Blues Matters 100

Beth and Joe do it again! Black Coffee is a stunning roller coaster that digs deep into the soul catalogue! With songs from Edgar Winter, Etta James, Ike & Tina Turner, Steve Marriot, Ella Fitzgerald, LaVern Baker, Howlin’ Wolf and Lucinda Williams.

‘BLACK COFFEE’ OUT JAN 26, 2018 ON LIMITED CD BOXSET (CD, POSTCARD, 2 VINYL COASTERS), LTD 2LP RED VINYL, 2LP BLACK VINYL & CD!

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WELCOME

Issue 100! I can hardly believe we made it!

Well number one hundred… and an issue that takes a look back at where we came from and how things have been.

Choosing to go back and pay respect to our ‘roots’ we feature Kim Simmonds long time front man of Savoy Brown; The man of whom Eric Clapton, no less, said at Cream’s first gig when the band were the support and watching from the sidelines, “How do I follow that?!”

To complement the main interview we got in touch with original Savoy members John O’Leary (original band co-founder with Kim) and Bob Hall (who got the keys job over Reg Dwight).

As usual there is so much more between the covers for you.

We start a piece on the legendary Zoot Money then and now, Canadian Award winner Steve Kozak talks to us, the UK's own rising star Elles Bailey is with us, the hard-touring Dave Fields takes the time out for a chat and we caught Mick Kolassa (Michissippi Mick) to share some views with us plus a good selection of features. And of course the reviews of CDs, gigs and festivals are all here, so now enjoy this milestone issue with its new glossy cover.

THE STORY SO FAR:

Music has always been a passion for me. From my pre-teens laying on the floor behind the settee with my ear against the speaker of the radiogram for the chart show on a Sunday (so as not to disturb Mum and Dad as it was the only thing in the house to listen to) to an old valve radio in my bedroom listening to Radio Luxembourg and the marvelous pirate radio stations (I hand painted

them on my dial) and more.

My first album was Decca’s wonderful World Of Blues Power Vol.1. Then I bought a portable Czech record player with my first week’s wages for £8, 7 shillings and 6 pence so I could listen to it!.

The first band that I saw was in High Wycombe; they were Long John Baldry’s Hoochie Coochie Men (I think they were then called) including a certain Rod Stewart on rhythm guitar and backing vocals.

Many years later my first music writing was on Shades of Savoy Brown Journal a fan magazine I created after meeting Kim Simmonds and having a long post-gig chat with him. I’d been a fan since the release of their first album Shakedown. As this started I also became friends with Arnie Goodman who ran Blue Storm Records in the USA and had a hand in publishing himself. It was the Journal which led me to create Blues Matters!

OUR NAME IS ALSO A PROCLAMATION/STATEMENT.

Some of you will know that the ‘!’ after the words actually came because of a bruise I gave myself when my head met my desk in frustration while considering a suitable title. There were several ideas then realizing after getting to know so many ex-Savoy Brown members still out there playing at various levels that everyone mattered, the music mattered and folks needed to know

Issue 27 Aug/Sep 2005

because the Blues Matters!

So here I am, still at the head, but post-cancer not often seen in public due to low energy and multi-level problems. Yet I’m still running things and making sure along with our great team that we are there for the Blues and reaching out to give you the best. Here is a potted history:

THE JOURNEY SO FAR;

It has been a long, thoughtful, soul searching, musically blessed, thrilling, at times desperate, edgy, never smooth, satisfying journey that has been blessed by your support.

twice that I would not survive. During long ‘touch and go’ hospitalization my wife extended our commitments paying wages and he worked hard. Sadly when I came out, fed by battery powered tube, we were in a sad state. Surveying the situation we had meetings, rallied round, took legal advice and after much soul searching, we endured.

Issue 43 May/Jun 2008

Issue 59 Apr/May 2011

you all and thank you for your

I take great pleasure reflecting on the team that help me make this a highly respected Blues publication. Some of our writers have been with me/us from the start while others have been and gone, sadly some were taken from us along the way, and we have recent additions to our ‘family’. I admire and celebrate you all and thank you for your contributions and ideas.

When starting on my faltering steps while learning M/S Publisher and doing the whole thing solo I couldn’t have imagined the team that would form around the principle of my original idea.

To have grown from that to where we are is incredible. With contributors from all over, it still thrills me and every day is an exciting new day.

member becoming good friends as

work and friendship – it is not

One of my proudest early moments was recruiting the first staff member becoming good friends as we moved the image along nicely. I thank Darren Howells for his work and friendship – it is not forgotten. All looked good until I was diagnosed with a vicious cancer in 2006. This turned out to be doubly life-threatening. I barely survived with my family being told

With resulting finances sorted BM was able to move on and picked up again. Gathering up and planning forward here Geraint Morgan loyally stuck it out at HQ and I thank him for that and our football chats (and picking me up from the floor several times) and to Christine Moore for talking to me and plan with me stepping in and grasping the chance to help hold BM, (and me) together while I was still very much recovering. Having fi rst offered help at Butlins on our stand when I was going through chemo and radio therapies early in 2007. Now we were in 2010 (and I was still learning how to eat again after collapse of my esophagus) thankfully, the team and our clients were re-grouping, re-arranging and re-focusing. I needed that capable organizer too during my recovery keeping her fi nger on our schedules with me and making sure everyone got things done on time. Also suggesting she (and husband Tony) take the Blues Matters! stand out beyond Butlins event to spread the word. I am frustrated at not being able to do this myself. My wife, Jenny and I always enjoyed running the stand at Butlins and a couple of other festivals and I really do miss not being there and meeting everyone even though ending up hoarse for days because I talk too much! (so I’m told!) I thank you for knowing there is no ‘I’ in team and for your dedication and support to myself and Blues Matters! Now she tells me to make it known that I am still the head of the magazine because people forget not having seen me for so long yet I’m happy to stay in the background running and organising the business.

As we moved along we earned three recognitions from the USA, wow!

THE BLUES FOUNDATION PRINT MEDIA RECIPIENT IN 2007 AND THEN ENROLLED IN THE BLUES HALL OF FAME (NY) IN 2014 TWICE (ONE FOR THE MAGAZINE AND ONE PERSONAL).

Over the years we have helped a lot of acts to get noticed through our pages, too many to mention. However we know some remember and hope the others do. We always select a wide range of talent to widen scope so you’ll never know what to expect.

Moving forward yet again Christine stepped into the ‘Editor’ role when Geraint left and handed over the Design role she’d carried to Martin Cook who did a grand job out of his enthusiasm for what BM stands for. From being an enthusiastic reader he had introduced himself asking if he could do this. Eventually he stepped down due to other pressures but introduced me to our current Design Manager, Chris Pettican, who has followed on seamlessly and is doing a job that gains fine comments.

We had embraced the digital era earlier by digitizing our entire back catalogue from day one and then developed our own App with Exact Editions who are another part of our valued team and helped to expand our reach. (Third most read App country is China after USA and Canada).

Early in 2017 I decided to use funds to invest in a new website design and manager and so found Ian Potter (web design and layout) and Mairi Maclennan (from proof reader/reviewer) who are helping to spread the word across the web and social media. This gives us more strings to our blues bow, more ways to help artists and clients reach out and be heard and seen and keep this wheel oiled and rolling along… and so here we are at our 100th issue! AND I am reminded we are

in our 20th year so what a marvelous double event this is!

Indeed it has been a long and winding railroad track that has led us through so many highs and some lows. But such is life, we bite the bullet and do our best to move on and MUSIC REALLY IS THE BEST THERAPY there is for our ills. Perhaps John Miles summed it up best in his hit song simply titled “Music” the words have it!

Somebody famous once said: “Be the best at what you can do is all you can do” and that is what I/we aim for at Blues Matters! and we thank you all for your support.

I dedicate this issue to all the BM team (past and present) for your work over the years, to my wife for her support and my parents, who never understood why I do this.

Keep on lovin’ the blues and spread the word

ALAN PEARCE FOUNDER / PUBLISHER / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / FAN!

AND JUST IN TIME WE LEARN THAT WE HAVE WON BEST EUROPEAN BLUES MAGAZINE AWARDED BY THE EBA.

Alan with his Mum & Dad at Buckingham Palace when his Dad got his M.B.E – 2001

BLUES MATTERS!

PO Box 18, Bridgend, CF33 6YW. UK Tel: 00-44-(0)1656-745628

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-4pm

FOUNDER/PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF

Alan Pearce: alan@bluesmatters.com

EDITOR/INTERVIEWS/FEATURES/ CD/DVD/BOOKS/GIGS/FESTIVALS/ BLUE BLOOD/SOCIAL MEDIA

Christine Moore christine@bluesmatters.com

SOCIAL MEDIA/PR/MARKETING/WEB

Mairi Maclennan marketing-PR@bluesmatters.com

PROOF READERS

George Cook, Benjamin McNair, Janet Morris, Steve Banks, Jack Goodall

Website – http://www.bluesmatters.com/

ART EDITOR/DESIGNER

Chris Pettican: design@bluesmatters.com

ADVERTISING

Alan Pearce: ads@bluesmatters.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS/ORDERS

Warners Group: 01778 392082 subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk

ORDERS (OTHER )

Jenny Hughes: orders@bluesmatters.com

FESTIVAL STAND MANAGER: Christine Moore christine@bluesmatters.com

WEB DESIGN AND LAYOUT

Ian Potter: webmanager@bluesmatters.com

MEDIA MANAGERS

Mairi Maclennan, Christine Moore

IT SUPPORT OrbitsIT

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/bluesmattersmagazine

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/bluesmattersmagazine/ Twitter – https:// www.twitter.com/bluesmattersmag

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Liz Aiken, Tim Arnold (USA), Roy Bainton, Eric Baker (USA), Steve Banks, Adrian Blacklee, Bob Bonsey, Eddy Bonte (Bel), Colin Campbell, Iain Cameron, Norman Darwen, Kelly Davis, Dave Drury, Carl Dziunka (Aus), Ben Elliott (USA), Barry Fisch (USA), Sybil Gage (USA), Jack Goodall, Mickey Griffi ths, Stuart A. Hamilton, Gareth Hayes, Trevor Hodgett, Billy Hutchinson, Andy Hughes, Rowland Jones, Brian Kramer (Sw), Frank Leigh, John Lindley, Boris Litvintsev (RU) Gian Luca (USA), Mairi Maclennan, Ben McNair, Mercedes Mill (USA), John Mitchell, Christine Moore, Stevie Nimmo, Toby Ornott, Merv Osborne, David Osler, Iain Patience (Fr), Alan Pearce, Thomas Rankin, Clive Rawlings, Darrell Sage (USA), Paromita Saha (USA), Pete Sargeant, Graeme Scott, Shirl, Andy Snipper, M.D. Spenser, Dave Stone, Suzanne Swanson (Can), Tom Walker, Darren Weale, Don Wilcock (USA), Dani Wilde, Rhys Williams, Steve Yourglivch, Mike Zito (USA).

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Christine Moore, Arnie Goodman (USA), others credited on page.

COVER PHOTOS

Kim Simmonds: Arnie Goodman; Elles Bailey: Sean Mulligan; Steve Kozak: Andy Cotton

© 2018 Blues Matters!

Original material in this magazine is © the authors. Reproduction may only be made with prior Editor consent and provided that acknowledgement is given of source and copy sent to the editorial address. Care is taken to ensure contents of this magazine are accurate but the publishers do not accept any responsibility for errors that may occur or views expressed editorially. All rights reserved. No parts of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying recording or otherwise without prior permission of the editor. Submissions: Readers are invited to submit articles, letters and photographs for publication. The publishers reserve the right to amend any submissions and cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage. Please note: Once submitted material becomes the intellectual property of Blues Matters and can only later be withdrawn from publication at the expediency of Blues Matters. Advertisements: Whilst responsible care is taken in accepting advertisements if in doubt readers should make their own enquiries. The publisher cannot accept any responsibility for any resulting unsatisfactory transactions, nor shall they be liable for any loss or damage to any person acting on information contained in this publication. We will however investigate complaints.

Printed by Warner Print Group

Distributed by Warners Distribution Group

ISSUE 100

ELLES BAILEY (UK)

STEVE KOSAK (CAN)

KIM SIMMONDS (UK)

REGULARS

BLUE BLOOD ...............................

Blues running through their veins. Alastair Green (USA), Bill Howl-NMadd Perry (USA), Claude Hay (AUS), Lucas & King (UK), Paul Winn Band (AUS) and The NaveBlue (NO).

FEATURES

IN THIS ISSUE .............................

Brian’s trip to NYC Pt.2 (SWE), Phenomenal Women in the Blues Pt.3, Beyond Austin City Limits, British Blues Invasion To Russia Pt.3, Italian Blues, French Blues Pt.2, Producing the Blues and Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa.

INTERVIEWS

KIM SIMMONDS (UK) .................

40

BUDDY WHITTINGTON (USA) ....

Texas guitarist/singer/songwriter who occupied the coveted guitar chair in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers from 1993 until 2008, at fifteen years the longest running Bluesbreaker guitarist.

DAVE FIELDS (USA) ....................

A hard-working bluesman from New York who has just been on a Northern European tour. Hopefully, he'll be back for a UK tour in 2018. Make sure you ask your local promoter to give him a gig.

MICK KOLASSA (USA) .................

13

46

Our lead image on the front page. Kim and Savoy Brown was the ignition for Alan starting Blues Matters! so it is fitting that he is our lead interview in the 100th issue.

ELLES BAILEY (UK) ...................

Elles is pretty new to the UK blues scene. If you haven’t caught one of her shows yet, make sure you do and soon.

STEVE KOSAK (CAN) ..................

Vancouver based, Steve has been playing the blues for the past thirty years and is one of Canada's top exponents of West Coast blues guitar.

56

66

72

76

Born in Michigan but a Mississippi resident for more than twenty years, Mick is Vice Chairman of the Blues Foundation. He also fronts Taylor Made Blues Band, who will be touring the UK in July 2018.

ZOOT MONEY PT1. (UK) .............

Zoot has been playing the blues since 1960. He may not be as well known outside the scene as the Rolling Stones but his pedigree is outstanding. Check out his Wikipedia to see the notable bands he has been associated with.

REVIEWS

80

62

ALBUMS .......................................

85 More reviews than any other blues magazine.

SHOWTIME ................................

FESTIVALS – Ain’t Nothin Like The Blues (USA), Dark Season Blues (NO) Blues at Sea (SE) and North Wales Soul & Blues Festival (UK).

GIGS – Chris Rea, Erja Lyytinen, Kirk Fletcher, Grainne Duff y, John Mayall & Buddy Whittington, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Kirk Fletcher, Skinny Molly, Mike Vernon & The Mighty Combo and Walter Trout.

117

PLAYING THE BLUES IN ITALY

Verbals: Rowland Jones

In March 2007 I moved to Italy with a specific idea in mind - to start a new life with my wife Lesley whilst getting back to the music that I started with many years before - the blues. Having lived in central Italy some years before, I knew about Trasimeno Blues but I didn't realise that this was just the tip of the 'blues iceberg' in Italy.

Gianluca di Maggio had grown up listening to jazz and blues courtesy of his father's and his brother's collection of records and it was when he moved to the small town of Passignano on Lake Trasimeno in 1995 he had the idea of establishing Trasimeno Blues in an area where the relaxed pace of life would create an equally laid back festival with 'no barriers between the audience and the performers'. Since that time the idea has grown to include their own venue 'Onda Road' and Bianco Rosso e Blues - an autumn festival which combines cool music with culinary and oenological delights of

the area - which I can say from personal experience, as both a performer, spectator and consumer, is a great combination!

Since 1995 Trasimeno Blues has been host to many of the biggest names in blues - Johnny Winter, Robben Ford and John Mayall - a name that constantly crops up in any conversation about blues in Italy - nice to know that our 'godfather of the blues' has a massive following in the home of the 'godfather'!

Trasimeno Blues also gives an opportunity for local talent such as The House Band, and Mauro Magrini as well as the bigger names on the Italian blues scene such as Nick Becattini and Fabio Treves.

One such artist, who is gradually gaining a reputation outside of Italy, is Francesco Piu who I had the pleasure of sitting in with at a Bianco Rosso e Blues event a few years ago. This Sardinian musician grew up on a diet of John Mayall, Hendrix, Clapton, Freddie King and many others. Supporting the likes

Walking Trees at Tropea Blues. Enzo Tropepe – Guitar, Teresa Auddino – Vocals.

Photo: Rowland Jones

of Doyle Bramhall II, Tommy Emmanuel, Robert Cray and Eric Bibb (who produced Piu's album Ma-Moo tunes) has brought Piu's music to a wider audience. That's not to say that there isn't a big audience for the blues in Italy. Francesco firmly believes that the 'blues is a universal language' and though its origin is in the southern states of the US, it has been taken into the hearts of Italian musicians who have put their own 'cultural stamp' on it.

Rosario Claps is another blues musician who sees a relationship between the southern states of the US and Southern Europe. Rosario fronts Blue Cat Blues on vocals, harmonica and washboard with Donato Corbo on guitar and the solid rhythm section of Sal Genovese on bass and Valerio Lotito on drums. As well as running a very busy band, Rosario also finds time with Donato to organise the South Italy Blues Connection which they set up in 2011 with the intention of uniting the many bands who exist in the southern part of Italy such as Walking Trees, Max Stratos and the Border Radio, Red Onions and many, many more. It is not only in the south of Italy that the blues is popular. Max de Bernardi and Veronica Sbergia from Milan do a great line in rootsy blues. The Blind Catfish from Modena is another fine band. The late Rudy Rotta returned to his birthplace near Verona at the age of 18 and began a long and successful career which included working with Brian Auger, John Mayall, Robben Ford and Peter Green. Another bluesman from the North is Lorenz Zadro, who lives in the small town of Cerea not far from Verona: a young guy who knows a lot about the blues and particularly the blues in Italy. Again influenced heavily by his father's love of music and in particular the blues, Lorenz has a passion for the blues which inspired him and a few of other enthusiasts to found Blues Made in Italy in March 2010. Lorenz and his team also began planning the first National convention in a bar in Cerea. Though they were very optimistic about the idea they didn't expect over 600 people to arrive - many driving from the south of Italy to be there and the annual 'raduno' has grown to the extent that last year 4000 people attended. Lorenz's commitment to the blues and his band the True Blues band is a typical example of the Italian blues musicians I have met, and he has done some amazing things.

In 2014, a few days before his 82nd birthday Leo 'Bud' Welch released his first album and in the same year Lorenz organised a number of concerts in Italy. Now at the age of 85 Bud is touring the world with a Blues Made in Italy sticker proudly displayed on his guitar!

It is the work of people like Lorenz, Francesco, Rosario and Gianluca that has made the blues such a successful movement in Italy. I was fortunate during my time in Italy to play many festivals, and have many happy memories of the music, the people and the fun - celebrating my 60th birthday performing at the Marco Fiume Blues Passion festival set up by Maria Giulia Sorrentino in memory of her musician son who died at a tragically young age -- Playing at IBC in Parma where the music was great, the people were lovely but the mosquitoes were massive – Sitting in with Nine Below Zero at Etna Blues playing on the lower slopes of the volcano with its constant rumbling in the background –Performing at the British Blues festival and bumping into musicians from Manchester – Headlining at Tropea blues trying to resist the wonderful food before going on stage – and finally playing a gig with Flavinho, a Brazilian percussionist, Ismaila Mbaye from Senegal on djembe and Moustapha 'Sam' Zembele on Kora! Happy Days!

I wanted to write this article because of the way I was welcomed into the Blues in Italy – which is not just about the really big names like Zucchero, and the late Pino Daniele but about the people at the grass roots who keep the music alive in small venues and in the many festivals Torrita di Siena; Pistoia, Sarteano, Campania etc. etc.

A huge thank you to all my friends out there - the musicians who I played with regularly- Guido Pietrella, Gianluca Meconcelli, Enrico Giovagnola, Giacomo Rossetti, and Matteo Giglio. And those guys who keep putting on live music simply because they love it – in particular Maurizio Martini who runs La Loggetta in Paciano; Chionco at the Caffe Venezia in Chiusi, and Roberto at Tjmory bar. All of you guys are doing it right! Thank you.

www.southitalybluesconnection.it www.bluesmadeinitaly.com www.rowlandjonesmusic.com

SOUTHERN PAVILION

JOSH SMITH

FRI 9TH FEBRUARY • Doors - 7pm

THE BLUES BAND

THURS 22ND FEBRUARY • Doors - 7pm

THE NEW GENERATION

DANNY GILES, RED BUTLER, BRENT HUTCHINSON BAND

SAT 24TH FEBRUARY • Doors - 7pm

WILL WILDE BAND

WEDS 14TH MARCH • Doors - 7pm

LIL JIMMY REED

WEDS 28TH MARCH • Doors - 7pm

Worthing Pier

SOUTHERN PAVILION, Worthing BN11 3PX (at the end of the Pier)

Tickets available from www.worthingpier.co.uk facebook.com/worthingpiersouthernpavilion twitter - @WorthingPierPav

STEPHEN DALE PETIT

FRIDAY 6TH APRIL • Doors - 7pm

GENO WASHINGTON

& THE RAM JAM BAND • SAT 7TH APRIL• Doors - 7pm

CHRIS ANTONIK

WEDS 11TH APRIL • Doors - 7pm

DAVE KELLY & MAGGIE BELL

THURS 19TH APRIL• Doors - 7pm

BLUES CARAVAN TOUR 2018

BERNARD ALLISON/VAJA SKY/MIKE ZITO

MONDAY 23RD APRIL • Doors - 7pm

Julian Burdock − Suzdal Fest

BLUES IN RUSSIA

Verbals: Boris A Litvintsev Visual: Rich Serra

Well, well, let's continue the story about the adventures of British Blues in Russia. During the previous season we shot almost every gig at a professional level. Danny Giles’s gig footage is completely edited, subtitles and credits added, sound is mixed and it’s waiting to be released on DVD/2CD’s soon. The editing of the footage of two or three more gigs is about to be completed. Also, we undertook a series of acoustic sessions; captured them on video and carefully recorded them in the studio of one of the biggest music stores. We aim to keep shooting every act in the future and it all looks very promising. And it will definitely be released on my own label as a part of the British Blues Masters series of CDs/DVDs.

It seems like it’s getting more and more exciting, more risky, more adventurous and more dangerous…

As planned, the eighth in a row, the autumn season of 2017 was opened by the Todd Sharpville tour. There was a lot to do in what was initially scheduled for seven days. On the first two days Todd played in Moscow at two completely different concerts – one with a band in the big hall of the Central House of Artists and another one – an almost intimate acoustic gig in a cozy jazz cellar in the historic center of the city, in the famous JAM-club. Two more concerts were planned, one in St. Petersburg and another one in the town of Polyarnye Zori located in the Far North, some 1900 km from Moscow and about 200 km North of the Polar circle. For the sake of these concerts, we had to drive more than 3,800 km both ways in a rented 4x4, taking a fascinating video blog and shooting some great footage for the pilot TV series along the way. It’d be a mix of TopGear and Spinal Tap!

Everything about the forthcoming season was planned, agreed and confirmed months before, but right before the start of the tour, the club in St. Petersburg informed me that they “going to undertake a re-branding” and under the pressure of circumstances the owner was going to change the format of the

PART III

jazz/blues club to a Karaoke Bar... This is how we lost Todd’s gig in St. Pete… and all other gigs scheduled in the city till the end of the season. I can understand the venue owners. Alas, one or two, well, even three sold-out concerts of foreign performers a month can’t cover costs of keeping a venue going strong, ‘coz local musicians do not attract enough public to ensure venue’s breakeven, especially if it’s a free entry event. Perhaps a karaoke bar will bring profit for the owners ... but what is the joy of it for us? We lost a good venue where so many great acts from the UK played over the years, there’s one good blues/jazz club less in the city. There were only two or three. Now one’s down. Where will my British acts be playing in the city next season? And what shall we do now?

Yes, we lost a gig in St. Pete, but Todd found a great alternative – he was busking almost on every corner with local buskers and we’ve got loads of funny footage of it along with footage of amazing sights and attractions of St. Petersburg. Next day we drove no less than 1200 km up North and enjoyed great sunny weather burning tires on the road, snaking between the forested hills and wondrous lakes. About an hour before midnight we arrived in town, enjoyed supper in a café and fell asleep in the hotel. Next day I found out that the person I’d discussed the gig with hadn’t got permission for it from the top official and didn’t even bother to inform me that the date was given to a Cossack choir… Great! They all conspired or what? Do you understand now what it is like to promote blues in Russia at your own peril, risk and expense? We shot some amazing videos, met a few old friends of mine and enjoyed great lamb chops and wine in good company on the terrace of a nice log cottage belonging to a beautiful ski resort complex. No official gig tonight? Why not to play for a few friends? I’m positive that we need to return at the height of the ski season.

Next day we got up early to meet the dawn and the sunrise over the mountains, it was unforgettable to see the first rays of

the sun shining over the violet mountains, reflected in the smooth silver surface of the lake. Amazing! Before we left the cottage we enjoyed the weather and barbequed fresh fish. Two days of driving back to Moscow were full of adventures deserving of a separate story.

On returning to Moscow we joined forces with no other than Julian Burdock, just returned from St.Pete, and played a midday live set in the studio of one of the major radio stations and later Julian played his first gig in the Central House of Artists. Needless to say that the gig was professionally recorded and captured on video. Let Julian speak up.

Julian Burdock: “My last tour of Russia I've got with Hot Draft Productions and Boris “The Blade” was a complete blast. I came straight from the airport to play at the Her Majesty Ambassador’s Residence. The next night I found some VIP tickets to see the ‘Spass Tower Military Tattoo Moscow’ in Red Square. That was amazing. Then I spent a couple of days in the wonderful Saint Petersburg. After experiencing some unforgettable sightseeing I got up and jammed with some great musicians. Back to Moscow I've played in the Central House of Artists concert hall and was joined by my dear old friend Todd. Next two days there was an amazing one-man-band gig I played in B.B. King’s blues club and a full-band show in the Rhythm and Blues Café, which were totally awesome nights. I managed to jam with singer Ezhevika Spirkina, the leader of Monrovian ethno/world-music band Oyme. Next day I shot some great video with Boris in a music shop then in the evening went to a traditional Russian hot spa called Banya where they beat you with oak brooms. It was extremely hot in banya and there were two huge barrels with warm and cold water to chill out. I loved it! They filmed it and I think it’d be something to look at. On the last day before the last concert in JAM-club we had an amazing barbeque in the forest in Moscow suburbs, a proper Russian forest full of wolves and ghosts. Then I was back on the aeroplane to old Blighty. I love Russia, always looking forward to new experience and new adventures there and can't wait to my next trip.”

Due to unforeseen circumstances Will Johns was unable to come and all the gigs were cancelled. The next blues invader was newcomer Rosco Levee, who was rushing

very early to Heathrow from Broadstairs where he played an acoustic set with another British Blues Invader Marcus Bonfanti, and happened to get stuck halfway in a broken taxi, and missed his flight… There was a desperate hope that he’d catch the next one two hours later, but they shut the aircraft door right in front of his face. Bugger! The most important gig in the Central House of Artists was cancelled at a very short 6 hours notice. Huge loss. Loads of disappointed fans… Rosco took the overnight flight and arrived next morning to play three scheduled gigs. Rosco Levee: “Russia... what can I say. It was an experience. Coming from the west, it was a bit of a shock. The city has a kind of suppressed feel. Moscow itself is a beautiful city, with a lot to offer the tourist seeking amazing buildings and architecture. The underground system is a wondrous place. It really gives you a feel for how passionate and proud the Russian people are. My favourite part although very brief was the market in the south of Moscow, the hustle and bustle away from the over heavy government force in the center made it feel somehow more relaxed. With many great and colorful fruits and vegetables, fish and meat, food and clothes. Many bargains to be had too. The Kremlin is obviously where all the tourists flock. It's a magnificent group of buildings, awe inspiring. The roads in Moscow are lethal, there seems to be very little order and it has the feeling of every man/ woman motorist for himself. I'm glad the underground system is so diverse. The musicians I met were lovely guys. Very good players and although the language barrier was always present.... the strength of music being a universal language shone through. The venues and equipment were good, better than some UK venues I've played. The audience were very appreciative and I did well with merch.... everyone that could speak a little English wanted to talk with me and I signed many autographs and tried to talk to as many people as I could after the shows. We had some great food over there and coffee!! Boris brews a great coffee!... The Beer was cheap, cigarettes too. I'd love come again and play, I made some good friends over there and there's still plenty more of Moscow to see as well as Russia itself.”

Check for updates at www.hordraftproduction.com

FRENCH BLUES

PART II

Verbals: Iain Patience Visual: Laura Carbone

If there’s a thriving, expanding blues scene throughout France, much of the reason for this must be the festival season which is long and seems constantly to be lengthening year on year. With events kicking off in around March, it’s still perfectly possible to find decent, good-quality gigs and weekenders somewhere in the hexagon (France) as late as November. Even smaller towns get in on the act with one of my own neighbouring towns, little more than a large village in truth, pushing a locally subsidised, and well-supported annual blues-based event in mid-November most years. Montembouef’s Imprevu Festival is a typical example of the French love of blues music, with a small, intimate event focussed on the local village hall, and weather permitting, an outdoor element that takes up most of the town-square. This year’s event included a trio of players who all featured at Chicago Blues Festival this summer: Carl and Laretha Weathersby together with guitarist Rico McFarland. The festival is part of what is locally known as the ‘Imprevu Festival,’ and generally manages to book a few touring US blues artists each year. Organised by a team of local volunteers, it features the usual French melange of local, French national and international musicians covering blues, soul and hints of more rock-infused music. Like most events of its kind in France, it relies fairly heavily on the support of both the local community and the financial muscle and subsidy of the wider regional and departmental authorities. In an era of financial squeeze and uncertainty, this funding is currently becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee, though most festival organisers confirm they will keep pushing the buttons and chasing the budget-holders. As a result, there is every reason to remain optimistic and expect that funding in some form or other is likely to continue. Many local

businesses remain prepared to offer support in return for a small advert or mention in festival brochures, adverts and programmes.

In Thouars, a pleasant town about sixty kilometres South of the Loire, Erick Diard and a team of volunteers work tirelessly throughout the year to chase-up and secure acts for one of the earliest annual festivals, ‘Terri’ Thouars Blues Festival.’ This is an event I get to each year, always a genuinely enjoyable, laid-back and accessible gig with the usual range of players from the area, the country and overseas. Bands who have featured in recent years include Georgia’s excellent Delta Moon, a dual slide-guitar outfit with a strong back catalogue and great sound, veteran acoustic New Jersey bluesman Toby Walker, and New Mexico player, Cooper CW Ayon, a guy with his heart and soul clearly rooted in the music of the North Mississippi hill country, and for 2018, a repeat visit by US-Scottish import, acoustic bluesman, Dik Banovich, a guy who works the blues with a hint of Americana in the mix, and is deservedly growing in national popularity.

Erick Diard admits that each year the funding round is becoming increasingly tougher. But, despite the uphill struggle to secure support, he too remains basically optimistic and believes the music itself is growing in both stature and popularity in the area and throughout France. He looks out for artists who are already touring and working in Europe and aims to add them to the billing in a bid to contain costs as much as possible: ‘If somebody is already booked out here, I try to make contact and do a deal with them. If they have a few blank days without work and they are not too far off, it is often possible to come to an agreement, which is something that keeps costs to a minimum and at a realistic level. Otherwise, just the travel costs for many artists and bands would make it very hard,’ he confirms. He also points out that in France, unlike

most other European countries, there is a need for festival organisers (often volunteer–run associations) to account to the French national authorities for the taxation and social charges (pension, health etc.,) of the artists booked, a remarkably expensive impediment for many that in reality can virtually double the cost of a booking.

This is a pattern repeated almost endlessly throughout the country. Robert Mauries, the man currently behind France’s principal blues festival at Cahors, also confirms that each year gets just that bit tougher, but like others, he too remains optimistic and with his band of volunteer helpers, works from around September each year to put together a festival package that is both engaging and attractive and always fronted by at least one major international blues artist. The success of this event seems assured, though Mauries concedes that with a need to find a new festival site now looming, it is never an easy trick to pull off.

Against this backdrop, if there is one, single person who has influenced the shape, form and expansion of blues music in France it may well be Philipe Langlois, a name known to few but of extraordinary influence and importance throughout Europe and not just his native France. Back in the mid-80s, Langlois took a chance based on his own personal love of the music, and created a new blues recording label, DixieFrog. Based in Paris, the label has not only secured a toehold but grown and proved itself to be one of the leading labels globally in the blues music world.

To give just a flavour of the artists he has invested in and supported, Popa Chubby, Duke Robilliard, Tommy Castro, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, Leon Redbone and a raft of others have all had music released by DixieFrog in Europe: a back-catalogue that surely speaks for itself.

‘Blues music is the music my father used to listen to when I was young. I am fond of it,’ he simply explains when asked why he launched the label. ‘It’s not easy to say how many artists are on the roster at any time. Because the recorded music market is almost dead now, we try to rebuild a new way of working, to add the artists’ concert activity to the new album releases. Now we only release an album if we also take care of the artists’ booking activities. So the roster

changes quite quickly at times,’ he adds.

When I ask what he considers to be his greatest blues achievement, he immediately responds by singling out another DixieFrog artist with an international following and reputation, US-acoustic bluesman, Eric Bibb: ‘Eric has the qualities and talent; his life is 100% coherent with what he writes; he really thinks what he says in song. Musically, he is the real link between the deep blues of the past and the new century. I also believe he is one of the few artists who can still bring something new to this style of music.’ Bibb, of course, works with DixieFrog alongside leading French, Parisian blues-harpman, Jean Jaques Milteau, and their joint effort ‘Lead Belly’s Gold,’ was a recent, notable, international success. I myself, caught them both out on the road, supporting the release last year at Cahors Blues Festival.

Looking ahead to the future, Langlois says: ‘I’m not sure that blues music still exists. It was a music linked to a certain period which is now over. I prefer to say it’s music inspired by the blues nowadays.’ But if this seems superficially pessimistic, he is quick to correct that suggestion. Speaking about the blues in France, he says: ‘The future is difficult to say. First, there are few artists (French) who can sing in French, making it sound like blues, except maybe Bill Deraime and Benoit Blue Boy. So many of the French blues artists sing in English, many of them good, especially as guitarists, but maybe too close to their own models. It is difficult to create a personal style for a French artist singing in English. From time to time, a joint venture can work. (Hard not to think here of Bibb and Milteau.) Ventures between French and US artists can be interesting,’ he believes.

To confirm his belief in this possible future, he adds that there will be a release dropping in the near future, a venture featuring leading French bluesman and guitarist Fred Chapelier and New Orleans’ bluesman and singer Dale Blade. This he considers to be an interesting and promising connection with the album due to be released on the DixieFrog/ Borderline Blues label, in March 2018.

And to conclude, looking back and ahead, Langlois draws his thinking together, is optimistic and says: ‘Blues is so strong that the style, even if reinvented, will never die. It’s in our DNA now, all over the world.’

Opposite: Festival Promoter and Organisers Robert and Giselle Maurice

BETH HART AND JOE BONAMASSA BLACK COFFEE AND BLUE NOTES PROVOGUE

The duo reunite for a new album Black Coffee and Pete Sargeant has all the details.

Four years on from the very successful See Saw album pairing of Joe and Beth (and associates) we have a new studio set from the Mascot label with fresh choices of material. This, readers is Rhythm & Blues as we used to know it, long before Space Jam and the Vocoded likes of Jason Derulo…it’s where rawness (Beth’s trump card) and sophistication, a major feature of Bonamassa’s guitar art combine. Kevin Shirley produces but there is no real work to be done on encouraging this musical partnership, the magic is there. My certainty on this is cemented by my having seen the act give a blistering show at Hampton Court Palace.

The title track Black Coffee brings back memories of an Old Grey Whistle Test appearance by Humble Pie in which the late Steve Marriott and a female chorus marinating this Ike & Tina Turner number with sensual aplomb. Luckily the film of this performance can still be located. Not long ago I was talking about this footage with Steve’s daughter, Mollie Marriott. Not bad as an inspiration and in time may the duo catch up with the works of Bobby Womack. Bonamassa’s task on these new recordings is to marshal the band and light a fire under Hart; I bet quite early on he is deciding which guitar he is going to use on a particular cut! The sub-plot of this series of records is to revitalise classic songs of the past, some well-known but many not so familiar. Who better to do it? This

really is what you might term the Ry Cooder side of Bonamassa’s works, how often has that artist brought us a forgotten song with a new sprinkling of fairy dust?

As regards personnel, regular attenders of JB shows will already appreciate the talents of Anton Fig Drums/Percussion, Ron Dziubla Saxophone, Lee Thornburg Horn Arrangements/Trumpet/ Trombone, the fantastic Reese Wynans Keyboards, Michael Rhodes Bass, Rob McNelley Rhythm Guitar, Paulie Cerra Saxophone, Mahalia Barnes Backing Vocals, Jade Macrae Backing Vocals and Juanita Tippins Backing vocals. Fig is key to the arrangements, of course.

Give It Everything You Got is a number from a 1971 LP by Edgar Winter’s White Trash. As I know from talking to Edgar, those early fusions of soul and rock ‘n’ roll stand up well today and back then he would mix such numbers with Ray Charles material and John D Loudermilk’s Tobacco Road when taking that line up to the stage. It’s a bit of a sitter for Joe and Beth. A sheet of wah-wah guitar and crisp horns provide a setting for Beth and her chorale to testify, .and testify they do. Joe uses his wide wah-wah sweep to wail as a jazzy horn chart blazes away. He does sound a lot like Eric Gales in attack mode, they can both set fire to a tune.

Damn Your Eyes plunges straight into deep blues territory with wild guitar and electric piano. Hart is in complete control as she

sings it out on this late 80s Etta James workout. Bonamassa’s guitar spits out fills here and there and a lot of space is used compared to the blitzkrieg opening number. He holds nothing back on his solo, fast trills race up the neck. Beth makes the song hers, no problem.

Black Coffee is set to a laconic tempo, loping along as the Tina part is sung out by Hart and the backing vocals. The Hammond is as church as you could ask for. Lullaby Of The Leaves comes from the musical Hello Dolly and was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald. Initially here Hart evokes Julie London. It shares with Summertime that humid summer evening mood, with passing jazz chords for colour. Listen to Beth cruise into the middle eight over tinkling piano and its resolve back to the verse! Maybe the best vocal here. Joe opts not to solo until the coda and then in a fuzzy tone that sings out over the descending chords. Double stops abound. Why Don’t You Do It Right has the wah-wah threading into the stomping NYC style arrangement. The song is a stylish put-down job and Hart does it justice. The guitar break is biting – a gibson ES 335? – and judiciously performed. A real finger-snapper of a song. Saved was made popular by Lavern Baker is a storming number and the band go hell-for-leather on this gospel outing. It’s a tad too frantic for this listener but exciting all the same. Next up we have Sitting On Top Of The World which is a song we have

all heard far too often, so for me not a brilliant choice. Joy was I think written by Lucinda Williams, whose performance at Cornbury last year struck me as magnificent. It’s not a million miles from Black Coffee in feel and fits in this programme very well. The heavy backbeat will get the handclaps going if played live at any point. Joe is playing here as he does on Mahalia’s Betty Davis record. The closest I have heard him to Jeff Beck, batty hammer-ons the giveaway… Soul On Fire hits Southern Soul territory and is melodic as well as hard-hitting, a great choice for this album; Addicted comes from a 2007 album by Waldeck, no dust on this one. Hart heard it and wanted to customise it. The tempo is close to reggae

and Beth takes an early grip on the tune. Joe makes the best of the tempo as he doesn’t usually get near to this pacing and spins some fuzz runs. Closing cut on some editions is Baby I Love You, which I first heard by The Shirelles, it’s a Bacharach composition.

How does Beth get her head in the right space to put this material over? “One of the things Jeff Beck had said to me once that I thought was so wonderful,” explains Hart, was “as soon as you get comfortable, and if you stay there, you’re just gonna start dying as an artist. And I feel that one of the gifts that I’ve got with working with Joe is that I’m always uncomfortable − in a good way. “It’s akin to providing a painter with the finest canvas and top quality paint and brushes.

Recording ‘in the room’ is an essential part of the process, to capture that electricity rather than layer up the tracks and complete them that way. “It’s really predicated on the vocals,” Bonamassa explains. “We can’t cut these tunes without Beth singing and once she starts singing, it’s the glue that inspires us to get the extra 10% out of the playing. If we just cut them and sang later, the magic wouldn’t be there.”

The potential for further outings knows no limits – my humble suggestions for next time are Moby Grape’s Can’t Be So Bad but moreover Esther Philips’ Cherry Red. (You can bet that Joe knows about Joe Beck, not just Jeff!).

BEYOND AUSTIN’S CITY LIMITS

Verbals: Mickey Griffiths Visual: Todd Wolfson

Back in the days before MTV it could be difficult to see your favourite musicians on TV. In the UK, we had Top Of The Pops for the younger crowd, while the more discerning viewer had The Old Grey Whistle Test. In the USA, they had Austin City Limits (ACL). Broadcast weekly from the State Capital of Texas, ACL was a syndicated show on the Public Broadcasting Service that brought together most of the country’s most celebrated artists to play live, beaming them straight into the living rooms and consciousness of a generation. ACL helped to spread the word that Austin was the ‘Live Music Capital of The World’. That reputation for live music has only been enhanced since the birth of the internet, which has helped that word spread around the globe, the 6th Street area especially benefitting from being at the epicentre of the juggernaut that the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival has become. Most inductees to the Austin Music Hall of Fame weren’t born and raised in Austin but regard it as home. Even those that the city claim as their own like Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin and Stevie Ray Vaughan (SRV) were born well outside the city limits and yet there’s something that has, since at least the 1960s, attracted musicians from Texas and beyond. They have always been appreciated in Austin, as can be seen on the banks of Lake Austin where you’ll find a statue of SRV even though he was born and raised 200 miles away in Dallas. This was the city where, musically at least, SRV got his education. Antone’s nightclub in the undesirable area of town that, these days, is central to the SXSW was his Alma Mater. Forced to sit outside because of his tender years he would nonetheless tag along with his elder brother Jimmie in order to hear the likes of Muddy Waters, BB King, John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed playing beyond the walls. When Jimmie’s Band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, became the house band at Antone’s, it was Jimmie that persuaded the formidable Albert King to let his kid brother jam with him. Having seen the kid play Albert was amazed. Almost overnight, Austin had another great they

could claim as their own. Antone’s became a favourite hangout for touring bands, the likes of The Rolling Stones and U2.

SRV’s only number one hit, Crossfire, was written by Bill Carter and his wife Ruth Ellsworth-Carter. It happened while they were jamming with Double Trouble (SRV’s band) while Stevie was away on tour. "That song was written with the band playing loud and with me screaming into a microphone,” explains Bill, who regularly plays an acoustic set at Antone’s, now situated on East 5th Street. It’s a set that has been born out of necessity. Such is his reputation among his peers that Bill is regularly invited to open for the likes of John Mayall, though he laments the fact that he doesn’t attract the kind of billing that will allow him to take his full band, The Blame, on tour with him.

“I realised that I can't just sit there and scream these songs with an electric guitar. That would just be foolish.” Mindful of this, Bill reimagined the songs so he can perform them on his own with an acoustic guitar. "I rewrote them,” he says, “So in a way I wrote these songs twice."

Having adapted his repertoire to such a degree that he can continue to tour as a solo artist without any detriment to his songs, it’s not surprising that reactions to the acoustic sets have been overwhelmingly positive. After all, Bill and Ruth weren’t inducted into the Austin Music Hall Of Fame in 2013 without good reason. In the ‘Live Music Capital Of The World’ that’s a huge accolade. As is having over 200

“I REALISED THAT I CAN'T JUST SIT THERE AND SCREAM THESE SONGS WITH AN ELECTRIC GUITAR. THAT WOULD JUST BE FOOLISH.”

artists record your songs over the years, including artists such as Waylon Jennings, Robert Palmer and Counting Crows.

“There are songs I’ve written that other people have recorded versions of that I really like,” he explains. “A lot of the time I'll be touring with people like John Mayall and playing big theatres where I’m not even billed. There I am on my own performing songs with which everyone in the audience is familiar. They’re then telling me 'that version of Crossfire blew my mind!’ I always get asked, ‘Which CD has that on'?”

It’s not just the songs with which the audiences should be familiar. Born in Rhode Island and raised in the North West states of Washington and Oregon, Bill Carter moved to Austin in 1976. His great grandfather was the first cousin of AP Carter, making Bill a distant cousin of the ‘first family’ of country music that are so intertwined with the history of Johnny Cash and country music in general. He says he wasn’t aware of that while he was growing up, so it wasn’t something he saw as a big deal. Instead of trading on the reputation and name of his famous, distant relatives perhaps he had destiny on his side when he hitchhiked his way to Nashville over forty years ago. Whatever it was, since he did so, Bill has played in bands alongside people such as Flea (Red Hot Chilli Peppers), Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top). He tells tales of hanging out with Keith Richards and of staying at Sting’s apartment while he was in London. He’s also close friends with Johnny Depp, alongside whom he appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman. The appearance has received several million views on YouTube and was watched live by millions more.

Such exposure is richly deserved. The title for his song Why Get Up, recorded by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, came when he was five months behind with his rent, his car wouldn't start and he felt like there was no reason to get out of bed. Such experiences serve as a reminder that exposure on TV and YouTube doesn’t pay the bills. As he plays at Antone’s there is a bucket for tips, just like with most bands you’ll see playing live each night across the country. He also has copies of his highly acclaimed 2015 album Innocent Victims & Evil Companions on sale. He jokes with the

crowd, “It doesn’t seem fair that for $10 you can get something that cost me $50,000!”

That CD is not the one the audiences in the foyers of theatres on the John Mayall tour were so eager to ask him about. When asked on which CD the acoustic versions of Crossfire, Willie The Wimp, Why Get Up etc appear Bill had to repeat a disappointing answer. “There isn't one." All that changed in late 2017 when Bill Carter released a self-titled album featuring him playing his own songs that he had re-written. The result is a triumph. Bill's voice, strong, emotive and wizened delivers every word on the album in a way that makes you feel as if you're in the room and he's talking to you. The emotion of Anything Made Of Paper, a song about what type of presents he was allowed to give to wrongly convicted (and now released) friend Damien Echols in prison, is powerful enough in its original form. Strip it back to just Bill and his guitar and you get a poignancy like few songs ever achieve. That song alone is likely to leave your mouth wide open and a tear in your eye, while being simultaneously uplifting. In the case of the West Memphis Three that’s something very few could have achieved.

“I know people will appreciate the record,” says Bill. “The feedback at the shows is enough to tell me that.” It’s a record that feels like a celebration of all that’s good about Bill and Ruth Ellsworth-Carter. If this collection of songs gets the appreciation it deserves then it will be heralded as a celebration of all that's good about Austin. They’re undeniably the favourite songwriting couple of the ‘Live Music Capital Of The World’, and true to form Bill Carter is an example of true songwriting majesty. The genius lies in how much gets delivered in such a short space of time. In the age where the internet dictates that seemingly every contemporary musician heads for Austin for the conferences and performances at SXSW it would only be a good thing if more of them discover Bill on his home turf and then spread the word farther and wider. Never mind the conferences, a masterclass is available at first hand at Antone’s. Many of the musicians at SXSW are likely to have been surreptitiously inspired by Bill and Ruth already through the work of other artists. Having reimagined their songs, it’s time for Bill Carter to be discovered by a whole new generation, not just in Austin’s city limits.

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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THE NEW YORK – ROBERT JOHNSON BLUES CONNECTION

Verbals: Brian Kramer

FRIDAY SEPT 8TH

Caffe Vivaldi is one of those landmark “coffee house” venues that were a staple within the Village scene. Unfortunately it is one of the last places that is preserved and devoted to the music just like the old days, but also on the same note; thank goodness it is still here!

It is on Jones Street, the very block infamously captured on the album cover Freeweelin’ Bob Dylan, with Bob clinging tightly to his girl, Suze Rotolo, bopping down the wintery street. Just around the corner is Bleecker Street with Matt Umanov’s a few steps away.

PART II

Zeke had his celebration for the 100year anniversary of Robert Johnson’s birth here six years ago and it was packed and bustling with incredible artists and Robert Johnson loving fans alike. I attended and wrote about this great event for an article in Blues Matters titled “The Subway to Robert Johnson” in 2011.

The tattered photo Zeke stumbled across while randomly searching through vintage guitars on Ebay had been officially published in Vanity Fair Magazine then and was getting quite a bit of attention. It was heavily criticized in the Blues historian

Zeke, Bill and Brian

community and Zeke was starting to receive a backlash of negative attacks, questioning the authenticity of the photo, along with Zeke’s credibility unfairly. It was a heavy burden amongst this great celebration.

I show up early to Vivaldi get some things together with Zeke, but am urged by a purposeful man guarding the entrance to wait outside as an interview being filmed with Zeke for Netflix is running a bit overtime. Netflix apparently is making a documentary on Robert Johnson and the producer got hold of a copy of Zeke’s book and was simply captivated by it.

The film crew had been following Zeke around the whole day and wanted to interview as well as shoot some of the live music performances at this event. Moments later another person arrives and is also ushered to the side. I recognize him immediately as the internationally known and incredible jazz guitarist; Bill Frisell and we strike up a little conversation surrounding Zeke, this environment and all our connections in between. It’s easy to fall into when you have someone like Zeke in common and it already somehow feels like we are old friends.

Bill was interviewed a few weeks earlier in an article titled; On Books That Connect and said this; “…I finished a book just last night that was just incredible – it’s quite an occasion when I finish a book. (Laughs.) It’s a book by Zeke Schein, a friend of mine who works at Matt Umanov Guitars. [He] wrote a very personal account of his finding a photograph of Robert Johnson [Portrait of a Phantom: The Story of Robert Johnson's Lost Photograph, Pelican Publishing]. Zeke is a Johnson fanatic; he sits at the front desk of the store, and he’s the first person you see when you walk in. He’s usually playing a guitar, and it’s usually a Robert Johnson song. Ten years ago he was looking on the internet — maybe looking at guitars — and he saw something about old photos. That’s when he saw this photo of Johnson standing next to Johnny Shines. The book is the saga of his finding the photo, including how all these blues scholars came up to him and questioned the authenticity of the photo and accused him of being in it only for the money. Of course he wasn’t in it for the money; he loves Robert Johnson and made sure that Johnson’s family got the photograph.”

We enter Vivaldi and are greeted warmly by Zeke and the producers with introductions & Zeke asks Bill while he is here if he would do a little interview to be included in the Netflix doc. Bill seemed a little caught off guard but agreed to do it and as I sat there, I heard this man gently speak of how Zeke brought a community together with his passion and love of blues, guitars and Robert Johnson.

When asked about the deal with the devil mythology that surrounds Blues and Robert Johnson’s music he hesitates for a moment, then responded; “I don’t know about the devil… but I would think that anyone, including myself that decides to commit to a life of music is making some kind of deal with some kind of devils along the way… I guess it’s the same for Zeke and finding this photograph; he had to make his own deal with his devils when he decided to go down this road and take responsibility for this photograph.”

The Caffe Vivaldi book release event was bustling with incredible local performers and friends/supporters from past, present and future, beginning to end, concluding with a jam-packed encore of Johnson’s classic; Sweet Home Chicago.

Zeke opened the event with a small talk, aptly reading an excerpt from his book; “Music is the heart and soul of my community. It’s our language and our common bond. Through music we transform spaces, transcend time, comfort, awaken, and heal. Through music we communicate with each other and our creator.”

WEDNESDAY SEPT 6TH

I’d been in New York for a day now, arriving from Sweden, a transplanted Brooklynite on the Scandinavian Blues Scene for over two decades. Just a few days before, I was part of an extraordinary event in Stockholm at The Folklore Center run by the legendary Izzy Young. It was a viewing of the film “Shake Em’ On Down”, a documentary about bluesman Fred McDowell produced by Blues writer/historian Scott Barretta who flew in from Mississippi for this. I helped organize, arranged the live music, and performed at this event. It was somehow a very fitting departure from Sweden, towards NYC because being in this standing room only, packed house full of Blues lovers had a direct connection to New York, Mississippi, Blues. Izzy Young,

now 89 years old, started the whole Folk/ Blues Bag boom in the mid 1950’s with the advent of his Folklore Center on McDougal Street, putting on regular concerts there with artists like McDowell, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Son House, Furry Lewis…

It was now time to see Zeke Schein and as I walked up Bleecker Street, I paused for a moment like I always do to gaze at the vintage eye candy in the window display of Matt Umanov Guitars.

This time there are a collection of guitars from the 20’s and 30’s recently found in the elevator shaft of the store that have not been touched since acquired in the 60’s; various budget guitars of that period adorned with flowery stenciled patterns, Stella’s and Stromberg’s. Even if you are not a musician, you gotta love this place!

I spy Zeke through the plate glass window and come in, greeted warmly as usual. We know each other for a long time, 27 years at least when he first started at Matt’s after responding to an ad in the New York Times.

I’ve bought a few guitars here over the years that Zeke has trustingly placed in my hands as a good fit for me. He knows me… he knows my music and Blues and make everyone feel the same way, be it me, the guy busking on the street corner, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, or Richard Gere when addressing our common passion; guitars.

We have a few important celebratory

events coming up in the next few days surrounding the release of his book Portrait Of A Phantom; The story Of Robert Johnson’s Lost Photograph.

I finally get my copy from him personally and as he picks up a pen to sign it he says; “I’m not going to write much because I already wrote what I wanted to say about you in the book… it’s already in there.”

Zeke looks good, relaxed, and is looking forward to these events. They mark the conclusion of an incredible journey that is portrayed within the pages of this essential book that is not just simply about the question of whether this is actually Robert Johnson, in spite of the conclusive, expert forensic authentication and acceptance by the Robert L. Johnson estate.

It’s about how the simple love and almost fantasy of the Blues and Robert Johnson’s music, shared in this community of Greenwich Village can punch a hole through time, space, and history and unearth a whole new chapter and appreciation within the legacy of the Blues.

Here’s one of my favorite lines that show Robert Johnson’s timeless wisdom and genius which sums up Zeke’s position rather nicely; “Mmm mmm babe, I may be right or wrong. (Babe, it’s yo’why opinion), oh, I may be right or wrong. Watch your close friend, then your enemies can’t do no harm.” -R. Johnson; When You Got A Good Friend.

Eric Bibb & Chris Lowe at Matt’s. Photo by Brian Kramer

PHENOMENAL BLUES WOMEN –TORNADOS AND FLOODS

Mattie Delaney, Memphis Minnie and Luella Miller

Verbals & Visuals: Dani Wilde

As Hurricane Harvey caused catastrophic flooding across South-eastern Texas and Louisiana this summer, I recalled how blues artists throughout history have been both devastated and musically inspired by America’s natural disasters.

Stevie Ray Vaughan’s iconic statue in Austin, Texas ironically looked as if it were walking on water in the recent Texas flooding. Vaughan’s Texas Flood was a cover first recorded by Larry Davis in 1958, however some of the first blues artists to compose inspirational ‘flood’ songs were women.

Throughout 1929, severe storms caused rivers to burst their banks throughout Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. On January 23rd 1930, the Memphis Commercial Appeal printed the headline “Flood Menace Shifts to Mississippi Area: Swollen Tallahatchie Forces 400 Families Out: Ice Thwarts Rescuers”.

The following month, female blues singersongwriter and guitarist Mattie Delaney recorded her song Tallahatchie River Blues: Tallahatchie River risin', Lord, it's mighty bad

Tallahatchie River risin', Lord, it's mighty bad

Some peoples on Tallahatchie done lost everything they had The Tallahatchie flood documented in Delaney’s song was accompanied by bitterly cold winds – Three-foot deep floodwater turned to ice. Fortunately no one lost their life, but many families lost their possessions, crops and livestock to the flood waters, leaving them destitute.

Mattie Delaney remains an enigma even to the most renowned of blues historians. “It’s like one of the ultimate blues mysteries,” rare record dealer John Tefteller explained;

“She was a totally obscure person that nobody knew anything about, and all of a sudden, she had a record out.”

Delaney’s record is intriguing to say the least. She only ever recorded two tracks, both for the Vocalion label, which were released on a 78 vinyl. My favourite of the two sides is Tallahatchie River Blues. Delaney accompanied herself on guitar and sang a haunting social commentary recounting the catastrophe. The emotion in Delaney’s voice suggests that she was from the Tallahatchie river area and had witnessed the flood’s destruction first hand, losing her home before venturing North to Memphis where she recorded her song. It is possible however, that she was already in Memphis, and was inspired by newspaper articles to write a song from the perspective of those who had suffered. “Lord, this water risin', and I sure can't swim”

In her final verse, Delaney wails that she plans to pack her suitcase “and go back to Tennessee, for this Tallahatchie River done got the best of me.”

We know that a month after the flood, Delaney indeed found herself in a recording studio in Tennessee. This is the last existing clue to her whereabouts before the trail runs cold. The 1960’s blues revival rediscovered so many long-lost blues artists, but Delaney disappointingly was not among them. Her record features a side note stating that she was born in 1905 but other than this she remains a mystery. In fact, her record is so rare that it is estimated there are only five existing original copies, and a copy in mint condition could set you back up to $8000!

It was rare for a female performer of this era to compose topical songs and accompany herself on guitar, yet Delaney was not the only blues-woman to have done so…

In 1929, husband and wife team Kansas

Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie wrote and recorded their song When The Levee Breaks in reaction to the devastation caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

“If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break And the water gonna come in, have no place to stay”

The Great Mississippi Flood was one of the greatest natural disasters in the history of the United States. 27,000 square miles of land was flooded to a depth of 30 feet. More than 200,000 African Americans found their homes alongside the Mississippi River destroyed and relief camps were set up to provide shelter. In an attempt

to prevent future floods, the government built the world's longest system of levees. These were huge mounds of packed mud built alongside the river so that during heavy rainfall, the water would be less likely to flood into towns and farms.

Memphis Minnie’s song focuses on Greenville, Mississippi, where more than 13,000 residents were evacuated to a more secure levee that provided shelter at higher ground. Despite it being 62 years since the abolition of slavery, Mississippi was a State with an appalling amount of racism; African-American plantation workers were held at gunpoint and forced

Memphis Minnie

to work on the levee, piling sandbags to save the neighbouring towns.

When The Levee Breaks features Minnie’s impressive finger picking guitar style. By the late 1920’s Minnie had a reputation as a guitarist not to be messed with having beaten the likes of Big Bill Broonzy in a guitar duel. Her exciting descending guitar riffs echoed the feel of floodwater gushing downstream. She accompanied her husband Joe McCoy who sang the soulful lead vocal on the recording, painting a grim picture of the struggle of the African-American community: "I works on the levee, mama both night and day, I works so hard, to keep the water away."

After the worst was over, many African Americans who had been left impoverished decided to flee the flood’s destruction. With their homes and crops destroyed, they embarked upon a new way of life life, joining the great migration from the South to industrial cities in the North and Midwest.

“It's a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan, Gonna leave my baby, and my happy home.”

When the Levee Breaks not only documented the upheaval caused by the flooding and the lack of civil rights for African-Americans, but also inspired future generations of rock n’ rollers. Robert Plant had a copy of the song in his personal collection and in 1971, Led Zeppelin released their re-worked cover. Minnie’s song yet again made an undeniable stamp in music history thanks to one of the most celebrated rock bands of all time.

On 29th September 1927, only five months after the Great Mississippi Flood, a tornado hit the city of St Louis causing damages of over a million dollars. It had been a cloudy morning and the weather forecast rain, yet nobody predicted the turmoil that was to follow. At 1pm, the tornado struck and within just five minutes killed 78 people and left a further 550 people seriously injured. It was the second deadliest storm ever to hit St. Louis.

Two weeks later, in the aftermath of the devastation, blues artist Luella Miller recorded and released her topical song Tornado Groan for the Vocalion label:

“Tornado swept out this little town today

Tornado swept out this little town today

And taken away everything I had.

The lightning flashed, wind

rattled around my door Lightning flashed, wind rattled around my door Ever since that time, I haven’t seen my house no more.”

Very little is known about the life of blues vocalist Luella Miller. Her song raises more questions than answers: How biographical is Tornado Groan? Did she really lose her home to the Tornado, or did she just bear witness to those who did? Whatever became of her?

What we do know about Luella Miller is that she occasionally collaborated with guitarist and violinist Lonnie Johnson who recorded St. Louis Cyclone Blues in New York City four days after the catastrophe. It is rumoured that Miller was born in Texas. She was discovered in St. Louis by a Vocalion talent scout and she made her first records in 1926. Miller continued to write music in New York City throughout 1927 making a total of thirty-five recordings, however thirteen of these remained unreleased. Luella Miller’s career hit a peak as she relocated to Chicago in 1928, but then her record label bosses, who felt that her material lacked variety, dropped her and she sadly faded into obscurity.

Listening to Luella Miller’s repertoire, you will find the tonality, piano accompaniment and melody of her songs do all sound awfully similar, but her strength was as a lyricist where she showcased many sides as a songwriter. Her hokum song Rattle Snake Groan revealed she could be quite the comedienne with her cheeky innuendos, and yet Miller also had a deeper side whereby her lyrics told wonderful stories with engaging, creative imagery that captured the tough world she existed in.

Blues record labels such as Paramount and Vocalion certainly capitalised on America’s natural disasters, encouraging their artists to write and record topical songs for swift release in the aftermath of devastation. However, I believe that for the likes of Mattie Delaney, Memphis Minnie and Luella Miller, their choice to write these songs was much more about artistic expression, a longing to tell their stories, and the communication of raw emotion. The blues has and always will be a creative means of reaching out and sharing one’s hardships and sorrows, and in doing so the healing process for the artist and their audience can hopefully begin.

PRODUCING THE BLUES…

Verbals: Mike Zito

After ten productions, I guess you could call me a Producer. I never considered this title as something I would become in my musical aspirations, but in retrospect I guess I have been doing the same production type work since I was a teenager. I was writing my own songs at the age of 16 and renting a 4-Track recorder and drum machine from the local music shop on weekends and learning to play all the parts to record my music. I would use a simple drum beat and let it play, then accompany the beat with my guitar. Then go

back and tune my guitar down really low to sound like a bass guitar and record that part to the song. That would leave me one more track for recording my voice. I worked night and day for years on weekends as a kid trying to perfect my music recordings. Trying to make the guitar and drum parts feel good together rhythmically. I could not wait to take my finished recordings to friends’ houses and let them hear my newest creation. I have to say…. it’s exactly the same 30 years later. I am doing the same thing, just on a larger scale. When Thomas Ruf called me in 2010

and asked if I could produce an album I was a little overwhelmed. His exact words were “Mike Zito can you produce a blues record? Are you a producer?” I had to think about it a minute….am I producer? I had just finished making my second album with David Z (Pearl River), and David Z was a “Producer” in my eyes. He was the 5th Beatle so to speak. He knew how to get the best out of you and take it home and add something magical to the music that wasn’t there before. I was certain I had no idea how to do that at all. But I really wanted this opportunity, so I called David

Z and asked him if I had what it takes to produce a record and he said “Yes”. He told me I knew how to play the music, I was good at crafting songs musically and I had good ears. He told me if the music sounded good to me, it probably was good. I may not be able to do all of the magical mixing and sound-shaping but that’s not always necessary and it’s not always what a producer does. Some producers really lend a talent to transform the music to another level i.e.: Daniel Lanois, David Z, Trina Shoemaker. But other producers help make sure the songs are strong lyrically and musically and help encourage the artist to do their best i.e.: Tom Hambridge, Anders Osborne, Jim Gaines. There are many approaches to producing a record and the second would definitely be my strong suit. I said Yes to Thomas Ruf and in late 2010 I produced my first professional recording at Studio Erde in East Berlin, Germany for Ruf Records titled “Girls With Guitars”.

It was the new Blues Caravan for Ruf Records and featured Dani Wilde, Cassie Taylor and a new American girl I recommended to Ruf, Samantha Fish. I helped the girls develop their songs, fine tune the arrangements and work on their music parts. It was a great adventure and I think we all had a really good time making that record. In the end it sounded good, it had some good songs and the girls really performed well. I had produced my first album. Not more than three months later I was back in the same studio to produce the debut album of Samantha Fish.

We spent 7 days hashing out the album “Runaway” which went on to win a Blues Music Award for “Best New Artist”. I was so excited and Samantha was on her way to a big career. I won’t go on about every album I have produced, but it all started at this small studio in an old Communist Work Building in East Berlin seven years ago, and seven years later I am back at the same studio producing a new album for a young woman for the new Blues Caravan on Ruf Records.

Vanja Sky is based in Zagreb, Croatia and was brought to Ruf Records by Laurence Jones. I had the honour of producing Mr. Jones’s debut album on Ruf as well and he has certainly gone on to some big success in the UK. Vanja is a very talented singer/

Mike Zito, Vanja Sky and Tobias Noethen of Studio Erde.

Photo: Studio Erde

songwriter and becoming a strong blues style guitarist. Being in the same studio 7 years later and once again producing a record for an up and coming artist is a little surreal. Samantha Fish has gone on to topping Billboard Blues Charts, hitting the Billboard Americana Charts and being featured in Rolling Stone magazine. All of that success in 7 years is pretty amazing. I do not take credit for any of her success at all, she is the hardest working woman in blues today and deserves everything she’s getting. I am just a witness along the way for most of the artists I work with.

My work is very simple in approach – help the artist make a good record. For many young artists, the mystery of recording is somewhat daunting. It seems scary and they have anxiety about what will happen. My job is to help relieve them of their worries and get them to just relax and enjoy the process. I always let the artist know that we are going to make the best record possible, but it doesn’t have to be the “Best Record Ever” and probably will not be. I think as artists and musicians we compare ourselves with the best musicians ever. We compare ourselves to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Susan Tedeschi and Amy Winehouse. We listen to our heroes and want to be like them and we get beaten down when we cannot live up their very high standards. The same for our recordings – we wait so long for the opportunity to finally make our own recordings and we have built up such expectations that we think we are going to record “The Wall” by Pink Floyd! But alas…. we are not. It’s not possible or, more importantly, practical. Our first record needs to be solid and focused and good. It will not be the “Best” record we ever make because we hope to make many more recordings and we should get much better over time with experience, so we just focus on making a very good recording.

In the blues world, it’s really more like a business card, an invitation if you will.

My name is “Mike Zito”, I play guitar and I sing and I write songs, please hire me. The blues scene is the working man’s scene. No one is garnering overnight success with millions of albums sold to instant fame and fortune. If you are getting into the blues scene seeking fame and fortune, you have

made a huge error. We play the blues because we love it and we want to work for a living. So our first recording needs to be solid and strong and showcase the artist’s ability to sing and play their instrument and hopefully show some good songwriting for depth. This is what I do as a producer, I help keep the younger artist focused on doing a great job and feeling good about their work.

Of course, working with veteran blues rockers like Albert Castiglia or Jimmy Carpenter is really not much different. These guys really know how to play and do their thing but maybe they just lack the focus to keep things consistent on record. When musicians play good, they want to play. When they can play lots of styles and have a lot of avenues they can turn on, they tend to do so (myself included). It’s easy to get lost trying to be 10 things at once and in the end the listener is not really sure who you are or what you do, they just know you can play your instrument well. In these cases I help the artist to just stay on track and keep the recording solid.

If we are making a “Blues” record, then please let’s play blues songs. Adding a country song or jazz songs just takes away from the focus. Music lovers like the music they are buying. If they buy your “Blues” record and it only has three “Blues” style songs on it, they get a bit pissy, and they may not buy your next recording for lack of trust.

I am not the greatest Producer in the blues world by any stretch at all, but I have been lucky enough to make some great albums for Ruf Records and I am very proud of the work we have done. I give Thomas Ruf the credit for the vision he saw in me, it’s an honour. There is nothing more joyful to me than recording music and making an album. It is the best work I will get to do on this planet in my lifetime. To work with artists and see them achieve success and think that maybe I played a small role in helping along the way is very humbling. For young artists out there – write songs, make recordings, practice your instrument! Anders Osborne once told me, all we will have to leave behind once we’ve gone is our recordings. It is important to document our time here and to leave our music for our families and loved ones.

& Jazz (not necessarily in that order)

“one long party in a recording studio.” –Blues Matters

“an excellent offering.” –Sheryl + Don Crow “Run, don’t walk, and Get this one.” –lamusiccritic.com

available now on itunes, amazon, CDbaby

mckeebrothers.com

McKeebrosMusic

ALASTAIR GREENE ALL ABOARD THE DREAM TRAIN

Alastair Greene’s musical journey has been anything but traditional. His combination of blues, southern rock, and jam band sensibilities has been thrilling audiences for nearly two decades. His recent performances at the Chicago Blues Festival and the Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas have kept his blues fans satisfied, while stage time with Eric Burdon, Walter Trout, Savoy Brown, and tour dates with Starship keep guitarists wondering what he'll do next.

Alastair recently plunged headfirst into a full-time solo career, stepping down after seven years touring the world as the guitarist for rock legend Alan Parsons. Alastair is philosophical about his time playing with Parsons, saying, “I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity Alan gave me to handle guitar and vocal duties in his band. It was an honor to play the music created by the Alan Parsons Project to Alan’s fans around the world. After seven years, the time has come for me to truly pursue my own musical dream.”

The culmination of Greene’s musical experiences, influences, and passion is his new record, Dream Train, released in October 2017 on Rip Cat Records. The album was produced and mixed by David

Z, whose production credits include Buddy Guy, Gov’t Mule, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Jonny Lang. Dream Train features thirteen new songs, twelve of which are Greene originals. The sole cover is a previously unreleased song written by none other than Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top called Nome Zayne, which Greene recorded with Billy’s blessing. The songs on Dream Train range from the hard driving blues rock of the title track, to the sensitive Curtis Mayfield tinged instrumental Iowa. Big Bad Wolf finds the band in familiar boogie blues/rock territory while DareDevil takes listeners on a more traditional blues shuff le ride.

Dream Train features an impressive array of special guests including Walter Trout, Debbie Davies, Mike Zito, Mike Finnigan, and Dennis Gruenling. Alastair is supported on Dream Train by his touring band, Jim Rankin on bass and Austin Beede on drums.

Alastair is eager to return to England to promote the new record and show off his own band. He enthuses, “The UK is at the top of the list of places I’d like to bring my band, due in no small part to the fact that a good half of my favorite bands and guitars heroes are from there!”

Verbals: John Mitchell Visual: Roy Gilbert

Shy Perry and Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry have traveled extensively as a duet and full band for many years. Bill and Shy were on the cruise ship American Queen for a four day Blues Cruise where they performed several times. They were one of the main musical acts on the European Blues Cruise. Shy and Bill performed in Marseille, France and had five shows on the cruise line that traveled to Italy. Howl-N-Madd and Shy Perry were also the headline act for ‘An Evening With The Blues’ festival in Bolzano, Italy. Recently, Shy and Bill were on tour and performed at festivals and clubs in the US and internationally. They have played at The National Blues Museum in St. Louis, MO and the show was live-streamed to an audience of 60,000+. Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry has been playing original music over fifty years and a documentary was made about his life and family called ‘Howl-N-Madd- Mississippi Blues Family Man.’ It was screened in New York City, Florida, Mississippi and Washington. Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry began his career in the early 1960's playing gospel, R&B, soul, and blues. He worked with Freddy King, Little Milton, T-Bone Walker, Johnnie Taylor, Ted Taylor, Fontella Bass, Cash McCall and many others. He worked for Chess as a studio musician and he wrote songs for Jewel Paula Records. His album, Way Of Blues, reached #2

at Radio Blues Intense in France. Howl-NMadd was in the movie thriller Way Of War starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. He was in an episode of The Gene Simmons Family Jewels where he played the devil at the crossroads. Shy Perry is a singer, songwriter, and recording artist who has performed professionally for over twenty years. Shy's CD, SHY, is played in the USA and internationally. Shy was nominated for ‘Best Artist Of The Year’ for The Josie Music Award which recognizes the work of Independent Music Artists. Her CD SHY is played on radio/ internet stations and is played in Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina, and many other countries. Shy has another CD entitled Voodoo Charm that is played around the world. Howl-N-Madd, his son Bill, and Shy performed original songs at Lincoln Center in NYC for the documentary True Delta. Howl-N-Madd and Shy were a part of The Flaming Lips success in making it into the Guinness Book of World Records. Bill Howl-N-Madd Perry and Shy are a father/daughter team that has a fun, live, energetic show. They have taken their music and the blues across America and internationally to sold-out shows.

www.sharoperry.com

www.billhowlnmaddperry.com

BILL HOWL-N-MADD PERRY & SHY PERRY

Verbals: Shy Perry Visual: Mark Sheldon

CLAUDE HAY

Hailing from the Blue Mountains near Sydney, award-winning Australian solo artist Claude Hay invokes the best of stomping traditional blues, hard rock and booty-shaking funk, all delivered with slide guitar chops to burn and a vocal range to match. Claude is perhaps the world’s ultimate Do-It- Yourself musician – initially forging his live sound on the back of looping technology which allowed him to create a band vibe without the band.

This approach has seen this fiercely independent artist build an audience for his music globally with the release of three award-winning home-made albums. His fourth album Roller Coaster released September 2016 saw him form a band, hence his song writing became unhindered from the constraints of looping which allowed him to finesse his rock-blues, come funk-hillbilly mojo to another level.

Hay’s accolades include album charting at #9 on USA Billboard Blues charts following appearing on USA’s National Public Radio Network (weekly listenership of 27 million), ranking #5 on Amazon’s Blues albums of the year, Best Male Vocalist and Best Song at Australian Blues Music (Chain) Awards and supporting the likes of Joe Bonamassa and Seasick Steve.

Hay has for several years played at some of the biggest blues and rock festivals in the Netherlands and Belgium including Moulin Blues and Zwarte Cross and in 2017 he burst onto the UK live scene in October with a twenty show tour

Verbals: Supplied By Artist Visual: J&A Fotografie

supporting Wille and the Bandits, one of UK's own best blues-rock 3 pieces on their album release tour.

Hay will perform solo in One Man Band mode to promote his fourth studio album Roller Coaster which has featured tracks (as well as him cameo-ing in it) in the upcoming sci-fi action movie “Origin Wars – The Osiris Child” (starring Kellan Lutz from Hercules and Twilight) also hitting the cinemas through Lionsgate in UK/Europe at the same time.

It’s become a tradition for Hay to build a new custom guitar for each recording he does. There’s ‘Betty’, his double- neck guitar/bass which he made out of a kitchen benchtop for 2010’s Deep Fried Satisfied; there’s Stella, his ‘Cigar Box’ guitar which started its life as a six dollar baking tin featured in 2012’s I Love Hate You and most recently there’s ‘Jeri’ made out of 10 litre Jerry Can for 2016’s album “Roller Coaster”.

Find out more about this talented Australian musician from his website http://www.claudehay.com.au/

THE NAVEBLUES

Verbals: Daz Lawrence Visual: Smau Media Bergen

They are bringing the blues back from the crossroads and into the present with a sound which is as thrilling as it is timeless. Backed by bass, guitar and drums, the focal point of this Norwegian four-piece is Nave Pundik, a singer and harmonica player seemingly beamed in from another world. Possess You, their latest release, is an extraordinary demonstration of Nave’s quite sensational harmonica-playing, conjuring up sounds which cause your spine to twist and your brain to hop. With an accompanying atmospheric video which allows the music to speak for itself, The NaveBlues are bringing music from the early part of the twentieth century into the present day and allowing it to break free from its pigeonhole and introduce itself to indie, rock, soul and all places in between. The NaveBlues give Pundik the opportunity to play the harmonica in the same way that a virtuoso electric guitar player might unleash a breath-taking solo and a battery of riffs. Nave was initially attracted to the harmonica as a youngster, having grown up to the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Howlin’ Wolf and Little Walter. The story-telling aspect remains key to the band’s mission to bring the blues into the mainstream. Their fascinating (and epic!) interpretation of Led Zeppelin’s Thank You, takes what was originally a quite simple, plaintive song and broadens the scope both musically and visually, the video released alongside it following the story of one of the first Earthlings on Mars as they struggle to adapt to the loneliness they experience. Similarly, The Ghost Collector (an original track), sees the Ghost Collector using the harmonica to track down and trap ghosts within the harmonica, whilst their Sexy Kiss video sees a girl called Marion receiving a chest at her doorstep, from Marion Walter Jacobs (aka, Little Walter). Upon opening the chest and trying a magical harmonica, she is transported into another plain. The NaveBlues defy any expectations the listener might have about the blues as a genre, this is music for fans of exceptional musicianship, great song-writing and who are ready to embrace a sound which has elements of the familiar taken to places way up in the stratosphere. http://thenaveblues.com/

LUCAS & KING

Verbals: Kelly Davis Visuals: Bo Lucas

Lucas & King are a truly exciting young duo currently based in Southampton. They offer haunting songs of exceptional craft and depth that pull influence from 1960s pop, blues and country roots, delivered with the spine-tingling, unforgettable voice of Bo Lucas and the intricately melodic yet understated guitar playing of Hayleigh King.

Despite their relatively recent arrival on the scene, they have already notched up an impressive list of musical achievements, having supported John Murry, Karl Blau, Otis Gibbs, Blind Boy Paxton, Colter Wall and Sari Schorr. As well as playing extensively around the UK and Ireland, they recently toured Germany and played gigs in Paris and Amsterdam.

Their career highlights to date have included appearances at Cambridge Folk Festival, Brighton Dome and St David’s Hall, Cardiff. Most notably, Lucas & King found themselves supporting Ray Davies (of The Kinks) at a sold-out Royal Festival Hall show in 2014. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength, becoming Glastonbury Emerging Talent Finalists in 2017 and performing on both the coveted Acoustic and Avalon stages at Glastonbury.

Bo and Hayleigh originally met while studying music in Brighton and their sound has gradually evolved over several years of writing and gigging together. They like doing things the old-fashioned way, focusing on their live act as their main calling card.

Having released a rapturously reviewed EP, entitled ‘Truly Not Yours’, their next project is to record analogue live takes of new material, to be pressed on to a ten-inch vinyl. They will also be releasing a short documentary on this process, as well as videos of all the tracks, recorded, filmed and produced themselves. To accompany the vinyl release, the pair will be arranging a record store tour around the UK and Europe in April 2018 – coinciding with national Record Store Day, on 21st April 2018. Lucas & King are a well-kept secret for now – but probably not for much longer. They are definitely ones to watch.

‘Lucas & King’s blend of rootsy Americana and minimalist folk combines velvet-smooth vocals with a charismatic fragility’ The Argus

‘Exceptional Duo’ Folk Radio UK

To find out more about Lucas & King and to hear their music, visit https://lucasandking.bandcamp.com

PAUL WINN BAND

The Paul Winn Band are described as guitar driven blues with an improvisational style incorporating facets of jazz and funk.

Influenced by artists such as Robben Ford, Dave Matthews Band and Robert Cray, the band has released two studio albums and two live albums. In 2004 they recorded their first studio album, which had more of an acoustic singer-songwriter feel to it, followed by another studio album in 2008 which began the journey into a harder edged sound. Their third album was a live CD/DVD taken from one of their performances on tour in New York City. It features Adrian Cunningham on saxophone and also a rhythm section from the USA. The most recent album is another live CD/DVD which was filmed and recorded at Lazybones Lounge in Sydney and features Rick Wilson on harmonica.

Paul grew up in a house full of music. His father was a guitarist in various bands and the family home was always full of musicians, instruments and bands rehearsing. Touring in a Kombi fitted to accommodate the family as well as band equipment, Paul spent many happy years watching his Dad on stage and sneaking

up in the breaks to have a go himself.

After high school, he auditioned successfully for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (jazz studies), where he honed his improvisation skills. And in 2002 he met the long-term members of his band, Simon Fishburn and Johann Willenberg while working on a dodgy amateur production of “Grease” the musical… Unfortunately, not the best story of a magical meeting of kindred blues spirits, but that’s life.

Over the last decade Winn has incorporated his earlier jazz training into his love for funk and blues to create a show that changes every night they play. Utilizing other soloists such as jazz saxophone giant Adrian Cunningham and blues harmonica man Rick Wilson, the songs have an open form and can stretch out or contract depending on the soloist and how the song is feeling in the moment.

The band has nearly half a million views on YouTube and counting and has had their music feature in Australian films, TV and radio. They spend most of their time travelling across Australia playing festivals and pubs and have managed to do a couple of tours to India and the USA. www.paulwinn.com

Verbals: Ryan Van Gennip Visuals: Marcel Bracks

BLUES STILL MATTERS!

Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown

Verbals: Don Wilcock Visuals: Arnie Goodman

Kim Simmonds is the one constant in the blues band Savoy Brown, constantly reinventing himself. He was born in Wales, formed his band in England, and for the last forty years has lived in upstate New York. A contemporary of Cream, the Rolling Stones, and John Mayall, he was at Steve Winwood’s first concert in London, performed with the Yardbirds when Jimmy Page was lead guitarist and the group was about to morph into Led Zeppelin. He provided the training ground for the late Dave Peverett and Roger Earl for the rock group Foghat. Savoy Brown’s latest album is Witchy Feelin’ on Ruf Records, and he's working on his next.

Six-year-old Kim Simmonds was mesmerized by the partially deaf singer Johnny Ray in 1953. Tony Bennett once called Ray the father of rock and roll. Eff usive in live concert, Ray would bleed his heart out on his hit single Cry with its cathartic lyric, ‘So let your hair down and go right on baby and cry.’

The seed was planted in the young Simmonds who himself would become an artist who pushed the boundaries of blues with Savoy Brown. An internationally recognized blues juggernaut, the Savoy Brown Blues Band – later called simply Savoy Brown – fifty two years later has recorded thirty eight albums, graduated more than sixty band members and was involved in the genesis of this magazine named after Blue Matter, their 1968 album.

Although his extensive repertoire is enormously eclectic and rocks out as much as it reflects the entire blues history through his unique lens, Kim considers himself a purist. “We were just looking at the art. Somebody like Lightnin’ Slim, even now, I play him every week, and it’s like the art is ridiculous. I can get very snobbish and start to think art has to be made a certain way. We all fall into that trap. Art can be made up with the most rudimentary materials ’cause what is it in the end? Are you producing art? It doesn’t matter what guitar

you’re using. It doesn’t matter if you can just write three chords if you can make those three chords into art.”

Being an artist extracts its price. In 1990 Kim told me that early on he was a “terrible purist.”

“As Savoy Brown developed, it was like pulling teeth. In America rock and roll was the catchall that brings all music together. You can be Willie Nelson and be called a rock and roll artist. Paul Anka could be called a rock and roll artist. In England there are no divisions. Rock and roll was ’50s music. Then there was jazz, blues and folk. Whereas in America everything was rock and roll. Bob Dylan was rock and roll. Of course, we were blues, very serious blues.”

To make matters worse, he and his band were serious blues artists starting out in 1965, a time when many of the blues-influenced British artists like the Stones and Clapton had gone mainstream, touring the world and leaving precious few venues in London for Savoy Brown’s electric blues.

“Before you knew it, they had big hits, and so there was a void in London especially. It was all Motown music. It was dance music. It had all become mainstream very quickly, and there was nothing in the clubs. So, John Mayall was playing with Eric Clapton and blazing the path. There’s no doubt about that, but I came along, too, and playing just straight out blues that got a little bit further down the line than the earlier people.”

By his own admission, Kim was “a fresh-faced pretty looking kid playing this heavy blues,” a sound heretofore remanded to old, weather beaten black Americans whose wrinkles and facial lines were a road map drawn from a hard life on the road in bars. But in his first band Kim had a hidden weapon, a black singer named Brice Portius.

“He was an entertainer as well as a good singer. So, it was a way to get into the dance clubs and he looked very, very current. He could be in a soul band. He could be Otis Redding, and that’s the case of all the lead

THIRTY EIGHT ALBUMS AND GRADUATED MORE THAN SIXTY BAND MEMBERS

BAND –LATER CALLED SIMPLY SAVOY BROWN –FIFTY TWO YEARS LATER HAS RECORDED

AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED BLUES

JUGGERNAUT, THE SAVOY BROWN BLUES

singers (in Savoy Brown) right from the beginning. You have to have a guy that can sell you. That’s what lead singers do, and of course, Brice sold the band because we were able to get a little bit of attention. People didn’t say what the hell is this, but, oh, ok, the music’s different. But it looks ok.”

Although 1960s era Savoy Brown today sounds heavy enough to have broken into a trendy underground rock scene, Kim and an ever-changing cadre of support musicians had image issues. “I never felt I fit in. I never took drugs heavily, and I feel that separated me.”

Plus, he didn’t play a cool guitar. In 1968 he played a Flying V guitar like the one used by Lonnie Mack on his 1963 album The Wham of That Memphis Man. “Nobody (in England) knew about Lonnie. Lonnie Mack wasn’t getting played in England.

Albert King (who also played a Flying V) was still underground. When I came to America in 1969, B. B. King was still underground.

“I was aware of what they’re saying. ‘You’ve got to play a real guitar, a 335, or you gotta play a jazzy looking guitar and you’re a fresh-faced kid. What the hell. You don’t look like you’ve lived at all.’”

Kim and his ever-changing band were in many ways flying under the radar, capturing a share of an ever more astute audience of fans who may not have known who their influences were, but they knew what they liked about Savoy Brown, and that was all Simmonds cared about. It gave him an opportunity to hang with his mentors. By this time, he and the band were sharing bills with the pounding American boogie woogie pianist Champion Jack Dupree and doing three shows a day with John Lee Hooker.

“I ended up backing Champion Jack Dupree. We were on the same agency in 1966, so I did lots and lots of work with him. I remember playing Eel Pie Island back in ’66 and standing in the crowd with Champion Jack watching other acts playing.

He was telling me about singing and what singers would survive and what wouldn’t because they weren’t singing from the diaphragm. They were singing from the throat.

“It was amazing that here I am with Champion Jack Dupree who you’d think would be perhaps not sophisticated, but he knew all about singing from the diaphragm, the whole thing, and so we would get on stage at some of these places. He was a very important artist, but he sort of snuck into the jazz world because he was some kind of New Orleans folk artist or something in the broad sense when I say folk artist.”

Kim recalls a date with John Lee Hooker when The Boogie Man came into a club the band was using to rehearse for their first show together. “My brother picked him up at the airport, and they walk in. He looks around and says, ‘What’s this all about?’ I said, ‘We’re here to rehearse.’ John says, ‘I don’t rehearse.’ He turned around and walked out and that was it. So,

ok, real bluesmen don’t rehearse.”

Later, Savoy Brown did a tour backing Hooker. “We would play with Hooker like seven nights a week on the tour we did, and sometimes we did three shows a day. We would do a matinee, then we would do a club in the evening. Then we were doing those late nights in clubs in London, and one day we said to John, ‘Sorry about this. We’re working you to death doing three shows sometimes a day. ‘Oh, don’t worry about that. In Detroit I used to play nine shows a day. House parties, you’d go from one to the next.”

From this journalist’s perspective, it seems like splitting hairs to argue that Savoy Brown wasn’t as much about rock as they were blues.

Foghat, after all, emerged in 1971 as rock stars when Lonesome Dave Peverett and Roger Earl

TOP 10

These are in no particular order.

01

FREDDY KING SINGS

As a thirteen year old this said to me "The Future Of Guitar".

02

MEMPHIS SLIM AT THE GATE OF HORN

This said to me "Here's your guitar tone". IMHO Matt Murphy's playing on this album was a prototype for the "British sound".

03

BILL DOGGETT HONKY TONK

Started my love of R 'n' B / blues tinged with jazz. Billy Butler was a hugely influential guitarist though under the radar.

04

ELVIS PRESLEY

The first blues/rocker. When I was ten years old I put a pretend "band" together of local kids and did Presley songs.

07

LONNIE MACK

THE WHAM OF THAT MEMPHIS MAN

Made me play the Flying V guitar. I went to see Georgie Fame at a London dance club (The Scene) in '63 The DJ played the track Memphis. I bought the record the next day.

08

JIMMY REED AT CARNEGIE HALL

Played this a million times. Actually it's not live but recorded in the studio...when I was young I always wondered how it could sound so good being live!

09

JOHN LEE HOOKER

DON'T TURN ME FROM YOUR DOOR

The outcast. The loner. Appealed greatly to me. I'd play this and dream.

05

BILL HALEY AND HIS COMETS ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK

Great band, songs and recording.

06

JAMES BROWN THE AMAZING

R 'n' B was always in my blood courtesy of my older brothers record collection

took Savoy Brown ideas, rocked ‘em up and performed them in lamé suits on stage and became rock stars.

“We became such good friends afterward, but at the time there was a lot of animosity. We’d tried some of the Street Corner material out (Street Corner Talking 1971 U. S. # 75) and it just wasn’t fitting, and now the guys

10

LIGHTNING HOPKINS LIGHTNING AND THE BLUES

The blues. Melancholy, simple and honest.

were bugging me because they were doing all this heavy rock stuff and I’m thinking, ‘Damn, I’ve got this thing in my mind where I wasn’t to go and it led to a big breakup and animosity.’

“But I was so happy when it was successful. I saw Dave on stage with this gold lamé coat. It was like, 'yeah, babe. That’s what it’s all about.' That’s

what we grew up with. I had no qualms them taking Savoy Brown and all my ideas. I don’t say that bitterly at all. I had a lot of ideas to go around.”

Witchy Feelin’ is Savoy Brown’s latest album. Bass player Pat DeSalvo and drummer Garnet Grimm are both locally based in Oswego, New York. Seven years with the band, they are the longest tenured players in Savoy Brown’s 52-year history. Kim does his own vocals, and it took him two years to write the songs.

It includes “Guitar Slinger,” a song dedicated to Roy Buchanan, another fairly obscure American blues rock artist (and incidentally my favorite all-time guitarist) and “Vintage Man,” a song about a guy who wears old jeans and drives a ’57 Chevy.

“Two years ago, I started with the song Guitar Slinger, and we played out live, and it went over well. So, this album took a long time mainly because I wanted to try the songs out with a live audience to see where I was going and road test it. It’s a luxury that most people don’t have because most people (don’t have our catalog and) need some product every year.”

“I’m actually writing new for the next album, and that’s also taking a process. The main thing is trying to figure out what direction it’s going to be. People say, ‘Well, it’s blues rock. What do you mean direction? Are you gonna slant it more to the blues? Are you gonna slant it more to rock? Are you gonna bring a lot of psychedelic into it?’

“There’s all sorts of roads to go down, and I think the difficulty for me with the last album was saying, ‘Ok, I love the blues and I just wanna play blues.’ How am I going to make it more interesting for the listener rather than just say, ‘Yes, I can please myself. I’m 70 years old.’ Then, I thought, ‘How am I going to please the listener more?’ So, I think that’s where I got to with the last album and why it took so long because I was trying to write with a more interesting, unique perhaps, way of saying exactly the same thing, but

JOHN O’LEARY HARPMAN!

Verbals: Alan Pearce

Co-founder of Savoy Brown and long-time top UK harmonica man. He was there with the original line-up including Brice Portius on vocals. After the Shakedown album it was all change and in came the charismatic Chris Youlden who many Savoy fans still regard as the best vocalist the group had. Through the years there have not been many to rival John’s standing (maybe Pete McMahon who was vocals as well) as top Savoy harpist. His band Sugarkane have been around and around and are still out there planning a busy 2018. Having known John from the same time as Bob Hall during the days of the Savoy Brown Journal I sought him out to catch up and get comment…

Image: Christine Moore

John you’ve known us from day one, give us your views on the work that Blues Matters! has done so far. I like the fact that BM has always had such a broad brush and includes in its editorial so many other artists who are strongly influenced by the blues. In doing so it brings the blues closer to the mainstream and attracts a greater public awareness.

I remember when I arranged that ‘surprise’ spot at The Worcester Park (back in 1997 I think) and managed to get you along with Bob Brunning and Bob Hall along for the encore spot that thrilled Kim. How much do you stay in touch and follow Savoy Brown? I remember the occasion well; that was the band with Nathanial and Dave Olson. That was the first time I played with Kim since 1967! Last time I saw Kim was at the 100 Club when he was doing his first solo tour. Dave Walker and I got up and jammed with him on that occasion. I try to see them when they are in the UK, but more recently that has become more difficult. I keep an eye on them and really pleased there has been such a positive reaction to the new album. Great artwork too!

Sugarkane goes round and round, do you have a new album planned as you are focusing on 2018 festivals and touring more? Who’s in the band these days? Yes, we intend to start work on a new album this year as Sugarkane. I'm really fortunate in having 2 great guitarists in Jules Fothergill and Steve Wright who will work their magic in production as well. Jools Grudgings who was with Sherman Robertson for a long time is on keyboards. He adds so much colour, light and shade. On bass is the wonderful Roger Inniss and on drums we have Joachim Greve who is my all-time favourite drummer.

trying to make it a little more unique.”

At 70 years old, Kim Simmonds is still trying to figure it all out.

“I was never meant to be an electrician, or I was never meant to be something else, and being an artist is what pushes me on to do different things and to try different things. It’s something that luckily, I’ve lived old enough to be able to try to understand who I am, and what motivates me and why I try different things, but I just think it’s a fact that there is that artistic streak. “I’ve never been entranced by money. Obviously, I’m a professional, and I have to make a living and I’m very pragmatic, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve never let that be the main motivating factor. I never wanted to be rich, or I’m gonna be this, or I’m gonna be that. Those things don’t propel me. I think it’s wanting to be an artist whether I like it or not that propels me.”

DISCOGRAPHY

WITCHY FEELIN’ – 2017

DEVIL TO PAY – 2015

STILL LIVE AFTER 50 YEARS

VOLUME 1 – 2015

GOIN’ TO THE DELTA – 2014

SONGS FROM THE ROAD – 2013

VOODOO MOON – 2011

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING – 2009

STEEL – 2007

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE – 2005

STRANGE DREAMS – 2003

JACK THE TOAD – LIVE 70/72 – 2000

LOOKING FROM THE OUTSIDE

‘69 & ‘70 – 2000

THE BLUES KEEP ME HOLDING ON – 1999

THE BOTTOM LINE ENCORE

COLLECTION – 1999

LIVE AT THE RECORD PLANT – 1998

BRING IT HOME – 1994

LET IT RIDE – 1992

ALIVE AND KICKIN’ – 1990

KINGS OF BOOGIE – 1989

MAKE ME SWEAT – 1988

Verbals: Alan Pearce

Bob Hall and wife Hilary Blythe gig pretty often across UK and Europe with short tours often including Lil’ Jimmy Reed (featured in BM 98). Bob got the job playing boogie piano for Savoy Brown after Harry Simmonds

(band manager and Kim’s brother) had auditioned a certain Reg Dwight and found Bob had the more natural feel they were looking for. Already he had a longtime collaboration with Alexis Korner, he also performed regularly with bottleneck bluesman Dave Kelly and his sister, Jo Ann Kelly as well as The Groundhogs. He became known as the white Otis Spann. As the band gained momentum Bob

slowed down on gigs for his day time patent attorney job but has carried on performing consistently and appearing on Savoy Brown albums and with many other artists. His discography is too long to add here.

Hi Bob, first thing I guess is here we are at our 100th issue and going back to how Blues Matters! started and of course you were a part of Savoy Brown from the outset. When I had met Kim Simmonds and we agreed to start the ‘fanzine’ Shades of Savoy Brown I got to talk to you and other former members of the band along the way and that was an exciting time for me discovering my thirst for working in the blues field. You remember those early days of Journal issues and how Blues Matters! started and has grown, so how do you view our efforts over these eighteen plus years? Firstly, Alan I’d like to congratulate you and your editorial team in keeping a highquality blues journal going over all these years. The music business is tough and competitive for all of us and only the most enterprising and dedicated survive. Blues magazines have come and gone but Blues Matters! goes from strength to strength.

You have been working now with Lil’ Jimmy Reed for some years as friend and musicians touring, how have you seen the live circuit change out there and put your finger on a couple of significant items for better or worse…. When I first heard Lil’ Jimmy it took my mind back to the halcyon days of the sixties and seventies when the most revered blues stars came to the UK regularly and played in clubs up and down the country. Sadly, for the most part, the blues originals have passed on and Lil’ Jimmy is one of the few standard-bearers of real down-home blues regularly performing. Many people in the blues business doubted that there would be any interest in authentic down-home blues left, but Jimmy has proved them all wrong. Blues-rock may have largely taken over, but Jimmy is still up there with the head-liners in festivals all over the world.

BOB HALL

Image: Sean Rowe

I am very optimistic for Jimmy, but disappointed that so many blues festival acts these days seem to have only a peripheral connection with the blues.

Do you ever wish you had spent more time with Savoy Brown and been out on the road more over the years?

No I have had and am still having a great life performing the music I love. In fact my legal career gave me the opportunity to indulge my passion without so much concern for the finances. Also not being on the road so much gave me more availability and more recording opportunities. Having said that, Savoy Brown was a wonderful band and I would always value the chance to play with Kim Simmonds again. He produced and played on an album Hilary and I made a few years ago and was a real inspiration.

Are you still a ‘gun for hire’ and who would you like to have had the chance to play with?

I do love to play and am happy to sit

in with any good musicians. I made an album with Ric Lee (of Ten Years After) quite recently and of course if Dave Kelly and the Blues Band ever need me I try to make myself available.

Unachieved ambitions?

One day at a time. Of course, I’d like to play as long as I am physically able and to get better at what I do. Then again, America is such a vast country with so many talented performers. Those we see in Europe are just the tip of the iceberg and not necessarily even the best. I’d like to spend a few months touring the States and calling in at music venues off the beaten tracks.

What is next for ‘our’ Otis Spann?

Lil’ Jimmy figures highly in our immediate future and we will be playing festivals with him in Canada, France, Croatia, Belgium and the UK next year, with a lot more countries still in negotiation. Apart from that, Hilary and I still play duo dates where we can, and some charity functions.

Image: Sean Rowe

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Elles Bailey

WILDFIRE

Verbals: Christine Moore

Visuals: Sean Mulligan and Eric Hobson

Hailing from Bristol this soulful, sultry, smoky voiced purveyor of blues, Americana, country and soulful rock is taking the UK scene by storm. She is also dipping her toes into the USA where she has cut some tracks for her debut CD Wildfire (check out the Deluxe version). Produced by Brad Nowell with some of the world’s finest musicians, including Grammy Award winner and two-time CMA ‘Musician of the Year’ Brent Mason on guitar, three-time ‘Musician Hall Of Famer’ Bobby Wood on piano, joined by Chris Leuzinger (Garth Brooks) on guitar, Mike Brignardello (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Amy Grant) on bass, Wes Little (Stevie Wonder, Melissa Etheridge) on drums, and even legendary Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter Roger Cook came on board to help add some extra sparkle. Blended together with the likes of Jonny Henderson (Robben Ford, Matt Schofield) on Hammond organ and Joe Wilkins on blistering guitar, the result is a unique transAtlantic coming together of styles.

Her original take on the blues is going to take her a long way. Let us catch up with the story so far.

When did you start singing?

I have always sung since I was a little girl. Whether it was in musical theatre productions or grabbing a mic and jumping on stage with my Dad’s rock and roll band – singing is just something I’ve always done.

Where did you get that husky voice from?

That husky voice is down to a very serious stint in hospital when I was

younger. I spent 17 days on life support, and it was pretty touch and go for a while. But I’m still here – and apparently what doesn’t kill you gives you a very husky voice (well in my case it does!)

Have vocals always been your first instrument?

Vocals have always been the lead instrument for me, however I started playing the piano when I was a kid. From about the age of 9-13 I used to get my teacher to play the songs she wanted me to learn, and then I would play them, but by ear not reading, because no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t read music. This worked to an extent but as the songs got harder she started to figure me out! It was only when I went to a different school and let the cat out of the bag to my new piano teacher – so he then showed me how to ‘chord out’ like Elton does.

What other instruments do you play?

See above… And guitar (HORRIBLY) but I do like to write on the guitar… Time’s A Healer and Howlin’ Wolf from my new album were both written on the guitar… It’s not surprising that they are both in E!

Why the blues?

I grew up listening to Blues, Rock and Roll, Gospel and Country and all of those flavours come out in my music. But blues has been etched onto my soul and the husky tones in my voice are definitely suited to the blues!

Your favourite female and male singers, dead or alive?

Joe Cocker – my childhood dream was to one day duet with him, I was devastated when he passed away! Mavis Staples – a genius vocalist, Etta James – she’s such an inspiration to me, Cat Power – I just love listening to her records, Chris Stapleton – that man got soul right down to his toes, Imelda

May – well she simply blows my mind!

Have you ever had singing lessons?

I had singing lessons when I was younger but stopped around the age of 14. However, since my touring schedule got so much heavier I have started using a vocal coach in Bristol – Isolde Freeth-Hale. Just having a few sessions with her has been incredible but it definitely feels like she’s my counsellor and singing coach at times!

Do you do any exercises to help with your voice, especially when you do tours or spend long hours rehearsing?

I do yes, it’s essential with my schedule. You can find me and Matt backstage doing our vocal warm ups… it’s all so rock and roll on my tour!

What mic do you use, have you a preference and why?

I have always used Shure, however I’m actually in the market right now for a new mic so shopping around and seeing what suits my voice best …. So, watch this space.

Some of your favourite singers are still alive, if you had a choice to sing with one of them which would it be? Oh wow…. That’s almost as tough as choosing my top 10 albums… hmmmmm To share a stage with Mavis would literally be the coolest thing ever… however I would love to duet with Mr Stapleton… Could I do both? A Staple/Stapleton/Bailey Collab – BOOM!

You have been on a few trips to the USA, what keeps drawing you back there to record?

I ended up in Nashville by chance really, when a road trip turned into, basically, my debut album… but I have never been to a place where I felt so welcome and so inspired, and somewhere where I am allowed to be me? I Really feel like I can be ‘Me’ there – Does that make sense!?

Do you play any venues when you are there?

Aha! Watch this space for an exciting announcement on that front very soon .

TOP 10

01

Ok so this question is just impossible… so I’m changing it to my top albums of 2017 (doesn’t matter if they were released 30 years ago or 30 days ago) but these are the records I have been listening too this year…

PHANTOM LIMB – THE PINES

Although this record came out in 2012 this has been my album of the year – I must have listened to it 100 times whilst travelling the many miles I do as a gypsy singer – I’m listening to it now!

Front woman Yola Carter can be found taking the Americana world by storm and drummer Matthew Jones can be found drumming up a storm with a certain Elles Bailey.

02

RYAN ADAMS –HEARTBREAKER

Ryan breaks my heart in all the best ways possible.

03

THE VERY BEST OF THE STAPLE SINGERS

I love Mavis, I love Pops, and I love The Staple singers.

04

THE BAND – THE LAST WALTZ

My dad had the Stage Fright and Music from Big Pink on CD when I was younger so I was brought up listening to The Band but this year for me I’ve listened to the Last Waltz so much whilston tour! Such an iconic record.

05

IMELDA MAY – LIFE LOVE

FLESH BLOOD DELUXE

I think this is my favourite 2017 release. I brought the record whilstdoing the Ladies of the Blues tour and listened to the record from start to finish on loop all the way from Market Rasen to Devizes. The production from T. Bone Burnett is simply stunning and Imelda’s voice astounds me. So many great tracks but Love And Fear is the one that gets me every time. I cried when I heard her play it live.

06

JOE COCKER MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN – LIVE AT FILLMORE EAST

This album is drenched in soul… I think Lets Go Get Stoned is my fave… Just fabulous!

07

TRAVELLER – CHRIS STAPLETON

Seems I’m picking all my favourite singers in this list! One of my favourite songs on here being Tennessee Whiskey. I would sit on the porch in Leipers Fork (TN) enjoying whilst drinking a beer listening to this record whilstmaking Wildfire. The perfect way to spend a night in Tennessee.

08

JO HARMAN –PEOPLE WE BECOME/ LIVE IN CAMDEN

I got to open for Jo on her ‘People We Become’ album tour and watched the show every night. Not once did I get bored. This album is a classic!

09

BETH HART – BETTER THAN HOME

I only recently started listening to Beth although I had known about her for a while. I really like this album. Might As Well Smile and St Teresa are the stand outs for me. Hopefully I can catch her on the road soon!

10

JOHN MARTYN – SOLID AIR

So as I had to write that tricky second album whilston the road promoting ‘Wildfire’ I’ve been doing some in depth studying of iconic songwriters. I love how John Martyn crafted his song and fuses different sounds together, he was a feel innovator. Also – damn he could write killer melodies!

It’s a much larger market out there, and more open to all blues genres. Maybe it will be the start of something really big for you? What is the chance of you moving to the USA to live, even temporarily?

I love the UK and although I have spent some time in the states I’m very much a home bird so I don’t think I’ll be spreading my wings for a permanent stay

Who was the producer and where did you do the recordings in Nashville? Brad Nowell produced ‘Wildfire’ and in Nashville we recorded in Blackbird Studios – what a place! We recorded in dear old Blighty too though! Had to give it that Transatlantic feel.

Do you have a formula for writing? Or how or what inspires you? Is it the words or music that comes to you first?

No formula really, sometimes in the case of Girl Who Owned the Blues the lyrics came first… and with Wildfire it was all about Joe’s awesome riff and I built the song around it. With Perfect Storm I was out running and the lyrics and melody came at the same time. I

often write songs when I am running, as it helps clear my mind and bring forth the inspiration. I also like to collaborate with other songwriters. It’s a beautiful thing when you have been in a room with someone for a few hours, sometimes (as with the case of writing in Nashville) it’s often with someone you have never met before, and you come out with a song at the end of it, often a song you didn’t know you have in you. Writing with others definitely helps bring out the unknown!

Do you enjoy the traveling to gigs?

Do you know what, it’s not too bad. I like being on the road and it’s nice to see lots of different countries…. even if it’s just through a van window.

What is your ultimate goal in life?

To always be able to write, play and perform music whilst having a family!

Thanks for your time Elles and Good Luck from all of the team at Blues Matters! with all that you have on your horizon.

Steve Kozak

THE MAKING OF A CANADIAN ICON

The way we experience things depends largely on the way we expect to experience them.

When you first see Steve Kozak take the stage, you expect the usual blues tunes presented in the customary manner. Into the first four bars, there is a distinct energy, a rockabilly sound, and a realization that this is different. Here is a spellbinding way of bending the notes that grabs your attention, and pulls you toward that stage.

There is an easy-going manner with such an assured polish that has matured over the years. Good humour and chuckles pepper the dialogue with audiences, as well as interviews. That instinctually disarms any doubts as to why Steve was chosen for the prestigious Maple Blues Award for New Artist or Group of the Year 2012 by the Toronto Blues Society. He was also awarded The Ambassador of the Blues Award by the Blues Underground Network for the same year.

Kozak’s attitude when he won the Maple Blues Award from the Toronto Blues Society was, “Isn’t it nice to be new again”, he chuckles.

In 2017, Steve received a nomination for a Western Canadian Music Award as Blues Artist of the Year.

The fourth released album It’s Time (2017) has received good reviews and has been talked about worldwide. He has released three previous albums

– Steve Kozak – Westcoast Blues Revue (2003); Hoot ‘N Holler (2007), and Steve Kozak’s Westcoast Blues Revue – Lookin’ at Lucky (2012).

Kozak’s previous self-promoted album Lookin’ At Lucky featuring longtime friend and blues legend, James Harman, has been very well received. It charted well on radio, twice reaching #1 spots on blues and roots radio stations, twenty charts in Canada, and hitting #10 in the top 50 blues albums, getting radio play in the USA.

When Steve was in high school, his cousin in Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada, exposed him to Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, and many of the British blues and contemporary recordings of that time. He met and hung out with Muddy Waters in 1977 when Waters performed in North Vancouver, B.C. That meeting left a huge impression on the young musician.

His diligence in listening to all these recordings made such an impact that he picked up the patterns, the 1-4-5’s that have developed into easily playing anything he listens to and composing his own music.

There are great memories of Big Joe Duskin; Sonny Rhodes, who he played with at one time; vocal lessons from Pee Wee Crayton; playing with Jack Lavin from the Powder Blues Band. Jamming with some of our iconic blues masters has been a thrill, James Harman at the Edmonton Blues Festival, Duke Robillard at the Winnipeg Blues Festival, Mitch Wood at the old Yale Hotel, and Kenny Blues Boss Wayne at the Pender Harbour Blues Festival.

At one point, Kozak initiated the Powell River Blues Festival. The

Verbals: Suzanne Swanson Visuals: Andy Cotton and Suzanne Swanson

location, weather, and downturn in the economy necessitated a one-off only festival.

Steve Kozak has also opened shows in Vancouver for the late Nick Curran and the Low-Lifes, Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, Maria Muldaur, The Lee Boys, Matt & Nikki Hill and ‘Super Harp’ James Cotton. Another passion runs deep. Flyfishing has given him another outlet for his energy. He regularly travels to the British Columbia interior to Loon Lake and other secluded lakes for the relaxing atmosphere of clear waters where he can cast his rod. He has even recorded the song Goin’ Fishin, on his latest CD. When talking about his enthusiasm for fishing, he mentioned that he was looking forward to two weeks in the Fall, of doing nothing but fishing and enjoying his surroundings.

With the help of a Factor Fund, a private non-profit organization dedicated to providing assistance toward the growth and development of the Canadian music industry, Kozak was able to enlist the services of Matthew Rogers, as producer, and Shawn Hall, of the acclaimed The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer Canadian duo for his latest album. Along with his band members, Roger Brant, bass, Chris Nordquist, drums, It’s Time more than satisfy.

Although he has been a Vancouver fi xture for many years, the band has been successful with performances at the 2016 Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival; the 2014 Burnaby Blues & Roots Festival; Big Blues Bender All-Star Jam at the Riviera Casino lounge in Las Vegas; The El Macombo in Toronto, 2012; The Pender Harbour Blues Festival, 2010, 2013, 2014; Hwy 101 Music Festival; The Nanaimo Summertime Blues Festival, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2016: The Calgary Mid-Winter Blues Festival 2013; The Edmonton International Blues Festival 2010, 2012; Powell River Blues Festival, 2011, 2012 Rare Earth Music Festival 2011 (Vernon BC); The Maple Ridge Blues Festival, The Gastown

Chili and Blues Festival in Vancouver. This certainly speaks well for Kozak’s popularity with music lovers.

Naturally, the conversation got around to preferred gear. Although he owns nine guitars there are favorites. His first axe was a Bill Nash Telecaster from Olympia, Washington. Now on the road and for home gigs he plays a 1962 ES-330 Gibson Thinline Fully Hollow Electric ArchTop. His strings are the new D’Addario NYZL 10/46 that come coated so that they do not corrode. Laughing, he highly recommends these strings, as they do not require changing that often.

Quilter Amps endorses a solidstate lightweight amp that he really enjoys taking to gigs. Roger Brant, bass player, sold him on the idea of using Quilter as Brant uses an 800 watt amp that is lightweight.

The need for lighter-weight gear came about because of his 2006 serious life-threatening surgery. This was right when his Hoot N’ Holler CD was being worked on. The surgery put his career on hold until the matter was resolved.

In January 2016, Kozak had a total hip replacement. He has worked hard at rehabilitation. He was back, sitting, playing at his gigs three months later. Workouts in the swimming pool continue to make sure all strength returns to normal. He advised that it really requires a good year to get over this particular surgical procedure.

The very interesting backstory of Vancouver born Kozak is that he has always loved being

DISCOGRAPHY

IT’S TIME – 2017

LOOKIN’ AT LUCKY – 2012

HOOT ‘N HOLLER – 2007

WESTCOAST BLUES REVUE – 2003

around horses. He and his wife, Sue, have ridden for decades.

At one time, he was a certified registered farrier shoeing horses. Working at local racing stables, farms, and other areas in the province of British Columbia who needed this particular service, gave him great satisfaction to be with the animals he loves. His conversation is full of interesting stories of working with horses, including self-effacing laughter about some of his experiences. His favorite possession, from the years working with horses, is a handsome custom-made saddle that sits proudly in his living room. A current goal is to get back riding again when all the healing from the hip replacement has taken place. He misses being in the saddle.

When asked the inevitable question of what comes first, instrumental or vocal, the response is a hearty laugh. He loves to walk, and during these daily constitutionals, lyrics seem to flow easily in creating new ideas for a tune. More stories and low chuckles fill the conversation when talking about the original tunes on It’s Time. He is proud of the work he has done and grateful to have so many friends in the music industry that have helped him along the way. Special acknowledgements go to Holger Petersen, of Stony Plain Records and CBC Radio’s Saturday Night Blues, Duke Robillard, James Harman, Cam Hayden, Brent Zwicker, and Paul Norton.

Here is a musician who has learned his craft exceptionally well.

“ISN’T IT NICE TO BE NEW AGAIN”

Buddy Whi ington

ONCE A BLUESBREAKER ALWAYS A BLUESMAKER

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Buddy Whittington, like many of his contemporaries picked up a guitar at a young age. Starting out playing country music, in time he became the penultimate guitarist with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Nearing the end of an exhaustive UK tour supporting Mayall, our own Clive Rawlings caught up with Buddy at the Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth.

So, Buddy let's start at the beginning, how did you get into music?

I got interested watching Country Music Television shows on Saturday afternoons, which led into Saturday evenings, with my dad. There’s a place in Fort Worth called Panther Hall. They would do a lot of TV shows there and record that for television, where they would invite everybody up to watch a show that night. There was very

Verbals: Clive Rawlings Visuals: Pedro Hernandez and Domingo J. Casas

early Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, all the early guys would play there. Me and my dad would want to watch that and I would watch it with him. I loved the music but I just had to look and see what kind of guitars and amps they had, know what I mean? And there was one called Big D Jamboree in Dallas. Also, a lot of radio stations, who played cool stuff. WBAP was a diehard country station, and we had KFJZ and KLIF and WRR to play some jazz and blues and stuff.

This was all in Texas?

This was all right in our local area. I don’t have real clear memories of it, but I do remember KNOK, which was an ethnic radio station. They were down on the left end of the dial, and they played some great stuff on there. You never knew who you would hear on there, but I used to hear Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, B B and Albert, Bobby Blue Bland, and all of them.

So, your early inspiration was country? Well, yeah, there was a little bit of everything involved. I still play some country stuff, but I don’t know, it’s hard to say. There were so many things. My sister’s record collection. She had very wide taste. I started noticing that.

I was about to say, do you read music? Or do you pick it up from listening? No, I have never been a reader and I would like to someday take the time and do it, but I’m not good at math either and it’s the same thing, you know what I mean? It’s like algebra to me. I have a good friend J Town Johnny Rose from Joplin, Missouri, that sent me a Method Classical Guitar Book. He’d call me up every so often and say “You working on your Carcassi?” and I would say “Yeah”, and he said “Just send me the book back if you’re not going to use it.” (laughs)

What was your first gig? Can you remember?

My first gig was probably at the Red Eagle Club. It used to be a Gulf Truck Stop, with a little liquor by the drink place. We didn’t have bars back then. It was a restaurant, but you could bring your own bottle in and put it behind the counter and they would give you set-ups. All they could serve was ice.

So, what age would you have been then?

Oh, fourteen, something like that. Me and a guy named Mark Peterson who I still see and I talk to him all the time. He was a police detective for many years. After he got out of the service he played with a country singer named Janie Fricke.

Yes, I’ve heard of her.

Guitar player and a piano player, very good and an old friend of mine. We played together at my first gig at that little place next to the truck stop.

Did Point Blank come before or after the Blues Breakers chronogically?

Well I was just in there for a minute. Rusty has since passed away, Mike Hamilton passed away, Kim Davis passed away and Philip Petty passed away.

So they are no longer?

Well, you know, my friend Mouse Mayes, who plays with me in my band at home, Mouse is playing with John O’Daniel and a guy named Lance Keltner and Larry Telford on keyboards. They still have a band. They are trying to make a record, and maybe make another round at it, but they have been hitting it a long time. I remember the first time I saw Point Blank was opening for ZZ Top because they had the same manager, Bill Ham, who has also since passed away. And Rusty Burns and Kim Davis were out there. Both of them lived within about fifteen miles of me. They were a little bit older than me so I didn’t know them, but they became great friends and I miss them both.

Doctor Wu’?

We have a new Doctor Wu’ probably coming out first of the year. We got a bunch of new tunes, and it’s a little bit different. This is number five, and there’s a few country tunes on there, there’s a soul tune on there, there’s a couple of blues’ish tunes on there. It’s been a good thing for us, because Jim Ashworth and Bryan Freeze, they write the songs basically and sometimes others come in, and they let me come in and play around on some stuff once in a while, but mostly we just come in and play the tunes and Bryan engineers in Jim’s little studio.

I can only assume, correct me if I’m wrong, that probably your big break came when Coco Montoya left the Bluesbreakers

Well I was working in a band, I met John in Dallas at the old Dallas Alley that’s no longer there. We knew a guy that managed the place and he said I’ve got John Mayall coming in, would you guys like to open the show? I was playing and I looked down and there’s John screwing his keyboard legs together, and he looked up and gave me a smile.

I gave him a cassette tape, and he said he didn't have anything going on as far as a record deal now, but I think Coco is thinking about leaving and if I ever get in a situation where I need a guitar player, I may give you a call.

And the rest is history?

Well it took about two years before it finally happened when Coco got ready to go out.

That was ‘93. Presumably that was a life changer for you?

Gosh my son was three years old, my daughter had just been born, but it worked out good. It was a good fifteen years’ steady house payments.

Then after that, in 2008, the Bluesbreakers sort of disbanded for a while. Yeah.

You came to the UK I was trying to think how you met up with Roger Cotton, God bless. Well those guys were in the Splinter Group, and we were touring with Peter Green’s Splinter Group and through a succession of you know, Mike Howe was helping us to get gigs, and then Don McKay helped with a few things and I was with Alan Robinson for a little while, and we had Darby Todd playing drums with us, right up to this tour. Now Toddy's off running around somewhere and I think he’s playing with my friend Carl Verheyen a fine fine guitar player, writer, singer and everything. I'm lucky to have Brendan O’Neill with us. He played with Nine Below Zero and played with Rory Gallagher for years.

Let’s talk about the songs you have written like Beano, Young And Dumb, Pay The Band, Second Banana, are they, sort of, I

don’t like to say the word, piss-takes? Yeah, I never know what’s going to happen. I just sit down and start writing if I have an idea about something, and it comes out. Just something that comes to me that’s relative to what’s going on while we’re out running around playing.

Were you fed up with being second banana? No not at all, I just thought it was a little comical, you know. Me and a friend of mine Derek Spragner, he plays with the country hitmaker Charley Pride. Charley still comes over, they play over in England and play in Ireland an awful lot too, they play big shows. And Derek was playing with Janie Fricke at the time, we’re talking about days when you try and do your gig but you also do some things here you’re kind of an assistant, which I never was for John, he never needed that. It was just an idea of running around with different people and doing all their jigs and jags, you know.

So, your most memorable performance, what would that be? Does one in particular stick out? Well the 70th birthday is right up there, that was really great for me, and something I’ll always remember but probably the best one for me or the best series of gigs for me, was we went out in I think ‘95 in support of ZZ Top across the United States. Those guys have always been my heroes down in Texas since I first saw them in think it was 1972 and I still love them and still see them when I can. That was probably the ultimate one. But gosh I got to play with Peter Green, got to play with Mick Taylor a lot and got to know Mick a little bit, and that’s just… things like that are what mattered, you know.

What gear do you use nowadays?

Same stuff on the road because over here I’ve been storing an amp and a couple of guitars, so that I don’t have to drag one back and forward. But I’ve still got my Dr. Z stuff. I’ve still got a Dr. Z MAZ 38, actually a MAZ senior with reverb and a one 12 combo – just one speaker and I’ve also got another head called a Z28 which is like a Brown Fender DeLuxe sort of thing with two 6V6s and I use the same head that with that it’s got a volume and a tone knob, you just turn it up and there you go. Real easy no effects, you know. I have a guy that’s built me some really

good guitars, a guy named Scott Lentz., Lentzguitars.us. He’s made me some really fine guitars. Small, low volume kinda thing. There’s only two or three of them working there and they build some really nice guitars.

Have you always used them?

Well, I got my old Fender and an old Gibson, and I use them, you know, here and there, but these guitars, I’ve got one of Mr. Lentz’s let’s say traditional style and I can’t really call it that name, or he gets in trouble, but I leave one over here so it’s ready to go when I get here. All I have to do is put strings on it and go. But there’s some good stuff.

I think we’ve asked this question before. Do you ever meet up with any of your pals from the Bluesbreakers?

Hank is in Los Angeles, he’s playing some and I think he’s working in music publishing administration, I think he’s playing all the time, playing with some good blues guys in LA. Joe is living out in the High Desert I think. He was with a couple of his friends, Duke Logan, John Duke Logan, he was a good friend of his, he passed away, and they all kinda backed away from it after that. He had an old Ford Hot Rod he was building and he got that built and they sold their house and moved out to I think they are around Tehachapi California or somewhere. I don’t see him. I talk to him once in a while but I haven’t seen him for quite some time.

What music to you chill out to?

Well I usually don’t chill out. I listen to a lot of YouTube stuff, I go find Phil Baugh a country guitar player. Go on YouTube and look up Phil Baugh or listen to Jimmy Brandt, Speedy West doing a little you know Hideaway or listen to Otis Rush, I Can’t Quit You Baby the original you know. Nobody does that stuff like them. Freddie King, love Freddie King.

Grew up in Texas?

Right in the middle there, and he was around, and in the early 70s you could go see him back then. I actually got to talk to him a couple of times.

Do you ever have a quiet Sunday morning when you could do a little relax? Yeah of course I do!

“I JUST SIT DOWN AND START WRITING IF I HAVE AN IDEA ABOUT SOMETHING, AND IT COMES OUT. JUST SOMETHING THAT COMES TO ME THAT’S RELATIVE TO WHAT’S GOING ON WHILE WE’RE OUT RUNNING AROUND PLAYING.”

What do you listen to then?

You know I don’t listen to music a lot. Like on the way home from a gig, if anything I listen to Talk Radio because I’ve just got through blasting myself. I might listen to some Tommy Emmanuel who’s the greatest living guitar player I think.

Do you have any interests outside of music? The family, obviously. Well that’s the thing. The music takes up so much time, and for the rest of it I just try to do stay with my kids when I can when they’re home, because they’re grown and away from home now, you know.

Who would be in Buddy Whittington’s Bluesbreakers?

Well you know I like the configuration now. Everything has a bit of a difference about it, but the current one is just fine with me, you know. I have a lot of guys I like.

You’re so unpretentious. Well, I’m just trying to, you know, scrape a living.

Have you brought any new stuff out?

I worked on the Doctor Wu’ stuff an awful lot, but I don’t have a new album. After I did Svengali it was such a beating to get the whole thing done and paid for, distribution wasn’t what it was supposed to be, and let’s just say I have one of my first record, I’m still getting paid for my first record through the distributor on that, and the other one, I’ve hardly ever seen money from it.

Bagful Of Blues

No, the Bagful Of Blues is just something we did as a little something for the people at the gigs who want to hear what we do on the gigs. But the first one was the one called Buddy Whittington. It was distributed through Proper Music and my website, and we still, every time we go and play we press up some Bagful of Blues because they tend to sell very well because it’s familiar material for a lot of people. They come to see a blues show and you play a few blues tunes they like, and they ask which one is the one with that tune on it. We did it at Roger’s studio for probably £2,500 or something like that and I spent sixteen or seventeen thousand

dollars on my other record and it’s ‘why don’t you have the one with all the covers on it?’

Well, you’re all great guys, I’ve interviewed a lot of people. There are only a few who have a bit of an attitude. Well you gotta be, you catch more flies with honey, you know what I mean? You gotta be nice to people.

Information on your tour dates? Can it be found on your website?

Well a terrible thing is my website is not updated right now, but it is buddywhittington. com and as soon as I get home and lick my wounds and retreat to my lair for a little while, maybe I’ll get around to redoing the website. Also on Facebook I’m on there a lot during the day, and if anyone’s got anything to say, or they want to book something…

Well thank you very much for taking time. Anything else you’d like to say? Well I just hope people will continue to support live music.

Now my signature question. What’s your favourite biscuit?

Oh er, Penguins.

English Penguins? No doubt!

That’s amazing. I usually get all American 'cookies' when I ask that question. I have to take them home by the boxload! See you again, after ten years or so.

Hope so.

DISCOGRAPHY

SIX STRING SVENGALI (BUDDY

WHITTINGTON BAND) – 2011

TEXAS BLUES PROJECT, VOL. 2 (DR. WU AND FRIENDS) – 2010

BAG FULL OF BLUES (BUDDY

WHITTINGTON BAND) – 2010

TEXAS BLUES PROJECT, VOL. 1 (DR. WU AND FRIENDS) – 2007

BUDDY WHITTINGTON (BUDDY

WHITTINGTON BAND) – 2007

Dave Fields N EW YORKS FINEST SET TO BE UNLEASHED!

Verbals: Steve Yourglivch Visuals: Judy Tucker Fields and Bob Gruen

Dave Fields might not be a household name in UK Blues circles just yet but watch this space. He is one of the hardest working bluesmen out of New York and when I caught up with him he had just returned home from a European jaunt taking in Germany, Spitzbergen (Norway) and Ukraine. He has collaborated with fellow New Yorker Sari Schorr and hopes to follow her path with UK dates in 2018. New album Unleashed is a scorching mix of Dave's live show plus new material and is his fifth full release.

Hi Dave, it's good to catch up with you. Thanks for your time, I've been following you from a distance for about three years now and really enjoy what you're doing. Hey, thanks for the interview and thank you so much for the support. You know I'm half English by blood, my grandmother is from Croydon.

I didn't know that, that's amazing. I know you've just been on tour in Europe. That's right, I just got home last night! But it's OK; no jet lag yet. The last week was torturous because I got sick. So I slept such a lot that I'm already back on US schedule.

Apart from getting ill how did the tour go, I saw you ended up playing in Kiev? Yeah, I did a bunch of shows in Norway including The Dark Season Festival in Svalbard. And while I was there I met one of my heroes Mike Vernon, he was such a nice cool guy, and some other British guys including drummer Mike Hellier. They have been playing with a good friend of mine, Sari Schorr who lives in Brooklyn. We do many shows together.

Sadly, you didn't make it to the UK this time, is that possible in the future? You know I'm coming to Europe a lot next year. I'm dying to play in the UK, I really am. I have to pay for a special work visa and I've got that all lined up. I just need to get the right people and the right gigs lined up. I'll jump through whatever hoops I need to just to play the UK!

You've got a new album out too which is a mix of live and new studio tracks, is that correct?

That's correct. It's interesting because I've put out five CDs in ten years, and because of my background my music is quite diverse. My father is noted composer, arranger, producer Sammy 'Forever' Fields. I grew up listening to so much different music, but the music I always loved from the beginning was the blues. My Dad exposed me to everything, New York City is a melting pot of so many styles and cultures, so as a kid I played rock, punk, blues and jazz, oh so much jazz, and I think you kinda hear that in my playing. I went to Berklee College of Music and studied jazz which I thought was a career direction for me but I realised that wasn't what I really wanted to do. My first two CDs were very much blues but gradually I think I've evolved into more of a blues rock player and even a bit jam band. So, I felt none of the previous albums captured what my live show was about, especially when we perform tracks like Going Down. I don't perform the same live as I do in the studio. The audience always gets me excited and fired up.

Well in your earlier albums you can certainly feel those jazz vibes going on and I sense Jeff Beck is an influence? Yes he is and let me just say a little bit about that. I love Jeff Beck and he is one of those rare musicians who gets better with age. He's just a genius, I don't want to sound exactly like him but I think we have arrived at similar places in the way we play guitar just by coincidence I think. When I was a kid I listened to him and I have the utmost respect for him, one day I'd love to meet him. I'd love to meet Jeff Beck! Wow what a player and at heart a bluesman. You know British rock is a huge influence on what I do which is why it was such an honour to meet Mike Vernon.

You mentioned your father, he was another big influence when you were growing up wasn't he? My Dad drilled me to learn lots of instruments, I played guitar, bass, piano, drums, pedal steel, mandolin, ukelele, banjo. All because my Dad wanted to make sure I could make a living playing music. My Dad had a big recording studio at our house that so many famous people recorded in. Barbara Streisand, Stevie Wonder and more. He wanted me to be a world class producer arranger like him. I spent most of my career, believe it or not, focusing on

that, having that skill set. It's only in the last ten years I thought you know I don't wanna do this anymore, I wanna play my guitar. Play the blues in front of people.

That's interesting because I notice that you have a lot of credits on film scores and television work. I spent most of my life as a first call studio musician in New York City. That meant doing four or five sessions a day. I'd bring my guitar, banjo or mandolin whatever was required and do that all day. Then I graduated to composer arranger at Look Music in NYC. I made a lot of money doing that but you know life isn't just about money and grinding out music, there's more to life than that. I feel so blessed that I've found this career path and people are so receptive to it.

You've found your true place now?

Yes I have, I know it. There's purpose to my life now. The blues is about bringing people together that's what this music is about ultimately. It was started by slaves in cotton fields and now look at what it's grown into.

So it's around ten years you've been a solo artist?

Yes, I released my first album in October 2007. So I've just celebrated ten years. The first album was titled Time's A Wastin'. I've re-mastered it with a bonus track so now you can order it as Time's A Wastin' Re-Visited. I still do a lot of those songs at the live shows.

The first album I picked up on was All In. Yes, a lot of the stuff on there I held back on a bit cos I didn't want to scare people away. I could write a traditional blues album but that wouldn't be true, I'm so much more than just that.

I believe blues is a living thing so that means it is contemporary and has to pull in other strands and influences. My God yes. Look at what the British Blues boom guys did. Look at what people like Led Zeppelin did with it. We have a responsibility to continue carrying that blues torch.

On my European tour I did a bunch of shows in Norway including a small town right up north on Spitzbergen near

the North Pole and I did a show in Ukraine in front of a mainly jazz audience playing my brand of blues and some traditional blues and they just devoured it. They loved it. You know in Eastern Europe jazz is so popular because there's a freedom to it that they love because they were repressed for so many years. At the festival in Ukraine it was wonderful to have two to three thousand people on their feet lapping up the blues. That’s what I said earlier about interacting with the audience. That's why I made some of the new CD live.

We talked earlier about you starting out as a musician. Did you learn piano first?

Yes, that was interesting. When I was a kid my Dad played piano and my God he was virtuoso. My sister and I watched him play and would just be dazzled by him. We would mess around on piano after watching him because we were inspired by what he did. I also had an uncle who played guitar and I remember listening to The Beatles with him and thinking 'that's it I'm gonna be a guitar player'. So I started asking my Dad, buy me a guitar over and over. But he kept saying no, you have to master piano first. One day he came home and played Whole Lotta Shakin' by Jerry Lee Lewis on piano and I was hooked so I said OK I'll learn piano. Once I learned how to play that he bought me a guitar! At my shows now I go back and forth between keys and guitar. I really enjoy it, I studied classical and jazz piano but the first thing I played was blues, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles and Fats Domino. It's odd you know, I don't like to practise. I practise guitar but not piano.

When you write is it mostly on piano or guitar? Both but really more guitar at this point. I really see myself more as a guitar player so I want to focus on that.

You are also involved with something called New York Allstars. Yes, that's like a blues revue that I put together. There's so many amazing musicians in the New York area that come along and play, like Sari Schorr is one of them. So we get together and do a few shows.

I think from a blues perspective New York is an interesting city. Everyone associates Chicago, Detroit, Memphis etc with blues but I think NYC has its own scene going on that's quite gritty and urban sounding. Yeah, I agree and you know on the All In CD there's a song called Lets Go Downtown which is for me that New York blues, kinda funky with changes in it. Do you know Bill Sims from New York?

Yes, I've met Bill Sims when he was here with The Heritage Blues Orchestra. He's a good example of a New York blues performer. Michael Hill is another one, and Popa Chubby is the epitome of New York blues rock. Sari has that feel too.

When I first heard your playing you reminded me a lot of another New Yorker, Bill Perry. Interesting. You know I met him just before he died. What a nice man. That's quite a compliment because he was an amazing artist and a lovely guy. We miss him so much.

So you said you're back in Europe next year? Yes, I'm in Norway in February and it's looking like I'll be in Europe for the whole of June. As I said I'd love to get to play the UK either then or whenever anything came up.

Well fingers crossed that we can make that happen. I hope so Steve.

“WHEN I WAS A KID MY DAD PLAYED PIANO AND MY GOD HE WAS VIRTUOSO. MY SISTER AND I WATCHED HIM PLAY AND WOULD JUST BE DAZZLED BY HIM.”

Mick Kolassa MICHISSIPPI MICK AND THE UK BLUES PILGIMAGE

What do The Beatles, Wales, the Blues Foundation, and Luton have in common? The answer is Mick 'Michissippi Mick' Kolassa, hailing from Taylor, Mississippi. Mick, a former board member of the Blues Foundation in the US, recently published an album of blues'd up covers of the Fab Four's songs, which has proved a popular and critical success. Again, like The Beatles once did, Mick is lining up an appearance at The Cavern in Liverpool when he appears in the Taylor Made Blues Band, when they tour the UK in July 2018. The tour also includes an appearance at The Bear Club in Luton. The British tour is for Mick a pilgrimage to his roots, including Wales, and to the roots of much of the music he loves, so much so that the tour name is Pilgrimage Tour 2018.

So what of those roots?

My maternal grandmother was born in Barry and we have many family members throughout Wales, often with the names Morris and Gilbert. I am related to John Lennon's family through my great great great grandfather, Henry Morris. My maternal grandfather’s family was from the north of England. They came to the US pre-revolution.

How about Stateside?

I was brought up in southern Michigan, where my mother, now aged ninety, was a nurse, and my father made advertising signs, including with neon lights, and we had a paint store. I started playing music when I was ten, eleven years old. When I was fifteen I went into an appliance store, and as I was thumbing through the records, I saw Robert Johnson King Of The Delta Blues Singers and bought the record. I wore the grooves out of it! It changed my life, especially Travelling Riverside Blues.

What followed?

I also came across Hank Williams around that time, I was struck by the similarities in structure. I hit Robert Johnson's contemporaries, then I heard an updated version of a Robert Johnson song. It was Eric Clapton playing in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Soon after that I saw Mayall play in the States. I discovered him, Clapton, via the Delta Blues, which was a different perspective to many. I also began to attend blues festivals at that time, and was lucky enough to have attended festivals where I saw Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and so many more.

As a teenager I was in Rock bands,

Verbals: Darren Weale Visual: Donna Criswell

some blues ones, and I played some acoustic. When I graduated from high school, I spent a year in college, partied hard, lost my student deferment and I was drafted into the military. That took me some years out and to posts including behind a desk in Germany. I was there in the 1970's and I saw John Mayall again, Humble Pie, The Moody Blues. I enjoyed what they did so much, it was infectious. I also played in rock and blues bands in Germany while stationed there – one band was called Uncle Bud’s Pet Squid, and we played a lot of blues.

I met a woman in Germany, who was also in the military. Our first date was a Humble Pie concert, and we got married. When I left Germany she came back to the States with me, we had a kid, and I had a degree in Business and Economics. I was playing in clubs solo at nights, I made friends, played some in Holiday Inns. I was exceptionally involved in fly music, fly fishing! TrouTunes & Other Fishing Madness was a trout fishing album that came out in the late 80's. I worked in the pharmaceutical industry and in teaching. I was invited to make a guest lecture at the University of Mississippi, and I was offered a post. At that stage I'd been living in New Jersey, so I took the post and moved to Mississippi. Sadly, I moved to a state without mountains and without trout! Before I knew it, I was active in the blues community and playing, and involved in the Blues Foundation. I've been to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis a few times, while working on things like economic impact surveys. The International Blues Challenge has two hundred, and fifty acts, five thousand people, and is a battle of the bands. We need more British bands coming over.

While I was on the board of the Blues Foundation, it re-ignited my passion for performing and playing live. I did that while I held down some lovely jobs, gained a Doctorate in Marketing and Economics, and ran a successful company. Along the way

of my life, I worked in factories, some making ambulances, and mobile home components. At one time I was a carny – a travelling carnival helper. That experience helped in my life and music.

Mick's musical output includes some witty, melodic blues, but it is in his last album You Can't Do That that he combines the blues with The Beatles. In so doing, he extended history, if one accepts a quote attributed to George Harrison, "If there was no Lead Belly, there would have been no Lonnie Donegan; no Lonnie Donegan, no Beatles. Therefore no Lead Belly, no Beatles.” Now, no Beatles, no Mick Kolassa re-treatments of Beatles songs.

How do you reflect on your and the blues link to The Beatles?

Music reaches you very deeply and connects things. Johnny and the Moondogs and The Quarry Men, Lennon's first band, was Skiff le, the step before blues in the UK. Ringo Starr said his ideal job would have been as Lightnin' Hopkins drummer. The connection is interwoven with the music I love.

In Mick's non-Beatles output, humour looms large, such as in the lively New Beale Street Blues, revisiting old themes like infidelity and men's erratic efforts to hide it. Humour? I grew up with humour. Parents’ and friends’ jokes. My father bought records of The Smothers Brothers, folk humour, sometimes political. Their Comedy Hour TV show was taken off air as politics changed. In music, blues and country attract humour, like Hoochie Coochie Man, the ultimate blues song, all riff and machismo. There is humour throughout Willie Dixon's songs, he's great at it. I'm honoured my music has been compared to Elvin Bishop, who has lots of humour. It had to show up in my music! I learned not to take my music too seriously. I do take some things seriously, but humour helps me get through my day.

What have been your proudest moments to date?

“I LEARNED NOT TO TAKE MY MUSIC TOO SERIOUSLY. I DO TAKE SOME THINGS SERIOUSLY, BUT HUMOUR HELPS ME GET THROUGH MY DAY.”

What I've been able to achieve with my music has been amazing. I've been in the Roots Music Report chart, number 1! Those kinds of things it's almost unreal to see there. I'm in the charts all over! In the Ukraine! For me, all this is a labour of love. To have it returned is pretty special. Proceeds go back to Blues Foundation programmes, I'm proud to get attention to the HART (Handy Artists Relief Trust) Fund, health and financial and general scholarships. It's great to be able to leverage my music to bring attention to the fund and the Foundation.

I'm also very proud of my second album, Ghosts Of The Riverside Hotel. Few people were aware of The Riverside Hotel. It was a hospital for black people during the segregation era in Clarksdale, the G.T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital Bessie Smith died there. In 1943, Mrs. Z.L. Ratliff rented it and turned it into a hotel. Muddy Waters lived there a while, Rocket 88 was worked out there, the start of rock 'n' roll, arguably. I've been able to share my love of these things, their history. History is important. If we are ignorant of history, we're doomed to repeat it. By not knowing it, we will see it all over again. I've not read a new fiction book in twenty years because I am so interested in history. It's interesting how many different people settled in the US and what they bring, fascinating how our culture became established, including Europeans and Asians and their history. Some of our greatest students of history and greatest writers came from those roots. I admired the British author JRR Tolkien creating a culture and against the backdrop of a world war. The first expensive thing my wife and I bought was a leather bound copy of each of Lord of the Rings and of The Hobbit.

Have you played in the UK before? Not for a long time. I want to, it would be a pilgrimage I really want to do. I've met John Mayall, years ago, then more recently at his Blues Hall Of

Fame presentation, we spoke for forty five minutes in a hotel lobby, it was special. He's blues royalty and will be always. All of popular music owes John Mayall a huge debt of gratitude. He's one of my influences, alongside Charlie Patton, Jimmy Reed, Cab Calloway, George Gershwin, and WC Handy. My most favourite pieces of music aren’t blues. The top one is Rhapsody In Blue, by a US orchestra who understands blues; Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, simple, a most emotional piece; Benny Goodman's Sing Sing Sing with Gene Krupa on drums. These all have that emotional level hit I look for in every piece of music. Have You Heard About My Baby, on the Bluesbreakers Beano album, the emotion gets to me and into my music as well – you can tell that Clapton is channelling the emotion of the lyrics as he plays.

Do you have any further, hot off the press news?

I will be releasing an album of duets of blues classics within the next three months, it is entitled Double Standards and features many internationally touring artists. I will also be recording two new albums in December – one live album with my band The Clarksdale Regulators, which is a combination of artists from the Clarksdale area who tour on their own as well, and another with my Taylor Made Blues Band. Both will be released in 2018. I will also be cutting an album of acoustic blues in August of 2018 while touring in Germany, with Blind Lemon Records. www.mimsmick.com

DISCOGRAPHY

YOU CAN'T DO THAT – MICK KOLASSA & MARK TELESCA – 2016

TAYLOR MADE BLUES – 2016

GHOSTS OF THE RIVERSIDE HOTEL – 2015

MICHISSIPPI MICK – 2014

PART I

Zoot Money HIS OWN ACCOUNT

Verbals: Pete Sargeant Visuals: Supplied By PR

Pete has invited Mr Money to lunch to talk about his career in and around recent releases – on a 4 CD collection including many live sets and also the new version of the Dantalian’s Chariot recordings, with Andy Summers. So on a chilly noon in downtown Hammersmith, musical memories are shared in a friendly hostelry….

Zoot, what’s your philosophy these days about performing and playing?

(Firmly) I believe it should be as live as you can possibly make it. Having said that, yesterday I was rehearsing with the set of lads that I made an album with last year –that you reviewed! – The Book Of Life and the drummer was using a click track and that seemed to keep us all together and was used as a backing track for the girl singers, to prepare for the live renditions. They weren’t at the rehearsal. So here we were working to a plan. However, my own gigs with the Big Roll Band and so on I tend to just not make it the same each time. My point being – ‘as live as you can make it’ – which was perfectly illustrated I think when I did The Bulls Head two weeks ago. My drummer had the flu, stayed in Germany. Five or six phone calls to get a drummer. The bass player had fallen off his bike, that’s a funny story in itself!

No drummer, no bass player. So, within an hour of the gig kick-off time I was sorting that, hence the rhythm section had not played with me before. So, there we were, doing the gig live. I said to the audience, ‘most of you will understand that, as you come here regularly!’ And right on the money at 8:30 the drummer walks in, having managed to get through the traffic jam. All the other people were out

in Germany or wherever, the gig was done with that new team and the audience loved it. Got through because they were musicians good enough to keep an eye on me, the bass player had heard my set so that helped.

Don’t you feel though – I work with the best people I can to raise my own game – that for the audience, who are the people that matter – they will have a more memorable night due to the adrenalin? Absolutely, Pete – that’s what I believe. Things going wrong or having to adapt for whatever reason, you don’t need a hard luck story, you just say ‘these things sometimes happen, stay with me.’ As it turned out here, great night. Long applause at the end which says you pulled it off. Maybe other people would have cancelled the gig, but there’s no need for that, is there?

One quite well-known 60s band pulled out of a gig because the guitarist’s fuzz box wouldn’t work! (Laughs) Woah – that’s really sad!

Let’s take you right back, do you remember what gear you might have used on your recording Live At Klooks Kleek? Obviously, my Hammond L-100, I had one Leslie then, a 145 Leslie, though everyone uses the 122s. Eventually I had two, one either side of the stage. That’s why I had to have two road managers! That’s where the money goes, arranging all that. That was my gear, the recording equipment came through the window. And then through the kitchens, I think it was. The microphones were to do with the studio, they set that up. I think Andy (Summers – PS) was still using his Fender setup.

I use two Fender guitar combos –personally I get a much clearer sound for my styles than say Marshalls. Hmm, I had a stack of Marshalls at one time.

And then you did Live At The Flamingo. Ah now the true story of that, if you’re referring to the boxset yes most of it was recorded at The Flamingo, recorded on a Grundig. Yes folks – are you old enough out there to remember the Grundig tape recorder?? With two plastic microphones, which you couldn’t get too far apart due to the length of the leads. Germany though is still so far ahead on keyboards, you go there and they have got just what you need, always. This all belonged to sax man Nick Newell, now sadly passed. We did take other recordings to add to the disc. From Manor House or Cooks Ferry Inn.

What about The Torrington?

I never played there with my band, but I did appear with Mike Patto and with Dick & The FireMen. I did that a couple of times.

How does It Should Have Been Me fit into this boxset? I don’t have it yet but I’m wondering?

We’re calling that album Live In The Studio, by the Big Roll Band. Because as you would remember, when you recorded an album, you did one tune after another – in the manner of a live set. No overdubs! Now this is not something that young musicians are even vaguely aware of.

The country guys would play and sing around one mic and to fade in and out on, say the backing vocals they would walk away and return. Yes, that is how they captured it. We did eight or nine tunes first off. Went to the pub, came

back and did the final three or four. It’s the kind of thing that the owner of Repertoire the label Thomas – a guitarist himself – believes this is an authentic description. It is indeed how things were done, back then in our field. We had done these tunes on stage. Or we had rehearsed them at home. So, it was a form of live performance, ‘in the moment’ if you will and exactly as you’d hear it in a gig.

Now the fourth disc, this is the one we are less likely to have heard in recent times – Live At The BBC. Unless one taped it off the BBC broadcasts, which I did.

I can’t thank them enough. Someone has donated it, saying “Oh, we’ve got that!” whilst the BBC themselves couldn’t trace certain sessions. Most are from the BBC, with the late Brian Matthew and his lovely voice.

The Who one is like that, all the announcements… Yes, you’re right. Someone signed on his behalf so we attained clearance on that. Again, Thomas felt that keeping that in did give the experience of the time, can’t argue with that, really. Brian was so good at the chatting and setting up….

Yes, but he was interested in the artists, not just promoting himself.

(Emphatically) Oh, totally! To the last shows he manged to do, he was playing our Big Time Operator. I was a little reluctant at the beginning with these numbers as they’re all done on four tracks. I can hear myself cleaning up some of the lyrics, a live gig would have been different! We did very recently find three more tracks, including I Can’t Sit Down, which is something I play to this day. I hate that expression ‘Northern Soul’ like only they got it. When we played this material up North they were really glad to see us. The Twisted Wheel, the Factory place in Sheffield, all fine places to play at. They were having their own little moment up there with import 45s and we could play that material live.

Repertoire Records are releasing the 4-CD set ‘Big Time Operator’ and have this to say about the boxset: Across the four albums, there are sizzling Hammond Organ grooves, compulsive toetappers, superb soulful vocals and musicianship of the highest quality. These recordings are some of the earliest to feature Andy Summers on guitar, who would later find international fame as a member of The Police. Indeed, Summers provides a foreword for the sleeve notes (the booklet notes are penned by UK music writer Chris Welch) for this set.

I think that era elevated the DJ above his or her station, they were delivering but not originating the music. Put a record on the turntable, turn up the volume, and you’re a star!!

In Part Two, we talk Summers, Jimi, Burdon and much more!

“THINGS GOING WRONG OR HAVING TO ADAPT FOR WHATEVER REASON, YOU DON’T NEED A HARD LUCK STORY, YOU JUST SAY ‘THESE THINGS SOMETIMES HAPPEN, STAY WITH ME’.”

“Searing guitar and gritty vocals...this album screams quality as it rips and roars along”

“Classic Chicago blues played fulltilt with palpable exuberance. A band that understands the past without merely mimicking it”

New From Alligator Records, Chicago, USA

razorwire soul, simmering deep blues and hard-grooving house rockers”

Red Lick Records, PO Box 55, Cardiff CF11 1JT sales@redlick.com www.redlick.com

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KATIE BRADLEY AND CHRIS CORCOROAN C’EST LA VIE

INDEPENDENT

This is a delightful album from co-leaders Katie Bradley and Chris Corcoran, featuring ten original songs, all recorded with “air” around them at Rimshot Studios, Kent. Mixed to the fore, Corcoran sets the feel of each cut with crisp guitar rhythms, ably and subtly supported by Jamie Lawrence on bass and Mike Thorne on drums, with guest appearances from Paul Jobson on keys, Nigel Feist on harmonica, and Paul Elliot on percussion on the funky Hot Rain. The opener Sliding On Ice has an after hours quality to it, whilst C’est La Vie underpins the lyric of resignation with a steely Chicago shuffle. I love the danceable Nola rhythms of Snap, and Muse, a song of desire and longing, showcases

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Bradley’s swooping vocal vulnerability in a lilting dreamy jazzy context, all hooting brushy organ backing. Hot Rain is uptown funk – great textures and arrangement, with the only element I perhaps long for being for the bass to really lay it down and funk me up. There is the joyously raggedy swing and bebop influence of the instrumental Corky Cuts One, and then Take Me Back, again with a sense of longing, perhaps for a happy former relationship of whatever kind takes us into classic gospel r‘n’b territory - paired down and understated rather than strident. I love the build and space of One More Day. This really has me believing in the lyric, and holds my attention with its hypnotic hand-clapping back porch fade out. There then follows a little up-tempo rockabilly flavor with Baby In The Corner and we finish up with my favourite in this collection, Use Me Right. With its use of just one chord this tune has a reflective, impressionistic quality that perfectly suits Katie’s voice. This is complemented with a driving double

bass riff, random mystical keyboard commentary and haunting harmonica. Katie Bradley has all the grit and soul of true blues in her voice, but exhibits an emotional fragility throughout this record that speaks of a pleader not a

ALBERT CASTIGLIA UP ALL NIGHT

RUF

On Up All Night guitaristsinger Albert Castiglia leads a hard rocking, hard riffing power trio who, for the most part, play with maximum heaviosity but also with great musical skill. It’s massively exciting and enjoyable but, dear oh dear, the sexist lyrics make even this pretty average bloke wince. Quit Your Bitching, written by producer Mike Zito, is an angry tirade about a partner (‘Nag, nag, nag, that’s all I hear from you’, sings Castiglia) with the singer warning her to stop

shouter. You’ll be charmed and you’ll be seduced.

DOM PIPKIN

NORMAN BEAKER BAND WE SEE US LATER INDEPENDENT

There isn’t space to list

‘before I lose my cool’ –surely an implicit threat of violence. Hoodoo On Me, also written by Zito as it happens, is about a witchy woman making life hell for her poor downtrodden man, while Luther Snake Boy Johnson’s, Woman Don’t Lie is yet another song about a no-good woman doing our hero wrong. Such sour lyrics jar and seem very dated (Castiglia doesn’t seem to have noticed the move towards sexual equality that began in the 1960s) which is a shame because there’s great guitar playing on the album and strong singing and the rhythm section of bassist Jimmy Pritchard and drummer Brian Menendez play powerfully. Slide guitar genius Sonny Landreth guests wondrously on 95 South, a Castiglia original.

TREVOR HODGETT

DAN PATLANSKY PERFECTION KILLS INDEPENDENT

It’s certainly good having a new album from Dan who this magazine has been in tune with from early days. This is released 2nd February 2018 following his 2016 Introvertigo and each release raises him up. He will have completed touring with Joanne Shaw Taylor by the time you read this so I hope you caught him somewhere near you. This album was recorded at Scherzo Productions in Pretoria, Dan’s home town. It carries a very ‘live’ sound in the production which will register with the listener. The songs are his priority and always will be and you can hear that. Writing started in 2106 and some songs are co-written with Theo Crous, a more than able and talented writer and producer of the previous album. The concept is plain and loud in the title and all too true a comment. Is there any such thing as perfection? Could we

ask for more than perfect imperfection? Well, Dan has it by the bucket load making damn fine listening over these ten tracks. The song Johnny opens and is about hard upbringing and consequences and sets you in motion. The stirring piano notes of Never Long Enough are soon burst by stinging guitar as we hear that time with loved ones is never long enough and there is pain in being apart which is reflected with intonations in lyric and playing here also reflecting the joyous moments. Mayday covers the speed of life today crashing into relationships. Dan gets to work out stuff including the state of the world and what we are doing to it, past girlfriends, travel that is essentially involved in being a musician, life hooked on I.T. and addicted to screens in iEyes. Shake The Cage is Dan’s take on how life goes round in seven year cycles, needs change now and then and embracing that. He has written a special song for his son Jack (hello Jack) and ends with Dog Day about when nothing seems to go our way. Well I reckon this album is going your way Dan so dear reader do check him out on his next tour. Recommended

ALAN PEARCE

the alumni that Mr Beaker has worked with, it’s far too long, and most blues fans will know his reputation already. You’d expect, for a man with

the musical pedigree that Norman brings with him, will know exactly how to craft another superlative collection of blues songs, and your expectations

will not be disappointed. Kicking off with a feisty version of live favourite Only I Got What The Other Guy Wants does tend to set out the stall for the rest of the record. A nice contrast with its following song – Where Does Acting Start, featuring some carefully placed and tasteful guitar to underpin the wonderful blues voice that Norman enjoys, in tandem with his prodigious skills as a guitarist. The album takes a stroll through all the major blues compositional styles, while simultaneously adding a stamp of personality that is the mark of any great artist – making a style sound like it belongs to its current exponent is a skill possessed of few, but always the mark of a great, rather than simply good musician. Time And Tide features a guest vocal from sixties pop legend Steve Ellis whose aching blues lament is expertly underpinned by some tasteful minimalist playing from the band – and one of Beaker’s finest guitar solos. That song alone makes this album worth acquiring for your collection, the fact that is sits in with fifteen other cuts and not a dud among them makes this an essential addition to the racks of blues fans. If this is your first encounter with Norman Beaker, you’ll be checking out what got Norman inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame in 2017, this album clearly adds to that top line reputation. Buy it now.

ANDY HUGHES

SON OF DAVE MUSIC FOR COP SHOWS

GODAMN RECORDS

The blues comes in many forms and on this album the UK based fifty year old Canadian highlights the creation of his own blues form, best described as Beatbox Blues but probably the most entertaining and original blues you will hear this year, Son of Dave (SOD) is a solo one man band type performer who has introduced some street sounds into his music which while firmly cemented in the blues is ground breaking and different. The title of the album is worth discussing, some of his previous songs have been picked up on by TV producers and included in a couple of broadcast cop shows, namely Breaking Bad, Bloodline & Preacher, the album title is probably a tongue in cheek invitation for producers to take their pick for their next shows, not that any of the songs have any relevance to this genre. There are ten self-written tracks on the album which range from straightforward acoustic blues driven by Harmonica to some 1970’s reggae style tunes where the beatbox comes into play, you do not really

notice SOD vocals as they tend to be short sharp bursts interspersed with his Beatbox & harmonica, a great track is Six Weeks which starts with a strong John Lee Hooker hypnotic rhythmic beat before opening up with harmonica and layered vocals. SOD had his musical baptism in the Canadian band Crash Test Dummies which clearly wet his appetite for this current project which will be a success from listening to this album, while not particularly long in length the tracks really do whistle through and warrants repeated plays. If you are looking for something original and different this could be the album for you.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

PAUL WINN BAND LIVE AT LAZYBONES

HOLLOW TREE RECORDS

Sydney-based Paul Winn and his chums provide further evidence of the vitality of the Australian blues scene with this seven-track live set, released in CD+DVD format for the pleasure of either your ears alone, or your eyes and lugholes alike. True, the opener does see these boys busted by the blues police for wrongly titling Albert King’s Down Don’t Bother

Me as ‘Down So Long’. But that really is a cavil; this is a fine harmonicadrenched run through of an old favourite, and good enough to remind one of the mighty Dr Feelgood in their pomp. Next up is the reggae-tinged Take The Long Way Home, followed by Look Around, built around the interplay of leader Winn’s guitar and Gary Honor on sax. Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime gets the name of the original ditty wrong again. This is actually a rendition of Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime, in its day a forgettable new wave single from the Korgis that made number five in the UK charts in 1980. Paul Winn Band comprehensively reimagine it as a Lizzyesque slowie, complete with obligatory big guitar solo. I Like A Drink is a celebration of the joys of exceeding government alcohol unit recommendations until unfortunate physical consequences set in. Fortunate Man is a bit more AOR-oriented, while Taylor closes the recording at ballad tempo. Hopefully this was the part of the evening where an audience of mildly inebriated Aussies started chanting ‘more! More!’ Altogether an enjoyable package.

DAVID OSLER

ANDREA MARR NATURAL INDEPENDENT

Marr comes to the table with her seventh album, an Ozzie with an evident love of Memphis soul, Stax

and northern Motowninfused blues music. And though this is billed as Marr’s first ‘full length soul’

album, it belies the simple fact that Marr herself has been working that genre consistently for many

audiences, “...I rip people’s hearts out – and then I put them back in again.”

LAYLA ZOE SONGS FROM THE ROAD

RUF RECORDS

Right from the outset with the drums and distorted guitar announcing the arrival of Layla Zoe, I knew I was going to like this release. The biggest decision was whether to listen to the CD or watch it on DVD, for Songs From The Road is a CD/ DVD release, and what great value for money this is. Recorded live in Nuernberg, Germany in March 2017, Zoe is backed by a trio of superb musicians, Jan Laacks on guitar, talk Box and backing vocals, Christoph Hubner bass and Claus Schulte on drums. These three struggle to contain the ferocity of the wild vocalist who commands centre stage and it takes some mighty flash playing from Laacks to distract attention from Layla. The rhythm section, although not pushed forward in the mix, keeps their end up, providing a solid foundation for the two out front. Layla says it’s important to give everything to her

That aptly describes her show, as they run through a set comprising mainly originals, penned either by Laacks or by Zoe herself, there only being two covers here, The Wind Cries Mary by Hendrix and Me And Bobby McGee by Foster and Kristofferson. Zoe is predominantly an artist who thrives with the more raucous, up tempo numbers, but her delivery of Sweet Angel, a song she wrote in memory of her best friend, tugs at everyone’s heart strings as she pours out her love and feeling of loss for her friend. Work Horse, a funky song about the music business has Laacks playing some great chopping rhythmic chords, driving this tight unit after the whirlwind that is Layla Zoe. Highway Of Tears, a song about what is happening to the aboriginal women of Canada, Zoe’s homeland, and the failure of law and order to deal with the problem, is another song that comes straight from the heart. The DVD ends with Me And Bobby McGee, sung alone and without instruments. I couldn’t help but make comparisons here between Zoe and Janis Joplin, the vocals and looks are strikingly similar.

MERV OSBORNE

RICK ESTRIN & THE NIGHTCATS GROOVIN’ IN GREASELAND ALLIGATOR RECORDS

This long-established harp-fuelled outfit know how to whack out a shuffle, marinate a slow blues and just rock out. There is no doubting the musical chops of Estrin, guitar and bass man Kid Andersen, Lorenzo Farrell on keys and drummer Alex Pettersen. So whether you or I need this record entirely depends upon the quality of the material. Jerry Jemmott plays bass on three cuts and unless my memory is going he was on B B King’s Completely Well album. The Blues Ain’t Going Nowhere has puffing harp and a rolling beat, with Estrin and his distinctive voice, a warm start indeed. Looking For A Woman has a springheeled chug and crisp delivery

years, picking up awards back home in Australia, including Female Blues Artist of the Year in 2009, and twice lifting the trophy for Blues Performer of the Year in both 2005 and 2012. In addition, Marr has represented Australia twice at the annual Memphis IBC award challenge. Ten of the eleven tracks feature

whilst Dissed Again almost takes a Bowie riff on a blues journey at the beginning. The song has more than a touch of Chuck Berry or even The Coasters. Tender Hearted is a loping and haunting number, one of the best here. MWAH! Gives us a guitar workout with a hit of The Tornadoes, great fun! I Ain’t All That is a Wolfish outing and Another Lonesome Day takes its time on a moody kick, fine harp and electric piano. Hands Of Time updates Jimmy Reed with some style, best lyric on this disc and very enjoyable; Cool Slaw presents a Hammond groove that sits well in the order and then Big Money is a steady Southern style tune with a wry lyric. Hot In Here features terrific harp runs on a party stomper, particularly well recorded. Living Hand To Mouth is for anyone who misses The Fabulous Thunderbirds of the 80s. The set ends with So Long which is a lovely laid-back number. The song quality is high for the genre and witty to boot.

PETE SARGEANT

Marr’s writing input while she adds a deftly-drawn cover of Aretha Franklin’s Rock Steady to the mix. Supported by her usual eight-piece band, the Funky Hitmen, this is an album that has its genesis back around 2013, when the band first formed and recorded an EP, Sass and Brass for Chicago’s Blue

Skunk label. Drawing on this previous experience, Marr delivers a refreshingly strong release that touches most of the soulful bases while being always underpinned by a blues-voice that is driving and delicious by turns. Another one those albums that so many pump out but few genuinely deliver as striking or distinctive, Natural, from Andrea Marr succeeds where countless others often fail, keeping the interest and attention right to last drop.

IAIN PATIENCE

B.B. AND THE BLUES SHACKS RESERVATION BLUES

RHYTHM BOMB RECORDS

A change of record label sees this German rhythm and blues quintet notch up their fourteenth release to date. The band has been around for at least three decades and has a substantial fan base in Europe and beyond. With recent releases they have tended to focus on a more soulful approach but not on this one which resonates with freshness to every track on this fourteen track self-penned release. The music harkens to the days of fifties Chicago with a mix of swing jump jive jazz soul for good measure. The band

comprises Michael Arlt on vocals and harmonica, Andreas Arlt on guitar, Fabian Fritz on keyboards, Henning Hauerken on upright bass and Andre Werkmeister on drums. A great collaboration of consummate musicians they gel so well. The opener Reservation Blues sets the tempo with fine harmonica blending with effortless guitar licks and steady drums. The toe tapping Lay Some Shuffle Down has a strong vibe. Mad About You slows the pace with melting rhythm section and biting lyrics of spurned love lead guitar very evocative. Year Of Strife has a laid back feel with fine keyboards intermingling with resounding harmonica. From Now On is soul personified with a catchy guitar riff. The instrumental Angry Cat exhibits pulsating keyboards. Things Won’t Change is a band showcase and has a great shuffle line. Last track Why Can’t I Go Home has quirky lyrics sung with style and passion. A back to basics release with a kick put your dancing shoes on and give this space in your collection.

COLIN CAMPBELL

LIVE AT C-BOYS

JIMMIE VAUGHAN TRIO

PROPER RECORDS

This is a consummate album of blues music in a live setting with three superbly crafted instruments each representative of the genre. Opening with Mike Flanigin (no I haven’t spelt it wrongly) on the Hammond B3 organ the stage is set for the very essence of late night boozy blues in a night club. Just an aside, but why do our American cousins insist on adulterating fundamental spelling? All the Irish Flannigans I know would be despairing of the revision to this old name! Nevertheless, Mikes fingers weave a magical spell over the keyboard and then we have the crème de la crème in the guitar playing of the maestro Jimmie Vaughan (spelling again tch tch) and the anything but cold drumming of “Frosty” Smith. The trio have produced a masterpiece of the type of music in this relatively short album. Their version of the old Beatles number on track three Can’t Buy Me Love is sublime and worth repeat listening to. The very next offering on the album is the curiously named Saint James Infirmary, yet this is anything but quintessential blues and is guaranteed to make you feel good, in spite of the title! The three musicians blend beautifully to make it the track of the album for me. Vaughan is simply a musical giant in the guitar playing world of the rock/blues and the duo who aid and abet him in this jewel are likewise in a league of their own.

My only gripe is the usual one about live albums, there is always some muppet in the audience trying to get his tuppence worth in whether it is by whistling or calling out. Nonetheless this is worth that small inconvenience for the overall quality.

TOM WALKER

emphasised on a superb track called Danke which has both vocalists duelling and chanting against each other, there must have been some studio wizardry

to create this, while the majority of the material follows the African Blues vein there are some other strong themes here, on the song The Blues Went To

MIGHTY MO RODGERS & BABA SISSOKO GRIOT BLUES

ONE ROOT MUSIC

This is a very unique sound created by the two lead musicians who have come from different musical backgrounds, meeting by chance in Lithuania and have immediately formed a common bond, together on this their debut album they have created an album of what can be best described as African Blues, the musicians share vocals in both African & English language and play instruments which include keyboards and a variety of percussion instruments including the talking drum, accompanying them are support musicians covering guitar, bass and drums. Whatever the language the vocals are sung in does not really matter as they are part of the whole sound, which is an infectious and intoxicating beat,

THE BLUES BAND THE BIG BLUES BAND LIVE ALBUM REPERTOIRE

A British blues institution, The Blues Band has been around since the late 70’s, albeit with occasional hiatuses. After one such pause between 1982 and 1985 the band re-formed and went on to make some of their best music, writing more originals and widening their repertoire, what Dave Kelly describes in the sleevenotes as their ‘grown-up’ albums. One such album was 1991’s Fat City and the gig here features eight songs from that album with the band expanded with keys, additional percussion, horns and backing singers to allow the band to do justice to the more complex arrangements. Across two CDs we get the entire concert, from the opening quintet performances that start with Flatfoot Sam through a boogie piano and drum feature for guest Bob Hall before the centrepiece of

the concert, the songs with Kokomo on B/V’s and the Rumour Brass giving songs like Willie Dixon’s Back Door Man and Sleepy John Estes’ Someday Baby a real boost. Possibly the pick of the bunch are the cover of Jimmy Witherspoon’s Big Fine Girl which really swings and Tom McGuinness’ catchy So Lonely, both on the second CD. Paul Jones is on great form vocally on numbers like Find Yourself Another Fool and the emotionally charged Down To The River and Dave Kelly is no slouch either as he leads on a superb version of Hallelujah I Love Her So and his own The Duisberg Blues. After a barnstorming Treat Her Right provides a solo spotlight for drummer Rob Townsend and thank you’s to all the guests Paul and Dave return to the stage for a duo acoustic Can’t Be Satisfied before the entire cast rocks out on So Bad and an exciting Talk To Me Baby to close what was undoubtedly a great gig. Long-term fans will have most of this material in studio versions but will probably want to add this one to their collection: the main surprise is that it has taken over 25 years for it to be released!

JOHN MITCHELL

BLUES TOP 50

Africa the band create a crunching Chicago Blues, aided by Darryl Dunmore on Harmonica. Griot is an African word that has many meanings but the key ones being Storyteller and keeper of peoples history, the album title is perfect as this is exactly what the band are doing here, retaining the legacy of the African Tribal music but bringing it into play with a large dose of blues. I guarantee you will be transfixed by the infectious beats throughout this album, the lyrical content is also top notch, particularly on Drunk As A Skunk which is a tale of lost love and the subsequent of drowning your sorrows with drink. Griot Blues is a real fusion of cultures and it seems these artists have found a formula that not only works for them but gives everyone else a very pleasurable listening experience.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

ANDREAS DIEHLMANN BAND ADB INDEPENDENT

Peter Sellers, in The Goon Show, used to have a cod-German expression if something very impressive occurred; “Gerschmitten Hemmenzvitz!” This is semantic gobbledygook, but the minute I heard

this superb album I had to shout it out. This is German blues efficiency at its finest. Oh boy, what a band. Every meaty influence is here, from Freddie King to ZZ Top and Hendrix. From the brilliant, moody slide guitar which opens the album on Way Down South, the hair stands up on your neck and you’re hooked. This powerful trio are Andreas Diehlmann on guitar and vocals, with Volker Zeller on bass and Tom Bonn on drums. Together they make a richly textured wall of rocky blues sound which has all the kick of a litre of Lowenbrau’s finest Munich beer. It takes some cojones to tackle Peter Green’s Oh Well, but they do it with stunning, driving confidence. Apart from that track and B.B. King’s Rock Me Baby, the remaining eight songs are all penned by Andreas Diehlmann. He possesses a fine blues voice, especially on the slower, Green-influenced song, Gone. Track ten, Rita, will have you dancing on the ceiling, with a slide guitar solo which could strip paint. Vorsprung durch technik? Nein. Vorsprung durch Diehlmann! Brilliant all round.

ROY BAINTON

BLACK HEN

How do you define ‘Blues’?

I always liked Little Junior

CLIMAX BLUES BAND LIVE AT THE BBC 1970-1978 REPERTOIRE RECORDS

Parker’s observation

“The blues is based on somebody’s life, it hits ’em

JIM

BYRNES LONG HOT SUMMER DAYS

Formed in 1968 Chicago Climax Blues Band have gone through many changes, not least personnel wise. This double CD shows the band in its early beginnings through to the middle 70s. Found in the BBC Archives some of these tracks were thought to have been lost. Recorded over a span of 8 years at various times, it captures the band at the top of their game. Mainly featuring the founding members, the late Peter Haycock and Colin Cooper as well as Derek Holt and John Cuffley. There are only 2 tracks on the CD that are not written by the band themselves. The opening track is Spoonful by Willie Dixon. Not a bad opener by any means it shows just what a great blues band they are. Country Hat is a superb showcase for all the members, most notably the slide guitar work put down by Haycock. Each song represents each

member’s contributions in an awesome setting. Flight being a perfect example. At 8.12 minutes long, this instrumental gives you a fabulous insight into a band in perfect harmony. Goin To New York is the only other track not written by the band. Mary Lee/ Jimmy Reed co-wrote this and Climax give it its due attention. Foot stomping blues at its best. Amerita/ Sense Of Direction is another fine example of amazing playing. Throughout the CD there are small introductions from BBC Presenters such as Bob Harris and the late great Brian Matthew, CD2 provides possibly my favourite of the album, Losin The Humbles once again it highlights Haycock at his best on slide guitar. Add to that Colin Cooper on vocals and stunning Sax and Messer’s Holt and Cuffley in the engine room this is one hell of a band hitting the groove with every beat. Couldn’t Get It Right was my first introduction to the band back in 1976.Listening to this fabulous collection it’s almost like revisiting an old friend. Then finding your old friend has some remarkable secrets. All in all, a fantastic album from a fantastic band. Thank you old friend it’s been an absolute pleasure.

STEPHEN HARRISON

ALASTAIR GREENE DREAM TRAIN RIP CAT RECORDS

Alastair Greene on Dream Train takes us deep into blues that rock with his band and five special guests that add zing to the album that is already firing on all six-string cylinders of his guitar. The name will be familiar to followers of Alan Parsons project which he has stepped down from to launch a full-time solo career. The result is his first studio album Dream Train, produced and mixed by David Z whose production credits are legendary. Thirteen tracks are the carriages on the Dream Train, twelve of which are Greene originals. The guitar playing is punchy with the energy of rock combined with the tonal context of the blues. The two are in harmony creating a cohesive rhythm full of deep grooves and driving riffs and stinging

in the heart, and the love comes out.” Judging by this emphatic, seasoned collection of well-chosen songs from Jim Byrnes, he’s been aiming for the heart throughout his 50 year career and he’s right on target. As Jim says, “What breaks or makes

licks. Opening up with the title track as we step onboard the train with Greene, the guitar is a crescendo of shades that picks up the urgency of the vocals and showing the blues is exciting under Greene’s direction. Walter Trout is the first guest on Nom Zayne, a Billy Gibbons number, filling on the sound this is an album going uphill fast and furious with clear determination to be heard. Mike Finnigan’s keys join in on three tracks including Daredevil that features Dennis Gruenling on harmonica this is music that has your feet tapping and you are energised by the music. The guitar sound changes it is sharp and tempered as Debbie Davies joins the party with a Grateful Swagger, attitude in full swing as the train swings into action on this stylish instrumental. We are now travelling Down To Memphis with Mike Zito this is a rocking full-on track of delights. Alastair Greene has delivered an album that you want to listen to the blues is crisp and the rock gritty combining to delight your ears.

LIZ AIKEN

a song is the singer,” and that’s what Jim certainly is. Only talented musical maturity can give you the radar to spot the right song, and what fits next to it, so at the age of 69, Jim Byrnes knows what he’s doing. The title track and the infectious Van

Morrison-flavoured Deep Blue sea are his own compositions. Recorded in Vancouver, this album has a superb horn section, Steve Marriner on harmonica and heartwarming harmonies from The Sojourners. Every track suits Jim’s warm voice perfectly; he shines on The Band’s The Shape I’m In, surprises you with Leonard Cohen’s moody Everybody Knows, and polishes his blues credentials with stirring renditions of Elmore James and Willie Dixon. This CD is a fine example of musical taste and talent and aged 69, Jim Byrnes proves that youth doesn’t have it all its own way. Hugely satisfying.

ROY BAINTON

SAM KELLY’S STATION HOUSE NO BARRICADES INDEPENDENT

It seems strange to think this is the first release from this band as they have been on the British music scene since the nineties. Sam Kelly multi award winner has produced this altogether eclectic gumbo of a release with music ranging from reggae jazz infusions to American soul and funk and even calypso from the Caribbean. Their origins are in the blues though and this tight band has such a sweet tone it

pleases the senses and puts a smile on your face after any gig they play. Three lead singers mix their talents to perfection. All fourteen tracks have a special symmetry. Opener is Labi Siffre’s, The Vulture with underscore of congas played by Jerome Marcus mixing with Sam Kelly’s drumming just makes you want to dance and Paul Jobsons’ vocals are superb. Howl Into The Midnight is a stunning track with intimate vocals by Rowena Poole blending with superb guitar licks by Tony Qunta.The baseline groove to Trippin’ Over the wire by Richard Sadler is infectious. Mr Fake features Christophe Pelissie on guitar a funky driven instrumental written by the guitarist. For me the best of six covers of T W Henderson songs is It Wasn’t Me Who Brought The Tears. This song brings the tempo down but is full of raw emotion sung again by Rowena Poole piano is ghostly and precise just stunning. Standing At The Station has a funky riff and keeps a good pace very upbeat. Final track is You Upset Me Baby a stripped down version with Sam Kelly showcasing his talents on drums. A very good release full of vim and vigour a masterpiece of musicianship.

COLIN CAMPBELL

JOHN LEE HOOKER KING OF THE BOOGIE

CRAFT RECORDS 5 CD BOX SET

Every great cultural edifice has a sturdy cornerstone and the blues has John

Lee Hooker. What a superb labour of love this beautiful package is. Unlike the square or portrait dimensions most box sets, this is a hefty landscape product measuring 25cm x 16cm (that’s about 10½ by 6½ inches in old money.) In addition to the smartly packaged CDs in their protective sleeves, there’s 60 fascinating pages of reading provided by those who knew the Great Man; Jas Obrecht and Mike Kappus, plus comments about Hooker by the Great and the Good of subsequent generations who owe him so much. The notes include just about everything you want to know about the Crawlin’ King Snake, with breath-taking photos going back to 1948 right through to his final breath on June 21, 2001. It is amazing to think when the hair stands up on the back of your neck hearing track one, disc one, 1948’s Boogie Chillen, that WW2 had only been over for three years.

To think that dark, seductive sound of one sinister guitar and a great clear voice was on wax whilst we in Britain were stuck with sickly ballads, novelty songs and the Billy Cotton Band Show makes this reviewer weep.

Working your way through these 100 tracks spread over five disks takes time but it’s worth every minute.

Everything you need’s here; Tupelo Blues, The Motor City is Burning, two versions of One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer, two further renditions of Boogie Chillen (one with Eric Clapton). Disk four ramps up the excitement because all the tracks are live performances, but on disc five you get the full measure of the massive respect Hooker was held in by his peers. Those final fifteen tracks feature him with a who’s who of artists, including The Groundhogs, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, Jimmie Vaughan and even Los Lobos. This set is an epic project which any blues fan needs to own. Like any good book this is hard-backed, inspiring to hold and a thrill to open up; and the deeply textured contents are rock-solid history. There are many subsequent bluesmen who have attempted to emulate John Lee’s style; few have totally succeeded, with notable exceptions such as Tony T.S. McPhee or Dave Kelly. Trying to replicate Hooker’s atomic energy is like trying to capture a hurricane in a bottle. Oddly enough, we all end up in a box at the end, but for your work to end up in a box such as this can only come about through greatness. And that’s exactly what John Lee Hooker possessed in abundance. Treat yourself to the thrills available here; you’ll not be sorry.

ROY BAINTON

BAD LUCK WOMAN & HER MISFORTUNES CURSED INDEPENDENT

The Bad Luck Woman in question is the talented lead singer and bass player Raha Javanfar. She brings a new slant on

ROB PICAZO SPANISH MOSS GOOD MAN

For a blues singer as young as Rob Picazo he shows no little talent and an awful lot of confidence. He is only 24 but his musical journey started with the likes of Peter Green and Stevie Winwood but he found his own heart with artists such as Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. His vocal style has touches of the New Orleans pioneers but with a strong edge from Chicago and Memphis. The album features a lot of horn play and there is a really fresh and happy sound to the album, especially Harry Whitty’s piano on Why Do I Cry? He is not afraid to

old interpretations of 50s and 60s style blues and rhythm and blues tunes. Her delivery is sassy and full of innuendo and double engenders bringing an uptempo and overall joyous infectious take to these ten mainly cover tunes on this fine debut release. She is backed by Fraser Melvin on lead guitar particularly grooving on The Way You Love. Andrew Moljgun supplies subtle saxophone licks especially noted on the tune I Don’t Know About You. Jonathan Hyde keeps the drum

take on a ballad either as I Need A Woman (Who Doesn’t Need A Man) shows – a classic slow dancer. The New Orleans traits ring true again in So Uninspired, another slow number with delicious guitar from Mr Picazo and a haunting tone that sent me back to immerse myself in the number a fair few time. On the more up-tempo numbers such as Late Night Train his voice takes on the Spanish Harlem thickness of Willy DeVille and I really felt that he has that soul and presence. The British blues scene has plenty of artists playing a classic r&b style but he brings something very fresh and – hell, yes, happy to his music. It is a pretty damn fair debut album and it makes me really want to see him live – good songwriting and some fine vocals should be even better live.

ANDY SNIPPER

TOM MCGUINNESS PLAYING FOR TIME REPERTOIRE

Tom McGuinness first came to prominence in Manfred Mann and gave his name to McGuinnessFlint whose memorable smash When I’m Dead And Gone is still played on the radio. Since the late 70’s he has been a member of The Blues Band, playing guitar and contributing a few songs to the band’s repertoire, leaving the front-line duties to Paul Jones and Dave Kelly. In the early noughties Tom released a pair of solo albums which provide most of the material here, along with two unreleased tracks intended to be part of a forthcoming third solo album. Tom wrote all the material, with some help from other names familiar to Blues Band fans, the aforementioned PJ and DK, as well as Lou Stonebridge and Benny Gallagher. Tom handles all the vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo and harp with producer and fellow Manfred Marcus Cliffe

on everything else, the only other musician being Simon Currie who adds sax to a few tracks. The material spans a range of blues styles and Tom’s informative sleevenotes explain the intentions of each track. We get Texas rhythms on the infectious Standing By My Window, New Orleans groove on Ain’t It A Drag and the catchy Done Got Over You, bottleneck with a hint of country blues on When Love Comes Calling and jump blues on the tongue-in-cheek Till I Fall Down, a song about those in the music business who drink too much. Tom is not the strongest vocalist but he delivers the lyrics OK and there are some good songs: The Wrong Woman has moody keys and percussion as Tom’s aching electric guitar underlines the sad lyrical content; the lyrical I Got My Eye On You was apparently written for BB King and Tom’s guitar echoes BB’s style; in the Blues Band Tom understandably leaves slide guitar to slide specialist Dave Kelly but Long Hard Road demonstrates that Tom is no slouch with a bottleneck. A solid set of material from Tom that makes you look forward to his next album.

JOHN MITCHELL

beat going and is joined by Jay Swinnerton on keyboards storms That’s A Pretty Good Love and Tom Moffett on trumpet

finishes this professional sextet. Snatch And Grab previously covered in the 40s by Julia Lee starts the party off. Her interpretation

of Spinach Song has the right balance of tone and swagger and real humour. The slower songs like Take Our Time Together written by lead singer gives a punchy all round sound. Went Down Easy has a drunken swagger and is very tongue in cheek with a rollicking trumpet solo as well. Final track is another cover of Dolly Cooper; Ay La Bah is a great one to dance to. A tight band that can rip up a storm with wonderful vocals this is a pleasure to listen to. Get your dancing shoes on and catch this band live sure to be a real good time.

COLIN CAMPBELL

ARTHUR ADAMS LOOK WHAT THE BLUES HAS DONE FOR ME

CLEOPATRA RECORDS

Arthur Adams has been around a long time, a bluesman with a pedigree and a clear grip on the music. Over the years he has played with Buddy Guy, Lowell Fulton and fronted BB King’s club house-bands. Adams has swapped licks with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Chuck Berry and Elmore James among countless others both as sideman and a band-member. As a result, you get pretty much what you might expect from this excellent double disc release. With twenty-six

tracks to choose from and one of the two discs featuring older tracks, recorded back in the 70s, that have only been available on original vinyl releases previously, this is an album that positively zings with top-notch blues, soul, R&B and funky sounds. Adams is clearly working at the top of his game here, and there’s no dead-weight or unnecessary filler. Instead there’s a double slice of excellent old-school, soul-blues delivered by a largely overlooked master. Look What the Blues Has Done For Me is one to grab and savour.

IAIN PATIENCE

HOODOO OPERATORS BURNING CHURCHES

WIDE MOUTH RECORDS

With the band members coming from a musical background of Heavy Metal and Punk I expected an ear blasting of heavy blues music but instead the four piece band have released an album of Alt Country albeit there are some blues undertones, just shows appearances can be deceptive. Having released a couple of EP’s this is the Bradford based band’s debut album release and they

do a good job with their self-written material, the album opener is a strong rock influenced song titled Date With The Dead where the electric guitars strive with a resonator to be the leading instrument, the band can accurately be considered a guitar band as they perform without a drummer which is unusual but it works here. There are only eight tracks listed on the album sleeve albeit there is a short ninth unlisted spoken track hidden away, so a fairly short album in length but there is still plenty here to provide an assessment of the band, my conclusions are that they have a lot of promise, there are some rough edges but this is measure of their appeal, lead vocalist Chris Dover is strong whether on the harder edged material or the more traditional acoustic track The Glow, which officially closes the album. While the band have placed themselves in the Alt Country stable I see likenesses to the early pub rock bands like Bees Make Honey, either way I am sure they are a cracking entertaining live band, not much blues on show but this should not detract from what is a promising debut album.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

LAURA CORTESE & THE DANCE CARDS CALIFORNIA CALLING COMPASS RECORDS

The musical content definitely sits in the American Folk Roots

sector but I would defy anyone listening to this album not to immediately to fall in love with this music, it is purity, Laura’s vocals are uplifting and the songs she has written are very strong, she does not play it safe though as other elements are brought into the music to ensure that it is not just a straight forward folk album. The album kicks off with one of the standout tracks called The Low Hum which incorporates some smooth harmonies with the string instruments building an increased crescendo around them, the title track has a more of a pop feel to it and embraces the 1970 California Dream era. Laura accompanies herself on fiddle and synth bass, her supporting band The Dance Cards cover a variety of traditional instruments including cello, banjo, fiddle, marimba and bass, together they work well and are a very strong unit, adding depth where required but leaving Laura’s vocals as the centrepiece. The majority of songs have been written by Laura with just one traditional song thrown in for good measure, this song Swing & Turn (Jubilee) is my favourite with its infectious chorus and sublime musicianship. This album offers something different which is fresh and original, while constructed from a traditional folk base it deviates into a wider field with elements of both contemporary pop and Americana, I have to come back to Laura’s

vocals though which are the standout feature of this release, total perfection.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE

ERIN HARPE AND THE DELTA SWINGERS BIG ROAD

VIZZTONE

Erin Harpe and The Delta Swingers were formed in 2010. The current band

AJ CRAWDADDY SLOW COOKIN’ RENOWN RECORDS

The guitarist and composer AJ Crawdaddy has assembled a crack team of musicians for his latest release, Slow Cookin’. The albums features a number of original pieces, and some well chosen covers by the likes of BB King and Lowell Fulson that shows the brass heavy ensemble at their best. The album starts with the lively AJ’s Shuffle, replete with fluid guitar, and the type of brass interjection that made the classic soul songs so popular.

lineup includes Harpe, acoustic, electric and slide guitars, percussion, washboard and vocals, Jim Countryman bass, Kendall Divoll, drums and percussion and Matt 'Charles' Prozialeck, harmonicas. Harpe has written four new songs and covers six more re-arranged for the band. Harpe opens the disc with Mississippi Fred McDowell’s Kokomo. Harpe’s electric slide guitar bristles with energy as it practically sings the melodic line. Her greasy slide notes jump around in celebratory joy as her slightly rasped voice coats

The fact that there are so many musicians, and three lead singers on the album means that it doesn’t have the same ensemble on each number, but that is also a strength for the band, allowing each musician some time in the spotlight. The solos are all well integrated into the songs, and organic with the grooves. In terms of blues moods, Cold Cold Feeling by Jessie Mae Robinson is the highlight of the album, but Slow Cookin’ by Endre Tarczy, who also provides piano, bass and guitar is also a fine display of the ensembles talents. This is mainstream blues, with gloss, and high production values, but the musicians are all talented, and it is a good collection of songs and instrumentals.

BEN MACNAIR

the song with another layer of cool. The first original, Lonely Leavin’ Town, opens with chirpy, whistling lead guitar. Her mellow phrasing is supported by Prozialeck's light harmonica drizzle. Together, they make a sweet melody and counterpoint twisting prettily around each other to make for one fine bluesy sound. Harpe’s lead and backing vocals, meanwhile, turn up the charm notch even further. Shake Your Hips is the Slim Harpo tune first recorded by him in 1965. It is still a blues radio favourite, which is done full justice here. Michael Casavant sits in on organ. Harpe also plays washboard. Voodoo Blues and Stop And Listen are two more originals from Harpe. On the former Casavant plays accordion, Prozialeck plays harp on both. The disc takes a slight detour from driving, hard charging blues into more ballad blues material when Ms. Harpe tackles Randy Newman’s Guilty. Here, she unfurls her fine vocal chops before coming back down into a considerately delivered voice. Closer Gimme That (Something Special) is a song first performed by Harpe’s old band Lovewhip and re-arranged by her for The Delta Swingers. This blues band has a way of making their vintage blues influences feel accessible to younger fans while their chunk of traditional idioms will find its way into the heart of more. CLIVE RAWLINGS

THE JAMES HUNTER SIX WHATEVER IT TAKES

DAPTONE James Hunter returns with another excellent slice of soul/r‘n’b on the Daptone label where James issued his previous CD Hold On! The band remains stable with James’ guitar and vocals supported by the twin saxes of Lee Badeau and Damian Hand, Andrew Kingslow on keys, Jason Wilson on bass and Jonathan Lee on drums. As usual James wrote all the material and his key influence remains Sam Cooke, especially on tracks like the gentle I Should’ve Spoke Up which is one of the more downbeat songs lyrically, much of the album celebrating James’ relationship with his new wife. In particular the first three songs shout loud and clear that James is back in love: I Don’t Wanna Be Without You recalls the dramatic effect on James’ life of their first meeting (at a NYC concert) over suave rhythms and backing vocals; the lilting title track has plenty of attractive percussion and a promise that James will do Whatever It Takes to secure this relationship; the tempo rises on I

Got Eyes with James’ skittering guitar and vibes adding a touch of latin jazz. Album closer It Was Gonna Be You follows that theme of new love on another Sam Cookeinspired performance. The wordless chorus of MmHmm recalls Major Lance’s

60’s hit of similar title and Damian’s lyrical tenor solo adds class before the whole band features on the instrumental Blisters which acts as a half-way point on the album. Show Her has that slight touch of reggae that so characterises James’ brand of soul and

BLUES PILLS LADY IN GOLD (LIVE IN PARIS)

NUCLEAR BLAST

First up, Blues Pills are not really a blues band, second up, this is one hell of a fine album. Blues Pills have been around a few years now (since 2011 I think) and in Elin Larsson they have one of the best rock vocalists around Europe – think of Sonja Kristina at her peak. The rest of the band are no slouches either Dorian Sorriaux plays a mean guitar and the rhythm section of Zach Anderson on bass and Andre Kvarnstrom drive the music with real power and pace. Lady In Gold was their second album and charted highly all over Europe, even reaching number one in Germany. This release features the whole album plus some of the first album, recorded live in Paris at Le Trianon but if you bought the

original album you will find a very different creature here – live they are nothing short of explosive. The band said of this “We decided to do this because we want to share our live experience with all our fans and also those fans who might have never had the chance to see us live. The live interpretation of our songs differs a lot from the studio record versions. We would call it a bit more rock ‘n’ roll, more heavy, more jam parts, more psychedelic parts – simply another experience. Playing live is what we've always enjoyed most.” And that is what you get; extended versions of all of the songs on the album, some stunning playing at a fantastic pace and the feeling of a band really going all out to deliver a special experience from the stage. There is no point in singling out specific tracks because this is really a set that needs to be experienced as a whole. Play it loud, preferably in a darkened room and let Larsson’s vocals wash over you as the rest of the band assault your senses.

ANDY SNIPPER

HOWLIN MOJO BONES HOWLIN MOJO BONES

LEFT HAND DOWN RECORDS

Formed in 2016 in North London this band have burst onto the blues scene. Built around founding member and vocalist

Howlin George Witter this band have blues running right through them. On first hearing of the album I was a bit unsure of the opener and title track Howlin Mojo Bones. Well I needn’t have been. On the second hearing I must concur that this is a great opener. Awesome guitar work from Steve Crane and rasping vocals from Witter it grabs you by the throat right from the start. It’s very apparent all over the album that Witter has a Jamaican influence in his back catalogue. He and lead guitarist Steve Crane complement each other perfectly. This takes nothing away from drummer John Baker and bassist Mick Whitbread

is guaranteed to get the body moving before the fast-paced Don’t Let Pride Take You For A Ride offers some good advice on relationships. The horns sit out the stripped-back How Long, a gospel piece

because they all get along with ease. Rhumba Woman is self-explanatory as a title. Reggae style guitar and laid-back lyrics. Tears In My Eyes for me is the standout track on the CD. Again, the awesome pairing of Witter and Crane give this song a raw blues feeling at it’s very best. Love You Love You is almost a contender for standout track. Here Baker powers the song with driving beats assisted by Whitbread grooving a solid bass line. But also, being aware to leave space for the vocals and guitar which makes it an awesome song. Never Say Never Again sends you back in time musically. Upon listening to it one could be transported back to 1960 where you could easily think it was Chuck Berry who had written it. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. My Liver Don’t Love Me No More is a rockin boogie with great lyrics. All eleven tracks on the album were penned by the band themselves. As a debut album from a fledgling band this is a winner. Produced by John Baker and Howlin Mojo Bones. If this is a taster of things to come I can’t wait.

STEPHEN HARRISON

that is the closest we get to straight blues on this blueeyed soul album. James is a hot property in the USA and this is a good addition to his catalogue, the only criticism being the length of the album which comes

in under 30 minutes.

JOHN MITCHELL

KING LOUIE’S BLUES REVUE LIVE AT RIVERHOUSE JAZZ

SHOUG RECORDS

Expect to hear some good time music in this all-star blues/soul/funk revue recorded in front of a lively and enthusiastic audience. Opener She’s Looking Good is a lively version of an old Rodger Collins Northern Soul dancefloor stomper with Andy Stokes funky vocal and the band whipping the crowd into a frenzy. The party continues with LaRhonda Steele adding her soulful vocals to a funky cover of The Isley Brothers hit It’s Your Thing and then bass player Lisa Mann takes the spotlight for a duet with Stokes on her own fine soul-ballad Two Halves Of One Lonely Heart. Louis Pain has put together a superb band for this show and album and his B3 Hammond organ features prominently throughout. The James Brown funk classic Doin’ It To Death gets a sturdy workout featuring a trombone solo from Danny Armstrong. Longest track here is an extended version of Marvin Gaye’s wonderful soul classic Let’s Get It On with Stokes doing a fine

smooth job on vocals and Renato Caranto adding slinky sax. Willie Dixon’s old warhorse I Just Wanna Make Love To You is given a seeing to by LaRhonda Steele and also features a splendid guitar solo from Peter Dammann. Stokes and LaRhonda croon sensually on the old Billy Paul classic Me And Mrs Jones before a lascivious, slow and sexy, cover of BB King’s Rock Me Baby has the audience cheering with delight. The album closes with the ecstatic audience participating happily and the whole band having fun on Little Milton’s swinging classic The Blues Is Alright. I wasn’t there on the night but this album will do nicely thank you. Let the good times roll.

DAVE DRURY

ROCKY ATHAS SHAKIN' THE DUST CHERRYBURST RECORDS

For the uninitiated, Rocky is a Texan guitarist/vocalist who has been around a good few years, coming to prominence firstly with Black Oak Arkansas, with Buddy Miles Blues Berries and latterly as the last guitarist employed by John Mayall in his Bluesbreakers. He also released solo albums with the late Larry Samford on vocals to great acclaim. So, you will gather he's no

slouch and it has given me great pleasure to review this new album. Together with legendary producer Jimmy Gaines, this is a cracker from the opening Texas rock of Dictator and the blues rocker You Pushed Me Too Far, one of many originals with many blues licks. I should give credit here to the rhythym section of Rocky's son Rocky Athas II on bass and drummer Walter Watson. Texas Girl is great too, as it kicks off with an amazing intro with Athas's brilliant guitar complimented by a crushing wave of catchy hooks. Athas puts his own stamp on the Johnny Guitar Watson cover Looking Back, a nice touch being that this version is slowed down somewhat.

I

handle, the man is a legend in his own lunchtime, as the saying goes!

CLIVE RAWLINGS

THE PAUL DELAY BAND LIVE AT NOTODDEN ‘97

slow burning chunk of soul-blues featuring a pleading vocal and fine sax and Hammond work. Say What You Mean swings mightily with deLays harp, Finchers tenor sax and Pain’s organ all contributing great solos. This band are absolutely cooking on top voltage all through this performance. I Know You Got Another Man is

a funky piece of vicious admonition but things relax somewhat for the heartfelt ballad I’m Going To Miss Talking To You. Closing track Love On A Roll ends the gig on an upbeat note featuring an outstanding harp solo from deLay and an appreciative roar from the audience. This is the easiest review I’ve written for a long time as this

PETER PARCEK EVERYBODY WANTS TO GO TO HEAVEN

Need Your Love So

Bad has been covered by the likes of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, but it still sounds the business here, very intense slow blues. The most important thing in this song is the feeling that you can put in your guitar strings and that is one of the strongest points of Rocky. It's then back to Rocky's own work again with Not This Time, a melodic rocker again with ripping guitar work and a catchy chorus. The album ends with the magnificent Hendrix cover Villanova Junction in which the guitar naturally takes on the leading role and then Athas is at its best. All in all, this is a great album in a long list of great albums by this unsung survivor of the Bluesbreakers. Not that he needs to use that

LITTLE VILLAGE FOUNDATION OK cards on the table I am a big fan of the late songwriter, singer and harmonica maestro Paul deLay and was naturally delighted to receive this stunning live recording which was unexpectedly discovered earlier this year. The album opens with the rocking Come On With It and the large festival crowd are won over immediately by this superb band which can rock and swing with ease without needing crashing drums or screaming guitars. Add in Delay’s soulful vocals and exuberant harp playing and this is a real winner. Peter Dammann’s guitar flourish and Louis Pain’s swirling Hammond B3 are soon joined by deLay’s harp and laconic vocals on the humorous Wealthy Man. Nice And Strong is a dance workout featuring excellent chromatic harp, honking sax from Dan Fincher and exceedingly funky bass from John Mazzocco. All tracks are original except for a cover of Muddy Water’s slow blues Come Home Baby (I Wish you Would) with the whole band stretching out on the longest track here featuring a mellow, jazzy, inventive harp solo from deLay. The self-penned What Went Wrong is a

INDEPENDENT

This album from Boston based bluesman Parcek opens up with a powerful cover of Peter Green’s song World Keep On Turning featuring heavy distorted Hendrix style guitar set against a thumping backbeat from drummer Marco Giovino who also produced the album. Old favourite See That My Grave Is Kept Clean gets an atmospheric, almost eerie, treatment with superb slinky and shimmering guitar and impassioned vocals. There are various guests including Luther Dickinson on guitar, Spooner Oldham on keyboards and Mickey Raphael on harmonica. The jumping country influenced instrumental Pat Hare showcases Parcek’s

guitar prowess wonderfully. Ashes To Ashes is a sturdy, slide driven, blues-rocker and the self-penned slow blues Every Drop Of Rain features soulful vocals and suitably emotive guitar work. I note that back in the 60’s Parcek spent time playing in London and watching the Stones, Clapton, Green and Beck etc. and he has clearly learnt well. The rocking instrumental Shiver features lap steel guitar and a stinging guitar solo. Russ Pahl’s slithering pedal steel guitar lights up Don Nix’s classic slow blues Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven and Parcek’s pleading vocal builds the tension. The instrumental Mississippi Suitcase rocks furiously featuring interplay between the various guitarists. The album closes with a lovely, swinging, rootsy cover of a 1920’s Memphis Jug Band song Aunt Caroline Dyer Blues featuring mandolin and fiddle. Great stuff! This is an excellent album that goes onto the recommended file.

DAVE DRURY

GHALIA & MAMA’S BOYS LET THE DEMONS OUT

RUF

Ghalia is the Brussels born singer, guitarist and ex-busker Ghalia Vauthier, rapidly making a name for herself, and not just in Europe as we shall see.

Mama’s Boys, under the leadership of harmonica ace and singer Johnny Mastro, have been making some noise down in New Orleans and across the world with their raucous blues sound - so this is a good match. Ghalia wrote almost all of the songs; some are co-composed, but the only non-originals are Johnny’s song Waiting, done as a supercharged broom-dusting duet between Ghalia and

superb album lives up to all my hopes and serves as a fine testament to deLay on the tenth anniversary of his death. An absolute gem.

DAVE DRURY

VARIOUS ARTISTS STRANGE ANGELS: IN FLIGHT WITH ELMORE JAMES

SYLVAN SONGS

This all-star album of Elmore James covers serves two purposes: it celebrates the centenary

Johnny, and the Rudy Toombs composition I’m Shakin’, recorded first by Little Willie John but perhaps best known by The Blasters. Whatever, it certainly suits Ghalia and this album. Addiction is quiet and insistent, based around a solo electric guitar and with the band very discreet, but apart from this, the sound is generally loud and rocking, as on the storming opener 4am Fried Chicken - if you are going to announce your arrival, this is perhaps the best way to do it! - or try the John Lee Hookeresque boogie of All The Good Things or especially the closing Hiccup Boogie. Throughout the set Ghalia’s vocals are impressive, real rock and roll singing, and the band are right with her - they were all in the same room in the Music Shed Studio in New Orleans to record this, and that excitement and closeness shows on this album. Yeah, I enjoyed this a lot.

NORMAN DARWEN

of Elmore’s birth and will raise money for two worthy charities. The music has a ‘one-take’ feel with snatches of studio chatter left in, no better illustrated than on (Sir) Tom Jones’ tough version of Done Somebody Wrong and Warren Haynes and Billy Gibbon’s Mean Mistreatin’ Mama which closes on a “shall we see what we got?” comment from Warren. Other heavyweights include

Bettye Lavette (Person To Person), Keb Mo’ (Look On Yonder Wall) and Rodney Crowell’s rather polite take on Shake Your Moneymaker. One of the best covers here is It Hurts Me Too with brooding slide, twinkling piano and Jamey Johnson’s deep, Southernaccented vocals. Britain’s Mollie Marriott does a good job on My Bleeding Heart, a song covered several times by Jimi Hendrix as Bleeding Heart, though Deborah Bonham’s heavy rock chick take on Dust My Broom fares less well. The title track Strange Angels is sung by country/ Americana stars Shelby Lynne and Allsion Moorer. Elayna Boynton and Addi McDaniel were two new names to this reviewer: Elayna opens the album with a good version of Can’t Stop Loving You which captures the Elmore style really well; Addi’s version of Dark And Dreary is probably the furthest away from traditional EJ with fiddle and acoustic guitar giving a very Central European feel to the song. There are two instrumentals: Chuck E. Weiss is credited for Hawaiian Boogie though his contribution seems to be the spoken intro/ outro and the house band ‘Elmore’s Latest Broomdusters’ (including Larry Taylor on bass, Rick Holmstrom on guitar and Doug Lancio on slide) gets its deserved moment in the spotlight with Bobby’s Rock which closes the album. Plenty of trademark Elmore

James riffs and some performers getting out of their comfort zones, all in a worthy cause – good stuff.

JOHN MITCHELL

KAI STRAUSS GETTING PERSONAL CONTINENTAL BLUE HEAVEN

Born in a small working class town in Northern Germany, Strauss grew up listening to the music of Albert King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and others courtesy of his parent’s record collection. He was soon on the road as founder member of Memo Gonzalez and the Bluescasters and since then has played with a multitude of the biggest names in today’s blues scene both in Europe and the USA. Special guests on this, his third album include Big Daddy Wilson, vocals on I Can’t Wait and Houston guitar ace Tony Vega, who plays a scintillating solo in the middle of Blues For Anne, a nine minute soulful blues guitar run dedicated to the memory of his mother. In fact Getting Personal, the third album from Strauss is a superb collection of songs. From the strength and depth of his voice, which at times mirror’s Rick Estrin, through to the very clean and crisp tone of his guitar, recalling the sounds of Ronnie Earl,

Duke Robillard and Jimmie Vaughan, Strauss wears his influences well. The album opens with the dirty funk inspired strut of The Blues Is Handmade, the solid line augmented with a wall of brass that adds solidity to the driving bass line, an ideal introduction to the band. This is followed by the up-tempo boogie of Get The Ball Rolling with Mo Fuhrhop rattling the keys and Strauss stretching out in classic boogie guitar style. The brass section once again forms the backdrop for the impressive gut wrenching soul tinged Did You Wrong, a classic story of upsetting a loved one. The upshot of that feeling is the theme of the next song, I Can’t Wait, Big Daddy Wilson’s deep voice offering a different focus on this slow blues. The title track is an instrumental a la Ronnie Earl, with fat chunky chords and crisp soloing, the whole being both tight and neat. There’s little here that falters for Strauss, who has penned all eleven titles, is both a great songwriter as well as a brilliant musician.

MERV OSBORNE

POPA CHUBBY TWO DOGS

EAR MUSIC

A veteran of over twenty albums, former New

York gang member Ted Horowitz, aka Popa Chubby, is on form again. Possibly more popular in Europe than his native US, he keeps churning out quality albums. The studio recordings are all original songs, and there are some fine songs included here. Chubby plays guitar and percussion, as well as drums and bass on certain tracks. Joining him on this album are Sam Bryant on drums, Andy Paladino on bass, Dave Keyes on keyboards, daughter Tipitina Horowitz on trumpet and Andrew Garrison on saxophone. Kicking off with It’s Alright, an energetic rock tune that really grew on me, Popa is really tapping into something there, putting a voice to something a lot of people are feeling to some extent. It’s followed by a heavier bluesy number, Rescue Me. Sam Lay’s Pistol is a tribute to veteran drummer Sam Lay. This song begins with just a beat on the hi-hat, and then the vocals come in over it, then the rest of the band comes in. That song is followed by Two Dogs, the CD’s title track, a song with a good, prominent beat and some wonderful work on guitar. This is another song that really stood out the first time I listened to this disc. It’s kind of twisted and excellent, and is also a good jam. The statutory anti-Trump song Shakedown s followed by another favourite, Wound Up Getting High. The studio album concludes

with an instrumental track titled Chubby’s Boogie, a fun, rocking little jam with good stuff on keys and a catchy guitar part. That’s followed by the two live bonus tracks. The first is a good cover of Sympathy

For The Devil, recorded in France. This track features Andrea Beccaro on drums and Francesco Beccaro on bass. The second and final track on the CD is Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, recorded at The

THE MCKEE BROTHERS MOON OVER MONTGOMERY MBE

Making this album must have been like one long party in a recording studio. Brothers Denis McKee (guitar, keys, bass, vocals) and Ralph McKee (bass, vocals, lap steel) are joined by a cast of, in not thousands, then at least over 30 other musicians in various combinations across this sixteen track collection. As far as I can tell, most of those appearing in guest slots are simply pals, although some have credits as sidemen for big name artists, and guitarist Larry McCray will be familiar to blues fans in his own right. The music on offer here is basically

Falcon in Marlboro, New York. For my ear, there is too much audience noise on the latter, bearing in mind it's not the loudest track in the world. If you're a fan of Popa, like me, this album won't disappoint.

CLIVE RAWLINGS

ARTHUR MILES & ARBY BLUES BAND BLUE AVENUE

INDEPENDENT

Arthur Miles has around 50 years in the blues business

soul-centric, but extends over the full range of allied genres, with excursions into gospel, funk and jazz, and even the blues proper. Leading the way in the latter department is a cover of Dan Penn’s Blues Of The Month Club, a song I’ve always associated with the 1995 Joe Louis Walker version. The McKee Brothers’ take is built around jazzier guitar lead lines and a notably tight brass arrangement. Another Penn song, the awesomely funky Where You Gettin’ It?, examines the plight of a ditched lover whose former squeeze has made alternative arrangements. I Feel Like Dynamite is a slice of 1970s New Orleans that will put you in mind of The Meters. And if you want some social comment, Worried About Tomorrow sets out the woes of a jobless Iraq vet, with nifty slide backing and McCray’s flavoursome lead work. Keep an ear out for this one.

DAVID OSLER

so it is little surprise that he has a history with artists as varied as Edwin Starr, Jose Feliciano, Gloria Gaynor, Eddie -Cleanheaded Vincent, Big Joe Turner and Jonnie Otis. His voice has that well travelled growl to it but he is also incredibly musical. The eleven tracks on the album cross the genres but it is all firmly rooted in the heart and soul of the blues. He lives in Northern Italy these days and his sidemen here give a strong clue to that with Daminano and Marco Ardito on guitars, Amos Viamara on bass and Roberto Palladini on drums. Miles takes care of all the lead vocals and keyboards. While the album isn’t saying anything new it is saying a lot of things very well. Miles vocals have the aforementioned growl but he can also add a soulful edge too. The Ardito brothers guitar playing is excellent and the rhythm section are solid as a rock and fluid enough to make the music danceable – I think these guys would be a hoot live. Standout tracks are many but One More Time For The Road, kicks some righteous ass with stunning guitar lines and a really free sound to it. Opener Lady TT is a fairly stock Texas blues but Miles vocals really come through with a tuneful character as well as sounding most definitely un-PC while Papa’s No Fool has a remarkably funky nature to it. If you are after a stock blues ballad Whiskey Headed

Woman suits the bill just fine. Well above average, highly listenable and overall sounding very fresh for a septuagenarian, Arthur Miles is streets ahead.

ANDY SNIPPER

WEE WILLIE WALKER AND THE ANTHONY PAULE SOUL ORCHESTRA AFTER

BLUE DOT

A WHILE

A drum roll, lush horns, lilting rhythm, a little guitar work and then in comes Willie’s achingly soulful voice singing about having a second chance - bliss! Willie recorded for the legendary Goldwax label in the 60s, guitarist Anthony Paule has accompanied a long list of top-notch bluesmen and -women in the San Francisco Bay Area - and this is a truly wonderful release. You want the blues? Take a listen to the Willie’s Bobby Bland stylings on Lil Green’s oldie, Romance In The Dark, and check out Anthony’s lovely T-Bone flavoured break too. I Don’t Want To Know has shades of Jimmy McCracklin, and there is a funky blues edge to Hate Take A Holiday, with a growling vocal - but really this is one of those rare sets that truly blurs the lines. The wonderful Terri Odabi duets with

Willie on Lovey Dovey, with Terri as Carla Thomas to Willie’s Otis Redding, and Thanks For The Dance has something of The Drifters 60s sound to it, along with just a tinge of Sam Cooke in the vocal - but it is an original, and a good one too. So too is If Only, a little more towards Mr Redding’s sound, and Cannot Be Denied is simply astonishing. Look What You’ve Done To Me is an unusual Little Willie John cover, very jazzy, and the southern soul of Mable John/Lou Rawls’ Your Good Thing (Is About To End) makes for an stunning slow-burn finale. The funk filled instrumental The Willie Walk ensures that no listener is any doubt about the quality of the band, and I cannot recall praising the backing vocalists as such before, but they do deserve it for their contributions throughout. I could go on and on about how good this album is - but better, just take a listen for yourself.

VICTOR IAN LEYLAND

BOBBY KYLE IT’S MY LIFE

JUICY BABY RECORDS

This fine record of electric blues by the veteran bluesman Bobby Kyle is well worth your while. Kyle, a singer, guitarist and songwriter, has

been mining the blues for forty years, playing with such luminaries as Eddie Kirkland and Johnny Copeland, and he knows his craft. This twelve-song album features six originals and six other songs by talents such as Copeland and Robert Lockwood Jr., who was taught to play guitar by none other than Robert Johnson and spent time playing behind the harmonica player Little Walter. And Kyle’s originals fit in nicely alongside the covers. The sound on this recording is built around Kyle’s singing and guitar playing, along with electric organ and a killer horn section. Kyle’s vocals show the wear and tear of the years. His voice is rough-hewn, which is just fine for the blues. After all, B.B. King, one of the greatest blues singers of all time, wasn’t exactly Bing Crosby. And Kyle’s vocals are highly expressive. Tomorrow Night, on which Kyle is backed by piano with wonderful harp fills by Little Sammy Davis, is a beautiful old-timey slow blues. ‘Tomorrow night, will you remember what you said tonight?’ Kyle sings. ‘Tomorrow night, will all the thrills be gone?’ He also does a fine version of Someone Else Is Steppin’ In, a song made famous by the soul. blues singer Z.Z. Hill in 1982: ‘I got a smile on my face, and you didn’t put it there.’ The originals are just as good. Lost And Found, a break-up song is a beautiful slow blues highlighted by excellent sax work. ‘Three sides to every

story,’ Kyle sings. ‘His, hers and the truth.’ The album concludes with an excellent acoustic version of Lockwood’s composition Little Boy Blue. Let’s be frank – this record does not rank among the top albums ever recorded in the history of the blues. But it’s a good ‘un.

M.D. SPENSER

LOST BAYOU RAMBLERS KALENDA

LOST BAYOU RECORDS

Lost Bayou Ramblers have come a long way since 2003’s acoustic debut Pilette Breakdown and Kalenda is their eighth release. The album continues to develop a more eclectic sound and combines a traditional Cajun style with the experimental tendencies of producer/bassist Korey Richey, who plays a big part in the album’s best moments such as the minimal yet aggressive Freetown Crawl/Fightin’ville Brawl. Having worked with Arcade Fire, Richey shows their sonic influence in the misty electronic textures of the album as well as in the distorted electronic and acoustic drums of opener Sabine Turnaround. The songs are all sung in French and embody the Creole culture of Louisiana. On the Auld Lang Syne-like

Si J’aurais Des Ailes there’s a distinctly Gaelic feel and The Pogues’ Spider Stacey features on tin whistle but much of the album covers similar ground to the raucous likes of Mama Rosin, taking you to the swamps of Louisiana. On the closer Aloha Golden Meadow, crickets and frogs are heard peacefully croaking away. The title-track features Jimmy Horn of King James And The Special Men, that most Louisianian of bands, playing all sorts of atmospheric clattering percussion but the Lost Bayou Ramblers’ most characteristic sound is that of vocalist Louis Michot’s fiddle. Contrasting with the slick modern production it seems to suggest a barn party and hark back to old family gatherings and celebrations.

JACK GOODALL

TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN

TYLER

BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN

SNAKEFARM RECORDS

Like Dan Patlansky, Nashville-based Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown bring something of a post-grunge sensibility to much of their material, as evidenced right from the off with the juddering riff and Tom Morello-ish fuzzed up rhythm guitar

sound of opening track Heartland or elsewhere in the more sombre strains of Magnetic Field. They’re not a one-trick pony though, as the eleven tracks across their album integrate a smattering of other styles. They blend some of the rootsy stomp of the Black Keys into Don’t Mind The Blood, go down a straight ahead subdued blues road on Ramblin’ Bones, and you wouldn’t have to know that guitarist Graham Whitford is the son of Brad Whitford to conclude that the twisting riff of Weak And Weepin’ comes straight out of the Aerosmith manual. And in fact; there’s often an air of old fashioned hard rock underlying the more modern tendencies – a band like Cinderella springs to mind. Partly this is down to Tyler Bryant’s vocals. He doesn’t have the most powerful or rootsy voice, but he’s clear and tuneful and with some judicious use of double-tracking and backing vocals the end result is effective. It’s one aspect of a sound, produced by the band themselves, that generally packs a crisp and hefty punch without resorting to blood and thunder. Much of the material is good too, and if the leaving-townin-the-morning lyric of Ramblin’ Bones is a bit of a cliché, it’s an exception. Elsewhere Bryant and co coin some fresh phrases to accompany some catchy hooks on the likes of the aforementioned Don’t Mind The Blood, Backfire and Easy Target. Twin guitarists

Bryant and Whitford don’t go bananas on the soloing front, mostly keeping axe heroics short and to the point, and instead often developing a succession of themes. If your taste and fancy runs strictly along traditional electric blues lines, then this probably isn’t for you. But as purveyors of modern melodic rock with some blues ingredients, Tyler Bryant & Shakedown have produced a pretty decent debut.

JOE COLOMBO STRATOSLIDER

JOE COLOMBO MUSIC

Playing the CD StratoSlider by the Swiss/Italian slide guitar maestro Joe Colombo on my laptop, iTunes intuitively placed it in between works by Joe Bonamassa and Joe Satriani (and close to those by Johnny Winter). What a clever piece of software iTunes is! The album has the bluesy, rocking qualities of Mr Bonamassa, the melodic instrumental virtuosity of Mr Satriani and more than a hint of the electric slide guitar wizardry of Mr Winter. The opening track Delta Boy goes straight into a Bo Didley style groove and allows Joe to show off his wonderful slide style against the background of some

IAIN CAMERON

chugging Didleyesque rhythms. Stones In My Boots opens up in a rockier tempo and maintains the pace with some stomping drumming from Tony Rotta and driving bass lines from Luca Tonani. Sweet November, as the title suggests, is a much more mellow blues number, with hints of Satriani from his eponymous 1995 CD. It contains a lovely, laid back section of impeccable slide work in the middle section, before returning to the main theme and is over way too quickly, despite being almost six minutes long. Johnny D. leaves the listener in no doubt that this track is a tribute to the genius that was John Dawson Winter III. (I think Johnny would have appreciated the sentiment behind this carefully constructed blues number!) Minor Twang is a slower rock blues number, where Joe shows that he can twang the Stratocaster with equal dexterity in a down-tempo number.

Delta Revisited picks up the pace again, with an up-beat, driving tune and yet more delicious slide breaks. Rumba Moon has a New Orleans feel to it and has a very vibrant, infectious, danceable feel. In The Mood heads straight back to fast bluesy/ rock ‘n roll which would definitely get audiences up on their feet and wanting to jive. The final track is a very moving version of St James Infirmary. There are no lyrics on the album: Joe lets his guitar do all the talking,

and it speaks volumes!

STEVE BANKS

KIM WILSON BLUES AND BOOGIE VOL. 1 SEVERN

Yay! Kim Wilson needs no introduction, I hope (he was a founder member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, just to be on the safe side), and on this simply titled set, he does just what the title says - right back to basics, singing beautifully and blowing blues harp like few do these days - many try, but Kim is one of the few who really knows how, and has the ability to pay true homage to the masters like Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonny Boy “Rice Miller” Williamson, Jimmy Rogers, Magic Sam and others. For this release, he borrows their songs, and supplies some of his own in a similar 50s Chicago vein, keeping most of the sixteen tracks to within a 45 rpm time limit of around three minutes or so. This kind of music is the bedrock of the current blues, but is perhaps in danger of being overshadowed these days, though not if Kim can help it. He is aided and abetted here by other musicians of a similar mindset, among them guitarists Big Jon Atkinson, Nathan James

and slide master Billy Flynn, pianist Barrelhouse Chuck, bassist Larry Taylor, drummers Richard Innes, Marty Dodson and Malachi Johnson, and horn man Johnny Viau - space is limited, so apologies to those I have missed! Hopefully though the quality of those names on that list will indicate the love, care and attention to detail that has gone into making this set, whilst also reaffirming that this is no slavish imitation. All that really remains to be said is: Roll on volume two!

NORMAN DARWEN

THE STRANGE BLUE DREAMS THE STRANGE BLUE DREAMS

HOLY SMOKES RECORDS

This album, with its eclectic mix of genres and excellent musicianship, is simply superb. It is the debut album from the Glaswegian band The Strange Blue Dreams, and it is a joy to listen to. The five-piece band had been earning its keep by playing live gigs around Glasgow when a guy named Chris Blackmore heard them in a bar and was so blown away that he started a record label – Holy Smokes Records – just so that more people could hear this music. The band, comprised of two guitars,

a mandolin and a double bass (with a guest trumpet on one track), plays everything from rockabilly to blues to country to doowop and blends it all into a coherent whole. The album has an old-timey feel but all eleven songs are originals. They range from the straightforward rock ’n’ roll of Electricity – “This city got electricity for the first time when you came to me” – to the beautiful pop of The Ballad of the Sun And The Moon. Reverberatin’ Love is rockabilly while Twilight Zone is almost 1950s-style crooning with a bit of a bluegrassy background and Lyrebird is pure country. But, fear not, there is blues here, too. Pretending Everything is a slow country blues. And (That’s The Place)

I’m Falling is the bluesiest song on the album, played over a funky beat. The album’s genius is that all these diverse styles fit together perfectly. This album’s a keeper. Get it.

M.D. SPENSER

CASEY HENSLEY FEATURING LAURA CHAVEZ LIVE

VIZZTONE

Hensley’s name is the prominent one on the jacket but Laura Chavez is a world- renowned guitarist who played with

the late Candye Kane and has been hailed by folks like Ronnie Earl as one the best. This is a showcase for her dazzling, often mind-blowing guitar work as the live setting and some lengthy tracks give her plenty of room to solo. Hensley, on the other hand, is a 25-year-old blues belter in the mode of Janis making her debut and turning heads in the process. Eight of the eleven tracks are covers from the likes of Big Mama Thornton, Big Mama's Coming Home, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Spell On You, Koko Taylor and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Too Tired, the latter includes tasty fretwork from Chavez, whilst three are Hensley originals. Kane’s son, Evan Caleb Yearsley, is the drummer. The band also included saxophonist Johnny Viau, and bassist Marcos C. They hail from the San Diego area and, as the album is dedicated to Kane, you could say they are carrying on her legacy in a sense. At its best, this is music that’s meant to get your feet moving, something especially evident on the funky version of Koko Taylor’s Voodoo Woman. The seemingly requisite closer is, of course, a nine minute Ball And Chain with Chavez and band rendering it more cleanly (which is not saying much) than the Big Brother & The Holding Company version. Well worth hearing, Hensley is definitely a rising performer to keep an eye on and this album is a good introduction, as much

to a rising powerhouse vocalist as it is a showcase for Chavez’s emotional, staggering guitar work.

CLIVE RAWLINGS

Mile, and there’s a breathtaking rendition of Jackie Brenston’s Rocket 88. If you love the harmonica and great, brassy urban blues, everything you desire is here. C’est manifique, Monsieur Toussaint - rock on!

ROY BAINTON

NICO WAYNE TOUSSAINT PLAYS JAMES COTTON

DIXIEFROG RECORDS

If you’re going to pay modern homage to your big musical hero, this is the way to do it. Toussaint’s impressive project is an eight piece band with which he pays tribute to his all-time mentor and strongest influence, the great Chicago harp player James Cotton. This is Toussaint’s 13th album on Dixiefrog Records, and pretty impressive it is. Thirteen blistering tracks with Nico’s hard driving harmonica way out in front, and his clear vocal delivery serving the great blues legacy of James Henry Cotton (born July 1, 1935 – died March 16, 2017). This album is brilliantly produced and Toussaint’s eight piece band are on volcanic form. The punchy brass section are a joy to the ears, as are the tight back-up vocals and the wonderfullynamed keyboards player JP Legout works some extra magic. Stand out tracks are Back In Missouri and the driving One More

CHARLIE PARR DOG

RED HOUSE RECORDS

Most of these 10 original songs by the Minnesota guitar virtuoso Charlie Parr were born of a struggle with depression – an emotional trough deep enough for him to consider suicide – and it shows. ‘Sometimes I’m alright/ Another time it’s hard to tell/Like finding light/In the bottom of the darkest well,’ he sings in Sometimes I’m Alright. And in the song Peaceful Valley, he sings, ‘I ain’t gonna get up this morning … And I’m sure not getting out of bed today.’ Other songs, like HoBo, stem from his years of work with the homeless at the Salvation Army. The guitar work throughout is stellar, largely fingerpicked slide. The music would seem to derive more from Appalachian folk than from the blues, but it’s good stuff. The song Rich Food And Easy Living is an exception. It does

not feature the standard blues progression, but it has a bluesy feel. While the musicianship is stellar, there is one minor complaint. The songs are all built around Parr’s guitar and voice, and there tends to be a certain sameness to their sound. Sure, some songs have a faster beat than others – LowDown, for example, has a spritely tempo – but they still sound similar. For that reason, the album can at times seem a tad tedious. Not all the songs are about depression or the down and out. In I Ain’t Dead Yet, the singer reflects on all the things he will get when he is dead – a brand new suit and tie, for example, compliments from those who knew him, good music at his funeral, and flowers, too – and reflects that he would rather have those things while he is still alive and able to enjoy them. ‘Well I ain’t dead yet,’ he sings. ‘Lemme hear that music now/I sure can’t hear it/When I’m locked in that box/Underneath the ground/I ain’t dead yet/ Gimme my flowers now.’ All in all, an impressive album.

M.D. SPENSER

have a band named after a former British film actor? No I don’t know why either! They are a four piece unit, adding a fifth on Hammond and Wurlitzer for this their third album, It has twelve tracks all penned by their main guitarist Lance Doss and as the title reveals is recorded both in studio and live. First impressions are that this is tight well rehearsed band who don’t take themselves too seriously, I have noted “Sounds Like Dr Hook” and that is a feeling that stayed with me, but hey, what a band to be likened too! All songs are well crafted and the instrumentation to go with them is top notch. The first half of the album is studio recorded and the second half is live, but apart from a few mumbled off mike instructions or comments, there is nothing to choose between the two halves as far as quality or anything else is concerned, this is obviously a well road travelled band. Yep you guessed it, this one is going in the glove box.

DAVE STONE

JAMES LITHERLAND BACK ’N BLUE CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS

You’d have to be older than me, I reckon, to recall that James Litherland made

his debut as a professional musician back in 1968, as a nineteen year-old guitarist and vocalist with Colosseum. After two albums he went on to work with a host of well-known names before eventually settling down to a career successful session guitarist. If his name rings a bell nowadays though, it’s as likely to be in connection with his son, the singer James Blake. Yet here he is, popping up with a polished album of ten original songs. The spooky album cover may suggest something proggy, but the sounds within are laid back and lightly funky, with roots in the blues. Litherland’s speciality is a neat line in rolling, looping guitar lines, as on the catchy title track, or the mischievous At Least I Didn’t Bore You, on which the arrangement matches up to the dry wit of the lyrics. Right from the start, on the chilled out What You Want, Litherland displays crystal clear guitar tones, while often layering guitar parts to create richer textures, as on Miss You Blues which is less about riffs than a clever weaving of patterns, or the Average White Band-like Naughty Boy. There’s variety in the form of Unconditional Love, a piano-led slice of romantic pop with a top quality soulful melody, and also in the brisk rock‘n’roll of Pink Corvette. The latter, more Pink Cadillac than Little Red Corvette, is so effortless it’s almost a throwaway, with Litherland even chucking in some harp licks for

good measure. And then there’s the closing track Freedom Road, the kind of song you’re sure you’ve heard before, with a hook worthy of Paul Carrack, embellished by some twinkling guitar and jelly-like bass sounds. Litherland’s voice isn’t especially characterful, but it’s as clear and precise as his guitar work, and he does demonstrate some punch here and there. Like a warm bath, Back‘n’Blue is an album to unwind in rather than an invigorating shower to get you going, but it’s a classy offering from a real pro.

IAIN CAMERON

MIKE ‘MUDFOOT’ MCDONALD TIRED OF THE SAME OLD RUT? PLAY THIS SOCAN

I think I have a new favourite. Mike ‘Mudfoot’ McDonald is not a guy I’ve heard before but what a blistering belter of an album this is! It appears that he has been around the business for 4 decades and he has a mammoth list of people he has played with and for; names such as Steppenwolf, James Cotton, B.B. King and Three Dog Night. Add to that stints with Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute

bands and Rolling Stones tributes and his CV seems to be pretty full but this is his debut album and he brings a hell of a lot of experience to the show. He kicks off with Tired Of The Same Old Rut? and immediately hits a funky groove as he bemoans the repetition of life on the road when you aren’t a star – he describes the influence as having accommodation for the band in a basement with seven cots laid out and one tiny window. The guitar is great, fluid and with some terrific licks. He follows up with a stonking version of I Put A Spell On You, really hamming it up with the harsh ‘voodoo’ voice. Superb guitar from Mike Branton has a really edgy tone to it but somehow a totally pure feel – Screaming Jay would have been proud. He touches on different genres all through the album – Lean On Me Mama is a shuffle that has a joyous feel and some fine keys from John Lee while the stock blues of Don’t Wanna Catch You is actually about being stalked at a time when his band was playing a lot of parties. Slide started life as intro music for his band but it has developed into an excellent bit of instrumental ease that lets the musicians show their wares. My personal favorite track in all this is Hock’s Groovin’ Bar Café – laid back, slow and just perfectly describing your favorite bar and grill. A man of many talents and after all this time he deserves

to do well with this debut.

ANDY SNIPPER

JIMMY REGAL AND THE ROYALS

JIMMY REGAL AND THE ROYALS

INDEPENDENT

Remember the gutbucket sound of the likes of Hound Dog Taylor or the likes of Fat Possum acts such as R.L. Burnside and T. Model Ford? No frills blues was the order of the day, usually with the amps cranked up, plenty of distortion and bags of enthusiasm. Even if you don’t, Jimmy Regal And The Royals do. Formed in south London on 2014, they are a trio comprising Joff Watkins on harmonica and vocals, CJ Williams on guitar and Sammy Samuels on drums and backing vocals – that’s right, no bass. You don’t miss it though – Joff is such a good harp player (listen to his treatment of the three Little Walter numbers included here) and CJ is in best Eddie Taylor mode in places, whilst Sammy thrashes away. Many of the blues numbers are rough and ready, and for this type of approach, that’s just how you want it. The venerable Just Because gets the rockabilly treatment (Elvis Presley recorded it for his first album), but the other major influence on

this set is the music of New Orleans. There are a couple of Professor Longhair numbers and a Lil’ Liza Jane (David Bowie’s first record was of this number) that seems to have been inspired by the Crescent City’s Huey Smith and The Clowns’ version. It all makes for a lovely romping set of tough or jumping blues, rocking rhythm and blues and raw, romping rock and roll – and recommended.

NORMAN DARWEN

HEAD FOR THE HILLS POTIONS AND POISONS

HEADFORTHEHILLSMUSIC.COM

We are nothing if not open-minded here at BM – musical snobbery and elitism is not welcome here. So it’s nice to branch out a little into the musical offshoot of Bluegrass to check out Head For The Hills from Colorado. The most obvious attraction in this collection is the superior musicianship used to furnish all the songs with a level of highly enjoyable quality. There is something attractively wilful in the old-school Americana approach to recording that has been used to craft this record, Sam Parks on mandolin and Joe Lessard shine especially strongly

throughout. Lyrically the songs are equally as clever, the writers not being afraid to show their dextrous wordplay front and centre, as on the title song which alliterates deliciously with “Candy, coffee cocaine and coitus” and advising that “quitting you is better for my health” but like the aforementioned, good advice is not always that which is taken. The highlight track in a strong list of contenders is Bitter Black Coffee (check out the video) which has a world-weariness about it that underpins the record’s overall stance of worldweariness and acceptance of the weakness of the human condition. This is thoughtful music, but by no means is it miserable, there is an overwhelming feeling of optimism in the way the songs are sung and played, and this album invites exploration of the band’s previous outings, and a sense of pleasure in looking forward to their next direction. In an increasingly crowded Americana music, it will take some eagle ears from a prominent supporter to give the band an entry into the UK’s airwaves. Fingers crossed – they do deserve it.

ANDY HUGHES

OTIS EYES OF THE SUN

CLEOPATRA RECORDS

Otis is a young four piece band from Kentucky who are steeped in Southern rock and roots heritage. They are, Boone Froggett lead vocals and guitar,

Andrew Gilpin on drums, Steve Jewell on guitar and John Seeley on bass. This is their second release and already they sound as if they have been on the music scene for years a very accomplished honest hard working band this release has an eclectic mix of styles and genres but all eleven tracks are hard driven with emotion and vigour. There are so many influences here ranging from The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd and a few nods to blues icons like Johnny Winter but their reinterpretations have a swagger and verve that makes them a stand out band. From the opening bars of Change to the last notes of the longest track Let Your Love Shine Down this is a highly charged sure fire winner. Home is a superb tune full of slide gruff howling vocals and dual guitar riffs a progressive theme on this release. The only cover is Washed My Hands written by Cowboy Joe Babcock has echo reverb and steady guitar playing throughout and gutsy vocals. Turn To Stone is a slow burner with guest Eddie Stone adding harmony on Hammond organ on this lilting love song. Relief In C is a mesmerising acoustic instrumental featuring

Danny Williams on mandolin building up to the stand out track Chasing

The Sun with dreamy guitar and vocals building to an anthemic crescendo. Full of Southern hospitality has all the hallmarks of a classic.

COLIN CAMPBELL

JAN JAMES CALLING ALL SAINTS

INAKUSTIK

Chicago based artist with a familiar background of blues and country roots honed whilst singing in a church choir. This lady has a raw, powerful energy and puts this to good use on this collection of a dozen original rock/ blues offerings. Opener

I’m A Gambler sets the scene and demands your attention with a wailing rock guitar intro from Craig Calvert and vocals from James which remind me of Janis Joplin (who she once played in a stage musical).

The swinging country tinged Roll Sweet Daddy adds backing vocals and also harmonica from David Semen to the mix.

Heart Of The Blues is a big production power-ballad with James’ pleading, anguished vocal matched by Calvert’s blistering guitar work. A change of pace follows with Cry, Cry, Cry a nice relaxed shuffle

with tasteful restrained guitar and laid-back vocals plus some jazzy organ from Bob Long. The bluesy title track Calling All Saints focuses on the gun culture and violence that has overcome Chicago and calls for some healing. Following on from that theme is the gospel-tinged Everybody Wants To Be Loved which is an LGBT inclusive song explaining that “if you could just give love you never really have the blues”. Bucky Blues is a 12-bar featuring ballsy vocals, great bluesy guitar and wailing harp from Semen. Battle Of Jesse is an up-tempo country tinged rocker featuring nifty guitar picking from Calvert as James tells the tale of a gunfight with a distinct twang in her vocals. Closing track Black Orchid Blues is a jazzy late night blues lamenting the current perilous state of the world. The quality of writing and musicianship is good and in spite of my initial misgivings this is a fine album which won me over and should win more plaudits.

DAVE DRURY

a powerful, deep-hued voice and a twelve-track album that comes as a surprisingly top-quality effort from a guy I’d never previously come across. With this, Break, his seventh release, there’s a pounding, purposeful push throughout with almost all of the titles self-penned. Clearly a fan of that good old Memphis sound, Bisson includes some excellent, saucy horn sections on most tracks, a device that gives the release a generally strong and seductive soulful feeling and also serves him well. With a full, ten-piece support band, the album has a rich, compelling and warm sound and bravely, perhaps, he includes a singularly unusual cover of the Lennon-McCartney standard, Eleanor Rigby, and even more unusually manages to pull it off with both interest and genuine, individual flair. Break is an album well worth discovering, a true surprise and a truly top-dollar offering from a guy to keep an eye on.

IAIN PATIENCE

ANDRE BISSON BREAK INDEPENDENT

Bisson is a young Canadian blues picker, a singer-songwriter with

TONY MCPHEE'S GROUNDHOGS WHO SAID CHERRY RED?

TALKING ELEPHANT

This Talking Elephant release is a re-release as

the album was originally brought out on the Sanctuary label back in 1996. It is full of absolutely brilliant blues and blues/ rock tracks, although the jury's out on whether it quite matches up to Cherry Red or Split. There are five tracks on this live album, each track containing several songs, segued from one to the other, so you get fifteen tracks on here. Each track comprises the lesser known works from a particular album, tracing through the history of the band. Track one merges three songs, Rocking Chair, Man Trouble, and Married Men from their first album, Scratching The Surface, originally released in 1968. The second track has three songs, BDD, Times and Natchez Burning from their 1969 album, Blues Obituary. Track three has Status People, Rich Man, Poor Man and Darkness Is No Friend from their 1970 album Thank Christ For The Bomb. Junkman and A Year In The Life from their 1971 album Split, follow, before the fifth and final track blends four songs, Sad Is The Hunter, You Had A Lesson, Earth Shanty and Mr Hooker, Sir John from the 1972 album Hogwash. Can't add much more, really, if you're a fan, you'll love this CD, if not, could be a good introduction.

CLIVE

RAWLINGS

GYPSY DAVE SMITH BLUE WORLD INDEPENDENT

Given the perennial ‘I can

play my Stratocaster faster than you can play your Stratocaster’ ethos that rules the contemporary blues scene, it’s easily forgotten that one guy and a beat-up old acoustic is where the whole game started. Step forward Gypsy Dave Smith, obviously not about to change an established stage name in deference to political correctness. Originally from Down Under, but long time resident in the UK, Smith has doing this stuff for decades. That certainly shows on Blue World, and I mean that in a good way. Standards, and originals cleverly built around classic chord progressions, flow effortlessly from Smith’s finger-picked Dobro. To start with the tunes you’ll surely know already, there’s a nicely Hookerised version of Baby Please Don’t Go, and some fine slide work on an arresting Little Red Rooster. Other covers include numbers by Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, and a tricksy licks take on the traditional gospel Hear Jerusalem Moan. But the self-penned material more than holds its own. I don’t know the woman to whom the lyrics of Jacqueline are dedicated, but she certainly sounds one hell of a gal, while title track is an acutely-observed lament on the state of the modern world, from online pornography to the demise of the ideals of the French revolution. I don’t know how Smith manages to take sonic terrain

Robert Johnson would have recognised and still hold the interest, but somehow he has managed just that. Thumbs up.

DAVID OSLER

INDIGENOUS GRAY SKIES

INAKUSTIK

Nineteen years after his recording debut, Hendrixinfluenced native American guitarist Mato Nanji and pals are back with another helping of the heavy duty blues rock that brought some measure of US commercial success in the late 1990s. But while the band retains the old name, there has been a clean sweep of personnel, with Nanji’s siblings departing in favour of unrelated younger musicians. That makes little difference in the end. Indigenous is an outfit largely shaped sonically by its leader, so what you get is the established combination of high octane soloing, rapid riffage, and up-to-the-job soulful vocals. It’s not a million miles away from the recipe currently cooked up by the likes of, say, Dan Patlansky. My preference is for the material that leant most strongly towards the blues side of the blues rock equation. Let’s Carry On sounds like the sort of song you find cropping up

on a Robert Cray album, while Born To Blame perhaps has something of much-covered warhorse The Things I Used To Do in its DNA. Of the rockers, pick of the bunch is Who You Runnin’ From, which sees Nanji get his inner Jimi on, to impressive effect. Healers and opening number Stay Behind are ear-pleasing forays into minor key land. Let it be said that Dan Conway on drums, Kevin Vecchione on bass and Tommy Paris on keys are solid throughout. This CD will likely find an appreciative audience, even if it never quite transcends the tramlines of its chosen genre.

DAVID OSLER

ABSOLUTE FAITH RULE THE WORLD

INDEPENDENT

A six track EP that was thrust into my hands at the recent Day of Blues in Deal, and it is a demo EP from a local band with five very talented and accomplished musicians with a lot of previous stage and studio experience. I listened to it with interest, particularly liking the fairly thought provoking lyrics. However, something wasn’t quite right, and it took me several play throughs before I got what was bugging me; this is an English blues record and it is too polite, and too polished, it could do with a bit more aggression and an odd slipped fret. Give it some welly lads and show the Yanks how it is done.

DAVE STONE

VARIOUS ARTISTS CHEAP OLD WINE AND WHISKEY -DRINKING SONGS STRAIGHT FROM THE JUKE JOINT

KOKO MOJO

With more than twenty eight tracks on this release, there is space for any number of artists, but they are all blues songs about the demon drink, so the performers range from the well-known such as Lightnin Hopkins, Jimmy Rogers, Amos Milburn and Sonny Boy Williamson, to obscurer songs by the likes of Birmingham Jones, Wilburt Harrison and Peppermint Harris. The recording quality is not what we are used to these days, but there is plenty of character in these songs, with slow grooves, and harmonica and guitar providing the pre-dominant themes and atmosphere. Some of the songs such as Bad Bad Whiskey or I Got Drunk are narrative songs about the dangers of drinking, whereas other pieces such as the brass section heavy Who Drank My Beer

Whilst I Was In The Rear by Dave Bartholomew are straight forward good time songs. The piano led I Got Loaded is a ragtime jive by Peppermint Harris, and Richard Bros Drunk Driver’s Comin’ is a slide

guitar stomp to the effects of drinking. The saxophone that features on Floyd Dixon’s Wine, Wine, Wine is a tasteful addition to the track, and helps to separate the song from the rest of the album, whilst the piano of the album closer Fire Water by Rufus Gore is a fitting ending to the collection. Although the tracks differ in quality, of both recordings and performances, there is much to be admired on this album, which shows the universal appeal of both the blues, and booze.

BEN MACNAIR

JAMES ARMSTRONG BLUES BEEN GOOD TO ME CATFORD RECORDS

The guitarist and singer-songwriter James Armstrong has unleashed an album of feel good pop blues with Blues Been Good To Me. With stinging guitars, and a bluesy vocal style, his songs and the two covers, Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love and Holland, Holland and Dozier’s

How Sweet It Is To Be Loved

the listener interested. The songs are all short and to the point, with very high production values, and good separation between the instruments. Although there is nothing that pushes the metaphorical envelope, the songs are all good, well played, and with plenty of genre variations between the tracks. The positive title track is a fine opener, with melodic guitar pushed to the fore, whilst the covers take a few liberties with the versions that we may have all heard before. So, this is a blues album for people who like a positive message in their music, and although songs such as Early Grave, or Sleeping With A Stranger carry a more series message, there is no preaching here, and nothing to get in the way of the groove, or the swagger that the rhythm section lays down.

BEN MACNAIR

JULIAN FAUTH THE WEAK AND THE WICKED INDEPENDENT

breeze through traditional numbers intertwined with originals. The connection being they all have something to say and give us food for thought. Julian Fuath skillfully combines philosophical lyrics with an entertaining melody. I recommend you sit back, kick off your shoes and absorb the messages in The Weak And The Wicked – the hard and the strong, with Julian his piano and friends.

LIZ AIKEN

MATT PATERSHUK SAME AS I EVER HAVE BEEN

BLACK MAN MUSIC

By You sit

well

together. As well as Armstrong’s contribution, there is also a brass section, four different backing vocalists, keyboards, bass, drums, rhythm guitars and Hammond organ to keep

Distinctive and compelling lyric driven album as Julian Fauth explores The Weak And The Wicked. An album that re-interprets traditional numbers and his own numbers as Julian fuses jazz, boogie woogie

and barrelhouse blues. The album opens with his own composition So Far Down, a slow dark number exploring a complicated man that Fauth knew. With a cameo of twentiethcentury history of war and terror and the line that gave the album its title appears. The track has a European feel captured by the Canadian award winning musician. Julian Fauth’s originality is heard in every note played, tone created and the picture the lyrics paint. Inspirational fall of light and dark, sparkles and tears of life captured in an album. The music is new typical Fauth in style as the vocals deliver the familiar lyrics. Mixing old with new re-vitalises the story about a Bounty Hunter. His friend Russell Sleaper wrote Bad John, and explores the origins of the expression Bad John. It is about a British man John Archer who served in the navy, was an alcoholic, violent and ended up in jail. He was a not a good man so no wonder Bad Joh is used to describe a ne’er-do-well. Dan, an original opens with gentle piano as he sings about a Canadian Soldier who fought in Afghanistan. A drummer in a marching band, a sad war song that is timeless and could be about any conflict. Closing the album with a Dylan cover Blowin’ In The Wind; re-arranged with a piano foot stomp we are reminded of the power of the lyrics with Fauth’s vocal delivery, full of yearning. The album is a fresh

Produced by Steve Dawson, this Canadian release stars Matt Patershuk as - going by the tongue-twister titles as chief wordysmith. Sometimes You’ve Got To Do Bad Things To Do Good (Adolf Hitler - 1944) kicks things off with a dirty girt tone that evokes R L Burnside. His voice has a hint of Tony Joe White. Gypsy has well-recorded electric piano and nods to J.J. Cale. The backing is not overdone, they seem to use what makes the song work, giving us all a clean listen. Ana Egge contributes sweet backing vocals and the mandolin by John Reischman is a cool touch. He sounds

much more Alabama than Vancouver! Hot Knuckle Blues is a back porch country thang whilst Good Luck uses gritty slide and a touch of delay on a loping tale. Memory And The First Law Of Thermodynamics is gently paced lament with ethereal steel guitar in the mix. Boreal comes in on a soft tread and this setting again suits his voice; Blank Pages And Lost Wages hits a meaner and more cutting sound altogether, I expected Merle Haggard to start singing! Cheap Guitar nods to John Lee Hooker and Lightning Hopkins albeit with Jerry Cook’s saxophone. The repetitive beat here is annoying. Same As I Ever Have Been is a tremelo’d waltz and Matt sounds uncomfortably close to Lee Marvin – up two semi-tones, mate! Atlas puts the steel upfront and has a distant tinge of the soundtrack to Local Hero till a semi-spoken vocal growls in. Sparrows sounds like a lost John Prine song and is delivered and keyed well. Swans uses arcane guitar tones to bring in a song that would have been fine for Elvis Presley, in semigospel mode. Overall too laid-back for this listener, something tells me this is a crew who should be heard live. Hopefully they are.

PETE SARGEANT

DAN SUMNER STORM ON AN ISLAND

INDEPENDENT

Debut album from Brighton based singer/songwriter

Dan Sumner. Storm On An Island, may be the title but do not expect storming tempo or wild blues. This is a gentle album in the folk tradition, music that is rooted in the past given a modern twist with sparkles of electronic beats. Dan has also followed the roots music tradition with the mix of storytelling, politics and protest. Dan is joined by brothers John & Joe Sam on drums and bass respectively and on keys and Hammond Matt Sewell. Eight tracks showcase this debutants skills on guitar and projecting feeling in the vocals sung with meaning and an inner belief. Opening with a political heartfelt statement Money Brings The House Down, his voice is subdued as the banker on trial is examined under the eyeglass of a singer/songwriter reflecting on today’s news of failed states and broken economies. The Boatman, is not a folk tale of a fisherman, but a despotic figure hungry for power. Also, current issues have been addressed including the recent often hostile response to refugees on The Rising Tide; a subject that Dan has a passion for with thanks to the Hummingbird Project supporting refugees. This trio of songs paints a picture through the viewfinder of Dan Sumner, reflecting back many people’s disbelief at what is happening every night we switch on the news! The title track has electronic beats and a beat that

drives the number on a contemporary sound straddling genres the hint of blues reflecting the power of the Sam brother’s rhythm section. The one cover is John Martin’s One World; with a light touch this shows another side of Dan Sumner. At times for me the vocals clash with the melody bringing in a harshness but that said it is an accomplished debut from a singer/songwriter.

LIZ AIKEN

SAZ’ISO AT LEAST WAVE YOUR HANDKERCHIEF AT ME

GLITTER BEAT

OK – producer Joe Boyd booked European gigs for Muddy Waters and Sister Rosetta Tharpe and worked with Eric Clapton in the 60s, helped out with the Jimi Hendrix movie and recorded James Booker and Geoff Muldaur the following decade; he also worked with Cubanismo in New Orleans and with Taj Mahal in the 90s. But he is best known for his work with folk musicians, and perhaps most importantly for this release, with Bulgarian musicians, as the music on this CD is also of eastern European provenance. Indeed, none other than Ry Cooder

labels this as an “album of deep soul from Southern Albania”. The album is subtitled “The Joys And Sorrows Of Southern Albanian Song”, and rather like Greek rembetika, (sometimes called “Greek blues”) there is a blues (or better, blue) feel to this fiercely traditional music, though only in a general sense – Albania certainly isn’t Alabama. But do listen to a track like the aching, deeply moving Nënockë; I don’t have a clue what they are singing about but it really does not matter. There are five vocalists involved, one also playing violin and another flute, plus a clarinettist, a lute player and a frame drummer. It might not be the blues, but this is deep music, mysterious and haunting (at least to my ears) with very deep roots, and the spirit of the music is pretty much the same as the older forms of blues. Lose the blinkers and check it out – you might just find you like it.

NORMAN DARWEN

DUSTY DAVE & THE HEART ATTACKS ONE BEER LEFT

RHYTHM BOMB

One Beer Left is the title of the boogie fuelled album from Dusty Dave & The Heart Attacks. Fans of the band have

been waiting three years since the 2014 release of their debut single. This is a party album, upbeat foot-stomping fun and the beers will be drunk with this album on the deck so not surprising there is only one beer left! The fourteen tracks are a mix of originals and covers that flow with verve and that feel good vibe you get from old school rock n’ roll. Blues are delivered with their own stamp on John Lee Hooker’s Good Rockin’ Mama and this tempo continues hardly letting you draw breath let alone drink that beer.

Champion

Of The Blues

takes us back to the 1950’s with tone, tempo and feel as the vocals curl around stinging guitar and burning harp accompanied by the piano. This is blues joint music captured for today. Following this is a slower number, the title track One Beer Left. We woke up one morning as Dave painted a lyric soundscape. This again picking up the blues roots of rock n’ roll. Closing with a good time rousing number Rocker and yes with that One Beer left we will be rocking the night away with Dusty Dave & The Heart Attacks.

LIZ AIKEN

The songs are all familiar, it is just that they are in a completely different genre. The guitarist and singer Jimmie Bratcher has assembled a crack team of blues and soul musicians to cover ten famous songs from the country songbook. Hank Williams’s Honky Tonk Blues is twisted blues, with sharp lead guitar, and a slow groove, whilst You Are My Sunshine is a Hammond Organ drenched soul shouter, with gospel interjections from Amanda Fish. Singing The Blues is a twelve bar boogie woogie, with the slide guitar of Seam McDonald adding a lot to the downhome groove. I Don’t Hurt Anymore, originally a hit for Hank Snow is a showcase for Bratcher’s brooding vocals, and BB King like guitar fills, whilst Under Your Spell is another blues pop confection, with something of a Motown swagger to it. The rest of the album lives up to the same standard of playing, singing, production and imaginative arrangements. Although there is a lot here to annoy purists, the intentions of the production are purely to add new interpretations to songs that are already familiar as country songs. These are all fine songs, regardless of genre, as this timely shows.

BEN MACNAIR

VARIOUS ARTISTS HARDCORE HARP

JIMMIE BRATCHER THIS IS BLUES

ELECRO-FI

Record label compilations are often hit and miss assortments but in this

new collection Electro-Fi have managed to maintain continuity and high quality. Two artists who are particularly heavily represented - Little Walter and Willie Big Eyes Smith. The later is drumming on Billy Boy Arnold’s effortlessly cool take on Mellow Chick Swing, Snooky Pryor’s Rock-AWhile and Al Lerman’s Liquified Boogie. On his own Don’t Think I’m Crazy he sings and plays a rustic harmonica and tells of mistreatment in old age: “You think I’m just an old man and you don’t intend to treat me right”. Little Walter is referenced on Mark Hummel’s cover of It’s Too Late Brother as well as both of the George Harmonica Smith live recordings on which he tries to con the audience into thinking he’s unaware of the man despite covering his songs and so charismatically following in his footsteps. Little Mack Simmons’ also takes on Leaving In The Morning, Electro-Fi’s first track on its first album. Despite being Toronto-based, the label has created a home for Chicago Blues. Harrison Kennedy’s Afraid To Fail, released this year and included here, bucks the trend. He’s from Hamilton, Ontario and the banjo and soul/folk undertones show a different side of modern blues and blues harp virtuosity. Of course this is an album of brilliant harmonica playing but it never strays into self-indulgence or grandstanding. Part of Billy

Boy Arnold’s charm is in the impact he affects while playing so little. His 1992 re-recording of I Wish You Would is both tasteful and exciting. After the energetic opener – Alone With The Blues by Paul Oscher, the listener is ready to relax and this sets the tone for the compilation. You know amazing stuff is coming again but best not get out of breath. Alone With The Blues is a showcase like no other and it’s a good move putting it at the start. After demanding all that it can give from his harmonica Oscher moves onto the melodica and does the same. The rest of the CD doesn’t have to compete with this and doesn’t try.

JACK GOODALL

55 ROSE STREET MISERY

SOUTHERN RED BIRD

55 Rose Street is a North Florida-based recording project helmed by bassist/ producer/songwriter Mick Metz. He and drummer Ray Brunetti form a solid rhythm section upon which singers Heather Gillis, Chris Balding, Clyde Ramsey and on 80s-sounding opener Black Ice, Sarah Mac. Balding plays the harmonica with a lot of feel and provides the stand-out moments such as on Thunderbolt on which he

also delivers one of the album’s most convincing vocal performances. His singing on I Ain’t Got No Pants Or Shoes and Empty World sounds like a cross between Johnny Winter and JJ Cale and sometimes bears a resemblance to the laidback classiness of James Harman, who he names as a hero of his. Heather Gillis provides clean and cool guitar work on Ray Of Texas Sunshine which has its moment in a particularly funky breakdown section. Despite some good instrumental sections much of the album is weighed down by overlystereotypical blues lyrics. Some of the between-song chat and instructions are kept on the record yet this doesn’t particularly add to the intimacy of the record so much as suggest that a lot of work went into it. The album closes with the slow 12-bar blues of Misery. Gillis’ vocal and Balding’s harmonica are pleasantly restrained and tasteful but it doesn’t leave much of an impression.

JACK GOODALL

in Somerset. Ah, I thought, West Country blues rock. Then I realised it was Somerset in Kentucky. Rod Wilson, leader of this trio, has shared the stage with members of the Allman Brothers, Bob Seger, The Steve Miller Band, Cher, Stevie Nicks, Boz Scaggs, Steppenwolf, Chuck Berry, Robert Cray, and Mitch Ryder plus many more. The Thunderbolts are perhaps typical of the modern, mature American blues rock trio which will always find plenty of work in the USA. Nine of these ten songs were written by bandleader, vocalist and guitar man Rod. What’s it like? Rod’s vocals are well to the fore with that degree of clarity which allows you to hear every word. His guitar playing is impressive enough, and he even includes a sensitive instrumental, Broken Wing, which is dedicated to Jimi Hendrix. He also expresses those many emotions musicians feel with the moody Life Of A Bluesman. As a trio, they make a pretty fat sound, and on When Love Comes Calling, he’s underpinned by some fine female backing singers.

As with many acts in this style, The Thunderbolts are probably better enjoyed in a live situation, but as a souvenir of a show, this CD would be a firm reminder to go see them again.

LIGHTNIN’ ROD & THE THUNDERBOLTS DELTA TIME

ROY BAINTON

DAVE FORESTFIELD NOBODY’S WORLD

PROPAGANDA

The very song titles

on Nobody’s World, Finnish bluesman Dave Forestfield’s seventh album, suggest his originality, for here we have the intriguing likes of Me And My Bible (We’re The Devil), Old Ancient Souls, In Old Hong Kong and You Can’t Walk Grinning (All Through Your Life). Me And The Bible (We’re The Devil) in particular is a striking song with Forestfield singing about self-righteous, hypocritical Bible bashers while on You Can’t Walk Grinning (All Through Your Life) he reflects on carefree youth and its ephemerality. The latter song, mind you, has a peculiar, discordant end-twist and it must be said that some of the songs cross the line from quirkily original to irritatingly impenetrable. Sally And Steve, for example, is an off-the-wall narrative that’s frankly hard to make much sense of, even before the surprise ending. Forestfield uses his throaty voice pretty effectively and is a skilful multi-instrumentalist, playing piano, guitar, bass, organ and dobro, accompanied only by drummer Jussi Huttunen, a couple of occasional backing singers and, on two tracks, guest keyboard player Jere Venalainen. The music is quite varied for as well as some bluesy, rootsy rock tracks, In Heaven, a song about being reunited in heaven with hated contemporaries from your schooldays, is countryish and the title track even hints at psychedelia.

TREVOR HODGETT

CHARLIE BONNET III SINNER WITH A SONG INDEPENDENT

Charlie Bonnet III grew up, in the rural town of Tennessee. Having released eight solo albums here is his latest recording. Like the man say's "my stuff ain't rocket science, I've got a one, maybe two octave voice on a good day. I know a few cords and can play a pretty decent blues guitar lick. I've always been drawn to the storytelling of old country music, but I have never liked the over-produced feel of it, my personality leans towards more aggressive music, raw and with some attitude, I like to rock out."

Bringing Tracii Guns (Guns n Roses and La Guns) on board to mix and master the session, Tracii ended up playing the B3 Organ on this independent release Sinner With A Song, a six track EP. Wanting a vintage 70's southern blues rock sound, “Mic the room up and go for it” was the plan “it worked for Skynyrd why not me”.

Starting the EP with title track Sinner With A Song, a southern rocker with a country twang, a dig at the modern day need to troll.

Growling vocals and dirty guitar are well matched by the tight rhythm section of

Ceth Carter on bass and Travis Ashley on drums, solid rocker Restless And Reckless, with Ray Riddle on the tambourine, sounds like Nazareth to this old dog! The drum driven Waiting On Time is another solid rocker with Tracii filling the edges with some subtle B3 Organ. "Clinging to dreams that won't come true" is the tale of country rock Hometown Heroes. A change of pace with the B3 and acoustic start on the slower Heading Home, a southern blues groove of yester year. To finish the album an acoustic guitar leads us into the beautiful slow strutting blues Cold And Alone some great lyrics and slide guitar that left me wanting more. This six track EP surprised me with some excellent lyrics, great sounding songs and a voice that brought them to life. I would have liked, to hear a few more songs.

SHIRL

DON BRYANT DON’T GIVE UP ON LOVE

FAT POSSUM RECORDS

Don Bryant started early on the Memphis scene, singing gospel and pop on the streets before moving into soul music. Although he never had a huge hit he was always a successful writer and when

he married Ann Peebles they produced some of the great soul music of the Seventies: 99 Lbs and I Can’t Stand The Rain in particular. For the last thirty years Don has raised a family and concentrated on gospel but last year Memphis band The Bo-Keys persuaded him back into the studio and this album is the result. Don reprises four of his earlier songs and wrote three more with bassist Scott Bomar who also contributed one of his own songs. There are two covers from outside the band: Don’s outstanding vocals on A Nickel And A Nail make this one of the very best versions of a much-covered song and Buddy Flett and David Egan’s First You Cry is a classic soul tune with a fine horn arrangement. The oldest song here is I Got To Know which Don wrote for the 5 Royales in 1960 and this upbeat version retains the choral vocal feel over rocking piano and Joe Restivo’s guitar break. Northern Soul fans will recall Otis Clay’s version of It Was Jealousy and Don’s glossy take brings out the hurt in the lyrics. Charles Hodges’ organ propels the pure gospel of How Do I Get There and the soul of Can’t Hide The Hurt, a tune that you could imagine filling the dance floors in Memphis back in the day. The new songs stand up well in comparison: Don’t Give Up On Love is a classic soul ballad which again showcases Don’s powerful and emotive

voice, undiminished by age; driven by the guitar riff and a barrelling horn chart Can’t Hide The Hurt harks back to Stax, One Ain’t Enough builds up with Histyle guitar and Something About You evokes James Brown. Straight out of Memphis, this is superb old-school soul music.

JOHN MITCHELL

BRUCE COCKBURN BONE ON BONE

TRUE NORTH RECORDS

It doesn’t matter if you arrive late to an artist’s work, as long as you arrive. Discovering Bruce Cockburn’s latest album Bone On Bone advises you that there are thirty-plus albums released before this one, over a forty-plusyears-career, and that youthful urgent passionate voice is coming out of a seventy-two-year-old body. Cockburn is a blues musician in the sense that he writes plays and sings songs from the heart and soul, the format is as varied and complex or as straight and simple as required. It’s all about getting the song over in the right way. That brings Forty Years In The Wilderness with its delicate acoustic portrait that recalls Bruce Springsteen at his reflective best. But right after it is the rollicking bluesy harmonica-driven Café Society with its echoed vocals and gritty storytelling. With Al Purdy’s, it’s clear that Bruce Cockburn is a complete musical chameleon. Every single song so far has been entirely individual

and completely different in style and delivery from the song before or after it. The title track is actually instrumental, quietly reminding the listener that the creation of the varying soundscapes that make up this album is a prodigious acoustic guitar talent. And the variety and invention go on – My Road is sung in French, with a translation in the lyrics booklet – but the use of French, always the language of passion when sung, simply underlines the stark simplicity of a man who lives his life to explore and question the world he lives in. False River is a salutary tale of industrial damage which manages to hit its message without a hint of tree-hugging patronising – instead another passionate and heartfelt vocal and a driving beat and tune underneath it all. Twelve Gates To The City has a revivalist bible-thumping vibe to it, underlined by the gospel female backing. There is enough variety and scope in this record to keep it playing for weeks, maybe months, and then the thrill of trawling back through Mr Cockburn’s back catalogue. Satisfaction absolutely guaranteed. ANDY HUGHES

DVD s

STEFAN GROSSMAN GUITAR WORKSHOP LETS GO GET STONED & SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME

I have chosen to put these

two titles together in the same review as a great deal of what I would say has already been said. It is a Guitar Workshop production therefore you can expect immaculate filming, first class sound and inspired tuition that is easy to understand. Let me say here that I am not on commission, but I seem to have done most of the recent reviews and I am running out of things to say, now anyone that knows me will know how rare that is! You can almost treat these as samplers for the rest of the series, the first one Lets Get Stoned is a look at just five different acoustic Blues numbers, each of them offering Stefan a different style of playing to put across, and he does so as well as ever. If you didn’t want to buy the entire series, this would be a good place to start, as what you learn on each song can be transferred to many others, so there you are, I have saved you a small fortune, The second offering Show me the way to go home is something a little different and just in time for Christmas, you will have time to learn some novelty songs ( One of which is really quite rude, but I’ll leave you to check out the excellent PDF file for yourself) .You would not believe how difficult it actually is to play Teddy Bears Picnic, not until this version anyway! So yes two more excellent pieces of work from the apparently tireless Stefan Grossman.

DAVE STONE

VARIOUS BLUES LIVE & ALIVE

JSP RECORDS

Here is a sampler of the entire archive series so far, each track being from one of the DVDs that are already available. 9 tracks of varying quality as these are archive footage from the mid nineties and not polished concert performances, they are shot with hand held cameras working in cramped conditions in the middle of a live concert, trying not to get in the way and as a result you get some unusual camera angles. They are also largely working with the available lighting which varies throughout the nine tracks here. Sound quality is pretty good, It is sobering to think that these were filmed some twentyfive years or so ago and yet already we have lost some of the performers, and in some cases, these may be the only readily available footage, so don’t go out to buy these thinking that this is a concert from Montreux or you will be disappointed, instead go out to add to your collection as a historical document that you will enjoy. Well done the Blues Archive, keep on putting these out.

DAVE STONE

THE COBALT AND MERRIWETHER BLUES MICHAEL SHERBORNE

ISBN

When this arrived at the office the title caught my eye and my mind. The dedication also pulled at my strings and reads thus: “To Iain Zaczek, in celebration of the Half Moon and Bull’s Head.” Ok so what is this about? Well first let me tell you that the author was Head of English and Humanities at Luton Sixth Form College and his previous comic novel, Don’t Shoot Mr Daunt, is currently available as an e-book. He wrote a biography on HG Wells titled Another Kind of Life which was hailed by the Sunday Telegraph as “a brilliant portrait” and “authoritative” by the Times Literary Supplement so praise indeed. Further he has written and broadcast widely on the subject of HG Wells, and edited his Short History of the World for Penguin Classics. Being the Founder etc. of this blues magazine you hold now you will understand my being

hooked already and also being one who enjoys a good detective story, well I was intruiged! This is indeed an entertaining read and so to the plot. Stetson Slim (average) blues singer shot his manager then threw himself under a car back in 1965 and not much was done about it. Well so the story goes but when no-one wants to talk about it so who is hiding what, or are they? Forty-five years later an editor of a blues magazine (no it wasn’t me!) decided to take another look and found himself right up against it all. Closed lips, murder attempts and his ineptitude for detective work. You will find many familiar names and circumstances here that lend an authentic background and enjoyment. I love the back page note; “a comic murder mystery that delivers more slapstick action than a silent movie, more laughs than a hyena on nitrous oxide, more outlandish characters than a cabinet meeting” I ask you how can you fail to want to read this book (sorry comic novel!). I cannot help but highly recommend this book to you

ALAN PEARCE

9781546894957. AVAILABLE VIA AMAZON.

Can cure what ails you. Make it right. Has a way of reaching down inside you and moving stuff around, if you let it. Heart beats. Thoughts. Emotions. Ideas. Can put things in perspective. Feel bad to feel good. Feel good back to melancholy. Hopes. Needs. Wants. Some satisfaction even.

Reality. That last thing can be a mother of a wakeup call. Can be a reminder that, my brother, you are one blessed dude. That you have choices. Embrace it. You can choose to be positive. Or you can choose to wallow in your own bullshit, which has always been an option for me, anyway.

None of it’s guaranteed. But if you open your ears, and your soul, you just might get a little.

I did, couple of weekends ago. Saddled up and journeyed

SHOWTIME

The BM! Round-up of live blues

for attracting genuine talented musicians to play for him (me being the possible exception …), and back-up singers, and a year into a fabulous first crew (pictured above) he draws on a personality he’s been carrying around inside his own self. And Blind Lemon Peel is born. And damned if he doesn’t get Joel Diamond on keys – who toured with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton! Steve Burgh, guitar, who recorded two albums with Billy Joel – and Richard Crooks, who drummed with Doctor John for 9 years, to join the band!

Seriously. And he has mercy on me and I get to keep on keepin on – in the band!

across country to the New Blues Festival – formerly the Long Beach Blues Festival – and acted as if I belonged there, me and my guitar and blues hat. And soon enough, thanks to reconnecting with two dear friends, soul mates who I jammed with and did gigs with a couple of decades ago in downtown New York City joints, I got some.

A lot, actually. Lived in The City, that city, for 35 years, some of it in Manhattan and most all of it in the advertising business. Along the way I hooked up with a one-of-a-kind bro, David Hale, a talented, creative writer who had an even bigger jones for the blues than I did, and that’s sayin a lot for a couple of white boys.

He brings me in to his band, to play bass. He already has a knack

Brother David brings a unique perspective to the blues. More like electric Chicago Rhythm & Blues. The rhythm that is the blues. Wry sense of humor. He’s a performer as much as he’s a singer. He is Blind Lemon Peel. Says it all. And it’s totally original stuff he writes, and arranges – and it would have to be from a character, who calls himself Blind Lemon Peel. More often than not he’s outside the typical 1-4-5 blues chord thing for arrangements that say you better pay attention ‘cause we’re bustin’ outside the box. Whatever that box be…

Lot of it’s about … women. Good times. Truth. Yeah, truth. None of that clichéd “my baby left me” blues stuff for BLP. He wails on tunes he writes himself, like …Marry My Money Again, Don’t Tear My Clothes, Wear What I Please, I’m So Horny (the crack of dawn ain’t safe), No Time

Blind Lemon Peel (David Hale) by Rebecca Bogdanoff

Off, Sometimes She Comes …, Fire in the Hole and …Fuck Everybody. You get the idea.

We play out for another year in that big apple. Blues joints down in the village, and Delta 88 – which Rolling Stone described as one of the city’s best.

Along the way we’re rehearsing one night down at Montana Studios, way down on the lower west side, and hangin, and David looks up at me and says, “Smoke,” that’s what he tagged me –Smokin’ Tim – “why don’t you step up to the mic and do somethin?”

This to a guy who’s never sang a note in 30(!) some-odd years in and out of bands.

But I do, this time. Without even half of a preconceived thought in my white boy head, I lean in to the mic and sing, kind of … “Shake yo love thang …”

I have no idea where it came from. Zero. Somewhere deep inside. And bent. Freudian? A subconscious yearning? Got me. But there it was. And I just left it hanging there, like some participle.

But David’s going, “Wait a minute! What the hell was that?!?”

“Hell, I don’ know. What?”

And he’s going, “That’s, like, really cool. There’s somethin there dude! You got somethin!”

And who am I to argue?

Cut to the next rehearsal, a week later, and here’s Peel with lyrics, his lyrics, to “Shake Your Love Thang.” “Check this out,” and he runs it down. Fabulous interpretation. Genuine blues with a sense of humor. Uniquely Blind Lemon Peel.

And the rest is history, kind of … here’s the short version:

I’m out of the band soon after … for all the right reasons, and grateful for the experience. LP records their first CD (with a kick-ass rearrangement of Shake Your Love Thang. Much better. Quicker click. David’s gracious

enough to list me as co-writer on the CD. It becomes the band’s closing number. Still is.

Back to Labor Day weekend …

The New Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California. BLP is playing, along with a long list of big-time, kick-ass blues guys (gender neutral) in two days of all-day concerts on two outdoor stages. Couple of thousand people. Serious shit.

And Peel has this vision that will not be denied. Two of us original band members, from those 25 years ago, just have to get our asses out to Long Beach and get back in the band! For the closing number – Shake …!

Randi Dorman, our red-hot soul sister from way back then – another ad bidness dudette who worked in the same agency I did back then. Totally cool, and brilliant and beautiful – and now an upstanding, influential citizen in Tucson. Backup singer with pipes of gold.

And me, the pretender bass player who’s mostly never played more than a damned good rhythm guitar in the last, oh, four decades. Still got some chops, but zero calloused fingertips and lots of memories.

“Get your raggedly ass out here,” he’s sayin, “… and I’ll give you solos!” He’s not taking no for an answer.

This is where that reality thing comes in, for me. Here’s these kick-ass, accomplished musicians up there on stage with my man: Willie Ray Brundidge, who played bass with the hardest workin man in show bidness – James Brown – for eight years; David Odom on drums, who toured with major artists, including Motown, as music director, arranger and drummer; Shedrick Davis, who used to back up and solo for Hubert Sumlin – the electric guitar voltage behind Howlin’ Wolf; Billy

Wildman, whammer jammer harp man who used to blow it for Buddy Miles. Dena Michals and Randi –whose unrehearsed pipes blend that girl thing in – backing up Peel … the icing like on that Red Velvet Cake from Sylvia’s, up in Harlem.

And me, for the closing number – “Shake Your Love Thang!” Right up there with them all, getting away with it. Feelin it. The music, for sure. But more than that. Much more. I was one of them, for those magic ten minutes. Accepted – me and my rhythm chops and attempted solo. Jammin!

You know, and I’m beginning to … life is a freakin roller coaster. Like Grandma describes her rides on one to the Steve Martin character in Parenthood … “… up and down, up, down … it was just interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened … so scared … so excited … and so thrilled all together … some went on the merry-go-round … that just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.”

And then dad goes out and has a car wreck ‘cause his wife gives him a blowjob while he’s driving. Down and up. Downs, ups….

Hey! Get down with the downs! Learn from ‘em. Be grateful for the ups. Make ‘em happen!

Like bro Peel sings it … “Don't go whistling past no graveyard, If you wanna save yo soul. Dem evil dead is risin, Gonna pull you in dat hole. Someday dat dirty debil. He gonna work for me. I gonna go to hell and back. And set dem damned souls free!”… And I did.

Fire In The Hole, © Blind Lemon Peel. www.huffingtonpost.com/author/timarnold TIM ARNOLD

NORTH WALES BLUES & SOUL FESTIVAL

If you are looking for a festival that brings you a plethora of soulful blues, as well as giving a stage to emerging local talent, then this is the festival for you. It is set in a park field just a short walk from the town, where, after the sun goes down and the festival closes for the day, some of the pubs host bands that have been on during the day, specifically the ones who are touring from overseas. There is a well stocked beer tent with real ale as well as tea and coffee, cakes, fish and chip van, burgers, ice cream as well as stalls supporting local charities, packed with ethnic clothes and trinkets. A surprise extra stall this year was Steve Pablo Jones with his artworks of blues musicians. The sound and stage are excellent, plus this year some extra gazebos to shelter from sun and rain were erected. There are camping facilities in a nearby sports field, with a bar which stays open after the main festival finishes, providing entertainment from one of the bands playing at the festival to round the day off .

Friday

The opening day always showcases local talent, so there was a gentle start to the proceedings in the solo performance of Mr Hugh Price, who took us to the crossroads, rolling and tumbling through the Mississippi Delta. He was followed by a band that caught the eye last year – Mr Hat’s Soul Collective. They are a seven-piece band with two saxophonists, who, as their name suggests, play mainly classic soul. Next up were Mostly Blues a four-piece local band, then headlining this year, Yubaba, a soul band with a high

energy singer whose powerful soul-drenched voice had nearly the whole audience up dancing. They encapsulated what Mold Soul & Blues Festival is all about.

Saturday

Mark Henderson & Thor Brown duo kicked off the proceedings with a mix of folk, roots and blues. Born Healer returned to the festival this year after enjoying success at last year's festival and need no introduction to many of our readers. Liam Ward, a very talented harmonica player (you may remember his series of harmonica workshops in past

Stevie Nimmo by Christine Moore

Greg Coulson by Christine Moore

editions of Blues Matters!), brought his four-piece band to Wales to demonstrate his undoubted talent. Alexis Evans, a very smart French outfit, brought 60’s rhythm ‘n’ blues to Wales. Following them were Deep In The Top who were back again this year after storming the festival last year. They're a young fresh outfit from Greece, proving blues is in good hands. The effervescent Connie Lush Band took to the stage to prove that every festival should have a huge helping of this band. They boast the top female multi-award winning singer Connie, ably assisted by Steve Wright on guitar and keeping the beat Terry, bass and Roy, drums. They did a great job of promoting their stunning new album Renaissance. John O’Leary Band followed Connie and had some act to follow. John needs no introduction as he has been on the blues scene since the days of Savoy Brown. Headlining band for the day was Hamilton Loomis, bringing his drummer Armando Aussenac and sax player Fabian Hernandez with him from the USA, but with our very own Roger Inniss on bass. Creating the wonderful funky blues as only Hamilton can, joining the audience on the grass to enjoy the festival atmosphere. A fitting end to a wonderful day of varied music.

Sunday

Burning Black from Anglesey, started off the afternoon schedule with a four-piece harmonicalead band, augmenting their duo appearance in 2015. Local band Delta Radio, playing psychedelic experimentalism, classic rock and electric blues from North Wales, certainly impressed us all again after their debut appearance last year. Dale Storr’s New Orleans piano style certainly had the dancers in full swing. Some of you may remember Dale playing in

blues bands in the past including The Nimmo Brothers. Colin Hinds Band were up next. You may recognise Colin as the guitarist with China Crisis and he has played around the UK and indeed the world with many notable artists. Stevie Nimmo Band were on stage just as the rain decided to make another appearance. Stevie is ably assisted on stage by his long-time band members, Matt Beable on bass and Craig Bacon on drums. The weather didn’t deter the audience from joining him in front of the stage. You're never short changed when Stevie and the band are on stage. They always give their all and enjoy the trip which delights the crowd. John Verity Band are regular performers at this festival and bring their own brand of blues which John has been performing for many years now, supporting many top class bands such as Hendrix, Mountain, Canned Heat and Janis Joplin as well as playing guitar in Argent for a couple of years. Check out his pedigree. The rain had set in for the night but Greg Coulson didn’t let this deter him. At 25 years old, playing guitar/keyboards, singing

and songwriting, he has already carved an amazing path in his chosen profession. With his fiery rhythm ‘n’ blues band, he was playing songs from his first album of original music, due for release shortly. Greg spent five years in the legendary Two Tone/Ska Band the Selecter and has also performed on stage in a West End musical. For those who braved the cold and the now torrential rain, Jo Harman and her band put on a sterling performance. She is without doubt a phenomenal singer and most of her set list is self-penned numbers, only dipping in to a few standards including a beautiful rendition of Papa Was A Rolling Stone. Jo is always backed by a quality band and this performance was no exception. Well done to Charlie for pulling together quality artists and providing Mold with a wonderful festival.

If you want a flavour of the festival, check out YouTube where Peter Simmonds simmo7ts crew have uploaded footage of all the acts over the weekend.

CHRISTINE MOORE

25 TH – 29TH OCTOBER 2017

A N ARCTIC BLUES ADVENTURE

Back in February 2017 I got a phone-call from my son, Ed, who asked “Dad, do you fancy going to a Blues Festival?” (A question very much like asking an alcoholic if he fancied a drink!). I was flattered that a 25-year-old would want to do something together with his old man. (I couldn’t imagine having asked the same question at his age.) Feeling very honoured, I agreed. I then thought to ask where it was taking place and was

informed that it was on the island of Svalbard, way up in the Arctic Circle. (I consulted google maps!) Later that year on a Wednesday evening towards the end of October, after much planning and not an inconsiderable capital outlay, we found ourselves landing at Longyearbyen Airport (Terminal 1 – Ha!) at about 9.30 pm, after flights from Gatwick-Oslo, Oslo-Tromsø and then TromsøLongyearbyen (Svalbard) and with one broken suitcase, courtesy of the baggage-handlers/destroyers

THE 15TH DARK SEASON BLUES FESTIVAL LONGYEARBYEN, SVALBARD, NORWAY

at Oslo airport. We headed straight for the hotel, a quick change and then out for the first of many concerts to come over the next 5 days. The Barentz Pub was heaving with blues fans. (The population of Longyearbyen, the only town on the island, is just over 2,000 and it seemed as though most of them had turned up!) This was the free Kickstart-jam session and didn’t have a set line-up. To our amazement, musicians who had come across from Tromsø on the same flight, minutes before, just got up there and started playing their stuff. They were just as keen as everybody else to get into the groove. A glimpse of Dave Fields (USA) in action was enough to convince us that we’d definitely come to the right place!

The Festival was officially opened the following day at the Kuturhuset. (Imaginatively named “The Culture House”, which was almost as clever as calling the first valley outside the town Endalen, “Valley number One”!) There was a slight delay, since a Russian Helicopter with 8 people on board had just crashed into the sea just off the island and quite a few of the locals were involved with the search and rescue operation. Several of the Dark Season Blues acts played a couple of numbers, just to give a taste of what was to come. Mike Andersen (Denmark) opened with his band and played some slick guitar on the two tracks with a meteorological/horticultural theme. (Water in the desert & Going Home – to water my cactus!) Then came the amazing Grainne Duffy (Ireland), who played a couple of numbers with her band and was obviously in the mood to play to the very receptive audience. She was followed by Eric Slim Zahl and the South West Swingers (Norway), playing 50s jump blues and boogie. Last up was Sugaray Rayford (USA), who,

Dave Fields by Mona Eide

from the off, was there to steal the show. Even at the relatively early evening time of 6pm he was insistent that everybody got up and joined in, which they promptly did. Who could possibly refuse an offer from Sugaray?

The concerts over the next few days took place in various smaller locations throughout the town and blues fans, who had bought event passes, were generally free to wander from venue to venue. It would have been great to catch all the acts, in all the venues, but some of the locations were just so cosy, it was very easy to stay in one place. (The fact that the temperature was heading towards – 10 Celsius was another reason to stay indoors!) On the Thursday evening I chose to go to

a cosy little bar called Kroa, which had the décor of a Northwest frontier trapper’s saloon, with rustic furniture and animal skins to add authenticity. First up was JT Lauritsen & The Buckshot Hunters (Norway) who played the accordion like he was born in the Louisiana swamplands and had the vocals to match. He played a fantastic version of Mathilda, originally a hit for Cookie and His Cupcakes in 1959, amongst many others with a true New Orleans/ Fats Domino feel, which was a great tribute, since the legendary Fats Domino had passed away just two days before. JT was also joined on the tiny stage by the ever-smiling Jimmy Carpenter (US) on saxophone and the incredible saxophonist, keyboard player

and vocalist Deanna Bogart (US), who was visiting Norway for the first time. The eight musicians on the tiny stage jammed away like they had played together for years and, in contrast to the sub-zero conditions outside, the temperature in the bar definitely began to rise. (Deanna confessed to the appreciative audience that wearing woolly socks was a BIG mistake!) One of the highlights of their set was a fantastic version of Little Walter’s Too Late, which really rocked the bar. Next up was Sugaray Rayford (Texas, USA), who left the audience in no doubt how the remainder of the evening was going to progress, with his declaration, “Let’s get this straight, this ain’t gonna be no concert, this is gonna be a PARTY!” He was true to his word and produced some very powerful vocals on all the ensuing numbers, including great versions of Born Under a Bad Sign, Grits Ain’t Groceries and the non-PC Big Legged Woman. There was scorching guitar work throughout from the hugely talented Gino Matteo and in the middle of the set we were treated to a version of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb, featuring Drake “Munkihaid” Shining on keyboards. As Sugaray pointed out, not blues, but good music. At one point during the proceedings Sugaray left the stage area to stroll round the bar. His voice was so powerful that he didn’t need to take a mic with him. It was a memorable performance!

Over the next few days I tried to catch as many of the acts as possible in the 13 different locations, spread out around the town, whilst also trying to get a feel for this unique place. A place where there are no old people (you have to be in employment to live there), where there are no taxes and where there is a sign at the local co-op kindly

Grainne Duffy by Mona Eide

requesting you not to take your rifles into the shop, definitely had a different feel to it. (Did I mention that there was a sign that warns of polar bears everywhere?)

The Dark Season Blues Festival culminated in one of the strangest places I have ever seen a concert. It was situated up the frozen, wind-swept valley out of town and aptly called Huset (The House). Imagine a cross between Leeds Town Hall and The Overlook Hotel from The Shining and you’ll start to get the picture. (A guide told me that it was built equidistant from the townsfolk and the miners’ quarters, so that neither party was too inconvenienced when going to the cinema or concerts there.) We chose to walk there from our hotel – a decision we later regretted when walking back at 2am against the bitter sub-zero gale that was swirling the snow across the road. Nevertheless, the walk there was definitely worthwhile, with eleven acts on twp stages from 7pm till 2am. We were treated to some classic delta blues in true Muddy Water style from Big Creek Slim (Denmark), a rousing set from Mike Vernon and The Mighty Combo (UK), some stunning guitar artistry from Dave

Fields (NYC, USA), who played his very own tribute to the festival with his witty 78 Degrees North, some wry humour from the saxophonist Terry Hanck, who sang I Don’t Love You No More with almost too much sincerity and a powerful set from Grainne Duffy and her band, who performed brilliant versions of Love Me Like a Man and Good Love Had To Die. The concert at Huset closed on the main stage with a set from JT Lauritsen & The Buckshot Hunters with Deanna Bogart and Jimmy Carpenter.

There were other acts I caught, but couldn’t possibly have got

BLUES AT SEA

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

21ST OCTOBER 2017

This was my third consecutive trip with this European venture from July Morning and Viking Line cruises. Each year the event grows in stature and gains support from an ever-widening blues music fan-base. Last year Lil’ Ed Williams pulled off a triumph with his fast-paced, racy Chicago set. For 2017 the fast moving, raucous and riotously loud award probably belongs to Canadian outfit, Zed

to see them all (and I apologise to those I haven’t mentioned). There was a distinct lack of street musicians at this festival for some reason. The only disappointment was that the Northern Lights didn’t really put in an appearance, the main reason, I suspect, that my son invited me to this festival in the first place! He did, however, celebrate being there by drinking a local beer called Nordlys (Northern Lights). (A word of warning; this half-pint of beer cost a staggering £9!) Cheers, Ed, and thanks for suggesting the trip!

STEVE BANKS

Head, who were partnered by New York drummer, Rui Balla, a guy who clearly loves being centre-stage and throws himself almost literally into every number. Other band members included Neil Chapman as frontman with John Burkitt on bass and West Virginian Mike Matney on guitar. As a late-night closing act, they had to push it out big time following on from a truly excellent set by London’s Si Cranstoun.

Cranstoun may have been the surprise of the gig for many, though from the crowd response, it was evident he already had a bag of fans out in Scandinavia. Cranstoun’s set revolved around his current release, Old School, an album that barely hints at the power and strength of his vocal talent. This is a guy best caught live, if possible. Closing his set with some old sixties numbers backed by a compelling horn section, Cranstoun blew the place apart with his sheer class.

From Sweden, Trickbag proved themselves to be an absolutely spot-on, solid blues outfit with

Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton by Jan Patience

driving vocals from Tommy Moberg and top-dollar harp-work from the UK’s Steve West Weston.

The band were joined by two US soul-blues singers in Californians, Mercedes Moore and the delicious voice of Missy Andersen. Two of Sweden’s most promising, up and coming blues artists, Lisa Lystam and her guitarist partner Fredrik Karlsson, turned in an interesting performance on the return leg of the trip alongside Swedish blues royalty, Roffe Wikstrom. With a set in Swedish, they managed to keep the hung-over crowd in hand with no apparent difficulty or effort.

For me, the show-stealer has to be the ever-wonderful New York bluesman, Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton. Here we had a true master craftsman with an enormous appetite for the music and a spellbinding stage presence

CONCERTS

KIRK FLETCHER

THE TUNNELS, BRISTOL

24TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Sunday night in Bristol. Kirk Fletcher and Friends turn The Tunnels Blue. The Sunday night buzz was full of warmth as friends and lovers of live music came together. This was our Sunday experience of light, music and being uplifted. With popular local band Ruzz Guitar’s Blues Revue opening the evening, they are a trio that delight their many fans in Bristol, and were joined by Phil Quinn on keys adding another dimension. The crowded stage did nothing to curtail the steaming tempo from the band that plays foot tapping rock n’ roll and the interest is maintained with Texas Blues, with some slower numbers mixed in. The guitar in Ruzz’s hand was on fire with the energy that was warming the audience with the love of live music, building

that genuinely captivated the huge crowd. Paxton moves around the world of traditional, old-school acoustic blues and ragtime-blues music with flair, flourish and astonishing facility. Switching from guitar to old-time banjo and harp, he sadly bust a fiddle string but otherwise turned in a pretty remarkable and varied acoustic set that was as good as anything out there. Put simply, Paxton was simply superb.

Each year the organisers of this event pull in a handful of local, Scandinavian acts, some from wider Europe and a batch of US talent. On the showing of the 2017 event, it’s sure gonna be a hard act to follow but I’m sure looking forward to it once again. Counting off the days already.

IAIN PATIENCE

the anticipation for Kirk Fletcher. Now for the Kirk Fletcher moment. His surname takes us back to an age when arrows were made by the fletcher. Tonight the arrow sharpness and direction took us deep into the Blues. Fletcher maker of arrow flights; tonight Kirk took us on a flight of blues delight. What an evening it was; full of glorious live music that moved you. Kirk has surrounded himself with some of the UK’s best. With Westley Johnstone on drums, Jonny Henderson in complete control of his Hammond and Dudley Ross adding to the guitar sound. Kirk plugged his guitar straight into the 633 amp and the sound was clean and bright. The tone that defines Kirk Fletcher. The set flowed with a freedom as he and the band hit the ground running with Hip Hugger; through to the last notes of the encore Rock With Me. Kirk’s riffs and

licks purr as he makes the music shimmer. When you go to Kirk Fletcher a night of blues quality is assured. Tonight he stepped up the tone, tempo and energy, he was inspired. The instrumental version of I’d Rather Go Blind was simply sublime. What a beautiful interpretation. His guitar wept and Jonny’s Hammond delivered the anguish which was pulled together by Dudley’s guitar shaping the melody. As Dudley took some time out we were treated to a jam full of jazz chords and blues licks as Denny Ilett stepped on to the stage. The interaction between Denny & Jonny was magical as Kirk filled in the spaces with licks of glorious definition and tone. Breath-taking live music. Tonight, was a night that will remain etched in the memory. Tonight, was a celebration of the power of the guitar flexing its vocal depths as the six-strings celebrated the blues full of complexity of tone, mood and emotional connection with the audience tonight as Kirk Fletcher and Friends turned The Tunnels Blue.

LIZ AIKEN

ERJA LYYTINEN

THE TUNNELS, BRISTOL

26TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Tonight, The Tunnels welcomed Erja Lyytinen and her support band Red Butler to Bristol for the first and definitely not the last time. Tuesday night was blues night that filled the arches with music that was full of energy and played with style. There was a new Red Butler line-up with Dan Spellman joining the band as vocalist and guitarist. The quartet were on fire tonight. The delight shone through of playing on stage in a new town with a set list that saw rearrangements from the current album Nothing To Lose and a crowd pleasing rendition of Bobby Bland’s Ain’t No Love In The

Heart of the City with the rocky edge with the audience gladly adding their voice to the chorus. The new vitalized Red Butler tonight added to their skills some brilliant harmonization between Alex, Dan and Mike. Red Butler engaged with the audience as blues rocked and added a layer of fun n Big Bad Wolf with Mike on bass donning a wolf mask. Closing out the set with Alex, Dan & Mike all playing each other’s intertwined guitars. This is a band that delivers music to warm any audience large or small. A short break, then Erja Lyytinen took control of The Tunnels. Determined that everyone was going to have fun and be left with a memory of musicianship that brought music alive. The band provided the cascading backdrop of sound

from which Erja could fl y with her vocals and guitar. Erja, the fl ying Finn, with her sparkling Sapphire blue guitar and glass slide creating a tumultuous celebration of the blues, a theme she returned to throughout the evening. Numbers from Stolen Hearts, including the title track that was a highlight with lots of joyous interaction and community singing for the chorus. One of the many highlights of the evening was Black Ocean, with its deep driving blues textures, the heavy riffs and rhythms were definitely dark and dangerous. The slow blues was a thing of beauty as Slowly Burning curled around the arches. Then Rocking Chair, the interaction between guitar and bass was immense, followed by an instrumental solo from Erja as she showcased the individual

styles of the greats. A medley full of subtle changes and interest that was delivered with fun as she asked the audience if they knew of BB King, Charlie Patton and many more. Erja tonight was Queen of the Blues. Her playing majestic, stylish with a hint of bedevilment and fun. Live music doesn’t get much better than this!

LIZ AIKEN

JOHN MAYALL + BUDDY WHITTINGTON BAND BIRMINGHAM TOWN HALL

21ST OCTOBER 2017

As ever John Mayall himself is the first thing you see at a John Mayall gig. He sat in the Town Hall foyer greeting fans and selling CDs. He’s later joined by the rest of the band selling their own merchandise. Throughout the

Erja Lyytinen by Liz Aiken

night Mayall’s genial eccentricity sets the tone and his deep personal commitment to the blues is still in evidence.

Buddy Whittington, a benefactor of this commitment and one of the great Bluesbreaker guitarists, is on first tonight. He’s brilliantly suited to the task, unpredictable and full of Texan gusto. Toward the end of his set he plays three Freddie King tunes, two from the Bluesbrakers The Palace Of The King album, before ending with a stunning rendition of Hideaway. His guitar virtuosity is the antithesis of Mayall’s set-up this tour which is without Rocky Athas. Mayall improvises on piano, organ, guitar and harmonica and unlike Whittington doesn’t go in for wild climaxes so much as musically adventurous melodic ideas which serve the song. The absence of a star guitarist in the band opens up new possibilities that they surprise each other with. The faux-vibraphone on a much slowed down Lonely Feelings is at first baffling but the singing

is so soulful and by the time the harmonica comes in it makes a new kind of sense – this is deeply felt heartbreak blues.

Mayall introduces Another Kind Of Love, one of only two songs they played from the ’60s, by saying “This is about a relationship, or rather it didn’t get to be a relationship because she was seeing another girl”. Though we’re singing along, much of the audience are subdued and if not drunk, longing for their bed. We reluctantly put it down to age but Mayall himself at eighty two is full of energy. He sings about the enviable position he’s in in Talk About That with Greg Rzab’s bass laying a funk foundation. Mayall leads a sing-along on Louis Jordan’s Early In The Morning and Jay Davenport thrashes out a tasteful drum solo on Sonny Landreth’s Congo Square. They end with Room To Move. It may have been an odd audience but the performance was something special.

JACK GOODALL

WALTER TROUT THE ROBIN 2, BILSTON

17 TH OCTOBER 2017

“The band are happy to be back here, I’m just happy to be anywhere …” announces Walter Trout to a packed and heaving Robin 2 audience. It’s probably something he says at every gig, but that doesn’t reduce the impact behind the statement – we nearly lost another blues master, but he’s back recording, and touring, and he’s here tonight, kicking off with Sonny Boy Williamson’s Help Me, always a fine way for any blues player to set out his stall. If Walter has such a thing as a ‘hometown gig’ in England – this is probably it. The venue routinely hosts the finest in blues musicians’ live shows, and everyone here knows that Walter’s shows are among the very best.

It’s his connection with his audiences that sets Walter apart from so many other blues players, and you can hear a pin drop when he talks of begging his wife to take him home from hospital when he was close to death, and she climbed into bed beside him and told him that if they were together, they were home, and the band swung into Take Me Home. You’d have to be a cold-hearted individual not to be moved by Walter’s sincerity, and the passion the band brought to the song’s delivery. A number of guests popped in as well, including support performer Sari Schorr, pumping out her own version of Walter’s Work No More to fine effect. Sari’s guitarist Innes Sibun gets to sit in as well – proof that egos are left at the door when artists of this calibre step up on stage. A special mention has to go to keyboard maestro Sammy Avila who, in addition to providing a firm musical bed for Walter’s blistering solos to lie on, plays the entire show with a grin on his face

John Mayall by Arnie Goodman

that shows just how much he is enjoying himself, or maybe he just knows something that we don’t.

Walter’s album title We’re All In This Together has received rave reviews across the media, and it says much about his approach to his career, and in particular his live shows. There is an anticipated level of blues guitar mastery which, if not actually taken for granted, can certainly be taken as read, and of course, Walter delivers a seriously long and diverse lesson in exactly how live blues should be delivered. He’s been away, he’s back now, and since there has really been no-one to take his place, it’s business as usual. Check out his next tour, and see the master at work.

ANDY HUGHES

KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD/ GOV’T MULE

INDIGO AT THE O2, LONDON

28TH OCTOBER 2017

This Saturday night doubleheader represented my first live exposure to two acts about which I have long harboured a certain amount of prejudice. In the case of Shepherd, I left the venue with those preconceptions (slightly) challenged, while my earlier impressions about Gov’t Mule were pretty much confirmed. KWS I previously had down as essentially a SRV copyist, right down to the three-initial moniker. That turns out to be too restricted a view. Sure, the set was laden with shuffle-rockers such as opener Never Lookin’ Back, and playing a cover version of The House Is Rockin’ early on did little to establish artistic distance from his biggest obvious influence. But Hard Lesson Learned, a countrytinged ballad featuring some tasty major pentatonic soloing and close vocal harmonies, was the first surprise of the evening, and was followed by a catchy

Walter Trout by Austin Hargave

1970s-style classic rocker, Baby Got Gone. Down For Love kept the improvisation on point, while slow minor blues Heat Of The Sun spotlighted Shepherd’s soloing to best effect. A rendition of Elmore James’ Talk To Me Baby was a bit perfunctory, but Deja Voodoo – from the 1995 debut album Ledbetter Heights – was anything but. A song of genuine menace, with the keyboards well up in the mix tonight, the performance had the jaw of every pub band guitarist in the audience on the floor. A couple of songs later, a cover of BB King’s You Done Lost Your Good Thing

Now proved that Shepherd can do the traditional stuff as well as the pyrotechnics. And the final encore, Voodoo Chile, was note perfect repro Hendrix. Shout out, too, to drummer Sam Bryant, depping for Chris Layton at short

notice, although you’d never have known. And now an admission; while I like Warren Haynes in most other contexts, I’ve never been the biggest admirer of Gov’t Mule, which for my money often wander too far away from the blues and too near to prog. First song, Bad Little Doggie, noodled around an anachronistic riff from the era of the Marshall stack, and set the tone for much of the rest of the performance. High spots included the title track of the latest CD, Revolution Come, Revolution Go, which came dangerously close to getting a groove on, and a Fleetwood Mac-style version of Little Willie John’s Need Your Love So Bad. But the evening was saved by two back-toback Allman Brothers workouts; Statesboro Blues featuring Kenny Wayne, and the encore, Whipping Post, with a guest appearance

from Bernie Marsden. I know Gov’t Mule have their fans, so I’m probably in a minority here. But you either like the formula or you don’t, and it’s not for me.

DAVID OSLER

SKINNY MOLLY LICHFIELD GUILDHALL

29TH OCTOBER 2017

The amps were turned up to eleven when the American rock band Skinny Molly appeared at Lichfield Guildhall on October 29th. The four-piece, who are former members of such Southern rock bands as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet played a fast and furious set of their own music, and music from their former bands to an appreciative audience. The guitarists and singers Jay Johnson and Mike Estes were supported by the rock solid rhythms provided by bassist Luke Bradshaw and drummer Kurt Pietro, and although the music was far from subdued, there was a lot of range, from all out sonic assaults to gentler ballads throughout the set.

Songs such as Here for a Good Time or When The Goin’ Gets Tough The Tough Go Fishing were good time rockers. Two Good Wheels was a paean to life on the road, whilst Better Than I Should was a song about relationships. A cover of JJ Cale’s Call Me The Breeze called for some soloing from both guitarists, but perhaps the liveliest audience reactions were saved for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama, and the inevitable Free-Bird, which served as the show-stopping encore.

BEN MACNAIR

MIKE VERNON AND THE MIGHTY COMBO

SELBY TOWN HALL

2 ND NOVEMBER 2017

This gig took place in one of my very favourite concert venues. Those people in the know return

Kenny Wayne Shepherd by Christine Moore

again and again for great evenings of fine entertainment. It’s an intimate venue, with a small stage and excellent sightlines from every one of the 120 seats. The guests and artists always receive a warm welcome from the effervescent host, Chris Jones. The Mighty Combo open the show and they played an excellent version of Okie Dokie Stomp, made famous by Clarence Gatemouth Brown with his 1954 recording. The band looked just as competent as they sounded, with each member sporting a luminous waistcoat of a different colour. On guitar was Kid Carlos, wearing green, on bass was Ian Jennings wearing purple, on keyboards was Matt Little, wearing red, on drums Mike Hellier, wearing beige and on saxophone was Paul Tasker, wearing orange and a natty little beret! The instrumental opener set the tone for the evening; good, clear, well-executed blues from the 50s with a hint of Fats Domino and a flavour of New Orleans. After the upbeat starter, Mike Vernon then appeared on stage and started with Kansas City, the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller song from 1952. The song had an infectious swing to it and Mike certainly convinced the audience that he was Kansas City bound. He also sang with an energy that seemed to deny his many years in the music industry. Next a stomping version of Big Bill Broonzy’s All

By Myself was followed by Going Home Tomorrow by Fats Domino. This was a fitting tribute, since the legendary Fats Domino had only just passed away the previous week. As well as originals, the band also played some selfpenned numbers, such as Heart and Soul and the slow blues number Old Man Dreams, which gave the individual band members a chance to display their virtuosity to great effect. There was some

incredible guitar work from Kid Carlos. The second set continued with equal gusto and the evening had just about disappeared as Mike and The Mighty Combo launched into their excellent grand finale number, Hate To Leave; Hate To Say Goodbye, with Mike making comic use of the door to the side of the stage as an impromptu prop, nipping

in and out numerous times, before finally, and reluctantly closing the show. It had been a great evening of quality music from a great entertainer.

STEVE BANKS

GRAINNE DUFFY & IRIT

NELL’S JAZZ AND BLUES, LONDON

19TH OCTOBER 2017

Grainne Duffy by Christine Moore

Back in 2011 I caught Grainne Duffy opening for Beth Hart at Dingwalls. Fast forward six years, and Ms Hart is headlining the Royal Albert Hall, while Ms Duffy is still working the clubs. That’s blues life, I guess. Now I have no idea what Duffy has been doing in the intervening period, but whatever it is, it has been all to the good. First time I saw her, I mentally filed her away under ‘yeah, OK, nothing special’ and then forgot all about her; tonight I came away positively impressed. There’s the vocals, for a start, which deliver all the honey and bourbon you hope for when a lady sings the blues, without ever descending into uncontrolled faux Joplin histrionics. While she lacks the turn of speed to ever make a proper guitar hero, she does know how to make the notes count, and many of us will take passion over shredding any day. But her trump card is her original material. Duffy is very much a worthy standard bearer for what constitutes the ‘Irish rock’ tradition, bolting soulful, country and Stonesy influences onto a blues core. Good Love Had To Die, for instance, screams ‘Gary Moore! Gary Moore!’ while Voodoo Woman allows her to get her funk on. Time’s Not Enough is a slice of prime 1970s-style good ol’ boy Southern rock, while Test Of Time could have come from any Stones album of the same period. Sweet Sweet Baby, Blame It On You, and the Aimee Mann-inflected acoustic Open Arms all illustrate the strength of Duffy’s songwriting. If the albums I picked up from the merch stall are anything to go by, there are more where those came from too. We got a handful of covers, of course, including Dylan’s I Shall Be Released, Bonnie Raitt’s Love Me Like A Man, and Etta James’ I’d Rather Go Blind, which was a showstopper, even though emulating the blues

immortals is always a tall order. Look, it’s a tough climate out there for blues women. Even after Hart’s breakthrough, Duffy is competing with such formidable peers as Samantha Fish and Joanne Shaw Taylor. Stardom is certainly not guaranteed, and I guess she knows that as well as anybody else but she deserves more success than she has had. If she continues to mature musically, don’t exclude her finding it. Finally, a word about opening act, Israeli chanteuse Irit. Irit Dekel – to give her, her full name – offered a set crammed with quirky jazz-influenced pop, backed by accordion, Spanish guitar and trumpet. None of the ditties were even tangentially blues-related, of course, but had their charms. There’s an album, if you are curious.

DAVID OSLER

CHRIS REA ROAD SONGS FOR LOVERS TOUR

BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY HALL

29TH NOVEMBER 2017

You know what you are getting from a Chris Rea album. Virtuoso slide guitar, gravelly, road worn vocals, a great backing band, and songs about love, family, friendship and the road, and this concert proved to be excellent entertainment from the start.

Support came from the Irish singer songwriter Colin MacLeod, who played a series of his own acoustic songs, such as Kicks in or Shake the Walls, but the highlight of his set was a radically reworked version of Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark, with looped, slow electric guitar parts, and Macleod’s emotionally wracked vocals adding pathos to the song.

Chris Rea has had a long and storied career in music, and has attracted a large and

loyal following, as evidenced by the two sold out dates he played in Birmingham. Although he has had some recent health problems, his voice was still as strong as it has ever been, and his guitar playing was as fluidly inventive as I have ever heard it.

He opened the set with songs from his most recent album, the critically well-received Road Songs for Lovers, with The Last Open Road being an upbeat opener. With images and films projected behind him, and a lively moodily effective lighting set-up, there was also a lot happening on the stage visually. Although the new songs were well received by the largely mature audience, it was the older stage favourites that had the loudest applause, so songs such as Josephine, with its changes from ballad, to reggae and rock had the loudest applause, as did its sister song Julia, which here was presented as a lively crossover of gospel and Motown music.

However, Rea’s voice really came to life during the slower songs, such as Two Lost Souls, where the keyboards of Neil Drinkwater did much of the musical lifting, whilst his accordion led some of the songs such as The Road Ahead to great effect. Some other familiar songs received some re-arrangements, with the normally Rolling Stone like groove of Stainsby Girls becoming something of a torch song, before the drumheavy second half kicked in.

A series of his hits followed, with the loudest applause saved for his biggest hit to date, The Road To Hell, which closed the set, before the encores of On the Beach and the almost obligatory Let’s Dance. Anyone waiting for Driving Home for Christmas, though was to be left disappointed.

BEN MACNAIR

GARY MOORE

BLUES AND BEYOND

BRINGING TOGETHER THE CREAM OF GARY MOORE’S BLUES STUDIO RECORDINGS

2CD / 4LP “AxeWax” and limited box set featuring an unreleased live album and full length biography plus memorabilia