and we could all get over the idea that ‘acoustic’ singers must always appear mid-afternoon and headline slots must always be allocated to electric bands. Lisa Mills can fill any stage by the sheer force of her personality and the breadth of her talent so there is certainly no need for her to be always allocated an afternoon slot. Lisa was born in Mississippi, now lives in Mobile Bay USA, and is appearing at the Farm as part of short UK tour with her good friend Ian Jennings accompanying her on acoustic bass. It’s a match made in heaven. I first saw Lisa on the International Stage at Colne a few years ago and I’ve been smitten ever since. This lady cannot just sing, write great songs, and play the guitar, she is a consummate

Stomp and Holler at BlueS on tHe Farm pHoto: liz aiken

artist that would grace any stage anywhere in the world and yes I do mean anywhere. Very few vocalists can convince virtually every man in the audience that she is singing about them and every woman in the audience just for them. Unsurpassable talent, a wonderful voice, expressive earthy vocals, emotional intensity, and all accompanied with just the right amount of colour by the talented Mr Jennings. She’s already done Glastonbury, shared the stage with the likes of Robert Plant, Jools Holland, Jeff Beck, and Albert Lee. A truly wonderful set and certainly one of the highlights of this Year’s Blues on the Farm.

Follow that they said, so they did. Next up were LaVendore Rogue (Gangsters, Thieves & Villians) from Colchester. It’s a relatively new band but features ex Hokie Joint members Jo Jo Burgess on vocals, Joel Fisk on lead guitar and Stephen ‘Cupsey’ Cutmore on drums, with the addition of Rob ‘Tank’ Barry on bass and Warren Lynn on keyboards. I understand that beards are in fashion these days and I do hope they stay that way otherwise this band may have problems maintaining their ‘dastardly image’ but, as far as the music is concerned, they should have no problem. I was always a big fan of Hokie Joint and, by the end of their ‘Farm Set,’ I found I was a big fan of LaVendore Rogue. They are a tight band, full of character, featuring one of the most outstanding young guitarists of his generations and fronted by one of the most theatrical and entertaining singers you are likely to see in the UK. Roll over

Freddie Mercury, Jo Jo is here. Whilst every song is full of drama, evil, menace, criminals, death, misery and perversion I don’t think anyone really needs to lock up their daughters just yet. These guys are just very talented and entertaining musicians who manage to blend rock and roots music with a whole lot of eye liner. They may also be one of those bands that manages to put blues and roots back on mainstream radio and TV. Another of my personal highlights.

By the time the energetic and multi talented Hamilton Loomis came on stage I was taking a well earned rest but, even from my camper, I could hear and appreciate their full on, heavy horned, sound. They were also one of the best received bands of the entire weekend with the main marquee packed throughout their set.

Next up was the veteran boogie woogie pianist and former member of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, Mike Sanchez, followed by the Friday night headliners, Royal Southern Brotherhood. I can’t imagine any reader of this magazine needing any introduction to either of these bands, suffice to say they both provided what the audience wanted, top quality entertainment and an entertaining end to the Friday of the Festival.

Saturday

Another lovely day and the opening set of the afternoon produced yet another highlight of my festival in the form of the very talented Tony Devenport. I understand that he was signed to a major label when he was a young man, worked with many of the best, but has only recently returned as a live performer after a ‘20 year self imposed hiatus’. Let’s hope he stays around a little longer this time. He’s got a raw, soulful, voice that reminded me of the legendary Ray Charles, never more so than when singing his own emotionally charged version of

‘Unchain My Heart’. I’d travel a long way to hear Tony Devenport.

Later in the afternoon saw Midnight Ramble, a very tight and energetic six piece band from Liverpool performing a mix of original material, covers, upbeat rock and some slower ballads. The undoubted star of this particular show was singer songwriter Paul Dunbar on lead vocals and guitar.

Later still saw the appearance of not just any old blues band but The Blues Band fronted by the ever youthful and saintly Paul Jones on harmonica and vocals, the unmistakably talented Dave Kelly (DK to his friends) on guitar and vocals, backed by some of the very best in the business. They opened with the clarion call of Come On In and the audience duly responded, flocking in to the main marquee to worship at the feet. “Are you having a good time?” Paul asked. Well they certainly appeared to be. Is there any reader of this magazine who has not heard them? I think not. Need I say more? I hope not. Otherwise I’m not going to have enough space to mention all the other great bands who are probably more in need of the publicity.

One band that is probably not in need of the publicity is King King, but I’m going to mention them if only to ask a simple question: Is there any more professional, talented, and entertaining band on the Planet? I’ve now seen them dozens of times and must admit that I was thinking of giving them a miss but I am pleased I didn’t. They were standing in as the headline band in the absence of Dana Fuchs, who had called in sick. Despite this they managed to produce an absolute ‘Farm Storming’ performance. What other band can have the audience screaming in excitement one minute and completely silent the next, sometimes within the same song? Alan Nimmo is slowly becoming the BB King of the UK Blues scene and can certainly bend

I understand that beards are In fashIon these days

those strings, but the wonderfully expressive Hammond organ playing of Bob Fridzema allows for much greater development of every song as they both exchange the lead role extending the melody again and again, sometimes reaching down to the depths of hell with the sonority of their riffs, raising the emotional intensity of each number to almost fever pitch before suddenly dropping to a lower volume and starting all over again. It’s also very clever stuff. I’d swear Alan Nimmo used to be an opera singer in another life. He certainly has the girth. So there we have it. Part opera, part blues band, but still full of mind blowing talent. If you think you’ve seen them enough, see them again. They are even better than before. King King are the boys to beat on the British blues circuit this year and next, and probably for a long time to come. Their set at the Farm had me and many of my friends talking for the rest of the weekend and way beyond. Get rid of the kilt Alan, get a smart jacket like Lindsay’s, carry a big handkerchief, hire the Royal Opera

DURHAM BLUES FESTIVAL

Gala THEaTrE DUrHam

JuNe 21st 2014

House, and you’ll conquer the world. Finally I’d just like to mention an outstanding and very original young band from Hartlepool called The Jar Family. I’d never seen them before and it was somewhat ironic that I had to travel 350 miles south to see them in the Sunday afternoon at sunny Chichester. However, I have a feeling I’m going to see them again very soon because it’s not often you can listen to a band with five vocalists/guitarists all with their own original styles, all capable of playing lead guitar when required, and all with their own unique personalities. Even the bass player sings and moves upstage from time to time. With harmonies to die for, wonderful original songs, five top multi instrumentalists, character in abundance, and real talent, it’s hard to imagine them not succeeding. Even the guy on the record stall thought they were one of the best bands in the festival. They play a mixture of blues, Bob Dylan style folk songs, Ian Siegal style rock and roots, and industrial folk (whatever that is). Whatever it is, it’s all good.

BERNIE STONE (aka. MaRk HORSLEY)

This was the fourth Durham Blues Festival to go ahead and every year has proven to be very popular and becoming a must see in the live blues circuit , arranged by the renowned Solid Entertainments production team, a most entertaining day, with a heady eclectic mix of the blues genre. All taking place in the Gala concert hall, a magnificent venue. Sound and lighting were phenomenally good. There was also an upstairs venue, the Blues Café Acoustic Stage a studio where acoustic styled blues was belted out to a very appreciative audience for a more laid back Saturday feeling, starting off with duo Dove and Boweevil an excellent combination of natural vocal talent and slide guitar on such songs as Life. It is always a very daunting feeling and prospect to open up such a concert, but that did not seem to phase first act, up and coming young generation blues player Laurence Jones

Maturing and improving with his style and approach, he and his band, comprising of six string bass Roger Inniss and Toby Wilson on drums performed a great set. Laurence interacting well with audience and even sharing anecdotes about his time recording his new release Temptation produced by Mike Zito edging to a more Deep South influence. He played most of this well acclaimed release with Can’t Keep Living

Like This and Wind Me

Up with an Albert Collins type riff just superb. There seemed a great bond and understanding with the other band members, culminating in an encore of Foolin’ Me, the crowd soaked up the gutsy and raw energised feeling.

laVendore rogue at BlueS on tHe Farm pHoto: liz aiken

festivaLs

Next on was another crowd pleasing trio The Spellkasters, mainly concentrating on good old fashioned rhythm and blues, with an assortment of unabashed covers of influential Wilko Johnson. The gritty and gutsy snarling vocals of Pete Edmunds.

Back upstairs to the acoustic room to catch arguably the best act there, Matt Woosey, certainly playing to a packed audience who were very appreciative and enthusiastic. His style and content of songs and lyrics and guitar playing were smooth and effortless with seamless chord changes on such numbers as using slide guitar on Little Red Rooster, Same Old Blues was another highlight and Cruel Disposition making for a competent and enjoyable set.

There was great anticipation in the auditorium for next band, Jo Harman and Company a very popular and hard working band

touring a lot and getting much publicity and recognition in the blues circle. Her stage persona ouses charm sultriness and sometimes just raw energy and motivation is second to none. A great band held together by drum bass and keyboard on such powerful songs such as No Regrets and Underneath The River. But the highlight had to be her slow and reflective Sweet Man Moses, divine.

Danny Bryant has not toured the U.K. for some time now so it was an honour to have him on the bill, and what a performance he gave. Yet another powerhouse trio mixing up the music tones. It was though, Danny’s seamless guitar work that stole the show especially on She’s A Heartbreaker also showcasing his driving vocal range, certainly a crowd pleaser.

There was a very poignant moment’s reflection about his major influence Walter Trout whose band

he will be fronting on next tour of America, he played an awesome tribute to Walter, North Country Fair, very moving and heartfelt. Finishing off with another song from his latest release, Prisoner Of The Blues had the crowd enraptured, just class.

Next on was another fuel injected blues rock trio fronted by the enigmatic Stevie Nimmo colossal stage presence, excellent vocal range with well gelled band what more do you need. Full of anecdotes and good crowd reaction even good natured heckles. Highlights were, Gambler’s Road and a gutsy rendition of Good Day For The Blues and a tribute to Big George, The Storm. Stevie is better known for playing with his brother Alan but his new project allows him to experiment and develop his musical skills he goes from strength to strength just brilliant.

There was a half hour break , where again there was a chance

jo Harman at durHam

pHoto: colin campBell

deVon allman at durHam

pHoto: colin campBell

cyril neVille at durHam pHoto: colin campBell

of taking in some laid back blues from Big Joe Bone in particular a veritable feast of bluegrass meets roots music I Wanna Live A Long Time being a favourite. Innes Sibun played a good acoustic set but sparse audience, also Del Bromham playing songs from his acclaimed Nine Yards release some good foot stomping music. Also young duo Rita Payne from Doncaster impressed the audience with their mixed folky roots sound, a band to watch out for in the future.

Well it was time for the last group to play main stage possibly the group that most people came to see, supergroup Royal Southern Brotherhood came on the stage to rapturous reception and closed the show making people want more. Possibly the coolest band on the circuit just now they opened proceedings with You Can Run But You Can’t Hide, something that Cyril Neville could never do, as was looking resplendent in yellow including yellow hat. Vocal range outstanding, and good backing percussion for Yonrico Scott. They played mostly songs from the new release Heartsoulblood, including World Blues and the funky Groove On. The band is very cohesive and certainly enjoyed themselves, each member given a solo spot to show off their musical skills, and how Charlie Wooton sustained a long bass solo beggars belief. Mike Zito shone through with some trance like playing on Moonlight Over The Mississippi. There was even time for a jam with Laurence Jones, duelling with Mike Zito. Devon Allman was superb especially on Could Get Dangerous. A joy to behold increasing an already absorbed crowds’ expectations superb!

An altogether very successful festival very well organised, lighting and sound terrific, slick stage changes, well attended and am sure this will keep generating interest in the blues genre and beyond.

COLIN CaMPBELL

MARYPORT BLUES FESTIVAL

VarIOUS VENUES

JulY 25th - 27th 2014

This well established blues festival this year proved to be more successful in some ways to last years. Festivals need international acts to increase the public’s interest and unlike last year’s specifically all British effort this was back to a very high standard of such international quality headline acts. Again the main stage had been relocated by public demand.

There were however differing opinions on this matter as this is still a problem that needs addressing where the best place to have it is. Also relating to catering facilities there was only one burger van at the marquee to facilitate sometimes over two hundred revellers yes inside the marquee there was a bar but people could not take food into the venue, oh bylaws are a wonderful thing but there are limits surely. Apart from that and the distance from the blues trail which appeared more popular than main venue at times especially the last day this festival overall was a success.

There was a more varied collection of music styles and genres, from blues rock acoustic sets and even some Cajun music adding to people’s curiosity especially newcomers to the festival. The wonderful weather most the weekend certainly helped make the event one to enjoy and certainly had Maryport rocking.

Friday

First to come on the main stage was Ryan McGarvey from Albuquerque. Much was expected from this blues rock type guitarist who has gained much publicity and going by this set the plaudits are justified. Good showman and virtuoso guitarist shining on tracks such as Prove

Myself and Memphis accentuated his undoubted technical abilities. Very loud and distinct band overall seemed to be enjoying the moment although sometimes his guitar work can drift into another dimension.

The Nimmo Brothers took to the stage next the perennial Glasgow blues rockers cranked the volume up ensuring a good crowd response. The rapport between these brothers and the tightness of this band is phenomenal and considering they have been playing together for nearly twenty years their energy and drive shows no signs of abating particularly on Brother To Brother and the wonderfully seductive Waiting For A Heart To Fall with their melodic guitars. Another highlight was Long Way From Everything with biting vocals from Stevie and reverb guitar from Alan, just outstanding.

All ready for the main act Eric Sardinas, he took the stage meaning business from the start. Dressed in black looking mean and moody he really proved to be such a showman possibly verging on the eccentric at times. With snarling vocals and playing slide guitar he definitely has it all, setting up a Blues Rock and Roll Party. Run Devil Run was a highlight, three piece band very tight with a polished bass solo by Levell Price. Unfortunately as the set went on there seemed to be a feeling of songs drifting into each other and sometimes the sound was too loud and Eric’s vocals were distorted at times. Overall though the band put on a good show.

Two outstanding bands on the trail that night were The Gt’s Boos Band playing a mix of blues and rock. The Yahs were also highlighted by revellers with a powerful lead singer Grant Dinwoodie others of note were Roscoe Levee and rhythm and blues stalwarts The Hexmen.

festivaLs

Saturday

A more relaxed opening set by up and coming youngster Blues Boy Dan Owen. Gruff snarling vocals and attacking his acoustic guitar on his own composition Forget Me When I’m Gone mixed with songs like a blistering Little Red Rooster, a real talent.

The Deluxe were on next playing a very competent set of songs mainly covers The Sky Is Crying being the best, great musicians with contrasts in style between lead singer and guitarist Christian Sharpe and an amazing slide guitar played by Matt McDonald.

Laurence Jones, another young bluesman is next, playing a sometimes funky and soulful set. The opener Can’t Keep On Living Like This being particular favourite with outstanding bass player Roger Inniss gelling band together.

Next on were LaVendore Rogue, fronted by the charismatic showman Jo Jo Burgess did not disappoint. Lucky Boy and Tattoo being particular favourites adding to their heady mix of blues styles.

Anyone who can follow the drive of that band by singing a solo gospel song Help Me has to be good and Canadian born Layla Zoe is that woman, mixing her set with soul and hard rocking blues on And They Lie To You and one of the most powerful emotional takes of I’d Rather Go Blind was brilliant a great talent indeed.

Enter the headliner Coco Montoya with such stage presence and character he exudes and smooth guitar playing with intimate and tender vocals such as displayed on I Need Your Love In My Life and the melody on Want It All Back had the crowd dancing and enjoying the overall happy vibe.

Sunday

A quiet intimate affair with Buck and Evans playing a good mellow set before Dan Burnett showed his

skills on piano exhibiting differing boogie styles.

A lot less people attended Sunday’s main stage acts and missed treats like Dana Dixon opening her set with typical vibrancy and sound harmonica playing on songs like Love Attack. James Harman came on next and cranked the volume up great showman and harmonica playing very smooth complementing Dave Dixons fine guitar playing on songs like Take My Hand. Although James set was excellent at times he seemed disinterested in the crowd’s reaction. Danny Bryant closed off the Festival with a consummate performance with solid and strong approaches to the opening Heartbreaker upping the atmosphere of the crowd’s reaction to the gentle vibes of Knocking On Heavens Door, particularly well enjoyed, he is an undoubted talent. This was a very successful event and certainly always a date for the blues diary long may it run.

COLIN CaMPBELL

RORY GALLAGHER INTERNATIONAL TRIBUTE FESTIVAL

BallYSHaNNON IrElaND

maY 29th - JuNe 2Nd 2014

Jimi Hendrix was once asked, ‘What is it like to be the world’s greatest guitarist?’, Jimi replied, ‘Go and ask Rory Gallagher’. Since his untimely passing in 1995 many different kind of tributes have started all over Europe, but non compare to the one in Ballyshannon. From its early days in 2002, where bands were playing on beer barrels covered in plywood to a few hundred people it has evolved, attracting up to 10,000 people into the town.The festival is organised by volunteers, Barry Sweeny, a local artist who has done some amazing paintings of Rory told me how there used to

be a welcoming band in the early days on said beer barrels playing to festival goers as they arrived at the bus station.

Fans come from all parts of Europe with large groups coming from Holland, Norway, Germany, France, Italy and people coming from the USA and Canada and even as far as Australia.The driving force behind this is Barry O’Neill and his committee of volunteers and I have to say what a great job they do.

I am playing mostly acoustic this year and grab a lift with my gear, the car is packed to the roof with beaten up guitars and old amps, and mic stands jabbing into the four passengers arranged around this. Am half dead, Steve’s dog had spent the night jumping on my head, I think I was on his bed (the couch), so not much sleep. We arrive in Ballyshannon on Thursday afternoon, I make for Owen Roe’s bar, see where am staying, who is here etc., the place is packed, Dave McHugh is playing a great acoustic set of blues including Catfish, next thing I know he’s asked me to get up and play a few acoustic songs, this is less than ten minutes after arriving. I find my digs, shower, head for the town centre where a band from Germany called Bad Penny are about to take to the stage at The Gables, this an open air free gig on a big mobile stage. Bad Penny come from the old East Germany and they’re interpretation of Rory Gallagher’s music is refreshing with fiddle and accordion in the mix giving it a Celtic feel, Olaf Fokker making his guitar sing, this a tune called Sailing To The Celtic King it then merges into Rory’s Bad Penny with keyboards from Peter Muller.

The atmosphere at Ballyshannon is always magical and tonight is the same, the band move into The King Of Zydeco full on Cajun with Peter Muller now expertly playing the accordion. The crowd is up dancing, there’s a lot of

people here and its only Thursday, the Guinness flows and so does the music. Bad Penny play a mixture of originals and their arrangements of Rory’s music, one of their own songs been aptly titled I Play Just What I Feel, a wonderful sleazy slow blues, Olaf plays great blues guitar on this, accordion again adding even more soul to the tune, a hint of Phil Lynott influence in there, great song, the next up is a powerful version of Rory’s Shadow Play. I have to leave for my own gig, the band playing Loch Lomond as I head off.

Friday

The sun is shining, the Guinness calms the mild hangover, a crowd of a few hundred is waiting in anticipation for Johnny Gallagher (no relation) to play at the Rory Gallagher statue an amazing life size sculpture of Rory and guitar made out of bronze. Johnny Gallagher is a big bear of a man

with an impressive beard, he plays an old Ovation guitar through his own PA. Johnny plays for close on to two hours in the baking sun, he is amazing and a great shame he is not recognised in the UK. Johnny has his own style where it is blue based all his own, not sounding like anyone in particular than himself. He asks the audience, “Who wants to play cowboys and indians?” and launches in to a great version of Leadbelly’s Western Plains, getting the crowd singing along.This was the acoustic side I saw, he plays with fire and passion doing a great Bo Diddley styled song called Going Home.This was the first gig at the statue. I hope they keep it going in future festivals. It’s time for my own gig, a few pints of Guinness then bed.

Saturday

The festival as said has evolved over the years, a circus style big top

being used for the last three years, there is live music on the streets and in the pubs, all this is free, in past years the big top has had the likes of Larry Miller, Dr Feelgood, Nine Below Zero and Band Of Friends featuring Gerry McAvoy and Ted McKenna, Rory’s old band mates who are playing tonight. The first set of yours truly playing an acoustic set with Christian Volkman on amazing blues harp, now for a few Guinness’s. Dave McHugh and band take to the stage playing great renditions of early Rory, he plays great versions of Taste’s What’s Going On, amongst others, Dave plays with great fire, he’s been playing since the start of the tributes in the 1990’s where we first met and played in Cork and Holland.The audience is wound up like a clock spring after Dave’s set, up next it’s The Band Of Friends.

layla zoe at maryport pHoto: cHriStine moore

nimmo BrotHerS at maryport pHoto: colin campBell

joHnny gallagHer at tHe rory triBute pHoto: pat mullan

festivaLs

Ted McKenna, Gerry McAvoy and Marcel Scherpenzeel do a fantastic job, giving the audience what they want, the closest thing to the great man you are going to hear, with the original rhythm unit, they play tight and hard belying there not so tender years.McKenna hits the drums like a prize fighter, Gerry McAvoy laying down the solid bass lines and Marcel doing a great job of singing and playing in a fiery passionate way that sets the place on fire.

The audience whoops it up, they even do a couple of original songs which sound awesome, Too Much Not Enough, great riff and deadly slide guitar.The highlight for me was when they did A Million Miles Away featuring Pat McManus on fiddle, the version is gut wrenching and atmospheric, leaving the audience drained. Up next its local band Moonchild doing a mixture of Rory covers and other blues standards, they rock the place to the early hours playing with great skill and passion, finishing off with yours truly on a supercharged version of Rory’s Moonchild, now for one more Guinness and then bed.

Sunday Morning. Bacon butties, sweet tea served by the SDs, try and soothe my pounding head which is banging like a gable door blowing in a gale which is apt as I am now watching Pat McManus do his thing at the outdoor stage The Gables. The sun is blazing, it feels like we are in Greece, Pat plays to a capacity crowd, it’s packed, he does not disappoint playing with fire and a true Celtic feel. His music reaches into your soul and makes that emotional connection, this is the real deal played from the heart. The band is a three piece, and they are tight so very tight, the drummer throwing in Celtic style drumming here and there. Pat plays for a good hour and a half mainly original songs some from his Mamas Boys days, there are influences of Lizzy

UCKFIELD BLUES AND ROOTS FESTIVAL

UCKFIElD, SUSSEX.

JulY 31st - auGust 3rd 2014

It’s a little known fact but the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans, Chicago and Uckfield, Sussex have something in common. A deep love of Blues and Roots music. This year the second annual Uckfield Blues & Roots Festival was held over four days. Thursday night kicked off the event in the beautiful setting of Holy Cross Church, a brilliant opening set by Richard Townend was followed by a beautifully measured performance by Jo Harman with Steve Watts and a last minute appearance by the hidden legend that is Tony Devenport.

Friday night saw Zoe Schwarz Blues Commotion, The Elevators and the amazing David Migden and The Twisted Roots blowing the roof the Civic Centre in his unique style. Saturday again at the Civic Centre had the beautiful Goldie Reed opening the night, followed by an explosive set by Uckfield’s own Red Butler, who featured tracks from their debut album Freedom Bound, as well as an array of classic standards. The evening was brought to a close by The Spikedrivers who did what only The Spikedrivers can do and boy they do it well.

Sunday’s afternoon’s session at the Cinque Ports Club brought the festival to a close with superb sets from Beth Ellwood, the rocking Southern Nights, David Simmons, Ruby and the Revelators and a perfectly crafted acoustic performance by Stuart Bligh and Jess Wood. None of this would be possible without the legend that is Graham Pope and his team or the sponsors. Same time next year then.

in there but it’s mainly all McManus which is superb.

I got to go to my next gig which is an acoustic session in a very old mill, it’s a stunning setting, and it’s like something out of a fairy tale a mile or so out of the town. Job done its the turn of Danny and Fred out of Dutch band Laundromat to play doing wonderful acoustic versions of Rory’s songs the high point being I Fall Apart which sets the goose pumps going, Fred doing great vocals, gritty and dusky, Danny playing great guitar. We all ended up playing together to finish off what turned into a three hour session.

Monday

There’s an after party at Owen Roes Bar, I’ve just changed digs to above the pub where am told by Barry O’Neills Aunty Anne, this is where a newborn Rory Gallagher first lived, the outdoor stage is rightly called

Rory Gallagher place, it feels right the festivals heart being here.This is a full on mini festival in the bar with performances from Laundromat, Sinner Boy and myself batting out Rory music and blues to the enthusiastic audience, on comes Johnny Gallagher he wrings the notes out of a borrowed guitar, it looks like the guitar might snap into pieces he gives it such a pounding. Johnny has got that something you rarely see, fire in his belly, great technique but he’s playing from his heart, I don’t know why I can’t seem to find that magic ingredient in many of today’s players but Johnny has got it by the sack full. Laundromat back on rock it out and bring the festival to a close.

This is only a small selection of the music that played, I recommend you go and check it out, it’s for nothing literally, and the big top is pennies to get in. There’s all sorts of

GRaHaM SMITH

GrainnE duFFy, with LaurEnCE JonES and StarK

THE 100 ClUB, OXFOrD STrEET, lONDON

JuNe 24th 2014

This was the official launch of The Grainne Duffy Band’s new single Reason To Be and what fantastic night we had in store with support provided by burgeoning young blues protégé Laurence Jones. First up though was Stark, a very talented threesome of bright young lads from Brighton. Led by vocalist/guitarist Jamie Francis the lads ooze class and confidence delivering blues in a Led Zep tinged style through Resonator guitar, clever song writing with a modern twist. One to note.

Next up was Laurence Jones with classy back up from Roger Inniss on six string bass and permanent smile and Erja Lyytinen regular Miri Miettinen providing the drums. Laurence looked relaxed throughout and with Roger filling spaces and prompting the young guitarist was able to really open up especially on tracks like

Temptation

and Southern Breeze. Tonight though belongs to Grainne. Striding on stage looking confident and relaxed they launch proceedings with a fiery Let Me In followed by Each And Every Time and previous single What Am I Supposed To Do. New drummer Eamonn Ferris fits like a glove with Davy Watson on bass. Paul Sherry looks every bit the guitar star in polka dot shirt firing off riffs and solos. Grainne holds centre stage, her clear soulful vocals perfect for the songs and she is more than capable on guitar swapping lead runs and licks with Paul. The band is never overloud, relying instead on a tight rhythm section, interesting well written material and the ability to change tempo on tunes like Everyday without losing any impetus. Crowd favourites Fallin’ For You and I Would Rather Go Blind along with new single Reason To Be are particularly well received by the enthusiastic crowd. Encores Test Of Time and Maggie’s Farm bring the evening to an all too soon end.

STEvE YOuRGLIvCH

tony JoE whitE

THE GOrIlla Bar, maNCHESTEr

JulY 1st 2014

Walking through the dark arches, a

voice calls out of the shadows in a deep southern drawl, it’s Tony Joe White, he remembers me from York, well more the Red Strat which I got him to sign, a nice big Tony Joe White on the scratch plate, “that’s one of my Cherokee brothers” he remarks to the native American pictured on the guitar. Manchester was less intimate than York but the sound quality was fantastic compared to York. Tony Joe comes on, does a couple of bluesy songs and then brings on the drummer. Tony Joe has been playing this format since the 60s pre White Stripes, Black Keys and it works amazingly well. His sound, as he describes it, is ‘swamp music’, playing an old Stratocaster through an equally old amp, he gets huge colour of sounds and tones, the sound is massive, sprinkling wha-wha occasionally in such a way it shakes you like a tornado has just whupped your ass, fuzz guitar notes detonating in the audience like cluster bombs and little bursts of harp pepper the songs in a masterful and tasteful way, take note those harpies who play through every bar, and topped off by his dusky vocals, which suck you in and seduce you into the swamp of a thing that is a TJW gig. Tony Joe is 72 and plays for over an hour and a half, new songs from his superb album Hoodoo , mixed in from blasts from the past. TJW plays sat down, shades, hat, booted and suited as the man in black. His voice rips into your soul sending shivers down ones spine, songs like Who Are You Gonna Hoodoo Now so swampy and sleazy, The Flood, Sweet Tooth and the powerful Storm Coming, mixed with the likes of Steamy Windows, and the wonderful Polk Salad Annie ...the gators got your granny ...chomp ... chomp ....chomp! (love the line).

grainne duFFy pHoto: joHn FreeBrey CONTINUES OVER...

hEritaGE BLuES orChEStra

NOrWICH arTS CENTrE

JulY 2Nd 2014

Tonight we get the quintet version of The Heritage Blues Orchestra and they are magnificent throughout. With Bill Sims, daughter Chaney Sims and Junior Mack seated across centre stage providing vocals and twin guitars they kick proceedings off with Go Down Hannah and Clarksdale Moan. The controlled but palpable power knocks the audience off their feet, this is real blues played with feel and passion. The front three are supported by Kenny ‘Beedy Eyes’ Smith, legendary Chicago drummer and French harp virtuoso Vincent Bucher, both at the forefront of the world’s best at their chosen instruments.

Get Right Church features an intro as tough as any Hill Country Blues before the lovely gospel vocals from the front three float over the top. Then it’s into Catfish Blues featuring Bill on lead vocals. As the night moves on and Bill skips between guitar and keys it feels as if Muddy, Pinetop and Otis Spann are in the room urging the band on. Junior Mack takes vocals on one the many highlights, the Eric Bibb song Don’t Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down.

Chaney Sims especially shines on C-Line Woman but her vocals are sublime throughout. Gospel flecked, soulful, heartfelt and warm, equally at home on hollers, straight blues or spirituals. Traditional blues like Levee Camp Holler, Big Legged Woman and Hard Times are dragged bang up to date by the sheer passion of the deliveries. Bands of this quality simply don’t come along very often and the audience of pleasingly mixed ages are up and dancing from start to finish proving the redemptive forces in the blues are very much alive when the quality is this good.

He starts into Rainy Night In Georgia, its very hard to describe the sensation I got from this song, goose bumps on my neck then right down my back all the way to my toes up to the top of my head, I’ve never experienced it in that way, it felt like TJW was caressing the crowd with his voice, a mind blowing, spiritual thing I have seen many of the greats John Lee, Muddy, Albert King, Rory to name a few,but not had that happen before, I hope other people in the audience felt that too, judging by the reaction to the song, I think they did.

JED THOMaS

riVaL SonS

THE GOrIlla Bar, maNCHESTEr. JuNe 12th 2014

Manchester’s Gorilla Bar may seem a strange choice of venue for one

of Blues-Rock’s premier bands to launch their new record. However, it’s indicative Rival Sons’ ‘old-school’ nature that they’ve chosen such a bijou space. A band that is bringing Rock back to it’s roots, stripping away the cliché and pomp that plagues so much of modern Rock, all they need is a room full of bodies and a stage (this one verging on the claustrophobic) to work their magic.

Opening the night’s proceedings is the rather unassuming figure of Burt Jameson, ambling onto the stage to the indifference so often reserved for support acts. Mid-way through his first song however and the room is silent, all eyes turned to the one man and his guitar onstage. A fiery, fearless and nuanced performer, his heartfelt vocals often calling to mind such flattering comparisons as Jeff Buckley and

the Sons’ own Jay Buchanan. On a night when all are eager for the headliners, Jameson finishes his defiantly memorable set to nothing short of a standing ovation.

The electricity in the room becomes even more palpable as Rival Sons take to the stage. Fittingly they launch into new album opener Electric Man. Singer Jay Buchanan is both a manic and sha-manic presence, and is perhaps the greatest stage presence we’ve had in Rock in more than a decade. Treating their audience to an unrelenting opening recital of the first five tracks from their new album, Great Western Valkyrie, it’s clear the anticipation has not been one-sided, the band obviously energised at being let out of the gate.

After the bayou-inflected Good Things the Sons break away from new material to deliver some fan favourites and encourage some audience participation on Torture and Gypsy Heart. The extended five-song encore is heavy on material from 2012’s Head Down and 2011’s Pressure & Time . Western-flavoured Manifest Destiny Part 1 was epic enough on record but live is even more sprawling, raging and dynamic when left to run. The closing ballad, Face of Light, is prefixed by Buchanan’s dedication to his son back home and this glimpse behind the curtain of touring rock n roll band briefly strips away the larger-than-life personas, rendering this final moment with the Sons the most personal of the evening. It’s rare today to encounter a band who, no matter how great on record, are able to surpass expectations as a live act. It’s rarer still to spend an evening with a group of musicians who can reach their audience on an emotional and spiritual level as well as delivering great music. Rival Sons are just that band. Back in the UK in December, miss them at your peril.

RHYS WILLIaMS

STEvE YOuRGLIvCH

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SUBSCRIPTION HOTLINE 01926 339808

irk and Joe recently performed a special one off concert together at Red Rocks, the famous natural auditorium in the Colorado mountains celebrating the music of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. Kirk is about to tour the UK for the first time fronting his own band and the buzz is building. Time to get the trans-Atlantic lines ringing.

BM: We wanted to talk to you about the tour, there’s a lot of excitement about it. Is it the first time in the UK under your own banner?

KF: Wow, I’m just so looking forward to doing it. Absolutely yes, first time for me touring the UK. I played a couple of shows with The T’birds. I’m so grateful to Katie Bradley and Dudley Ross, they’ve worked so hard on organising this and we haven’t even started!

Have you played with them before?

We met recently in Zurich and jammed together for a bit and it sounded so good together already (laughs). I’m looking forward to letting it rip shall we say. Dudley has put together a killer band of UK musicians for me.

I guess part of the reason for the tour is promoting your new CD.

Yes, as well as just wanting to take the opportunity to play in front of a different audience and one that I respect so much because lets face it the blues and the UK link has always been so amazing.

The new album is a live recording, due out late September I believe.

I’m doing this all myself so we’re having a release party in Los Angeles at The Baked Potato on 24th September, I believe you can order it through CD Baby from the 26th. I’ll be bringing copies to sign on the tour too. We recorded it at The Baked Potato and I’m really proud of it.

Is the music on the live album pretty representative of what we’ll hear on the tour?

I really think so. One of the reasons for doing it is so people can really hear what I do without having to go to You Tube etc, seeing me playing with lots of different people and wondering what I’m all about.

I’ve been looking at the tracks and was intrigued by a couple of interesting covers on there. You do a Bobby Womack cover, I’m In Love.

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Kir K is hands down one of the best blues guitarists in the world.’ n o, it’s not the words of some publicist or music writer, it’s the honest opinion of Joe b onamassa, and he’s in a good position to J udge

The great Bobby Womack. You have to just play it a different way cos you can’t just cover Bobby Womack. It’s just a pleasure to do that song, I love it.

You also cover Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stevie is just so special. You know so many people just went on that bandwagon. For me he just touched my heart because he loved all the guys that came before him and he had an intensity and power to his playing. I admire his power, his confidence and his ability. It’s in his soul.

I admire you for covering it because so many people who cover Stevie fail to do him justice. Did you think twice about doing it?

At least twice (laughs). No it’s just a great song and we caught the mood of it you know.

I understand there might be a new studio album in the pipeline. I’m writing for that now. Before I leave for the tour I’ll demo some of the songs then I’ll start working on it again from the beginning of December. It’ll be mostly originals with me trying to sing more.

Actually I’m glad you mention the singing. You’re mostly known and respected as a great guitar player. Is it fair to say that as each album passes you have become more comfortable vocally?

Absolutely, you know I started on ‘My Turn’, a couple of songs and that was the first time I ever sang, period. I’m getting more confident and I’m working on that more so hopefully by the next studio record I will have progressed even more.

It must be quite daunting to suddenly be in a position of having to do vocals too. That’s a good way of putting it! But hey, I sometimes play instrumentals but to me music in blues is about the song so it’s important to learn.

You mention instrumentals. There’s one on the live album celebrating your influences I believe. Ha yes. Robben Ford and Larry Carlton. Robben is special to me. When I think about slow blues of course I think about all the

great past masters but to me Robben Ford and Larry Carlton mean the world. When it comes to guitar playing with rhythm and space and ease of timing both of them have a really interesting way of playing slow blues. I wanted to play a little tribute to those guys,

Robbin was a big influence wasn’t he? Particularly in the early days.

Robbin is basically the guy who taught me about rhythm guitar. How important it is to really have a good knowledge about supporting which is really how I made my living for most of my career. He was invaluable in that way as well as in lead guitar playing he was so great.

So did you ever perform with Robbin?

I’ve sat in with Robbin but never played in his band or done a gig with him. We have long relationship of being together at rehearsal spaces, music stores, meeting backstage at gigs just hanging together talking music.

Your comments about playing rhythm guitar are interesting. A lot of younger players seem to miss that out.

Well if you listen to people like Bukka White everything they play is built around the rhythm. Those old guys played with such beautiful rhythm.

You do listen to a lot of the older musicians, Robert Johnson and even beyond don’t you?

Al Blake from the Hollywood Fats Band was a real influence on me about digging deeper. I knew about guys my parents listened to when I was growing up in Arkansas like Lowell Fulsom, Muddy Waters and BB King. Al Blake encouraged me to go back further, he was kinda the well, telling me about Charly Patton, Robert Johnson, Petey Wheatstraw and The Mississippi Shieks, just all of this great music!

I think most people are aware of your time in The Fabulous Thunderbirds but before that you played with Charlie Musselwhite for quite a while. He’s really great. That was my first established artist I ever played with. Charlie is the man, he’s had a great career since the mid-60’s.It

was wonderful being on stage with him every night. He just wanted me to be myself. That’s the biggest lesson I learned from him, just find my own way myself.

He didn’t limit you in what you played? No, not that I could see anyhow. Wonderful times. The calibre of musicians around him too was kinda scary. I was just a kid trying to get started playing the blues. I was in Charlie’s band for about two years. Then I got the call from Kim Wilson. I probably could’ve stayed in Charlie’s band a lot longer but at that time I was so young and the chance to join The Fabulous Thunderbirds was like fulfilling a dream.

What was it like joining The Thunderbirds?

It was a completely different experience. It was wonderful, but also a lot of mixed emotions. I loved working with Kim but it was a sad time because I had just lost my mom. So it was like, man, you joined a great band and you’re getting ready to do an album but still in the back of your mind you’re still really sad, mixed emotions but those guys made me feel at home. At that time the great Nick Curran was in the band too and he was another sad loss.

You left them to do your own thing?

I was with them about four years and I felt the time had come. That was Kim’s band and his vision. And it was an amazing vision, Kim is probably my favourite singer and harp player ever, other than James Cotton and Sonny Boy Williamson of course. I loved that but I was delving back to the music of my childhood, stuff like Jimi Hendrix, so I wanted to be like a kid a little longer.

Also on your CV is The Mannish Boys. Yep, I’m with them from time to time. I record with them. It’s kind of a blues all star thing. We don’t have the same line up all the time, it’s a sort of co-operative thing. We’ve done a few records together and it’s been fun.

I guess as a musician it’s challenging playing with lots of different people?

Well yes, but I’ve done it so much that it may be time I have to pull back a little bit. I have to focus on writing new songs, becoming a better singer and doing my own thing. My heart just

wants to play with lots of people and jam and have fun but there comes a time you have to focus on your own thing baby. I look at my friend Joe Bonamassa and I get inspired. He’s incredible, I see how hard he has to work.

You played with Joe recently at Red Rocks... Oh wow, yes. He called me to ask if I’d play with him at Red Rocks doing Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters tunes. I’m like, yeah I’m in !

I bet it was quite an experience.

It’s a beautiful venue with a wonderful sound. It’s just unique. It couldn’t be more comfortable. It was just a one off, we did a couple of warm up gigs. It’s going to appear on TV over here and hopefully there might be a DVD/ CD next year.

Joe’s been very complementary about you. Oh when he said those things that was so unexpected. I really appreciate that. I don’t know about how true it is but it was nice of him to say it !

You are doing a session with Paul Jones too.

Really looking forward to that. The BBC. What can I say, I mean live at the BBC. They’ve recorded music by all my heroes. Great to meet Paul Jones too.

We mentioned Robbin Ford as a big influence. Who else has inspired you?

BB King, all the way through, from the really, really early BB King, to the 60’s and how his style progressed. He influences my playing in different ways. There is such a wealth there. Also Lonnie Johnson, T.Bone Walker, Eddie Taylor, Otis Rush and maybe a million others. I listen to so much. Also 70’s singer songwriter stuff like Joni Mitchell. I try to make everything I play mean something.

Well thanks again for the chance to chat. Before we finish up is there anything you want to add Kirk?

I just want to give a big shout out to Dudley Ross and Katie Bradley. They have given endless hours of work and support to get this off the ground. I’m really looking forward to coming over, I’m so excited!

for more information, c hec K out: www. K ir K fletcherband.com